Chapter 194: Drillers (1)
The surveying began in full swing. It was a necessary step in every construction project. The process felt repetitive each time but was never the same. This time was no different.
This time, we’re connecting the underground tunnels dispersed irregularly all over the place.
The location. Length. Depth. Direction. All these tunnels took different routes and spread from Kandara to the barren plain near the mountain range in random directions. Moreover, each went as deep as 16 feet. So, Subterranean Scanning wasn’t enough to identify the shape and size of the tunnels in the ground.
“That is why I need your cooperation, everyone.”
Lloyd was at the abandoned warehouse located in the remote part of the city. This was also the place Lloyd was abducted about 15 days ago. Gathered in this nostalgic venue, Lloyd lifted his head and looked around at the people.
“Did you bring the map I mentioned earlier?” asked Lloyd.
Termes and the rebel executives nodded at Lloyd’s question. Termes then piled the dozens of maps collected from the others on the table.
“Here you go,” he said as he spread out the maps one after another. “These maps,” he went on, “indicate most of the tunnels we have acquired or are aware of. Here, we tried grouping them together.”
“Grouping them? How?” asked Lloyd.
“They were organized by their proximity to Kandara. If the distance was the same, the tunnels were organized by size. We grouped them based on those two criteria,” explained Termes.
“Oh, wow.”
Lloyd cheered inwardly. He liked how Termes, the leader of the rebels, was smarter than he expected him to be.
“Great.”
Lloyd’s eyes held a glint of satisfaction as he looked at the maps, which were more detailed than he initially thought. What was more, it looked like the maps had been systematically organized. The markings, units, and symbols were all neatly put together.
Good. Very good.
Their efforts lessened his workload since he wouldn’t have to strain over the backbreaking task of organizing the map and putting together its key.
“I guess my turn has come.”
Crack! Crack!
Lloyd stepped back from the table after taking the maps and stretched his whole body. Termes looked at Lloyd with a confused gaze.
“Your turn?” asked Termes for clarification.
“Oh.” A grin appeared on Lloyd’s face. And in a nonchalant manner, he added, “I’m going to run around for a bit using your maps.”
“Wait, run inside the tunnels?” asked Termes again in disbelief.
“Yes.”
“…”
“This shouldn’t come as a surprise. I need to survey and see everything with my own eyes.”
“The distance will be considerable,” pointed out Termes.
“Exactly the reason why I wore comfortable clothes.”
Indeed, Lloyd was wearing a comfy shirt and wide-fit pants. He even had a towel around his neck. The look was likened to a marathon runner.
“Thanks to your organized maps, though,” continued Lloyd, “I think I’ll only have to run half the distance I initially anticipated. Look, do you see this path here? I can easily tell that I won’t have to go there at all.”
“Is it a good thing that you don’t?”
“Yes, so do cheer me on, please.”
Lloyd then stepped out of the warehouse after stretching. Outside, 32-foot-sized Ppodong was waiting for him.
“Ppodong!”
“Where’s Ggoming?” asked Lloyd.
“Ppo-do-dong! Ppodong!”
“His wing muscles are still sore?”
“Ppodong!”
“Okay,” said Lloyd. “It’s all right. He overworked himself traveling to the kingdom. I’m letting him rest for now.”
“Ppodong! Ppo-do-dong!”
“Okay, let’s go. Come one, Termes, please hop on.”
Lloyd and Termes hopped on Ppodong’s back. A smile escaped Lloyd as it had been quite a while since he sat on Ppodong’s fluffy and comfy back. Afterward, Ppodong sprinted westward, following the guidance of Termes, until they arrived at the closest underground tunnel to Kandara. Lloyd entered the tunnel and ran alone. The marathon to survey had begun.
“Huff, huff!”
Lloyd ran along the underground tunnel, lightly collecting his breath. Sometimes, the tunnel was straight. Sometimes, it was curved. Lloyd had the surveying skill activated throughout his run in the tunnel, and a torch was in his hand as if he was participating in an Olympic torch relay. Crackle…!
Countless pieces of information about the tunnel were collected.
My goodness. Never did I imagine before that I’d be doing something like this.
Running a marathon dozens of feet underground? A smile escaped Lloyd. At the same time, several memories came to his mind.
I remember when I first started learning how to sword fight.
It was around the time Lloyd tried to combat Sir Neumann, the traitor of his fiefdom. Lloyd worked on his stamina as he learned the basics of swordsmanship from Javier. That day, he had run more than the combined distance he ran in his life. But now, he was able to run faster and longer than before. It was thanks to the Asrahan Core Technique utilizing the triple circle and his manaheart which was close to the level of a mid-level sword expert.
