Chương 161: No Heroics

Morran stared toward the dungeon entrance for only a second after the warning before turning back toward Sieghart. Whatever hesitation remained disappeared beneath something far more personal and desperate. Then, to Sieghart's surprise, Morran bowed deeply enough that his hands nearly touched his knees, ignoring every nearby worker who immediately turned toward the unfamiliar display.

"Please help us." Sieghart blinked.

"The worms are acting up again." Morran kept his head lowered.

"There's someone important to me trapped down there." Sieghart looked toward the shaking cave entrance, then toward the miners already gathering weapons. Refusing would technically remain possible, but the decision suddenly felt unnecessarily complicated. He had come here because the dungeon interested him. Helping clear the blockage would allow him inside faster, reveal more about the dungeon, and probably give him combat experience along the way. That was enough.

"You don't need to bow." Morran slowly straightened.

"I'm doing this for my own goals too." Morran studied him for a moment, apparently trying to decide whether Sieghart was deliberately avoiding gratitude or genuinely considered curiosity reasonable payment for entering a dangerous dungeon. Sieghart felt strangely itchy between his shoulders anyway. He did not want Morran treating him like some heroic mage arriving precisely when desperate people needed salvation. That sounded exhausting.

On the other hand, deliberately ignoring people he could help simply because kindness made him uncomfortable would make Sieghart look like an insecure sociopath rather than an independent traveler. His ego did not need that much protection.

"I'll help until the passage is open." Morran nodded immediately.

"That's enough." Less than five minutes later, Sieghart joined the rescue team descending into the dungeon while workers carried the explosive crates between them using reinforced wooden poles. Morran came as well, refusing every suggestion that he wait outside despite possessing considerably less combat experience than most people entering beside him. The explosives looked exactly as primitive as Sieghart expected.

Each rectangular charge consisted of tightly packed alchemical powder sealed inside waxed cloth, reinforced with leather bands, and fitted with simple ignition tubes. Small metal plates had been attached around the packages to direct pressure toward stone instead of wasting everything outward. Several runes stabilized the volatile mixture during transportation without contributing much explosive force themselves. Sieghart inspected one using Magic Vision while they walked.

The actual destructive reaction appeared mostly chemical, but small amounts of mana passed through the containment runes whenever movement became too violent. That explained why the crates survived his driving. Probably. The deeper passages swallowed the sounds of the camp almost immediately. Wooden supports appeared regularly along the tunnel, though most looked newer than the rough stone surrounding them.

Lanterns hung from iron hooks hammered into the walls, creating overlapping circles of yellow light that barely reached the dark ceiling above their heads. The dungeon did not resemble Bellhaven at all. Bellhaven's unfinished dungeon had felt unstable, filled with mana gathering around one central corpse while the surrounding passages gradually transformed into something unnatural. This place felt established.

Mana flowed through everything evenly, moving through stone like underground water while faint concentrations appeared inside distant walls, floors, and ceilings whenever Sieghart used Magic Vision. He kept the ocular spell active despite the strain. If earthworms attacked through solid stone, seeing unusual mana movement before the wall exploded seemed worth the headache.

The rescue group consisted of eight miners carrying pickaxes, three armed guards, Morran, Sieghart, and four demolition workers responsible for the blasting charges. Nobody talked much. The sound of boots, shifting equipment, and distant scraping filled the tunnels instead, occasionally joined by vibrations deep enough that dust fell from overhead supports. Sieghart noticed the first attack before everyone else. Mana shifted sharply inside the left wall. Not a gradual movement.

A concentrated mass rushed toward them through solid earth, disturbing the surrounding magical flow like something swimming through dense water. Sieghart stopped.

"Left." The miners reacted immediately, raising pickaxes while the guards stepped toward the wall. Stone cracked before anyone reached it. A pale segmented body burst through loose earth, opening a hole large enough for something thicker than Sieghart's torso to force itself into the passage. The creature was approximately one meter long, though only half its body emerged initially. Its flesh looked soft and translucent, covered by wet soil and circular muscle bands. A round mouth opened at the front.

Too many tiny teeth surrounded the opening. Sieghart responded before the creature completed its lunge. Wind Blade crossed the tunnel. The compressed edge passed through the exposed body so cleanly that the front half continued moving for another second before separating completely. The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The severed section struck the ground near one miner's boots. Everyone stared. The miner who had raised his pickaxe slowly lowered it.

"Right." Sieghart looked toward the corpse.

"That was smaller than expected." Morran stepped around the remains.

"That one was small." The miners sighed in relief anyway. Most of them clearly possessed enough experience to fight worms of that size, but avoiding another exhausting encounter still mattered after three days of rescue attempts. They continued deeper. Sieghart kept Magic Vision active, gradually learning how ordinary dungeon mana differed from the disturbances produced by moving worms behind stone. The worms displaced mana indirectly rather than carrying enormous magical signatures themselves.

Their tunnels compressed surrounding energy along narrow paths before the creatures actually reached visible surfaces. That pattern gave Sieghart several seconds of warning. Sometimes. The second attack came from below. Sieghart saw the mana shift beneath Morran and immediately used Telekinesis to yank the merchant backward by his coat. Morran stumbled into a demolition worker just before the floor erupted.

