Ed tapped the stone wall with a clearly different texture with his hand, then poked it a few times with his sword tip, withdrawing his hand with a grave expression.
This seemed to be the exit—at least, it once was.
But now, for some unknown reason, it had been blocked from the outside with stones.
Was it to prevent beasts from escaping? It wasn’t impossible.
But if that was really what Ed thought, it meant the beast living in this cave was absolutely not to be underestimated.
Ed rubbed his forehead.
“This isn’t good news…”
Now, two choices lay before them.
One: Try to break through the rocks and leave through the exit.
Two: Look for another path, but they might encounter that mysterious beast.
He glanced again at the massive rock that seemed mixed from rubble and soil.
Honestly, he wasn’t confident he could break it without making a big noise, which might attract the beast and make things worse.
So, option one was on hold for now.
“Bailis, let’s go back and look for other paths.”
Bailis seemed to have been sulking earlier, but she looked more normal now.
She followed Ed as he turned around, and they walked back the way they came.
“Is this path a dead end?”
“No, it’s the exit.”
The girl couldn’t help looking back at the rock; in the gradually receding flame light, its outline dimmed, finally vanishing into darkness.
An uncontrollable thought jumped into her mind.
“Ed, we… we won’t be trapped to death in this cave, will we?”
“It hasn’t come to that yet.”
The boy’s voice remained calm and steady.
“That rock’s texture isn’t too hard; breaking it might take some time, but it won’t trap us.”
“Then why don’t we just blast it open and run out?” The girl breathed a shallow sigh of relief, asking curiously.
“If Ed thinks it’s too time-consuming alone, I can help too.”
“No.” Ed shook his head. “More than how long it takes to get out, I’m actually more concerned about why it’s there.”
“Why?”
“If nothing unexpected, it’s probably to prevent the beast in this cave from escaping and harming people—that’s why they blocked the exit with stones. I’m suddenly not so grateful to that mage; where did he learn his teleportation spell? It seems like he made it up himself…”
The girl blinked, seeming to understand something.
“So Ed means we’re going to look for that beast now?”
“That’s right. We strike first; otherwise, if we’re breaking the rocks and someone’s mana or magical power runs low, and the beast suddenly jumps out to attack, it might really be dangerous.”
“Ed thinks so thoroughly…”
Ed didn’t respond to the girl’s words.
Since confirming the cave might indeed hide danger, he had been constantly observing cautiously around, to react quickly to any possible attack.
But they walked all the way back to the clearing where they woke up, without seeing any sign of a beast.
The girl held onto the stone wall with one hand, poking her head from one side of the fork to the other, looking down the other deep path.
“So that means it’s probably at the end of this path… Whoa!”
Before she finished, Ed pulled her back.
“Be careful; stay behind me honestly—who knows what’s hiding in this path.”
Seeing Ed’s serious expression was no fake, the girl could only nod obediently.
The other path was clearly much longer than the previous one; they walked for nearly five minutes before seeing a faint light.
Wait, light?
Ed turned to look at the girl.
The flame in her hand hadn’t gone out, but the light ahead was clearly different from her flame’s glow.
More like natural sunlight.
He frowned.
Could all his previous guesses be wrong? Was there no beast in this cave at all?
But then the rock…
“Ed, what’s wrong?”
The girl tilted her head, looking at the boy’s frowning appearance, and asked softly.
“Is there a problem ahead?”
Ed withdrew his gaze from the girl, his hand on the hilt loosening then tightening.
“Not sure; let’s go deeper and see.”
He still held onto his previous deduction.
The two continued forward.
As the distance shortened, Ed could finally see the source of the light—it was a clear pool of water, with a long, narrow gap at the edge, from which both water and light seemed to flow into the cave.
But it wasn’t an exit.
The gap’s width was nowhere near enough for a person to pass, let alone the usually massive beasts.
“It’s water! Ed! Look, it’s water!” The girl exclaimed softly.
“I see—hm, seems like there are fish too?”
Ed vaguely saw a few moving shadows in the water.
He wasn’t sure if they were fish; perhaps they were some beasts.
Gurgle—
A slight gurgling sound suddenly came from behind.
Ed whirled around sharply, but there was no beast in sight.
“Bailis, did you hear a beast’s sound?” Out of caution, he asked the girl.
“What beast…”
“Just, a very strange sound, like the intimidating noise some beasts make from their mouths when preparing to attack.”
“Oh, you mean that…”
The girl suddenly lowered her head embarrassedly.
“That, actually, was my stomach growling just now…”
Ed froze like a statue.
“Don’t look at me like that…” The girl said aggrievedly.
“From waking up till now, I haven’t eaten anything, and you suddenly mentioned fish, so I, I couldn’t help it…”
“Alright, alright.”
Ed helplessly touched his forehead.
After triple-checking no beast appeared around, he relented.
“There really seems to be no beasts nearby; I’m a bit hungry too—shall we catch a few fish?”
“Okay!” The girl cheered joyfully.
Moments later.
Ed squinted, flipping the fish impaled on his sword tip back and forth.
No matter how he looked, it didn’t seem like a beast.
It couldn’t really be just an ordinary, edible fish, could it?
Gulp.
A clear swallowing sound came from the side.
“Ed, c-can we eat it now?” The girl stared longingly at the fish, her mouth seeming about to drool.
“It’s not roasted yet—you said you can cook, so you should know fish can’t be eaten raw; why are you so eager now?”
“The teacher Dad hired didn’t teach me how to make fish; he said he couldn’t either.” She said righteously.
“Then your teacher needs to go back and practice.” Ed curled his lip. “Come on, use your fire magic to roast our food.”
“Ha! Evil fish, prepare to die!”
“Hey, it’s just roasting fish; no need for such a big deal…”
“Roasting it well done makes it tastier…”
The boy’s helpless sigh mixed with the girl’s excited blowing on the hot fish; after surviving life and death and brief tension, both seemed to gradually forget the potential danger.
In an unnoticed blind spot, a pair of green vertical pupils suddenly opened.