Way of the Knights

[A/N: Third person perspective it is. I guess that was a pretty bold move for me huh? Anyway, there might be some First Person Perspective here and there but I\'ll make sure to do it sporadically. Off to the chapter then…]

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"This tunnel is long, that shot covered a good 100 meters and it disappeared which means that it still continues. I\'m down to explore, we have a month to finish the mission anyway. How about you guys?"

Raven said which made the rest of the team weigh the situation at hand.

If Raven was alone, he might\'ve already walked down this path, after all he never knew that this tunnel was here before, this is a new discovery for him and he\'s very much willing to explore around. But he\'s not alone, he can\'t even go outside of the walls without permission so he needs to consider their opinion as well.

"I\'m down as well." George said, "The Diamond Dust Eclipse won\'t end for the next 9 hours anyway, we could use that time window to see what\'s at the end and we could always come back here anyway."

"I vote against it." Alina said which made her the center of attention."I\'m getting bad vibes from this. Let\'s just stay here and wait until the eclipse ends."

\'Really now? You\'re getting bad vibes from this? Are you sure you even have these so-called \'vibes\' lady? \'Cause so far, you\'re nothing but a useless piece of baggage.\' Raven mentally thought. He would\'ve said this aloud if it weren\'t for the fact that he didn\'t want to sow discord on the team. But he\'s really doubting this woman\'s identity, he just can\'t figure out how someone like her became an \'adventurer\'.

"Uh…" Jordan was caught in a pickle, he stared at the tunnel and weighed his decisions. His curiosity tells him to go, he\'s an adventurer for goodness sake! If he\'s not going to explore, then he might as well gl back.But his cautiousness was against this, he thought, \'What if Alina\'s vibes become true? Then aren\'t we just running towards our death?\'

"I-I can\'t decide, I\'ll just follow you guys…" Jordan relented and left the decision to the rest of the team.

"It\'s decided then, let\'s go." Jackson replied without hesitation and walked forward to lead the team.Alina bit her lip and Jordan sighed, they have no choice but to follow them unless they want to go in separate ways from the group. Which is a bad idea considering that they were outside the walls where they are exposed to tons of dangers.And thus, the exploration of the tunnel began. The team was relatively silent at first but it was broken down when Raven spoke.

"We\'ve crossed the 100 meter mark, there\'s the arrow I shot before." He said while pointing forward. The team saw where he was pointing and made a mental note of it, then they continued exploring for a good while, they must\'ve at least covered 490-500 meters by foot according to Raven\'s guess. That\'s until George broke the silence.

"I-I think I smell something…" He said while sniffing.This raised the alarm of the team and just like him, they too started sniffing around to figure out if George wasn\'t just hallucinating.

"I don\'t smell anything…" Alina said while still trying to sniff around.

"Wood and tree sap." Raven spoke on the side.

"Yeah! That\'s it!" George nodded and surprised that Raven was able to tell. He originally thought that the scent was familiar, it turns out that it is, it\'s the smell of wood and tree sap mixed together.

"You could smell it too?" Alina asked, clearly surprised by Raven\'s senses. Raven looked at her weirdly and said: "Don\'t tell me you weren\'t using your energies to amplify your sense of smell…"Alina went speechless, she blushed due to embarrassment and started using her energy to enhance her sense of smell. After doing so, she immediately smelled what they were talking about before.

On the other hand, Raven raised his brow. He turned to George and asked: "How\'s this woman on your team? She can\'t even amplify her senses using her energies. Then goes of to tell that she\'s having bad vibes about this tunnel. What a waste of spot."

"Why you!-"

"Woman." As Alina was about to lunged on Raven, a deep and chilling voice echoed behind her. She stiffly turn around and saw Jackson gazing coldly at her. She instantly deflated like a balloon and forced herself to swallow the insult.

Raven just then realized that he contradicted himself, he told to himself not to sow any discord to the team yet he might\'ve done just that. Thinking about like this won\'t help him either so he just decided to ignore her entirely from now on.

"W-well! If we could smell wood and tree sap, that should mean that we\'re near the exit right?" Jordan interjected to dissolve the awkwardness in the group.

"Y-yeah!" George hurriedly agreed, "Let\'s move on shall we?" The team moved on after that and walked for another 500 meters according to Raven\'s mental calculations. It was then that they saw a faint light at a distance, which means that they\'re very near the exit. The smell of wood and tree sap also became more and more obvious that it didn\'t require any of them to amplify their sense of smell just to catch whiff of it.

\'A kilometer long tunnel. Who made this and what\'s on the other side?\' Raven asked in his mind.This was his thoughts before a shimmer of light blinded them temporarily as they exited the tunnel.When his vision adjusted, his brain almost went blank when he saw what\'s on the other side.

Massive roots and trunks, think vines hanging from the branches, leaves that almost covers the sky. A thick body that needed at least 12-15 people holding hands just to encircle it, and a smiling old face on the surface of the body, seemingly moving gently as if wanting to tell a story.

In retrospect, he should\'ve known. It should\'ve been dead obvious to him what\'s waiting for them on the other side. The smell of wood and tree sap, cold but fresh gusts of wind, those are dead giveaways of what this thing is.

"Unbelievable!" Jackson exclaimed. "A Kind Ent! It looks very ancient too!"

Yes, this is what welcomed them on the other side of the tunnel. A towering Kind Ent.

"So that\'s why we didn\'t see any Diamond Dusts around, it turns out that the ent was eating it!" Jordan exclaimed, clearly astounded by the sight as well.

Since there were no dangers around earlier, trekking one kilometer of distance only took them an hour or so, which technically means that the Diamond Dust Eclipse is still on going at this point. At first, they find it strange that they didn\'t come across with any Diamond Dust at all now the reason why is clear. Ents are a special kind of beasts. They are first regular trees but mutated due to their environment. Some of them could be dangerous and hostile while others are not, like a Kind Ent.Kind Ents aren\'t carnivores, they absorb energies on their surroundings to eat and Diamond Dusts are their favorites. The scent they exclude is also special because it has a calming effect to beasts who comes near it, meaning that their aggression would be heavily turned down. This causes them to become somewhat of a guardian to beast, and they love building their nests of habitats near them since Kind Ents are considered as a safe environment for them.

"Iiiiieeeee-aaaaaeee-ooooouuuuu?" The ent emitted a deep grating sound from it\'s mouth. The sound echoed across all corners of the place and even permeated at the tunnel behind them. It sounded ethereal and ancient, like a sage passing down forgotten knowledge of the past to it\'s descendants. The team didn\'t know what was going on, all they felt was that the treant\'s voice sent chills down their spine but it doesn\'t contain any malice, it felt more like curiosity instead.

"We mean you no harm, Elder. We are weary travellers who seek for a place to rest while the eclipse rages on."

Raven spoke which surprised the whole team. George sneakily leaned towards Jordan and asked:

"Is he talking to it?"

"Looks like it, you think they could understand each other?"

"Beats me!"

"Ooooooooooomm-aaaaaiiiieeeee-hooooooooooo." [A/N: Shindeiru. LOL]

"Thank you, Elder. We\'ll be in your care." Raven bowed towards the ent. The rest didn\'t know what was going on but it\'s obvious that Raven could communicate with ent. And when they saw them bow, they too followed suit, they didn\'t know why they did so either but it seemed to work.Suddenly, a thick root emerged underground.. It wiggled and stopped in front of them, the team was puzzled and Raven became aware of it so he explained: "Get in, he\'ll take to a place where we could camp for the night."