A Sorcerer's Journey 345 The Burrow XIX

The trip took nine days.
After Grimm's forceful takeover of the handover mission from the bright sorcerer legion, the team members no longer had any doubts about him. They followed his orders completely.
Sa...sa...sa...sa...
In the past nine days, Grimm and the rest of his team were flying over the ocean of Snowthread Worms in the burrow. They came to a dark region that was beyond the reach of the floating magical lamps.
Under the shade of their elemental lights, Grimm and his team came across a mound of skeleton remains in the distance.
Beneath the Mask of Truth, Grimm was looking toward his crystal ball on top of the Thousand-eyed Carcinus. The Myna also looked into the crystal ball, as if it were knowledgeable.
Quite a while later, Grimm nodded after making some complex calculations. He confidently exclaimed, "This is the place."
The skeletal mound was abundant with pale-gray six-petal flowers with the sweet fragrance of death emanating from them. The ocean of Snowthread Worms kept their distance from the mound. At the top of the boulder was a large opening that spanned over two hundred meters in width. It was twice the size of the entryway that Grimm and his team used to cross into the Snowthread Burrow previously!
The huge entryway indicated that the amount of Snowthread Worms that entered Snowthread Burrow from above was huge. Hence, there were less powerful creatures roaming within.
"Master Grimm, should we go up now?"
The Thousand-eyed Carcinus awaited Grimm's order.
"Yes, go up."
After Grimm gave the word, the Thousand-eyed Carcinus was obedient and began rising at high speed. It crawled sideways toward Grimm's small team and flew to explore the tunnels where the mission marker was.
Slush… slush…
It didn't take three hours of flying before hundreds of thousands of Snowthread Worms came pouring down from the wide passageways. The Thousand-eyed Carcinus stepped aside to let the Snowthread Worms rain down.
The Snowthread Worms stopped flowing after half an hourglass's time. The Thousand-eyed Carcinus then carried Grimm and the rest of the team to continue on their journey.
Slowly, the passageway grew even wider, almost to a width of three hundred meters. At some points where the erosion by the Snowthread Worms was even more serious, the width was at five hundred meters.
The size of the chamber was comparable to that of the first unnamed burrow when they came down from the Superficial Tundra.
After flying for more than ten hourglasses in the passageway, Grimm and the team reached their first burrow..
This was a burrow that had a length and width of about four by three kilometers. It wasn't that big, and there were signs of fierce battles from the Bright Sorcerers. A huge, dragonfly-like predatory species lived here. Their average strengths were of a Level-1 creature...
The species was probably wiped out by the earlier bright sorcerer legions. Grimm and the rest of the crew only managed to find some larvae to be collected as specimens.

