Chapter 74: [74] Secret Cave
The opening Thalia found looked like the entrance to a cave. The space was dark, eerie and small, disturbingly so.
It was big enough to fit an adult man, but barely.
Ark felt claustrophobic just by looking at it. Still, they had no choice. The wyvern was still being cautious for now, but it was only a matter of time before it tried whatever strategy it was coming up with in that narrow brain of its.
’Why is there a cave entrance here? Is it somehow related to the missing players?’
Ark had no time to give it much thought. He turned to his party and screamed at the top of his voice—
"Everyone, grab as many eggs as you can and get into the hole!"
The wyvern eggs were each around the size of a four-year-old child, but thankfully they would not have to haul them along, not when they had the system inventory.
Ark immediately grabbed the nearest wyvern egg and stored it in his inventory, before moving to the next. In the space of five seconds, he had stolen four eggs.
But it was at that point that the wyvern got impatient—
Seeing its children being plucked away like apples, it let out a pained screech, just before it descended.
Screee!
"Get into the cave, now!"
One by one, they trooped into the narrow opening, until Ark was the only one left.
The wyvern came down with a vengeance, its claws racing towards him. But a few seconds before it could make impact, Ark disappeared into the tunnel.
Slash!
Part of the nest was blown apart, alongside a few eggs, which caused the wyvern to scream out in rage, hacking and slashing at the hole...
<•••>
The moment Ark entered the cave, he began sliding through it as though he had entered a water slide.
The cave was steep, meaning with each passing second his speed kept increasing. He could barely see where he was going, but after what felt like forever, he finally popped out of the ceiling into a spacious room.
Ark landed on both legs, feeling a shock race up his spine as he stumbled a bit.
"Ouch..."
The others were a few feet away from him, having left the drop point to prevent any potential accidents.
"Where are we?" Ark asked, staring around the room.
"It looks like some sort of cave..." Sazan answered, stating the obvious as he scratched the back of his ear.
Olivia folded her hands underneath her chest as she walked up to one of the walls, inspecting it.
"Why is there a cave entrance that goes this deep through?"
She stretched her hands above her head, letting out a breath, and Sazan’s eyes followed her every movement, just before he quickly looked away.
"Whatever the reason, this cave is what saved us." Ark glanced up. At first, he had thought it was a natural cave, but now that he gave it a proper look, he realized that he was wrong.
The room was far too symmetrical to have been born by nature. It was not exactly smooth, but it wasn’t too rough either.
It seemed whoever designed it focused more on practicality, rather than making the cave pretty.
The only odd thing about it was how absurdly tall it was. The roof was so high that the wyvern could probably move around without much trouble.
Considering the technology available in Eden...
’It was either this cave was built by magic...’
Or it wasn’t built by humans to begin with.
Up on the ceiling, Ark could see the hole they emerged from. It was clearly not a part of the original work, judging by how rough it looked compared to everything else.
’It must have been created by someone.’
Maybe a player desperate to escape the wyvern tunneled down and somehow happened to enter the cave?
Ark did not like to believe in coincidences, but if that was the case, just what happened to the player?
He wanted to hope that he would find at least one of them alive. Maybe they would know something about the other missing players.
But Ark put that thought at the back of his mind.
Considering how long it had been, the player would have starved a long time ago, or worse, been eaten by whatever dwelled in the cave.
"Ark, what happened out there?" Thalia asked. "You said the wyverns go out in the morning to hunt. Why... Why did that wyvern return so early?"
"You’re right. I’ve read a bit about wyverns. It doesn’t make sense that it would come back, does it?" Olivia said from where she stood.
Immediately after Olivia finished speaking, Esau stepped forward, looking worried.
"I’ve been meaning to discuss this with you as well, Ark."
"I think something strange is happening. Maybe this is why no one ever managed to complete this quest?"
Ark let out a sigh, his fingers twitching by his sides.
He could imagine grabbing that thick throat of his and squeezing it until his eyes popped out. But—
’Patience Ark, patience...’
"Yes, I have been thinking the same thing." Ark said with a straight face. "It must be the weather. The wyvern must have returned due to bad weather..."
"..."
"Huh?! Wyverns aren’t planes that return due to bad wea—"
Ark grabbed Olivia’s lips shut.
"Mmm—!"
"Anyways." He sighed. "Let’s spread out and search the place. Be quick, we can’t stay here for long."
They were about to leave when Ark spoke once more, only that this time, his voice was much colder.
"And just in case it isn’t clear... I will be leading this party from now on."
He glanced at Sazan, his blue eyes glowing fiercely. "Any objections?"
Sazan smiled.
"None whatsoever..."
They all spread out into different parts of the cave, trying to look for clues. But while pretending to be searching, Sazan and Esau met up.
"That cocky bastard." Sazan hissed, a crazed look in his eyes as his fur stood still. "I want to kill that guy so badlyy!"
"And as for ginger..." Sazan’s rage seemed to dim slightly. He had a wide, lascivious grin on his face as he licked his lips. "I was wrong. Forget killing her, at least not early. I mean, why waste such a perfectly good sample?"
"Patience, brother." Esau smiled as he spoke in a calm tone, a soft smile on his reptilian face.
"This is the perfect opportunity, don’t you think? Two newbie players and a healer died while exploring a cave... their bodies undiscovered..."
"No one would bat an eye. All we have to do is force them to surrender their eggs first..." Easu paused breifly, and glanced at the girls as the two of them conversed.
"Anything you want to do after that, is up to you..."
Sazan felt excitement bubbling up within him. "That is why I love you, brother."
<••>
The search had barely gone on for more than five minutes when one of them found something.
"Umm... guys... I think there is something you need to see." Olivia was at the other side of the room, staring at them with an expression Ark couldn’t read.
They all hurried over to where she was, but once they got there, they were all rendered speechless.
Olivia felt sick right up to her stomach.
Lying by the side of the room were more than a dozen tags, Player tags...
Copper, bronze and even a couple of irons. A number of them were stained with blood, while some were bent beyond recognition, almost as if they had been squeezed by a steam roller.
Ark cursed in his mind.
’It looks like I found the missing players...’