Tier 1 beasts didn’t pose much of a problem for Kai’s group anymore. He and Brewan could easily defeat them, and Sydney would be able to crush them even with his injuries.
Tier 2 beasts still outmatched them, even a weak one like the bear nearly pushed them over the edge.
The group had no chance at putting up a fight against the newly tier 3 terror bird. Kai and Brewan only managed to survive their previous encounter with it thanks to a leftover formation, a formation that was now gone.
[We have three options that I can think of. There could still be a formation active in the second brick building, the one with the dorm rooms in it. We should be able to make it inside before the terror bird arrives. Second, Brewan could try using a dispersion spell, and we make a break for the woods.]
Kai glanced over at Sydney’s bandaged leg, the pain in his own right side throbbing as he frowned.
I highly doubt we can run. Even if we did, there’s a chance we run into another tier 2 beast out there, and end up dead anyway.
“How about option three?”
[That passageway under the floor by Brewan. It could be small and a dead end, but my gut is telling me that we have a fair chance if we try hiding in there. As long as you don’t get diced up by a formation, that is.]
“What a comforting thought. Brewan, Sydney, do either of you have any ideas?”
Both of Kai’s companions shook their heads, and Kai relayed Halia’s escape ideas to them.
“The passageway is probably our best bet. I’ll take the lead, stay far enough behind me so that if a formation activates, the two of you won’t be hurt.”
Sydney limped over to the dark hole in the ground as he spoke.
Sydney is offering to go first? Why? In my entire life, I’ve never seen a cultivator who would willingly risk their life to give a stranger a higher chance at surviving. Even I wouldn’t have stayed here to help him if I couldn’t grow stronger hunting beasts.
Kai wanted to ask the knight trainee why he would volunteer himself, but Sydney was already disappearing below the floor. There were a few muffled grunts as he tried to start navigating in the pitch-black tunnel, followed by a short affirmation that at least the entrance of the passageway was safe.
Kai jumped down after him, with Brewan in the back. None of them had any available light sources aside from fire, and despite it being considerably less dusty within the tunnel than it had been in the main part of the brick building, none of them wanted to risk another explosion.
Looking at the damage above, everyone knew that they would stand no chance at survival in the event of another explosion.
“Uff- Why does this thing keep turning?”
There was a scratching noise as Sydney seemingly caught himself against one of the dirt walls of the passage, followed by more muffled cursing.
“Watch your step, there are stairs here. I nearly just did a Golal.”
There was a muffled laugh from behind Kai at Sydney’s words.
“What does Golal mean?”
Brewan was the one to answer, letting out another chuckle as they continued walking deeper into the darkness.
“Professor Golal, one of the senior mages at Hillhold. He fell down the stairs during an announcement ceremony, and has become a legend ever since.”
If I tripped in front of my sect members, would they turn it into a joke? Halia would probably try to…
“You didn’t even tell him the funny part. Professor Golal is a tier 4 mage, one of the strongest in the whole academy. Guess what his specialization is.”
Kai thought for a few moments, but nothing came to mind.
“He’s a wind mage focused on flight! Not falling down! He used to brag about it endlessly to both students and the other teachers, that one made it so much better when he tripped and fell.”
Kai wasn’t sure what to think of the impromptu lesson on the culture of Hillhold Academy, but it was a lot better than walking silently down an unknown number of stairs. Hearing Sydney’s voice ahead also helped him gauge their distance apart, as well as if anything had happened to the leading man.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“There’s even a few rumors being spread around that one of the other professors secretly tripped him, but I’ve never seen any evidence. Golal definitely wasn’t in the ‘in’ with the academy politics, though so it wouldn’t surprise me that much if the rumors were true.”
Kai’s ears perked up at the mention of information that might be more useful to him. He still had next to no knowledge as to how the remaining settlements and academies in this world were structured.
“Are the internal politics in your academy pretty bad? I only talked to Brewan about it a little the past few days.”
Up ahead, Sydney bumped into another wall, then cursed a couple times before responding.
“The pathway straightens out again down here, and yes. There are two main factions, and unfortunately, the bad one is way more influential. They're mostly made up of people whose families were already members of the academy before the beast tide hit. A lot of the professors are part of it, as well as most of the talented students.”
