About an hour later, deeper inside the mine shaft,
Lynn tied Tomo and Toby together with a thick hemp rope and made them walk ahead to lead the way.
A thick hemp rope could not actually restrain official class-holders, but with Lynn watching them like a hawk from behind with his staff in hand, the two of them did not dare to try anything out of line.
Tomo walked in front, leading them down a steep, descending passage. The low ceiling of the cave forced everyone to hunch over as they moved forward, all while watching out for the wet, slippery gravel beneath their feet to prevent taking a misstep and tumbling straight down.
The surrounding oxygen was also growing increasingly thin.
However, the trickling sound of water gradually grew louder in their ears.
Lynn had heard this sound of water earlier inside the abandoned mine shaft, but even when he used Echolocation to map the area, he had been unable to locate the water source.
But now...
Lynn pulled out the magic map kindly sponsored by Mr. Moni Grote.
In this situation, the magic map—which gathered information about the material plane by collecting mana—was clearly much more useful than sonic detection.
After a brief charge, the magic map lit up, displaying a network of narrow, intersecting tunnels drawn upon its surface.
Lynn and the others' current location... was directly beneath the abandoned mine shaft from before.
No wonder his Echolocation had failed. This place was separated from the abandoned mine shaft by a stone wall several meters thick. He had only been able to vaguely hear the sound of water thanks to the sharp hearing provided by his high Perception, but his sonic detection could not reach this far.
“It's just a short distance ahead, Lord Mage.”
After a few more steps, a familiar scene appeared before Lynn's eyes once again—
A rushing underground river. Many mushrooms and other types of plants grew here as well, though the vegetation here was mostly reddish in hue.
Clearly, this was the same underground river Lynn had seen in the sewers before, except this was the upstream section.
This underground river, which connected to the interior of a volcano, seemed incredibly rich. The Wererats had a glowing mushroom farm by the riverbank, and now Tomo was claiming that there were Obsidian Roses nearby.
The group walked a bit further along the riverbank against the current, and the surrounding temperature grew increasingly hot.
Lynn could even see steam rising from the underground river, and behind the hazy vapor, he could faintly glimpse flames spewing from crevices in the stone.
That was the direction of the volcano.
If he obtained the Obsidian Skin Potion, he would be able to follow the underground river into the heart of the volcano and find the “Construct” that the Wererat Art had mentioned.
But the purpose of this trip was merely to collect the primary ingredient for the Obsidian Skin Potion—the Obsidian Rose.
On both sides of the underground river, numerous forks led to other mine shafts or subterranean caverns.
Lynn did not know how far they had walked, but in front of one of the forks, he suddenly spotted a glowing plant.
Of course, it was not an Obsidian Rose.
However, this plant did not seem to be a species native to the volcano either. There were no similar plants nearby, making it look as though someone had transplanted it here.
“This is it!”
Tomo looked at this Shinegrass with a hint of pleasant surprise.
“Lord Mage, this way!”
Tomo led the way, bringing Lynn to the edge of a massive pit.
Just standing above this deep pit, Lynn could feel a wave of intense heat rushing over him.
As he leaned in slightly to look down, a tongue of flame suddenly shot upward, nearly singeing Lynn's hair.
Lynn looked at Tomo. “Is this where you said the Obsidian Rose is?”
Tomo swallowed hard and nodded nervously, then quickly swore,
“I really wouldn't dare lie to you, Lord Mage! Back then, we only caught sight of an Obsidian Rose growing down there by pure chance! It's just that...”
Lynn asked, “Just what?”
“Down below... there seems to be a monster lurking. That day, right after we spotted the Obsidian Rose, we wanted to harvest it immediately. So, we sent our party's rogue back to town overnight to buy fireproof potions. But just as we drank the potions and prepared to go down, we were suddenly ambushed by a monster!”
“Fortunately, the fireproof potion's effect saved us, and our companion pulled us back up right away. Otherwise, we probably would have been buried down there!”
Even speaking of it now, Tomo still looked thoroughly shaken.
There was a monster?
Lynn fell into thought.
Since a Tier 1 class-holder like Tomo had been able to escape its clutches, it probably was not an exceptionally powerful monster.
He felt this was a risk worth taking.
“Here, drink this potion.”
Lynn did not stand on ceremony with Tomo, handing Tomo's own potion back to him.
“Huh?”
Tomo was dumbfounded.
What did the Lord Mage mean by this?
Was he sending them down as cannon fodder?
But Lynn paid no attention to Tomo's reaction. He downed a whole bottle of fireproof potion himself, then turned to Hilda and Henry.
“You two wait up here. If I tug on the rope from below, pull us up as quickly as possible.”
Then, seeing Tomo still hesitating with the fireproof potion in hand, he tapped Tomo on the head with his staff.
“What are you dragging your feet for? Hurry up.”
Seeing that Lynn intended to go down himself, Tomo gritted his teeth and gulped down the fireproof potion.
Lynn took out a hemp rope with a diameter of one cun from his backpack, tied a rock to it, and threw it down. Soon, he heard the sound of the knot hitting the ground.
Excellent. The depth of this massive pit was less than the length of the rope, meaning it was within sixty feet.
“Go on down.”
Since he needed Tomo and Toby to scout ahead next, Lynn's attitude softened slightly.
Tomo and Toby shuddered, but under Lynn's commanding gaze, they ultimately grabbed the rope and slid down.
After a moment, Lynn finally heard their voices.
“Come on down, Lord Mage! It's safe down here for now.”
Looking down, the hemp rope coated with the fireproof potion proved to be quite reliable against the occasional bursts of flame, showing absolutely no signs of charring.
Down below, Tomo and Toby were waving up at him.
Lynn gave the rope a tug. The climbing rope, which cost three silver coins, could withstand two thousand pounds of weight, giving Lynn a strong sense of security.
After casting another layer of 《Blade Ward》 on himself, Lynn confidently grabbed the rope and slid into the pit.
Lynn did not lower his guard just because of what the two had said; he remained ready to activate 【Burst Step】 to escape at any moment.
Recently, he had discovered a pleasant surprise: the dash from the 【Burst Step】 Rune did not necessarily have to be horizontal.
He could also dash diagonally upward at a certain angle.
Lynn had tested it and found that he could dash up to about four meters high using Burst Step.
In a pit like this, he could easily achieve a rapid ascent using 【Burst Step】, which was one of the reasons he dared to come down.
If they really encountered some dangerous monster, he would just have to leave these two idiots down here to be buried alongside his Obsidian Rose.
Once inside the deep pit, with no flames blocking his view, Lynn could finally see the layout clearly—
The surrounding walls were grayish-red andesite, and the rough rock was crusted with plenty of sulfur. Most of the sulfur deposits were located near fissures that intermittently spewed fire.
At their feet was only the ring of stone they stood on, which was less than two meters wide.
The entire bottom of the pit, roughly over a hundred square meters in size, was almost entirely filled with slightly cooled slag-like lava. It flowed like semi-solidified asphalt, its upper layer a dusty grayish-black, with only the cracked portions revealing a faint dark red glow.
Occasionally, some bone fragments could be seen.
Those belonged to the unlucky souls who had slipped and fallen in here. Their bones had grown brittle under the high temperatures and were subsequently crushed by the shifting lava, leaving these remains behind.
And the “Obsidian Rose”—Lynn spotted it in a single glance.
It was right in the very center of the lava.
How was he supposed to retrieve it?
Rate on N.U.
