Chapter 21: Tomb Raiding Cave Treasure Hunt
"Move! Nobody on a real battlefield is going to wait for you to find your footing!"
Baron seized the chance to bark at Hodell the moment the impact wave threw him off balance.
At the edge of the training field, Eileen's face tightened with worry. Even Loyi, who usually stayed neutral, frowned slightly and muttered, "Baron's pushing too hard today."
Captain Kyle watched everything through the monitoring array, one hand resting on the console, his expression unreadable.
Faced with Baron's endless "accidents," Hodell stayed calm from beginning to end. He gave ground where he needed to, adjusted where he could, and never let his temper show.
The drill finally came to an end in a thick, stifling silence.
Baron slammed his shield into the ground with a heavy clang. He did not even look at Hodell when he spoke.
"Captain, I stand by what I said. He can't keep up with our tempo. Bringing him along is the same as dragging dead weight."
His thinking was painfully simple.
Ryan was too young.
Too green.
Too clean.
A headquarters direct transfer like that could only be here to polish his résumé. Baron could not openly challenge orders from above, but he could make life miserable enough that the brat chose to leave on his own.
The words landed hard.
Everyone's eyes turned toward Hodell.
He was just about to speak when the department badges on their chests suddenly buzzed and heated up.
A sharp alarm tore through the underground training ground.
"Third Action Team. Emergency assembly!"
The dispatcher's voice rang out through the communication array.
Everyone snapped to attention at once.
Kyle activated his badge immediately, his tone steady as iron. "Third Team receiving. Brief."
"The Intelligence Division has completed site trace analysis on the last mine conflict. It is now confirmed that, before the magical beast riot began, a large number of indentured workers belonging to the Black Bone Family entered the deeper ore tunnels. The General Administration believes this is directly connected to the riot. Your team is ordered to proceed at once, conduct a deep investigation, gather evidence, and assess the risk level."
Indentured workers.
A prettier name for slaves.
Hodell had looked this up before. Slave labor was illegal in the Empire. Lifelong labor contracts signed "voluntarily" by debtors, however, were a different story. In places like Oluson, people were very skilled at pretending not to see the gap between the two.
Still, something in the report made his eyes narrow.
The Rockback Beasts had been driven into a frenzy by Black Bone. That part he had seen with his own eyes. So why did this briefing sound as though the entire matter were still unclear?
He turned slightly toward Eileen. She caught his look and quietly explained while the others listened to the rest of the transmission.
"After the aftermath investigation, Black Bone claimed their private soldiers were victims of the magical beast riot too. Their official explanation was that they were protecting assets and maintaining order. According to the report, the Security Squad attempted to forcibly seal the area and interfered with their 'rescue efforts.' During the chaos, spells flew everywhere, several Security Squad members recognized Black Bone's men and tensions escalated from there."
Hodell nearly laughed from sheer disbelief.
So that Security captain hadn't told him the whole truth because the whole scene had already been twisted into something else.
No wonder the man had spoken to him like that afterward.
No wonder Black Bone's people had not pressed the fight after the Ministry descended.
And no wonder their hands had been on the magical beasts and laborers first, rather than on the authorities.
But letting underworld forces "maintain order" in a place like this...
The more he thought about it, the uglier it became.
Kyle cut the channel.
"Mission understood."
Then he looked over the whole team, his gaze stopping for a brief second on Baron and Hodell.
"Whatever problem you two have, leave it on the training ground. Out there, we're walking into something that may kill us all."
His voice dropped a little.
"Baron. You are the shield, not a rabid bull. Ryan. I want your eyes and reaction speed used where they matter."
A beat passed.
"Understood?"
"Understood," Baron answered at once.
Hodell gave a curt nod.
He was not in the mood to waste emotion on Baron right now. The description alone was enough to tell him this mission was not simple. A D rank situation that required a full team response in a dead zone mine was no joke.
"Check gear," Kyle ordered. "We move in five."
