Chapter 54: Unexpected Traps
The boys watched the girls hugging Wyba until they noticed that some of the other kids were starting to recuperate from the space-time tunnel effects.
“Serka, Nurvey, we should go now, the others would be recovered soon.”
They didn’t want to be along with the cannon-fodder.
That was because they considered the cannon-fodder as ignorant kids who would activate traps around the realm while walking like fools; their elite group had a better way of moving and only use the others to decrease the chances of meeting traps in the long term.
Going with them was useless and would only increase the danger.
Of course, that strategy of letting the commoners walking around the realm always ended with some of them obtaining benefits due to being lucky, but most of them just die due to the traps.
After hearing, Kermu’s voice, the two girls stopped fooling around.
Then, the five of them left the area. However, Nurvey refused to let go of Wyba.
“Safe.”
Yale didn’t understand what Nurvey wanted to mean until Serka translated to him.
“She means that Wyba is safer with her. Don’t be fooled by Nurvey’s appearance; she had the best surviving skills of the group. Wyba will be safer if she stays in her arms.”
As Wyba seemed happy to be hugged by Nurvey, Yale didn’t mind about that.
If Wyba was safer by being with Nurvey, Yale didn’t mind let Wyba with her until they exit the realm.
Nurvey was after all from the imperial family; there was no way they sent her to such dangerous place if she didn’t have excellent survival skills.
As they started to walk, they told Yale about the use of the cannon-fodder.
Yale became more relaxed after hearing that the so-called cannon-fodder would be merely walking around. If they were forced to act as meat shields their chances of survival would be even less.
Yale was worried about George and Aizu, both of them were strong in the Nacesai Academy, but in the Imperial City, their prowess was average at most. Yale had thought of helping them, but he never expected that they would be separated after entering in the special realm.
Yale could do nothing to help them, so he decided to avoid thinking about that and merely wished good luck for them.
The special realm seemed a collage of different areas joined without care; it looked completely unnatural. Yale though that the creator of the special realm didn’t put a lot of effort into the realm’s appearance.
The area where their group was seemed to be formed by human-made corridors.
There were a few traps in those ways, but the nobles came prepared with trap detecting artifacts that allowed them to walk safely.
The corridor was thin, so they needed to walk in line, even if the path were enough to fit three of them, they would be without space to move in case of danger.
Nurvey was walking at the front of the group.
Nurvey’s trap detecting artifact was the best of all the artifacts the group had.
Furthermore, as she was the one with best measures in front of danger, her being at the front was the best decision.
Yale was in the second position just behind Nurvey, in the middle was Serka who as the healer had the most secure location and behind her was Kermu.
Hyrk was at the rear; the traps could be triggered from any direction, so the front and back were the most dangerous positions, and Hyrk’s defense was outstanding even if it was still behind Nurvey’s.
As they were walking Yale saw a huge pit in front of them with the passage turning left just before it.
That pit seemed an easy trap to discover which only those too careless would fall because it could be seen since far away.
However, to Yale’s surprise, Nurvey advanced toward if like if the path continued ahead.
“Stop!”
Yale shouted as he grabbed her by the shoulder just before she stepped into the pit.
She stared at Yale displeased.
“Why were you about jumping into that pit in front of you? Can’t you see it?”
Yale was paying attention to Nurvey as she was carrying Wyba, even if the others said that she was reliable, he was still cautious.
The other group members looked to Yale with strange expressions as they heard his words.
“Yale, there aren’t any pit there, in front of us there is the passage like before.”
Yale was shocked by Serka’s words; he could see clearly the pit in front of them.
“Let’s try this.”
Kermu said it while extracting one stone from a spatial artifact and tossing it to the front.
When the stone reached the floor, it continued to fall disappearing from everyone’s eyesight.
After seeing the stone disappearing behind the floor, the nobles confirmed that Yale was telling the truth, there wasn’t any path in front of them, only a deadly trap.
They also didn’t hear the sound of the stone reaching the floor so they could guess that falling was equal to death.
Nurvey would be dead if Yale weren’t in the group or if he didn’t react quickly.
“Thank you.”
After seeing that Yale had only grabbed her to save her life, Nurvey used all her strength to thank him, that was something very unusual in her.
“How did you see that trap? Our artifacts didn’t detect anything.”
“Trap? It could be considered a trap, but it was without any covering, you told me that your artifact served to detect hidden traps, but there’s nothing hidden to detect. What I don’t understand is why you didn’t see it before.”
“Yale, we still didn’t see that pit you are talking about even if we confirmed that is there.”
“Could it be an illusion?”
“Why do you think that?”
Serka didn’t understand why Yale thought that an illusion was the reason of all.
“I have immunity to any type of illusions, if there is an illusion covering the pit, it can’t have any effect on me, while it can affect you. Thus, I thought that it could be the reason.”
“Are you serious? Do you really have immunity to illusions.”
Serka had difficulty to believe that Yale had such immunity, which was far too strange.
“Of course I have it, I know it could be difficult to believe, but I am telling the truth.”
“Yale’s words have a point; our artifacts can’t detect illusions. Using permanent illusions is a strange skill even for experts, only those who were extremely skilled in them would be able to cast an illusion that remains for years. Our clans didn’t give us any item to detect illusions, so I think that all the other realms opened the past didn’t have any illusion like this one or no one survived to tell about it.”
Kermu analyzed the situation coolly, he was the smartest of the group and didn’t let his prejudices block his way of thought.
“Then, what could we do, we will be dead if we get cheated by more illusions.”
Hyrk who hadn’t spoken until that moment was starting to get nervous, he had a very strong body, but if he fell in such deep pit, he would be dead before he noticed it.
“Calm yourself, in a normal situation that could be a deadly obstacle to us. However, letting Yale join us was our greatest luck, finding someone able to ignore illusions is extremely difficult.”
Then, Hyrk remembered that Yale had detected the pit and also had just told them about his immunity, he wasn’t used to relying on others skills, so he was only thinking about his own capacities.
Hyrk was also thankful that in the end, he accepted Yale joining the group. If he had refused, Nurvey would be dead due to his arrogance.
Even if had said that it was better to die than mix with commoners, that was only his arrogance because he didn’t think that with their preparations they could die in the special realm, he underestimated it too much.
“Yale, since you can see through the illusions, there’s some way to advance or this is a dead way?”
Serka was happy to have helped Yale before, in the end, letting him join was a wise decision.
“The way continues turning left.”
“I can only see the wall there.”
Kermu laughed as he said that.
Yale showed the way, and all of them continued their journey.
To the other four, walking across a wall was a weird experience even if that was only an illusion.
The group slowed down and told Yale to notify any strange thing he noticed, even before turning left or right, they asked him if there was really a path there.
“If the other groups notice the illusions will they exit the realm out of fear?”
As they were walking, Yale asked it because he was conscious that to the other groups those illusions would be calamities and he had friends among those other groups.
“Impossible, in at least a month there is no way to go out. That was a measure to avoid the cannon-fodder running away in fear, in exchange it is also impossible for the nobles to exit before a month has passed. If they were fearful of the illusions, at most they could try to remain without moving for one month, but that is also dangerous. If they can’t obtain anything from the realm, robbing others wasn’t a strange thing. That is one of the things I despise the most about the commoners.”
Hyrk was the one who replied Yale and his words were true. A lot of commoners relied on robbing after seeing that they couldn’t obtain anything in the realm. The nobles usually refused to do such low things, they still had their pride.
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