~~~Mar~~~

Mar was still upset about Bradley scaring her as she stalked back to her mother. Stupid boy! Though it was funny how he disappeared into the ground like that, maybe she should try scaring him again?

She could feel the pulse of mana as she approached and cursed before stepping more softly. Stupid Jake and his stupid lessons!

All he ever did was point out her mistakes without ever giving any useful advice! She hated him! ...and now he was leaving...

Jake was a badass. He didn't care what anyone thought or said and wasn't the least bit scared of a fight. Though he was crazy and loved fighting... so that wasn't a fair comparison.

She didn't enjoy fighting. At all. She didn't want to enjoy it. The fear and screams, the blood... Mar scrubbed her hands on her pants. She hated all of it. But to be brave—to not be scared of anything—that would be... nice.

Killing people was horrible. Monsters weren't much better, but the elves were terrifying. So many people died. She'd almost died. She still remembered the sword flashing past... the sting on her neck. Just a nick. But so close...

"Hello, my dear," her mother said without looking up from her plants. "Is everything alright? I heard a scream."

Mar shuddered and took a deep breath, trying to let go of her dark thoughts before her mother started another lecture. "It was just Bradley getting scared."

"He seems like a nice young man. Hardworking too, if a bit shy."

Don't you dare!

"You should get to know him better. I'm sure he could use a friend, and it wouldn't hurt you to come out of your shell more."

Ahhhhh! Whatever happened to the strict woman who lost her mind every time she saw a boy looking Mar's way? Or worse, caught Mar looking? She acted like a completely different person now! Maybe she got replaced with an alien when...

Mar flinched and found herself clutching her right arm as if afraid it wouldn't be there when she reached for it...

Can't Hear Me

She activated her newest skill before the sob escaped, then staggered away and curled up beneath a tree against the wall. There she cried in absolute silence and hugged her knees tight to her chest. Fuck... you, Jake! I can be quiet...

It wasn't Jake's fault... He'd done what she couldn't. He'd saved her mom while she cried like a useless little girl... while her mom screamed... while they...

Mar sobbed into her knees while her clawing fingers tried to carve holes into her legs.

She sobbed silently and invisibly while hidden away from the world.

Mar stayed there until the trickle of mana flowing into her back eventually broke her out of it. Her skill cost more mana the more noise she was making, and Lee's magic building let her keep it going longer than she could have otherwise. Apparently indefinitely.

Lee. She still didn't know what to make of him... He was old now, but she could still see that haunted look in his eyes. Even when he was smiling. Something happened to him when he survived that explosion. He’d come back broken.

Mar shivered at the memory of him by the border fence. That whole day had been insane—so much blood. He was the same in the garage before the invasion, enchanting everything he could get his hands on while tears streamed down his face. He'd been frantic... obsessed.

Then the elves came, and he ran to fight them. He fought fearlessly. Ruthlessly. Almost suicidal. She didn't know if he wanted to die... or if his mind had broken beyond repair. Either way, he'd accomplished more than she had. He'd even protected her mom again while she stood frozen in terror a few feet away.

Of course, then he'd used that terrifying power to enchant a building that killed all the monsters it touched... She didn't know what that power was, and it scared her more than that explosion in Mexico. It made Lee old... but it fixed his mind. He was himself again... but old.

Speak of the devil... Lee came around the corner with Alejandro and... Bradley.

Mar had a sinking feeling when her mom smiled upon seeing them. "Bradley! I haven't seen you armored up before, but I must say you wear it very well."

Bradley's face looked like a tomato as he stammered, "I... um, thank... you..."

"Doesn't he look quite dashing, Mar?"

Bradley audibly choked, and Mar wanted to strangle the woman. Shut up! Shut up! Shut Up!

Lee looked directly at Mar. The cheater.

"Have mercy on the poor boy," Alejandro said while chuckling traitorously.

This was going to be a long day...

~~~Lee~~~

Alejandro introduced two more additions to the group from his guard force. Lucas and Penelope.

