"Argh! This is going to take forever!" Sam moaned, stretching her tense muscles. "And how are my muscles sore? I'm in my soul, for crying out loud! This is all just a…I don't even know what it is!"

Sam picked up her Technogog Arcana figurine, pushing her emotions aside, and examined the five millimeters of new growth on the figure's legs. Sam's best estimate was it took about three hours for the small amount of progress on reconstructing the figurine. Sam mused aloud to her avatar as she turned it over in her hand, "It looks like my new Magismith skill speeds up the process. Still, it's painfully slow going if I am going to do this right." Setting the figure back on its pedestal, Sam checked the other two and shook her head. There was no change in either of them.

Sam looked around the room one last time, intending to leave her soul, but the door caught her attention. There was no longer black surrounding the frame. Cautiously, Sam approached the old wooden door. This may be her soul, but she still had no idea what she would find on the other side of that door. Grasping the doorknob, it felt normal in her hand. Sam opened the door slowly, unsure why she feared what she would find in her soul.

Sam stared through the open doorway and into her apartment. "Okay, this is weird," she said, stepping into her old living room. Picking up the remote from the coffee table, she tried to turn on the wall-mounted TV, but nothing happened. "It was worth a shot," she said, tossing the remote back where she found it and moving farther into the room. Everything was exactly as she had left it, so Sam did some digging. She went into the kitchen and tried to open the refrigerator without success. Sam wasn't surprised because of the dark mist surrounding the appliance.

Next, Sam pulled a kitchen knife from her butcherblock island, the sharp blade sliding free easily. That gave her an idea, but before she acted on it, she tried the doors leading outside and her bedroom, but they wouldn't budge. It might be a good sign if, by entering a room, it could be added to her soulscape. She hoped it meant her soul was getting stronger and she could meld with her avatars without killing herself soon.

Not seeing anything else she could do, Sam turned back to leave but snatched the remote from the coffee table again and pocketed it. She also slid the kitchen knife into her belt as she left the room. Tapping the violet rune under her bed with the toe of a boot, Sam disappeared from her soul space.

Arriving in her core, Sam shivered involuntarily; as she journeyed from the depths of her soul to the core of her being, an unsettling sense of scrutiny sent shivers down her spine. It made her feel like an ant under a powerful microscope, as something examined her innermost being. Needless to say, it creeped her out. Grasping one of the mana channels above her, Sam was transported back to reality.

***

"What do you mean she is in her soul?" Sam heard Parish ask as she regained her faculties. "Lupie, that is extremely dangerous for her! I am sure she has no idea—”

"That I could permanently alter my soul, even to the point of destroying it?" Sam asked, leaning forward off of Lupie to stare at Parish.

“Yes, exactly,” Parish answered.

"Been there, done that," Sam said, standing up. "Are the two of you ready?"

Nara nodded, but Parish only stared. When Sam started to walk toward the exit, Parish said, "Now, hold on! You cannot just tell me you have killed yourself by soul manipulation and walk away!" She stomped her foot, which Sam thought was adorable, so she gave in.

"I'll explain as much as I can as we walk, but I want to get out of this cave system as soon as possible. I can't help the feeling we are being pursued," Sam said, walking out of the small cavern with Parish on her heels.

***

"How long does it normally take to get to the Beastlands through these caves?" Sam asked, exasperation in her tone. "It's been what, two days now? I mean, look at this!" She swiveled her map around, displaying it for everyone to see. The 3D image looked like the inside of an ant bed, twisting and weaving in every direction. Zooming in, Sam pointed at their location, represented by five blue dots, then zoomed out to show their relative position, exclaiming, "We're directly under Helms Peak!"

Lupie, currently in her monster girl form thanks to the narrow tunnel they just passed through, manipulated the map a little and observed, "We are nearly a kilometer under the city...I don't feel like we have gone down that far."

“Open tunnel to city?” Nul asked, “Get cookies?”

“No!” Sam and Parish both said in unison when Lupie started to nod her approval of Nul’s plan to acquire treats.

"Although Nul could probably do it now," Sam reflected on how they spent their time for the past two days.

Sam and Nul had been playing a game as they traveled. Nul would open a portal and teleport itself and Sam about ten meters at a time as they explored the tunnels. Initially, it sapped Nul's magic completely, even taking a little life force on the first attempt. “That first step was a rough one,” Sam thought, remembering the bout of violent projectile vomiting she battled with and lost to when she stepped through Nul's portal for the first time. "And it had to be right after I bragged that it wasn't so bad, too," Sam frowned at the memory before returning her attention to the present.

"We could always backtrack and try another cave system," Nara suggested.

Sam shook her head after thinking it over, "No, we'll lose two days that way. I'm sorry, everyone. This cave system gives me the creeps, and I want to be done with it. We can keep going."

