Chapter 226: Buried Alive (6)

T&T wasn't carrying out this operation just to steal Lurium. This was about sealing off the passageway that could decide the guild's survival. They had to stop the imperial family from penetrating deep into their base. I only needed to look at Naneow to understand. The roster of participants was no joke.

***

After walking for quite a while under Rena's guidance, she pointed forward. "It's a labyrinth starting here."

On the front wall, an artwork was carved in fine detail. The artwork included a man with a blindfold caught in a web. The man's slightly lifted lips gave off a disturbing feel.

"Be careful, it gets narrower. The ground's uneven too."

Rena wasn't exaggerating. The corridor, which once seemed wide enough for two carriages to pass side by side, suddenly narrowed to about a tenth of its original width. Now, only three or four people could pass through at once. The floor was rugged, too.

"There are holes too."

Many openings gaped like open mouths. If someone fell, there was no telling where they'd end up. Not a single speck of light was present. Only Rena's small torch offered any visibility.

"Lots of crocodiles,

huh

?" Rena remarked.

Crocodiles with narrowed eyes seemed to crawl along the walls. They were much bigger than the real reptile. The narrowness of the passage added to the grotesque imagery as the creatures stretched across the ceiling and the walls.

"There's no water here, right? What's with crocodile carvings in an underground passage?" I asked.

"Well, not quite."

Not quite?

Before I could ask, Rena stopped. "Here we are."

Her torch illuminated an image of a crocodile crying two large tears.

Creeeak.

She slid a narrow, sharp blade beneath the eye in the relief and pried upward.

Click click click... rumble...

The wall with the crocodile slowly lowered. Now the wall revealed blindfolded snakes with open mouths.

A swamp-themed labyrinth?

Rumble... thunk.

The wall stopped moving. A statue with sunken eyes stood in front of us, wearing a bright golden yellow bracelet on its wrist. However, I did not feel the urge to reach for it. The massive bracelet buzzed with condensed electrical energy.

Rena had given up on that treasure. "You can't take that now."

One wrong move, and anyone would be fried to dust.

"We can't just walk through, can we?" I asked.

The floor was covered in strange patterns. I activated my Detection skill and was shocked by the result. The entire path ahead was one huge trap.

"Is there a safe way through?" I muttered.

"You just have to endure the first one."

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Before I could stop her, Rena stepped forward.

Tap.

A low-voltage shock buzzed up from the floor, zapping Rena.

"

Hoo...

"

She wiped sweat from her brow.

To walk ahead like that with flesh and blood...

I shot her a look. "You could've let me handle that."

"No. I'm the guide, remember? Now forward, left, and forward again..."

Just after we passed the statue by taking the right steps, the golden bracelet exploded with blinding arcs of electricity.

Crackle!

Much brighter than before, lightning shot through the corridor, lighting up the darkness like day.

Crack-crackle!

The walls were scorched and fractured where the bolts ran through. The bracelet stopped glowing.

Carefully, I looked ahead. Blackened, shattered skeletons were scattered on the ground. Had we made a mistake, that light would've rained straight onto us.

I studied the surroundings, trying to memorize every detail, including the path of the lightning. I'd never seen this labyrinth before. For now, I had to rely on Rena's guidance, but next time, I'd walk it alone. Thanks to my high Wisdom stat, every step locked itself into my memory.

After a while, we arrived at a square filled with ruined and broken statues. My eyes were drawn to a rat with a furry neck and an owl-headed wolf.

Furcas... Aamon? Why are symbols of high-ranking Demon Kings here?

Most statues had been damaged, blasted apart in some way. This space felt completely different from the well-maintained hidden passages we'd seen so far. The square had three open paths leading out. Even with Detection constantly active, I couldn't tell which path to take.

"Did Naneow break through this maze too?" I asked.

"She did. She said it wasn't easy," Rena replied.

"If it was hard for Naneow... then maybe we don't need to worry so much about the imperial family breaking in?"

