Edward waited alone in total darkness for the monsters to come to him. The silence had turned into a flurry of activity, numerous Troglodytes rushing at him. Edward simply dispatched them as they came. Since the monsters didn’t even have aura armor, he didn’t need to send an attack their way, he could directly pierce them with aura tendrils and absorb their essence.

However, Edward frowned in frustration, the Troglodytes were coming from different tunnels and the limited space meant they couldn’t come all at once. Even as he slaughtered them one after the other, they only brought him a modicum of essence. Realizing that after massacring a hundred of them the amount of essence they brought him was only equivalent to a single Roc Edward shook his head and gave up on the attempt. There were still a lot of Troglodytes but he didn’t have the time to wait for them to come to him, this method wasn’t efficient enough. Additionally, his hunger for more blood essence was still in the back of his mind and it wasn’t abated in the slightest by what the Troglodytes were providing him.

The Andherians are already coming. I only have a few hours in front of me. I have to find more powerful monsters.

He ignored the Troglodytes coming at him with ravenous claws and instead focused on finding a way downward. Luckily with a teleportation range of 950 meters after his confrontation with the Rocs, it was more than enough to reach into another empty cavity. Edward disappeared leaving only dead bodies behind him. Once more he was plunged into complete silence, the Troglodyte stampede too far away to be heard anymore.

Nonetheless, he wasn’t rejoicing, as he projected his aura he didn’t detect any single sign of life anymore. Where are the monsters I was promised? I must be under the Troglodyte level, there is only dead rock here.

He could only resign himself to continue his progress deeper. As he teleported deeper and deeper Edward still didn’t meet any more monsters but he sensed the temperature changed, becoming slightly warmer.

With how far I have progressed I should have gone all the way down the mountain and be below the ground level now. Strangely, I haven’t met more monsters. Balara looked serious when they warned me. Maybe it’s because I’m only teleporting instead of exploring. In the end, by teleporting, I’m barely roaming around and I’m discreet as well since I’m not making any noise. Somehow being surrounded by such a thick silence makes you wish to preserve it. But I’m not here to search for scared animals but to fight monsters. I should better make my presence known. Let’s see if that makes a difference.

“Anybody there?” he shouted loudly, his voice echoing within the caverns and tunnels getting slightly distorted with each repetition. This made him feel silly and slightly ill at ease. His aura was still not detecting any sign of life. He couldn’t help but heaved a sigh. I will continue deeper, but if I don’t find anything I will have no choice but to leave. He clenched his hands. And I don’t know any reliable source of powerful monsters. I could hunt for Behemoths but since they are solitary, I doubt I will find enough of them to achieve a breakthrough. I could go back to Nagh Kuldohr’s desert to hunt for sandworm but it’s the same problem, and the travel time would delay me by an hour. If Ignis and Adotinus die because I took too much time, my decision will hunt me down for the rest of my life. No, let’s continue for now and hope for the best.

Edward took a step forward and felt a contact on his shoulder as if someone had put his hand on it. He teleported away reflexively a shiver running through his spine, his aura was still showing an empty room. WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?! He slowly calmed down while his aura was still frantically searching for anything around him.

Being unable to sense anything while being sure that there was something with him made him reconsider things. Fuck! Of course, there had to be monsters invisible to aura in there. It wouldn’t be such a problem outside, but here I can’t see anything either. For all I know I could be surrounded without even knowing it. For how long have they been here? Were they already there as soon as I left the Troglodyte layer?

Heck, I could be walking right into their open mouth with how things are right now. How many are in there with me right now? Teleporting randomly won’t help me if there are too many of them, it would be the same as blindly running around. If at least there was a large open space I could just teleport in the air in the middle of the room. But at this depth cavities are much smaller, if they can climb walls I probably would still be in their reach. Worst I have no idea of what they are, all I know for sure is that they are not Troglodytes.

Edward felt like blasting everything around him to smithereens, the unexpected contact on his shoulder having creeped him more than he was willing to admit, however, he contained himself. I could blast a few frag grenades but I would be in the blast range as well. Firing attacks at random could work, but it will exhaust a lot of energy. No, the problem is the restriction of my senses. I don’t know where my enemies are. I may not be able to do anything for their aura invisibility but I can remove the darkness.