Kai reached the bottom of the stairs as he listened, then continued following Sydney down the tunnel. They’d already been walking for multiple minutes- the passage was way longer than they expected. There was no way for the terror bird to fit underground, and they were definitely safe from its threat, so Kai wasn’t sure why Sydney was continuing on.
“I’m part of the second faction. Almost all of us are people who lost their homes during the beast tide, but had enough potential to become mages and were accepted as students. There are also some students recruited from nearby settlements, but they are split pretty evenly between the two factions.”
Kai heard Sydney’s footsteps pause, and he stopped too.
“We both have the same goal- Humanity to survive and take back what we once had. Our Mint faction just wants it more, while the Heritage faction seems more concerned about preserving their internal positions.”
Sydney still wasn’t walking forward, and Kai could instead hear him brushing his hands against the walls. After a few moments, a bright light lit up in the passage way ahead, making Kai shield his eyes.
“There really is something down here!”
Once Kai’s eyes finally adapted to there being light in the world once more, he peered past Sydney to see what was going on. Up ahead, the narrow dirt tunnel opened up into a room. On the walls by the entrance there were a pair of white glowing rocks, giving off an impressive amount of light for their size.
[There’s another similar one right by Sydney’s hand. It’s almost like a light switch.]
“We are really deep right now. Whoever dug this tunnel didn’t want the room in front of us to be sensed by anyone, it’s deep enough that even high-tier mages wouldn’t be able to detect it.”
Sydney took a deep breath, then looked back at Kai and Brewan.
“If we activate a formation and I get caught in it, back out immediately. Whatever secrets are hidden here could be too important to be lost here with us.”
Sydney steeled himself, then limped forward into the room. Either whatever defensive formation had been protecting the place had burnt out over the last decade, or there weren’t any in the first place, because nothing happened to the knight trainee.
After waiting a few moments for Sydney to explore inside, Kai and Brewan followed after him. The previous dirt walls and floor of the tunnel became smooth, hard stone. In the center of the space, there was a circular stone table encircled by a bench-like seat. There were also a few doors on the far wall, all of them left hanging open.
[It looks like some kind of meeting room, maybe? It feels a bit odd to have an entire room with just a single table in it.]
Kai nodded, then followed Sydney over to one of the open doors.
“Eh? Another stable?”
A mound of decayed straw took up half the room, blackened by time. Within the rotting material, Kai could faintly make out a few flecks of a different material.
“I don’t think so, there aren’t any stalls or fences… maybe it’s a nursery?”
Sydney stooped down, grabbing a small piece of the non-straw material.
“It looks like an egg shell. This might have been a nursery to hatch eggs, but why? Wouldn’t it be a lot more work to raise birds down here compared to the stables up above?”
The duo looked around the room more, but they weren’t able to discover anything else of use.
“Guys, come check over here. I think something happened in this room.”
Brewan’s voice echoed from the next room over, and the other two men headed over to see what he’d found. There was another table, but this time it was against the wall of the room, and there was no bench next to it. Instead of being made from the same gray stone as the rest of the room, the table was made from wood. It didn’t look to have decayed at all.
The corner of the room was blackened, as if there had been consistent fires over a long period of time. There was a hole under the scorched ceiling and wall, leading to further darkness.
Well, this looks weird. That table looks just like a butcher block that mortals would use in the villages around our sect. Judging by the color and the cuts on it, it looks like it definitely got quite a bit of use, too.
Kai leaned over as he examined the table, then glanced back over at the room he previously looked at.
Were our sect’s predecessors running an underground bird farm, or are these two rooms not related? I highly doubt the people of this world are all vegetarians, so why would they even need to hide this place?
Brewan poked his head down into the hole under the scorch marks, then recoiled while waving his hand in front of his nose. After a second, he sneezed.
“Man is it dusty down there. It doesn’t look like it goes down much further either, there’s just a really dusty crawlspace.”
After exploring around for a bit, the trio headed for the fourth and final room in the underground space. It was considerably smaller than the other three, but as soon as he walked in, Kai froze.
The room was unimpressive. It was just as bland and gray as the others. There wasn’t even a table like in the first room. The only feature that set it aside from being a plain, empty box was a uniquely shaped notch in the far wall.
“Halia, that hole, it’s the exact same shape as the tokens, right?”
If Kai had one of the sect founder’s tokens- the ones that let them escape from the phoenix and arrive in this world- it would fit exactly into the slot in front of him.