I heard a distinct crumbling sound as I lay on the ground, my gripped on my dagger remained constantly rigid. The plants being continuously swayed by the winds offered a calming scene on my anxious heart, although barely.

I don’t hear them anymore. Are they gone?

I took a peek, showing a bit of my head out in the open. As I took a look, I considered going back to the tunnel and checking out if the others made it out unharmed but the rubbles from the collapsed tunnel prevented me to do so. Darn these monsters, the crumbling sound must have been their doings.

I bit my lip, the pain didn’t compare to my worries. I hope Risa’s all right. I hope all of them are all right. Guess I have to find another way up to the fifth floor.

The sixth floor was vast. As I advanced deeper through the open field, repeatedly hiding at the innards of the tall plants, I gazed at the tunnels living on the sixth floor. Each one of the tunnels varied from one another. There were tunnels that was guarded, others weren’t. Some small, some huge. Some had lights, others devoured by the darkness. But what truly caught my eyes were the huge tunnels. These tunnels couldn’t be dug by a normal kasak or any kasak, for that matter.

I hope I’ll never see what dug these tunnels.

As I still wandered the field, dodging patrols and hiding from kasaks, I saw kasaks pushing carts in and out on one of the tunnels. This tunnel was also a huge one and from the looks of it, they put in the effort to make it well-lit and heavily guarded.

They’re taking it out…Does that mean that’s a way to the fifth floor? But how do I get in? And that’s a monster not to be messed around.

Two undead knights guarded the entrance. The last time I fought this monster, I had to use what Risa gave me and with two of them, I decided to find another path, the risk outweighs the benefits. Besides, I had no idea what was on the other side, too many factors to consider.

No wonder this place is hardly mapped. There are too many tunnels and monsters to consider.

As I still continued to look for a way up to the fifth floor, I came across a hole in the ground. The hole, compared to the tunnels, looked a bit smaller but it might be around four meters in diameter, Takana could easily fit in it while placing more people wouldn’t be such a hassle. I threw a rock in it because it seemed this hole made darkness as its best friend, though it wasn’t a disadvantage for me, darkness and I had a bit of history together. When the rock fell in the hole, it rolled down instead of falling as the hole was slanted.

Did the monsters dig a seventh floor? I’ve never seen or heard the guild mention information about a seventh floor. Should I go down and explore it?

After hearing absolutely nothing except for the occasional whistles of the wind, I readied myself and went down the hole. I slide down the slanted hole, thanking it was slanted enough for me to slide down. One of the reasons why we came down to the sixth floor was to find any information proving helpful to the guild. No matter how we looked, we were still part of the guild. We had to do our part as others did theirs. Excluding the fact my bottom hurt a bit as I slide down, I’d be in and out as fast as I could. No pressure at all.

“That hurts…” After about twenty seconds of sliding down, thinking what horrors would be waiting for me, I finally arrived at the end of the hole. It took a second but my eyes adjusted to the utter void of the place, although my visibility only reached a certain part of this place, I couldn’t see the whole picture.

I moved around the sides, my hands against the wall. The air was breathable and the ground didn’t differ much from the other places I’d been walking on.

If they did dig another floor, shouldn’t it be lighted? Where are the torches, the sound of clanking and the annoying faces of kasaks?

I tried to walk to the center of this place. I still didn’t hear or see anything out of the blue. Maybe this was just a random hole.

Guess I should go back. What a waste of time.

I turned around then heard a crackling sound underneath my feet, frightening me like a stray cat in a street. The sound immediately made me step back and readied my dagger. Being alone in the dark could make a person extremely sensitive to its surrounding.

What is this? It looks like a…shell of an egg…

The darkness limited my vision, yes, but the egg looked the same size as my torso. The egg, from top, had a silver color and from the bottom, it was a dim red. I casted aside my worries and tried to look for other similarly-looking shells. Sure enough, I found not a few but a group of them.

As I furrowed my brows looking at the strange egg, another unexpected event occurred, the worries in my mind sent shivers down my spine, turning my head at the source of the sound. A short whiff of air.

I quietly went to the source. I felt the sweat on my furrowed brows down to my jaws as I held my dagger as tightly as I could. With every step I took, the sound I made could give me a heart attack.

