The access shaft to the surface was narrow, only wide enough for beast demons to traverse through, but once it connected to the main, underground thoroughfare, the tunnels massively opened up.

The group of three had descended through the fog, Riza riding on top of her reanimated beast demon and using that as her eyes. It felt strange, in a way, like she was playing a computer game; she moved through voice commands rather than her own mind.

Daven was flailing about, hand gliding against the rough, jagged wall as he cautiously walked. She had forgotten that without [Touched by Essence], he wouldn’t be able to see. Stupid of her, and requires re-evaluation of boons later on.

The access shaft was clearly dug by a beast demon. It resembled many a burrow animals dug into the ground and likely could’ve been made by a big mole. The main tunnels connecting this underground maze together, however? They were different.

Not only were they large and without supports, they had a circular cross-section with thick, smooth walls. A tap of her knuckles and a bit of digging with her dagger confirmed their durability, feeling similar to when she had Dave dig them out of the bunker.

At a best guess, Riza had to say she suspected earth magic was at play here. Compressed dirt and rocks on such a massive scale suggested as much.

Thankfully, the immediate section of tunnels where they emerged into was deserted, with the closest demons a good distance away. Now that Riza was down amongst the nests denizens, she had a better grasp of their distribution; more sparse than she initially suspected.

Thus, they began their infiltration.

Lefie was the vanguard, being the one blessed with sight and with the offensive capabilities to defend them. Daven was holding onto Riza’s steed as they worked their way through according to Riza’s navigation.

First target was a small group of only three demons. All beasts, two moles and one wolf. The group swiftly rounded the corner and got the jump on them, although unnecessary. Lefie blasted two into smithereens while Riza’s demon jumped atop the last one, it’s larger, stronger form, pinning it to the ground in submission.

With some prodding, Daven managed to slash it enough times with his blade to kill it, soaking up the experience. Disappointingly, Riza felt no different when that happened–her undead levels functioned independently from herself.

As well as a lack of density of population, there was a lack of levels as well. Greater demons were few and far between and Riza could sense no humanoid demon within her range.

Everything was progressing smoothly. Encounters after encounters were much the same, with the only difference being Riza’s single, strong steed being replaced with multiple, weaker demons.

At level 1, a zombie had 5 stat points. At level 2, it had 10. Double the stat points for double the cost. At three, 15 stat points meant a 50% increase. For each higher level, the increase in strength was proportionally less and less. While the difference between level 11 and level 12 is minute, the difference between 4 level 2’s and 5 level 2’s is greater, was Riza’s reasoning.

Plus, more bodies meant more versatility and greater flexibility regarding their essence requirements, a benefit in the immediate future.

The grouped-up demons would hold down the last hostile demon for Daven to kill and repeating only a handful of times led to Daven’s first natural level up.

Unfortunately, this meant Riza had to cull her flock from seven demons down to five to keep up with the essence requirements.

The tunnels themselves were largely identical. Plain and boring but large and expansive. A network of pathways throughout the underground. Multiple times, they came across what seemed like more access shafts, as Riza termed them, that led upwards, all narrow. None of them were wide enough for a greater demon to get through.

They weren’t all that mysterious, Riza thought. It seemed fairly obvious what their use were; tunnels for beast demons to discreetly ascend to the surface to fight some animals to bring back down to the nest for demon implantation.

One thing she was curious about was whether these tunnels existed in the caldera where she woke up. If so, how close did she come to finding one?

Five more Daven kills later, another culling had to be done.

Entity Manager Excess Essence 0.05 es/sec

Entity Name Skill Level Health Stamina Essence Cost (es/sec) Horse 1 Reanimate 4 200/200 200/200 20/20 1.55 Horse 2 Reanimate 4 200/200 200/200 20/20 1.55 Daven Raise Dead 7 120/120 120/120 61/61 3.47 Sanders Raise Dead 7 100/100 100/100 62/62 3.47 Beast Demon 1 Reanimate 2 120/120 120/120 20/20 0.78 Beast Demon 2 Reanimate 2 120/120 120/120 20/20 0.78 Beast Demon 3 Reanimate 2 120/120 120/120 20/20 0.78 Beast Demon 4 Reanimate 2 120/120 120/120 20/20 0.78

“Nice. Level 7,” Riza said instantly, having kept an eye on her entity manager. “You’re within 15 levels of Lefie, now.”

