CHAPTER 189

The rest of the team must have sensed some of the conversation that had happened with Everlyn. None of them approached, giving him space, an obvious change in routine. It didn’t matter. It should, but Tom found that it didn’t. She had broken up with him, so it was over. The cause… the fact that when she saw him she saw the murderers? It was absolutely ridiculous… but he was experienced enough to recognise the why was irrelevant.

It was over.

She had promised to finish that with him, and she would. They would execute the plan, and what happened after that was insignificant. They would probably splinter and all go in separate directions but humanity would be better off.

Em and Billy would get their chance at a better life.

Ten minutes later everyone stirred and packed up the camp stones. It was a quick and efficient process and then with their camp dismantled they crawled through the crack with Tom taking the lead this time.

When he poked his head out, he could see the effect of the environmental impact of the Bat Gliders. Nearly every single base creature had vanished. Whether they were eaten or had fled or were hiding didn’t really matter.

They were gone.

Next to him Michael pointed back the way they had come. In the distance, there was something that looked like slimes that were moving at a brisk walking pace. “We need to keep ahead of them.”

“That’s bullshit,” Tom hissed, trying to swallow the hollowness inside him. “I liked the monkey crawlers and now they’re replaced by stupid slimes. The whole place is broken. How can your critter level creatures have to migrate.”

“Magic,” Michael answered simply, and then patted him on the back. “I don’t know what happened, but hang in there, it will get better.” With a sad smile, the healer turned away to heckle Harry who was the last to emerge. “Come on, speed up. No one wants to fight slimes.”

In a tight group, they headed off. Trying to move as fast as possible to stay ahead of the base critters.

There were no monsters to challenge them, and they made excellent progress. Despite that, Everlyn intercepted them less than an hour and a half a later. “The gliders have stopped. They might even be back tracking. I think they’re spoiling for a fight.” She looked worried and guided them to another hidey hole. This one was inside the stalk of a giant mushroom.

The floor area was not sufficient for them to fit even if they all stood. The centre of the trunk had a gap that was a little less than two metres wide.

“There isn’t enough room.” Thor complained.

“Climb and then cut out your own space.” She pointed to a little alcove that was about two metres up. “I did one earlier as a proof of concept.”

“Lighter people go high.” Michael said immediately. “Fatties like Thor stay closer to the ground.”

“Fatty? No way… this is all muscle.”

Tom tested the inside of the shaft. It was spongy and his fingers couldn’t force their way in. He retrieved his daggers and pressed the sharp edge against the spongy surface. It cut with no difficulty. Using them, he could quickly scale up to and then past the bed that Everlyn had hacked out. She hadn’t used any finesse. She had cut out the section from the wall without separating the piece completely from the main fungus mass. The result was that there was a space to lie down in the stalk’s trunk and the leftover material stayed attached so that it didn’t fall to fill the bottom area of their temporary home and fill that space up. Tom climbed another metre higher and hacked at the mushroom flesh, attempting to duplicate what Everlyn had done. Once he had carved a hole into the spongy material, it was pretty easy to expand the damage and then, with some tugging pop out the plug.

Like what Everlyn had done, the waste material remained attached to the rest of the fungus and a bed area large enough for him to lie in had been created. He flipped into the new space and wrinkled his nose. The sap or whatever was being secreted from the damaged areas smelt of fresh compost, mint and an unpleasant bitterness.

His face wrinkled at the odur. It was pungent and strong enough to get his saliva flowing. Just in case he used Touch Heal, but it found no hostile poisons within him. While it stunk, it wouldn’t hurt him.

Below him Sven and Thor complained about the smell.

“Quiet.” Michael snapped. He had just finished installing the camp stones. “These aren’t working. The environment is limiting everything but the shields and base psychic deterrence. We need to go old school. Shut up, don’t move and hope that the biological material.” He thumped the mushroom wall in front of him. “Can shield us.”

Tom felt his heart rate spike at that news. The flesh of the surrounding fungus should shield them from the senses of the predators that were likely to be outside, but having the camp stones fail to work as designed was an issue.

They were all survivors. They had all done this probably hundreds of times. Tom personally had camped inside dead monsters till a larger threat disappeared and those conditions were far worse than the slightly unpleasant smell the fungus was giving off. Beyond that, the actual surface he rested on was actually luxurious if you ignored its dampness.

Not one of them moved and none of them spoke.