Before I could move here, I already had an idea what caused the sound. When I finally saw it, knowing what it could be, I still froze for a moment. While the monster absolutely terrified me, the immense bones, torn silk and leathers and the faint rotten smell of flesh lingered around the monsters almost made me threw up.

A Mother Slane…

I’d seen monsters in front of my face. I’d seen monsters aiming their weapons at me and swinging them at me. You’d thought after all those experiences, I’d be able to think properly and act swiftly but instead, here I was, in front of a monster, twice as big as me, still frozen.

I slowly backed away, carefully looking everything in my path, evading those noisy crackling-maker eggs shells. I made it to the entrance of the hole without making any heavy sounds. Since there was no other way to go up, I arduously climbed the hole, my hands dirty and messy.

When I made it back up, I took a deep breath and calmed myself, the breeze helping me a lot. The rising feeling from my stomach ceased and I could think much clearer.

I’m finally out of there…

But it seemed my bad luck had just begun.

“So,” footsteps rang in front of me. “What did you see in there?” as I looked, I saw two men, smiling as if they had a great catch. I readied my dagger.

“Come on, don’t be like that.” one of the men put his arm on my shoulder. “We’re all friends here, right?”

Guess I have to play along.

“Sorry…just surprised, that’s all.”

“You sure looked shaken,” he looked all over me. “Mind telling us what happened there?”

It’s not like I’d lose anything if I tell them.

I told them everything about the hole, from the scattered eggs of the Mother Slane to the Mother Slane itself. I believed they stopped listening the second I mentioned the eggs of the Mother Slane.

Both of them looked at each other, their smiles up to their ears.

“It was worth camping here, Zori.” He said to Zori, who had a bow and quiver full of arrows on his back.

“Yeah, you ready to get those eggs, Sill?” Zori said to Sill. Sill had a sword.

“Wait a minute,” I put my hand up. “You’re not thinking of going there, right?”

“Of course, we are,” Zori said, stretching his body. “We’ve been waiting here for days, you know.”

“Yeah, yeah!” Sill backed him up. “Many wanderers entered there and you’re the first one to return, so we really didn’t know what was in there until you showed up.”

“You mean to tell me…you never warn them?”

“Huh? Why would we?” Zori’s face turned into a scowl, prompting me to think if telling it to them was a mistake.

“Every wanderers for themselves, right, Zori?” Zori nodded. With that, they began to enter the hole.

Damn, I should have not told them. I don’t want them dying because of me.

“I’ll come with you. I know every inch of that place.” With a heavy sigh, I reluctantly offer myself to be their guide. I knew I had to find my party but I just couldn’t let them be in danger because of me. Sometimes, guilt could be an annoying part of us.

“Hmmm,” Zori looked at me sharply, his narrowed eyes felt like they were crushing me. “Okay. It’s not like we can carry all the eggs, anyway.”

One by one, we entered the slanted hole. Here we go again.

As we got to the bottom of the slanted hole, I immediately told them to be extremely quiet. After that, Zori took out a lamp on his bag.

“No lights.” I stopped him from lighting it.

“What do you mean ‘no lights’? How will we see what’s in front of us?”

“I don’t know if the Mother Slane will notice the light. Do you want to die before we could make it to the eggs?”

“Fine,” he reluctantly agreed. Really reminded me of Takana. “So how will we go there?”

“Form a straight line and hold my clothes. If I say stop, you stop, okay?” they agreed.

Zori held my clothes while Sill held Zori’s as we venture to where the eggs were. When we made it there, I led them to where the eggs were. As they saw the eggs, the eggs essentially turned into money in front of them. They looked absolutely blissful as they touched and examined the eggs. Seeing them act like that made me question why did I even helped them. Too late for that, I guess.

They started putting the eggs on their bag. What am I even doing here? This is so pointless.

“Hey, idiot, be careful with that,”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s just a small crack, nothing to be worry —“

Suddenly, I heard the sound of something squirting. Before I could even turn my head, I momentarily saw Sill’s dazed face turned aghast as he got taken away into the depth of the darkness, wrapped in a red, thick, web-like strand.

It’s awake!

“H-Help me!” Sill spoke his last words as the overly familiar shriek of pain interweaved with the sound of the Mother Slane munching on his body, the grotesque sound of blood gushing forth unwelcomingly ran to my ears.

