Chapter 608: Divine Guidance (1/2)

“We never even touched the thing. I think it sensed us standing around and activated, causing a chain reaction,” Kenzie said as she sighed. “The Werewolves must have known and simply ran straight through.”

“Well, they were thankfully not too powerful,” Zac said as he turned back to human. “But there might be more powerful machines further in if these things were just left behind here.”

”You're full of surprises...” Thea muttered as she gave him Zac an inscrutable look.

Zac could only shrug his shoulders in response, not really in the mood to explain exactly how things worked with his undead side. She already knew some parts of it from back during the hunt though, so him using two new skills shouldn't come as too big a shock.

“We should go in case they can sense us through the wall,” Kenzie said as she took out her mapper, seemingly trying to help her brother change the subject. ”Let them calm down by themselves. We are just an hour away from where we’re supposed to meet your new friend.”

“Right, let’s go,” Zac nodded as he shot one last look at the gate before he started walking again.

“I can’t believe you set a time and location,” Ogras muttered as he stowed away his spear. “It’s like you want to be ambushed.”

Thea didn’t say anything, but she seemed to be in agreement with the demon's sentiment.

“We could really use their expertise. Kenzie can’t be expected to find out every hidden danger in this place, and we might walk into a real deathtrap sooner or later if we keep going like this,” Zac said. “Besides, they’re a clan with an Ocular Bloodline, how strong can they be?”

“Famous last words,” Thea muttered, but she didn’t offer any alternative course of action.

The group kept a high pace through the oversized corridors, and the map held true, keeping them out of the way of any barriers or spatial tears. They were forced to pass through a second warehouse, but they had learned their lesson already and relied on Ogras to teleport them through the enormous room with three rapid jumps.

They finally reached their destination 80 minutes later, a nondescript crossing looking like any other. Zac and Leviala had chosen this place since Leviala was certain that she’d be able to get here from Clan Cartava’s headquarters. However, no one was there awaiting their arrival, and neither were there any clues left behind.

“Well, the labs are further down this way, though the map becomes incomplete at the end. The werewolves either ran out of time or encountered some difficulties,” Kenzie said as she pointed down the path right ahead. “What do you want to do? Wait here or keep going?”

“We’re already a bit late, but she’s still not here,” Zac muttered as he looked around another time. “Something might have changed on their side.”

“Well, we should be able to figure it out without her,” Ogras said, clearly unwilling on giving up on a chance at the treasure. “We have the map, right? We can just go to the end, and Kenzie should be able to gather clues from there, leading us to this Inner Lab. The Cartava Clan might have become greedy, heading there before us to loot the riches.”

“Maybe we should go find those natives instead?” Thea hesitantly said. “Their base is only half a day from here, right? We can head over there and form an alliance, paving the way for our people. Then we can go to the Inner Labs after the seed has matured. Isn’t the whole plan that the defenses will be lowered then?”

“… I can’t wait that long,” Zac sighed.

“What?” Thea asked with confusion. “Is there something you haven’t told us?”

Zac hesitated for a bit before he set up an isolation array, and both Ogras and Kenzie added their own methods to obscure the area even further.

“I have a quest telling me I have to get there before the Dimensional Seed matures. It might fail if we take a detour to Clan Cartava. I didn’t find a mapper on the Werewolf squad responsible for heading there, so we don’t have any safe paths in that direction.”

“It specifically said you had to get there before the Seed Matures?” Ogras asked to confirm, a thoughtful look donning his face. “What else did it say?”

Zac deliberated for a second before he shared the quest screen, including the note at the end.

“What the hell?” Thea muttered, her eyes wide in disbelief. “What kind of quest is this? You’ve already completed 3 quests and there are 6 more? And there are punishments? Why are there punishments?”

“Just the System being an asshole again,” Zac shrugged. “The punishment was a lot worse in the beginning, but I still don’t want to risk losing one of my core skills.”

“Divine guidance… It has to be,” Ogras said with wide eyes.

“Divine guidance? What?” Kenzie said, looking at Ogras skeptically. “Isn’t it just a special quest Zac got because he’s strong?”

“All those things you described before, were they part of this quest chain?” Ogras asked.

“Yes, starting with rescuing Leviala Cartava,” Zac nodded, feeling the demon might be on to something.

After all, he only got this chain of quests after he got the [Pathstrider]-title, marking him a candidate for training. Divine Guidance sounded like something the demon might call a chain of training quests.

“So, the reason we managed to reach this place was that the System led you to the only native carrying a set of maps?” Ogras asked to confirm.

“I… guess?” Zac asked hesitantly, his suspicions only growing when he saw Ogras’ reaction. “You think that the System is leading me to the Core?”

“My grandfather once told me a story, a rumor he heard from his captain on the battlefield. About Lord Lucifer’s younger days,” Ogras said.

“Lucifer? The Devil?” Thea blurted.