Chapter 632 - Friend or Foe (Part 2) (1/2)

”I think he will be more pissed off by you almost dying due to your bravado. There's no defense against those black rays, your shields are no safer than wet paper against them. What the heck were you thinking?” Seeing Phloria almost die had triggered his memories about Carl.

Both Quylla and Phloria were surprised by his aggressive remarks, but only because neither of them had ever faced a fully formed Abomination. Only after Lith explained to them what they were capable of, did the girls realize how big of a bullet they had just dodged.

”Even if I knew all this, I wouldn't have acted any differently.” Phloria said.

”My aim is to become a member of the Knight's Guard, the elite of the elite for Mage Knights. If we don't protect our assigned marks, we're useless. What just happened is an occupational hazard.”

Lith would have liked to scold Phloria for her nonsensical behavior, but in the end, he decided against it. He too had risked dying many times to follow his own agenda, criticizing her for doing the same would have been plain hypocritical.

Soon Morok started to open new tunnels with earth magic. Seeing how fast and confident he was while taking several apparently random turns, made Lith curious.

”How can you be so sure this is the right way? Do you have a map or something?” He asked via the army amulet.

”No, I just marked the walls on my passage to react to my mana, in case I got lost or I needed to backtrack. That's why only I can lead the expedition. Don't you do the same in dungeons or underground places when there is no time to draw a map?” Morok replied.

”No. I have a great memory.” To be exact, Solus did.

In emergency situations, Lith would rely on her abilities to access to his memories and find the right path. Otherwise, he would always take his time to draw a map and store it inside Soluspedia to gain tactical awareness in the case an ambush occurred.

Like he was doing at that moment. Morok had tasked him to close the tunnels as soon as possible so that no one could follow them without being noticed. Earth magic produced a lot of noise and with the echo in the tunnels, its use could be heard from hundreds of meters of distance.

The expedition team managed to move forward for two more hours before even Morok was on the verge of collapsing due to exhaustion. Their advance had slowed down even further due to the lack of lighting since they had left the mines.

The natural tunnels were bumpy and uneven. Their footing was also very precarious because the humidity would condense on the ground, making it slippery. Luckily for them, during his first passage, Morok had marked safe rest spots.

”You take the first watch.” Morok said while pointing at Lith.

”Then have someone relieve you after one hour, I don't care who. I'll take the last watch. We're not moving from here before four hours minimum.”

Before any of the soldiers could complain that he wasn't their commanding officer, Morok was already asleep. His behavior caused many grumbles, but they didn't last long. Everyone was so tired that they fell asleep the moment they sat down.

Lith checked his surroundings with Life Vision. The light coming from the crystal mines was far enough to allow him to scout far and wide, making sure that there was no imminent threat.

He even performed a Life Detection array to cover more ground.

”Forgemaster, Healer, fighter, and even Warden?” A voice asked.