A worm nearly two meters long launched upward, snapping its circular mouth closed where Morran's leg had been. One guard drove a spear through its side. The weapon penetrated but failed to stop it. The worm twisted violently, slamming the guard against the wall while the miners scattered away from the opening beneath them. Sieghart fired Earth Bullets directly into its mouth. The first projectile broke several teeth. The second disappeared inside.

The third struck deeper enough that dark fluid sprayed from the creature before it collapsed across the passage. Morran stared at the hole beneath his feet.

"Thanks." Sieghart released his coat.

"Watch the floor."

"I was." They moved faster afterward. Nobody questioned Sieghart when he called directions anymore. Whenever Magic Vision detected movement, miners shifted before the worm appeared while guards prepared attacks around whatever opening Sieghart indicated. The third fight lasted seconds. The fourth never became a fight because Sieghart froze the wall before the creature broke through, slowing its movement long enough for several pickaxes to crush the exposed head. The fifth worm came through the ceiling.

Sieghart disliked that one personally. It dropped directly above the demolition team carrying the explosives, forcing him to use Telekinesis upon the charge crates while several workers dove away. The packages floated several meters sideways just before the worm crashed where they had been carried. Sieghart's eyes widened.

"Careful!" The nearest demolition worker looked offended.

"You're yelling at us?"

"Yes."

"You drove these here!" Morran laughed once despite himself. Nobody else did. The worm died after two Wind Blades opened its body from different angles, leaving pale chunks scattered beside several blasting charges that Sieghart gently lowered afterward. He had no idea how much impact the stabilized explosives could survive before becoming unstabilized explosives, and he preferred keeping that mystery theoretical. The passages narrowed gradually as they descended.

Some sections contained timber supports every few meters, while others relied entirely upon natural stone arches left intact by whatever shaped the dungeon. Mana became denser as well. Sieghart noticed small crystals growing from several walls, though nobody stopped to collect them because reaching the trapped expedition mattered considerably more than mining profit tonight. That was disappointing. He made a mental note of their location.

Eventually, one demolition worker raised a hand and pointed toward a section where several wooden supports had been replaced by hastily arranged beams.

"The collapse is close." Everyone became quieter. The passage ahead widened suddenly into what had once been a junction. Now one entire branch disappeared behind an enormous slope of broken stone, packed earth, shattered supports, and fragments of ceiling. Sieghart approached slowly. Magic Vision immediately revealed the problem. The rubble was not simply loose debris.

Several layers had compressed together under enormous weight, turning the obstruction into something closer to an artificial wall extending several meters through the tunnel.

"How thick?" Morran asked. One demolition worker knelt beside the rubble and inserted a narrow measuring rod between two stones.

"Three meters at least." Another worker shook his head.

"Maybe four." Sieghart studied the obstruction carefully. He could probably cut through part of it using Water Jet, but disturbing load-bearing sections blindly might cause additional collapse before anyone identified which stones currently supported everything above. Explosives sounded equally dangerous. At least the specialists knew what they were doing. Probably. Morran stepped toward a narrow opening near the upper right side of the blockage, barely large enough for sound and fresh air to pass through.

He cupped both hands around his mouth.

"Lysa!" For several seconds, nothing answered except faint scraping deeper inside. Then a girl's voice echoed through the rubble.

"Uncle?" The merchant visibly relaxed.

"Yeah!"

"You finally decided to show up?" Morran laughed breathlessly.

"Had transportation problems." Sieghart looked at him. That seemed dishonest considering their transportation had nearly launched Morran into several walls. The voice beyond the rubble sounded young, perhaps somewhere around Morran's age, though exhaustion made judging anything accurately difficult.

"Did you bring the charges?"

"Yes." Several voices cheered faintly from the other side. The sound died quickly. Morran stepped closer to the opening.

"We're setting them now. You need everyone away from the collapse." There was a pause. Then Lysa answered.

"How far?" The demolition worker beside Morran shouted instructions through the gap, explaining which section of tunnel the trapped expedition needed to retreat toward before detonation. Lysa acknowledged immediately. Then something heavy scraped against stone somewhere behind her. Sieghart noticed everyone nearby becoming tense. Another scraping sound followed. Longer. Closer. Morran pressed his face toward the opening.

"What was that?" Lysa did not answer immediately. When she finally did, her voice had changed.

"Just hurry." Morran's hands tightened against the rubble.

"How bad?"

"We've got a couple of big ones moving around." One demolition worker swore. Sieghart activated Magic Vision at full strength and stared through the obstruction, even though the dense stone prevented him from seeing anything clearly beyond several overlapping mana distortions. Something was moving behind the collapsed passage. No. Several things.

One signature was noticeably larger than anything Sieghart had encountered during their descent, disturbing mana across enough surrounding stone that the entire wall seemed to ripple faintly. Sieghart narrowed his eyes.

"How big?" Lysa laughed weakly from the other side.

"You really don't want to know." Another impact shook the tunnel. This one came from beyond the collapse. Dust fell from the ceiling. The demolition workers immediately started unpacking charges. Morran looked toward Sieghart. Sieghart looked toward the rubble. The rescue had officially become a race.