Vol. 6 Ch. 118

Originally, Leon and Elusa traveling together might have made this archaeological expedition feel a bit awkward. But now that the lively Safina had joined them, the atmosphere wasn’t quite so stiff anymore.

Soon, the three followed the sound of running water and found a river.

“There’s actually a river under this underground space… This place is way larger than we expected,” Elusa said as she crouched by the river, reaching out toward it.

She rolled up one sleeve, then slowly stretched her arm forward, dipping her slender fingers into the water. The current brushed against her fingertips—cool and clear.

After testing it briefly, Elusa withdrew her hand and gently brought it to her nose to sniff—no unusual smell. Then she flicked the water from her fingers, shaking off the droplets before channeling her magic. Pale blue points of light floated from her palm like hundreds of tiny fireflies. One of the magical motes dropped into the river before her, lingered briefly, then vanished.

“It’s a very clean little river. Let’s rest here for a bit and eat something to recover our strength.” They hadn’t stopped in hours and had even gone through an earthquake. As eager as they were to find the other archaeology team members, they wouldn’t get far without the energy to go on.

Now that they had reached the river, Elusa’s suggestion was immediately met with agreement from both Leon and Safina. Elusa pulled some simple meal equipment from her pack, then moved to the river to scoop a ladle of clear water. She started a small campfire, set a pot on it, and began boiling the water.

“Even though it’s clean, it’s still safer to boil it before drinking,” Elusa said. After years of archaeological fieldwork, she was no stranger to basic wilderness survival techniques.

As the fire crackled, Safina asked casually, “Since there’s a river here, doesn’t that mean [N O V E L I G H T] we could just follow it and eventually find another exit?”

“If the river’s really that long, we’d have to follow it a good distance to find the source. So I suggest we stay nearby and search the surroundings while we wait for Professor Javier and the others to regroup here.”

“If we get separated from the team, we find a river and meet there—that was one of Professor Javier’s core rules. Elusa mentioned it earlier too.”

“Alright, you’re the expert. We’ll go with your plan,” Leon said.

Elusa smiled modestly and didn’t say more.

The mood grew quiet again after that short exchange. In the vast underground space, the only sound was the crackle of the fire.

Safina glanced at Leon, who sat silently with his head down, then looked at Elusa, who clearly wanted to speak to him but didn’t know how. She sighed inwardly:

*All bad endings start from unrequited love.*

Safina puffed up her cheeks and resolved to lighten the heavy mood. She patted the pouch at her waist, hoping to find some strange Void trinket to distract the melancholic air. But after rummaging for a while, she didn’t find anything especially suitable.

At last, she pulled out a small cloth pouch.

Leon noticed and asked, “What’s that?”

Safina gave it a shake—rustle rustle rustle—then grinned.

“Oh, just some leaves Carl gave me.”

Leon raised a brow. “Leaves?”

Safina shrugged and opened the pouch, tipping the contents into her palm.

“Yeah, these leaves.”

Leon and Elusa looked over.

It was a handful of dark green, crumbled dry leaves.

“Tea leaves,” Elusa said, then looked up at Safina with curiosity.

“Why do you call them just ‘leaves’?”

“We don’t have this stuff where I’m from. I didn’t know what it was called.”

“Huh? I thought you were from the Empire?”

“Ah, I…”

Safina glanced at Leon.

Leon quickly shot her a look, and Safina instantly understood. She said,

“I’m from somewhere else. No tea leaves back home, so I never learned the name.”

“Oh, I see.”

Elusa nodded, then looked at Leon with a smile.

“Your friends sure come from all over.”

General Leon grinned dryly, grumbling inwardly:

*Hah. “All over” is an understatement. This one’s from another dimension.*

“Carl gave them to you? Why?”

“He’s chasing me. Has been for a few years now.”

Safina said nonchalantly, “But we’re not gonna work. Kaiser doesn’t like him. I talk to Carl for five minutes and Kaiser gets pissy. These tea leaves? Carl snuck them to me recently.”

So there really was gossip.

Leon chuckled, munching on melon seeds inside his mind.

“Didn’t think your people—your kind—would have that whole romance thing too.”

“Of course we do. We’re just poor and remote—not cavemen.”

Safina rolled her eyes at him, then continued,

“But I don’t feel anything for Carl.”

Elusa’s gossip-sensing soul lit up.

“Can I ask? Is it because of personality? Or something else?”

Safina scrunched her nose. “Who’d fall for a fake gentleman? Ugh. Anyway—how do you eat this stuff—tea leaves?”

“You don’t eat it. You steep it.”

“Water just boiled.”

Elusa took a cup from her bag, placed a pinch of the tea leaves into it, and poured in the hot water. The clear water quickly turned a rich amber brown, releasing a strong aroma.

Safina took a sniff and exclaimed, “Ooh, smells pretty nice. I’ll try just a little.”

“Wait till it cools a bit.”

“OK.”

After a short while, the tea became warm enough to drink. Safina raised the cup and took a small sip. It was rich, slightly bitter, and full of flavor. Her eyes lit up.

“Tastes good! No wonder Carl acted like he was smuggling me treasure.”

Elusa also raised her cup and took a gentle sip, savoring it before nodding.

“This really is a top-tier tea. I don’t think we even have this kind in the Empire. I’ve never tasted it before.”

“As long as it’s tasty.” Safina beamed.

Leon wasn’t as fussy as the two of them. He just picked up the cup and drank—no sniffing, no slow sipping.

To him, all tea was the same.

But this time, as the tea hit his tongue, that rich flavor…

It felt oddly familiar?

Leon paused to think, but couldn’t place it. So he let it go.

Once they finished their tea and rested a bit, the three began searching around the riverbank. As they moved through tunnels, they marked the walls to avoid getting lost and to help the other archaeologists find them.

After passing several narrow corridors, they arrived at a spacious cavern.

The cave walls were covered in densely carved script.

Elusa’s excitement was impossible to hide—she ran straight to the stone wall to examine the writing.

“These are very ancient characters. I’ll need reference books to fully translate the content.”

As Elusa spoke, she  took out her camera and began photographing all the ancient script.

While she was busy with the pictures, Leon stepped forward to examine the wall too.

As an outsider to archaeology, he didn’t understand the meaning of any of the text—he was just watching out of interest.

But then, out of the corner of his eye, Leon noticed something strange on the ground.

He crouched down to check it out, reached out, and picked up a bit of crumbled debris from a wall edge, rubbing it lightly between his fingers.

The debris was the same color as the stone wall.

“Looks like it flaked off from the wall,” he murmured.

But if it had flaked off, shouldn’t it be in sheets or chunks—rather than just powder?

Leon frowned slightly. But just as he tried to examine it more closely, a chill wind blew through and scattered the powder from his fingers, leaving no trace.

When Leon tried to find more like it around the wall, he came up empty.

“Huh…” he muttered. “Weird…”

“Weird…”

At that moment, Elusa said the exact same thing.

Leon turned to her and asked, “What is it?”

“These ancient scripts… they look artificially aged.”

Leon raised an eyebrow. “Artificially aged?”

“Yeah. At first glance, it looks like these characters were carved centuries ago. But the style of some of the letters and the engraving marks… they’re off. It’s like someone messed up while trying to make them look old.”

She paused, then added,

“I’m not completely sure. Let’s wait for Professor Javier and see what he says.”