Zori quickly packed his bag and made a run for it. I thought about helping Sill but the fleeting thought vanished as my body decided to run, probably because Sill’s shriek stopped. We made it to the entrance of the hole but not without any problems.

“W-What!? Hey! Cut it fast!”

Another sound of squirt occurred and as fast as the sound made its way into my ears, Zori got enveloped by the same strand. But this time, I tried to sever the strand. My dagger only severed halfway through the strand. I watched in horror as another wanderer got pulled into his death.

Should I use Shakna’s power here? No, it’s too taxing. If I got tired because of it, I will die.

While the Mother Slane munched on Zori, I used that opportunity to go to the hole and climbed up. I climbed and climbed and climbed, I only thought of climbing. When I climbed out of the hole, I bumped into someone, making me realize I was already out of the hole.

“Terrin!” the mixed sound of my party’s voices lifted the worries I had and threw it in the hole, never to be seen again.

“Terrin,” before I could even tell them what was happening, Merry hurriedly went to me, slid her arm to my back and the other to the back of my head. “I was so worried.” Her voice weak and I felt her hands shook as she embraced me.

As if not wanting to lose, Risa stepped in and also gave me a hug. “I told her you wouldn’t die from something like this.”

“Yeah!” Takana protested, veins nearly popped on his head. “Remember the place where they bring the minerals earlier? She went on a suicide mission by killing them all! She didn’t even think about us! What a selfish woman.”

“Takana’s overreacting but it was a surprise seeing Merry act like that,” Fuyuki said.

“I’ll apologize to them later…” Merry, still hugging me, said in a quiet manner.

“She did most of the hard work and she kept us safe, so there’s really no reason to apologize, Merry.” Kihana smiled at her.

“Fiss and I agreed.” Elird had blood here and there while Fiss panted. They must have helped Merry and considering they weren’t wanderers, I was amazed they could keep up with her. “So what happened to you?”

As if waiting for that very question, the cry of the Mother Slane echoed from the hole.

“What the hell was that!?” Takana prepared himself.

“That’s a…Mother Slane.”

“A Mother Slane!? What the heck were you doing here!?”

“I’ll explain it later. For now, we need to run.”

A Mother Slane was, exactly like its name, the mother of all Slanes. The guild had put a rather high bounty on them and it was believed that they were the strongest monster in the mountains. Not one but many Mother Slane lived in the mountains.

“We shouldn’t have saved you if we’re also going to die!” Takana complained.

Kihana lightly smacked Takana with her staff. “Don’t say something like that!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

As we ran, the Mother Slane went out of the hole and showed itself. Its cry attracted most of the kasaks patrolling the area.

“We need to get out of here fast,” I looked towards Merry, who was carrying Risa on her back. “Lead the way, Merry!”

Merry nodded. We ran for our lives. Though, it wouldn’t be that easy. In front of us, there was a blockade, five kasaks and two undead knights while behind, the Mother Slane chasing menacingly.

“Takana, ram through them!”

“Got it!” Takana readied his shield as he went up front while I stayed behind. “It’s jumping, it’s jumping, it’s jumping!” Takana caught sight of the Mother Slane. He panicked and blurted the same words many times. I turned around and seeing a menacing monster jumping towards you, panicking was natural reaction.

I’m going to die.

The monster landed near us and as it landed, the ground broke, causing the Mother Slane and I to fall on the unexpected pit.

*

“Terrin!”

I blacked out a bit, hearing a familiar voice calling my name.

That hurts…

After a few seconds, I regained my ability to think properly. We fell in the pit and nothing cushioned my fall, leaving me with nothing but pain in my body and a bit of dust in my hair. Thankfully, I could still move.

I looked up, the light coming from the gigantic crystal momentarily burned my eyes but I adjusted to it. The pit was relatively deep but I could climb out of it. But two problems stopped me from doing so. First, I needed equipments from climbing or enough time to climb with my hands. If Merry would help me climb, I wouldn’t need equipments. Second, the Mother Slane.

“Terrin!”

That’s Merry’s voice.

“Merry!” I shouted as loud as I could. “I’m fine!”

For a moment, there was no reply. “I’m coming down!”

“No! You have to stay there and protect Risa and the others! I’ll be fine!”

