Through [Locate], the presence of the Silkfire larvae dug on the surface of Jacob's scalp as went down the Dungeon door alongside the other divers. The entire thing is led by the now quarter of knights while he and the other rangers and mages were encircled by the warriors for protection, there is nothing ahead of them for now, just a tunnel big enough for 4 or so people to move alongside each other, hence why they were split into smaller groups. He was alongside Etia and his team, with Carlo and Kaga surrounding both him and the Acolyte.
"The insects won't come until we reach the actual hive," Says Carlo while not at all bothering to look around so Jacob did it for him, and from the mossy, brick-like walls free of any "Honey" and insect resin. From what he saw. Jacob can tell that wherever the hive is, it's probably far away. "This tunnel here is technically a safe spot for anyone who wants to dive, it gives them time to prepare both mentally and physically."
"Don't other Dungeons have this?" He asked with a voice that echoed across the tunnel, which got him a round of odd, silent looks that said 'Haven't you dived before?' even when no voice can be heard. He decided to pretend that he did dive before, "Usually, the ones that I go to have these,"
"Level one Dungeons." One of the knights at the front said, "I'm guessing that you're a noble right?" The sound of grating metal cut through his voice as he turned his head to face him, Jacob eyed the slits on his faceplate and nodded, "Well it is understandable why you haven't seen a Dungeon that didn't have these, nobles prefer their children's diving experience doesn't end up traumatizing, after all."
"I better say thank you to my father when I see him next time, then." He said dismissively, a large part of him had already given up hope in going back to his old world, and even if the reason for it is gone, he is more than happy to bask under its apathy. Breaking down because he was homesick doesn't sound fun. At all.
"You should. Also, we're about to enter the hive, I can smell the honey."
Everyone went tense and all the small conversations stopped as they all looked ahead, ready for anything that the Dungeon is gonna throw at them.
The scent of honey soon permeated the tunnel and it only got stronger with each step that team took forward, skittering noises came next and for a while, Jacob felt his hair stand on end as he carefully watched what was up front, the larvae, he didn't need to worry about, with [Locate], he can easily sense them but everything else, Jacob was blind to. When the skittering noises got stronger, so did the scent of honey. Complaints came from all around when they started walking slower due to the sticky blue substance that's on the floor, they were only small puddles of them for now, but a few of the divers said that these will grow in size the more they go on.
Not encouraging, at all.
Also, is the honey... bioluminescent? He stared down and squinted, it actually was. Huh. Even with his naked eyes, Jacob saw little pinpricks of light dotting the thing's surface and he can't help but get mesmerized by it, it was like staring out into the night sky. "Will there be actual walls of this stuff out there?" He asked while pointing in the distance using a hand armed with an empty [Sharp-Bolt] spell.
"Yep. And it's gonna be stickier, too. And definitely a whole lot more annoying." Carlo was the one who replied and from his annoyed tone, Jacob can tell that he didn't catch the excitement in his voice. And he can probably understand why, see enough of the sticky, star-like blue substance this Dungeon is full of and it probably loses its magic.
It's his first time seeing something like this though and Jacob plans on savoring the experience. He's definitely planning on keeping an eye on the place's honey as they go along.
"We're close." Says one of the knights, he looked back to the rest of the Divers, "We go out, wait for you, and then we form a formation," He continued, "Like always."
Everyone made sounds of agreement and he briefly followed as Etia and the rest sped up, "We don't have to waste time and dawdle, come on, let's get the formation finished before the insects converge on us."
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Jacob nodded and quickened his pace.
Jacob didn't know what he expected to see when people said that the Dungeon had a "Hive" inside of it but it definitely wasn't the cavern full of intersecting honey lines in front of him- yes, honey lines not combs. The structure in front of him was more reminiscent of independent bees rather than the typical and well known honey bee hives. Seeing insects crawl across it and ignore each other even when they're not related had been the cherry on top of this fucked up ice-cream cake that decided to give the finger to mother nature.
