Chapter 28: The Mushroom Delves Deeper

Five Black Wolves. The first thing Ellena saw on her first day on the second floor was five Black Wolves. The beasts that once almost killed her, but then she also nearly died to Grey Wolves. Either way, these beasts would not be much of a challenge.

She rushed through the first group breaking nary a sweat and carried on to the tunnels behind. The Black Wolves individually seemed stronger than Elder Grey Wolves, but definitely not as powerful as the Matriarch was. Logically if the Lair of the Lonely Wolf kept the dungeon theming going, there would be some form of Black Wolf Elders and a boss. Both of which would likely give her a lot of trouble.

After an hour or so, it seemed as though she was in the Black Wolves territory, which explained why the Horned Rats never moved down here, it would have been a difficult struggle to move in on this particular pack's land. The only other beasts she saw so far were the Giant Razbats, which were irritating, but not difficult to deal with. Other than that she had run into a couple of Black Wolf variants, neither of which seemed to be the Elders of the species.

The first had larger fangs and longer claws that appeared to be metal. The fangs even hung down below their chins. The second were just really tough, thicker bodies, thicker fur and a lot of health. More difficult to get through than a Mollitt but faster. She had only seen two so far, but they had exhausted her beyond reason.

There was yet no sign of where the Black Wolves territory ended, but it was certainly larger than the territory of the Grey Wolves. She decided to at least try and find one other species down here before she returned home. She had taken some damage from the variant's knife-like teeth and was also already quite exhausted, so it would have been risky to stick around too much longer.

Finally, as she was about to give up her search and just return home, she found what appeared to be the edge of the Black Wolves territory. Though there were still a few of the beast wandering around.

The tunnel she stood in opened up to a massive sloped room. The roof stayed the same level, but the floor gradually sloped down to a decently wide flat floor. There were multiple other doors on the edges and multiple monster species.

In fact the room itself appeared to be a nest. Hanging from the ceiling in the center of the room was quite a large hive, the size of a house. Dog sized monsters flew around it. Ellena had never seen them, but they were decently well known in great valleys and under cliffs. The creatures were known as Buzzlars, the body of a bee with the head of a lizard, striped in orange and black.

The two other beasts she could see were Shadow Rats and Tugglits. Shadow Rats were another breed of Rats, they were a little larger than Horned Rats and had black fur and black eyes. They also had the strange ability to hide perfectly in the shadows. Thanks to the eerie light the hive seemed to give off, the Shadow Rats had no massive shadows to hide in the large open room. She even saw a few having a stand off with some of the Buzzlars.

Tugglits were also a sort of Mole-like species, though very separate to the Mollits it did seem there was a regular theme going on in this dungeon. They were by far the smallest beasts on this floor, even the Giant Razbats were double their size. They were only the size of a human head.

The reason such small monsters could survive on the same floor of several quite deadly beasts was for one simple reason. They were incredibly venomous, a venom powerful enough to drop a fully grown Mollit. They had venom stored in a needle like claw they could unleash at will. They also mostly lived in tunnels they dug under the surface. It seemed almost pointless for them to live in a dungeon really.

Ellena decided not to stick around however, as she had heard how the Buzzlars liked to swarm once locked into a fight. She didn’t notice one other thing before she left though, the tunnel exactly opposite the Black Wolves. It was the only other tunnel just as wide and was covered in vines and flora. So much so that they were creeping into the room. There was something else on the floor, another monster species. Likely similar to her own.

For now though, it was time to head home. Her first goal going forward would be to finish exploring the territory of the Black Wolves and then she would move on after. The Wolves so far were not giving her much trouble, the fanged Black Wolves could quite easily break through her high defense though, so she had to be careful about them.

She managed to hunt a few more Black Wolves and Giant Razbats on the way out and still avoided most of the first floor monsters. It still had to regain a lot of lost mana. When she did reach the outside, Ellena had a look at her stats.

The levels she had gained were decent, but there were no new skills or evolution of skills or anything of note really. She had spent the last few weeks doing nothing and the guilt was beginning to set in. Yes that was partially on purpose, she had been going non stop since she had met Ellephwen, but still now that she looked at the results it felt bad.

The ex-Human had now been a monster for over a hundred days. Three months and then some. It was well into autumn now and winter was right around the corner, yet she was still so weak compared to those around her.

Ellena gritted her little teeth and walked home with determination. Leatherworking would have to wait. Yes, she had promised Ellephwen that she would only leave when the weather improves, but she wanted to evolve at least once more before then. She had a feeling that a lone monster out in the world might have to defend themselves.

