Psychokinetic Eyeball Pulling

Chapter 189: A Plan

The underbelly had been evacuated before they headed in. Astrid glanced behind her shoulder where she saw the force that they had brought with them. Daniel, and her group, including the elite of the Sinwen guards, then there were a handful of elite warriors from various noble families.

Of course, not everyone was here with them.

Various forces were also stationed around Rebirth to keep order, and make sure that nothing was happening on the surface. Who knows, the mana source deep within the underbelly could just be a decoy.

If they had a space user, then it wouldn’t be difficult to mount an attack while pulling her down here.

Astrid shrugged. She just had to see for herself.

As they walked through the halls of the underbelly, it had undergone a great change since the last time she had entered.

Light stones lined the rooms, illuminating them for what she guessed was for the young adventurers to make a living. No doubt they were placed by some money hungry individual or group that seized control of it.

That wasn’t all. Someone had placed up dividers that were firmly welded to the arcs walls, and strong doors were created in the middle. Astrid guessed they were assembled to control the flow of monsters, so that the younger men, and women wouldn’t become overwhelmed by numbers. Allowing them to kill at a steady pace and grow. It was smart.

They made their way all the way down past the hanger area, and although they had to kill a few spawn–to Astrid and her team, they couldn’t even be described as pests.

It wasn’t until they reached the residential area did Astrid pause. She entered one of the bedrooms and noticed the ragged teddy bear resting on the deteriorated bed that consisted of stray feathers, and rusted springs.

“It felt like only yesterday when we took you under our wing,” Rachelle said as she stepped forward to pick up the bear.

“I’m getting some serious deja vu here.” Astrid took the bear from Rachelle's hand with care as she looked it over. “We’re still no closer to getting answers, are we?”

“I wouldn’t say that, lass.” Daniel walked in. He looked at the bear and puffed out a small smile. “We’re getting closer. I can feel it in my bones.”

“Wow, haven’t you taken on board some patience?” Rachelle joked.

“Hey, we have a crazy mage that has a knack for getting into all sorts of trouble.” Daniel chuckled. “If you were to add me onto it, we’d be dead by now.”

Astrid rolled her eyes. “I don’t get into that much trouble.”

At her words, a surge of mana blinked into existence. It was like a phantom–not even her acute senses could detect it. In the next second, an explosion rocked the section they were in.

They shot out of the room in an instant and witnessed chaos.

Blood was splashed across the floor and walls, and limbs were scattered in the surroundings. However, their professionalism was made clear. Despite the grievous wounds they had suffered, they put on a brave face, and held their weapons while remaining vigilant.

Rachelle and the other healers rushed forward, but Astrid blocked them from continuing. The others looked at her with confusion and anger, but Rachelle knew she wouldn’t do something untoward for no reason.

Astrid closed her eyes and swept her Psych Domain domain forward. She could detect the remains of the magic trap, but she had done that before but nothing propped up within her vision. It meant that they had used some sort of different trap skill to hide it from her detection.

Astrid created a few projectiles and threw them further within the hallway. After being absolutely sure it was safe, she gave Rachelle the go ahead.

They rushed forward and began healing their wounds with haste. As a healer, it was vital to be as quick as possible. The injured were pulled back, and those who were healthy took their position.

“You couldn’t detect anything?” A noble soldier asked Astrid with a frown.

“No, she didn't.” Rachelle cut in front of Astrid. “And if you kept your eyes glued, you’d have discovered it yourself.”

“I–but, I’m not a scout.” The man stuttered

“And technically neither is she.” Rachelle defended Astrid.

“It’s okay,” Astrid said, then turned to the man. “I wouldn’t not tell you, you know that. Get your head together and focus.”

The man took a breath and nodded. “I was just wondering, that’s all. We’ll need to be extra cautious.”

Once the wounds were healed, those who had lost limbs left, while Astrid took the lead further within. Realising that there were undetectable traps made of highly explosive mana–they had to be extremely careful.

