I was keen to find Sylrin soon, so I turned to the dark fae and asked if there was anything more.

She seemed to be having a conversation with Typhon, so I waited for them to finish. It was then that she rushed over to me with an excited grin on her face.

[He said he found some mortals!] The dark fae spoke excitedly as she pointed towards Cygnus. [We have to tell the spirits! They really love mortals and their trinkets!]

"Mortals?"

«They are the human equivalent in this world.» Sensei revealed.

Oh.

But why would that make the spirits happy?

«Believe it or not, the preferred food of the tree spirits isn't the blood of monsters.» Sensei continued with a chuckle. «They are more than happy to feast on mortals to replenish their magic.»

Whoa! Man eating trees? Sounds scary.

«But mortals are extremely rare to find in the Labyrinth.»

"Why not?"

I was confused. Surely, there must be tons of them all over the place. I just saw a group of them, mixed in with elves.

«Ailith is mostly populated by elves, so they rarely get the chance.» Sensei added. «The most the spirits will encounter is an elf, but elves aren't careless enough to fall for their tricks.»

Ah...that made sense.

I couldn't imagine an elf getting charmed by their beauty since they were just as beautiful as the tree spirits. Perhaps, only the nymph was capable of fooling them because she was considerably more attractive, but that was just my guess.

Still, I couldn't believe the dark fae was so happy to find humans, just so they could be eaten!

The reality simply wasn't fair for monsters as well as for mortals.

I pressed for more details from Cygnus, and when the dark fae communicated with him, he revealed where he had found them. And from what he described they sounded quite far away, in a place that was tricky to get to.

I had to applaud Cygnus for his quick thinking in getting across the open canyon on his own.

Was it possible they were the same elf/human party I found? Did they move over there so quickly, or were they a different group?

Cygnus didn't really memorise what they looked like, just their general appearance, so it was difficult to tell.

Well, I had no thoughts of befriending them anyway. If I was spotted, I would most likely be hunted for the monster that I am.

And so, for the betterment of myself and my nestlings, it was best if we never meet...again. But I was glad to know I wouldn't encounter them anywhere nearby.

After hearing Cygnus's report, I encouraged the dark fae to communicate with each of my captains like she did with him, so I could listen to all their perspectives. And while her [Telepathy] startled them, they soon got the hang of it and began speaking to her feely.

However, for every captain she approached, Typhon continued to direct his glare towards her.

Her reports were similar to his albeit not as straight to the point, but by using her in this way I was able to notice the personalities of my captains from all the unnecessary details he had cut out. For one, I now knew Artemis was quite shrewd in nature and had a fondness for observation.

The dark fae, taking her new role seriously, repeated all their explanations back to me, unaware of Typhon's disapproving look.

Ophelia also did not look pleased, so while the dark fae chatted away with the captains, I took her aside to tell her I was trying to learn their words.

And on hearing this, her eyes lit up with excitement.

As for Typhon, It crossed my mind that he might think I didn't trust his report by making her do this, but I let him feel a little upset for trying to challenge me. And so I decided to let him stew a little longer before telling him the truth.

The dark fae finished each captain's report, and soon all the happy snakes left my side to resume their duties. Cygnus and Galahad went to train, while Morgana followed Artemis on his way down to the prison cells, before going on to retrieve her eggs.

For his punishment, my decision was to keep both Artemis and his team member locked up for one and two days respectively. That seemed like a long enough time for them to reflect on their actions.

With the captains gone, I was left with only Typhon and Ophelia.

The dark fae came to rest on my head and Ophelia settled down beside me while Typhon went to his corner. They both seemed innocent enough, but I couldn't stop thinking about Typhon's spar request.

Was that an indirect challenge or was I overthinking it?

"Do you think he's simply curious about his new strength?" I asked Sensei.

«I thought you didn't need my input.» he replied, still being petty.

This stingy guy!

Feeling irritated and annoyed, I made up my mind.

If Typhon had gotten too confident about his strength, it was worth straightening him out a little.

I left my perch, instructing Typhon to follow me and we went past the training ground and the fighting pit, down below to the hidden lower half of the cave.

There was something more terrifying than me, which was the Middle Stratum, and I thought it was time to show it to him.

If I scared him a little, maybe he would rethink his spar request, so I made it my mission to scare him into submission.

I quickly found the spot in the wall where I had widened the crack and removed the debris I used to conceal it. Immediately after the cave was filled with a dewy scent where the humid atmosphere of the Mangrove forest carried over through the tunnel.

Typhon was ecstatic when he saw the tunnel and I noticed Ophelia and the dark fae peeking out from behind him with equal looks of surprise.

The dark fae buzzed over to me with a plethora of questions. [What is that? Where does it go? How did you make it?]

I could only laugh in reply.

I was planning to reveal this place only to Typhon, but who knew these two would follow.

I didn't want Ophelia to follow, so I instructed her to go back. As for the dark fae, although she acted childish, she was actually pretty strong, so I let her be.

However, refusing my command, Ophelia gave me a fierce determined look, filled with protest.

I knew she wanted to come, but it was just too dangerous for her. Firstly, she was too weak to handle the worm infested cliff, which was where we were headed.

And as for the huge centipede monsters lurking below. While I could sneak past them, I wasn't confident I could do so while looking out for her, not with my weakened stats, so I firmly rejected her.

I left the cave in Ophelia's control and entered the tunnel with Typhon, the dark fae chattering all the while as she followed. On reaching the other side, I uncovered the debris concealing the tunnel and we exited out onto the cliff, introducing the two to the Mangrove forest in all its glory.

I expected Typhon to show some fear after seeing it, but after his initial look of surprise, he regained his calm and stared around at his new surroundings with interest, seemingly studying the landscape.

I wanted him to be afraid. Why wasn't he scared?!

Looking over the edge, I saw the centipede horde below were fewer and somewhat less active. There were a few legs sticking out from the gap in the wall where they slept, but they weren't squirming about as aggressively as before.

'No! Move!' I wanted to scream at them.

I needed them to do something so that Typhon would be terrified, but no matter how much I glared at the creatures, their legs only twitched slightly.

There were also no large monsters crossing through the mangrove at the moment, which made me very disappointed. This wasn't going how I expected this to go at all!

It was instead, the dark fae, who was scared out of her wits after seeing the wide expanse of the water forest.

She rushed over to me in terror and nudged me. [What is this place? I am scared. Can we go back please?]

I ignored her and looked at Typhon staring casually at the scenery, not at all bothered by it.

What to do now?

Although I knew there were plenty of monsters below, I wasn't risking going down there just to shock him, so I fixed my attention on the steep cliff wall behind us.

I grinned at the trembling fae and spoke. [We're here to train, so we have to stay. Especially you, who has no control over your magic.]

The dark fae burst into tears. [I don't want to! I want to go back!]

Her rising panic made me even more irritated at Typhon's calmness.

And so, I shifted the surrounding debris to cover the tunnel again, activating [Shadow Shroud] to climb the wall instead. Typhon followed my example and activated his [Shadow Shroud] before joining me to climb.

I recalled what had happened when I did this previously, and thought it was worth seeing how he would react to the worm monsters he would surely encounter.

We were almost half way through when I heard a loud screech, followed by the hideous ringed maw of the first worm that burrowed its way out of the cliffside.

Here we go.