They moved at a smooth pace but didn't rush as Pan Tian constantly scanned for, and helped them avoid, traps.
The vats of acid suspended from the ceiling seemed particularly over the top to Jie. It made sense to prepare students with real world experiences, but how was someone supposed to learn when a single mistake meant death?
***
Finally, the passageway opened up into another massive, cavernous space with the cavern floor over a thousand feet below them. With only a narrow path on the side of the rocky, mountainous wall leading onward.
Pan Tian led them on.
Large, millipede-looking creatures scuttled across the rock above and below them. The smallest of them was twice Jie's size and their chitinous exoskeletons looked tough. But these ones were too weak to be much of a threat.
Still, they seemed attracted by the dim glow of their lanterns. So, they each turned theirs down to the barest amount they could possibly get away with. That seemed to help as there were many other flickering lights all over the walls, ceiling, and even the floor. And countless auras ranging from incredibly weak to things beyond the Elementalist rank... the latter of which were hidden in the darkness.
Jie tried not to look over the edge of the narrow pathway any more than she had to. But since dangers could come up from below she couldn't avoid it entirely.
Far below them was what looked like a dried-up riverbed. Streams of blood rained down from gaps in some sections of the cavern wall, like waterfalls. They filled the riverbed just enough for it to ooze along dilapidated irrigation channels that formed a square-like pattern around what once might have been fields filled with crops...
Now, however, there were endless rows of glossy, fleshy eggs. Some of which had silhouettes moving within.
Though they were so much weaker than her that they shouldn't pose much of a challenge, they still made Jie's skin crawl.
Beyond the fields was an enormous, angular, city wall with faded hieroglyphics so huge that Jie could make them out even at this distance. Sections of the wall had collapsed, or been destroyed, leaving gaping holes in the otherwise impressive defense and most of it was covered in webbing and muck.
In front of the walls were two obelisks on either side of the open gateway that stretched higher even than the walls themselves and a pair of statues showing cat people each wielding twin khopeshes. Though one statue was missing its head and half of one of its ancient sickle-swords.
From their pathway, Jie saw above the walls and into the city itself. A flying pyramid hovered above a section of the city, its base lit with a purple glow as runes and indentations that ran along its sides pulsed with purple light. Though much of it was obscured as countless noctilith crawled over its surface and buzzed around it, their tails pulsing with light. The pyramid moved slightly, drifting in different directions only to be stopped by countless strands of thick webbing that anchored it to the ground below. At its peak was a large glowing crystal that drew in thick clouds of Essence.
The glowing pyramid cast a soft purple light over the straight, orderly streets, flat-roofed buildings, and more impressive structures. But, most of the ancient city was still lost in the darkness.
Jie thought she could see the silhouette of a second pyramid crashed upon the ground and propped up at an awkward angle. But, if it was one, it wasn't glowing.
A cluster of noctilith broke away from the glowing pyramid and flew over the city, their tails like shooting stars in the darkness of the cavern.
Monstrously long claws bigger than many of the buildings below them emerged from the darkness, lit by the glow from the noctiliths' tails, and ripped half of them to pieces in one lazy swipe, sending wings drifting down like falling leaves.
Those that weren't hit landed on the creature's skeletal arm or ribs and pulsed with their tails as they scuttled among the enormous bones. More joined them until the undead behemoth looked like a cluster of moving stars. Even so, most of the enormous undead creature was lost in darkness. It moved ponderously and the ground shook with every step it took.
Well at least I know what to avoid now, Jie thought.
***
They continued, their path slowly winding down with Pan Tian finding and disabling several more traps.
Stolen story; please report.
Finally, they stepped out onto the cavern floor, not far from the outer wall of the city.
"Stay close. Let's keep our lanterns dim. If we have to fight, try to keep it quick and avoid using anything flashy if you can avoid it," Pan Tian whispered, "you can probably easily defeat most things in here, Jie, but I don't want us getting swarmed or attracting the attention of those behemoths."
They crept along as best they could, though the ground squelched beneath their shoes, staining them with blood and mud. There was little they could do about it, however. Thankfully, the cavernous space wasn't entirely quiet, so Jie hoped it wouldn't matter too much.
Jie felt presences all around them, skittering in the darkness. Jie and her friends veiled their auras as best they could, but she was sure anything nearby still heard the rustle of their clothes and the wet, sucking squish of their footsteps.
Up ahead, Jie felt two creatures moving toward a larger third creature in the darkness. Two of the creatures darted forward onto the third and their tails lit up, revealing two noctilith on a large snail.
