Despite my earlier words to Callie, once I found the right spot and got ready to use Sucking Mud in the way I'd envisioned, I found myself hesitating. Callie's fear at the idea of being buried alive might be more extreme than I expected, but as I was preparing to actually submerge myself in temporarily liquid earth it was hard to ignore the horrible images in my head. Despite being stronger and faster and more durable than we had been before, we WERE still mortals deep down, we still hadn't completely let go of who we used to be, and honestly...being buried alive sounded fucking horrifying.

Clearing my head of the theoretical but incredibly unlikely potential consequences of my actions I focused on the ground under me. I triggered Sucking Mud, but instead of extending it out to ten feet I confined the effect to a small three foot circle around my body, directing the excess energy into increasing the depth instead of the width. Since I wasn't straining the actual bounds of the skill almost at all and it was designed to be variable it wasn't actually much of a strain to change the shape of the mud pit. I had to flex a little but it was barely a change so it was more like holding something really light. I was sure it would get annoying after enough time but for now it was easy.

Once I triggered it I...began to sink. Slowly. Really, really slowly. Like an inch or so every few seconds. I groaned internally. This was taking longer than expected. Was a smaller radius making it slower? I didn't know enough about science to make that call, maybe it was just the ground here being harder, who knew. Regardless, after about two full minutes of waiting I finally became fully submerged. On the upside the extremely long wait banished any possible terror or suspense from the situation. Even illogical fear can only last so long, and after two minutes of waiting going under just didn't scare me the same way.

Inhaling strongly before I submerged I spent the next two minutes or so holding my breath until finally, the mud underneath me gave way and I was left slowly dropping out of the mud an inch at a time. Dangling with my legs completely exposed was annoying, and I tried my best to remain still and let the weight of my lower body drag me free before dropping into the tunnel below. Despite having plenty of air left and my face never having been covered I still felt like I needed to exhale and take a deep breath, so I did.

Once I was free I untied the rope around my waist. Tying the end around a small rock as a signal, I tugged it and the rope was quickly pulled back up. I used Sucking Mud again, just to make sure it was active for long enough, and I waited. After a few minutes, I saw a familiar pair of black boots emerge from the ceiling of the tunnel, and with a flash of insight, jumped up to grab them, using my weight to drag Callie down through the mud faster so she didn't have to stay submerged for too long. It worked, but as she came free she collapsed on top of me, hacking and coughing up mud.

After she cleared her airway she laid on top of me, glaring down in a way that made me pretty sure I shouldn't say anything. "Why?" She said with deceptive calmness. "Would you think that grabbing me by the feet and dragging me into the depths of the churning earth would be a gesture I would appreciate. Holding your breath only works when you actually hold it, screaming while your head is submerged in mud negates any benefits someone might get from having incredibly strong lungs." Her voice was shaky, and her breath was coming in short, shallow pants. I could tell that had really messed with her.

I wiped away some of the mud and leaned up to kiss her on the forehead, pulling her down against my chest. "I'm sorry. I wanted to get you out of there as soon as possible, and when I saw your feet sticking out I thought I could help end it faster by pulling. I didn't think about how you would react." She leaned against me for a minute, breathing slowly calming down, her body relaxing as she pulled herself together.

After she finished getting her head on straight she pushed herself up off me, climbing to her feet and helping me up. "I understand. I appreciate the thought, but in the future, maybe we can come up with additions to the plan like that before they actually happen so I know what to expect." I nodded, but didn't say anything, staring at her and waiting. "You want to know why I'm so afraid of being buried alive?" I didn't even bother to nod this time, just waited patiently.

She sighed, pulling off her mask and wiping her face a bit more to make sure all the mud was gone as she untied the rope around her waist. That shit got everywhere when we went under and I was going to be cleaning it out of every crevice of my armor for weeks. I tried to brush some of it off, which didn't work, and then shrugged. "If it's a really traumatic story now might not be the time. We have a few minutes until whoever is coming next gets down here. Besides, it sounds like something you don't want to talk about. Honestly I can't see this coming up again anytime soon, it's not like we go mud diving for fun."