By security Edward didn’t summon a source of light by himself, instead, he first conjured a few clones to act as intermediaries. Then he made them form fire runes with their aura. The flames dispelled the darkness, an orange glow projecting moving shadows on the cavern’s walls. Edward wasn’t certain anymore if having light was the right choice, the scene in front of him was nightmarish. In the cavity he was situated in he was surrounded by ten creatures with elongated limbs crawling along the walls and even the ceiling. Edward didn’t know where to place them on the evolution tree, he hadn’t seen anything like that before. The monsters first made him think about spiders, but he had fought his fair share of them and those creatures were significantly different.

They were all black and covered in scales with disproportionally long limbs, they were crawling on the walls while folding their legs, in particular, they had a pair of long folded appendages in front of their mouth ending with claws that reminded Edward of mantis’ arms except they were in a horizontal position instead of the vertical arms of a mantis. To complete their appearance, they had an additional pair of even longer appendages that acted as feelers, blindly fumbling around. Edward realized with horror that was probably what had tapped on his shoulder. The extreme size of their limbs meant they were feeling most of the cavern’s space.

They reacted extremely fast once fire illuminated the surroundings, they unfolded their appendages in front of their mouth at record speed killing the clones in one hit and plunging the cavern into darkness once more. Edward himself who had been stunned by the sight was struck by an appendage, the force of the hit making him stumble forward, but his aura was strong enough to endure the blow.

“Rèng khwāmrĕw”, in such a situation Edward didn’t have to think about what to do and he immediately used his acceleration. He remembered the position of the monsters around him but he couldn’t discern their limbs so he still needed light. He sensed a change in air current and sidestepped, a blow grazed him. My clones will just get destroyed. Let’s control the fire directly. Once more fire illuminated the cavern, but this time it was floating in the air, controlled and fueled directly by Edward’s aura.

Able to rely on sight once more, it was much easier for Edward to avoid the incoming blows, though since the monsters were invisible to aura he couldn’t cover his back since he was standing in the middle of the cavern. Need to secure a side.

He threw three aura blades aiming at the three monsters facing him on the wall. Edward didn’t have much space to avoid their blows, but neither had the monsters. The blades hit them squarely but only provoked a few indentations in their carapace.

They don’t have aura armor, but they are just like the Andherians with especially tough bodies.

Edward teleported ten centimeters to the side, evading one appendage that only cut through empty air. They strike fast, but they have barely moved since the start of the battle. He increased the density and quantity of aura in his blades and walked closer, he was already in range of their attack anyway. He cleaved his daggers through the nearest monsters, this time the blades cutting through them without much resistance. Two creatures fell from the wall shedding violet blood. The last one on this side threw its two folded appendages at Edward, revealing its hungry mouth.

Edward jumped backward avoiding the strike, but ended up being hit in the back instead. It doesn’t have any scale on its mouth. He conjured a spear, throwing it right through the monster’s maw, impaling the creature.

One side is done. Edward swiveled to face the other side. There was one more creature on the ceiling and two more on the other side of the wall. He moved the fire closer to them, hoping to blind them. They didn’t have proper eyes but some kind of ocelli that seemed to still be able to perceive light. The creatures screeched angrily at the fire came closer and swiped their claws at it, leaving their maw unprotected. Edward swiftly summoned three more spears and controlled them to shoot through this weak point, quickly killing them.

He stood alone with the strange creature's deceased bodies for sole company. Well, that was…something.

He walked to each body and plunged his blades inside absorbing their blood essence. Each creature was worth two predators in blood essence. I somehow feel like I deserve more. I would much better fight Rocs rather than whatever those are. But I guess all in all they weren’t that strong. They look like creepy crawlies, and they are invisible to aura, but this wouldn’t be much of a problem if I were fighting them on the outside. Technically Rocs are more powerful. I only had so much trouble fighting them because of the environment that stood heavily in their favor. Or one could say their adaption to this environment is so good that it gives them a decent advantage.

If the situation had been any different Edward might have given up to hunt easier and less disturbing monsters but he didn’t have the time right now, and each drop of blood essence pushed him closer to a breakthrough, increasing his desire for more. He felt his teeth itch, making him want to bite a monster directly to suck their essence.