The group stared at the tear with a mixture of surprise… And fear.
Tears were usually sensed by their immense mana fluctuations, typically caught via satellites.
Unfortunately, this one… Was underground.
However, that wouldn't have meant much, considering humans could also sense the same mana fluctuations if standing close enough.
From the looks of it, this tear had just formed, and it would take some time for the harrowing Unknowns from the other side to fully step through.
If they could leave before the Unknowns arrived, their group could ignore them and avoid confrontation altogether.
Unfortunately… There was a slight complication with this plan.
Since they were in an underground tunnel, they didn't have much space to avoid it.
Moreover, the tear just happened to cover the entire horizontal diameter of the tunnel, stretching from end to end.
Its vertical height almost reached the tunnel's ceiling as well.
While the size of a tear wasn't a good indication of the rank of the Unknowns crossing over, this tear was definitely on the larger end of the spectrum.
There wasn't any way for them to avoid it.
…If they used conventional means, that is.
Lorie turned her head around and threw Rick a look.
"You got this?"
He waved his hand with an exasperated look.
"Yeah, leave it to me… Just let me crash afterward to replenish my mana."
Lorie's lips broke out into a grin.
"That can be arranged."
Opening the door, Rick hopped out of the car and Greeted Lyn and Blaine.
"Sh*t luck, isn't it?"
They said nothing, but Rick could tell they shared his sentiment.
"Well then… Let's get this over with."
Taking a deep breath, Rick crouched on the ground and placed both of his ivory-coloured palms on it.
While he could use his mana art perfectly fine without doing so, he found it easier to control his ability if more of his body was in contact with the ground.
Not that he was going to lie down and start rolling in the dirt.
However, as a captain of the army and a 2-Star, he had to maintain at least a minimum level of decorum.
As beads of sweat began to form on his head, the earth beneath their feet began to move like ripples on the surface of a lake.
These ripples intensified as the earth parted, forming the entrance to a second tunnel under the main one.
The new tunnel was nowhere near as large as the original one but just large enough to fit their glorified minibus of a van.
As the tunnel continued to carve itself out, eventually, it went under the entire length of the tear before opening up on the other side.
Letting out an exhausted sigh, Rick lifted his hands up and gave Lorie a thumbs up.
He threw the two outside a tired look.
"It might be better for you to get inside the van for at least a little bit. There should be nothing else in the tunnel, so there's no need for you to stand guard. It's better we move fast and leave before our otherworldly guests arrive."
Blaine and Lyn exchanged a nod before following Rick back into the van.
Once everyone was safely seated, Lorie almost smashed her foot on the accelerator as the van took off, zooming through the tunnel before swiftly exiting out the other side.
It wasn't exactly possible to pass through the area where a tear had appeared.
When a tear opened up, the laws of space and time became utterly broken, so any attacks launched at them slowed down the closer they got to the tear.
It was almost like time itself came to a crawl.
People who came too close to a tear would practically freeze in time until the tear opened.
But by then… It was already too late.
Those close to the tear were almost always the first targets for the harrowing Unknowns, who would devour them with perverse glee.
The mad abominations seemed even more keen on absorbing human mana cores than even Magical Creatures for some unknown reason.
As the van exited the makeshift tunnel, Delsie turned to Cecelia, who was fiddling with a contraption in her hands.
"Well… What rank is it? I'm quite curious," Delsie asked eagerly.
Ginny sighed and shook her head.
"It's not as simple as just satiating your curiosity. We'll most likely need to return using the same route, so finding out what we have to deal with later is crucial for our survival."
"Yeah, yeah, I know… Damnit, I didn't want to remember that…"
Rick placed a hand on her shoulder and gently patted it, offering her his support.
Cecelia carefully studied her portable tear-measuring tool, which looked similar to the Power Analyzer.
This did make sense since the Power Analyzer was based on the tear-measuring tool in the first place.
The only visible difference between the two was that while the Power Analyzer possessed two distinct meters, one for a mana core's rank and class, the tear-measuring tool only possessed one.
Just the rank.
A tear's mana fluctuations were highly dependent on the strongest creature coming through.
If it was a Rank 1, it would only have Rank 1 Unknowns.
But a Rank 2 tear could have both Rank 2 and Rank 1 Unknowns.
A Rank 3 could even have all three ranks at the same time!
While there was no real way to tell how many creatures would come through a tear, the size of a tear was a good indication of the largest Unknown's size.
With a tear this massive, the Unknowns coming through would be quite large.
Perhaps just as large as the frog-like monsters earlier.
Reading the sensor's meter, Cecelia lifted her head.
"The earlier tear was a Rank 2."
Maybe it was indeed the frog-monsters…
Lorie sighed as she shook her head.
"The number of tears these days is getting out of hand. Honestly…. Enough is enough."
Ginny nodded her head in agreement.
"A Rank 2 tear opened up a couple days ago. In fact, it was less than half a day before we departed."
Suddenly remembering something, she turned around to look at Blaine.
"Now that I remember it… Blaine! Weren't you there?"