Chapter 126: Traps ahead

Chapter 126: Chapter 126: Traps ahead

The Dungeon of a Thousand Workers

Tolu remained in the cavern for several minutes, watching the Eera work.

The sight had left him unsettled, but he refused to let his emotions dictate the course of the war. He was a Dungeon Lord, and this was enemy territory. If he rushed forward without understanding what he faced, his creatures would pay for his mistake.

The Eera had already demonstrated that they could coordinate hundreds of individuals. They had guards, workers, tools, and a method of using weaker creatures to exhaust stronger ones. Whatever intelligence guided them, it was not something he could afford to underestimate.

He withdrew from the cavern with his army and returned to the passage leading deeper into the dungeon.

"Heart, can you tell how far their territory extends?"

The second floor appears to be substantially more developed than the first. I can detect numerous passages, chambers, and artificial structures beneath the surrounding terrain.

"Artificial structures?"

Yes, my Lord. The dungeon has been extensively modified.

Tolu glanced at Gravemantle.

"Then let’s see what they’ve built."

They continued downward.

The tunnel narrowed before opening into a broad chamber. Tolu expected another cavern filled with workers, perhaps another enclosure where captured creatures were being held.

Instead, he found a passage that looked almost deliberately designed to invite intruders inside.

The floor was flat and covered with carefully fitted stone slabs. Small crystals had been embedded in the walls at regular intervals, providing consistent illumination. The ceiling was supported by thick wooden beams, and shallow channels had been carved along both sides of the passage to direct water away from the walkway.

Tolu stopped at the entrance.

He studied the walls, the floor, and the ceiling.

Someone had put considerable effort into this place.

There were no elaborate decorations, no grand halls, and no unnecessary displays of wealth. Everything served a purpose. The beams supported the ceiling. The channels prevented flooding. The crystals illuminated the path without leaving large areas in darkness.

It was practical construction.

But it was also remarkably sophisticated for a dungeon inhabited by creatures that most cultivators would dismiss as weak.

Tolu crouched and ran his fingers over one of the stone slabs.

The surface was smooth, but the joints between the stones were uneven in a few places.

He withdrew his hand.

"Don’t step forward yet."

His creatures halted.

Tolu looked at the nearest smaller beast.

"Throw something onto the floor."

The creature picked up a loose stone and tossed it several metres ahead.

The stone struck the ground.

Nothing happened.

It rolled a little farther, crossed two more slabs, and came to rest.

Tolu waited.

A few seconds later, a faint clicking sound came from beneath the floor.

He immediately stepped back.

The stone slabs ahead shifted.

Several narrow holes opened along the walls, and a volley of sharpened wooden darts shot across the passage. They struck the opposite wall with enough force to embed themselves in the timber.

The trap remained active for several seconds before the holes closed.

Tolu stared at the wall.

Then he smiled faintly.

"Well. That’s new."

He approached carefully, examining the mechanism from a distance.

The trap had been concealed beneath an ordinary-looking floor. The stone had activated something underneath, which had triggered the darts. The system wasn’t particularly complicated, but it had been designed to exploit the assumptions of anyone walking into the passage.

A cultivator might notice the trap through energy fluctuations. A careless beast might simply charge forward and trigger it. An inexperienced adventurer could lose an eye before understanding what had happened.

And the Eera had built it.

"Heart, record the mechanism. I want to understand how it works."

I will attempt to determine its construction and triggering method.

Tolu examined the floor more closely.

The mechanism wasn’t powered by an elaborate magical formation. Much of it appeared to rely on tension, concealed levers, and weighted components. There was energy in the surrounding stone, but the trap itself was primarily mechanical.

That made it even more interesting.

The Eera were not relying entirely on their dungeon’s authority or their own physical strength. They were using their environment to multiply their effectiveness.

Tolu glanced back at his creatures.

"From now on, nothing steps onto an unfamiliar surface without testing it first. Keep your distance from the walls, and don’t touch anything that looks out of place."

He turned toward the trap.

"We’re going around."

They found a narrow maintenance passage running behind the wall. It was too small for Gravemantle to enter comfortably, but several of Tolu’s smaller creatures could pass through it. The passage eventually reconnected with the main corridor beyond the trap.

