“Sorry, I won’t be able to take you to the deep caves. I expect narrow tunnels.”

“Understandable.” The warrior leader replied with a somewhat sullen look on his face.

While the most used passages were widened by Kobold diggers, he couldn’t say the same about the unexplored parts of Undermountain. He dismounted from the warrior leader and he could already see the High Chief running towards him.

“King, I greet you.” He bowed.

“Greetings High Chief.”

The High Chief whispered something to the servant girl who just caught up. The girl sighed and ran back to the High Chief’s house.

“Would you care to join me in the spring? To recover your mana from the long and arduous trip.”

“No, need. It wasn’t arduous, and I didn’t use any mana.”

“Oh?”

“High Chief, as you might have guessed already, I’m here to explore the depths of the caves.”

“Yes! But first.” The High Chief struggled to keep his excitement. The servant girl came back carrying a large box, which was obviously too heavy for her. The high Chief took a stone container out. “Have a look at this.” He said with pride.

The servant girl put the heavy box on the ground and wiped the sweat off her head.

“Is this?” He deposited it into his Magic Inventory, [Magical Ink] x 1. “How did you make it?”

“Well, I had this glowing ink I was working on, but then I started experimenting with Blue Dust… It is the combination of Blue Dust, Mana Spring Water, and Glowing Ink.”

“Marvelous. It will help me in my Magic Scroll experiments.”

“Yes, this is the product I wanted to send you. Please take the box.”

He didn’t need the box itself, only the containers. [Magic ink] x 100.

“A trade then.” He took out a stack of Enchanted Vellum. “Here. This must be better than that fungal parchment you were working on.”

“This is…” The high chief just took the stack without finishing. “I am most grateful.”

“I will send you more later. Have a look at this.” He showed the Darkness scroll.

“Ah, Demonic Language. Too bad I can’t read it.”

“A Spider Chirp.” A spider warrior corrected.

“Spider, chirp?”

“Yes, that’s the official language of Spider Kingdom.” But there was one more thing. “Wait, you can understand my spiders fully now?”

The High Chief smiled broadly exposing all those needle-like teeth. “But, of course. They are your most trusted servants. I have learned their tongue…” He paused for a moment. “Spider Chirp, you said.”

“That’s impressive High Chief. Anyway, this is a proper Magical Scroll, well the effect is somewhat boring but… anyway do you think you can replicate it?”

“The elves.” He shook his head. “Drow, aren’t learned in scroll making. And we lost so much knowledge during you know what.”

“But since you are a mage you should be able to reproduce it, right?”

“It depends on the spell.” He looked at the rune. ”I’m still a nature mage.”

“So it’s as I expected. This is a dark spell so the one making it needs to be a dark mage?”

“As far as I understand magic, yes, and knowing Spider Chirp would help massively. But any mage should be able to use the already made scroll, it’s only the making process which is problematic.”

“I’m wondering if you could try to make some Drow magic scrolls?” He asked expectantly.

“First, I would need to learn how to write in Demo… Spider Chirp.”

“Then you should.” He urged the High Chief. “I will send a spider to teach you.”

“Then I will. Second, I can’t promise you anything. We mostly specialise in rituals and enchantments, Magic Scroll making is uncharted territory for us Drow.”

“I’m sure you will manage. After all, you have plenty of mages around.”

“Yes, us Drow are gifted in that regard. But not everyone and not universally. I have young talents around with elemental affinities, mostly Nature and Air, a few with Water and Fire.”

“No one with Darkness?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

“Odd… You are Drow.”

“But we were Elves. Maybe our children will develop the King's favourite affinity.” He looked at the servant girl with high expectations. The already pale face of the servant paled even more.

“No pressure. I’m just being curious. Anyways, take your time learning Spider Chirp and let me know if any of your scroll making gives any results.”

“As you command, King.” He bowed.

“Well then, gather your scouts and tell them to put this on.” He took the FireWalker Suits and other gear he crafted.

The High Chief whispered to the servant girl and she sprinted off towards the Drow houses.

“Identify.” The high chief used his skill. “As expected of the King, very impressive. It even has passive abilities. But what are the shields and spears for.”

“For your guys of course.”

“We Drow prefer bow and arrow.” The High Chief said with a blank face.

“I understand the large cavern like this, but in winding tunnels and tight caves? Are you sure about it?”

“We’re relying on your spiders for that.”

