“You are just the hired help,” one of the mages shouted at Sara. “You work for us. We set the rules, you follow them, and we go where we please.”
Sara’s smile would have set a wiser man running. “We have a very strict set of rules we have to follow, and they don’t include anything you just said. For instance, that Light Fairy boss you targeted? You’re completely allowed to. In fact, we’re not allowed to interfere. And I’ll lose fifty percent of my pay if you all arrive in a Corpse Inventory.”
“Keep in mind,” Eve said, “It’s only a difference of one gold piece. I have six gold pieces in Inventory. I could pay the entire party to end this expedition right now. But I won’t—if you agree to Sara’s sensible rules.”
“If you know of a hidden boss, you tell us and we detour to let you die,” Sara said. “If you feel like tackling a level thirty monster, you tell us so we let you die. If you lose your map and can’t find your way out, have the good sense to say so, or what follows will be three weeks of us eating well while you starve. I packed enough rations for a year and might choose to share if you’re polite. Which of you is Party Leader?”
The Nocto Mage raised her hand. “That’s me. Oshamar Vertic.”
“Oshamar. I’m going to give you my contact information, and then my party is going to draw back. You give us a general direction, we will move ahead of you looking only for level twenty five threats. You choose to engage a boss, you tell me. You camp, you tell me so we can guard you.” Sara’s green parrot swooped out, which would let Oshamar reply.
Oshamar seemed daunted by Sara, though she still glared. “Fine. I don’t even want to see you. We’re capable of taking down anything in these caverns.”
Sara pointed to Skully and Trinity. “Harm the TriTerror or the skeleton, and Kaden will allow them to act. You probably won’t survive. Lastly, betraying your party to kill everyone will result in me losing gold. I’ll personally sacrifice a gold piece to make an example of the offender. And before you think about banding together, all of you together are no match for me alone. Now, happy hunting and have a great exploration!”
Wren had been dressing one of the Mage’s wounds, but now she stood and stretched and joined Sara, Eve, and Kaden as they moved a few hundred yards away.
Kaden put the Echo Beetle back in his ear and listened intently while Sara found a place to setup camp and Trinity demolished the monsters who mistakenly thought it was their home. “So, Sara’s got their attention. [Life Mage] #1 says they can’t take a level twenty seven, let alone thirty and everyone else agrees. They’re talking about charting a path to the [Tar Troll] pits, then killing a boss called the [Digestor], who you actually have to enter.”
“[Swordsman] is at level six already, and the answer is no. I did not get another Talent. I do have three total skills. [Double Cut], [Mortal Wound] and [Lunge], which allows me to close with an enemy.
[Double Cut]
Deliver two blows with enhanced damage. The level of additional damage will increase as this skill does. At higher levels, so will the number of cuts.
[Mortal Wound]
Deliver a strike which caused Lethal damage. This strike is not enhanced but will prevent healing.
[Lunge]
Close the distance faster than your opponent could possibly believe. The distance you can [Lunge] increases with level. For greater mana cost, Lunge further.
Kaden wasn’t envious. Sara had been working toward ranged solutions and her new Class was even more melee focused.
A brown Messenger bird landed on Sara, and she listened. “They’re going to setup camp here and head east, hunting.”
Kaden didn’t mind. “Should I get out ahead of them?”
“Can you order Skully to protect our camp so nothing comes from this direction?” Sara studied the Western direction of the caverns. “I’ll feel better when Trella has mapped everything.”
Everything was probably Trella’s goal. “Skully will guard the camp, Trinity will go south, you go North and I’ll head east. If I see anything worth killing, I’ll send word.”
“I’m going to relax here at camp,” Wren said.
Sara produced two [Mirror Shields] from Inventory. “Would these help pass the time?”
Kaden was familiar with how quickly Trella could setup her alchemy kit and brew potions anywhere. It didn’t prepare him with how quickly Wren set up an actual workbench with so many tools on it Kaden didn’t recognize. And another bench, and another.
“There. It’s just a mobile workshop, and I can’t afford half the tools yet, but this should let me get started.” Wren took a [Mirror Shield] and locked it into a vice. A scroll nearby lit up with green and red writing that scrolled. “Oh, this is going to be such fun!”
“Your idea of fun needs work,” Eve said. “I’ll stick near Sara.”
They began to hunt.
###
Within days, they fell into a pattern. Trella went out in the morning and scouted. Kaden would have sworn she was just working the map, but her guidance was always solid. If Trella said there was a level thirty [Fire Bat Matriarch], there was. If she said the [Lava Scorpions] patrolled a route, they did.
