'How could that be here?!'
Asher widened his eyes in shock.
Others might not know what it was he was looking at, but Asher found it familiar; very familiar. It was something that was even quite rare in his past life.
'I have to confirm whether it is indeed THAT.' Asher's face became serious as he cancelled the spell, Life Perception.
Thanks to the spell, he now had a rough idea of the layout within the cavern. There were no magic traps, but there were monsters hiding in the dark. Considering that they weren't attacked yet, it was safe to say that the shadow beasts had yet to find them.
One useful piece of information Asher managed to get using Life Perception was the presence of other humans, which without much thought, led him to the conclusion that they were the other students.
"We aren't the only ones here." Asher said.
The first and fifth tunnels were presumably the most difficult to get through, however, Asher couldn't say the same about the rest. There was even a chance that one out of the remaining three tunnels was much easier to get through than the fourth tunnel his team took, which would then explain why another group was able to reach here before them.
"What do we do now?" Melissa asked.
"Do you know who they are?" Owen asked.
"No. As for what we do now, we wait." Asher replied.
Seeing the level of danger within the cavern didn't mean that they had to brave it first. Asher wanted to do exactly what the others teams did to them before; use them as the forerunners.
. . .
"What are we still waiting for?" One of Wendel's teammates spoke up after the team had remained in the same spot for over ten minutes.
From a glance, the cavern looked to be empty, except for the grey stone altar in the middle. In truth, they couldn't be blamed as unlike the shadow beats from before, the ones present hid within the shadows on the ground -an innate skill of all Guardian stage shadow beasts-, or bent light in such a way that they were out of sight. In a bright place, this would have been difficult, if not impossible, but the lighting in this cavern was very poor so it was a piece of cake for even an early rank second-stage shadow beast to manipulate it. Without a special skill like Asher's Life Perception or the power over darkness, seeing these creatures would be impossible.
Wendel was about to reply to him when he suddenly stopped and then glanced in a certain direction within the cavern. He didn't see anything special, but just like his instincts told him ten minutes ago when they first arrived, Wendel believed that there was someone staring at him.
"We don't know anything about this entire cave system or even what is within this cavern. The murals so far have failed to provide any information for us. It might look safe from here out but my guts tell me differently. Also, Emma has already confirmed the presence of some ominous life-form here and let's not forget our experience back in the tunnel. Do you really think this place is safe?" Wendel turned and glanced at his teammate.
"Even still-"
"That's enough, Harrison. You should learn when to stop talking."
Emma said with a cold voice.
"If you're easily so confident that there's no threat to us in there, you might as well check it out yourself."
The young boy, Harrison, gave up with a downcast expression.
"That's enough, Emma. I understand Harrison's concerns."
Although he seemed stubborn, Wendel knew that Harrison wasn't like that. On the contrary, he was his most loyal teammate.
Emma sighed and didn't say anything to refute Wendel. She knew that while his nice nature looked like a weakness, it was what made him a leader that was loved and respected by his followers. Apart from that, Wendel wasn't a foolishly nice individual; no one born in the royal family's direct lineage was like that.
"We might not be making a move soon, but that doesn't mean others would remain as patient as we are." Wendel smiled.
"Others?" The team asked in surprise.
Only Emma seemed unhinged by Wendel's words.
"That's right. We aren't the only ones here."
. . .
"We can't keep waiting like this. We have to make a move soon otherwise the others will arrive and clean the place up."
"That's right. We are already small so it would be to our disadvantage if we let them get to the treasures first."
"But it's exactly because we are small that we should prioritize our safety first." The team leader said to the other two speakers.
This team was the one with the lowest member count amongst the six groups that entered the cave; the team with only three members.
Unlike the others, they had things the easiest right since they entered the sixth tunnel. They only faced two shadow beast attacks and the strongest monster in those two groups was a peak second-stage shadow beast that had three second-stage shadow beasts with it.
To any regular team, this line-up would have been deadly however, these guys only had things a bit difficult but not to the point of being deadly. There was a reason why despite being only three in total, they still entered the cave with confidence even after witnessing the horrific scene at the cave's entrance.
The source of their confidence was mainly due to the fact that the team leader was the eighth rank student in the academy, someone whose strength was at the peak rank of the second-stage Guardian realm and a descendant of a Marquis. As a direct descendant of such an impressive household, there was no doubt that he possessed a few artefacts that could help push him up to a level capable of exchanging a few blows with a third-stage Guardian mage. And his teammates, although not on par, still had their special qualities that helped boost their confidence and even hold an advantage against the shadow beast assaults along the way.
Now facing the cavern that was like a den of unknown mysteries and dangers, the two members of the team were confident in their abilities and didn't want to waste any second more, believing that doing so was akin to giving an advantage to the other teams and losing out on possible profits. They had already spent twenty minutes waiting and that was more than enough 'exercising patience' for them.
"Lawrence," One of the teammates spoke.
"We can either take the opportunity before us and make the best out of it or get cold feet and back out, losing the head-start that was given to us by fate. You're the leader here as well as our ace, so it's your call."
The team leader, Lawrence, frowned and closed his eyes in thought, apparently finding it difficult to come to a decision straight away. Nonetheless, it looked like he had realized that there wasn't enough time to be hesitating so Lawrence opened his eyes with a look of resolution in them.
"Let's do it."
After five minutes of assessing the area once again and coming up with a plan, Lawrence led his team into the cavern. In other not to attract any potential dangers or step into any possible traps, they proceeded slowly through the cavern. Unbeknownst to them, however, Asher, and Wendel, as well as their teammates, were watching the group.
As for the other two teams, the team that had yet to encounter any dangers -the eight-man team-, had chosen the first tunnel which was the second of the two most difficult tunnels to pass through. Even Aurora's team had yet to arrive at the end, so less should be expected of them.
On the other hand, the six-man squad who had lost a fellow hours ago and were previously assisted by Asher, remained watching too. Just like Lawrence's team, they didn't encounter much danger; albeit passing through the second tunnel was much harder than the sixth, they had more members and were also skilled so they had arrived a bit later on; just a while before Asher's group.
As the proverb said, 'once bitten twice shy', the team leader of this group was now more experienced after that setback so he didn't rush to follow Lawrence's team and instead remained behind to wait. Regarding this, none of his colleagues questioned his decision after all, they were lucky to have made it out alive from the last one so they now valued their lives more. If it weren't for the fact that there existed treasures, which was further confirmed after defeating the shadow beasts along the way, they would have already opted to retreat by now.
"Notice anything weird yet?" Lawrence asked the team's scout, the young boy by his left.
"Nothing. Seems safe, which is quite strange." The boy replied.
"Maybe the real dangers are up ahead and not this far out. Just don't underestimate this place." Lawrence chided.
"Alright."
Just right when the group were fifteen metres in, a dark shadow suddenly rose up from the ground in front of them. If that were all, they wouldn't be worried even if whatever was hidden there had a third-stage Guardian power level. However, more such shadows rose up from the ground. It was as if creatures wrapped in black cloaks were rising from the floor.
"What the heck is going on?" The other young boy said.
"Battle formation, now! Don't slack or hold back." Lawrence roared as his instincts suddenly began alerting him of danger.
Lawrence didn't know why he could feel his spine tingling, but he knew that there was something horrifying watching them at this moment, but it wasn't the rising shadows.