Ronin's group naturally headed left. Even after entering the passage, though, they didn't reach the newly discovered building area right away. They still had to keep moving along the tunnel before they found the entrance the royal army had broken through at the far end.
Inside the passage, things gradually grew quieter. Besides the occasional voices, other sounds started to appear—soft, rustling noises drifting up from deeper in the tunnel.
Ronin tried expanding his En, but it picked up nothing out of the ordinary. Still, the aura field he released caught the presences of quite a few other people. They were probably doing the same thing he was—staying alert and keeping their En active for early warning. Muir was among them. He gave Ronin a short nod.
Ronin kept his En radius at roughly ten meters. That was a distance he could maintain for a long time without burning himself out too fast. And at that range, if anything went wrong, he'd sense it in time to react.
More than ten minutes later, the team reached the entrance. Clear signs of artificial excavation marked the area. The passage ahead was completely blocked by rubble—it didn't look like a recent collapse.
The teams ahead of the Rock Mercenary Group had already suited up with lights and weapons and were moving through the dug-out entrance. Ronin and the others didn't stop to adjust anything here. All the real prep work had already been done before they even entered the ruins.
Maschur led Vanessa to the front of the formation. Four other Nen users carrying assault rifles moved with them. Ronin and Muir stayed in the middle of the group.
Behind them came a massive golem. It was a Conjuration construct created through the combined efforts of multiple Nen users working together. A pilot sat inside the golem while an Emitter-type Nen user rode on one of its arms. Four more Nen users flanked the construct, all armed with assault rifles. Unlike the four up front, these rifles were conjured weapons supplied by the golem itself. The rounds they fired weren't ordinary bullets—they were Nen bullets.
The golem was huge, but it moved through the passage with almost no trouble. It only had to use a little force when squeezing through the entrance. Ronin could feel the danger radiating off the thing. Abilities that relied on mutual support like this had a way of creating real miracles. Especially since he knew the mercenary group Muir led was one of the legendary outfits.
After passing through the artificial entrance and advancing about a hundred meters, the view suddenly opened up. Even though the space was still fairly dark, all they could see were towering buildings stretching in every direction.
Yes—towering.
Underground, countless massive structures rose straight up from the ground in dense rows. The spot where Ronin and the others stood was on top of one of those buildings, though this particular structure had been built flush against the cavern wall.
Taking a few steps forward to the edge, Ronin looked down into what felt like a pitch-black abyss. Even from the exposed sections, the buildings were easily over fifty meters tall. They looked like actual residential structures—roughly ten or more stories high. When someone casually tossed a chunk of rubble over the side, it took a long time before any sound came back. That only made everyone more curious about what was waiting in the darkness below.
"Captain, there are bridges connecting these buildings to the others," Maschur reported. He had pulled out a pair of binoculars and was scanning the distance. "They're the rope-and-plank kind."
Ronin followed the direction Maschur pointed and spotted one of the swaying bridges. He could even see one of the teams that had arrived earlier already testing whether they could cross it to reach the next building.
But when Ronin looked around more carefully, something felt off. It wasn't their own team's numbers. It was the total headcount of explorers who had reached this area ahead of them. It didn't match what he had noticed on the way in.
"Watch out!" someone shouted.
Gunfire erupted at the same time.
Ronin sensed the danger the instant the shout rang out. He snapped his head up. The first thing he heard was that same rustling sound from earlier in the passage—except now it was several times louder. And the source was right there in front of him.
Spiders.
Massive spiders were dropping from above. Through his Sharingan, Ronin could clearly see the thick white threads trailing behind their bodies. The threads were anchored to the cave ceiling less than thirty meters overhead. The ceiling itself was shifting slightly, and Ronin could make out pairs of crimson compound eyes suddenly opening.
"Ahhh!"
Screams broke out as people were yanked upward. Blood sprayed through the air, mixed with sticky fluid bursting from the spiders after their bodies were shot through.
"Get inside the building!" someone yelled.
Only then did everyone notice the several entrances leading down into the lower levels of the building they were standing on.
Ronin had no intention of drawing attention to himself. He didn't bother with Fire Style ninjutsu. Instead he went with the simplest Enhancement-type move—an ordinary uppercut.
BOOM!
A fist carrying more power than even Uvogin's Big Bang Impact slammed into one of the giant spiders. Instead of exploding on impact, the punch launched the creature upward and away from him. But Ronin had already moved from his previous spot before the spider even left the ground.
The moment he stepped away, the airborne spider burst apart in midair. Severed limbs and juices splattered everywhere, completely covering the spot where Ronin had just been standing.
"Ronin, over here!"
Maschur called out from a distance, waving at him. At his feet was a collapsed section of floor revealing the room below. The rest of Muir's team had already moved toward it. Only Ronin, the temporary hire, was a step behind because he wasn't synced with their rhythm yet.
Ronin sprinted over and leaped down into the lower level.
Right then, a massive spider lunged after him from above. Before it could bite down, it was sent flying backward instead.
Ronin had used ninjutsu the instant he landed.
Not Fire Style—Earth Style.
As his hands touched the ground, stone slabs shot up behind him. The slabs knocked the falling spider away and sealed off the entrance Maschur had opened.