“Wow!” Kayle was left breathless after she delved a bit into the mines. “This place is so beautiful!”

If Kayle wasn’t this young, Adrian couldn’t have resisted doing a ‘but you are more beautiful’ joke. The classics never die. “Those rocks are toxic.” But that didn’t stop Adrian with his jokes when he saw Kayle’s hand approaching the light crystals.

“For real?” She quickly removed her hand.

“Nah, how I would know it? Do you think I poisoned myself?” Adrian told with a rhetorical question, but Kayle’s face was telling him ‘yes, you would’. Adrian was hurt a bit by her expression. Nothing his cold dark heart could solve. “You can touch then if you will. I will take no responsibility.”

“No, thanks.” Kayle responded as the group started moving again.

Kayle’s words contained truth. The cave was, in fact, a fascinating place. Light green moss that emitted a soft and lustrous light, and those crystals that converged that lustrous into a dense beam. Adrian was sure there were sites like this on Earth, but he never left the city. He thought that water dropping from the ceiling or some pond would make this sight even more incredible. Crystalline water reflecting the light on its little drops. Mesmerizing, perhaps. But in the end, it would only difficult even more his vision.

The party’s pace was constant and fast. After killing so many mantises and now being in formation, they doubted that an ambush would surprise them. There shouldn’t be many enemies left then. It also made things easier that Adrian casted [Time Dilation II], giving a small boost, but considerable in the long run.

Aby’s only condition to enter the cave together was that Adrian wasn’t on the lead. Maybe he was faster and had a higher level than them, now two levels higher than Mike, Aby, and Kayle; but he was hurt. Axel took the vanguard’s position as it seemed the most logical solution. Even then, Adrian was right behind Axel, as he was still being a melee attacker.

Not only Adrian, but the whole party asked themselves how long this lair was. Adrian’s [Time Dilation II] had already worn off when they reached the T-intersection and he hadn’t casted it again as it thought it would be dangerous to find mantises with his mental power pool empty. That made Adrian question the Record again. How big was someone’s resource pools? They had no statistics that showed them their resources. Nor health for that matter, even if Axel had a [Skill] that made him receive less damage at critical health. What was considered critical health? Having a foot in the grave? Adrian wasn’t molested because he got hit but having so many questions was destroying him.

“I heard something.” Aby said out of nowhere.

“Me too.” Kayle added.

“Huh? I did not hear anything.” Adrian told them.

“Me neither,” Mike spoke. “How weird… Did you hear anything?” He asked Axel and Mike, they shook their heads in negation.

“Are you telling me that [Procesa] makes your hearing better?” Adrian asked after thinking what the two had in common apart of being women.

“Shh” Aby put a finger in front of her mouth. “Let me listen to.” Aby positioned her hands behind her hears. Trying to listen closely to the sound from beyond. “Clicks.” She said.

Mike and Dale readied their weapons. They were prepared to take advantage of the distance.

“How many?” Adrian whispered to Aby, recalling the moment he had listened to the steps of the monsters. He ignored the part when that strategy failed.

“I don’t know.” She answered, still listening.

“Get to the walls,” Adrian whispered to the party, then grabbed Aby with his right arm and moved her with him to the left wall along Mike. “You can still listen to hear.”

The sounds became louder, not by much, but a detectable augment. Adrian was now able to listen in the steps of the monsters. Taking in question the period between the movement of the feet of a single mantis, he noticed one thing.

‘Those motherfuckers are walking at the same rate!’ Adrian was indignant, but he theorized it could be something instinctual and not a premeditated move by the [Archimantis Homicida]. The echo on the cave was enough to confuse Adrian’s senses to think that there were multiple mantises walking at different rhythms, and not a single group at unison. As the steps got closer, Adrian made a gesture with his right hand to Dale and Mike to rain hell upon the monsters.

Dale shot darts one after another, as he was some sort of primitive machine gun; while Mike casted three [Foul Shot] that became six arrows flying across the tunnel.

After the pair of ranged attackers stopped shooting, Adrian talked to Aby. “Do you hear any mantis remaining alive?”

She waited a second before responding. “I do not.”

“Neat.” Dale called out. “I got a class!”

“Good job.” Adrian congratulated him. “What did you choose?” He still peeked at the tunnel just in case.

“Slow a bit, cowboy. I am still reading.” Adrian didn’t catch Dale’s joke, but he waited. “Oh ho, this is dope,” Dale said to himself. “I already choose, [Rare] class Ad Fortunis.”

“Huh, another Latin name class.” Mike commented.

“What does it mean?” Axel asked the archer.

“I’m not versed in Latin, but I think it says ‘fortune’.” Mike told with some doubt on his tone.

“Just fortune?” Kayle asked.

“I guess?” Mike was less sure about his own words. “It may not even mean anything. Just like the [Stats]. I mean, words like [Destretza] or [Celeratio] doesn’t exist.”

“Yeah, yeah. Stop with the Latin chit-chat. It’s time to talk about my class.” Dale said happily. “It’s a banger. No growth boost but jeez… [Fortuna] can now do random damage that scales upwards. I also gained the [Skill] called [Tombola]. It substitutes the [Skill] that I obtained with my blowgun, but now every attack that I consume extra stamina OR-" he remarked the preposition "-mental power has a chance to apply any debuff.”

“You are a fucking walking casino-“ Adrian said as he heard a shriek coming from the tunnel.