Life didn't get easier, even in another world.

313 Staircase

The number of guards who they met after Alan took down the last barrier was more than the ones they met before, maybe about 50? No one could count them. Despite the higher number, these guards were also taken down easily by Aaron in only a few seconds. After killing about 50 guards in the blink of an eye, he smiled at the others while using soil to pile the corpses in a corner to open up a path, and then stood back again.

‘I should take him to a psychologist.’

Kairen made a firm decision to stop ignoring his brother’s messed-up mental health and take him to a doctor as soon as this mission was over.

“...let’s go in...”

Team leader Dains ordered, and the others soon changed their formation before approaching the closed door. They moved forwards with the aura wielders in the front and the others behind them, wary that they might get attacked at any moment.

“There is a lock on the door...”

Reyan mumbled as he looked at the locked door. There was a device there, asking for a code to open the door.

“6009”

“Yes?”

.....

“That’s today’s code. Type it there.”

“...Ah!”

Reyan gasped and looked back at the device.

“...How do you know the entrance code?”

Alan smirked at Darren.

“I do my job properly. That’s why I’m getting a raise in salary, not YOU!”

“What the hell!”

Click

Everyone turned back to the door, which made a clicking sound before the lamp on the metal door turned green. Reyan pushed the door, and it opened wide.

“Oh!”

What they saw in front of their faces was a small building, more like a cabin, in a huge empty area. The building looked old, with its windows cracked and its roof about to break in half and fall down. One of the walls had collapsed and the rest seemed to barely be holding on.

“Oh, another illusion?”

Serria asked exactly what was on Kairen’s mind.

“That’s not an illusion, it’s real.”

“Huh?”

Once again, everyone turned to Alan.

“That’s a real house, though it’s strengthened with magic in order to keep it up and prevent its collapse.”


Alan placed his hands inside his pockets and strolled towards the house.

“There is also a barrier around this thing, but it’s not a big deal”

While saying that, he proceeded to take down the barrier.

“Why would there be such a thing inside all those protective barriers? What about the warehouse?”

“The warehouse is right here!”

Tap Tap

Alan tapped the ground with his foot.
“Under the ground?”

“I guess so.”

“...You only guess?”

Alan looked back at the team leader.

“I couldn’t pass through this point, as my power wouldn’t be enough to go back and turn things to normal if I went further inside, so I don’t know what is in there. Though, I’m pretty much sure that there is something underground.”

Team leader Dains paused a little bit, looked down, then nodded his head.

“There is something underground.”

Aaron nodded his head as well but said nothing. Alan turned away from them and focused on taking care of the barrier, ignoring the curious questions the team members throwing at him.

“Really, I didn’t expect to see this... I thought we would face a huge building with a lot of modern stuff or something.”

“Maybe it’s just a cover.”

“That’s also possible, but why would you place a cover for your warehouse when you’ve already built so many barriers and placed that many guards?”

“Tsk! How would I know? Go ask that damned Philomns master if you are so curious.”

“Huuuu!”

Everyone closed their mouth shot as soon as they heard the team leader take a deep breath. They checked the man’s face to make sure that he wasn’t angry nor annoyed, before going back to their position.

‘Good thing we use devices to conceal our voices...’

Or else they would’ve gotten caught by now.

‘Maybe they wouldn’t talk so much if there were no devices to conceal their voice...’

Kairen didn’t know, all he knew was that his teammates were making team leader Dains annoyed by how much they chattered.

“It’s done.”

Alan commented and stepped away, moving to the back of the team and hiding behind the others. The others waited for him to stand in his position before starting to move again. Reyan was in the front again. He lightly pushed the wooden door of the house, which was barely dangling from its attachments, and stepped inside the house. Following him, the others also entered the cabin.

The inside of the cabin looked like an ordinary house. It was small, but contained furniture and even had a few rooms. It looked like a house where people used to live... maybe a few years ago.

“Why is it like this?”

Well, there was still another problem, and that was the state of the house. The inside of the house was so messed up that it seemed as if a bomb had exploded here. Judging by the outer appearance of the house, it wasn’t unlikely that a bomb really had exploded in this place.

“There is something down there.”

Rai pointed at a spot, the others looked at where he was pointing. They could see a small door on the floor at the center of the living room.

“Is that the door to the warehouse?”

“Probably.”

The group walked towards the small door on the ground. Reyan knelt down and grabbed the small handle and pulled the door up.

“Huh?”

The door, unlike the other parts of the house that were made out of wood, was heavy and thick. It looked like metal but felt sturdier than that. With a confused face, Reyan opened the door completely.

Once the entrance was opened, a faint light, coming out of the opened door, brightened the dark house.

“There is a long staircase down here...”

Reyan mumbled as he pointed down.

“We are going down. Be careful, everyone.”

“Yes.”

“Yes, sir.”

The team nodded their heads, their faces all serious, and entered the staircase one by one, with a few of the aura wielders in the front and some in the back of the group for safety reasons.

Kairen had to squint his eyes due to the brightness of the area once he stepped into the staircase. All he could see were white-bluish walls all around with countless small lamps all over them. The circular staircase looked endless when he looked down at it from above. He couldn’t clearly see what was down there.

‘Isn’t that an elevator?’

Kairen narrowed his eyes as he stared at something floating in the center of the circular staircase.

‘A glass elevator?’

Kairen could see through it clearly. It was an elevator made out of glass.

‘Can’t we use that?’

His inner old man was nagging him about the length of the staircase and how hard and exhausting it would be to walk down all of it.

“Are there any cameras?”

“The gadgets must make us invisible.”

“Yeah, but we have to check them to make sure.”

“I checked the area with my power before entering.”

.....

Rai pointed at two spots with his finger.

“There were two cameras there, and one on at the end of the staircase.”

Team leader Dains nodded his head.

“Should I break them?”

“Wouldn’t that raise suspicion, or maybe ring an alarm?”

“I can block their view.”

The team leader nodded at Aaron.

“Don’t make it too obvious.”

“Yes.”

Shhhh

A few particles of dust and soil rose up from the spear Aaron was holding and floated in the air. The particles slowly moved towards the cameras, entered them, and created a thin layer of dust in front of their lenses.

“That should be enough.”

The team leader nodded his head and finally started to walk down the stairs. Seeing him, the other members also started to descend the stairs.

‘I wish we could use the elevator...’

Kairen’s inner grandpa was still nagging him about the length of the stares.

Just as Kairen had expected, the staircase was more than long. It wasn’t only Kairen who couldn’t descend it, but other non-physical members also felt exhausted after walking for a few minutes, so they had to stop walking from time to time to take breaks.

“Really, why would someone create a place like this?”

“I wish we could use the elevator...”

They actually found the keys to access the elevator on their way. There must’ve been one on the entrance as well, but they missed it. However, finding where the key was didn’t help them at all in using the elevator, because the device asked them for codes and personal IDs once they attempted to get on the elevator.

That was sad. That was a false hope given to almost half of the unit. That was painful.

So in the end, they had no choice but to go walk down all of the stairs, which took them almost half an hour.

And once they stepped down from the last step of the staircase.

“Another door...”

Another door with a similar device to that of the elevator was waiting for them.