Suddenly, Ren stopped. His mushrooms pulsed briefly.
"What's wrong?" Taro halted the excavation upon noticing his expression.
"I can feel it more clearly now," Ren closed his eyes, concentrating. "One of the entrances. It's close."
Min and Taro exchanged looks while Ren pressed his hand against the tunnel wall, his fingers tracing patterns only he could sense.
"There's energy leaking," he murmured. "Through the enormous crystallized mana wall. It's... different. More intense than anything I've felt before."
"Should we continue in this direction?" Taro asked, his Living Tunnel awaiting instructions.
"No," Ren opened his eyes. "We need to adjust course. About twenty degrees to the left and..." he calculated for a moment, "five degrees upward."
"Are you sure we want to go toward that?" Min asked nervously, his snake coiling tighter around his arm.
"I can feel the entrance more and more clearly. It's like... a whisper calling to me."
