Chapter 436 - Gone
They were all silent. No one could utter even a single word after Tanner. Even his friends who he once talked with behind Daniel's back were slowly walking away from him.
"Did I lie though?" Tanner snickered. "In which part of the words did I–"
"Sleep," Janine appeared behind him. The woman slammed the side of her hand right into Tanner's nape, knocking the man out in an instant.
"You didn't have to go such lengths to make him shut up," Kingsley said, but his face said the opposite. He looked relieved after Tanner was knocked out cold.
"He was saying bullsh*t," Janine said. "Of course, I had to act. Can I get a healer here?"
"I'll heal him," Iris walked from the crowd that gathered around Daniel and Tanner. She placed her staff on Tanner's forehead and emitted a soft white light from her weapon down to the unconscious man.
After the silence that followed, all the other Adventurers walked away, losing interest in the argument. They all stationed arouns the foot of the mountains, grouping themselves into five each unit.
"You're pretty strong, Janine," Iris said. "You just attacked his nape but he got a concussion. His joins were also slightly disrupted."
"She's a bear of a woman," Kingsley said while shrugging. This earned him a smack from the back of his head by Janine. "Ouch, Janine. Now I have a concussion too."
"Whatever," Janine just rolled her eyes and let Kingsley act like he always does.
Her eyes lingered to the man who was almost trembling in anger. Daniel seemed to have calmed down now, making her smile and walk up to him.
"It's okay now, you can drop the killing intent," Susan, the healer from Galaxia's guild, said to Daniel. "I really don't like killing intents. It reeks."
Daniel's red eyes vanished. He scratched the back of his face while looking away to hide the pink tint in his cheeks. "Sorry."
"It's okay," Susan said. Her blonde hair was tied to pigtails that she played with while she was talking to the boy. "Tanner was a member of our guild before he left to join another. They offered him a promotion of a Vice Guild Master–"
"He's a selfish c*nt," Janine interjected. "That's what he is. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Don't say that, Janine," Susan said. "He's not that bad if you get to know him better."
"I don't want to know him, so he's bad. Period," Janine ran her hair through her straight brunette hair that reached up to her shoulders. "Besides, kid. Don't mind him. In our job, whatever you have to do to get powerful, as long as you don't forget your purpose as an Adventurer, do it."
"Even kissing darkness?" Daniel asked, making both women look at each other.
"I'll smooch the darkness if it gives me the power to kill Malice," Kingsley walked over to them and swung his arm over Daniel's neck. "Don't think about such trivial things. We've been there."
"You've…" Daniel trailed off. "What do you mean?"
Kingsley shook his head and looked at Daniel in the eyes, "I didn't mean anything. Did you?"
The boy gasped after seeing the look in Kingsley. He looked at the other women and they too have the same look.
They have pitch black eyes.
–
Meanwhile inside the cave of the mountain, Elliot was walking behind Zeus. The cave was narrow so they have to walk by two. The two they were walking with would be their buddy. If their buddy was missing, they would report it instantly.
Elliot was paired with Lance, so he was walking beside the prince.
"It's amazing how Frederick can conjure so many wisps all at once," Elliot whispered. "He's really strong."
The wisps Elliot was referring to was the light inside the cave. Every three meters was lit up with a wisp the size of a fist. The wisps started from the opening of the cave up to thirty meters ahead of them.
"This is a long tunnel," Frederick said. He was the buddy of Zeus. "I think there's two hundred meters more to walk."
"That's pretty long," Zeus said, his voice coated with suspicion. "The mountain isn't that big. We walked two hundred meters already."
"I find it weird too," Galaxia said. "Maybe it's going lower but we didn't get to feel it?"
"Fredrick," Zeus said. "Have you turned off the lights from the entrance?"
"No," the red haired man replied. "I only add more wisps, but I never put one out in case we needed an immediate exit."
Zeus nodded, turning behind them. "Turn the lights of from in front of us and let's go back. I smell something real nasty."
"Right away," Fredrick said. He waved his hand and all the wisps from in front of them died out.
Zeus and him walked to the end of the line, making everyone turn back. They walked for only thirty meters and the wisps from their path were died out.
"I knew it!" the old man yelled. "We were walking in circles. There must be a curse with this cave."
"But how did that happen?" Lance asked from behind the line. "We were only walking in a straight line. We didn't take any turn or any other path."
"That's where the curse comes in," Zeus said. "The entrance and a few meters of the cave will lead us to a secret path that is under our mana detection. The secret path then will take us to this circular path that will lead us nowhere."
"The people who guards the Ruby Maiden are more sophisticated than us," Kaminari said. "Their technology might not be the most advanced, but they have the best formula when combining both magic and technology."
"That's amazing, not gonna lie," Zeus chuckled and sighed. "But since our friend here made precautionary measures, we can get out easily. Right, Fredrick?"
Frederick was stunned for a moment. His eyes widened while he looked at Zeus. "All my wisps were put out."
"What?" Zeus asked. "I was hoping we could use the mana of your wisps to locate where they entrance is. Then we can get out of this cave and find another way out."
"It was put out by a strong wave of magic just now," Frederick said. "The wave felt like it was going to wipe out any precautionary measures anyone would think of."
"What do you mean?" Luck asked.
"It felt like a giant stone wall pushed my wisps out forcefully. Of course I tried to fight, but it was too powerful," Fredrick said. "And it's fast too. I measured at least thirty meters of the entrance down to the secret path, and the wisps were all wiped out within two seconds."
"Well, could you still know the place where the wisps were?" Zeus asked to which Frederick shook his head to say no. "That maybe is true. My mana detection is messed up too. I can't seem to detect everyone. Is your buddy still with you?"
No one answered.
Zeus, Fredrick, Lance, and Elliot who were talking to each other turned around to find out where the silence was coming from. It was to their shock they they found themselves alone in the tunnel.
Everyone else was gone.