The deep mines were eerily quiet as they passed through the tunnels. They haven’t encountered a single shade in the last four hours. Cal speculated that it was due to the cleanup operation done by the enforcers. He continued leading the group deeper towards the abyss for a few more hours when they started encountering their first group of young and adolescent shades. Cal stepped back and let the knights handle the fighting as he was ordered to do so by Sergeant Ved.
He studied how the knights fought. They were highly coordinated and very effective against groups. The shades couldn’t even leave a scratch before they were promptly dealt with. Cal took the lead again once the fighting was over. As he was walking, Sergeant Ved came up to him and asked, “Where do you recommend setting up camp tonight, Cal?”
“Some of the tunnels lead to large openings and caverns that in turn lead to many different tunnels. We can set camp in one of those areas. It will be a bit harder to defend in open territory, but we won’t risk getting surrounded with no path of escape,” Cal recommended.
“Alright, lead us to one of these suitable locations,” he said.
“Yes, sir.”
As time passed, they encounter more groups of shades, but they hadn’t met any adult shades yet. Cal was starting to get worried that the adult shades might be grouping up. Six hours later, their group was starting to show signs of drowsiness. Cal decided to set up camp in a large cavern that he knew was a few hundred meters ahead. The number of flamestone lamps on the walls was slowly decreasing as they kept on moving forward.
…
They reached the cavern where Cal wanted to set camp. The flamestone lamps here could only cover the area close to the cavern walls. No one knew if there were any shades hiding inside the darkness of the huge cavern. The knights secured a perimeter near the tunnels leading deeper down. They surrounded the perimeter with torches and made a large campfire in the middle to light up the area. They did not bring any flamestone lamps since those would soon become useless. Regular torches were better as they could be lighted up and put off when necessary.
Cal sat near the campfire and had his dinner. It was some kind of ration that tasted like dirt. Everyone else was having the same thing as it was easy to carry and did not spoil. Cal took a small glass bottle out of his bag. Inside it was his favorite spice which he generously sprinkled on his ration to make it more appetizing.
In his four years of being an enforcer, Cal had saved up a lot of money. However, unlike normal people, Cal really didn’t have anything that he could spend his money on except for food. This glass bottle had actually cost him quite a fortune since it was said to be very sturdy compared to regular glass bottles. Previously, Cal had bought a cheap bottle to carry his spice, but the bottle shattered during a fight, and he lost all his expensive spice that day. So, he made the vow to never compromise the safety of his spice to save money that he had no use for.
As he was sprinkling some more spice, the High Priestess seating by the campfire saw what he was doing and asked, “What is that?”
Cal quickly swallowed his food and replied, “It’s flame spice, your excellency.”
“Flame spice! Why didn’t we think of bringing any spices Ved? These rations are terrible,” the High Priestess questioned Sergeant Ved.
“Forgive me, your excellency. We were short on time, and nobody thought about the taste of the food as long as it kept us alive,” Sergeant Ved apologized.
“Well, don’t apologize for everything, I was just asking. It’s not like I haven’t eaten rations before. But I would love some spice right now,” she said as she glanced at Cal’s bottle.
Cal read the mood and said, “You can have some of mine, your excellency. However, I heard that this is very spicy for some people.”
“Thank you, Cal,” she gave a sunny smile. “And don’t worry I have had flame spiced before; I can handle it easily.”
Cal handed over his bottle and realized that he was somewhat reluctant to let it go. The High Priestess sprinkled a small amount of the spice on her ration, then she paused and observed the ration for a few moments before adding another sprinkling of flame spice. She then took a generous bit and immediately started a coughing fit.
“Ack! W-What is --” Cough “-- this?” she spat out the food. Her whole face turned red and there were tears in her eyes. Everyone was looking at her worriedly and staring daggers at Cal wondering if he fed her poison.
It took her a few minutes of deep breathing and drinking a lot of their limited supply of water to settle down.
“T-That was no flame spice! What sort of abomination did you feed me?” she accused in a shaky voice. She must have been really embarrassed after saying that she could handle flame spice easily. The other knights also looked at Cal for an answer.
Cal didn’t know what to say, he was quite certain that it was flame spice since he procured it from Victor. He decided to shift the blame to Victor and spoke candidly, “The shop owner I bought it from said it was flame-spice.”
