Chapter 99: What is Going On?

A minute later, Fredrick was done with the digging. The tree's roots were now completely exposed.

He hugged the tree and began lifting it up as he found its weight to be only a level below that of the square artifact.

With its roots completely out of the soil, Fredrick wasted no time sucking it into the space - while still underwater - causing a violent suction force that pulled onto the tree along with the water in the pool.

Within another minute, it was done as Fredrick found the pool to have lost about half of its water contents to the ring.

With a nod to himself as a sign of success, Fredrick bent both legs...and jumped right out of the water with his hands grappling the edge of the pool, which the water could no longer reach.

He pulled himself up with ease and met with the sight of Cabrera, who was still mining, but this time with a slightly lower intensity.

It seemed that Cabrera had also noticed him, because he spoke...

"Are you going to keep standing there like that or lend a hand so we can finish this quickly and get out of here?"

Without replying, Fredrick approached...before abruptly sitting as he spoke...

"Give me a minute or two to relax these aching muscles"

Cabrera didn't reply and only kept on mining. Fredrick could also notice Cabrera's muscle exertion as he mined.

It was at this moment-

*Bam!

-that the sound of a large collision resounded, causing Fredrick to immediately stand up and Cabrera to halt his mining as they quickly moved to pinpoint the sound's origin.

Cabrera couldn't get any results, so he turned to Fredrick, who had his eyes closed, and spoke...

"Well..."

"It's coming from outside"

At those words, Cabrera's expression hardened.

But it quickly softened as Fredrick continued.

"From the little I can see...there's no Master-rank nearby"

Naturally, he was talking about his mana sense. He wasn't able to feel anything outside before because he was quite far away. Now that he was below the mountain though, he was able to extend his mana to scan the areas beside it.

Both Fredrick and Cabrera were confused.

"What do you think is going on?" Cabrera asked.

"I don't know. I can't find the beast anywhere, but I don't think it would flee, so it's most likely already dead. But that's why I'm confused. Who killed it? The mana signs I'm picking up aren't those of Expert-rank, they're one level lower. Just a bit more powerful than you...I think" Fredrick promptly replied.

Cabrera: "How many are there?"

Fredrick: "I can't give you an exact number...they're more than one but less than six"

Cabrera: "What about the sound we just heard?"

Fredrick: "That's the best part. I think, no, with these mana signs, they're definitely fighting right now"

Cabrera was dumbfounded. This was not the scenario they had speculated. No Master-ranks or even Experts, and now, those that remained were fighting, weakening themselves even further.

It was the best outcome for them.

Still, they had to be careful.

"What are the chances that the Expert and Master ranks are hiding after they discovered your presence?"

"As close to zero as possible. There's no reason for them to hide, because I wouldn't. Rather, I'd wonder what a Master-rank was doing in the mountain, because, at the very least, it meant there was something the Master wanted to gain, and I'd tag along to find out what it is. After all, they never saw me fight, so whoever it is won't know how strong I am, or how many trump cards I have at hand. Looking at this, it is very unlikely that a Master-rank would hide, and now, others are fighting for a reason we don't know. So there's definitely something we're missing, something we don't know"

Cabrera couldn't help but be impressed by such deduction skills as he nodded, and then spoke...

"So, what should we do now?"

Fredrick was quick to answer.

"We don't have any idea what's going on out there, and staying in here isn't helping. But like you said, we still have to be cautious. So I'll head up there to check on the situation while you keep doing what you're doing"

Cabrera didn't object. If he went, he might not be able to understand as easily as Fredrick could. There might also be a Master lurking in plain sight, so no thank you, Cabrera didn't want to test how long he could live.

Fredrick nodded, before dashing towards the hole dug through the mountain by the snake, sprinting to the lowest level of the mountain with relative ease, and activating earth sense once more to check what was going on.

He felt the trees that had been squashed under large rocks. He also felt the dead body of a large snake cleanly sliced in half, along with Rowan's body that had bleed out almost all his blood. A spark of life force still existed within him, but at this point, his fate was clear.

'He's going to die'

But that wasn't any of Fredrick's business. It was the cruelty of Orion and the cruel fate of most adventurers, and Rowan knew what he was getting into.

Away from them, he felt a couple of bodies buried under rocks, which fell when the snake made its entrance. Along with them were the bodies beheaded by Ilyon laid on the ground, showered in their own blood.

"Who did this?" Fredrick wondered.

The question would have to wait, as the image of those fighting was fed to his brain.

Contrary to his expectations of three to five fighters, there were only two people going at it in a one on one, one big and one small. The big guy looked miserable, with more than half of his punches hitting empty air, while his opponent cut him apart on all sides.

But the question was...

"Who are they?"

Fredrick didn't know who they were, but he stayed there, using his mana sense to watch, before the smaller's swordsmanship caused something to click.

"Wait, cut?"

The image of Ilyon's sword made Fredrick examine the snake's dead body as he confirmed that it had died by a powerful sword slash, or at least a powerful slash.

This meant...

'Hmm, the one who killed it was a blade wielder'

He was wondering why someone that powerful went into hiding, when he took cognizance of something he had brushed over before, the weapons lying on the floor!

With a thought, he quickly examined them through mana sense, and found most were short swords or daggers, and only a Grandmaster could make such a mark with a dagger.

He was sweating as his mind sifted through the large amount of information coming in before quickly picking up on a weapon that was most likely the culprit of the attack.

A great sword whose blade had dented a great deal and chipped off at multiple places laid on the floor.

'This is the weapon'

Fredrick was sure of it.

Fredrick knew who the weapon belonged to. Then again, how could he not when it was its wielder that smashed him into the mountain just before the snake came out.

It was a bit baffling, but the clues pointed towards Rowan.

'So you were the one who killed it?'

Fredrick thought it unlikely, but the whole reason they destroyed the outpost was to lure the Admiral, Rowan, and force him into a clash with the beast.

Then again. He thought It wasn't uncommon that an Admiral, and most likely a noble, had a secret technique or treasure that enhanced his fighting prowess.

With Ezra's affirmation, their thoughts were that Rowan would no doubt die.

And it worked, but not like they thought. Nonetheless, the Admiral dying was the first thing they had to make sure of if they couldn't do things quietly.

Neither Fredrick nor Ezra planned for things to go out like they had.

Fredrick had bought a lot of snake lover potion because Ezra said it would help keep the large snake attention for a time. A very short one, but that was enough to change the tide of any battle.

Fredrick had bought it from different places because he said buying in bulk would breed too much suspicion.

In any case, things were now like this.

Just to be sure, Fredrick reduced the range of his earth sense to focus on Rowan.

He had to make sure he died.

At the same time, the battle between the guild masters had reached its climax with Ilyon's sword running through Motavu's back while Motavu refused to let go.