Chapter 68 - Rocks, Rocks, Rocks!

The place where Rai showed was below one of the destroyed pillars. The said pillar, alongside a huge part of the wall that it was attached to, was broken and scattered on the ground. A big, intact piece of the broken pillar was right on top of the pile of stones, making it impossible to move the smaller ones without moving first.

'Hmm?'

Kairen didn't know the reason, but the pillar on top af the rocks seemed out of the place for him. He examined the area again, but he still felt that the number of stones and debris gathered here was strange. He wondered if all of them fell off from the broken part of the wall.

"Are you sure there is something there?"

"Yeah. There is something. I'm not sure what it is though..."

"How are we supposed to move them?"

Darren placed his hands on his hips and grumbled. It was in fact everyone's question. They were here to secretly examine the area. Moving the stones and changing the order of things here too much wasn't a wise act.

Not to mention that they had to deal with the rocks and remnants as carefully as possible not to harm them. That wasn't only because of the mission, this place was a historical monument after all. No matter how useless or unknown it may be, they had to be careful not to destroy it.

"Can't you use your wind to move them up just a little bit?"

"Um, I don't think so... The wind will blow up all the dust here, that won't really be a nice scene. And I'm not sure if I can handle that bigger one without damaging it."

'Moving them up with the wind...'

A thought crossed Kairen's mind after hearing Rai and Elsie's conversation. He glanced at the others that were standing around the pile of stones and thinking about ways to move them before opening his mouth.

"I can move the bigger one with float magic. I can place it somewhere else and the others can move the smaller ones to open a narrow path."

Kairen could see everyone turn to look at him with a questioning gaze. Elsie tilted her head upon hearing Kairen's words and said with a puzzled face.

"That's something that crossed my mind as well, but one needs to be able to cast high-grade float magic mixed with some reverse gravity spells to move that huge thing. I'm not capable of doing such."

"I can do it."

"...Really?"

Kairen confidently nodded his head. Casting this spell was one of the few things that he could do without any flaws. He was sure of it. He had spent a lot of time learning all the techniques relating to the float spells and training them.

Elsie frowned after seeing his reaction and looked at him suspiciously.

"Did you really learn such a thing? Aren't you an attack mage? Why go learn such a hard spell that isn't even useful in a fight."

Kairen flinched at her words and averted his gaze.

"Umm..."

She was right. Float magic wasn't something useful. It was hard to learn and cast. In addition, it was useless in fights most of the time. Most of the mages knew how to cast a float spell, but not many studied the high-level float magic and its techniques.

"I... I thought it might be useful somewhere..."

Yeah. Right. It was because of that. Kairen had thought about the future possibilities when he decided to learn them. He didn't learn it because he thought it was interesting and cool! No! Not at all!

And he wasn't the one who used that magic to move things around for a whole week after learning it! Also, he wasn't the one who learned the highest level float magic only to cast it in himself and test how it felt to fly! No, he didn't test the magic on himself! He didn't try to float his body!

"Ahem!"

Kairen coughed and looked down. He was ashamed by remembering the actions he had done not too long ago.

"Is that so?"

Elsie looked at him suspiciously once more before looking at team leader Dains. She didn't seem convinced but she didn't say anything else about it.

"What do you say, sir?"

Team leader Dains looked between Kairen and the pile of stones once before nodding his head.

"Take some pictures from the stones. We have to place them back in the original position as identically as we can after finishing the job."

"Me, me! I'll take the pictures."

Asa took out a camera from her backpack and proceeded to take pictures from the stones from different angles. She moved back and placed the camera into her bag again after a few minutes, saying that she was done.

Kairen stepped forward after that. He moved his mana and started to cast the spells. First, a weak reverse gravity spell and then, a low-level float spell. Tiny, shiny symbols appeared in the air around his body. Once he mixed the two spells together, the big broken piece of the pillar shook and moved up a little bit.

Shhhh

Bam Bam

A thick layer of dust was covering the whole thing as it wasn't moved for a long time. The dust and soil, alongside some small stones that were around the pillar, started to fall to the ground as the pillar moved slightly.

Kairen used weak spells at first to move it slowly and more carefully. It was highly likely that it would break apart if you lifted it up suddenly.

He then proceeded to cast stronger reverse gravity and float spells on the object.

He lifted the broken pillar slowly, then moved it to one side and placed it on the ground as carefully as he could.

"Wow! That was so cool!"

Asa exclaimed, her mouth wide open and her pupils rounded. Team leader Dains gave Kairen a nod before telling the others to start working.

The four aura users picked up the stones one by one and Rai used his wind to float them in the air and move them aside.

When about half of the work was done, Rai told everyone to stop. He walked to the empty spot created after moving the stones and crouched down.

"It is covered with dust and soil, but I'm sure there is something here."

He touched the ground with his finger as he said that. The area created after lifting the stones has always been sheltered by the rocks, so the dust was less here compared to the other parts of the structure.

That made them realize that the ground where they were standing was actually covered by stone tiles. Of course, the tiles were most probably broken as well, but the thick layer of soil and dust that was covering the whole place made them completely hidden.

Swoosh

With a movement of his hand, Rai swept away the soil from a spot in the ground.

"Ah?"

When the dust was lifted, they could see a hole in the ground.

Swoosh

Swoosh

Rai carefully moved the air a few times to lift the dust and make the place clearer. Now, they could see it better. It wasn't a hole. It seemed more like a neatly dug entrance.

"There really was something here."

"Is there something underground?"

The newly found entrance was damaged here and there, but one could say that it used to be rectangular shaped. They had only cleared a small part of it so they couldn't tell how wide or big it was. And also... the inside of the entrance was blocked by rocks.

"Argh! I'm tired of these rocks!"

As always, Asa nagged as soon as she saw the rocks inside the entrance. Others completely ignored her, as if they were already used to her naggings. Deputy team leader Bray turned towards Kairen without even looking at Asa.

"Can you do that magic again?"

"Yes."

"Then, please."

Kairen understood what she meant by that. He was asked to lift the stone with his magic again. Casting those complicated spells was not only tiring but also mana-consuming. The higher a spell's level, the more concentration and mana one needed to cast it.

That was why Kairen preferred to use low-level spells most of the time. They were easier and faster to cast and also needed less mana. In addition to that, for some reason, the low-level spells cast by him had more damage compared to the same spells cast by someone else, so it was really efficient for him to use them.

The deputy team leader stepped back to open some space for Kairen. He walked forward, prepared his mana, and cast the spell once more. The size of the stone was smaller this time so it was easier to move it.

Kairen's mana was halved after casting only two spells, but he didn't think it would matter as they weren't currently in a battle.

The entrance was fully revealed once the stone was removed. What was hidden under the stone was the staircase going down.. The stairs were leading underground.