"Is it too late to say that my mother liked to take care of bees?" He said to another round of odd looks.
"Bees?" One of the mages asked as he broke away from his small team to join our ever growing circle.
Jacob nodded, "You know the insects that people use to gather honey with? We make them boxes, they put hives in it, then we gather the honey to eat." he further explained, hoping that some of the other divers might've seen a bee when this mage hasn't.
"Sounds disgusting." Retorts the knight, "Remind me to not meet your mother."
"You guys don't grow honey here?" Jacob asked and most of them shook their heads, he was sure that the ones who didn't did it simply because they knew the others would do so in their stead.
"Why would we? It's the literal spit of an animal." Another adventurer said with no small amount of disgust in his voice, "If you think that's delicious then I don't know what to tell you. Eating the spit of these gigantic pests is the last thing I'd do." That got a chorus of nods and Jacob thought about something the man said.
'The size, huh?' He stared up, the ceiling had insects as big as a small dog crawling on it and if that's what makes the honey here, then Jacob can understand why people would hate it. Actually, would he eat the spit of a cow if tasted sweet? 'Maybe if I was Asian?' Those guys seem to love eating everything that can be considered edible...
'Ok, that's a bit racist-' Jacob pulled a stop to all his thoughts by focusing on what was in front then shook his head, "I think I can understand why you'd say that," He replied while specifically staring at a large ant-like insect spitting out a trail of blue globule into one of the maybe combs above them. "It definitely looks disgusting." Though tasting honey didn't really deter him all that much- he preferred not to say that though.
"Ignore the flavor monsters and focus on up front! And stop talking!" The center most knight of the group leading them called out and raised his sword, afterward, he did something that caused the thing to erupt into flames. The other knights quickly did the same and the dark cavern was lit aglow with orange light. "They're coming!"
So there's a timer for the monsters to come? Jacob took that for what it is- a reminder and an important piece of information, - before raising his hand to where the knights were staring.
Skittering, clacking, and the ground shaking followed after the wake of insects that crawled out of the holes on the ground, they were long, with segmented bodies not so different from a centipede, though instead of being flat and rectangular, the insects in front of him were tear-shaped with a body that grew smaller as it went down to the tail while the opposite happened in terms of the head- it went from flat to tall and bulky the closer it got to the large, circular thing armed with knife-like mandibles that was the insect's head.
'At least they're small.' Jacob thought, the insects are only the size of a dog and looked more than weak enough to not be able to fight back against the many warriors their team had.
They stared everyone down with their large bulbous eyes before a tremor crawled across the earth followed by a massive, carapaced arm the size of a man's thighs came erupting out of the ground, creating its own hole. A humanoid hand with four fingers pushed itself against the ground though it wasn't enough to get the body out- so another came out and did the same, and that was enough to get the tall, beetle like thing to come out.
It was large, twice the size of a horse with the shape of a regular beetle. It adorned a glossy, black organic armor that gave it a look of being well protected. Thankfully, the two massive arms that it used to get out of the ground seemed to have been an outlier compared to its other, much smaller limbs. Instead, the two arms seemed to have the same purpose as a praying mantis' claws, being nothing more than weapons to kill prey with.
Jacob wouldn't be so scared of them if he wasn't the aforementioned prey in this situation.
"Focus on the many Giant's Tears! Ignore the Stone Feeder for now!" One of the knights yelled and Jacob guessed which between the two is who.
Curious, he stared at the Stone Feeder and raised a hand, aiming for the creature's heavily armored head, it wasn't all that different from the helmets the knight wore, just without the slits and much bulkier.
Quickly, he channeled the [Sharp-Bolt] he's readied since going into the Dungeon and filled it up, he quickly activated it when it was full.
The yellow bullet flew, going faster and faster until it collided against the head of the Stone Feeder, shattering like a watermelon that had been hit by a powerful swing of a baseball bat.
The giant insect fell and everyone stared at him, dumbfounded- but only for a second as the army of Giant's Tears descended on them.