Rena shook her head. "The founder predicted that a Tower-Lord level mage could get through without much trouble. It's also not hard for the imperial family to hire one."

I continued on, thinking it'd be naive to think that the imperial family would just leave this labyrinth alone.

Rena slowly stepped forward.

Fwoosh!

A cloud of black poison gas burst from the owl's beak. The smoke didn't reach us directly as it spread into the wall's crevices.

Hiss...

The wall began to corrode. Even without traps, this labyrinth was disorienting. With such deadly mechanisms added, it was insane.

Is this what all ancient mazes are like?

I wondered if it might be better to live down here. There would be no interruptions, and no one would ever find me.

As my curiosity about the creators of this place grew, the smoke cleared.

Hiss...

The wall was ragged and eaten away by acid.

"Let's go."

Rena took my arm and led me forward, past the owl's empty eye socket. The same crocodile motif was carved throughout, making everything look identical. In this place where every wall was a maze, she walked forward confidently.

Snap!

Thud thud!

Poisoned needles flew. Frost burst from the floor. Trap after trap, Rena disabled each one as if it were second nature. This wasn't her first time walking this path. I couldn't just destroy everything and walk through. Even someone like Leandro would be in serious trouble trying to brute-force this.

The path continued to narrow.

Rumble...

A small stone rolled downhill after I nudged it with my foot. There was a slope.

"Are we going uphill?" I asked.

"That's right," Rena replied.

Before long, melted rocks surrounded us, blurring the distinction between path and wall. The corridor was narrow enough that we had to be pressed together, yet oddly, the ceiling suddenly rose.

Rena pulled out a map and pointed. "Here it is."

"Is this the newly discovered area?"

Rena continued explaining. "Yep. For a secret passage, it's a bit... tight, right? It's a ventilation shaft. Tunnels always need ventilation."

The imperial family was transporting Lurium through the tunnel just beneath us. The plan was this: when the convoy passed below, sleeping gas would be released down through the shaft.

Click.

Rena pressed the floor.

Zing!

A soft light came on as the floor opened automatically with a quiet mechanical sound. Faint bioluminescence from the secret passage below spilled through the crack. It was the same wide underground corridor we had seen when we first entered.

"There are holes like this one further up as well," Rena said, pointing upward.

The second bomb would be detonated from this very vent.

"Just enough to trigger a reaction," Rena added.

"A reaction?"

"Yeah. Most of the bombs will be set off from here." Rena spread out a city map and said, "This spot here is right at the shaft..."

A small mountain was marked on the city map. Her gloved finger pointed to the top of the peak.

"We're going to trigger a landslide. Everything's ready. The expert calculated it down to the decimal."

"A landslide with bombs? Is that even possible?"

"I wouldn't know the technical stuff, but he's trustworthy."

If her words were true, then a man-made landslide would pour down onto a section of the tunnel. Combine that with sleep gas strong enough to knock out an elephant, and they'd be buried alive, completely immobilized. It would feel like the sky itself had collapsed.

"This is where your role becomes important."

I tensed up.

Rena explained the plan. "There will be insiders working on it, but to get the timing just right, someone needs to block the path from inside."

I understood. "That would be me."

Rena nodded. "You won't die even if you're buried by dirt and gas."

"What about the Lurium?"

If it were stored in a glass container, it would be impossible to keep it intact.

"It'll be transported in solid gold blocks. No need to worry about damage."

Still, how would I retrieve a gold block buried underground, especially not knowing its size?

As if reading my concern, Rena pointed down. "There will be a second explosion here soon."

"You're going to blow up the floor?"

"Yes. There's a massive underground water vein beneath us. It's enormous."

Rena went on to explain that the corpses and Lurium vault would all be swept away by the underground current to a prepared location. All the waiting team had to do was set up a net and collect them.

"If there's anything that's still alive when it comes out, we'll kill it there."

Their level of preparation was shocking.

