Chapter 154 - Taming the Ancient Ruins - 6

เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 มี.ค. 2569 07:37

Ren was the first to try. Used to moving through the small secret tunnels he’d made, it wasn’t difficult for him to slip through. Min followed, though he had to contort a bit to pass. His snake remained manifested, being long but not thick managed to slide through the crack with relative ease, its scales gleaming in the strange light. Taro stayed looking at the opening with apprehension. "I’m not going to fit," he declared after studying it. "I’m more... robust." He tried to wedge a shoulder in, but his broad back made passage impossible. After several frustrated attempts, Ren began to laugh. "What’s so funny?" Taro growled, still stuck halfway. "I don’t sense anything dangerous here... Deactivate the shell," Ren suggested between laughs. "Your beetle is in your body so it can pass, but you don’t need to keep all its characteristics manifested." Taro blinked in surprise before blushing. The shell on his back vanished and, indeed, he managed to slide through the crack without further problem. He was about to make an excuse and say it wasn’t fear, but the words died in his throat when he saw what awaited them on the other side. Where they thought they would find more rock, earth, or crystal, rose a metallic wall that glowed faintly under a layer of ’antiquity’ (rust). They were standing on a structure of the same material, some kind of strange bridge or walkway with pulsing blue lines that extended from the crack to the wall. "Look up," Ren whispered, his voice filled with wonder. Min and Taro raised their eyes and held their breath. The metal wall curved upward and to the sides, forming what appeared to be part of an enormous sphere. The same was true when they looked down. Other bridges similar to theirs connected the crystallized mana wall to the structure at different levels and angles. All this existed in a space between the crystal barrier they had just crossed and another similar layer that seemed to contain the entire structure, as if the metal sphere had been built in a pocket between two worlds. "It’s... it’s..." Taro couldn’t find the words. "Impossible," Min completed, his voice barely a whisper. Ren was already walking toward the end of their bridge, where a rectangular shape was distinguishable in the metallic wall. As he approached, the details became clearer, it was definitely a door, with engraved symbols that resembled ones he had seen before. "It can’t be," Min observed the other walkways. "All this has been here, under the academy, this whole time?" "What is this place?" Taro asked, still trying to process the scale of what they were seeing. Ren extended his hand toward the door. "I don’t know," he responded while his mushrooms pulsed with anticipation. "But we’re going to find out." Ren’s fingers barely brushed the door’s symbols when a bluish glow emanated from them. His mushrooms responded immediately, pulsing with the same strange light. An overwhelming sensation coursed through his body, as if something ancient and powerful was communicating directly with his mind. Suddenly he understood, every action needed to open the door unfolded in his consciousness like a map. But along with that knowledge came something else. Explore stories on freewebnovel An increase in his perception... And a realization. "Down!" Ren grabbed Min and Taro, roughly pulling them to the metal floor. "Don’t move." "What...?" Min began to ask, but Ren silenced him with a gesture. "Someone followed us," he whispered, his eyes fixed on the crack they had entered through. "They have a beast that can ’jump’, do short teleportations." Ren began crawling toward the crack, taking his friends with him, keeping as close to the floor as possible. Min and Taro didn’t understand the abrupt change, they had many questions but... Ren pressed a finger to his lips, silencing Min and Taro’s questions. He pressed against the edge of the mana wall, his body tense as a bowstring. "Teleportation beasts have a weakness," he whispered so low his friends could barely hear him. "They need to see where they’re going to appear." Min and Taro nodded, understanding the importance of staying out of sight. "Be ready," Ren continued. "When they appear..." He broke off when he felt the distortion in the mana, the signal of a spatial jump. The figure materialized right in front of the crack, still inside Taro’s "living tunnel". After some tense seconds of what felt like indecision, they ended up cautiously peering through. Ren held his breath. He knew the follower’s next action would be predictable, seeing no one, they would do a jump inside the space for better visibility. As anticipated, the figure muttered something and instead of physically crossing the crack, the air distorted with the signal of another jump. ’Teleportation beasts tend to choose the most obvious and safe point to appear,’ Ren smiled internally while moving. At the exact moment the figure materialized in the center of the metal walkway, Ren jumped. His arms, strengthened by Lin and the hydra’s buff, closed around the intruder from behind, one hand firmly covering their eyes. "A jumping beast is useless if you can’t see your destination," Ren declared, maintaining his firm grip. "Now, why did you follow us?" ♢♢♢♢ The vibrations Harold’s mole caught were unmistakable, the intruder was approaching. His long-antennaed centipede confirmed the presence. ’Damn,’ Harold gritted his teeth. They couldn’t afford witnesses, not when they were so close. They would have to silence the bat boy. The spies quickly analyzed the situation. The bat was a threat with its sonar, but its tamer seemed distracted, focused on chewing smelly food. A quick and precise attack... Harold touched the hand on the other side, transmitting a new message to his companion: "Prepare elimination. Too much risk." His companion didn’t seem very convinced as his hand trembled, was that indecision? But while considering his options, a plan began to form. The ruins he was going to find... were deep enough that a disappearance would take time to investigate. If they could get the boy’s body there without being seen... In the worst case, he could always escape to the abyss. His modified beast, a modern achievement of Yino, reached silver rank 1 without destroying its tamer’s mind, giving the spy a power range unthinkable for a normal child his age. No student near his age could avoid being dragged to the depths. "Stop trembling and prepare," he transmitted to his companion. "Let me pass when in range. We catch the intruder as soon as he’s less than 5 meters away." The other spy began preparing his trap. And then they felt it. A distortion in the mana, the unmistakable pattern of a spatial teleportation. The spy covering the entrance caught a glimpse of blue hair materializing briefly before hiding under a box behind the other intruder. ’Shit,’ Harold’s fingers transmitted frantically. "Second intruder. Jump beast." ’Luna?’

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