“I am?”

“He’s not.” Daven and Lefie said simultaneously, Riza looking at one then the other.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve killed a lot of demons.”

Shit.

“What level are you now?” Riza asked, remaining calm. Just a slight hitch in the plan. No biggie.

“23.”

Phew.

“That’s fine. We can work with that. Did you level up recently?” Riza asked.

“The end of the last encounter, actually.”

“That works. You’ve still got a way to go until your next level, then. We’ll just… continue like this, get Daven to level 8 instead.”

Thankfully, nothing prevented Riza’s prophesied plan from coming to fruition, Daven quickly levelling to 8.

Entity Manager Excess Essence 0.66 es/sec

Entity Name Skill Level Health Stamina Essence Cost (es/sec) Horse 1 Reanimate 4 200/200 200/200 20/20 1.55 Horse 2 Reanimate 4 200/200 200/200 20/20 1.55 Daven Raise Dead 8 120/120 120/120 64/64 3.94 Sanders Raise Dead 8 100/100 100/100 65/65 3.94 Beast Demon 1 Reanimate 2 120/120 120/120 20/20 0.78 Beast Demon 2 Reanimate 2 120/120 120/120 20/20 0.78

It was finally time to tackle the big fish.

Daven partied up with Lefie meaning Meren, Sanders, Daven, and Lefie was all in one large party together.

Just to be safe, Riza commanded one of her demons to navigate them back to where they came from. Of course, this wasn’t all the way, as the demon could only remember all the way to where it was raised–the AI implanted in its brain having no problems with navigating by sight or memory unlike everyone else in the group–but that was close enough anyway.

Daven began the arduous crawl upwards back out onto the surface leaving just Riza and Lefie underground once more.

“This feels familiar,” Riza commented, taking a little moment for themselves. She sat down on the dirty ground, back against the wall, just taking in the tunnel. It stank of earthly smells, as well as a mixture of sweat and gore, the scent lingering on their clothes.

“I know it’s wrong but I kind of like it,” Lefie replied, sinking to the floor next to her. “I feel so free compared to Litchendorf. Like I can be who I am.”

“If you want to stay down here, you’re on your own. I’m leaving as soon as I’m done here.”

Lefie chuckled.

“That’s not what I meant,” She sighed, resting her head on Riza’s shoulder. “I dunno. Like, when it started storming, it was like I was suffocating but then you showed up and did what you did and I could breathe again.”

A brief silence.

“I want to do that. Saving people without hiding who I am. I can do that-I’m strong enough to do that.”

“Well…” Riza began, wrapping an arm around Lefie’s shoulders. “That depends on the Dominion. If they’ll let us go.”

“They should! We saved a village and we’ll save more. We aren’t a threat to them!”

Riza gently squeezed, feeling Lefie’s body heat in the chill of the tunnel. She rubbed up and down her arm before pulling away and bursting to a standing position. She held a hand down for Lefie.

“I guess we just have to get stronger. Come on.”

With one arm on the scruff of a demon’s neck like a dog, Riza navigated the pair down the tunnels, through trodden and travelled terrain, battling off a few groups of demons they were unable to avoid until they found the prized catch.

The bunker was chock-filled with demons, multiple hundreds of them, in fact. The Litchendorf crater had around a hundred with a colossal demon and, so far, this hole seemed to have a similar number, judging by how many they’d killed already.

In fact, when Riza was focused on the signals she could feel, they were noticeably few and far between, the population already having taken a significant nosedive. Unless there was a whole other shoal hiding away, they could probably clear out the entire demon nest before the day was up.

The thought sent a shiver through Riza’s body.

However, that wasn’t their main objective; that was what was currently in front of them, and what was behind it as well, they quickly discovered.

The tunnels converged upon this area, the large form a greater demon standing guard at a nexus of tunnels and offshoots.

