Hugging the shadows they soon reached the base of the mountain. Kekkai immediately began to scale the mountain quickly like a mountain goat. Hopping from ledge to ledge with powerful and dexterous accuracy.
The boy followed closely after, defying gravity as he ran vertically up the mountain. When they reached the top they stopped at the ledge and surveyed the area to see if there was anyone there.
Surprisingly, and fortunately, there was no one. Climbing up, Kekkai tried to sense if his connection to the Zenith towers was established. When he felt them he was ecstatic.
He immediately took the opportunity to start his [Hoshokugan], activating [Sense Sharing], [Creative Mode], and [Ping] as well.
"You're a Doujutsu user?!" The kid's eyes popped out and choked when he saw Kekkai's eyes change, asked in surprise.
"Are you so rare? Get over it kid, dojutsu isn't that infrequent in this world. The sooner you stop letting everything surprise you, the better." He said matter-of-factly, he didn't even bother to look at him while quickly constructing a schematic in front of his eyes.
"Yeah, I guess it's not so rare." He grumbled under his breath.
"Ok kid, we are-," before Kekkai could go into detail about his plan after he examined the schematics, The kid interrupted him aggravatedly.
"Can you stop calling me Kid! I have a name!" He glared.
"Ok? Then what's your name, Kid? Just to let you know the longer we wait the harder it will be to find and save your friends. So make it brief." Kekkai urged with a raised eyebrow.
"Hashiba. My name is Hashiba, what about yours?" the boy, Hashiba inquired.
"Kekkai. Now that's out of the way! Dig there!" Kekkai replied before pointing to an area twenty feet away from them.
Hashiba rolled his eyes and walked over, as he looked at the ground below them he turned to Kekkai and asked "How far?"
"14 meters, the mountain is hollowed out like a honeycomb with passages everywhere in the hideout. This passage we are digging into here is abandoned and empty," he explains
"You can see all that with your eyes? Do you have a see-through vision like [Byakugan] of the Hyuga Clan ?" He asked
"Not even close to the Hyuga clan. It's just a [Kanchi] that I created." Kekkai said flippantly
"By yourself?" He asked, looking at him weirdly.
"Yes, No get digging! We don't have all night!"
Turning his attention back to the land beneath him, he made a few hand signs before slamming a hand onto the ground.
"[Earth Style: Spider Funnel]!" He cried softly
Slowly a convex opening began to form as the rock began to shift outward from his palm at the center until a three-foot-wide entrance was made.
Catching him before he dropped down, Kekkai pulled him to the side.
"Wait, wait! One second!" He called out while pulling him back.
Kekkai opened his coat and reached in. Seeing the vast array of weapons hanging from the pockets Hashiba looked at him weirdly again but didn't speak.
"Here take this," Kekkai pulled out a sleek black Tantō from his coat and handed it to his companion. "From the way you boast, I assume you can hold your weight with a good blade."
"Depends on the blade," Hashiba commented before taking the blade into his hands.
"Be my guest." Kekkai invited.
*Schrring*
Taking the small 8-inch blade and unsheathing it with a resounding ring, Hashiba could only admit that it was a well-made blade at a glance.
He fell in love with the solid black and red leather-wrapped hilt, the straight blade with strangely patterned brown waves patterned across the razor-sharp edge.
"Good blade! What metal is it made from, the pattern is very strange?" He praised as he inquired
"It's made using a specific forging technique using copper and steel," Kekkai stated
"Weird combination," he said before fully drawing it and slashing wind. The sound of cutting wind as he slashed and stabbed at an imaginary opponent as he made after images with every strike.
*Sliiit* *slight* *bang* *slight*
Getting faster and faster his entire upper body started weaving into some unique dance leaving an afterimage in its wake.
/Pretty nice speed and technique/Kekkai praised
Only when there was a slight glow along the wavy patterns on the blade did he stop and gapped at it.
