Chapter 504: Decision


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    n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    Ss'' visualization had never been good at looking through barriers. Even when he was in the ocean, it was highly limited by the waters alone. In this situation, even with how porous the sand was, he couldn''t see more than a meter or so underground.


    However, that was enough for him to realize something.


    The world around him was basically being held up by arge root system. The sparse trees might as well have been on an organic system, connected with one another, sharing resources and water. And it was because of this thick, continuous connection that the sand had anywhere to rest. But if one wasn''t careful, it was easy to identally slip and fall into this endlesswork of roots.


    The shocking part was that before the improvement to his Luck, Ss wouldn''t have been able to see far enough to realize this at all. He would have thought it was normal sandy ground and likely slipped down by ident, finding himself assaulted by arge number of poisonous creatures.


    The roots were practically a den for poptions of scorpions that seemed to be in the tens of thousands. It was hard to look anywhere and not find a scorpion territory in some situation.


    If he agitated the roots without thought, he would easily be public enemy number one.


    ''Where did the street signe from?''


    This random thought made Ss pause.


    When he first got to the battlefield, a spiraling street sign had almost taken his head off his shoulders if not for the fact he caught it before it could.


    But there didn''t seem to be any cities or civilization nearby at all.


    There seemed to only be two potential exnations.


    Either it was a remnant from Ragnar''s own vige, or there was an underground city here somewhere.


    The portal in the distance looked to be buried into the ground, and Ss felt the odds that a small vige like Ragnar''s needed street signs were unlikely. In that case, there really was awork down below.


    ''Are they trying to lure me to the city? Or do they want to take me down with these poisonous beasts?''


    Ss thought hard, trying to see if he could remember anything about the Africor Continent having an underground city. But he couldn''t recall such a thing.


    However, he couldn''t dismiss it outright either. Unless...


    ''There''s no obvious entrance from what I can see. If this city was created by the Africor government, there''s no way it would be so hidden. There would have to be a way to get supplies in and out. They wouldn''t rely on people slipping in and out like this. Which means this city is either a new creation, or it was hidden from the beginning.''


    Ss didn''t know how much of his thoughts would be useful, but even if he was going to jump into a trap, it wouldn''t be carelessly.


    There was a reason he had chosen to take this risk. And ironically, that was because he trusted in Lucius'' intelligence somewhat.


    If Lucius really wanted to use a borrowed knife to deal with him, he would know that he would have to sacrifice quite a great deal to do so. The more he was willing to sacrifice, therger chance Ss would have at gaining something.


    In addition, Ss had toe to the Africor Continent no matter what toplete his Quest. If not, who knew when the next chance would be to step foot here? He had no ability to cross the ocean right now.


    However, other than these questions, he still had another on his mind. And that was why they wanted him to enter from the same location they had.


    He had seen their pause and look around. They were definitely trying to bait him.


    After a long while, Ss made a decision. He would enter from another location.


    What he didn''t notice was that the moment he gingerlynded on thework of roots, there was a slight tremor that followed through them all.


    Deep underground, a beast with dozens of eyes opened them all at once, allowing a glimmering crimson to fill the dark space.


    ...


    Lucius frowned when he saw how Ss entered. This would definitely throw these matters off. However, when he thought of all the contingency ns and failsafes he had in ce, he didn''t allow this slight miscalction to ruin everything.


    "Let''s move on to the next phase," Luciusmunicated with Nathan secretly.


    "Are you sure? You still have usible deniability right now," Nathan replied.


    Lucius didn''t reply immediately. He stared off into the distance as his Grimdes began to press into the vige.


    One way or another, he was going to stamp out thispetition.


    Contrary to what one might believe, he didn''t make any ns with the Ravenws, nor did hemunicate with the Sylphs. He was using them both.


    It was just that he knew that the likelihood that they would seed was minimal. However, if he ced his hands on the scale a bit, it was possible that Ss might really be forced into a


    corner.


    It was exactly this sort of ambiguity that made the n viable. That was because right about now, if Ss had sniffed anything out, he was probably thinking that he was in collusion with the Ravenws, whereas in reality... Ragnar was still under the impression that he was working on his own.


    Funny enough, he and Ragnar both had the same thoughts. Ragnar was about to sacrifice his vige for the sake of taking out Ss, believing he could turn the situation around so long as


    he wasn''t around.


    As for Lucius, he was willing to sacrifice even more than that.


    He was now standing at a crossroads once more and staring down two options.


    Nathan was right. If he backed out now, if Ss somehow survived, there was still usible deniability. But if he did this... there was no going back.


    "I''ve made my decision," he replied, his gaze calm. "Get Bloom here."