Bear School Astartes

Chapter 432. Underground River, Hole

"I’ve never been to Heinkawei Castle."

Lann repeated with emphasis.

Ged was still dazed.

"No, wait... is the situation what I think it is?"

He hesitated, incredulously asking Lann.

The young man nodded.

"It’s exactly what you think. I was trained to be a Demon Hunter after the castle was abandoned, outside of it."

"...Meretelli."

Ged swallowed, his eyes vacant.

"Heinkawei was abandoned less than thirty years ago... how old are you? Who mutated you?"

"Nineteen, no, twenty maybe. Bordeaux was my mentor."

"Bordeaux?!"

Ged showed an even more incredulous expression after hearing this name than he did at Lann’s age.

"That ’big icicle’ was one of the coldest hearts in the castle! How could he possibly have the heart for preserving the School to train a successor?"

"I was his accidental son. He went through the trouble of mutating me out of fear of destiny, not a desire to preserve the School."

Lann explained indifferently.

"Actually, rather than call me an apprentice, it would be more accurate to say I’m his... spy? Vanguard? Anyway, a suicide squad member. As a result, this set I’m wearing now was initially stripped from his corpse."

Ged walked through the mud in silence for a moment before letting out a sigh.

"...Ah, this is indeed something those ’icicles’ would do. Killing him must have been difficult for you. He’s not young, with experience, physical strength, and Magic Power that are quite formidable."

"I was surprised at how skilled you are at such a young age, but thinking about it, doing vanguard work under Bordeaux and surviving to kill him, it’s only natural you’d be skilled, nothing to envy."

The Demon Hunters of the Bear School probably have it the hardest, except maybe the Cat School.

The School should have been the second home for Demon Hunters in a world full of discrimination against mutants.

But the cold atmosphere of the Bear School gives members no sense of belonging.

"You should be able to tell, I’m not short on money."

Lann spoke softly, his voice spreading in the dark, silent tomb like a sighing wind.

"The reason I took this task is to find you."

"Find me?"

"Yes. I want to find more advanced School armor blueprints. But I’ve never been to Heinkawei, so I could only search for traces near the Amel Mountains. Hearing there was a Bear School Demon Hunter here, I took the task."

"Understood, that can be arranged."

Ged agreed quite readily, being someone with a straightforward and enthusiastic temperament.

"Our castle was looted by mobs, but the main structure remains. I can take you there. Although there are no ready-made blueprints, we can head to the Dwarf Settlement in the mountains, as they designed the School’s blueprints."

Ged’s words confirmed the guess of Belengar and Lann—

The members who split from the Demon Hunter Order lacked high-level craftsmen. Their unique armor was a result of the Dwarves’ help.

"Thanks, Ged."

Lann whistled in relaxation. With a member of the Bear School Castle as a guide, he could wander much less in the vast Amel Mountains.

Ged waved him off, indicating he didn’t mind.

Now that the matter of armor blueprints was settled, the rest was to quickly wrap up this task filled with royal grudges.

The two walked a while longer in this tomb adapted from Elf ruins.

The Elf ruins’ original purpose was unclear, but it had many small rooms, now used to hold solid stone coffins.

A layer of water deep enough to submerge their soles covered the ground, drowning the mushrooms and weeds that had grown on the stony surface.

This made Lann feel something was off.

Recent heavy rains were indeed significant, as everyone said. But could that rain truly flood the tomb with so much water?

They had been underground for nearly two kilometers, yet the water showed no sign of diminishing or drying up!

Lann suddenly stopped, frowning. He drew the Lady of the Lake’s Sword from his waist and gently inserted the tip into the water.

Ged, not sure what he was doing, remained silent.

"...This water is flowing."

Lann’s [Spirit Vision] captured the slight disturbance as the water flowed past the blade.

It wasn’t diffusive ripples from their footsteps but a sign of water movement.

"The monsters attacking you weren’t native to the tomb, Ged."

Realizing this, Lann sheathed his sword again.

"They came through some channel, along with the water, likely an underground river."

"Is that good news?"

Ged sneered.

"At least it shows this country’s people valued tradition and the deceased... yeah, right, it just means we have a pile of trouble."

"Just awful, this Elf ruin is at least thousands of years old! Why did it have to leak now, just when we’re here to make money, damn it!"

His voice was full of resentment, which Lann understood.

After all, if he nearly died at the hands of creatures like Water Ghosts or Abominations, he would undoubtedly feel immense frustration too.

"That’s the crux of the problem, Ged."

The sound of wading resumed as Lann started leading Ged toward the source of the water flow.

"Could a well-fortified Elf ruin of thousands of years spring a leak from a single rain? Even if the rain made the underground water flow turbulent, hasn’t this structure endured greater events over the past millennia?"

"You mean?"

"The breach was broken through, something entered through that gap. That’s my guess."

In the cold, damp, and dark ruin-tomb, the abrupt sound of water splashes was the only noise that stirred.

The underground naturally felt chill, and with the underground water seeping in, it became downright frigid.

A regular person in such an environment might have their nerves pushed to the limit from cold and fear.

If at that time something terrifying emerged from the tomb... it’s understandable why the sole survivor went mad.

But for two Demon Hunters, breaking curses in haunted houses and slaying demon spirits was all part of their everyday work.

"If we assume that..."

Ged spoke without a hint of trembling, calmly analyzing.

"Then demon spirits could be explained. The intruder carried something imbued with Chaos Magic Power, or that thing itself possessed magic. Chaos Magic Power then agitated the souls in the tomb, creating demon spirits."

As they conversed, they reached the deepest part of the tomb.

The walls here were meant to display intricate, elf-style stone reliefs covered in moss. Now, the marble blocks forming the mural lay shattered on the ground, as if something had forcibly broken them.

A massive breach took up more than half of the wall’s area.

Beyond the gaping hole, the sound of an underground river’s surge was ceaseless.

"Whatever it was had great strength and size... not small at all."

Ged murmured, touching the fracture lines of the breach.

As he spoke, his fingers grazed a shattered stone brick, wedged in place but not yet fallen.

External force disturbed the structure holding the brick, causing pieces to rain down into the water layer on the floor.

The vibration rippled out in waves through the water.

Almost immediately... both Roaring Bear Head Badges started vibrating simultaneously!