—

The staircase inside this hideout didn’t stretch as far as the one inside the Underground Labyrinth. However, everyone was on edge as they cautiously descended the steps.

Tok!

Lux’s foot hit a stone, causing it to roll down a few steps. Because the party was on high alert, they turned toward him. Lux froze and raised his hands as if he were an apprehended criminal.

“There are loose stones everywhere. My foot accidentally hit one of them,” Lux explained.

Everyone sighed after learning it wasn’t a surprise attack from an enemy.

“Be more careful, Lux. We aren’t on a simple infiltration quest. This organization may have already been notified and alerted to our presence. We need to be extremely careful in how we proceed,” Ezra whispered.

She didn’t raise her voice or berate Lux because accidents were inevitable. However, she stressed how vital stealth and cognizance were on this journey.

“Alice, can you conjure a flame to extend our visibility? It’s getting very dark down here.”

Although Kieran’s Perception was active in full effect, he could only sense things and not make our their actual presence. To achieve that level of detection with his Perception, he would need to increase his discerning abilities by 1000%.

A standard like that rivaled Advanced Beings, otherwise known as Tier 3 existences. Their Perceptions were so potent it was no longer a vague feeling.

Instead, such people could “see” using their Mind’s Eye that the faerie mentioned during Kieran’s character creation process.

However, in exchange for these heightened senses, the range of their senses lessened. It was best described as losing quantity but gaining remarkable quality in exchange.

“Okay,” Alice nodded.

She controlled her Mana Flow to conjure what seemed to be a Fireball, but not entirely. A Fireball was designed to be launched as an attack, which this flame wasn’t. This flame’s only purpose was to illuminate since no one was skilled with the Light Element.

The flame flickered above Alice’s palm as she increased her pace to walk beside Kieran and give him enough light. “Better?”

“Perfect,” Kieran answered.

The team continued descending the steps for another 10 minutes before reading the bottom. Surprisingly, unlike the stone step they walked up, the hideout’s floor matched the desert’s.

Instinctively, Kieran softly grabbed Alice’s wrist and moved it towards the steps. “This isn’t necessarily stone. It’s extremely hardened sand. But, it isn’t natural, right Alice?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Alice muttered. In her perspective, due to her possession of Mana Vision, Alice could see almost imperceptible strings of Mana tightly woven to solidify this construct.

She had only experienced this type of stringy Mana Flow once before. It was when Altair used the Sand Emperor’s Thorns to open passage to this area below.

“I think it’s the result of a high-level Sand Manipulation skill. Either that or the Mana here is abnormal. That’s the only two possibilities I can think of,” Alice voiced after making her analysis.

“I thought so,” Kieran nodded absentmindedly. ‘What level of Sand Manipulation is required to accomplish this hardening? Deserea’s Sand Manipulation wasn’t powerful enough to achieve this, so that could only mean there’s at least one person in this compound with power exceeding her.’

However, Kieran couldn’t tell if it belonged to the head of these Desertborn Brigands or if it was the work of several brigands banding together to get the job quicker and more efficiently.

“Aatrox,” Lux suddenly called out.

“What is it?”

“I’m picking up some movement,” Lux said before placing his hand against one of the walls. His current class was a Marksman, which was a unique form of an Archer that specialized in accuracy and fatal damage.

On paper, an Archer and Marksman appeared identical as they both wielded bows, but their passives were where they differed. While an Archer lost most of its Hunter passive in exchange for ones centered around archery, a Marksman kept their Hunter passives, and in some cases, received augmentations.

For example, Lux could feel the movement in the wall because Marksmen are designed to track, analyze and eliminate. Possessing passives associated with these principles was crucial to the class.

Thus, not only could Lux act as a long-range damager, but he was also valuable as a scout.

“What type of movement?” Kieran inquired.

Lux’s expression changed as he tried to pinpoint what his passive relayed. “I’m not sure. But… it feels distant and jumbled. I’ve never run into such a situation. However, I did find something. We can’t advance without Altair’s help.”