“They must have lied to you, Cal. You should ask for them to return your money when you get back,” the High Priestess said in a voice that almost sounded like an order.
Cal wasn’t very happy that she accused his friend of being a liar, but he couldn’t blame anyone as he was the one who ratted him. Thus, he decided to give the safest response by nodding his head to indicate that he understood.
“Even so, are your taste buds alright Cal? How can you eat this thing so delightfully?! I can cast a light heal on you if you want,” she offered; a part of it was so that she could salvage the earlier embarrassment by showing her knights that what Cal had was mildly poisonous and, thus, her reaction was justified.
Cal, however, thought that she was just overly worried, “It is fine, your excellency. I have been using this for years and nothing has happened to me yet. You don’t have to waste your mana.”
The High Priestess was frustrated by his refusal and tried to persuade him again.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Sergeant Ved watched their shenanigans from the side and decided to try out the spice himself to make sure it wasn’t actually poisonous. He took the bottle from where the High Priestess set it down and sprinkled a tiny amount on his thumb. As he was about to lick it, he noticed that his surroundings had quietened down. He raised his head and looked around to see that everyone else was staring at him in anticipation.
Cal was also staring at Sergeant Ved and was not happy that he tried to eat his spice without his permission.
Sergeant Ved carefully licked the spice and didn’t do or say anything for a few seconds. In his head, he was glad that he was wearing armor or else they would have realized that his palms were already sweating. Finally, he opened his mouth to speak, “This is flame-spice, alright. Though it’s a highly concentrated mixture.”
Everyone else was disappointed by the lackluster reaction. The High Priestess even pouted angrily and decided that she had enough for the night. She walked back to her small tent in defeat and tucked in for the night.
The knights also returned to their duties. Some tried to sleep while others like the knight sergeant were on guard duty.
Cal was also not that tired, so he decided to stay awake and look out for any adult shades that might be hiding in the cavern. Shades had an uncanny ability to strike when people let their guard down. Cal had already experienced it during his first year when he almost died to an adolescent shade that was following him for hours.
Cal stood guard at the edge of the camp that was closer to the center of the cavern. He focused ahead to see if he could find any shades. A few hours into his watch he noticed movement up ahead. It was almost imperceptible, but Cal saw the eyes of an adult shade for a microsecond before it closed. Its eyes glowed in the dark, but the shade quickly noticed the blunder and closed its eyes. ‘It's smart,’ Cal thought. ‘An ability perhaps.’
Cal searched for Sergeant Ved and found him seating near the High Priestesses tent. He went to tell him about what he saw. However, the shade already started its attack when he was only halfway there.
“Enemy sighted!!” one of the guarding knights shouted.
“Get in formation!” Sergeant Ved ordered once he also saw the shade.
‘Did it realize that I was about to spoil its surprise?’ Cal thought. He was feeling more and more certain that it had an intelligence ability. He looked at the shade to see what form it took. What he saw was a large fox that had the same height as the lion shade he fought previously. The fox was using its legs to try and crush some of the knights who weren’t quick enough to get their weapons ready. Cal didn’t run to help them as he saw other knights jumping forward to help the exposed knights. Instead, he made his way to Sergeant Ved who was just observing the fight.
“So, that’s an adult shade?” he asked when he saw Cal.
“Yes, sir. It’s a regular variant. It has three supernatural abilities along with its large size and weight. One of that abilities, I speculate, should be its hyper-intelligence,” Cal commented.
Sergeant Ved watched his knights tussle with the fox for another minute and then decided that that was enough. He shouted at two of his knights who had not joined any of the previous fights, “Rish! Ava! Take care of it.”
The two knights answered simultaneously, “Yes, sergeant.”
Cal deduced that these two were the strongest knights aside from the sergeant and the High Priestess. One of the knights, who he figured was named Ava, took out two daggers and started running towards the fox. The other knight was a short man who took out his bow and pulled its string without placing any arrows on it. When he was done pulling, a light arrow materialized in the bow. He let go of the string and the light arrow instantaneously dug into one of the fox’s eyes. The fox howled pitifully. The female knight had also reached the fox during that time. As she was about to get close to the fox, one of the knights nearby warned her, “Be careful Ava! It releases some kind of static electricity. One of us got shocked and couldn’t move for a few seconds.”
