Seed of Titan-Chapter 63: Back to the Surface

Inside the wall was a space that wasn’t too large, approximately the same as the stone building before. The space had nothing in it except for its metal walls.

"No wonder the entrance was quite sturdy," Christo remarked as he knocked on the sturdy walls.

"What now?" Flo asked.

Christo walked toward the opening that Drai had created. He then inspected the sides of the hole.

"Yeah, we’re definitely not using the elevator’s console. It was destroyed when we blasted this space open."

"Do you want me to check out up there?" Drai asked, eyeing the metal ceiling.

"Hmm... Sure. I think that’s our only option," Christo replied.

Drai then lowered Natalia so she could prop herself up with Flo’s help. Following that, Drai carefully moved Auri to Christo’s back.

"Here we go," Drai said before leaping and punching through the ceiling, disappearing into the hole he just created.

"Here, catch," Christo said as he threw another lamp through the ceiling hole.

For the next minute, Drai’s footsteps clanged all over the ceiling. Not long after, Drai jumped back down the hole.

"I couldn’t see much, but I think there’s a high opening above us. This thing should be an elevator just like you suspected," Drai said to Christo.

"Do you think you can carry us all the way up with your skill?" Christo asked.

"My skill can only last 6.1 minutes. I’m not sure if that’s enough time to reach the surface. And there’s a cooldown too after I use it."

"Hmm... If we knew how deep we are, we could probably calculate it. Unfortunately, we have no idea."

As Christo was pondering, Flo asked, "Are the walls made of metal too, Drai?"

"I think so. At least they don’t look natural, no dirt or rocks. So it’s likely that they’re reinforced," Drai replied.

"Fucking hell, let’s just wing it. We’re already this close to escaping, why mull over it?" Natalia urged.

"Hmm... I’m fine with it. If it looks like we’re not getting there before I hit my limit, I’ll just open up a space in the wall for us to wait for my cooldown," Drai said.

"Sounds reasonable. Sure, let’s wing it," Christo agreed. "Let’s get above first. It’s more convenient than having Drai blast open the entire ceiling."

Following this, the group climbed through the ceiling hole. Drai had to transform briefly so that he could move Natalia and Auri carefully through the opening.

After a few minutes, the group was ready to ascend.

Drai was now wearing a makeshift cloth bag on his chest. He didn’t know precisely how his skill worked, but he knew that his pants hadn’t torn apart when he transformed. That’s why he had an idea of carrying his friends in a bag to reduce the risk of them falling, assuming that this makeshift bag also get enlarged.

"Ready?" Drai asked his friends that were standing a distance away from him.

"Yes," Flo and Christo replied.

"Wait!"

Unlike the others, Natalia was surprisingly not ready.

"What’s the matter?" Christo asked.

"Aren’t you guys forgetting something?"

"What?" Drai asked confusedly. All his stuff was in his storage and he had only been wearing rags all this time, so he couldn’t have left anything behind.

"Jian!" Natalia said.

Silent ensued as Christo and Flo finally realized that their cultivator friend was probably still playing tag with the golem.

Meanwhile, Drai had actually completely forgotten than Jian was his party member.

"I guess I’ll look for him..." Drai said rather awkwardly before jumping down the hole. He was slightly ashamed for forgetting about his own roommate.

But before Drai could exit the elevator, he saw a silhouette slowly walking down the dark hallway, heading toward him.

Drai became alert, thinking that it was another golem.

But as the silhoutte came closer, Drai could finally see that it was his missing friend.

Jian’s condition wasn’t that different from Drai as he was covered in rags. But unlike Drai, he had bloodstains and bruises all over his body.

Yet, instead of complaining as he usually would, he was merely smiling. His face seemed content—delighted even.

"Yo," Jian greeted.

"What happened to you?" Drai asked, eyeing Jian from head to toe.

"I’ll tell you about it later, hehehe... But now let’s focus on escaping. Auri still needs help."

"Her condition really worsened earlier, but it got a little better after Flo treated her with some antivenoms she found here."

"Then let’s get going!" Jian said as he entered the wall. He noticed the hole on the ceiling and quickly jumped through it.

Drai stared at the hole in slight daze. He figured that something good must have happened to Jian.

’Oh well. Like Jian said, let’s just escape first,’ Drai said to himself before disappearing into the ceiling.

***

In one of the hovercars, Bismar was slumped on his seat, looking dispirited.

The search had been going for hours, but instead of progressing, it felt like they were regressing.

Before this search, they could still argue that the party might be trapped somewhere in the area, but now they were almost completely sure that the party had completely disappeared without trace, as if swallowed by the earth.

The ground search teams were still going through the forest, now employing an area search rather than relying on the radars and testimonies, for these had been utterly unproductive.

Such a manual search method would probably take days to complete, but there currently was no better alternative.