“Again?” Altair’s eyebrows rose. If he could only accomplish it, Sand Manipulation was the key to moving around in this place.

“I bet you’re happy we killed that Mother Worm now, right? Otherwise, we would have failed this quest. It seems Sand Manipulation is essential inside this construct.”

Kieran looked at Bastion because he was the first to complain when he voiced his intentions to go against the Mother Worm.

Bastion blushed and averted his gaze. “Don’t call me out like that. Come on, man. I’m innocent!”

“I’m just saying. If we chose to push our luck and ignore the Mother Worm, we would have inevitably failed this quest. Didn’t you see penalties? Failure is not an outcome we wish for,” Kieran shrugged after seeing Bastion’s somewhat embarrassed expression.

“I get it. I get it. I was wrong,” Bastion admitted.

“Good. Now, make sure to display that confidence from earlier. You can never be my Chief Tanker if you don’t have a backbone. You’ll need to be stoic and sometimes even harsh,” Kieran said.

Kieran naturally thought ahead to when he successfully formed his guild. Many roles will need to be filled, and every aspect would require a Chief. When it came to tankers, Kieran considered Bastion.

After all, Bastion was the leader of his small party before Kieran arrived, which means he should be familiar with what was required of him.

Altair stepped to the front of the party and scanned the wall before them. It made no sense that the steps led to a small enclosure with no entrance or exit.

“It should be more to your left,” Lux remarked.

Altair glided his hand over the wall until his hand touched an unusually hard surface, unlike the soft sand residue on the walls.

Tok! Tok! Tok!

Altair first tapped the wall and then brushed aside the top layer of sand residue. This action revealed a fist-size dull Magic Stone underneath.

“I pray this isn’t noisy. The one above is a hit or miss because it is far from the surface. But, if this mechanism is noisy, then our position will undoubtedly be exposed,” Kieran said.

“Let’s see,” Altair replied while exhaling deeply. He activated Sand Manipulation and supplied the Magic Stone until it lit up brightly. The area one meter to the right of the stone separated from the wall and parted into a sight resembling the double doors in an emergency triage area.

On the other side of the opened doorway was a dark corridor of unknown length. Before entering, Kieran picked up the two unlit torches and gave one to Ezra.

“Alice, light these,” Kieran said.

Only once these two torches were lit did the party enter the corridor. However, Nemean felt suspicious.

“If this is an entrance to the Desertborn Brigand’s hideout, why were there torches?”

“Well, it seems there is no source of light. And while veterans of the Desertborn Brigands might be familiar with their hideout, recruits might not be. Perhaps these torches exist to help them remember the way.

“Or, it’s a trap,” Nemean added.

“Or it’s a trap,” Kieran agreed. “Considering how cunning the leader of the brigands has proven themselves—not sure if it’s a male or female—I wouldn’t be surprised if they made that oasis pathway to deal with intruders.”

“I had the same thought. That oasis was so out of place it almost seemed like an illusion. A treacherous illusion—it fits,” Luna commented.

“Indeed it does,” Kieran’s voice grew low as he contemplated everyone’s input. ‘An illusion. But, was it designed to entrap or protect? Now that I think about it, it may not be the main entrance at all. It could be an escape route.’

If the Magic Stones were robbed of their Mana, no one could follow the escapees unless the pursuant was strong enough to blow through the desert floor.

However, after taking into account how thick the slab of hardened sand was, Kieran estimated it’d required power on par with a powerful Tier 2 Existence to accomplish that feat.

Eventually, Kieran and the team arrived at the end of the dark corridor. But, what they witnessed made everyone stop and stare.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! What the hell am I looking at?” Bastion exclaimed.

Countless pathways littered their sights, and because of the darkness, the only thing that could be made out were innumerable immense stone walls down below.

“It’s a damned maze!” Altair exclaimed.

“Who in their right mind would even think: Oh, I would love to go through a maze whenever I return home? Absolute lunatics,” Nemean shouted.

Even Kieran frowned because he couldn’t locate the exit no matter which path he looked from.