[Chapter 331. Divided Paths]

Iris looked down at Carmen, who sat between Sarah and Vanessa. The glow of her healing skill had faded with the completion of the treatment. The soft, warm luminescence that pushed back the darkness moments before dwindled to nothing, leaving the tunnel cast once again in the monochromatic light of Iris's floating lantern.

Beside her, Vanessa's movements were slow and stiff, her arms trembling as she pushed herself upright with a soft gasp. Her pristine white armor bore the marks of where the deadly quills had pierced—the injury beneath now sealed, but carrying the grim memory of violence. Sarah remained unnervingly still, her platinum blonde hair fanned out across the dusty floor like a halo, her chest barely rising with shallow breaths speaking more of the potion's lingering effects than true recovery.

"There is nothing you can say to me that would prevent me from including this in my report to Searanox." Iris's voice cut through the tunnel like a shard of ice, each word delivered with cold precision.

She stood with one hand resting on the hilt of her Zweihänder, the massive blade embedded in the stone floor beside her, its dormant energy a silent testament to the recent violence. Her silver eyes pierced through the dim light, fixing on Carmen's hunched form with an intensity that made the healer shrink back as if physically struck.

Carmen's fingers tightened around her staff, the smooth wood pressing against her palm as she drew strength from the familiar object. Her gaze lowered, unable to meet Iris's piercing stare, focusing instead on the dark stains on the stone floor. The metallic scent of blood still hung heavy in the air, mixing with the acrid smell of dust and fear.

"But—" she began, her voice barely above a whisper, the single word hanging in the tense silence like a fragile thread of hope.

"There are no 'buts.' You made a mistake. Conscious or unconscious, it doesn't matter. Learn from it, as I have. I thought that I had trained all of you evenly, but that was not the case... I did not subject you to mortal agony, as I deemed it unnecessary. After all, you are just a healer needing to be accustomed merely to enduring the gruesome sight of bodies being slashed and torn apart. I acknowledge my mistake and will correct it."

Each word landed like a deliberate strike, delivering a cold, clinical assessment of failure. Iris's expression remained impassive. The mention of future training hung in the air like a promise of increased hardship to ensure such a failure never repeated itself.

Iris turned away, leaving Carmen kneeling in a pool of blood, her face ashen at the meaning behind those words. The healer's shoulders slumped, her body deflating as the full weight of her failure crashed down upon her. The blood soaking through her armor suddenly felt cold against her skin—a physical manifestation of the chilling dread consuming her thoughts.

"Heal Lana. We have to keep going." The command came without Iris turning back, her voice already directed toward the darkness ahead as her mind calculated their next move.

Carmen flinched at the command, her knuckles white around the staff. She didn't dare look up, moving instead with stiff, puppet-like motions toward Lana, who remained standing guard with a face tight with pain. As Carmen laid her glowing hands on Lana's thigh, she felt Iris's gaze boring into her back. The healing light flowed weakly—a faint shimmer compared to its earlier surge, reflecting her fractured will.

The silence in the tunnel stretched, broken only by Lana's sharp intake of breath as the wound closed. Vanessa crawled over to Sarah, her fingers searching for a pulse at the younger woman's throat. When she found it, her shoulders sagged with a relief so profound it resembled defeat.

Iris retrieved her sword from the ground with a fluid motion, the black metal blade seeming to absorb the limited light. "Carmen, you will carry Sarah. Lana, take the rear. Vanessa, you're on point. We are clearing this dungeon. The System rewards completion, and we will not leave with anything less." Her orders were clipped and absolute, leaving no room for discussion or consideration of their frazzled states.

With careful movements speaking of exhaustion and a desperate need to prove herself, Carmen hoisted Sarah into a sitting position, leaning the unconscious woman against her back. The pale blonde head lolled against Carmen's shoulder as she positioned her arms under Sarah's knees and around her back, straining with the effort despite her enhanced strength. Vanessa moved to assist, her fingers gripping Sarah's arms as they worked together to lift the dead weight off the cold stone floor.

To Carmen's astonishment, the weight of the young woman on her back caused her no difficulty whatsoever. Sarah's body felt like little more than a heavy backpack. She was certain she could have managed even without Vanessa's help, but she accepted the assistance without comment, knowing that showing strength now meant little when she had failed when it mattered most. Sarah's head rested against her shoulder, the rhythmic puff of her breath against Carmen's neck a constant reminder of how close she had come to failing completely.

