Chapter 42: The plunge

The weaker Cave crawlers enter the hub first. They stare around at the caves still brimming with light, possibly pondering which route they should cut off next before their eyes fall on us.

They burst into action and dash towards us, ignoring the frozen mist pooling in front of Cobalt. They vanish into it, never to appear back out again.

The Elites, the stronger variants, casually strut into the hub next. The three (G) grade insects clack their mandibles warningly at us. Each of them has a different colour, signifying the element they control.

Cobalt pulls the mist closer to her, obscuring her form. “You take the earth mage. I’ll defeat the fire and air ones,” she says and sprints forward to meet them.

I draw from my Stamina pool, channel it through Bindweed Creation, and let it flow into the ground. The green vines sprout from the floor, creating an uneven terrain to move on.

Magic thrums around the monster. I dash towards it activating my skills. Earth trembles and spikes of stone rise from the ground and ceiling, blocking my path. One shoots up beneath my foot and digs into my flesh, sending waves of pain up my leg. I twist my leg and to my horror, the tip of the spike breaks off and lodges into my skin.

I resume my sprint, hissing with each step I take. I can’t stop. It will drop the ceiling on us if it gets the chance.

All around me walls and strange rocky formations rise from every surface. I leap over a wall, dodge a spike that falls from above and leap over a growing pit in the ground. Nowhere is safe. So long as there is earth, it can attack from every angle; from every surface.

Rocks rain down, bruising and crushing my vines. The monster keeps toying around with me, pushing me from one side of the room to the other with its earthen creations.

In another corner explosions blast out along with violent, scorching winds as the air and fire mage team up to burn Cobalt to death.

I swing out of the way of a huge boulder that would crush me and push more Stamina into my claws. They rend through stone and I revel in the sensation of cutting something so solid apart. I slip through the already closing gaps and close in on the earth mage.

The monster, doing its best to blend in with the wall meets my eyes as I grin at it.

The earth rumbles, making its protest known. Thin needles as long as a man’s arm rise from the ground between us. The monster looks at me, daring me to walk over them.

In response, bindweed bursts out from the ground, slithering between the spikes, forging a pathway for me to walk over.

The Cave crawler casts its magic again and the beginnings of a wall rise between us.

I sprint over the bindweed bridge and leap towards it, using the wall as a stepping stone and landing right in front of it. Having expected the mandibles going for my legs, I parry them with my claws and wince as the earth magic reverberates through my body, stiffening my muscles and joints.

I reel back, duck to the ground as a spike lances forward from the wall towards my head. The ground, the walls, everything, shudders and shifts. Above, cracks run through the ceiling and more rocks rain down. The damned bug is planning to crush me to death.

I look over my shoulder, seeing that the wall has fully cut me off from the rest of the room. I can’t even hear the explosions of Cobalt’s fight anymore.

There has to be something that can save me. How do you even oppose an earth mage? Make the earth unusable…or just too difficult to move.

I open my menu, checking the resources I still have. It should be good enough for this. Staring at the Cave crawler, spikes slowly pushing themselves out from the wall behind, I wait for it to fire.

The monster clicks its mandibles and four of the spikes burst out from the wall and launch themselves at me. I roll forwards, one of the spikes low enough to cut pieces of my back away.

I push my hands into the ground with Claw Infusion and activate Bindweed Conjuration, funnelling most of my Stamina into the ground. Bindweed blooms and writhes over the ground, spreading like a plague, reaching for every surface.

My control slips as too much energy is pushed through the skill. I don’t care for it. I’m bindweed, this is a part of me; an extension. Trusting it, I let go of control. They twist together forming nets that cover every surface. Thorns pierce into the earth, securing the ground. It threads itself through the cracking earth above us, tying the ceiling back in place.

Leaves and gentle white flowers that pulse with light push themselves out of the vines while the air gains an emerald hue.

The Cave crawler shifts the rock under my feet, probably aiming to create another spike. It doesn’t work.

I laugh and laugh as the monster grows desperate, pushing against the vines that hold everything in place. The leaves rustle, the flowers shake, growing brighter as they fully bloom on all the remaining Stamina in the vines, but the earth doesn’t move.

With my last points of Stamina, the vines spring alive and tie down the insect in an instant. I snap my fingers and the bindweed tightens, pushing against the carapace until the force reaches a tipping point and the monster is utterly, completely, crushed.

