Extra And MC-Chapter 90 - 86 - Crystal Caverns I

-Drip!

-Drip!

In the hollowed depths of the first level of the crystal cavern’s tunnel, Aiden and Flynn’s footsteps could be heard as they walked side by side.

There were tiny pools of water on the ground and judging from how sparsely they were spread, it seemed as if they were just there due to the small drops of water pulling into the ever-so-slightly depressed areas of the ground.

"How much do you believe Novier’s words?" Aiden quietly asked his brother as they took slow yet meaningful steps deeper into first level of the crystal caverns, frosty vapor releasing from his mouth.

"Hmmm… he seemed so darn sure about what he saw so I guess it only makes sense that he might be telling truth" Flynn answered silently, their footsteps echoing throughout the expanse of the tunnel of the underground depths.

"So the possibility of a boss monster isn’t completely unfounded?" Aiden asked again calmly in a low tone.

"I don’t know… but… we shouldn’t completely rule it out…" Flynn replied placidly.

The cavern although seemingly quite easy to mine ores from, was actually the complete opposite of what one would expect.

Stalactites and stalagmites of clear crystal, hung from the ceiling like fragile chandeliers that could break at a moment’s notice.

The walls were also of similarly glass-like nature, their reflective surfaces leading to mosaic of colors such as ethereal blues and green, to warm and inviting shades of amber and purples, all gleaming faintly as Flynn and Aiden walked past.

The occasional dripping of mineral-rich water could also be heard as it echoed through the crystalline tunnel of the cavern, casting a fairly quiet yet eerie feel to the frosty atmosphere.

Various small crystals of different colors jutted out and nestled in tight bunches very close to the ground, like a weed or a bouquet of flowers, just waiting to either be uprooted or picked up and then mined.

However, these ores were not of great value as the ones that were present in the deeper parts of the cavern so a lot of the time, cadets usually ignored it despite how easy it was to access.

"Considering how some of the information we know vastly varies to what we’ve been experiencing, it’s better to just be on our guard" Flynn added in a low voice.

"Okay then" Aiden softly replied, his hands retrieving the map Novier had borrowed them from his spatial ring.

Why were Flynn and Aiden conversing quietly?

Well, that was very necessary considering the current structure they were in.

Any form of increased noises or sounds could possibly lead to stalactites and stalagmites to crash onto the cavern’s grounds or worse still, land directly on their heads, something they were very much taking into consideration.

This was also one of the very many reasons cadets avoided the caverns.

Now, as Aiden and Flynn compared their smartwatches’ map of the crystal caverns to the map that Novier had graced them with, they soon realized just how vastly better the old man’s map was.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

From spots to the best mining sites for specific ores and crystals, down to the best paths to take to get to the next level faster and even routes to either avoid encounters with or purposely run into Kraugrs, everything was vastly superior to that of the smartwatch.

There was one glaring difference though that had Flynn and Aiden very confused but before they could discuss about it, the quiet yet eerie ambience of the cavern was destroyed.

As soon as both brothers neared an actual small pool of water, a crystalline hand… or at least one that greatly resembled it, jutted from the middle of it, spraying water around everywhere.

-Grrggkk!

In a haunting and eerie spectacle, Flynn and Aiden watched as the hand gradually pushed itself out of the pool to reveal the full frame of its body.

Like an undead revenant, the glass-like creature standing before them, dripped with water from its humanoid sculpted features of crystalline bones and sinewy frost-like appendages.

The creature’s skin was a frosty pale of translucent blue that gave a faintly dim yet unsettling glow.

It’s eyes, which was gazing at the two brothers from its irregularly-shaped visage of a crystalline head, emitted an eerily faint yet hollow light.

Yes, this was how a Kraugr appeared, very much akin to the way the undead behaved.

Soon enough, the living yet inanimate sculpture of crystal, quickly began to run towards both brothers in a haphazard manner, intent on inflicting pain, as their kind were created to do.

"Kriggk!!" the monster voiced, a disturbing and unsettling sound emanating from its mouthless crystal slab of a face as it continuously kept running in a disoriented manner towards the youths.

