Chapter 51: Stench

Chapter 51: Stench

After a bout of excitement Zac suppressed his giddiness and refocused. As much as he wanted to, he couldnt start a mining operation at the moment. He had things to do.

Besides, it likely was more effective to let the demons mine the crystals, and then commandeer it when it was all extracted and gathered. They shouldnt have sent their most powerful warriors to mine, so an assault wouldnt prove to be too difficult. He longingly took another look at the glistening walls and then kept going.

This obsession with wealth was something new he had started to develop. He hadnt really cared too much when the world still was normal, and he just was a white-collar worker. He was happy as long as he had enough to live a comfortable life.

But lately he was running toward corpses like it was Christmas morning and the bodies contained presents. It was a weird type of callousness that translated corpses into loot. He had always enjoyed the grind in video games, waiting for that rush of seeing some glimmering unique or valuable item drop. He was starting to get the same feeling in real life as well. Just the thought of finding a magic pouch full of crystals made him want to forget about the Heralds and go on a treasure hunt instead.

But he knew he couldnt, at least not for now. As he walked, he started to gradually hear rhythmic sounds of metal hitting rock. It was still far in the distance, but Zac presumed he was hearing mining operations.

He hesitated for a bit, but then reluctantly decided to go in another direction. There was no real need to see the miners at the moment, and he wouldnt risk getting exposed this early just to steal a peek. What he currently wanted to explore was whether the thrifty imp was a loner who had snuck into the caves, or whether it was part of a larger group.

As he crept along the paths the sounds of pick-axes hitting rock didnt diminish, rather it was a constant drone in this part of the cave system. This made Zac realize that the mining operations were on a larger scale than he had expected. After walking for 30 minutes the sounds finally started to diminish, letting him know he was moving away from the mining operations.

Suddenly he heard another sound and he stopped in his tracks. It was the familiar sound of light scuffling on the ground that the imp had made, but this time it sounded like came from multiple sources. It was accompanied by some clanking and subdued inane chatter that didnt quite sound like a language.

He gingerly crept forward, careful not to make a sound. He wasnt sure how sharp their senses were, and he didnt want to find out. Zac took quick peek around a corner and saw that the tunnel led into a cavern that was roughly 10 by 10 meter large. The roof was also higher compared to the usual 3-4 meters of the tunnels.

The first thing he noticed was that he didnt have to be careful of the imps smelling him out, as a wall of overbearing stench hit him as soon as he looked around the corner. It seemed that sanitation and hygiene were alien concepts to the small humanoids, as that level of smell could only come from a buildup of waste and excrement.

In short order he killed 8 of the imps without alerting anyone, and he moved to the 9th. He was approaching the innermost circle of beddings now and was quite close to the fire. As he did he reflected that the only thing that smelled worse than imp excrement was hot imp excrement.

Zac was starting to wonder if a stench could physically hurt someone, as his eyes were tearing up from the stink. If he was forced to sleep in a camp like this hed rather sleep on the edge of the cave at risk of getting eaten by a salamander, compared to sleeping next to this putrid flame.

The smell was so bad that he couldnt properly focus and he accidentally hit the sleeping imp with his foot as he approached. He quickly bent down and finished it off, but not before it managed to release a high pitched screech.

Zac knew he wouldnt be able to sneak around anymore, and immediately swapped out the dagger for his axe. He activated [Chop] and with three quick swings another five imps were dead before they managed to properly wake up.

By now the surviving imps were up, and all of them charged up a purplish-black fireball without hesitation. Zac managed to kill another two before they were done charging, but afterwards four fireballs slammed into him. The cave was simply too small, and he had no time to dodge them. Normally he would have used his chest piece here, but he wanted to save it unless it was a true life-and-death scenario. He might meet a Herald soon, so he needed all the tools at the ready.

Zac could only grit his teeth as the nefarious flames hit him, sticking to him like glue. He knew that the fires would die out when their owners did, so he wasted no time and charged at the remaining four imps. They screeched and started to flee towards a tunnel opposite where Zac came from, but Zac wouldnt give up.

Ignoring the impractically large consumption of energy, he elongated the [Chop] edge and managed to hit two of the fleeing imps, bisecting them in an instant. Their two compatriots didnt care and only started flapping their wings more fervently in order to escape.

Zac fished out a throwing dagger out of his pouch, and as he followed he threw it into the back of one of the two imps. He took out another dagger, intending to quickly end the fight. But as he prepared the throw a huge white maw suddenly emerged out of a side-tunnel, snapping shut over the imp in a lightning-quick manner.

It was another salamander that emerged from the tunnel, contentedly chewing on the small demon. It lumbered forward toward the other imp that Zac had downed and gobbled up it as well, knife and all.

Zac wasnt in a mood to fight against the salamander unless needed, as he liked the idea of these huge lizards walking around in the tunnels and helping him out by whittling down his enemies. Therefore he quickly receded into a side-tunnel in order to avoid its approach. The huge monster soon came to the entrance looking toward Zacs direction, and seemed to be hesitating for a few seconds. Zac didnt understand how they kept sensing him, as this time he had fled even further back, but he could only get ready to kill this white giant as well.

Finally it turned around and ambled away, toward the now deathly silent imp camp.