The night passed without issue, and by the time ‘morning’ rolled around, Ronald was making a round of breakfast for everyone. Niko had been wary that perhaps the scent of their food would have attracted something, but he’d apparently been mistaken. Though, to be fair, the type of fare Ronald had prepared was just a simple oatmeal breakfast, which was just enough to get them going, as well as not being especially heavy. He’d hesitate to call it a camp favorite, but it was at least a staple for longer journeys where food needed to be kept for longer periods of time.

“We’ll look for the entrance into the underground today,” Ronald began in brief, “Hopefully it won’t take too much longer, but we should be ready for another all day excursion.”

The others nodded along as they cleaned up after their meals and then began packing up their camping gear. Niko allowed them to store the large box and much of the bulkier materials on his back, not finding them especially heavy himself. It was a slightly awkward load, but if nothing else they could help him remove it fairly easily. In an emergency, there were a few key ropes he could pull that would allow him to cleanly untie them from his vest. Niko did pause to consider if he should refer to it as a saddle, if only because his current load resembled saddlebags more than a simple backpack.

‘I’ll just keep calling it a backpack for now,’ Niko decided, ‘I’m not letting anyone hitch a ride, afterall.’

After everything was securely fastened, they replaced the lanterns on his sides. While they were traveling like this, Niko wouldn’t be the first one into combat, but that wasn’t strictly necessary. Yesterday, they’d tested the viability of the Shock and Awe strategy, and as they’d expected it was effective when they had a clear strength advantage and could leverage their power quickly. However, it did come with some hefty demerits. In the event that the rest of the team was delayed, Niko would be the one left dealing with whatever forces he’d stormed off into. While that wouldn’t be an issue they’d always run into, it might become more common with groups of enemies that numbered in the tens and higher, or were intelligent enough to occupy their backline and keep them from applying their teamwork as easily.

Today they planned to see how they would do with a Rook and Hook combo, where Ronald would be their frontline, and Niko would be the support for the team. Being less mobile at the moment, Niko would be a midline for their group, with Dachna, Mithel, and Skye providing ranged support. When melee happened, Mithel would become the center point for the formation, while the others would do their best to form up around her. Niko felt that the formation was sturdy, classical, and perhaps a touch boring, but that was hardly a demerit.

“You know, I always wanted to have an underground base when I was growing up,” Dachna piped up conversationally as they moved out of their intersection, meandering where they thought the air might be flowing.

“Why?” Skye asked, confusion in her voice, “It’s so dark down here. Without a lantern, you’d be scrabbling across the walls to get anywhere.”

“Well, sure,” Dachna shrugged, “But we had to do that at night anyways. Plus, I’m sure I could learn the twists and turns well enough not to fall into the water. And, I mean, c’mon, it would have been great! A place that’s hard to find, plenty safe for the most part, clean water!” Dachna smiled wistfully, “It’d have been a great find in the capital. Too bad they don’t have anything quite like this.”

Niko knew he wasn’t the only one who might have felt a little pity for Dachna’s childhood, but no one directly commented on that. “What did the capital have, then?” Ronald asked, curiosity and a change in conversational topic driving him.

“Well, there was still a sewer and a waterway, but they’re really compact. They’re not meant for people to really be walking through them. They take the pipes and directly bury them, no real interaction needed.” Dachna shook his head, “The most you get is the storm drain system, and that thing gets clogged with debris all the time. Not exactly clean either, or safe.”

“We all float down here,” Mithel mumbled under her breath, too low for anyone to pick up, save for Niko who happened to hear her.

‘No. Just no.’ Niko shuddered and mentally added, ‘I really, really need to figure out a good way to talk to Mithel alone. She’s definitely a reincarnator. Maybe I can write to her later?... Come to think of it, can I still write in English, or is it all just going to be translated to Common?’

“I’d always wanted to get a really big treehouse,” volunteered Skye, “Not exactly the most imaginative or outlandish considering my lineage, but there it is.”

“Me too,” Mithel said, this time at her usual volume, “Maybe a tree that has the leaves change all kinds of colors in the fall.”

Ronald chuckled, “I always wanted to claim a Dragon’s Lair when I was little, but then again I was raised on tales of dragons.”

