As some of you know AUP has been licensed by Yonder but I won't drop it unless I get a notice from them.
"The fight has begun."
Rudger said as a wave of shock traveled through the air from a distance.
They weren't the only ones who had entered the underground; other groups of fighters had begun to engage the chimeras.
The aftermath was felt by Chris and Belaruna. They didn't know the exact distance or direction, but the echoing screams of the chimeras told them what was happening.
"Uh, are we going to be okay?"
Belaruna's voice was shaky.
To a stranger, she might have sounded terrified and frightened, but Rudger knew she was excited with anticipation. She was hoping that the chimeras would come after them, even if she pretended not to.
The reason, of course, was that she hadn't finished analyzing the chimeras to her satisfaction.
'Well, I know that's just the way she is.'
Rudger cast a subtle glance at Chris, who stood by Belaruna's side.
"Don't worry, if those monsters do come out, I'll protect you."
"Okay, thank you."
'What is it with this human?'
The normally gruff Chris was being very nice to Belaruna and even Rudger, who doesn't often show his emotions, was surprised that he was such a gentleman.
Even more surprising was the fact that Belaruna, with her masked, sullen personality, seemed to react quite normally to him.
Rudger realized that they'd just had a conversation about pharmaceuticals, and that they'd come to an understanding but he couldn't believe how close they've become in such a short time.
'I don't know if I should take this as a bad thing or a good thing.'
Rudger shook his head and brushed the thought away. They weren't the ones he needed to worry about right now.
The chimeras had spotted them in the distance and were approaching and Rudger shouted a warning.
"They're coming!"
The words startled Chris, who immediately shifted his stance and pulled a vial of reagents from his inside pocket.
The sounds of fighting in the distance drew some of the chimeras' attention to the area, but there were too many of them. There was no getting away from them.
Sensing their presence, the chimeras rushed toward them, splashing through the underground waterways.
Belaruna flinched in spite of herself. Not because she was afraid, but because she was forcing herself to stop from running toward the chimeras.
Unaware of this, Chris thought she was frightened and stood in her way. Naturally, Rudger and Chris stood shoulder to shoulder in front of her.
"There are ten of them. I'll go ahead and clean them up."
"It's fine. I can fight."
Chris frowned, his pride bruised by Rudger's consideration of him. He hated giving up everything to Rudger, but even more so in front of Belaruna.
Of course, it wasn't like he was a child. In fact, Chris was more than capable of taking on the chimeras and Rudger had no intention of dissuading him, so he nodded slightly.
"In that case, I'll just clean up after you."
Without warning, Chris tossed the three vials he was holding between his fingers.
[Boom!]
The vials shattered and colorful reagents spilled out.
Individually, the reagents were unremarkable but when the three reagents were combined into one, an intense chemical reaction occurred, and something amazing happened.
[Boom!]
The reagents bubbled, and gray smoke billowed out.
The chimeras that had been running towards them were engulfed in smoke and began to choke and gasp. The one in the lead spat a bowlful of blood from its mouth.
Rudger looked at the scene and gasped.
'Ho-ho. Three reagents mixed together to create a synergy.'
Most poisons wouldn't work on a chimera but the reagent Chris had used was so powerful that even the chimeras couldn't resist it.
Was he really that good?
Thinking that this would keep him from getting caught, Rudger prepared his magic. His targets were the chimeras that hadn't been touched by the poison, and they were quickly closing the distance, waiting for it to subside.
Rudger wasn't about to let that happen. The spell, quickly finalized through the source code, created a gust of wind and the chimeras scrambled to retreat in alarm, but it was too late.
The wind blew the gray poisonous smoke and engulfed the chimeras as they gurgled and coughed up blood, then collapsed helplessly to the ground.
"That's quite a strong poison you're using."
"It's a special Benimore family reagent. You won't find it on the market."
Chris said boastfully.
