At the moment Nathan realized something was amiss, his gaze shifted towards the center of the magic array.
There, it was empty.
The chair, along with the bones left over from the bugs' feast, had vanished.
In front of everyone stood Palin, her mouth emitting whimpers as she approached once more.
"Let's get out of here!" someone shouted.
A flurry of magic was unleashed, sending Palin flying back, and the group hastily retreated to the staircase.
With a mild sense of disarray in his heart, Nathan followed the others out of the room.
Stepping onto the ascending stairs, he finally let out a sigh of relief, a sentiment echoed by his companions.
At this moment, Luna's complexion was particularly pale, seemingly from excessive fright.
Yet, she cooperated with a veteran member to cast an Earth Wall Spell at the doorway, sealing it shut.
Immediately after, the sound of Palin striking the earthen wall could be heard.
"Move quickly!" Nathan led the way down to the first floor.
But as he rounded the corner of the staircase, he suddenly noticed something off.
There should have been more light filtering in, yet the path ahead had unexpectedly darkened.
The stairs remained clean, smooth.
However, it felt to him as if what lay ahead was no longer an exit.
But having come this far, there was no turning back.
The staircase finally came to an end.
Nathan stepped onto the ground, his eyes suddenly narrowing in shock.
Before him lay another circular room.
The walls were inlaid with mana crystals that emitted a soft glow, and the floor, paved with cobblestones, was uneven, marked by a magic array.
What was more astonishing was the presence of a chair at the center of the magic array.
A skeleton, clad in the attire of a martial class freshman, was slouched against the back of the chair, as if it had always been there, unmoved.
Yet, they had changed positions, arriving at the opposite side of the room.
Nathan's gaze moved past the skeleton to see a wooden door ajar across the magic array, bright light shining through.
It was clearly the door they had entered by moments ago.
Cold sweat trickled down his forehead as Nathan exchanged glances with his companions, seeing in their eyes a similar sense of profound unease.
But in the next second, Nathan realized that the warrior freshman who had called them up was nowhere to be found.
...
Meanwhile, outside the monitoring station, Daniel pocketed his pocket watch.
Five minutes had passed with no sign of activity from within.
"Could something really have gone wrong?"
Lam cast a wary glance at Daniel, who wore a look of grave seriousness as he stepped towards the main entrance of the monitoring station.
The door to the basement was ajar.
Daniel saw the magic array on the floor and Professor Palin lying motionless.
He nudged Palin's body with his foot, only to discover that Palin was dead.
A gash on his neck revealed that his throat had been slit, blood gushing from the wound.
Lam entered the basement with a solemn expression, "Hey, where did all those kids go?"
Daniel shook his head.
He carefully examined the footprints on the ground, noting that the furthest set only reached the middle of the magic array.
It appeared that the others had not ventured far from the doorway at all.
Exiting the basement, Daniel searched the entire monitoring station once more before returning underground.
"Something's not right!" Daniel's expression darkened as he looked around.
"There seems to be something here beyond our understanding!"
"Wait a minute! What was the name of the freshman who reported this case five days ago?" Lam, struck by a sudden thought, asked with confusion.
"I don't know!" Daniel suddenly felt a headache coming on.
The name of the freshman was on the tip of his tongue, yet he couldn't recall it.
"Impossible, why can't I remember?" He then realized the gravity of the situation.
"Stop thinking about it, I'll give it a try here. You keep watch!"
Lam pulled Daniel back and then unleashed a jet of metal from his hands, striking the wall.
With a "boom," the ground trembled, and dust scattered.
A large section of the wall collapsed in an instant.
Daniel then released a detect magic spell.
However, they found nothing out of the ordinary!
As time slowly passed, Daniel began to sense that there was something unusual about this situation.
"Stop, we can't keep searching like this. We need to find someone proficient in space magic," Daniel called out to Lam.