Dachna whistled, “Now there’s a goal.” He added jokingly, “Got any ideas on which dragon you’ll go after?”

“Hah!” Ronald barked a laugh, “No, I haven’t decided how I want to die. Thank you very much.”

“I think I want something by the sea,” Niko said wistfully, “It’d be a nice thing to be able to see in the first place.” In his old life, he’d never gotten to actually see the ocean for any appreciable amount of time. He could only remember that he was very young, that he could hear the sounds of the waves, and that he’d fallen asleep on the beach. It was a nice memory, even aside from the ridiculously bad sunburn he’d gotten all across his back from cooking under the sun without sunscreen. While that part hadn’t been desirable at all, he still thought it would be nice to be able to sleep by the water whenever he’d like to - with an umbrella this time.

“That would be nice,” Skye said with a warm smile on her face, “I wonder if we’ll ever be close enough to see it.”

Ronald shrugged, “That sounds a lot easier to make happen than going after a Dragon. I hear the Fjord’s are gorgeous all year, maybe we’ll go eastwards and see it someday.”

Niko chirped at that, happy with the tentative plan. The conversation dwindled to little snippets after that, generally commenting on what would go well in a house. Niko demanded a sunroom with lots of flowering plants, something met with enthusiasm. Dachna’s suggestion of a bar was accepted, but his joke suggestion of gold plating on said bar was, of course, refused.

As was Mithel’s suggestion that her chemical lab could take up the same space. Everyone trusted Mithel just fine, but they also knew how much her work could reek at times.

Niko was about to suggest an idea for how to do multiple floors when he heard something unusual from ahead of them.

“Heads up, I just heard something. I think it’s something alive,” Niko curtly stated, “I can’t smell it with this draft, though.”

Skye translated before listening in as well. Niko had figured out that, for whatever reason, he could detect new noises better than she could, but once she knew what to look for, she could filter environmental static and just focus on what he’d detected. Niko was convinced that there was some kind of pseudo-magical effect going on there, because it bordered on the ridiculous at times.

Sure enough, Skye said, “I think there are three of them. But I’m pretty sure they’re slimes. I’d guess they’re eating something.”

The others didn’t seem concerned at that, and set off once more, using both Skye and Niko’s sense of hearing to go forwards. It seemed that their path would take them through the area with the slimes, though unlike with the Shadow Stalkers, the Wyldwalkers moved with no particular wariness.

“Are slimes just not dangerous?” Niko asked when he couldn’t stand not knowing any longer.

“So-so,” Skye answered, “They’re dangerous if you just stick your hand in them, but you can outwalk a slime pretty easily. They’re non-aggressive, for monsters, but they’d still go after you if you just sat there for them.”

“Their acid bodies can be pretty potent in the right environments, but generally it’d have to be pretty toxic.” Mithel added, “Though, Oozes are another matter.”

“Like the difference between a puppy and a Dire Wolf,” Ronald disdainfully said, “Those are straight-up predatory, but we’d see more evidence of one of those being around if they were.”

“Such as?” Niko asked, not liking the sound of an Ooze.

“Corroded stone would be an easy tell here,” The big man tapped his foot against the floor, “They’re noisy when they’re on the hunt, though they do a lot of ambushing. We’d smell an acrid stink, too, though I guess that’d be harder to detect here.”

“I’ve got some stuff that would make it leave us alone,” Mithel patted her pouch, “Ever since I learned about what an Ooze was, I made sure to carry some countermeasures.”

Dachna looked at her with a slight amount of confusion, “Oozes specifically?”

“That’d be an awful way to go,” She shrugged as she offered her reason.

The dirty-blonde haired rogue paused briefly at that before nodding vigorously, “Yeah, that’s fair.”

“It won’t be a problem,” Ronald emphasized, “This isn’t a good environment for Oozes. Not enough food.”

“Even with the underground being open?” Skye asked, “I’m no expert on this stuff, but would that be enough food?”

For several seconds they kept walking, before Ronald shook his head, “No, I don’t think so. It’d take a lot of creatures wandering in here for that, and we’ve barely seen any signs of such. If anything, I’d say some slimes might have wandered into the underground and become menaces there but they’d have no reason to return here.”

