The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 453: In the Tunnels

Chapter 453: In the Tunnels
Three or so weeks later.
The team made its way through the dark, winding labyrinth of tunnels, the only source of light being the lanterns that they carried. Even in the dim lights, it was easy to see that their appearance was terrible... Every one of them looked as if they had gone to hell and back, crawling the whole way. They were covered in dried blood and dirt, which still didn’t conceal the pallor of their faces and the dark circles underneath their eyes. Their uniforms were torn and burned in places, with pieces of the sticky, stingy spider webbing clinging to them. Perhaps the cleanest thing about them was the bandages that some of them wore... After all, even if they couldn’t maintain proper personal hygiene, they had to at least make sure that their wounds remained clean to avoid any infections.
That was about as much as they could do, though. The dungeon they were in wasn’t particularly rich in water sources. They ran into small streams every now and then, but they were only about large enough for the team members to wash their hands and faces, not to bathe in them or wash their clothes. Only four times so far had they encountered ponds large enough for them to properly wash up. As for the water that they had brought with them in the spatial bags that the Association lent them for the raid, they needed to conserve it for drinking, since the supply was limited, and they still had a way to go...
The good news was that they had cleared up all the lizard monsters on the surface. The bad...
There was a massive net of tunnels underneath the whole dungeon, and they had to explore them all. The spider monsters were even more dangerous than the lizards, thus it was essential to bring their population under control (meaning: eliminate them all).
And the worst of all? The tunnels seemed to be stretching endlessly... Although the area they covered was the same as the rocky maze above them, after which they were cut off by the Wall, the tunnels had several levels, making the spiders’ territory much bigger than the lizards’.
On top of that, the spiders were more of a migrant species, not having constant nests, but rather moving around the tunnels in their clutters, ’camping’ at a different spot every other day... This led to situations such as the team having to return to the part of the tunnels they had just cleared, because another group of spiders had made themselves comfortable there.
Trapped for days in the dark, traveling the winding tunnels, fighting the terrifying monsters that were bigger and much stronger than them, getting caught in the webbing and having to burn themselves with the lizards’ corrosive fluids just to free themselves... All of this added up to the exhaustion, affecting everyone’s mental states negatively. The only thing that kept them from breaking down was the fact that at least time, they hadn’t had any accidents or casualties. No missing limbs either. So far, all the injuries that the members of the team had suffered could be healed with proper treatment and rest, once they finally finished the raid.
Still, the atmosphere within the team was far from great. For most, if not all of them (excluding Lane), it was the longest and hardest raid they had ever been on.
"How... much... longer..." Cora gasped, as they climbed a tunnel leading upwards, trying to avoid the webbings spread between the ground, the walls, and the ceiling, both the fresh, as well as the scraps of the old ones that they had already cut through before. "My legs are killing me..."
As a Guide, she was one of the people most affected by the prolonged raid. Although she didn’t have any serious injuries, aside from a few scratches and burns from dissolving the spiders’ webbing that had gotten stuck to her, her strength and stamina were inferior to the Espers’. After all the days of trekking and fighting, with only minimal rest, the exhaustion had built up, until she could hardly take it anymore.
Lane, who was walking a few steps ahead, glanced back at her. "Don’t worry, we should be taking a break soon," he reassured.
Knowing Damien’s patterns, it was about time to set another camp. Now that they were underground, it was dark all the time, so it was up to Damien when they stopped for the ’night’, but luckily for the team, he was reasonable enough, and didn’t force the rest of the team to go for too long without getting any sleep. When the team members were too tired, their combat abilities would drop, after all, which could put all of them in danger. Thus, he kept an eye on the team, watching how they were doing, and when their energy speed started dropping too much, he always called a break. Judging by how things were going at the moment, it should be happening soon. Unless...
"Unless we run into another swarm of monsters," Lane added with a teasing smile playing in the corners of his lips.
"Ugh..." A loud groan escaped Cora’s mouth, as her shoulders dropped. She couldn’t take another fight with the monsters right now, she really couldn’t...
Luckily for her, Lane was only joking. His hearing and his sight were much better than the others’, so he could tell that the webs in this part of the tunnels, while new to them, weren’t exactly fresh. They lacked the glisten that the freshly spun threads had, appearing much duller. The tunnels were also quiet, with no sounds other than those that their group was making...
They should be safe for now.
Cora, however, with her senses only slightly better than those of a civilian, couldn’t tell any of that. Which is why her weary mind instantly made her imagine countless spider monsters, skulking around in the dark, ready to attack...
"Ugh. Is everything going to be like that from now on?" she muttered, glancing around anxiously. Even though she knew that there was nowhere for the spiders to hide in this lit-up tunnel - dimly, but still bright enough to see the rocks surrounding them - she could almost feel their presence. Their non-existent eyes watching her...
"Hmm?" Lane furrowed his brows. "What do you mean?"
The rest of their raid was naturally going to be like this. But that was a given, so it was odd for Cora to ask something like this.
Unless she was talking about something else, that is.
And she was.
"If those myths from those sentient monsters are real, and the world becomes fully Manaformed... Is this going to become our reality?"
Arlo, Lucy, Tyler, and Kiara, who were walking near them, all paused for a moment, exchanging glances. They hadn’t really thought much of it before, since their idea of the Manaformed world was mostly based on the Restricted Zone they had been in, the first one in the Capital, where the only difference was that the Mana Stones were forming in some spots, and some weird plants and moss started growing...
But that was only one small Zone, where all the Gates were inactive, so there were no monsters around. There were also other Restricted Zones, such as the one with the Lapis Lake, which none of them, aside from Lane and Lucy, had been able to enter, but they had heard rumors about the monsters still living in the lake...
And now, after spending three weeks or more straight in a high-ranking dungeon, the reality of what a ’Manaformed world’ might entail started fully dawning on them.
"Uh..." Arlo couldn’t help but shudder. He also glanced around, not necessarily looking for monsters as Cora had been, but simply imagining his street, and the corridors in his apartment buildings, covered up in the same webs.
What if one day he had to walk back home with his sword at the ready, watching for the monsters that could be lurking nearby? Sure, they were on their way to exterminate the spider monsters, but there were going to be new dungeons, with new monsters that could storm into their world, perhaps even worse than the ones they were facing now. And it’s not like this dungeon was going to be ’safe’ either, since it could just expand, releasing a new wave of the spiders and lizards...
"...I don’t think I would like that..." he muttered.
Actually, he was sure that he wouldn’t. Not at all, not even in the slightest.
Tyler gave him a long look, before letting out a loud harrumph. Although he was also scared, he thought back to the discussion they had before entering the dungeon, and how Arlo, Cora, and Lane had argued with him... Remembering that, the sight of Arlo and Cora so anxious when thinking about the future was rather satisfying.
"That’s why I told you that you shouldn’t listen to it. Just trust in the Association..." he started. Before he could finish his thought, though, Lane interjected, instantly capturing everyone’s attention,
"Eh, it wouldn’t necessarily be so bad," he smiled.