Chapter 6 – The Fourteenth Expedition

“What... what is all this?”

At the border of the Mycelial Garden, 120 Puffcaps stood in six orderly ranks.

40 artillery Puffcaps: [Mana Storage LV4] + [Spore Cannon LV6] + [Precision LV4]

40 ooze Puffcaps: [Mana Storage LV4] + [Spore Cannon LV6] + [Digestive Ooze LV3]

20 spore Puffcaps: [Hallucinogenic Spores LV4] + [Chitinous Shell LV4]

20 pack Puffcaps: [Storage Sac LV4] + [Bind LV3]

This was the composition of Evan’s fourteenth Expeditionary Force.

It was not that he had never considered giving every skill to a single Puffcap. The more skills a Puffcap possessed, however, the more mana and time it required to create. Those costs rose along a curve. Keeping each unit to four skills or fewer offered the best balance of utility and efficiency.

“I never knew there were so many kinds of Puffcap!”

Elara felt embarrassingly ignorant. How had she never heard of all these Puffcap subspecies?

Some had caps shaped like pitchers. Others were covered in chitin like the mining Puffcaps, except their shells were riddled with vents. A few even had tendrils.

Those looked wonderful. If she had tendrils of her own, she would not need to tie the Mana Crystal to her cap.

“Evan, you called them an Expeditionary Force. What are they going to do?”

“This is a dungeon. They’re going to hunt monsters, of course.”

“An E-Earthborer?”

Elara’s tone made it clear that if the answer was yes, she would not be joining them. She could not imagine killing an Earthborer simply by throwing enough Puffcaps at it.

“I told you, not yet. This time, our target is the Ember Gnats. Those parasites keep raiding the Mycelial Garden instead of producing anything for themselves. Today, we wipe out their nest!”

Evan had endured enough attacks from the air. He had discovered the Ember Gnat Nest long ago. The only reason he had not destroyed it was that it provided a renewable supply of Heat Resistance proficiency.

Heat Resistance had now reached LV6. Eradicating the swarm in a single strike might raise it to LV7, which would be more than sufficient.

Besides, his preferred escape plan had changed. He intended to use Elara to help kill an Earthborer rather than slip past the Magma Fiend. There was no longer any reason to tolerate the pests.

They could make themselves useful one last time by serving as a whetstone for his forces.

“Elara, stay in the center of the formation and follow my orders.”

“Understood.”

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Elara relaxed once she heard they were hunting gnats.

She knew Ember Gnats. Their average level was LV20, and their attacks were simple and direct. What made them difficult was their combination of flight, the Dodge skill, and their tendency to move in swarms.

Even if her magic could not defeat the entire swarm, she was confident she could protect herself.

This counted as a war of sorts, even if it was a war between monsters. Her father had never allowed her near military affairs or adventuring. The thought of experiencing battle for the first time filled her with nervous excitement.

The Puffcaps marched in such perfect formation that few armies could have matched them. Was it because Evan controlled every one?

* * *

That was exactly the reason.

With Thrall Command, Mycelial Network, and Cognitive Coordination, Evan controlled the Puffcaps like units in a strategy game, although doing so demanded far more concentration.

That unified command was the only reason he had established a foothold in the dungeon using creatures whose Stats were all 1.

Feints, diversions, and encirclements were devastating against monsters with almost no intelligence. The difference was like fighting opponents incapable of thinking beyond a training dummy.

This time, however, no elaborate strategy was necessary. Strategy was how the weak overcame the strong.

Compared with the Ember Gnats, Evan was the strong one now.

Why not select every unit and launch a full assault?

It would also demonstrate his strength and give the pink newcomer a little confidence.

* * *

The term Deep Strata referred collectively to every stratum below the Tenth. From that point downward, no clearly defined passages connected one level to the next.

Instead, innumerable three-dimensional tunnels crossed and intertwined, linking one enormous cavern after another. A passage more than fifty yards across connected the Ember Gnat Nest to Evan’s Mycelial Garden.

Scattered mushrooms grew in secret among cracks along the route. They served both as Evan’s eyes and as relay stations that extended the Mycelial Network beyond the garden.

Thrall Command allowed him to send a single Puffcap far beyond the network to scout. Large-scale control, however, required the Mycelial Network.

An intelligent enemy could circle behind him, destroy the relay points, and sever his control over the Expeditionary Force.

Fortunately, his enemies reacted to threats with about as much sophistication as training dummies.

The soft puff-puff of short legs against stone echoed through the passage. Three hundred yards ahead, several crimson lights rose into the air. A handful of Ember Gnats had discovered the advancing force.

“Ice Blade!”

A six-foot blade of ice shot forward without the slightest accuracy. The Ember Gnats did not even need to use Dodge. The spell buried itself in the ceiling above them.

“Recruit, stop wasting mana.”

“S-sorry.”

Only then did Elara notice that the Puffcaps continued forward at a steady pace. The appearance of the Ember Gnats had not slowed them at all.

The scouts made no attempt to approach. Faced with the advancing Expeditionary Force, they turned and fled.

Elara watched them vanish with growing concern. “Won’t they go back and warn the others?”

“Of course they will.”

“They may be low-intelligence monsters, but they still have the instinct to defend their nest. We’ll be facing the whole swarm soon.”

Elara very nearly pointed out that Evan was a monster too.

“Then why did you let them escape?”

Because they were too far away for him to hit.

“So we can eliminate them all at once.”

* * *

Beneath a vault churning with steam, hundreds of Ember Gnats circled a great pool. Their droning wings filled the cavern with a deafening buzz.

The insects required a hot pool like a natural spring to reproduce. Their larvae spent the entire immature stage beneath the surface, waiting for adults to bring them food. Destroy the pool, and the Ember Gnats in this region would eventually disappear.

The swarm would naturally defend its nest with everything it had.

When Elara and the Puffcaps reached the end of the passage, the luminous glands in every gnat’s abdomen flared orange in warning.

The closest Ember Gnats surged forward.

“Water Serpent!”

Once again, Elara attacked first.

At least she had improved. Water Serpent could adjust its course to some degree, unlike the straight-flying Ice Blade. Unfortunately, that improvement was not enough.

Her target possessed Dodge. The Water Serpent clipped one Ember Gnat, but it fell only a few yards before regaining its balance.

Evan could only watch in exasperation.

“Honestly, recruit.”