My legs collapse under me as I receive the kill notification. I lay down, waiting for enough resources to replenish to take down the wall that separates me from Cobalt. Idly, I check the notifications I got since entering the depths. There are the usual kill notifications of the weaker Cave crawlers. I skip them and go straight to the exciting stuff.

*Congratulations. You have slain [Cave crawler: Depth Mage of Earth] lvl 5/20 (G). 12 Event points awarded.

*Congratulations you have gained a level. You are now level 8.

+10 HP +15 SP +2 Strength +2 Agility +1 Perception +2 Constitution +2 Endurance +2 Mind +4 Unallocated stat points.

*Mandrake Scream (Un) lvl 9/20 -> Mandrake Scream (Un) lvl 11/20.

*Identify (C) lvl 17/20 -> Identify (C) lvl 18/20.

*Claw Infusion (C) lvl 10/20 -> Claw Infusion (C) lvl 12/20.

Bindweed Manipulation (R) lvl 11/20 -> Bindweed Manipulation (R) lvl 12/20.

Bindweed Conjuration (R) lvl 9/20 -> Bindweed Conjuration (R) lvl 10/20.

Twelve Event points for a single Cave crawler. I don’t think I’ve gotten so many points for a single monster before.

With a groan I sit up and flex my claws, rolling my eyes at my bruised hands. Claw Infusion is simply too demanding for my body. Even officially having 60 points in Constitution, it still isn’t enough to mitigate the effects. Though, the skill keeps getting stronger too with each level. Maybe I should upgrade it like that the next time?

Having regenerated enough Stamina, I cut through the wall with my claws and meet up with Cobalt again.

From inspecting the caves, she turns around, facing me with her arms folded over each other, “So that is where you were, Mandrake Green.”

“Damned earth mages,” I grumble as we enter another cave and resume the race to the surface.

***

The trees are green smudges as he leaps from branch to branch, watchful of the human scouting parties beneath him. He stops, staring at them, counting their numbers and if it is worth the hassle to take them out.

Sairal bites his lower lip. Twelve humans beneath him on the ground, all but one (G) grade. It wouldn’t net him anything. Not the experience needed for his last level or proper Event points. They are, however, in his forest. Threats need to be sent to the Zulissian forces. Would it really be that bad if he did the writing of them?

Silently, he pulls his bow out of his Spatial pocket, his hand slipping into the quiver on his back. Arrows are loosed after each other in quick succession, his skills and Agility letting his arms blur with immense speed.

Each arrow strikes true, piercing through armour, sprouting from their hearts and filling their bloodstreams with microscopic spores that shut down their bodies immediately.

The shock settles in their bodies and like puppets without strings, they fall to the ground twitching and shaking. The system chirps a notification to him, one for each body.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Twelve humans dead and three points added to the event store. Everything in the outskirts is simply too weak for him to attain any proper rewards. And with the big players still on the sidelines, waiting for the perfect moment to sweep everyone off their feet…

Sairal knows that when that happens, when the truly big fish such as the Queen of stone, the Weatherman or even the Zulissian King’s personal council enter the event, the difficulty will ramp up. Actually, even before that the fires of war will grow. Anything can be taken down by numbers.

Soon enough those numbers will flood the battlefield.

The dozens of plans he made all rely on one vital thing; he needs to reach (D) grade. Only a single level withholds him from that, but as most know, as the difference between grades grows, so do the requirements set by the system.

For that reason, for that single level, he followed the vague tugging in his mind of a passive skill that rarely activates. Even so, every time he felt it and followed it, he was led to something; a chance or a choice. A place where the weave of the world would be exceptional for a short moment.

It was No Fate, Only Luck.

Giving the dead humans a final look, he moves on, pursuing the tugging strings in his mind. Stepping from branch to branch, blindly following the weave until the trees stop at a border; beyond the trees felled by the pestilential Cave crawlers.

This isn’t the confluence of fate and luck he is supposed to encounter, the skill tells him. Nonetheless, he will gladly take a small detour to rid the forest of the bugs. Low level like the humans they might be, but the quantity should easily net him several hundred points, not counting the stronger variants with classes.

Casually, he steps off the branch, his feet meeting the ground a second later. Far in the distance, the weak pests notice him and let out futile warning screams.

