“Is this enough?” Silas huffed, as he staggered over to Katai, dropping his bundle of branches. Katai looked up from where he was sitting, stoking the fire. He had the easy job – keeping an eye on the makeshift torches that had already been collected and were sitting in a small fire. They had nothing flammable to soak the ends in, so Katai was making do, charring one end of each branch so that it was easier to light. Pre-burning their torches, so to speak.

“Yeah, that should be plenty. Here, have a drink,” Katai flung his water skin up. Silas deftly caught the skin, uncapping it with a sigh of relief and gulped down several mouthfuls.

“We should be ready to go pretty soon, once these are done.” Katai said with an eager smile.

Silas grunted and lowered the water skin. He didn’t look too enthused.

“You don’t think he’ll let you go?”

Silas shrugged slowly and looked down. “He didn’t let me or Lariss go earlier, ‘cause we haven’t unlocked our second Class… and I still haven’t made any progress.”

Katai considered his response for a moment. “But you might have been making progress, and not even known – it’s not like you get information about Class requirements. You could be moments away from unlocking that Class.”

“Or I could be years away.” Silas replied gloomily, “Kenemen doesn’t even know if it’s possible to get the Class from memorisation alone!”

They lapsed into silence, neither able to refute that statement. Katai felt a bit guilty that he’d suggested asking Kenemen for advice. Now Silas was moping about, and he had no idea how to cheer him up.

The big problem was that they both loved to explore. That’s what they’d spent the majority of their time doing in their childhood. Of course, neither of them had ever dreamed of finding a Rift, even in their wildest stories, and now Silas was being held back from exploring that fantastical dream. It was a mild form of torture for someone as curious and driven as Silas.

Soon enough the torches were finished and everyone gathered around Kenemen.

“Alright, we’ll be heading back to explore the cave and any tunnels that we find. Torches and emergency rations have been prepared?” The question was directed at Silas, who gave a quick nod of confirmation. “Good. We’ll be travelling pretty quickly, so we have more time to explore before night-fall. Any questions before we leave?”

Katai glanced at Silas, who didn’t even look up. Typical.

“Are we all going?” Katai said, his tone carefully neutral.

Kenemen raised an eyebrow imperiously and then looked over at Silas, who didn’t meet his eyes.

“That depends on Silas. Can you continue your training?”

Finally, Silas looked up, confused. “Yes, but I was hoping that… well, it doesn’t matter. Yes, I can continue training here…” His voice trailed off.

Kenemen snorted. “No, no can you keep training while we explore? Since we’re all going, it’ll be safe enough. Of course, if you prefer to stay here and train–” He waved at the camp.

“–no, no I can definitely train on the way!” Silas was suddenly animated, his face lighting up. He met Katai’s eyes and his smile stretched even wider.

“Not just on the way.” Kenemen replied sternly, “You can recite while we fight too. Lariss, you could also attempt this, but I’d recommend you wait until we get back to camp. Your target Class is a bit more… volatile. I will be expecting you to make up the time when we get back however.”

Lariss nodded eagerly, while Silas looked a bit shocked.

Well this is going to be interesting, Katai thought, bemused at the new training method. He’d have to stick close to Silas, make sure he wasn’t too distracted when they stumbled over any Megasoma.

“Alright, quick recap of everyone’s Classes and skills for Silas and then we’re off.”

Kenemen, of course, kept his skills and Classes to himself. If he told them about the Questor Class, he’d probably have to arrest them.

“Katai’s Class traits; Relentless, Internal Blood Savant, and Bleeding Edge.”

Katai only half-listened to what Silas was quietly reciting, most of his attention centred on his Blood Sense and what it was telling him. They were travelling far quicker than they had earlier that day, jogging along as the group followed Kenemen and Katai. He was fairly confident that Kenemen could easily dispatch anything they came across, but with the pace they were going, he didn’t want to run straight into a Gyas before he could react. That could get messy very quickly. So, he concentrated on his Blood Sense, prepared to react at any moment to anything popping up.

“Relentless increases total stamina and stamina regeneration by forty percent.”

Katai looked over at Emilia with a hint of pity. She was the only one of them without a Warrior Class, which meant she didn’t have the Relentless trait. Yet, she’d kept up with them throughout the Rift, through the rough jungle trek and now the jumbled and often steep paths throughout the cavernous valley. He could understand now why she was always red in the face and sweaty – she had to work hard to keep up with their Warrior Class advantages.

“…Immune to all external healing magic, and potion effects. Bleeding Edge - attacks that cause bleeding; increase damage and length of effect by fifty percent.”

Katai was impressed. Silas had gotten all of his Class information and traits correct for the first time and it had been while he was distracted travelling at a pretty decent pace. Perhaps the training really was starting to help.

Of course, this was probably his twentieth attempt, so he’d hope he was finally starting to remember all the details.

