Chapter 0076: A Passing Encounter

Mine Shaft No. 7 was a bloodstone mine situated deeper within the mission area. The primary yield there was a special mineral known as bloodstone. While bloodstone itself served little purpose on its own, it was often used as a catalyst in various sorcerous experiments. In particular, bloodstone powder played a significant role in refining and purifying witch brews, making it highly coveted in black markets across the land.

However, it was evident that the training camp had sent Kevin's squad to raid Mine Shaft No. 7 for reasons beyond mere bloodstone. Their true target was another gem ore that occurred alongside the bloodstone veins—blood garnet. As a raw gemstone, blood garnet, when handled by master jewelers, could be fashioned into all manner of magical trinkets. These artisans would endeavor to draw forth the latent mystical energies within the gem, endowing their creations with wondrous, often inexplicable powers.

For instance, the Resurgence Earring that Grimm once sold had been crafted from a magical gemstone known as peridot.

Even processed, a kilogram of basic bloodstone fetched no more than ten magic crystals on the black market. To profit from plundering it, the elite apprentices from the training camp would have to organize a lengthy underground caravan to haul it all away. In contrast, a single raw blood garnet, scarcely larger than an egg, could fetch as much as two hundred magic crystals per kilogram, with throngs of merchants and sorcerer families vying to purchase them. Thus, Bald Alf's true aim in targeting Mine Shaft No. 7 was to seize the blood garnet that had been accumulating there for half a month, rather than the heavy, cheap bloodstone.

Previously, underground warfare resembled a game of chess. Both sides occupied more or less fixed resource points and mining sites, and each knew the other's general strength. So, if you led a squad to raid my resource point today, tomorrow I'd ambush your mission team on the way back. The back-and-forth slaughter in these dim, winding tunnels was endless and bloody.

Yet, both sides adhered to a single, inviolable rule: fight as you will, but never maliciously destroy a resource point or mine!

Truthfully, much of the profit for both surface and fallen sorcerers depended on the steady extraction of these resources and minerals. Should anyone set the precedent of destroying a rival's resource point, their own would soon be forfeit as well. To avoid mutually assured ruin, both sides had, over centuries of struggle, forged these unwritten but ironclad rules.

You may seize resources, provided your elite apprentices can defeat my defenders—the spoils are yours. But to sabotage the environment of a resource point is forbidden! Any act of willful destruction would be met by the combined wrath of both factions' sorcerers.

Thus, during the remaining two hundred meters of their approach, Grimm kept alert as he explained the intricacies of the underground to Mary. He had made up his mind; he would use this expedition to bring Mary into Kevin's squad and help her become an elite apprentice as soon as possible.

But to achieve this, she would have to distinguish herself during the assault on Mine Shaft No. 7. From what Kevin had implied, the camp was already courting the apprentice named Sabrina. As for the other members, unless they demonstrated exceptional skill, they remained under observation and failed to pique Bald Alf's interest.

After all, their squad had arrived with three apprentice sorcerers.

Now, Grimm was part of the training camp, and Sabrina was in the process of being recruited. The other two, Leo and Marcus, had not impressed Alf in the least. For Mary to earn a place, she would need a standout performance in this underground raid.

Truth be told, Grimm hardly needed to encourage her. Ever since learning that the cursed training camp had recruited Grimm but left her out, Mary had been seething with rage. Yet, as was her capricious nature, the angrier she grew, the brighter her smile appeared.

Perhaps only in the act of hunting would her true self be revealed.

……

This was a quiet, shadowed cavern deep below the earth.

No sooner had silence fallen when five bizarre figures—each of different build—burst in again.

At their head was a tall, imposing man wreathed in a faint blue aura of ice crystals; wherever he passed, the humid air froze, scattering shards of frost with every step.

He was clearly their leader, and with the cavern empty, his furious roar echoed endlessly through the gloom.

"Where are they? Weren't we told someone had broken in? So where are they?"

His harsh, grating voice left no doubt—this was the apprentice sorcerer Landon.

"Landon, don't be so impatient. Since we've promised to help you take your revenge, we won't back out now. There’s something odd about today; we need to think carefully," one of the black-robed figures said.

