Chapter 116: Emergency Tunnel

With Elaine leading, Xinya and his party made their way out of the hidden room and through the basement dungeon. Although carrying the Mayor was quite difficult, no accidents happened along the way.

After being led pass the many cell rooms in the dungeon, they finally reached a staircase. Xinya recognized it, it was the one that he and Melting Snow first came down when they discovered that there was a lower floor.

Assuming that they would have to go back to the main floor to get to the emergency exit, Xinya was already mentally preparing to take out another potion bottle from his inventory, just in case an accident occurred on the stairs and the Mayor's body was jolted, causing his health to descend.

This assumption was proven wrong when Elaine just bypassed the staircase all together and walked over to the corner wall that was a few feet away from it. The wall that she went to was completely bare except for a painting and an empty candlestick holder.

Getting a closer look Xinya saw that the painting was very well made, it was something that he wouldn't mind having hanging in his home. The picture it portrayed wasn't anything elegant, it was just a simple drawing of two people on a sailboat, that was out to sea on a rainy day.

"Why did you lead us here?" Melting Snow asked. "Where is the emergency exit?"

Turning her head back to look at Melting Snow, Elaine replied, "This is it, right here."

The group watched as the girl stretched out her arm and touched one of the people's faces that were in the sailboat painting. A loud creaking sound could be heard after she did that, and Xinya stared raptly at the stone wall that was opening right before his eyes.

"That was so cool," Wei said, exploring secret rooms, and hidden passageways intrigued her very much.

The rest of the group nodded in agreement at her statement but wasn't as enthusiastic about it as she was. They became used to these types of things, during their time playing Haven online, although it was cool, they were a little desensitized to it.

Once the wall was completely opened, Xinya's party could see exactly what the emergency tunnel looked like. The only thing Xinya could see was a pitch-black tunnel completely void of any light.

He knew this wasn't a desirable situation, especially for Melting Snow, who was afraid of the dark. Just as Xinya was about to check his inventory to see if he had anymore glow flowers left, he saw Elaine move to the empty candlestick holder.

Elaine pulled the empty candlestick holder down like it was a lever, and suddenly the inside of the tunnel began to light up. From what Xinya could see, torches were hanging along the wall of the tunnel, and they begin to light up one by one.

Now that he could properly see inside of it, Xinya found it to be just an ordinary tunnel made of stone. Although as he looked into the tunnel, he had a feeling that it would be quite long. Xinya hoped that he had enough of those high-quality potions left to keep the Mayor stable until they reached the ship.

"This is the emergency tunnel, it is very long, so we must hurry through it so that my father can be taken care of," Elaine said as she stood by the tunnel's entrance.

"How long is it?" Wandering Sound asked, looking worriedly at the Mayor. He had been checking the man's status and saw how his health was depleting.

Thinking for a moment, Elaine said, "It shouldn't take too long about 20-25 minutes at most, but with you carrying my father it could take longer."

"Don't worry, I can keep the Mayor stable until we reach the exit," Xinya told everyone. He could tell by their expressions that they were worried that the Mayor would die and they would fail the quest, so Xinya took this opportunity to reassure them all, including the man's daughter.

Elaine gave Xinya a watery smile before leading them inside the tunnel, the walk through the tunnel was harder than expected. The ground of the tunnel was made up of loose rocks, which caused a catastrophic mishap at the beginning of their journey.

The entire group was rushing because they wanted to make it the ship quickly. In their rush, they didn't pay attention to where they were walking and Wandering Sound tripped on one of the loose rocks and fell.

This caused the makeshift gurney to tilt, and the Mayor who was laying on top of it rolled off and fell to the ground with a loud thump. The sound made Elaine and Wei turn around, and when they saw the Mayor's body lying prone on the tunnel's rocky ground, their faces took on two drastic different expressions. Wei became worried that the Mayor was dead and they would fail their quest. While Elaine was extremely fearful of her father's life.

"What happened?!" Elaine frantically asked. "Is my daddy alright?"

Melting Snow and Xinya quickly set the table down before rushing towards the man's side. The accident happened so fast that there was no way that they could have stopped the man's body from rolling to the ground.

Checking the Mayor's status, Xinya saw that his health was descending faster than before. He quickly commanded Melting Snow to put him back on the makeshift gurney before feeding him another potion.

"He is alright for now, but that fall, opened his wounds up more. His health is decreasing at a quicker pace now." Xinya said.

Getting up, Wandering Sound began apologizing, "I'm so sorry, it's all my fault. I should have been watching my footing."

"It's not your fault, there are a lot of loose rocks in this tunnel, it could have happened to anyone," Xinya said trying to reassure him.

Picking the gurney back, the group began walking again, this time being careful about where they step. Throughout their journey through the tunnel, the group had to stop three times, so that Xinya could administer potions to the battered man.

After walking for around 45 minutes, the group arrived at a stone wall, knowing that this must be the exit they let out a sigh of relief. Wei and Wandering Sound were extremely worried that another accident would occur or something would pop out and attack them.

Making it to the exit with no other problems appearing made them very happy. On the other hand, Melting Snow and Xinya weren't worried at all that something else would happen. Keeping the man alive was hard enough so they knew that while they were in the tunnel nothing else would happen. All they needed to do was focus on getting the man to the ship.

Elaine touched a blue-ish stone that was located in the center of the wall which opened the exit to the tunnel. The stone wall in front of them began to slide open slowly, Xinya could see tiny rays of sunlight began to seep through the crack, until the wall was completely opened, revealing the bright blue sky.