Chapter 14: Discovery

Joshua was walking alongside Eristia's horse as they made their way to the mines down a dirt trail. It had been one whole hour since they left the cabin that morning. Minna's head was tilted down slightly as she walked. She desperately longed to see her husband, Richter, and hoped the mines were empty. Yuriy and Luciana kept their eyes open for more Solar Glory trees as they traveled along the trail. They were in a large, open clearing surround by trees that had remnants of past travelers dotted about. A small, old campfire pit had been dug in the center and still had two old, charred logs in it. It didn't take long for Yuriy to spot a tree along the side of the clearing with Solar Glory bulbs growing high up in the branches. As he approached the tree and grabbed the lowest branch to pull himself up, it snapped, and he landed on his back. With his world spinning, he looked at the tree wondering how he was going to climb it now.

"Great…how are we going to get the Solar Glory now?" Eristia said with gall. `

Joshua approached the tree and managed to jump high enough to grab the next lowest branch and began making his way up through the branches. Eristia and Luciana were surprised he was able to even make such a jump. The next highest had to be at least ten feet above the ground, but Joshua managed to do it with little effort. Yuriy stood up in a daze and shook his head as he watched Joshua climb through the branches. Once Joshua was at the top, he could see Lescatie far off in the distance. He turned and gazed up at the mountain summit and could see the entrance to what looked like a mine. There wasn't even a cloud in the sky. Joshua then turned back to the flowering Solar Glory and pulled out his swiss army knife and flipped out the scissors. It wasn't long before the bulbs began landing softly on the ground and Yuriy set his knapsack on the ground and pulled out the jar of Solar Gloryy before scooping the flower bulbs into his hand and placing them in the jar.

"Okay, the jar's full come on down!" Yuriy called up to him.

Eristia let out a sigh of relief while Luciana smiled. Minna on the other hand just kept her eyes looking down. Joshua began making his way down before dropping out of the tree and landing on his feet. Yuriy placed the jar back in his knapsack before mounting his horse.

"Okay, that's one job done. Let's go check the mines for any activity or intelligence we can find." Eristia ordered before they continued up the trail.

"Hey, Joshua, how did you make that jump? I've never really heard of a normal person having strength that could rival a hero, yet you did that with little effort." Yuriy asked him curiously as they trotted up the trail towards the mines.

"….My grandpa was strict when it came to an exercise regimen when he was alive. On top of that I was an athlete in high school-Oxford High school track and field star and a member of the air rifles team." Joshua answered reluctanly. "My actual father was also a russian soldier and a member of Spetsnaz back when he had a sense of honor. So I come from a full military family background. Strength just comes naturally to me."

"..What is Spets…Spet…ok, I have no clue how to say that, but what is it?" Yuriy asked him curiously as he struggled to pronounce the strange russian word.

"Spets-naz….a specialist branch of the russian military. Not the type you could handle. I don't think any of Lescatie's heroes could fight one in a one-on-one fight with no guns or magic. They're tough and trained heavily in hand-to-hand combat as well as marksmanship and survival." Joshua answered as he kept his eyes on Minna. "The American equivalent would be the Green Berets with just as much training. Getting into a military special forces unit requires being handpicked followed by an extreme training regiment. That's something I'm sure only the heroes here could accomplish."

"Your actual father…..are you an illegitimate child?" Eristia asked him with slight anger in her voice.

"That is correct. But my father is a criminal who I want nothing to do with. Not since he tried to sell me to a "friend" of his as slave labor eight years ago. Spent a few months learning russian just so I could speak with him man-to-man only to get clobbered over the back of the head, lose a lot of my memory, and go through a three-day nightmare." Joshua answered calmly.

Just thinking about that incident was enough for Joshua's eyes to give off a thousand-yard stare. Joshua's father had stuffed him in a small dog cage after knocking him out and put him in the basement as he waited for his "friend" to arrive and pay for the "goods". When Joshua came to, his father had stripped him naked and taunted him while sitting on a chair before leaving to go make himself dinner. It didn't take long for Joshua to escape the cage and get his belongings as well as his clothes back. He then snuck out of his father's house and spent a day down in what was the bad side of Detroit. Things took a turn for the worse when he got into a fight with a local gang thug who tried to shoot him. Joshua had managed to get his gun away from him and shot him while on a rush of adrenaline and fear. Joshua then took the thugs car and headed to the address listed on his driver's license, his grandpa's house, all the while traumatized by the recent events.

"Oh…I'm sorry I asked…" Eristia replied, sounding a little shaken.

Eristia's father once had an affair with another woman who was a servant. Eristia's father was a nobleman, and sent the woman away afterward, only for her to give birth to his daughter. Her mother died during childbirth and Eristia ended up in a church orphanage where Eristia met Yuriy as a child. The two were separated when Eristia's father came to get her when she was only Eight years old. It had been thirteen years since then, and she and Yuriy had a chance meeting a year ago back when she was on a campaign and was temporarily folded into his knight squad as its main hero.

"You don't have to apologize. All you did was ask the right question at the right time." Joshua reassured her.

