Chapter 21 Finale

The Ruins

They began the trek south. Korah beamed with happiness when it became clear she could ride Brawler as they travelled, however, her energy began to flag as the afternoon wore on. Soon she had gone pale and the sun glistened off a sheen of sweat that had formed on her face.

Lucas called a halt, ostensibly to wait for some of his Brood to return from their hunting trip, but truthfully because he worried that Korah couldn't take much more today. The Combat Spiders returned, dragging in a four metre lizard just before dusk. Korah had gone quiet, resting against a tree with her axe in her lap. Lucas collected dry wood while Digger made a pit.

He started a fire using Korah’s flint, which he took from the front pocket of her bag without bothering to ask. She was softly snoring by the time he had sacrificed the massive lizard and hatched two new Combat Spiders, bringing him up to eight. Lucas left the Arachs to do whatever they thought was best, watching them organising themselves as he got comfortable by the fire.

Left to their own devices they had split into two teams. Brawler took one Scout and most of the Combat Spiders on a night hunt. The other Scouts and three combat spiders stayed to run patrols, setting up a perimeter around their Broodlord.

The Digger seemed a little left out and lost, just tailing Lucas like a puppy and not interacting with the other Arachs. He wasn't sure why, perhaps because all the other spiders were based on the Cave Arach template and it was a Deep Arach. Lucas fell asleep thinking about how his spiders communicated with each other. For them to organise themselves as a team without any vocal communication was impressive.

When Lucas woke, Korah was roasting strips of lizard meat over a fresh fire. The Arachs were crowding in, drawn by the scent of roasting meat. Lucas called them over, and from behind a tree that Korah couldn't see, he dumped a couple of dead slavers and stayed to watch as the Arachs ripped them to pieces.

Several freshly paralysed forest creatures, piled together in a lump of fur, hooves, and claws had been dragged in by the hunting team as he slept. They produced enough Mana to hatch two more Combat Spiders, bringing him up to ten, and two more Scouts, bringing him up to Six. The lizard meat was tough and tangy, but Lucas enjoyed it. Before they set out, he warped the carcasses of the sacrificed animals into his inventory while Korah climbed up onto Brawler's back. They followed the road, but far enough into the forest to keep out of sight of travellers.

Lucas was sure he would only hear bravado if he asked Korah how she was doing, so he kept a close eye on her. She was intermittently putting on and taking off the Regeneration Bracer, which worried him since it suggested she was continuing to take damage internally. There was nothing either of them could do about it, but he couldn't help worrying. She had done so much for him, and protected him so many times that he would give anything for a way to help her.

Some time after noon they came across a cobbled path that led off the road deeper into the forest. Although made from the same ancient stonework as the main road, it was clearly not in regular use. The path was obscured as it led into the forest. The cobbles reappeared intermittently as the elevation of the forest floor dipped to reveal the flat plane it was built upon.

Brawler idled to a stop near Lucas as Korah studied the road.

“This will lead to Ruins. It might be what you are looking for. We are still half a day from Caleb’s camp, do you want to get closer?”

“Let's try from here. If we get too close to the Slavers we won't be able to hunt safely without being noticed.” Lucas replied.

The path ran deeper into the forest, the foliage getting thicker and thicker until they needed the Combat Spiders to hack a path forward for Lucas. Korah and Brawler had no such problems. The afternoon was growing chilly by the time the path led them into an open glade covered in the rubble of ancient buildings. The fact that no trees grew here was evidence that a complex of buildings lay buried, giving no room for large root systems to take hold.

Korah began collecting firewood. She was obviously exhausted from their day's travel, so Lucas pestered her until she sat down to rest. The Arach hunting party returned late, dragging a big Rock Bone Bear.

“You guys took that down on your own? Nice work!” Lucas said as they dragged and pushed it laboriously into the clearing. The praise in his Aura made them glow with pride at their accomplishment, causing Lucas to smile in return.

Lucas scanned the Ruins for an entrance while the deer from yesterday slowly roasted over a fire. Ending up frustrated at not finding one, he called Digger over to start excavating a hole. It very quickly hit a stone floor, about a metre under the soil. Not to be deterred, Digger started drooling acid onto the stone, glancing at Lucas to check if it was what he wanted. Lucas nodded appreciatively and gave a thumbs up. Soon the acid had melted a hole big enough for him to slip through.

By this point the sun had set. Korah had eaten some deer and was resting against a crumbled stone pillar with her eyes closed. Lucas took a hot slab of meat for himself and chewed on a mouthful as he got out the Brood Nexus and sacrificed the bear. It wasn't as massive as the one he and Korah had fought, but combined with his own Mana it was enough to hatch a second Brawler.

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Lucas stepped back as the massive Arach cut its way out of the egg. It looked at Lucas curiously for a moment, then performed a salute with its massive Scythes and moved to join the team as they tore apart the bear’s carcass. He wondered why the Brawlers were doing that. The combat Spiders never saluted him. It was a very human thing to do. He had spent a lot longer working on the Brawler design. Perhaps ‘human’ qualities were drifting into them at the foetal stage from prolonged exposure to his Mana as he worked with the Nexus.

