Why Am I a Priestess When I Reach the Maximum Level? - [Vol. 5] Chapter 270
[Vol. 5] Chapter 270: Stealth
Although she was surprised that Miss Dawn would have such a elemental spirit as a companion, Ayla felt at ease when she recalled the folklore from the Holy Empire, which claimed that the so-called “White Fox Saintess” was sent by the goddess to the mortal world to save followers in distress.
Whatever the truth might be, at least according to intelligence, Miss Dawn had indeed once summoned a noble and beautiful white dragon and seemed to share a close bond with it.
Since such a mystical creature, long disappeared from this world, shouldn’t even exist, it wasn’t surprising that she also had a light elemental spirit at her side.
This spirit usually slept within Ayla, seemingly in a semi-dormant state to minimize its energy consumption, only awakening on its own when Ayla summoned it or sensed she was in danger.
Perhaps because they were both beings of light, Ayla got along particularly well with this elemental spirit, and could even achieve a certain degree of mental communication when relying on it.
Though they would sometimes chat briefly, this was the first time the spirit actively suggested doing something.
Clearly, the spirit was aware of the unusual circumstances Ayla was in and had fully awakened and become serious.
The young scholar wasn’t the indecisive type. Since the spirit offered to help, she gladly accepted.
Ayla had long wanted to see just how miraculous this light element spirit, given to her personally by Miss Dawn with the assurance “as long as you don’t act recklessly, it will keep you safe,” truly was.
“Then, I’ll leave it to you.”
The moment she conveyed this thought, a gentle warmth began to spread from near the core of her body, where the light element spirit resided. Like a refreshing energy flowing to every limb, it instantly coated her skin with a thin, faintly glowing membrane, lying beneath her invisibility potion’s effect.
The traces of light were hidden by the effects of the invisibility potion, forming an inner layer that acted as a secondary barrier, isolating any natural aura the Lightborn girl might emit to the outside. It was intricately designed and precisely balanced, using not even a fraction more energy than necessary.
“This is really…”
Noticing that the light membrane even completely blocked sound from escaping, Ayla opened her mouth in amazement, utterly astonished.
It wasn’t just the comprehensiveness of its effect that amazed her but also its highly efficient use of limited energy. This precise control was something that ordinary creatures couldn’t achieve.
At this point, the young scholar was fully convinced that this was indeed a high-level intelligent spirit formed purely from condensed light elements. Otherwise, it would be impossible to control the elements as effortlessly as one’s own limbs.
Suppressing her shock, she focused on the light-elemental presence near her core, which had stopped sending thoughts but was still faintly pulsing, clearly closely monitoring her and the surroundings. Ayla took a deep breath, stepped out from her hiding spot among the trees, and moved forward slowly.
Five steps, ten steps, she drew closer.
No reaction.
Finally, she reached the edge of one of the large cracks extending from the massive depression. Rather than immediately leaning over to look down, she carefully observed the nearby mechanical spheres hovering and rotating in rhythm just a few meters away.
These strange mechanical orbs, with their single, glowing eyes, continued moving back and forth along their seemingly preset paths, reminding Ayla of clunky constructs like golems or rock automatons.
It seemed their intelligence was quite limited. As long as they didn’t detect anything “unusual,” they wouldn’t take any unnecessary actions.
After confirming that the mechanical spheres couldn’t detect or sense her presence, Ayla didn’t hesitate any longer and leaped into the dark opening of the crevice.
The rushing wind and air currents from her rapid descent were mostly blocked by the membrane created by the light elemental spirit, allowing only faint sounds to reach her ears.
Her lack of footing didn’t disturb Ayla, who was well-versed in real combat. She kept her eyes on the ground below, dim but visible in her Lightborn tribe vision, and silently calculated the time.
*Whoosh!*
Just before hitting the ground, she quickly pulled off her hood. Her shoulder-length, radiant hair flared like light, and a pair of small, delicate light wings briefly appeared, greatly slowing her descent before disappearing as quickly as they had come. She swiftly pulled her hood back on, landing lightly on her toes like a cat and completely neutralizing the last bit of her fall’s momentum before retreating without hesitation.
*Whizz! Whizz!*
Two red beams, whose purpose she couldn’t discern, swept past where she had been standing just a moment earlier. Immediately, two mechanical orbs, different in design from those above but more refined in structure, floated out of the shadows and hovered where she had landed.
The orbs floated in place, rotating left and right as if searching for something. After finding nothing, the red glow in their single eyes dimmed, and they each flew off in different directions.
Pressed against the wall, Ayla watched this unfold with a sense of relief.
As expected, there were surveillance and defense mechanisms below, even stricter than those above. She didn’t know what those red beams were, but she was certain that if one had scanned her directly, she would have been exposed by now.
The girl looked up at the ceiling of the vast hall, where faint light seeped through a network of tiny gaps, then glanced around.
There was only one exit here, yet the number of spherical flying drones drifting in and out was less than a tenth of what Miss Dawn had described. It seemed that after the last battle, they hadn’t fully replenished their numbers.
And after the previous incidents, the layout of this underground passage was bound to be restructured and repaired. If she had come any later, once the outer crevice was sealed up, finding a way in would have been nearly impossible.
“……”
Regardless, she had no choice but to press on and take things one step at a time.
Carefully avoiding the seemingly erratic yet noticeably smarter flying orbs in the hall, Ayla made her way toward the exit.
Just as she had expected, beyond the hall lay a complex network of underground tunnels. At least half of these were blocked by sand and debris, leaving only about a third open, with the main path straight ahead still accessible.
Ayla realized her luck was holding up.
Most of these blocked entrances likely led back to those surface crevices and had been abandoned. She’d managed to find one of the few that hadn’t been sealed yet.
Within the tunnels, more mechanical spheres flew about, like busy worker bees, carrying various materials and items attached to them.
Even more surprising to Ayla was that the creatures working here weren’t limited to just those machines.