Niko nodded, but privately found himself very glad to not have to deal with something like a predatory blob. Mithel having countermeasures was all well and fine, but the best preventative measure Niko could think of was just straight up avoidance. Why deal with something that’d be a bad matchup, afterall?

In another minute, they came across the stretch of tunnel where Skye had heard the slimes. True to her words, there were a trio of them, all huddled around what had maybe once been another Dawr Goblin, though Niko wasn’t sure the distinction between the goblinoids off of sight so well just yet.

“Well, we have to thin these out too,” Ronald stated before walking straight up to them, “Watch out for any Stalkers for me.”

The others nodded at that, as Ronald simply stepped up and took out his dagger. The slimes barely reacted as he leaned over and with one quick stab each took out a small marble of solid material in their bodies. Niko felt that it almost resembled egg whites, rather than the snot he’d feared, but it really didn’t look edible to him.

“That does not look tasty.” Mithel frowned heavily, “You guys are sure that’s edible?”

“Positive,” Skye and Dachna answered together as the former pulled out a still empty jar from the storage box on Niko’s back, “We can keep it fresh in here. Ronald, you wanna bring it over?”

The big man said nothing as he stood over the bodies for a few seconds, before leaning over and grabbing one of the slimes. Somehow, the outer lining of its body hadn’t broken down when he’d stabbed into them, and it seemed like it was becoming less flexible rapidly. “Come over here, everyone. You’ll want to see this.”

The Wyldwalkers approached curiously, before noting that there was a fair bit of mess falling out of the slime he was holding. Scraps of what looked to be cloth and harder bits of the corpse the slime had been eating fell out of the still permeable membrane, not the least of which was a collection of oddly shaped bone chips.

Niko paused, taking a second look at them, “Are those… coin shaped?”

“Yeah,” Dachna frowned, “That they are. I’d recognize the shape anywhere, even half eaten like this. What the hell is a monster doing with coins?”

“Bone at that.” Skye frowned, “Nobody deals in bone currency, right?”

Mithel also said, “The stout folk don’t deal in bone, it doesn’t keep well.”

The others looked at her with concern.

“It doesn’t, though!” She huffed, “You try having a hoard of bone coins, tell me how long that lasts.”

“Anyways,” Ronald gestured to the body, “I think it’s another Dawr Goblin, but there’s a saying about Dawrs.”

“One's an outcast, two’s a horde?” Skye asked, to which the rest of the group nodded, save Niko. He guessed that the saying was somewhat similar to cockroaches on earth.

‘Oh, Alterra, I really hope you don’t have supersized roaches…’ He internally cringed, before saying, “So, there might be a lot more of these down here?”

“Could be. We’re finding the hole and getting out.” Ronald said decisively, “And that’s only if we find it in the next hour or two, I won’t risk more. If there is a tribe down here, I’d rather let the guild know and get proper assistance beforehand.”

The Wyldwalkers quickly left the goblin body behind, only pausing long enough to take one of the slimes. The tension in the air had picked up by several degrees, though, and Niko was focusing as much as he could on listening for any stray sounds that didn’t belong. The temperature only seemed to drop as they went, and before long, Niko was beginning to wonder if the temperature was going to drop to freezing.

Before that happened, though, the group all began to hear a slight whistling sound in the air. Were it not for the fact that they were paying attention to anything out of the ordinary, they might have missed it.

“Down this way,” Skye pointed out another branching path, and wordlessly the group followed her. All the while as they walked, Niko was just watching for the next curveball, waiting to see what else might happen.

But as they finally came upon the gaping rend in the wall of stone and concrete, as though the wall had simply fallen outwards, nothing happened. Niko wasn’t the only one alert for anything out of the ordinary, yet, the only sign of anything unusual was the destruction itself and the debris scattered to the other side of the wall. The wall hadn’t fallen inwards into the waterways, Niko noted, so that meant that at the least nothing had bashed its way through the wall.

“Well, we found the hole,” Ronald stated, “Now we can leave.”

Dachna stepped closer to the hole, leaning his head through to see what was inside. “It’s another tunnel.”

“Maybe don’t stick your head into the dark tunnel into the underground?” Mithel suggested, a trace of worry in her voice.

“I’m fine, there’s nothing here,” Dachna said, but pulled back into the waterways nonetheless, “Do we check it out at all?”

