A Guide to Kingdom Building ( Me Reincarnated 365 x)

"So, you mean to say, there's another long path down there?" Adaloun asked Orphella as she sat in front of him after a grueling ascend to the top."Yes, there is a huge possibility that the path is open for us to go through!" She explained as she hunched her back, bearing her fatigue on her shoulders. "We should not waste our time—"

"No. We shouldn't." He sighed. "But you have to rest first. I understand you have been through a lot of difficulty down there. I even thought hearing you shout for a moment! Please, rest up a bit first." He pleaded.

Orphella looked at Adaloun raising an eyebrow, "I am still in very good condition to descend back there and continue our journey. But if you still need some time to recuperate, then will take the time you need." She spat back.

Adaloun felt Orphella's cold shoulder through her answer. Well, he can't blame her. Afterall, it was he who misunderstood the elf giving him the gift of breath and him turning it into a passion-fueled kiss. He thought about it…about how she reacted and what she said, everything was wrong.

He contemplated as to what to say to her while she was scouting the chasm below, but every scenario he managed to think of, always ended up him being at the losing end. Afterall, he kissed a good friend without her consent and that should warrant him something worse than just a cold shoulder.

He was a lucky man; she didn't put a dagger on his throat. He spoke nothing about it and closed his eyes pretending to rest, just so she does as well. But during all that time of closing his eyes, he never got a moment of rest. Instead, his thoughts were still filled with what to say to Orphella and it wasn't fading as much as he wanted it to be.

Soon, Orphella tapped his knee asking him to wake up. Apparently, he slept at some point while being on his thoughts. But now, his comrade was asking him to stand and get ready. Adaloun stood up and dusted himself, all the while being silent.

The awkward air of silence was still between them. She wasn't conversing with him. She only nodded after seeing him being ready and only pointed at the ledge of where they should start their descent. He went with it and found some relief in the silence. In his mind, he was alright with the silence, at least he was unable to speak something stupid or worse than what he already did.

She stood at the ledge and pointed to Adaloun the way down, "Be careful, you wouldn't want those hot jagged rocks pierce or burn you." She advised. "You might die on a misstep." She added.

"I-I think…I can handle myself against these rocks." Adaloun smiled.

"Good. I'm just reiterating you the danger." She signed. "It'll be a hard dropping down for either both of us, and I don't want that to happen." She added, all the while slowly going for the descent.

Adaloun watched the elf descend down the chasm. He watched carefully the rocks she stepped on her way down, just to be sure he won't step on some loose rock and plummet his way to his death. With all his accumulated injuries and without Oyue's borrowed abilities, he had a higher chance of dying if he wasn't careful.

The descent was hard and needed all his attention to his footing and his surroundings. He slowly placed his foot on the rocks Orphella stepped on while trying not to touch the steaming hot rocks surrounding them.  The heat and constant danger on their descent made Adaloun profusely sweat as they were descending to the bottom. Fortunately, he and Orphella managed to descend down the chasm without any snag or accident.

Orphella lept from the last stone at the bottom of the chasm and landed safetly on her feet. She gestured to him to do the same and so he did. Adaloun jumped from the same ledge; landing on scorching, cracked earth below.

"The ground is still hot." Adaloun commented. "What could've triggered this?" He looked around and saw the big damage cause on its walls.

"Magic." Orphella signed. "There are no two ways about it. It was a big and powerful magic that caused this." She continued to walk further into the path.

Adaloun followed her all the while looking around at the place. The place was dimly lit from the flames and embers on the ground and on the walls. Adaloun no longer needed his torch to see the extent of damage the explosion caused.

On the sides of the walls, he could see some scorched and burnt monsters stuck on the walls. They were gladly dead and from the looks of it, they were a lot of them living at these parts. Some of their scorched hands and other disembodied carcasses lied on the ground occasionally as they made their walk deeper.

"Who could've done this?" Adaloun commented as he kicked a burnt skull out of his way.

Orphella paused and turned around, "I don't know, but whoever did it had an affinity to the flames."

"Flames? Could it be one of the Orkamuus?" Adaloun answered.

"It could be. No one is more capable of doing such a great feat like this other than them." Orphella answered. "Although…"

"Although, what?" It took him some time to realized what the elf was implying, "You don't mean it was caused by dwarf with high affinity to fire magic, don't you?" Upon realizing what she meant, he looked around and went to check for any signs of Ghwynmyr.

"Footprints!" He shouted to Orphella as he saw traces for footprints that might've belonged to Ghwynmyr and Ulfaar. "Orphella looked at these prints! This is fresh and check out the sizes of these foot. I believe this small—"

Adaloun stopped when he saw a pool of caked up blood near the footprints. He called Orphella and pointed to her the pool of dried-up blood puddling on the corner below the wall.

They looked at each other, their eyes widened with worry.

"One of them is injured and dying." Orphella signed as she touched the dried blood.  "This might 've been a few days ago but with the heat on the ground I cannot be sure." She added.

"No, I think these are fresh." Adaloun answered. He pointed at the footprints' trail. "Look, the prints are still fresh!"

Orphella signed to him that it could be a trap but insisted she might be wrong.

"Well, only one way to find out." Adaloun sighed as he took out the dagger. "Cover my back, let's follow this trail!" He said.

The elf nodded and took out her bow and pointed it towards the small pathway.

"Follow me." Adalun commanded as he forwarded into the tightly squeezing path.

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