Elemental Cats

Toz followed the tiny speck of light as it flashed and disappeared continuously. He quickly realized that it was leading him in circles around the military base. He understood that it might be to lose track of any possible tails Toz might have picked up. But after a while, he started getting annoyed since it was obvious that if it hadn't worked by now, it never would. He even considered giving up and either catching the light and whoever was behind it or simply finding another way to gain achievements.

However, Taienra and the cats relied on him, and if his surrender were to lead to them being unable to save Taienra, Toz wouldn't be able to forgive himself. Toz stuck it out and patiently continued to follow the flashing light, despite the unpleasant feeling of being led around by the nose.

Eventually, after circling the base several times, the light stopped in a secluded corner that seemed to have been forgotten by even insects. That seemed to be because of a magic barrier of some kind that subconsciously made people avoid the place. Toz hardly even noticed it with his mana vision activated.

Toz stood on the spot indicated by the speck of light with his guard fully raised. He could sense the enchantments on and in the ground, but he couldn't tell what their function was. And unlike living beings, they wouldn't emit malicious intent if they sought to harm him. So if he had walked into a trap, Toz only had himself and his reflexes to rely on if it sprung.

It seemed like he had to wait for a little while before finding out whether he had walked into a trap or not, though. Even after he had stood on the ring of enchantments for several minutes, nothing of note happened.

Toz looked around cautiously. Maybe the delay was to make him let his guard down, but he couldn't sense anything off in his surroundings, so he turned his mana vision-empowered gaze back to the enchantments under his feet.

Since the enchantments were subtly made, inactive, and hidden behind a couple of layers of stealth, Toz would never have been able to sense them without mana vision. Even with mana vision active, he could only tell that there were enchantments there, not what kind or if there were any attributes to them. The only way he would be able to figure out what they did was to see them in action, which was a little worrying since Toz stood on top of the mysterious enchantments.

Now that he was patiently waiting for something to happen, instead of blindly chasing a light, Toz wasn't as impatient as earlier. But he still didn't feel like standing in place and using taxing triple combination magic until he was out of mana.

Fortunately, the people in charge of inviting and leading him to the magic circle didn't seem intent on wearing him down to his bones.

When Toz was at about half his mana capacity, the enchantments slowly and gently activated. If Toz hadn't been watching them with his mana vision, he wouldn't have noticed it until they fully lit up. But since he was doing that, he could tell that they weren't dangerous in any way.

The enchantments were, in fact, so harmless that Toz almost laughed at how silly he felt after mentally preparing himself for an attack or a short-distance teleportation into the middle of a group of mages and fighters ready to tear him apart.

However, what would happen after the enchantments activated and uncovered the tunnel in the ground might not be as harmless as the enchantments themselves.

But now that things had gotten this far and revealed how elaborate the general's plan and caution were, Toz was getting just a little bit too curious even to consider not entering the tunnel. So he willingly let himself be devoured by the ground and dropped into the tubular slide with a slight grin on his face.

When the ground closed again behind him, the tunnel was filled with darkness. But only a moment later, soft light spilled from the tunnel walls and lit up the slide. However, the tunnel wasn't straight, and the lights didn't reach the end. They only lit up right in front of Toz and then went out again after he slid past. It seemed like they were more to comfort whoever used the tunnel rather than provide actual lighting.

After several moments of going down the slide, Toz sighed. It had been fun and exciting at first, but he wasn't even going fast enough to make his hair flutter. He even had to scoot forward himself several times since the slide curved in stupid and unnecessary ways.

Eventually, he resorted to using magic to propel himself forward.

'The tunnel is sturdy, and the entrance was blocked off completely, so it should be fine, right?'

With that thought, Toz directed his palm behind himself and concentrated a suitable amount of fire magic in it. He also threw in a little space magic to control the direction of the force that would follow when he began casting for real.

With preparations in order, Toz stopped wasting time. Before his boredom could completely overtake his curiosity and eagerness to discover what lay at the end of the tunnel, flames burst out of Toz's hand.

The flames weren't wild or uproariously hot. But they were fierce and packed with explosive power.

Toz perfectly controlled the explosive power of the fire as he began pushing himself through the tunnel. He looked forward to what he would find at the end, but he had to do something before that.

Since the tunnel was smooth but not smooth enough, Toz armored himself with the combination magic of void and metal. The silvery suit of armor made sure the ground didn't tear at his clothes, and it would also protect him from any bumps or pebbles. Not that anything like that would be able to hurt him. It would just be an inconvenience while he built up his speed.