The plants that covered the ground seemed photophobic. Even the elemental lights of Grimm's team made the plants that were protected by a layer of ice crystal hiss in response.
After a few hourglasses in the relatively small burrow collecting some biospecimens, Grimm and his team discovered two passageways.
One had a width of over two hundred meters, the other was half that size.
Without hesitation, Grimm's team naturally chose the path that was cleared by earlier Bright Sorcerers. They chose the wider tunnel.
One and a half months later.
And so, it took Grimm's party almost two months to reach the final place that was cleared by the Bright Sorcerer legion in the Burrow World, the Slush Burrow.
During that time, the team passed through nine burrows of various sizes. Each had obvious signs of being cleared. They did not encounter any dangers.
The Slush Burrow was much wider in comparison. It was hard to see an end to the burrow and the place seemed like it spanned a few hundred kilometers.
The relatively gentle creatures that lived here came from a branch of the Quagmires. However, they've adapted to the cold climates in the Burrow World and evolved a layer of frost scale on their bodies.
Of course, the Quagmires were only gentle when unprovoked.
That was why the earlier bright sorcerer legions did not clear these creatures out. It saved them a great deal of time and effort.
Although the Quagmire lived off the natural energies, they would do some hunting occasionally.
The way they hunt was to envelope their target as they slowly meld into their target's flesh and blood before rejecting the parts that couldn't be assimilated.
Grimm had a good look at his crystal ball. He then pointed to a direction and said, "This way."
The whole Slush Burrow was filled with a long seaweed-like plant that was floating. Since the Quagmires don't feed on this plant, they flourished in the Slush Burrow and made the place look lively.
These seaweed-like plants could get up to a few hundred meters high, spanning from the burrow ground right up to the top of the boulder ceiling. Most of them were tens of meters high as they swayed continuously.
After a few hourglasses.
The team was collecting specimens as they flew to the entrance that led to the last burrow as indicated by the bright sorcerers.
A chilling air was blowing from the entranceway, causing the red-brownish hair of the Thousand-eyed Carcinus as well as the sorcerers' robes to flutter about.
Just as the group was about to get used to it all and fly up, they heard a rare, faint growl of the Quagmire from a distance. The growl slowly grew more and connected, as if something big had happened, causing some disturbance among the Quagmires that were under the seaweed-like plants.
"Hmm?"
Grimm and the rest of the Demon-hunting Sorceresr too turned their heads to watch across the distance. It was pitch black. They didn't find anything.
What's going on here?
Grimm was anxiously trying to figure out what happened.
The calm, rational, Dark Sorcerer side of Grimm was telling Grimm not to invite any more troubles since whatever happened there had nothing to do with the mission.
On the other hand, the curiosity of the sorcerer was the primary driver of the sorcerer's advancement. Their curiosity was what's getting them through years and years of monotonous lab research as they uncover new, unknown knowledge that had been left in the dark.
Gradually, the primal curiosity of the sorcerer came through over the calm, rational Dark Sorcerer's side of Grimm. He looked toward the group and said, "Let's investigate."
"Huh!?"
The group of Demon-hunting Sorcerers were whispering doubtfully. None of them were willing to stick their heads into the matter.
Grimm was astounded. How could he be the only one who wanted to investigate?
Normally, the team lead would give out orders and the rest of the team would follow the orders unconditionally. But Grimm made a decision and calmly said," Well… since none of you are willing to go investigate, just wait here then."
Grimm said no more and flew away at high speed.
"Caw? Master, are we really going there…"
As they looked on at Grimm's departure, the group of calm, rational Dark Sorcerers couldn't understand this episode of Grimm.
The whole thing seemed like a silly cliché from a horror novel.
A normal person would've chosen to avoid any unknowns that could happen in the darkness, but there's always some foolish heroes that would go investigate and set off a chain of horror that could've been left alone in the first place.
So many people had called the hero stupid in such horror novels…
The rest of the team were standing in a cold, collected manner as if they were ready to pull out anytime if something goes wrong. Nairo, who looked on Grimm's departure with the same cold eyes as the rest of the crew, was suddenly rattled.
"Why was he the only one foolish enough to go investigate? Is this the reason why he's different from the rest of us, and how he always exceeded himself?"
In her heart, Nairo had completely acknowledged Grimm's power.
"Hold on!"
Nairo suddenly shouted. She followed Grimm as they vanished in the darkness. The rest of the Dark Demon-hunting Sorcerers looked at each other as they stood on their ground. None of them joined.
The time passed by slowly. About more than one hourglass later.
Buzz…
The Ice Quagmire's growl grew nearer, accompanied by a concentrated buzzing sound. Grimm and Nairo flew from across the distance at full speed. Their faces were pale and they couldn't catch their breaths.
"Run! A species from the burrow next door is invading the burrow!"
As Grimm finished his words, the group of dark Demon-hunting Sorcerers did not pause at all as they flew at full speed toward the wide tunnel entrance.
In his hand, Grimm was holding up an Ice Hornet that was tens of centimeters in size, sealed in ice. Its eyes were still turning around in the ice.

Chapter end