Chapter 457: Help From Reina [Bonus - ]

Chapter 457: Help From Reina [Bonus Chapter]

Silas paused, picking up a loose thumb-sized emerald diamond from the floor and tossing it casually into the air, catching it with a sharp clack.

"We need to carefully separate the haul," Silas explained, his newly awakened merchant-like instincts bleeding into his voice. "We have to determine which flawless diamonds we keep to power Thora’s foundry and reinforce Blessed Land’s defensive capabilities, and which slightly flawed stones we export to the markets to liquidate for raw capital which I will invest back in the Territory some more."

While he spoke, Silas’s internal thoughts shifted to the digital ledger sitting quietly in his mind.

’I may have seventy-five million sitting securely in my bank account right now...’ Silas thought, his blue eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at the sprawling wealth around him. ’To a mortal man on Earth, that’s generational wealth. You could retire to a private island and never work another day in your life but here? In a world of gods, empires, and territorial warfare? Seventy-five million is good but even back at the auction... It’s not enough. If I want to build a true unassailable empire that bends the very cosmos to its knees, I need more. I need billions. I need an economy so massive it can swallow rival countries whole.’

The Umbral Basin was going to sponsor that lifestyle...

"Spread out and explore the perimeter!" Helen ordered, snapping Silas out of his ambitious reverie. "Do not strike the walls, but report any structural anomalies or secondary tunnels!"

The women scattered through the sprawling glittering chamber, their boots crunching softly against the crystalline gravel.

The awe of the environment made them temporarily forget the exhaustion of the morning’s slaughter.

They pointed at massive geodes, marveled at the swirling colors, and traced their fingers over the smooth, glassy surfaces of the unmined wealth.

"Lord Silas! Lady Aurelia! Over here!"

The shout came from deep within the eastern alcove of the cavern.

Silas and Aurelia immediately moved toward the voice, navigating through a cluster of towering calcified stalagmites.

They found three recruits standing at the threshold of a sunken, bowl-shaped depression in the cavern floor.

This section of the cave was completely different. The chaotic, multi-colored light faded, replaced by an intense aura.

"Look at this..." Sarah whispered, pointing downward.

It was a grove, but instead of plants, it was grown entirely from crystal.

The walls and floor here were coated in a bizarre, almost organic formation of striking blood-red crystals and pure, milky-white diamonds.

The red and white formations twisted around each other like petrified vines, pulsing with a slow heartbeat-like luminescence that made the air feel heavy and metallic on the tongue.

Silas stopped at the edge of the depression, his instincts flaring sharply.

The mana density in this specific alcove was astronomically higher than the rest of the cavern.

"Step back from the edge, girls. All of you," Silas commanded, his tone dropping its previous warmth, replaced by a firm authoritative edge.

The maidens immediately complied, taking several large steps backward, their hands resting nervously on their hilts.

"Is something wrong, my Lord?" Helen asked, her eyes darting around the shadows. "Are there more monsters hiding down there?"

"Not monsters in the traditional sense," Silas explained, his blue eyes carefully studying the pulsing red and white formations. "Be careful where you step in environments like this. When elemental mana becomes this dense, this stagnant, and this crystallized over centuries... it tends to gain sentience. This is exactly the kind of breeding ground where elemental spirits manifest."

"Spirits?" Brenda echoed, shivering slightly despite her heavy armor.

"Yes," Silas nodded. "And uncontracted spirits born in isolation are notoriously volatile. If you disturb their physical anchors... these red and white crystals... they won’t fight you with iron clubs like the goblins. They will simply attempt to invert your internal mana channels, boiling your blood or freezing your lungs from the inside out."

The recruits visibly swallowed hard, their previous awe instantly evaporating into a cold respect for the dangers of the world.

Even the Princess took a cautious step closer to Silas, her small hand reaching out to lightly grip the edge of his dark tunic for reassurance.

Though they didn’t fully comprehend the complex metaphysical mechanics of spirit manifestation, Silas’s warning was enough to completely calm their adventurous urges.

Silas stood in silence for a long moment, studying the eerie pulsing red and white grove.

’These aren’t standard Mana Diamonds. The elemental affinity here is mutated. Fire and pure light, perhaps? Or blood and bone?’

He mentally marked the exact coordinates of the alcove.

"We will leave this specific grove untouched for now. When we return with the rest, I’ll bring Eluned. Her botanical and spiritual authority will be necessary to safely untangle this mess."