“Huff! Huff!”
When was the last time I ran this much? Oh, right. The wild ants.
It must have been when he constructed the coal mine in his fiefdom. The last face of the mine touched the underground tunnels of the wild ants, which had Lloyd sprint and dash through the tunnels to attract the ants away from his people.
This reminds me of that time.
Lloyd scoffed again, putting an end to his reminiscing. And before he knew it, he was already near the end of the tunnel. He then studied the map.
Good. I think I can build the waterway according to the route I’ve run. I’ll also block here, here, and here to prevent water from flowing out in another direction.
Lloyd then quickly checked several points of the map. Around an hour or two later, he finished surveying one underground tunnel. And then…
“Let’s get moving again.”
“Ppodong!”
He got on Ppodong again and moved to the next tunnel under Termes’s guidance. Of course, Lloyd didn’t rest in between the two tunnels. He precisely measured the course of the first and second tunnels, gauging and calculating the shortest route to connect them. In no time, he arrived at the second tunnel.
“Please wait here with Ppodong until I come back. If you’re bored, play a word game with him,” suggested Lloyd.
“What’s a word game?” asked Termes.
“I’ll show you. Ppodong?”
“Ppodong?”
“Why don’t you start?”
“Ppodong!”
“Now,” said Lloyd, “the next word you should say has to start with the letter ‘D.’”
Lloyd looked at Termes, and the latter mumbled something.
“E…Expand.”
“Hey, Ppodong. Your turn.”
“Ppo-do-dong!”
“Ppodong said, ‘Painter.’ But since he can only say ‘Ppodong,’ your word must start with a ‘D’ every time. Got it?”
“…”
This is cheating, Termes wanted to rebut. But Lloyd had already dashed into the tunnel without waiting to start surveying again. Now, left all alone, Termes was forced to say the following as he turned to look at Ppodong.
“Whew. Dinner.”
“Ppodong!”
“Destroy.”
“Ppo-do-dong!”
“…”
For some reason, Termes felt like he was in a more challenging battle than one against the sultan.
Slash!
“Argh…! Ugh!”
A giant wall. One that was so tall, its peak couldn’t be seen. Is this what it felt like to be blocked by such a wall? Sheherazade shuddered at the pang of stifling helplessness. But she wielded her sword again.
“Tssk!”
Whoosh! High-level sword expert. She had trained with all of her might to get to this level, so her attack contained all the years of her blood and sweat. So, she had always been confident with her sword until she was faced with this opponent.
Boom!
“…!”
She missed. Not even a scrape. Her attack posed no threat.
How?
Her black-pearly eyes trembled, and her gaze quickly traced the trajectory of her opponent. She immediately braced herself for a possible counterattack. But her opponent didn’t fight back. Instead, he simply stepped back from the sword strike trajectory.
“Are you making fun of me?!”
As her shaky voice boomed in the room, her opponent, Javier, replied with a face void of any emotion.
“Not at all.”
“Then?”
“I told you,” Javier said, “I am simply following Master Lloyd’s order.”
“That ridiculous order to lock me up here?”
“He did not order me to lock you up here. He simply told me to take good care of you,” stated Javier tonelessly.
“That’s the same thing!”
Slash! Swish! Provoked, Sheherazade took two steps forward, laying two attacks as she broke the rhythm of her movement. The scimitar, the curved sword used in desert regions, split the space diagonally. The timing of her attack was perfect as it capitalized on the split second in between breathing. Had the opponent been an ordinary swordsman or a high-level sword expert knight of a similar caliber, she would have caught him off guard well enough. But unfortunately, she was up against Javier.
“…”
Rustle. A half step back without a blink of an eye. That was all that was enough for Javier to make Sheherazade’s calculated attack meaningless. Her sword missed and sliced a nearby table and the back of a chair.
“Take care of me?” huffed Sheherazade. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m a guard. Assigned by the sultan!”
“I know,” answered Javier, his voice dripping with composure.
“Then why are you doing this to me?!”
“Again, I am doing this at the order of Master Lloyd.”
“What did he say?!”
“That the desert sun is not good for your skin.”
“What…?” Sheherazade, who was breathlessly attacking Javier, stopped for the first time.
“What did you just say?” she asked as her brow shook.
“I am relaying exactly what Master Lloyd had said. Verbatim.”
