After forcing the [Healer] back up on his feet, the group of three began to venture deeper into the cave, each step being hesitant. Buck was in front now, though Tom had offered to take the position. The Druid had denied him the comfort, instead of putting him on the task of making sure Rapehal didn’t try and run while also making sure nothing came from behind. Aloy had disappeared that way, after all, and there was no way Buck would allow himself the same fate.

“Are we going to destroy it?” the healer asked again. It seemed he had grown more confident with time. “The money lost from that-”

“Will be worth us not dying in the next couple of hours,” Buck finished for him while trying to send him a glare that told him to shut his mouth. He didn’t want to hear it. No sounds other than the one the enemy made would be accepted. “We can’t get one of those [Mythical] revivals that you keep mentioning if nobody will know that we were here.”

“My father is rich. He wouldn’t mind paying for both of you-” Rapehal kept on jamming, not seeming to understand the position he was in.

“Tom, would you mind hitting him on the head for me?” Buck requested, feeling some minor enjoyment from the smack heard from behind. There was some hushed whispering where the healer tried to get mutiny started but that was met with a ‘shut up.’ Oh, how the Druid loved it.

What he loved more, however, was the fact that darkness was becoming more intense. Or maybe that was meant as sarcasm. He hated that fact. His eyes were more than able to adapt but everything was becoming more grey-scaled with each second. Picking out anything moving further out was impossible. And those sounds he was hearing… they didn’t spell for anything good.

“Do you guys hear chittering?” Raphael asked. The glare he got from both of them made the answer unneeded. Everybody could hear it. The sound was getting louder and louder, after all. There was no hiding it at that point. The instinctual answer was that some insects were getting through some things nearby. Perhaps a spider? Yet that shouldn’t have made sense. No creature of that kind would willingly be so close to the surface. They either hid up in the mountains, the jungles, or the cave system down below.

Yet that bit of history Buck had spent so long memorizing was proven utterly useless the moment that a set of mandibles showed up in his sight. Only ten meters away, a group of three larger ants came barreling towards him. While it might not have sounded too terrifying, the fact that they came up to his thigh made it more than just fear-inducing. They were like the smaller breeds of wolves and likely just as deadly.

Tom came from behind Buck with a swing down, cutting the first ant seen right in half. Its insides are pushed out of the new holes, making the floor slippery. Not that it stopped the two other ants from continuing their charge.

And it didn’t stop Buck from using [Entrapping Vines]. Being so far underground made them slightly less powerful yet the intensity of Mana in the air still allowed for the two ants to be trapped with the powerful green vines holding them in place. It wasn’t a popular spell but it worked wonders in keeping the creatures at bay. The costs… were not that good, however, and it only worked for a few seconds.

Yet those seconds were more than enough for Tom to swing his claymore twice again. The head of the second ant was removed entirely and the third was wounded to the point where it couldn’t do much more than wriggle around. It was beheaded as well in quick succession.

“That… was not what I expected to see down here,” Tom said, breathing heavily as he rested his body on his one good foot, the other very clearly leaking blood. He didn’t say anything though, only looking towards Buck for a quick question. “Do we loot the bodies or just move on?”

“We have to get out of here as quickly as possible. Money isn’t something we should care about,” Buck said before looking towards a certain healer who had taken several steps back during the ordeal. “Did you expect to run or something? Don’t answer that. Just get over it and [Heal] him.”

“But-” Rapheal started once again before another glare shut him down. With no other comment, he went over and uttered the healing words once again. “[Heal”

A sigh of relief came from the Giant-Man. While not in the state where asking for help would be accepted, the receiving was still well appreciated. Buck didn’t understand that kind of mindset, personally able to ask for help no matter what. If others wanted to spend resources on him without asking for anything in return, what was there to lose?

“Those ants were larger than anything I’ve seen before,” Tom stated, pushing one with the edge of his claymore. The thing was entirely covered by now but a quick swipe got most of it off. “Do you think the Core evolved them? I heard they could do things like that.”

“If it had the power to evolve them, we would already be dead by now,” Buck said, not entirely sure he was right even if it sounded just about correct. The living dungeon had some ability to manipulate its surroundings, seeing as it could seal off the entrance. “It likely just found some of them by accident and got lucky. These creatures take years to gain enough power to do anything at all. A quick spurt of luck would explain the low number as well.”