Lucas went to sit near Korah to eat some more deer. As he moved a chunk of meat towards his face he saw that his fingernails had turned black. That was an odd development, and he didn't know what it meant. On closer inspection they also had become thicker and tapered to a slight point. Was he growing claws now? He didn't want to think about what that meant, so he just curled up near the fire in his bear skin and continued thinking over new spider designs until he fell asleep.

Lucas woke as dawn broke over the canopy, painting the glade in hues of orange and purple. The light didn't bother him any more, thankfully. He wondered if his eyes had gone back to a normal shape, but he didn't have time to check at the moment.

The Arachs seemed to be adjusting to match his sleeping patterns and many were just waking up. Four out of six Scouts he kept with him. One he assigned to the hunting parties, and the last would do patrols around the camp. This sort of nuanced instruction had been difficult to make clear not long ago, but seemed effortless now. Either the spiders had become used to understanding him, or reaching 7 Spirit allowed him to communicate with them better.

Lucas led the four scouts to the hole Digger had made into the Ruins. He sent them in while waiting at the entrance. As they skittered into the hole, Lucas expanded his Map from its customary place in the corner of his vision to encompass his whole perspective. The Scouts had no issue seeing in the low light. Lucas watched his Map filling out with details as they scuttled along a large tubular tunnel that ran north and south. At the floor of the tunnel was a raised walkway with something like irrigation channels dug into it.

Closing his eyes, he shifted his perspective to Scry through the Scouts. The mineral smell of ancient rust and powdered stone permeated the otherwise clean and crisp air. That was unexpected. Most interesting however, were the sounds being picked up by the spiders… Legs.

Since every leg was its own sensor, it provided a richly detailed and omni-directional audio experience. A soft current of air was flowing from south to north, which implied some kind of ventilation system was still functioning. He could hear… metallic scraping sounds from deeper in. And underneath everything was a constant and disturbingly regular rhythm of deep thudding. It sounded like a distant heartbeat, only audible due to the immensity of it. Thum-thum, Thum-thum. It was deep and slow, permeating through the very stone. Thum-thum, Thum-thum. Hearing an organic sound in such an ancient and artificial environment felt very out of place.

He sent one Scout along the tunnel northwards, to check for threats from behind. The other three he directed to follow the tunnel south, then Scried to follow their progress towards the Slavers camp. The tunnel was featureless and perfectly symmetrical for a very long time. No branches lead in any other direction, but occasionally the tunnel sloped down, deeper into the earth.

Several hours later the Scouts reached an intersection with three branches. The central one that continued towards Caleb’s camp, was blocked off by an immense slab of stone. The side tunnels ran east and west, and one Scout ran down each. The third Scout scurried all over the blocked passage until it found a hole at the top, just big enough for it to fit through. Air was blowing forcefully though the little hole, resulting in a rushing sound as it brushed the sensitive hairs on the Spider’s legs. Lucas figured it was there for airflow, like a ventilation shaft.

He immediately saw movement as the Scout emerged on the other side of the blockage. Annoyingly, the Scout appeared not to notice, turning away to continue exploring. Lucas only saw it for a moment but it looked like a metallic floating orb, bristling with strange appendages like a combination of a steel jellyfish and a Swiss army knife.

Most peculiar of all, however, was that it didn't have an Aura. It must have been one of the robots, the Soulless as Korah had named them. A lot had changed since he had met the little robot which had taken a sample of his skin. He didn't feel particularly intimidated. It was time to go in and have a look for himself. If he couldn't find a way to open that slab of stone that blocked the way south, he would bring in Digger and melt it down with acid. Or maybe Brawler could act like a battering ram, even if he got hurt he could just regenerate and try again.

He considered taking a force of Arachs with him into the Ruins, but decided against it. His Scouts, Map, Stealth, and Scrying abilities would likely enable him to work around any trouble he encountered without losses. His Combat Spiders would immediately attack anything they considered a threat to him, which would likely result in unnecessary losses.

On average, every Arach was able to hunt down enough Mana for him to hatch a new one in a day. Which would again bring in enough Mana to hatch another. It was an exponential curve, as long as the supply of prey lasted. They had just moved into new territory, so he wanted to have as many spiders out hunting as possible.

Lucas slipped into the hole, his 4 Strength and Agility allowing him to easily land the four metre drop onto the walkway. He couldn't hear the thumping sound, which was apparently too low a vibration for the human ear. The air was fresh and clear, moving in a steady flow. He aligned his Map to his perspective as he had done in the darkness of the cave, transforming his world into a 3D construct. Lucas recalled his Scouts by causing his icon on the Map to flash a signal, and waited for them to return. He sent one to explore ahead, one to keep watch behind, kept the other two close to act as his eyes and ears, then set off towards Caleb’s camp.