Everyone nodded and continued their trek, passing through caverns of all shapes and sizes. Some rooms were enormous, housing their unique ecosystems, while others were like the one with the glowing pool they camped in.

Only an hour later, Lupie stopped short just before rounding a sharp bend in the tunnel ahead. Everyone in the party stopped and stared at the Bloodmorph, saying nothing. They all knew Lupie would share what stopped her when she felt the need. Her head cocked to the side, and her ears twitched this way and that as she stood otherwise motionless for a full minute.

“I smell meat cooking,” Lupie finally sent through chat.

"Maybe it's another party of adventurers?" Sam suggested. "That would explain why we haven't encountered more high-level monsters."

"It is possible but unlikely," Parish said, "we should proceed with caution. It could likely be brigands or more intelligent monster races such as goblins or lamias."

At Parish's words, Lupie morphed back into her wolf form and knelt so Nara could climb onto her back. The tunnel was large enough to accommodate the larger form of the summon now. After a quick gear check, they rounded the bend in the tunnel, continuing forward slightly slower, exercising a more significant degree of caution than before.

They saw the flicker of firelight casting shadows on the cave walls first. The group was in a long corridor, wide and tall enough to accommodate all of them walking side by side with at least a meter between them. Lupie's tentacles could not quite reach the ceiling, even though she kept trying to touch it, ensuring she would continue to fit. Though the corridor was long and straight, they still could not see who or what had the fire going due to the many enormous mushrooms and shrubs filling the cave.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Sam figured the fire had to be large to overcome the glow of so many bioluminescent plants and fungi. That must mean those who made it were either idiots or confident enough in their abilities to not fear the denizens of this underground world. She was leaning toward the latter; she doubted anyone of high enough level to be down here would be stupid.

They were close enough now to see three figures seated around a decent-sized fire with a large chunk of spit-roasting meat off to one side. Not wanting to startle them into accidentally attacking, Sam cleared her throat and said, "Hello at the fire."

One camper turned and waved, calling out, "Come on over. Our scout spotted you a few minutes ago."

"Yeah, we know." Sam responded, pointing directly at a figure clouded in grey mist crouched motionless on top of a giant mushroom, saying, "Scout," then she turned and flicked the nose of another figure standing right behind her, saying, "Rogue."

The Rogue dropped out of stealth, rubbing her nose, saying, "What? How?"

"Magic, duh," Sam responded. She wasn't about to tell the Rogue it was because she had eaten one of the Hollow Stalker eyes in preparation for this encounter, and spirit sight was apparently effective through stealth. Looking to the figure still crouched on the mushroom that had yet to come out of stealth. "Um, I said I can see you. You can drop the act, man."

“Can the others see me?” A muffled man’s voice asked from atop the mushroom.

"No," Sam lied before anyone else could answer. She knew everyone had eaten an eye with her but felt strange about this situation; she hoped she was wrong.

"Good." The man responded and then called out so the ones at the campfire could hear. "The highest is level fifty-one and a healer."

"Shit!" Nara said under her breath, anticipating what was coming but, like Sam, didn't want to make the first move. She sent through their chat, "They are looking for healers, Sam. Does that sound familiar to you?"

"Is one of your party injured?" Parish asked innocently, pretending to be oblivious. Then she sent a voice message to their party, "The two using stealth are a Rogue and Hunter. They are hostile. Levels sixty-eight and seventy, respectively. I cannot identify the other three, so they must be above level seventy-one."

"Too familiar, Nara," Sam responded to her friend, then to everyone she sent, "Well, we may as well get this over with. Lupie, if I take out the Rogue and Hunter, can you and Nara keep the others at the fire busy while Parish offers support?" Everyone gave their mental confirmation, so Sam turned to the Rogue and asked, "So, I guess you know Pip?" Then she chuckled, "I'm sorry, I mean 'knew' Pip. We killed him, Dale, and Lita a while back when they tried to kidnap our healer."

"Fucking bitch!" The Hunter on the mushroom yelled. He stood up and drew his bow, aiming it at Sam, a glowing arrow on the string.

'Twang,' the Hunter's bow string snapped when the small arcane blade at the end of Sam's mana thread cut through it. The arrow fell to the soft cap of the fungus, where it stuck upright. No one moved; it had happened so fast. The Hunter only had time to look down in surprise, holding one hand to his face where the bowstring had slapped him before the arrow exploded in a cloud of green gas.

Sam almost laughed; she couldn't believe the same trick had worked twice. She turned to the Rogue, who she had wrapped in her mana threads, and Lupie took off toward the three others.

Sam barely turned when Parish screamed, "Look out!"

Just as she heard the words, Sam felt something thump on the cave floor in front of her. It was a small round object about the size of her fist. Before she could figure out what it was, the small black ball erupted in a cloud of green gas, enveloping Sam and the Rogue!

You have been poisoned—error.

You have been poisoned—error.

You have been poisoned—error.

You have been poisoned—error.

