NOVEL NEXT Chapter 365: Close Call with the Alpha?
Lillian's eyes immediately shot wide open as she found metallic claws digging into the side of the wall, scratching at it.
Lillian then watched as the Alpha of the Barrel Mole slowly revealed its face, peaking its twitching snout out as it caught a brief moment of unfamiliar scent.
Everyone held their breath instantly, feeling their fear palpitate as the fear of being discovered flashed through their minds.
They slowly bent their bodies down as they watched the thick whiskers of the monster probe above them.
The whiskers then slowly began to fall, almost reaching their bodies, which were now completely pressed to the ground.
Lillian, who was unsure whether or not to summon her weapons in case a battle broke out, noticed someone in the distance.
A humanoid entity made of stone rose out from the ground before turning and running away.
Its sudden appearance caused the Alpha to turn its head and quickly dash after it, leaving them free from its frightening presence.
They quickly got back up and ran as fast as they could. Eventually, reaching the site, which was fortunately far enough away from the nightmarish beast.
And luckily, it was just a split second before the captain ran out of mana.
"Haa... Haa..."
Lillian instantly breathed a sigh of relief as she sat down. She immediately took off her chestplate and cloak, feeling it constricting her chest a bit too much.
She then looked towards Millis, smiling, "Great work back there, Millis... That thing was yours, right?" She referred to the stone entity.
Millis nodded with a smirk, "Of course! Who do ya know can puppeteer and make them as well as meh?"
"Well, uh... Maybe a few—"
"Yeah, yeah, alright." Millis pouted, "Can't ya let meh have this? I just saved ya butt."
"Our..."
Lillian gave the Heroine a deadpan look before giving a tired expression. Standing up, she patted her shoulder, "But seriously, good work. But damn... You didn't look even a bit tired during the whole thing."
Millis tilted her head before shrugging with a smug look, "It's just a big mole, ya know? Like... Those little critters ya could sometimes keep as pets?"
"Who... Who do you know keep a mole as a pet?"
Millis stared at her silently, blinking. She then waved her hand erratically in a flustered manner before stating:
"A-aight, maybe it's not thegreatest example, but ya know what I mean..."
Lillian smiled wryly, raising her eyes and finding miners swiftly being elevated back to the surface using the elevator.
She then noticed the captain slowly making their way to them.
Once reaching their location, he stood in front of them and pushed out his hand for a handshake.
"I'm Zeke Barrago, the Captain of Security for Blackridge's Mine and Cavern. I haven't seen you two here before, are you two newly hired mages from the Blackridge family?"
After shaking his hand, Lillian shook her head.
"We're only here for some work experience."
"To... Work in the mines? Are you two getting paid of this?"
"Eh..." Lillian pointed at Millis, "Well, maybe she will later, but I'm not."
At Lillian's words, Zeke couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise. He then squinted at Lillian suspiciously.
"You two are mages, correct? Why would you not want to be paid for your services? And why even work here if you don't want the money? Regardless of work experience."
He then folded his arms, "Exceptional combatants like you two would make great money elsewhere than here. And as a mage, I know that all too well."
Lillian, noticing the man's intense suspicion of the two, couldn't help but smile wryly as she glanced towards Millis.
The captain was by no means wrong in his logic. Out of all the possible places to work, why would people work in a mine if there was no pay involved?
However, Lillian already knew a somewhat good excuse to give.
"We both come from Louis Mana Academy and wanted to fill out her Merit report by showing how hardworking we are on our vacation.
"Although we were both actually meant to be working on the surface, out of curiosity, we've come down here to ask a survey about what it was like to be working in the mines.
"But that was until we heard a terrifying sound in the distance and went to find out if there was someone in need of saving."
Mixing in both lies and truths, she had managed to get Zeke's eyes to soften and his suspicion to waver a bit.
And that was when she heard:
"I don't believe anything you just said." Zeke sighed before adding, "However, because of your act of bravery and willing to save these miners and my guards, I'll let this pass."
Lillian nodded in understanding. But internally, she was grinning as she knew this exact outcome.
Seeing that Zeke was allowing them to leave, Lillian couldn't ask before escaping to the elevator:
"That prostethic eye of yours. Could I know the reason why you kept looking and me and my friend here with that earlier when we first met?"
Zeke, who had his back turned to them, turned around. He unconsciously placed his hand over his eyepatch and pulled it to the side.
"This eye of mine is an Item that allows me to inspect the volume of mana a person has in their mana core..."
He then swept his gaze back to Lillian before slowly looking upwards. With his prosthetic magical eye, he found a raging blue flame wrapped around her body, that stretched to a height of about 10 metres.
Zeke drifted his gaze to Millis's mana before quickly placing his eyepatch over his eye at the sight of it. He then sighed and muttered:
"And I must say that you two have an exceptionally large amount of mana. The highest I had ever seen before, especially your friend here."
Millis, hearing the compliment, puffed out her chest with a smug look, causing her to get a deadpan look from Lillian, who focused her attention back on the man, who gazed at them silently.
He then asked:
"How much do you two happen to know about the volume of someone's mana?"