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“My spiders can’t be around all the time and every time. You need to have melee fighters for balanced force.” He learned a similar lesson during the fight with humans. “Especially here in the caves.”

“Hmm, there is wisdom in your words. Sometimes I forget that we no longer live in the forest. Thank you for the spears and shields.”

“I’m not saying that your archers will be useless. Let’s have five Drow spearmen and five archers for this expedition, how is that?”

The High Chief just nodded. “And how many spiders will you be taking?”

“We’re only exploring so just two spider warriors. I want to keep the numbers small, but the force tight.”

“Won’t you take Stone Spider and its friends? I was positive they wanted to go.”

“Really? Then I might, where are they?”

“At my camp!” The Kobold Leader replied helpfully.

“Wow! Where did you come from? I didn’t even see you.”

“He-He.” The Kobold leader just laughed.

“Kobold Leader, would you please call them?” The High Chief asked.

“Yes, Yes. I’ll call spider friends.” He ran towards one of the exits.

“What a lovely guy.”

“Indeed.” The High chief agreed.

The ten scouts were already there looking over the equipment. They spoke with the High Chief and then had a quick game of drawing sticks. The five losers took the spears and shields with big frowns on their faces. The High Chief scolded them for offending the King’s generosity. The five lowered their heads in apology.

“No need. I’m sure you will learn to like it?” He tried to be optimistic. “Please practise with my spider warriors to get a grip with your new weapon. And archers, I don’t know if it will be useful or not but take this.” He gave them the bundles of Withering Arrows and Torpor Arrows. The archers were all too pleased about the arrows and were gloating about it to the five spearmen, making them even more bitter.

“Chief, there is a small experiment I want to run. Do you have a garden or some other spot with good soil?”

“I know just the place. Come.”

He followed the drow to a nearby cave; It was filled with mushrooms.

“We grow our food here. Is this any good?”

“As good as it gets.” He took a Bandit Agave plant out of inventory and began setting it in the soil.

“I’m not questioning your infinite wisdom King but…” He bowed for the umpteenth time already. “Won’t it need sunlight?”

“It does, but this is an experiment.” He planted it, [Unnatural Selection] and [Acclimate] was activated, and to top it off. “[Evolve]” He saved all his mana for this but even then he felt dizzy.

[Spell ??? unlocked, Imbue obtained.]

The plant was showered in purple light, the light subsided and there it was ­– changed. The green was replaced by the deep dark colour, and it was even more spiky than before.

“What happened?” The High Chief looked over the plant with curiosity.

“I think I imbued it with Darkness? I reckon it should be able to grow in the caves now.”

“I didn’t know such magic existed!” The drow exclaimed waving his arms. “If I didn’t know any better, If I wasn’t here to see it, I would have said this is Life magic, but it’s clearly Darkness. How strange!”

“It’s farming magic, a bunch of my farming perks, plus a new spell I just unlocked.”

“Amazing! No perks should be this powerful. This is unprecedented.” The High Chief took out a fungal paper and began to make notes on it with glowing ink. “What does the plant do?”

“Well, we don’t know yet. I will leave it to you to find out.”

“I’m most grateful.” He leaned to inspect it closer.

“If you don’t mind, I’ll take you up on your previous offer for a soak in Mana Spring.”

“Eh?” He didn’t even take his eyes away from the plant. “Sure. You heard him.” He motioned with his hand towards the servant girl. Well, he waved to the right but the girl was on his left, anyways the servant understood the command.

“King, please follow.”

“This is unnecessary I know where the spring is.”

The servant looked back to the High Chief. At the moment he was too absorbed in drawing the plant on his notes to even notice the begging look.

“King, please follow.” She repeated.

“Well, if you insist.” He followed the servant who walked stiffly like a robot would.

…

Unintentionally he had fallen asleep in the spring.

Someone shouted very loudly in his ear. “Spider King!”

He jumped in alarm, slipped and fell back into the water.

*Cough, he spat the water out. “Kobold Leader, what happened?”

“Brought spider friends.”

He looked above the rocks bordering the spring, there were four spiders. The first one was obviously the Stone Spider, it looked lite it was made entirely out of rock. The second one was unmistakably the Crystal Spider, it grew stacks of rectangular crystal on its back and its body was semi-transparent. The third glowed like a light bulb making the eyes hurt if stared at too long; clearly, it was the Glowing Spider. And the last one must be the Mushroom spider, it grew shrooms all over its body.

