Chapter 24: 24 – Dark Caves and Darker Monsters

Ah, nothing like a little divine providence to make things more interesting! Glad you could help a fellow god out, Laubat. Tess would never get to show off her skills at this rate!

“It was a simple matter. The cave was already there.”

Ah stop it with the humility. We both know you wanted to see what Tess could do!

“Perhaps I just wanted to test one of my more devout followers.”

You keep telling yourself that, buddy. Anyway! I wonder what they’ll find inside this spooky cave!

---

“You alright?” Tess called out.

“I’m. Fine,” Alai grunted. The only thing the fall had hurt was his pride.

“Can you pull him up with wind?” Tess asked Mirari.

Mirari shook his head. “Levitating someone else is a spell of the fourth pentagram. I’m only in the third.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Tess answered. “But you can explain it later. We’ll get some rope and help him up.”

“Wait!” Alai said. “The cave keeps going.”

“Don’t you dare suggest we explore it,” Tess said. “We didn’t bring the equipment for cave exploration.”

Alai looked up at Tess, his head and heart struggling. Tess wanted him to listen to her, but he knew she would never like him if he kept making mistakes like this! Mother told him that women liked strong, confident men.

Of course, Mother also said women liked men who listened.

“Just stay there,” Tess said. “We’re getting the rope and we can call it a day once we haul you up.”

That settled it. Alai wasn’t about to let the day end with him making a fool of himself. Tess would be angry, but she’d understand once he brought back a monster’s head as a prize.

It was how Father had wooed Mother. Therefore, it would work for Alai.

“I’m going to go in a bit farther to explore,” Alai said.

“Don’t you dare,” Tess said.

“It’ll only be a second,” Alai said as he started walking. “There probably isn’t anything in this cave.”

“Did you listen to anything I said?!” Tess complained.

Alai’s voice echoed from further in the cave. “I’ll be safe! I have my bow and everything.”

Mirari pulled Tess’s attention away from another retort. “I believe it’s time we use my teaching method.”

Tess groaned. “If he gets hurt.”

“Then it is on him,” MIrari answered. “The Gimu would understand.”

The adventurer tied the rope to a secure tree trunk and rapelled down.

Tess watched as Mirari traveled further into the dark cave. “This world and their reckless idiots,” she groaned.

You can afford to be a bit more reckless when injuries heal in hours and not weeks!

Tess shook her head at Novus’s intrusion. “One day I hope to get a skill that turns you off.”

The woman ignored the next box that appeared in favor of following her companions. She grabbed the rope and walked herself down the slope, making sure to scan for anything that might attack.

The cave below smelled of old moss and older wood. A multitude of roots branched along the cave walls like cracks on stone, their shadows elongated by the sunlight above. Said light vanished further into the cave, prompting Tess to open her status sheet and switch Protein Powder for Fairy Light.

She spent her mana, letting a bulb of incandescence appear in her hand.

“Hey!” It chirped.

Tess broke the connection with a scowl on her face. She should have known the skill couldn’t be a simple light spell. No, Novus had to make it interesting.

Instead, Tess equipped the skill Blind Fighting. Knowing what was within five feet of her was better than an annoying sprite of light grating her ears.

Tess made her way through the cave, keeping one hand on the wall as she walked. She eventually caught up with Mirari, the man waiting in the dark.

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“Our reckless friend seems to have found a pack of Mamlan,” the Jejende said. “I hear him up ahead preparing a shot.”

“What are Mamlan?” Tess whispered.

“Large insects with a spear for a mouth. They stab a paralyzing venom into a creature, wrap it up in harvested grasses, and bring it back to their home to incubate their children inside.”

Tess shuddered. “And he wants to hunt one?”

“Hunt three, by the sound of it,” Mirari answered.

Tess sighed. “Alright, what’s the plan?”