Sairal’s eyes scan over the crowd, searching for a splotch of blue among the mess. He hasn’t seen Cobalt and Green since he gave them that backpack and he’s starting to get worried.

Confirming that they at least aren’t fighting the monsters in this camp, he reaches into his Spatial Pocket, retrieving a vial with acidic yellow spores. He smiles at the Cave crawlers while he applies some of the volatile mixture to three of his arrows, wincing at the cost. Not only had the base components been expensive, but creating the spores and merging the magic in them into a coherent whole consumed a sizable amount of his time. These, however, aren’t critical to the plans he has.

Slowly, to not dislodge the spores from the arrow tip, he raises it to his bow. With a fluid motion, he pulls on the string and lets go, watching it fly over the heads of the incoming groups that noticed him and hitting the ground in the centre of their camp.

Already yellow smoke rises up from the arrow, scorching the ground around it with the released acid and when one of the weak cave crawlers snaps at the shaft of the arrow, the camp is obliterated.

The smoke that eats away at anything biological blasts out faster than an (E) grade can run. Ground shudders and the trees quiver as a huge mushroom cloud blooms up from the camp.

Two more arrows follow, both exploding in the same manner as the first.

It takes minutes for the smoke to turn the brown shade of the Cave crawler’s carapace, signifying that the magic is exhausted and has consumed most of the biological matter.

Like mist being hit by the full force of the sun, it disperses in a moment, revealing a wasteland of shrivelled up treestumps and partly melted insects. Anything short of peak (H) grade should be gone; evaporated

Some (G) grades might have survived with luck, though, luck isn’t on their side.

Even so, Sairal’s face takes on a tinge of surprise and wonder as he gazes over the field of melted bodies. Having the right resources at your disposal truly makes a difference.

Next, he pulls up the System’s messages.

*Congratulations. You have slain 5324 […Juvenile Cave crawler…] lvl x/5 (I). 431.62 Event points awarded.

*Congratulations. You have slain 1562 […Cave crawler…] lvl x/10 (H). 164.8 Event points awarded.

*Congratulations. You have slain 14 […Cave crawler…] lvl x/20 (G). 11 Event points awarded.

He shakes his head, disappointed at the lack of Elites among their numbers.

*Congratulations. You have slain [Cave crawler of the dark pools] lvl 27/40 (F). 7.31 Event points awarded.

*Congratulations. You have slain [Cave crawler: Digger of the depths] lvl 34/40 (F). 21.02 Event points awarded.

A smirk tugs at his lips. Those two were proper targets at the very least. Leaving one of the bugs with an excavation class unchecked would have spelled doom. The amount of awarded event points even says so.

He spends a few seconds throwing a Greenblast into the cave entrance, destroying it before moving on with a good 600 event points and two skill levels under his belt.

***

The strings of the weave are thinning out. Time is ticking. If he doesn’t stumble upon his chance, he might have to return empty-handed.

Grasping the handle of a dagger in his hand tighter, he continues following that single sting. In the last hours, he came across three human groups and a flock of Segriad snails, two of them having reached (H) grade. Usually, anything would finish them off; all beings of the forest learned long ago that those things need to be killed on sight. Though, with the ongoing evacuation, there isn’t anything to take care of them anymore.

Sairal freezes as the string of luck flexes and snaps.

Something is wrong.

He pushes his back to the tree, blending in with the foliage. No one that follows the path of luck knows what they’ll encounter when they follow the threads of the weave.

The last time the strings were screaming out a year ago, he met her: the purple witch, Scurilor. They always lead to something or somewhere, good or bad.

His eyes scan over the terrain, parsing the underbrush apart for ambush predators and the likes. Nothing moves around him for a long time. However, he stays still, feeling the snapped string unwind itself and bind together with nearby strings of the weave.

Nerves settle in. This was supposed the be a chance; his chance. Did he miss it because of the Cave crawlers?

Right when he asks himself that, a mechanical clicking, accompanied by heavy footfalls resounds from below.

What he sees makes him pause for a second. Then his face splits into a vicious grin. This isn’t only valuable information, but also a slightly worthy foe.

The strange, humanoid but headless machine passes between the trees, scanning every plant around it with eyes set in its chest. The frame shifts from a pale white to a pale green, the angular fractile patterns washing over the construct’s surface in waves.

