As Lucian read through the whole report, his heart was slowly put to ease.
Someone had indeed broken through their defenses. Moreover, Meredith's men tried their best to stop her, so it was clear that they didn't let the person pass intentionally. But luckily, she wasn't really that threatening. The female mage who achieved that feat specialized in defense. The moment she broke through, she couldn't do much before being blasted back into the mist.
The Emperor was worried that the one who broke through was someone who was completely out of their league. One that was comparable to the white-haired monk the Florentinians saw. One with unpredictable magic.
He was thankful that it wasn't the case.
However, the event did prove something.
The enemies had people capable of breaking through by themselves.
And if the enemies gathered all these people and launched an offensive on a single area, they might just be able to break through completely.
Lucian calmed himself down.
What he feared most was running out of cards to play or not being able to play them at all.
The enemies haven't seen half of the mist's ability just yet. They could still keep their defenses up for now.
Lucian hoped to not hear about magic inscriptions anytime soon.
….
"You guys," Rhyme panted as he wiped his face full of sweat. "Is this map for real?"
Aeon smiled crookedly as he avoided Rhyme's eye contact. He didn't know what to say. The map showed some sort of building, but it wasn't really accurate to the meters, so they still had to search wide.
Even though the place looked really clean to the point of seeming untouched, in truth, they have already searched the entire hill. As of now, they had been searching for two whole hours without stopping.
The only area they haven't searched yet was the part below the hill, near the coast. They saved it for last because it was fairly dangerous. They actually hoped that they wouldn't need to go there.
They were about to descend the hill when Korona suddenly asked, "Are we really sure that depth isn't the issue here?"
The people looked at each other. In the end, their eyes fell on Rhyme.
Rhyme answered with a nod. "Before I dig a pit for Aeon to enter, I detect hollow parts underground using magic. That's the basis of my pit's depth. So if the pit's not deep, then that only means that there's nothing to search further below."
That was true. That's why for every pit Rhyme dug, Aeon would always be scouring some underground tunnels that usually led nowhere.
Depth was not an issue. There was simply nothing there.
The five of them proceeded.
"I hope this is worth it, you damn kids!" Rhyme yelled. He was doing all the hard work.
"Stop calling us kids!"
"Eek! Sorry, ma'am!"
The search once more began.
Not even a few minutes into the activity, magical beasts from the waters started harassing them. This wasn't surprising considering the fact that they were less than 20 meters away from the rocky coast.
"Now I know how those poor fishermen of the old Florentine felt," Aeon commented.
It was truly too annoying.
Because the water there was fairly shallow, only weak magical beasts were common. However, to fishermen who weren't mages, this was already a huge problem.
Imagine when a magical fish-type beast yanks on their fishing line. They could possibly be thrown into the water and eaten. Amphibians were another issue. They could directly chase and devour people inland.
Right now, the monsters that kept bugging the group was a bunch of toads the size of a boar.
Not dangerous, but a pain in the ass to kill using weapons. The mucus that their body excreted was extremely hard to wash off when it sticks onto Aeon's swords.
"A little faster please," Aeon told Rhyme while having Suri burn the mucus off his weapon. Unfortunately, it wasn't a good solution because the slimy substance somehow got cooked and turned into something similar to gelatin.
Aeon sighed. It was even resistant to fire!
This must be the reason why water creatures are very hard to deal with for Fire mages, Aeon thought.
"Alright, done!" Rhyme suddenly said.
Aeon nodded. It was time for him to dive into the pit. "Korona, you defend. Suri's not too good of a match against these monsters."
Leaving this sentence, Aeon jumped into the pit. As he dropped, he casted a spell, conjuring two balls of light that hovered just behind his shoulders.
The first underground tunnel was marked by Rhyme with a foothold. Aeon gently kicked on the opposite wall to head towards it. He rolled inside then stood up.
Doesn't look like a building though…
Aeon shrugged as he moved in deeper. He plucked off the cooked mucus that clung onto Verdure.
….
Suri stared into the pit and watched as Aeon's lights slowly disappeared. He thought about how weird it was seeing Aeon using magic.
By the side, he watched as Korona froze the toads that came their way one by one. Her method was effective, but it was rapidly consuming her magic. He would have to step up soon even though it spelled trouble for him.
"There really are a lot of monsters in the coasts," Suri commented.
Rhyme clicked his tongue. "Tell me about it."
Leona saw that the number of toads wasn't decreasing so she decided to help out Korona. She took the black scythe strapped on her back and began enchanting it. Like Aeon and Suri, she was a Seran.
Wind blades danced as the bodies of the toads were sliced into chunks. She then turned towards Korona and said, "Freeze the water with blood. We don't want other monsters to come here."
