Chapter 88: Eyes of Shadow

Although it was impossible to verify the existence of the wizard’s treasure Kabi spoke of for the time being, the risk was certainly worth taking. After all, what a second-level wizard would disdain as worthless might be a priceless boon for Grim, who was struggling desperately toward his own advancement as a wizard. Having determined the approximate location of the ruins of the City of Bliss, Grim began to plan how to probe the matter further.

Judging from the position shown on the map, the likely site lay at the deepest part of the shallow layer of the Shadow Caverns. The straight-line distance from the surface was only seventeen miles, yet it plunged into the heart of the subterranean world, teeming with life. According to the map’s notes, several large underground tribes were clustered near the suspected location, not to mention the fierce subterranean beasts that roamed freely.

To venture there without thorough preparation would be tantamount to serving oneself up to those wicked and ruthless creatures.

In recent days, Mary had been busy strengthening her own abilities, scarcely touching the ground for how occupied she was. When Grim finally caught her at a quiet moment and revealed his plan, she did not impulsively insist on joining him as a teammate. Instead, she calmly told Grim that she had found a way to improve her combat power and was focusing on it, making any outing impossible in the near future.

Thus, Grim naturally handed over control of Kabi to Mary, charging her with keeping a close eye on the cunning youth each day, while he himself devoted his efforts to preparing the supplies needed for the expedition underground.

Once all was ready, Grim sought out Kevin, greeted him, and said he was going to the underground world in search of shadow grass—using this as an excuse to slip quietly into the Shadow Caverns.

...

Truth be told, the Shadow Caverns were hardly a place for sightseeing or leisure.

Any sane surface-dweller entering the caverns for the first time would find their mood weighed down by tremendous oppression. With the thought that hundreds or thousands of tons of earth and stone might collapse overhead at any moment, no surface-dweller could remain as composed as before. In the Shadow Caverns, every irrational action might betray one’s presence and draw swarms of predators.

For this subterranean journey, Grim was fully prepared. Besides riding atop his magic crocodile hunter, he carried three nearly wizard-level rock python golems in his belt pouch. Should he encounter an overwhelming enemy, he could risk everything and unleash all three rock pythons, and he doubted any foe could block his escape then.

As for the two water and two wind crystal cores, Grim was still refining their designs for wizard arrays; he estimated that by the end of this expedition, he would have results.

Upon entering the Shadow Caverns, Grim wasted no time summoning the magic crocodile hunter and sinking into the soil, advancing ever deeper underground according to the map’s directions. After each segment of progress, he would have the crocodile emerge into some dark corridor to confirm his direction.

Using this method, Grim had already reached a depth of about ten miles in just over three hours. But the further he went, the slower his passage became.

Massive veins of metal ore and sprawling layers of rock formed insurmountable barriers as he tried to traverse the soil. In the pitch-black earth, Grim’s spiritual sense could only extend a dozen or so meters; finding a direct path to his goal under such conditions was exceedingly difficult.

After repeatedly hitting dead ends, Grim had no choice but to emerge once more into a corridor. In such unfamiliar territory, relying on tunnels dug by the subterranean creatures was far better than blindly crashing through the darkness.

...

In the damp, shadowy passage, Grim took out a crystal ball and used a location spell to confirm his position once more, then proceeded slowly down the sloping tunnel.

High atop the broad, flat back of the magic crocodile, Grim wore a thick, resilient traveler’s cloak, a noble’s circlet on his brow, and his eyes concealed behind odd gnome goggles. Through the dim vision of twilight and the elemental sight that pierced to the essence of matter, the passage before him appeared as a strange and uncanny world.

The entire field of vision was tinted in glowing green, the light subdued, yet everything was still strikingly clear. Any substance imbued with elemental energy radiated its unique elemental aura in Grim’s sight; even hidden behind sturdy stone columns or within cracks in the rock wall, their forms might be concealed, but their multicolored elemental halos could not be.

By the strength of these auras, Grim could judge their power from a distance.

For weaker foes, he ordered the crocodile hunter to strike—earthen spears hurled forth, piercing and instantly killing the hidden creatures, whose crimson blood ran from their shattered bodies, soon fading to lifelessness. For those stronger, Grim summoned a rock python, its formidable rocky body crushing the foes to pulp.

Thus, along his path, the scattered underground predators encountered a monster slayer: one after another, before their prey even drew near, they died inexplicably in their lairs.

But while solitary predators were easy to handle, the underground tribes gathered in strategic chokepoints were much tougher. Grim dared not provoke the likes of gnoll tunnels or lizardman nests lightly. Should they swarm forth, even if he could defeat them, he would surely alarm every monster in the area.

Yet Grim did not know that, as he silently slipped past the gnoll tunnel, in the damp darkness he had just traversed, a hunched, gaunt figure rose.

It was an aged gnoll, nearing the end of its life. Its thin body had little muscle, an ancient, dull dagger hung at its waist, and it was too bent and frail to stand straight. Yet when it squinted its murky, cold eyes toward Grim’s disappearing direction, an awe-inspiring aura radiated forth, nearly freezing the air around it.

“Chief, that human is heading for the ruins!” a shadow suddenly emerged from the darkness.

“Let him go! He’s just a middling apprentice, hardly capable of stirring up trouble.” The old gnoll chief’s crimson eyes ignited twin flames in the darkness. “Ahead lies the lizardmen’s territory. Those creatures rely on their numbers to block us from the ruins. Letting a little worm slip in might stir up some chaos for them!”

“Yes! I’ll arrange for the brothers at the front posts to let him through.” The shadow bowed and quickly vanished into the darkness.

Grim continued his slow crawl through the gloom. For some reason, a chill crept up his spine, as though a sinister wind seeped through his cloak, making him shiver.

Damn it—where was this ominous feeling coming from?

Never before had Grim so regretted not learning divination or prophecy. Even a little knowledge would have let him foresee the direction of danger and prepare accordingly.

He had furtively checked his screaming twig several times, but found no abnormality. This meant some crisis was approaching, but not deliberately targeting him. Was the danger from within the ruins itself?

...

Grim pondered as he swept his gaze ever more keenly over the endless darkness around him.

In theory, with the penetrating power of elemental sight, no elemental user could approach him unnoticed. But in the underground world, besides those fearsome monsters, what creatures could pose a mortal threat?

Grim’s mind raced, reviewing the records of powerful subterranean beings stored in his chip. Suddenly, several caught his attention.

Gnoll hunters... Lizardman assassins...

This was their domain, and neither belonged to the category of monsters, meaning their bodies contained no elemental energy. Yet they still ranked high on the list of dangerous creatures in the Shadow Caverns, proving that even without elemental power, they possessed formidable combat abilities.

Grim’s heart sank.

Such creatures relied on extraordinary physical abilities for battle; elemental sight found them elusive, and even twilight vision was inadequate. Mary’s infrared vision might fare no better. How, then, could he detect these strange and troublesome foes?

Just as Grim was growing anxious, the chip finally returned a useful message.

Full visual matching capability!

This was a mode of spiritual perception unique to Grim.

Every time he advanced a segment, Grim would store in his mind a backup of the terrain seen through twilight and elemental vision. Then, using the chip’s powerful visual matching, he could detect subtle differences in local details between successive images.

If a cold-blooded assassin was lurking beside him, moving with him, its shadowed space would necessarily differ slightly from before. These differences were impossible for the human eye to discern, but the chip’s indiscriminate full visual matching would catch them.

Once discovered, their threat would be reduced by at least eighty percent.

Then, it would not be they who stirred up trouble in the darkness, but Grim who would teach them a harsh lesson for their arrogant audacity.