Muir had prepared well, but once they stepped inside the room, Ronin found almost nothing useful.
The space was simple and sparsely furnished. There were clear signs of long-term habitation, but nothing as ancient as the underground city below. The traces felt old, yet nowhere near the two-thousand-year mark.
Overall, the room felt consistent with the rest of this section of the ruins.
It gave the impression that a member of the Kurta Clan had somehow found their way here by accident and simply stayed.
After all, none of the other rooms they had passed showed any signs of Kurta life—no distinctive clothing, no other traces.
If Ronin's guess was correct and this was nothing more than the belongings of a stray Kurta ancestor who had wandered into these ruins, then their exploration could essentially end here.
The thought left him disappointed.
"Maybe we'll find something new if we push farther in," Vanessa said, reading his expression.
She had been noticeably more reserved when they first met. After fighting and exploring together below, the two of them had grown noticeably more comfortable with each other.
"Guess that's all we can hope for," Ronin replied.
He still had plenty of time. Staying here a while longer didn't bother him.
Besides, he hadn't expected to solve everything the moment he arrived. They still didn't even know for certain whether the clothes they had found actually belonged to the Kurta Clan.
"You two can head back out if you want," Vanessa told the two mercenaries guarding the room. "The captain probably needs more hands right now."
The pair nodded without argument and quickly left.
Ronin silently noted that he now owed Muir a favor.
"So what are you planning to do?" Vanessa asked once they were alone.
Ronin had two real options: keep pushing deeper on his own, or wait for the kingdom's soldiers to arrive and continue the excavation.
Vanessa clearly preferred the first choice.
She had seen what Ronin could do with his terrain-altering abilities during their time together below. If he used that power to dig downward, they could probably reach unexplored areas much faster than waiting for conventional excavation.
Ronin didn't disappoint her.
Waiting for the kingdom's forces meant any valuable finds might not reach him first. The smarter move was to dig themselves.
With Earth Style ninjutsu, this wasn't particularly difficult for him.
There were still a few practical matters to settle first.
"If I keep going deeper on my own, will Muir have a problem with it?" Ronin asked.
If they actually found something high-value down there, Ronin had no intention of being polite about it—especially with Owl's storage ability at his disposal.
Once something went into his pocket, getting it back out again wouldn't be easy.
"No," Vanessa said confidently. "I'll be going with you anyway."
Ronin nodded. From the way she spoke, it was clear she had Muir's authorization. That was good enough for him.
The two of them left the room and continued deeper into the ruins.
Earlier, Ronin had suspected Vanessa might have died somewhere in these ruins. But judging by the strength of the monsters in the underground city, they shouldn't have posed a serious threat to her.
Maybe his guess had been wrong.
That was entirely possible. Vanessa had her own will. If she had decided the mercenary group no longer suited her and left on her own, that would also explain her absence from the manga.
It was also possible the manga simply hadn't shown every member of Muir's group.
While these thoughts ran through his head, their pace remained steady. The deeper they went, however, the more people they encountered.
Apparently quite a few groups were hoping to be the first to break through.
Ronin and Vanessa were stopped at a blocked section where several people were already working to clear a collapse.
From the looks of it, part of the ruins had caved in, burying both rooms and the original passage. Clearing this point should open the way into completely unexplored territory.
Greed made people bold. Whoever broke through first would have a massive advantage.
The people blocking the way made it sound reasonable enough.
They claimed that only by clearing the passage could more people enter the ruins safely. Otherwise everyone would be stuck outside.
Ronin had a way to bypass everyone without being noticed—use Earth Style to slip underground and move straight through.
But that would leave Vanessa behind.
Helping everyone clear the blockage wasn't something he was interested in either. In his opinion, the collapse was doing an excellent job of keeping unwanted people out.
"I can go around and get in first," Ronin said quietly. "What about you?"
Vanessa shook her head. "I can't. Even moving through the shadows of the rubble, I can't see a connected passage leading inside."
"What if you just hide in my shadow instead?" Ronin suggested.
Vanessa hesitated. "You'd need enough light for me to have a proper shadow to enter. How are you planning to do that underground?"
She had essentially explained the activation condition of her ability to him.
Keeping a large enough shadow while underground was going to be tricky.
Ronin wasn't even sure Earth Style would let him slip past cleanly or if he would simply smash straight into solid rock.
He gave the only honest answer he could. "I'll try going underground first. If that doesn't work, we'll have to force our way through."
Vanessa nodded.
She hadn't expected this section to be so heavily contested.
Ronin wasn't surprised by her reaction. Emitters tended to be straightforward—sometimes even more so than Enhancers.
The Earth Style technique he was most comfortable with for underground movement was the Underground Projection Technique.
He formed the seals. His body sank rapidly into the ground—only to be violently repelled a second later.
"No good," he said as he emerged, shaking his head.
Vanessa looked at the spot where he had come up and saw the hard layer of solid rock just beneath the surface.
"Come on," Ronin said simply.
The moment he realized Earth Style would only slam him into unyielding stone, he changed his approach.
At the same time, a new thought crossed his mind.
Was this hard rock layer sitting directly above the underground city?
If he actually broke through it, the first thing they might encounter could be countless spiders.
The commotion had already drawn attention from the people nearby.
When they saw Ronin emerge from the ground, some of them smirked mockingly.
But when the pair simply ignored the blockers and kept walking forward, a few people frowned while others watched with barely concealed glee.