The group of 3, except Romus and Mari, who had powers, made their way down the staircase basement, the musty smell clogging their nose. The damp basement felt disgusting to be in and while Ning went into the water, the rest didn’t want to.
“Where are they?” Matthew asked, looking all around.
Shara walked down and looked around, not seeing anything.
Ning pointed toward the ground. “Down there,” he said. “Nearly 30 meters below. They’re hiding in there. I don’t think they realize we’ve arrived.”
Matthew narrowed his eyes. He knew by now that Ning was a little special in more ways than one. His spear skills were one of the things weird about him, which didn’t match his age, but there were also other things as well.
If not for the fact that he had shown obvious signs of being a Spirit Detective, he would’ve assumed by now that he was a Reaper as well.
“So they’re not with the group you killed?” Matthew asked.
Ning shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t think so,” he said as a thought came to him. “What if they were here beforehand and had to hide because the others came here?”
“So a different group, huh?” Matthew said. “Maybe they aren’t bandits. They were just staying here because of the rain and had to run away when the bandits came.”
Ning thought for a moment, sensing the people in the bottom area.
“This place must be small then. These people are cramped.” He looked around for a few moments before turning around. “Come on, let’s find a secret entrance that leads down below.”
They began searching for it all, but even as minutes passed they couldn’t find it. After a brief period, Shara ran out to call more of the soldiers waiting outside to come to aid.
Together, they turned every stone in the entire destroyed fort and yet they could do nothing at all. There was not a single place where they could have gone down from there.
They stopped searching and gathered in the open space.
“Are you absolutely sure there is anyone down there?” Mari asked, having joined the group now as well. “Because you haven’t exactly seen them, have you?”
“Trust me, okay? I’m not lying. They are down below, nearly 25 meters below.”
“25 meters,” Matthew said softly, looking around the fort. “25 meters below the basement, right?”
Ning nodded.
“That would put us on the bedrock. There are people in the bedrock? More importantly, there was someone that was able to carve out anything in there?”
Ning thought for a bit, beginning to realize the issue. “What if they had Spirit Artifacts?” he asked. “Or they could’ve just used some power they had.”
“I don’t know about Spirit Artifacts since that is something related to the Emperor’s bloodline,” Mari said. “But they could’ve had the power to dig a hole through the ground. I have seen people with such powers being sent to the quarries.”
“I have too,” Matthew said. “People with such powers are sent to mine all the time since it’s so much easier.”
As he said that, a thought came to him. “Wait, when people are sent to mine, they don’t mine top to bottom. Taking the dirt and rock from the hole would be too hard to take out.”
“Right,” Ning said. “They would cut it from the side.” His eyes widened as the same thought as Matthew came to him. “The door to the basement must be on the outside.”
He immediately left the fort, making his way down the hill. He walked around the hill with them, trying to search for an opening that was below.
“Found anything yet?” Romus asked, walking over to them. He had been watching out for the bandits from the outside, so after seeing them rush out suddenly and walk around the hill, he began getting curious as well.
“We found something, but aren’t certain what we did,” Ning said. “The bandits have found a secret entrance to the base of this fort, nearly 30 meters below the basement. There must’ve been a dungeon prepared there for prisoners or something, and these people are hiding there now.”
“Damn!” Romus said. “No wonder you guys were searching for hidden entrances.”
“Yeah,” Ning said, but I can’t exactly see any place they could’ve entered from. Not a single grass looks out of place.”
“No,” Romus said. He walked with Ning for a bit, looking around for a moment. “Hmm, maybe I can help.”
Ning turned around to look at him. He was going to ask how he planned on helping when he got a thought. “You have a power that could be useful here?”
Romus gave a goofy smile. “Maybe,” he said. He rubbed his forehead. “Actually, the truth is, the reason why I haven’t told anyone what my power is has to do with the fact that I have been switching my powers all this time.”
“Switching?” Ning asked.
Romus nodded. “Do you understand how us necromancers get our powers?” he asked.
“Kind of,” Ning said. “You slowly harvest it from the souls that are trapped in the corpses, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Romus said. “The souls in the corpses slowly replenish their energy and I take a bit of it. Every time I need more, I either have to get new corpses or take so much from them that I risk letting the soul fly away from the corpse.”
“And?” Ning was curious now.
“And… I have been using up my powers every time I have a bit to get a proper one. I’ve been trying every week now, and not one power has been to my liking. The one I have this week isn’t to my liking either, but it may be of help here.”
“What is your power exactly?” Ning asked.
“I can tell the quality of the air around me upto… a bit further than you,” Romus said.
Ning looked to where he pointed. “So about 5 meters.”
“Yeah,” Romus said. “If the entrance isn’t thicker than 5 meters, I should be able to find where the air is.”
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