196 Digging, Digging, I'm Digging a Tunnel
"Digging, Digging, I'm Digging a tunnel~. Once again, I'm digging a tunnel~. No sleep no need, for the tunnel will collapse~. Supplying oxygen for people to live~. Digging, Digging, I'm Digging a tunnel~," I sing.
"For the seventy-third time, will you please stop singing, you tone-deaf Dragon?" Aurelia asks, complaining about my wonderful song.
"No! I've been awake for three days straight with no rest at all. If I'm going to keep going, I will sing!"
***A few days prior***
"Here's a good spot to land," Yue says as we are flying around near the border of Shenzhou and Samhan.
"I still don't like this idea," I say as we descend.
"You brought this on yourself, so deal with it," Aurelia says as we land and jump off Lia's back.
"It's also a good way to sneak over to the area near the Capital. I don't think anyone will expect this," Yue says as she shifts back to her humanoid form.
"Can't someone else do anything to help?"
"Sorry, Cory, but no one else has the capability to do it."
"Lia's right, you're the only one who can do this. No one else can dig through the ground as well as you can, none of us can create the oxygen we need to survive down there, and only you can keep the whole thing from collapsing in on us," Aurelia says.
"Fine, but don't think I'll forget who created this idea," I say, staring at Wanjing who turns her head away as she whistles.
"To go over it one last time, we cause a commotion and let ourselves purposely get seen by the patrols around here to make them think we are near Samhan. Then Cordelia will dig a down and create a tunnel in the direction of the Capital of Shenzhou, Long," Aurelia says.
"The only good part about this plan is where I can do as I please in the beginning."
"Glad to see there are no objections. We'll set up camp here and wait a few days for you to do your thing. Lia, you should follow her to make sure she can find her way back. Now let's get moving," Aurelia says, blatantly ignoring the objections I have.
"Whatever, I'll be back a few days. I'm going to go eat a few forests."
***Back to the present***
"It's not like you didn't have your fun in the beginning. You ate so much that you got that mutation you wanted and you even levelled up, so don't complain. Besides, we haven't exactly had the best resting experience since you drag us along with you when we sleep," Aurelia says.
"That doesn't justify all the overwork. And does anyone even know where we are?" I ask.
"We can go up and check. Depending on how close we are to the Capital we can just walk above ground the rest of the way," Yue says.
"Can we just walk above ground regardless? Teacher's singing is horrendous and staying underground for so long is wearing me out," Wanjing says.
"I think we should as well. Cory deserves a break for all the work she's put in," Lia says.
"I'm ok with that, but can we please try to stay low profile this time? Unlike before, we are deep into what could be considered enemy territory," Yue says.
"Indeed, if we decide to walk above ground for the rest of the trip, then we need to keep quiet and not cause any problems, so no more explosions," Aurelia says.
"Ok, anything as long as I don't need to keep this up," I say as I begin digging back up towards the surface.
As a way to make sure we avoid any detection, I had to dig deep before creating the actual tunnel so it takes a little over an hour before we finally arrived at the surface. Poking my head out from underground, I confirm that there isn't anyone in the area and widen the hole for us to all leave before closing it back up.
We begin to survey the surroundings to figure out our current location, well, Wanjing and Yue do since they are the ones familiar with the land, all I know is that we are on the side of a mountain. After a few minutes of those two climbing trees, Wanjing and Yue return having figured out where we are.
"The good news is that we aren't too far from the Xia province, where the Capital is located. We're in the Shu province which borders it." Wanjing says.
"If you say it like that then there's bad news too, right?" Lia asks.
"Yeah, the bad news is the Shu province is larger than most and we are on the far side away from the Xia province," Yue says.
"So how far is it from the closest city?" Aurelia asks.
"Not too far, from our current location, there is a small city about half a day away. The primary focus of the Shu province is agriculture, so other than the Shu Capital, there aren't any large cities. This is good for us since the military presence isn't too high until we reach the Xia province," Yue explains.
"Then let's make our first order of business to reach that closest city and resupply and then we can formulate a new plan from there. I really want to eat some good food, so let's hurry."
