"Douglas? He's just taking care of something minor. Don't worry, he'll be back soon," Feidric said casually.
"Is that so?" Cipher quickly refocused her attention on the main burial chamber. This place is so vast, she thought, could the funerary objects have been stored elsewhere instead of inside the coffin?
She placed her index and middle fingers against the wall and walked around the perimeter of the chamber. As she reached the far right corner, her cat ears suddenly twitched, picking up the faint sound of flowing water.
"Hey! I hear something! Could there be a hidden room?"
"A hidden room?" Intrigued, Aria approached. Cipher pressed her palms against the wall and tried pushing it, but nothing happened.
Just as Aria reached Cipher's side, the ground beneath her feet suddenly shifted. Startled, Aria instinctively leaped forward to escape the unstable patch. But as she landed next to Cipher, the ground beneath both of them gave way completely, plunging them into darkness.
There was indeed another space near the wall, but it wasn't a hidden room. It was a gaping hole leading to an underground river.
Cipher reacted swiftly. She had ample time to leap to safety before falling, just as she had when evading traps earlier. But when she saw Aria losing her balance with a bewildered expression, she abandoned the idea of dodging in an instant.
Cipher grabbed Aria's wrist with one hand. As she herself began to fall, she caught hold of the edge of the floor with her other hand. The scene resembled a classic movie trope: the protagonist clinging to a cliff edge with one hand, desperately holding onto their wife, best friend, or some other loved one with the other.
In those scenes, the inevitable climax involves either the protagonist's grip slipping, or the loved one sacrificing themselves by forcing the protagonist's hand open after a tearful farewell, plummeting to their death below.
But as they fell, Cipher had already assessed which sections of the floor appeared loose and which seemed stable. She had deliberately grabbed the sturdiest part. Now, supporting her entire weight with one arm, she flicked her free hand and effortlessly pulled Aria back up.
Cipher scoffed inwardly. Those cliché "near-death" scenes in movies only happened because the protagonists weren't strong enough. In this situation, even if Aria had fallen, Cipher could have used Divine Speed to race down and catch her in an instant.
After Aria climbed back up, Cipher effortlessly followed. Feidric rushed over, visibly relieved to see them unharmed. But his relief quickly turned to urgency. "We need to get out of here now," he said sternly. "This place feels like it's about to collapse."
Cipher noticed that one of the four stone pillars supporting the underground hall, near the collapsed area, was now covered in a dense network of cracks.
What kind of shoddy construction is this? she muttered inwardly. The trio swiftly retreated along the path they had come.
Notably, as they passed the treasure chest Douglas had discarded on the ground, Cipher casually picked it up and carried it with them.
However, when they reached the T-junction again, they discovered that their original route had completely collapsed, buried under tons of rubble. There was no way through.
They now faced a difficult choice: either take the right path at the T-junction and gamble that it would lead to an exit, or return to the main hall, jump through the hole, and escape along the underground river.
After a moment's deliberation, Feidric decisively chose the latter. "Follow me!" he shouted.
As he sprinted back, he began chanting an incantation, clapping his hands together forcefully. An invisible wave rippled outward from him. Cipher watched as wisps of white luminescence materialized out of thin air, floating around them.
Feather Fall, a First-Level spell from the Transmutation School, made them as light as feathers. It essentially neutralized the acceleration due to gravity, causing them to descend at a steady, slow pace. With this spell, they could jump from any height without injury.
When they returned to the main tomb chamber, the already cracked support pillars groaned under the strain. "Let's go! Jump down here!" Feidric yelled, leaping into the abyss without hesitation. Aria followed close behind, but Cipher hesitated briefly. Her slight fear of heights was a minor inconvenience, but as she jumped and experienced the unnervingly slow and steady descent, her apprehension vanished completely.
The three of them descended like a fallen star, emitting a soft white glow as they drifted slowly through the pitch-black environment.
After Douglas left, Feidric had cast Light on his staff, which now served as their primary light source.
Occasionally, chunks of collapsing rock plummeted from above, hurtling towards them at speeds far exceeding their own. Feidric's shield effortlessly deflected the debris.
A translucent hemispherical barrier shimmered above them. Cipher could only faintly perceive its outline when the stones collided against it.
Magic... it's truly wondrous... At that moment, Cipher couldn't help but feel a growing fascination with the magic of this world. It was simply... so intriguing.
Many people might associate magic with fireballs, ice shards, or wind blades, but in this world, its applications extended far beyond combat. It had been refined into countless uses, nearly becoming synonymous with "omnipotence."
As they continued their descent, Aria voiced her concern: "I wonder how Douglas is faring on his own..."
Feidric said, "Don't worry, that guy's got nine lives. He'll be fine."
Cipher grumbled, "Seriously, why is it that these underground structures are perfectly fine until someone's about to finish exploring them, and then they just collapse?"
In truth, it wasn't such a coincidence. Cipher's repeated triggering of traps early on had destabilized the structure. Later, during the battle in the main tomb chamber, Aria repeatedly unleashed her Divine Smite.
It wasn't just the undead; the floor and walls of the main tomb chamber were saturated with Negative Energy. When Aria's Divine Smites neutralized this energy with their radiant power, the entire structure became brittle. This cascading effect ultimately led to the collapse.
Why do underground structures in stories always collapse after adventurers explore them? Precisely because the adventurers damage them during their explorations.
