Ruby felt nervous, extremely nervous.
It had been ten minutes since she found the two odd-looking people at the black campfire, and she had moved herself two caves away before beginning to enchant the wall beside her.
Five minutes ago the banging stopped, Gary the smith finished hitting the sword-blade.
With focus, Ruby finished the series of magic arrays on the wall. She felt glad she was so fast at enchanting, ten minutes was already too long in her opinion.
Injecting magic power into the magic arrays on the wall lines and dots began appearing on it. After a while, it stabilized and it became clear the magic arrays were a success.
On the wall now was a map, the halls she had moved through were shown as were those she had passed by. On the right side of the map were two dots, one was moving while the other remained stationary. Those were living beings, in this case, the two people she saw earlier.
There were also some dark circles in certain areas on that side of the map, the most notable should be the black campfire but there were a few other dark circles visible.
Perhaps those were cursed objects, no matter what they contained the darkest of magic, the kind that could not be hidden, anyone who touched them would be able to sense the wickedness within.
Despite this, the map made Ruby feel more at ease. She was most afraid of going in and killing the two of them only to find there were others around, ready to avenge their fallen brethren.
Sadly it also meant that the ten minutes she spent here was wasted time.
“Alright, let’s go.”
Ruby pumped herself up as she headed toward the black fire again. The map she had made on the wall earlier showed that both individuals would be to her left, her right would be clear. One of them was standing still and the other one seemed to be walking about doing something.
She also knew the area was divided into four areas with thin walls in between each, it seemed these people had worked on the place a bit at least.
Stepping into the hallway where the black light reached she took out her wand. Currently, she could only see a couple of things. On the right were an anvil and hammer atop of a metal table. Next to those was the black fire that seemed to be crying out to her.
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With her wand in her hand, she stepped closer and closer, stopping just before she stepped into the actual room that should have, just as she was about to make her move she heard the smith talk.
“Alright then, let’s go take them out and take the people, if the two elders keep getting food we’ll fall behind too far. We make our move now and take their food, hell, we could even see if eating them is an option. I’m pretty sure they’d have quite a bit of energy!”
His teammate responded with a laugh, the laugh didn’t sound normal at all and gave Ruby an odd feeling but she let it be as she paused in her step.
“Here’s your weaponry, take it and let’s get moving!”
Hearing the conversation, Ruby immediately took a few steps back. According to what she heard they were holding weapons now, this would make her surprise attack a lot less effective and so she backed up.
Luckily, the duo didn’t exit using the path Ruby used to enter, instead, she heard their odd voices heading away from her.
After a moment’s hesitation she stepped forward again, her ‘map’ she made on the wall earlier only extended a little beyond the area the two were just in, if they kept moving away she had no idea what the area looked like, nor if there were others.
Still, she moved forward, into the living area. When she walked into the room she was surprised. Overall, the room looked quite nice, the walls were relatively straight, clearly handled by the people living here and there was a decent bit of furniture made from wood and metal.
The metal bits were clearly better constructed with straight lines while the wooden chairs and table were a bit unsteady, not standing all that straight.
The worrisome part was the amount of furniture. She spotted Four beds on one side of the room. Looking into a shabby wooden closet there were also quite a few clothes even though most seemed to be torn up or tarnished with blood.
After considering the situation she assumed the two other beds were those of the ‘elders’ these two were planning to take out. Even so, she remained very careful.
Noticing that at this point, she could barely hear the voices of the unsettling duo, Ruby moved after them, always making sure there was plenty of distance between them.
It seemed that the living area of these people was really just the one cave they came from that was somewhat split into four small areas, any other room was completely unrefined.
The only other alteration she saw in the environment was a faint green glow coming from the ground. She recognized it came from a dark-green crystal that seemed to be broken.
Ruby recognized it to be Chryssaleseum. A magic material that was known for emitting a bright light. These people had clearly destroyed the crystal for some reason, as for why, she had a bit of an idea.
Following the duo through the caves actually wasn’t all that easy, the reason being a distinct lack of light. She had to be extremely careful not to stumble over the uneven floor, carefully testing the areas she wanted to step on with her magical energy.
She walked for a long, long time. Following the voices and footsteps of the two people in front of her. They had already been walking for ten kilometers when the situation finally changed.