"It's a powerful toxin that seeps into the respiratory system and kills cells from the inside out. Even a chimera immune to the poison would never survive it."
"Are you sure you're okay? It looks like the fumes are blocking this way too."
"Don't worry about that."
The gray smoke slowly subsided before Chris could finish.
"Over time, the toxicity will dissipate as it hits the air in the atmosphere, leaving behind a harmless powder that can be washed away with water. You don't have to worry about it working the other way around."
"Wow, that's awesome!"
Belaruna exclaimed, her eyes lighting up.
"How did you get the idea to combine three reagents to make something like that, especially one of them being Hackstoss Leaf Extract, which must have been tricky to handle!"
Chris asked, narrowing his eyes.
"You figured that out all at once?"
"Yep. Hehe, I'm kind of knowledgeable about that stuff."
"I see, it's no big deal. Hackstoss leaves explode at the first drop of water because they overreact, but if you grind up some mendala root and mix it in, it becomes very stable, and then you can do whatever you want with it."
"Ah, I see, if I can keep it safe, I can use it as a weapon just by mixing it with other reagents to diffuse it!"
"You have a keen eye, usually other wizards don't get it when I tell them. As expected of the expert the First Princess recommended.
Chris was in a rather pleasant mood, perhaps because he didn't usually have anyone to talk to about such things and so was Belaruna.
'You are very excited.'
Rudger was glad that Chris wasn't too suspicious of Belaruna. Still, he hadn't expected them to get along this well.
"It is indeed a relief to find someone with whom I can converse well after so long. Miss Belaruna, if I ever get a chance, would you mind if I contacted you privately?"
"I don't mind, but I don't want Chris to feel uncomfortable……."
"I don't mind."
Belaruna's long ears twitched. That was a clear sign of amusement.
"You two seem to get along well, and I'm glad you do, but I hope you realize that it's time to focus on the mission."
Eventually, when Rudger pointed it out, Chris coughed and turned away and Belaruna nodded shyly.
They both seemed to have come to an understanding, so they could move on, but Rudger couldn't quite get rid of the creeping feeling in his stomach.
'A strange synergy formed in an unintended place.'
Rudger decided to chalk it up to the fact that they were in the same industry and had the same interests.
The three walked through the underground waterways once again and thanks to the map, they didn't get lost.
"This is the entrance."
A rusted door stood on one side of the underground waterway. It was the entrance to an underground facility that was said to have existed for a long time.
"You're going to have to be extra careful once we get inside, because it's going to be different from here."
The trio encountered a few more chimeras along the way. But in front of Rudger and Chris, the chimera was helpless and collapsed.
Still, they couldn't let their guard down. The underground facility was the enemy's backyard. For now, it was just the chimeras, but there was no telling what lurked further back.
That didn't mean they could back down, so the trio headed straight for the iron gates. They opened the gates to reveal a black tunnel that plunged underground.
A rusted ladder led downward, attached to one wall of the tunnel like a beast's mouth.
"The condition of the ladder suggests this is a passage not used by the Liberators."
"That means they don't know every inch of this place. Let's go."
The three of them quickly used floating magic to make their way down.
Belaruna didn't know how to use magic, so Chris carried her in what anyone would call a princess hug.
"Wasn't I heavy?"
"Not at all, in fact, you're as light as a leaf."
"……."
Rudger stared at the two of them as if they were filming a romance, his gaze sinking even lower.
'As if those two weren't already that way.'
The two people who had been labeled lunatics wherever they'd gone had met and become some kind of white knight and hapless heroine.
Rudger, who doesn't usually show much emotion, was stunned. If he'd known this would happen, he wouldn't have brought Belaruna here.
He regretted it, but he didn't neglect to keep an eye on his surroundings but luckily there wasn't an ambush waiting for them.
Relieved, he took a wider view of his surroundings.
'This is more of a subterranean ruin than an underground facility.'
