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Bermuda Chapter 77
🕑 Added 2024-04-29 11:18:16 +0000 UTCChapter 77
"What would you do if it were you, Leonardo?"
Leonardo was curious about Hugo's intention in asking him.
He probably wasn't asking because he really didn't know, but was he giving him the choice or telling him to share his thoughts? Well, either way, he had no intention of going back the way they came.
Instead of answering, Leonardo walked a little back, away from the dead-end wall. Hugo silently watched his actions.
The 8th Platoon leader looked up at him from the side with an unconvinced face at the Commander's action that seemed to give Leonardo the decision-making power.
She couldn't understand why the Commander, who had personally caught him, was letting him do as he pleased when he had been so unruly in the capital. However, she soon thought that there must be a reason and decided to also watch what action Leonardo would take.
Leonardo, who had put a suitable distance between himself and the wall, felt that the presence of water had moved away appropriately. Then, he unhesitatingly reached out his hand towards the ceiling.
"Wait, if you do that!"
Just as the 8th Platoon leader hurriedly tried to stop him, a red beam was fired from his hand and flew towards the ceiling. The beam pierced through the rock in a straight line, causing dust and a huge roar.
Flynn, who was worried that the cave might collapse, couldn't take his eyes off that sight, but Leonardo only spread a barrier below to prevent small fragments from falling on their heads, and fortunately, the cave didn't collapse.
Before long, the rising dust settled quite a bit, and Leonardo jumped up as it was and passed through the hole in the ceiling to go up.
The hole was punctured relatively cleanly in a circle, following the shape the beam had penetrated, and the faint light that leaked in from there illuminated the inside of the cave.
Flynn and the 8th Platoon members were just blinking their eyes in amazement. However, Hugo was actually thinking something else while examining the surroundings of the punctured hole.
'It's much better than yesterday, but... not yet.'
If it were his sharp and well-refined mana originally, he would have made a perfect circle without leaving a single trace around, but the hole in front of his eyes now had small cracks on the edges, looking like it would collapse if it received more impact.
At that moment, Leonardo, who had gone out first, poked his head back in upside down and urged them, who were standing still,
"Aren't you coming?"
Seeing that, Hugo took a step forward and led the members.
"Let's go too."
Hugo was the first to follow Leonardo towards the ceiling with the hole.
As he passed through the large hole that about five people could go through at the same time, a refreshing openness that couldn't be felt inside the humid cave greeted him. A clear sky with the moon and stars already visible and a vast lake spread out in front of his eyes.
The members who followed Hugo up couldn't contain their gaping mouths in admiration at the magnificent scenery. Flynn, who came up last, also scanned the surroundings with wide eyes and said as if he had realized the reason why water had been pooled in the cave right below,
"It was a crater."
This lake was a huge crater formed at the top of a volcanic peak where volcanic activity had stopped. Due to the high altitude, the water temperature of the water filling the crater was very cold, and as a result, a cool atmosphere lingered around, and a clear sky without a single cloud hung over due to the influence of high pressure.
If he had fired the beam straight towards the front wall when they were below, the water from this lake would have poured right into the inside. And the hole Leonardo had made in the ceiling was at a suitable distance from where the water was splashing.
It seemed that even from inside the cave, he had been roughly estimating how far the water had filled up.
Hugo looked up at the darkened sky and checked the watch on his wrist. He thought they had been in the cave for a long time, but more time had passed than expected.
Shifting his gaze to the side, he immediately examined the members' conditions. They didn't look very tired, but they had encountered an unusually large number of monsters today, and fatigue must have accumulated from the battles and long-term high-speed flight, so it seemed better to set up a base camp here.
Soon, as he lightly looked around, a cave with a wide open entrance caught his eye not far away. Thinking it was a suitable size to block rain or wind to some extent, Hugo moved his steps towards it.
"It's a bit early, but let's spend the night there."
"Yes, understood!"
*
Around the huge lake surrounded by rugged rocky mountains like a basin terrain, tough and dry grasses grew sparsely.
The members gathered dry grass and branches nearby to light a fire and pitched tents inside the cave. As the procession split and the number of personnel in this 1st Battalion had drastically decreased, it was decided that Hugo and Leonardo would also sleep in individual tents instead of a large tent today.
When everyone had finished their meal and was busily organizing the surroundings, Leonardo, who had gotten up from his seat first without even taking a few bites of dinner, approached the lake in the center of the crater with a high-calorie energy bar he had received from Hugo in his hand.
The lake in front of his eyes was utterly still and not a single ripple rose. However, the excessive stillness gave an eerie feeling instead.
The moonlight was reflected and shining on the surface of the water, but the places where the light didn't reach just rippled in pitch black. Even roughly estimating, the water seemed to be extremely deep, making it impossible to gauge its depth.
The surroundings were covered with sand and gravel created by the sharp shattering of rocks and then being eroded and split for a long time, so perhaps because of that, not a single blade of grass could be seen in the very close proximity to the water.
Taking a deep breath, it felt like the inside of his body was freezing from the cold air. Leonardo absentmindedly took a bite of the chocolate bar and touched the water of the lake splashing at his feet. As the water touched his fingertips, a chilling coldness was felt.
"Leonardo."
Turning his head at the sound of someone calling him from behind, Hugo was slowly approaching this way.
Seeing the energy bar in his hand and the chocolate smeared on the corner of his mouth, Hugo slightly furrowed one eyebrow.
Just now, while he was concerned about seeing him not eating much, he heard from Flynn that he had barely touched his food this morning as well, so he couldn't help but feel a bit worried.
But looking at it now, it seemed that the energy bar he was holding in his mouth had something to do with that reason.
Although Hugo didn't say much as he wasn't in a position to nag him, he thought that perhaps he had given him that for nothing.
However, what he had come to convey to him wasn't about that, so Hugo approached Leonardo closely and advised him, who had been stirring the water,
"Don't go deep into this lake, just in case."
Leonardo blinked and looked up at him. Then, instead of asking the reason, he shook the water off his hand, stood up, and asked something else.
"Can you also measure the water quality?"
At Leonardo's question, Hugo glanced at the lake where his gaze had been, then turned his head back to him.
"Yes, I can tell. This lake is first-class water. To be precise, it's even cleaner than that."
"...Can any living things live in such water?"
"It's rare, but not impossible."
Leonardo, who had narrowed his brows, took another bite of the energy bar. Then, he carefully pondered his words along with the chocolate sticking to the inside of his mouth.
Hugo knew that the reason he had asked about the water quality was the same as what he had come to say, so he continued,
"I had sent two members on patrol earlier to scout the vicinity. And do you know what they discovered?"
Instead of answering, Leonardo asked back with a glance.
"They said there were traces of camping and abandoned luggage at the entrance of another cave. However, they reported that the traces were quite old. Then, where on earth did the owners of that luggage disappear to?"
Leonardo, who had been slowly moving his jaw, suddenly turned his gaze and looked at the lake he had been staring at earlier. After a moment, he met eyes with Hugo again.
Reading that gaze, Hugo silently nodded once.
Comments
Jesse Gibson
Hugo, why are so frustrating and then all of sudden normal? Pick a personality - I’m getting whiplash
