Ancient Cavern I

Kies was certain of it. The direction that Bloodmane just pointed at was where the buried tower is. Ever since he left there, he felt it tugging at him. It was like the tower didn't want to leave for whatever reason. It was a creepy feeling. It was almost as if the tower was conscious and had a will of its own.

"Care to share with the rest of us?" Bloodmane asked Kies. None of them knew what was in that direction and was looking to Kies for the answer.

"During the fight with the Bone Whistler, I fell down a hole. Down there I found an altar along with a strange building that looked like it was built by my kind. There is also a huge empty space down there," said Kies, remembering how long the winds were echoing off the walls as he made his way to the altar room.

"That sounds very hard to believe. Why would there be an altar room and a tower as well buried underground?" Fae asked. He also noted, "I also do not recall there being anything like that in this forest before, and I have been around for a very long time."

"Hoot, I also do not know of there being such a thing either. This is my first hearing of it," Haro also said. "But that does sound like a place where the Bone Whistler could be hiding in."

The group stood silently for a moment, thinking about what Kies just said before Bloodmane spoke out and said, "Well, what are waiting for then? Lead the way," he said to Kies.

"Oh right." Everyone followed Kies through the forest. They were moving slowly at the beginning but Haro told him to use the spell he had just recently taught him to navigate through the forest faster. Kies was afraid that he might go too fast but the owl assured him that as long as he controlled his speed, everyone would be able to keep up with him just fine.

Kies cast Wind's Blessing and sped through the forest at a slower speed than previously. It was difficult to control his pace at the beginning but he eventually got the hang of it and was able to decide how fast he wanted to go. Kies stopped after a few minutes of running and everyone else stopped right behind him. He saw that everyone else was pretty much fine after all that running or flying except for Fae. He was lagging quite far behind the group and it took him about a minute or two to catch up.

"Gah, curse this body!" the undead said out loud after arriving. He didn't look like he was physically exhausted or anything. His body was just not suited for physical activities.

"Is this the place?" Bloodmane asked. "I don't see anything here." The werewolf took a few steps around and almost fell into a giant crack in the ground but caught himself before he did. "Oh, that was close." He kneeled down at the edge of the giant hole that stretched throughout the forest in front of them and tossed a good-sized stone down it.

"That's one deep hole," Fae commented after not hearing a sound come from the bottom a few seconds after the stone was thrown. "So you're telling us that the Bone Whistler is down there? I don't think he would be able to descend down there."

"No, I can sense his presence down there," said the witch. "That monster is definitely down there." The witch walked over to the edge of the giant ravine right beside Bloodmane and peered down. "I feel him. He's a bit far away from us in that direction."

"Right... So how do we get down?" Bloodmane asked. "Are you going to open a rift like before?"

"No, that's basically us announcing to him that we're here," said Fae.

"I don't see any other way we can get down, and also, I'm pretty sure that monster already knows that we're here," Bloodmane pointed out. "There's no way that he wouldn't be able to sense us with how many people we have here, especially when one of us has just as much magic power as him," Bloodmane said while looking at the witch.

"You do have a point..."

"Enough talk, let us go quickly," said the witch, reminding everyone that they were on a clock and had no time to be standing around discussing needless matters. The witch shot a ball of white light out of her palm down the ravine. After a few seconds passed, she then created a rift in front of them that led to the bottom. Without a moment wasted, everyone went through the rift and appeared out the other end.

The place was just as dark as Kies remembered it was but unlike last time, there was some light down here illuminating a small area around them. He saw that the light was coming from a small glowing orb, the one that the witch had thrown down before opening a rift.

"What are all these strange carvings on the walls?" one of the werewolves asked. He pointed at the wall in front of them and commented, "I'm getting an eerie feeling just by looking at it." The werewolves all looked to the place that their comrade pointed at and muttered among themselves.

"It might have been created naturally," one of them suggested.

"You're telling me that thing is natural? Are you crazy? It's man-made for sure," another one said.

The werewolves continued talking among themselves while waiting for everyone else to come through the rift. The witch was the second to last to come through, with Haro and Issie jumping in right after her.

Haro saw the commotion that was going on and looked at what the werewolves were looking at and said," I believe that that is a magic restriction rune."

Kies couldn't see anything but darkness ahead of them so he had no idea what the werewolves and Haro were talking about. Unlike them, he didn't have night vision.

"A magic restriction rune?" repeated Fae. "Where?"

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