While they waited for the outside to resolve itself Tom used the time to think about Everlyn. Yes, he enjoyed spending time with her, but was it really worth the hassle? She had blown up about nothing as far as he could tell. Decisions he made for the good of humanity surely did not reflect on him personally. She had kids! She was supposed to understand the task they faced. How would she feel if her kids were dumped on Existentia in groups of ten with no resources or contribution shop purchases to help them.

It was ridiculous. You did what you had to do to strengthen humanity in the competition. It was the imperative they all had. If she was going to be so flighty, maybe a break was for the best, so he could focus on the next steps.

His thoughts kept drifting. The murderers, Evie bullshit aside. They were an emerging problem. They needed sacrifices or they would go mad and being down in the underground with this stop start mode of travel was burning what little time Keikain had.

Despite the need for the group’s focus of fate on survival, he was also compelled to keep them alive. It was in his contract and if he let the situation be shaped by chance, then Tom was sure they would end up dying. The chances of the group escaping the underground in the time the earth mage had left was almost zero. Unless luck went their way, they were in trouble and Tom was not convinced the wider team collectively had enough fate to influence the world that much and even if they did, they would not turn their fate to the distasteful task of conjuring a sacrifice for those with the cursed bloodlines. Keikain he was sure was already investing his fate in that direction. After all, the man prioritised his own survival over others. The question was whether more was necessary or whether it would be wasted.

The mushroom shivered.

Tom froze and was one hundred percent focused on his surroundings.

What was that? He thought. It was not a biological function of the fungus it was something external.

It happened again. The entire organism moving slightly before settling.

His spear appeared in his hands and he clutched it tightly. Common sense told him that the spear would not help in these cramped quarters, but it was comforting to have it on hand.

Another vibration went through the mushroom.

Realisation flooded through him. Steps! The timing was what you would expect from something heavy walking. He remembered Jurassic park, and the water moving with each step and the scientists’ realisation.

This was scarier.

Something huge was out there. Nothing like the size of the monster he and Everlyn had seen on the surface but something bulky enough to be felt through the rock beneath him.

The mushroom rocked again. Whatever was causing the effect was closer. That movement had been the most intense yet.

Tom had to consciously not release fate. What they had already invested should protect them, but he was still worried about the monster brushing against their hiding spot. If that happened, it would collapse, and he doubted that they would remain hidden after that.

Another vibration occurred, and Tom calmed his reactions. That hadn’t been as strong. Was the unseen monster moving away from them?

Now that he was thinking of the concept of giant monsters and their footsteps creating vibrations Tom could feel fainter examples. They were less intense, indicating a smaller animal or extra distance, but still very noticeable.

To distract from the rising fear because he knew that it only took one monster to break down the fungus they hid in he attempted to track the vibrations. Tom focused his mind on unravelling the details behind what he could sense. Another monster was approaching and, if anything was shaking their hiding spot more than the first. He attempted to ignore that, to focus beyond it, and could feel at least ten more individuals, but there might be more. If they were marching in unison, then his method would only pick up one and, or if they were further away, he wouldn’t sense the movements at all. Tom tried to track individual creatures. There were at least ten, but he couldn’t tell whether that was all of them or if there were thousands in total. The mushroom they were in was close to the cliffs, so if they moved exclusively through the centre or worse, the other side of the canyon, they would be completely hidden from him.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The movements reduced in intensity and soon the fungus stood quietly once more.

Five minutes passed.

“Good job staying still.” Everlyn said to all of them. “The danger’s past, but you want to wait ten minutes before following.”

“They felt huge.” Michael said. “What were they?”

“They are called Cauldron Stompers.”

“That tells us exactly nothing.”

Surprisingly Everlyn did not laugh even though she usually did when she teased like that. “No, it doesn’t. They have four legs and a torso and head shaped a bit like a bowling ball complete with finger holes. Each of them is about ten metres high and they have to be made of iron or something super dense because they are leaving footprints on some of the softer rocks. Their rank ranges from twenty-three to twenty-six.”

“Impressive.” Michael responded.

“Not really. There were only twenty of them. As far as I’m concerned the Bat Gliders were the bigger threat.”

“Did you say they left footprints in the stone?” Keikain asked abruptly.

There was a pause. “Yes, presumably the softer ones.” Everlyn said flatly.

“That’s impossible. There are no soft rocks in the underground.”

“Sorry Mister Expert. Maybe it wasn’t weight but a skill then. But it doesn’t matter because we don’t plan on fighting them.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to…” He stopped talking and an uneasy silence descended.

