Chapter 180: Separating Paths

All those present were powerful warriors at the Silver rank or above; they wouldn’t fear even in complete darkness. Thus, moving forward through these narrow and oppressive underground passages, with light spells illuminating the path ahead and behind, had no impact on their morale.

After about ten minutes, Donald led five people to the cave where the Abyssal Seal Passage was located. Seeing the altar-shaped sealing magic array in the center of the cave, the three members of the Agricultural Goddess Church looked at Donald and his group, waiting for an explanation.

Donald didn’t keep them in suspense. After all, these three clergy members likely wouldn’t be interested in the Abyssal Seal Passage—only someone like a sorcerer would be intrigued. So he said straightforwardly, “When this place was first discovered, it was a dimensional passage leading to the Abyssal World. My master and several other Silver-level mages dealt with the demons that emerged from it, then we jointly set up this sealing magic array to close off the passage!”

Priest Sord nodded in approval. “Lord Baron and Master Messel’s actions are truly admirable. You know, it’s been a hundred years since any Abyssal Passage was sealed by human warriors on this continent! Back then, the collision between the Abyssal Realm and the main world created countless cracks. Although most of them healed on their own due to the laws of the main world, many large and small cracks remained. If discovered by powerful beings from the Abyss, they could be transformed into stable spatial passages—that would be a disaster for our world!”

Priest Sord’s tone seemed to imply something more. It wasn’t surprising that he might have participated in the battles against demons during the Demon Plague, so his sighs were understandable.

On the other hand, Knight Ely seemed very interested and examined the sealing magic array carefully before nodding slightly. Donald noticed her reaction and further confirmed his earlier suspicion that this girl was no ordinary person.

How could someone in their teens, and a knight at that, understand a sealing magic array related to the most complex field in mage research—space magic? Though her expression was subtle, Donald could tell from her eyes that she truly grasped the essence, rather than pretending to understand.

“Well! There’s no need to explore the other two paths here. The passage on the left ahead is the only one I haven’t explored yet. It goes deep underground and has numerous branches. It would likely take an ordinary person a lifetime to find the correct route to the target area!”

“For me, it’s just a bit of trouble! With my summoned creatures, finding a path is merely a matter of time. You can rest here for now and move forward once I give the signal!”
With that, Donald went alone to the entrance of the passage on the left, took a few steps forward, and summoned his creatures to explore the path behind everyone’s backs.
Dozens of owls and bat-like flying monsters rushed into the passage in large groups.
He had considered that this passage leading deep underground might be extremely complex, and when encountering forks, he would need to send several creatures to explore further. Without enough summoned creatures, the task couldn’t be completed. So he wasn’t stingy with those low-level magic cores and summoned sixty at once.
This time, he didn’t just summon owls; he also summoned thirty golems in equal numbers. After all, owls had no chance against fierce lowland creatures, and he didn’t want to keep replacing them. To save time on exploration, he summoned golems to provide protection, which greatly reduced the number of owls dying and increased their speed.
“Lord Baron, have your summoned creatures finished? I heard the sound of wings flapping—there seems to be quite a number! Are they birds, Lord Baron?”
When Donald returned to the cave, the young female knight Ely asked curiously.
She had planned to follow Donald to see how he cast his summoning spells, hoping to uncover more secrets about this enigmatic genius mage. She was very curious about him!
But after taking just two steps, the seemingly kind old mage blocked the entrance to the passage. Trying to bypass him would surely anger him, so she had to give up the idea and return to her companions. It was only then, when Donald returned, that she spoke up.
Donald smiled and nodded, answering, “Miss Ely, I summoned owls and some flying alchemical puppets!”
Ely immediately curved her beautiful eyes and praised, “Lord Baron is truly wise! In this dark underground environment, owls with night vision and alchemical puppets that can detect the surroundings using alchemical arrays are the perfect scouts!”
“Miss Ely, you’re too kind. These are just trivial tricks!”

