The Cavern

[AN: The correct chapter 106: Another Attempt, has been uploaded].

'I can't let him find me.' Asher thought.

The stealth technique he used against the hijes worked because, first of all, his psychic strength was much greater than their overall ability, and finally, the hijes couldn't manipulate nor sense mana as efficiently as humans. The guide was a second-stage Guardian mage, slightly weaker than Asher's psychic strength, but his abilities as a mage might help him spot Asher's disguise if Asher wasn't careful enough, after all, the gap between their strength wasn't much.

'Wait.' Asher paused.

Asher suddenly recalled his suspicion about Randel and realized that his only clue was the guide. The only way to confirm this was to get close to the guard and not hide from him.

'In that case…'

A crafty smile stretched along his face.

Step. Step.

The guide walked cautiously into the tunnel. Unlike before, he didn't use a light spell for fear of attracting the monsters, but would occasionally use one to see ahead and confirm his route.

'They're probably all dead by now. The collapse was more tragic than I thought, but that's that.'

'Hmm?'

The guard paused right after he had branched into a new tunnel.

'Weird. I thought I sensed someone here.'

Rumble.

"Who's there?" The guide suddenly turned to one part of the wall as he yelled.

That area cracked open as a figure fell from it and landed on the ground.

"You're!" The guide widened his eyes in shock.

"Oh? It's just you. So you're alive." Asher's weak voice sounded.

The guide's face turned beet red at the statement, but he quickly held his emotions down.

"By the grace of the gods, I suppose, young master."

"That's good. Keep a lookout for me. I need to recover my mana. Hiding this long has taken a toll on my body."

After saying that, Asher sat crossed-legged on the floor and began meditating.

'He's not angry at my past actions?' The guide was confused.

During the tunnel's collapse earlier on, the guide had abandoned Asher, Luther and Aaron to save his skin. Anyone who survived that would be pissed at the guide, but Asher didn't seem to care.

'Hmm?'

"If I may ask, young master, where are the other two?"

"Luther and Aaron? I got separated from them during the collapse and had since been relying on the fallen rocks and cracks between the walls to survive." Asher explained.

"Oh."

'Makes sense now.' The guide thought.

"We need to find a new exit and if possible, rendezvous with the others." Asher said.

With his title as 'young lord', it was only natural that he automatically became the one making decisions.

The guide nodded in response and the two began walking forward.

Along the way, Asher questioned the guide on how he had survived for long. According to the man's explanations, he survived using a similar idea to Asher's together with a bit of luck.

"Oh, okay." Was Asher's response at the end of the topic.

A while later, with the guide in front and Asher behind, the duo had reached an eerie large cavern. Although the guide stood in front, Asher was the one who was leading the way. Thanks to his guidance, they were both able to avoid the patrolling horde of hijes and reach this place safely.

'So this is where the main path leads?' Asher closed his eyes as he sensed the area.

The tunnel was very dark, and the cavern too was the same. Asher had prevented the guide from using any light spell to avoid attracting the hijes and they both relied on their own techniques to shield their aura and blood scent. As a result, the only way they were able to proceed forward was by relying on Asher's psychic sensing abilities which he now used to scan the area. Although it wasn't as impressive as a visual sighting done with the eyes, it still did have its advantages.

From the results sent back to him by his psychic energy, Asher could see that the cavern was quite large, covering roughly 110 metres (120 yards/360.9 ft) wide and 70 metres(76.55 yards/229.7 ft) long [1]. His psychic sense wasn't powerful enough and there seemed to be some kind of suppression in the area, so Asher could only get a rough view of the place. He couldn't see the details past 30 metres ahead in this place but from the results of the rough scan he could do, Asher was certain that this cave wasn't naturally formed.

'But that doesn't make sense? Who could have done such underneath here? What's more, the tunnel in the unexplored region was naturally made but not this one. If someone was using that tunnel to dig this cavern, they would have fortified it to prevent collapse.' Asher thought.

'Unless there's another entrance to this place and the tunnel happened to have formed over the years.'

Asher felt that his new conclusion was more likely, but that still didn't answer all his questions. Instead, it gave birth to more.

'Then who made this place? Where's the second entrance, or should I say, the real entrance? How did the hijes arrive here?'

There was no answer to these questions at the moment, but Asher knew that they would be answered once he got to the other end of the cavern. This was because his cursory scan of the place showed that a huge door lay in front of the duo. The door also confirmed his suspicions that the cavern was made by human hands, or at least, by some intelligent civilization.

"Young master, where are we?" The guide couldn't help but ask.

While his psychic ability wasn't as impressive as Asher's, he was still a trained mage. The guide could easily sense that the airflow here was less restricted than in the tunnel, meaning that they were in an open space. He couldn't ascertain how large the area was like Asher, but he was confident that it was quite big.

"I don't know." Asher replied.

"We seem to have stumbled into a cave of sorts."

"Alright." The guide nodded.

True as it may be that he had abandoned Asher before, but the guide believed that Asher wouldn't let any harm befall him. This was because they both needed each other. The weak young master needed a guard, and the guide needed a guide. It was for this reason that he believed Asher didn't berate him earlier when they met up or irritated him, because they both needed each other and without the other, their chances of dying would be very high. Unbeknownst to him though, Asher let him be because he had other plans.

"Let's go."

Under Asher's guidance, the duo arrived at the door on the other end without any mishap. Unlike with the tunnel, there were no signs of any hijes here and the duo didn't even need to be careful with their actions but being cautious as ever in this unknown space, Asher didn't permit the guide to use a light spell.

"How do we open it?"

The guide asked as he placed his hand on the door in a bid to sense something.

"I don't know."

Asher got close to it and began roaming his hand over the surface of the door.

Creak. Creak.

"What was that?" The guide couldn't help but ask.