Baron shot Hodell one more fierce look, though this time there was more weight in it and less contempt.
Hodell almost wanted to ask him whether the man hated soft skin on principle.
Instead, he focused on the system panel.
[You have triggered the D rank mission: Investigation]
[Mission Brief: Regional reconnaissance has detected traces of biological activity that should not exist naturally in this area. A wild ore vein often hides more than one kind of danger. Seek the truth within the unknown.]
[Mission Reward: 50,000 EXP]
A D rank mission.
His expression did not change, but his mind tightened.
This was going to be trouble.
…
By the time Third Team returned to the mine entrance, the surface had already been cleaned up compared to the previous blood soaked chaos. Corpses were gone. The worst of the destruction had been dragged aside. But the cracked rock walls, scorched ground, and broken stone still spoke clearly enough.
Kyle began assigning tasks the moment they arrived.
"Loyi, check residual energy and confirm the path the indentured workers took. Sasha, perimeter watch. Assume surveillance or tails. Baron, Eileen, security posture. Ryan, stay with Loyi and flag any abnormal fluctuations."
Everyone split up at once.
Loyi knelt near the tunnel mouth and took a strange instrument from his portable kit, something like a cross between a compass and a magical seismograph. Its inner rings rotated with faint blue light while tiny needles shifted and clicked.
Hodell glanced over, then looked up at the maze of tunnels ahead.
Inwardly, he could not help muttering, "To find the dragon and divide the gold, first read the mountain's shape. One coil, one gate…"
He had no idea whether that half remembered tomb robbing nonsense from his old life was useful here, but it did fit the mood.
Loyi adjusted the instrument three times, then pointed.
"The energy trail is strong. They definitely went deeper. Southeast branch."
The team moved.
The mine tunnels narrowed the farther in they went. Crude man made cuts intersected with natural caverns, turning the route into an ugly blend of labor and geology. As they advanced, the air grew heavier, damp, and strangely still.
Then Hodell's brow slowly furrowed.
Something was off.
He could feel an energy field.
Weak.
Persistent.
It clung to the environment like a low, droning hum beneath everything else. Not loud enough to notice at first glance, but once perceived, impossible to ignore. Even the abilities inside his own body seemed to move with the slightest drag, as if the whole tunnel system were wrapped in a thin layer of resistance.
Loyi noticed something else first.
"The mana net signal is getting unstable."
Eileen lifted her badge and looked at the dimming response from within it. "Long distance communication's degrading."
"It could be natural interference from some special mineral deposit," Loyi said, though he did not sound fully convinced. "There are known ore veins that form localized dead zones. That's one of the reasons we're here."
They pressed on.
The tunnel grew quieter.
The light from their tools and spells slid over the walls, catching on strange glowing minerals embedded in the rock. From a distance they looked almost like eyes, staring back from within the vein.
Water dripped from the ceiling into black puddles, each drop echoing too loudly.
If this had been his old world, Hodell thought, someone absolutely would have turned a place like this into a tourist attraction. Throw in some torches, a guide in fake ancient robes, and call it an immersive burial cave experience.
He did not say that out loud.
At last, they reached a wider cavern.
There they found real evidence.
Crude campsites.
Discarded tools.
Improvised bedding.
Empty alchemy vials scattered across the ground.
The pattern was becoming clear. Black Bone had indeed sent slave laborers down here to dig for something, and not something they wanted anyone else to know about.
Kyle crouched, checked the vials, then rose.
"So the Intelligence Division was right. Black Bone was conducting illegal mining here. Record everything. Once we finish the collection, we pull out"
"Wait."
Hodell's voice cut through the cave.
Everyone turned.
He had not meant to interrupt Kyle. Not exactly. But the sense of wrongness had been building with every step, and now it was almost unbearable.
Kyle looked at him. "Speak."
Hodell glanced at the empty vials on the ground and then toward the deeper tunnels.