The Wyldwalkers turned to their field leader, Ronald looked briefly put upon before sighing, “Well, now that you officially asked the question, yes, probably.”

Dachna chuckled, “Anytime.”

“We should take our extra gear off,” Niko said, “We can backtrack to the last decently sized intersection and drop our stuff off, just in case we need to make an expedient retreat.”

“That’s a good idea,” Skye agreed, “Though, I say we backtrack at least three, that way if there’s any particularly territorial beast, we can just straight up avoid a fight. There’s got to be some reason why there aren’t tracks all over the place here.”

Niko looked down, and noted that she was right. There was dust on the floor, and some evident places where some creatures had passed through, but debris wasn’t scattered like he expected from a lot of critters moving back and forth. Niko took a tentative step onto the pile of brick and rock, and backed off when it felt like several pieces slid in the process.

Mithel commented, “I guess the pile is a little too put together, isn’t it?”

The group backed off several intersections, eventually deciding to stop five away, which would be a good three minute sprint if they needed to get away from something. Niko figured that would be enough if they made a beast mad, saw something particularly nasty, or did in fact discover greater evidence of a Dawr Goblin tribe in the area. Frankly, he had no issue if there was a strong beast making its home at that intersection, but if there was a monster, that might complicate things. Monsters eventually roamed if food was becoming scarce, and the last thing anyone needed was some underground monster roaming the waterways, or worse, the sewers themselves.

When they finally arrived back at the hole, Niko was ready to dive into the tunnel on the other side.

“I think this might be the most adventure-y thing we’ve done all week!” Niko squawked happily before sticking his head into the tunnel perpendicular to the waterways wall.

Skye snorted, “What, finding a bunch of Massacre Hornets doesn’t count?”

“Well… Okay, maybe a little bit, but this is actual exploration!” Niko chirruped happily, “It’s totally different than stumbling across a city-ending threat! I can actually do stuff here!”

“I can get behind that,” Ronald chuckled, “Alright, Niko and Skye at the front, we’ll go left first. Only a hundred meters, then we turn around. Keep close together.”

The Wyldwalker’s stepped into the tunnel one after the other, Niko in the lead. He did his best to distribute his weight on the pile, but there was only so much he could do. Bricks slid and dirt displaced with his weight, the sound of clattering brick and stone filled the tunnel as he crossed the pile. There was a steep but short slope to the floor of the tunnel, and Niko noted with surprise that the walls looked as though they were stone-like. While the others were traversing the pile, Niko walked to the wall and pecked it lightly.

“It’s hard like stone,” Niko called out, “The walls, I mean. This doesn’t look humanoid made, though.” Niko turned his attention down either side of the tunnel, which was parallel with the collapsed wall and waterways beyond. It was four meters in diameter, still plenty of room for him to walk around in, and the floor wasn’t quite even. In fact, none of it looked quite even, fraught with bumps, undulating waves, and not-quite straight lines. It rang uncomfortably close to what he would imagine intestines of stone might look like.

“Ah, looks like an old Earth Wyrm tunnel,” Ronald frowned as he came down the pile, “Lucky us.”

“Is that sarcasm, or?...” Mithel sought to clarify, “Because something big enough to make holes like this doesn’t sound like something I want to fight.”

“Lucky, because it’s an old tunnel. See the coloration of the walls? They’re more orange and tan than gray and white. If they were gray and white, that’d be fresh stone excreted from a Stone Wyrm, and we’d need to immediately leave.” Ronald explained, “This is one of the few things my Pops warned me to look for if I ever went underground.”

“Wise, because an Earth Wyrm would chew us up and plaster our remains against the walls,” Skye feigned a happy tone, sarcastically.

“Yaaay…” Dachna flatly droned, “Now, I imagine these things are monsters?”

Skye and Ronald nodded, and the other three members of the party, Niko included, couldn’t help but groan. “I am not fighting a Graboid.”

“A what?” Skye frowned, for once not translating, before shaking her head, “We’re not fighting anything like that, so don’t worry.”

‘Ugh, well, there goes that reference.’ Niko internally griped, shooting a brief glance at Mithel. ‘I’ll figure out something…’

Niko led the party onwards as they moved further into the Wyrm tunnel, his senses as open and focused as possible. It was time to find out what he might find in the underground…