"Is this Chakra Metal?" He asked surprised. /This Guy is just full of surprises, who the hell is he?/
"No," Kekkai looked at him again with disdain "The blade is just an excellent conductor. Do you think that I would give YOU, a stranger something as precious as chakra metal? Keep dreaming kid."
Without another word, He dropped into the passage after berating Hashiba and left him standing there.
"I told you I have I name!" He complained before sheathing the short blade and dropping down after him.
*Puff* *Puff*
With a cloud of dust rising from the floor, the two dropped into a dark abandoned mining tunnel.
Kekkai scrutinized around for a moment before he broke off a large piece of wood from one of the support beams in the tunnel.
Taking a bottle from his coat, he poured a little bit of an oily substance to coat the top of it before taking a small flint and striking it, scattering sparks.
*Fwoosh*
The sparks instantly ignited the substance and walla a makeshift torch.
"Come on." He passed the Torch to Hishiba before running along the tunnel. Although he didn't need the light, Hashiba did and he didn't want to be delayed any longer.
The tunnels were a maze as they repeatedly made random splits, drops, and turns as they progressed, but thanks to Kekkai with a clear map of his surroundings, they managed to leave it relatively fast.
"What are they digging here in the first place? We've been running for over ten minutes and there's still no end to these tunnels." Hashira inquired.
"I don't know, but whatever it is they can only find it here and it must be pretty important. There's a massive 50-meter drop below us with an open cavern that is storing the carts. They have already taken every one to some other location. But the very fact that even this place is much bigger than I thought makes this tricky." Kekkai frowned as he explained.
This gathering of bandits isn't so uncommon in the world. Lots of uprisings occur as a group of scum try countless times to fight for power over the daimyo.
It's even more common for the daimyo to send his armies or ninjas to wipe them out! But the very fact that this group of guys is unknown and has gathered enough force and what he believed to be taking any citizens they can find and using them for either work camps or slave trading and he hasn't even heard of this group means trouble.
Kekkai likes trouble but not this kind. Because these bandits are either gathering under the enemy Daimyo's control, stealing resources from the land of stone, or a more sinister force planning to amass power before attacking.
Either is bad news. Especially since any war will be a bad influence on Ida Mountain if they chose to break into the Kingdom of Stone using it.
The Mēkā have always stood at the forefront of any war that encroached on their land because of this. If another war starts with their current status with the daimyo, they will absolutely be stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Kekkai instantly Thought about his Chain mission and that this might be related to it. He thought that the trouble coming was a war that swept the Mēkā away from the endless troops pouring into their land.
But as he thought about it, he found that there should be no reason for them to be invaded by their neighbors.
The Kingdom of Stone really doesn't have that much to offer in natural resources, So large countries like The Earth and Sand kingdoms shouldn't be a problem, and it has good relations with both the country of Birds and bears.
So who would go through-
Before he could finish his thought, they had made one final turn and arrived at their destination. When they left the dark tunnels and into a brightly lit cavern, the sight before them chilled their blood instantly.
Inside the cavern was a huge space that could fit a town going across, lining the walls were large tunnels filled with working slaves.
/Well fuck me, / Kekkai complained
//
Ding
Mission mutation detected
Detecting parameters
Checking
Check Complete
Danger Level exceeds the recommendation.
The uncommon quest [Wolves Nest Cleaning] Has been altered and upgraded to the Epic quest [Devils Pit]
[Devils Pit]
Unknown forces have opened a small hell on earth in the form of an excavated Mine. The prisoners here are broken and enslaved to work the rest of their lives here until they are freed by the sweet taste of death. Well they would be if you didn't arrive. Rescue the captives and kill off these demons in human flesh!
Captives rescued 0/1235
Low-level bandits 0/1356
Bandit Leaders 0/73
Bandit Captains 0/32
Find out the True Purpose of this place 0/3
Hidden Mission
Hidden Mission
Hidden Mission
Hidden Mission
Rewards:
Elemental Bonds unlocked
Partial awakening of selected Bloodline
+3 Body
+3 Cool
???
???
???
???
Do you wish to Accept
//
"Fuck, me." He said again