“[Greater Stone Manipulation]!” Tunneling was annoying work, making me acknowledge the dedication of all the miners, constructions workers, and engineers out there. However, having magic made things simpler and less tedious. Pulling some metal chunk out of the stone rubble in front of me, I tossed it behind me, where a few metal eaters happily dragged it away.

If I was right, I was almost at the area where the Soul Focus and Mana Pool had once been located. My decision to find out what had happened to the two core parts of the fortress had not been made hastily. After seeing the state of the fortress and finding out the entire surroundings had been turned into wasteland, I realized that something major had gone wrong with the Soul Focus or what was essentially the 'AI' that had been in charge of the fortress day to day management. Neduzar's final plan upon his death, either permanent or temporary, had included certain options that the fortress Soul Focus would have carried out. However, everything I had seen so far pointed to something having gone wrong.

The entire fortress should have been blasted to pieces or should have been placed in a standby mode with basic maintenance being carried out. However, every single piece of defense, either spell constructs, undead soldiers, or golems were all in tatters, while the fortress survived. That wasn't all. After searching through his hazy memories, I knew for a fact now that Neduzar hadn't implemented a full self destruct of the fortress. The main evidence was the brownies stealing... taking temporary guardianship of all the library material. To me, that meant that the teleporters and the magic constructs controlling access to the fortress had been working after Neduzar had been sealed, which meant that a working Soul Focus had authorized mana to be funneled to the teleporters or fortress entrances from a working Mana Pool. None of that was something Neduzar would have allowed to remain intact.

However, something had occurred afterwards that had led to the destruction around me, but it hadn't been bad enough that the brownies couldn't get back in to put up the Eternal Torches up. Sherlock Holmes would have been proud of me once more for my deduction. Mentally patting myself on my shoulder, I pulled out another large mass of stone and dirt, only to find something very bizarre right in front of me.

A vein of a blue crystal like mineral glittered brilliantly in the light, that was cast by the ball of light floating above me. From such a close distance, I could sense the high concentration of mana being emitted from the crystal. “A mana stone vein....” Prying a fist sized amount of it free, I stared it in confusion. Essentially solidified mana, the chunk I was holding was enough to cast one or two low tier spells. Looking back up, I wondered how much of it was there. More than that, it wasn't supposed to be here.

It took time to cast Greater Stone Manipulation enough times to essentially dig my way through layer after layer of mana stones, eventually reaching a point where there wasn't enough stone or dirt to pull apart to pry out the mana stones. I was left essentially staring at a wall of solidified mana, almost in shock. Hesitating, I punched the wall, putting a fist sized hole it. “Bas! Get you tail over here. I need some digging done!”

There was something off about all this, but I couldn't piece it together until I turned around to find a low tier metal eater munching down on some mana stones. Maybe sensing my stare, it turned around to look at me with pleasure almost oozing out of its eyes, mandibles, and shaking antennas. Its claws grabbed another chunk of mana, before stuffing it between its mandibles.

I tilted my head in doubt as a sudden question popped up. If the metal eaters had been nesting in the fortress for so long, why hadn't they dug their way to the mana vein? The only memory the queen had shared about this area was that it was off limits and it was marked 'the unknown.' The metal eater tilted its head as well, and we stared at one another for a bit. Then, all of sudden, its head swiveled to look at the tunnel wall, as its antennae stood straight up. “Oh shit!”

Almost like my words were a trigger, bluish orbs of light began phasing through the tunnel walls. Covered in what looked like blue, electrical discharges, they began firing at anything moving. I had just enough time to cast on myself, before I was hit by multiple Mana Bolts form different directions. Thankfully, my armor spell was durable. Unfortunately, the metal eater wasn't so lucky. It literally got turned into Swiss cheese, and it wasn't alone in dying, as I saw its companions further along the tunnel get pummeled as well.

x4.” Dodging a few Mana Bolts, I returned fire even as I retreated back through the tunnel which was quickly starting to fill up with Mana Spores. Made of almost completely pure mana, they were essentially dumb flying clumps of destruction. Almost as to underscore my point, the Mana Spores hit by my spells blew up behind me, the explosion rocking the tunnel and almost causing the tunnel to crumble in places.

Dodging past falling rubble, I punched a nearby Mana Spore after reinforcing my fists with mana, sending the thing reeling back. It was like hitting cotton candy, as clumps of mana went flying while dissipating. However, my arm's armor was left scorched almost like it had been burned. Behind me, a droning noise intensified, and I didn't need to look back to know that they were swarming.

“Dieeee!”

Up ahead, I finally caught sight of Bas scampering my way, but I just yelled, “Run!”

“Dieee?” Behind Bas I saw Slith and the two mid tier metal eaters as well.

“Damn it!” There was no way they would all get turned around in time to escape from the following Mana Spore swarm. So, I pivoted around, only to catch sight of the tunnel almost packed ceiling to floor with Mana Spores heading my way. “ Fuck this shit! x 5!” The black lances struck rampaging swarm head on, and then I heard what sounded like a massive bomb going off. Blaaammmmmm! And then I saw a flash of light as the tunnel collapsed.