How many creatures resided in a dungeon normally? A hundred? A thousand? Certainly more than three. Yet if that was all that could have attacked them in the five minutes they had been walking down the cave, perhaps there wasn’t that much more to attack with. The quiet darkness certainly didn’t hint at anything living coming their way.

“I hope you’re right,” Tom said as they began to move again, their earlier positions retaken. “How many more should we expect?”

“I have no idea whatsoever,” Buck answered. “I just hope the tunnel ends soon. We have been going more down than I'm comfortable with.”

While the slant down was very minor it was noticeable enough to pay attention to. If the liquid was put onto the ground at some points, slipping would be a very real possibility. It likewise made it very hard to escape any creatures since the only place to escape to was upwards. And while the half-elf liked to think of himself as being in good shape, he was not able to sprint for that long at that angle.

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The end had come, however. The end of the cave, at the very least, the darkness ahead slowly opens up to reveal… a flat wall. Very flat. Not rough edges, no parts naturally made. There wasn’t even the small shining of Ore Veins upon it. Everything was a smooth piece of, what, [Basalt]? Buck couldn’t remember that material being too common and certainly not in such formations. Opening up his mind once again, the Druid noted a certain fluctuation of Mana above. The entire area was more alive than ever yet the rush of imaginary wind could be felt so well.

“The Core is meant to be around here, right?” Tom questioned, starting to shift in his footing. The man was moving his head with all that rustling the necklace was making. “Where is it?”

Ignoring the larger man, Buck stepped forward to get physical contact with the [Basalt] wall. Running his hand against it, the Druid noticed how abnormally smooth it was. Yet, there was also a small change in the middle part of the room. The edges or the walls, where it connected to the realistic and rough walls were quite tough, unbending no matter the pressure. Yet further inside, just on the path they had walked, the wall seemed so much more… bendy. As if it was made right. As if… as if it had been made quickly.

“Tom, how much strength do you have?” Buck questioned, needing to be sure of something that his own meagre body wouldn’t be able to handle.

“Twenty-seven last I checked,” Tom answered with little to no hesitation. The man wasn’t too uncomfortable with sharing such deep secrets. “Why do you ask?”

“Because I need you to take a rock from the ground and try to break the wall right here,” Buck said, pointing at the most-middle part of the [Basalt] wall. “And please do it quickly.”

The larger man looked at the leaner one for a few moments before just shrugging and accepting the situation as it was. Being asked to pick up something heavy was likely a more casual experience in the man’s life than Buck expected or maybe he was just that desperate to get out. There was no real way to know. Watching the entire thing silently was the best option, though it did involve the larger man having to put quite a bit of pressure on his broken foot. Not the greatest thing in the world.

Yet the results were better than anything else that could have been hoped for. With a mighty hit, Tom clearly putting in all his power for it, the wall ahead cracked and broke as the rock flew right through. It was very thin, clearly only meant to show the facade of a complete wall.

“There’s more?” Tom said, clearly not happy with the result. “I don’t think I can get through that.”

“You don’t need to get through that,” Buck assured him. “This is brilliant! The Core was trying to hide this from us to protect itself yet it also shows off another fact. We can escape right now without any trouble.”

“What do you mean. The Core walled off the entrance. That’d make it impossible to-” Tom began but slowed himself as he realized it himself. “The bloody thing is paper-thin! We went down here for nothing!”

“That’s a negative way of looking at it since we had no way to know,” Buck stated, trying to stop the Giant from getting irritated. He would be needed for the next step no matter what and any further damage to him would ruin it. “Can you get up again without another [Heal] or do you need to-”

And that was when the chittering started up in full force. As the stone that had fallen through the wall finally stopped moving around inside the new cave, a wave of noise started. A new group of ants, and this group was much larger than the one they’d previously encountered. Looking back at the two entities he had to work with, Buck weighed his chances and didn’t look at it favourably.

“You,” Buck said, looking over at the idiot healer. “Do you have any buffs at all that increase the speed of our movement?”

“No, I just-” Rapheal began but Buck didn’t care what he had to say.

