I ordered decisively, "Everyone, get ready for combat. Have the laborers stay behind us. Soldiers, enter the tube. We'll gather a little ahead of the entrance."

With my order, everyone moved to their positions. The soldiers entered a combat formation, and Sarje even covered Temo's mouth to prevent him from shouting for help. I also approached the ventilation cover to observe the situation outside.

Two giant paw worms that seemed to be patrolling the area had reached Temo's workplace. They were curious about Temo's absence. At that moment, all of us were holding our breath in the ventilation duct. As we were quite far away from the registration counter, the giant paw worms had yet to notice any clues about Temo's disappearance.

The two worms crawled around for a bit before deciding that Temo was probably temporarily away since they couldn't find anything suspicious. They looked like they were about to leave....