It was becoming more and more evident that Toz and the cats hadn't stumbled upon a secret ruin excavation. It looked more like the activities of someone up to no good. Or maybe there was a need to take a diagonal path through the ground to reach the ruins. Digging straight down and building stairs or a spiraling ramp might not be feasible due to the conditions of the ground or something.
But the amount of enslaved beasts and the large amount of dirt and rocks being dug up with no signs of ever stopping, in addition to the mysterious fog and the barrier surrounding the place, gave Toz a bad feeling about it all.
If he could have, Toz would even consider going back to the city and reporting it to the guild since it was so suspicious. But he had no way to leave the fog. He hadn't tried leaving it, so he couldn't be sure if there were any means to keep people trapped other than the disorientation and lack of landmarks. But even if the fog was completely safe, relatively speaking, he couldn't be sure he would be able to leave it at all. Or at least before it's too late.
Since the way back wasn't suitable, Toz and the cats could only continue forward. And the way forward was the tunnel.
Thankfully the tunnel, despite being lit up by magic torches, was mostly filled with darkness, making it easy for Lucy to hide the group as they traveled downward.
After accomplishing the hardest part of getting past the entrance undetected, they walked along the tunnel wall. Although hitching a ride on one of the carts being pulled might be faster and more convenient, it might also put the group at risk since they didn't know when or what would happen to the carts. It would simply be better for them to rely on themselves instead of the carts drawn by the enslaved beasts whose master is unknown.
And in case they were discovered, it would be better for the group if they weren't surrounded by beasts when that happens, although deep in the ground, it won't matter much if the beasts are merely coming from one or two directions instead of all around them. Though, the collars might only force the beasts to work and won't have any directives for what to do against intruders.
But Toz didn't want to risk exposing them on such a flimsy hope as the collars being limited, especially not when they looked expensive and full of enchantments.
There were so many of the collars and beasts that Toz wondered how the owner had gotten hold of them within the reaches of the Firebelt Kingdom, where slavery was mostly outlawed, at least officially. Criminals being used as slave labor and small-scale slave trade wasn't anything new or strange to Toz, but the number of slave collars needed to enslave all the beasts streaming through the humongous tunnel wasn't something a person could get simply because they wanted to.
It was already a fact that the entire operation had taken a lot of resources and planning, but considering the effort needed to acquire all the slave collars and enslave all the beasts, it could have taken several years before the digging even started. While Toz had no idea about how long it had taken them to dig this huge tunnel, it should have been enough time for someone to discover or stumble into the fog.
But there still wasn't any official knowledge about it in the guild, as far as Toz knew at least. Either the fog really was inescapable, and anyone who entered too deep within it wouldn't be able to get out. That thought comforted Toz's decision in having continued forward and entering the tunnel instead of trying to escape.
But the fog could still be seen and discovered even if one didn't enter it. And the clouds of mist and smoke gathered from all over the forest weren't exactly stealthy as they flew through the air like large balls of color.
Toz refused to believe he and his group were the first to encounter something like the clouds of poison or other substances flying through the forest, and the huge mass of fog and mist.
And while not everyone might report it to the guild, some would. And if enough people mentioned it, it would either lead to an investigation request or the guild personally investigating. In both those cases, there would be information available to anyone entering the relevant region of the forest.
Toz might not have searched to the point of exhaustion for every bit of information regarding the dangers of the Rainforest region since it would be more fun discovering them himself.
But the guild employees should have been obligated to tell him something or at least warn him about the fog-filled area that no one had successfully returned from.
It left a bitter taste in Toz's mouth. Either the digging operation he and the cats were sneaking through and the mist cloaking it had sprung up overnight, or the guild was hiding their knowledge about it. And currently, the latter situation seemed far more likely.
The Explorer's Guild that Toz had come to trust due to his encounters in First Ignition and Sleepless Brights didn't seem as trustworthy anymore.
But there was nothing he could do about that as he and the other cats, hidden by Lucy's magic, continued deeper into the ground.
It was difficult to measure how far they had traveled since the magic torches were put up at irregular distances, but eventually, the slope leveled out, turning into flat ground. It didn't feel like they had traveled for too long, which meant that the goal of the tunnel wasn't to go deep into the ground. It was to create a way of transport hidden from the surface.
Toz looked forward at the neverending darkness, decorated with sparsely placed torches that shone like stars in the night sky.