Wide and long but not that tall with a moleish head and six, strong limbs with spade-like paws, made for digging. Fog billowed and swirled around its mouth, likely from being produced and then orally exhaled.

Riza didn’t know what the difference was between greater demons that made fog and ones that didn’t.

As enticing as this creature was, the carved-out room behind it was the real catch. Dozens of signals lit up from inside, incredibly weak and cramped together.

And one strong, singular signal stood out. Riza’s experience made clear what they had found: the breeding ground, guarded by a greater and humanoid demon.

The tunnels, somehow, were even larger here. Large enough to house the colossal demon, in fact. The ceiling was high and the walls were made of even sterner stuff.

Unfortunately, as tempting a sight it was, once they had found the heart of the nest, the pair had to return. Lefie was running low on essence, in no fit state to take on that threat.

Circling back round to the access shaft they came through, the pair returned to the surface and began the walk back to the wagon.

Were they giving up? Hell no. As soon as they were within distance, Riza shot the group a [Message].

“Kill the horses,” She ordered.

“What? Why?” Sanders replied, wasting his response.

Riza sighed and sent another [Message].

“Just do it. That’s an order.” No complaints this time.

She watched the man untie the zombies from the wagon, leading them a bit of a distance away as they obediently followed his orders, as Riza had programmed them to earlier.

He gave them a few pats and strokes each before taking out his greatsword, holding it in two hands, and carefully measuring his swing.

It took a few hard, heavy hits, the sword digging deeper into the neck each time, before the horses crumpled to the ground.

It was like a weight was lifted off of her shoulders.

Entity Manager Excess Essence 5.32 es/sec

Entity Name Skill Level Health Stamina Essence Cost (es/sec) Daven Raise Dead 8 120/120 120/120 64/64 3.94 Sanders Raise Dead 8 100/100 100/100 65/65 3.94

Much better. I can finally refill Lefie.

Rolling her shoulders, Riza stretched her body as if washing away fatigue.

Meren had noticed the pair by now and was stomping over towards them.

“Uh oh. She looks angry,” Lefie comments.

“What the fuck was that?” Meren shouted once she was near, trudging through the tall grass.

“What was what?”

“The fucking horses!” She said, sounding a bit tired. “Why’d you kill them?” She was finally within a few metres now and stopped walking, looking infuriated.

“They were already dead.”

That gave Meren pause, if only for a few seconds.

“They were still horses. Animals. They’re dead now.” She crossed her arms, not having taken her spear with her.

“They weren’t. They were zombies. They could barely think for themselves.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure. Just like Daven and Sanders? Going to kill them too when they’re too much to handle?”

“No, no. They’re different. The skill I used on the horses is different. It’s like…” Riza began, struggling to think of a comparison that didn’t involve computers, “I put an insect brain into a horse body.”

“So… they’re insects?”

“Basically?” Riza shrugged. “They’re not even alive and can barely think. They feel nothing. They’re machines.”

“Oh,” Meren said, not meeting Riza’s eyes. She turned to look at the horse corpses.

“They’re not horses.” She turned back to face Riza. “But Daven? And Sanders? They’re people?”

“Yes,” Riza nodded. “They’re even alive,” She said.

“So you won’t kill them?”

“Hopefully not. I’m trying to level them up.”

“Oh. Yes. Thank you, for that,” Meren said quietly, looking a bit sheepish to admit it. “Err… I guess I’ll go back.” And she immediately turned around and began stomping back to the wagon, leaving Riza and Lefie alone once more.

A tense breath of air left Riza’s nostrils as the seconds ticked by, waiting for her heartbeat to slow down.

Fuck. That was scarier than being down in the tunnels.

“They weren’t insects before you killed them,” Lefie said quietly, her tone remarkable removed from emotion.

“No, they weren’t. They were still horses.”

“Did you have to kill them?” She said, making eye contact.

“I didn’t know how to control them,” Riza said with a shrug.

“You could’ve learnt.” With that, Lefie turned and began trudging back to the tunnels.

