Ah, finally!

We’ve been walking through the cave for a while now. It’s probably been about a week since we evolved into a plated cavern pest.

Since then, I’ve been working nonstop on leveling our magic related skills.

But, as you can see, it’s been slow.

Super duper slow.

That level in mana perception just now is the first one I’ve gotten so far, and like I said, it’s been about a week.

At this rate, I don’t think we’ll ever be able to use magic.

I think our best bet at this point is to turn around and try communicating with the Stadiea again.

However…

It’ll kinda be hard to get back, because we’ve gone through multiple forks in the path.

Sigh, nothing ever seems to go right for me.

So, what do we do if we can’t go back?

Just keep going forward, I guess. I don’t really know what else we’re supposed to do.

And so, just keep going forward we did.

Until now.

Because now the path is blocked?

By wolves.

Yikes. Should we run?

Probably, yeah.

{Are you gonna run?}

[Can't.]

{Ah.}

The wolves applied their fear effect I guess.

Sigh. Guess I’m gonna have to take over.

I take off running, the wolves right behind me.

I think there was a patch of dirt pretty close by. I just have to make it there.

[Dodge!]

Hm?

One of the wolves comes flying at me, barely missing as I sidestep.

It’s been so long, I nearly forgot about their tendency to pounce.

Ooh, it seems fear tolerance reached its max level.

Ah, wait, I shouldn’t be getting distracted. There are still ravenous wolves right behind me.

Although, I don’t know how I’m gonna beat them. I’m not as good as Gloria is at digging, so there’s no way I’d be able to dig a tunnel fast enough to escape once I find dirt. The wolves would easily catch up with me.

But I can’t exactly just turn around and fight them, either. I might be able to beat one wolf, but definitely not a group of them.

So, how am I going to survive this?

Hmmmmm…

What advantages do I have over the wolves?

Not many.

They’re stronger than me in every way.

We’re about the same speed, too.

If anything… Our defense is probably a bit better thanks to our plated shell.

But that doesn’t mean we can easily take hits. Our health is still miserably low.

Hmm…

The last time we dug a tunnel was a while ago, so there’s no premade tunnels we can dive into anywhere close.

Could I stall for time until Gloria isn’t under the effects of fear anymore?

I could, but it wouldn’t be very helpful.

She’s better than me at fighting, but that doesn’t mean she’d be able to beat this horde of wolves.

She could probably only take three at most, and even then she might not make it out alive.

Ah, this sucks.

We’ve barely been alive in this world for any time at all. Is this really gonna be how we die?

After all we’ve survived… The first encounter with wolves, the earthquake, the encounter with that skel… Wait a minute.

The earthquake.

We chose this evolution specifically because it would have been helpful during the earthquake.

Meaning, we’re now suited towards that kind of thing.

Why don’t we cause our own little mini-earthquake?

In this small tunnel, it’d be incredibly hard to dodge.

But that goes for us and the wolves.

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And the wolves don’t have armor like we do.

So, how do we cause a cave-in?

Well, our digging level is pretty high.

Surely we’d be able to do something to stone at this level.

There’s really nothing we can do but try.

And I think we’re gonna have to try soon, because I’m starting to get awfully tired.

Yeah, that’s not good.

I can’t keep this up for much longer.

So, it’s now or never!

I jump towards the closest wall, and strike it with all the strength I can muster.

The wall cracks, and shards of rock go flying off of it, but it doesn’t cause a cave-in.

Shit!

The wolves don’t slow down at all, seemingly unphased by what I just did.

I guess being dumb as rocks has its upsides when you’re a ruthless predator.

What should I do now? Should I try again?

I don’t know why I thought it’d be so easy to create a cave-in, but it’s not!

I scour the walls around me, looking for a spot that seems particularly load bearing.

Come on, come on! There’s got to be something!

Anything!

We reach a fork in the road, and I run in the direction unfamiliar to me.

Shit, was that a mistake?

If we had gone back the way we came from, I might have been able to make it to our last tunnel.

No, that’s not true. We don’t have nearly enough energy left for that.

As soon as I start to despair, I see a stone pillar in front of me.

It almost seems to glow as I approach it, so I ready my claws to strike it.

This is it. This is my last chance. If this doesn’t work, it’s over for us.