“What the…” Sam thought as hundreds of the messages scrolled past. Then she remembered her new evolution. A quick check of her quarantined energies showed them depleting rapidly. “Shit! I gotta get out of this cloud!” Sam put purpose to her thoughts and quickly sprinted away from the epicenter of the gas explosion, dragging the squirming Rogue along with her. A gold and white light enveloped Sam when she cleared the noxious fumes, so she quickly sent Parish a message, "I don't need healing! Focus on the others and yourself! Rebuild, remember?"

The light around her disappeared, and Sam wasted no time disposing of the Rogue with an arcane dagger through the eye. Then she started stalking the Hunter, who she noted wasn't killed by his own poison arrow.

An arrow slammed into Sam's back, then another and another, each of them traveling entirely through her, stopping with their tips protruding from her chest. A flicker of grey darting behind a mushroom stalk caught Sam’s eye as she snapped the heads from the arrows and used her threads to yank the shafts out of her back.

"Just what are you?" The Hunter called from his hiding place, adding, "Why won't you freaking die?!"

Sam, now thoroughly pissed, responded, "I'm the person you should not have fucked with, you stupid asshole! Don't worry; you'll be too dead to regret it in a few seconds!"

A portal opened up in front of Sam, and she laughed. On the other side was the Hunter, out of stealth and trying to peer around a mushroom. Hearing the laugh, he turned just in time to face a Void Slime as it exclaimed, "Void bolt!" The bolt of energy coupled with half a dozen mana spikes were the last things the Hunter ever felt, his lifeless body slumping to the ground a moment later.

At a yelp of pain from Lupie, Sam turned and dashed toward the three women still engaged in combat by the campfire. Parish was trying to pull an enormous spear from Lupie's side as the Bloodmorph ravaged an armored opponent she had pounced on while Nara was launching arrows and Magic Bolts into the thick mushrooms farther down the tunnel. The man under Lupie's paws was screaming, but to Sam, it didn't look like Lupie was doing much damage against the armor. Until Sam saw Lupie had managed to slip a blood tentacle under his chest plate. The pulsing of the tentacle told Sam all she needed to know: Lupie was draining the life out of him.

As Sam approached, Parish had to abandon the spear to parry a blow from another armored individual, presumably the spear's owner. “I never would have thought I would see a healer dual wielding a mace and a sword.” Sam thought as she watched Parish use a combination of magical energy spheres and aggressive melee attacks to force the female sword wielder onto the defensive. As Sam watched, Parish left an opening in her attacks. When the warrior tried to exploit it, a green and white orb zipped in and deflected the warrior's attack. Orb exploded in a bright, directional light beam straight into the warrior's eyes.

Sam was about to assist the Battle Healer when Parish growled, “This one is mine! Get the magic user! She’s a Poison Mistress!”

“This fucking planet and its damn toxins!” Sam thought in annoyance. With a quick warning, Sam yanked the spear from Lupie's chest cavity and threw it where Nara was firing her arrows. "Cover me!" Sam called to Nara as she sprinted toward the mushrooms the magic user was using for cover. “Where is she?” Sam thought as she scanned the tunnel, unable to locate the woman. Several of the poison bombs exploded around Sam, but she held her breath and kept running forward. “I should have formed a shield bubble and trapped some air inside.” Sam made a mental note for future conflicts should the need arise.

Sam heard a sharp cry a few meters ahead and to her left, so she diverted in that direction. “Nara must have hit her.” Sam thought and sent a couple of bladed disks of arcane magic in the direction of the sound, hoping to get a lucky hit. She still couldn't see a thing through the poison cloud; even her mana sight was proving useless. The mana infused in the poison was proving difficult to 'deselect' in her sight.

Sam had just made it to the cluster of mushrooms she thought the Poison Mistress was hiding in when she heard the woman in question scream before being abruptly cut off. Sam stopped, “That was a scream of fear.” That's when she heard a crunching sound coming from ahead of her, like something chewing, a giant something. “Um, maybe I should regroup with the others…” Sam started backing away cautiously, keeping her eyes fixed on the direction the sound was coming from. Thankfully, the poison cloud dissipated quickly, so she wasn't burning through her skill anymore. Still, Sam couldn't see what had very likely just killed and eaten an adult human.

Sam was halfway back to the others who had finished off their opponents and were all staring toward the crunching sound echoing in the now-quiet cave. "Troll!" Nara and Parish yelled in unison through their voice chat as a massive grey mountain of muscle and fat trampled its way through the tunnel's thick growth, having to stoop a little to avoid scraping its head on the ceiling in places. It stopped in the light of the dwindling campfire. It held a tree trunk for a club in one hand and the lower half of the Poison Mistress in the other. As it surveyed the area, the troll took a casual bite of its meal and chewed slowly.

Parish’s frightened voice came through their voice chat, “No one move…do not even breathe.”