Chapter 81 (1/2)
Should he describe this sensation as suddenly being yanked down by his feet? Or, like falling off a cliff with a loud ‘boom'?
Without a warning, he couldn't breathe anymore. Dry and unpleasant air tickled his nostrils ever so slightly. Seol Ji-Hu almost reflexively coughed, but he squeezed his already-closed eyes even harder and endured it.
He knew he should open his eyes. But, his ears were ringing out loudly and his brain was spinning inside his head. Every ounce of energy seemed to have seeped out of his entire body.
He moaned softly and instinctively fumbled around with his hand. Once his fingers tightly grasped the ice spear's cool shaft, a strand of refres.h.i.+ng aura travelled up his arm and calmed the confusion in his head.
”Is everyone alright?” (Ian)
Someone whispered from close by. The voice belonged to Ian. Only then did Seol Ji-Hu feel his breath return and opened his eyes.
The first thing he saw was a wall. More specifically, an ancient ash-grey wall coated in a thick layer of dust. He hurriedly scanned his vicinity. Heavens seemed to have blessed them because he couldn't see a single Parasite.
”Looks like this place hasn't been discovered yet.” (Mary Rhine)
Mary Rhine whispered in a low voice. She was the Level 4 Priest accompanying the team; she also happened to be a member of the organisation that the Level 6 Imperial Knight Erica Lawrence was the leader of. She owed her leader a big debt once upon a time, so she volunteered to become a part of the rescue team the moment she heard of the news.
”Very good. Looks like we don't have to worry about staying hidden or escaping from here. Let's get started right away.” (Ian)
Ian urged the team. The sand had begun trickling down in the hourgla.s.s as soon as the magic circle was activated. They couldn't afford to waste one minute or even one second now.
The five rescuers, excluding Ian, quickly walked out of the magic circle. The rescue mission had commenced for good.
The hideout was about 10 ‘pyeong' in size. It didn't even have something as common as a window. Excluding the altar with the transfer magic circle and a large bookshelf pressed tightly against the opposite wall, everything else in this room was in the same sort of ash-grey colour. (TL: 1 pyeong = 3.3058 square metres)
Seol Ji-Hu cautiously put the s.h.i.+eld down outside the magic circle. He then focused his gaze on Kazuki, currently kneeling down on one knee and pressing his ear tightly against the bookshelf.
The mutated Orcs were quite a different breed compared to the variants sp.a.w.ned by Ramman village's Nest. These things would definitely leave behind traces of their movements.
Kazuki spent 20 valuable seconds to decipher the situation outside the hideout before quietly gesturing with his hands. That signal meant he hadn't sensed any presence on the other side of the wall. The team had agreed on a couple of simple hand signs to convey messages before commencing with the mission. Seol Ji-Hu quickly made his way over there.
Kazuki began pulling out books from the bookshelf in the order written on a slip of paper. Every time the pulled books were placed back on different rows and columns, the group could hear the distinct click, click noises of latches being undone.
Eventually, he pushed the edge of the shelf ever so gently, which prompted the corner of the furniture to go out of alignment just a little. A thick curtain of dust cascaded down.
Slowly, very, very slowly - Kazuki continued to push the edge a bit more and created a bit of a gap. He immediately stopped moving and scanned for any movements beyond the wall. After making sure of the hallway being deserted, he pushed a little harder than before.
Creeack, crrreaak… The bookshelf rotated about halfway and a gap large enough for an adult to slip through was created. With that, a decrepit s.p.a.ce lost to the decay of time revealed itself.
The success or failure of the mission depended on how quickly they moved. They even had to economise on time spent on communicating. Once everyone exited from the hideout, Kazuki pushed the shelf back in. He didn't push it back all the way, though - he only left a minute gap, one small enough that a casual glance wouldn't reveal that anything was amiss.
”Be careful.” (Ian)
Ian, staying back to maintain the magic circle, looked on and whispered to the rescue team.
Compared to the hideout, this new s.p.a.ce resembled far more like a proper room. The sense of desolation still remained, but it was in surprisingly decent shape, considering that it must've experienced the violent winds of war.
Two information could be gleaned, or guessed, from this sight. One, the Parasites learned of what sort of research went down here and began reusing this place for their new plan. Otherwise, this place wouldn't have remained intact like this.
If that guess proved to be right, then the layout of the laboratory wouldn't have changed by a great deal. That would be the second guess, and it sure sounded like a great piece of news. Because, they'd be able to trust the floor plan the village head drew up.
They could see a doorway up ahead. Kazuki took to the front and pressed against the door before gesturing with his hand again. Seol Ji-Hu silently scurried over and settled down next to him. They didn't immediately open this door, though. Instead, Kazuki extracted a piece of paper from his pocket and flipped it open.
The first underground floor was basically laid out in a straight line and was divided into two distinct districts - the research area where the five rescuers currently were, and the other one being the prison block used to lock away other species.
According to the village head's explanation, these two districts were connected via a ma.s.sive bridge, and the stairs leading down to the second bas.e.m.e.nt floor was located in the prison area.
Kazuki folded the paper and placed it inside his pocket, and then opened the door. A darkened corridor with no light revealed itself. Kazuki quickly scanned the path up ahead before speedily advancing forward. There were many doors to either side of the corridor, and it split into several branches as well, but he continued to advance without saying anything.