Then they headed south toward where Jake claimed there was a new hole in the ground, and where Wilson's information seemed to agree they had a resource to claim.

Lee watched the mana as they left. He could see it flowing into the fort in a steady stream, but only in, as if the fort was absorbing it. The sight wasn't that strange; many of the lairs did the same thing. Though he was less clear on what exactly the mana did in their home versus the lairs. It grew monsters in the lairs, presumably, but what did it do for humans?

The one directional flow subsided the further they moved, but it didn't stop flowing. Mana never seemed to sit still from what he'd seen. Well, rocks tended to be rather still, but they felt… patient rather than unmoving. The atmospheric mana never stopped moving, and while some of it tended to ride the wind, not all of it did.

Seeing the flows abruptly shift in a new direction gave Lee another idea. Could he follow mana to find lairs? Neither Jake nor Wilson had given precise directions, and Lee decided to test his theory.

It worked. He found a lair. Only, probably not the right one...

The lair he found was extremely interesting, but most definitely not a hole in the ground. It was a guard shack beside a dirt road, within sight of the border fence…

Lee didn't like that, but was plenty distracted by what he found inside the guard shack to ignore the nightmare fence.

He stuck his head through the door.

You have entered a Lair: [Watching Maw]

A not at all ominous name.

Then he walked the handful of strides around the guard shack and stuck his head back in.

"It's bigger on the inside!" Bradley yelled.

Lee winced at the man's volume but couldn't disagree. It was indeed bigger on the inside. A lot bigger. Mana Mind showed him that much... and Lee felt like he might sprain something in his brain while trying to wrap his head around what exactly his mind was seeing.

He'd looked inside enough of these buildings during his time on the truck with Stanley to recognize that same fake wood wall paneling so many of them shared. Only here, those walls seemed to continue on forever to each side… at least until they faded into foreboding darkness. A plank floor extended in much the same way, and the popcorn ceiling mirrored it.

"Should we check it out?" Lee asked the group. May didn't need the metal from the resource lair just yet… She was already busy working with the elf equipment. Besides, whatever monsters were in this place probably dropped cores, while the other only dropped metal. He definitely wanted more cores...

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"I am not averse to the prospect," Saira said. "Though I suspect we will need to bring some greenery along."

Lee saw Mar move away, and bushes started vanishing from the side of the dirt road. "Bradley?"

"What!?" The man jumped, then blushed as he looked at all of them. "I mean... sure?"

"Where you go, I go!" Alejandro exclaimed and took a few steps inside.

"You should let me lead. If I get hurt..."

"No!" Saira and Alejandro shouted in unison.

Bradley flinched again, head swiveling between all three of them.

Lee decided not to argue with the duo and just shook his head. "You'll get used to them, Bradley. They think I'm not a total badass, even though I tanked a..." Lee's voice cracked slightly, but he forced himself to keep talking. "...magical nuke to the face." He wouldn't hide from what happened.

Bradley's face lit up. "Did you really! I heard about it but didn't believe the stories. What was it like? How did you survive something like..."

Saira elbowed the man in the stomach as she passed, and he cut off mid sentence. "What? Did I... was I not supposed..."

"It's fine," Lee said to the rapidly deflating expression on Bradley's face. "I did do it, and it was... horrible. And I only survived because Saira is the best healer in the world."

"He is a hero," Saira said while pulling up a few bushes herself and looking at him with a disturbing expression.

A crafter had approached Lee with the same expression currently on Saira's face, and Lee didn't like it. Not that it was bad; it just felt so... awkward. The reverence and tears, and then the meager handful of cores the man had forced him to take. He didn't even know where the crafter had gotten the cores, but it couldn't have been easy, regardless. The guy didn't even have a weapon...

"Don't listen to her," Lee said. "I did what anyone..." He swallowed. "What I had to do..."

"Do not listen to him," Saira countered. "He saved hundreds and very nearly paid with his life! We will keep him alive today. No matter what! Understood?"