After saying that, both of them fell silent, and the cave became quiet. Mage Maelser and the clergy members had nothing more to talk about either; if they were both mages, they could at least exchange ideas on spell research. Time passed in anticipation. During that time, Donald took out two animal-skin blankets, giving one to Sord and his two companions, and another to him and his apprentice. He then brought out some snacks and food, heated water, and brewed a pot of fragrant red tea. The three members of the Agricultural Goddess Church were clearly fascinated by the food in Donald’s territory, and even simple snacks delighted them greatly. Three hours later, Donald suddenly opened his eyes and said, “Have everyone rested enough? My summoned creatures have already explored the next path. We can set off now!” Sord stood up and asked, “My lord baron, do you know where we should go next?” “My summoned creatures found three passages at the first fork ahead. One of them turns out to be a dead end, another leads to the nest of underground creatures, which is also a dead end. Only the last passage remains, but there are many forks after that, so it will take some time to explore them all. Let’s go to the second fork and wait there first!” Sord nodded in agreement, and the other two simply stretched their limbs before getting ready. Maelser, of course, had no objections either. Donald waved his hand to gather the blankets, tea set, and other items, and led the others back on the road. This time, it took half an hour for the five of them to reach the second fork. But Donald didn’t have them wait there. Frowning, he said, “This time, my summoned creatures found two passages that might lead deeper. However, both of those passages are in the territory of powerful underground creatures. There are at least a dozen of them already, and we’ve lost three owls and five goblins. It seems we’ll have to go and deal with these creatures ourselves!” Hearing this, Sord also frowned and asked his two companions, “What do you think we should do?” The cold-faced knight Wood didn’t say anything, but the female knight Ely suggested, “How about we split into two groups? That way, it will be easier to deal with those monsters, and we won’t have to run back and forth!” But the cold-faced knight immediately objected, “No, that’s too dangerous. For safety reasons, it’s better if we stay together!” Yet, no matter how he looked, Donald seemed more concerned about this young female knight than the safety of the others. Could he be a suitor of little Ely?

But that look didn’t seem right either? It looked more like she was looking at someone she held in high respect! So… Donald had a vague idea in mind, but now wasn’t the time to consider it. He simply said, “I think Miss Ellie’s suggestion is more appropriate!”
Sord also thought for a moment before asking Donald, “Lord Baron, what’s the strength of those subterranean creatures your summoned creatures encounter?”
Donald thought for a while and replied, “Owls don’t count as combatants. My alchemical puppet ghouls are probably at the upper black iron level. Although the confined space underground takes away some advantages, they aren’t made of flesh and blood, so they can’t be defeated instantly by ordinary creatures. From what I can tell, those creatures’ strength shouldn’t exceed the early bronze level, but they’re very good at ambushes and moving in underground environments, which is why they manage to cause damage to my summoned creatures!”
After Donald finished speaking, both Sord and Wood breathed a sigh of relief. Even if those bronze-level monsters were skilled at ambushes, as long as they stayed cautious and didn’t act rashly, they could protect themselves.
So they agreed to split into two groups. However, when dividing the teams, the three members of the Agricultural Goddess Church argued again. The reason was that the young female knight wanted to join Donald’s group instead of staying with her two companions.
In her words, “I’ve known them for many years. What’s the point of staying together all the time? It would be more interesting to see the spells of these two mages!”
For some reason, Donald felt that she was paying close attention to him and had some unknown intentions toward him. So he said, “Since Miss Ellie is so interested in spells, then join my teacher’s group! My teacher is very powerful and knows many spells, so he’ll surely satisfy Miss Ellie! As for me, I’ll join Mr. Sord’s group. You won’t mind, right?”
“Of course not!” Sord quickly replied. Seeing Ellie join that peak silver mage, her safety should be guaranteed, so he didn’t object any further. As for the cold-faced knight Wood, he still seemed uneasy and insisted on moving with the girl.
In the end, the five of them were still divided into two groups: one group consisted of the old mage, the girl, and the cold-faced knight, while the other group consisted of the middle-aged priest and the young mage.

After both parties took separate paths, realizing that their plans had failed and had been thwarted by that cunning little mage’s words, the girl felt somewhat resentful. As she walked, she stepped more forcefully, leaving small footprints on the ground.

It might seem like a normal situation, nothing worth marveling at, but it should be noted that the soil in the underground world is mostly hard, almost rock-like, with numerous rocks. For a girl to be able to leave footprints on such hard ground, with each footprint at least an inch thick, this is something that would only be possible if a high-level Silver-ranked warrior fully utilized the sword energy within them.

Yet for this young knight girl, it was merely a casual display of her strength. Being able to achieve such a level so effortlessly shows that the hidden strength of this Elly knight girl is likely far greater than what she shows!