Ina, whom Ronald and the others had "rescued," was exceedingly well-behaved.

More precisely,

After Costate shattered the despair-inducing ice barrier with three solid kicks, the girl became tremblingly cautious, not even daring to speak a word more than necessary.

Thus, the six-person team made their way back the way they had come.

At the deep pit where the support team had initially split up to act, they sat at the entrance for a brief rest while waiting for Dawn to return.

It was only then that Ina dared to speak softly to Megan.

—But still loud enough for Ronald to hear clearly.

"Megan uncle, who exactly are these two?"

"They've come here to help us with the ruins' development. The camp called for outside help when you went missing these past few days, they can be trusted."

"But I've never heard of such powerful Casters before!"

"It's Professor Dawn who brought them; it's normal that you haven't heard of them."

"Which faction in Entrode has such powerful individuals…"

"Asking like that, I don't know either."

"…"

Megan and Ina seemed to get along well.

Their whispered discussion was even interspersed with helpless wry smiles and sighs, utterly the demeanor of close friends.

But one thing was clear regardless.

—Ina kept trying to probe for the identities of Ronald and his companion.

Since Megan himself didn't have a clear idea, he naturally couldn't give her a straight answer.

"…"

"We've waited quite a long time; the situation with Dawn's group may not be right."

After a while longer, Ronald suddenly stood up.

He had originally been using Spells to check on Dawn and his group's status. But at that moment, a barrier that isolated magical insight appeared ahead, blocking all external magical probes.

—Danger loomed over Dawn's group.

—And it might be targeting Ronald's ability to scout.

The team was completely following Ronald's lead, and only Seliel added after getting up,

"But we had agreed to meet here."

Ronald immediately responded,

"Dawn's path was the same as ours, a dead-end route. If they manage to turn back, we're bound to encounter them—besides, if they've also been blocked off on their side, they may not have the capability to turn back like we did."

Given the convincing reasoning, no one objected.

The team of six set off again, this time heading toward the route that Dawn and his group had explored.

More than ten minutes went by.

The situation here was much like what Ronald and his group had encountered.

Monotonous underground tunnels, a gradually ascending slope, and a quiet environment.

It was only at the thirteenth minute, when the path ahead was blocked by cold rocks, that they confirmed the situation was as Ronald had surmised.

Dawn's group's retreat was indeed cut off.

Except here, blocking the path were rocks that were even harder and more difficult to destroy than the ice they had faced.

"This thing... has been enhanced by a Spell."

At this moment, Ina from their team stepped forward.

The girl gently touched the rock with her palm and then concluded immediately,

"Its structure is several times harder than normal rock, making it much more difficult to break than the ice we encountered before…"

"Move aside," Ronald said calmly to Ina.

This time he didn't instruct Costate to deal with the problem either.

He stepped forward by himself, and the spell from "Astronomy Master" immediately spilled from his lips:

"Based on the relationship between the entire Earth and the sky, we'll begin forming our understanding!"

Bang—

The spell's power from the stars.

Could a mere rock possibly block it?

Ronald had no intention of shattering the rock; instead, he directly controlled the rock with the power of "Uniform Wheel"!

The rock that was blocking their path was sent flying!

Within roughly ten seconds, it embedded deeply into the mountain ahead with a loud crash, resembling a gemstone set in a giant's crown by a jeweler.

"..."

"What in the world is this monster?"

Faced with this scene that far exceeded reality, Ina, although a part of the mystical community, couldn't help but mutter uncontrollably.

By her estimates, the rock's size and weight were beyond what human strength could deal with. Even for a powerful Caster, dealing with such an obstacle with a single spell...

Wasn't this a bit too outrageous?

Beside Ina, the middle-aged Caster Megan gently patted her shoulder, comforting her with some expertise:

"Ina, things are probably like this."

"We have an incredible big shot offering help this time; we just need to simply follow along."

"Is... is that so?" Ina nodded, still startled, then promptly caught up with the others heading out of the tunnel.

...

After leaving the tunnel, the environment here was quite different from Ronald's group.

It was still a canyon here, but there was much less plant coverage; the frigid land was barely green, with only cold climate plants managing to carve out an existence in the soil.

"..."

Standing there, Ronald frowned as he looked down at his feet.

He could feel the object that was obscuring his magical sense was directly below, buried at a depth well over a hundred meters. Whoever set this up had obviously come prepared, and it would not be easy to deal with in a short time.

Were there other things he hadn't spotted...

Thinking this, Ronald began to scan the surroundings with his gaze.

However, Seliel, one of the six, had his own ideas; the adventurer walked directly towards the right side of the tunnel exit, then crouched in front of a particularly noticeable plant and swept aside some of the branches at its base.

He found what he was looking for—

A piece of cloth with a unique knot wrapped around the base of the plant, its knot pointing deeper into the canyon.

Having confirmed what was in front of him, the adventurer immediately told the others:

"There's a marker left by Nade here because they couldn't return, so they continued further inside."

Clearly, this was a pre-agreed-upon sign of communication between the three of them.

With Seliel's information, Megan also spoke up:

"Leaving a marker after being blocked implies they didn't encounter immediate danger. After all, ordinary people don't have grand spells like our big shot here; their only option was to keep exploring."

Seliel looked at Ronald with a complex gaze:

"To be honest, during my adventures, I've also encountered situations where I had no choice but to move forward. The ability to enact one's will is indeed too important."

The admiration and envy in their words were not at all concealed.

Faced with such flattery, Ronald first reminded himself of his desperate and helpless stance when he first traversed, then he indulged in the comfort of being fawned upon.

"Right now, catching up to Nade and the others is what matters."

"Let's continue onwards."

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