The Kobold Leader plucked a mushroom and deposited it into his mouth. “Delicious!” He chomped on it.

He remembered the High Chief naming five spiders who transformed. “I thought there were five?”

“Five?” The kobold looked panicked. “No, no. Four.” He gave his best smile.

“I must have misremembered. So do you have interesting perks?” He asked the four.

“Increased Physical Resistance. Can grow. And cut. Stone”

“Increased Magical Resistance. Grow Crystal.”

“I grow. Delicious Mushrooms.”

“I glow.”

“Hmm…” He tough for a moment. “You can come with us to the deep caves if you want.”

All four chirped a yes.

“Yes, Yes.” The kobold plucked another mushroom. “Spider friends are essential.”

He didn’t know the shape of the spiders so he couldn’t have prepared the fire-resistant clothing beforehand, but now he could.

“Erm…” He looked at the servant girl. “Can I borrow High Chief’s workshop?”

She looked conflicted but only for a second. “Yes, King, please follow.”

Well, he knew where it was, but followed the servant regardless.

…

The gear was ready, the spiders were ready and the drow… were mostly ready. The High Chief was still missing but he didn’t need him, the drow chief didn’t look like a scout or a fighter type anyway.

“Right, so I guess we will have the sturdiest at the front, that will be you Stone Spider and Crystal spider, followed by Glowing Spider to give us light. Don’t worry Glowing Spider, I and Drow spearmen will be right behind you ready to protect you. And behind it’s you, archers, to give us support, but please watch over the Mushrooms Spider. And to watch our rear is no one else but spider warriors.”

With this very simple formation, they headed towards the tunnel which according to Kobold Leader was leading to the deeper sections of the Undermountain. The kobold was currently riding on the mushroom spider and snacking on the many mushrooms it grew.

As they walked deeper, the environment began to change. It wasn’t a big change, the glow shrooms were scarcer and the glow moss less dense. Eventually, there was nothing but darkness, well there would be only darkness if not for Glowing Spider. However, even with the light, the atmosphere felt heavy; oppressive even. Everyone was on edge.

For the cave monsters, there were a few: some akin to centipedes and others more mole-like. The centipedes were at least a meter long and fat as a log. The two spiders were easily able to crush them if they came from the front. However, if presented a chance the creepy crawlers liked to ambush the party from the ceiling. The archers would shoot them down whenever possible.

The moles were just fat and simple-minded monsters. They had simple tactics of just rushing to the party. If the spiders missed some, it was either he or the spearmen who dealt with them.

Overall, this wasn’t very challenging. However, he had made an interesting observation: whenever he poked a monster with his Devouring Spear, the body shriveled leaving a hollow carcass and the spear glowed in red for a moment; it was a one-strike instant kill.

While this wasn’t challenging, the attacks were frequent and proved to be bothersome.

“I could buff everyone with Dark Shroud making us near invisible, but then we ourselves wouldn’t see where to go.”

“Us Drow have Darkvision.” The scout informed.

“Oh! I forgot. Well I don’t, and my spiders…”

“We. Don’t.” One of the warriors informed.

“But if you feel confident, I can buff you and you can ambush the attacking monsters from behind. Or even scout ahead if you feel confident.”

“Please.” The scouts were confident.

He buffed all ten and they disappeared in the darkness.

From there on, they knew which routes to avoid, and then the unavoidable attack came it was much easier to deal with.

With time, the oppressive air changed and turned to just hot air, and even the darkness didn’t last long. At first slowly, but then with more vigour, the narrow caves began to fill with red glowing moss. And soon the party emerged into the system of interconnected expansive caverns. The vegetation was sparse, mostly patchy grass and spindly bushes; and whatever grew took the various shades of red. But most importantly he saw columns of fire emerging from the cracks in the ground. There was even something very peculiar, the best description of the phenomenon was a small stream of liquid fire flowing from the crack in the wall, and no it wasn’t magma because it felt magical in nature. Multiple little streams were flowing from all over and pooling to form a river. The river flowed down the cavern and then fell off the cavern floor edge falling into lover caverns to form a lake of fire. While the air and ground felt hot, for some reason it didn’t burn the party, likely an attribute of Fire Resistance.

The spiders chirped at the magical marvel. He too thought this was quite impressive.

“Is this it? Is this where we find Fire Spirit Stones?”

“Yes, guarded by monsters.” The kobold leader pointed into the distance.