Max kicked his legs to move towards the bank of the lake. He winced at the stab of pain that followed. Obviously, he’d fallen from a great height and the impact on the water had not left his legs unscathed. It was still cold, which probably helped a little, actually, but he needed to get out. At least he could swim.

He felt Regina’s touch in his mind, intimated that she was looking through his eyes. Well, that’s something, she said. Are you alright?

“Under the circumstances, I feel quite lucky,” he muttered.

Max finally dragged himself out of the lake, ignoring the pain in his legs. The ground around it was rocky, as if he had expected anything else. He looked up. The faint light coming through it showed him the hole he’d arrived through, no more than a meter in diameter, maybe less. The light was probably from the others.

Max sighed, stretching out his limbs and trying to figure out his injuries. He was lucky he had such a relatively high Constitution stat, it would probably be worse without it. Besides, it would probably heal much faster like this, too.

“I think my shell is cracked in a few places,” he muttered. “There’s a bit of blood. I don’t think any of my bones are broken. Well, maybe a toe or something. I think I can still walk if I have to.” He glanced up and snorted. “Yeah, I will definitely have to.”

We’re trying to see what we can from up here. None of us has a good idea where this is.

“Please don’t follow me down the hole,” he hissed. Then he straightened up and sighed. At least she’s safe. And so are the others.

“I’ll try to explore,” he said after a second. “Maybe there is a way back up.”

If not, we can make ropes and you can climb up. If you can climb?

Max grunted, then nodded. He wasn’t looking forward to it, but he should be able to.

He gingerly stood up, suppressing a wince at the pain flaring up again. He pushed it away and focused on the situation. He was alone somewhere in a cave underground. Actually, a cave system, there were definitely at least two openings, like tunnel entrances.

He took a few shaky steps, then moved with more assurance. The floor of the cavern was a bit ridged and uneven, but mostly level. He estimated that it was about ten meters long, but it was hard to be sure, given the lighting. At least he should have plenty of air for a while. The air tasted stale, but he still detected traces in it that he guessed came from flora.

One of the tunnel openings was a bit higher up and looked smaller and more uneven. The one he approached first was level and reminded him of an archway. A tunnel stretched away from it into the dark depths. There was still a little bit of light, perhaps coming from somewhere underground after all.

Max carefully moved forward. The tunnel was remarkably even and regular, although he didn’t know if that was an indication that it was artificial. It looked natural, but the edges of it were weathered, the roof a bit sloped. He wasn’t an expert on this. Regina was quiet, not commenting on it. She was probably busy talking to the others up above.

His feet still hurt and the hard ground wasn’t easy on them, but he could walk. And the further he did, the easier it seemed to get for him. Max glanced around, trying to take in every detail. The air smelled pretty clean, not very stale, so there were probably connections to the surface, beyond the one he’d come from. That one hadn’t really been open until his hive’s digging, anyway. He still smelled other scents that he couldn’t quite place. There had to be some ventilation down here, right?

After a few minutes, the tunnel opened out onto another cavern. It was longer than the one he had come from, and there was water dripping from the ceiling, along a few stalactites and stalagmites. Some plants and mushrooms lived here, clearly taking water from that trickle and the few puddles on the floor. Dim light came from a part of them on the upper walls and the side of the ceiling. Bioluminescence, he realized after a second. The light had a bluish tint in his eyes, and it didn’t illuminate the cave that well, but it was more than enough for his eyes to see.

Max slowly made his way through the cave, being careful of his footing. He crouched and touched one of the plants. Its leaves were a faded, light green, pretty big for its size. He considered eating one to try it out, but it might be better not to leave any trace of his passage here, in case there were more monsters or other residents of this underground ecosystem.

He’d reached the other side of the cavern when he encountered his first Tunneler. He paused, surprised, at what the System showed him.

Tunneler (Gatherer) — Level 11

It looked like the other Tunnelers he’d seen before, but a bit sleeker, maybe a bit longer. Its claws looked different, not as fearsome.

Max stopped and considered backing away, but it was too late. The dark-furred monster had already seen him. It screeched, though the sound seemed quiet in the open space here, and barreled at him.

Max set his feet and extended his blade-arm. Keeping his eyes on his opponent, he activated his third Class Skill, which he’d gotten a few levels ago but not had much opportunity to use. A ghostly shield appeared in front of him, dark but transparent, covering his front. It hung there for a moment, prickling against his fingers, before he heaved it forward in a smooth motion guided by his Skill. It met the charging Tunneler and threw it back, sending it literally flying until it crashed into the wall of the cavern.

Max jumped forward, stabbing with his blade-arm. The Tunneler appeared dazed from the rebound and couldn’t react in time. He pierced its abdomen, then cut its neck with his other blade-limb.

Max shook his limbs out and tried to wipe them on the dead monster, then continued on. He knew the smell might attract others, but there was little he could do about that, and he didn’t want to bother with carrying it along.

The tunnel continued on much as before, but after a while, he happened upon a crossing. Max looked around, curious, but wary of any other monsters. It had a bit of an odd configuration. The tunnel crossing this one was smaller and set a few decimeters high into the wall, but it was almost perfectly round. There seemed to be more light coming from it. Squinting, he could see what looked like another cavern much like the one before further along the former tunnel.

His curiosity got the better of him and Max diverted to the smaller tunnel. He followed it for only a short distance before the light grew brighter and he realized it opened onto yet another one. Carefully, Max edged forward, pressing himself against the wall as best he could. He found another surprise.