Michael cleared his throat. “Before we entered here, you said the Glider Bats had stopped and might be coming back.”

“They fled when they saw the cauldron stompers. Apparently, in the game of rock paper scissors that happens down here the cauldron stompers beat the gliders.” She was quiet for a moment. “How about that… the footprints are already fading. I guess you’ll just have to trust me Keikain.”

The earth mage wisely said nothing.

“Anyway, I have a job to do. The enemy Jingyi is watching is a type of kobold. Keep an eye behind you. He’s worried about a smaller pack getting past him. Apparently, they are sneaky and Jingyi can’t maintain a full line of sight. Follow me in five.”

They did as instructed and piled out of the cramped quarters. It was nice to get out in the fresh air.

Despite what Everlyn had implied, they could all see the remnants of the footprints, though probably only because they were looking for it. Other signs of the stompers’ passage were more obvious. One of the little hills created from the falling stalactites had been completely demolished. The stones hidden under the hill because they lacked the permanency of the rest of the rock still showed the footprints. They all gathered around it to examine it quickly. It was a circular hoofprint, but more oval than a horse.

“It’s huge,” Michael muttered.

“Well, we all felt how they were shaking the bedrock.”

“I know Tom, but… I didn’t expect their footprints to be this large. What is it. This is as big as a washing machine.”

“Shopping trolley,” Toni said. “It’s the size of one of those Walmart shopping trolleys.”

“It is, too,” Sven agreed. “It’s so weird to be looking at a footprint crushed into solid rock and comparing it to suburban stuff on the old earth.”

“It definitely is.” Toni agreed. “Crazy.”

Conscious that they had stopped to examine the evidence, they took off at a jog.

“Guys, slow down.” Everlyn ordered over the party chat. They almost jumped in response.

Michael pulled his weapon out and stepped closer to the middle of the formation. “Any reason you’re back in range of us instead of watching?”

“Come check for yourself.” Ahead, she once more became visible this time on one of the large fungi that were the size of a two-story house. When they got over, she dropped a rope and Tom waved everyone else through. Only Keikain and Michael took the opportunity and he might have been imagining it, but Everlyn seemed almost disappointed that he had chosen to stay on the ground. Tom knew it was out of character, but found he didn’t care.

“Have they stopped?” Michael asked immediately.

Tom didn’t need to see to imagine what was happening. They had clearly caught up with the monsters they were following.

“No. They rest every twenty minutes.”

“Oh… they’re moving again.” Michael blurted.

“Yeah, the rests are only for a couple of minutes. Still, we’re almost too close. We want them to get further ahead before pursuing, so we’ll wait here.”

Eventually, Everlyn gave them the permission to start hiking once more. They continued on as a tight group, this time making no effort to push themselves to be faster because it was easy to recognise that a faster march just meant longer waits in between.

The canyon they were in barely altered as the hours passed. Different crystals shone in the sky and some areas had more light than others, which changed the flora distribution slightly. Darker swarths of landscape were dominated by the fungus species. That made sense to Tom. Beyond that, the overall ambiance of the place hardly altered. There were still regular hills where the more terrestrial life forms they were used to were prevalent and then vast areas of flat hard rock, along with the occasional fungal forest.

Travelling in the monster’s wake was easy. The native base creatures wisely chose not to emerge so close to an alpha threat, so despite walking for hours in the underground they didn’t have to fight once. It was great for progress but terrible for their nerves, which went haywire. Over three hours down here, moving, without fighting a single creature caused everyone think that disaster was just around the corner.

“Fun’s over.” Everlyn said over the party chat. “Head towards the pink plant.”

Immediately, they all were glancing around and they saw what she was referring to. It was about two hundred metres away and close to the canyon’s cliffs. In Tom’s opinion, describing it as a plant was technically wrong. It looked like it was closer to a fungus, but he guessed in Existentia it could be anything, potentially it could even be part of an animal.

After they had crossed most of the distance, Everlyn dropped out of stealth. She waved them on and past the strange pink growth. Even only metres away from it, Tom still couldn’t classify what it was. It was a series of pink tongues soaring into the air, each of them forty metres long and just wide enough for him to encircle with his arms. Whatever it was, it did not appear hostile, and the shiny skin was unreactive.

“It’s inert,” Everlyn explained, then she smacked one of the tongues with her bare hands. “Follow me. There is a hideout behind it.”

