Choosing Paths

"You guys might be wondering why I waited behind. The answer is simple." Asher said.

"There are six tunnels and six teams. It would be illogical and maybe unnecessary for more than one team to step into the same tunnel. Say one of those tunnels is filled with risk, following the first team to step in would lead to you suffering the same disaster that would rain upon them. At the same time, two groups entering the same tunnel would lead to a situation where they would have to battle for the treasures, but let's not forget, deaths aren't allowed."

"What's your point?" One of Wendel's teammates spoke up.

"My point is that we each chose a separate tunnel to enter. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't like anyone to follow my back. I'm saying this just for their safety, and I presume most would agree with the same. Teaming up is obviously natural and accepted but stalking another team could lead to a misunderstanding."

A glint flashed across Asher's eyes.

"So how do we go about choosing?" Wendel asked as he glanced at Asher with a strange look.

"For fairness and equality, my team would pick last." Asher smiled.

Everyone had different expressions to Asher's words, with some frowning in confusion and others suspicious of Asher.

Asher's previous statement had made it seem as if he had spotted the treasure-filled tunnel and he wanted to lay claim to it solely. If he had demanded for the first pick, they would have been suspicious and believed this to be true. But by giving up the initiative, it made it seem as if Asher was just like them and knew nothing about the cave, leaving all to luck.

However, some found that explanation had to swallow, after all, Asher had arrived here first. Who could say that he didn't tamper with the entrances?

Nonetheless, they were all proud geniuses and they believed that Asher couldn't play any trick on them. After the last incident, they were now wary of their surroundings and on alert for any strange happenings. As a result, even though some felt Asher had some secretive plans, they still agreed to his proposal. In fact, some even sighed with relief after all, the suggestion meant that each team would be on different paths, and for the other three teams, there was nothing else they wanted more than to escape Asher, Wendel, and Aurora's teams.

Everything now came down to the strength of their scouting abilities as that could potentially help them to make a good choice.

"I'll go first." Wendel suddenly said as he walked forward.

He glanced at all six tunnels one at a time before moving towards the third tunnel when counting from the left.

Asher remained unperturbed even after Wendel made his choice, leaving the other teams confused about what his true intentions were.

Next was Aurora and her group, who picked the fifth tunnel while keeping a straight face. This made the others consider whether she had discovered anything precious within or just selected the tunnel on a whim. However, since the rules were a tunnel to a team, no one considered following her.

After the two top teams were gone, the other three teams proceeded to select the first, second and sixth tunnels. This was a bit surprising to the members of Asher's team as they expected the team with only three members to link up with another team, after all, having smaller numbers meant an increased level of danger in this place although it also meant that whatever treasures they found would be shared easily.

'Although they might be lacking a bit, they are still geniuses and have the pride of one.' Asher inwardly commented.

With all the other teams gone, there was only one tunnel left, the fourth tunnel.

"Let's go." Asher said as he walked towards the tunnel.

"Care to explain why you did that?" Owen suddenly asked.

While the others would unconditionally follow Asher, Owen wasn't of the same mind.

"To lessen suspicion on us. We've already stood out a bit so it's best we stay low. Apart from that, it's tough to scout deep into these tunnels and see through the darkness. While it seems like picking last is a disadvantage, it actually isn't. In the end, everyone is selecting based on luck, so first or last doesn't necessarily matter." Asher responded in all honesty.

Even with his fourth-stage Guardian mental senses, Asher truly couldn't discern much about the tunnels. Even magical scouting techniques were suppressed in this cave which made things worse. The suppression was one of domineering power so even his past knowledge and techniques from the other world didn't have much use here. Unless he was of the fourth-stage of the Guardian realm in terms of mana cultivation, Asher couldn't see the entirety of the tunnels and determine which was truly safe or not.

However, while Asher's techniques were limited, his intuition still existed. While his techniques were suppressed, they weren't negated, so in the end, Asher could still glimpse some information about the tunnels.

'They are pretty much the same with possibly equal levels of danger. Only the first and the fifth seem to have a higher level of danger, although not so much.' Asher thought as he led the way.

Noah eventually had to cast a fire spell and lit the road as it was now too dark for them to see, even with the improved vision of a second-stage Guardian that had led them this far out.

As they walked, Asher would occasionally look at a pocket watch device that he kept within his storage ring. This was a pocket-watch that worked on the same principles as most pocket-watches except that it utilized a special magic crystal to power up. Because the magic crystal used to power it was pretty much the same used by mages to train -Klobat crystals- such devices were costly and only the wealthy had access to personal clocks. As for the common people, they relied on the much bigger clocks that hung on towers in the centre of the city, or on certain buildings.

As they continued deeper in, it only took the group fifteen minutes before they had their first encounter with danger, which was a good thing.

It was a good thing in the sense that the tunnel, unlike the cave's corridor, was free from restriction spells.

As for the form in which the danger appeared, it was a shadow-beast which was essentially a pitch-black creature with no facial features except for crimson bead-like eyes and a razor sharp teeth.