Shootuol was inside a kingdom rather than an empire. Expectedly, the one who managed the country wasn’t an emperor but a king. There were other legends that mentioned the head of the country, but all the stories named the major figurehead as the king; this was the only story where the title of emperor was mentioned. It was noteworthy, but of course, they couldn’t be sure of this. This legend was orally passed down through mouths, and there was no way to assure its accuracy. Thus, they had to make sure.
“I suppose we have to go?”
“Yes, we have to,” Lyla and Zich said to one another.
“You said if we continue south along the cliffs, it will be there, right?”
“Since it’s filled with water from the ocean, we can’t walk there. We have to get a boat. It probably won’t be hard to rent one right now.”
Many sailors died because of the monsters; there were probably plenty of ownerless boats in the harbor. Other times, people would’ve lined up to buy these boats, but many were fearful of even venturing into the waters after the monsters’ attacks. There were probably many more people who wanted to sell rather than buy.
“If that cave is really the place we are looking for, what do you think it really is?” Lyla asked.
“I’m not sure. If the legend is accurate, it will be quite an important place. I think the rumors that say its connected to Hell were spread so that city people wouldn’t enter it. Moreover, the story said that the emperor sent his subordinates to take care of the demons seems like he wanted his subordinates to retrieve to something.”
“Best case scenario, we might be able to get the thing that a Clowon emperor wanted to retrieve.”
“Maybe there’s something similar to the treasures at Violuwin or Adrowon.”
“Aren’t you hoping too much?”
“I am, but it’s not like there’s no possibility at all.”
“That’s true. Then, Zich, I will fill myself with hope like you suggested.”
“Hey, don’t expect too much. It will only hurt if you get your hopes up and reality forces you to come crashing down.”
“Thank you for the warning.”
The two went back and forth while joking and discussing preparations for their search inside the cave.
* * *
Like Zich predicted, he was able to get a boat easily at a cheap price. Even more people were hesitant to go to the ocean than he predicted. Yet, he knew the current situation wouldn’t last long. Humans were forgetful creatures, and as long as they didn’t feel some kind of trauma from just looking at the ocean, the shock they felt would pass away with time. Besides, since people around here centered their lives around the waters, they would have no choice but go back to the ocean to at least make a living. The city’s policies, which would never give up on trade and fishing, would only accelerate this movement.
The boat Zich got was a small boat without a sail that he had to move by rowing. They didn’t need a large boat since they had to go inside a cave; besides, he wouldn’t have been able to handle one of a bigger size anyway. Zich and his companions went out to the ocean with the boat. Although there were few of them, there were already some boats wandering around. Most of them belonged to merchants with a strict schedule deadline to meet. Hans and Snoc took a paddle each. They rowed according to Zich’s commands, as he barked orders with his feet hanging on the bow of the boat. The two had trained their physique and could use mana, so they had no problem pushing a small boat with five people in it.
“Good. Go straight just like this!”
They made their way across the coastal cliffs. With Hans and Snoc’s strength, the speed of the boat was fast, and they arrived at their destination faster than expected.
“It’s there.” Zich stared at the hole inside the cliff that was the giant cave. It was a considerably large cave; it was enough to fit a mansion right into the entrance. It looked like their boat would have no trouble going in. However, like they were warned, the currents were rough. Even from the entrance, rough currents were forming white foam.
“Go forward.” As soon as Zich said his command, Hans and Snoc rowed the paddles. The boat went forward slowly. As they approached the cave, the currents grew rougher, and the insides of the boat became more turbulent. Lyla approached Zich and asked, “Should I just freeze everything?”
“No, we don’t even know what’s there. There’s no need for you to waste your energy like that. Let’s keep going forward from here.”
“Okay.”
Just when the boat approached the entrance of the cave…
Wiiing!
There was a small ringing sound. It was audible enough for people in the surroundings to have heard it. Everyone’s eyes shot towards the origin of the noise: Windur.
“…It seems like we have come to the right place.”
The boat went inside the cave. The dark insides of the cave seemed to be warning them.
“Elena.”
“Yes!” The person in charge of light was Elena this time. Lyla saved her energy just in case for whatever they might encounter. Zich and Hans didn’t need light, but the rest of the group could only move skillfully and make apt judgments with it. Elena quietly incanted a spell, and at the ends of her staff, a fireball the size of a person’s face shot up. The existence of its bright light pushed away the swarming darkness bit by bit.
Zich pulled out a long chain from his magic box. He brought a chain that had tied the anchor of one of the boats that sank. He disconnected the anchor from the ends of the chain and hung a large steel awl around it.
Swing!
The boat shook violently; it began to be swept away by the rough currents inside the cave.
“Put your oars back.”
Hans and Snoc dropped their oars to the floor. The boat began to shake even more. The fireball lighting up their surroundings shook; every time Elena’s body shook from the boat’s rocky movements, the fireball also shook. Even though she had her knees on the floor of the boat and was supporting her body with a staff, she looked extremely unsteady.
Zich ordered, “Snoc, support Elena.”