“What now-”
“He said that the radiation from the desert sun accelerates skin aging and that the dry air in this area makes it the worst. The fine dust is also harmful to the respiratory system, and in the long term, it increases the chances of various kinds of lung conditions, according to him.”
“…”
What is that supposed to mean? She listened to Javier, feeling slightly dazed.
“Frankly, I do not know what radiation is either. And to be honest, I am not so happy about holding you here through the afternoon.”
“Then why won’t you let me out?” demanded Sheherazade.
“Again, I am doing this at the order of Master Lloyd.”
“That! That again!”
Provoked again, she gripped her scimitar hard, a part of her heart growing heavily anxious.
No. I can’t continue wasting my time like this.
She has been locked up in this room for several days now. In the afternoon, Javier stopped her from leaving. At night, Lloyd visited and spewed enchanting, enigmatic words that sounded like a spell. Lloyd didn’t give her even the slightest chance to strike up anything close to a conversation. Just hearing him talk brought a flood, a tsunami of sleepiness. She resisted by widening her eyes and firmly pinching her thighs. But eventually, she found herself sleeping in bed against her will. It was one of the best and most comfortable nights of sleep she ever had.
That’s the problem!
She enjoyed having a peaceful night of sleep. But once she woke up, it was already bright in the morning. There was no trace of Lloyd. Instead, there was sword master Javier at the door, blocking her from leaving just like today, right now. In other words, she was completely imprisoned day and night.
This is intentional. They’re confining me here on purpose. I don’t know why. But I’m certain that they’re trying to cast me aside.
And so, she was on edge. This was one of the rare chances the sultan offered her. She had the chance to satisfy his expectations. If she could make Lloyd Frontera hers and bring him as the sultan’s son-in-law, she could be properly acknowledged by her father for the first time.
I can’t… I can’t miss such a precious opportunity!
She had to step out of this room. She had to be on Lloyd’s side as his guard and naturally spend more time with him. So, escaping this sickening room was the first thing to do! Sheherazade brandished her sword as she gritted her teeth, but she failed to reach her opponent. She couldn’t touch any part of him, not even a strand of his hair or an edge of his sleeves. It was even the case when Javier wasn’t attacking back at all. Worse, he was barehanded and moved only within a two-step perimeter. That fact made her even more frustrated.
“Arghhh! Please! Come on!”
Be captured. Be hit by my sword. She swung and struggled as she wailed desperately. Of course, Javier rejected her plea flatly, avoiding her attack much too easily. At the same time, he looked at her with a strange gaze.
“…”
Javier then remembered what Lloyd had hinted to him about her. How she was actually the daughter of the sultan. How she was here with ulterior motives. So, Lloyd suggested it was better to confine her here in this room lest she does something. It was only for the better that the sultan’s daughter did not meet the rebels. Javier recalled the warning from Lloyd.
Well, at her skill level, this is a good training opportunity for you too.
His gaze toward her deepened. She was a high-level sword expert, which was far below his own status. Even so, there was a uniquely sharp ferocity in her sword movements that made her opponents flinch in fear.
What a talented woman.
Javier was impressed, but he didn’t show it. Not everyone could swing a sword with this much vigor. It wasn’t something that could be achieved by simply leveling up.
It is a matter of talent.
Looking at talent alone, Javier figured she would be on par with Queen Magentano. If she met a good teacher and had the right opportunity, she would be able to rise to the level of a sword master.
Master Lloyd must be aware of it as well.
A crease appeared on his forehead. Master Lloyd was a quick-witted man, and it was only obvious that he saw through what potential this lady, who was going berserk now, had for herself. And yet, why did he put me to her side to jail her? wondered Javier. And he remembered how Lloyd had added that he could teach her a lesson if necessary. It didn’t matter whether he showed what true sword fighting was. Lloyd had said those words as he scoffed.
“…”
What would happen, Javier wondered, if this lady became a sword master as she fought against him? The daughter of the sultan. The princess of the enemy kingdom. Should such a woman become a sword master, it would only mean more power for the enemy state.
Still, if he entrusted the job to me… I must only assume that Master Lloyd has a bigger plan in mind.
Javier decided to trust him. The Lloyd he knew until now would have a trustworthy plan in mind.
Then, I will help you out with your plan.
Javier made a decision. He would teach her a lesson. With that, Javier grabbed a candlelight hanging on a wall.
Clang! His candlelight easily blocked her scimitar, embers sparking at the blow.
“…!”
Her eyes widened in surprise. Javier’s eyes flashed with iciness. From that moment on, Sheherazade sincerely regretted her childhood decision to pursue the solitary path of sword fighting.