Chapter 473: Meeting Up With The Others
"There"s another way down from here. I guess we should go down again. Maybe we"ll find other tortoises," I said to Celestine after we climbed up the stairs in the dungeon.
We have progressed quite far but there"s still no sign of exit. Just how big is this dungeon?
When we were at the previous lab, we need to go deep underground. It was so far down that I could barely see the surface. And after that, we go deeper again, before we finally started going up. I think this is the biggest dungeon I"ve ever explored.
"Let"s go down quickly. I have started to get tired of this place," Celestine complained.
Me too. If it"s just a normal dungeon, I would be interested in exploring it. But there have been many modifications in this place. The dungeon has been renovated and there were experiments that we need to investigate. It"s a pain to do so many things.
We went down to investigate the lower area. Like before, there are some rooms that were used for experiment. I grabbed some stuffs, and put them all in the Blobbycart that I pull.
After meeting HB, we entered other rooms and grabbed a lot of evidences. But since I don"t want to spend more mana to made portal, I had Victoria made some Blobbies, and turned them into a cart so I can carry the evidences easily. And with my strength, going up or down the stairs while pushing the Blobbycart is easy.
I took everything I could carry, and when the cart is full, I transported the content using portal. With this, I won"t have to use portal too many times just to deliver some papers.
And as we continue going down, Celestine stopped me.
"Roy, I sense two people coming from below!" Celestine said.
"Wait. They might be our friends. I"ll go closer to take a look."
I couldn"t see the pair that come from below. But as I get closer, I can finally see who they are.
"Celestine, don"t worry. They are Angela and Sara. Seems like we reunited with them first," I said.
The two that are coming are Angela and Sara. The girls who entered the first path. Seems like our paths connected to each other.
"Hey! It"s us!"
I shouted to the two when Angela suddenly prepared an offensive magic to attack us. And when she hears my voice, she canceled her magic.
We reunited right there, and start discussing about what we found. And seeing that I have Blobbycart with me, the two put down everything they carried into it.
"You found a lot. Did you check everything?"
"Yeah. Though it seems like you found a lot more than us," Sara said.
"Actually, Roy just grabbed everything he could put into the cart. Even the whole desk instead of opening the drawer and grab everything there," Celestine said.
"Well, for him, I guess that"s to be expected. Unfortunately, I"m not that strong. Though we managed to grab everything important," Sara said.
Most of the stuffs she carried are papers. About some kind of research. Well, it"s a lab after all.
"So, did you find a huge tortoise?" I asked the pair.
"Yeah! It"s so big! Though I didn"t try to talk to it. After finding the tortoise, we just left a Blobby so you can get it," Angela said.
"Really? I thought that if it"s you, you would try to get the tortoise and talk to it instead," I asked Angela curiously.
"I would like to. But since I"m holding back my power so I can only use the strength of an advanced level mage, it will be difficult if I ended up having to fight it. And I might need my power to defeat the enemy at the exit since they seem to be preparing for our arrival," Angela said.
Right. But We don"t know yet if there will be people waiting for us or not after having them wait for us for so long. Though I won"t tell it to her. We need everyone to be prepared at all time. If I told her about it, she might let down of her guard.
Well, even if she lets down her guard, she"s still Angela. Her instinct can protect her from danger.
"Roy, I"ll take care from here. Celestine will come with us while you go down there and transport the tortoise. It"s better to transport the tortoise right away instead of doing it later after everything is over. Just in case the dungeon is destroyed," Sara said.
Celestine agreed to the plan, so I transported the whole content of the cart again with portal, and run down to where the tortoise is instead of using portal there.
Sara has told me the location of the portal and show the magic ore she picked from the back of the tortoise. And it"s different from the ore that I got from HB. Seems like different tortoise, different mineral.
I see the similar tortoise in the similar room where I found HB before. And just like HB, this one is also tied up with a chain.
Let"s get it done fast so I can go back to where the others are.
"Hey. I know you can understand me. I met another tortoise before coming here. I don"t know if he"s your sibling or not, but I will transport you to where he is. Don"t resist," I said.
I released the chain tying down its limbs. I also opened the bind on its mouth so it can talk.
"Is he my brother?" the tortoise asked.
"I don"t know. But I"ll tell it to you straight. The people who imprison you in this place are bad guys. And I don"t like them. So, I will get you out of here. You don"t have the right to refuse," I said to the tortoise as I opened a huge portal.
When I looked at what inside the portal, I was shocked to see… HB is turned upside down. And he can"t recover from that position.
"…What are you doing?" I asked HB.
"…I fell," HB replied.
"…I don"t know if he"s your brother or not. You can go there and help him if you want to. If you don"t, that"s fine. He"s annoying after all. If I see any other tortoise, I will bring them here. But don"t expect anything since I might not found any," I said.
"Why? Since you found us, you should help all of us," the new tortoise asked me before it entered the portal.
"Don"t expect anything. The people who imprisoned you are someone who doesn"t care about the lives of other. Not just other species, but also fellow humans as well. Your siblings might have died a long time ago," I said.
"I see… But if you find any, please get them here as well," the tortoise said as he entered the portal.
I closed the portal thinking that this tortoise is much more polite than HB. Why is this one so different from the previous one?
After finishing my business with the tortoise, I returned to where I met Sara and Angela. They should be going up already.
After running for a while, I finally meet up with the others. Not just Celestine, Sara, and Angela were there. Candy, Wendy, Shelia, and Graham are also there waiting for me. This is where we reunited.
"Hey. Did you see any tortoise on the way?" I asked Candy and Wendy.
"I entered a similar room like you said. But other than the chains, there were no tortoise or any other monster inside. Maybe the one in my place has died," Wendy said.
"We also didn"t find one. It"s just similar room with chains," Candy said.
"And there"s a faint smell of a monster from that place. It has similar smell on Celestine. And now that you"re here, I can smell it even stronger. There must be a tortoise there in the past. But because of the faint smell, it must have died," Shelia reported.
Candy and Wendy also told me that they found reports about the tortoise"s condition in a room near where the tortoise was imprisoned. And from what we find, each tortoise has different minerals on their back. I was right about that.
I think I also get similar report about the tortoise. Though I didn"t read any. I just grabbed everything, and put them into the cart. It"s faster that way.
"Now that we are all here, I guess we"re closer to the exit. Should I bring the others here?" I asked their opinions since we might enter battle soon.
"No. With your eyes, Shelia"s scent of smell, and Celestine and Angela"s detection, we can be prepared for what"s to come. Just call them when you see something dangerous ahead, or the exit is in sight," Candy suggested.
"I guess you"re right. For now, put all the evidences on this cart. We might add some more that we find later. I"ll transport them later if it"s full, or we"re near the exit so I can get the others to come at the same time," I said.
After taking a ten minutes break while discussing about what we found, we move again.. With all of us here, moving forward is easy even if we find another goo here.