Leon chose the path that was elevated the highest. He didn't really have anything to base on his choice so he just chose whichever path was closest to the top.
The cave system was actually bigger and more complex than he thought. With no food left and only one canteen of water, he was trying to find anything. As they continued walking, Aurora got bored of silently walking and started barraging Leon with questions which he answered every time.
"Are you better now?"
Leon tried stretching his still incredibly sore body.
"Unfortunately my shoulder is still broken, although, it is healing at a fast rate. I can move around but any fighting will be tough for me. At the moment, I can most likely fight for maybe 10-20 seconds."
However, just a few seconds later, Aurora asked another question.
"Where are you from big bro Leon?"
While still walking down the very dark and poorly lit tunnel, Leon answered.
"I'm from Parth-."
"Ooooo, Partha! I learned a bunch of things about other nations and I particularly enjoyed Partha's origin. Where in Partha are you from?"
Before Leon answered, he finally realized how he must have seemed like to Erik.
'Wow is this what Erik felt like? A never-ending barrage of questions? I'm surprised he didn't punch me…'
Aurora leaned towards Leon still waiting for an answer.
"Welllllll?
Chuckling a little bit, Leon responded.
"I'm from a city called Verin near the border between Partha and the Akkad Empire."
Trying to churn her brain to remember, Aurora took a few seconds before she responded.
"Verin? Verin...never heard of it. But my tutor told me that Partha and Akkad have a hostile stance towards each other. Does that ever freak you out? Also since you are from Partha, that must mean you are an adventurer instead of a mercenary right?"
Raising his eyebrow in a mixture of emotions, Leon responded.
"Well, I guess Verin is a bit small to be mentioned most of the time. Also, I've never experienced the hostile relationship Partha shares with the Akkad since I just set foot out of Partha for the first time, so I couldn't tell you if it freaks me out. But yes, I am an adventurer."
Without even hesitating, Aurora started to talk again.
"That's so cool! Papa told me adventurers from Partha are a step above the lousy mercenaries we have in Silce. I want to experience the world, but Papa doesn't allow me. I was surprised when he told me to leave the capital, even though I knew it was because of the power struggle."
This sort of one-sided question barrage continued for close to an hour. The entire time the two of them kept walking down the tunnel and only stopped because Leon heard something move.
Putting a finger over his mouth, Leon gestured for Aurora to be quiet and stay put as he slowly stalked further down the dark tunnel.
Like an expert assassin or hunter, he slid like a snake into one of the dark shadows of the room and took a peek at what was making the noise.
A rabbit the size of Leon's forearm had paused as it scanned its surrounding for the slightest movement or sound. However, it would take more than that for Leon to be noticed so it continued to move down the tunnel.
While it hopped down the tunnel, Leon noted the long sharp claws and the fact that its back looked different from the normal fur that covered its body. After it had hopped from Leon's sight, he returned back to Aurora who had been waiting.
The moment Aurora saw Leon approach she walked up to Leon.
"What'd you see?"
Leon actually didn't recognize what the animal was, so he just replied with his best attempt at an answer.
"I guess it's like a giant rabbit with huge claws? Plus something about its back looked slightly off…"
Aurora didn't recognize the animal Leon had said, but she wasn't too surprised as she didn't go out too often.
"Papa gave me a couple of lessons to learn about the animals in Silce, but I don't recognize what the animal you described."
With his options being to continue forward or walking back to the cavern, Leon chose to continue forward.
"Let's try to follow the rabbit. After all, if there are animals surely there must be some source of food and water. But since we are going to be following it, we have to be silent, so no talking."
While it was true that Aurora's hour of questions had slowly become annoying to Leon, he had a point in the idea that being quiet and stealthy was most likely the best option as they didn't know what was waiting for them at the end of the tunnel.
Aurora kept this in mind and nodded as the two of them slowly walked down the tunnel while trying to avoid things that might make a noise like loose rocks or gravel.
After ten or so minutes of walking down the path, Leon realized the tunnel slowly became bigger the more they walked, and eventually they finally saw the rabbit once again. However, instead of following it, Leon put an arm out to stop Aurora from moving and squinted to where the rabbit was heading.
In front of him, there was a giant room, but since he was so far out Leon couldn't get a good vantage point. He pointed towards Aurora and spoke as quietly as possible.
"I'm going to take a look at what's ahead, stay here for a few minutes."
Silently stalking along with the shadows of the tunnel, Leon entered the room and his eyes went wide. The giant room was quite well lit, as the rocks that had been previously been providing light in the tunnel were clustered in big and dense amounts everywhere in the room.
However, that wasn't why Leon was surprised. In front of him, Leon could see hundreds of other rabbits like the one he had been following and could see that the rabbits could be the size of his fist to the size of his legs.
On top of a pile of glowing rocks, he could see a giant rabbit that would be even bigger than Erik. All the other rabbits converged on him and Leon suspected that the rabbit was most likely the leader of the animals.
Although Leon didn't mind following one rabbit, he was nervous that with this many rabbits they might spot him so he quickly took another glance around the room before he ran out. Luckily for Leon, this decision would be crucial as he saw a small lake in the middle of the giant room and more importantly a bunch of tunnels with even one of them sloping upwards to the surface.