Once again, the entire team had to settle down and wait for Sennefer to replenish her mana.
For a long while, no one made a sound.
All wizards, including several very capable fighters in the team, looked discouraged. They might be prominent at where they came from, but here in the Abyss, enemies with surpassing strength were everywhere.
Apart from being depressed, another reason why people weren’t talking was that they didn’t want to bother Sennefer’s rest.
Yet the peace did not last long enough before someone broke it. It was an apprentice who suddenly began yelling in the middle of the crowd, “Stop... STOP IT! Get away from me!”
It was a man poorly dressed in a worn-out uniform robe. He was currently shouting more madness while covering his ears. His voice was so rowdy in the cave that everyone was looking that way.
Maher stomped his way and lifted him off the ground by his collar. “Quiet, now.”
It took the apprentice several seconds to realize what just happened to him, only to receive the pointy end of Maher’s threatening aura and almost wet his pants.
“You can put him down, Maher,” Sennefer spoke from behind them.
“Miss Sennefer, I apologize. Did this man interrupt your meditation?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m almost done. Let’s clean everything up and get a move on.”
Sennefer glanced at the apprentice Maher dropped on the floor, who was still trembling while mumbling the same thing.
“Stop... Stop it, please...”
“What’s the matter with you?” Sennefer frowned.
The apprentice kept shivering and didn’t respond.
“What’s gotten into this guy?” Maher questioned the other onlooking apprentices, clearly displeased.
The addressed apprentices looked at each other anxiously before a man wearing a similar uniform raised a hand. “Sir-sir, I think Gucia went insane due to too much stress.”
“He’s insane?”
Slowly, the second apprentice explained that the collapsed apprentice, Gucia, came from Foreboding Forest. It was not Gucia’s intent to come here—he was blackmailed and was forced to accept a quest that sent him to the Abyss.
Gucia was always a timid person who tended to keep his feelings to himself. It seemed a few days in the Abyss were enough to destroy his wit.
“Well, Gucia asked me whether I heard some noise, I said no. And he won’t tell me whatever’s going on. He kept repeating that something was whispering into his ear and telling him to go elsewhere. And that somebody’s waiting for him...”
Sennefer and Maher exchanged a cautious look.
“I see.” Sennefer nodded. “You... keep your partner safe. Don’t let him out of your sight.”
“I-I will! I’ll make sure he doesn’t bother people again, Miss Sennefer.”
Sennefer slightly shook her head and turned to speak to the team.
“We’re not far from the Gray Lamination Zone now. Let’s try hitting there within ten hours.”
Following the lead of the guards, everyone stepped out of the cave entrance one by one.
Angor stayed behind the group and kept some attention on Gucia. Like most people, he thought the apprentice was suffering a common mental condition. But Madelyne provided a different opinion.
“Sennefer and Maher were hiding something in their words. That Gucia man got more than a fart in the brain.”
In fact, there were many wizards still giving Gucia suspicious glances because they knew something else was going on.
Angor tried checking Gucia as well. This man was currently finishing up the clean-up work with his companions, while the middle-aged apprentice who always stayed with him tagged along.
At first, everything appeared normal, and Gucia looked better.
Then suddenly, Gucia disappeared from Angor’s view.
Angor widened his eyes as he watched the other apprentice still “comforting” Gucia without realizing what happened nearby.
The onlooking wizards including Madelyne all appeared to be surprised, which meant they did not know any better.
“Tsk. When Sennefer mentioned ‘keeping him in sight’, I knew something was off.” Madelyne held her chin. “Sennefer knew this would happen. Now the question is, is this the ‘other danger’ that haunted the Frozen Ruins? In case you’re wondering, I checked. There’s no dimensional energy signature or any energy signature for that matter. That apprentice just vanished. Poof. Gone.”
Gucia’s partner finally noticed that something was wrong after the whole team had left the cave.
“Miss Sennefer! Gucia is—”
Sennefer nodded to show acknowledgment, but she did not say anything else about this matter.
“Should I check the cave and see where he’s hiding?”
“No. You won’t find him,” Sennefer said in an as-a-matter-of-fact way. “Somebody was waiting for him, as he said, no? Maybe he decided to follow the call.”
Her words got people even more stressed. It was no small matter if people could suddenly be lost for no reason.
“So this is why people can’t build a base at Frozen Ruins...?” Angor muttered.
“Not only that.”
Angor heard the voice and saw Brofen coming to him with a big smile.
“So, apart from being kidnapped by the air, there are even more problems hidden at Frozen Ruins?” asked Madelyne.
“Correct.”
“Care to enlighten us?”
“Sure, sure.” Brofen grinned. “Can I get a lift? I’ll tell you on the way.”
...
A moment later, Angor’s Gondola steadily traveled alongside the Frozen Wing, but with a third passenger on it—a short-legged, round-bodied alchemist.
At first, Angor thought to reject the request. But Madelyne reassured him by saying, “Let him come. He can’t do stupid things when I’m watching.”
Unwilling, Angor complied.
Naturally, Brofen’s first reaction upon climbing onto the boat was to get to the bottom of everything he could reach.
“A soft curtain instead of a door... nice.
“These bubbles come from the hidden property of Wavy Clams, I think? Lucky you.
“Oh! That’s made from a meteorite core!”
Brofen always wanted to have a closer look at Gondola. However, he was only allowed to do so just now. Unfortunately, he wasn’t good at enchantment. No matter how hard he looked, he could not fully copy Gondola’s design.
“Looked enough? Time to talk.” Madelyne took a seat beside Angor and left a place on the other side of the table for Brofen, who would feel more comfortable if he used two chairs.
“You want to know what’s so dangerous about Frozen Ruins, eh? You just saw one of the many reasons. Yes, I’m referring to what happened to Gucia.” Brofen looked fearful all of a sudden. “Someone from the Moonfrost Union noticed the problem in the last century when they were trying to build a city here. You guessed it, someone in the team disappeared without leaving any trace. And just like Gucia, they mentioned ‘being summoned’.
“Nobody cared about it because they only lost one or two people in a few months. But things changed when ‘Walker of Delict’ became the next victim.”
Madelyne looked surprised now. “‘Walk of Delict’ Puccio?!”
“Right. Puccio went missing in the same manner.”
“Puccio was a rising star in his time. My word... So that’s how he vanished from people’s view.”
“Puccio’s incident finally alerted the union. They carefully checked all records and noticed that something around Frozen Ruins took over a thousand people away since this place was discovered, including several wizards. Later, more and more people voted against the city construction plan, until it was canceled.
“Puccio was a truth-finder. His disappearance caused a big racket among people. Even Mister Monkey came to check what was going on.”