New Earth- The Dungeon of Madness 52 Use of the fireflies

10 minutes had passed since the barbarians entered Five's dungeon and after following the long tunnel, they came across several intersections. Some of the tunnels were smaller and the barbarians directly ignored them but others were of the same size as the same tunnel.

Since their task was just to explore the mine and ensure that it is a safe place, the barbarians decided to split into different groups and right now, they were separated in 3 groups; one of 10 barbarians and two of 5 barbarians. They simply split into two when they met an intersection.

Although only 10 minutes have passed, Toba already came across an iron ore embedded in the wall. It only took a few swings of the pickaxe to pull it out. Although he did not really understand the importance of these pieces of rock, he understood that he needed to bring as much as possible back to the village. Both the Shaman and Achi heavily emphasized this; they did not need to take a lot of risks and just needed to explore this place and bring back the ores and coals they would find.

"Let's quickly continue!" said Toba. The other 9 barbarians quickly followed. After another 20 minutes, they already collected another ore and 2 pieces of coal. In fact, they could have collected much more if they went into the small tunnels; whenever they would see another tunnel, the group would usually try to see as far as possible inside and often, they would catch a glimpse of something shiny. But due to their large frame, they did not really want to do so and decided to come back later; it was not like as if the ores would suddenly disappear.

Zeke was walking just behind his dad, "Ah, those annoying fireflies... Go away!" said Zeke with an annoyed expression. He violently clapped his hand right on top of a small firefly and instantly squished it.

"F*ck those insects... Why are there so many of them..."

When he first came to the mine, Zeke naturally encountered some fireflies but this time, it looked like there were so many of them! More importantly, he felt like he was being targetted by the fireflies as they would often fly around him; some even tried to land on his arm and were violently killed by the young barbarian.

The other barbarians would simply laugh at the sight of Zeke venting his anger at the small fireflies.

Very soon, they came across yet another intersection.

"Let's divide into two groups! Baltra, choose your men," said Toba. Baltra was another barbarian but compared to the others, he was not burly or muscular but had a slimmer figure. He was, in fact, a powerful ranger; his shots would always be accurate to the point that the other barbarians would often always have to pick up the dead preys.

Baltra could be considered as the second in command of the team and everyone respected him despite his appearance. "I choose you, you..." Quickly, Baltra pointed at 4 other barbarians.

"Alright! You guys go in this tunnel, you know what to do. No matter what, return at the entrance in 3 hours! Also, don't divide again!"

"Got it!"

Baltra and his men quickly disappeared in the dark tunnel, aside from their loud steps, Zeke heard one of them comment, "What a pity, it would have been nice to stay next to firefly man; with him, we don't even need a torch, hahaha"

His expression turned gloomy but his father tapped his back, "let's go, we don't have much time left!"

...

30 minutes later, Toba's group now had 5 iron ores in their hands. They kept all the ores and coals they picked in a bag of animal fur which Zeke carried. Two fireflies were circling around him and although he kept pushing them away, they would simply come back and continue to annoy him.

"Zeke, stop being so agitated, it's just some insects!"

"You are not the one targetted by them!" answered Zeke as he continued to try to get rid of the fireflies. But with one hand occupied by the bag, he could no longer kill them easily. The other barbarians did not bother to help him and instead use him more as a distraction.

But suddenly, while Zeke was wildly swinging his free hand, the 2 fireflies stopped circling around him and instead both flew away in front of the group. Zeke was puzzled, the fireflies had been harassing him for a long time but now, they suddenly chose to leave.

The fireflies emitted a bit of light and could easily be seen in this dark tunnel. They were about to disappear at a turn when a bright light appeared there.

Toba and the other barbarians became cautious, they immediately drew their weapons, ready to strike at any time. The light at the turn was becoming brighter and brighter as if the light source was getting closer but they could not hear any footsteps.

"Baltra! Is that you? Don't scare us like that!" asked Toba as he observed the turn at the end of the tunnel. He thought that the 2 tunnels could simply reconnect at some point and therefore, it was possible that it was simply Baltra.

The 2 fireflies could clearly be seen as they started to dance in mid-air and a few seconds later, the barbarians finally saw the light source. They were surprised to see a group of fireflies suddenly appear at the turn and join the 2 fireflies in their dance.

"What is happening? Why is there so many of these?" said Zeke, he was anxious as the thought, that all these fireflies would dance around him, crossed his mind.

"Calm down son, look carefully! There's a bigger one in this group!" calmly said Toba. He was holding his usual heavy ax in one hand and a lighted torch in the other.

Hearing his father, Zeke focused on the fireflies and effectively, he noticed that one of them was at least 5 times larger than the other. All the other fireflies seemed to be dancing around the bigger one.

After a few seconds, the group of fireflies flew back to where they came from. They disappeared at the turn but the barbarians could still see the light they were emitting.

"What was that? There is a whole colony of these fireflies?" asked one of the barbarians.

"I thought this place was deserted but if there are creatures like fireflies, there should be more things deeper like plants and water for them to survive!" said Toba. He did not know much about fireflies but if there is life, there should also be food not far away.

"Let's follow them then, at least, we won't be exploring randomly anymore!" commented another barbarian.

Toba looked at his son who clearly did not want anything to do with fireflies anymore before saying, "that's a good idea, at least with the fireflies, we will have a goal!"

Quickly, the barbarians made their way deeper into the tunnels, following the fireflies was easy. They were not very fast and were very visible. In just a few seconds, the barbarians were now walking just a few meters away from the fireflies.

"Do we really need to stay near these insects?" asked Zeke who was worried that they might suddenly choose to attack him again.

"Zeke! You are a man, how can you be scared of insects..."

His complaints were fruitless and he could only quietly follow behind the fireflies. Strangely, the insects did not go into any of the smaller tunnels and kept picking the larger one whenever they would meet an intersection.

They were flying at a relatively slow pace but in a little over 30 minutes, the group finally saw a change in the environment. The tunnel suddenly enlarged itself and turned into a large room. The place was deserted but at the end of the room, the barbarians could see stairs going down.

They stared at the scene in amazement, this room was much larger than the tunnels and even looked like it was man-made.

"Just what is this place? How come we never discovered it before?"

As one of the barbarians were commenting, the group of fireflies suddenly accelerated and disappeared down the stairs. It was so sudden and the barbarians did not even react as they were still carefully observing the room.

...

On the second floor, Five was observing the barbarians' movement. He was delighted to see them separate into groups as this was something he was hoping for. He wanted to lure some barbarians to the second floor to get some more DP by killing them; it might be a greedy attempt but if he could not remain eternally passive.

Instead, he wanted to use this opportunity to send a strong message to the barbarians that the second floor and below were dangerous! It was clear that the barbarians were already interested in the mine and would come to collect the ores; this was something he easily determined by observing their behavior and how they picked every single ore they could see.

The ideal scenario for Five was to keep all the barbarians on the first floor but it was something impossible. Detering the barbarians from moving to the next floors was his goal which is why he targetted the weakest member of the group which was Zeke.

He asked Lumen to lure him down and use him as an example but he never expected that the big boss of the barbarians, Toba would also form part of the same group. Luring Toba was the worst possible scenario, he was level 32 and could easily kill his way through the labyrinth!

But it was too late for regret, Five could only bite his nails as he anxiously observed the barbarians who were deciding on what to do next.

Chapter end