Chapter 10 – A Mouthful of Crystal

The Puffcaps were ready.

Filling every unit’s mana reserves, including Elara’s, consumed all the mana from the Ember Gnats and every last bit Evan had stored beforehand.

Natural harvesting would never replenish them quickly enough. This force would have no opportunity to recharge.

The hunt would begin today.

Four hundred Puffcaps gathered in one place made an impressive sight. Most were artillery Puffcaps.

An Earthborer was enormous and covered in a thick shell of stone. Neither Hallucinogenic Spores nor Digestive Ooze would affect it.

Armored Puffcaps would be pointless. Against a creature of that weight, even a glancing blow meant instant death, shell or no shell.

The only way Evan could defeat such a monster was by pouring damage into it.

He still had a plan.

Creatures that spent their lives tunneling underground naturally fed on minerals, and their favorite delicacy was the Amethyst Deep’s signature resource: Mana Crystals.

Evan happened to know how to make Mana Crystals explode.

He had prepared ten purpose-built Puffcaps among the army. Their hollow bodies were packed with Mana Crystals, and each possessed [Mana Storage] to supply the energy needed for detonation.

Evan had committed nearly everything he owned to this hunt.

He had dug up every Mana Crystal buried in the Mycelial Garden to accelerate Mana Harvest. The garden’s natural mana production had fallen by half as a result.

Those crystals would serve as bait to draw out the Earthborer and as the first crushing blow once it appeared.

After that, everything would depend on Lady Elara’s Mire.

“Are we really going?”

Her pink cap trembled. Fighting an Earthborer at a disadvantage of at least 15 levels inspired no sense of safety.

“Recruit, haven’t you already received your payment?”

Elara felt the large A-grade Mana Crystal atop her cap. The words of surrender refused to emerge.

It was simply too tempting.

The crystal allowed her to cast in Puffcap form and nearly doubled the power of her spells. Her old, much smaller B-grade Mana Crystal could not compare.

“If the situation truly becomes hopeless, you have permission to run. I won’t take back the Mana Crystal,” Evan added at the right moment.

Elara still wanted to point out that her short legs might not carry her to safety. Permission to flee was better than none, however. She bobbed her cap in agreement.

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Evan was not allowing her to escape out of sudden kindness. If victory proved impossible, there was no reason to waste her life.

The battle at the Ember Gnat Nest had shown him how useful magic could be. Puffcaps could be produced again, and Mana Crystals could be mined again. If Elara died, where would he find another compliant mage?

* * *

The journey was far longer than the march to the Ember Gnat Nest. Elara suspected they took several deliberate detours.

Even so, they encountered almost no resistance. A giant black-and-white spider crossed their path, and Elara removed its head with a homing Ice Blade.

Their destination was a ruined cavern.

Calling it a cavern was generous. Tunnels left by passing Earthborers riddled the entire space. Describing it as open on four sides would have understated the damage.

Evan’s latest inspection revealed several new passages since his last visit.

He positioned the detonation Puffcaps and their Mana Crystals on one relatively intact patch of ground. The artillery Puffcaps dispersed around the fragmented cavern.

Rather than assign Elara a separate position, he kept her near the passage through which they had arrived.

Mana began flowing slowly into the crystals. Even Evan found the waves radiating from the growing pile appetizing.

Elara knew the plan. She looked at the mound of crystals with aching regret.

Boss Evan was a spendthrift. To improve their chances, he had even included several A-grade Mana Crystals among the explosives.

They were smaller than hers, but they were still A-grade.

On the surface, this hoard could have hired a Diamond-rank party to kill ten Earthborers. Here it would be expended merely to wound one.

What a terrible waste of precious materials.

The mana waves drew several other monsters before the Earthborer appeared. Black-and-white spiders like the one they had encountered earlier crept in, along with twisted beasts full of sharp teeth.

The surrounding Puffcaps killed them with a few volleys. None caused any difficulty.

To Evan’s surprise, an LV35 Minotaur also appeared, one of the creatures commonly called bullfolk.

It was the first time Evan had encountered that classic monster.

The Minotaur clearly possessed some intelligence. It saw the assembled force from a distance and retreated.

At another time, Evan would have tried to communicate. Perhaps two intelligent monsters could coexist peacefully.

Today was not the day.

At last, a steady tremor rose from underground.

Stones around Elara’s feet rattled violently in the soil. Gravel spilled from several newly opened tunnels.

One unfortunate Puffcap was crushed into a mass of hyphae by a falling rock before the battle even began. It became the expedition’s first fungal casualty.

“It’s coming! It’s coming! When do I cast? Should I use Mire now?”

With the decisive moment approaching, Elara’s nerves returned.

“Stay calm, Elara. I’ll tell you when to cast. Don’t lose your head.”

Evan spoke softly, urging her to remain composed. He failed to notice the tension tightening his own voice. Beneath the measured tone, he could barely contain his excitement.

They did not wait much longer.

The ground on one side of the cavern collapsed with a roar. A colossal worm erupted from below, and 20 Puffcaps vanished into its maw in an instant.

[Level: LV49]

Evan’s target had arrived.

The Earthborer bent in midair and plunged directly toward the Mana Crystals.

None of the Puffcaps opened fire. Evan even stopped Elara when panic nearly made her cast.

Not yet. It was still too soon.

Mana flooded into the crystals, and the waves around them grew increasingly violent.

Just before they reached their peak, the enormous mouth descended and swallowed all ten Puffcaps along with every Mana Crystal.

One... two...

The explosion shook the cavern.

It tore apart the Earthborer’s maw and shattered yards of stone armor from within. Fragments blasted outward at terrifying speed, inflicting heavy losses among the Puffcaps.

The creature’s entire mouth had been destroyed.

As for its head, Evan was not sure where an Earthborer’s head ended, or whether it possessed anything that could properly be called one.

Despite the horrific injury, the monster remained alive and thrashed in agony.

Its ruined body whipped against the cavern walls, bringing down sheets of rock. The surviving digging limbs clawed frantically at the floor as it tried to escape underground.

Elara’s body jolted. Evan’s command exploded through her awareness in a strained, cracking voice.

“Mire! Now!”