About half an hour later, they arrived at the tunnel entrance. They’d made good time, not stopping at any junctions or taking any breaks. Emilia looked like she was about to drop from the exertion.

Kenemen, with a quick glance at Emilia, allowed them a short break as he examined the entrance.

It sat in shadow; the dark slash of the cave mouth barely discernible. They could see a dozen meters in, the tunnel clearly leading deeper into the mountain. The narrow entrance was full of shifting shadows, and the wind that ruffled their clothes made a ghostly howl as it passed by the lip of the tunnel. It was a forbidding entrance.

Thankfully, they all had experience with dark and cramped tunnels. That was, after all, the only way to access the Rift in the first place.

“…Emilia’s Dirt Mage skills; Plant Life Sense, Earthen Recovery, and Element Projectile…”

Katai zoned out, having already heard Emilia recite her skills to Silas. They were an interesting collection, completely different from the Warrior skills he was used to. The first two were both passive skills, while the latter, Element Projectile, was how she’d been able to compress clumps of dirt into a surprisingly sturdy wall.

Gaining that skill had been a matter of survival at first. As they trekked through the jungle, soon after entering the Rift, she’d gained her tenth level and undoubtedly her concern was that she had no skills that could protect her or damage an attacker. It made sense to Katai that she’d want an offensive skill, but it had ended up being far more versatile than any of them had expected.

Plant Life Sense and Earthen Recovery however were simple skills. Plant Life Sense was pretty self-explanatory, giving Emilia a skill similar to Katai’s Sense Blood, with one key difference. His skill gave him a sense for where living creatures were, if they had blood in their bodies. He couldn’t, unfortunately, sense the Undead that had been let loose around Tiaston, for example. Plant life however, apparently included all kinds of things – common trees, bushes and grass, but also things that weren’t so obvious, like fungi and moss – even spores drifting in the air, if she was concentrating on the skill.

From how Emilia had described it, the sense wasn’t as sensitive as his own Sense Blood. Which is probably a good thing, she’d be overwhelmed by the constant feedback, he thought to himself, grimacing at the thought. He’d found it painful just being in the vicinity of a relatively small gathering of people when he’d first gotten the Sense.

Earthen Recovery was even simpler – it increased her mana recovery rate by thirty percent when she was in contact with the land. She hadn’t given any details on that one, so Katai was guessing she didn’t need to be in direct contact, as she always wore sturdy boots.

“Alright, let’s go. Looks like the tunnel opens up a bit further in, so we might as well light an extra torch.” Without waiting for a response, Kenemen lit another torch and handed it to Katai. “Lariss, you can lead to start with, followed by myself, Silas and Katai, then Emilia and Yoto. Oh, and Silas keep it quiet for now.” Kenemen looked at the dark entrance and cocked his head, seeming to consider it for a moment before he turned around and looked at Silas.

“But as soon as we enter battle, I want you to continue with your recitations.”

“Wait, what?”

Silas’ eyes almost bugged out at the order. He knew Kenemen had already suggested as much, but he thought he’d been joking. He couldn’t be serious… right?

“But… but how am I meant to focus on fighting?”

Kenemen smiled thinly. “That is exactly the point. There’s no better way to unlock a Class, or train a skill, than to do it in a high-pressure, stressful situation. I’ve been trying to simulate that by making you get repeatedly beaten by Katai, but that doesn’t seem to be having much effect. I’m sure this will be a lot more effective. Also, much more entertaining.”

Katai could have sworn his eyes twinkled before he turned and gestured for Lariss to enter ahead of him.

Silas looked at him in astonishment. “Is he completely mad?”

Katai could only shake his head in disbelief.

Kenemen had been correct about the tunnel. After a dozen paces, it was wide enough for two of them to walk side-by-side. Katai promptly moved up next to Silas, with a dark frown aimed at the back of the Questor. He’d be keeping a wary eye out for his friend while he “trained”. Hopefully Yoto and Emilia would also be watching out for him.

In the dim light of the torches, Katai couldn’t make out a lot of details. The tunnels were clearly maintained by something or someone however, the floor almost completely flat and the walls with signs of digging – there were faint claw marks every so often. Perhaps the tunnels had been excavated by the Megasoma? If they lived in these caves, and had spent years in the area, then it wasn’t an unrealistic guess. Or at the very least, they’d spent time expanding them.

That would also explain why they hadn’t seen many Megasoma until they’d gotten closer to the tunnel entrance. Or any of the mature Megasoma at all, until they reached this area. Perhaps they kicked their young out and left them to wander the far corners of the Rift until they matured?

Hmm, I wonder if we’ll be seeing a lot more of those mature Megasoma down here then. Katai wasn’t too worried at the thought. They were in a relatively narrow area, preventing the Megasoma from easily overwhelming them with numbers. That was really the only danger they posed to the group. Individual Megasoma, from what he’d seen, were no match for any one of them.

