Chapter 177: Warren

It takes approximately twelve seconds for every single worm in the dang burrow to smell me. I see the way their mouths full of jagged teeth turn towards me, and very swiftly dispel the saddle I so conveniently created. This, of course, means that when the worm thrashes again, I am promptly launched back into the tunnel, landing with more than a few scrapes that I swiftly heal.

“Kuro, I will need your help here,” I whisper, as what I can only describe as an avalanche of giant worms crashes towards me. A blink later, darkness floods the tunnel. Kuro summons shadows that creep across the hallway, clinging to the walls, like a thin mist made from clinging, black smoke. 

“Huh. When’d you learn that?” I ask, whispering, as I start to run away. Kuro simply purrs in response, creating a cat’s head from my cloak for me to pet. I oblige my little critter-friend, and then I focus a lot more on the whole ‘running’ business.

[Obfuscation] wraps around me heavily, and I rely on my mental map of the caverns. [Annexation] has helped me keep track of every intersection and which way the worm headed down, so it’s easy to maneuver my way back - though the worm’s screeching gives me a headache.

“Kuro, you can’t dampen noise, can you?” I ask politely, but I get a small negative response from them. They even sound disappointed in themselves. “No, no, don’t worry, you’ve not done anything wrong,” I reassure them with a small smile.

So cute. To think that they once tried to eat me from the inside out, when they’re now such a gentle creature. I shake my head softly, darting down another intersection, quickly imbuing some rocks with [Suppression] traps. It’s a novel usage of the skill - enchanting rocks to detonate into little fields that’ll slow the worms down - and I feel a small pull of a level, quickly suffocating it.

Just a little more waiting, and I’ll gladly embrace another threshold of mana. There’s just a small bit I need to prepare before then. Just a tiny thing.

One of the worms leaps at me from the darkness, clamping its jaws around my shoulder. A moment later, Kuro erupts into a coat of spikes, ruining its insides, and then my [Suppression] hits it like a truck. Instantly, the worm stops thrashing, and after another two steps, I hit it with a heavy [Deconstruction].

Its teeth disintegrate from the spell and the worm flops to the ground a moment later. Bleeding and motionless, but not dead. I continue to sprint.

A few more turns, and a good hour of nonstop sprinting, supported by Perpetual Pursuit, before I return to the rest of the party, sporting only a couple bleeding bites and only a dozen dire worms behind me. Opal laughs. Inu sighs. Thatch rubs his eyes, and Sylves loudly mocks me.

It takes all of fifteen seconds for them to dispatch the worms. In the end, Inu holds one of them again, for Trey to put down. The kid is still staring at his first skill with big eyes, watching ichor pour from the worm he stabbed. Anna gently pulls him away while it bleeds out. 

Then, I have to go through the horrible chore of telling everyone about what I saw. “Found the exit,” I say simply. “It’s past a worm-warren. About two hundred.”

“You also lost a bit of skin, Snow,” Sylves teases instantly, giggling at me. 

Softly, I tilt my head, triggering my healing skill and pouring a ton of mana into it. In a moment, gold and white pour over me, and I smile slightly. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”

The faerie looks at me as if I’ve broken her heart, and sticks out her tongue. “Cheater!” she declares loudly, earning a snicker from Inu.

“Now, now,” our vanguard says. “Snow, you found the way up?” 

I nod.

She smiles. “Good job,” she praises. “The worm-riding did its job, then. Think we can take the warren?”

“Yes,” I confirm.

In a swift motion, Inu claps her hands and gets up. “Good,” she says. “Then let’s do that. I can feel other people on this floor, after all.”

At that, my eyes widen. “Other people?”

“Strong,” she supplies with a nod. “And… rather angry, too, you see?”

Ah. That’s how she spotted them, then. My [Observation] is omnidirectional, but it’s much shorter in range than her [Empathy]. Thatch’s [Piercing Gaze] is great for mapping out tunnels, especially in terms of finding secret rooms, but when it comes to detecting people, Inu is better. 

I nod, then rise to my legs again. My muscles are burning from the run, but despite that, I keep the cruncher active. It makes it harder, but I can feel myself growing, even as I burn through calories. Luckily, we prepared supplies - I would prefer to avoid eating worm-meat. Yes, it’s picky, but food aversions get like that.

Then again, Richard could probably make them taste decent. I eye the small hiy’ht, only to find her already chewing on the worm that Trey put down. When she notices my gaze, she gives me a wide smile and quickly finishes the meal.

And then we’re off, off to clean up the warren.

- - -

“Ugh, this is horrible. Do we really have to do this?” Isabelle complains. She grimaces at the water in her boots, she complains about the smell, she complains about the need to fight at all. She complains so much that I get almost nostalgic for first floor Norman.

“Snow, stop insulting my dad in your head,” Inu chides me.

I look at her, and my eyes must have given away my surprise, because as I stare at her, the girl just rolls her eyes. “How?” I ask.

At that, she smiles smugly. “Well, you had that look. The one you usually have when you consider killing my dad because he’s being a bit grumpy.”

