Chapter 234 : Chapter 234
Chapter 234. The Splintered Team
Grant did not go in at once. He first swept his gaze across the inside and saw only a body lying on the ground, so still it was almost a corpse.
He walked in slowly, shut the door, released the fastening mechanism on it, then turned back to Gavin and asked,
“Where is Anna? Where did she go?”
Gavin’s body stiffened for a moment, then he answered in a choked voice,
“She decided to leave. But she moved too much and attracted those skeletons. They chased after her when she ran out.”
“Oh.” Grant responded expressionlessly, then said in a low voice,
“If I had known, I should have killed her. Then our identities would not have been exposed.”
Gavin felt a little miserable, but he said nothing. He pointed at the “companion” lying on the ground, as if asking a question and yet also confirming something at the same time.
“What about ‘him’? How are we supposed to deal with it?”
Grant remained expressionless as he slowly said,
“Find a quiet place and dispose of him. Do not let those people discover the corpse and then use Divination to see our faces.”
Gavin was not surprised by this outcome. Among mercenaries, abandoning a companion was practically a required lesson.
In many situations, a wounded companion could no longer fight, while taking him along only made him a burden. So the best choice was simply to leave him behind.
And the final test every mercenary had to face was to do everything possible not to get injured in battle. Otherwise, one would never want to gamble on a companion’s kindness.
And evidently, Gavin’s companion had failed that test. His ending would be even worse. In order to avoid Divination, they could not leave behind an intact corpse.
The reason Gavin had waited until Grant returned before bringing this up was because he knew Grant needed to know about it.
Otherwise, Grant might think Gavin meant to attack him directly and keep that thing for himself.
“What do we do now?”
Gavin asked with a hopeful look in his eyes.
Grant was stumped by the question. He bit his lip lightly, then slowly said,
“We wait for dawn. When the undead above the mine start being scorched by the sun and try to retreat back into the tunnels, we strike and wipe out a wave of them.”
“Then we go in, find that damned thing, come out alive, and hide somewhere else.”
That plan was a gamble with their lives. Even though Grant had risked death today to go deep into the mine and make a preliminary survey of the terrain, it had not helped their objective very much.
But they had no choice. From the moment that thing ran into the depths of the mine, they had lost any road of retreat.
Gavin could still vaguely remember how that thing, which they had taken for a chance to strike it rich, had suddenly seemed to grow legs and twist left and right through layers of camouflage and alarm traps, before running straight into the mine.
Only then had Gavin truly realized that the box they were after had always been alive. That strange feeling he had sensed every night in the dead of night had not been false.
But by then it was already too late. He could only watch that box run into the mine, and inside that mine there just so happened to be a First-Tier necromantic skeleton mage.
That kind of undead creature was extremely famous. Legend had it that the Necromancy School itself had been founded only after people encountered that classic type of undead.
Although the creature was famous, its actual danger was not particularly high. One or two First-Tier Professionals might find it troublesome, but they had six people in all.
Things had originally gone exactly as they expected. When their team entered the mine and faced those skeletons that could not necessarily defeat even apprentices, they carved through them as easily as chopping vegetables, without meeting any real resistance.
But the moment they found traces of that box, those low-tier skeletons seemed to undergo a sudden transformation. What burst out from the corners were no longer skeletons that even apprentices might defeat.
They were First-Tier Skeletons that could exchange several blows even with First-Tier Professionals.
And the skeletons’ attacks also carried some unknown form of energy. That energy made everyone present feel a strange resistance whenever they tried to release a Combat Technique or cast a spell.
As the battle continued, the members of their team realized in shock that although they still had strength left, they simply could not release their Combat Techniques or spells anymore.
That immediately threw the battlefield into a deadlock. They could neither retreat nor advance.
Because they could tell that the target was already very close. Perhaps beyond the very next corner lay that azure box.
But the moment they saw a long skeletal arm stretch out from around the corner, they abandoned all thought of continuing the fight.
“Fall back first!”
Left with no other choice, they could only withdraw, regroup, rest for a while, and then hurry back into the mine, because no one understood better than they did that they were short on time.
If they delayed any longer and those mercenaries caught up to them, then all their effort over these past days would have been wasted.
But unfortunately, their attack failed. The strength of that necromantic skeleton mage was far beyond anything they had imagined.
Under normal circumstances, it was already said that if a necromantic skeleton mage could summon four skeletons that truly counted as First Tier, then it meant an enormous number of people had died there.
But the moment they went down, they were beaten senseless. Even by a rough count, there were more than thirty First-Tier Skeletons in that place.
On average, every one of them had to fight more than five skeletons, and those skeletons were as good as endless. Every time they cut one down, two more appeared.
In the end, they abandoned two corpses and only barely escaped alive to the surface, with one more person heavily wounded.
Even after that, they still did not want to give up. After all, this chance was too rare. If they seized it, they would never have to worry again for the rest of their lives.
But while Grant had gone to scout the situation, Anna directly told Gavin she was done with it all and slipped away on her own.
So yesterday, there had still been six of them, full of confidence that they could evade pursuit, carry the box to the buyer, and obtain a lifetime of wealth and glory.
By today, the entire team had fallen apart, and only the two of them remained.
He had even wanted to say to Grant, Let us quit. Our identities probably have not been exposed yet anyway.
We can deal with the companions lying on the ground, pass ourselves off as ordinary mercenaries, and slip away.
But he also knew that Grant was the one who cared most about that thing. Any of the others might give up, but Grant absolutely would not.
At the same time, Gavin himself still harbored the faintest sliver of luck in his heart. We have already paid so much. Why can we not be just a little luckier?
Clinging to that hopeful illusion, he had not left like Anna, even though he already knew it was unlikely they would ever get that thing back.
Grant’s face still showed almost no expression, but a trace of unease could be seen within his pupils. And in the deepest part of those pupils, there flickered the faint blue gleam of soulfire.
But that blue light was far too weak, and neither of them noticed it.