Not long after they entered the tunnel, they ran into their first problem. The path split in three different directions, without any discernible difference between the three options.

After pondering for a short while, Kenemen shrugged and led them down the left-most path.

“Silas, make sure you remember which path we took. I’ll be relying on you to get us back.”

Silas groaned quietly, Katai smiling with some sympathy. Kenemen certainly was piling on the pressure.

The tunnels they were following changed from a dark, slightly sandy soil, to a reddish, clay-like consistency. It even smelled wet, the air growing moist and cold. Their boots squelched in the thin layer of mud that formed along the middle of the path.

“I can sense something strange on our left,” Emilia suddenly spoke up, her voice hushed. The group stopped and Katai looked back at her. “It’s… there’s a lot of plant-life in there. More than there was above ground even.” She sounded surprised. She closed her eyes to concentrate. “It looks like it keeps going ahead of us. Maybe there’s an entrance further along?”

Katai looked back at Kenemen who just nodded thoughtfully.

“Katai, you can’t sense anything?”

Katai shook his head after a moment. He’d been checking his Blood Sense constantly and there had been plenty of activity as they moved along the tunnels. All of the things he’d sensed however had been moving below them, or in tunnels or caves that were running parallel to theirs. Each time, he’d warned the group, but by now he’d gotten better at detecting if the creatures were actually nearby. In fact, his skill had even improved from the constant challenge of detecting things as they moved through the warren of tunnels.

Sense Blood has reached level 5 (Proficient).

At the moment, he could sense a couple of creatures below them, but he could tell they were too far down to be connected to their tunnel.

“Ok, let me know if you sense anything else. Good work Emilia.” Kenemen said inclining his head towards the Dirt Mage, before turning and resuming his steady pace, seemingly unconcerned at the curious phenomenon.

With a renewed alertness, Katai and the others followed along. He kept checking his Blood sense, until a blip of red appeared, right where he’d been expecting it. It wasn’t close, moving around in the earth somewhere off to their left-hand side. It was, however, on the same level as them, which confirmed Katai’s suspicions.

There was a cavern nearby, with lots of plant-life and at least one Megasoma.

Could this be something significant – the entrance to a den, or the edge of a cavern full of Megasoma? It could be anything really, but it was the first real change they’d come across and Katai was very interested to see what they’d find.

With Katai’s warning of a Megasoma in mind, they crept along, eyes and ears alert for any change in the tunnel ahead of them. Katai slowly moved ahead of the group, with Emilia following close behind, both of them concentrating on what their magical senses were telling them.

“Three bodies moving around,” Katai whispered back to Emilia, who nodded with a look of faint relief and held up three fingers to the others behind her. In response, they raised their weapons, ready to rush forward at a moments notice, while Kenemen looked on, a smile playing across his face. He didn’t seem to be taking the delve very seriously, at all – weapon sheathed and a relaxed look about him. At the very least he was trying to stay quiet, picking his footsteps with care and avoiding the muddier patches.

Katai poked his head around the next tunnel bend, sensing a Megasoma close to them. He quickly withdrew once he spotted the creature, but not before he’d scanned the area in front of them. It was one of the larger, mature varieties and it was facing away from them. Curiously, it seemed to be pulling at something, some kind of weird, bulbous plant? Unfortunately, he couldn’t see into the rest of the cavern, the body of the beast blocking most of his sight, but he could see hints of more plants around the cavern entrance.

He started to sneak forward, but the layer of mud made it virtually impossible to be silent. Wet squelches followed him, making him wince with every footstep. As soon as he saw the bug-like creature look up, curious at the sound, he sprinted forwards, impaling it with a ferocious thrust. The combination of his body weight and the use of Lunge was enough to punch the blade straight through the hardened carapace on the creatures back.

Wasting no time, Katai wrenched the blade out of the gurgling monster and surged forwards, heading towards the next target that throbbed in his Blood Sense. His eyes widened however, as the cavern opened up before him, giving him his first look at what they’d discovered.

He almost stopped his charge, stumbling for a couple of steps at the sight. Great towering columns of purple rose up from the ground, reaching for the ceiling that arched far higher than the cramped tunnels they’d been travelling through. Writhing tendrils of green interspersed the giant purple tubers, undulating gently as if there were a breeze wafting through the cavern. They reminded Katai of plants that grew underwater, long and thin, and interspersed with bulbous, fluid-filled sacks. Beneath those larger plants, the ground was covered in an array of muted colours, small mushrooms and tubers, whacky-looking fungi and some small spiky plants that dribbled white fluid from their bristly peaks.

Perhaps the most surprising part of the cave, a detail that he was embarrassed to have missed, was that it was filled with a dull light. Wiggling in the walls and ceiling, small pinpricks of light bathed the area in a soft, golden glow.

