Amber Sword-Chapter 608 - 53 Acts, King of the Underground (4) (Part 2)
The two of them walked through the pitch-black mining tunnel, with only the faint light from the lighting crystal illuminating the road ahead. The collapse was clearly not limited to the area where they had fought earlier. Brand saw traces of collapses everywhere, with piles of dirt and rocks blocking most of the passage.
In some places, it was completely blocked. Although Brand could break through the dirt and stones himself, he chose to take detours most of the time to avoid triggering a second collapse.
Qian leaned against Brand, clearly feeling the strong heartbeat of the young lord. She felt her own heart racing. The red-haired girl blushed. She felt that she should say something to break the awkward silence, but her mind was in a turmoil, and she didn’t know where to begin.
After thinking it over, she could only change the subject and asked, "Where are the others?"
Brand shook his head. He remembered that he, Qian, Kulan, and Medisha were separated, and Yuta was even farther away. There was no telling where they were now.
He mentally checked Medisha’s card. The silver card had not turned gray, which at least meant that the Silver Elf Princess was not in any danger. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦
"Not sure, but it doesn’t seem to be a big problem," he replied, recalling that when the collapse occurred, Medisha was probably trapped with Kulan. Given that she was not in danger now, it was likely that Kulan was the one in trouble.
Brand knew that Medisha alone was no match for Kulan.
Qian responded with a soft "Mm."
"Is your wound okay?" Brand asked. He wondered why the red-haired girl suddenly became so talkative and worried whether the Divine Blood might act up prematurely.
"No," Qian quickly changed the subject. "But it’s a bit strange."
"What do you mean?"
"When we started fighting them, it didn’t seem like it was enough to trigger such a large-scale earthquake—"
Brand fell silent. Actually, he had been doubting this point since he regained consciousness. Although a battle between four Gold Levels in the mining tunnels was indeed very dangerous, they had only exchanged a few blows. Apart from his first strike with the White Crow Swordsmanship, none of the powerful techniques had been used yet.
Even a Golden Knight would be indistinguishable from an ordinary person most of the time. It’s not like just stepping into a mine would make the earth shake, would it?
There was no time to think about it back then, but looking back now, it was full of doubts.
He wondered if they had just been unlucky and encountered an earthquake at the right moment. If so, then Lord Martha’s joke was a bit too much. But regardless of whether it was an earthquake or not, this doubt could only remain a guess for now. They would only be able to conclude once they reached the surface and understood the extent of the collapse’s impact.
For now, Brand had to scurry around these pitch-black, intertwined underground tunnels like a mole.
As time passed, he increasingly suspected that the area they were in had been sealed off. However, it wasn’t until he encountered a dead end for the third time and had to turn back that he finally confirmed it.
But the long search was not entirely fruitless. At least, he discovered that the elevator leading to the upper layer could still be used. The only bad news was that it only led to the fourth layer.
The mining area’s fourth layer was connected in sections with the third. However, the fifth layer, which was connected to the Big Beehive, was a complex cave system. From there, one could enter other sections of the fourth layer, possibly re-entering the third layer from another area.
Brand had inquired about this from Joka when he entered the mine. There were five elevators from the third to the fourth layer. While the area he was in was blocked by falling rocks, other areas in the third layer were not necessarily so.
He quickly made up his mind. He and Qian would enter the fourth layer and try their luck there.
The elevator made a heavy sound as it stopped against the rock layer. Brand was not unfamiliar with this layer of the mining area. In fact, he had been up from here before. The fourth layer was also pitch-black, but under the light of the lighting crystal, Brand quickly noticed that the fourth layer had also experienced a collapse.
He looked up at the loose rocks on the top of the tunnel and the accumulated dirt on the ground. It was just that the rocks here were more solid, so the damage to the tunnel was far less than above.
