Chapter 59: Topography

They continued to walk through the winding tunnels, most of it diverging to complete dead ends. It wasted a lot of their time and light, but thankfully, they stumbled upon sunspores along the way.

Some paths did converge into other tunnels, causing them to cross paths with the other examinees.

Like them, these groups struggled to find Burrows they wanted to challenge.

Each group was wary of each other at first. No talking, just awkwardly walking past each other with no interaction whatsoever.

It wasn’t until Ormann took the lead and began conversing with the other examinees did they finally interact with the other groups.

They began sharing information with the others. Tracking which Burrow had already been traversed, which one led to a dead end, which one was ransacked of sunspores, etc...

It even became a business for some. A lone examinee by the name of Fowler happened upon their group and approached them with a proposition. He was a stout man with a large leather notebook tucked in his arms.

"Would you like to buy a map?" Fowler asked them.

"A map?"

Fowler took out his notebook and showed them a fairly detailed sketch of the Subterranean Burrows. At the very bottom was the campfire, and above it was the branching pathways of the tunnels in a top-down perspective.

Some paths were annotated with notes like: ’dead end’, or ’depleted sunspores’, or ’vegetation found’. Meanwhile, paths unexplored were given a question mark.

"How much?" Celeste asked.

Fowler showed the rest of the pages in his notebook. It’s filled with the same copy of the Subterranean Burrows, with the last few pages already ripped out. They weren’t the first customers, it seemed.

"I can give you a copy of the map in exchange for either of two things. 50 sunspores, or information."

"Information?" Ormann asked.

"I want you to fill out the paths that you have taken and help me map out the Subterranean Burrows. Information for information. A good trade, I would say."

Sierra and the others visibly cringed when they heard the price. 50 sunspores?! That was way too steep! It was too greedy in their eyes.

But Eren was able to see through Fowler’s plan. He didn’t really want to sell his maps for 50 sunspores. He just wanted to gather more information about the Subterranean Burrows. So, he made its price incredibly expensive so that people would be more inclined to exchange information rather than purchase it outright.

"But what if the tunnels we’ve been through are already explored?" Sky asked. The path they went through was already explored in Fowler’s map. They couldn’t add anything substantial from it.

"Then, you have to pay 50 sunspores," Fowler shrugged.

Everyone turned to Ormann for a decision. Paying 50 sunspores would seriously hurt their reserves.

While they were deliberating on their choice, Celeste turned to Eren. "What do you think?"

Eren took one look at the map and immediately copied its details in his mind. The 3D topographical structure of the Subterranean Burrows floating in his subconscious grew more branches, allowing his understanding of the underground tunnels to become ever more expansive.

Now, he could find his way back to the campfire with ease, even through ’unfamiliar’ paths.

"You won’t find a better map anyplace else," Fowler noted with pride. Eren almost sneered.

Seeing that look on Eren’s face, Celeste immediately turned to Fowler and shook her head. "Sorry, we won’t be needing the map."

Sierra questioned her decision. "Are you sure? What if we get lost?"

"Yes," Celeste said proudly. "Eren doesn’t need a map. He can lead us back even without any lights."

The others looked at Eren with astonishment. And a little bit of doubt.

"I think we should buy the map just to be sure," Ormann said.

"I agree," Abe said. "It’ll be a lot easier if we knew where we’re going."

Sierra and the others silently agreed with their words. Buying the map seemed like the sensible move to make.

"No offense, but it’s idiotic to rely on someone’s memory for navigation. It’s always better to have a map!" Fowler said, looking askance at Eren.

"It’ll be 50 sunspores then!" As Fowler began to tear a map out of his notebook, Eren stepped up and pointed at a certain section of the Subterranean Burrows.

"This chamber needs to be moved 1.4 degrees to the right otherwise it’ll collide with the tunnel on its South West position. And your terrain needs work..."

Eren pointed out the obvious discrepancies in Fowler’s map. It had bothered him from the beginning. Seeing an inaccurate map like this triggered something within him.

If he drew something as shoddy as this, Athan would have made him redraw it a million times while walking through it a million times more.

Fowler’s jaw grew increasingly more slacked as Eren showed him the detailed corrections.

A few seconds later, Fowler wrested the notebook back in a hurry. He looked at his hands, imbuing it with Ræzoň. Its red, smoke-like particles coalesced and condensed into a sharp cone at the tip of his index finger.

And with that same finger, he began sketching on a new page.

His Reinforced finger left lead marks on the paper, much like a real pencil would.

After half a minute passed, Fowler completed a new sketch of the Subterranean Burrows.

It was much more detailed than before. Each shadow, each curve felt much more purposeful. As if Eren’s words had inspired something within Fowler.

"You’ve helped me tremendously!" Fowler exclaimed. "I knew there was something missing with my drawing..."

Of course. You’re using the [Nature’s Cartographer] Martial Manual. Maybe just a hair’s breadth away from reaching the Middle Proficiency mastery...

"Here, you can have this map as thanks!" Fowler handed Eren the new copy of his map. "It has information on Burrows that is not available on all the other maps I created."

Eren handed the map to Celeste. She and the rest of the group marvelled at its details, before their gazes inevitably drew to Eren, awestruck.