"If this were just illegal mining, why were Black Bone's men so intent on silencing the laborers and the Rockback Beasts?" He pointed toward the scattered alchemy jars. "And this field pressure doesn't feel natural. It's too clean. Too controlled. The communication interference is concentrated and stable, like it's being amplified."
Baron immediately shook his head.
"I've never heard of anyone building a field that can stably suppress the mana net underground."
"Maybe they're using some specific mineral or formation node as a base," Hodell countered. "And Rockback Beasts don't normally go berserk like that. Not without a reason."
Loyi, who had been listening in silence, slowly lifted one of the empty jars and stared at it.
"You mean…" He swallowed. "The beasts were bait?"
Hodell's voice dropped.
"I think we should leave. Now."
It was at that exact moment that every badge in the cave screamed.
A burst of static exploded through the communication arrays, sharp enough to make everyone flinch. Then the light inside the badges died completely. No response. No link. No matter how much mana was pushed into them, nothing came back.
Loyi's face changed at once.
"This isn't interference," he said, his voice suddenly dry. "This is shielding. Someone cut us off on purpose."
Then another sound rose through the dark.
Buzz.
Low at first.
Then louder.
A vibration ran through the stone itself. Dust trickled from cracks above. Loose gravel rattled and skipped across the ground.
"Something's moving," Eileen whispered.
Kyle did not hesitate.
"Formation! Prepare for contact!"
He thrust his staff forward, and bright elemental light flared from its tip, forcing back the dark just enough to show what had begun pouring in through every tunnel mouth around them.
Eyes.
Hundreds of them.
Blood red.
Suspended in writhing masses of black flesh, scales, fur, and teeth. Low growls, wet hisses, and the scratch of claws over stone rolled together into a sound that set the scalp tingling.
Baron gave a roar and drove his shield into the ground with both hands.
The first wave hit.
Metal screamed under fang and claw. Heavy impacts boomed one after another as monstrous bodies slammed against the shield wall. Baron planted his feet and swung his weapon with furious force, sending one beast crashing sideways into the tunnel wall.
"Left side gap!" Eileen shouted.
A healing spell struck Baron's back just in time, knitting some of the damage from the first brutal impacts.
Kyle and Loyi began casting in coordination. Fireballs detonated in the densest clusters. Ice spears flashed through the smoke. Every spell tore open a pocket of space only for more beasts to flood into it again.
Sasha moved like a black knife along the edge of the formation. Each time she appeared, a beast died. Each time she vanished again, another set of claws or fangs was searching for her.
Hodell slid through the shrinking gaps in the line, his movements short and efficient. No waste. No flourish. His breathing had already become rough, sweat gathering at his temples. Every spell had to count.
The problem was simple.
There were too many of them.
The dead piled up.
Blood coated the ground until the stone became slick underfoot. The smell turned thick and foul. Worse, the beasts did not hesitate at all. No fear. No retreat. Each one threw itself forward as if dying in the attempt meant nothing.
"Come on!" Baron bellowed, his voice rising above the din. "Come on, then!"
His warhammer blurred. A wolf like magical beast was smashed into pulp before its paws even touched the ground. He pivoted and crushed the skull of a Rockback Beast that had tried to force its way in from the side.
Blood sprayed across his face and armor.
"Behind the ridge!" Loyi shouted.
A shadow had slipped through the barrage at a strange angle, claws aimed straight for the flank.
"I've got it!"
Hodell raised one hand and fired at the exact landing point. The blast shattered the beast's footing. Its leap collapsed awkwardly in midair.
Baron did not even look.
He swung backward on instinct.
A horrible crack split the air as the beast's spine snapped.
For a moment, the formation held.
Only for another dozen shapes to come pouring in over the bodies of the dead.
They just would not stop.
By then Baron's feet were surrounded by mounds of corpses. Blood had turned the floor into a red black mire. Deep claw marks crisscrossed his shield, and the defensive runes embedded in it were flickering erratically.
Eileen's face had gone pale.
