The Adventures of Clara

The Underground City

The pain spread to the corners of Clara's body when the girl regained consciousness. The pain really made him too sick to not want to force himself to use magic again.

Clara looked to her left to look for her partner's whereabouts and asked the details of the incident after she collapsed.

But there's no one around. They, three grown men, left the sweet girl helpless alone in the middle of nowhere. Really too.

As he remembered, they were running away from those damn crows. Most likely they managed to escape to safety because he was left lying alone here.

"Are they out hunting or something" he thought.

Clara decided to meditate to restore her dry mana. Perhaps because of the side effects of self-imposed recovery where natural Clara became very, very slow.

Clara sat down cross-legged and began her preparations. However,

"Guh! Uhuk! Uhuk!"

The girl spewed out a mouthful of fresh blood. When it was about to absorb the mana in the air its body experienced a great rejection reaction. It was like Clara had some sort of allergy to mana.

Wait, he does have some sort of allergy mana. But something like this happened for the first time.

"What are these other ya~ side effects?"

Where, sukma—mind/soul, selira—body. All three are key components to a witch.

His father always said, "As a witch, you must be able to balance the three. Otherwise, something bad will happen to you."

Because he had previously forced himself to use magic, Clara's concubine likely suffered damage and therefore the three components became unbalanced.

"Now worry."

Cold sweat dripped from Clara's pale forehead. He should immediately see an expert to check the state of his body, otherwise, there might be permanent harmful effects.

For a while, Clara seems to be unable to use magic anymore. He who has become a burden of the team is increasingly useless. This made him a little depressed.

After calming down, Clara decided to go explore the cave.

This place has no crossroads. It took a while for him before he finally reached the end of the road. There he found four primates lying lifeless. Most likely all this was the work of Pedro and the others.

Clara looked around for a while before finally sitting down with a pouting face.

"They went where, anyway!"

Most likely they went out of the cave. Because outside there are many enemies who can kill him with just one attack, therefore Clara can only resignedly wait for their return.

Clara became arrogant because there was nothing she could do.

"Bored is a scary enemy" he thought.

His boredom awaits, the girl to the point of falling asleep.

The second time he opened his eyes, Pedro, Lial and Rhino had already returned.

"Where did you guys get ya~? Ninggalin's a sweet girl alone in the wild" grumbled Clara.

"Sorry, sorry." Lial ruffled Clara's hair, with no regrets in her tone.

"We found something interesting" Pedro said. "It turns out this cave and the cave we lived in before are connected."

"Eh?"

Pedro started his explanation.

Apparently, from the beginning Pedro had a suspicion about these caves. It was only after finding the second cave that he was able to confirm his theory.

"This cave is not formed naturally. After I investigated it turned out that my guess was correct. There's a secret mechanism near the end of the cave that opens up a branching path to various places."

"One of them went to the cave where we lived before" Rhino said.

Fire crows are very vindictive and will not release anyone who has ever killed one of their species. Therefore the discovery of this cave is good news because they can leave the region of fire crows through the underground.

Afterwards Clara recalled Lial's warning from earlier so she conveyed her body's condition in detail.

"so. At first I wanted to explore slowly. But because the condition in Clara is currently a bit dangerous then let's increase the tempo of the journey" said Pedro.

The group of four finally continued their journey.

There are two options for them.

First, they can return to the previous cave and then from there look for a different route to the giant parasol tree.

Second, they can explore this mysterious underground pathway and see where this path will take them.

They agreed to choose the second option because the first option was less promising. Especially after they found out that this dungeon was much more dangerous than they thought.

Their main goal is to find a way out. This underground cave is very suspicious and there might be a way out there.

"So far we've only found one or two primates roaming around in underground pathways. Its labyrinth-like structure would be a bit problematic. But don't worry because we have the experts here! Give Mr Pedro a round of applause!" Lial explained cheerfully.

"Applause! Applause!"

As Lial said, the structure of the underground pathway was like a labyrinth. Clara felt deja vu for several times as if she had passed the same path many times.

If they encounter a primate, Pedro will shoot a few arrows and Lial will execute the surviving primate.

Aside from these problems, their journey passed safely. There is also a food and water problem. But since this pathway was connected to the first cave close to the lake, there should be no problem. Might as well.

"Something, by the way, makes me curious. Those primates, what do they eat?" Lial started the conversation while remaining vigilant.

"Either. Worms, maybe," Pedro replied.

"Land? Or maybe they can photosynthesize?" keera Clara's.

"Your imagination is amazing, Clara!" Lial gave a thumbs up while closing one eye.

"Don't make fun of Clara ya~ if Clara won't curse later."

"Eh! I'm serious, you know."

I don't know how long they've been walking that surely they've finally come to an open area deep in the ground.

"Well!"

"that's shocking."

The blue crystals on the ceiling illuminate every corner of the opening. Through the reflection of this light the long-abandoned city landscape reflected in their eyes.

"What does this mean that there was a civilization that once lived in this dungeon? That's fantastic! This discovery will bring in a lot of money!" Lial whose eyes were already green sighed with a wide smile.

"Is it possible that primates built this city" Rhino murmured.

"I guess ya~ ain't possible. The monkeys are not as smart as it might be to be able to wake up the city," argued Clara.

"There are a lot of primates hanging around here. Continuing the journey will be difficult" said Pedro. "Let's hide fast."

They follow Pedro's instructions to enter a house that has been half destroyed. Three primates seem to be the owners of this place.

Pedro's arrow shot, successfully taking the life of a helpless primate. Lial also made an ambush attack but ended in failure. Without getting discouraged Lial attacked the primate repeatedly.

The last primate tries to scream but is thwarted by Rhino's attack. Pedro also came to Rhino's aid using his green machete. A two-on-one unbalanced fight soon reached its end.

Lial on the other hand also managed to kill his enemy.

As for Clara, the girl was just sitting sweet while acting like a cheerleader.