"You can climb up through the rear ventilation shaft afterward, or just let yourself get swept away with the water."

Rena pressed close to me. Her two arms wrapped around my waist softly.

Scrape.

She pulled out a dagger and etched a small mark into my armor. Since she pressed in so quickly, I had no time to stop her. The pitch-black blade, sharp enough to cut steel, scratched the armor Rubia had bought for me.

"This mark will make sure the waiting team doesn't attack you if you're swept downstream."

I stared at the mark and then at her, deep in thought.

So all I have to do is hold the path for a short period of time if things go wrong?

"It seems like I've been given the simplest task."

Compared to those calculating blast angles to trigger a landslide, or the backup team who would fight the escorts, mine seemed barely significant.

"Maybe." Rena smiled and changed the subject. "When the guards pass over, stepping on the floor will trigger the gas automatically. If the gas doesn't go off, then something's gone wrong. Escape through the vent. The founder will take care of it."

And if something really went wrong... Naneow Tropin herself would appear. It all sounded too simple.

"Who are the escorts?" I asked.

Rena pulled out a list that had about twenty names. Three of them were circled in red.

"First, the mage Alohis. He's the most dangerous of the three, but he specializes in fire magic."

"Fire, huh..."

"Yeah. Bad choice for them. Setting off a fire in a tunnel would only burn their own men."

With so little oxygen in a closed space, adding flames would just lead to suffocation.

"So, in this tunnel, Alohis is practically useless."

"That's fortunate." Rena then pointed to the next name. "Bhegas of Insight. He can recognize any marked individual."

"Marked?"

"The imperial family made key individuals mark their essence. No mask or magic can hide them."

"Once marked, Bhegas can instantly identify them, even if they do something suspicious. The imperial family would know right away."

"So I'm fine."

Rena nodded. "Yes. You're the only one among the participants who isn't marked. You can stand in front of sane guards."

I understood. Even if T&T was exposed as the masterminds behind the theft, the slower they were caught, the better.

"And the imperial ghosts will be following."

I was stunned. "What?"

The imperial ghosts? Did this version of T&T know about the imperial family's specters from the beginning?

Rena caught on to my surprise. "Wait, you know about the ghosts?"

"No, I just... I was surprised to hear about ghosts following us," I mumbled.

"They serve Duke Lawrence."

"Duke Lawrence?"

Was that the guy's name?

"Lawrence von Tartier. The lunatic who asks to be called Laura. If he wants that so badly, he should cut off what's down there, but he hates that idea. He says he wants to enjoy the pleasures of both sides. The city pigs call him greedy."

I didn't need to know all that. Still, if he was the commander of the ghosts, he had to be the one I had seen.

Do I really have to face him?

He didn't seem like the type to be stopped by mere dirt. Even briefly holding him back seemed almost impossible.

"He's not coming, right?"

"If he were involved, we wouldn't even begin this plan. He's confirmed to be far away." Rena gave a crooked smile. "It's actually better that the ghosts are on this secret path. Otherwise, one of the Three Swordmasters would've come from below."

"The Three Swordmasters?"

Rena nodded but didn't name them. "They're unhappy about taking orders from Duke Tartier. One of them will be waiting on the external route where the Lurium is expected to surface. They'll cover the east sector. If it comes to a real fight... the situation would spiral out of control. That's why we have to complete the heist here in the underground tunnel."

Rena finished explaining her well-crafted plan. There was no way I could find a flaw when I didn't even know the structure or participants involved. I just had to trust Rena.

Will this plan succeed?

I looked down at the pendant in my hand.

Initiate judgment.

[Current setting: Automatically activates upon death or equivalent crisis.]

[Would you like to change the setting?]

[Unavailable for 7 days once triggered.]

[Ability used: Crisis Evasion (B)]

[Would you like to change the setting...]

Do not change it.

If this plan was doomed to fail, the pendant would've warned me already, but there was no message. It really was a perfect plan. Finally, I felt at ease.