With the flickering blue light of Sam’s mana, everyone got their bearings. Lao spoke first.
“Back in the Himalayas, we sometimes had a few lost monks who took shelter in caves during storms, but were trapped in them by that same storm. We usually were able to rescue them, but there were a few times that we failed…”
The man paused for a moment, and then continued, his voice trembling slightly. “The most pressing matter in these caves is oxygen. As there are quite a few of us, the air will run out soon, unless we regulate our breathing. Working to dig our way out will only increase our intake. Those of you who have passed the constitution threshold should be able to hold your breath for quite some time, so I would recommend doing so. After all, you are the ones who will be doing most of the work.” Lao pointed at Sam and Pyotr as he said this. Both men nodded, and closed their mouths and noses. Sam immediately felt the difference to now as opposed to before the System came. There was no sense of danger at all, and he felt perfectly composed, even with his airflow restricted.
Sam and Pyotr got up, and started towards the cave entrance, where all the boulders were. Looking back for directions, they saw that the others had moved to the back of the cave. Shrugging, they got to work. Sam began to pulverize the stone with his mace, and Pyotr softened it with his elemental abilities. Technically, Sam possessed the same element, but he had nowhere near the level of control over it that Pyotr had. All he could do with it was harden things, which sounded quite suspect. Sam broke the larger boulders down into small chunks, which Pyotr was able to convert into liquid rock that spread across the floor of the cave. There was so much rock however, that by the time that the layer of rock on the ground had reached about three or four inches in height, both men were running out of air. They both took deep breaths, sucking in far more air than they would have needed before. They looked at each other in alarm. This was not as sustainable as they had thought.
Sam increased his pace and started laying into the wall, using his Dao energy and mana to imbue his strikes with even more power. The rocks splintered like wood beneath his onslaught, and Sam roared with exertion. Pyotr’s face was sweaty as he struggled to keep up with the deluge of rubble surging towards him like a tidal wave of gray, and he was trying desperately not to take a breath. Suddenly a chink of light appeared within the rocks, and a blast of cool air entered the cave. It was more of a slight breeze, but the sensitive skin of everyone inside, coupled with the sudden sensory stimulus, made it feel far more profound than it actually was.
Sam thrust his hands into the tiny gap, and started to widen it. Pyotr used his abilities to make the rock easier to grip and a moment later, Sam tore it apart with his bare hands. The pile of rubble slid down the side of the mountains outside, revealing the sky beyond. Sam took a deep breath, and smiled back at the others. They were out. Sam and Pyotr exited first, and the others came quickly after. As they exited, there was a rumbling noise deep within the mountain, and the entire cave collapsed on itself. Sam wiped a bead of sweat off his brow and whistled. They had almost been flattened. Actually, he might have been able to survive that by now, but he would have been doomed to a slow death of starvation and asphyxiation if the pressure did not get to him eventually. The others, save for Pyotr, would have died immediately. In any case, they were out, and it didn't matter what might have happened.
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They started down the side of the mountain, hoping that no more thunderbirds would come looking for a snack. It had been a practically insurmountable foe, and they were not even in the thick of it yet. Near the center, the concentration of birds was such that a shifting tapestry of wings could be seen between clouds. All of them were orbiting the hammer like it was the sun. it was creating its own line of defense, despite simply being a weapon. Was this what happened when high ranked objects were placed on lower ranked worlds? If a mere F Rank weapon could do something like this, then what about an E Rank, or even a D Rank one? Would they flatten entire continents beneath their weight, or even entire planets? As they approached, Sam began to feel a faint buzzing in the air, and his hairs stood on end slightly. Whether that was from the sheer density of the thunderbirds near the center of the mountain range, or from their hammer itself, Sam did not know. All he could tell was that it was an omen for the dangers that they were going to have to face.
The next valley between mountains was vastly larger than the previous one, easily a mile in width. The bottom was honeycombed with caves and passageways that extended into the darkness of the earth. Within those caves dwelt all manner of monsters, and from the auras that Sam could sense, quite a few of them were stronger than he was. Strangely enough, a lot of them seemed to be aspected towards lightning, which was perhaps why they were here. Mjolnir must give off a powerful aura of lighting that could be used by beasts to cultivate. Sam would have to ask Rax some time how exactly beasts progressed. They stopped in front of the valley, looking down the fifty odd feet deep canyon beneath them. There were small hand and footholds on the wall, but they seemed more natural than artificial. They were likely the first to come here, unless those who had come here before had four arms, and three legs, which would have been the only shape that could have produced the oddly proportioned footholds. Shaking his head, Sam looked around at the others.
“Well, do you want to do some more essence farming here? It would be far more dangerous than before, although we could probably snipe the monster from the top of the hill if they follow the same rules of the previous alley.”
Lao shook his head almost immediately, the older man looking down at the grottoes with an expression of apprehension.
“That would be most unwise. The creatures down there could tear us from limb to limb. We must cross before they wake, or all is lost.”
“Damn. Well, let’s do that then. Your aura senses are quite sharp, so we should defer to those,” Sam said.
Lao gave Sam a sharp look.
“Don’t patronize me, young one.” He replied, before shaking his head and laughing softly. “Sorry, sometimes memories from the monastery come back. You remind me of one of the younger monks. He was always going off and getting in trouble because of his insatiable curiosity. His parents had left him at the monastery when he was only a baby, and it was all that he had ever known.” Sam was about to ask what had happened to that monk, but the bittersweet expression on Lao’s face told him not to. It would only serve to further drudge up bad memories. They all had residual trauma in their lives, whether from the arrival of the System, or even before.
Sam walked up to the lip of the decline, and then started to survey the area. None of the monsters were out right now. He could hear them undulating and moving about in their caves. One particular passageway that extended across the entire distance of the canyon emanated a constant hissing noise, as if some titanic snake dwelt within it. It was probably more like a nest of snakes, but if they were all as large as the one from the previous grottoes, then they were in trouble. Their best shot would be to run across the top of the caves, thus avoiding most of the monsters.