Wisp! Awaken in the Magical World

Milia walked in front with Nori in his sword form, flames continued to come from his blade, illuminating the path ahead. Vera and Claus followed by her side while the others were right behind. They had been walking for two hours, and they passed by various intersections already. Nonetheless, it didn't seem like they were going up or down.

"I wonder how these caves formed? It is almost as if they were made by someone," Milia commented on the way.

Alvin, who was close, understood what she meant. "You are talking about the tunnels connected to the factions back in the Academy, right?"

"Oh!" Claus felt nostalgic. "So you were also part of factions, uh? My faction had such tunnels as well. We even used it once to sneak out during an obligatory field exam week. When we came back, the teacher truly made us regret our decision. Hahaha!"

"Hey, look!" Falagita noticed something and pointed to the right side. Barely visible, there was another path, although slightly smaller.

Milia approached it with the others and looked inside. Different from the paths they followed so far, this was the first one that seemed to be going up instead of moving in a straight line. "What do we do?"

Vera didn't waste time and entered that path. "What else? If it is going up, we follow it. Perhaps there is an exit at the end."

Everyone looked at each other and back at Vera. Even now, she was still acting on her own. Well, it wasn't like they had any better ideas, so they followed the woman and her familiar.

At some point, Linfel came from the back of their group and used his Magic Energy to ignite a small fireball. It floated in front of him, illuminating the path ahead even better than Nori. "Milia, Nori, you two should rest."

Nori's Core quickly returned to normal before he landed on Milia's shoulder. To keep his sword form, Nori and Milia have to be connected, and the flames he produced require Magic Energy. It wasn't much, but after over two hours, even they began to run out of it.

"Hum?" Vera suddenly crouched and touched the ground before grabbing some dirt. She rubbed it against her fingers and looked up. "The ground is damp."

*Drip, drip, drip...*

It didn't take long for drops of water to begin to come from the ceiling, catching their attention. "Are we under some lake or something?"

Linfel instantly shook his head. He memorized the entire map. He tried to check his MCOM inside his Spatial Storage a few times, but it couldn't connect to anything due to the profundity and the jammed signals above the ground. So, he could only rely on his memory. "That's not possible. I'm certain the area we attacked doesn't have a single lake or river in over a hundred-kilometer radius."

Vera checked her own MCOM, which was also without connection, and confirmed Linfel's words. "He is right. I don't know where we are, but we definitely haven't moved over a hundred kilometers from our starting point. Whatever is above us, it is not a lake."

"It is one of those underwater tunnels, then," Falagita concluded. The airship that brought them did go through some of the tunnels submerged in water, so that was the only explanation.

"Perhaps it is a little too risk to continue forward, no?" Julius, nervous as ever, already wanted to turn back. "What if the ceiling falls and we are caught by the water. We will die without air."

Nonetheless, everyone felt Julius' words weren't without merit. The explosion of the Fuel Rods back on the surface caused a huge tremor that spread for who knows how many kilometers. Who can guarantee that the ceiling of this tunnel hasn't been affected?

"Alright, let's make a detour," Claus decided, and even Vera didn't complain. "We passed by other paths on our way up, so we just nee-"

*Bzzzzz...*

Yet, before Claus could finish talking, his expression changed as fear took place. Not only him, but so did the others. That's because, right in front of them, Linfel's Fireball suddenly increased in size and power several times. It didn't matter how one looked at it. That was definitely the action of someone who intended to release it!

"Stop!"

Linfel wasn't paying attention, though. "FIRE IN THE HOLE! No, wait, FIRE IN THE CEILING!"

The fireball was released, traveling several meters ahead before hitting the ceiling, where most of the drops of water seemed to concentrate.

*BOOM!*

*SHUAAA!!!*

The ceiling ahead crumbled, and a huge amount of water began to come down. Everyone quickly released their Magic Energy and shielded themselves. They all wanted to run, but the water was too strong. If they tried to move, they would be carried away.

Soon, the tunnel was inundated, making it impossible to breathe... or so it was supposed to be the case. However, everyone had a sphere of air around their heads that allowed them to take some air for a short while. Once again, it was Linfel's doing. He used his Magic Energy to gather both water and wing elements and create those breathing bubbles.

At the same time, his voice echoed inside the bubbles. "That's a lot of water. Well, we were also dirty because of everything that happened so far, so that this chance to wash yourselves a little. No need to thank me."

No one could hear it since they were underwater. However, it wasn't hard to tell that every single person with their heads inside those bubbles was cursing Linfel to the end of time. Vera even wondered if she was the assassin or Linfel instead.

Yet, something surprising happened after the water fell for a minute... it stopped! The water continued to run down the path they came from, and now everyone was standing on the ground again, although they were completely drenched by the water a moment ago. They all breathed heavily, having used a lot of their Magic Energy to resist the water-pushing force so that they wouldn't be carried down.

"Sure enough, everyone is a lot cleaner now. It feels good, right?" Linfel seemed very satisfied with his actions.

"Like hell!" Vera was the first one to recover enough to speak. "What were you thinking?! Were you trying to kill us? Come here! I'm going to kill you first! And then I'm going to kill your master!"

Alvin looked at that and bitterly smiled. Once again, he was being dragged into Linfel's mess. 'I don't even have the energy to complain anymore...'

Linfel was puzzled, though. "Why are you angry? Weren't you in a hurry to find an exit?"

Vera and the others were taken aback for a moment. "What does this have to do with anything?"

Linfel moved under the part of the ceiling that crumbled and used another small fireball to illuminate above. "What else? If there was water above, then there were other tunnels. There were plenty of tunnels below to take all the water from the tunnels above. Don't forget, we passed through various of these tunnels in the airship, and none of them lasted long."

He continued. "Obviously, each submerged tunnel had only so much water that probably accumulated over a long time. As long as we had a place to send all that water, it would open another passage." Suddenly, Linfel felt a slight current of Magic Energy and smiled. "There we go. Seems like the exit isn't too far."

Other than Milia, Alvin, Nori, and Felia, everyone else was skeptical of Linfel's words. Not for too long, though. They didn't know about Linfel's abilities. They helped each other go to the tunnels above, and they were surprised that they didn't crumble with Linfel's craziness. Alvin even wondered if Linfel knew exactly how to use the Fireball earlier to achieve this result.

From there, Linfel continued to lead the group, but this time, Claus and Vear stayed right to his side. If Linfel tried anything like that again, they definitely would cut him down. They only hadn't done so yet because of this exit he mentioned.

They walked for another three hours, and Vera was already losing her patience. However, before she lost it, a light appeared at the end of the tunnel after they turned a corner. No doubt that was the light of the day. The group's anger changed into surprise, and they again measured Linfel. 'Just how does he do it...'

Yet, Linfel's next words dampened their mood. "Well, this is not good..."

"What is it?" Vera asked, and only then did she notice Linfel had an MCOM on his little ethereal hands. 'Where the hell did it come from?'

Nonetheless, she quickly shook her head and checked her own MCOM. After opening the map, she noticed there was a signal from the satellites... and that Linfel had a good reason to say those words. "We should have just died in the explosion... At least it would have been faster."