After a freefall of roughly three to four minutes, the trio finally "landed"—or rather, splashed into an underground river.
Splash!
The underground river was far deeper than Cipher had imagined. In the blink of an eye, she vanished completely beneath the surface. Though the water appeared calm above, the undercurrents surged with tremendous force, as if a car were relentlessly pushing her forward.
Even the strongest swimmer would have little chance of survival in such conditions.
Without hesitation, Cipher released the treasure chest she had been clutching and let it sink. Relying on her decent swimming skills and exceptional physical prowess, she managed to fight her way back to the surface. The first thing she saw was Aria struggling nearby.
Feidric, on the other hand, was already sinking. Cipher could see a white speck—Feidric's staff—drifting steadily downward through the water.
Both Aria and Feidric knew how to swim. Before they fell in, Feidric had suggested they swim to the left bank and regroup quickly. But the river's treacherous nature had clearly exceeded their expectations.
Without hesitation, Cipher took a deep breath and plunged back into the water. She swiftly swam to Feidric, using her tail to coil around his wrist instead of her hands. Then, she quickly moved to Aria, wrapping one arm around her waist. Holding one person and pulling the other, she began swimming toward the shore.
Cough, cough! x3
The moment they reached the bank, all three erupted into violent coughing fits. Feidric and Aria had undoubtedly swallowed a considerable amount of water, while Cipher had choked on a few mouthfuls herself, struggling to drag her two "deadweight" companions through the strong current.
Feidric, still coughing, wore a relieved expression. "Cough, cough... That was close... I almost drowned..."
It would be rather embarrassing for a mage proficient in protective spells to be defeated by a mere river.
In a way, it was fortunate Douglas wasn't here. His heavy plate armor would have sunk him faster than Feidric, like dropping a giant iron ball into the water.
After a few coughs, Aria smacked her lips thoughtfully. "Hmm~ This river water... it actually tastes pretty good?"
Cipher stared in exasperation, pulling off her hood and wringing out her hair. "What do we do now?" she asked.
Soaked to the bone, she felt deeply uncomfortable. It was clear she had no dry clothes to change into—or if she did, they were undoubtedly drenched from the recent ordeal.
The only silver lining was that Cipher's clothing functioned as a tight-fitting bodysuit. Even when completely drenched, it clung snugly to her skin without feeling overly unpleasant, aside from a slight chill. It felt almost the same as when it was dry.
After wringing most of the water from her hair, Cipher began squeezing the water out of her tail. Of course, she wasn't twisting it roughly; instead, she gripped her tail near the base and gently squeezed downward toward the tip, methodically forcing the water out.
A wet tail felt like wearing a heavy weight around it, making even natural swaying movements feel labored and awkward. Now she finally understood why cats hated baths so much.
"Let's go. We'll follow the river downstream and try to find a way out of here," Feidric said.
"Just a moment," Cipher said, shaking the water from her tail several times. She balanced on her left foot, raised her right leg, and pulled off her boot.
Her delicate toes instinctively curled and rubbed against each other. Cipher turned her boot upside down, and a stream of water poured out onto the ground.
She repeated the process with her left boot, then clapped her hands. "Let's go," she said.
The three silently resumed their journey. Having already walked all day, Feidric looked visibly exhausted as they continued into the night. Aria and Cipher, however, showed no signs of fatigue.
Cipher glanced at Feidric, inwardly marveling, Is this the physical condition of mages in this world?
She wasn't being condescending; she was genuinely impressed. What she meant was, Even mages have such remarkable physical endurance?
If her former self had been in this situation, she would have collapsed after just two or three hours of walking, let alone a full day.
Just as Cipher was thinking this, Feidric recited a string of incantations and lightly tapped himself. "Longstrider!"
Longstrider, a First-Level Transmutation School spell, made a target's body lighter, increasing their movement speed and reducing their stamina consumption for the duration.
Suddenly, Feidric, previously the slowest walker among the three, became the fastest.
Cipher stared in disbelief. Is that even possible?!
They continued walking for what felt like an eternity. Cipher could practically feel her clothes drying from her body heat when a waterfall appeared before them. Trapped inside the cascading water, they had no choice but to push through the torrential downpour, their recently dried clothes becoming drenched once more.
Cipher glanced at the horizon. The sun hadn't yet risen, but the clouds on the horizon reflected a faint, pre-dawn glow. The scene resembled her usual morning view, suggesting they had been walking for nearly an entire night and only emerged around four or five in the morning.
"Achoo!" Feidric sneezed, rubbing his nose. As the weakest of the three, the chill of the night and their all-night trek seemed to have given him a cold. "Let's figure out where we are first, then hurry back to Stone Pine City," he said.
However, they had barely taken a few steps when Cipher, still readjusting her tail, noticed a dark figure emerging not far ahead.
The figure was clad in full black plate armor, complete with a helmet, and carried a matching one-handed sword, also entirely black. Fresh bloodstains glistened on his armor and blade, suggesting a recent battle. The Black Knight's likely destination was the lake beyond the waterfall.
Naturally, the moment the trio spotted the knight, he noticed them too. The Black Knight slowly halted, turning to silently observe them.
P.S.: That treasure chest was actually a Mimic with its mouth locked shut. If opened, it would have bitten—but it had already drowned.