Milo passed through the large cavern, noting the types of common mushrooms and vegetables that were being grown here. All of the plants were grown in raised beds with water carefully poured in by the bucketful. A large water cart went to each field where water was poured into the buckets and then into the fields by careful cultivators. Another field hand was spreading pungent fertilizer around the plants. Milo was glad he wasn't a farmer. He understood the process of growing things with hydroponics in the real world, but next to nothing about doing it here. It seemed a lot messier. He'd much rather be mining.
His time in the Hollow was feeling like a vacation. He was relaxing more and more. There were problems here, but he didn't feel like the responsibility of solving them was on his shoulders. He did like solving problems though, and applied some thought to his current job. He needed to gather rare mushrooms for two different people. One needed the tastiest to reseed his planters. The other needed the inedible ones to make medicines of some sort. He was curious about that. Maybe the old alchemist could teach him a few things and help him increase his knowledge of Mycology. Curiously, he had both warned Milo against the cavern patrolled by the spiders, yet pointed out that the rarest mushrooms would be growing in that area.
It felt almost like a challenge. Milo realized he also didn't know the old ratkin's real name. With a name like 'Old Healer', he should be someone who could be trusted. Milo had some doubts. He didn't trust easily and things were happening fast. When he returned, he'd ask Master Bleusnout or the Tail Master. Someone in the Hollow would know of him. He'd just take a look at that cave, and be cautious as he had promised Master Bleusnout. If you were cautious and sneaky enough, did that count as being careful? He mulled that over as he walked and decided it was outcome-based. If you didn't get caught, you were careful. If you had to run away with giant spiders nipping at your tail, you weren't.
Milo had gone past the area where the Hollow had its farms and into the caverns beyond. Mushrooms and lichen grew all over, but not all of the ones that he needed. He filled most of Bluesnout's list and found a few that Old Healer needed, but not the Golden Puffballs or Red Spotted Eye-Rot. He explored further and further into the caverns, the wild mushrooms and lichen growing thinner on the rock walls.
The next cavern was quite dark. He felt his eyes adjust to the complete darkness, but something was bothering him. Where was the lichen that gave off a soft glow? It was like this area had been scrubbed down to the bare rock. He slowed down, moving low to the ground and skulking off to one side. And then he sensed the trap. There was a void in the rocks where there should be solid stone. A pit that felt open to the air with his stone sense but that looked like bare rock to his eyes. He scanned the ceiling but saw nothing hiding in the stalactites.
No one was around to see him use his magic. He brought out the Claws of Alta-Viator and the Spine of Volax-Repat. Bone plates covered his hands and forearms like gauntlets and along the top of his feet and his shins. His tail grew longer, looking like a whipping spine with a slashing blade on the end. Soundlessly he climbed the wall of the cave and skulked across the ceiling until he was directly above the pit. Whatever was down there was used to ambushing its prey. It wouldn't be happy to have prey ambush it first.
Milo took an ultra-sharp claw and began to cut into the stalactite directly over the pit. This would be a good way to say 'Surprise'. The sharp cone of rock was five feet long and a foot thick at the base. It took Milo ten minutes to soundlessly carve around the outer edge, not letting any of the rock fragments fall to the ground. Pushing on the stalactite, he heard a small cracking sound, and the three-hundred-pound spear of stone fell fifty feet to the ground, passing through the illusion and into the pit, where it poked through something soft and very squishy. Milo couldn't help but mumble "Surprise!"
He was surprised himself when a very large, and very angry spider erupted from the hidden pit and pounced on nothing at all. The stalactite was stuck through its thorax which was oozing thick greenish ichor. The maddened arachnid raced around the cave, looking for the attacker that had hurt it until it chanced to look up and see Milo on the ceiling. The spider hissed at him in pain and anger and raced up the wall and across the ceiling towards him. Milo was already moving to the side of the room, using his tail and arms to swing from one stalactite to the next. When the floor was only thirty feet below him, he dropped to the ground.
