After Vicente's comment, everyone fell silent and walked slowly, taking care not to step on the leaves on the ground.
After doing this for about 10 minutes, slowly following the map, the group suddenly stopped when they saw Vicente stop to recheck the map.
"What is wrong?"
"We're here," Vicente answered Rory's question as he looked at the details around the map and what was around the group.
The group was halfway to the top of the hill they were on, the top of which was covered with ice and the lower parts with huge, spiky trees.
Where they were, there was a lot of leaf litter on the dirt and stone floor, with trees and bushes of various kinds, some leaning in odd directions.
There were some holes in the sides of the tree, probably traps, but also caves in plain sight.
Looking closer, Vicente realized this must be the place marked on the map.
But finding nothing special there, he narrowed his eyes and ignored the comments of his men.
'This is a 2D map. It has its limitations. Maybe its creator marked a point that wasn't on the surface?' He looked up and saw nothing in the treetops above him.
That left him with only one alternative!
"The place we're looking for must be underground in this area." He said to his group as he looked down.
At that moment, his Magic Gem shone out from under the metal mask on his face, and a red pentagram emerged from his body, causing everyone in the group to feel its pressure.
Even the strongest of those teachers felt a certain discomfort as Vicente activated his ability to the maximum and felt the metals in his body stir.
'What an absurd power! No wonder he killed those Rougarous in one move.' The leader of Julian's group thought as he stared at Vice.
Meanwhile, Vicente searched the basement below where his group was, mentally mapping out the metal structure of the area below where they were.
After doing this for about a minute, he found an empty space that contained nothing that his ability could manipulate.
'Air. Only air can have so few metallic elements that I feel nothing.' He thought as he opened his eyes and followed the path that felt nothing to the right of his group, 50 meters in that direction.
When he looked around and saw the narrow entrance to a cave, Vice smiled under his mask and said. "I think what we're looking for can be accessed this way."
Everyone looked in the direction of a narrow crack in the floor of a small cave, the teachers of Ironcrest staring at it a little uncertainly.
'Is this really it?' Julian wondered.
"Okay, Cesar. Let's try what you suggest. If it doesn't work, we'll continue hunting with you on the surface." The group leader said, thinking that it wouldn't get them anywhere.
Vicente's men would never question their leader, so they immediately followed his suggestion and quickly made their way to the cave, where most of them had to stand outside due to its small size.
"I'll check the place out first," Vicente reached the crack in the cave floor, a place that could only hold five people at a time.
"Are you sure?" Julian asked as he looked through the crack and saw a great darkness.
There could be nothing beneath such a place. Besides, considering how thin the crack was, it would be somewhat nerve-wracking to go through that place.
Claustrophobics would definitely get sick just looking at that crack!
Vicente manipulated a piece of metal from his armor and dropped it through the crack.
After 10 seconds, everyone there heard the metallic sound of it falling to the ground.
"Don't worry. As narrow as the passage is, there's enough room for several of us to follow this path." He said before manipulating the metals on his body to make it easier for him to pass through the crack, which was about 45 centimeters in diameter.
When they saw Vicente enter, the teachers and Rory were silent for a few moments until they heard his voice a minute later, already inside the underground area.
"You can come now. There's plenty of room here." His voice reached them.
Meanwhile, where Vicente was standing, there was a relatively large tunnel in which he could stand, and up to three people of his size could stand side by side.
The place seemed to be partly a natural formation, but looking ahead, Vicente could see almost smooth surfaces, which indicated to him that such a place was not entirely natural.
The place he was entering was probably a natural fault that had appeared next to the artificial structure, but there was no way that intelligent beings had never manipulated the place ahead.
Narrowing his eyes, Vicente realized who might be behind it.
'Woodpeckers...'
Woodpeckers were great builders. Not only that but by becoming magical beings at a certain age, a woodpecker could do much more than create wooden structures.
'The place marked with an 'x' is probably guarded by woodpeckers.' He clenched his fists as he stepped forward to make way for the first of his group to enter the area.
The first to follow was Rory, followed by some of the Mazzanti family soldiers, until the first teachers made their way through the crack.
Once there, they realized this area was not as terrible as they had imagined.
In no time, the whole group was there, and Vicente made his way to the place that must have been under the ground where he had stopped a few moments before.
But as they left the part that seemed to have been formed by natural movements of the ground, not only Vicente but all the teachers in the group realized the path they were following led to something special.
The mana in the environment was much more concentrated, making the artificial tunnel ahead look like a special meditation chamber that one would pay several gold coins to use in any town in the province.
As they continued, they felt a special vibration they could all recognize coming from a few dozen meters below them.
Following the path faster and faster, but without moving the mana in their bodies too much and watching out for possible traps, they soon changed tunnels. As they did so, they saw a yellow glow coming from the end of a tunnel even larger than the previous one, capable of holding twice as many people walking side by side.
Seeing this yellow glow at the end of the path ahead, Julian swallowed his saliva as he mumbled subconsciously.
"It can't be..."
Everyone in his group from the Rexnelts Academy opened their mouths as they realized that what Vicente's group's map led to could only be the same thing they were looking for!
But before anyone could say it out loud, Vicente stopped in front of the group and stared at the thing that emitted that glow, peering through a hole in the wall on his way.
"Magic Pentagram!" He muttered in amazement.