Once they were past the strange plant, they were almost next to the cliffs. She squeezed through a narrow crack and when he followed, another layer of the cliff face was revealed. Without hesitation, she climbed the secondary face, heading straight for a crack in the surface about ten metres up. When Tom reached it, he was unsurprised to discover what had looked like a shallow depression from a distance was actually the opening to a tunnel. A large tunnel that descended deeper into the cliff face. He slipped inside, around the first bend that gave it the impression of being a dead end, and he discovered a wide cave. It wasn’t a two person passage, but one of them could walk through it without worrying about the walls brushing their shoulders or their head smacking against the ceiling. It went for over fifty metres before opening up into a large room.

“We’ll rest here.” Everlyn declared.

“Why?” Keikain asked. “We were making amazing time.”

“Because we’ve been on our feet for over sixteen hours.” Everlyn snapped.

“So we can buy stuff from the auction house to allow us to keep going. It’s a circular system. While the passage is easy, we should push through.”

“That’s not a call for you to make.”

“Tom, can you support me? We need to get back out there and keep going. If we’re lucky, this window of low resistance will continue for days. All we have to do is march behind them and we can escape without fighting.”

“There is no window.” Everlyn said, interrupting him. “The kobolds are catching up. Jingyi is staying ahead of them for now, but they seem determined to catch the stompers.”

“Has Jingyi been spotted?” Tom asked immediately.

“I don’t know, but assume he has. If we’re lucky, they won’t come for us and focus on the bigger prey…”

The unspoken but… hung in the air.

“We’ll need defences then.” Keikain suggested instantly.

They examined the surrounding areas to work out if there’s anything to do in order to make it more defensible without burning too much mana. To be honest, the pathway out meant the enemy would already approach them through a choke point.

“Fix the floor?” Keikain suggested. “Even it out? It’s the only low-cost alternative I can see that will help us.”

“Agreed.”

The cave was relatively smooth, and it looked like it had been shaped over millions of years of runoff where the small amount of water had levelled everything down, followed by an equal period where it had been damp but not wet enough for run off. There was the start of stalagmites forming where water had been dripping down from above. These half formed geological features made the floor bumpy in places.

Tom decided, not for the first time, that Keikain was scarily competent. He had a good eye for this sort of thing and he had obviously worked out that those lumps had lower permanency than the rest of the floor and could therefore be scrubbed away without exhausting them. He took one side while the other earth mage focused on the other and the pieces of stalagmites flowed almost as easily as surface rock did and he quickly filled the various depressions in the harder natural cave floor with the more malleable rock.

Within two minutes, it was done. A perfectly flat smooth surface that was like it had been sprayed with sand to enhance the grip. A lot of blood and guts would need to be spilled before they would lose traction.

“Jingyi?” Tom asked.

“There won’t be any updates till he is in range of my chat feature.”

“So once we can communicate, it’s already too late.” Tom summarised.

Everlyn shrugged. “The floor changes will help, but can you do anything about the entrance? You know like what you did on the surface.”

“It’s the underground.” Keikain said like that explained everything.

Everlyn looked at Tom like it was his job to translate. Their early conversation was still smarting.

He took a deep breath to calm himself. “Not without leaving us with low mana for the coming fight. The tunnel permanency down here is too strong for any major movements.”

“But…” she tapped the ground.

Tom felt like rolling his eyes, but he managed to suppress the instinct. “The stalagmites are an add-on. They behave like surface rock and not underground stone.” He was not sure if he kept the annoyance out of his tone. Everlyn lapsed into silence.

They settled into their battle position.

“Checking in. Checking in.” Jingyi repeated through the team chat and by the tone of his voice he’d been saying it repeatedly since he got close to them.

“We hear you.” Everlyn said immediately.

“I’m hot.” They could all hear the fear in those two words and the unspoken question: do you need me to sacrifice myself?

It was good of the man to offer, and it was possibly the best outcome. Tom thought as he reasoned through the situation.

“Keep coming.” Michael said encouragingly. “We’ve got a defensible position no traps to concern yourself with and we’re not sacrificing someone in the first sticky situation.”

“They’re a minute or two behind me, but clearly tracking me.”

Seventy seconds later, the scout appeared and quickly seeing the way they were arranged moved into his usual position. He was panting.

“What are we facing?” Michael asked immediately.

“A hunting party of thirty. Rank 18, bipedal with a support tail wielding faux weaponry. But they are definitely monsters.”

Tom’s earth senses suddenly picked up on multiple hostiles entering his range.

“Incoming. Thirty metres.” He whispered soft enough not to alert the enemies, but using the party communication he was sure everyone would hear.