After the fourth nightmare, this one involving me trying to save a dumb ass cat that insisted on climbing into an oven because it was warm, I decided I had had enough sleep for the moment. Retracing my path back through the maze of tunnels and work areas that filled the stadium back out to the loading dock. Witnessing the predawn sky, where shadowy figures flitted, the slowly brightening sky churned in all its monochrome glory. From my frequent experiences with being up far too early I'd estimate it was still in that ugly blue part of the morning before the sun actually started peeking over the horizon.

A shadow hopped off one of the dark streetlights and landed atop my head with a soft flutter. "Good morning Matilda, did you get much sleep?"

"I might have nodded off for an hour or so," she confirmed, "Thankfully I managed to sneak a few naps yesterday so I'm not too knackered. Though I'll probably be sneaking a lot more today. What are you doing up this early?"

"Partially nightmares," I admitted, "Mostly needed to get a head start on what's promising to be another busy day."

"Yes, shelling and cooking is probably going to chew up a lot of time today." Matilda hummed, "I had my little dears get started shelling the smaller vermin, I considered trying to start a fire to do some experimental cooking. But I'm just too sensitive to heat and flames now."

"Little dears?" Had she become a summoner as well?

"Indeed!" her antennas wiggled and four, foot long, fuzzy moths that were Matilda's spitting image settled on the end of my snout. "They are wonderfully useful little things. Unintrusive, industrious, and obedient. I've been having them scout out the general area and wildlife. I'm able to see through all of their eyes quite easily, so I've managed to sketch out a fairly detailed little map while you were sleeping. I did lose a couple to some giant bat things, but that stopped after the things figured out my little mini-mes are toxic. I've still got about forty of the little dears and would have more if I wasn't getting so peckish, they're rather deep stamina sinks even with the discount sadly."

"Mini-mes?" I chuckled, "I wouldn't have taken you for a fan of that movie."

"Oh hardly," she flicked her fluffy forelegs dismissively, "Not my style of humor at all, no it's the skill name. I figured if I was going to be a more proactive member, taking the summoning skill that produced smaller versions of myself sounded better than a lot of the other 'standard' summons."

"Are they intelligent?" I asked worriedly.

"Not as far as I can tell." She dismissed, "If I'm not directing them they seem about as smart as your average moth. Very literal as well, will fly right into something if you don't instruct them to go around. I have managed to set up some simple tripwires around the area using their own limited silk spitting skill though."

"You know that could be really useful for making everyone a proper set of clothes," I stated, "I bet given a bit of time you could probably build something that could outfit everyone in clothes if you sta-ack! Fine! Fine! I'll stop!"

Moving away from my eye and ruffling her wings she huffed, "I am very aware of how useful that can be, young man, and I've already started building a supply of less sticky silk for others to work with. I've already penciled in plans to inquire with the other ladies in the group to see if any of them have any skill with weaving or knitting. I'm sure I can get them through the basics before we leave."

"Just make sure you aren't biting off more than you can chew." I cautioned, "You do need to sleep too after all."

"You are hardly the correct person to be telling me that young man," she chided. "So what are you doing to overwork yourself this time?"

"Dig some latrines." I stated not even bothering to refute the woman's statement, "Figure it will be a good test of the fossorial mutagen I got from the boss. Plus, you know, even if the bathrooms here were working they're hardly designed for things as big as some of us."

"Oh you got that one?" she asked curiously.

"I think we all did, or at least everyone I asked mentioned they did," she fluttered her wings in a shrug, "I thought you got your bloodline instead."

"Nope, I guess I got lucky, there must be only one bloodline drop per boss." I looked down at the rather solid looking asphalt with a sigh. "Here's hoping digging with my face is more pleasant than it sounds."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

As it turns out, it was far more pleasant than expected. My shovel shaped nose, coated in metal and apparently heavily reinforced, cut through the asphalt easily and I was soon scooping out piles of dirt like a backhoe. Doing a bit of experimentation and focusing heavily on the mutation I suddenly found myself carving through the ground like a drill. Pulling back, I felt my scales catching and dragging out yet more earth and clay from the hole until I was free and showering the area in loose dry dirt. Looking down at the hole I was astonished I'd managed to dig a ten foot hole, in clay no less, inside of a couple minutes. "Well, that went quicker than expected."

"It seems fairly large," Matilda noted of the nearly five foot wide hole, "What if people fall in?"

"Well this was intended to be for the larger of our group," I admitted, "Though when some of the more dexterous of us wake up I was going to ask them to build a cover out of the boards and carve a smaller hole in that." I eyed the hole critically, "Not sure how I'm going to make a smaller hole for the second pit though."

"Oh if you can tear away the asphalt I can easily deal with that." Matilda happily chirped.

"Ah right, you got the same mutation." Moving several feet away, to allow for a sizable stall to be built later, I tore free another chunk of asphalt, "Have at it."