He turned back to the squad.

"Alright, we’ve confirmed the payload. Time to pull back. Everyone, back to the surface!"

Ten minutes later, the entire squad emerged from the jagged limestone maw of Cavern KB-22, stepping back out into the rugged gray shale terrain of the Umbral Basin.

The afternoon air had drastically shifted.

The cool mountain breeze that had accompanied their midday lunch had completely vanished, replaced by a biting, violent chill that seemed to seep directly through the seams of the girls’ armor.

Silas pulled Valkyrie forward by her reins, stopping a few dozen yards away from the cavern entrance.

He looked back at the gaping, thirty-foot-wide hole carved into the cliffside.

"Ah, we have to secure it, too," Silas muttered, running a hand through his dark hair. "We just slaughtered the predators of this sector. If we leave this entrance wide open overnight, a new pack of wandering beasts or rogue anomalies will just wander right in and make a nest out of our newly discovered diamond mine."

Aurelia stepped forward, her white robes fluttering in the bitter wind.

"Lord Silas, if you wish, I can weave a grand barrier of Argent Flame across the threshold. It will incinerate any creature foolish enough to attempt entry before tomorrow morning."

"Save your mana reserves for the march back, Aurelia," Silas smiled gently, raising a hand to stop her. "A fiery barrier acts as a beacon. In the Umbral Basin, a massive wall of holy fire might just attract Tier-3 or Tier-4 beasts curious about the light. We need something more subtle, like something that completely removes the entrance from the equation."

Silas didn’t climb onto Valkyrie. Instead, he stepped forward, planting his boots firmly onto the gray shale.

He closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, tapping into the divine reservoir of his Gold Core.

VUUUUUUM!

His aura flared as a faint golden halo illuminating his silhouette but this time, he didn’t call upon his flames.

He reached for the anchoring weight of the Earth Element.

Silas raised his right boot and stomped down against the bedrock with staggering concussive force.

KRA-BOOOOOOM!

The entire cliffside shuddered violently, as if struck by a earthquake!

The girls stumbled, dropping into low stances to keep their balance as the ground groaned in agonizing protest.

KRRRRRR-RUMBLE! KRRRR-CRACK!

From the deep bedrock beneath the cavern entrance, colossal slabs of solid dense limestone and dark granite violently erupted from the earth.

The massive stone plates slid upward with the grinding shriek of shifting tectonic plates, interlocking and weaving together like the teeth of a gargantuan gear.

In less than ten seconds, the entire thirty-foot-wide cavern entrance was completely sealed shut by an impenetrable seamless wall of solid mountain rock, blending perfectly into the surrounding cliffside.

To a passing beast, Cavern KB-22 simply no longer existed.

"Impressive as always, my Lord," Helen praised, watching the dust settle.

Silas vaulted smoothly back into Valkyrie’s saddle, lifting the Princess up in front of him.

But as he settled his grip on the reins, a tiny freezing droplet of moisture struck his cheek.

He looked up at the sky.

The perpetual hazy morning of the Umbral Basin had darkened considerably.

From the heavy, bruised gray clouds rolling rapidly over the jagged mountain peaks, the first delicate, icy flakes of snow began to fall.

"Snow?" Sarah muttered, shivering violently as a gust of freezing wind whipped past her exposed neck. "At this time? Are you joking?"

"The climate in the Umbral Basin is dictated by chaotic mana currents, not natural seasons," Silas explained calmly, though she too pulled her white robes tighter around her shoulders. "It can shift from a balmy breeze to a lethal blizzard in a matter of hours... Maybe you all didn’t notice it so much since you were so busy."

A chorus of miserable chattering complaints rippled through the ranks of the recruits.

They were dressed in lightweight sky-iron cuirasses and leather tunics meant for high-mobility combat, not sub-zero winter survival.

CHIME! CHIME! CHIME!

A sharp, metallic ringing cut through the whistling wind.

Helen raised her left arm, tapping the brass face of the timer strapped to her gauntlet.

"Lord Silas! The midday operational window has expired!" Helen reported, her breath pluming in a cloud of white mist. "We need to begin the return march to Blessed Land immediately!"

"You heard her!" Silas called out, raising his voice over the rising howl of the wind. "Double-time! Start heading back to Blessed Land! Keep your formations tight so no one gets lost in the whiteout!"

Valkyrie let out a low rumbling growl, her paws crunching into the rapidly accumulating frost as she galloped forward.

