Chapter 326: Chapter 326
"What the fuck?" Aaron cursed as he was swallowed by the portal that opened out of nowhere.
He couldn’t move, as the portal quickly swallowed him. One should understand that his attributes are pretty high. Even without the skill he has, with just those attributes, he can move great distances in seconds, but the portal immobilised him before swallowing him.
Bang!
"Ah, damn it", Aaron cursed as he fell on the ground from mid-air, as he had appeared out of the portal in mid-air rather than on the ground.
If he were weaker, he would have been injured, but his high attributes saved him from such issues. He stood up and looked around.
All he could see was a tunnel that led him in two paths. To know where he was, he had to decide to move in either direction, but that wasn’t the first thing he did.
"As the old saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. This is how horror movies begin, walking into the unknown dark regions", Araron muttered.
So, instead of moving in either direction, he tried to contact Mary using his communicator, but that failed, as there were no signals on his communicator.
It was working, but the signal was gone, which meant that either he was thrown into an area that was far away from receiving the signal or the area was shielded.
"I think that this area was shielded", Aaron muttered.
There was a reason for that particular opinion.
They were in the wastelands, searching for a key to enter the ruins and gain whatever it had to offer without losing themselves in the process.
As he had volunteered, the Alliance didn’t keep this information from him and others who had done so, but they had to sign a magical contract, which prohibited them from leaking the information.
So Aaron felt that the object he touched had something to do with the ruins, and now, being in a tunnel out of all places, he could be. He is not a dumb person. He could easily tie about the fact that this situation was somehow connected to the ruins.
Even a dumb one can come to that conclusion, given enough time.
With his high INT and the knowledge he had absorbed in the year that he was at the academy, he was able to connect the dots.
If he were sent to a desert or swamp, or something similar, he might have had doubts about his position, but a tunnel made him sure that it was the work of the ruins.
"Well, it matters not where I am now. I need to find a way to leave this place as soon as possible. Though no one knew what happened to people who entered the ruins, they were presumed dead, as no one has exited till now", Aaron muttered to himself.
After the Alliance discovered the ruins, and following the fiasco with the supreme, in which the Alliance suffered significant losses before capturing the supreme as a prisoner, they continued to examine the ruins.
In that effort, many people were swallowed by the ruins. It was a known fact. Once swallowed, no one came out.
Also, they found that the Cult has lost a lot of people in this way. It was the only reason why the Cult let the Alliance know about the ruins’ existence in the first place. They couldn’t afford the losses, and if there were too many, the Cult would lose the war.
So, to cause some deaths, the Cult lured them here. It was also why the supreme came there, but unexpectedly, he was caught, which was not part of the Cult’s plan.
It was learned from the supreme.
Of course, he hid many details, as he was also using the Alliance to advance his plans. For him to achieve his actual goal, he was doing things that neither the Alliance nor the Cult was aware of.
So, he provided enough details to ensure that the war between them doesn’t come to a halt, no matter what. He didn’t care whether the Cult survived or not. They were just pawns in the plan.
As he was nearing the final stages of his plan, the supreme revealed some details about the Cult, ensuring that it would be compromised, but not enough to falter immediately. He needed the Cult to be active for a while, maybe even go berserk as monsters do when they are cornered.
A berserk monster wouldn’t care about their deaths; instead, they would try to tear up their opponents, hoping to bring their enemies down with them.
It’s mutual destruction.
The supreme never cared if both parties were dead or alive. To him, his goals were all that mattered, and to achieve that, he needed enough time without any interference, which is precisely what they were giving him.
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Aaron has no idea how the Alliance obtained the information or what happened after they acquired it. He didn’t care. It was beyond his interest.
Also, at this moment, all he cared about was finding a way to survive whatever he had to face.
Once Aaron found a mission to the Wastelands, after signing up for the exploration, he filled his inventory with large quantities of food and water. It was a vast area, and there were scenarios where they could become stranded. So, the preparation turned out to be a helpful thing.
The food and water he has are not in high amounts, but as long as he follows a proper meal plan, he can survive for several months without any issues.
The main problem was not the food or water, but what he might encounter in these ruins.
"I hope there are no Rank-7 or above monsters", Aaron prayed and chose to move forward.
The direction was just a coin toss. As he fell with his face in this direction, he chose it. His Luck is, after all, at maximum. So, he hoped to be safe by taking this course of action.
Luck, after all, doesn’t show everything. One must be aware of the subtle changes that occur around oneself to understand and make informed decisions about what to do.