The Messenger of Death

Chapter 198: the underground bunker

After leaving Tsukishima's sight, Xander left to tail Gustavo without anyone knowing, not even his teammates.

['We need to find out who this shameless stalker really is and who he's working for. I don't believe that we suddenly turned into his subject of focus overnight. If he refuses to give me satisfactory answers then I will result to torture.'] Xander stated.

['After finding out about him, are we going to kill him?'] Alex asked.

['That is most likely to happen, depending on how everything turns out.'] Xander replied and the conversation ended there

While he was following him, Xander watched as Gustavo kept on looking around and behind him after walking a distance. He looked like someone that had something to hide from the view of the mass.

After surveying the area for the umpteenth time, Gustavo kept on moving and left the area that they were in. By following Gustavo, Xander passed places in the academy that he had never been to, however, he didn't have the time nor the interest to explore these places.

Nonetheless, despite Gustavo's caution and constant surveying, Xander tailed him without being noticed.

Finally, they reached a secluded part of the academy that looked like a cemetery, a lush one at that. There were flowers and grasses around the graves, and there were numerous little hills around the vicinity; which looked like graves. Some of them had headstones and many didn't. This cemetery was located on the sloppy side of a mountain.

Gustavo walked to one of the hills by the end of the foot of the mountain, he looked around one last time before he revealed what he wanted to do. Gustavo bit his right index finger and used his blood to inscribe some runic alphabets on the air.

['Eh? He's a runemaster?'] Al thought.

['It seems like it.'] Xander said shortly.

Shortly after Gustavo was done inscribing on the air, a manhole appeared just a few feet in front of him. Xander watched as Gustavo quickly made his way to the hole and jumped inside. As soon as Gustavo dropped into the hole, it disappeared.

Xander walked over to the hill where Gustavo was standing by a few seconds ago. He stood and looked around too.

"What do we do about this? Lex, Alex, do the two of you know what kind of rune he inscribed, and are you able to replicate it?" Xander asked.

['Yes, I know.'] Alex and Lex answered at the same time.

['Ehh?'] Al was a bit surprised to hear that they knew about it. ['Since when did the two of you start knowing so much about runes?'] He asked.

['I don't know, from the Dragnel's memories. When I saw the runic alphabets that he was inscribing, it just came to me like a dj vu kinda thing.'] Alex answered.

['Same thing with you Lex?'] Al questioned.

['Yeah,'] Lex replied.

['If this could happen more often, I am very sure that we would get a lot stronger than we already are.'] Al commented.

"That's good, so who's going to switch with me and deal with this rune stuff?" He asked.

['There's no need to switch.'] Alex and Lex replied at the same time again.

"Why? You know that I know nothing about runes so I can't possibly inscribe, can I?" Xander frowned a bit, tarnishing that calm expression that seemed to remain on his face even when going through thick and thin. He couldn't understand why they refused to switch with him.

['Because the rune that has been inscribed here is just a concealing type of rune. It creates the illusion that there's no hole anywhere here, when there is, you can just go over to where the hole is and enter it.'] Alex pointed out.

"If that is the case, why didn't Gustavo just walk into the whole instead of exposing its position?" Xander wondered. "What if there are traps set?" He thought out loud.

['There are no traps here, at least any that has to do runes. My intake from what he did, exposing the position of the hole like that is because he wants people to think the same way that you are thinking right now.

He did that in case he was being followed. If you do not know the kind of rune that he inscribed and cannot replicate it, you would think that you cannot access the hole.

If you think that the hole is still there despite you not being able to find it, and then you choose to approach it, you would be wary of traps after all, the person you just saw going in had to use an inscription to get in rather just conveniently walking to the hole without wasting his life force on inscribing.'] Lex explained.

['Either that or he too doesn't know that the rune is not needed to access the hole.'] Alex added.

['So either this Gustavo is Dumb or he is indeed a smart a*s.'] Al mumbled.

"I see, if that is what his plan was, it did work. If not for the two of you, I would have resorted to waiting here till he shows up again, rather than risk falling into a trap." Xander's calm expression returned to his face.

He was about to start heading towards the whole when Alex stopped him.

['Wait, Xander, confirm if the skin crawler can see through this concealment.'] He urged.

His idea was a good one, and his alternate personalities were also curious about this. If the skin crawler could see through runes like this, it could save them if they encountered a rune inscription that couldn't recognize.

"Alright," Xander agreed. "System, is there any manhole around here?" He asked the system.

-Ping!

*Commencing search

-Ping!

*Answering the user's question, quite a few manholes are surrounding this mountain. Would the user like the system to pinpoint those holes?

"Yes please," Xander responded.

*Pinpointing the holes in 3, 2, 1.

Suddenly, little red dots filled Xander's sight.

['The system said that there were quite a few, it wasn't doing justice to the number of holes that are actually here. Did it include the graves as manholes too?'] Al commented.

"No, I don't think that it did. Look carefully, none of the dots are on any of the graves here, it's either beside it or away from the graves." Xander pointed out.

['Who the hell, dug all these holes? Was it the stalker? Is that stalker some kind of human gopher? Is this some kind of weird fetish? Does he get turned on by seeing holes!? This is the weirdest fetish I've ever come across.'] Al spammed the rest with questions.

He just couldn't understand why anyone will waste their time digging holes.

"So many holes, do they all lead to the same place or some are dead ends? If these holes were dug by that stalker, then I have to say, we might be going after a smart person." Xander uttered. "System, dispose of the red dots."

*Red dots erased, returning to default outlook.

The system did as he commanded and his scenery returned to the one that had no dots insight.

['Are you having doubts about entering the hole again?'] Lex asked.

Xander smiled. "Doubts about what? If you say that it's safe even when it is not, I will still believe you." Immediately he finished saying that, he jumped into the hole.

Free-falling in the manhole, Xander was on full alert. He had activated his bloodline ability and as he was falling, the lightning emanating from his body slowed the speed at which he descended.

"Magnets?" Xander thought. "Magnets and different kinds of metal." He added.

Xander figured out why the speed at which he descended reduced. Magnetism and electricity are the two elements of an electromagnetic force, they are not independent forces but interdependent on each other.

When electricity flows, magnetism is present. When a conductor moves in a magnetic field, electricity is present. Like charge and opposite poles repel each other, opposite charge and opposite poles attract each other.

In this case, Xander is the carrier of the electricity and his lightning is the catalyst to why his speed of descent is reduced. They were reacting in accordance with the magnets on the sides of the manhole.

['This guy must have been busy for a long time, why waste these resources on a manhole? Sooner or later he will have to leave the school, is he that rich that leaving all these behind in the school doesn't worry him?'] Xander wondered.

-Thud.

Soon, Xander landed gently, at the bottom of the manhole. Even the floors were made of metal. Since he was able to fall through the hole safely, he decided to deactivate his bloodline ability to prevent the magnets from slowing his movements.

Standing on the same spot that he landed on, Xander looked at the place that he is now. This was something that no one would have expected to find in the school.

['Woah!!'] Alex exclaimed.

It looked like an underground bunker that was completely made out of Aluminum, copper, and iron, and of course, magnets. It was big and spacious for a bunker.

['This stalker of ours have been busy for a while'] Al stated.