Chapter 87

There Was A Tunnel
‘I wonder what’s in there?’
‘Ah, I want to go too!’
And then a number of other slimes followed after the ones who had gone in first.
Apparently, the word ‘caution’ did not exist in the dictionary of slimes.
‘Hey, you guys. Wait for a minute!’
‘What is it, Yuji?’
‘This tunnel goes on!’
The slimes said as they continued to advance.
Clearly, they had no intention of stopping.
If I wanted to stop them by force, I could do it… But I didn’t see why I should use force if they really wanted to go.
I could just protect them with magic instead.
Thinking this, I cast some spells including concealment magic onto them.
Unlike me, the slimes were very small and they were also translucent.
They could stick to walls and ceilings and they didn’t make any sounds when they moved.
When you think about it, there were no creatures more fit for such an infiltration mission.
‘Well, we’ll go from the surface then.’
I said. And so I walked in the same direction as the tunnel, along with the slimes that hadn’t gone yet.
That being said, I was sure to maintain a distance between us and the other slimes. This was so we wouldn’t be caught by enemies that might be on the surface.
Depending on how the slimes moved, someone might come out from the other end of the hidden passage.
It would be our job to capture any such enemies.
After we had advanced further…two humans appeared in the slimes’ vision.
The two humans were running in our direction in a very frantic way.
‘Humans!’
‘They’re running towards us!’
The slimes saw this and quickly stuck to the walls so they wouldn’t be stepped on.
It was really useful that they could do that…
“What’s happening!”
“If something happened to the ‘Curse Source,’ then the plan is ruined!”
They shouted to each other as they tried to run past the area where the slimes were.
It seemed that these two had noticed the blast in the forest and had come out to look.
‘Should we catch them?’
‘Should we kill them?’
The slimes asked me what to do.
But… I shook my head.
‘No. Let them through.’
Stopping these guys wasn’t going to prevent the news about the destruction of the devices from spreading.
It was worse for the enemy to know that there were slimes hiding in the passage.
‘Okay!’
‘We’ll continue on then!’
The slimes said as they continued to move.
After a while, the men who had been running towards the forest were now running back into the passage. Their faces were very pale.
‘Should we catch them this time?’
‘No, let them go. Just be careful so that you don’t get caught.’
‘Okay!’
The slimes stuck to the wall again and waited for the men to run past them.
Once they were gone, the passage became quiet.
The fact that they hadn’t sent more people suggested that the Blue Moon of Salvation understood that it was beyond repair.

I thought about this as I continued to cast concealment magic on the slimes.
‘There’s nothing here…’
‘Hmm. It’s just a straight path.’
For now, the passage that the slimes were in kept stretching on.
But while there were no branching paths, it was not perfectly straight.
It was clearly a manmade tunnel, but the walls and floors were rough and uneven.
It looked like it had been dug with pickaxes.
At least, it was clear that it hadn’t been dug with a shield machine, like back on earth.
However, it was still very wide.
It was about 5 meters in both height and width.
This seemed a little excessive if only humans were to pass through.
So it was probably used to transport supplies and machines.
And…
‘It’s like it gets older the deeper you go in.’
I muttered as I saw the inside of the tunnel with the slimes’ Shared Vision.
There were a few places near the entrance that looked like it had been dug recently, but such marks became fewer the deeper it went.
It seemed that the tunnel had been dug outwards over a very long period of time.
…So we were likely headed towards the base, which was used for digging this place.
That’s what I thought as we continued on.
It really was…long.
It was practically an underground tunnel.
It was probably more than a kilometer long.
It would have required an immense amount of time and people to dig a tunnel of that length and width.
The walls were starting to look older and older.
This tunnel…it was likely decades old.
But how had the Blue Moon of Salvation been able to do all of this without anyone noticing?
The answer…was at the end of the tunnel.