“Annoying,” Ava said quietly.
She stopped in front of the fox and shouted at Rish, “Keep it distracted while I charge.”
Rish answered with another light arrow that pierced the fox’s leg.
Ava started sending mana to her daggers and they started to glow red. Everyone around her could feel the heat.
The fox also realized that it would get pinned down if it stayed there, so it retreated into the darkness.
“Che. It escaped,” Ava said. “What a waste of mana,” she muttered looking at her daggers.
Cal also watched the fox retreat and quickly informed the sergeant, “They never escape. No matter how injured they are. We shouldn’t let our guard down.”
Sergeant Ved nodded at him and shouted back at Ava to stay ready.
A few seconds later the fox returned—proving Cal right— and tried to catch the knights off guard by attacking from their flanks. It pinned down one of the knights and was going to tear off his neck with its teeth. But Ava and Rish were ready due to the sergeant's warning. Rish shot a few light arrows into the fox’s jaw to stop it from killing the knight. Ava, on the other hand, leaped at the fox and landed on its back, then stabbed both her daggers into it. The fox quickly used its ability to shock Ava and stop her from stabbing deeper.
“I..don’t..need..to..move..to..use..my..mana,” she said with difficulty. She activated her daggers and released all the accumulated mana into the shade. The fox started to burn from the inside. Smoke came out of its mouth, and it started thrashing around to get Ava off its back. Ava was quickly thrown off as she couldn’t move. However, that did not stop the fox from burning up. Ava’s daggers were still embedded in its back and only she could stop them from releasing the mana inside them. The fox’s thrashing became more desperate as its insides were melting.
By now everyone in the camp had already woken up. Cal saw the High Priestess’s head pop out of her tent flap. Her strawberry blonde hair was all messed up due to bedhead. She looked around and asked a nearby knight in a drowsy voice, “What’s going on? Is there a fight?”
“We are being attacked by a large shade, your excellency. But do not worry, Rish and Ava are taking care of it,” the knight replied.
The High Priestess covered her yawn with her hand and then asked, “Are you sure they don’t need my help?”
“It should be fine, your excellency. They are almost finished, and Sergeant Ved is also monitoring the fight. You should save your mana.”
“Ok. Wake me up when we are ready to set off again,” she replied and went back inside.
Cal turned his head back to the fight and watched as the fox finished its thrashing and lost its strength. It stopped moving altogether as more and more black blood was coming out of its orifices. ‘It should be dead now’ Cal thought. His thoughts turned to reality as the fox soon vanished into thin air leaving behind a large amount of glowing flamestone.
Ava went forward to take back her daggers. The rest of the knights started cleaning up the area. They lit up some new torches to replace the ones destroyed by the shade. Very quickly the camp was back to the state it was before the shade attacked.
One of the knights asked the sergeant what to do with the dropped flamestones. Sergeant Ved did not want to hinder his knights’ fighting ability by making them carry extra weight, so he told the knight to leave it behind. Cal, however, had other ideas.
“We can’t leave those behind. It will attract other shades once we leave. Any shade that consumes that much flamestone will quickly grow into an adult. It will be a hassle if that follows us from behind,” he advised.
“That’s almost 50 pounds of flamestones Cal. If we carry all that, then it will slow us down,” Sergeant Ved said.
“We don’t need to carry it all the way down. If you remember, the deep mines absorb all sorts of light. We just have to carry those long enough for them to turn inactive. You can throw them away then,”
“Hmm. How long will that take?”
“The process speeds up as we go deeper. I estimate it should not take more than 8 hours,” Cal replied.
“Alright,” he said and turned back to the knight, “You will carry it with you until it turns inactive. Gather them in a bag. And tell the others to change shifts and get some sleep. We will head out in 4 hours.”
“Yes, sergeant.”
Sergeant Ved then spoke to Cal, “You should also get some sleep now. We need you alert when you are guiding us.”
Cal nodded. He went to a spot near the campfire and prepared a makeshift bed. He used his bag as a pillow and turned his back to the campfire to get some shut-eye.