Throughout every hallway, Astrid, and the others would fire projectiles down on the floor, ceiling, and walls, in order to make sure there wasn’t a skill placed on them.

After the hundredth passageway, others almost stopped trying, believing that the first one–was the only one. But in the next room, it was made clear that they had to remain cautious throughout the entire underbelly.

From a stray rock from one of the Sinwen guards, the entire passageway was rocked into a massive explosion.

The explosion stripped the high tech paint from the walls of the arc and splintered it off like shrapnel toward the group. Thankfully, Rob and Astrid were there to stop anything from happening this time.

Striking against Astrid’s shield, she was surprised to notice that the shrapnel had managed to pierce not just one barrier, but two. From the high density mana that the trap consisted of, it was evident that either an extremely potent mage had planted it, or it took them a while to lay it down.

Astrid was leaning on the former. There was no way they could take a lot of time to set up traps when the younger generation were still stalking the halls, hunting for prey. So it had to be done quickly.

It meant that the mage that had planted it was at least on Astrid’s level, or a little weaker. She was getting used to reading the mana of her enemies, and compared to Avemoth–it definitely wasn’t stronger than that. With that as a baseline, she was confident in being able to handle the trapping mage, but could the same be said about her teammates?

Glancing at Daniel and the others, she used [Identify] on them.

Daniel - Level 181

Brett - Level 182

Rachelle - Level 172

Rob - Level 171

Losef - Level 175

Astrid was surprised to see that Brett had managed to take the lead from the leader. But it wasn’t too shocking. Brett had gone through a tremendous deal within the dungeon, even losing an arm in the process.

Although he refused to talk about it in detail, Leena had mentioned some things. Like Brett losing his humanity for one.

She had heard of forbidden skills before, but no-one ever used them. They often had severe drawbacks, or in Brett’s case, he would lose his humanity altogether. It was a terrifying concept, but Astrid guessed she technically had her own forbidden skill.

Overload.

Astrid still wasn’t able to control it, and the activation, although obvious–was still a mystery to her. Clear in the way that her emotions activated it, but an enigma in the way that she lost her mind in the process. She didn’t know how to steer it, and if she could; it would be a tremendous power.

But that was for later as they were approaching the final hall that led into the deep hanger. It was where the skeletons had appeared, and where they fell right down into the liches pit.

Peering down the hallway, someone had patched the massive hole in the floor. Whether it was the people who had abducted Earl Kamron’s body, or the proprietors that had taken advantage of the spawn dungeon. Did they patch it up to avoid people falling through it?

Astrid crouched down at the start of the hallway, then used Psych Domain to gaze down. Vivid red flashed within her iris, and there was even a deep blue that radiated outward. It was a high levelled mage.

She was about to act, but she halted herself. What if they caused irreparable damage to the arc while fighting? Although even Astrid doubted she could blast a hole in the arc's walls, it didn’t mean it was impossible. If that was the case, the arc would sink.

Notifying Daniel, he ordered the go ahead without a second thought.

Was the arc more durable than I thought? Astrid shook her head as she listened to Daniel’s plan.

Brett was tasked to go on ahead with the other stealth users, but as the words left Daniel’s mouth–Brett refuted them. He wanted to go alone. He was certain the others would be detected, but he wouldn’t.

Daniel had no choice but to assent to Brett’s decision. He was the stealth user, so if he was confident in his skills, Daniel couldn’t go against the specialist.

For the others, they would blast a hole in the weakened welded floor, and immediately mount an attack. They no doubt already knew they were here, but an attack with multiple speed users would catch anyone by surprise. Daniel and Losef were also a part of the speed users, so they would be the first attack.

The ranged users would stay up, and Astrid would be tasked to create battlements for the ranged users to attack from.

And finally, it was Astrid’s turn. It was her job to enter Mind Domain and assault the mage user. It didn’t matter if she couldn’t kill them–that was Brett’s job. All she had to do was keep their strongest member from affecting the battlefield.

Of course, that was the plan. But fate always had to mess everything up.