Chapter 56: Tendrils

The group gathered sunspores with quick efficiency. Separating themselves into groups of two allowed them to take a lot of space, while also keeping safe from the traps of the cavern.

At first, apprehension made their movements stiff and stifled. But they soon learned that they had nothing to worry about.

The roots looked intimidating. However, they weren’t particularly dangerous. The only thing it could do was wrap around their legs and maybe cut off their blood circulation. Lethal if they were stuck there for hours upon hours upon hours. But they only needed to exert some force using their Reinforced Psions, and they’d be free.

Soon, conversations and friendly banter bubbled amongst the group. They talked about their aspirations and their reasons for entering the License Exam.

"I just think Awakeners are cool," said Paul. "And there’s a Martial School near our home, so I just enrolled there and ended up here.

"Me, I want to save the world. I was eight when the world turned dark... I don’t want my future children to see that. And no one else is going to save us except for ourselves," said Tori.

Abe shrugged. "I don’t know about you guys, but I’m just here for the money."

"Boo!" Henry hooted as he picked up a sunspore, all the while the roots caught his foot.

Ormann laughed before shaking his head. "Now, now, there’s no shame in wanting to be rich as an awakener. That’s part of the deal. You get to save people. You get to look cool. And you get paid a ton of money doing it.

That’s what I want. I want the whole package. And the best path forward to do that is to get a License and get recruited by one of the Prominent Families to become part of their Awakener squads."

Sierra turned to Eren. "What about you, Eren? Why do you want to become an Awakener?"

Celeste, who was busy wrestling with a tendril, exaggeratedly turned her head towards Eren, eyes and ears rapt with attention. "Yeah, I wonder."

Eren shrugged. "I just want what everyone else wants. To be strong." And to return home. But they didn’t have to know that.

They all accepted his answer with half-hearted nods. It was a bland response. Par for the course. As if saying he wanted to become an engineer because he wanted to study. You had to study if you wanted to be an engineer, not the other way around.

About ten minutes later, the chamber turned a lot dimmer as they gathered almost all of the sunspores laying inside. The only ones left were the sunspores inside the glistening blue pool of water in the middle of the cavern.

"It’s a shame we can’t take this water back to the campfire," said Sky. "We could totally sell this for a hundred sunspores at least."

Unfortunately for them, they didn’t bring a jug. And even if they did, it would be extremely hard to get it over the low-roofed tunnel leading to this hidden chamber.

"There could still be a trap here," warned Ormann. "I’ll take the bite. Sierra, you guys tread the water and get the sunspores."

The pool was very shallow. Barely reaching above the knees. It would be easy for Sierra and the others to bend down and snatch the sunspores while Ormann was restricted by the traps.

As soon as Ormann’s foot disturbed the water, its surface chaotically bubbled as multiple entwined roots sprouted from the depths of the water and wrapped their tendrils around his arms and legs and waist.

These roots were thicker, darker, and a lot more robust than the ones they faced before. Ormann struggled to even thrash his neck around.

"Hurry!"

Sierra, Abe, and the others immediately trudged through the waters, passing in between the stocky roots as they bent down and plucked the sunspores from underneath the water.

Ormann’s sacrifice turned out to be the correct decision as the group completely emptied the pool of sunspores within a single minute.

"I got the last one!" Henry exclaimed.

But as soon as he extracted that last sunspore, the ground underneath their feet shook with the intensity of a 7.0 earthquake. The water in the pool swayed chaotically, splashing and slapping their bodies and threatening to sweep them off their feet.

Eren kept his focus on his body. Waiting for that moment when heat would warn him of the incoming jaws of danger about to gnaw at him.

But there were no such signs.

The falling debris of stone floating down like snow led Eren’s attention to the ceiling.

Everyone looked up.

The rumble of stone grinding against stone echoed out in the hidden chamber as a pillar descended from the curved roof of the Burrow.

As it continued to get lower, a hollow opening in the middle of the stone column became exposed.

Inside the cube-like frame of the opening, there was a red box. It had the ornate design of entangled thorns embossed on its felt surface and was topped off by a yellow lace ribbon.

It looked like a gift.

No one moved. They were wary of this seemingly innocuous box. Perhaps, it was another trigger that would set off an even bigger trap.

But while everyone was stunned at the presence of the box, Ormann moved immediately.

For a brief moment, Eren saw something. The shiny glimmer of a blade flashing in Ormann’s hands. Then, it was gone. That knife must be the one item he brought to the License Exam.

The thick roots that kept Ormann immobilized deflated and lost its grip on his extremities. He lunged towards the box, grabbing it with both hands like it was a precious treasure.

At this point, the earthquake had subsided, turning the dark chamber engulfed in silence once more.

"What is that..." Sierra asked.

Ormann gave her a smile. He pulled on the lace ribbon and opened the box, revealing neatly sliced cuts of Grade A beef. The kind of food that would only be sold to high-end restaurants.

The fat marbling on the meat made their mouths water.

"We’ve hit the jackpot," said Ormann. "This is a lootbox!"