Fairy Tail: You said you were just acting, are you serious?

The explosion made Ron, who was leaning against the wall, feel a slight tremor.

Once the shaking on the wall subsided, Ron peered out to see where the monster was.

The magic crystals nearby stopped glowing due to the explosion, making the surrounding area appear somewhat dim.

Black smoke rose from the location of the monster, raising dust from the surrounding area.

As the smoke and dust gradually dissipated, the demonic beast was already charred black from the explosion and lay in the large crater on the ground, unable to rise again.

Ron stepped forward to examine the charred carcass of the monster. He saw that its scales had been shattered, its large front teeth had been blown out and broken, and only the roots of its teeth remained in its jaws.

Ron's grasshoppers contained the same amount of clay as a clay spider, and unexpectedly, this explosion instantly killed the monster.

However, Ron shook his head, feeling that the power was still too great and had caused quite a commotion.

"We need to reduce the quantity by half again, and that will be just enough to kill them all, hmm."

As an artist, he naturally needed to control the amount of explosives to demonstrate his professionalism.

This charred appearance is not artistic at all!

Moreover, he discovered a very important problem.

Ron crouched down, carefully examining the surrounding rock face, and even picked up a few fallen rocks.

He clenched his fist tightly, and the falling rocks crumbled like cookies with a single squeeze.

After rubbing it a few more times, it turned into quicksand and flowed down his hands.

Although the tremor was not significant, judging from the falling rocks from the top of the rock, the structure of this side tunnel is not as well-constructed as the main tunnel.

If he doesn't control the amount of clay bombs, the tunnel is in danger of collapsing at any time.

"We need to find those mission targets as soon as possible. If they stay here any longer, the tunnel might collapse and we won't be able to get out, hmm."

Ron brushed the remaining sand off his hands, stood up, and continued deeper into the tunnel.

He took out more spiders and grasshoppers from the bag and spread them outwards from where he had landed.

He focused his mental energy and expanded his magical perception range again through the magical connection.

He sensed that the small animals were moving faster without him even noticing.

Unexpectedly, after only a short while, three more magical beasts broke into his sensing range.

"Sure enough, the commotion just now has caught their attention."

Ron wasn't in a hurry. He continued to walk deeper into the area while controlling the three spiders to approach the three magical beasts.

When the magic sensing ranges overlapped, Ron issued another detonation command.

"drink!"

Boom!

Perhaps because we were farther away from the explosion this time, the commotion was much smaller than before. We could only sense the magic power on those magical beasts dissipating instantly within the range of our magic perception.

Ron continued forward and saw the three scaled rats lying on the ground, their charred bellies ripped open by spiders.

Most importantly, the tremor was not significant, and there were few fallen rocks nearby.

"That's perfect, hmm."

Ron nodded in satisfaction and continued deeper into the area.

......

Meanwhile, deep inside the side mine shafts.

Five young miners in overalls were hiding behind a pile of discarded wooden crates and mine carts.

Everyone was trembling with fear, unable to suppress their recent encounter with the monster.

They had only recently reached the age where they could mine, but unexpectedly, a group of magical beasts took over the main tunnels in a few months, making it impossible for them to make a living by mining magic crystals.

They thought that since they couldn't mine in the main tunnel, they could go to the side tunnels, where they wouldn't encounter monsters and could even mine some magic crystal ore to sell for money.

These young miners never expected that there was a passage connecting the two tunnels deep inside. As a result, when they were chiseling the magic crystal ore, they attracted the attention of several magical beasts, which allowed these beasts to sneak into the side tunnel.

Fortunately, these magical beasts were only sensitive to sound, and were somewhat dull in other areas, which allowed the other magical beasts to bypass them.

Several burlap sacks, filled with high-value magic crystal rough stones, lay at their feet.

Boom!

A loud noise suddenly came from the outside of the tunnel, causing a series of echoes.

The ground trembled slightly, and several pieces of rock fell from the overhead rock layer.

"What happened outside? Why is there such a commotion?"

A taller miner mustered his courage and cautiously asked the other miners.

"Could it be a landslide?"

Could it be that those magical beasts ran rampant and caused the outer area to collapse?

Another muscular miner speculated, his face ashen.

"No, we need to find another way out."

If this commotion alerts the monsters next door, and they all rush in, we'll have nowhere to hide!

After the taller miner finished speaking, he looked at the miner who had led the way in.

The other miners also turned their gazes toward the leader, hoping he would make a decision.

The foreman, sweating profusely, finally adjusted his helmet and nodded, saying:

"Let's leave before those monsters turn back, otherwise we'll all be trapped here!"

The others nodded in agreement with his statement.

Everyone quickly stood up and carried the sacks on their shoulders.

Using the magic crystals on the walls and the fluorescence emanating from the mouths of the sacks, they continued deeper into the tunnel.

The deeper you go, the thinner the air becomes, and the heavier everyone's breathing becomes.

They deeply regretted not having thoroughly studied the tunnel diagrams left by the old miners, which would have prevented them from being trapped here.

