The Rewards of Research

“Alright, so out with it. What can we expect down here?” Talric’s voice was tough, but focused. His eyes dug into Felix’s before he turned back to the task of setting up the barrier wards. Felix hesitated to speak before the wards were up and functioning. The protection afforded by the magical boundary not being something he necessarily wanted to go without.

After a minute or two, the boundary pieces were set and their runes flared to life. As the slight shimmer in the air signified the barrier's birth, Felix spoke. “First thing to know, is that this whole cave system is not fully explored. There are pretty extensive maps of decent chunks, but in some areas… Not so much.”

Talric snorted, “High rankers don’t want to map things out, or if they do map it out, they don’t want anyone else stealing potential training grounds.”

Styria glanced up for a moment from where she was setting up her collapsible cot, but quickly refocused on the task.

Noting the momentary reaction, Felix continued, “The majority of these tunnels are D-Rank or below, making them reasonably alright for us, so long as we keep our wits about us and aren’t stupid. E-Ranks can get through too, but they rely much more on stealth than we need to.”

Felix waited for a gruff nod of understanding from Talric. And even though he didn’t get any reaction from Styria, he was pretty sure she was listening. “However, there are a few well known sections that are C-Ranked, and even some B-Ranked.” Felix paused before adding, “And if the rumors of Hive are true, then the whole mountain will probably be reclassified to A-Rank. At the very least.”

Hearing that, Styria spoke up, “There aren’t any Hive. If there were, we would have known long ago. They’d have long wiped out everything in these tunnels.”

Felix blinked in surprise for a moment before cocking his head to the side. “And you’re so sure of that because…?”

Her eyes rose and locked onto his, “My brother is B-Ranked and works support for the adventurers who make the trip to Exandros.” She shrugged, “He writes a lot of letters.”

Hearing that made Felix do a double-take for a moment. Slowly, he nodded. “Alright... Well. Let’s assume there aren’t Hive in here then. After that, what we mostly need to watch out for are Rock-Claw Lynxes, Goliath Tunnelers, and supposedly there is a Death Knight down here. That last one is unconfirmed, but a C-Ranked party reported it, so it might be true.”

Talric grunted in assent, Beginning to spark a fire while looking up occasionally. Felix again was glad he’d brought the barrier wards. The little artifacts had been expensive, and unfortunately couldn’t be used while moving. But the benefit of a visual and auditory illusion protecting them was powerful.

“A Goliath is probably the worst case scenario. In these tunnels it could just slam through and swallow one of us whole. I think the gray worm that attacked us earlier was a baby or something. Or maybe just a similar but smaller version,” he shrugged.

“A Rock-Claw is probably not very far behind though. Finding one of those down here would be very bad. They’ve sliced through C-Rankers, so we would be mince-meat.” Talric’s jaw clenched for a moment, but he quickly relaxed again. “Anyways, a Death Knight would actually be easiest for us to deal with.”

Felix gestured towards Styria, “Magic is most useful against them, and I have a few alchemies that are nasty against undead. Not to mention a single vial of blessed spring water.” Talric’s head snapped up to look at Felix ,his eyes narrowed in a silent question. In response, he only shrugged. “There’s benefits to being the dwarf who buys things.”

Slowly, Talric relaxed from the faintly accusatory posture he’d been in. Glancing to the side, he saw a slight smile on Styria's face while she focused on writing in a small notebook she’d drawn out of her pack.

“Beyond those major threats,” Felix continued after a moment or two of silence, “There are practically uncountable different creatures down here. This is a truly massive cavern system, some estimates even put it at reaching as much as twenty-five miles down, and over a hundred miles from one side to the other.”

A soft curse came from Talric when he heard that. Felix quickly continued, “We have a lot of advantages though, we don’t have to search the whole thing. We know the party we’re looking for came through the same entrance as us, they were E-Ranked except for my brother, and we have my tracking compass.” Felix jerked his head towards the compass that was resting beside the small little fire pit Talric was trying to make with whatever scraps he could get together. “So long as we have my blood available, it’ll track me to the closest relative. Otherwise known as, my brother.”

