Shlick
I took out my sword as the light finally went out of the eyes of Black Agate Armored Elephantman; it was a good opponent. It had taught me a lot, but like every Grimm Monster, it had to die.
I quickly took out its storage from its fallen body and started to look into it, and there I found not only Yellow Thorny Peach but also the map that Black Agate Armored Elephantman had in its hand earlier.
When I looked at it, I found out it is paper and written by a human, the text on the map is that of common human language.
"Frind, would you mind telling me about this Map?" I asked the last Yellow Agate Armored Elephantman, who is very shocked by the death of its brothers and still shaking in fear.
My voice seemed to bring it out of stupor as it looked at me in question, "This Map, do you know anything about this map? If you know something good, I don’t mind letting you go." I asked while putting a friendly smile on my face, but I did not know that my warm smile feels like the smile of the devil to the Grimm Monster.
"Would you really let me go?" asked Yellow Agate Armored Elephantman, its eyes full of hope for a life that, for a moment, it had lost the cruelty that all the Grimm Monsters poses.
"Sure, I’ve already killed five of you, so letting weakling as you would be no problem," I said without mincing my words while still having a warm smile on my face.
Its expression changed a little when I called it weakling, and a look of rage appeared on its face when it looked at me, but next second it calmed down as it knew it was the truth, of all his siblings, it was the weakest.
"I don’t know much about the Map, we have found it in the storage of humans we have killed, that Yellow Thorny Peach was also there with the map," Yellow Agate Armored Elephantman said.
"Can I go n" Puchi!
"Sorry, I don’t keep my promises against the Grimm Monsters," I answered as I pierced my sword through its chest while looking at its questioning expression; he seemed to understand my answer before light completely went out of its eyes.
Both sides hate each other so much that any promise that they made between them is very flimsy; it has no value.
I put storage and maps into my storage. I collected the bodies of the Grimm Monsters before deactivating my abode, only to set up a few kilometers away from my previous location.
Though I am very curious about the Map, I wanted to sleep first. I had been fighting the whole day, and this fight, which seemed simple, had taken a lot of strain on me, so I just wanted to be completely rested before I go to dangerous treasure hunting.
"Good Sleep!"
I muttered as I woke up the next day, it was early morning, and the sun had just fully come out a while ago. I got out of bed leisurely and started to do my morning routine.
Two hours later, I got out of my abode with a map in my hand. Looking at the map, it is clear that it is drawn by a complete rookie, one had to look around carefully before one could follow it.
It took me quite a while before I understood the lines inside and I started to follow them, and when I stopped forty-five minutes later, I found myself in the lush deep valley.
From what is written on the map, there is an underground tunnel here somewhere, and I have to find in the valley which is going to be hard as whoever wrote this map had intentionally or unintentionally had not specified the location of the underground location in the map.
"Ashlyn, help me find the entrance of the underground tunnel?" I asked Ashlyn, "Chew Chew!" she chirped before flying away from my shoulder.
Seeing her flying away, I concentrated my killing energy on the stone, which I had put under my bracelet and started to scan the whole valley through my senses. It is a good thing that the valley is not big; otherwise, it would not have come under my ranger wholly.
Fifteen minutes had passed, and I scanned every inch of the Valley, but I was not able to find the entrance that I started to think that this whole map is just a big fat joke that the owner wanted to play on Grimm Monster if he died by their hands.
Chew Chew
I was busy with my thoughts when Ashlyn came chirping at me, saying she had found the entrance, I am quite surprised as I have become near sure that this map is a joke.
According to Ashlyn, the entrance is a little high in the valley, so I activated the void boots and flew toward the entrance she had mentioned, and when I got there, I did find one.
Slice Slice...
It is very deeply hidden amidst large, strong vines that I had to use my sword to cut them. When I cut all the vines on the entrance and the human side hole appeared in front of me.
And what is strange is that I was barely able to discover the entrance despite standing directly in front of it, only when I concentrated my senses on it do I able to discover it,
"This tunnel is very strange!" I muttered, it is very clear that for some strange reason, the sensory abilities did not work on this tunnel, so If I go in, I will be half-blind.
"There are no rewards without the risk," I said after staring at the tunnel for a few minutes before entering inside.
Dhub!
As I had expected, the tunnel was so dark that I had to use a fireball for light, and when I was summoning my fireball, I found there was a small resistance. There is some strange energy that seems to be present in this tunnel, which seemed to suppress everything.
Abilities, body, soul, even Rule powers, it seemed to suppress everything. Though the energy is very faint, its effects could be clearly felt.
I stood on my spot for a few seconds sensing that strange energy before I started to walk in the tunnel. As I walked deeper, that strange supressive energy kept getting denser and denser.
As the energy kept getting denser, the more suppressed I started to feel, at first the suppression was nothing, but as I got deeper, it began to affect me, I had used a lot more ten times more energy than is required to just main a tiny fireball.
Seeing that, I cut off the fireball and took out a bright glow torch. I should not waste my mana on the silly things when I have the other options, I thought.
I have to say this tunnel is very very deep, and as I venture deeper the suppression becomes greater. It had reached the point that I had to use a considerable amount of energy just to take a step.
Time passed by, and finally, after a little more than eight hours later, I saw the light, which made my tired and huffing face smile.