Extra And MC-Chapter 92 - 88 - Trepidation

How long had Flynn and Aiden been falling for, prior to their jump from the edge of the chasm.

Around thirty seconds in total now.

-Shwooooshh…

’Nearing maybe around forty seconds now…’ Flynn thought to himself, the upward drift of the wind making his perfectly styled hair messy in an instant.

Just as Flynn’s mental timer was about to reach fifty seconds, Aiden who was similarly falling beside him, noticed a faint glimmer of light approaching them quickly from below.

Extending his arm with an open palm over to Flynn, the youth quickly used his [Zero] spell and instantly, both he and Flynn levitated in the air for a split second before he deactivated it.

Expecting themselves to land on the solid crystal ground, both brothers soon found themselves submerged under the chillingly cold sensation of transparent body of water.

-Plop! Plop!

-Blub…

-Blub…

Quickly coming to their senses and realizing they were underwater for some reason, both brothers quickly began to dive back upwards and soon, they emerged from the deep wide pool of water they had fallen into.

-Slosh… Splash!

-Gasp!

Taking a deep breath of air as they emerged from the body of water, Aiden and Flynn were first met with what seemed to be a humming sound of a teleportation portal, it’s swirling white light illuminating their surroundings ever-so-slightly.

It was placed on a small step-like crystalline platform in one corner of the hollowed yet wide crystal tunnel that led to an expansive space that seemed to be the fifth level of the cavern.

Swimming ashore and onto the crystal flooring of the tunnel, Aiden and Flynn rolled over onto it and began coughing out some of the water that had found its way into their lungs due to the unexpected plunge into the fairly deep and immensely cold pool of water.

-Cough! Cough! Cough…

After the eventual subside of their coughs, Aiden along with Flynn who were now completely drenched from top to bottom, sharply turned their gaze to the teleportation portal and glared at it in annoyance.

"You know what… fuck whichever bastard decided to place a teleportation portal here and not up there!" Aiden released a rare curse in annoyance.

"I agree!" Flynn sided with his brother, a similarly irritated tone in his voice too.

The youth then slowly got up from the ground and began to sweep his wet silvery-green hair which was blocking one of his eyes, to the other side of his face to give himself his full vision back.

Aiden on the other hand, took a calming deep breath and properly stared at the teleportation portal before him, or to be more exact, the words engraved on the metallic placard placed just above the portal.

‹ RETURN TO CAVERN’S ENTRANCE! ›

"Yeah, I still can’t believe they placed this here and not anywhere else!" Aiden spoke again, another slight wave of annoyance creeping in.

"Let’s just get this over with Aiden. The fifth floor is just past this tunnel" Flynn called out to his brother, urging him to place his irritation asides for now and do what they came here to do.

"Fine…" Aiden reluctantly replied and proceeded to do as Flynn asked but not without letting out a few more words slightly laced with anger.

"I’m going to crush some innocent Kraugrs head to let off some steam!"

"Now that’s something we’re both looking forward to" Flynn responded with a calm declaration.

Following this, both brothers quickly walked through the dim hollowed tunnels that seemed to be slowly getting brighter by the second and finally made their way out into the crystal depths of the fifth level.

Here, they were met with an extremely spacious area, completely devoid of stalagmites and stalactites, along with immensely high, crystal-plated ceilings with different hues of colors.

The crystalline structure of the walls however, was radiating brightly, along with various crystal ores that nestled on the ground which were of the best qualities.

As tempting as that was, what interested Aiden and Flynn more was the horde of Kraugrs that stood guarding three pathways at the far ends of the spaciously long and wide area of the fifth level.

They were yet to notice the two youths, probably due to how far away they were from them.

Without even uttering a single statement, both brothers dashed towards the horde at breakneck speed, devilishly wicked glints in their eyes as they caught the Kraugrs off-guard, completely annihilating all of the creatures.

Now that they had enough of a wide space and the fear of vibrations causing a cave in was also out of the question, Aiden and Flynn let off some steam as they had planned, completely using every single spell in their arsenal to decimate the unsuspecting Kraugrs.

After killing every single crystalline monster in sight, they both sat at the front of the three tunnels the now dead Kraugrs were previously guarding while recovering their mana.

Normally, about twenty to thirty minutes would have been enough to recover all their mana back due to the presence of mana veins in their body, as opposed to the normal one hour it took if one only had a mana core like every other person in this world but, due to the cuffs on their beings, both brothers ended up resting for about that same one hour before proceeding to continue with their quest.

"Okay. I’m feeling much better now!" Aiden declared as he stood up from the crystal flooring of the ground.

Flynn however, after retrieving Novier’s hand-drawn map from Aiden a few minutes prior to him getting up, kept sitting on the ground while studying the map.

"Hmmm… Still don’t have any idea how we’re supposed to get to the supposed sixth level…" he muttered aloud.

"These three tunnels only lead to a treasure trove of ores, depending on the particular types the alchemy or engineering department needs…" he continued with his muttering.

As Flynn explained, the last three tunnels led to dead ends, all three of them each, containing a treasure trove of crystal ores just waiting to be mined.