Seol Ji-Hu suppressed his anxious mind and followed after him. He knew that the path they were on couldn't be wrong; Ayase Kazuki was a Level 5 Archer. His Job was the amazing Pathfinder, one of the best jobs available in the upper ranks of the Archer cla.s.s. No other cla.s.s came even remotely close to Pathfinders in regards to finding the right direction or ability to sniff out clues, so he'd be the first one to react if a problem suddenly manifested itself.
The five rescuers safely got to the end of this corridor and stared at yet another doorway.
They had not run into a single creature on their way here. Rather than them being lucky, it seemed more likely that the research area was not in use at all. Perhaps Kazuki thought the same as well, because he was even more focused on detecting the ongoings of the s.p.a.ce beyond this shut door.
Soon, the Archer waved his hand once and opened the door. According to the map, they would immediately be confronted by the bridge taking them to the prison block.
‘Wow.'
Seol Ji-Hu's jaw dropped from the impressive scale of the spectacle laid out before his eyes. Since they were ostensibly in the bas.e.m.e.nt of a building, he kind of expected to see something similar to an underground floor of a school, but the sheer scale of this place blew his mind away.
The two areas were connected by a sky bridge of some length suspended high up in the air, and the ma.s.sive, wide-open chasm visible on either side of the bridge made him feel like he was now looking at a whole separate ‘city' built underground. It was kind of like looking at a bridge connecting two underground cities.
Out of nowhere, he felt a frightening chill run down his backside. Just how strong were the Parasites exactly for them to destroy the Empire that boasted such an incredible magic engineering know-how, in only four years? On the flip side, he was rather impressed by the tenacity of the Federation that managed to endure against such an incredible might of the invaders up until now.
”It's far bigger than I thought.” (Kazuki)
Kazuki whispered in a bitter voice as they crossed the sky bridge.
The original plan was to spend no more than two minutes and forty seconds to leave the hideout and cross this bridge. He tried to hurry the proceedings, yet over double that amount of time had been wasted already. He now needed to modify their search and rescue plan, so how could he not feel bitter about it?
They crossed this railroad-like lengthy sky bridge and finally spotted the entrance to the prison block. That's where they would start their rescue mission in earnest.
”……….”
Kazuki killed his footsteps and placed his ear against the door. For the first time since the mission began, his eyes narrowed to a slit. He clenched his teeth and flipped open all ten of his fingers. That signalled he had found a countless number of presences beyond. It was now the turn of Seol Ji-Hu to do his thing.
He did his very best to not make any sound and got to the front of the group. Worried gazes were glued onto his back. Didn't matter, he already knew pretty well how to use the rudium. It wasn't that hard, actually. He concentrated his Magic Power towards the little black object dangling around his neck.
The Parasites maintained a pretty distinct command structure. The rudium didn't actually change the functionality of that system, but emitted a unique radio wave signal to override the command for a bit of time, instead. Equating it to a computer virus infecting a network would be an easier a.n.a.logy to understand.
Seol Ji-Hu was thinking of two commands for today's mission. First, disrupting the enemy's friend or foe identification system and making them see the five intruders as their allies. Two, making every single one of them stop what they were doing and be on standby where they stood.
He could have gone with, ‘Kill each other', but that carried too much risk. The consumption rate of the rudium would shoot up by several folds if the number of the subjects being controlled increased, as well as when the given command became more complex and difficult to carry out.
Most importantly, the odds of a higher level Parasite that the rudium was ineffective against being nearby were not low, so they simply couldn't afford to cause some kind of a ruckus this early on.
Chiiek, chieeeek…
A sound similar to lighting up a cigarette could be heard. Once Magic Power was channelled into the rudium, a thin, thread-like strand of black smoke rose up. Perspiration formed on its surface, and a couple of drops of liquid fell quietly.
Kazuki had been staring at the rudium with some amount of trepidation, but still, he pressed his ear against the door once more. Soon, he tightly clenched his fist.
”….I can't believe this.” (Kazuki)
Kazuki gasped out softly.
”Lots of things were busy moving about up until a second ago, but now, every single thing came to a standstill.” (Kazuki)
That meant the rudium's control worked. Seol Ji-Hu cried out in elation inwardly before forcibly suppressing his emotions. It was still way too early to pop a champagne bottle, wasn't it? The moment they run into a higher-ranked Parasite, then never mind rescuing someone, this whole thing would quickly turn into a d*mn disaster.
”Can you sense anything moving in there?” (Seol Ji-Hu)
”None at all.” (Kazuki)
Kazuki shook his head. He then placed his hand on the door.
”Our mission is simple.” (Kazuki)
Before opening the door, he addressed others.
”The important thing is to control your emotions. No matter what you see, do not get angry and do not try to kill them.” (Kazuki)
Rather than him warning his team members not to waste their energy and valuable time, it sounded more like he was trying to remind himself, instead.
”We quietly search. We quietly rescue them. And we quietly make our escape from this place. That will be all. The rest will be an unnecessary surplus.” (Kazuki)
Kazuki confirmed his team nodding their heads and s.h.i.+fted his gaze away. And then…
”Let's go.” (Kazuki)