The System teleported Shu and Sandy a distance away from the supposed hideout. The two looked around, but there was seemingly nothing except for the white desert sand in the area. Sandy immediately created a makeshift shelter to cover Shu as he shrunk in size so that they would not be detected that easily through the enemies’ constant observation.
“Thank you for the shelter, otherwise I would dread working in such ‘sunny’ conditions.” Shu thanked her as he started to sink his roots into the desert. While his roots burrowed into the desert, he quickly felt the magic pulsating through the hideout. He knew had to be careful now, else he might accidentally trigger one of the traps as he approached the basement of the hideout. For a kingdom with little to no mages, the monsters including Jin were taken aback by the amount of magical ‘stuff’ happening in the hatchery. Thus, one would conclude that their leader Saberteeth had been concentrating all his kingdom’s mages into one particular area.
Meanwhile Sandy sent her magic through Shu, increasing his affinity for sand, thus allowing his roots to become more invasive in nature, sliding through the thick layers of soil, granite and sand. Although it helped Shu, the Sand Witch was quite amazed at how efficient the treant was in manipulating his powers.
When she transferred her magic into Shu, the elder treant was doing the same and she could clearly visualise how the roots were digging and zig zagging closer to the hideout’s basement within minutes. At that point, Shu informed Sandy that they were approaching the hideout and she started to use the split ends of the roots as magic detectors to sift through if there was any weakness in the construction of the tunnels so she could break open one of the walls without alerting their enemies.
To their surprise, the basement was filled with holes, making them both hesitate as they presumed this to be some sort of trap. Nevertheless, even after double and triple checking, they found nothing. And that led them to the conclusion that the mages were not as skilled as Tinda was expecting them to be.
Granted, the basement was filled with a variety of magic detectors and traps, but those were concentrated towards gates and intersections of the basement rather than filling up the entire place. In terms of trapcraft, they were rather primitive in their selection of spells.
Regardless, the duo began to break one of the stone bricks and with a sleeve in between the walls, Shu’s roots finally reached towards the guards Tinda had knocked out. The feeler roots crawled through the legs and as unsightly as one could describe, penetrated through their rectum because it was the easiest route for invasive control. There the roots planted a seed closest to the cauda equina, one of the largest portions of the human’s nervous system before the feeler tree roots withdrew and grabbed hold of the guards’ waist.
The seed was filled with magic, instantly grew to invade and infect the nervous system, propagating within its host, allowing Shu to control the entire body. There, Tinda who was still working on breaking the magic barrier saw the two guards moving unwieldy. However, she could see the roots attached at the back of their legs, indicating that Shu was already using his magic to control them.
“To control someone from such a distance is a first for me as well. Normally, I only control those within my vicinity.” Shu said over the System Channel as he continued to concentrate in regulating the mana while Sandy began picking up the white desert sand and analysing it with her powers. She thought it could be worthwhile to retrieve a few samples and check if there were any difference in terms of the quality and possibly adding it into her repertoire.
At the same time, she was also getting a feel of the entire hatchery hideout. She was scouting the other eggs and the monsters. The Drow’s objective had been to get the egg, therefore she had ignored those as distractions. Sandy considered using the sand to place a few of her own traps to cause a distraction while also possibly grabbing a few eggs, especially since these humans regarded them as rather vital if they put them in such a highly secured area.
A few minutes after they gained complete control over guards, her astute senses allowed Tinda to hear footsteps from afar and she quickly informed Shu.
“Aye, don’t worry about it. You can leave the acting to me.” Shu chuckled as he started talking through the guards using their original voices. “But what about you? Are you going to kneel there and be an eyesore? If yes, I will have to improvise the acting by bringing these two goons further forward.”
“You do not have to worry about me. If you do not know, we Drows are fantastic in making sure we won’t be detected.” Tinda grinned with her lips curled. Her words were not empty as Shu could see her disappearing and blending into the hideout like a chameleon waiting for its prey.
“Also, a little special bonus for you, since I knocked them out to find the egg.” Tinda sent the information she had taken from the guards and passing it to Shu via the System.
“I was thinking of making them shoot the guard leader but welp, that works too I guess,” Shu said through Guard A before moving, getting the two guards to lock their swords and staff together as if they were in some fight. He then activated their mana circuits so it was as if they could channel their own mana although it was actually Shu prompting them to do so.
“Hey! What’s the big idea of not reporting back! We have not heard from you two in the past two minutes! Have you forgotten what I said about reporting every five minutes?!” The Guard Leader shouted from afar while bringing a small squad of guards with him. They were armed to the teeth, ready to strike at the moment’s notice. Some even thought that there was fighting involved when they felt the violent mana circulating in the air.
But it turns out that the two guards were merely having a spite against each other when they both acknowledged their Guard Leader immediately.
“Ah! Sorry Boss! But nothing ever happens around here. I challenged him to see who could last the longest without fainting.” Guard A spoke out as he leaned forward and discharge more magical powers out into his sword.
“Don’t think of using the excuse that you talked to Boss if you lose! We’ve bet on the next meal, so if you lose you better pay up!” Guard B added and the Guard Leader just shook his head.
He could feel the intensity of the mana flowing out through them and could not stop prematurely as it would release an unneeded explosion. Apparently, it was not the first time he had to deal with goons such as them but he knew that guarding a basement could be extremely boring. Every member of the guards behind him knew especially how terribly dull it was to guard the lowest of all basements.
To be honest, the Guard Leader prefered seeing them engaged in some stupid betting activity over them being asleep. But still, Saberteeth had assigned him as the Guard Leader so he had to act tough.
“Like hell if I care that any of you loses! What you do to pass your time is up to you. You can jerk off to each other for all I care, but if you miss out on reporting back to me, you both will have one whole month to compete on who can clean the latrines the best! This is the only warning for you two. Also if your stupid competition releases an accidental explosion, you are staying in this basement guard duty forever!” The Guard Leader shouted at them before walking off as the two guards apologised and continued to put their strengths between each other.
“Heh. Nice save there.” Tinda whispered.
“You should thank the stars that the two guards disliked each other rather openly. I still feel it was a little disgusting to dig their memories a little further but that helped a lot.” Shu sniggered as he continued the act but at the same time slowly siphoned their energies away.
As for Tinda, she was very close to breaking through the magical barrier.