Piston hands large enough for them to wrap around a tree, rimmed with golden rings, sway on the construct’s side. The being is caked with a layer of moss on its shoulders and where a head should be, possibly an attempt by the creator for it to avoid detection.

[Greensteel giant] lvl lvl 49/50 (E)

Sairal pulls out his bow and quiver filled with special arrows. The strongest is shot and the ground turns into a fiery hell below him. Another vial is pulled out of his pocket space. The dryad of moss and decay chucks the contents and jumps into the hellscape beneath.

***

I flex my toes, feeling the sap bleed out from tiny cuts. “How much?” I croak, my throat dry.

“A bit under three thousand metres.”

*Time remaining 290 days, 12 hours, 2 minutes, 44 seconds.

We’ve been down here for almost 2 days, first searching for the damned bugs and now running away from them. I slept a single hour down here in that time. Cobalt continually pushed me to move unless we wanted to get trapped by them. And honestly now? I will kill for some sleep.

I follow Cobalt into one of the larger hubs, one that has a pool at its centre so at least we have the chance to drink.

“Mandrake Green. They are winning.”

I spare a glance at the caves that connect to the hub and wince. Each time we enter one of these larger hubs, there seem to be fewer tunnels lit no matter where we go.

A bit more than eight hours ago at least half of these tunnels would be lit. Now there are barely three at any intersection.

After making sure the water is safe, I gulp the water down greedily, feeling it smooth over my parched throat.

“Can you use those white flowers as a light source?” Cobalt asks me, staring around the hub, expecting the monsters to appear from some cave.

I gulp down a bit more water and shake my head, “I already checked. The glow comes from the Stamina I infuse and I can’t keep it up long enough.”

She clicks her mandibles as a sigh and we head into the cave that slopes the most upwards. At each intersection we pass I feel my heart pound in my chest, expecting it all the be dark.

***

The stillness hangs over us like a veil. It shields us, from them. The Cave crawlers are many things, vicious insects that number into the numberless, stupid, hungering, true monsters. One that, however, isn’t on that list is silent. Before they attack we hear the clacking of mandibles or their spindly legs scraping against the stone.

Without a sound, Cobalt tugs on my arm. I nod at her, having heard it too.

We make our footsteps louder, drawing them out.

A dozen paces later the wall crumbles away behind us. The Cave crawlers flow forwards. More and more Elites are showing up, with their strange discolourations branding them as such.

Still, most of them are just (H) grades, but (G) grades have begun appearing more. So much so that Cobalt had to take on four at the same time while I handled one of the weaker ones.

The frozen mist spreads out in the caverns, killing most of them. Bindweed coils up from the ground, wrapping around limbs, growing thorns, ending lives.

The encounter only takes a minute at most before everything below (G) grade is dead.

Then naturally, the stronger ones show up. They step out of the cavern wall almost with care and size us up.

“Weaklings,” Cobalt comments, having used Identify. “Just basic elemental types.”

I take on the water mage while she wipes the floor with the rest of them.

***

A while later we enter another of the large rooms. Fear settles in when I look over the room several times, seeing no lit tunnel.

“Let’s turn back,” she says, already turning around.

“No. We are trapped. There is only one thing to do.”

“Mandrake Green, if we enter those shadows we will die. I am certain of that,” She snaps back, frustrated.

I fold my arms over each other, “You think I don’t know that?” I point at the Valeroal moss on the walls. “We’ll take that with us. As much as we can carry so that we won’t be in the dark.”

She keeps staring at me, “That is hardly better. You have seen that Valeroal moss starts to lose its shine slowly after it is plucked.”

I turn away from her, looking at the dark tunnels around us. “I know that it’s stupid. But I don’t think we will find any other lit caves if we backtrack. We are trapped.”

I continue, “We grab the moss and walk through the darkness, scaring off any of those weird monsters with the light that the Valeroal moss emits. Then before it runs out of juice or whatever gives it light, we travel to another cavern where the Cave crawlers haven’t torn off the moss from the wall. There we’ll harvest new moss and continue until we reach the surface.”

She turns to one of the dark caves, possibly calculating how likely it is for us to find untouched parts of the caves. To be frank, it’s low and we both know it.

Cobalt shakes her head, neither refusing nor accepting the plan. “What if we don’t find any of those pockets?” she asks.

I give her a long look. “Then we die in the darkness.”