Kaden used [Reap Materials] on everything, passing every reagent to Trella and anything remotely food-like to Eve. The Mages were simply terrible at managing resources. They slew monsters and didn’t harvest at all. Not [Field Harvest], not [Reap Materials], they didn’t even cut chunks off of monsters.
Kaden took them all.
After two weeks, Sara began to worry, and when the Mages settled down to sleep, she called a meeting with Trella. “First off, excellent scouting. We’ve only been surprised three times and one of those was our babies breaking the rules. I’m starting to grow worried. They’re not moving in a particular direction. I strongly suspect one of them lost the map.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Kaden took it out of Inventory. “They left it behind three days ago. And their meal kit. And whatever this is.”
“Wand Recharger,” Eve said. “That Meal Kit is better than mine.”
“They’ve dropped five of them. The kits come with [Recipes] built in and they don’t seem to understand they’re reloadable,” Kaden said. “Skully’s carrying most of their stuff.”
Eve stood, cursing softly. “Nobles. They choose [Mage] classes believing it will be safe and easy. Which one of them is a noble? Never mind, I see both of them. That’s why they could afford an escort party. That’s why Ignus himself arranged this. And most of the enemies here are Beasts, making Kaden uniquely suited to guard.”
“We can’t help,” Sara said.
“Watch me.” Eve took the map and a cooking kit and marched over the rise down toward the Mages.
Kaden found an Echo Beetle and listened in.
“You. So-called Party Leader. Why did you leave the map? Why did you abandon your cooking kit? Explain yourself.” Eve’s tone said there wouldn’t be a good explanation. “Perhaps this is someone else’s map of these caverns we found?”
“That’s not…” Osharam didn’t finish her statement. “A spare map would be good. And we don’t keep garbage because it doesn’t feed us.”
“This is a set of basic cooking tools,” Eve answered. “With the [Cooking] skill, you could re-use it to feed yourselves. For instance, [Lava Scorpions] are delicious. Giant Centipedes are edible. Don’t eat the spiders. Was your plan to starve until you could fit through some crack and challege another boss in a malnourished state?”
The echo beetle repeated only what it heard, and the answer was a muddled mess.
“Do better,” Eve said. “I expect you to kill a scorpion and roast the meat over the fire tonight. If I don’t find roast scorpion meat, I’ll cook for my Party and then we’ll come sit next to you while we eat.”
A moment later she returned. “I expect tomorrow will go better. If it doesn’t, I will make it go better. As much fun as it is seeing everyone gain skills and Kaden harvest every material known to man, I’m growing bored. We should be leading them toward the exit.”
“I disagree. I only had one [Huntress] skill at first,” Trella said. “Now I have [Tracking], [Crossbow] and [Mark Prey]. This has been well worth the trip.”
Kaden borrowed her map. “What’s the difference between your map and their map?”
“Mine works. Also, theirs only indicates the relative direction of the exit. Mine has everything.” Trella took it back. “It’s a long run each morning but I’ve mapped the east side of this cavern. There’s easily a dozen bosses they haven’t even seen. This place is one hell of a proving ground.“
“There’s no reason we have to leave,” Kaden said. “I could keep hunting here with you until twenty five. We could come back and wreck this place.”
Sara shook her head. “This entire cavern system is claimed by the Mage Tower. All over the world, mages are sent here to prove their right to reach second tier by surviving.”
“Then I’ll take guard Quests,” Kaden said. “I could practically run a guard quest with nothing but my Beasts. Trella could hunt.”
“We’ll see.” Sara’s tone said she’d rather be hunting elsewhere. “The first hell is an option now. Between Kaden and I, we should be able to level you much faster.”
Trella’s frown told Kaden how she felt about that. She didn’t want to be leveled, she wanted to earn experience.
“We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it,” Kaden said. Trinity took overnight shifts, since two of her heads would sleep while one kept watch, and Skully never missed a chance to stand menacingly.
Morning found the baby mages off at a good pace, and in the right direction, according to Sara. Trella came back midway through the morning. “I need to borrow Trinity. She’ll probably be fine.”
“I can—”
“Just her,” Trella said. “I found a challenge these idiots should be making a beeline for and I can’t stand to see it go to waste.”
Kaden looked to Trinity and gave her the choice. It wasn’t really a question of if. “She wants to know if there’s going to be a lot of blood. She doesn’t really care whose blood. Yours. Its. Hers.”
Trella thought for a moment. “If we do it right—and we’re going to—there’s going to be nothing but blood.”
Trinity gave a roar of sheer pleasure and followed Trella off into the distance. Skully just wasn’t the same. Skully would do anything Kaden commanded, but very little he didn’t. Trinity had her own desires. They weren’t complex, but they were desires.
Sara called a halt. “They’re going to try and harvest those three lava scorpions.”
