“Are you ready?”

“Yes!”

“Are you prepared?”

“Yes!”

“Are you…”

“Can you Fire idiots please stop that?” A spirit said. “We are trying to have a serious conversation here!”

“No, you are not” One of the fire spirits said.

“Yes, we are!”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, we are!”

“No, you’re not because there is no way we are going to be making flying pigs.” The Fire spirit then explained. “We have no pigs, we have never absorbed a pig, and lastly we have never even seen a live pig before! All we know about pigs is the knowledge we got from the humans we had adsorbed before. We can’t create a flying pig even if we want one.”

“Not that we Earth spirits enjoy this, but the Fire idiots are right.” An Earth spirit surprised the hive by agreeing with the Fire spirits. “Besides, flying pigs are a stupid idea!”

“What? How could you say that?” The spirit argued. “Flying pigs are a great idea. We admit we have problems on the other points you raised, but the idea of flying pigs is great!”

“What could a flying pig actually do?” another spirit asked.

“Who cares?” the spirit said. “Since when did we start thinking about the uses of creatures before we start making them? We never did so before, so let’s not start now.”

“Maybe we should,” the Earth spirit mused. “We always worry about our energy levels right? Maybe we should start taking better care about how we use our energy.”

A chorus of “Boos”, “No”, and “Yuck”, greeted the sensible suggestion. Responsibility is not something the majority of the hive was interested in. A minority however were.

“That’s not a bad idea,” another spirit said. “If we can control how to use our energy, it would solve a lot of our problems on energy.”

“What problems with energy?” A Fire spirit asked. “If we are hungry, we eat. If we are full, we use it. It’s simple.”

“It’s also a waste.” An Earth spirit said.

“So?” The Fire spirit answered back. “So what if we are wasteful. It’s hardly hurting us in anyway. In fact, it’s helped us before. If we were not ‘wasteful’, we would never had saved the pups and created the werewolves!”

“Waste is waste.” The Earth spirit said. “It just seems…wrong. We should always have a reserve of energy.”

“We do.”

“For now!” The Fire spirit clearly meant the energy level the hive had right now and the Earth spirit wasn’t about to let that go. “Usually we don’t and that’s not good. So we should always have a limit of how much energy we must have at all times.”

“Oh please…” one of the other spirits said. “As if we could control ourselves enough to do that. Every time we have an idea to change a creature, we do it. Energy or no energy.”

“And that makes no sense.” The Earth spirit said. “We should have a reserve.”

“Let’s not change anything.” Another Fire spirit said. “It’s fine right now. Let’s keep it as it is.”

As the spirits got into another discussion/argument conference with the Fire and Earth spirits firmly on opposite sides, the humans continued on their search of the tunnels. After the strange encounter with the Ratlings, the humans were now more cautious than ever. That caution was once again assaulted when they entered a room that was clearly someone’s work place.

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Entering the room, the trio had noticed an area of the room which was filled with bottles, jars, weapons and several other items. The shaman picked up several of the bottles and opened them up. The hunter, Bron, was more interested with the two bottles that were clearly different than the others. The Boss waited for his men to finish their examinations.

“Strength, speed, constitution, courage, and even health.” The shaman said. “There are potions for almost everything.”

“And look at these two bottles!” The hunter remarked. “ Look at the glaze on the surface and feel how smooth it is. It’s worth 20 silver and there’re 2 of them! Add these to the 2 gold we are going to get for the Emperor Daisies…”

“Please Bonn,” the Boss said with his hand in his face, “later with the money. The quest comes first.”

Bonn looked surprised. “Uh…Boss, didn’t we already complete the quest?” The other two humans looked at the hunter strangely which prompted him to continue. “We are here because the shamans noticed the loss of spiritual power in this area. We now know it is due to a dark mage doing illegal magical experiments. Quest complete!”

“That’s…not wrong, but I doubt the tribe would take too kindly to us going back like this.” The shaman said.

“Bonn’s not wrong. We already lost 3 of us to the quest and we do know the reason for the loss of spiritual power in this area.” The shaman and hunter looked at their Boss in surprise. It was clear neither of them had expected him to say the quest was completed. “I do not want to lose anyone else. We will keep on but if we think the danger is too high, we are gone. The tribe will just have to be satisfied with the information we have right now!”

The 2 other human nodded their heads, an action which the spirits within the hive now recognized as a human method of agreeing with someone. Several of the spirits within the hive were having a good laugh at the Boss for his speech. There was no way the hive was going to allow any of the humans to leave the tunnels.

The 3 humans went deeper into the tunnels with little problems. The few spiders and bats on the third floor were quickly dispatched by the three humans. As the hive suspected, they need to create more of the creatures to be of use against these 3 humans. Either that or placed them in a way that could cause problems for them like the second floor.

Then the moment the Fire spirits of the hive had been waiting for arrived. The humans made the correct turn and were now just one room from them! The hive rejoiced! Finally, it was here!

Knowing how this group of humans like to attack before their Floor Boss was ready, the hive had already agreed that they would create the Boss of the floor before the group enter the last room. The hive gathered their energy and the Fire spirits got to work.

The energy gathered and the spirits changed the energy to Rage. The Rage pooled up and their creature came into being out of the floor. Before you know it, the lizard was ready, waiting, and complains began almost immediately!

“What by the 99 Gods is that?” A spirit asked!

“That’s our creature!” A Fire spirit proudly said. “Isn’t it great?”

“That’s no lizard!” A spirit complained. “Look at that thing. It’s huge!”

“So? Smoky is bigger than a human and last we know, no wolf is that big.”

“Your lizard got horns!” Another spirit complained. “It got the wings of a bat? Wait…is it breathing fire?”

“We’re Fire spirits. Of course our creature is going to breathe fire.” The Fire spirits said. “The horns are a good touch right?”

An incredulous spirit had to ask.“So your so-called lizard is a huge fire-breathing flying horned Boss?”

“Yes”

Several spirits chorused. “That’s no lizard!”

“So we need to call it by another name.” The Fire spirits smugly said. “In fact, we have a name in mind already. We are going to call it…”

“Wait! What are the humans doing?” An alarmed spirit asked.

The hive saw that the 3 humans had stopped in front of the tunnel leading to the last room. It was clearly they knew the hive was there but they weren’t going in. In fact, they looked afraid. The Boss was even shaking his head. The hive focused on the humans immediately.

“…a simple warrior and even I could feel the power inside that room.” The Boss said. “Whatever is in there is too much for us. Vall, get us out of here.”

After all this time, the hive finally knows the shaman’s name. The shaman shook his head in disappointment but he did not argue with the Boss. “Too bad. I wondered what sort of spiritual animal the dark mage had created in this room.”

Well, if you come in, you’ll get to find out right? The hive thought but the humans were still not coming in. Instead the Boss put his hand beneath his chin and said aloud.

“The Cave of the Spirit Beasts. You know, that’s not a bad name for this place.”

Vall just shrugged. Then he raised his staff over his head and the image of an animal appeared over the head of all 3 humans. The image of a…pigeon? The spirits within the hive were shocked. They had thought that the image of the animal had something to do with the power bestowed by the spell. What’s a pigeon supposed to do?  

Then the spell effect began. A small burst of light surrounded the three humans. The light shone brighter and brighter, before fading from view. When the lights finally disappeared, all three humans had disappeared. They were gone. Silence reigned in the tunnels but within the hive…the Fire spirits…

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO….”

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