Manny, Liz, Olivia, Evan, and Ritsuka all followed Chan-Yeol as he lead them towards the Hole building. They all were taken aback by his form. He was shredded. He was really hiding a lot of his nice assets under all that business attire clothing. He wore Penumbra light armor and had two large daggers strapped on his belt, along with an assortment of pouches. His hair was still the same but he kept the large backpack they were given for their expedition on his back.
He waved at the guild members who saluted at him.
"Keep up the good work." Chan-Yeol encouraged them. He lead them into the building and continued forward. "You're all on the same comms, right?" Chan-Yeol turned to look at the others.
"Yes, sir." The group responded.
"Good. We'll still be using Tiffi and Marcus as our support. Unluckily for us, we'll have to walk a bit between areas to get to the area of the next floor." Chan-Yeol told them as he opened the door to the Hole. The large metallic platform was up and he motioned for them to get on it. "We'll use this to make things easier." The group got on the platform as Chan-Yeol followed behind. He tapped the button to go down and the back gate rose and the platform descended.
"Chan-Yeol, sir," Olivia called the Leader's name out. Chan-Yeol turned to see Olivia moving closer to him. "The Shifters shouldn't be too big of deal on the other floors, right?"
"They shouldn't be. The first five floors are secured for sure. We have systems in place in case anything were to appear on the floors. We dispatch people to take care of it while we explore the floors below." Chan-Yeol explained. He could tell she was worried about coming across another one. "Don't worry about the Shifters. If there is one, I can take care of them faster than they'll be able to respond."
The platform stopped and the front gate pulled down. Chan-Yeol motioned for the group to move out of the platform. He greeted tired Techs and Adventurers as they passed.
"Ah, Mr. Chan-Yeol, what're you doing down here?" An adventurer asked. The others seemed to be taking in the group he was with.
"I'm taking this group to the Fourth Floor." Chan-Yeol answered. "We lost a student and his teammates want to find him. His last known location was on the Fourth Floor. Where are you coming from?"
"We're coming from the Sixth floor, sir." The adventurer answered.
"Hurry up, Jerry!" Another adventurer waved on the platform. Jerry look over and gave them a "one minute" motion.
"Have you seen a student about this tall and has Fox ears and a Fox tail, by chance?" Chan-Yeol asked, giving a height indicator lower than him.
"Yes." Chan-Yeol nodded. "Team Zephyr's quest was to guide Techs to Zone 1R where Shifters and Goblins have recently infiltrated. The group got ambushed and Lee Seng was fighting two Shifters that fused into one person. By the time backup got there, everything in that room was gone. The broken lights, the columns that made sure the Zone didn't fall, everything."
"Wow. Is there an SOS out for him, yet?" Jerry asked.
"Jerry hurry up! I'm hungry!" A Tech yelled for him.
"One minute! Someone's missing! Mr. Chan-Yeol's asking some questions!" Jerry told them. He turned his attention back onto Chan-Yeol. "Well, sir, I haven't seen the Creator's son on the Sixth floor, but we I did hear something odd about corrupted Goblins."
"Corrupted Goblins?" Chan-Yeol raised his eyebrows. "Like the ones from a couple months ago?"
"That's correct, sir. They're appearing, again. I would be careful going down." Jerry told him.
"Thank you for your cooperation, Jerry. You must be tired from your expedition, get some rest." Chan-Yeol motioned. Jerry gave a small salute and waved at Team Zephyr before jogging towards the platform.
"What did he want?" A teammate asked. Jerry began giving his teammates and the Techs a breakdown of what he talked about. The platform gate raised and started to shift upwards.
"Corrupted Goblins are back?" Ritsuka asked.
"Mmm, I guess they are. We'll have to be careful. They easily push into C-rank, maybe even B-rank depending on the Corruption." Chan-Yeol warned the group. "Let's make our way to the Second Floor." Their maps highlighted their path and they made their way forward. The First Floor was fairly quiet. They didn't see another soul down there. They followed their specified colored lights until they reached the empty platform.
The group filtered onto it and Chan-Yeol hit the descend button.
"What are the Corrupted Goblins, anyways?" Manny asked.
"They're empowered goblins." Olivia answered. "They have this dark aura about them. It looks like Dark Matter, honestly. They're faster, stronger, and sometimes even smarter."
"Lee Seng and I ran into a small group of them a couple months back during the Goblin Horde expedition." Ritsuka added. "One of them got pissed enough that they could manipulate that energy around them and turn themselves into some sort of large creature. If it weren't for Lady Akali, we would've lost Lee Seng."
"They're scary to fight." Evan added. "If you're not prepared. Just be on your toes."
"We should be able to easily fight C-rank versions of those." Liz commented. "If we can fight Hobgoblins with ease."
"The only thing that was hard was that Storm Goblin from training day." Manny nodded. The platform came to a stop and their maps updated. The Second Floor area seemed to have a rest spot. A collection of small buildings that seemed to house people to rest and recollect themselves.
"These are rest centers. We started implementing them on the Second floor due to traveling back and forth. These spots get restocked every couple of days and we managed to store large quantities of water, electricity, heat, etc. In these rune-filled canisters. It's pretty advanced work. I don't know too much about it other than that." Chan-Yeol told them. "If too much time has passed on the surface, we'll rest here. Let's continue on our way."
The group followed the map path. The Second Floor was deeper under the surface and it was an unnerving feeling none of them had ever felt before. Being underground was alright, but knowing you were slowly descending further and further away from the surface was something that didn't stick well with some of the group. They saw a couple of groups coming back and Chan-Yeol flagged them down and asked them some questions.
"Have you seen The Creator's son down there?" Chan-Yeol asked. He would pull out a picture and ask if people have seen Lee Seng. They all answered the same. No. They weren't even aware that students would be down on the Fourth Floor.
"They were supposed to help with something on the First Floor, but Shifters had a trap waiting for them." Chan-Yeol explained. "Thank you for your time, but get some rest. You guys deserved it. Keep an ear out for anything, alright?" He would wave at the group as they saluted and continued on their way to the surface.
Manny found it hard to hear his childhood friend was just gone. Nobody had seen him and he was beginning to feel like this trip would only recover the communication ring Lee Seng kept on his finger. His sighs must've gotten loud because Liz was hovering around him more often than she would normally do. She gave him a knowing glance and he would take a moment to steel himself, again.
'He'll be there. I'm sure of it. He's alive!' Manny told himself.
They descended to the Third Floor. They saw more groups hanging around the underground housing systems. They all greeted Chan-Yeol and immiedately looked at Team Zephyr with curiousity.
"I'd like to take a moment to ask you all some questions." Chan-Yeol spoke up. "Have you seen the Creator's son, Lee Seng Chang? He looks like this." Chan-Yeol showed them the picture on his phone and the crowd of people came up and took a look.
"No." They all answered.
"We haven't seen him down here. Most of us are coming from the Sixth Floor, sir. There was a problem with Corrupted Goblins down there so we had to take them out. Some of us have to go back down there soon and watch the Techs work." A female answered.
"I heard students were coming to this site, but I didn't think they would be going down so far. Did something happen?" A male adventurer asked. Chan-Yeol slipped his phone in his pocket and nodded.
"Team Zephyr are the students who are supposed to help on the First Floor. You all heard about it, right?" Chan-Yeol asked. The group of adventurers nodded. "Well, Shifters were waiting up there and sprung their trap."
"Oh, no. Are you all fine?" Another female adventurer turned to look at the group. They didn't seem too beat up. They looked restless and worried, if anything.
"We're fine." Ritsuka answered.
"We just want to find our friend." Olivia continued.
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