Korona nodded then complied.
Time passed by and before everyone knew it, they have already been waiting for 15 minutes.
Fifteen minutes… this was the longest time they spent waiting for Aeon to exit the pit. They even found the time to move the horses over to their location and eat some snacks.
Did he discover something?
They were all curious.
In a few more minutes, the sun would set.
Also, during nighttime, the waters usually go into high tide, so it was dangerous for them to stay any longer.
"Alright," Rhyme stood, "I'll go get your guy."
The others understood and did not voice out any complaints. They could only sigh with regret that they didn't find anything substantial.
Rhyme laughed, breaking the awkwardness.
"What's up with the long faces?" Don't worry! I won't report you even though we couldn't find anything. You have my word. But of course, I'll take the opportunity to search for the treasure next time."
Leona, Suri, and Korona stared at him blankly for a good two seconds before paying attention to the waters again.
Yeah, sure. As if there's really any treasure here.
The issue is that they wasted an entire day.
Suddenly, Leona stood up. She stepped forward and squinted her eyes.
"That's odd," Leona said, "the water is already rising."
"Ah, I gotta move faster then," Rhyme said. He was about to turn around when his pupils suddenly dilated in shock. Without thinking, he started casting a spell then pressed his hands on the ground. Magic swept through the rocky coast.
The earth shook as a wall started to rise.
The three others were surprised, but before they could ask what Rhyme was doing, the center of the wall broke and a salamander's head popped out.
Leona was naturally surprised. She had been looking at the sea the entire time, but she didn't notice any creature swimming rapidly towards them.
But somehow... Rhyme did?
In any case, she had more things to worry about, so she should put that thought aside for now. She brandished her enchanted scythe and rushed towards the squirming creature.
She jumped in an arc towards the monster. As she hovered in the air, she aimed at the glossy head of the salamander. However, she was momentarily distracted when she saw a shadow under the water behind the wall.
She wanted to confirm what she saw, but she couldn't stop herself from falling. The wall soon covered her vision.
Was she imagining things? It was starting to get dark, so it was likely.
The scythe fell onto the salamander's head. Wind blades erupted from her scythe tearing the creature apart.
After that, the water there was frozen by Korona.
Leona was about to peek from the hole through the wall when someone suddenly shouted from behind her, "Look out!"
Leona was shocked but responded subconsciously. She jumped back. As she pulled away from the wall, Leona started gaining more vision. It turns out, there was a huge mouth that meant to devour the spot where she previously stood. She couldn't pick up any activity from the water by her feet because it was frozen, so she didn't know that there was a predator near her. Only the people behind her could.
A huge but extremely flat snout snapped at the frozen salamander and the wall.
The four of them were shocked to see another salamander. This time, it was bigger. A lot bigger. And it evolved in a way that suited shallow waters. Its head, and potentially its whole body, was extremely flat.
But the mages had no time to appreciate its features.
A colossal beast!
Leona, being a C-ranked mage, was fairly confident that she could take the beast on. So she told the others to stay back as she advanced.
Rhyme calling Aeon was already out of the picture. They could call him later!
Suri, Korona, and Rhyme provided support as Leona attacked.
Leona was able to slash her scythe at the creature's neck a couple of times, but out of their expectations, it had an excellent recovery. The wounds it suffered were visibly patching themselves up.
The salamander frolicked in the water. Now that it has been provoked, it seemed intent on devouring its enemies. The salamander started to cough multiple times underwater, and when its head resurfaced, it spat out thick murky goo.
Korona's ice barrier came up on time to shield them from the unknown substance. They thought they had been doing good when they suddenly heard someone fell to the ground.
Heads rapidly turned.
At the back, Aeon was striking a pose with his hand, Rhyme was lying down unconscious in front of him. He then reacted to the sight of the magical beast.
"What the fuck is this thing doing here? I thought those noises were just tides!" Aeon yelled.
At that point, literally, all of them were confused. Luckily, Leona remained rational. She remembered what Aeon told her earlier.
That Aeon would knock Rhyme out if he ever found what they were looking for.
"You found it?!" Leona asked.
"I did!" Aeon said.
Leona smiled then started casting a spell. When she next swung her scythe, it created a fierce wind blast. It barely hurt the colossal beast pestering them, but it threw it far away.
Suri and Korona backed away towards Aeon. They both looked at the unconscious Rhyme.
"Let's strap him to one of the horses then let's enter the pit," Aeon said.
"You moron!" Leona tossed all of Aeon's stuff at him then slapped the butt of Aeon's horse to free it. "Grab Rhyme and go in, the salamander's really troublesome!"
Everyone grabbed all of their items and released their horses.
Then, they all entered the pit.
When the colossal beast returned, it found nothing.
….