Matilda seemed entirely too smug as she remained over by the first hole and clapped her forelegs together with a soft *click click*. Suddenly all the nearby moths surged towards the hole with several others flying in as they began to tear at the dry soil under the pavement and carry away tiny little legfuls of it.

"About how deep and wide did you want this one?" she inquired innocently.

"About eight deep and three wide," I rattled off the standard size, half hypnotized by the frenzied digging of dozens of foot long moths.

"You heard him ladies," she clicked her legs together again as the hole got steadily deeper and the moths started going down in shifts. One would come out pushing a small load of dirt and another would jump down the hole even as another started climbing out. I continued watching in fascination at this living clockwork for a good thirty seconds before looking at Matilda who was still completely clean and absolutely radiating smugness.

"Your summons can dig as well?" I finally asked.

"They're mini mes," she stated while oozing satisfaction, "They come with greatly reduced versions of my own skills and mutations. So yes, they dig."

Making a mental note that one of our smaller members was now apparently an entire construction team, and most of our people probably counted as heavy earth moving vehicles as well, I began to slither off. Shaking free some of the clinging clay and dirt I said, "Alright, with that taken care of then I'm going to go bring in the trailer. Think you can spare a couple to give me a bit of overwatch?"

Matilda waved me off as three dusty and dirty moths fluttered over towards me taking the time to start cleaning themselves off as I slithered down the street. It took very little time to reach the trailer, which was thankfully still where we'd left it in order to face the boss, but something seemed off. My tongue flicked out as I sniffed the air, there was definitely an animal smell lingering about, as well as a scent of old blood which could be pinned on the dead jackal-snakes in the back waiting to be dressed. But that wouldn't explain the faint scent of powdery artificial perfume I smelled.

Slithering to the back of the truck, I looked at the truck's lock. The door was scratched up, likely where night time scavengers had tried to get at the meat inside, but the lock itself still seemed to be in place. Though it had obviously been fiddled with by something with claws. Raising my massive tail blade high, I slammed it flat into the ground creating a massive racket, and sending a large shockwave through the ground.

–Tremorsense has leveled up! x2–

–Gained 6xp–

–Tremorsense rank up!–

–Special: F → E–

The returns were far clearer than ever before, giving me not only a hazy idea of how dense something was, but also a vague idea on its shape. More over the den of jackal-snakes a couple buildings over and the odd bat thing peering over a nearby roof continued to hum in my sense for a second or two after the fact. Interesting, it would most certainly be worth trying to grind up my skills and abilities if they came with that level of upgrade.

"Matilda," I whispered to the moths, "I don't know if you hear through these things, but a few more moths to help if that turns out hostile would be appreciated." Two of the moths fluttered off and the remaining moth gave a small nod.

I spent a minute slithering around the trailer doing pointless busy work like checking the near flat tires and that the chain we'd tied to the thing was still tight. I made a point of not looking around, especially not towards the bat thing on the roof, despite now being able to feel its gaze burning into my back as I worked. Then just as I was about to see if I was strong enough to move the entire trailer myself the remaining moth gave my nose two soft taps.

"So," I turned to look directly at the small ratty face poking over the edge of the roof, "Are you going to come down and introduce yourself or just sit up there all day?"

The tiny thing gave a shrill shriek I felt even through my armor and shrunk back from the lip. I debated simply waiting for the little head to reappear, but the shrill screams weren't stopping, but picking up and being interjected with many colorful oaths. Slithering over to the building I raised my head to peer onto the roof. I blinked in surprise when I saw a twisted reflection of possibly the most famous scene of Gulliver's Travels playing out before me.

A dozen of Matilda's moths had surrounded and tied down the much larger bat using thin lines of silk. The poor bat's eyes were darting about in wild panic even as more lines of silk secured her wings to the roof and another wrapped a line around her mouth, muting the continued screaming somewhat. And yes the bat was very obviously a woman, mammals make it very clear what gender they are to casual observation, especially when in the middle of pissing themselves.

"Matilda?" I glared at the various moths around the poor thing, "Was that really necessary?" all I got in return was a brief spreading of wings in a kind of lazy shrug. "Can you at least move her to the top of the truck?" A nod, "We might as well get her cleaned up and get a meal in her as an apology." I shifted my gaze over to the bat woman who suddenly went very still, "I do apologize about this, but I think everyone is still a bit jumpy about the last couple days. We'll try to make this up to you, the end of the world is no reason to forgo hospitality."

I lowered myself back down to the road and grabbed the thick chains of the trailer in my mouth. I waited as the fluttering mess of giant moths worked in tandem to move the struggling bat between them down to the top of the truck bed and re-securing their prisoner there. I shook my head with a deep sigh as I started hauling the trailer with only a mild bit of effort, "This is looking to be another hectic day."