She giggled, snorting a bit and then covering her face as mud came out her nose, which made me start laughing. "I guess that's fair. Maybe we can talk about it after things calm down. For now lets just get everyone else through the mud." She bit her lip. "Maybe avoid the feet grabbing. Even if there's a decent reason, the surprise is...unpleasant." I pulled her into a hug, not worrying too much about anyone seeing because it would take minutes for any of them to reach us, plus...who cared if someone saw me holding my girlfriend?

After a minute I gave her a quick kiss and we turned to watch the others come down. It was admittedly kind of hilarious watching Benny kick and squirm his way through the ceiling. Even Callie was giggling as he finally slurped through the final layer and fell, sprawling onto the floor of the tunnel. The black mud was completely covering his face, and with no ability to see and his crazy flailing he dropped straight onto his back, though the distance didn't even manage to knock the wind out of him.

None of the others were quite as clumsy coming down sadly. Cark dropped down to land flat on his feet and didn't even stumble from the impact, Celine landed in a crouch, Martin came down on all fours and he caught Sarah when she dropped through and Jessie came last, after taking control of the wolves to make sure there were no incidents as they came down. She was able to assuage their annoyance by giving them treats she'd been lugging around in the backpack, but regardless of the bribery they were not at all pleased to be covered in soot colored muck.

Once everyone was down I let the skill drop, not tired from holding it for so long as much as slightly sore, though in a way that made suspect it would fade pretty quickly. Once Sucking Mud vanished though, we realized there was a slight unintentional side effect of using the skill that way. namely, the mud all over us had all become solid again, which, while helpful for getting it OFF of us, was not particularly pleasant to experience. Mud can get a lot of really unfortunate places when you're submerged and even if you scrape as much of it off as possible, when it turns back into sharp rock sand and stone some discomfort will ensue.

One we all shook out our armor (and those of us with cloaks or long coats beat the damn things out like an old dust mop) we were finally ready to proceed. We all turned to check in with Callie. She noticed us looking and rolled her eyes. "Yes I KNOW it's my call where we go next. Can you give me five minutes people, we just got down here, let me formulate a plan." We all just stared at her, waiting expectantly. "Fine. Vultures, we go that way." She pointed down the tunnel in the direction the the entrance I'd originally spotted with Seek Hidden.

Of course I'd used my skill to find the right path while we were waiting for the others so we knew which way to go, but I think she just wanted to lighten the mood a bit. It worked, and the others snickered as we headed down the tunnel towards the Akkadian Fire Beads. Speaking of which. "Did anyone do any research on what the hell an Akkadian Fire Bead is? Because I didn't and if we're supposed to find this thing we should probably know at least what it looks like." I hadn't bothered to look that stuff up before we left, which in retrospect wasn't great planning.

I was getting too used to charging in without bothering to pay any attention. Granted I had teammates who did that kind of thing, but I should have at least checked. I made a note to try to take some of the responsibility for research and stuff on myself, even if it was only to ask about it or offer to help. While my ability and my combat skills contributed a lot to our group I wasn't in this alone. I couldn't just decide my own role in things, that was something all of us needed to decide on together. Luckily the others picked up the slack though, and as usual Callie had dug into the origin of our target.

My girlfriend was clearly feeling much better, her walk and attitude much more upbeat after getting through the ordeal she had obviously been uncomfortable with but wouldn't have to repeat, and she didn't seem to mind being our walking textbook this time. "Akkadian Fire Beads are a specific type of elemental crystal that are often found in Volcanoes. They're the result of hyperdense fire energy flooding into a specific type of gemstone with a reputation for energy storage. Akkadian crystal is tough to find, even without elemental affinity, and it's a pain in the ass to fill up so they aren't common."

That sounded useful for crafting, though not so much for anything we could use it for. Still, we would be able to sell it after the hunt anyway, and I bet we could get a decent price for it. "So, I imagine it comes in hot environments, where would we start looking in terms of setting? Is there some place the things are native to?" While Seek Hidden could always find the beads if I could get close, or a trail if I wanted to mess with the skill, it would save me a lot of pain and effort if we knew where to start.

Callie, who was looking ahead, straining her eyes for something, spotted a light and grinned at me, pulling me ahead to the exit of the tunnels and gesturing out to the new cavern we entered. "Several, they pop up all over the place, but the easiest spots to find them are places with an absurd amount of fire attributed energy. You know, forest fires, forges...magma pools." She gestured off to the side of the chamber, over at a huge pool of glowing molten rock and I winced. Oh. That might be a problem.