Who is this person Geistig was referring to, and what do they have to do with Tishina? Geistig left without explaining further, leaving me no way to find out.

Oh well. I already decided to move forward. This changes nothing. I turned towards the barricade, transformed into the Spiderilla, and started walking, stumbling over a mound I couldn’t see. It was soft and furry and wet, but reeked of iron.

I phased out and lit a torch I had the foresight to purchase after the oil toad fiasco, revealing a pile of monster corpses. Good, If I have to explore a labyrinth, I’m going to need a lot more backup monster forms.

I phased one into my subspace, but a thought occurred before taking the rest. Someone else should have already claimed these corpses. Most of the adventurers here could surely have stored and sold them. Then again, this was an emergency quest. Maybe some of them didn’t have time to grab their packs? No, only a fool would join a raid unprepared.

I closed my eyes, activated Rhannu’s mana detection, and looked over the terrarium I added the monster to. The body laid there, still and lifeless.

Ah, that makes more sense. The monster corpses themselves didn’t have enough value to take, only the mana. Someone already stripped out their mana, leaving the corpse pile here.

Though, what was more interesting now that I look at it, is their lack of shadows. Perhaps this is Tishina’s doing? What exactly did she get from her rank up?

I continued on, making note of just how many of these monster corpses lacked shadows. There were… Hundreds. It couldn’t have been Tishina. No D rank could have done this.

Then again, I exist, and Geistig was hinting that my powers were connected to her somehow. Perhaps she’s been hiding her strength as well?

I arrived at the barricade, and placed my giant furry palm upon the mana analyzer in front of the translucent blue barrier, then passed through into the labyrinth. I wonder how it can tell the difference between a blue mage in monster form, and just a regular monster? The intricacies of mana are still far beyond my comprehension.

I held the torch in front of me, lighting the darkness of the cave, and walked forward. Perhaps a form with better night vision or sense of smell would be a wiser choice, but nothing had quite the same immediate stopping power as a force aligned. Besides, the trail of shadowless dead led the way far better than eyes or scent could.

Or, at least that was the hope. About twenty minutes into the trail, the trail of bodies went cold, and the path diverged in two.

I smooshed and twisted the torch against the stone ground, smothering its flame out, then shifted into the Ostean Giant Flytrap, and tried to use its sense of smell to locate her.

I caught a faint whiff down the left path, and prepared to shift back, but forgot to withhold my mana from my scent. It wafted into the room in the path before me, and surrounded some creature before I had the time to revert.

It crawled down from the ceiling, past thick threads hanging around the room, and headed straight for me.

Crap, it’s a Spiderilla.

I quickly cut off the mana to my scent, and phased out a strand of the D rank Spiderilla’s webbing across the narrow cavern hallway, then retreated backwards and a few feet down the other path, hiding behind the corner. I kept my mana detection on my scent, giving me vague glimpses at the spiderilla’s movements.

The Spiderilla walked into the web, then angrily tore it off itself and held it in front of its face, inspecting it. It tilted its head, then scratched at its temple. It looked down at the web, then up towards the opposite end of the cave, squinting into the darkness. It closed its eyes with its palm against the webbing, then recoiled with a high pitched screech. It backed up, its fear of trespassing on a higher rank Spiderilla’s territory outweighing the enticement of my scent.

That was a close one. I mimicked the action of wiping sweat off my brow by dragging one of my roots across my head.

Why is that Spiderilla still alive? Tishina definitely went down that path. She’s not weak enough to have fallen to it, unless she suddenly ran out of mana. Did she sneak past? If so, then that makes this trip a lot harder.

I can sneak past as well, but not with any form good at smelling as well. If I try shifting back and forth without clearing an area, I’ll risk myself getting detected and caught between two still-living monsters. I don't have many forms with a strong enough sense of smell to track her down, so I can’t risk their deaths. I also need more spare monster forms, and I’ll need to periodically regenerate mana.

In that case, the best course of action is fighting my way down to Tishina… It’s going to be a long trip.

I transformed into the D rank Oil toad, whose night vision was far better at navigating these caves than the Spiderilla’s, and hopped towards the Spiderilla’s den opening.

It looked in my direction, but didn’t move, waiting for me to run into its webbing so it could properly see me. Unfortunately for it, I won’t be giving it that chance.

I couldn’t reach the Spiderilla itself from where I was, so instead spat out globs of tar-spit on several strands of webbing all around the room, then set them alight by bashing my claws together.

The spiderilla howled at me, my form now revealed by the firelight. It crawled along its nest towards me, ripped one of the burning strands of its webbing off the wall, then lashed the fiery whip in my direction.

I jumped over the strike, digging my claws into the ceiling, then spat out another glob along its whip. The fire quickly disintegrated the whip where the tar touched, slowly spreading across uncovered portions.

The Spiderilla dropped the burning web and produced more from its rear, attached it to the ceiling, and slowly descended. I lashed my tongue at it, which it dodged by shifting its weight and swinging itself horizontally.

When it got about halfway down, it suddenly yanked at its own webbing, dislodging it from the ceiling, then whipping it at me. I dropped from the ceiling, and the web attached to where I just was.

The Spiderilla pulled again, this time putting enough mana into it to keep it attached to the ceiling, and rapidly yanked itself towards me, winding up for a punch with its other arm.

I hopped back as it slammed into the ground before me hand-first. It clenched onto the stone ground, digging its fingers into the rock, then again catapulted itself at me before I returned to the ground, punching out at me.

I lashed my tongue out towards the side of the cave just past it, then pulled, raking my claws against its side as I passed.

The spiderilla turned, smacking me against the wall with its abdomen, then spurted out a net of webbing around me, trapping me against the wall.

My claws couldn’t reach the webbing, so I couldn’t free myself before the Spiderilla turned and wound up for one last punch.

Instead, I smacked two fingers together, showering me with sparks and setting me ablaze. The spiderilla stepped back, aghast at my suicidal action, then howled and beat its chest in triumph.

I held my breath and concentrated as the flames ate away at me, feeling for my oil mana. The moment I felt it, I released it all in an instantaneous, unstable burst, splattering the area Spiderilla with burning tar.

The Spiderilla flailed wildly, punching at the air to fend off an enemy it could not see through the flames.

With no mana left, I extended my tongue, wrapping it around the spiderilla’s arm as it pulled it back. Using the Spiderilla’s force, I was suddenly hauled towards it. Just as I passed the spiderilla, I dug my hind claw into its shoulder, turning the force to angular momentum, which rounded me right onto its back. Using both clawed front hands, I dug my claws into its neck, pulled out a chunk of flesh, then kicked and backflipped off it.

As it clutched at its open neck, the flames caught me once more, so I shoved its neck-meat into my mouth, and used the mana it gave to phase dirt out above me, smothering the flames.

The spiderilla’s flailing slowed, and it dropped to the ground, dead. I waited for the flames to die out, then cut its body into chunks, and ate the meat cubes, popping them into my mouth one at a time until my mana was sufficiently filled, then phasing in the rest.

“Thank you for the food.” I belched out, then continued on past the still-burning spider nest.

“Pitiful”, a voice within me echoed back.