Katai shook away his surprise – it wouldn’t do to be so easily distracted in a battle, even one as simple as this. He looked around and spotted the other two Megasoma, and saw one had already been pierced by a trio of arrows, its movements growing sluggish as it gurgled out a final battle cry, green blood oozing from its mouth. The other was under attack by Lariss and Silas, so Katai shrugged and called out a half-hearted Battle Cry.

“An easy fight!” Silas said happily, once the final creature had fallen. They all looked around, eyes gleaming with curiosity. The cavern was remarkable, teeming with a variety of weird plant life.

“Do you think this is their food source?” Katai asked, examining the Megasoma he’d killed. It had a scattering of plant cuttings about its corpse.

“Perhaps. Their jaws are not made for eating meat.” Yoto spoke up, his voice quiet, as always.

Katai looked around some more, but couldn’t see anything else to support his theory. There were some chunks taken out of the giant purple tubers, but they could’ve been ripped out for any number of reasons.

He suspected that is what this cavern was for however – a larder of sorts, or a food cultivation room. It wasn’t a huge cavern, but there was plant-life covering every inch of floor space. And even some things growing on the walls.

“They’re grubs!” Lariss said, her face inches away from the wall. She plucked one of the wiggling lights from the wall, gingerly holding it away from her body. As soon as it left the dirt however, the light quickly dimmed and then went out, leaving the woman holding a fat, squirming grub in her hand. With a look of faint revulsion, she tried to stuff the thing back into the wall, eventually succeeding in getting it smooshed back into its hole. The light however did not reappear.

“Guess we won’t be taking those with us then.” Silas said, snickering at Lariss. She glared at him, before huffing and turning away.

Katai ignored the two and turned to Kenemen, who was waiting by the entrance, his arms folded impatiently.

“Keep pressing on then?” Katai said, eager to continue. He could see the sparkle in Silas’ eyes too, there was a lot more to explore before this expedition was over for the day.

“But – but we can’t leave already!” Unexpectedly, Emilia spoke up, her voice torn between worry and excitement. “There’s so much to see here. I’ve never seen any of these plants and they all feel so happy! They’re in perfect condition, well, apart from the ones that those creatures seem to have been eating.”

A curious light had entered the Dirt Mage’s eyes as she stalked around the garden. When she spotted a plant that had been damaged, she inspected it closely, crooning as she gently stroked the plant.

Her eyes hardened when she spotted one particularly ravaged stalk of purple. The floor-to-ceiling tuber was lopsided from being gouged out on one side, claws marks appearing clearly around the edges of the wound. It was apparently not to Emilia’s liking, as she turned and glared at the Megasoma corpses that lay nearby, stamping her foot angrily.

“Silas, what were your instructions before we entered this cave system?” The voice of the Questor came from the entrance, his tone curiously light-hearted. An ominous sign, in Katai’s opinion.

Silas gulped heavily and took a second to reply. “Uh, uh well you – you said I needed to continue reciting once we entered battle.”

Kenemen nodded sternly and raised his palm to the sky, as if to say ‘Well, why didn’t you do that?’

Silas nodded glumly. “Sorry Kenemen, I – there was just no time to think.” When Kenemen didn’t reply, he looked up. “I’ll do better next time, I swear.”

Katai looked between the two, a bit anxious at the potential conflict. When Kenemen nodded again, his face still impassive as he stared Silas down, Katai gave an inaudible sigh of relief. While the tension was still there, it looked like Kenemen was happy enough to give Silas a second chance. Katai didn’t want to think what the Questor would do if he got seriously angry. Or if he decided to punish Silas.

They started filing out of the room after that, following Kenemen down one of the tunnels that lead away from the plant-filled cave. Everyone seemed happy to keep exploring, finding little to interest them in the cave after the initial exploration.

Everyone except Emilia of course.

“We’ll come back at some point. Plus, I’m sure there’s plenty more rooms like this!” Katai said as he practically dragged the obstinate woman along.

It looked like she’d finally grown a backbone, at the most inconvenient of times. Katai hadn’t been surprised when she’d retreated into her shell over the past week, after the turbulence of the village attack and being separated from her family and home. It was quite telling that the reason for her resistance now, was a bunch of weird plants.

This didn’t make it any easier or less annoying, when he had to physically push her out of the room. She’s turned into a crazy plant lady – how great is that. Now we have Silas, who’s obsessed with skills and Classes. Yoto, who loves hunting and being alone more then anything else. Lariss, who’s crazy about fighting and being as annoying to everyone else as she possibly can – is there a Class for that? – and now, crazy plant-lady Emilia. What a motley crew.

He of course neglected to mention himself, perhaps the worst of the bunch. The Blood Mage, wielder of a forbidden Class.

Perhaps he shouldn’t be so judgemental?