'Deep!'
Sparing a fraction of a second to comment on the notification, Lee swam through the flooded networks.
Sometimes he had to swim back to the intersection due to mud accumulating in the path. But every such encounter increased the number of his followers.
Using the Map as a guide, Lee quickly found the nearest exit. To his surprise, all the flooded paths converged at that one big underground area. Lee pushed all the suspicions into the back of the head as he can feel his body aching from the intense acrobatic session.
Before the Mud Eels could catch up with his shuttling through the tunnels, Lee exited the water with the accumulated momentum. Even at the last moments of the underwater propulsion, Lee was careful to take away as many Mud Eels he could.
Lee bolted forward without resting and finally came to an open area. This underground chamber was spacious and burning torches were on the walls. The illumination lit up space, and he could see the polished stone walls. At a glance, Lee felt something different.
[A total of 318 Trolls and 96 Mud Eels were absorbed into the EsGen. Let us wait and see the harvest.]
"That should suffice, or I hope so."
*hufff....*
Exhaling through his mouth, Lee Shen wiped off the sweat from his forehead. He can feel the fatigue taking over his bones and muscles, making his body numb.
Lee settled on the floor with his arms extending backwards to support his weary torso. His legs extended forward and did not have any energy to move. While exhaling heavily, he regulated his breath and quickly stabilised his beating heart.
'Where are we? This place is sufficiently illuminated.'
Lee asked as he scanned the surrounding by turning his head to all sides. The torches placed in the grooves of the wall caught his attention.
[I think we are in an underground assembly hall. This place is absolute unexplored.]
[And there is a platform a little away of us.]
'What? Where?.'
Lee had already flopped on the floor and raised his head and asked. At a distance, he could see something with dark grey colour and he assumed that to be the platform Hudson talked about.
---
About 10 minutes later.
=====
9 AM.
471,600 Essence harvested.
=====
After regaining enough energy, Lee opened the Map and took a holistic view of the network. No matter how hard he tried or how extensively he searched, the origin of the underground water blockage could not be found.
[That is weird. There should be something that maintains the water level for a long time.]
The presence of mud and fungi pointed out that the waterbody had been existing in the twisting tunnels for at least more than a decade. In contrast to this, the water table in the area was rather low.
'Then you two find the source of the water. Let me go and take a look at the platform.'
Lee dusted his clothes and stood up and walked to the large stone platform. The platform was only half a metre elevated from the rest of the floor. The rocky texture was standing out in the chamber made and surrounded by hardened soil and stones.
On the hexagonal stone platform, there was a large carving. It had many delicate figures and shapes intertwining and overlapping to form one big and elegant piece of art. Lee had to walk around the platform to get a good view of it.
[I never knew Trolls had an artistic side.]
[This does not belong to Trolls. Take a good look from the air.]
Lee floated upward with the help of Flight. As he rose, he could see the artwork as a whole. Lee almost exclaimed out aloud.
'This is a war portrait!'
Apart from a few inches of the border along the edge, the whole platform was a gigantic canvas! With no less than 25 metres as radius, the entire structure was filled with portraits of war and violence to the brim.
But, the intricate carvings were of a single colour, grey. Due to the uniform colouration, Lee had difficulty in distinguishing what was actually depicted.
'Colour the portrait.'
Upon Lee Shen's command, the interface scanned the portrait and painted it in detail. When colours picked up the beauty, a long forgotten history was unearthened.
[Who in the world spectated this battle?!]
From the six edges of the hexagon came six kingdoms led by six kings. Their armies rampaged the land and fought against each other. Arrows flew and spears drifted in the air. Blood dyed swords reflected the daylight. The sky carried the stench of blood.
The vast quantities of soldiers were carefully and flawlessly etched in the stone. The six armies were visibly different from each other. One of the six armies looked beastial and wild, while another had the primary elemental texture of stone and fire etched on them.
Opposing the human kingdom, a fiendish race held position and rushed at them. The last two were different from them all, as one among the two looked ethereal while the other was similar to mannequins.
The six kingdoms had their flags etched at the edge of the hexagonal border. The fluttering pieces of fabrics only had a few weird symbols on them. Except the king of human kingdom, all others were depicted as savage. Two among the six barbaric kings were carved as skeletons.
The borders that separated the kingdoms resembled lightning on rampage. The mounts of the kings were unrecognisable beasts of ancient ages. Then, the sight of soldiers trying to grab onto something, piqued the attention of the trio.
And at the centre of all this chaos and conflict was a small and ordinary wooden axe. The kings' majestic weapons were extending towards this common axe, and on its blade were some faded words etched.
[Wait, there is something written at the centre of the portrait.]
Hudson's words distracted Lee and D. As he had spoken, there were a few letters carved at the centre of the portrait. To their surprise, that part had faded away beyond recognition.