With each step the young miners took forward, they prayed for the safety of their loved ones, for their lives were filled with hardship and despair.

Just as they reached the corner, the lead miner stopped in his tracks and froze in place.

The miner behind him didn't have time to brake, and his chest collided with the back of the car, almost causing him to exhale all the air in his chest.

The tall miner was about to bend down and ask when he followed the lead miner's gaze and their eyes widened.

In the tunnel ahead, which should have been glowing blue, the traces of the magic crystals on the nearby rock walls were gone, leaving only a pitch-black abyss.

rustling......

From within this abyss came a series of strange sounds, like rocks rubbing against hard objects.

Suddenly, one pair, two pairs, three pairs...

A dozen or so pairs of scarlet beast eyes glowed eerily in this abyss.

Chapter 30 Escape

"What's going on? Why isn't it moving...!"

The three people behind frowned, peeked out, and their eyes widened instantly.

The three people behind them saw the same thing and all gasped.

They could smell the mineral-smelling stench from the scalers' mouths, as well as the pungent odor of their urine.

The lead miner looked at those pairs of vertical pupils, and a chill ran down his spine, his mouth trembling uncontrollably.

"Quick, turn around! Run!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the miners turned around, did a 180-degree turn, and retreated back the way they came.

They retreated around the corner and fled in a panic.

Squeak squeak squeak~!

The ground trembled, and the group of scaled rats rushed out of the abyss.

The lead scaled rat rushed to the corner, swerved to the side and crashed into the rock wall, but continued to chase after the miners at an undiminished pace.

The other scaled rats followed suit when they reached the corner, catching up with the lead rat and chasing after the five miners.

The miners glanced back at the swarm of scaled rats charging towards them, so frightened that they didn't even have time to pick up their fallen safety helmets.

"Stop carrying those sacks! Aim for their feet and throw them to slow them down!"

Upon hearing this from the miners, they quickly threw all the sacks they were carrying at them, trying to hinder their progress.

Unfortunately, the scaled rats were not tripped up by the magic crystals in the sacks. The lead scaled rat dodged the sacks, walking steadily on all fours, its eyes always fixed on the miners.

Some of the scaled rats even tore the sacks open with their teeth and threw them away, letting the magic crystal ore fall to the ground, without slowing down their pursuit.

"Why aren't they stopping?!"

As the miners watched the swarm of scaled rats gradually close in, cold sweat poured down their foreheads.

Even though the miners ran as fast as they could, they still couldn't get rid of them.

Although the scaled rats are slow-witted, they have naturally developed hard, sharp claws from living in mines year-round, allowing them to walk on these rugged rock walls with ease.

As the swarm of scaled squirrels continued their charge, the distance between them had already shrunk to only ten steps.

Just then, six white grasshoppers flew over the miner's head and leaped toward the leading group of scaled rats.

"drink!"

The six white grasshoppers jumped onto the heads of the first three scaled rats, and just as they were about to touch the rats' eyebrows, they all emitted a dazzling white light.

Boom!

The violent explosions overlapped at the same moment, and the faces of the first three scaled rats were blown to pieces, with the charred flesh emitting a burnt smell.

The three running bodies suddenly froze, their charred and smoking heads falling to the ground.

The three crippled bodies that collapsed to the ground tripped up many of the scaled rats that were chasing after them, slowing their pace.

The cold sweat on the foreheads of the five miners was instantly dried by the sound of the clay bomb, and their faces showed expressions of shock.

"Keep running, don't stop!"

They turned around and looked in the direction from which the sound came, and saw a figure dressed in a black robe with red clouds, who looked like a strange child.

Ron's brow furrowed slightly, and the veins on either side of his temples were bulging. Two small white birds were perched on his shoulders.

Seeing the large group of scaled rats appear, he focused intently on manipulating the clay animals.

He no longer used his usual verbal tic when shouting at the miners.

Clay grasshoppers and spiders continued to swarm toward the scaled rats behind the miners, each finding their target and radiating the last glimmer of their lives.

The tunnel continued to shake as explosions rang out.

Seeing that the rocks above were still falling and that the number of scaled rats had not decreased, Ron stopped throwing out clay.

He then waved his arm sharply at the miners, signaling them to follow.

"Hurry up and follow me before they catch up!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the little birds on Ron's shoulder took flight, and he himself ran toward the entrance.

Ron followed the birds to find his way and ran over there.

The miners nodded in agreement, their hopes rekindled, and they kept running forward with all their might, following in Ron's footsteps.

As Ron ran, his hands were still in his pockets, frantically channeling magic into him and quickly conjuring one spherical spider after another.

He temporarily stopped activating the spheres and continued to accumulate them in the bag until the first bag of magic clay was used up.

Squeak squeak squeak~!

Ron looked back and saw that the swarm of scaled rats were still hot on their heels, determined not to give up until they caught them.

Ron slowly activated the clay spiders, sending them one by one toward the lead scaled rat, just to slow them down until the miners had escaped safely.