Styria looked up from her writing for a moment, “Okay, that sounds good enough,” she gave Felix a sideways glance before asking, “What are the most common threats though?” She put an emphasis on the word common, making Fellix nod quickly.

“Uhh…” Felix dug into his bag to pull out a small little flipbook of his notes. He flipped through them, skimming through quickly until jabbing his finger onto the page. “I knew I had a list for that. Alright, most common would be… Rock Skorpions, Stonecloaks, Giant Bats, various kinds of spiders…” Felix flipped the page over before continuing, “A little less common, but still pretty prevalent are… Well, there is a Mossling Kingdom somewhere down here, there’s some Infestors, Moths who sprinkle you with toxic spores as they fly over, and Trolls.”

Flipping another page, Felix grimaced. “That was all the stuff we could probably take on, though the infestors and trolls would probably be only one at a time. And we obviously wouldn’t want to be caught out by a Mossling army.”

Styria nodded slowly, as Felix continued, “There’s actually way more than just those, but the rest are either way less dangerous or way less common. But there are some things down here we probably won’t be able to handle…”

Talric narrowed his eyes again, “Like what?”

“Like the Drakes that are supposed to roam through some areas. Or the Drow, or the Cyclops, or the Chimera.” Styria winced at the list. Drakes were descendants of Dragons, very, very diluted descendents, but descendents nonetheless. Drow were a special breed of dangerous, given their terrifying proficiency with weapons and magic.

Cyclops were essentially just larger trolls, retaining the same regeneration with more strength and toughness. On top of that, they could see slightly into the future with their one eye, letting them become even more dangerous opponents. The chimera were especially dangerous, because of their sheer arsenal of attacks.

Chimera could take a dozen different forms or variations, but they almost always retained the ability for sheer strength, speed, and magic. They were hell to fight because they simply had very few obvious weaknesses.

Felix finished his impromptu presentation, “If we encounter any of those ones, I suggest running or hiding. Fighting is almost definitely gonna kill us.”

Talric looked grim for a moment before shrugging. “A dragon could always swoop out of the sky and kill you. I’m not gonna worry about it unless it happens. Good to know and be prepared though.” He nodded sharply at Felix before turning back to the small fire he had somehow managed to actually light.

Styria looked pensive for a few minutes longer as she thought over the information. Finally she spoke, a little quieter, “Turns out I underestimated these tunnels. I hadn’t realized they held that many different creatures that would be true threats to us.”

Felix responded slowly, “My brother was the expert on these tunnels between the two of us. He might have been E-Ranked, but he knew everything about them. Kinda wish I’d listened more whenever he told stories about them now…”

Styria glanced over at him, seeing the dwarf staring into the small flickering fire. She reached out a hand towards his shoulder, before pausing. She slowly pulled it back and nodded to herself. A few minutes later she spoke again, “If he knew so much about these tunnels, then doesn’t that make it more likely that they disappeared because of one of those bigger threats?”

Felix’s eyes flicked over to her for a moment before his shoulders sagged, almost as if he’d collapsed under a weight he’d been holding.. Almost whispering, he replied, “Yeah, yeah it does. But I can’t just leave him here. I can’t, I just-” His voice stopped, and he closed his mouth slowly.

He shook his head slightly before forcing himself to his feet, looking towards Talric. “Wake me for the third watch, yeah?” After receiving a nod in return, Felix went to where his own things were set up and began settling down.

Styria slowly shook Talric awake, her turn on the first watch finished after four hours. As always, her throat tightened slightly as she heard the low warning growl emanating from the massive sleeping form of her companion, before he finally cracked an eye open.

Seeing her cocked eyebrow and tired expression, Talric huffed a breath and sat up slowly. Styria nodded to the big man before turning to make her way to her small cot. She had made it a step before a gentle hand touched her arm.

