"Urgh…!" Zach groaned when he hit the bottom of the hole that swallowed him. The impact shocked and hurt him even when he had the golden barrier of Blessed Defense's protection. But he didn't have any severe injuries. At most, a bruise or four.
After making sure he was intact, Zach looked around.
'A cell?'
He was in a square room of stone with one wall made of metal bars, and when he looked up, the hole was gone.
'The others…?'
Dukiel and Julius were not in the same cell, and neither were any of the familiars.
"Yanael!"
Zach had stopped himself from using Yanael's name when he was with others since he didn't want to cause too much of a riot by showing off how special she was. But he couldn't be bothered with that right now.
He didn't care if anyone else heard him.
However, Yanael didn't respond. Zach tried to get a peek at the hallway outside his cell. The torch's dark brown light let him see at least some details. But he couldn't see anything beyond a cold, perfectly cut corridor of the same stone his cell was made of.
"Yanael!"
Logically speaking, even if he was inside a mountain, a cell along a corridor wouldn't be alone. Maybe the others, Yanael included, were right next to him, only stone walls between them.
Zach had trouble staying calm and logical right now since Yanael wasn't next to him, but it wasn't his first time being kidnapped and separated from everyone he knew, so he could at least think a little.
Still, no one, not even Yanael, responded to Zach's shouts. Either they weren't there, they couldn't hear him, or they weren't in a position to respond.
Zach sighed and retreated until he could rest against the wall opposite the metal bars.
'Man, this sucks.'
Zach rested his arms against his knees and dropped his head into his palms. It wasn't his first time being abducted, but it was the first time he felt like he didn't have a chance of getting out.
When he was younger, he had only been abducted to a warehouse in the same region by a bunch of amateurs, and his family, the Evandiel Ducal family, had wasted no resources tracking him down and bringing him home.
Zach had been able to take it easy knowing his family's full force was coming for him.
But now, no one would be looking for him, at least not yet. Even if he was the first S-rank in years and one of the valuable seedlings of the Academy, he was supposed to be lost in the forest.
It was only when the deadline passed and there was still no sign of him that people would start looking. By then, the rain would have long washed away their traces.
Even with the Academy's resources and finicky familiars, it would be difficult to scour the forest for Zach and the others. Even if the instructors and faculty found the mountain and the tunnel, it might already be too late by then. His current situation was a lot more dire than any of the previous times he had been kidnapped.
Two weeks was a long time, especially when trapped in an underground cell with no sign of another living being in the vicinity.
Yanael had said there was activity, and it was probably related to the holes that had swallowed the team. But if the source of the activity was responsible for imprisoning Zach, it was clear it wasn't benign.
"Shit…Stupid Jarron."
With nothing else to do, Zach blamed the instructor who had arranged the field trip. Things always ended up a mess when Jarron was supposed to do things.
"...Surface dweller?"
A hoarse voice seemingly from the cell next door stirred Zach out of his pity party.
"Uh…?" Zach looked up in confusion. "Is someone there?"
It wasn't the voice of any of his comrades, and it certainly wasn't Yanael.
"Ye—Ahem—Yes." The person coughed to clear their throat while answering.
"I'm…–It looks like I've forgotten my name, but I'm a prisoner here, same as you, though I guess for opposite reasons." The more he spoke, the more clarity returned to the man's name. He was speaking for the first time in a long time, and it showed.
"What do you mean prisoner? And opposite reasons? Wait—You called me a surface dweller. What does that mean?" Zach had too many questions and couldn't control himself.
"Um…One question at a time, please. I haven't…I haven't used my thinking a lot recently."
"...Okay?"
'Does he mean his head?'
"Let's start with surface dweller, then. What is that?"
"Since you don't know it, it means you are one."
"...That doesn't explain anything."
"I'm getting there. Just sorting my thoughts a little."
"Sure…"
Zach waited a couple of minutes until he heard something he was pretty sure was a snore.
"Hello?"
"Right. Uh, a surface dweller is someone who dwells on the surface."
"Like, above ground?" Zach clarified with a frown. He couldn't say he was fond of the implication.
"Yup."
"You are not a surface dweller."
"Nup."
"What are you, then?"
"I am…was a first layer miner."
"I…–"
Zach was interrupted by the sound of footsteps. They were soft but spread far anyway. They also sounded slightly like the person with the feet didn't have any shoes.
Instinctively, Zach and the miner shut up.
As the footsteps got closer, Zach's heartrate rose, and he couldn't help but squeeze himself tighter to the wall, pressing against it. He didn't even know why he was scared.
After a few moments, the source of the footsteps appeared in front of his cell. He really did not understand why he had been scared when a person as tall as a chair with a comical appearance showed themselves.
They had neck-length, slightly unkempt hair, long ears pointing right out, a short and stubby nose, a worryingly wide mouth, whiskers, and small, piercing eyes. They were also dressed in a butler's suit.
Zach did not know what to make of them.