Kaden kept going to make sure there wasn’t a level thirty Golem directly in the way. Ahead, the cavern floor turned to fine sand in a wide disk that slanted downward. He chipped a stone with Remembrance and tossed it into the cone.
It bounced a few feet from the center.
What exploded upward looked like a Forimicidean, only chunkier, with wider, thicker mandibles and jagged jaws. It crushed the rock and swallowed it before digging back down. He sent the Falcrow to Sara and Wren.
A few minutes later, the two arrived.
“Mages are trying to learn [Cooking],” Wren said. “You would think they would have planned for this expedition. To come here and not leave until they were level thirty.”
“You’d be wrong,” Sara said.
Kaden showed them the Burrower. “Wren, do you have any bombs?”
“Not with me. Could I make some? Yes.” Wren watched as he triggered it to attack.
“Hold on the bombs.” Sara summoned a [Crawling Horror] and hurled it into the pit. The grub went squealing end over end until it bounced in the sand and immediately began inching forward.
The Burrower exploded upward to swallow it—and flopped over, dead.
“[Blasphemous Flesh] causes extreme damage to anything that eats one,” Sara said. “It’s not usually handy but when it works, it works. Oh, and did I mention I finally leveled?” Sara said the last so nonchalantly.
“You just killed a boss. By yourself.” Wren sounded sad. “Is there any chance you have another [Mirror Shield]?”
Any other time, Sara probably would have bargained. Now, she handed Wren two and sauntered back toward the Mages.
“Sara is more like you every day,” Wren said. “I don’t think I mean it as a complement. That was a boss! Someone you’re meant to work together to kill.”
“We do work together.” Kaden slid down the sand funnel to the dead Burrower, but when he touched it, the list of materials it offered was depressingly bad. The mandibles were weapons crafting for greatswords. The meat was labled (foul), and shell, almost always an armor component, was an exclusive component, meaning he couldn’t harvest the mandibles and it.
Kaden Reaped the mandibles—and had a second thought. He began digging in the sand. Then flinging his prizes out. Bones. Robes. Wands, Kaden just kept digging until he reached stone. When he climbed out of the pit, it was to Wren staring. “What did you just do?”
“I harvested the Burrower,” Kaden said. “Then I thought, what’s a giant insect going to do with all that loot? Nothing. Same thing I did with the Torrods, really.”
Most of these were basic tomes of magic, basic robes with mandible gashes in them, basic bones with mandible marks on them. “Any idea what this is?” He passed Wren a crystal in the shape of a clamshell.
“Not an artifact or anything I can work from. Ask Ashi. She’s the magic expert.”
Sometimes at night, the dense fire mana grew so thick Kaden imagined writing on the ceiling and patterns in the mist. Ashi would have overflowed with Fire Mana within an hour. Kaden put it away and stacked the books by type. “Vivomancy. Necromancy. Geomancy. Noctomancy. What’s Lumomancy?”
“Illusions. Probably the weakest branch at first and one of the strongest near the end,” Wren said. “Grandma was an [Illusionist]. She gifted my mom a version of her that followed me around when I was young, taking care of me. Lasted over a decade.”
Cheering and cries of absolute triumph said his mage babies had defeated a boss, so he went to check.
“One of them got [Cooking] level one from roasting scorpion,” Eve said. “How long do you suppose it will take them to realize they got rid of all their cooking kits?”
The answer was ‘Not long.’
Kaden handed Eve a pair of kits as Trella’s crow came flapping down. “Can you help me harvest something?”
He checked with Sara and summoned Wisp 71. “You are the best wisp in these caverns. Where’s Trella?”
The wisp led him through the caverns to a dead tree that reached all the way to the ceiling. Spiderwebs stretched from the ground to the branches, and 71 bobbed upward to a tangled mess of webbing—and Trella, who fought to cut herself loose.
Kaden began using [Reap Materials], receiving 1x Grave Spider silk each time, and working his way carefully up to where Trella hung. He caught her as [Reap Materials] removed the webbing holding her. “Where’s Trinity?”
“Eating the spider’s head,” Trella said. “She helped me kill it, but once it was dead, she wasn’t interested in helping me get down.”
[Field Harvest] collapsed the webbing, and Kaden dropped to the ground to find his TriTerror destroying the corpse. “Girl, stop. The web glands are for Alchemy, and if you keep devouring—” Kaden gasped as Trinity raised her head.
There, in the center of the corpse, lay a hunk of meat with liquid black beads embedded in it. Kaden ripped it out. “Look at this. It’s nocto condensate. The spider was going to form a mana core.”
Trella’s eyes grew wider. Was that excitement, or fear? She shoved the chunk in her mouth and swallowed.