[What do you see?]

[Much, prey. Dangerous.]

[Let me take a look.]

The vision was blurry, incomplete, but enough to show that the assessment was correct. They couldn’t go this way.

[Alright. Come back. Make sure you aren’t seen.]

Columbant withdrew her awareness from her distant pet, the small cavern in which she crouched snapping back into focus with disorienting clarity. Even after advancing the Skill to the second rank, it was still difficult to use, especially over a distance.

We can’t use that path, she thought to herself, which is going to severely limit our options. Are we cut off?

She consulted her tunnel map and began to plot out the routes still available to her. They’d ranged far from the meeting point, but there were still five days left before she was due to rendezvous with Magellant. She just hadn’t expected monster activity to be so high in this area.

[What do you think, Mistress? Shall we fight our way out?]

Her smartest pet, Rist, had long worked out how precarious their circumstances were. The flame demon had a good mind and a flair for fire magic, but was often too eager to engage, a tendency she had to be mindful of.

[It’s not ideal,] she confessed before she began to sketch out a rough version of her tunnel map on the floor with one leg. [We currently sit between two expanses that are unusually close together. This one is the shadow coral reef we explored earlier, this one we haven’t been into, but I suspect is a shadow swamp type. The spillover of monsters between the two is flooding the tunnels around us and causing the monsters to be higher tiers than I expected. If we try and fight our way out, we need to make it through these three junctions.]

She indicated the points where the tunnels met with an antenna while she continued to sketch with her leg. As she spoke, Rist watched with his ever-burning eyes, carefully taking in her words.

[Due to the density, we might end up pulling more monsters down on our heads than we can handle.]

[Tunnelling?] the demon said, a little disappointed. He hated digging.

[Not really an option,] Columbant shook her head. [The death mana is just too thick in the stone down here. It’s sapping the life out of me even to touch it.]

She climbed up the wall and poked at the ceiling, once again experiencing the strange draining sensation she’d felt before. They could still dig through, but it would take more than twice as long as normal due to the frequent breaks they’d need.

[We can dig,] Rist said forcefully, [we dig you out.]

The bottomless, compelled loyalty of the pets was on display. She would sacrifice them if needed to save her own life, but the core shaper would do everything possible to avoid that point.

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[No,] she refuted. [We will all make it. I have a plan. Quietly train your Skills and wait for Slither to return. I need to think for a moment.]

The demon nodded and gave her some space, retreating to the corner where he continued to practise his fire manipulation, twisting the flame into shapes and making them dance on his palm. Columbant skittered across to where her third pet rested, still recovering.

She formed the healing mana construct with difficulty, she needed so much more practice with it, before reaching out with soothing energy. The beetle-beast groaned as the jagged wound across her flank began to seal over, bit by bit. A day after the fight that caused it, the tear, two metres long across the flank, already looked much better than it did before.

[How are you, girl?] Columbant asked gently.

Garg extended her head a little from her shell, letting her mistress see the determination in her eye.

[Ready,] she insisted.

[No, girl. Not yet.]

[Ready!]

The small ant felt a pain in her heart.

[Alright. We’ll get some more food into you, and then you’ll be ready, okay?]

That would give her enough time for another round of healing magic as well. Combined with a bit of Biomass, it would nearly be enough to heal the wound. Nearly.

[Your pet has gained experience. You have received a portion.]

She jumped as the notification came in. What had happened? Was Slither alright? She resisted the urge to reach out to him. He needed to concentrate in order to return safely.

She paced back and forth for a few minutes as she waited for the shadow creature to return, sighing with relief when he finally dropped down from the narrow opening above. A slug-variant of her own creation, Slither splatted onto the ground before reforming himself. Without a word, he crawled to where Garg lay and regurgitated a pile of Biomass. A fresh kill, uneaten.

[Thank you, Slither] Columbant said. [That will help a lot.]

[Thanks,] Garg agreed, her gratitude rolling off her in waves.

The big beetle extended her jaws and in two quick chomps, the food was gone. Was it enough? It would have to be.

[We’ll move in fifteen minutes,] she declared to her pets. [Make sure you are ready.]

The three of them nodded and began to rest, conserving their energy for the time to come. For her part, Columbant sank into meditation. This far from the Colony, she had nobody to rely on but herself, and her pets. She couldn’t afford any mistakes. If she failed, not a single ant would know of her fall, just another core shaper lost ranging in the Dungeon.

Eldest, Queen, give me strength.

She employed the Meditation Skill to calm her nerves and concentrated on pulling in more mana to restock her reserves. If they were able to make it out of this mess, she might have to withdraw to the first stratum to make it back to the Colony. The mana was already rising, this level was getting dangerous.

After ten minutes had elapsed, she made her way to Garg and healed the monster once more, closing over the wound that little bit more. She wouldn’t be able to move without pain, but hopefully the injury wouldn’t hinder her in battle.

[Alright, gather up,] she told her pets when the time had come.

The three moved until they stood alongside her, looking down at the map she had sketched.

[We will break out and make our way to this junction. Stealth will be the order of the day, so we will be counting on you, Slither.]

[Okay.]

[But there’s little chance we can make it without having to fight. It’s important that we retreat into this tunnel, should that happen,] she pointed again.

[Are we clear?] she asked.

The three nodded, though she suspected Garg had only followed a part of it. She really needed a tiny bit more brainpower in her next evolution.

[Let’s go.]