“Sorry about ki-”

“It’s fine. That’s the past,” Lefie interrupted, patiently waiting for Riza to be finished refilling her essence.

She felt tense and wanted to do something about it. She had already descended most of the way once Riza had caught up to her and avoided all mention of the conversation or what had happened. There were demons to kill.

Riza raised one demon for eyes but that was it this time, letting Lefie do all the work. She was happy with that.

In the short amount of time that had passed, the demons had no opportunity to repopulate so the tunnels were eerily empty as they retraced their steps all the way back to the intersection.

There, the greater demon was still standing on guard, not having moved at all.

Using [Meditate] to focus herself for a few seconds, Lefie breathed carefully before stepping out and immediately firing bolt after bolt of lightning at it.

The skill had gotten a lot more complicated since she first got it and she still didn’t fully understand how to get the best use out of it but she had a lot of experience already.

The variables tweaked intuitively as she assessed the distance between them, the bolts charging up with each consecutive bolt the shot from her fingertips, pummelling the skin of the greater demon.

It had little time to react; five seconds later, it was dead.

“Nice. How much essence was that?” Riza whispered from behind, looking at a wall.

“1200.” Such a large number yet not even half of her total essence. She barely even blinked at it.

“I can refill- shit. Big guy’s coming. Back out if you need to and let me deal with him,” Riza said, eyes finally focusing and inclining her head towards the room behind the demon.

Sure enough, not long after, a humanoid demon emerged and it was…female? Lefie couldn’t be certain, the whole body smooth and androgenous, but something about its curves made her suspect so.

Not that it mattered, anyway. As soon as it came into view, she started firing away.

The first couple landed right on target, jostling the demon and dragging its gaze from the corpse of its guards to its assailants.

With its blank slate of a head looking right at Lefie, she froze for a moment, feeling like the thing was making eye contact.

Leaning around the corner, a blast hit its head then its chest twice in succession, pushing it backwards as Lefie adjusted the [Range Compression] on her skill, weakening it slightly.

With the fourth bolt blasting the rocky wall, the demon ducked out of sight, back into the room. An instinctual urge to chase her prey forced Lefie to take a step forward but then, a sudden wall of rock shot up from the ground, shaking the floor she was standing on.

From wall to wall, the entrance to the room was cut off by this abrupt, earthen wall that had appeared from nowhere.

“Shit. Shit shit shit,” Riza said, brushing past Lefie and darting towards the greater demon.

“What? Did she do that?" Lefie said, quickly shaking her head. It definitely did that; she had even encountered humanoid demons with earth skills before.

The question was, why did it hide? She couldn’t ask Riza, the woman engrossed in the raising of the greater demon. Probably to bust down the wall, Lefie thought.

So, left to her own thoughts, she had to work out on her own why the demon cut them off.

She reminded herself of demon priorities. Humanoid demons are valuable and so should preserve themselves even at the expense of hundreds of parasites.

Lack of any response or defences suggests it didn’t know about Riza’s and her presence in its nest until just now.

Therefore, Lefie’s first few strikes were strong enough to scare it into thinking it’d die if it fought them.

And now, it’s probably tunnelling away to safety.

No, not probably…

Lefie's feet began to walk, as if pulled by an invisible string.

She placed her hand upon the wall, as if feeling a heartbeat thumping through the earth. Her fingers traced the cracks in the smoothed-out expanse as she walked slowly along it.

‘There’, she thought, turning around to look back at Riza. ‘It’s digging’.

“It’s getting away,” She called out, feeling sweat drip from her head.

“Of course it is,” Riza grunted, not tearing her eyes, or hands, away from the greater demon. She gripped the skin tensely.

Lefie continued to follow the feeling inside her. The demon wasn’t all that fast compared to her just walking but it was significantly quicker than Dave had been.

“I’m following it!” She shouted at Riza over her shoulder as she clung to the wall.

“Don’t go too far!”

Lefie could handle herself.

Pretty well, in fact, for it took not much walking until she encountered a gang of beast demons, just waiting to be killed.

Four quick bolts of lightning, perfectly adjusted, cleared that issue up pretty quickly and Lefie carried on with her tracking.