Isabelle’s head snaps over at that. “You were thinking of killing me?!” she demands.

I shake my head. “Don’t be ridiculous,” I say. “Never. I was just thinking back to how Norman used to, uh, nag at me for every little thing I did. Or didn’t do. Really, he was just upset at everything.”

“And then he learnt!” Inu says with a smile. “He’s gotten better, right?”

For a moment, I think. Then I remember him stealing for me. Him saving me from social interaction at the party. The way he actually stood up for me, too. I smile, just a tiny bit. “Mhm, he did.” Then my eyes fall on the old lady, and I compare her with modern Norman - a much less favourable outcome. 

Something in my eyes must have given it away, because she just grumbles, then stomps further ahead, as if looking for something to kill. She does find worms. Only one of them is left toothless after giving me a bite wound. And we continue on.

- - -

We make it to the warren within about three hours, walking swiftly. Trey gets tired, but whenever he does, Opal just lets him ride on their shoulders. This does make him hit his head on the cave roof once, but I quickly heal that bruise. Bofoy, somehow, manages to keep up effortlessly, and has proven themselves a rather capable scout. 

They’re swift, have good hearing, and can reliably pass messages between people. It’s a less combat-focused build than some, but they slot into the party nicely, and their mantle is one that can preserve information, almost like voicemail. It’s useful.

Still, they do try to fight, dashing in with a rapier. It looks a little funny when held in their thin, wiry hands, but they move it well and are able to swiftly damage some worms before getting back out. Mediocre, but acceptable. Isabelle, for her part, butchers them.

Her glaive carves through the worms quickly, though she often needs multiple strikes to put them down, courtesy of her low stats. They were carried up here, after all. Apparently, if an authority is strong enough, it lets people make “links” and pull people up floors that way. It’s only really feasible for Eyes or their main avatars, though.

It also negatively impacts the people being moved, generally. They’re, after all, not ready for that mana density yet. It can cause some amount of sickness, even small mutations. Not really too extreme on the lower floors, of course, but the higher up in the tower one goes, the stronger the effects of being dragged up.

Then again, the floor apparently open up a bit on the higher ones. I’m curious to see what that’ll look like.

[Selection 27 > 28]

With practiced ease, I lay down a large-scale [Suppression] field in the warren, while making sure that it only targets the worms with [Selection]. My party moves unimpeded through the field, while the worms struggle, as if they’re underwater. Or maybe in honey.

A small smile spreads on my face as I think of how the tower made me feel. Like an insect trapped in amber, when it shunted Flamando from the third floor up to the fourth. I can see the similarity to what I’m doing. I’ve learnt. 

And that makes me happy.

I watch as Opal [Blinks] again, cutting another worm in half. Sylves hovers above the battlefield elegantly, skewering them with lances of compressed air, or by gently asking the dripstone or water for aid. Her grasp on nature seems to be expanding.

Thatch simply tears into them, manifesting giant claws. Weapons are force-multipliers, giving better leverage - but Thatch creates that leverage by simply giving himself longer limbs, outfitted with natural weaponry. More than anyone else, he scythes through the crowd.

And then I look at Inu. My best friend, as she elegantly steps in the middle of the horde, whistles, and has a tide of worms flowing against her. And yet, when they reach her, they freeze, one by one. Then, she hits them, using her gauntlets, and a moment later, they explode.

It’s awesome to watch.

Bit by bit, we clear the warren. Some of us more swiftly, some more slowly. Anna slinks around the edges, throwing knives made from mana while sticking to the shadows. Trey very carefully pokes them with his spear. Isabelle and Bofoy run in and fight, but still stick to the edges, Richard rampages hungrily.

And then it’s done.

Two hundred worms, all in their 30s or 40s level-wise. Enough to wipe out a small town of mundane people back on Earth. It’s almost scary how quickly we brought them down. Almost. But seeing Opal teleport, seeing Sylves hover so freely in the air… I’m still glad for these powers.

Even if mine are a bit destructive, I can live with that. As long as my friends get to be free. As long as I get to grow, as long as I get to see more, to indulge my curiosity. I smile, ever so faintly, as the exit to the floor unlocks - a staircase, with a runic inscription on its side. A hundred million runes, so tiny and intricate I can’t even begin to decipher them, hidden behind a dozen layers of obscurement.

Enough to let me know they’re there, not enough to let me have them. The Tower truly is dastardly, teasing my curiosity that way. But in my deep kindness, I forgive it. It’s more fun to find the secrets myself anyway. 

Taking care not to get any worm-blood on my shoes - namely by walking on a carpet of shadow - I make my way to, then up the staircase, flanked by my friends. The first safe room awaits us. And there, finally, I’ll indulge the levels pressing against my class. I’ll cross another threshold of mana.

And I’ll survive. I definitely won’t explode from the pressure of my own mana.

Probably. 

… Surely.

- - -

A/N: Small reminder that you can read ahead on patreon. Please only support me if you feel that you are able <3