If the group had really left the vicinity, then there would be countless possibilities regarding their location and circumstances. If so, such a small search team would not be able to track them down.

Amelia came over and sat down beside Bismar. The two sat there in silence, thinking about this whole mess and wondering what had become of their missing first-years.

Suddenly, the SAR operator announced, "Large movement detected. Approximately 1387 yards north at 330 degrees."

The pilot turned to the operator, asking, "Isn’t that location near the peak?"

"Yes. It’s strange, but the readings say so," the operator replied.

"Roger. Hawk One moving to location," the pilot announced through the comm.

The hovercar sped toward their target coordinate.

Despite the small commotion, Bismar’s head was still slumping, seemingly uninterested in the SAR team’s findings.

"Don’t you want to check it out?" Amelia asked.

"No. It’s probably some random thing again like an avalanche," Bismar flatly replied.

He had lost count of how many similar findings or sightings they’ve encountered during the search. Every single one of them had failed to give any further insight on the party’s location or circumstances.

Amelia didn’t push the matter as she could relate to Bismar’s feelings; she was also beginning to lose hope.

As the hovercar neared the mountain peak, a loud rumble was heard, followed by a series of crashing sounds.

Bismar glanced through the window and saw a wave of rocks and dirt rolling down the mountain below the peak.

"See? It’s a fucking rockslide—just another dead end," Bismar said with a sigh as he turned to Amelia.

Upon seeing her, Bismar noticed that her expression was frozen, eyes widened and mouth agape.

Bismar instantly turned around, looking through the window again. Then a split second later, he saw it.

Near the mountain peak from where the landslide had fallen, tiny figures were standing before a large opening on the mountainside.

These people were still quite far from the hovercar, so their faces weren’t clearly seen. But it didn’t stop Bismar from opening the hovercar’s side hatch and leaping into the distance.

The SAR members gasped as he saw Bismar’s suicidal act, but they quickly found out that it was a calculated move, as a red aura promptly surged from Bismar, propelling him forward in the air.

The members of Mango Seekers watched as their huge president flew straight at them.

Seconds later, Bismar landed right in front of the group.

Christo was quick to realize what Bismar’s appearance signified. The cogs in his head spun rapidly, preparing a coherent explanation.

"Hello, President. I can explain—"

Before Christo could finish his words, Bismar rushed forward and hugged the whole group with his apelike arms.

"I thought you fuckers were dead!" Bismar wept as he hugged the group tightly, tears falling from his eyes.

Drai and his friends looked at each other awkwardly as their squished faces were less than an inch apart from each other.

Aside from Christo and Auri, the others had also realized that even if they had successfully escaped from that strange place, there were still a lot of things for them to do, the first one being calming down their tearful president.

***

Near the edge of the forest, the dozens of Valiant Ventures’ members were preparing to return home.

Christo had given the higher-ups the gist of what had happened during their venture; further details would be given after they returned home, probably through questionings and written reports.

Enda, Rofalo, and Big Bob were the most emotional ones to receive them aside from Bismar.

The others mostly looked happy and relieved, but a few were rather reserved with their emotions, such as Selis, Fern, and Amelia.

Muzie was a special case, as she merely gave the party a double thumbs-up without even changing her expression.

Meanwhile, Auri wasn’t with them since she had been quickly taken away by the SAR team after they were rescued, accompanied by Aldea and a few other seniors.

As Drai, Jian, Natalia, and Flo were waiting for the seniors to pack up, they occasionally glanced at each other knowingly. This was because Christo had instructed them to hide some information from the seniors, particularly regarding Drai’s new skill.

Christo had changed the upper limit of Drai’s skill into only twice his size. He had also adjusted the details regarding events that involved Drai’s skill, including their ascent back to the surface.

"Just follow my words if you care for Drai," Christo said when the others questioned his reasoning.

Flo and Natalia didn’t have much problem with this arrangement, but Drai and Jian were absolutely terrible actors.

Drai would suddenly become awkward when the conversation touched upon the modified details while Jian would exaggerate too much.

Natalia and Flo eventually realized that the easiest solution was just to make the two boys shut up, letting the girls handle the talk especially when Christo wasn’t there just like now.

"Where did Christo go?" Drai asked.

"I saw him go into the forest," Flo replied.

"Dude’s probably shitting out the biggest turd of his life. I never saw him shit during the venture," Jian commented.

"Fucking gross..." Natalia weakly remarked. She was spent and couldn’t muster the willpower to engage in a trash-talk duel with Jian.

At the side, Flo was touching her stomach nervously since she too hadn’t pooped during the venture. She wondered if she would also let out a record-breaking piece later.

Meanwhile, Drai was preoccupied with Christo’s arrangements regarding their testimonies, wondering what other things he must hide in the future in order to avoid troubling himself and his parents.

’I can’t wait for the day when I’ll finally be free from all this hassle...’

***