Max dragged himself from the training field, breathing hard, the corners of his vision swimming. It took all of his strength just to stay on his feet and not stumble. But he didn’t mind. It wasn’t the first time he’d exhausted himself training, although this time he was deliberately doing it to see if he could train his Constitution or Endurance, or at least the way he made use of it. He knew he would be fine if he just waited for a bit.

Tim shot him a look and smiled at him, heading into the field a few meters away. Max read the edge of amusement in the smile, the slight exasperation, although he knew most others wouldn’t have. He debated flipping Tim off, but the effort was too much for a useless rude gesture.

Once he was out of the way, Max leaned against the mound of earth at the foot of the palisade for a bit, before he straightened up. The fortification still wasn’t finished, but it was going well, and they were already considering expanding it further.

He blinked, noticing a System screen hovering in his vision.

You have leveled up

Max grinned, satisfaction chasing away the tiredness. He took a look at his status screen, curious to see his newly assigned stat point.

Max Drone Warrior Level: 16 Mana: N/A Con: 14 Str: 13 Dex: 11 End: 13(+1) Int: 15 Wis: 11

He nodded to himself. Well, his Endurance was probably due to rise, anyway. It was hard to say whether his efforts made any difference. Although his build still seemed to favor Constitution over Strength, in accordance with his own wishes. He wondered if the System did that based on whatever information it gathered, assigning stat points to suit a person’s activities and role. Maybe it looked at the Abilities you chose.

Max dismissed the screen, then stood up and turned away. He looked around, but couldn’t see Regina anywhere. He felt annoyed at himself for the way his heart seemed to skip a beat at the realization. She might tolerate him hanging around all the time, but he really couldn’t cling to her twenty-four-seven. Besides, she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, especially here and now, a peaceful day in the middle of the Hive. If he hung around her too much, his training and other duties would suffer, and that wouldn’t help either of them. On the contrary.

Still, he decided he might as well go take a look around and check on her location. After all, it wasn’t like he didn’t have anything he might need to talk to her about, and knowing where she was would be necessary for that. Plus, he was the strongest defensive-oriented drone in the Hive, if not the strongest overall, so being there to protect his Queen was a natural desire.

There were fewer people around than he expected, which probably meant that a decently large group was out hunting at the same time as one was in the tunnels. He only saw Mia and Bea working on something at one of the houses, and of course there were Tim and Dan on the training field with some of the War Drones.

Max paused as he passed by the two Workers. Looking closer, he now saw Bea had a handful of a gray-green substance, which he placed as the output of a Production Drone after a moment. It looked a little denser and clearer and, if he was honest, less gross than what he’d seen before.

“Did you modify what the new drone type does?” he asked.

Mia glanced up, obviously startled. She smiled at him. “Not really, I think this is mostly an effect of them leveling up. The oldest one is already level 5. We’ve been experimenting with the stuff a bit, though.”

“I can see that,” he said, stepping closer and peering at it. Mia seemed to be applying the substance to the side of the door. “What have you got so far?”

“It’s a bit sticky, and it keeps its form remarkably well once you apply some pressure,” Bea said. “We want to do some more intensive stress testing with the Queen once she’s available.”

“But it could be useful as a crafting material, right?” he asked.

“Or even a construction material, maybe,” Mia said with a nod. “Though we might need higher-tier stuff. It’s probably going to keep improving with levels.”

“There might also be new versions or new substances at higher levels,” Max said. “Well, I suggest you name it before Regina does.”

Bea coughed in a way that was obviously an aborted chuckle, while Mia smiled and shook her head. “I don’t think there’s any hurry. Besides, her names aren’t always that bad.”

“You do realize she called the new bird monster ‘Dark’, right?”

Mia shrugged. “Better than ‘Shadow’.”

Max stared at her for a moment, but her expression didn’t even flicker. He snorted, but he knew she saw his amusement. “Well, alright then. Good luck, and let me know if you need help.”

“Thanks.” They turned back to their work, and by the time Max took his second step away from them, he could hear them already moving something around again.

Max walked out of the camp and on the trail towards the entrance to the tunnel system. It wasn’t much of a trail, just a path where the passage of feet had pressed the grass of the plain down, and mud peeked through in a few places. Absently, he wondered when Regina would want to start building roads. Actually, he’d put even odds that Mia would suggest it to her first.

The tunnel system did indeed seem to be busy, with the sound of several drones at work coming out of it. He glanced over the young Warrior standing close by the entrance. Ted was keeping busy cutting down the low branches of a nearby tree. Two War Drones were helping. Max nodded at him and entered the cave.