It was the first of many such discoveries.

The second floor was not simply a natural cavern system that the Eera happened to inhabit. They had transformed it into a network of defensive positions, workshops, storage rooms, and interconnected tunnels.

Some passages were wide enough for several creatures to move side by side. Others narrowed deliberately, forcing intruders into single file. Several chambers had low ceilings supported by beams that could be released to bring sections of the roof down.

There were pits covered with thin layers of soil, tripwires connected to wooden mechanisms, and stone blocks suspended above narrow corridors.

One room contained rows of sharpened stakes arranged around a central walkway. Another had a series of wooden frames connected by ropes and pulleys, allowing a single Eera to raise or lower a heavy barrier.

Tolu stopped in front of that particular construction for several minutes.

The mechanism was crude by the standards of a master artisan, but it was effective. The ropes passed over wooden rollers, and a counterweight helped lift the barrier. Two Eera could operate it from a protected platform, sealing an entire corridor before an enemy could cross.

Tolu had seen similar principles used in ordinary buildings and workshops. He knew that ropes, levers, and pulleys could make difficult tasks easier.

What surprised him was seeing these creatures apply those principles to warfare.

"They’re building machines," he murmured.

Basic mechanical devices, the Heart corrected. However, their application is deliberate and consistent.

"That’s what concerns me."

A few minutes later, Tolu found a workshop.

It contained stone anvils, wooden workbenches, piles of cut timber, and crude tools fashioned from bone, stone, and metal. Several Eera were using sharpened implements to shape wooden shafts, while others fitted stone points into the ends of the shafts and bound them in place with strips of tough fibre.

A separate group worked on the mechanisms used in the traps.

One Eera held a small wooden component while another tested its movement. When it failed to fit properly, they exchanged a series of clicks and antenna movements before adjusting the piece.

The finished component was passed to a third individual, who carried it toward a stack of similar mechanisms.

Tolu watched from behind a rock outcropping.

They were not merely gathering whatever materials they could find.

They had specialized tasks.

Some collected resources. Some processed them. Others assembled finished tools or maintained the traps. Their work appeared organized around the needs of the colony.

He couldn’t help comparing them to a settlement.

A crude one, certainly, but a settlement nonetheless.

There were workers, guards, builders, and stores of supplies. Their construction methods were simple, yet they had developed a practical understanding of how to make their environment serve them.

The Eera might be weak individually, but their collective intelligence was a different matter entirely.

Tolu quietly withdrew.

He had no intention of attacking the workshop yet. The information he had gathered was valuable, and there was still more of the floor to explore.

They moved deeper.

The next chamber contained a large storage area. Bundles of timber were stacked along one wall, while baskets held stone fragments, bones, and dried plants. Several sealed containers held food, and a separate section contained what appeared to be materials recovered from creatures killed on the first floor.

Tolu noticed the arrangement immediately.

Resources had been sorted by type and purpose.

Nothing appeared to have been stored randomly.

Even the waste was separated into different piles.

He looked at the rows of containers.

"These creatures understand resource management."

Their behaviour is consistent with a highly organized colony.

"More than that. They’re planning ahead."

He remembered the captured creatures in the first-floor cavern. They had been herded into enclosures and released to exhaust stronger beasts. The Eera had created an entire system around their weakness, compensating for it through numbers, tools, traps, and preparation.

The enemy Dungeon Lord had either cultivated these traits deliberately or discovered an existing species capable of using them.

Either possibility was dangerous.

Tolu continued through the second floor, encountering several small patrols along the way. The Eera did not always fight when they encountered intruders. Some retreated through narrow passages, while others attempted to lure his creatures toward traps.

The first time a patrol fled, Tolu ordered his faster creatures not to pursue.

A few seconds later, the floor ahead collapsed into a deep pit.

The second time, he noticed a group of Eera withdrawing into a side passage. He stopped his army before the entrance and sent a stone projectile inside.

A weighted barrier dropped from the ceiling.

If his creatures had charged into the passage, several would have been crushed.

Tolu’s expression grew increasingly serious.

"They’re trying to lead us."

Yes, my Lord.

"Then we stop following their invitations."

He changed his approach.