Chapter 7 – A Fragment in the Pool

Evan felt no panic as the Ember Gnats approached. They had been his neighbors for far too long to frighten him.

He waited until they came within about 165 feet. Then several ooze Puffcaps unleashed Digestive Ooze, drenching the unsuspecting insects and knocking every one from the air.

The fallen gnats tried to shake off the slime and take flight again. Before they could, spore Puffcaps blanketed them in a hallucinogenic haze. Their resistance ended. The armored Puffcaps moved in and crushed them one by one.

The battle was only beginning.

More Ember Gnats poured forward. Evan’s forces met them at the mouth of the passage, and the fighting became a slaughterhouse.

The swarm outnumbered his troops several times over. Hallucinogenic Spores sealed off the lower air and restricted the directions from which the gnats could attack, but Evan could not intercept every enemy with Digestive Ooze.

Again and again, an Ember Gnat broke through the barrage and plunged its proboscis through a Puffcap. It would pin its victim to the ground, only to become paralyzed by the hallucinogenic spores below.

“Ice Blade! Ice Blade! Water Serpent!”

There was good news from Elara’s position. She had finally killed several Ember Gnats.

With insects filling the air, she could have attacked with her eyes closed and still struck something. The gnats’ Dodge skill was nearly useless in such a crowded battlefield.

Elara laughed with exhilaration after killing monsters with magic in a real fight for the first time. The organized hunts she had attended in the past could scarcely be called battles by comparison.

Her excitement ended when a gnat burst through the barrage and drove its mouthpart through an artillery Puffcap beside her, pinning it to the ground. Elara shuddered.

What if it had chosen her?

“Evan! What do we do? So many Puffcaps have died!”

They had lost only a dozen or so. The battle had barely started.

Safe in the depths of the Mycelial Garden, Evan privately lamented the recruit’s lack of nerve. He still offered useful advice.

“Stop using attack spells. Cast Illumination.”

Illumination?

What good would that do?

Elara could not see the point, but she had promised to obey orders. The spell consumed little mana, so she cast it.

The result took her completely by surprise. The instant Illumination appeared, disorder swept through the swarm.

Ember Gnats in the front ranks darted around like flies without heads. Some crashed into those behind them. Others plunged straight into the hallucinogenic haze below.

Elara stared.

“It really works!” Evan exclaimed.

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“You didn’t know it would?”

“I didn’t expect it to work this well. Dismiss it, then cast it again!”

“All right!”

The Deep Strata had remained dark for ages, illuminated only by the faintest natural glow. Evan had noticed that Ember Gnats possessed eyes and wondered whether a sudden flash might disorient them. Even he had not expected such a dramatic effect.

At times like this, the advantages of a mushroom that did not rely on eyes became obvious.

With Illumination supporting Evan’s forces, the already outmatched Ember Gnats became helpless. They dropped from the air in waves.

Once their numbers could no longer seal the passage mouth, even these nearly mindless monsters seemed to rediscover fear. They scattered into the surrounding tunnels, leaving behind an empty nest and a steaming pool packed with larvae.

“It’s finally over.”

Elara sat down hard.

They had held the advantage throughout the battle, but she had cast several attack spells followed by more than twenty uses of Illumination. She was exhausted, and almost none of her mana remained.

Her body was tired, but the thrill of participating in such a large battle for the first time had not faded.

“Evan, what do we do next?”

“Next? We collect the spoils, of course!”

The twenty pack Puffcaps that had remained behind the formation went to work. Their tendrils bundled Ember Gnat carcasses into the storage spaces inside their bodies.

The number of corpses was close to Evan’s estimate. Two trips would be enough for the pack Puffcaps to carry them all. Once Evan decomposed the Ember Gnats, Heat Resistance should rise another level.

He had no intention of extending the Mycelial Garden into the nest. Too many passages opened into this cavern. Defending them all would be impossible.

Evan had selected the site of the Mycelial Garden with great care. Only one side was exposed, and even there it had just four passages. The place was perfect for hiding while he grew stronger.

As for the pale mass of larvae in the pool, Evan ordered the artillery Puffcaps to expend their remaining mana on the water. When the bombardment ended, fragments of Ember Gnat larvae floated across the surface.

“Those are the spoils?”

Elara watched the Puffcaps carry away gnat corpses. They looked nothing like the treasure she had imagined.

“What else did you expect, Lady Elara? We hunted monsters. What sort of treasure should they leave?”

Did she expect them to split open a gnat’s belly and find swords and gold coins inside?

On second thought, perhaps the pool did contain something valuable.

“Actually, there might be something good in the water.”

“The pool?”

Steam still rose from the surface beneath the floating scraps of flesh. What kept it so hot?

Underground magma?

That seemed unlikely. The Magma Fiend lived far from here, and the surrounding cavern was not especially warm.

Some object inside the pool was probably producing heat continuously.

That presented a problem.

Evan could not swim.

Water would not dissolve a Puffcap, but soaking one would leave it swollen and helpless at the surface.

The Ember Gnat larvae possessed [Underwater Adaptation]. Evan could haul them home, decompose them, obtain the skill, and create a new Puffcap variant capable of searching the pool.

While he considered the necessary steps, Elara plunged headfirst into the water to hunt for treasure.

Evan finally remembered that she already possessed Underwater Adaptation LV6.

The advantages of an exceptional upbringing were difficult to overstate.

“Evan! Look what I found!”

Elara climbed from the pool. Behind her, a Water Serpent carried a glowing orange fragment. Heat rolled from its surface, evaporating the water around it.

The spell could not hold the fragment for long, so Elara dropped it on the ground beside the pool.

“Do you know what it is?”

Evan would not have known, except the object possessed a Status Panel.

Until this moment, he had never seen a Status Panel attached to an inanimate object.

[Divine Artifact: Sunstone Fragment]

What?

How had exterminating a swarm of LV20 gnats produced a Divine Artifact? Whoever designed monster loot had made a serious mistake.

The panel offered no information beyond the name. Was that because the object was only a fragment?

Whatever it was, taking it home for study could not hurt.

“Evan?”

“How would I know? It looks useful, though. We can use it to keep the mushrooms warm.”

A pack Puffcap wrapped the fragment in a ball of mud and carried it away.

Elara did not object. She had joined the expedition in exchange for the A-grade Mana Crystal, so the spoils naturally belonged to Evan. She had only been curious.

While Evan and Elara celebrated the success of their great expedition, another group on the surface was being driven to despair by the thought of her.