Shirley made it, but Benedict came a little short. He had misjudged the amount of force needed. Before he could tumble down, Shirley latched onto his arm and hauled him up. They collapsed on the ground, covered in sweat, but quickly bounced back. It was not the time to relax yet. Their pursuers were scrambling in their direction. At this point, neither Benedict nor Shirley had Martial Energy or weapons to use. They were undoubtedly at their most vulnerable. Exchanging a glance, their thoughts were the same. To escape! They dashed into the dark tunnels, where they could not even see the tips of their fingers. If they ran into a single enemy like this, it would be disastrous. Even then, there was no other choice. Staying in that cavern with those insects would have killed them. This was their only way out.
Predictably, it was hard to navigate a tunnel in the dark. Benedict hit his head and saw stars. Shirley tripped and sliced up her hands on sharp rocks. Instead of resting and recovering, they were getting more injured and exhausted. They could not relax either, because they might get attacked at any moment. There was also the very distinct possibility they might walk off a ledge… The tension strangled them. Neither could bear to talk or think about anything else. The only sounds were footsteps and breathing. That was the sole sign they were alive. One step at a time. In this seemingly endless black tunnel, everything blurred into one. Shirley could not take it anymore and plopped down on her butt. She could not care less whether there were enemies chasing them anymore. At this rate, she would not last much longer anyways. She needed to rest! Benedict joined her and fought to catch his breath.
"Any idea where we are?" Shirley wondered.
He sighed. "No, and I don't know where the others are either."
She bit her lip. "What happened? I thought we were fighting that monster. How did everyone get split up?" Benedict considered his words and explained everything. This startled her. "You mean there are two of those monsters out there? And that we still couldn't kill one?"
"There's two that we know of…" he corrected. "There could be more."
Shirley was lost for words. After a long while, she added in a quiet voice, "I hope everyone is fine."
"We should worry about ourselves for now. How's your condition?"
"…Not great." She clenched her fist repeatedly. "My body's bruised and sore all over. That chase used all of my Martial Energy too. Right now, all I want to do is eat like a pig, and sleep for days. But I guess we can't do that yet."
He inhaled. "I'll use my Martial Perception to search around us. Cover for me, while I do that."
She turned serious. "Go for it."
Nodding, he placed his hand on the wall and concentrated. There were many differences between Shirley's Mock Perception and a Perception Realm's Martial Perception. One was that a Mock Perception could only enhance a single sense, whereas a Martial Perception could encompass all five. This massively increased the volume of information one received, and the difficulty and strain in using it went up accordingly. Perception Realm Novices, like Benedict, had a rough control over it, hence the meaning of 'novice'. Performing it in his current state was nothing short of agony as blood leaked from his nostrils. He felt his entire head bursting with information, as the world revealed itself! What helped was that in these dark and quiet tunnels, there was not much information flooding his senses. He could focus on the vibrations coming through the air and walls. A spherical space was drawn with him at the center.
Three seconds was all he could manage, before he became dizzy and nauseous. It felt like the entire world was spinning… He vomited. Shirley was taken by surprise, and she hurriedly patted his back. The nausea only went away after several minutes. As he wiped the blood from his nose, he spat out the remaining vomit. However, since he had nothing to wash it away, the foul taste lingered on his tongue. It made him sick again. Despite that, he had accomplished his goal. He had a decent understanding of their surroundings now.
"The good news is that we're safe for the time being. The bad news is that there's no obvious path to follow. We're still lost. The worse news is that I couldn't find anyone else."
"I see," Shirley said. "What are we supposed to do next? Should we go back to that cavern?"
Benedict paused. "I'd like to say no, but… it's our only way out."
"Except we can't fight our way through." She sighed. "Maybe we'll get rescued if we wait long enough."
He grinded his teeth in frustration. They were Royal Guards. They were supposed to be the pillars holding up the Alzar Kingdom, symbols of indomitable strength and boundless courage! He had grown up admiring them. He had trained and fought with his life on the line, because he aspired to be one of them. His father, his grandfather, and the many generations before him… The Hawken Household was the shield that protected royalty! That was how it should be, and that was how it always has been. Until today. This was his first real mission as a Royal Guard, and this was the result? Failing to kill an insect? Losing Elizabeth and Freon? Waiting to be saved? How ridiculous. There must be something he could do, even without any weapons or Martial Energy.
Shirley remained silent, but she did not sit idly. She was testing the efficiency of her recovery method, Inner Breath. Moments later, she stopped because it was pointless. Inner Breath functioned by circulating Martial Energy inside her body to hasten her natural recovery speed. Without any Martial Energy to serve as fuel, it would never work. She felt defeated. Like Benedict, her body was not recovering. In fact, her condition was getting worse, since she had no food, water, medicine, or sleep. They were on a time limit. Would they escape or perish first? She banished the thoughts from her mind. Unlike Benedict, she did not have any noble thoughts of being a Royal Guard. Sure, her promotion was convenient, but ultimately unnecessary. She would discard it in a heartbeat if it came to that. What she cared about was her family and friends. Nothing more, and nothing less.
If only I had Martial Energy! she fumed.
She kept trying to recover her Martial Energy, trying to recover any energy she could. Her desperation transformed into extreme focus. Then, something quite magical happened. Benedict looked up, because there was faint light coming from every direction, and it was a very familiar kind of light. Rainbow threads created from pure World Energy converged on Shirley, who had her eyes closed. Benedict's jaw dropped. This phenomenon was something only Arcanists could do, which meant… The World Energy obeyed Shirley's will and poured into her Channels. The process was much smoother than the last time she tried, a consequence of her pure concentration. She instinctively converted the World Energy into Magic Energy before funnelling it towards her Core. The density of Magic Energy continued to climb until finally… poof! A new space was carved out. Wisps of Magic Energy swirled inside. Shirley had successfully formed her Core! Although it was the lowest level of Low Gaseous Fog, she had officially embarked on the path of an Arcanist!
"Huh? What did I do just now?" Shirley snapped out of her trance. "Did I form my Core?"
Benedict was speechless. He did not have a Magic Perception, so he answered hesitantly, "…I think you did."
"Hm… That was easier than I thought."
His eyebrows twitched when he heard that. It took him a month before he could grasp Magic Energy and form his Core. It was likely the same for Elizabeth, Freon, Nassandra, and everyone else. And yet, Shirley had accomplished it in mere days… Admittedly, she had the experience of wielding Martial Energy, so she was not doing it completely blind. Even then, Shirley's instincts were truly out of this world. If he had to rank it, it was probably within the top three of everyone he knew, including his master, the Sword King! He thought about it more as a crazy idea formed in his head. That was right. He remembered he had a Core too. It was the same as Shirley, an undeveloped Low Gaseous Fog Core. Regardless, it was saturated with Magic Energy, something they desperately needed right now. Since they could not use martial techniques, then maybe magic spells could be their breakthrough!