The Hidden World

[You have a location in mind for our base already?] Akira asked Yuki as they walked out of the city.

‘I might,’ Yuki replied. ‘Not sure.’

[Where?]

‘I plan on putting it in the middle of the wilderness,’ he said. ‘It’ll probably be underground. All we are going to do is make the foundation. And by we, I mean you and I.’

[So we are going to use earth magic and excavate a large chunk of land underground and that’s going to be where our base will be located,] Akira summarized.

‘Basically. I’m going to get the dwarf—Damian—to work on the actual thing. I’ll drop by every now and then to see the progress and help around here and there.’

[I got it. Seems good.]

Yuki led the group of seven to a meadow near the edge of a dense forest that was located a bit away from the border of Fenrir. He stopped and looked around for a bit before nodding his head.

“Okay, this seems like a good spot,” Yuki said.

“There’s nothing here,” Damian pointed out. “Was there supposed to be something here?”

“I do like this place,” Zoe commented. “The meadow with all of its flowers and plants is nice.”

“Damian, there is nothing here. That is correct,” Yuki said to him. “But there will be soon enough. Just let me get ready.”

Yuki knelt down on the ground and spread his palms flat on it. Then he reached out with his mana and felt the earth beneath him. He began to scan the area within a mile radius, searching for anything that would make this spot unuseable.  

‘The ground seems stable; there aren’t any big inconsistencies or problems,’ Yuki noted. ‘It’s just normal earth and a layer of bedrock underneath. Oh, there’s a cave a few hundred yards from here. I should go explore it later.’

He stood up and cracked his fingers as he stretched in place. He took one more look around and then closed his eyes.

‘Akira, I could use some help here,’ he told her.

[I’m here,] she replied.

Yuki felt her hand slip into his own. He began to breathe slowly and touched the magical bond that connected him and Akira. Then he started to let his mana run free as it flowed in between the bond. He felt Akira do the same and their mana fused together, filling Yuki with a feeling of power.

‘Let’s do this,’ both of them thought, in sync.

Yuki reached down into the ground a few feet in front of him. He could feel every single grain within the earth, every rock, every ore, and even every insect that scuttle around. Then, infusing his thoughts with mana, he began to command the earth. He told it to divide, sectioning off a large rectangle of land. He told it to rise and he felt the ground vibrate beneath him. He made it disperse and then he began to fuse it back within the ground, strengthening the earthen walls of the outline of the base.

Throughout the whole process, Akira was supporting him in anyway she could. She understood his intentions and helped make them come true. Yuki could feel her manipulating mana and the earth in ways that surpassed his own magic, supplementing his own magic.

When they finished, Yuki felt a large portion of his mana depleted and he knew that Akira wasn’t any better. He opened his eyes to see a large rectangular hole that was about ten feet deep and as wide as a house in front of him. The walls were completely smooth and flat, not a hint of a grain could be seen. The angles between the walls were sharp and clean.

‘Good job Akira,’ he said, a bit tired.

[Thank you,] she replied, her voice sounded just as tired as his.

Yuki turned back to the people behind him and was greeted to five faces of varying levels of shock. Damian had his jaw on the ground, Sarah was frozen in place, Erica was looking around as if she was not sure where she was, and the two other demons had wide open eyes.

“So, I finished with the outline of where our base will be,” Yuki said in a plain voice. “Now we just need to make the actual building.”

“You’re an earth elementalist?” Damian asked.

“That’s my affinity, yes,” Yuki replied.

“I now accept you one hundred percent as my boss,” he said.

‘Wait, does that mean he didn’t before?’

“Yuki, you know your eyes were glowing,” Erica commented. “Akira’s too.”

“Really?”

“I saw it when you reopened your eyes. But it did fade away a few seconds later.”

‘Akira, did you notice that?’

[Not at all,] she replied. [I not sure what it would mean anyway.]

“Well, anyway,” Yuki said, changing topics. “This is just where the headquarters will be located. I excavated the area out with Akira’s help and reinforced the ground around it. Damian, I’ll leave the construction to you.”

“Perfect,” he said, a smile on his face. “I’ll get straight to the designing. Do you mind if I inspect the area you just dug out?”

“Go ahead,” Yuki answered. “But wait a moment.”

Yuki walked over to the rectangular hole and dropped down in it, crouching as he landed. Then he went to one of the walls and, with a little mana, created indents into it to function as a makeshift ladder.

“Alright, you can come in,” he announced.

Damian hopped down into the hole and looked around it. He started to mutter to himself as he scratched his chin. Then he rapped onto the earthen walls and his eyes widened. Next he punched it and pulled his hand back with a grunt.

“What did you make these walls out of again?” Damian asked.

“Dirt,” Yuki replied. “I just packed it really tight.”

“It feels like concrete,” Damian commented. “And it looks nothing like dirt. There isn’t even any dust coming off of it when I hit it. And there isn’t any mark where I hit it.”

“Akira helped,” Yuki shrugged.

Damian took a few more minutes to look around before he nodded and climbed out. Yuki followed him and waited for his comments.

“I have some ideas,” Damian said. “I’ll go home tonight to see what I can come up with and to flesh out everything. I’ll be back tomorrow and I’ll start the construction with some buddies.”

“Wait, you’ll have people coming over?” Yuki asked.

“Of course. I can’t do this all by myself, you know.”

“Then I’ll drop by as well,” Yuki decided. “I need to see your people myself and give judgement on them. You understand.”

“That’s fair,” Damian nodded.

“How about us?” Tiar said. “What are to do?”

Yuki turned to look at the other four people. He took a few seconds to consider his answer.

“I will tell you in a few days what the plan is going to be,” he announced. “Before then, I want you all to prepare yourselves in anyway possible. That means things like training and putting your personal matters in order. Like I said before, I need some time to decide where I will be placing you. Do you all have ways for me to contact you?”

“I don’t, sorry,” Tiar answered. Sarah and Zoe said the same.

“Erica, do you know how to reach them personally?” Yuki asked.

“Yes, I do. They gave me their addresses,” she replied.

“And you still have the earpiece that I gave you yesterday?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, then here’s the plan for communication,” Yuki said. “I will go back to Junction and I will buy some more communicators. Then I will contact Erica to meet me back here in Fenrir where I will then give to her the communicators. Erica, you will go and deliver these to Tiar, Zoe, and Sarah. Understood?”

“Yup,” Erica said.

“Excuse me, but isn’t using communicators dangerous?” Sarah asked.

“Normally yes,” Yuki said. “But you don’t need to worry about spying since I have countermeasures for that. Are there any other questions?”

No one spoke.

“Then you are all dismissed. Hopefully, I’ll see you in a few days.”