Inside, he quickly found Tia and Ina in the main chamber, conferring and drawing on a rocky wall with sticks of charcoal. Regina was just coming out of the second passage, which he knew still only extended a few meters, not much more than the start of a new tunnel that would eventually come to be here.

“And here I thought I’d shaken off my shadow today,” Regina commented, smirking slightly.

Max shrugged nonchalantly. “I should familiarize myself with the tunnels, anyway, and if you intend to push deeper, it’s probably smart to have a strong Warrior along.”

She glanced at the Workers, who seemed to have settled their discussion. “Alright. I did want to see what we could find digging further towards the rocky area. You’re rested and ready to use your Abilities a lot, right, girls?”

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They both nodded, and Tia said, “Sure. We’ve already found a few pockets in the ground, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we happened upon a passage that was large enough to traverse.”

Max knew that expanding their tunnels didn’t usually go that quickly, but maybe there was something different about the composition of this soil, or whatever you called it.

He quickly found his question answered when he reached the newest part of the tunnel. It split about a hundred meters after the entrance cavern, with two tunnels curving to both sides. He followed Regina down the left-hand one, and quickly found that the makeup of the earth and stone around them changed. Its color became a deeper, reddish-tinted tone, and the edges of the tunnel seemed to grow a little more jagged.

“It’s actually easier to dig through here,” explained Tia, catching his look.

“It is,” Ivy agreed as they came upon the Harvester, working at the edge of the tunnel, though sideways compared to the direction it had gone in. It looked like they might want to make another split.

“Alright,” said Tia. She sounded cheerful. “Let’s get started.”

She had a pick with a tip of steel conjured by their Queen, Max realized. When she held out a second one they’d apparently left in the tunnel to him, he took it without comment and started hitting the tunnel walls.

It took him a little while to find a good rhythm and see how best to do it by watching Tia. But after he got into it, Max realized with a hint of pride that he was actually doing better overall. Probably because of his greater strength.

They made visible progress through the tunnels. Under Tia’s direction, their digging angled down slightly. Every so often, she or Bea would use their first Ability to remove chunks of earth at once. Max considered using his own to increase his Strength, but it was made for fighting, not really something like this, and he was the only Warrior close by.

“Wait,” Regina said after what he guessed might have been about two hours, but he wasn’t sure. It was hard to tell time down here.

It took Max a moment to realize why she wanted to stop. Then he put his pick down and ran a hand over his head. There was what looked like a hole in the ground.

“Is that just a crack?” Tia asked.

Regina shrugged, then a light appeared over her hand as she cast Spark. She lowered it down and brought it as close to the hole as possible. Max frowned and leaned closer, trying to look.

“Those are some deep shadows,” he said. “I think it goes down pretty far.”

“Let’s broaden it a bit and see what it’s like,” Tia suggested. “I don’t want any narrower versions of Tunnelers surprising us. And even if there’s nothing, making a shaft down and then a deeper tunnel or cavern in this spot wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

“I guess we could always use it as a trap or storage space or something,” Regina said. She extinguished her light and nodded. “Alright, then. It’s probably better if you direct things, I don’t want to cause anything to collapse or anything like that by accident.”

“I don’t think that’s a concern here,” Tia said with a small smile.

They got back to work, this time digging a little more carefully. A few pieces of rock still fell down the cleft, and Max listened for the thuds of their impacts. He wasn’t sure, but it sounded like it went some way down and probably wasn’t entirely straight and regular.

After about an hour of digging, they all realized this was not just some small cleft in the rock that had appeared due to some pocket of air or water or whatever. Or maybe it could be, he didn’t know anything about geology. It also didn’t look like it was artificially made, but didn’t seem like a normal cave, according to Regina. She discussed it with Tia, mentioning that she had some images and ideas of those in her memory, though she didn’t know if she’d ever been in any personally or if she’d just seen pictures somewhere.

Then the hole actually widened, and they reached what seemed a lot more like some kind of cave. Max frowned as he peered down into it. It looked a bit like someone had dug a bell-shaped cavern in the ground, then put a hole through the center and smoothed the slopes leading into it, but distorted and uneven, like it was a natural formation.

“It almost looks like this was some kind of room,” Tia said, glancing around, her work-limbs held in front of her. “But not quite.”

“I could go down,” Max offered. “In case there’s any danger.” He glanced at Regina.

She frowned, then sighed. “Alright, but be careful, and only move over a small distance at a time.”