Turning back she saw Talric looking over at Felix’s sleeping form, a worried expression on his normally impassive face. Turning back towards her, he spoke quietly, barely above a whisper. “During the fight with the worm.. You don’t think he saw, did he?”

Styria’s jaw clenched. “I thought you might have lost control for a moment but I wasn’t sure..”

Looking down, his eyes troubled, Talric said, “You know how hard it is to control right now.. It’s just… Right there.” He gritted his teeth, Styria watching the obvious effort from him carefully. She nodded slightly when she saw nothing happen.

“I do know. But still Talric,” She glanced at Felix again, “I hope he didn’t see. Otherwise…”

A long silence stood between the two. Finally, Talric let out a long and heavy breath. “Head to sleep, I’ll keep watch…” Styria slowly nodded, before eventually turning back and heading to sleep.

“The needle is shifting more often and by larger amounts,” Talrics low voice reached back to where Felix was following behind. The group had been traveling for several days since their encounter with the worm-like creature. They’d finally made it out of the Valleystone tunnels and into regular rock corridors.

Felix raised his voice slightly so that Talric could hear, “That’s good. Means we’re starting to get closer. Just keep following it.” Talric grunted in reply before continuing his silent march down the tunnel.

The group of three had finally found one of the underground streams that ran through the caves. They’d been following it for two days since finding it, continually moving downstream. They’d run across and killed many individual little pests. Rock skorpions and giant bats seemed to be plentiful down in these tunnels, but they weren’t much of any real threat. They’d also smashed a few Stonecloaks that had tried to ambush them, but the creatures were quickly dispatched by either Felix using his munitions or Styria using magic.

The three were walking slowly along the bank of the stream, Talric having passed the tracking compass off to Styria so he could stay fully alert. They’d gone down by quite a bit, and the farther down you were the more dangerous it usually was.

It was this formation of three that was walking when a sudden grinding shriek echoed up the tunnel. Talric immediately froze and lifted his sword, Styria and Felix behind him preparing themselves as well.

A few short moments passed without anything happened before another shriek, slightly louder this time, echoed through again. Not long after, a soft but slowly growing scuttling noise could be heard, coming in their direction.

Talric gritted his teeth and firmed his grip even as Styria cursed under her breath and pulled out her manawand, fire magic pulsing through the runes as she prepared herself.

A few minutes of listening to this sound growing louder, with the occasional piercing shriek accompanying it passed, the tension gnawing on their nerves. Finally, a cave spider rounded the tunnel and into view. And then another, and then another. More and more kept coming, making Styria and Felix’s eyes go wide. A flare of red light shot forward, past Talric’s shoulder. The fire magic slammed forward and burned almost straight through the head of one of the spiders.

After seeing it was effective, Styria quickly fired off three more in quick succession. But despite her killing off a spider with almost every shot, they just kept coming. Finally, A much bright, much larger streak of fire mana shot forward, when the massive clump of running spiders were only thirty meters away.

The fire detonated in a large fireball, setting the spider alight and filling the tunnel with screeches. Dozens and dozens of the monsters died, but there were far more that hadn’t.

Talric stepped forward again, but to the side slightly. Styria moved to stand next to him, manawand in one hand and her mace in the other. Standing behind them, Felix quickly lit two of the Boomers, a type of goblin munition that exploded. He tossed them forward, letting the spiders run over top of them before their fuses finished.

Moments later, impossibly loud explosions echoed through the tunnels as the two detonated. Bodies of the spiders were ripped apart and thrown like ragdolls.

After those two explosions, the number of spiders had been greatly reduced. Talric and Styria quickly managed to dispatch the remaining arachnids in close quarters, Felix standing back with his hand ready to dive for any of his tools if needed.

A minute of furious slashing later, and the last spider slowly slumped in two, Talric having slashed straight through it. His breath was coming faster, but still not heavily. It hadn’t been a long enough or hard enough fight to really press his capabilities.

