Soon enough, one of the beasts was declared the winner. Unfortunately for Ed, it was the magic mole. The reason why Ed hated the thing was precisely the reason why even after winning the battle, the mole continued to loiter around.
It just loved to dig out his mushrooms looking for bugs to eat! Fortunately, there weren't any mushrooms for it to dig out. No, wait that wasn't a positive…
'Sigh… I got to kill you' Ed made his remaining sling shrooms fire at the mole instantly angering it. But before it could dig into the ground to dodge the small balls of fire, an enhanced explosion blasted its pale sensitive skin.
Saying it had received burns was an understatement as its figure was rendered unrecognizable. Yet, though roasted the mole still managed to pitifully cling onto life. This didn't help it when new fireballs catapulted onto its body and turned the third and second-degree burns into unbearable pain!
The magic mole died without any fanfare and Ed started to gnaw at its corpse with his fungi. It took a bit since the mycelium had been erased by the explosion but he did eat it eventually. The decacrawler and the earthen worm also suffered the same fate.
'I did get plenty of nutrients I suppose…' The small bugs were also consumed for energy but putting aside that they weren't very nutritional, the explosion ensured that there was little to eat in the first place.
Never mind a pyrrhic victory, Ed found no victory in the end! He had to say, he felt quite ashamed. His overconfidence got the best of him. Fortunately, and this time he meant it, the lost mushrooms could be easily recovered.
'I'll have to modify the bait' The bait functioned by luring over the bugs and the bugs lured over the bigger predators. But unless he could deal with the bugs leaving it as such was unwise.
He had to make it target the crawlers, worms, etc, specifically. Otherwise, history would repeat itself.
Ed entered the system space with this in mind and found the other piece of himself, W, waiting for him in the storeroom.
'That was a bit rough' W commented, transmitting plain sarcasm.
Ed nodded however and went through a quick list of items NOT to include in the new bait. First on the list were the fruits and flowers. They attracted more small bugs than he could cope with. Another thing Ed had decided to remove was the doom shroom.
It wasn't that he didn't want to keep the exploding aspect, but rather that it couldn't work in its current form. As long as the explosion wafted the bait smell, Ed was losing by keeping it.
With a new, or rather, modified list of materials at the ready Ed forged a new bait.
[Monstrous Snack (Bait)]
{ A fine snack for a bloodthirsty monster. Attracts trouble }
The new bait was less over the top giving Ed some confidence but he also knew that this alone wouldn't suffice.
'I need new shrooms to hold the fort, or to upgrade the others' Something like electricity would do nicely. He needed some crowd control if things were starting to get awry.
'How about using some skills on the sling shrooms?' W suggested while sifting through his own memories for good options.
Ed did the same hearing the suggestion and quickly realized that he had yet to extract skills from the mole, decacrawler, and maybe even the bugs.
'Their consciousnesses seem to not exist most of the time though' If their consciousnesses were too weak they would die out before reaching Ed and entering the system space. Otherwise, he would definitely get some flying mushrooms.
Putting that aside, Ed quickly ran over to the spirit room with conviction. This time, he would pass the first round! He had marked down the difficulty after all.
***
In the cold darkness of the laborious tunnel, the atmosphere was poor. The knights and mages were starting to feel some resentment towards Ray for pushing them into such a situation.
Those that bought the first tremor were more capable of understanding his decision but when they remembered him shooting the commander and dying alongside him… That's when it became hard to understand his actions.
"We will be there in an hour" Tarin said after performing a brief check on their distance to the surface. The number of sullen faces quickly decreased as the knights and mages now started to work with more Vigor.
The oxygen in the area had started to grow slim at this point. Fortunately, the garden was full of breathable air and much of it did get to enter the tunnel. It was barely enough for them not to die of suffocation.
For the next torturous sixty minutes, the knights and mages fantasied about what they'd do when faced with the light of the shining sun.
"Obviously I'll take off all of my gear and dance naked" One said causing some's eye to twitch. We'd rather you don't! They wanted to scream but didn't have the courage to douse the knight's enthusiasm.
"I… I'll stare straight at the sun to bask in its glory!" Another said hopefully joking. They had nothing against the blind but… who wanted a blind teammate when in combat?! Dumb to top it off!!!
These small conversations lightened up the initially tense mood and when those first rays of sunlight seeped into the tunnel from above they all couldn't help but grin. They made it.
"W- We live!" One mage exclaimed before taking a deep breath verifying they had really escaped the cavern. The situation felt unbelievable and the other shared the same sense of incredulity. The events that happened to get thus far were inexplicable.
First, the crypt was chock-full of traps. It was a floor filled with devious scheme after devious scheme. These schemes were not simple as they managed to take the lives of some elite like Fox the Ex-leader of the magician scouts.
On the floor following that… they didn't even wish to speak of it. The orc which held strength far beyond what was permissible was now a trauma of many.
The rays of sunlight eventually expanded and multiplied in number as more and more knights picked at the dirt ceiling.
Finally, the knights started to climb out of the hole they dug on the ceiling. Their armors which were originally pristine and clean were now filthy. One might think that their armor color was brown from how naturally it all blended into it.
"Ah… My legs… This has been the worst period of my life…" A knight muttered as they limped out of the hole exhausted. With them being like this, the mages' state could only be inferred.
The knights started to help the mages out whom they presumed would be extremely exhausted but...
"FREE!!!!" Some shouted when they first took the step outside. They wanted to giggle and laugh like madmen but refrained to keep the aloofness of mages. Though one of their partners had already ruined such an image...
Everyone was out of the damnable hole which was great, but once the smiles died down a problem arose.
"Who will command us now?" One of the remaining squad captains, Kiano, asked. In truth, there were only like four capable people due to the loss of about six squad captains already.
There was no time for internal strife, but there was also no time for any pointless squabbles over who could order who and to what.
The royal family was the only one that could appoint commanders but the only royal family member present was the king who was stolen by Eon. Just thinking about it was enough for one to feel extremely bitter, so the squad captains did not address this.
"I think we should-" Siar who was about to make his case suddenly stopped after noticing something.
"Or- Orcs!" Siar screamed and immediately began preparing an incantation. The situation was not good!
All the digging they performed had taken them to the outskirts of the orc village. It was even away from the settlement's gate that was the entrance. They were going out through the back so why were there orcs there?
One might even start to think that they had predicted their location which was just impossible.
The topic of who would lead no longer mattered. The ones whose captains had died would have to try and protect themselves or appoint someone amongst themselves with the urgency of the situation.
There were 20 of about 10 but 8 squads worth of people had already been eliminated. That meant that they had roughly 100 people and unfortunately, of those only five squad captains.
The captains were always at the forefront and prone to injury. Balin's overprotective tendencies were to blame. The commander and captains couldn't always put themselves in danger lest their squad turn into a group of headless chickens after their deaths.
Battle cries rang out as orcs carrying heavy axes appeared and surrounded them from uncountable areas. A surprisingly large majority of them orc woman which was at most a peculiarity. It didn't change what they all had to do.
"I know we are tired from digging but… one last time! Kill them!" Roared Kiano lifting his sword into the air. His attempt at lifting morale did not fail as even the mages with trembling legs were able to compose themselves.
That was because killing the orcs wasn't an order, it was a matter of course!