Birth Of The Crafts-God-Chapter 325: Unexpected Encounter

A few minutes earlier, before the Aión source was stolen...

After William's bodyguard chased after Cassie, leaving behind William to face the Satcthalle, Lucas managed to dig himself out from the landslide [1] in secret. Thanks to the Stellar Circuit Battle-Armour, he was able to survive the landslide,

and was only left with scratches on his armour.

Once he was safe, Lucas witnessed the Satcthalle face off against William in a battle that could easily see him lose his life. The abilities of the two were far ahead of him, and even with the Special Ability card still in effect, Lucas wasn't confident in being able to confront any of them, much less the both.

Armed with the SCB, Lucas could only face a fourth level Apertures Opening stage stellar practitioner. Even with the Energy Form Manipulation ability, he could only contend with a recent fifth level stellar practitioner at best. However, William was well into the fifth level and armed with a Grade 4 vestige, while the Satcthalle could display strength on par with a sixth level stellar practitioner. It was obvious what the result would be if he dared to face any one of them. So, Lucas took the only viable option available, which was to bid his time for an opportunity.

'I can't keep waiting for long. I need to do something about the situation.' Lucas thought as he played the role of a spectator to the ensuing battle.

He considered helping Cassie to defeat William's bodyguard, but his sudden presence would make Cassie not trust him even if Lucas helped her. It might as well be no different from saving a tiger that could bite him back.

While trying to figure out a solution, it suddenly clicked.

Lucas paid attention to the battle between the Satcthalle and William, when he noticed that compared to before, their environmental awareness was low —significantly low.

'Maybe...'

And so, a fascinating idea was born in Lucas' mind and he couldn't resist giving it a try.

During the time he was waiting for an opportune moment, Lucas witnessed how William had fooled the Satcthalle and sent it into a berserk state. The incident made him smile and he couldn't help but thank William in his mind.

While the two combatants were engaged in an intense fight, Lucas snuck over to the Heart of Silver embedded inside a rock.

Because he activated the stealth mode and minimized energy usage of the Stellar Circuit Battle-Armour, Lucas was able to sneak close to the Heart of Silver without getting spotted.

But just as he pocketed the item, William happened to be looking over.

"You fucking bastard! Don't touch that!"

William's scream was heard and it attracted Lucas' attention. He saw that the Satcthalle didn't react to William's voice and sighed in relief. Without hesitating, Lucas immediately hurried and stored away the Heart of Silver in his inventory. Once he was done, he hurriedly left the scene, but made sure not to attract the Satcthalle's attention while doing so

"You fucking thief! Hold it!"

William hollered, but Lucas ignored him and ran away. The direction he ran towards was the path the Satcthalle had arrived from.

'Considering its size, there should be a large exit somewhere around.'

After the Satcthalle's grand attack, Lucas guessed the main entrance he came in through was now blocked and couldn't be accessed. Hence, the only way out would be through whatever hole the Satcthalle crawled in through. With its ten metres tall frame, the hole would definitely not be small, and would still be accessible even after the attack.

When he was at a distance he deemed safe, Lucas activated his Stellar Circuit Battle-Armour to full power and dashed away faster than before. His priority now was in escaping as he had already retrieved the Heart of Silver. As for remaining low-key, that was no longer necessary.

'Over there.'

Even though the lighting was poor, there was still a bit of it present. Lucas was able to spot a large open space ahead that was a dead-end. Glancing at the top, he noticed that there was no ceiling, with a bit of sunlight dropping in from the top. This was the exit he was looking.

'The Satcthalle probably came in through there.' Lucas thought.

Arriving at the bottom of the hole, Lucas glanced upwards and discovered that it was at least thirty metres high and only fifteen metres wide. He would need to climb that high to finally reach the surface.

For the Satcthalle, such a height was probably nothing difficult, after all, it was ten metres tall. Dropping from a height three times itself wasn't a problem. It also had unique hooves which helped it scale the mountains in the Millennium Mountains desolate beast domain, so climbing back up wasn't an issue.

But for Lucas, climbing such a height, while not impossible, was time-consuming and difficult.

Luckily, the Stellar Circuit Battle-Armour was equipped with booster rockets in the boot.

Activating those, Lucas slowly floated upwards at first. After stabilising, the rockets exploded with more power and he flew upwards to the exit.

Seeing the sky closing in on him, Lucas was tempted to sigh with relief as he had finally gotten through one major checkpoint. All that was left was to locate his shuttle, the Terino Grand Ghost, and exit the Millennium Mountains. As long as he got to the shuttle, leaving the desolate beast domain wouldn't be a hassle and only a matter of time.

Lucas flew out of the hole and breathed out with relief as his eyes adjusted to the light. Although there was an oxygen supply underground, it still felt quite stuffy and the dull green lights made the atmosphere depressing.

After leaving the underground lode, Lucas didn't plan on landing yet and decided to fly away until he was quite far from the area. However, because of the presence of some powerful desolate beast, he could only fly at a very low altitude.

Lucas immediately sent a signal through his communicator to track the location of his shuttle. After all, his current position was different from the entrance he used, so he would have to find his wag first.

Just as he was doing this however, alarm bells suddenly blared in his mind and Lucas tried to move to the side. Despite that, he was too slow.

*Boom*

An explosion rocked Lucas and forced him down to the ground unceremoniously. Although the Stellar Circuit Battle-Armour wasn't destroyed, some of its facilities were taken out, with the most affected being the rockets on his boots.

However, Lucas' attention wasn't on that, but on the cold voice that spoke up right then.

"Interesting. Who would have thought there would be a an oriole stalking the cicada and the mantis all this while?"