Chapter 224: A Check Mate!
The aura engulfing his body was ignited once again before suddenly pausing a couple of meters above his head. It seemed like there was some sort of a barrier standing between the fire and the opening of the pit.
''Hurry,'' the old man urged, ''this can only dy them for some time.''
Jim was stupefied by this scene. Seeing how death was so close to him made his entire blood inside his veins freeze.
With the old man''s yell he broke free from this freezing spell and started to descend again.
"They are following me," he noticed that no matter how fast he descended to the bottom, that invisible wall of darkness stood the same distance off his head.
And no matter how much energy was pushed inside his body, his fire couldn''t prate through.
"Should I activate my spell?" he shouted but the answer came suddenly from deep down.
"Just fall down you fool, don''t think and jump."
He recognized the far and weak voice of Hector and the next instant he let his fingers off the wall and his body fell freely in the depth of the pit.
And that strange darkness just kept chasing him relentlessly nheless.
"Damn it!"
The more his speed of fall increased the more fear he felt. The air howled around him but it was nothingpared to what he feared he felting from that creepy darkness hunting him.
"Fire!"
Yet at one point when he almost lost all hope to survive, especially when his fiery ore was strangely consumed, a loud shout came from a ce nearby. A sound he instantly recognized.
"Hector!" he shouted like a drowning person spotting a ship at a distance.
"Stay put," Hector said before a huge wave of attacks wereunched from all around, lightening up all the darkness in the pit.
Then he felt his body being surrounded with some sort of a jelly before finally stopping.
"I told you to jump," one of the disciples who were with him came and extended his hand before he grabbed his body off this floating jelly in midair.
"I... This..." Jim''s heart was racing like he was on the verge of dying. He nced all around and saw the serious looks over the faces of Hector''s team, but he saw no fear at them.
"Our boss is always considering everything," the disciple said before pointing to his head, "he is very meticulous when ites to keeping his safety and ours as well. See this?"
The kid pointed to that huge piece of faint green jelly that was floating nearby, "it''s always stationed there for any disasters like this one."
"Howe I know such a thing?" Jimined before turning his gaze upwards, "the darkness... it''s finally retreating."
He heaved a long sigh of relief while the kid next to himughed. "Of course they will run away. They only take advantage of small teams. Facing a big and strong one like ours is a checkmate for them."
"We are the ones in checkmate," Hector suddenly came from the side, making Jim realize they were all standing in a small cave inside that bottomless pit. "We can''t turn back through that way, and going down there is a dead end as well."
He stood beside Jim, checked his body before patting strongly over his shoulder. "The boys told me about what you did. I owe you big this time."
"N- No need," Jim was still trying to get what was going on here, "''you saved my life as well."
"You... are a foolish one, y''know?" Hector couldn''t help but suddenlyugh, "a brave and brilliant first year disciple, yet as foolish as me."
The othersughed while Jim only kept a diplomatic smile over his face, not knowing what he should say.
"What now boss?" another disciple came, "should we go deeper?"
"Well..." Hector nced around, "they won''t attack us soon I guess. Let''s take some rest and hear some opinions first," he said before turning to a group of his team, "stay in watch, if those bastards tried to sneak at us again just shout and we all wille."
He then turned to Jim before adding, e, there is something interesting I want to show you."
Jim didn''t have a choice but to follow. There he found arge tunnel that kept moving under the ground for a few meters before the world suddenly changed in front of his sight.
"What... is that?" he was stupefied by all the lights shining all over the ce.
"This is what we call a mine heaven," Hectorughed, "this part of the forest is filled with dangers, but also brimming with golden opportunities."
Hector waved his hands all around the big cave Jim and he stood at its entrance. "See all these running rivers all over the darkness, shining in pure light like distant gxies? All are high grade ores, not easy to find, very hard to acquire, and so they are... priceless."
"Hold yourself boy," one of the disciplesughed while hitting Jim with his elbow, "or else you would freeze there and others would get everything here."
Jim turned his gaze to Hector who simply nodded. "You were the leader of the group you created and I joined, but now... I consider you as a brother. Just like I see everyone on my team."
"Thanks," Jim couldn''t help but grin, "this is something I''ll never forget."
"Hahaha, just pray we could get ourselves a way out of this dilemma," Hectorughed, "or else having all the treasures in the world will mean nothing at the end."
"We will," Jim firmly said, as if he was promising himself and him, "we will find our way out."
"Cross Fingers brothers... cross fingers," Hector said in a praying way while others all said in unison: "Amen!" and Jim felt weird towards their behaviour.
"Don''t stand like a rock, go and find yourself a rock to crush," Hector pushed him inside before adding, "be aware, the rocks here are quite sturdy and will take longer time to crack. After all, even the speck of dust here is filled with energying forth from all these rich veins."
Jim watched around and saw everyone trying their hardest to get to the veins. "They are only getting a few rocks," he couldn''t help but mutter.
''You can help them,'' the old man suddenly said, ''not only in gaining more ores for yourself than all of thembined, but also to find a way out of this dead spot.''
''Really?!!'' Jim was shocked, ''say, what should I do?'' he hurriedly urged his old man who simplyughed in return.