It was easier to see the noctilith in more detail now. They had long, almost sinuous bodies comprised of dark chitin that glistened wetly in the light of their tails, with six legs and two pairs of semi-translucent wings folded upon their backs.
They bit into the snail's soft flesh with their massive, dripping mandibles and ripped chunks of its flesh free, beginning to feed right away. The snail retreated into its shell, but the noctilith tipped it, exposing the opening and reaching inside with their powerful jaws as they continued their feast. Not bothering to kill the snail before beginning to devour it.
Jie shuddered. All three were weak enough for her to kill with a single attack, but somehow it still haunted her.
Pan Tian led them around the creatures and closer to the wall. They walked along the edge of the wall until they came to an opening with thick strands of webbing crisscrossed over the stone. But there weren't enough strands to block their passage and they continued through without disturbing the webs themselves.
Nobody said anything as they stepped into the city. Their footsteps were quieter here as the ground was mostly dry stone, with patches of webs, slime, mushrooms, and mold. All of which they avoided as best they could.
They peered inside a few of the buildings as they passed but saw nothing of interest and moved deeper into the city.
Searching the buildings rapidly began to feel like nothing more than a waste of time until Ithilix's antennae quivered, and she pointed out a nondescript building.
When they checked inside, they found two small wooden chests with runes on the wood. Even standing right next to them, Jie found it nearly impossible to sense them and marveled at Ithilix's treasure finding abilities.
Pan Tian and Ithilix inspected the chests and told Jie what they were looking for to help her find traps or curses should she venture out alone someday. They also used scrolls of wisdom on the chests and confirmed that there were in fact two effects upon the chests. One was a type of ward to keep noctilith away, and the other was a type of veil to make the chests harder to find. It didn't seem to have helped against Ithilix, however.
Inside the chests, they found twelve bloodfruit at the eighth star of the Expert rank and thirty-eight gold coins. As they ventured deeper into the city, Ithilix pointed out several more caches of treasure with the same enchantments hiding them. Some of which were hidden behind loose bricks, in false walls, on rooftops, inside buckets in old wells, strapped to the side of walls or on the ceiling inside buildings and hidden by paint of a similar color to their surroundings, and countless other dirty tricks to make finding the treasures nearly impossible. For anyone other than Ithilix at least.
In no time at all, they collected another two hundred bloodfruit ranging from the eighth to the ninth star of the Expert rank, seven hundred and twelve gold coins, six iron orbs, five dune cat bone powder, twelve mindworm jelly, sixty-three twin moon pills, two spirit coins, fourteen low ranked healing pills, and an egg about the size of Jie's head made out of solid gold.
Though the joy of finding so much treasure was somewhat dampened by the ground occasionally shaking with the footsteps of behemoths. An ever-present reminder of the dangers surrounding them.
"This one thinks that flying pyramid might hold better treasure," Ithilix said.
"You want us to go there?" Pan Tian asked, incredulously.
"No. But, this one thought to mention it because the fallen one does not glow and does not seem to have many noctilith on it," Ithilix said, "the arak may have put something worthwhile within. Or, perhaps, we'll find something previous students missed."
"We can look at the crashed one. Anything but the glowing one. I don't care if it's filled with treasure, there must be tens of thousands of them on that thing. Maybe hundreds of thousands," Pan Tian said as a sixth star of the Adept rank moved toward her in the darkness, "I've got this one."
A noctilith lunged out of the shadows at Pan Tian. She stepped aside and its dripping mandibles snapped shut on empty air. She then ripped its head off. The noctilith staggered and skittered off into the darkness, gushing out pale yellow blood from where its head used to be.
Pan Tian tore the beast core from its head and stored it in her storage ring before tossing its head aside. The head landed with a loud clatter upon an old sewer grate which echoed softly through the city streets, and they all cringed from the noise. Pan Tian gave them an apologetic look and flicked her claws of light, splattering yellow blood over the worn stone floor.
"So. Freaking. Gross," Pan Tian whispered, "you'd think that they'd get the hint that if they can't sense our auras, they probably shouldn't attack us."
"This one is glad the vermin are not more intelligent... but it would be nice not to have to touch them," Ithilix said.
"What are you complaining about? At least you have a spear," Pan Tian said, "I have to get way closer to them."
Xue growled.
"Yes... I suppose you do have it the worst out of all of us... sorry, Xue," Pan Tian said.