Becoming a God Starts with Acting-Chapter 360: Another City

Nerio added, "Don’t worry, I’d never lie to you. There really is a surprise underground!"

Silvanus: "..."

If Nerio were standing in front of him right now, he was sure he’d see those innocent, blinking eyes.

But what could be worse at this point? Besides, he was here to explore.

Thinking that, Silvanus didn’t hesitate to look down at the ground beneath his feet—dust-covered earth scattered with fragments of metal.

He crouched, brushing away the thick layer of dust with his hand.

Right at that moment, a shadow suddenly appeared behind him. Nana’s mercilessly mocking voice rang out: "Wow, this is how you explore? Ha ha ha."

Silvanus shot her a glance. "Why don’t you go with Mira and the others?"

Nana truly made no sense. She was always irritated whenever she got near him, but she just kept following him around and picking at him.

She clearly heard the disdain in Silvanus’s tone. She paused, her gaze turning cold.

And at that moment, Silvanus finally saw the "surprise" Nerio mentioned.

Beneath the ground were long, winding grooves. Silvanus narrowed his eyes, running his hand along them. He had the feeling the pattern would extend even further.

He was just about to call for Sylus when the pattern beneath his hand suddenly heated up!

A burst of bright gold light exploded outward, enveloping him and Nana—and Mira, who had just arrived to stop the two from arguing.

A sound like ancient gears grinding to life echoed out. Before anyone could react, the three figures vanished completely!

The ground flattened instantly, as if nothing had ever happened.

Sylus’s face drained of color. He rushed to the spot where Silvanus and the others had disappeared, touching the ground. It was perfectly smooth—he couldn’t find a single mechanism.

"Saintess..."

Sylus muttered—only to be interrupted by a distant scream.

The sounds of battle echoed nonstop, like a massive iron warrior was dragging its heavy body toward them. Every one of its steps made the ground tremble.

Before long, Scarface emerged from the darkness with a handful of his teammates. Eight had gone in—only three returned.

Scarface looked battered, one arm nearly severed, now being reattached by a teammate beside him.

He didn’t care whether there were enough people present or not—he hurriedly said, "The Sentinels have awakened. I can’t tell what rank they are, but we need to get out of here as soon as possible!"

Sentinels—the unbreakable iron wall of the Hobbits—were warriors born to guard, forged in war. They were even more unkillable than immortal beings like the Undead. According to recorded history, the higher a Sentinel’s rank, the smaller its stature. Anything capable of producing the earth-shaking sound from earlier was most likely one of the lowest-ranked Sentinels.

Sylus was shocked. "Weren’t they all in deep sleep? Why would they suddenly awaken..."

He stopped abruptly, then continued, "I can’t leave. The Saintess is trapped beneath this ground!"

The Hunters didn’t bother sparing him a glance. "Then stay here and die."

Against those ancient machines, human magic was nothing.

Sylus frowned deeply.

At that moment, a healing-class Hunter stepped forward, speaking gently: "Let’s retreat for now. Perhaps the Sentinels will fall asleep again soon..."

That was true. There had been cases of Sentinels awakening in the past, but the duration had never lasted more than ten minutes.

The Hunters only felt unlucky. In recorded history, the Sentinels had awakened a total of only three times. They had never expected to encounter the fourth.

Sylus had no other choice. He could only take the remaining two apprentices and temporarily withdraw.

If possible, he should contact the Pope... Mira couldn’t be allowed to come to harm here.

What had initially been a simple expedition now felt more tense than ever.

Especially for Silvanus and the other two.

The moment the light enveloped them, the ground beneath their feet split along its engraved lines as if it were nothing more than a thin panel. Something like a spatial gate opened wide, devouring all of them, drowning them in blinding light.

In that instant, Silvanus could even hear Nerio’s laughter.

That guy really lived to stir up trouble. Then—"I’m just helping you reach the truth faster. Goodbye." And he disappeared, no matter how many times Silvanus called after him.

Helping me?

Silvanus muttered—then the space around them normalized, and only the roaring wind remained.

They were plummeting downward at an unimaginable speed.

Silvanus looked back and saw Nana glaring at him, while Mira had her eyes tightly shut, fresh blood trailing from the corner of her lips—the teleportation gate earlier had clearly taken a heavy toll on her.

Silvanus raised his hand. The wind, soft as flowing silk, gently wrapped around them, steadily slowing their descent until they finally landed with a light touch.

He supported Mira while taking in the sight before them—a city with a peculiar architecture.

Yes, this place was unmistakably an underground city.

They were standing on a high rocky ledge, and looking down, they could see houses packed tightly together, some even stacked atop one another in strange, impossible ways. Clusters of towering spires rose like forests, some reaching up as if trying to pierce the sky, mixed with structures that didn’t belong together at all—palaces, steel tree canopies, and more. Overhead was a narrow skylight that cast a dim glow over the entire subterranean expanse.

If the surface above was nothing but a dusty ruin, then this place was an actual city...

Even Nana, standing beside him, fell silent for a moment. Her eyes widened as she whispered, "So this really is the Relics of the Hobbit?"

It felt as if they had uncovered an unimaginable secret of the world.

Up above, the space holding all those precious materials and knowledge was actually nothing. The real city was here! Aside from its ancient feel, it wasn’t ruined at all.

They couldn’t see the entire city from their vantage point, but just the massive bodies of the spires in front of them were enough to hint at how vast the landscape below must be.

Nana was overflowing with excitement—and she couldn’t help eyeing Silvanus suspiciously. "Why did you know to examine the ground like that?"

After all, in all of history, no one had ever noticed anything strange about the surface!

The corner of Silvanus’s mouth twitched. He obviously couldn’t say, Oh, a little merfolk inside my head told me.

"It was just a hunch," Silvanus said lightly, then added, "We need to find a way out of here."

Nana frowned at that. "We finally made it down here, and you don’t want to explore even a little? Are you really that cowardly?"