The spider tried to do the same, but the wound was hampering it. It landed badly and injured itself more. More green ichor poured out. Milo raced away, trying to judge the spider’s speed. He could tell immediately that it wasn't as fast as he was. He moved to the side, slashed with his tail, and then rolled as Master Gilad had taught him. A strand of silk shot from the abdomen, narrowly missing him. The leg he had slashed was hanging by a thread. Twice more he repeated the tactic and the spider collapsed with only one leg on that side. The spider tried to crawl towards him. Milo moved behind it, content to let it die from bleeding.
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It was nearly dead when a black-garbed figure raced forward and leaped into the air high enough to perform a double rotation before sticking the landing onto the spider, just behind its head. "Surprise." Twin daggers stabbed into the spider, at the junction between head and body, multi-faceted eyes glowed green with hatred as it twisted to spit a mass of sticky saliva at the new attacker before it collapsed.
Milo saw a message pop up.
[You have slain a foe with the aid of someone you are competing with. They seek to claim the victory. Please Choose:
-Share the victory with this helpful person as if they were in your party, and agree to a truce from competition for one day.
-Claim victory for yourself. You will gain 70% of the experience and Enhancement Points. Competition continues.
-Declare that you are attacking the kill-stealer for daring to take what is yours. Combat is to first blood. You will gain all of the experience and Enhancement Points.
You have a minute to decide. Normally much sooner but the second attacker is in a bit of a sticky situation at the moment.]
Milo scanned the announcement and then looked at the situation.
Sticky was indeed the correct word. The person who had killed the spider had both hands glued to the spot where they had stabbed it. Milo was still being cautious. He recognized the garb of a shadow-stalker. Green eyes stared at him, but his attacker was silent.
"Are you from Limburger Hollow? How are we competing?"
A whispered voice spit out a curse. "Get it over with. Just nick me, take the points for the kill, and score one on me. This sticky stuff is crap! Without it, I'd be kicking your ass all over the cave and taking all the experience for myself! Stupid spiders."
Milo disagreed with her about the spider's intelligence. "This one was actually quite smart. It was tricky, stealthy, and fought hard. It might have got me with that spit. I was about to rush in myself. So, let’s call it a draw." Milo noticed that in the group window, it showed his name as Tallsqueak, and his new acquaintance as 'Partner'. Some sneaky skill in play, no doubt.
[You have chosen cooperation! That tricky move surely will leave your temporary ally confused!
You have slain a level 4 Elite Boss, Silentslayer. You and your partner each gain one Enhancement Point and 200 experience.
You also gain 1 point of 'Surprise', your partner does not.]
The shadow-stalker finally managed to free themselves and then walked angrily over to Milo. "Don't think that will buy you any favors! Tomorrow, we start over."
Milo pointed to the far end of the cavern. "I didn't do it to buy a favor. I did it because the 'stupid spiders' were quick to come to investigate the noise."
His partner spun and stared at the other tunnel. Two large, black spiders were coming into the cavern.
"Those are the guards that are normally at the entrance to the Cave of Death. If we can decoy them, one of us could harvest some of the Red-Spotted Eye-Rot. Lead them around, I'll harvest the fungus and we'll split the loot and rewards."
Everything slowed down for Milo as he looked at the situation, thinking very hard. Somehow, he was in competition with the Shadow-stalkers, probably from playing 'Surprise'. They were taking things very seriously, even to following him and trying to steal his experience or goad him into a fight. Getting the mushrooms must be some sort of test for them. Milo wanted the shrooms from the cave for eating and medicine. He and his partner were in a truce for a day, which should include the mushrooms. It wasn't a bad plan, and with the spiders on the move, he wasn't going to be harvesting anything until things calmed down.
"Agreed. I'll get their attention; you do the sneaky harvesting." He raced towards the guards and threw two skulls, one after another. Both throws put the Runed Skulls under the spiders where they exploded, causing the arachnids to squeal in pain. Dust billowed into the air, and his partner used the distraction to disappear into the darkness.
The plan was working, but Milo needed to figure out a way to keep two nasty-looking spiders busy and not get caught.