Her first goal was to clear out the Black Wolves, so far they hadn’t given her much trouble, so she assumed she could also take on their Matriarch. Or whoever it was that led them. Then after that, she wanted to pick up the pace, explore the rest of the second floor.

When she arrived home, both Ellephwen and Samora were waiting for her. She recognised their expressions. They had something they wanted to discuss with her. It felt like this was happening a lot recently.

“Sit down please, Ellena.” Ellephwen said, gesturing to the Mushmans usual seat.

Ellena obliged wondering what it was exactly she had done this time.

Samora who sat on Ellephwens right side lent forwards. “Listen Ellie. It's nothing important, but…”

“We don’t think you should fight the Lonely Wolf, Ellena,” Ellephwen finished the Elf’s hesitant sentence.

The Mushman furrowed her brow. “Why?”

“Ellie. The Lonely Wolf is as old as Belric and even more powerful. We didn’t want to keep interfering with your plans, but this is a separate matter.”

Ellena had only just realised something. She knew nothing about the Lonely Wolf. This is the first time she had even an inkling of its power. Of course a monster must be decently powerful to birth a dungeon though. There was one issue with what the two of them were saying though.

“Okay, that’s nice and all, but uh. I have no idea how powewful Belwic is…”

Samora raised a finger with her mouth open, then scrunched up her own eyebrows. She looked over to Ellephwen who shrugged her shoulder. Samora sat back and rubbed her chin.

“Yeah, I suppose you wouldn’t.”

“So, any examples or something?” Ellena asked. She was quite curious now.

Elleaphwen raised a small smile. “Belric is even more ancient than I. In general the older a monster the more power it has, partly thanks to the number of evolutions they’d have gone through. Even then, Belric is strong. Honoured, revered by some, beloved by most. Whilst he was never on the Council of the Ents, King Levias trusted his voice, his wisdom and his strength.”

It wasn’t quite the example Ellena was looking for. She was more hoping for a tale of the Bearman swinging a huge Sea Serpent around and launching it. Or something along those lines anyway. Still it did give her a good idea. It also gave her a good idea of just how unmatched she was.

She sat back in her chair and sighed. “Fine. When I weach the Lonely Wolf I’ll leave befowe meeting it, alwight? Just hope that I can at least evolve without fighting such a powewful monstew.”

“Ellie, if you somehow managed to defeat the Lonely Wolf, I think you’d probably get at least a few evolutions out of it,” Samora chuckled.

“Yes Samora, that won’t incentivise an impulsive adolescent at all,” Ellephwen replied deadpan.

Ellena couldn’t help but butt in. “Technically if I wewe still human I’d have had my twentieth biwthday by now.”

“Technically Ellena, you’d be dead.”

She couldn’t refute that. Most humans don’t live for two to three hundred years. Maybe she would have gotten extremely lucky though. Ellena had heard of a few humans living far beyond their natural lifespan thanks to magic. Not that she ever had much talent for magic.

“So.. Ellie, are we good?” Samora leant forwards.

The Mushman rolled her eyes. “I already said I wasn’t going to challenge him. I’m a weckless adolescent, wemembew? Not a suicidal one.”

Samora’s face lit up. “Thank the god’s, that's something else off my mind. I’ll get started on dinner.”

The Elf stood up and walked to the kitchen, Ellephwen stayed still watching Ellena with a smile. Ellena smiled back, but did feel a little uncomfortable with the attention.

“What?” she asked the Dryad.

“There was something else as well. A bit of good news.” Ellephwen pulled the many magically enhanced layers of bandage off her missing arm. Small roots were poking out of the stump, some of which reaching up over her skin. “I’m finally starting to heal Ellena. It’s slow, but I can feel King Levias’ dark mana fading.”

Ellena lit up. “Will you get youw arm back?” she asked excitedly.

“We’re not sure yet,” Samora chimed in from the kitchen, the sound of sizzling oil doing its best to distort her. “Ellephwen has incredible regeneration, but this is an unusual case. She should return to full strength, but whether or not she gets an arm? Hard to tell.”

“Either way, soon, I’ll finally be able to act like an actual sapient again.” Ellephwen released a charming gentle smile.

A good first day back in the dungeon had just gotten even better for the little Mushman. She found herself grinning all the wider for it. A smile that had still not faded when roasted vegetables appeared on the plate before her.