Styria looked back towards Felix, “What the hell was that? You didn’t mention something about spider swarms!”

Felix resisted the urge to back up a step. He quickly raised his hands defensively, “I don’t know either! The spiders down here are supposed to be ambush predators only!”

Styria’s mouth was opening again when a shuddering, almost staccato screech echoed through the tunnel. It was distinctly different from the noise the spiders had been making. The three froze for a moment before looking back the way the spiders had come.

“What… was that?” Talric asked slowly, raising his greatsword again.

Felix swallowed, “I don’t know. But it doesn’t necessarily sound good.”

Before they could talk anymore, the sound of claws slamming against stone began to reach their ears. Dozens, no hundreds of the same sound combining into an ominous rhythm.

“We should probably go,” Styria spoke quickly, gripping her wand more tightly.

Talric nodded as Felix agreed quietly. Almost without speaking, the group began moving back, looking for an offshoot tunnel to go down.

Before they found what they were looking for however, Felix glanced back and his eyes opened wide. He saw the creature at the same time as he heard it. Running towards them on six legs, the chitinous creature was accompanied by dozens of almost exact copies of itself. More and more just kept following around the corner with it, charging fast. It’s jaw was opened to release the same staccato scream that they’d heard before.

He heard Styria curse before saying, “It’s not Hive, it’s Brood-Host!”

Felix glanced at her, his eyes wild before cursing. He’d heard of the Brood-Host. It was apparently the remains of an experiment to tame the Hive. They were very similar, but there were key differences. The Brood-Host needed a constant connection with their Queen, otherwise they would fall catatonic. The Hive on the other hand simply became less intelligent. The Brood-Host also relied more on swarm tactics than the Hive.

Seeing the horde of creatures coming towards them, Felix found that easy to believe. He quickly began ripped tools, munitions, and alchemies off of his bandolier and belt. He tossed several little clay pots forward, the alchemical fire-oil contained within spreading across the stone floor. Once it was saturated, he quickly ran towards the rushing Brood, ignoring the surprised cries coming from Styria behind him.

He quickly knelt down on the closer side of the impromptu oil field he’d made. Ripping mana-crystals out of his bag, he began connecting them to dwarven enchanted plates, using nearby stones to prop them up. He only began running back when the screech of the Brood-Host echoed again and he could see the glow of mana surging through the plates.

As he ran back, he quickly lit two Boomers and threw them as hard as he could back. Felix made it back to the other two right before the heavy thumps of detonation sounded out behind him.

“What the hell was that?!” Styria demanded, staring at the oncoming creatures.

“Hit the oil with a fire bolt!” Was all he replied.

She gritted her teeth but did it anyways, the streak of fire soaring through the air to impact the fire. The magic had barely even touched the air before bright purple flames roared into existence, soaring up and almost reaching the ceiling of the tunnel. Before even a second had passed, the fire had spread across all of the oil.

“They’ll just run through an- “ Styria’s shouted comment was cut off when the first of the creatures chasing after them ran into the fire. It immediately began screaming, loud and high pitched. They could see the scales beginning to melt and slough away as it slowly began to collapse.

But despite the immediate and devastating magical flame, the sheer weight of numbers was indeed carrying the creatures through. When the first one managed to emerge out the other side, it began running towards them again. It had barely moved a step however, when one of the enchanted plates went off, the light of the mana-crystal dimming slightly.

A massive whuumpf of pure physical force slammed through the air, throwing the weakened creature soaring back, into the flames again, bludgeoning against the other creatures. It was only a few more moments later, before additional plates activated, throwing the creatures back. Seeing the temporary block Felix had managed to create, Styria suddenly lifted her wand.

She began summoning a full fireball once again, building the magic up again. At the same time, Felix lit another Boomer and threw it toward the fire.

The tunnel was filled with screaming Brood-Host and explosions, all to the background of roaring flame.