The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 629: That time I got transmigrated and developed claustrophobia
Chapter 629: That time I got transmigrated and developed claustrophobia
There was another reason why I left Jade with Renna: we couldn’t see each other.
Once we were inside, I couldn’t concentrate on locating Renna since I had to concentrate on not making a sound. My stealth worked by deflecting light and blending my mana into the surrounding area, but if I walked noisily or kicked some stones, they’d be able to hear it.
It was fine if all they did was get alarmed--Jin would volunteer to check and pretend there was nothing. But if someone had a slippery hand and hurled their weapon at the source of the noise in reflect, there was nothing I could do but dodge or deflect--both were big movement that would break my stealth.
At any rate, I needed to take care of myself without caring for others. Especially because it was my first time in a ruin--and I had to work hard not to be distracted.
I mean...it was a leftover of a building complex underground! Wasn’t it exciting? Ruins were the traces of the time before the Primordial One’s disappearance. They must have contained the wonders of history, not to mention hidden wealth. Different from dungeons, which appeared because of accumulated corrupted mana, ruins were relatively safer. Sure, there were still beasts or guardian golems inside, but it never as dangerous as dungeons. The real concern was actually traps that might still worked if the ruins were well-preserved, but once it was dismantled, we were safe.
And that was why we decided to follow the group instead of going by ourselves at the start--to avoid traps.
That being said...
[Papa...that place where Jade gets necklace is better...]
Yeah; if you had visited one of the drows’ underground cities, a plain and old underground building would no longer excite you. Maybe if I was a historian, I would appreciate it more. And I guessed the mercenaries and adventurers who already visited multiple ruins wouldn’t get excited either.
But it was good--I wouldn’t have to get distracted too much.
[Can you sense where I am, Jade?] I asked the little bird while tiptoeing behind the exploration group.
[Jade can sense Papa anywhere!]
That wasn’t true for cases when I got yanked to a deity’s abode, but I reckoned that was an ultra exception. [Good. Quietly let Renna know to follow at a walking pace]
[Walking pace! Okay!]
[Quetly]
[Quetly...]
The voice in my head turned adorably fainter as the little bird whispered even in telepathy. At that point, Heraz should already be inside too. I didn’t have to worry about him--if it was about stealth, no one would be better here than him. With more ease, I followed the exploration group deeper into the ruin.
Perhaps because it wasn’t the original group’s first exploration, we passed through the first few chambers swiftly. The deputy leader of the group--who seemed to be more friendly and welcoming--told the decoy group that they wouldn’t find nothing in those chambers since everything had been excavated. That was why there was no beasts and golems either.
"Where are we going, then?" Jin asked in a deep voice that was made worse as Zarfa and Aina shoved a spicy candy inside his mouth this morning. Thanks to that, he looked rough and rugged like a mercenary who hadn’t seen anything good in life for the past decade.
What a method actor.
"Deeper," the deputy replied. "We’ll try to find the second floor today."
Oh--they hadn’t even found that? No wonder the bead was still safe. Anyway, good news. I looked down at Shiny, who was nodded in response--meaning we still headed in the same direction as the group.
Oh, well--guessed they were going in the right direction after all. Perhaps they would really find the path to the second floor today. ƒrēenovelkiss.com
But here’s the problem: if we kept heading to the same direction, how could we get ahead of them?!
I groaned inwardly. The ruin’s path wasn’t big; with two groups consisting of twelve people, there was no gap for me to sleep through. Even the ceiling was low--just enough for the tallest person not to touch. Certainly, I couldn’t try to fly past them unless I turned into Jade.
If that was the case, our only chance was to get past them in a chamber. I should look for a chance when they reach a relatively wide chamber--otherwise, they would clutter the space just the same.
But alas--I shouldn’t think that things would keep going smoothly.
The group had just entered another chamber when Shiny pulled my sleeve and pointed at the other side of the room--the one with no door. There was only wall with piles of collapsed ceilings over broken cupboards if I looked from this side, but the mole carefully made a gesture with its metallic claws. Between that and sensing its thoughts, I concluded that there was a small gap behind the rubbles.
Ugh...that looked mole-size, but Shiny patted my chest and conveyed that I could do it. Damn--I should take it as a compliment, I guess.
The problem was...
"Hey, there’s something here!"
Seemed like someone found something at the corner. The chamber itself looked like an archive room, so there were lots of places that seemed to be worth inspecting. It was a new chamber, so something bound to left--especially because the path to this chamber was riddled with traps.
