Until he found it: a yellow living bridge that seemed to breathe spanning across 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 the entire space. The beast dozed, probably recovering after excavating new galleries.
Ren studied the situation. He couldn’t use force, the slightest conflict would attract predators. Not that he had much force to use anyway…
He also couldn’t make it explode like a lesser worm because this one had a real core.
He needed the worm to move of its own volition.
A pulse from his mushrooms showed him the surroundings, searching for nearby tunnels and threats.
‘Fused worms are territorial,’ he remembered while formulating a plan. ‘And this one should be resting in its territory.’
Ren extracted the weaver’s thread while studying the situation. He had no choice; he needed to cross.
He tied one end of the thread to a stalactite above the bridge that would serve as an anchor point, and if he calculated the distance correctly…
With precise finger hits, he began generating vibrations in the ground.
Not just any pattern, but a specific one that mimicked an injured hunter bug.
The kind of prey a fused worm couldn’t resist.
Practically no beast here could…
Hunter bugs were the pre-evolution of deep assassins; if a worm or beetle could take revenge on them, they would do so without hesitation.
That’s why very few reached the surface, if they hadn’t achieved evolution along the way…
The worm stirred in its sleep, disturbed by the vibrations of the intruder in what it considered its resting space.
The deep worm finally awoke, irritated.
The enormous beast moved almost immediately, its massive body turning toward the sound’s source. Ren wrapped the thread around his hand, connected to a particularly robust stalactite to avoid it breaking.
The worm approached, each segment of its body pulsing with anticipation while searching for easy prey. Ren waited until the last moment, when the beast was fully committed to the search.
He pushed off from the ground, the thread tensing as his body swung over the bridge.
The worm detected that there was nothing at the movement’s location, but it was too late, Ren was swinging above, his feet barely avoiding grazing the beast’s enormous body.
He landed on the other side just as the worm realized it had been deceived.
But his landing generated a vibration.
The beast changed direction with surprising speed for its size, of course, it could transform its rear into its head…
It followed Ren, its entire body vibrating with irritation.
Ren didn’t wait.
He ran toward the cave pulsing with the vein’s light and reached an unexcavated tunnel section, where the hard rock would slow the worm.
Yet the beast followed, its massive body crushing and scraping rock and minerals in pursuit.
‘Too interested,’ Ren thought while running. Worms normally avoided making so much noise.
It shouldn’t want to run directly toward the vein for too long either.
Something was wrong with its persistence.
In general, Ren had felt something strange in the cave from the beginning, the beasts were more excited than they should be, constantly…
A glow ahead caught his attention, the mana vein. It was close, so close…
His fingers worked quickly with another piece of thread while running.
If the worm caught up before he reached it…
He wouldn’t let it; he just had to swing again and he’d be safe. Ren made a slip knot.
The tunnel widened slightly. The worm accelerated; Ren could almost feel its exact location under the rock by the intensity with which it dug. It was the beast’s most vulnerable moment, and yet it kept pursuing.
Then Ren felt it, a different sensation in the tunnel. Something moved behind them, something that had been attracted by the commotion.
The strange sensation was silence; the worm’s digging was the only thing that could be heard.
A sudden silence.
The constant scraping of general excavation ceased, as if all creatures held their breath.
All others had stopped to hide.
The Deep Assassin emerged like a living shadow. Its body arched with lethal precision, the proboscis extended like a nightmare lance.
The strike was so fast Ren barely saw it. The proboscis pierced the rock as if it were water, going through exactly above the worm.
The beast froze almost instantly, its massive body paralyzed at the moment of impact.
Ren stopped, his heart beating so hard he feared the sound would give him away. The assassin was just meters away, its matte black body absorbing all light while beginning the feeding process.
With infinitely slow movements, Ren backed toward the vein.
The Assassin was completely focused on its prey; Ren deduced that the worm had been fleeing, probably after detecting the predator’s presence after chasing Ren a bit, but when it wanted to stop it was already too late.
Ren continued moving away with extreme slowness.
Each step away from the Assassin seemed to last an eternity. The vein glowed tantalizingly close, but one sound, one careless movement…
The sound of moving fluids filled the tunnel. The Assassin had begun consuming its prey, its proboscis injecting enzymes that would liquefy the worm from inside.
Ren continued backing away, every muscle tense with the effort of maintaining absolute silence. The vein’s glow intensified with each step.
Just a little more…
But he couldn’t move this slowly for so long.
Ren was drenched in cold sweat. The mana was so dense it was suffocating him. The tentacles were almost saturated; he had maybe ten minutes before the excess would overload him.
He continued backing away but… The mana pressure became unbearable.
Ren tried to maintain concentration, but his senses began to cloud. With trembling fingers, he extracted the last tentacle, needing to release some of the overload.
The slow movement, the pain, the concentration on the tentacle, and the fear of the killer made him distracted, too much, and his foot hit a loose stone.
The sound, barely louder than a whisper, seemed to resound like thunder in the tunnel’s silence. The Deep Assassin turned instantly, its matte black body moving with unnatural fluidity.