Chapter 595 595. Underground
Noah took down the hard, rocky terrain of the underground area with his bare hands.
June followed closely behind him, she wielded her spear tightly in her hands, ready to stab anything unusual that came out during their advance.
Of course, Noah had told her not to intervene unless the situation became really dangerous.
He didn't want the two of them to release "Breath" in that unknown area, which would only reveal their position to any being inhabiting the underground.
Also, he could take care of any beast and plant below the fifth rank with his body alone, he was a hybrid in the upper tier of the fourth rank after all.
June agreed to his terms, but she still preferred to have her weapons next to her.
Noah used his consciousness to keep track of his direction.
Their advance was slow, and they had to take breaks every few weeks, but they didn't meet anything out of the ordinary in the first part of their travel.
June and Noah did their best to enjoy those breaks, sometimes they even stopped for a few days in the same area.
However, they always resumed their journey in the end.
Many scenarios appeared inside Noah's mind while he continued to excavate.
He could predict the behavior of the magical beasts better than anyone else, but there were too many uncertainties in that situation and a lot of things that he couldn't be sure of.
The appearance of a new ruler in the magical beasts' system was a revolutionary event, especially when those new rulers could cover an area as large as the new continent.
The environment would be modified entirely, and those changes would affect both the surface and the underground.
'Those winged beasts have come from the ground, which means that we are in their old domain now. There is a chance that another pack has claimed this now empty area since more than two months have passed.'
Noah thought while continuing to punch through the rocky wall.
An exchange between domains was inevitable since the winged beasts had appeared.
Different creatures would choose to hide underground now that the surface was a hunting area, it was just a matter of what depths they were able to reach.
Noah knew that most creatures wouldn't be able to arrive in his position.
He was an anomaly in the magical beasts' world, he could use his instincts to improve the already amazing capabilities of his mind.
However, magical beasts didn't have that freedom, their instincts simply ruled their actions.
He knew that the octopus-type creatures that inhabited the murky lake would never attempt to dive underground, it was simply against their nature.
So, he was reasonably sure that he and June could only meet certain species at that depth.
'The insect-type creatures in the natural paradise were a possibility, but we are almost under the mountain area, they aren't a threat; The snakes inhabiting the mountains could try to excavate, but they shouldn't be able to reach our depth; the octopuses, Poisonous frogs, and Saber-toothed tigers are not a threat; The sandworms though…'
Noah reviewed the species of magical beasts that inhabited the western coastline and found that only the sandworms living in the desert could completely migrate underground.
'Yet, they are on the other side of the coastline, there is a high chance that we won't even reach their new territory.'
Noah concluded in his mind, leaving only the magical plants and the beasts that had migrated during the invasion as a variable.
"We should almost be on the other side of the waterfall."
Noah warned June who took a battle position.
Noah pierced the walls in front of him for some time and sighed in relief when he saw that nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
The way he saw it, it would be perfect if he could just create a tunnel without disturbing anyone's environment.
Fighting in that situation would only bring trouble to them.
Yet, something did change at some point.
Noah punched a wall but was surprised to discover that there wasn't ground anymore on the other side of that spot.
He nodded toward June to signal that the situation would be different from that point onward and tore down the remains of the rocks that blocked the passage.
The wall crumbled and revealed an ample open space filled with gray objects hanging from the ceiling.
Dense and transparent drops of a smelly liquid fell from those objects and reached the terrain far below, it was clear that they had been broken only recently.
Noah was immediately able to understand the purpose of those objects.
"The winged beasts have instinctively created these sacs when they have gone dormant. They are quite evolved."
Noah whispered so that his words would vanish after reaching June.
"How do we proceed?"
June asked.
She was leaving all the decision making to Noah, she knew that her survival instinct couldn't match his.
"Let's maintain this altitude. There might be snake-type magical beasts at the bottom of this area, and it's better if I keep on having rocks that I can break in front of me. Wasting time to find the proper altitude again might be fatal."
Noah explained and took the first step inside the large underground area.
"Breath" appeared under his feet as soon as he stepped on the air, but he tried to keep its quantity to the minimum possible.
June did the same as she followed behind him.
The depths of the area appeared in their field of view, Noah could clearly see that the floor of that place was at a few kilometers under him.
'Only a rank 5 beast could excavate it. Was it one of the winged beasts? Or did the pack simply choose this preexisting place as the area where to go dormant?'
Questions filled Noah's mind.
There were too many variables, and he couldn't create a fixed picture, he could just keep on adding everything that he noticed to his hypotheses.
Their journey was uneventful for the first hours.
They could finally pick up some speed since Noah wasn't busy excavating, but they still didn't hurry their pace.
Noah was sure that the snakes inhabiting the mountains on the surface would have used the paths created by the winged beasts to escape.
After all, he was in the area where they were sleeping, meaning that their flight toward the surface had left open passages through the azure rocks.
Noah was rarely wrong when it came to the magical beasts' field.
"You got this, right?"
"Of course."
June asked when she sensed that a huge figure was falling from the ceiling of the underground area.
Noah was soon able to make out the shape of a snake that had opened its maws when it saw the two humans walking on the space under it.
Yet, when it was about to reach June, a sharp hand ripped off its upper maw and its brain with it.