In response, Flynn brought out his katana, it’s steel blade gleaming in the cavern by catching the faintest of lights.

In one swift yet simultaneous movement, the youth dashed forward and decapitated the running Kraugr in an instant, it’s head suspended in the air for a fraction of a second before landing pitifully on the crystal flooring of the ground.

-Swoosh! Thud!

As he did, the Kraugr tried to get up despite losing its head but Aiden was already there, his foot stomping on the creature brutally to reduce its amalgamation of a torso into fine crystalline sand and chunks of stony crystals.

-Bam!

Following this, the creature disintegrated into shimmering dust-like particles.

Aiden then spoke to his brother after noticing something.

"You were slower than usual with your attack… Guess those cuffs really are holding us back…"

"Well, this just means we’re handicapped even more, doesn’t it? We also can’t remove it even if we wanted to…" Flynn replied casually, his katana still held at the ready as he continued speaking.

"There’s also the fact that we can’t use magic carelessly in here, unless we’d like to be buried under layers upon layers of crystal stalagmites and stalactites and quite possibly, a cave in…"

This was also another major reason why cadets avoided the crystal caverns like the plague.

Asides from already being eerie and creepy enough, one had to also be constantly quiet while also having to battle Kraugrs smartly with as minimal use of magic as possible.

That was already a stressful set of rules to keep in mind and unfortunately, it only got worse from there on out because the deeper one ventured into the hollowed depths, the more Kraugrs showed up.

It also didn’t help that most of the ores and crystals that are always requested for, required one to venture past the second to the third levels of the windy cavern.

As a result, it was very rare to find cadets venturing into the caverns despite how much credit they could, and would get for mining a few high-quality crystal ores.

Even if one also did find cadets who were willing to venture into the caverns, it was mostly second-years and third-years who needed a good amount of credits quickly, not first-year cadets like them who were still green behind the ears.

Well, first-year cadets’ asides the two brothers who had knowledge of things they actually shouldn’t have had under normal circumstances.

But normal circumstances were infinitely far from the things that both brothers had to deal with.

"Makes for good training!" Aiden suddenly declared quietly with an excited grin.

"Is training the only thing circulating in that head of yours?" Flynn asked his brother silently with squinted eyes.

"Hey, don’t pretend as if you’re any different Flynn" the emerald-eyed youth retorted instantly, his voice barely over a whisper.

-Sigh…

After sighing in resignation at his brother’s words, Flynn switched on his smartwatch again with a flick of his wrist, a feature that was implemented in case one was in an urgent scenario where they couldn’t tap the device.

However, Flynn who had realized that from here on out, they would soon be encountering more Kraugrs, held his unsheathed katana at the ready with his other hand and decided to just use the feature.

Aiden on the other hand, just pulled out the map from his spatial ring again.

-Shuaam!

Now that the old parchment of paper which contained a detailed hand-drawn map was spread open in his hands, he and Flynn finally compared once again and soon pointed out the glaring difference they had noticed.

"This is very odd…" Aiden stated calmly.

"It really is..." Flynn replied, continuing in a low tone immediately after.

"The smartwatch map shows five floors of the caverns and even goes as far as to state that it really is only five floors…"

"While Novier’s map explains that there are actually six floors…" Aiden continued from where his brother stopped.

"And not just is his map explaining it, he also detailed how the floor looks like, much like the previous five…" Aiden added calmly, a slight frown settling on his features.

Flynn also gazed at the map following those last few words from Aiden but after a few more seconds, the youth spoke.

"Okay. There’s probably a sixth floor… that’s good to know… I guess…"

"But the real question is, how do we even get there? Even Novier’s map just shows a detailed structure of it, not how to actually get there…" Flynn stated, a hint of visible confusion in his tone.

"There’s only one way to find out bro…" Aiden calmly added, his hands returning the now folded map which had been placed into its intricate golden case, back into his spatial ring.

"Reaching the fifth floor…" Aiden declared composedly.