"Y... yes, ma'am!"

Lee knew he was blushing slightly when he turned away, but he didn't protest further. Lucas and Penelope had the same expression, too... Neither of them had said anything to him, but Lee had felt their gazes often on the way. Which wasn't hard considering they'd flanked him the entire walk. He'd assumed it was just them looking out, probably on Alejandro's orders. Now he knew it was something more...

He was outnumbered and surrounded, but he didn't complain about the help. It was probably a miracle they even let him outside after what he'd told Maria... Lee could put up with a few looks in exchange for freedom.

Instead, he tweaked his and Alejandro's shields to emit light like he had so long ago. Then he pulled out a few metal discs and stuck light runes on them as well.

The actions reminded him of his latest skill shard, which he was still carrying. It looked like crap... but the system had given it to him. Did that mean something? Was it truly random, or did the system want him to have it? The fact that it required adaptation to learn seemed to hint against any such grand design, but...

Could summoned plates hold a light rune? Or more? Could he summon them already glowing? What would it turn into if he learned it? What if it turned into a useful skill? An endless supply of items he could slap runes on. Could he make bombs?

Or would it turn into something stupid? Like a skill that used his entire mana pool and summoned a single massive plate that would crush him... though he could think of ways to use something like that.

Lee let it go when the others were ready to enter the lair. He could think about it later, when he was safe. Now it was time to focus.

He ended up in the rear with Penelope. Lucas and Alejandro took the front, while Mar and Bradley each took a side around Saira. Rear guard was an okay position for Lee since he didn't need his eyes to follow the group at his back.

Then they ventured into the seemingly endless and empty room. Lee walked backwards and watched the light of the door dwindle into the distance while Mana Mind watched his team.

The lack of visible enemies made the slow walk even more nerve-wracking, and it was almost a relief when he spotted something. "Stop!"

Everyone froze.

"A few feet ahead of you, Alejandro. The ground is..." He couldn't actually tell what was there. Other than that it was an opaque spot in his Mana Mind. "Monster?"

Alejandro obviously saw nothing, because when he tossed the light ahead, it barely clipped the... thing. It was more than enough, and Lee heard the indrawn breaths as whatever it was exploded into motion.

A mouth... or Maw... snapped closed around the rune and sank into the floor just ahead of Alejandro's stabbing blade.

It didn't go deep. Maybe a few feet down. Then it shot away horizontally and out of his Mana Mind range.

If it was trying to hide, then eating one of his runes wouldn't help. Still, he didn't pursue it immediately. "What was it?"

"A mouth?" Alejandro said, sounding unsure.

"That is what I saw," Saira agreed.

Bradley said nothing, but his rapid breathing was loud in the quiet.

"You good, Bradley?"

"Y... yea. I'm fine!"

It might have been a mistake to bring the new guy this time... "Switch with me, Alejandro?"

Fortunately, the man didn't complain. Though he sent Lucas to the back instead. Then Lee led them slowly toward the rune he could still feel in the distance.

The monster was either invisible or it looked just like the floor. Lee was leaning toward the latter as he studied the thing with his eyes and Mana Mind. Well, mostly Mana Mind. His eyes saw only the floor, which still looked like wooden planks.

A feeling nagged at him as he stared. The seemingly endless floor and walls—the name of the lair—were they in a lair? Or something's stomach... What if none of this was real and just a trap to lure them in? The whole bigger on the inside thing wasn't helping... He had noticed no downward movement, but magic...

Only his Mana Mind hadn't failed him yet, and it showed him the mana-rich walls that looked identical to pretty much any lair he'd visited, aside from the monsters that could move through it without issue while also blending in perfectly... The monster ahead of him was opaque, like all monsters and humans. Which should mean that his paranoid feeling was just that.

So Lee stabbed the monster.

Mouth was a good description of the thing that burst upward and chomped down on his sword-arm. Only a few of the disturbingly human-looking teeth got past his armor.

