Over the next few hours, Red made less progress with his journey than he would have liked. The environment started to become very difficult to move in and the boy had to be careful so as not to lose his step. Traces of bigger and scarier creatures started showing on the tunnel floor, and the youth had to do his best to avoid these beasts.

The map had proved to be less useful than Red would have wished. It was clear after a few hours of travel that the underground was in a state of upheaval. The trouble the insectoid had created had bigger ramifications than Viran could have predicted and it reached quite a lot farther down than one would be led to expect.

The monsters were fighting each other for territory, almost as if in a frenzy. Their bodies littered every corner of the caves. The sheer noise of battle, however, as well as the long distances that the echoes travelled, made it very easy for Red to avoid them and sneak by unnoticed - although it also meant that he had to switch routes multiple times. Eventually, however, the echoes failed him and he came within viewing distance of a creature with two giant claws and a tail adorned with a wicked-looking stinger at its tip, feasting on the corpse of its prey. It was even bigger than the scythe-armed monster he had fought before, and the boy didn't hesitate to turn back immediately.

Unfortunately, Red was quickly running out of viable options, and he had already made quite a few detours to stay on track. It was becoming clear that the further down he went, the more common these inconveniences were becoming. If the boy still wanted to avoid the dangerous nesting areas of these monsters, then he would eventually have to take a risk and try to pass through some of those insects.

'Definitely not the stinger one, though.'

Red considered moving forward a bit more, but he had already been walking for a long time. He was starting to become hungry and his body was also taxed from traveling the difficult terrain. Viran had marked what he thought were safe areas in these parts of the tunnel, but considering how the environment was in such chaos, the boy just couldn't trust these symbols anymore.

Looking around, Red studied the tunnel he had found himself in. The path led down and the ground was quite steep and hard to stand on. After a close examination though, the boy found a hole in the soil blocked by a few rocks. When he moved them out of the way, he was surprised to find a small chamber. It was filled with what looked like empty egg sacks, roughly the size of a human's head.

The surface of the broken white shells was rather shiny and some mucus could still be found inside of them. Red, however, wasn't too interested in the eggs. Rather, he examined the space they were hidden in. It was perfect for him to sleep. There were still insect tracks in here, just like the rest of the caves, but the ones in this area were faint and showed him that monsters didn't travel by here too much. Or at least, no big ones did.

It was far from ideal, but it was the safest bet Red could make if he wanted to rest in this dangerous territory. Looking over at the eggshells, the boy considered whether or not he should throw them away. There was still enough space for him to rest but at the same time, he was worried that their smell could attract predators.

This could still happen even if the youth threw the eggs away, but at the very least the potential predators wouldn't be led straight towards his hiding place. Weighing his options, Red finally decided to take the eggshells and dump them somewhere else. They were surprisingly heavy for something that looked so frail, so the boy had to do a few trips to throw away all seven of them.

After dumping the items far away from his resting place, Red entered the hideout and blocked the exit with the stones that were previously there. Sitting against the wall, the boy took out a few moonstones to light up the small hole. Red couldn't stand up in here but at least he would be able to completely stretch his legs while he slept.

That was far more than he could say for most of the other resting places he had stayed in before.

Examining his equipment, the boy made sure to check if he hadn't lost any food or tool due to some tear in his sack. This was not uncommon down here; sharp jagged rocks against poor-quality cloth was not a good match-up. Thankfully Red was being careful during his travel to make sure this did not happen.

Confirming everything was fine, Red quickly wolfed down a piece of dried insect meat. The texture was tough and leathery, and the taste wasn't much better, but it was about as nutritious of a meal as a slave could get down here. After finishing his food, the boy double-checked his hiding space to make sure there was nothing that he missed. The youth was always extra careful when it came to his safety.

Noticing nothing out of the ordinary, the boy laid down against the cold rock floor and closed his eyes. Resting even in the most terrible environments was never a problem to him,especially now when he was feeling so fatigued from all the walking.

Soon enough, darkness overtook his consciousness, and Red was asleep.

...

A hissing noise echoed in the cave. Snapping awake, the boy sat up as awareness came back to him. He grabbed the cleaver by his side, and his head swiveled to check the entrance of his hideout.