Again, I waited for reply. “Be careful!” I

You bet I will.

A Mother Slane. A huge monster. Based from the information at the guild and said monster in front of me, its upper body was in an upright posture, and similar to the body of an ant. It had six long sharp arms, they could easily pierce a wall without a sweat. The lower body was similar to a spider. It had eight legs and the most rear part of its lower body was as plump as a mother’s womb during pregnancy, though, in monster size. Those strand that it shot earlier most likely came out of that part of its body. Also, its head was similar to an ant and two long antenna stuck out. Succinctly, it was a monster similar to a centaur but a combination of two creatures. Calling it an abomination would be an understatement.

Is that a…?

Similar to my situation, the Mother Slane was also hurt. Debris from the rocks earlier landed on its body, giving me an opportunity to possibly defeat the monster. The monster stood up, the debris on its body fell as if they were crumbs of a cookie.

This should take…two to three minutes, at most. I don’t know what will happen but hopefully, I’ll just pass out. But what is it doing?

The Mother Slane faced its rear end to me. After that, all of a sudden, its body twisted, too, and now it was facing me.

It can even turn its body around? What a monster…

It fired a strand, the familiar sound of it squirting reminded me of those two’s death but I had no time for that. I touched my chest and said the words, “Be my strength, Shakna.” The second after I utter those words, I felt everything slow down. I felt power through my hands and my body as light as a bird’s feather.

The strand that the monster fired was in front of me. If I didn’t have Shakna’s power, this would have already caught me and as a result, I would have died.

I could never get used to this…

I twisted my body, barely making it in time to dodge the strand. As I dodged it, another one came in my way. I bend over my back, I could basically smell the strand in front of me. It smelled like rotten flesh with a mix of feces and urine. It smelled notoriously fetid.

With a backhanded grip, I charged towards the Mother Slane. The Mother Slane repeatedly used its strand to attack me without coming closer. Dodging them drastically increased my time of using my ability but I had no other way around rather than only dodging it and getting closer and closer with each step.

When I got close enough, it reverted back to its natural state, the rear at the rear and the body facing forward. Consequently, its six menacing claws moved and rained on me. I furrowed my brows when I saw its claws stretched itself. This monster was too much for me.

Still, I could still see every move its doing.

I dodged the first incoming claw by dodging to the right. The second incoming claw, I used my dagger to block it, although it pushed me a bit, I successfully blocked it. The third incoming claw seemed a bit faster than the other attacks, so I decided to dodge it instead of blocking it, I could handle it but my dagger didn’t have my special ability. As I easily dodged it, I noticed it went down deeper and the Mother Slane could not pull it out.

This is my chance!

I ran on the claws leading to the body of the Mother Slane. The Mother Slane wiggled its claws a bit but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. I blocked the incoming claws using my dagger, each one of them strong enough to knock me out of the platform I ran on.

When I got at its body, I jumped as high as I could, trying to land on its head. I landed on its head and it shook its entire body and head, trying to get me off. I locked both of my feet at its neck, although with enough time, the shaking might get me disoriented.

There was a reason why I aimed for its head and not the other parts of its strange body. Due to the rocks that fell earlier, it caused a crack from the Mother Slane’s hard head and created a weakness the monster probably didn’t know. I had no idea on how the monster’s anatomy but hopefully, this monster didn’t regenerate.

I held my dagger with a backhanded grip and, as strong as I could, buried my dagger on the little crack on its head. Blood splattered as the Mother Slane cried and slowly but surely, it fell.

“Merry!” I shouted, hoping to receive a reply. “You guys all right!?”

A few seconds passed. “A bit busy but we’re all fine! How about you!?”

So there all fine…I should turn this off, it’s already been three minutes.

I touched my chest. Instantly, I lost control to my body. My body slugged and I fell to the ground. If one minute I was carrying ten Takana, this time, it felt like I was carrying fifty Takana. My muscle constricted every time I moved, even moving my eyes felt I got stabbed on. Additionally, I felt liquid came out of every opening of my body, from my eyes, mouth, nose, ears, private part and my bottom. I felt fluids rushed to them, seemingly wanting out of my body. Everything felt hot and excruciatingly painful.

This is too painful…I’ll just sleep for a bit.