Elsewhere, Yuna and Lady Kalasena paid their respects to the deceased Arcane Knight. After that, the Grand Lady bent down and rummaged through his body for anything useful. It was a tad disrespectful, and something Yuna was not entirely comfortable with, but she knew it was necessary. The dead had no need for these things, but the living did. She was given an extra wand, and some food, while Lady Kalasena took another sword. The additional weight was more than worth it. They took this rare moment of peace to rest and recover their energy. The only sounds to be heard were the occasional crunch from the dried food. The two ladies were usually very quiet to begin with, and in this high tension environment, they were even more subdued. Yuna was too worried, thinking about how they were going to survive, to notice Lady Kalasena staring at her intently.
"How many times can you cast your spell?" she asked.
"Hie?" Yuna made a funny sound. "My-My spell? Um, let me think!" She took several breaths and calculated. "I can cast Ocean Prison… maybe five… six more times?"
Lady Kalasena squinted.
"I'm sorry!" she blurted out instinctively. This Grand Lady was still scary!
Upon seeing her reaction, the lady's face turned neutral. "…Can you restore your Magic Energy?"
"I can, but it… might take hours…" Her voice trailed off, fearful of Lady Kalasena's disapproval, except the lady simply nodded. "What-What about your shoulder? Will you be alright?"
Lady Kalasena shook her head. "Let's go."
"But where do we go? We don't know the way."
"Up."
It was an incredibly basic plan that Yuna was somewhat speechless. She replied awkwardly, "I think we should… properly think things over! We could easily get lost after all… or is that a no?"
The Grand Lady stared at her before nodding.
Yuna collected her thoughts and asked, rather nervously, "Can you use your Martial Perception to investigate our surroundings? I want to know our situation better."
Replying with yet another nod, Lady Kalasena concentrated and unleashed her Martial Perception. Information then flooded her five senses and strained her head. The light headedness forced her to stop. This was the limit of a Perception Realm Novice. Still, she did learn some things. Using her sword, she drew a rough map of the area. It was surprisingly well drawn out. Her artistic flare showed through. Although Yuna wanted to help, she was a Peak Gaseous Fog Arcanist, so her Magic Perception could not extend outwards, and she lacked any reconnaissance-related spells. She had to wait until Lady Kalasena was done.
This is more complicated than it seems, Yuna thought when she saw the numerous branching tunnels. Assuming there was only one correct path, they would have to explore every tunnel until they found it. How long would that take? And more importantly, how many things would they have to fight? It did not seem practical.
She spoke, "I-I think we should… check where we came from. There's a chance we might find a way back up."
Lady Kalasena blinked her eyes and started walking away. Yuna felt discouraged that her suggestion was ignored so easily until Lady Kalasena said softly, "This way then."
"Huh?" She stared dumbly at the lady before realizing this was the way back. A slight blush colored her cheeks. It was her misunderstanding. How embarrassing. "Wait… for me!" she cried.
Their return trip was amazingly uneventful. It almost felt like the insects were drawn elsewhere, which was baffling. Either way, they were very fortunate, so nobody complained. When they were nearly there, the ground rumbled and the distant roar of a waterfall was heard. Seconds later, a powerful burst of hot air swept through the cavern, notably raising the temperature. Yuna and Lady Kalasena exchanged glances as they wondered the same thing. Was somebody fighting? Yuna remembered that Freon liked fire spells. Was it him? They sprinted over to discover a massive open cavern with thousands of webs. Far below them was a pool of water where two monsters battled it out. It was the same place that Benedict and Shirley found themselves earlier. The giant coiling insect lunged at the large red salamander, only to be engulfed in an enormous fiery explosion. A vast quantity of water was blown sky-high and rained back down. Even though the participants were far away enough to resemble worms, the shockwaves could be felt from where Yuna and Lady Kalasena spectated. It was a staggering amount of power!
Yuna paled and stepped back, as she smothered her fire spell. She feared those monsters would notice and attack her, except that was a needless worry. Now, the only light source came from the occasional explosion. Lady Kalasena was more coolheaded, as she looked around. She remembered this was near where they woke up, which meant… Arching her head up, she could vaguely see an opening in the ceiling. They must have fallen from there. Therefore, one way to survive was to make their way through that opening again. Plenty of silk webs stretched between them and that hole, so much so that Lady Kalasena wondered if it was possible to climb up. She was confident in her athletic ability, but her shoulder was wounded… What about Yuna then? Despite her unreliable appearance, she was a powerful Arcanist. Those were Lady Kalasena's honest thoughts. Perhaps Yuna had a useful spell?
Since it was dark, she was forced to speak again. "Can you go there?" She pointed at that hole.
"Ah? W-Where?"
"…"
Yuna finally saw the lady's finger and traced it. Her eyes widened and her lips quivered. "Lady… Lady Kalasena, I don't think… I can do that."
Although she understood what Lady Kalasena's objective was, that hole was… frightfully high up. The thought of climbing that vast distance made her legs shaky. The lady stayed quiet, except the look of disappointment in her eyes was unmistakable. Yuna felt ashamed. Another explosion rocked the cavern and made her stumble. Once again, she was reminded of how absurd the current situation was. Previously, because of the battle with the insects, she managed to sweep her fears away to focus on spell casting, but now… those fears came surging back with a vengeance! Seeing the monster and salamander battle it out, feeling the powerful shockwaves reverberate, and the titanic difficulty that laid between them and survival killed her hopes. She curled up on the ground. Despair haunted her. It was impossible. They were going to die!
Lady Kalasena paused when she saw Yuna, her face showing some rare hesitation. In the end, she continued her investigation of the large cavern to find a way out. She noticed the webs were not randomly strewn about, which made sense. They were made by insects after all, so they should serve some purpose. And their purpose was to create bridges between different tunnels. Seeing this, she had an idea. Maybe there was no need to climb. Maybe there was a route in the innumerable 'bridges' to the surface? At the very least, there was no risk of getting lost in the tunnels. It was their best chance. She prepared to snap Yuna out of her trance when her ears perked up. Her sword immediately slid from her sheath, as she faced the tunnels with a frigid look. Her Martial Perception was unleashed a beat later. Then, without a change in her expression, she ran back, dragged Yuna to her feet, and dashed onto a web bridge together. Although the silk bowed from the sudden weight, it held firm. After she adjusted, Lady Kalasena sprinted and tugged Yuna along.
Yuna was startled and disoriented. Everything happened too fast. She had no time to process the situation. But when she looked down and saw how high they were, she felt sick. Sadly, Lady Kalasena could overpower her, even if she decided to stop. That was a good thing, because before she could resist, she saw why Lady Kalasena fled. Several silk bugs appeared behind them. No… Under her horrified sight, she counted more than fifty, or even a hundred! It was an entire swarm! They stormed onto the bridge, while others prepared their silk arrows. At this point, Yuna ran alongside Lady Kalasena. She was overwhelmed with the desire to live. Dying was one thing, but dying to those disgusting bugs was the last thing she could tolerate!