The stones were still there and nothing had entered his hideout while he slept. Red still didn't relax.

More shrieking sounds of insects reached his ear, and this time they seemed closer than before. This was a roar he recognized. Centipedes, and more than one by the looks of it.

The youth, however, had a hard time judging how far they were from under the ground. Noises in these tunnels traveled a great distance, so accurately assessing their origin was hard. The boy tentatively approached the entrance of the hideout and stuck his ear to the wall.

The hissing continued, but other than that Red didn't hear any other sounds. At the very least, it didn't seem that these centipedes were waiting right outside the entrance. The boy hardly felt safe, since their roaring was still slowly approaching his position. He tried to count how many distinct screeches he heard.

'At least three... No, four.'

It was difficult to count them, but Red was certain of one thing. That was three too many for him to confidently take on. The boy considered trying to run away before they got here, but he didn't feel confident in outrunning them. The centipedes were very fast and accustomed to traversing through these tunnels, while Red needed to be worried about twisting his ankle and falling down the steep passages.

His safest bet was to remain hidden, as much as the boy didn't feel comfortable with having his back against a wall. Slowing down his breath, Red distanced himself from the blocked entrance and held onto the cleaver with both hands, ready for anything. Soon enough the furious hissings got even closer and the youth could hear the creatures' many legs clattering against the stone even from afar.

It seemed that there were even more beasts in this group than he previously thought. Alarm started to mount in Red's mind as he considered what might have even gotten the centipedes this agitated in the first place. Could it be the shells the boy threw away? He didn't know what these monster's eggs looked like, but he felt that this hole was too small for a centipede to choose for a nest.

Were they hunting? That seemed more likely, but what kind of prey could cause such a large number of them to move together? It was a strange situation, and not one the boy was particularly eager to find the answer to.

Soon, Red could feel the vibration in the earth. They were close, almost on top of him. The incessant hissing was extremely loud at this point, and he felt even more alarmed at the stampede of centipedes that started to run over his head. At one point, the shaking even knocked off a few rocks from his hideout entrance, showing him a glimpse of a rushing centipede.

Red felt his heartbeat accelerate and he gripped his cleaver even tighter, waiting for the wave to pass. Thankfully, the creatures seemed to be in a rush and they didn't stop to look through every nook and cranny. Otherwise, considering how many of them the boy saw, there was no way he would be able to get out of this alive.

Soon, the vibrations and noises diminished. They started to get farther away from him, and the youth let out a sigh of relief. Even finding a safe place to sleep down here was a monumental challenge.

Picking up his things, Red got ready to exit his hideout and run as far away from this region as he could. Just imagining having to face that many centipedes at once sent a shiver down his spine. The boy was not sure even Viran would be able to escape from them with his life.

'And yet he considered the centipede's nest as the safest to pass through...'

Perhaps that was the case when the man explored the area himself, but maybe something had changed between then and now. Regardless, it was probably time for Red to reevaluate his route. With a sigh, the boy started to crawl towards the exit, when he saw the rocks in front of him move. A few of them fell down and the youth saw something moving.

An insect revealed itself to him. It had large antennae, six legs, and a meter-long body that tapered towards the back of the abdomen. In its mandibles, it carried a white round egg, identical to the one Red had seen in his hideout. Except this one was not broken.

Both the human and the monster seemed surprised to come face to face. They stared at each other for a few seconds, eye to compound eye. Suddenly the insect's antennae started to shake, and Red felt a bad premonition.

KRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

An extremely shrill noise came from the insect. The boy felt his ears ringing as the sound attacked his senses. Only after a few seconds did he manage to recover his balance, but when he looked back at the entrance of the hideout, the monster was no longer there. Getting out from the hole, Red looked over both ways of the tunnel, but there was no sign of the creature.

Around his feet, the youth saw the same egg it was carrying, except now it had a clear crack in it from where mucus was pouring out. The whole situation with the centipedes and the eggs started to become clearer to Red. However, when the ringing sound finally left his ears, the boy heard something else.

He didn't have much time to process the situation before suddenly the hissing sounds started to become louder again. They weren't moving away anymore.

They were coming right for him.