Chapter 691 Underground


    The situation in Lone Star seemed calm on the surface, but in the depths of the night, it was anything but.


    In exchange for the peace that the citizens experienced when the sun rose, many undercurrents had to be forcefully suppressed beneath the moon''s light.


    One such undercurrent formed from thebined might of several gangs.


    After Ss left Lone Star with the disk, the city lost the ability to control the expansion of the volcano Portal for several long months. By the time they gained a new treasure capable of recing its function, much of the damage had already long been done.


    The temperatures of the city skyrocketed, but more importantly, thendscape of their farnd changed.


    Much of the topsoil had been reced by currents ofva. This alone was fine if not for the fact that the oppressive heat had dug into thend, forming deep, cavernous caves, valleys, and trenches.


    Normally,va alone wouldn''t be able to do this kind of damage. The earth would be able to disperse much of its heat.


    However, in this case, theva was formed from a special location of the Aether ne, while Earth was not yet adjusted to these sorts of shocking environments. The end result was the very location Ss had barely escaped from with his life, and ironically also the region he had first gained his Path of the Mancer ss Quest, waspletely unrecognizable.


    It sat there as a mass of ckenednd covered in a thickyer of soot and ash. But the true danger was no doubt hidden deep underground.


    …


    From high in the skies, Ss confirmed much of the things in the Grimde''s report.


    ''The opening to the volcano portal was also undergroundst time. I assume that this change only exacerbated the issue.''


    If the Portal was already underground, and then it began to grow uncontrobly after the disk was no longer active, then it was only natural that so many changes likewise urred underground.


    This region was highly monitored. There was no way for Ss to just drop from the skies unnoticed, even in the darkness. He would almost certainly be spotted.


    But at this point… it simply didn''t matter.


    There was only one reason for that… a beast that Ss was quite familiar with.


    The beast controlling snail.


    Unbeknownst to Ss until he read the report, but snails turned out to be mostly nocturnal creatures. And though this snail had clearly broken free of the normal constraints of its race, this clearly wasn''t amongst the habits it had shed.


    The peacock entered a freefall, piercing down in a steady streak of darkness.


    It was clear in an instant that Ss had either overestimated the abilities of these government officials, or he had underestimated himself. Either way, he found himself hitting the ground before sensing even the slightest hint of danger.


    It wasn''t long before he picked out one of the many potholes to the hidden world below. With a touch of his intention, he pulled the peacock into a vine that wrapped around his arm and then vanished.


    ss reflected across his skin as his Aether protected him from the wall of heat that hit him nearly immediately.


    The Terranova government had clearly used some special method of keeping the heat from overwhelming the city. Otherwise, Lone Star would have already be a microwave.


    These distracting thoughts were pushed to the back of Ss'' mind because he hadn''t taken more than a few steps when he heard the sound of conflict and battle.


    He controlled his visualization to wind through the tunnels covered in soot and ash, but the fight he saw on the other end didn''t seem to be anything special.


    On one side, there was a soldier and on the other, there was a textbook rogue. Neither seemed intent on actually trying to kill one another, as though they were trying to stall for time or maybe just acting.


    To hand it to them, the battle did look quite believable. Unfortunately, Ss could feel out their Wills maybe more clearly than they could themselves.


    ''They''re putting on a show. Neither one actually wants to be fighting. That confirms another thing in the documents. This has been a long, drawn-out war between the two factions. The subordinates are probably sick and tired of it, and have long forgotten what they''re actually fighting about or for.''


    There were several gangs that had hitched themselves to this ce, but there were mainly two of any sort of importance.


    The first was Second me, a gang that Professor Fembroise had allegedly be quite an important member of. In fact, from the context clues, it seemed that she was actually the founder.


    The second was the Grimy des. The information that Ss had on them was much lesser because they weren''t directly rted to Professor Fembroise, but it was enough for him to know that they had done some particrly vile things.


    The rogue fighting against the soldier was one of thetter gang members, and that made things less convenient for Ss. But he decided to work with the cards he was given.


    He calmly walked around the corner and his presence, unsurprisingly, instantly drew attention. Both the soldier and rogue were on full alert, revealing themselves as a pair of actors when they didn''t hesitate to stand side by side to face off against the unknown entity.


    Unfortunately for them, that left no one defending their backs.


    The swipe of a ck tail smashed them against a wall, practically shattering all of their bones in a single sweep.


    The two didn''t even get a chance to get a look at the Basilisk King before it was taken back into Ss'' Hibernation Realm.


    Walking over to their half-dead bodies, Ss picked one of them up by their cors, staring the rogue in his eyes.


    "The Second me gang, point me in the direction of their hideout."


    Ss didn''t believe that this Grimy de member wouldn''t have even a slight inkling of an answer…


    And he was proven right.