“Yes, sir!” Snoc held up Elena’s shoulder.
Zich, Hans, and Snoc skillfully held up their balance even as the boat shook. Considering their training so far, it would have been stranger if they lost their sense of balance from a shake like this. On the other hand, while Lyla’s balance was better than Elena’s, she was also slightly staggering a bit. Lyla grabbed onto Zich’s shoulder and supported herself.
Whoosh!
Zich threw an awl with chains. The sound of chains clashing against each other rang out continuously, and the chains flew straight ahead like a snake flying in the air.
Crash!
The awl pierced deep into the cave’s wall. Zich threw another awl connected with a chain.
Crash!
The second awl also pierced deeply into the cave’s wall. Zich firmly secured his feet on the front of the boat and pulled the chains with both hands.
Thud!
As the chains became taut, the ship moving arbitrarily like a leaf caught up in a turbulent flow stopped immediately. Even though the torrents continued to push the ship, the ship did not budge at all as if it was on solid rock. Zich pulled the chains, and the boat began moving forward. Even though it was uncomfortable to pull two chains at the same time, he persistently pulled up the chains. When the boat got closer to the awl, Zich fused mana into one of the chains.
Bam!
The awl stuck on the wall blasted out from the mana that Zich fused through the chain, and the awl fell off. Zich retrieved the awl and pierced it into a wall deep inside the cave; he did the same for the other awl and pulled the boat again. The cave was extremely deep. There was no land to step on, and rough currents continued to flow throughout the cave. Fortunately, they saw the end of the cave when they moved a little further. However, it was not a sight they wanted to see.
“It’s blocked.”
“Yep, it’s blocked.”
Lyla and Zich both voiced their thoughts out loud when they saw a wall appear in front of them. There were no other tunnels besides the tunnel they used to go inside the cave. Since the water continued to swirl, they predicted that there might be an underwater cave. On the other hand, it wasn’t as if there wasn’t any land at all for people to walk on. There was flat land attached to the wall that blocked their path.
‘Do we have to start looking for an underwater cave?’ Zich pondered about this. He had expected something like this to happen since he knew that some sea caves like this one were connected to an underwater cave. It was not impossible to explore an underwater cave, but it was also true that it was very cumbersome and dangerous. However, Zich did not take too long to ponder his decisions.
Ziiing!
Windur let out a cry as if to resolve Zich’s dilemma. Zich raised Windur. Unlike before, Windur didn’t stop ringing. Zich pushed Windur forward, and it rang a bit louder than before. Zich moved the boat forward, and Windur’s cry grew louder and louder. The boat hit the ground and made a loud thud. Zich put his feet on the small plot of land attached to the wall and looked carefully at the wall as he moved. Then, he stopped moving at a certain point.
“Did you find something?” Lyla asked as she stepped out of the boat with one foot.
“Yep. Something really familiar.” Zich raised the end of Windur vertically and made it face the front. As if to reaffirm Zich’s thoughts, Windur shook even harder than before. Zich slowly pushed Windur into the gap inside the wall he just discovered. Windur smoothly slid into the gap.
Click!
After Windur’s blade completely disappeared into the wall, the sound of something interlocking inside the cave rang out loudly. Zich turned Windur.
Clli-ckkkk!
Zich heard the click of a device from across the wall. It was when Windur spun half a circle—
Thuuuud! A slight vibration came from the tunnel. The wall moved little by little around the place where Windur was stuck. Holes began appearing on the wall as if rocks were being moved one by one, and before they realized it, a giant tunnel appeared in front of them.
Elena gulped her saliva; it was her first time seeing a sight like this. However, it was different for the others. They had seen something like this a few times before. Lyla got off the boat. She went in front of the tunnel and looked inside. Rather than a cave, deep darkness stretched on and seemed to be tempting people to come inside.
“…Clowon’s ruin.” They were certain of this.
Zich tied up Windur against his back as it became quiet again after opening the door said happily, “We seemed to have struck gold.”
* * *
After putting the boat into his magic box, Zich led his companions into the tunnel. Anyone could tell that the tunnel was man-made. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all neatly smoothed out.
“I-is this one of the Clowon ruins you told me about?” Elena tightly clutched her staff and looked all around her surroundings. Combined with the interesting sight and her natural curious constitution as a mage, Elena’s eyes shone brightly as she surveyed her surroundings.
Snoc replied, “Yeah, that’s probably the case. We went to two ruins similar to this. I told you about them before, right?”
“Yeah.”
However, there was a clear difference between hearing about something and actually seeing it. When Elena had first heard about Clowon’s ruin, she had wanted to see it first-hand, and as expected, it was an extraordinary sight.
‘If I tell Grandpa about this cave, he’ll really like it.’
“You should look around later. Since we don’t know what might happen, it’s better to stay focused.”
With Snoc’s warning, Elena quickly regained her focus. She nodded at Snoc and tightly clutched her staff while opening her eyes wide. Lyla was about to warn Elena too, but she saw this and turned her head back to the front. Like this, they all walked on for who knows how long. Then, a hole that stretched deep into the ground appeared in front of them.