“Then [Heal] Tom again and make it quick,” the druid ordered, taking a look back at the wall to reevaluate the situation while the healer did his job. There were some hushed words but it didn’t matter, the druid just making sure he wouldn’t die in the next five minutes.

“Done,” Raphael said.

“Anything else you can do to help us right now?” Buck asked as he walked away from the wall and over to the two others remaining.

“No, I’m all out of Mana, but-”

There was no real need to hear anything more after that. While the healer might have thought himself quite the genius, Buck was smarter than both of the others could realize. He understood resources and how to utilize them. That's why the next few seconds was a great idea from the right perspective.

With one swift kick to the [Healer]’s right knee, it was dislocated with ease, Rapheal falling to the ground with a scream. The kid could stand, couldn’t talk, and was useless at everything. Or, well, everything he would agree to.

“Why did you just-”

“If we had gotten out with him, we would both have been killed for what we did to him,” Buck said as he began moving up the cave once again. “Leaving him here will distract the monsters for the few extra seconds we might need to survive this thing. Now start moving.”

As the healer in question heard of the plan, the shouts of pain stopped while hardship and pleas began. Buck was too far away to hear them at that point, not wanting to waste any time he could possibly use to escape. Tom however had not moved an inch from his position, likely due to the hand grabbing at this remaining fully functioning foot. Yet… a few seconds of silence was ended with a swift apology and a certain warrior catching up to the Druid.

“Can you run?” Buck asked, fully understanding that the other person in the small group likely wasn’t too happy with himself. “We might need to start doing that soon.”

“I can’t run but I should be able to jog until we get to where we came from,” Tom answered, though he wasn’t too happy with himself. “Not sure I would be able to walk much when I get outside, though.”

“Getting outside at all is what’s most important right now,” Buck answered back as he heard a certain [Basalt] wall be broken. It had begun… the screams of a soon-dead healer and the chittering of many ants started. They were too far away to see it with their own eyes

Ignoring it, they ran as quickly as they could. The healer might have delayed the creatures for some time but it would not last forever. Buck tried not to think about it as they reached the final wall, the wall that had made them think they needed to kill the Core that would very likely kill them.

“Hurry!” The druid shouted as he looked back. They weren’t in sight yet but a large number of steps made him tense. He looked at the giant and saw him limping. The damage had been more than he could have gotten through. He would likely need to lie down soon if the blood loss was any indication.

But another throw was made and a path was opened up. The outside shined upon them as nothing had ever done before. Yet… the hole was too little! There was no chance of getting through it. And the first ants had been seen.

“Widen it so we can get through!” Buck ordered as he fired off [Entangling Vines]. The first few ants to appear out of the darkness were struck by it, stopping those behind momentarily. It didn’t stop the rush but it delayed them by a moment. Another one was sent out and another after that. The druid could feel his insides churning at the rapid use but he did not care.

“Almost done!” Tom shouted. Looking back, Buck saw the hole had gotten big enough for him to get through but not close to enough for the larger man himself. That… was acceptable.

Bringing out a knife, the Druid was happy with the man having his back turned to him. A slice of the throat brought the giant down so it couldn’t move anymore. He was alive and could be brought back with a simple [Heal] but that wasn’t going to happen.

“You will distract them a bit more. Plenty of meat for those monsters,” Buck mumbled to himself, knowing well that there wouldn’t be close to enough.

The ants were getting close so the Druid was quick to start to get out. His midsection got through with ease but anything further was stopped. Not by lack of an opening, though. No… it was something else.

An arrow had hit his shoulder. The pain forced the druid to stop for a moment which allowed for another to reach him again. He couldn't… he couldn’t get out! Both his arms were without feeling, his limbs having been severed from his mental reach. What was going on?

“You people are the worst scum I have seen this year.”

Looking up, there was none other than Aloy standing by the riverbed, bow in hand and with a disgusted face. She didn’t look happy. Even with his head outside, however, Buck could hear the creatures coming from him.

“Help me get out!” Buck pleaded yet the archer moved not a finger, watching him passively. “Please!”

The pleading continued until the moment where he was dragged inside, likely to never be seen again. The woman outside calmly walked away, her task having been completed.

“I never would have guessed that it would be a dungeon.”