laulau20
patreon
Chapter 111 Intermission Mixed
🕑 Added 2023-04-14 08:00:02 +0000 UTCChapter 111 Intermission Mixed
Alistar reached the hall long before Lily and a few moments before Mark and Edelweiss's group. In there, he sees the mimic mimicking Edelweiss and follows it across the hall. Alistar didn't know it was a mimic, so he followed its gesture to the other tunnel.
Then after the group was off, Mark came. He saw Alistar waving to him. Alistar didn't shout as he was aware doing so would attract the attention of monsters. After motioning Alistar to wait around here, Mark returned to Edelweiss and informed her of Alistar's whereabouts.
Edelweiss was elated at the news of her elven friend and promptly dashed to his place. She was tired after fighting multiple battles, and her mana was thirty percent from depletion despite her high levels and being a genius mage with blessings. She was aware of her poor military skills. However, she was a lord, and elven culture dictates that the lords are the highest in command except for other lords or someone officially pointed by a lord to command the army.
In this case, the officially pointed commander of her group was Lord Alistar, followed by Lord Lily. However, both were unavailable at the moment and thus, She was next in line to command despite her catastrophic military skills. Thank goodness she still had Joseph as her vice-captain. However, when her group arrived there, there was nobody, and she could not control her anxiety and scolded the scout.
The atmosphere turned awkward as nobody could talk back to Edelweiss because of her status. However, Joseph came to the rescue, and with his words, he managed to divert Edelweiss's misspoken attitude to a more positive one by saying Alistar might be chased by a monster or he got called by other members who were in dire need of rescue.
.
After a few moments pondering on the upper level of the empty hall, Joseph suggested Edelweiss continue on toward another exit. If Alistar was here, they were bound to find them in this maze. Edelweiss nodded. She would just be a yes girl to whatever advice Joseph said.
After she went to another exit, she arrived at another pocket of Titan ore, just like Lily. However, unlike Lily, she didn't know what titan ore looked like and walked past the non-aggressive titanite abyss worm that leisurely ate the titan ore without a care in the world. Their ignorance saved them from being attacked and surrounded by the worms.
She slept in the glowing cavern while the group scheduled their night shift. The abyss worm didn't disturb them, and the light from the crystals helped them look in the dark.
On the other hand, Alistar was led around the nose as the mimic who imitated Edelweiss disappeared after turning inside the cave. It didn't actually disappear but just changed into rocks in the corner of the cave, hidden from their view.
The mimic knew they would not be a match against this group unless they ambushed them in their sleep, and this group would not let it happen. Moreover, they could not talk, and if Alistar got close to the fake Edelweiss, he would know it was a monster.
Sig and the others were exhausted, but Alistar wanted to know Edelweiss's whereabouts. But after he saw Alith and Sana tripped against some random rock, he decided to stop pursuing her and allowed them to rest. He took the first guard shift while chewing through his rations. As he ate, he was suddenly worried about others. According to their clock, it has been almost two days. If the group did not have mages, they would suffer from dehydration, and death would follow. Time was against them, and this maze was vast.
On the other hand, The massive group of elves and dwarves had a nightmarish encounter. They stumbled upon a pocket room full of Titan ores, but several Titanite worms were enough to make them flee. Luckily, they were not chased that far and took a break just outside of the Titan ore room while cursing others. Rhander has exhausted all but two of his feystones, trying to attack the worm with his prided fire spear spells, but it was for naught.
"Damn it, blades didn't work on them," Rhegar said.
"Neither are spells." Rhander was sweating.
"Why are you shouting retreat? We could not just allow those bugs to eat our treasures!" Helmet was mad. However, he was not as strong as his father, so his axes could not punch through the hard Titanite worm carapaces.
"Just ten minutes of fighting and you should know that we could not win! What's your problem!" Rhegar was annoyed at the behavior of the dwarves, who almost got them killed. Rhander nudged him, and he soon corrected his speech.
"My apologies. I judged from our engagement that we could not win and thus sounded the retreat. I know titan ores are very valuable. But we could not waste our life in vain. I apologize for the rude behavior earlier."
"Nah, you are correct. Sorry for attacking those worms out of the blue. We were lucky those worms were slow." Helmet replied. They were unsatisfied, and resentment was building inside them, but they knew Rhegar had made the right choice. It was like having your valuables robbed, and you were asked to stay silent by your friend.
"Thank you for your understanding. We now know why there were no titan ores on the upper floors. I hope Lord Alistar can solve this." Rhegar put his hope in his lord. His occupational habit made him think of the report to his superior right now and not his survivability. Elves were not an aggressive nation, so the thought that they had to become an impromptu leader for a long time didn't occur to them. They were more worried about reports and information they would feed their superiors. It was imperative for the elves to report to their leaders as detailed and precise as possible.
After a few moments in the dark, they returned to the titan ore pocket room and rested there. The worms had forgotten them and were now chewing through the titan ores leisurely. Helmet argued again, but Rhegar reasoned out that they had to do this or risk sleeping in the dark or burning through their clothes again.
