Rise My Elementals!

Proofreader: M_W Miss Fierce

"Although this path is not that long, with the existence of the traps everywhere, it had significantly slowed down our speed of traversing this place," Elvis muttered to himself. 

Honestly, Elvis had never truly gone this deep in any of the pathways they have explored until now. As a matter of fact, he had only tried exploring once, and it was on the tenth floor, which was the easiest of all the pathways. Even then, he didn't go that far and had stopped after exploring only twenty or so meters.

The method to why Elvis was able to make a layout of the possible locations of the traps was because the groups that had gone exploring in the pathways would always have someone in charge of making a drawing of everything along the way. As he is familiar with traps, he could easily tell just from the drawing alone where the traps could be hiding. 

As to why Elvis had not joined the exploration despite having the knowledge and experience that could have saved a lot of lives of plenty of soldiers from dying, that's because he's now a member of the Mischievous Lion Guild and he no longer works for the Emerald Tree Kingdom nor the Evergreen Royal Family. And as one of its members, they have a greater responsibility far beyond just saving the Emerald Tree Kingdom. It's because of that why they can't die. Of course, if he can't avoid death, they would have to ensure that their deaths would be worth it. Otherwise, they should just run to save themselves and grow even more stronger. 

"Good thing that the soldiers who had explored here had left plenty of marking to almost all the traps that we have passed along the way. It had truly saved us a lot of time in our exploration," Leo said. Truth be told, even without the soldiers, he could still traverse this pathway in a similar fashion as this. That's because he could summon an infinite number of Earth Elementals that can't feel pain nor care if they die. With them leading the way, any kinds of traps would become useless.

"According to the previous group, they had almost reached the end of this pathway before strange plants suddenly started attacking them. So, it seems that our exploration here would remain as easy as this until we reached where they have stopped their exploration," Elvis informed Leo.

"Not necessarily," Leo shook his head. Unbeknownst to Elvis, the moment they reached the halfway point of this pathway, he had noticed the strange plants that the previous group of soldiers had mentioned secretly following them from underground. It was the Earth Elementals leading in front of them that had reported such findings to him.

"What do you mean?" Elvis felt slightly surprised and confused at Leo's words. Until now, they have not faced any sort of difficulties. It was as if they were just having a casual tour over this place. Still, Leo had said that it's not necessarily going to be the case. He can't help but think, "Is he referring to the traps that haven't been marked?"

That's right. There were still traps that had not been marked by any of the groups of soldiers that had explored this place. The reason for that is because once they have determined the location of the majority of the traps, it's no longer necessary for them to locate the others as they could just simply traverse the side where they know the location of the traps. In such a way, they won't waste a lot of time and could avoid unnecessary casualties. 

"Prepare yourself! They are coming!" Leo quickly warned Elvis before swiftly taking out the Death Wake Dagger from his Storage Ring. He also didn't forget to order his Earth Elementals to prepare for the worst-case scenario in case something wrong indeed happened to them. By then, they could retreat from this place safe and alive. 

"Prepare for what?" Elvis asked in doubt. Regardless, he still took out his sword from his Storage Ring and made a stance to prepare for the still unknown enemy.

"Below you!" Leo pointed out as he then jumped away from Elvis.

Hearing Leo's warning and seeing the solemn look on the latter's face, Elvis no longer hesitated and also jumped away from his previous location.

BOOOOOM! BOOOOOM!

In the next moment, two huge roots broke the floor they were standing on and created a wide and huge hole. 

"Are these the strange plants that the previous group had mentioned?" Elvis asked in shock. He seriously didn't expect that this was what Leo was referring to.

The strange plant wasn't truly a plant. It was more like a root of some kind of tree. It was thick enough to cover a tiny portion of the entire pathway. Around its body, it was covered with numerous sharp stems and lumps of dirt.

From the looks of it, the root should be extremely tough to break, considering how it could easily dig its way out of the floor without receiving any damages, such as losing a stem. 

Speaking about the stem, the stem actually somewhat reflects the light from the torches embedded around the wall of this place, implying that they weren't ordinary stems but something akin to blades made out of steel or something inferior to that.

Only Fate knows what kind of tree exactly does this root belonged to. However, Leo already had his own suspicion inside of his mind from the moment he heard the words of the soldier he had talked to before becoming determined to get inside the pathway.

"What else could it be?" Leo rolled his eyes at Elvis for asking such a stupid question. Is there any other strange plant that had attacked the group of soldiers aside from what has appeared in front of them right now?

"But… But how could they be here? Those soldiers had said that they were only attacked by these strange plants when they were nearing the end of the pathway!" Elvis couldn't help feeling suspicious of their current situation.

"They have been following us for a long time now," Leo replied with his arms raised in front of him. He cast, "Fireball!"

Whooooosh! Whooooosh!

Booooom! Booooom!

The instant the fire engulfed the body of the strange plant, it immediately covered a portion of its body with flames. 

"What?! Then why didn't you inform me back then?" Elvis was a bit speechless at Leo. If something as dangerous as this had been following them until now, the latter should have informed him from the start. Supposed he wasn't quick just now. In that case, he would have fallen into something dangerous.

"Can't you see with your own eyes what had happened after I informed you about it?" Leo sneered. Of course, he had thought of informing Elvis about it. However, because he doesn't have a clue whether something terrible will happen or not, he temporarily put the thought aside. Turns out, his decision back then was indeed correct. 

"Fair enough," Elvis nodded his head in understanding. He quickly changed the topic, "So, what should we do?" 

"I have carefully crafted a considerable number of plans inside my mind while this strange plant was following us. Let's execute them one by one," Leo said. Previously, after discovering that the strange plant was following them secretly underground, he immediately started thinking of plans inside of his mind on how they should deal with it once it attacks them. 

"First, let's try burning it," Leo informed Elvis of his first plan. Any object or entity related to the Nature Element has been proven countless times to be weak against Fire Element. 

"Good thinking!" Elvis quickly realized the reasoning behind Leo's plan. He raised his hand forward and soon cast, "Fireball!"

Whooooosh! Whooooosh! Whooooosh!

Unlike Leo, who is only a 1-Star level Mage, Elvis could launch more fireballs towards the strange plant.

Booom! Booom! Booom! Booom! Booom!

The flame that had already engulfed the strange plant instantly became even bigger after receiving Elvis' Fireball spell. 

Upon receiving another barrage of fireballs, the strange plant finally reacted aggressively, implying that it was now feeling the pain of the fire that engulfed its body.

Boooom! Boooom! Boooom!

The strange plant lashed its body everywhere, launching random attacks on both Leo and Elvis. At the same time, it was slowly extinguishing the flames that covered its body every time it hit the ground.

"First plan is somewhat effective, but not enough," Leo didn't bother to continue with the plan of burning the strange plant after seeing how it was able to extinguish the flame easily. 

"Same thought. But what is the next plan?" Elvis asked. Leo had not informed him of any of the plans he had thought. So, he's still clueless about what they are going to do now that their plan of burning the strange plant has failed.