"You wouldn't believe what I saw…" Blake told them about everything except for the spatial cracks, leaving them both scared and shocked, increasing their urge to return to the city.
"Can we leave here already?" The eerie silence brought about by the absence of beasts in the Bulian hills gave her the creeps and having no idea what they were against, she didn't want to spend even a second more in such a place.
"I agree, the more time we spend here, the more I feel something will go wrong..." Castiel said with furrowed brows. If something was able to do such a thing to a rugor then there was a chance that none of them would even be able to escape, talk more of defeating the unknown beast.
"Let's get out of…" Blake was forced to pause when a 3-meter wide circle with multiple inscribed arrays appeared beneath them.
'Teleportation arrays!' With only a glance, the trio recognized the array and without wasting a second, they began casting their spells to take flight.
Castiel began preparing both mini flame bursts to take him off the ground and darksiphon to grab hold of a tree branch in case the first plan failed.
With the water element being the only element he could use in such a situation, Brian began manipulating the water in the atmosphere to form water tendrils he could use to latch onto a tree branch.
As for Blake, he planned on using flame burst to launch himself towards the flustered Tessie and if worst came to worst he could use space freeze to prevent four of them from falling.
[Don't cast any spell, the spatial corridor is barely stable, casting any spell will cause an explosion!]
Before the trio could activate any of their spells, the voice of the system rang in their heads saving the trio from blowing themselves to bits.
'Fuck!' The trio cursed in unison as they could only watch themselves sink into the spatial corridor.
Whoosh!
Before they were halfway through the gate, a golden whip lashed onto Tessie's waist pulling her out of the spatial gate and out of the area.
'That makes things better.' Blake sighed when he saw Tessie being saved by her butler. If this was where they die, the fewer the better.
Thud!
The spatial gate opened above, dropping the trio butt first, and before they could react the spatial gate disappeared.
"Where are we?" After making sure he wasn't from a mountain, Brian opened his eyes he found himself in a corridor with perfectly carved stone walls.
Illuminating the corridor which stretched farther than they could see, were magic crystals that were placed at regular intervals.
"The empire uses concrete and bricks for their buildings, meaning we are either underground or in an ancient building..." Blake said as he scanned their environment. "It's most likely underground because I highly doubt a place as big as this wouldn't easily go unnoticed and wouldn't be on the map." Blake came to a conclusion.
"So how do we get out of here?" Castiel asked.
"Do you have any idea where we are?" Blake redirected question to the system.
[About being underground, you are correct but even I don't have a clue about where we are... I don't think it would be a nice idea for your friend to do that.] The system pointed at Brian.
"This was meant to be an easy mission, how did things get so complicated?" Brian struck at the wall in frustration.
Hearing the system's words, Blake quickly turned to Brian who was about to punch the wall and cast space freeze preventing him from coming in contact with the wall.
"The walls are coursing with energy and till we find out where we are I think we should avoid touching things..." Blake said.
"My God! What amount of energy is needed to power this place?!" Both Castiel and Brian were shocked when they used their mana senses to see floods of mana passing through both walls.
"How is it possible for stone to conduct so much mana?" Blake was intrigued by the walls and would have loved to study the walls but having no idea of the dangers that lurked in the corridors made him quickly lose interest.
"So what next?" Castiel said in a tired tone.
"Honestly, I have no idea of where to go or how long we are going to stay. I am… tired." Blake let out a helpless sigh as he lay on the floor.
The accumulated pressure that came with making critical decisions as the leader of the team and the new hurdle that came in form of an empty corridor had gotten to him, leaving him little to no will left.
"From simple gamers who just wanted to make money doing the one thing they love, to fighting beasts and entering situations even the devil wouldn't find funny. Where did we go wrong?" Brian thought aloud as he joined Blake on the floor.
"Why can't we be like the other adventurer parties that take ordinary commissions?" Blake asked as he stared blankly at the magic crystal directly above him.
"Is that it?" Castiel's question caused both of them to turn.
"What?" They asked in unison.
"How you guys give up so easily?" Castiel said causing the two to pause and stare at him waiting for him to continue.
"That's all I got…" Castiel said making them laugh and easing the tension in the atmosphere. "Fuck motivation, I too am tired..." Castiel said as he joined them on the floor.
"What if something was to meet us in such a position?" Blake asked.
"…"
The trio paused for a second and thought about it before bursting into laughter, but then they puased and looked each other in the eye and burst into another round of laughter.
[…] The system couldn't help but facepalm when it saw the trio.
(AN: Have you ever felt so stressed and worried that you begin to laugh even though you know you are deep shit?"