They walked deeper and deeper into the mine since they can't climb back up from the slope. The slime and goblins have been slain by Will and Raye while Al watched from behind. Al pushes the mine cart as they walked deeper. Suddenly, the fire on Will's hand extinguished due to a gust of wind.
"Weird, there shouldn't be wind inside a cave,"
Will was surprised and he tilted his head upward and saw vibrant light shining just ahead of them. They continued walking forward as the surrounding kept getting darker and darker, suddenly, vibrant light surrounded them. The light originates from the gems, lights glow according to their gem's color. The blue gem on their cart also glows in bright blue. The Everlight stopped and looked around of this vibrant view. Loki climbed out of Raye's armor and was flashed by the vibrant light.
"So beautiful..."
Raye muttered out this words as Will's eyes kept starring at the light. Al tries to grabbed one of the gems but since they left their pickaxe up there he failed to do so. Suddenly, a loud yell can be heard from afar the path. Raye snapped out of it and chased after the sound. Will casted a flame spell that follow along the path to give Raye light as he run. Will quickly followed Raye as Al pushes the cart and followed them. Since the mana below is quite dense, this allows the gem to keep glowing, giving Al light to see and move forward. They reached a large room with a large slime that devoured an elf girl. She was dressed in a mining outfit same as Raye, Will and Al.
Raye drew out his sword from the sheath and dashed towards the slime. It did no damage to the slime for it could reattached again. Will casted a few shadow magic that shot straight into the slime. It exploded into pieces and retreated. Raye ran towards the girl a shook her awake. She has an ash-white hair color.
"Are you alright? Wake up! Al, do you have any magic for this kind of situation?"
"Move aside,"
Al walked towards the girl and places his hand above the elf's chest, not touching her. Green sphere formed around Al's hand as he chanted 'awakening spell' on her. The girl then coughed as Raye places his left hand onto her back and slowly push her up.
"Are you alright?"
The elf slowly opened her eyes to reveal a beautiful bright blue eyes with black pupils.
"Where am I..."
She then looked at Raye directly in the eyes and suddenly screamed which shocked Raye and he let go his hands which resulted the elf to fall and hit her head on the ground.
"Are you alright...?"
The elf stood up and backed away. Raye approached her with a cheerful expression on his face.
"Don't worry, we won't hurt you, My name is Raye Winston,I am a hero, and those are my party member,"
The elf was hesitant as first, but reluctantly believed Raye.
"M-my name is Amethia, Amethia Tropaz,"
"The name is Al Sevis,"
"...."
Raye sighed and introduced Will to her.
"How did you end up here?"
Raye ask to make things less awkward for her.
"Oh uh...I came here to earn some pocket money for my family...and found myself against a gang of beasts when I got lost..."
"Well, it seems that we also can't find a way out too..."
Will walked towards the elf and stopped at his track. He then took a step backwards and looked upwards. Raye, Al and Amethia were puzzled by his reaction but shrugged it off.
"We could escape if we were to explode this cave from above..."
"We will not destroy the cave!"
Raye rebuked and sighed as the elf, Amethia let out a silent laugh. Raye watches her and smiled which makes her blushed.
"Well then, how do we get out?"
"..."
"What if we draw a magic circle and teleport from here?"
Will suggested as he looked at the area of the room.
"But we need the other side to also have a magic circle in order to teleport,"
The elf mentioned another point which made Will's suggestion useless.
"Although there is another spell that can help you teleport to anywhere based on your memory,"
Amethia suggested another spell to get them out of there.
"I never heard a spell like that before! Do you know any spell like that Will?"
Raye was in shock and asked Will about it.
"...,If I think about it, there is a spell like that,"
"I just know how to draw the sigil for that spell, though I do not have a set of pen and ink..."
"..., I heard that certain gem contains similar elements used for ink for sigils, I think I saw some back there,"
Al crossed his arms and closed his eyes, thinking about the gems.
"Really? Al, that's a great info! Alright guys, let's start drawing before dusk arrive,"
Raye and Al went back and grabbed the gems needed to draw and Will and Amethia do parts where each draw half the sigils. An hour later, they had finally finished the sigil, just one part of the outer circumference isn't add on to avoid activating the spell. Raye pushes the cart into the large sigil as Al went to take something. He then returned as Amethia finished drawing at the core of the sigil since to use this spell. Amethia then inserted her mana to stabilize the sigil for it is big. Amethia rushed forward and finished the circumference from inside the sigil and the spell was finally activated. They were sent back at the front of the cave. Darwin was just right in front of them and was surprised that they suddenly appeared.
"Where have you guys been? We been looking for you everywhere!"
Darwin looked behind Raye and noticed Amethia behind him.
"Hey, aren't you the witch that came by yesterday? We were also looking for you too! Well, I'm glad that you guys are safe,"
"I'm sorry Mr Darwin, we encounter some issue back there, we found Miss Amethia on our way out, enough said, we have collected the gems as you requested,"
"Good work Mr Raye, well then, here is your reward,"
Darwin pulled out bag of coins and handed it to Raye.
"Unfortunately, Miss Amethia, you did not returned with the gems, so I can't give you the reward,"
Amethia tilted her head down as Raye looked at her depress expression. Raye then handed the bag of coins to Amethia which shocks her.
"Huh w-why are you giving me this?"
"Well, you seem to be in the need of this more than we do, even so, we have more than enough cash with us, or I could say even an abundance,"
"T-thank you,"
As they exit, a dwarf stopped Al from pushing the cart out.
"Sorry but the gems you collected are our properties, you can't take it away,"
"What? I thought the collected gems were ours..."
Al returned the cart to the dwarf and left. Before he could sneak out, he grabbed Al's clothe and the gem that Al hid inside him fell onto the ground.
"Ahem,"
Al smile awkwardly and returned the gem to the dwarf. Al left with the gang feeling down.
"Should have seen that coming,"
Raye told Al which makes him click his tongue.
"Hope that doesn't ruin our reputation,"
Raye sighed and went on the path.
________________________
SIDE STORY 2
(This take place during the earlier part of the story, before they met Al Sevis)
"Uh..."
Will stared at the sign board, not knowing how to read the words written on it.
"Will, do you not know how to read?"
"I do, its just...they look different and weird,"
"You're really struggling on how to read 'apple' huh,"
"So that's what it means,"
"It's kinda obvious where the sign is place at the apple piles there..."
Raye gave him a book that written 'Athena for toddlers'.
"You'll be reading this book until you understand the basic of Modern Athena,"
Raye told Will as he also struggles to read the title on the cover of the book.
"This will take a while..."