Chapter 55: Hidden chamber

Eren continued to find more ’broken’ sunspores as they went deeper in the Burrow. The path wound deeper, some splitting into different paths that would have led to a vastly different tunnel than the one they were looking for. Ormann kept them on the right path.

There were no fresh sunspores as they walked through these paths. They’d been completely ransacked by the many other examinees who had ventured in this specific Burrow.

All the more better, Eren thought. He had already gotten more sunspores scavenging them from the discarded piles along the path, than if they had just discovered this Burrow first and harvested its sunspores.

In a couple more minutes, he had accrued a total of 129 sunspores from the ground.

Already, this tunnel had proven its worth for Eren.

Meanwhile, Sierra and the rest of the group were getting a little bit antsy as they continued to expend more sunspores as they travelled through the tunnel.

Since they had ten members in total, this meant that they couldn’t share the light of a single sunspore. They had to use three at the same time to provide illumination for them all.

Although this place had already been explored before, they couldn’t let their guard down. The probability may be low, but there was always a chance that there were still unsprung traps hidden through these tunnels.

"It’s here!" Ormann said in excitement. They stumbled upon what seemed to be a dead end. Upon a cursory glance, people would think this to be a simple alcove with no other path.

But Ormann jumped up and peered through a ledge on the ceiling. Reaching his sunspore there, the rest of the group finally saw an alternative tunnel hidden from plain sight!

The opening was small and required them to crawl on all fours, like they were cave diving explorers.

"Follow my lead," Ormann said, jumping and heaving himself up from the ledge near the ceiling. Once up, he offered his hand to help Sierra and the others scale the height of the hidden tunnel.

Celeste jumped up all on her own, before offering her hand for Eren to take.

He ignored it and climbed up all on his own.

Eventually, they all crawled through the low-roofed tunnel, which thankfully, only lasted for a few meters.

Then, a beautiful cavernous space opened up to them. Sunspores looked like twinkling stars from the space-like darkness of the underground chamber. They lined its surface, illuminating its features with a lambent light.

Raised stubs of stone littered the ground, sticking out like they were pillars from the famous stone henge.

Then at the center, a sparkling blue pool of water. It looked ethereal, with the light from the sunspores underwater making it look otherworldly.

"Oh my god! You were right! Look at all those sunspores!" Sierra gawped as she jumped down.

Ormann stopped her before she ran off from her excitement. "Be careful. There are traps here that will spring up the moment we step close to the sunspores."

As if to demonstrate, Ormann carefully put his foot forward, making sure not to put any weight on it.

The ground shook, before a green tendril burst out of the ground, rock spewing from its tuft.

It looked like an entwined strand of tree roots, with moss and vines and stone stuck around its wedges.

This animated piece of vegetation tried to wrap around Ormann’s leg, but the man immediately retrieved his foot before it could do anything.

Then, it stayed upright like a seedling sprout, waiting for any of the humans to come forward. Only after a few seconds of silence and inactivity from the group did the tendril retreat underground, only leaving behind the hole in the ground where it had sprung from.

"These are pesky little things," said Ormann. "They’re the reason why I retreated immediately when I discovered this place. Once they have your grip on you, they won’t let go until you’ve used Reinforcement on your hand to pry it off.

It’s not necessarily hard to remove, they just take a lot of time. But if we work together, we’ll be a lot faster. And we’ll expend a lot less sunspores in the process."

It made sense. They had no choice but to approach the sprouts if they wanted to harvest the sunspores. So, they’d have to purposefully let themselves get caught so that they could disarm the trap.

"Let’s group up into two," Ormann suggested. "That way, we can maximize our time. One will be dealing with the pesky trap, while the other will be getting the sunspore."

The rest of the group agreed with this and separated themselves into partners. Sierra with Ormann. Paul with Abe. Tori with Bernadette. Henry with Sky. And Eren with Celeste.

"Well, now you’re forced to be with me," Celeste said. "Don’t worry, in group projects like these, the grades are curved."

"Huh?"

"You know. Like a group project in school..."

Eren’s confusion must have been very evident to Celeste.

"You’re really homeschooled, aren’t you?" she gasped. "That explains so much about you. People like you tend to have a hard time making friends."

"... I did," Eren replied.

"Then tell me about them. What are they like?"

Memories flashed in his mind, prompted subconsciously by Celeste’s question.

He was not alone all the time when he was sequestered in the Immortal Library of Ræzoň. He had someone that helped him voice out his thoughts. Helped him understand the mystical knowledge of the scrolls... His first friend in an unfamiliar world.

"Fine, if you don’t want to tell me, then don’t. It’s not like I told you about my greatest fear or whatever."

Celeste pouted and walked forwards, triggering the tendrils to sprout and grab at her legs.

It coiled around her ankles. She Reinforced her fists and struck the entwined roots at its base, the claws of her Martial Manual digging at its tuft.

The sprout barely moved, like punching a solid block of rubber. Eren came in immediately and struck it with his Primal Strike. Like a deflated balloon, it lost its volume and retreated into the ground.

"... A-plus," Celeste grinned.