I close my eyes as my claws collide with the stone.

A loud crack noise shoots through the cave as the pillar falls apart.

But nothing happens.

Until…

The ceiling above us begins to groan.

Dust falls from above us.

Then small rocks, then bigger ones.

My legs collapse under me as I finally run out of energy.

Is this it for us?

But the size of the rocks falling continues to grow, as well as the frequency at which they fall.

In an instant, it’s like a rain of rocks, falling down and cutting us apart.

At least, I imagine it would have been cutting us apart had we not had our plated shell.

The wolves, on the other hand, aren’t fairing as well.

One of them has already been pinned under a rock, and they’re all covered in cuts.

Another one of them seems to still be dead set on killing us, but as it approaches its head is crushed by a rock.

A few giant rocks nearly crush us as well, but I use our remaining bits of energy to crawl away.

Ah, but I think that was the last of it. My eyes are forcing themselves closed now.

Will we survive this?

I’m really not sure.

If the wolves can’t manage to survive when they’re wide awake and full of energy, I don’t know how we will when we’re knocked out on the ground.

But… At least we’ll die in our sleep, I guess.

Yawwwwn~!

Good morning!

It looks like we didn't die while we slept!

We got pretty damn close though!~

Also, our max energy went up a lot!

Does how much you use a certain stat determine how much it will go up when you level up?

Wow~

That's pretty crazy.

I'm not interested in min-maxing that though. I’d rather not die while trying to make myself stronger!

Oh yeah, almost forgot.

{You okay, Gloria?}

[Yeah, I'm fine. Mostly.]

{That's good. Can you walk yet?}

[I think I can.]

{Good, then you can take over again. I'm not interested in doing anything like that again anytime soon!}

Also, it seems the cave-in managed to kill all of the wolves!

Good job, cave-in! You did so good!

But wait a minute, why did we level up from that?

Sure, I started the cave in, but the rocks were what killed the wolves.

Oh, wait! The effect of the trapper title made it so stuff we killed with traps counted as a kill for us, right?

So handy!

It's a little weird that a cave-in I caused counts as a trap, but I won't complain!

Although, there is one thing I want to complain about.

We lost the herbivore title!

I guess it makes sense with how many wolves we killed, but still! It was a very useful title!

It made it so we got a load of XP whenever we ate moss, which, while not really enough to consistently level us up alone, gave us a nice little boost when combined with the XP from killing things.

But not anymore!

Damnit!

Well, I guess it'll probably be worth it in the long run. Even if we knew we’d lose the herbivore title from killing too many things, I doubt we would have decided to hold off on killing just so we could keep the title.

I'm sure we've gotten far more XP from the things we killed to lose the title than we would've gotten from eating moss in twice the amount of time.

Plus, it's not like we don't get anything from eating moss now. The title just boosted the XP gains.

So, I guess it's not really that bad.

I'm still upset though.

[Hey, Fir, look.]

Hm?

Hmmm?

Hmmmmmmm?

In the part of the ceiling where the pillar I broke used to be attached, there's a hole with a faint light coming out.

What… is that?

{Should we go in?}

[It seems we don't have a choice.]

Ah.

Behind us, where we came from, the path is blocked by a massive mound of rocks.

In front of us… well…

A familiar giant face fills the entire hall.

Ah, hello Rorthal. How are you doing?

Good? That's good.

Anyway, I think I should get going now, haha… ha…

{Run!}

We dart away from Rorthal, who emits a loud groan as we jump into the hole in the ceiling.

Ah, I never want to see that thing again.

It's just… just looking at it makes me feel uneasy.

And I could say the same about the sight before my eyes right now.

The ground beneath us is a floor of tiled stone.

Above us, more of the same.

The walls around us have been carved out and smoothed, with half circle pillars lining the walls.

And surrounding us is a ton of information stones.

[Let's touch them all!]

{No! Are you dumb? You saw our health, we’ll definitely die if we get thrown into a wall by one of those!}

[Tch, fine.]

{We can touch one once we recover a little. Until then, let's explore a little. I'm curious about this place.}

[Hm. I guess that's alright.]

We walk through the doorway, which leads to a narrow hall with the same type of construction as the room we were just in.

As we walk in, the hall lights up dimly.