Because of that, the group quickly scattered around the room. Some even tried to inspect the collapsed ceiling and cupboard, but thankfully, someone called them out. "Hey, stop looking over there! The ground above collapsed together with the ceiling, so even if there’s something, it’d be destroyed by the force."
Yeah! That person might be right!
"Well, there doesn’t seem to be anything anyway; just papers," the person inspecting sighed in disappointment and walked away. I wondered if the relic willed the collapse at that side to hide the entrance to the secret path.
But anyway, the area was clear.
But not with the rest of the room, including the path to the wall.
"Phew..." I took a deep breath and called out to my Salamander. [Ignis, ask them to create a path from the entrace to the collapsed ceiling]
[Okay]
I glanced back and called out to Jade next. [Jade, tell Renna to come to me quick. We’ll be crossing the chamber to a wall with a collapsed ceiling. There’s a gap between the rubble and the wall--we’ll be slipping there]
[Okay!] the little bird whispered sharply in my head. [Come quick! Crossing to falling wall! Slipping in small gap!]
...I guessed that sufficed.
Meanwhile, inside the chamber, Zarfa suddenly exclaimed loudly. "Hey, hey! I found something too!" she crouched in front of the left wall. "What is this? Looks like a marble those children played with..."
Immediately, the members of the other group perked up. They were all turning away from the location where they were investigating, toward where Zarfa was. Some even already inch closer. With that, we even had a confirmation that they were looking for something that looked like a ’round marble’.
This girl truly understood her assignment.
[Papa, we’re here!]
I felt two small presence a meter behind me. Just in time--the people crowding the space between the entrance to the rubble were moving toward Zarfa. Actually, everyone did, and since it wasn’t a big place, the corner where Zarfa was became crowded easily.
"Hey, back off!" someone--probably Ian--shouted at someone else. I wasn’t sure if it was to the other group or to Jin just to sow chaos, but chaos was created.
The more people was prevented from doing something, the more they were eager to do it. Rather than backing off, they were crowding even more, creating a smooth path in front of me.
[Now!] I told Jade as I dashed forward. The sounds of people arguing and moving around masked my own footsteps, but I forgot about something.
Clang!
Shiny was still easily afraid of strangers, and the arguing ’tall creatures’ made him flinch and tremble, prompting the metallic claws to clash against each other.
I grabbed those claws and did not stop running, even while some of the mercenaries turned in my direction. Suddenly, Zarfa shouted in panic. "Ahh! Ah! What is this?!"
"What? What?!"
Between human noises, several clanking sounds could be heard. It sounded mechanical, which made me think it was Aina’s doing. It pulled the mercenary’s attention back to the ’item’ that Zarfa ’found’, and BANG!
A small explosion happened and smoke filled the room.
Damn, girl--did you want to choke yourself too?!
But I didn’t have the leeway to mind their condition, because I had my own to think about. Amidst the chaos, Shiny calmed down since it couldn’t see the humans anymore due to the smoke. The mole jumped off my hands and pointed at a gap that could only be seen if someone stood right at the corner and looked parallel at the wall.
Behind the rubble, there was a gap that I presumed to be covered by the destroyed cupboard before. The collapsed ceiling covering it now, and those who couldn’t enhance their sight with mana had a low probability of locating it.
[Jade, tell Renna to stand in the corner]
[Corner, Renna! Corner!]
I stood right beside the gap, pressing my back against the wall and tightened my stomach. Once I felt Renna’s presence in the corner--right on my left--I probe around and grabbed her hand to guide her. Thankfully, she didn’t flinch or make a sound, and I started to wedge my way into the gap.
Oh, how thankful I was that I hadn’t increased my weight much after Shwa’s birth. The gap was truly narrow, and I could barely fit in by tightening my stomach and holding in my breath. At least my head went through, and Renna was smaller than me. As for Heraz...well, he was a shapeshifter.
Step by step, I slide sideways without moving my head, only following Shiny’s tug on my trousers. I had thought that the gap was only a temporary thing, and that we would end up in another hidden room--but no. That gap was a door that sent me to another narrow path only about five centimeters wider but nothing more. I could breathe now, but that was it.
And then I walked and walked and walked being flanked by the walls in a path around twenty-five centimeters wide.
Mother. I wanted to use that teleportation scroll now.