After their encounter with the Obarros, their movements became more cautious, their formation tighter as they abandoned their brisk pace. Each step was deliberate, each shadow scrutinized. The tunnel stretched before them like a dark throat, illuminated only by Iris's floating lantern and the faint orange glow of hooded lanterns hanging on every couple of support beams.

Iris walked several meters ahead, her Zweihänder held ready. Her enhanced senses were fully engaged, her head tilting slightly as she listened for the telltale sounds of creatures stirring in the darkness ahead. She scouted the tunnel, her boots making almost no sound on the dusty floor, her purpose clear: ensure that no one was caught off guard again.

Lana and Vanessa remained on constant guard even with Iris taking the lead. Lana held Wavebreaker at the ready, her knuckles white as she gripped the shield's handle. Her eyes darted between the shadows above and the darkness ahead, her body tense with anticipation of another attack.

She glanced back at Carmen, nodding softly as her facial muscles moved under unspoken words of encouragement—or perhaps forgiveness. The small gesture carried weight in the confined space, a silent acknowledgment of their shared trauma. Carmen caught the telepathic message but averted her gaze immediately, her eyes reflecting deep shame. She focused on Sarah's breathing, counting each exhalation as if she could control the younger woman's recovery through sheer force of will.

Iris stopped at an intersection, her silhouette framed against the dim light from her lantern as she surveyed the branching paths. A handful of offshoot tunnels yawned before her—dark mouths leading into unknown depths. The walls here were different: smoother, suggesting a deliberately constructed part of the mine rather than natural tunneling. Five passages branched off at odd angles, each appearing identical in the dim light, each potentially leading deeper toward their objective or toward another deadly encounter.

`This is bothersome. Searanox has not given me any indicator on where to go to reach the boss. I can't explore every tunnel with them clinging to my every step. Their injuries make them liabilities, and we've already lost precious time.`

Iris examined each tunnel entrance, her analytical mind running through possibilities. She listened for differences in air currents and looked for subtle variations in rock composition—anything indicating the correct path. But the tunnels remained silent mysteries, each as promising or threatening as the next.

"Where do we go?" Lana asked the moment she caught up with Iris, her voice barely above a whisper. She peered down each tunnel, her enhanced senses detecting nothing beyond the darkness. The question hung in the air, heavy with the weight of their recent brush with death.

`There is no way of knowing which path leads deeper in...` Iris thought, frustration building behind her composed facade. She could split them up, but that would be suicide given their current state. She could send her shadow hound scouting ahead, but that would reveal its existence to them.

"We start at the left side. There is no way of knowing which tunnel leads further in," she said reluctantly, the words tasting like failure on her tongue. She gestured toward the leftmost tunnel with her sword, the black metal gleaming dully in the lantern light. The decision was arbitrary—a coin toss in the dark—but inaction meant certain failure.

"What if it's a dead end, or worse?" Vanessa asked from behind, her voice strained and thin as it bounced off the stone walls. Her eyes darted between the dark openings, each a mouth that might swallow them whole. Her fingers tightened on the spine of her tome—the only reassurance she could find in the suffocating darkness.

"Then we turn around and take the next one..." Iris's response was clipped and professional, but frustration simmered beneath it. She resisted the urge to glance back at the huddled group, their presence an unwelcome weight pressing down on her.

`It's dangerous, but leaving them behind on their own while I find the right passage would be foolish. If they get attacked by a wandering beast while I explore and get killed—`

Iris shuddered at the thought of explaining to Searanox how his assets had died under her watch after being left alone inside a dungeon they weren't ready to enter. His disappointment would be a physical thing—a crushing weight making her current burden feel light. The image of his cold, calculating gaze assessing her failure made her skin prickle.

"Wouldn't that take a long time? If the tunnel is a dead end, we'd have to walk back, and the beasts could have returned by the time we arrive back here," Carmen said quietly, her voice trembling slightly as she adjusted Sarah's weight on her back. The unconscious girl's head lolled against Carmen's shoulder.

"Do you have a better idea?" Iris snapped, turning her silver eyes toward the healer. Her gaze swept across Carmen's pale face, the lingering bloodstains on her armor, and the exhaustion etched around her eyes. "They all look the same. Each has a railway and the same wooden support beams with the same lighting fixed to them. The fastest way would be to split up and each take a different tunnel, returning to this intersection upon encountering a dead end... But you are too weak for that. Furthermore, what if you encounter another split?"

Her words hung in the air like icicles, sharp and unforgiving. Carmen recoiled and withdrew into herself, her shoulders slumping further as if bearing an invisible weight. Her gaze dropped to the dusty floor, tracing patterns in the dirt with the toe of her boot. "No, I don't."