Kyle's spell output was slowing.
Loyi had already shifted to lower cost binding spells, conserving what he could while still creating openings.
Even Sasha, who had seemed the most controlled of them all, was no longer moving with her earlier speed.
Then the line broke.
A venomous beast, small, fast, and almost invisible under the larger bodies, slipped low through the chaos. Its tail snapped forward and struck past the cracked edge of Baron's shield, driving a stinger into his thigh.
Baron's body jerked violently.
"Argh!"
His leg gave.
The giant of a man crashed down onto one knee.
The opening appeared at once.
Several hyena like beasts shrieked and hurled themselves straight toward him, jaws wide and dripping.
"Baron!" Eileen cried, flinging out her last healing spell.
It hit.
It helped with the toxin.
It did absolutely nothing to stop the jaws already in motion.
Kyle's eyes turned red. He tried to pivot back to help, but the pressure in front of him doubled at once, forcing him to hold his own side or let the entire team collapse.
Then Hodell moved.
He lunged to Baron's side and slammed both hands onto the damaged shield.
The system panel flashed.
[Damaged Standard Issue Shield]
[Quality: White (Green)]
[Durability: 82/360]
[Status: Severe Damage. Structural strength critically reduced. Core runes damaged.]
[Description: Every fragment of it has been buried in battle. It has never truly retreated.]
Hodell inhaled hard.
Then he activated the one ability he had been half cursing and half relying on for days.
[Scrap Utilization]
The shield shuddered in his hands.
The damaged metal brightened. Cracked lines closed. Dead runes flared back to life as if fresh blood had been pumped through them.
[Standard Issue Shield]
[Quality: Green]
[Basic Parameters: Defense 90. Durability 350/350. Height 1.2 m. Width 0.75 m. Weight 58 lbs.]
[Attribute Bonus: Agility 4]
[Operational Consumption: 0.5 Stamina per second when successfully blocking]
[Description: The banner has not fallen. The wall has not broken. The position stands. Fight to the death and do not retreat.]
All of it happened in a breath.
Baron only felt the weight shift in his arms. The shield that had been one hit away from breaking now felt alive, dense and whole.
Instinct took over.
He roared and drove the shield up.
"GET LOST!"
The charging beasts slammed into the renewed wall and were blasted backward, tumbling in all directions.
Using the force, Baron surged back to his feet.
Then he looked at Hodell.
Actually looked at him.
The man's eyes were bloodshot. His voice came out rough and hoarse.
"Ryan!"
The roar was almost painful.
"I, Baron… owe you a life!"
His grip tightened on the shield.
"Before this… I was blind."
He drew in a breath that shook in his chest.
"I'm sorry!"
Hodell was already breathing hard himself. He only waved once, telling him to shut up and focus on staying alive.
The battle did not care about anyone's character development.
The beasts kept coming.
And even after the shield repair, the situation remained dire.
Every member of the team was wounded now. Energy reserves were scraping the bottom. Baron held the line again with the renewed shield, but every impact made his face twist. Blood was starting to seep from the corners of his mouth and nose.
Eileen's healing light had dimmed to almost nothing.
Kyle's spells no longer carried their earlier force.
Loyi's expression had gone from tense to hollow.
Sasha was still killing, but much slower now.
The tide of beasts pressed closer and closer, as if it truly had no end.
Baron leaned back against the teammates he had sworn to protect and spat a mouthful of blood into the slurry at his feet.
"Heh…"
A grim, unwilling smile cut across his face.
"To think I'd die in a damned hole like this."
He tightened one hand on the shield.
"I'm not afraid of dying."
His voice was hoarse now, nearly drowned by the snarls around them.
"But dying like this… to these things…"
His breathing hitched.
"I'm not reconciled."
Then his eyes shifted, just once, toward Hodell.
"And Ryan…"
The words came out heavier.
"I really was blind before."
He let out a rough laugh that was closer to a cough.
"Sorry."
.....
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