"I'll go!" Lam crushed a teleportation scroll in his hand, and with a flash of light, he vanished instantly.
With Lam's departure, Daniel also ceased his search.
He wanted to retreat outside to ensure that if anyone from the squad went out, they wouldn't be unable to find him.
However, on his way back, he suddenly discovered that Professor Palin's body was gone.
In its place, only a set of tattered clothes remained.
Daniel shook his head, his confusion deepening with every new discovery.
...
In another circular basement, under the astonished gazes of the inspectorate team members, they once again came upon that chair.
This time, however, they entered from the opposite end of the room.
The skeleton was turned away from them.
"Damn it!" cursed a veteran member of the Inspectorate Team, casting an ice spear towards the skeleton.
With a crash, the chair splintered, and the skeleton, struck by the ice spear, scattered into pieces across the floor.
"This is unbelievable!" one of them exclaimed, stepping onto the magic array and heading towards the wooden door across the room.
The others, seeing this, quickly followed.
Nathan moved with caution, careful not to step on the broken bones.
The tiny insects they had encountered earlier made him wary.
Yet, as the group passed through the wooden door and exited the basement, it seemed as though nothing had happened.
This time, as they turned the corner of the staircase, they were met with light.
Nathan took a few more steps and finally reached the ground floor of the observation station.
Stepping back onto solid ground, everyone felt a sense of having narrowly escaped danger.
The exit was just ahead, and they hurried towards it.
"Something's not right here!" Luna exclaimed in alarm from within the group.
The others immediately became tense, looking around in confusion.
Luna's face, tense and pale from nervousness, slowly turned back.
Nathan's gaze followed hers, and he immediately noticed the discrepancy.
He remembered the staircase being very smooth and clean on their way in.
Moreover, the grains and hay that had been stored on the first floor were gone, leaving the space somewhat empty, with a noticeable amount of white powder on the ground.
"Let's not worry about that now, let's move!" someone suggested.
Nathan found the situation exceedingly strange, but still felt it was best to leave as quickly as possible.
So, he gently grasped Luna's ice-cold hand, pulling her away from her shock.
However, just as they reached the door, a veteran member of the Inspectorate Team who was leading the way suddenly recoiled, letting out a startled cry.
Nathan quickly moved to the doorway and looked out, his heart skipping a beat at the sight.
Outside, it was no longer the forest they had entered from.
Now, most of the trees were withered, countless white webs hung above, and cocoon-like structures, the size of human heads, dangled precariously from the branches.
The air was filled with flying insects of various sizes, buzzing incessantly as they dragged their long stingers behind them.
The ground was a dark purple-black, covered with white cocoons.
Occasionally, one would burst open, releasing a cloud of white powder and countless tiny insects that swarmed everything in sight, gnawing at all they encountered.
Nathan felt a chill run down his spine.
He could vaguely make out the direction they had come from, but that direction had turned into a sea of insects.
Venturing out seemed like a certain death within minutes.
"Let's go back!" Nathan gritted his teeth, turning to head back.
However, the two veteran members of the Inspectorate Team exchanged glances, seemingly reaching an unspoken agreement.
Each conjured a flame shield and swiftly exited the doorway, sprinting back the way they had come with incredible speed.
They were chased by swarms of insects, like bait dropped into a pool of fish, quickly disappearing into the distance.
"Hey, where are you going?" the warrior freshman shouted, chasing after them, only to be instantly enveloped by the insects.
He hadn't gone far before he fell to the ground screaming, and in a blink, he was reduced to a pile of bones.
This scene made Nathan's eyelids twitch uncontrollably, daring not to hesitate.
Glancing at Luna, who was retching, he crushed a teleportation scroll in his hand.
However, his expression turned exceedingly grim shortly after.
Slowly, he opened the palm of his hand, revealing only the ashes of the crushed teleportation scroll.
The teleportation scroll had failed to work.
This was the second time such an incident had occurred, yet the circumstances were different.