Chapter 463: Entering The Underground
Chapter 463: Entering The Underground
"To go through that route, we don't need to enter through the entrance from that building, right?"
I asked Candy while pointing my finger to the suspicious building. I have checked that place several times, and other than being the entrance to underground, I didn't see anything else.
"That's right. Since we have Celestine with us, she can just make an opening and surprise the enemies. There are mages under here, right? Probably expert level earth mages. Those average mages are no match against Celestine. She can kill them all before she creates an opening for us to go through," Candy explained.
"There are many people to kill though. Roy, tell me which one should I kill," Celestine said.
I guess that's a good plan.
There are multiple layers below the surface. To put it simply, it's like there are multiple floor under the basement. So, it's like first floor of the basement, second floor of the basement, etc. And I can only see through the fifth floor under there. Beyond that, the magic is similar to a dungeon that has never been explored for a long time. I can't see through it clearly.
Even if I enter the third or even fourth floor, I doubt I can still see through it. But if it's the fifth floor, I should have better vision on what's below there.
Let's take one step at a time. Or more like one floor at a time. What's deeper there, I don't need to focus on it yet.
"Celestine, can you sense the people down there?" I asked Celestine.
"Yeah. There are five people right under us. But before this, there were more," Celestine said.
"Right. Those who were here before are most likely the scientists and researchers. They left after those five people arrive. At least one of them is an expert level earth mage. Though it's possible that all of them are expert level," I said.
"And they aren't doing anything?"
"Probably, they are trying to trap us. As soon as we opened a hole, they will attack us right away. Still, five people is too little. According to the route that Candy prepared, it's best if we enter from here. Celestine, can you create Ground Spikes at them? Not stabbing them from below, but from above. While at the same time, open a hole just enough for me, Shelia, and Graham to enter," I suggested to Celestine.
"Okay. That's easy. Give me the signal when I should open it," Celestine said as she crouched down with one hand touching the ground.
As she crouched down, the enemies below us also prepared to do something. I need to be quick.
"Master, may I suggest something?"
Before we put our plan into action, Graham suddenly interrupted us.
"What is it?"
"May I suggest to create my shadow clone directly under us so it can fight the enemies, and while they are distracted, we can attack at that time," Graham said.
…is he saying something smart all of a sudden? And he can create clones even though it's not from his shadow, but somewhere else?
"You can do that?" I asked Graham.
"I can do it recently. Although I don't look like it, I trained myself a lot after losing against you," Graham said.
So, even though he's stupid, losing against me increase his motivation to be stronger and now he can create shadow clone somewhere else?
"Tell me more about your shadow clone that you recently discovered," I said.
"It's the same as before. I can only create one clone of myself from the shadow. But this time, it doesn't have to be my own shadow. As long as anything has a shadow, I can summon a clone of myself," Graham said as he made the giant shadow clone that has been with us disappears.
"You don't need to see the place yourself? It's underground so it's difficult, right?" I asked again.
"But you can see it for me, right Master? Once you tell me the general direction of the shadow, if I can sense it, I can create a shadow clone," Graham said.
This plan is better than just letting Celestine do everything. Let's do it.
"Celestine, once you sensed the enemies are fighting something, you can open a path and attack them at the same time. It's just a shadow clone, so it's fine if you kill it," I said to Celestine.
"Okay."
Now, let's see a place where shadow exist. There's a source of light under there, so there are many shadows under there including the enemies' shadow. Let's find the biggest one.
Hmm… it's not much, but the biggest shadow is under one of the enemies. Though I think any one of them is fine.
"Graham, it's under there where I point my finger at. The shadow of our enemy. Can you do it?"
"…I can," Graham said after concentrating a bit to sense the shadow.
"Do it now. Everyone, prepare yourself."
To distract the enemies from Graham's shadow clone that is being created, I stepped on the ground as hard as I could without destroying anything. The vibration from me stepping above them should be felt by the enemies, and as expected, they became wary and start preparing their magic.
They didn't even notice that under them, a shadow is slowly raising. A shadow with six wings and a spear.
The shadow clone then attacked the owner of the shadow. Stabbing him from behind.
That action makes the other beside the stabbed man surprised, and Celestine used that chance to open an opening to let me, Shelia, and Graham enter. While not forgetting to create Ground Spike to stab one of the enemies.
Since it came from above them, should it be called Roof Spike? Whatever.
Defeating the rest of the enemies is not a problem. And we safely entered the first floor of the basement.
"Alright, Candy and Wendy will start investigating from this place. Celestine and Graham will stay with them and protect the two. Shelia and I will capture the researchers in this floor," I said.
"Capture? Not kill?" Shelia asked as she run to follow me.
"Capture. These are Magic Restraining Collars. Put them around the captured people's neck. But if they are too strong, you can kill them. Which way are you going? Left, or right?" I asked as we see two paths in front of us.
"To the left. I smell people there," Shelia said.
"Once you captured them all, tie them up and cover their mouth so they won't be able to talk. After you're done, look for more people. But don't go underground yet without everyone," I said.
"Understood."
With that, Shelia and I split up.
I can see that where Shelia is going, there are mages there. And I didn't see anyone that look like a researcher. Don't tell me that she can smell which way that has strong opponents with her nose? If so, it will be useful. I will ask her later.
As for where I'm going, most of the people in my direction wears lab coat. I need to capture them. Though some of them started inserting the explosion device into their mouth. They are thinking of killing themselves. They have that much loyalty to the cult.
Still, that's not everyone. Some of them are hiding in fear and even plucked out the explosion device from their own mouth. But some of them have started killing themselves.
I don't know if it's through research or magic, but we really need to be careful of the enemy's brainwashing technique. But from the look of it, it's not always a success.
When I encounter them, none of them are strong enough. Even the strongest among them was just intermediate level. I guess they focused on their research more than their strength.
Some of them tried to fight back, but when they realize that they are too weak against me, they decided to get closer and destroy their own head. They want me to get hurt by the explosion.
Though I can knock them out faster than they can approach me. With Blobbygun inserted with non-lethal Blobbybullet, I can knock them out from afar.
I put the collars around their neck, and after grabbing all of them in this area, I throw them into a portal. But that's not everyone in this floor.
Some are trying to escape to the surface. I guess I need to stop them first before any of them managed to leave this place.
I opened a portal to the surface where I put a Blobby beforehand, and greeted the escaping researchers before knocking them all out.
Now, the rest should be easy for Shelia alone. She killed some enemies, but that's not a big deal. I hope. But it's great that she can follow my order and captured some enemies.
After that, we reunited with the others and help them investigate this whole floor. Well, not me.
Since I will probably use portal many times, I took a rest before we go deeper under the ground. Once everyone has gathered everything they can grab in this floor, I will transport them and we will continue to the next floor.. I hope the next floor will be as easy as this floor.