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Chapter 881 881 To Tribulation
Chapter 881 881 To Tribulation
Chapter 881 881 To Tribulation
??Wolfe silently led the group forward through the tunnels, waiting for the next group of monstrosities to jump out at them.
The creatures of this place defied logic, and he was somewhat concerned that he would come across something that was simply immune to the normal ways of killing. It might be obvious in this world how they were to be destroyed, but they were so different to anything that Wolfe and the others had seen before that they might not understand it right away.
The sound of claws on stone alerted Wolfe to activity ahead of him, and he brought up an additional barrier ahead of them, annoyed by the fact that he couldn't create one that was stronger than the fifth rank.
Power balancing was all well and good from an objective perspective, but it was a real pain when he had no intentions of being here in the first place.
The creature rushed out of the shadows, seeming to coalesce as it moved into the light near the tunnel mouth.
"Cassie, we need a light spell." Wolfe called as the small monster, which looked disturbingly like a hairless cat with extra long fangs and claws, slammed into the barrier.
It appeared that they had been normalized in power as well, because it was able to leave claw marks in the barrier before backing away to try another angle.
Wolfe hit it with a bolt of lightning, and the creature exploded in a puff of ash, leaving the way ahead of them clear.
But that wasn't the end of the encounter. Wolfe felt something flow from the creature into himself, a trickle of unexplainable alien power that lodged itself around his mana cores and began to sink in.
The feeling was similar to enhancing others, but the power was not mana, or at least not mana as Wolfe knew it.
Nothing he did could dislodge it, his body didn't recognize it, or didn't recognize it as an invader that needed to be exorcised. So all he could do was ignore it and press forward. If it was harmful in the long term, he could take care of it when he got back to Forest Grove. There was no need to panic everyone else while they were still here and in danger.
Cassie brought up the lights, and Wolfe saw that there were hundreds of the creatures ahead, both in the tunnel and in the next chamber ahead.
Stephanie didn't hesitate, and sent lightning flickering along the walls, destroying dozens of them in a second. The attack seemed to have caught them off guard, for as soon as they were hit, the remainder of the beasts brought up armour spells that made them fade to the appearance of black fog.
They would blend in perfectly with the dark tunnels, but in the light, they were still simple to spot, and the attacks continued as the group advanced.
The flow of energy into Wolfe was increasing, as if drawn to him, but fortunately, it didn't seem to be attracted to the others.
Though, perhaps that was a bad thing if this energy was actually beneficial.
The creatures were getting smart, and beginning to form a plan to get around the barrier Wolfe had erected, hiding in notches in the rocks and hoping to jump out at the group, only to get trapped where they were and eliminated with lightning.
After a few minutes, the room appeared to be clear, and Wolfe paused, taking inventory of the situation, and trying to guess which of the tunnel exits would lead in the direction that he needed.
The portal was right in front of him in the distance, but the tunnels leaving the chamber went off at angles, neither was toward their destination.
"The portal is that way, but neither of the tunnels goes directly there, of course. Which way should we take first?" Wolfe asked the group.
"Look for hidden tunnels first. Rabbits always hide the tunnel to their actual den so that predators run through the rest of the complex without finding the young." Molly suggested.
They had to do it manually, as this place blocked their earth sense through their magic, but after a few minutes, it was determined that if there was a hidden tunnel in this room, it was too well hidden for them.
"Alright, we will keep looking for it as we travel. With our senses dulled by this place, we might miss some important things, but we will get to the destination soon enough." Wolfe quietly informed the others.
The problem was that the portal was still many kilometres away, and they weren't going to make anything resembling decent time through the tunnels.
Stephanie flipped a coin and pointed to the right tunnel. "We might as well try that one first. If nothing else, we can map these tunnels until we have found all the possible ways that don't involve hidden tunnels."
As soon as they were all in the right tunnel, the exit disappeared behind them, and Cassie gave Stephanie a dirty look.
"What? I didn't know that it would happen. But now we know that whatever path we're on, it will lead us somewhere. It can't be a dead end if there is no way back. They're not going to encourage us to go wild and start cutting our own tunnels through their planet." The transformed Familiar Cat replied.
"Are you sure that we can even do that?" Molly asked.
Stephanie smiled and activated a spell, then ran her fingers through the wall, leaving four deep furrows in the stone.
"Yeah, Earth Magic still works just fine. It is only our sense through the ground that has been muted so that we can't use it to see what is coming at us." She replied.
In the distance, hidden from their hearing by the spell blocking the exit, the announcers were eagerly updating their viewers on the situation.
[The Forest Grove team has chosen the second trial. As those of you who are following along with the home map will know, that is the mental challenge route. Will they be able to make it through the horrors ahead of them, or will they crumble in the face of adversity?]