Mason stopped for a second and looked around the intersection thoughtfully.
“If we didn’t have them leading us…” he began, pausing to glance down the dark, scary tunnels.
“…we’d have no idea which path to choose.”
Mira nodded her head in total agreement.
“Exactly,” she said, looking down at the endless line of tiny workers with a brand new sense of appreciation.
“They’re like… living guides.” Lyra smiled at her friends.
“They probably know every single corner of this place.” Beside her ear, Myrmor remained completely silent.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Forbidden Realm, news was spreading quickly among the various scattered student groups.
“The ant girl disappeared from the main area,” one student reported to his team, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I heard she found some kind of hidden ruins,” another added, leaning against a tree trunk.
A third boy blinked in confusion.
“How could she find ruins before anyone else?”
Another student frowned, tapping his chin thoughtfully as he processed the information.
“Think about it for a second. What kind of creature exists almost everywhere, even underground?”
Silence fell over the small group as the answer settled in.
“Ants,” a short haired girl wearing glasses whispered slowly, her eyes widening as she crossed her arms.
“They build massive colonies underground. They travel through tiny cracks in the rock, and they know every hidden passage in the terrain.”
Another noble heir’s eyes slowly narrowed as he processed the strategic advantage.
“If her Beast Soul can actually communicate with them… then she might know routes the rest of us could never discover on our own.”
Several nearby students exchanged thoughtful, serious looks with one another.
For the very first time since the exam began, no one laughed or made jokes when Lyra’s ant was mentioned.
Instead, they were all beginning to realize just how useful such a power could be.
“Interesting…” one of the nobles muttered quietly to himself.
Back inside the deep underground passage, the marching line of ants suddenly came to a complete stop.
“What is it?” she asked softly.
The tiny workers had gathered tightly around another narrow opening that was hidden beneath several broken stone slabs on the floor.
Beyond the dark gap, a cool, fresh breeze drifted upward against their faces.
Mason walked over and peered into the darkness below, resting his hand on the hilt of his weapon.
“There’s another whole chamber down below us.” Mira looked down nervously, biting her lower lip.
“How many underground rooms does this place even have?” No one had an answer for her.
Myrmor stared into the dark opening for several moments before calmly speaking in
Lyra’s mind.
“We continue.” Lyra stood up and nodded firmly.
“Let’s go.”
One by one, the three friends began their careful descent into the unknown once again, stepping down into the dark chamber below.
Behind them, thousands of tiny black ants quietly followed along, filling the passage with their gentle movement.
The underground city never truly slept.
Although there was no visible sun above the enormous cavern, thousands of glowing crystal formations embedded throughout the ceiling bathed the ancient streets in a soft silver light.
The abandoned stone buildings remained eerily silent, yet the city itself felt strangely alive under the cool glow.
A faint, desperate cry suddenly drifted through the ruined streets, breaking the heavy silence.
“Help… somebody…”
Lyra stopped walking immediately, raising her hand to pause the rest of the group.
Mira looked around nervously, her eyes scanning the shadows of the alleyways.
“Did you hear that?”
Mason had already turned his body toward the direction of the sound, his right hand resting firmly on the heavy leather hilt of his greatsword.
The cries came again, sounding much weaker this time.
Several chunks of broken masonry blocked the path, forcing the three of them to carefully scramble over the heavy rubble to reach the other side.
Behind a collapsed stone wall, they found five students trapped beneath fallen wooden beams and shattered rocks.
One boy was frantically trying to lift a heavy slab with his bare hands, while a girl knelt beside an unconscious classmate, tears streaming down her dusty face.
“Please…” the boy begged the moment he saw them, his voice shaking with terror.
“Our beasts are very exhausted. We can’t move this rock.”
Mason stepped forward without a single moment of hesitation.
Planting both feet firmly on the ground, he gripped the bottom of the heavy stone slab with both hands and heaved with all his strength.
Muscles tightened beneath his thick sleeves, and his face turned red as the massive rock slowly shifted upward.
“Now,” he grunted out, holding the weight steady.
Mira quickly guided the trapped students to safety, while Lyra knelt down to help support the unconscious girl, gently checking to make sure she was still breathing.
“…Thank you,” one of the rescued students whispered shakily after everyone was pulled free from the rubble.
“We honestly thought we were going to be buried alive here.” Lyra offered a small, reassuring smile as she helped the girl sit up against a wall.
“We’re all just trying to survive this place. Let’s keep moving together before something else finds us.”
Lyra, Mira, Mason, and the newly rescued survivors walked carefully down one of the wider stone roads of the underground city.
No one complained about the direction or the pace they were keeping.
Everyone present had witnessed what Lyra had done back at the collapsing ruins.
Without her ants discovering hidden passages, without her clever strategy, and without her willingness to help complete strangers, most of them would have never escaped the collapsing districts alive.
The general atmosphere around her had completely changed.
Several students who had openly mocked her ant Beast Soul only a few days earlier now looked at her with very complicated expressions on their faces.
Some carried deep gratitude in their eyes, while others showed obvious embarrassment for how they had acted before.
However, a few candidates carried an expression that was far more dangerous.
Envy.