Eristia contemplated what he meant by "right question at the right time" as they slowly continued up the trail. As they walked, Joshua noticed a thin glint in front of him. It was then that Eristia's horse stepped on a trip wire, and from the trees, a large log with pink spikes stuck in it swung down from above. Joshua rushed forward and caught the log with the spikes going right through his hands. Eristia could feel her heart racing in her chest as Joshua cut the ropes holding the log up and drag it over to the side of the trail.

"They booby trapped the trail….?" Yuriy said in shock.

Both Eristia and Yuriy were shaken. Luciana was sweating nervously. All three of them realized how close they were to being easy prey for their succubus prisoner. Joshua let out a slight chuckle as he stepped back onto the trail. He knew the one thing no one else was thinking, and that was the trap still would have potentially killed someone due to the heavy log hitting them despite being riddled with spikes made from demon realm metal.

"Does anyone see the problem with this trap?" he asked with a smirk.

Luciana, Yuriy, and Eristia all gave him a confused stare. Minna just kept looking down, hoping they would get a move on.

"That log would've still killed someone. Due to it's large size and the velocity of its swing speed…..someone would have been seriously injured or worse from getting hit by it. Whoever built it is either a complete idiot or had murder in mind." He explained to them.

Luciana began to feel nauseous while Eristia and Yuriy became overwashed with a feeling of doom. The three of them began to wonder if it was worth it to check the mines. They had fulfilled Gali's herb order and could turn back if they so chose to. That's when Joshua made an offer.

"I'll go check for more traps further up the trail. I'll be fine seeing as they have a reliance on their demon realm metals for weapons. Once I've disarmed them, I'll come right back." He said as he looked further up the trail.

The three of them watched as he began confidently walking up the trail. Eristia didn't want to let him go alone, but she didn't have much of a choice. Joshua was right about the overreliance on demon metals, but the fact a monster used an ordinary log combined with Joshua's theory caused her to feel a great deal was at risk.

"W-wait just a moment!" Eristia called after him.

Joshua turned around to see Eristia, Yuriy, and Luciana with looks of concern on their faces.

"Please be careful. In all honesty you've been a big help. I guess Captain Mersé saw it sooner than anyone else, but you might just be the help we need." Eristia said as she looked down slightly.

"Trust me, I've dealt with people putting hunting traps illegally on my property at my cabin before. I can handle this." Joshua replied with a smile.

He didn't take more than eight steps before the ground gave out beneath him and he ended up knee-deep in a punji stick trap. Joshua let out a hearty laugh as he began pulling them out of the ground one by one and pulled out three that had gone through his left foot. He then set them off to the side of the trail before running into a tree branch whip trap with four demon realm metal spikes tied to it with rope made from tree bark strands. Joshua broke the branch in half and set the spiked end off to the side. By now he was halfway up the trail. Minna was watching as he just brushed off all the demon realm metal as if it were just all just piles of feathers. She began wondering just where they found him and how he could be completely immune to demon realm metals.

"I can't sense his presence due to a lack of a soul and on top of that he's completely immune to the energy draining effects of demon realm metals. He also has strength comparable to a hero despite being "normal" if I can even call it that. He also has several gadgets at his disposal as well as a gun from his world. I have no Idea just where they found that "thing", but I have to do something about him…for the sake of the monster nation as a whole." Minna thought as she stared at him intently.

It didn't take Joshua long to vanish from their sight. Luciana was growing anxious, and Yuriy wondered if he should have gone with him. A bad gut feeling began to well up within her. All the demon realm metal spikes were a red flag to her that the demon realm army had been there previously. What they didn't know was Joshua had just stumbled on a major discovery. Joshua had made it up the trail to the mine entrance. There were a few piles of crates scattered around so he pulled out his phone and began snapping pictures with its camera. Joshua found it strange that there weren't any guards as it was clear to him that this was a staging point for a big operation.

"Where are the guards? Were they really relying that heavily on those traps? I've gotta get these photos back to Eristia and search the mine with all of them." Joshua thought as he examined a few crates

One of the crates was left open and contained strange heart shaped fruit. The fruit was strangely transparent and filled with a white colored inner flesh. Joshua walked over to it and grabbed one from the crate to take a few photos of it. A drop of juice slid down the fruit that gave off a revolting aroma to him, so he dropped the heart shaped fruit back into the crate before running back to Eristia and the others. Along the way he took several photos of the traps.

Joshua stopped before Eristia as he tried to catch his breath. Eristia sensed something was amiss just as Joshua pulled out his phone showing her the crate of strange fruits.

"We have…a big problem…" he said between breaths.

"What is it?" Luciana asked tensely.

"But that can't be….that mine has been abandoned for over twenty years…" Eristia said as she looked at the photo. "We have to check the mines…come." She added as she motioned for them to continue up the trail.

"Just what did he find?" Yuriy asked nervously.

"Lescatie is in danger." Eristia replied.

A/N: Things are going to be slow on my end as I'm in the middle of moving into a new apartment. There was originally meant to be more added to this chapter but this is a good place to leave off on. (don't worry i'm not dead, just busy)