Souta, Jack, and the rest were in front of the pathway that leads to the underground base.
"Shall we go now?" Asked Jack.
"Let's go!" Souta nodded at him and the rest of the adventurers also nodded.
"Good luck! I hope you return safely," the village chief said nervously. He and Yuko would wait outside.
"Well, I wouldn't return if I didn't finish it," Souta said as he walked downstairs.
"Let's go!" Jack said to the rest of the adventurers and they followed Souta.
The village chief and Yuko looked at their backs with a worried expression.
...
They reached the underground and there was a split in the road. The corridor on the left was open, and the one on the right was closed. A locked wooden door was blocking their way.
Before, Souta went straight to the left road, but now that he came here to subdue the host of the Vajra Sword, he would take the road on the right.
"Where should we go?" Jack asked Souta. He asked Souta because he knew that Souta came here before.
"Here," Souta pointed at the locked wooden door.
"Let me do it," One of the adventurers stepped forward. He was the one expert in this kind of situation. He was a scout and was an expert in opening a lock. With his skills, he could detect some traps.
Souta cleared the path for the adventurer. He just stood there watching the man open the lock in a matter of seconds.
"Good job!" Jack said.
"Don't worry about it! That's not a problem for me!" The scout said.
"Good," Souta nodded and stepped inside.
Perhaps it was their imagination, but once they entered the corridor, it felt like someone was observing them.
The atmosphere here was clearly different from the other corridor. A chilly wind would sometimes caress their faces.
'This atmosphere? It felt like I entered a mid-level dungeon...' Souta thought. But only he knew that the strength of the abnormal people was far enough to become a mid-level dungeon.
They walked for a half minute before red letters started surfacing around them.
"I'm warning you! Don't come here!"
"I don't want to kill you!"
"We don't want to kill someone!"
"It's not us! It's a demon!"
"You should go back now!"
"I know, you also want to become like us, don't you?"
Some of the words appeared on the walls, some were on the ceiling, and some were on the floor.
Souta stopped when the red words appeared. He looked around and read the words.
'The abnormal people are warning us.' Souta thought. This scenario wasn't in the game at all. Ever since he came here to Bullmar village, he discovered many things that can't be found in the game.
"What's wrong with this?"
"Are they warning us?"
The adventurers started to discuss among themselves. The red words spooked them but as an adventurer, they have their own fair of experience. They quickly regained their composure.
"Let's go!" Souta shook his head and he continued to walk straight, not minding the red words around him.
Then, words appeared in front of him saying "You'll regret coming here in this place".
'You're wrong, I'll regret it if I don't get that [Vajra Sword Saya],' Souta thought as a grin slowly appeared on his face.
He felt funny that they were threatening him. Do they really think that they could easily kill him? They should at least know it from the abnormal people that he took down before.
He wouldn't go down without taking some of them with him. At least he would take the mastermind behind this, the [Vajra Sword Saya], with him.
He thought that he should threaten them too. If they don't give the Vajra Sword then he would beat them half to death.
'Well, let's leave it like that and see it for myself.' Souta shook his head and continued to walk.
...
At the end of the corridor was another split road. One was a stair going deeper, and the other one was dark there's some words painted on the walls. The words were different from those threats.
Unlike the words, before that was written in Nurman language, these words were written in an ancient language.
"So where should we go now?" Jack asked him.
"Let's start here," Souta said, walking to the left side of the room, where ancient characters were written on the walls.
Actually, the path downstairs was the one that will lead him to the Vajra Sword but there's something here in this road that he needed to take.
"Okay, let's go," Jack nodded at him.
They walked for half a minute before they found themselves in front of a metal door.
The metal door was left half-opened and there was a key inside the keyhole.
The scout walked forward attempting to push the door open but Souta stopped him before he could do so.
"Don't," Souta grabbed the wrist of the scout.
The scout looked at Souta with confusion but he didn't resist and let Souta open the door.
Souta walked forward and wrapped his fingers around the doorknob. He pulled it in, closing it tightly.
He knew a trick about this door. If he opened the door just like that then it would lead them to a room full of traps that could kill all of them, but if he closed it and used the key to open the door then it would lead them to another room.
He couldn't forget those vicious traps that killed him in the game. He got careless in the game thinking that it was an ordinary door but who knew that it hides some sort of secret room. If not for him accidentally closing it and using the key then he wouldn't discover the secret room.
Souta sighed and he twisted the key before pushing the door open.
Inside the door was a room with a single table in the center. A cabinet filled with books was on the left side of the room. Opposite of it was another cabinet but above there were transparent bottles with green liquid inside. And old papers were scattered across the floor.
"This is it..." Souta muttered as he entered the room without hesitation. He directly walked towards the cabinet on the left side of the room.
He tapped his chin and tried to recall where that item was that he wanted. After a few moments, he squatted down and picked up the red book without a title on the cover.
Actually, this was not a book. The book was just a cover to hide the item inside.
Souta opened the book and saw a silver amulet with a silver string.
'Good, blue equipment.' Souta was satisfied with this. He picked the amulet and wore it around his neck. This amulet was higher than all of his equipment except the [Soul Blood Earring].
He registered it in the system as equip and saw its details.
[Amulet of Psychic](Blue): An amulet that was made of dark stone and a psychic serpent's scale. Effect: +20 vitality, +10% energy resistance, +50 health, +3 health recovery. Durability: 15/20
He checked his stats and nodded. The resistance and recovery rate were the most important things in the effect of the amulet.
Energy resistance has more worth than magical resistance. It was because magical resistance could only resist those mana related skills and spells. But the energy resistance could resist all types of energy such as mana, best feram/beast energy, ki, etc.
Souta stood up and went to the bottles with green liquid inside.
Jack and the rest of the adventurers were already checking all the corners of the room if there was some sort of treasure here.
Jack saw Souta and he asked if he knew what's the green liquid inside the bottle.
"You can divide it yourself, this one was an antitoxin potion, it can increase your resistance by one hundred percent for five minutes," Souta said before picking up three bottles and slipping them into his pocket. He only needed three and will share the rest with others.
"After you're done, we will continue deeper," Souta said as he leaned his back against the walls.
They haven't met a single abnormal person since starting down this path. They only warned them through the writings on the walls. Even Jack and the other adventurers discussed why they hadn't met a single abnormal person here.
It will get serious once they go deeper. That's what Souta thought. It was strangely calm and peaceful here but he knew that it was just a calm before a storm. Although there's no scenario like this in the game, he could still guess that the strong abnormal people were deeper, close to the Vajra Sword.
It took them five minutes before they settled down.
"Are you done?" Souta asked them.
"Yeah..." The adventurers nodded at him.
"Then, let's go!" Souta turned around and left.
...
The group went downstairs and the scenery here was different from the floor above.
The ceiling was high and the area was wide compared to the floor above. The place looks like a mining area and carts specialized for moving pieces of rocks were around. Also, the density of the energy here was quite high even those people who were not sensitive to energy would feel it.
"This place is really creepy..."
"Yeah, I haven't been to a place with a chilly atmosphere like this one."
"Of course you haven't because you're only taking a quest near the kingdom."
The adventurers talked to each other in a low voice.
Suddenly, the scout shouted.
"They are here!!"
The adventurers stopped talking and quickly brandished their weapons. Their expression quickly changed into a serious one.
"Oh?" Souta looked ahead and noticed several pairs of red eyes glowing in the darkness. He opened his mouth and said, "Guys, we won't kill anyone, so don't use a weapon that could easily kill them." He paused for a moment before adding, "Well... if you're having trouble holding back, it's okay if you break one or two of their limbs; as long as they're breathing, it's still passable."