"That's too reckless, we can't do that!"

"And what are we going to do if not? Wait here for death?"

"He's right. What are we going to eat and drink? We won't last even half a week in this state."

The raging debate of the youths went back and forth. It had already been two hours since Leonel's dictionary last spoke, yet they still hadn't come to any sort of consensus.

Leonel leaned against a wall, not saying much of anything as he watched on. He had already made his decision. He would most definitely be traveling down to find the Force Crystal Mine Core. The only reason he hadn't yet was because he was allowing his body to recover.

He had drawn too deeply into his reserves. Even before he battled the coy fish, that Dark Elemental beast had put him in a sorry state. His battle with the spider king and bear king only made an already bad situation worse. As if that wasn't enough, it took him another few hours to kill all the beasts that entered the same tunnel they had.

For now, he needed sleep and rest. After that, he would think of a plan.

He didn't know enough about how this hive was constructed. It was very possible that it was separated into segments that couldn't be accessed from one another no matter how much one walked through them. In that case, it might be necessary to exit this network of tunnels and enter again through another entrance.

Thinking to this point, Leonel couldn't help but sigh to himself. Why was nothing ever easy?

Unfortunately, he had learned long ago in the Mayan tomb that his Internal Sight couldn't penetrate walls. At best, he could snake it through the paths and look ahead.

Leonel suddenly looked up, feeling that someone had suddenly sat by his side. It didn't take him long to realize that it was Roaring Black Lion even in the dim lights.

"It's funny to watch them, don't you think?"

Leonel chuckled slightly. "What do you mean by that?"

"I wanted to tell you thank you, I didn't get a chance to before."

Leonel blinked. "Thank you? For what?"

"For covering my face after our battle. And, I guess for also clearing a path for all of us to get this far. I know you didn't have to."

Leonel's brows raised. He didn't expect such a simple action of his to elicit such thankfulness from Roaring Black Lion. He hadn't even really thought about it much back then. He only thought that since they were all obviously hiding their faces for a reason, he should help them out with that.

Leonel himself didn't really care much about the mask he wore either. He only wore it for the sake of blending in. The Empire definitely knew everything about him already. At this point, there wasn't much of a need to hide himself in this way.

"Though that brute over there doesn't say it, he's thankful too." Roaring Black Lion said with a laugh, pointing toward Thunderous Clap.

Leonel smiled. "There's no need to thank me, it didn't take much effort on my part at all."

Roaring Black Lion looked Leonel up and down as though trying to figure something out.

"What, is there something on my face?"

"You're too easy to talk to, sir Indomitable." Roaring Black Lion said in an overly servile manner.

Leonel laughed. "I didn't even pick that name, didn't you guys pick it for me?"

"Who the hell would give you that name? Stop bullshitting."

The laughter of the two men seemed to ease the tension they were feeling. However, Leonel didn't expect that another would sit beside him at this point, and it would actually be Flowing Wind.