Silas held her to a moderate, loping pace, ensuring he didn’t outrun the infantry.

The snow intensified with terrifying speed.

Within ten minutes, the light dusting transformed into a swirling blinding blizzard.

The wind shrieked through the deadwood trees, driving the freezing snow laterally into the girls’ faces.

The Princess huddled tightly against Silas’s broad chest, burying her face into the warm, thick fur of Valkyrie’s mane to escape the biting wind.

Her small hands gripped his tunic with desperate strength as her body trembled slightly against the cold.

Silas looked back over his shoulder.

The fifteen recruits were trudging through the deepening snowdrifts, their heads bowed against the gale, their boots slipping on the icy shale.

They were keeping up through stubborn willpower, but the physical toll of the morning’s endless combat combined with the freezing slog was rapidly draining their stamina.

’This is inefficient,’ Silas thought, his brow furrowing as he shielded his eyes from the snow. ’Our infantry is strong, but mobility is a massive bottleneck. If only we had more mounts to transport them during these rapid weather shifts...’

HOWOOOOOOOOOOL!

A triumphant howl pierced straight through the shrieking blizzard, echoing from the snow-covered treeline to their right.

Silas pulled Valkyrie to a halt, his hand instinctively dropping to the hilt of his golden sword.

The recruits instantly formed a defensive circle, leveling their spears into the blinding whiteout.

From the swirling snow, a muscular silhouette broke through the treeline.

It was Luna.

The Blessed Wolf bounded through the snowdrifts with effortless, joyful power.

Riding securely on her broad back were Vala and Reina. Both women were covered in a light dusting of snow, their cheeks flushed red from the cold, but their eyes were shining with fierce undeniable triumph.

Vala’s dark hair whipped wildly in the wind, her hand resting confidently on her void-iron blade, while Reina held the reins with an exhausted but victorious grin plastered across her face.

"Lord Silas!" Reina called out, waving her arm enthusiastically as Luna trotted up beside Valkyrie.

"Reina. Vala," Silas smiled warmly, relief washing over him as he saw his hidden blade and scout completely unharmed. "Excellent timing. Did you manage to track down any new Umbral Wolves for the cavalry corps?"

Both women nodded vigorously.

Reina turned in the saddle, letting out a sharp, commanding whistle that cut through the gale.

From the snow-choked treeline, the shadows themselves seemed to detach and move. One by one, feral shapes padded out into the open.

There were forty-six of them.

They were Umbral Wolves... both scarred males and lethal females.

"Good work."

They were roughly the size of heavy warhorses, their fur a jagged uneven mix of midnight black and ash gray.

Their yellow eyes glowed faintly in the blizzard, and their muzzles were pulled back in low submissive pants.

They looked wild and untamed, lacking the majestic divine coats of Luna and Valkyrie.

Silas let out a genuine sigh of relief with tension bleeding out of his shoulders.

"Forty-six of them," Reina reported proudly, patting Luna’s neck. "We had to clear out a rather nasty parasitic hive-mind, but the next pack which we found is now subdued and ready for integration."

Silas looked over the feral pack.

’Well I can establish contracts with them once we get to Blessed Land.’

"Incredible work, both of you," Silas praised, his eyes shifting back to his shivering infantry squad. "Reina, ask the pack alpha if my girls behind me can ride them... They’re freezing, and we need to accelerate our march."

Silas could use the rune but he had initially planned to build their stamina this way.

Reina nodded, leaning forward and speaking a series of low clicks and chuffs to Luna.

Luna turned her massive head toward the largest heavily scarred gray male in the Umbral pack, letting out a sharp authoritative bark.

The gray alpha lowered its head, its ears flattening submissively, and offered a low rumbling nod.

"They’ve agreed, my Lord!" Reina translated happily. "They recognize Luna as their pack leader, and by extension, they yield to your authority!"

"Mount up, girls!" Silas ordered. "Two to a wolf! Let’s get out of this storm!"

The recruits didn’t need to be told twice.

With eager, shivering sighs of relief, they hurried toward the beasts.

The Umbral Wolves knelt in the snow, allowing the armored women to vault onto their broad, muscular backs.

The thick coarse fur provided immediate, desperately needed insulation against the biting wind.

’I’m sure the other girls can manage or they’ve already arrived...’

Aurelia stepped gracefully toward a massive one-eyed gray wolf near the rear of the pack.