Chapter 87: New camp

Eren and the group continued on with their traversal of the tunnel. And eventually, they found a large cavern.

It was quite spacious. The ground that they stood on was made out of soul. Healthy, brown soil. Good enough to be planted on with different kinds of herbs and plants.

"Look! There’s a pond there as well!" Sierra shouted. She spotted a small reservoir of water just on the side.

Eren dipped his hand on the water and tasted it. Fresh water. It would suffice as their only resource for liquids right at this moment.

"And there are trees here as well," Celeste said, coming over towards a tree living in the darkness.

A small patch of a forest on the right side. A pool of water on the left. And a healthy soil. These conditions made it perfect to become a temporary camp for their group to reside on.

"We can use the trees to create a campfire," Abe said. "I’ll get started on chopping down the trees."

But Eren raised his hand and stopped him. "Wait. Remember what Kaiser said. Unless we get the flag, we are not allowed to harvest the resources here."

Eren felt the presence of Ræzoň all over this place. It permeated the air, the ground, and even the ceiling itself. He wouldn’t be surprised if it had an Array Formation installed everywhere to prevent anyone from breaking the rules.

"Where’s the flag?" Bernadette asked.

"I think it’s over there," Henry said, looking up as he pointed near the ceiling.

Everyone’s attention was placed on the further end of the chamber. On top of this ’cliff’ there was a white flag waving gently with a slight breeze.

"We... we have to scale that high just so that we could get that flag?!"

The incline to the cliff was so high that they thought it was a wall! They estimated the wall to be about an 80 degree cliff incline, almost a near right angle!

It would be extremely hard to climb it even with the right tools, which they didn’t have. There were barely any holds, as the cliff walls were made out of pure, smooth stone. And the moist breeze inside the chamber made it so that the stone was slick with a little bit of water as well.

"How are we going to get up?" Sierra asked.

Eren observed the group and couldn’t help but inwardly shake his head. They knew about Negative Reinforcement. They knew about the Primal Step.

However, that was not what they practiced. Sierra and the others used a Martial Manual that allowed them to become stronger and get faster. They weren’t necessarily good at using a simple Primal Step.

If the cultivators of their world found out about this, they would denounce Awakeners to be negligent of their own foundations.

Seeing that no one else volunteered, Eren raised his foot, planted it on the wall, and focused on his soles.

His practice with Negative Reinforcement allowed him to use the Primal Step with near perfect accuracy. His feet stuck to the wall as if gravity itself had pinned him towards the wall.

He took another step, allowing his own body to stand perpendicular to the wall.

Feeling himself stable, Eren walked forward one step at a time. His Primal Step held steady. Ræzoň kept supplying his feet with enough energy to create a vacuum.

In a few seconds, he scaled up almost half of the cliffface.

Down below, his group members had looks of wonder and astonishment in their faces.

"Go Eren!"

"I wouldn’t be able to do that...."

"It pays to master the basics..."

Eren eventually climbed up to the top and grasped the flag in his hands. Then, he ripped it up and waved it towards his group members in triumph.

As soon as he did, a massive change occurred in the chamber. A subtle shockwave, one that echoed through the tunnel itself.

Then, it was gone. Dissipated.

So I was right. Having this flag disables all of the Array Formations here.

Eren was sure that if Abe did chop down that tree without this flag, then he would be hit by a tremendous backlash from Ræzoň.

He eventually found his way down. As it turned out, going down was a lot harder than going up. Eren found himself having to exercise caution as gravity was trying to pull him forwards. If he wasn’t careful, he’d run down the cliff and straight into the ground.

Once he stood on the ground, he heaved a sigh of relief. His practice with the Primal Step was getting better and better.

"Can I chop down the trees now?" Abe asked. "I’m freezing over here."

Eren nodded. Abe empowered his own fists, before punching the tree down in one fell swoop. A powerful Martial Manual. 6-star talent, Eren analyzed.

Then, Abe carried the giant trunk over towards an open space to further chop them down into chunks for a campfire.

Everyone helped him. Bernadatte had a Martial Manual that allowed her to create sparks of fire upon clashing her hands together, which was useful in creating the fire.

While they were all busy with that, Eren looked at the stump of the tree.

He brushed the soil, uncovering its roots.

And there, he saw Ræzoň markings on the roots themselves. They were raised. As if made of red powder, leaving only a few marks before being blown away.

It was an Array Formation.

He immediately went into his Mind Palace. He didn’t have to search for the text for long.

[Basics on Array Formation]

Staring at the symbols on the paper for a few seconds, all of its contents washed over his mind.

Once Eren exited his Mind Palace, he became armed with all knowledge about Array Formations.

The markings on the roots became familiar to him. He understood it easily, and knew what it was made to do.

If he hadn’t obtained the flag, and Abe did try to destroy it, all of the surrounding trees would suddenly turn animated and attack them like an animatron.