Ruby looked nervously at the situation before her before swallowing.

It had been a good while since she began moving into the dense forest and she had moved a decent bit. Currently, she had been looking for a cave, it would be easiest to use her tracking and surveillance enchantments in an enclosed space and so she had been looking.

And now, she finally found what she had been looking for.

After moving through the forest for a while using her teleportation spell she found something peculiar. She found a crack in the ground leading downward. She began moving through it and after a while, it began to widen, as expected it was an entrance to a cave system.

After a while, there was no natural lighting anymore and the air was somewhat stale but this wasn’t much of a problem. Light spells were amongst the easiest to cast and the air was still breathable overall.

And so she started moving, she intended to move a bit further into the cave system, make sure she couldn’t be found.

Even though she was already certain nobody would find her here naturally, there was still the possibility her opponent would have an item used for tracking. Additionally, it was possible the runemasters would interfere to make sure fights happened, perhaps put her opponent on the right path.

Even with the competition making her wary, Ruby found the place gorgeous and exceptional for a good while even though there were no ores here that naturally emitted light, many sparkled beautifully when the light from her spells touched it. Shades of red, blue, and green were all around her, it was beautiful.

At least, it was until she heard a certain sound. As soon as Ruby heard a noise she became wary and the glowing orb floating in front of her disappeared. At first, she thought it was just some sort of cave-dwelling animal, but as she moved more towards the sound this thought disappeared.

She could hear a rhythmic bang in the distance, it was too clear and regular to come from nature. She got closer and closer, moving through the cave system, after a bit, she frowned. It sounded like a blacksmith working metal, but that should be completely impossible.

Ruby swallowed once as she hesitated in her step. With her wand pointed forward and her strongest spell ready to cast she slowly but surely continued approaching. Rounding a corner she spotted light. She was looking at a cave similar to all those she passed earlier. She came from one ‘hallway’ and at the end of the fifty-meter long cave was another ‘hallway’.

The problem was that this latter hallway wasn’t completely dark. It looked weird, as if the darkness just lessened. After a bit, she recalled an insert of a book she once read.

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‘What else could it be but the black fire of souls unwillingly sacrificed. Forced to forever serve those that wronged them, feeding the black flames that were used to kill them. For then to forever try to expel the darkness around them, yet only ever capable of causing darkness less blinding than those normally used.’

Recalling the descriptions in said book that mentioned blood rituals and sacrifices Ruby could see the similarity. ‘No, I’m hallucinating, it’s just some mineral emitting a dark light I’m sure!’

Even though she tried to reassure herself she knew it wasn’t really working. Hell, at this point she could even sense the sadness of the burning souls she heard in the description. Yet despite this, she couldn’t stop.

The sound had become clearer, there was no longer a doubt that the sound came from two metals being hit together.

Ruby took a few moments to calm herself while approaching the light, pausing at the bend in the hallway. And then she peaked.

She looked at what was behind the corner and was shocked. There stood a creature that was between a human and a monster.

A two-meter tall ‘human’ stood there with a hammer in its right hand, hitting a sword-blade that was atop of an anvil.

The man looked strange, his skin too pale to be called normal and his lips non-existing.

It was then that someone spoke to this man.

“Hey Garry, when are you finishing? You’ve been hitting that damn thing for ages!”

The voice seemed unnaturally cold, once more Ruby was unsure if it came from a human or not.

At the same time, she could feel her Xiezhi bloodline shoot into action. The voice had caused her mind to become slightly strained, it was nothing serious but she was still happy to have her bloodline taking care of that.

It was the other use of her bloodline that worried her. When she peeked at the man standing next to the anvil she felt shivers, she got a very bad feeling. This was only the second time ever she had felt this, the person standing there was evil, truly evil.

Ruby knew how much people disliked the word due to the wars it has caused but there was no doubt in her mind. The man smelled of all that was bad.

“Just about finished. I heard the two elders found more humans. When are we going to take them out? If we keep letting them be we’re gonna be dead meat.”

Just like before, the smith’s response caused a very faint pressure on Ruby’s mind.

Ignoring this, Ruby’s gaze shifted to the black campfire in her vision. Just looking at it made her feel terrible, she could feel the unwilling souls of people that didn’t deserve this fate. Ruby clutched her wand tightly. She was almost always calm and collected but even she had a limit, how could she let something like this move.

Getting back to the surface and in the sight of one of the magic eyes would take too long, after all, they just mentioned the fact that they had gotten more people. What if these were other competitors sneak-attacked by these people. They probably wouldn’t let them live for too long if they were to be used for sacrifices.

Ruby was no fool and knew she wasn’t all that strong yet when compared to certain other individuals. But, there was something she did know of.

If one magus manages to sneakily attack another magus without them noticing, the former would almost always win, even if the latter was many times stronger.

She heard two people in the cave, neither of them noticed her even when she was so close, they clearly hadn’t set any magic arrays to alert them, this alone was enough to prove they had limited strength and numbers.

She would have to do this.