It was almost as if a reward was being given to anyone who could stick through till the end and make it to the last floor.

"While you figure that out Flynn, I’m going to raid these tunnels!" Aiden said to his brother, to which Flynn waved his hand dismissively, as if to tell him he was free to do as he pleased.

"60:40 it is then!" Aiden declared but Flynn peeked up from the map he was staring at and gave him a questioning glare that clearly asked ’What do you mean 60:40?!’.

"Fine fine. 50:50. You happy now?" Aiden said to his brother with a smile as he began heading into one of the tunnels.

Flynn who had achieved what he wanted to with his glare, returned his attention back to the parchment of hand-drawn map and continued studying it.

Aiden just as he had said, went into each of the tunnels and began chipping off the high-quality crystal ores with his bare hands, placing them all into his spatial ring.

After raiding the tunnels on the left and right, he then proceeded to enter the middle one last and do as he did for the previous ones.

As he did, he noticed a few weird symbols which were so faint one would either need to be squinting their eyes closely at it or would probably be using mana sense to sense the faint traces of magic on it.

"Uh Flynn… You might want to see this!" Aiden called out to his brother, his words echoing through the tunnel and travelling over to Flynn who was still studying the map.

"Which tunnel are you in exactly?" Flynn called out to him with a shout.

"The middle one!" Aiden replied swiftly with a shout of his own.

Soon enough, Flynn also entered the tunnel Aiden was in, got to where he was and without having to be told anything, activated his mana sense, and instantly, he felt the exact thing as Aiden was feeling from the strange runic symbols on the wall.

But more than that, what really caused Aiden and Flynn to keep staring at the symbols was what they were sensing was emanating from the other side of the wall that the symbols were in.

Something strange…

This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom.

Something mysterious…

Something familiar yet unfamiliar…

Swiping the runic symbols clear and placing his hands on it, Flynn pondered for a few seconds over how they were supposed to access whatever was behind the crystalline wall.

’Novier must have also solved this puzzle somehow right…’ he began to muse to himself.

’But how…’

’They don’t seem like they can be pressed…’

’Should I maybe apply a bit of mana on the symbols too?’ he asked himself.

’Hmmm… still nothing… guess that isn’t the way either…’

After considering other possible options and also trying them out, all to no avail, Flynn let out a sigh and spoke.

"I don’t know how we’re suppo-"

Without even allowing him to finish his words, Flynn felt an increase in mana surge behind him and without even giving him a heads-up, Aiden threw a brutal punch at the wall, his hands coated with a greenish hue of mana, indicating that he had used [Gravity Blast].

-BAM!

-Crack…

-Crack…

-Crack…

-Crumble!!!

The crystalline wall after cracking in several places, eventually weathered and crumbled to reveal a small passageway with crystal-plated staircases that led downwards, rays of fairly bright light shining through from below.

Flynn then turned around to look at his brother who had a genuinely smug expression on his face.

"Well I guess that’s one way to do it…" Flynn commented.

"Flynn, that’s the ONLY way to do it. Not a fan of head-wracking puzzles" Aiden replied with emphasis, the smug grin still adorning his face while lightly patting his brother’s shoulder a few times and proceeding to walk past him.

-Sigh...

After letting out a tired sigh at his brother’s words, Flynn spoke in a serious tone.

"You’re freaking lucky that it was that easy but enough of me talking. The last floor on Novier’s map, also begins with a narrow passageway like this. Let’s get to it"

"Way ahead of you Flynn" Aiden responded, immediately venturing into the descending passageway.

Promptly following his brother, they both kept walking down the very long descending passageway for over five minutes before finally stepping out into the actual last level of crystal caverns.

The sight they were met with however as they stepped into the last depths of the cavern was one they couldn’t help but be equal parts amazed, equal parts horrified at.

First was the illuminated grotto, bathed in an eerie yet bioluminescent glow, it’s walls adorned with delicate, radiant mosses and fungi that provided a soft constant light.

Secondly, was what seemed to be a ruined yet magnificent cathedral that seemed to have been frozen in time, its crystal formations reaching unprecedented heights, along with towering columns and massive crystalline stalactites and stalagmites that met to create an awe-inspiring natural architecture.

However, the last thing Flynn and Aiden saw was what actually made them gulp, a bit of fear creeping into their hearts.

Atop the fairly long, wide and magnificently ruined staircase that led to the cathedral was a giant Kraugr that was about 35 feet tall, imposingly standing guard with a knight’s stance, a gigantic greatsword made of pale blue frosty crystal in its hand.

It had an unsettling and eerily dangerous aura to it and just from staring at it long enough, one would realize that it was solely created to prevent entrance into the ruined cathedral behind it.

It’s faceless visage, seemingly unalive, suddenly tilted downwards to stare at the ants who had dared to step foot into its territory, its giant hollow eyes containing so much malice in it as it gazed chillingly into the soul of both brothers.

And then, in an unexpected twist of events, the giant Kraugr which should not have been able to understand human speech, let alone speak it by any means, let out a single word with an eerily disturbing otherworldly voice that reverberated throughout the entirety of the sixth floor.

"Leave!"