Debuff: [Minor Bleeding]

He twisted the blade and swung it around even as the mouth tried to drag him down. The pull ceased, and the mouth went limp around his arm as it fell slowly open again.

Green light blossomed, and Lee felt the holes in his arm heal. He barely noticed as he stared at the... maw.

"That is disgusting." Alejandro echoed Lee's thoughts perfectly as they stared at the slack human mouth embedded in the otherwise pristine floor. It even had a tongue...

Bradley gagged behind them.

The core that appeared was little solace... and Lee didn't want to stick his hand anywhere near the thing. His arm itched furiously where the teeth had cut him...

Lee didn't reach for it, and instead used Mana Mind to yeet the core into his hand. Or at least that was the hope. It was immensely satisfying when his dream came true and the core flew into his hand! Even the stabbing pain in his head didn't bother him!

Skill Level Up: Mana Mind

I finally did it, Stan! Lee must have stood there grinning like an idiot for too long, because Alejandro nudged him. "What? Oh right. Should we... continue?"

His desire for cores had waned significantly upon seeing what they were hunting. Lee didn't even want to imagine what the queen would look like in this nightmare place... he imagined it anyway and immediately regretted doing so. "Or we could go gather metal for May?"

Alejandro laughed loudly, and the sound didn't echo even a bit. It sounded... flat and ended quickly. "I second that idea, unless any of you really want..."

No one protested the withdrawal. So they formed up and headed for the small light in the distance that was the entrance.

Which meant, of course, that was when the monsters swarmed them. Lee finally understood the name even as he shouted a warning. Watching Maw. Watching and it apparently didn't want them to leave...

It was a nightmare. The maws didn't appear until they were already opening directly below each member of the team. Even Mar.

"Stab the floor and keep stabbing!" Lee shouted while doing exactly that. He had an easier time of it thanks to seeing them coming, which meant he was the only one that didn't end up knee-deep in a mouth trying to choke him down.

The only mercy was that the things didn't seem to get any bigger, so they couldn't swallow anyone straight off. That, plus the rune armor that prevented anyone's legs from getting bitten through—at least not completely.

There was a lot of screaming and stabbing before the first wave ended. Then they all had to climb out of the mouths... "Keep stabbing! They're everywhere!"

They did... and the deaths of the second wave left a lull. It looked like the dead monsters blocked the others from moving through the floor... Until Lee watched a mouth open wide beneath one of the dead and swallow it whole before speeding away. Another took its place immediately.

Still, it was doable, and the hunt turned into a plodding slog as they chopped and hacked their way closer to the door, one foot at a time.

Then the ceiling sprouted more mouths... "Above!"

The maws couldn't reach them despite the low ceiling... so they only drooled a slimy and slippery mess all over the floor.

Bradley was best off with his stone spear. He had great reach and didn't have to get his hands anywhere near the monsters. He was also taking it worse than anyone else. Hyper-ventilating by the sound of it, his breathing was frantic behind the panicked noises he was making...

I definitely shouldn't have brought him.

Not that Lee really blamed him. This was the worst possible first lair for anyone to experience. It would be a miracle if Bradley ever left the fort again after this. Lee didn't like it one bit himself, and would probably have nightmares about this place... but he'd seen worse.

What was a nightmare compared to the void? Sure, it was disgusting and horrifying, but they wouldn't die here. It was just another battle to slog through. Stanley wasn't dying... Lee wasn't dying... What more could he ask for?

Bradley broke completely before they made it outside. He abandoned his weapon inside a pair of clamping teeth when it didn't come free, and then sprinted, screaming, for the door.

"Bradley!" Alejandro shouted angrily after him but didn't leave the formation.

It was dumb luck that Bradley didn't get snagged, or maybe the larger group was drawing most of the attention. Either way, he made it through the door unmolested.

Saira took the abandoned spear and put it to great use as the rest of them made their way slowly to the exit.

Lee half expected something new to appear and keep them from escaping, but they all spilled into warm sunlight with no further issues.