"Indeed! Today is truly uncanny. From the moment we got word, we've been watching every route to the mission site. There’s no way they could have slipped past us," another black-robe agreed, voicing his doubts.

"Yet somehow, they eluded our net. Gary, could this be that novice you mentioned last time, the one who can move freely underground?" the third black-robed figure asked coolly.

At his words, Landon paused, the air growing even colder. Then, his chilling roar reverberated through the cavern: "The elemental traces haven’t fully dissipated—they were here moments ago. If we hurry, we might catch them yet. Philly, it’s up to you now!"

Philly, the one Landon named, was also an apprentice sorcerer. In fact, everyone Landon had brought here held that rank.

That Landon had managed to summon four fallen apprentices to aid his vengeance spoke volumes about his influence. More precisely, it was the reputation of his master that had made them accept such a perilous task.

Indeed, to command such respect among apprentices, his master could only be one of the infamous fallen sorcerers of Glimmer City.

Blacklight! That name was known to all in Glimmer City. As a formidable fallen sorcerer, Blacklight’s reputation resonated even in these shadowy, subterranean regions. As his disciple, Landon wielded considerable influence among the city's fallen apprentices.

Though unwilling, Philly stepped forward.

"Gather round," he commanded coldly, then brought his staff down upon the hard stone floor.

As an unceasing stream of earth-elemental power poured in, the fist-sized ochre crystal atop the staff shone with a bright, dazzling light. Bathed in this glow, a faintly luminous, mysterious sorcerous array appeared beneath their feet.

"Stay close—it's time to teleport," Philly announced.

Heedful of his warning, the others huddled in, placing themselves within the circle’s bounds.

"Brace yourselves. Do not resist the earth’s power. Go!"

At Philly’s shout, a surge of earth elementals burst forth from the array, so thick they seemed to blur the air like smoke or fog, coiling around the group. As a strange ochre light swept over them, the smoky masses solidified, transforming the five into statues of living clay.

The moment the array faded, the five earthen effigies crumbled, leaving only heaps of dry soil on the cavern floor. There was no trace of flesh or blood; the five fallen apprentices had vanished utterly.

……

A single miscalculation led Landon to believe that, upon completing his mission, Grimm would hasten back to the surface. As a result, he pursued the wrong trail, seeking trouble with Sabrina and the others.

Meanwhile, as the five fallen apprentices used Philly’s Geolink Teleportation to reach the upper passages nearer the surface, Grimm and Mary had already slipped down to the depths near Mine Shaft No. 7.

With Kevin’s squad yet to arrive, Grimm and Mary teamed up to scout the area thoroughly.

Grimm handled transportation, using the Crocodile Hunter’s stealth to smuggle Mary into the mine. Mary herself transformed into a silent, flying vampire bat, sweeping through the entire mine. Bold as could be, she toured every tunnel, mapping out the miners, the positions of the fallen apprentices’ guard squads, and every passageway, storing it all in a crystal of recorded images.

Thus, when Kevin and the other five members arrived at the hidden rendezvous point, they were presented with an impossibly clear, three-dimensional map of the mine.

The miners were ratfolk, one of the underground races, numbering over two hundred in Mine Shaft No. 7. Its defenses comprised seventeen subterranean mercenaries and six fallen apprentices. The ratfolk would not participate in the battle, so only the guardians needed to be considered in their plan.

For the ratfolk, it mattered little who controlled the mine—they would serve whoever fed them. As long as their daily rations were supplied, they cared not whose orders they followed.

Surveying the panoramic map provided by these two newcomers, Kevin felt a chill run down his spine.

Grimm’s skills were simply overpowered. In the underworld, as long as a place was unprotected by a sorcerous array, he could slip in undetected. Mary’s blood bat transformation was equally elusive—who could guard against a cold-blooded creature crawling along the ceiling? Yet all the enemy’s arrangements were laid bare under the vampire’s infrared vision and life-sense.

The two together were so effective that, without warning, they could strip their opponents bare—right down to the color of their underclothes!