She quickly got out of shouting range and even [Message] range of Riza while she stumbled along the wall until finally, finally, the humanoid demon began to turn inwards, tunnelling towards the tunnel Lefie was in.

She took a few quick, hurried steps back as she felt the feeling come closer and closer, until the wall suddenly evaporated like boiled water, the full form of the humanoid demon emerging.

Prepared for such close quarters, the virulent energy of [Lightning Bolt] was contained within just a few strides. Right from her fingertips, two bolts larger than anything she had conjured before arced from her hand, hitting the demon square in the chest.

They contained such power that they both penetrated the body, puncturing a hole and then blasting right back out the other side, colliding with the rocky wall behind it and creating a massive crack inches deep.

The demon instantly fell to the ground.

Level up!

You have gained 5 stat points and 1 skill point.

“Woah.”

It felt like the tunnels ran for miles. Mary, their newly raised demon, pointed out any dead ends and confirmed the lack of any other parasite hives but the tunnels themselves were endless.

Massive in size and scope, their function was intimidating. If they were truly endless, that meant a labyrinthian collection of underground pathways ran throughout the entire island, connecting every pocket of demons together. That meant the bunker, Litchendorf, and even here. All connected.

Of course, maybe that wasn’t the case and Mary merely struggled with the complexities of large numbers but who was to say.

What they could say was, this little pocket of activity was thoroughly subdued. All beast demons were gone as well as all the parasites.

Mary was quite weak, only level 21, and coupled with having a single greater demon as a guard, one hive, and not even located near a village, it seemed this place served a different purpose to the Litchendorf crater.

All was just in time, as well. Lefie had reached level 24 so was unable to level the group while in a party together. Without that, Riza was half tempted to search for a higher level humanoid demon to finally increase the cap to 25 but she knew that’d be silly.

So, after a fair bit of time searching, they finally killed Mary for good and returned to aboveground, finding the wagon stationed in the wood and the trio guarding the place lazily.

“Back for good this time?” Meren asked, noticing their appearance.

“No more demons down there. We’re good to go,” Riza replied before taking a moment to look up, seeing the darkening sky ahead. “Maybe it’s time to settle in for the night.”

“Fuckin’ finally,” Daven moaned. “My feet have been killing me. I still think you should put my stat points in power,” He complained.

“The more you complain, the more that goes into spirit.”

“They’d be going into spirit anyway. The least I can do is annoy you.”

Dinner was a rather boring affair; all it constituted was Riza going round to everyone and using [Heal] to instil them with whatever nutrients, minerals, energy, or whatever else they needed. It wasn’t tasty nor enjoyable but finding enough food to feed five adults would be quite a task.

After that, while waiting for night to fall proper and for people to get some sleep, Daven and Sanders hung out with Meren while Lefie kept close to Riza, often refusing to let her go for ‘body heat’.

A collection of critters stood guard, ordered to wake Riza up if anything happened.

Happily, the night was calm and peaceful.

Once they awoke, the group got to work pulling the wagon back onto the pummelled bit of path. With the horses reanimated, they were off.

Their destination was the next village over. Apparently, a village nearby suffered the same thing that Litchendorf did–a demon infestation–and it was that village that Riza was interested in getting to.

Even though horse-drawn wagons sure beat walking, they weren’t exactly swift, especially when compared to modern automobiles. What that did mean though was plenty of time to train skills.

Lefie, Daven, and Sanders all managed to raise [Meditate] to level 10 and purchased the upgraded version of it, barring them from smelling anything ever again.

Lefie played around with [Message] levelling that up and consequently increasing its range. At level 10, it had a 50 metre range. With seeker mastery, that was 150 metres, beating Riza’s 100 metres. In the grand scope of effective ranges, however, it still fell short of ideal.

As night on the second day began to fall, the horses trudged on and out, on the horizon, stood a small smattering of buildings.

Urging the horses closer, details could begin to be made out. A single building, the largest of the bunch, stood two stories tall and was quite wide. The rest were effectively shacks, single story and likely only a room or two.