The tunnel before him was bigger than the one before, and it looked more regular. It was shaped like a half-circle, stretching into the distance. A dark stripe went along its ceiling, what he suspected was metal after taking a closer look. His current tunnel opened up into it about a meter and a half in the air, and there was some gravel beneath it. It looked like something might have broken out of the structure. Carefully, Max lowered himself down.

The light was brighter from one side of the tunnel, and he got more of the interesting smells from that side, too, so he headed in that direction. The wider tunnel also meant that it was more exposed, though. He saw a few holes, most of them up above ground level, all quite small. They looked like they’d been made by Tunnelers.

He walked for what might have been twenty minutes along the tunnel. During that time, he encountered and fought Tunnelers a few more times, both types he’d seen so far. They were mostly alone, once in a group of two, so he could handle them without too much trouble.

Max, I’m not sure it’s a good idea to continue, he heard Regina’s voice in his head finally. As far as he could tell, she seemed concerned.

“I’m still okay, and this is interesting,” he answered quietly. He glanced up at one of the light sources to prove his point.

They appeared in regular intervals. Someone had set them into simple fastenings on the ceiling of the tunnel. He hadn’t realized at first that they were plants like those he’d seen before, just bigger and brighter. In many places, they were growing out of their containers. They’d clearly been put here some time ago, though he wasn’t sure how they survived. Didn’t plants need light and water? The System showed him a description.

Cave Light

That sounded like they’d been named by people, but who knew. More interestingly, they didn’t quite fit the tunnel, in his opinion. The structures supporting them were made from a different material, what he suspected was iron, and it looked like someone had gouged holes into the tunnel’s ceiling.

The ground is odd, too, Regina commented silently. It’s not quite regular and smooth, and it looks like it’s a bit deeper than it should be.

He realized that she was right. There was even a noticeable difference in the rocky side of the tunnel, at an even height.

“Like someone made a path out of this,” he muttered.

Max continued on. The light grew brighter here, although the different fixtures were still at least a hundred meters or so away from each other.

The reminder of Regina’s presence, her silent company, was reassuring, though. He’d rarely been this alone. Not since his very first days, when it had just been the two of them. But he made himself focus on his exploration instead of dwelling on that.

A few hundred meters further - although by this point, he had little idea where exactly he was in relation to his hive, or how far away - he came to the end of the tunnel. At first, he only saw a dark shape. The brightest light source was overhead directly before it, making it hard to see any details beyond the light. Then he realized that there was a gate capping off the tunnel. It was made of some dark material, looking completely even and quite solid, though there was a line in the middle showing that it probably opened there and might slide into the sides of the wall.

Wait, Regina said. This looks faintly familiar. Kind of. Maybe not.

Max frowned, looking at it more closely, still from some distance away. He could kind of see what she might mean. This didn’t look like anything he had seen from the humans or elves so far. “Do you know what this is?”

Not really. But this whole thing, this tunnel … I almost think it’s some old subway tunnel. But that can’t be. And there wouldn’t be a gate cutting it off like this, it would lead to a station.

There was another hole close by the gate, looking far more irregular than the tunnel, like something had scooped chunks of it out. Max hesitated to get closer, some instinct warning him it might be dangerous. He took a few steps towards it, silently.

Then something shifted and rumbled, and one of the scents he’d been catching intensified. He froze, then stepped back. After a few long moments, he caught a glimpse of a dark shape moving in the larger cavern.

Tunnel Terror — Level ?

I think it’s better if I go. Max swallowed and carefully backed away.

Go back, his Queen urged him. Judging by the name, not to mention the size of that thing, it’s clearly past at least one Evolution. We’ve been making some ropes, let’s get you back up.

Max nodded, then turned and headed back. Luckily, the Tunnel Terror didn’t seem to have noticed him, and nothing followed him.

The way back took longer than he thought, and he had to fight three more Tunnelers, though, luckily, they were all below level fifteen. Still, he was getting tired and his feet started to ache badly. A moment of inattention during his last fight cost him, and now the shell on his shoulder was cracked, too. At least he could still use his left arm freely.

Once he finally got back to the lake where he’d fallen in, he realized he had a new problem.

Don’t worry, Regina told him. I have Tim and a few other Warriors here. We can pull you out, or at least help you get out. We’ll just drop the rope down now. You’ll need to swim into the lake to get it, then maybe swim back out and tie it around yourself securely.

“Alright.”

He waited for half a minute before he saw the end of the rope being lowered down the hole. It was more like several ropes, really, a few Entangling Vines intertwined and tied together, in a braid several vines thick, most likely to let it bear his weight. Mia had probably helped to make it, he knew she’d been doing something like this. They must have used their entire stockpile, but he supposed that they could simply reuse them.

Max sighed, then swam out into the lake and gathered the end of the rope. They had lowered it down just enough, probably guided by Regina. He didn’t want to swim back and forth, so he tied it around his body right there. The buoyancy of being in the water might have helped. He was careful of his blade-limbs. This was one situation where having them wasn’t an advantage.

Once he was done, the rope went taut and they started pulling him up. Max kept himself still until he reached the ceiling, where he had to maneuver himself to fit into the hole. He tried to use his hands and even his legs to help push him up, but Tim and the others still did most of the work.

Once he was finally lifted out of the shaft and into the tunnel, Regina looked at him with a small smile and shook her head. “I changed my mind about you sticking close to me.”

Max chuckled, then a small sigh of relief escaped him as she grabbed his shoulder and started healing him.