Here, a bronze beasts line reigned supreme:
The mushrooms pulsed in warning when Ren detected the first trace: claw marks on the walls, so fine they seemed carved with diamond. Knowledge flowed revealing fragments about a new species: the Deep Assassins.
The Assassins were the true predators here.
Their bodies, long and segmented but with hyper-articulated elongated limbs, allowed them to move along walls and slip through narrow tunnels, while also being covered in vibration sensors that could detect the slightest movement through the rock.
Their bodies, a matte black that absorbed all light, made them practically invisible in darkness.
But most terrifying was their proboscis.
‘Like a diamond sword,’ Ren thought while examining one of the marks.
Knowledge showed him how the beast used this lethal tool: first locating its prey, then piercing through up to 50 centimeters of rock and its prey’s skin or shell, then injecting enzymes that paralyzed and liquefied internal organs to slowly suck them out.
Their prey remained alive through most of the process.
They seemed like a nightmare born from the fusion between an assassin bug and a hunting spider, but perfectly adapted to subterranean life.
The Assassins primarily hunted deep worms and Living Tunnels, ambushing them from the other side of walls that weren’t yet reinforced.
The Assassins were the reason why all other beasts at this level built reinforced refuges.
But nothing was completely safe. The Assassins always found a weak point, a thinner section, an unprotected angle.
Some abandoned tunnels showed signs of ancient battles: walls perforated with small holes, abandoned galleries full of circular marks, remains of emptied shells.
Ren had less than fifteen minutes before the mana overloaded him.
It was time to advance, but first he would need to ensure no killer decided to add him to its core collection.
All creatures here were practically blind. Ren intensified the glow in a pulse that illuminated the distance just once.
A movement caught his attention.
A killer emerged from its hiding place, its nearly 5-meter body moving with disturbing grace. Four white and opaque eyes, blind, glowed faintly against Ren’s light, while specialized antennae tested the air for prey.
The beast slid along the wall without making the slightest sound, its legs detecting vibrations that revealed the position of creatures in nearby tunnels. Its proboscis, normally folded beneath its head, briefly extended, it was almost as long as Ren was tall.
‘A perfect predator,’ Ren observed fascinated as the Assassin located its prey: a greater worm excavating too close while expanding a tunnel.
The beast calculated the exact angle to pierce the rock.
With a fluid movement, the Assassin pressed its proboscis against the wall. There was no sound as it drilled, the precision such that it barely displaced material. In seconds, it had created a perfect hole toward its victim.
Ren was grateful the killer was too far away and occupied to hear his steps.
He stopped in a small side cavern, acutely aware that any wall could hide a lurking killer. The mushrooms pulsed showing him it was clear.
The air was now much denser, charged with mana that made breathing require conscious effort. Ren advanced cautiously, each step measured while his senses adapted to the increasing pressure.
The prepared shadow stalker tentacles absorbed some of the excess mana, but he could still feel it accumulating in his system.
The tunnels here didn’t look like rock caverns anymore, transforming into something that seemed less mineral and more organic.
The connecting tunnels and walls had a yellowish tone that melted into deep oranges, as if he were entering the entrails of a colossal beast.
That’s when he saw it: a Living Tunnel emerging from a side gallery.
Ren pressed himself against a wall, holding his breath while the beast worked. It wasn’t aggressive, but at this depth everything was potentially lethal for him.
Even more so if it confused him with a small hunter bug.
The advance continued.
At this depth, the Living Tunnels’ work had created a maze that seemed designed to confuse.
‘An escape and defense system,’ Ren understood while carefully navigating.
Ren stopped at an intersection, aware that mana was already beginning to saturate his system. The vein was close, he knew from his knowledge. But between him and his objective lay a sea of identical tunnels.
A soft pulse. The illumination bounced off the walls, returning with information.
Another pulse. Clearer this time, the tunnels had a pattern. The Living Tunnels didn’t dig randomly; their galleries followed specific rules.
‘Like a chronology,’ he thought while studying the marks on the walls. The older sections returned a more opaque glow. As they approached active zones, the designs became more reflective.
A third pulse revealed more: main intersections always had seven exits. Secondary ones, five. Those leading to rest areas, three.
Knowledge flowed as Ren advanced: the mana vein was too powerful for creatures at this level to approach directly.
‘The vein must be in an old saturated zone,’ he reasoned. ‘Living Tunnels would avoid rebuilding near a pure mana geyser, some must have exploded sometimes with so much energy.’
Following this logic, Ren began tracking back in time through the patterns. Each intersection led him to more opaque but crystal-rich tunnels.
Information came in fragments as he studied the tunnel patterns. The vein periodically expelled a geyser of pure mana that crystallized into a huge crystal formation of at least 5th rank, creating a chamber that no common beast could penetrate.
Only something with the power of a ‘dragon’ could break that mana-saturated rock to feed.
But most fascinating was what knowledge revealed about the eggs. Some emerged from the geyser itself.
‘A Living Tunnel or Deep Killer egg would be useful,’ he thought, ‘but the contract wouldn’t work like that.’ The beast he would get would be more basic: a digger beetle like Taro’s, or perhaps a hunter bug. The potential was there, but it would take time to develop.
The vein he sought was very small.
Knowledge whispered that in areas like this, an egg appeared perhaps every decade. The academy probably conducted periodic dives to collect the fixed eggs they found.
But few bothered to search for them.
The general perception was that digger beetles and hunter bugs only reached bronze, which made their fixed eggs, though more expensive, less desired than the brown eggs the kingdom released. Fifty of those came out each year, promising the possibility of a mole too with supposedly better potential.
Still, it would be unlikely to find one and… His mantis was better for his first beast.
The beetle was a defensive beast and the hunter bug had good offensive but short-range abilities and was slower.
The mantis was faster and had some mid-range abilities; for Ren’s taste, its skill kit was more attractive… Still, having an extra egg wouldn’t be bad in any case… or he could sell it.
Ren continued advancing…
Until he found it: a yellow living bridge that seemed to breathe and crossed over a deep gallery. On the other side he could feel the vein pulsing with pure mana.
But there was just one problem.
A massive deep worm rested inside the bridge, its body occupying all the space. The beast dozed, probably recovering after excavating new galleries.