Chapter 276: Chapter 276: Down the hole we go

"DON’T FALL DOWN!" The baron spoke in a domineering voice.

The trio kept running backward, finally getting their stability back, and then ran at full pace.

The baron was still behind them, which Theo felt was because he wanted to protect him and the attendants.

The vibration had gone completely, but the ground was breaking in all directions and falling inward, which made them all panic, except the baron.

They kept running for a few more seconds before the baron looked back again, and the ground had stopped falling. He halted and smacked the ground with his feet one or two times before nodding to himself.

"It’s safe now, you can all stop," he spoke, making Theo and everyone halt one after another with skepticism, only to look back and see that he was right.

Theo could feel the adrenaline still rushing to his brain. It felt like he had enough energy to have a bout with almost everyone.

But that feeling dwindled down in a few seconds when he looked at the state of the fallen ground.

"WHA--!" Theo exclaimed when he looked down.

The fall would have been so intense that he couldn’t tell if even the baron could handle it, not that he knew any of his abilities to begin with.

But Theo was not just surprised by the fall or how far down it was. He was shocked because there was a whole new world right below him.

The light of the lone sun fell down on the ground beneath, and everyone could see what it was all about.

There was not just reddish ground beneath, but different kinds of trees and yellowish moss-covered land all over.

(Picture in this paragraph comment)

It was so far down that Theo couldn’t even tell if it was moss or grass itself.

"It’s swarming with beasts. We will have to be careful getting down there."

"Beasts? Where do you see them?" Theo asked in curiosity. The world felt so zoomed out that any small detail was tough to follow.

"Everywhere," the baron spoke with a grin.

Theo gulped and looked at his shoulder, where the mantis had already perched itself.

’I really have to work on my senses,’ Theo thought through the bond, as the mantis had the habit of coming out of the beast space sneakily, something Theo wasn’t able to detect most of the time.

"How are we going down, father?" Theo spoke again.

The baron kept silent while Clara and Elias just marveled over the fact that they really were inside a gate right now.

"You see that small wall there?" the baron spoke again.

Theo looked at where he pointed and nodded. There was a small wall that went for a few meters in width.

"We will travel toward that wall from here and make another hole like this. Then we will use the equipment you have to start going down, got it?" the baron spoke, and Theo could only nod in a daze.

This was really happening.

Theo looked at Clara and Elias, who only nodded in return.

"If you two have anything to contribute to this conversation right now, now is your time," the baron spoke, surprising the three of them.

Clara just looked at the ground below them again, and so did Elias.

"My lord, the plan you made is already good enough. That wall seems to be the only way we can get down there, since we don’t seem to have any flying beasts that could carry us," Elias spoke with a little hesitation, but he didn’t avoid the opportunity.

"But that wall... you said there are beasts everywhere, my lord. Wouldn’t we get surrounded if we went down it?" Clara asked hesitantly, her worry more prominent than Elias’s.

The baron looked at Clara and Elias, then at Theo. A grin etched itself on his face, which made the two attendants even more stressed.

"Good job. All the points you made are valid," he spoke with a nod. "But you forgot one point."

He pointed at himself.

"We can’t get surrounded while I am with you. That is a fact."

Theo smiled, while Clara and Elias nodded in respect.

"We will start moving now," he spoke and got up, smacking the ground one more time to make sure of its strength.

Seeing him do that, I can tell the ground is strong enough to hold tons of weight... it was just his attack that was powerful enough to pierce it like that.

They started walking once again across the desolate upper ground.

Walking was easy, but the sun, which looked the same as before, sent too much heat down on them.

Wait... why didn’t I do this earlier? Theo thought, shaking his head at the late realization.

He sent a mental command to the ant queen to send out all the spiked worker ants to the surface of the colony.

The two attendants noticed it happening, how the big ants came out one after another in a line, piercing themselves into the ground in a uniform position to take in the heat.

"Those have become quite big since the last time, Theo," the baron spoke with a light smile of curiosity.

"They get bigger by soaking in the heat of the sun, father. The more they do that, the bigger they become," Theo spoke while looking ahead.

The baron was silent for a moment before he sighed.

"I don’t know what I was thinking, sending you to the academy even after knowing you could do all this. You were going to be a big target one way or another, Theo."

Seeing that somewhat sad expression, Theo couldn’t help but respond.

"It’s all settled now, father. I’m happy I got such a big opportunity at such a young age. It really feels like my wish came true."

The baron only shook his head with a chuckle.

"You really wanted to go to a gate since you were two years old, huh..."

"But I wouldn’t have taken you to one like that anytime soon, son. I know for a fact you wouldn’t last more than a day, even with me and your brothers there," the baron spoke.

Theo fell silent.

Now that he had seen how complex this gate truly was, he couldn’t help but wonder what that gate had been like.

But for now, the journey toward the great wall continued, and Theo couldn’t have been more excited.