[Vol. 9] Chapter 57: Why does this feel so strange?
Although she didn’t know what that silver light really was, the moment she saw it flash, Veranica suddenly felt a very strong and indescribable intuition. It was the kind of feeling that came right before discovering something important, or before a huge turning point.
Her intuition had always been accurate. Just like when she first stumbled into this place while running for her life. Although the underground rivers were like a maze with countless paths, she somehow managed to pick the one road that led here.
Not only that, even before she was exiled to Icefang Island, Veranica had faced several critical choices in her past. And every time, at those important moments, some invisible instinct would rise from her heart and guide her toward the decision that benefited her the most.
In fact, if she hadn’t trusted her intuition back then and taken actions that looked irrational, her fate today would not have been just exile. She might not even have kept her life.
But this time, the strange trembling in her heart was even stronger than all the times before. It shook inside her chest, echoing again and again!
What should I do? What do I do now?
Her rational mind kept roaring in her ears, telling her she could just mark this spot and come back later after resting. That would definitely be safer than recklessly pushing forward.
But in her heart she felt an overwhelming certainty—
This is the only chance. If I miss it now, it’s gone forever!
“Damn it, why should I be scared? Let’s risk it!”
She gathered all her magic at once, blasting it behind her to propel her forward. Using the very last breath left in her chest, the leader, who believed that “riches come from risk,” shot out like an arrow leaving the bowstring!
Boom!
Because of the extreme force of her charge, she crashed into the stone wall ahead like a cannonball. The impact caused waves to explode in all directions with a dull boom. Veranica pressed her hand against the wall, searching for some trace of the silver glow she had seen.
But the stone surface was smooth and seamless, not a single crack or difference to be found!
How could this be?
The shock of hitting a dead end made her heart sink. Just as despair was rising with her suffocating breath, she suddenly thought she heard a faint sound, like a girl’s light, silver-bell-like laughter.
“Hehe, I told you she would come. Looks like I win~”
Right after that voice echoed, the plain stone wall in front of her suddenly collapsed inward as if it were cotton. The familiar silver light flared again, and this time a powerful suction force burst out of nowhere!
“!?”
The force was so strong that Veranica felt like she had been thrown into a massive whirlpool. The rushing water poured into the gap, dragging her in with it.
The world around her spun wildly. Even though she was confident in her strength, human power always had limits. How could she possibly resist a force that felt like the will of heaven and earth itself?
In the middle of the chaos, the only thing Veranica could do was curl her body tightly and clamp her mouth shut, trying her best not to choke on too much of the hot spring water filled with fire poison.
In just a few seconds, the strong pulling force completely disappeared. The water pressure and heat around her vanished without a trace. Veranica fell straight down from above and crashed hard onto the solid ground, making a loud “Boom!”
“Cough, cough… why does this feel like I just got tricked…?”
With a strange feeling in her heart, the commander coughed a little to steady her breath, then clumsily pushed herself up from the stone floor.
Luckily, as an Ice Demon, her body was naturally tough and durable. Plus, Veranica was already strong to begin with. Even though she had dropped several meters and smashed onto the hard ground, all it left her with was dizziness and sore bones, nothing truly serious.
She looked around and noticed that the temperature around her had returned to normal. Her body still carried traces of fire poison, but since she escaped in time and the snowgrass had canceled out most of its effects, her condition was actually better than she had expected.
After confirming she was fine, the Ice Demon girl couldn’t help but feel relieved.
She still didn’t fully understand what had happened, but trusting her intuition had once again been the right choice. That silver light wasn’t an illusion, if she had chosen to retreat back then, she might never have gotten the chance to enter this place in her entire life.
But… what was that voice just now?
That strange feeling of being played with returned to her mind. Veranica quickly raised her guard and looked around. What appeared before her was a dim, ancient stone corridor. No one else was there. Only her, standing alone in the middle. The voice she had heard earlier now felt like nothing more than an illusion.
The corridor wasn’t fancy, but it clearly showed signs of being man-made. The ceiling was about six or seven meters high. What confused her was that there were no cracks or holes above. She had thought she fell in by breaking through the stone ceiling, but now it didn’t seem that simple.
If this corridor was truly under the hot spring, then once the stone ceiling broke, the water should have rushed down and flooded everything here. Yet, the entire corridor was perfectly intact. The only small traces of water on the ground were from her own body when she fell.
It almost felt as if she had been… teleported here through some kind of spatial passage.
Even though she couldn’t figure it out, no one was here to answer her questions. Veranica looked around again. She saw that the corridor stretched in both directions.
On one side, strange flames floated evenly along the walls. The orange-red glow wasn’t very bright, but at least it was enough to keep the path from being pitch dark.
On the other side, the corridor was completely black, so deep she couldn’t see anything at all. A faint, dangerous aura leaked from that direction. Even without any signs or warnings, anyone would understand which path was safe and which one was forbidden.
As the battle-hardened leader of the [Scavenger Gang], who had faced life and death countless times, Veranica was used to such situations. She quickly calmed herself down. Her first instinct wasn’t to explore the paths but to search for an exit, to find a way out.
But unfortunately, the mysterious silver light that had brought her here had left no trace behind. The corridor seemed completely sealed off from the outside world. This meant that if she didn’t want to die here, her only choice was to move forward and uncover the secrets hidden in this place.
Since there was no turning back, Veranica stopped hesitating. In truth, ever since she realized some mysterious force was targeting the hot spring, she no longer had any retreat. That was why she had thrown herself into danger so decisively just moments ago.