For the most part, reaching the surface was a simple task. Just make a tunnel in an upwards spiral with a shallow enough angle for the others to walk up, and we should get there in a few hours. The Petra Vermis the goblins kept were particularly large, likely having been in the village for generations, making them more than big enough to make a tunnel large enough for the others to follow behind me in a single pass.

That being said, a normal Petra Vermis wouldn’t be able to dig for this long of a duration without having to stop to digest, or spit out the rocks it had eaten, which would block the others from following me. Thankfully, since my subspace is connected to my digestive system, such an issue won’t occur, significantly speeding our travel.

Now that I think about it, this will be a huge help with gathering dirt for the farm in the future. Getting enough dirt to make a ground layer for all of my terrariums should only take a few hours, and won’t cost me anything with this form. Without it, it would have taken weeks to fill out the farms.

Or maybe not. The ancients somehow managed to bring that whole cave into my subspace in whatever time I was unconscious. How’d they manage that, anyways?

We’re going to need a long chat, once this is all over. Hopefully I can get them to answer a bit less cryptically next time.

As I was thinking, I bit into the rock ahead of me, and it began to crumble and fall around me, signaling I had entered into an open area.

I slithered into the room, unblocking the entrance I had made so the others could move in.

Normally, this would be the part where I, as the front of the party, check what’s in the room for danger, but the Petra Vermis has one major weakness: Its inability to see, and its complete lack of mana-sensory range. The only way it can really detect its surroundings is by feeling vibrations on its skin, which was rather impractical for combat.

This made my screw-up apparent to me immediately, as I felt a vibration coming from the opposite side of me from the party.

I spent a short time transforming to Spiderilla form to try to prepare for combat, but by then it was already over.

One of the adventurers was wreathed in flames, shedding light throughout the small cave. They weren’t hurting, of course. They were just fire-aligned, and the flames were their aura.

I looked around for any danger, but none was apparent. There was nothing in the cave at all, or so I thought.

The warrior stopped fueling his aura, then the mage signaled to me to transform. I obliged, becoming a goblin.

“What was that?” I asked.

“See for yourself.” The mage said, pointing to the ground.

“Uh, what are you pointing at? There’s nothing there.”

“The rocks.”

“Yes, the whole cave is made of rocks.”

“I mean the elementals, obviously.”

I squinted my eyes, trying to see what he was talking about. It took me a few seconds, but I did eventually notice that one of the rocks were darker than the rest of the cave. “A rock elemental?”

“There were a few there, most of them being earth elementals, but the big one was a rock elemental.”

“Cool, I’ve never seen any earth elementals before, besides a few golems back on the ranch. Though, I guess I didn’t actually see these ones, either.”

“Sorry, I would’ve saved one for you had I known.”

“Nah, your safety is more important. You want to take their corpses back with us? They should sell for a bit.”

“Unfortunately, the goblins took all of our equipment, so we don’t have any storage with us.”

“Mind if I take them, then?”

“Knock yourself out.”

I guess I will get to see some normal elementals after all. I went over to the elemental remains, and phased them each into my subspace. By the time I got to the last one, I felt a fullness in my core, making me almost want to throw up. I’d been feeling it since the goblin village, but it's been getting worse recently.

“Can we rest a minute? I’m feeling a bit sick.”

“Sure, we can rest. What’s bothering you?”

“My stomach, I think… Well, most of my body really. Even my mana feels like it’s almost boiling.”

A smile plastered itself on the mage’s face, spreading to the other adventurers.

“What’s up? Why are you three smiling?”

“You should have realized when you said ‘boiling mana’. Congratulations on reaching your bottleneck!”

“My wha—”

“So what rank are you getting to? C? Are we getting a new B rank in Aurelia?”

“What? No, I’m just E rank.”

The mage tilted his head. “What are you talking about? How could you only be E rank? You took on an entire goblin village, and a C rank hobgoblin, and survived.”

Ah crap, I said too much. How do I change the subject? I can’t let anyone know… Ah, screw it. Kaz had the right idea. Secrets are too much hassle. Besides, if there’s some powerful “master” behind my existence, they can deal with the fallout.

“Who said I survived?” I said, a little less jokingly than last time.

The mage’s mouth gaped open as they started to comprehend what I said. One of the warriors behind him placed their hand on his chin and closed it.

“I figured as much.” The warrior said. “Hard to hide your rank from a warrior, and as my companion here was alluding to, there aren’t many ways for you to have survived at your rank.”

Yeah, that figures. I’m no good at secrets, so of course they already knew. “Anyways, you mentioned ranking up. How do I go about that?”

They spent a few minutes explaining the process. It’s apparently rather simple from E to D. Just go to a place with dense mana of your alignment, empty yourself of your own mana, then crystalize a portion of the surrounding mana inside yourself. Your body will instinctively react to the new density of mana, and start producing more from nothing. There are a few mana pools built in Aurelia specifically for this, if you need, but you may need to set aside a week or two, as the process can be debilitating.

“A week or two? Then how did Tishina manage to get back up and fight right after she ranked up?”

“Wasn’t Tishina that elf girl who followed the dwarf on the emergency teleport pad? I didn’t see her rank up, but if I had to guess, she had some outside help managing the side-effects. Regardless of her immediate reaction, she’d still need to rest soon after.”

I suppose that explains why she doesn’t seem to have moved from where she is since she came to the labyrinth.

“Anyways, We’ve rested long enough. We should get moving before the labyrinth starts moving again.” The warrior said. “I think we’re close enough to the surface to start looking for the exit. Sylas?”

“Yeah, let’s get moving…”