Trees dotted around the area, large and intimidating and seemed to be overtaking the structures.

The further they got, the more desperate the image became.

Wooden sticks were half broken or destroyed and lined the area in a circle, like a primitive wall. They offered barely any defence in their current state. Moss, leaves, plants, all grew along the walls of the buildings, half given over to foliage.

They rode the horses in through the perimeter fence, seeing blood staining the ground and the walls but no corpses.

“I-I’ve never heard about this,” Meren said, slightly in shock. “What about you two?”

“Me neither,” and “No,” Were the comments from Daven and Sanders respectively.

“What is this?” Riza asked, not even needing to hitch up the horses. She had hoped down and walked over to a pile of blood, splashing the foundation of the large building. It was dark, dry, and faint. You could probably mistake it for something else at a distance.

“An inn. They’re all over the place but I didn’t realise we had one quite so close by.”

“Did you ever leave your village?” Riza asked Meren, getting a ‘not really’ in return.

Wow. Travelling just seems so normal to me.

Sanders walked over to one of the shacks while Daven prodded open the doors to what must’ve been the inn cautiously.

“Empty,” He called out before taking a step inside.

“Go with Sanders,” Riza advised Lefie before hurrying to follow Daven.

The building stood out like a sore-thumb. Up close, she could see large, competent brickwork making up the foundation and ground floor of the building. They didn’t seem to be carved by hand and used some sort of filling material between bricks. Maybe cement, but Riza didn’t know much about construction.

The bricks were identical and large and sturdy, with only a few chips taken off here and there. The doors were heavy and probably made from wood but seemed more like a composite material; it wasn’t like the vast majority of houses Riza had seen, where you could make out the individual planks. In fact, it looked fairly modern and minimalist.

The lock on it, however, was crude and entirely metal, likely iron. It was big and thick and lacked the modern competencies and intricacies that made up the locks that Riza knew.

The first floor, however, felt much more fitting in with the world. The wood wasn’t that old and was still in decent condition, barring the greenery. It was clearly all sawn and constructed by hand, and she could even see someone nailing each piece into place herself.

Most of it was covered in some sort of plaster or covering with parts having fallen off, revealing the wood underneath. It reminded her of replicas, medieval houses she recalled seeing many years ago.

She decided to head inside.

It was a similar story there. Apart from the conspicuous patches of blood, the ground floor was surprisingly sleek and modern, although with a few repair jobs that clearly highlighted the difference in technologies used.

The first floor was much like all the other houses she had been in. Tattered rugs were placed on the wooden floorboard to cushion the place, and multiple rooms were separated by nothing more than a few pieces of wood. It wasn’t much insulation but the exterior walls fought off a lot of the chill of the evening air. It was nice.

Reports from Sanders and Lefie were that the rest of the buildings were a collection of stores, storage rooms, and one stables, all of similar construction to the first floor of the inn.

This seemed like a good place to settle in for the night. It didn’t take long for a small fire to start burning in the inn, bathing the ground floor in a warm, orange glow. The group huddled around it, soaking in the heat.

Riza began to reflect. They had made good progress that day. For Sanders and Daven, [Well of Spirit] level 5 for both of them.

As for Riza, she kept calling her critters to her, implanting parasites whenever she could. She had lost quite a few to the colossal demon and this was a good chance to begin restocking them.

This resulted in the skill finally reaching level 10 as well.

With [Raise Dead] also reaching level 10 that left just two more skills she needed to level: [Essential Leech] and [Essence Monarch]. The former she was grinding by commanding her critters, mainly birds, to hunt down and pick up living animals and bring them to her, so she could leech them and kill them.

Unsurprisingly, for such a powerful skill, she only levelled it up once, bringing it to level 7.

Since she purchased [Essence Monarch], she had managed to level it up all the way to level 3 right as she was about to fall asleep.

The group separated into different rooms on the first floor of the inn, with only Riza and Lefie bunking together. The beds were good enough, certainly better than the cold, hard ground, but paled in comparison to those in the bunker.

With that last, hazy thought drifting through her head, sleep finally took over.