Max nodded, then carefully wedged his feet and legs through the hole. They hadn’t really needed to widen it here, it was just big enough for a drone to squeeze through. He might have grown a bit over the past few weeks, but he was still only about as big as a human fourteen-year-old, as far as he could guess.

He held his breath, but managed to get a toe-hold on the rim-like part of the rock before he dropped down into the small cavern. He extended his right blade-limb to help balance himself, but had to keep his left one folded tightly against his body. His left hand moved over the rock, but he didn’t find anything good to grab onto.

“Can you see anything more from down there?” Regina asked.

Max ducked his head, trying to get a better angle. “I don’t know …” He wasn’t really in the best position to take a close look at everything here.

“How’s the consistency of the rock?” Ina asked.

“About the same as before.” He shrugged, then paused, dragged his foot over the ground a bit. He was glad he wasn’t wearing shoes. “Actually, maybe not quite the same. The shade is a bit darker and it’s smoother than it looks. But I don’t know if that means anything.”

“Let’s go down, too,” Regina said.

“Uh, that might not be the best idea, my Queen.” He glanced up. “It’s pretty small and cramped here.”

Max edged around the hole in the ground. The slope made it hard to keep his balance, and the cramped confines didn’t help. Maybe it would have been easier with only four limbs. The rock wasn’t nearly soft enough for him to dent with his blade-limbs, at least not easily.

Then he crouched, as best he could, balanced with a hand on the wall, and looked down. “Definitely a shaft going down,” he said. “Wait, I think there might be a fork in it, another one. About as big as the tunneler shafts?”

He took a deep breath, tasting the air. There was the dirt and rock, a hint of water, maybe, and something he found harder to identify.

“Wait, what’s that sound?” Regina asked.

Max froze, listening hard. There was a rumble, sounding far distant and quiet, but still noticeable. It didn’t seem to be getting louder, or did it? He wasn’t sure.

Then suddenly he heard something scrabbling up the shaft. He tried to stand up, looking down. “A Tunneler’s coming!”

He didn’t have enough time to properly inspect it and get a System window, but it looked like the Tunneler Fighters he’d seen before. It climbed up the shaft quickly.

Max extended his blade-limb, pushing against the monster. He’d gotten the angle slightly wrong and couldn’t put much force behind it, so his blade skittered off its side.

Max tried to step back, coming in with his second blade-limb. The Tunneler was climbing out of the tunnel. He cut it on the left shoulder, but it still managed to get out, screeching.

Max stepped forward, as well as he could, and thrust with both of his weapons at the same time. He managed to get the Tunneler in the face, but it jerked to the side so that it was only a shallow cut. His second blade cut into its paw.

The Tunneler opened its mouth, and suddenly a ball of mud flew towards him. Max ducked low, but when it hit his shoulder, it was like the impact lacked any force behind it, even though he felt it. His first Ability, it was clearly passively on.

“Fuck,” he heard Regina curse above him. “Are there more of them?”

“I don’t think so!” Max called, trying to side-step around his opponent. He didn’t want to take his eyes off it.

There was more noise above, but he didn’t have the attention to spare for it, either. Instead, he decided to take a risk, crouched further to lower his center of gravity, and moved forward.

The Tunneler prepared another attack. Max acted quickly. His left sword-arm thrust into its chest and penetrated.

The monster fell back, but its attack was already on the way. Max tried to straighten.

Then the ball of earth impacted on his lower torso, wrenching his hip back. “Fuck!” He barely had the time to realize another Warrior must have come into the tunnel. The impact made his left foot slide back. It crashed against the walls of the cavern, then rebounded. The force of the attack turned him.

Max tried to compensate, but the smooth, angled ground offered him no purchase. His right blade-limb bouncing against the rock sent another shudder through him. He tried to reach for the edge, but didn’t quite mange to grab on. Then he tumbled down the shaft.

“Max!” Regina’s shout echoed after him. He tried to curl into a ball.

The fall seemed to take forever and yet was over in moments. Cold crashed over him, his feet seeming to explode with heat at the same time.

Max thrashed around, almost gasped, but he was underwater. He kicked, encountering some kind of resistance, waving his arms, then, after a moment, he calmed down and made more purposeful movements.

He breached the surface of the water and took in a shuddering breath of air. He was in what looked to be a small underground lake, or maybe a pond by its size, but a surprisingly deep one. Cave walls above him, several scents in the air. There was very little light, but it allowed him to get a faint sense of his surroundings.

This was not what he’d expected to happen today.