“Mamlan are quick,” Mirari whispered. “However, they cannot turn once they charge. Our preferred method of hunting them is to have one member draw the bugs together in one charge. Then, another member attacks with a wide area blast, often fire or wind.”

“I don’t think we have that luxury,” Tess said. “I can’t exactly see in the dark.”

“Lighting a torch would also call attention to us, and in such a tight area I don’t see a way to evade.” Mirari said.

“Well, we have to decide on something fast,” Tess answered. “There’s no telling what Alai might do. Tell me, are the Mamlan able to pierce stone?”

“No,” Mirari said.

“Then I have a stupid plan, but maybe the best we have,” Tess answered.

---

Alai tensed as he felt the vibrations of the earth below him. His prey was skittering across the cave walls, unaware that they were about to be silenced by his great hunting skill. And once Tess saw his ability, she’d forget all about how he didn’t listen and instead praise him.

He readied his boy, aiming toward the darkness where he last felt the skittering footsteps. Alai held his breath as he pulled the arrow back. With a soft exhale, Alai let the arrow fly.

He heard as well as felt the arrow’s impact, his affinity with the earth giving him the knowledge. A chirping hiss came from the direction of the arrow, further signaling that Alai had struck true.

The teenager cheered with a pumped fist. “Yes!”

The elation fell away when more skittering footsteps shook the earth. It turned out his prey wasn’t alone, and Alai hadn’t noticed because the others hadn’t been moving. However, this only spurred the teenager. If Alai killed all the monsters in this den then no one could question his skill.

He readied another arrow, letting it fly as soon as he felt more footsteps. Another chirping hiss signaled that he’d hit, and Alai smirked as he readied another arrow.

And then his sense showed the footsteps of the last creature slamming toward him almost faster than an arrow.

Alai panicked, his ankle twisting on a root as he turned to run. By sheer luck, the young Gimu fell to the side with barely enough space for the monster to pass through it.

But Alai’s earlier shots hadn’t killed the monsters earlier, and the teenager felt more footsteps rushing toward him.

A soft light filled the room, and Alai saw Tess leaping over to his location. She landed between Alai and the creature charging.

With the light above Tess, Alai now saw what his prey was. The Mamlan was already moving toward Tess, it’s six legs spinning like pistons on a steam train. The long stinger, dripping with a paralytic toxin, pointed straight at Tess, rapier-like in its shape.

“Watch out!” Alai shouted. He wanted Tess to dodge, to move to the side. He didn’t want to see her die because of his mistake.

But Tess didn’t move. Instead, she brandished a bone white pickaxe, using it as a guard. The Mamlan slammed into Tess, taking the woman off her feet. The monster kept charging, tripping over Tess as she landed on the ground.

Alai gasped, thinking that the monster had taken Tess out. The keening cry of pain from the Mamlan gave him pause. To his surprise, the monster’s sting had crumpled in one itself.

Tess coughed and stood. Her pickaxe was in two pieces, and there was a small hole in her shirt, but the woman otherwise looked unharmed.

“You alright?” she asked Alai.

The teen nodded.

Tess nodded back before turning to the Mamlan. She pulled her gifted knife out of its sheath and moved to the recovering monster.

Her stomach burned where the monster had struck, but Stoneskin combined with Defensive Fighting and Bone Pick had done its job. The pickaxe had been the biggest gamble. Tess was unsure that she had the skill to block with it despite its rather wide handle.

In the end, it had been a close thing. The bonus to Tess’s reflex had barely been enough to let her shift her hands at the last second. Her weapon shattered under the impact, but had in turn broken the monster’s weapon.

Tess brought her knife down on the monster as it stood, stabbing deep into the creature’s compound eye. It screamed, a loud clacking noise that reminded Tess of shifting gears. She winced, but brought the knife down again, silencing it for good.

The woman turned back to Alai, watching Mirari dispatch the second Mamlan out of the corner of her eye. That left one more, the one Alai had wounded with his first shot.

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