Exploring Tunnel Number 5

"There's nothing here."

Luther's voice sounded in the dimly lit tunnel.

"What do you expect? We're still in the explored region." Asher commented.

Unlike what one would expect of a mine, the Vermont mine was a bit developed more than the others. Thanks to the innovations possible via the existence of mana and magic crystals, the tunnels were well lit with night pearls; Fera magic crystals that glowed in the dark.

The group of three had been walking for over 20 minutes, but they were yet to exit the explored range of the mine. Put simply, the explored range was indicated by the night pearls on the ceiling. The unexplored region of the tunnel was a previously dug-out area or a naturally occurring tunnel within the mine that was not fully explored for various reasons.

"Hold." Luther suddenly stopped.

The guide was in front of Luther, who stood a few steps behind him, with Asher close by at the back. Finally, was Aaron who brought up the rear.

With Luther coming to an abrupt stop, Asher and Aaron also halted in their footsteps.

"What's wrong?" The guide asked as he noticed they had stopped.

Luther didn't reply as he closed his eyes and knitted his eyebrows, occasionally taking a whiff of the air.

"Did you find anything?" Aaron asked.

"No. But for a second there, I thought I sensed something." Luther frowned as he glanced up ahead.

'It's not a thought, but you did.' Asher replied in his head.

It was not without reason that Asher had decided to enter tunnel number 5 without the basic required strength of a second-stage Guardian mage.in truth, he was banking not on his magical strength or the special defensive artefacts he had, but on his psychic abilities.

In the world of the 33 heavenly realms, there was a special ancient race known as the Ingens Spiritas race. This race was not known for their body, which was considerably weaker than most, nor for their thin meridians, which made it difficult for them to make any substantial achievement in cultivating Qi, the major energy of the world. Instead of all that, the Ingens Spiritas were known for their power. Despite all the lacking points they posed, the Ingens Spiritas had made a name for themselves and left their race a magnificent place in the annals of history. This was because the Ingens Spiritas, the race that possessed neither an impressive physique nor meridian channels, had managed to achieve the impossible and become a dreaded race simply by cultivating their psychic abilities. At their peak, they had control of five of the 33 heavenly realms; an impressive record that could only be beaten by the ancient Sage race or the other famed races. The count of five had even elevated their status up to those of the famed races, and the Ingens Spiritas had achieved all of this via psychic abilities.

Although the race was roughly extinct by the time the Celestial Emperor matured completely, Yi Feng had still managed to dig out some of their long-lost techniques and had even taken one of their last successors under his wing. As Asher had the advantage of possessing a mental ability far greater than his physical ability, he had spent most of his time transcribing the mental arts from his past life to suit his new life and had also trained in mental techniques a lot, reaching the equivalent of mage between second and third stage of the Guardian realm in his psychic strength. This was the main reason and support for exploring tunnel number 5, otherwise, he wouldn't have dared to do so no matter how he wanted to learn the secret of the mine; on the contrary, he would have waited till he was strong enough.

Even though Asher's mental strength was technically weaker than Luther's magical power, he excelled better in tracking, scouting and sensitivity. It was for that reason that while Luther was unsure of his senses, Asher had already confirmed the suspicions.

'There's something here.'

Although Asher didn't get a full glimpse, his psychic energy had caught a strange movement by an unidentified silhouette in the tunnel.

"Take formation and proceed more carefully. We can forgo speed in desire for safety." Asher said.

Luther and Aaron agreed to his idea as it was much in line with what they would have done.

The team then dropped their walking speed and reduced the distance between each other as they continued forward. The tunnel wasn't a straight one as the magic crystal vein was not straight either. In some places, the rock layer would be much denser than normal forcing the miners to around it. For this reason, there were a couple of turns and twists along the way.

Eventually, the group finally arrived at the unexplored region. It was very obvious as this was the last place illuminated b the night pearls. The very last night pearl shone dimly with its light not even covering a distance of three metres. Right after that, the entire tunnel became very dark. It was so dark that even with the improved eyesight granted to them after becoming a Guardian mage and reaching their current rank, the trio could only see five metres into the darkness. This was barely enough for them to see and would make matters worse in a fight. As for the only Human stage mage in the group, Asher, he was surprisingly able to 'see' up to 10 metres into the darkness, about double that of the others, by simply relying on his psychic energy,

"What a weird place." Aaron commented as he brought his hand closer to the sword by his waist.

"Keep your eyes peeled. This place feels off." Luther, who was the strongest in the group, spoke up.

'There's a seal here.' Asher's face grimaced.

While it might look like some natural oddity or something like that to do the others, Asher could clearly sense the existence of a special kind of seal in the dark that reduced one's visual prowess. However, that wasn't what forced his mood to change, rather, it was the fact that this seal could also affect psychic energy.

Asher's studies in the Arnhaunt library, the capital's library and the academy's library had all revealed that the degree of development and research of psychic energy in the Great Dawn kingdom was too superficial and low level. Apart from cheap tricks like the low-level mind control that was used on an ex-student in the academy[1], there was nothing much left. Now, however, Asher had just discovered the existence of a special seal that could even affect one's psychic energy and suppress it just as it did with one's physical abilities.

'Grandfather, what could you be hiding here?'

The group didn't stop in their progress nor did they retreat after having come this far. Without Asher giving the call, they simply could not, and there was no reason for Asher to turn back right after reaching his 'true' destination.

The group walked into the darkness and with the guide as well as Aaron using some few spells, they had managed to produce two sources of lighting.

A few seconds after the group had entered the darkness and gone deeper in, a shadow appeared in an inconspicuous spot in the darkness that the team had left behind. While its features couldn't be made up, from the direction it was staring at, it was easy to discern that it was stalking them and who knew how long it may have been doing so.