The fact that it hadn't collapsed and was still standing proved that it was hundreds of years old. It's hard to believe that something like this could exist beneath a capital city.
Moreover, it was brighter than the underground aqueducts, even though it was supposed to be lightless but the faint fluorescence inside was not enough to make it impossible to distinguish objects.
'It was said that only a few people in the imperial family knew about this place, and even then, it was left untouched.'
How did the Liberation Army know about this place?
They were too well prepared to have stumbled upon it by accident so must have known all along and planned to use it.
Rudger suspected, the Black Dawn had tipped them off.
'It could be Nikolai, but I doubt his intelligence network is this good.'
Among other things was the dead World Tree in this underground facility, but also the words Hans had said before he left.
-Brother, there's something else I need to tell you.
-What?
-About your teacher.
-Yes. How is she?
-She says she's bored and lying low, but she's given me some valuable advice.
-What advice?
-She told me to look underground. That's what got me thinking about looking down there.
Grander, an Eighth Rank Absolute, would not have said this without a reason. No doubt her senses had picked up something lurking underground. However, it hadn't attracted much attention, so she hadn't acted on it herself.
'Whether it hasn't attracted attention, or she hasn't gotten to that stage yet, we'll have to see.'
If his teacher had said something like that, he had to be vigilant, first and foremost.
'Master's warning and what the Liberators are planning are the same, or at least related.'
In any case he'll only know that when he hears from Hans.
Rudger's thoughts were interrupted by the crackle of static from his communicator.
"I have some bad news."
"What is it?"
"'The communications are down."
Originally, Rudger and Chris were going to wait until after they checked the World Tree before sending their results back.
Just because they were moving in small groups didn't mean they couldn't communicate with the other pairs but that wasn't possible now.
Chris frowned at the prospect of being effectively stranded in enemy territory.
"So we're turning back?"
"We've come this far, we can't turn back."
"This place is not on the map, do you know the way?"
When Chris asked that, Rudger activated his magic instead of answering.
A ripple of sound spread out in concentric circles around Rudger. It bounced and collided across the passageways of the underground facility, spreading out like a spider web.
With the information from the returned waves, Rudger drew a set of coordinates in his head.
Naturally, a map of a 200-meter radius centered on him was drawn but Rudger didn't stop there, he shot out several more sound waves.
The frequency was low enough that Chris heard it and he immediately realized what Rudger had done.
"Sound magic, a derivative of wind, analyzing the surrounding structure by the returning sound waves."
"Did you know about it?"
"My family had a lot of contact with the military. I've heard a lot about it, it's a tool for locating enemies through sonar, but I've always heard it's only in the research phase because it's not very practical, but I never realized you could use it as magic."
"If you know that, I don't need to explain."
With that Rudger turned and walked away and Chris clicked his tongue at his lack of desire to elaborate. He was curious, but he didn't ask how he was using such magic. He knew too well what Rudger had done to earn his current position as planning director.
He shouldn't have been surprised that a man who'd deciphered ancient Larsilian to create a mana suppressor would now use sound magic as a detector. At least that seemed like a common sense possibility.
Following Rudger, the trio came to a halt because they had finally found what they were looking for.
"The root of the World Tree."
Chris muttered in surprise.
The roots of a massive World Tree poked through one wall of the facility, or rather, the ruins.
Even in the blur of the lack of light, it was easy to make out. It was ivory-colored, but its enormity was unmistakable.
Belaruna's eyes shone, too.
Chris and Belaruna were about to touch the root of the World Tree when Rudger reached out and stopped them.
"What's wrong?"
Chris asked, barely loud enough for Rudger to hear.
The frustration in his voice was palpable as he wanted to check it out right away but he didn't press the point, knowing that Rudger wouldn't stop him for no reason.
Instead of answering, Rudger gestured with his chin to one of the roots of the World Tree.
Sure enough, as Chris had suspected near the root was a blurry human shape.
"What is that?"