Chapter 94: Ready for anything

Chapter 94: Ready for anything

Mason and the others explored the tunnels one by one. They branched and branched—some with buried dead ends, others with more green pools or clusters of eggs, usually guarded by insectoids. But nothing like the huge cluster they’d buried, and Mason usually just hacked them down without much difficulty.

Mercifully, nothing else collapsed, and slowly but surely they cleared out room after room of the insects, smashing hundreds of eggs.

“If whatever is laying these eggs ever finds us, or possibly even smells us,” Carl said as he kicked, “it’s not likely to be happy. I’m up to my knees in dead worm baby.”

Mason frowned. “Don’t remind me.”

“At least if fail to kill momma worm and just get out of here, we’ve dealt with a lot of future worms.” Carl shrugged.

Mason glanced at his dimly lit face. “I don’t think we get out of here without killing momma worm. I don’t think it’s that kind of dungeon.”

“Oh.” Carl took a deep breath. “Then I’d guess we better keep going.”

Mason appreciated the man’s courage, and gave him a shoulder pat on the way by. But not much changed in their fortunes. They found more pools, more eggs, more insectoids. When they’d had their fill of all three they slumped to the ground and drank a little water, working on Rosa’s leftover beef.

“Any bacon?” Mason asked as he chewed, and Carl grinned.

“How long have we actually been down here? I’ve totally lost track.”

“A day?” Mason honestly wasn’t sure either. His newfound physique really didn’t help him know his body worth a damn. When they’d sat long enough Mason just wanted to sleep, he decided the fun was over.

“Good to continue?”

Carl groaned, but he stood.

Nothing much changed in their tunnel adventure. Mason kept taking them left whenever possible, and they went on smashing more eggs in little rooms. Then they found a room with already smashed eggs. Mason stopped and stared.

“Fuck.”

“Well.” Carl cleared his throat. “It could be...something else smashed all the eggs. And has approximately size 11 boots.”

Mason put a hand to his face and tried to think. They had no damn way of navigating down here, that was just reality. His Wayfinder ability didn’t work underground, or possibly in dungeons, showing him only the surface map of where he was.

There was too many paths, too many variables. For all they knew tunnels were collapsing and opening as they went. Or maybe they had to go down. Or up. Or...

“Get out the rations.”

Mason sighed, and activated Speak with Nature. Whatever the hell that purple worm was, it seemed vaguely intelligent. He touched the sand and offered another trade, hoping the same creature returned and not something...less friendly.

They hardly waited at all before the wall sprayed open, and the purple worm dropped out and rose with a curious quirk, black eyes staring.

[Can you take us to The Great devourer? The giant worm? The..] Mason shrugged and trailed off. “The boss dungeon,” he muttered.

His new purple friend made a warbling grunt, but it didn’t seem to actually say anything this time. Then the scent hit him after a delay, and he understood.

[Why?]

Oh dear, Mason thought. Time to guess. Were they friends or foes? Ah hell Blake was right he couldn’t lie to save himself anyway.

[We’re here to kill it.]

The purple worm warbled in little starts and stops, and Mason was pretty damn sure it was laughing. He wasn’t having the greatest day. His face still felt dirt-clogged. He was tired and horny and now a talking worm was mocking him. He focused on Apex Predator and clutched his nymph charm as he met the creature’s eyes.

“I used to be pretty good with locks,” Carl said beside him, lacing his fingers and cracking his knuckles. “Let me give it the old college try.”

Mason raised a brow and stepped away, leaving a finger over the tiny slot that looked designed for a key card.

Carl glanced down and stopped.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” Mason kept looking around the tunnel. “Maybe there’s a key somewhere. I’m thinking we wander around and hope not to get eaten.”

“Good plan,” Carl muttered. Then he waved at the worm. “Thanks buddy. This is much better. Hope you enjoy my rations.”

“I think it’s female,” Mason said absently, and the older man stared.

“Do you have some kind of...worm fetish I should know about? How and why on earth would you know that?”

“I’m a druid,” Mason said. “Also this worm is smart. Like smarter than a lot of people smart, I think.”

“Uh huh.” Carl bowed dramatically towards the purple worm. “Thank you, Violet. Your service has been exemplary.”

Mason rolled his eyes but grinned a little. “Let’s just go. I’m sticking to the ‘always left’ plan. But if things get...crazy, head back to the pool. I doubt worms can eat through that stone.”

Carl nodded, game-face back on, which Mason appreciated. They walked along the huge passage, and soon realized the purple worm was following.

“What do you think it wants?” Carl whispered.

“Possibly to see us get slaughtered by the giant worm. Possibly to eat us when we’re dead. Hard to say, really.”

“That’s very comforting,” Carl hissed.

Not much changed in the tunnel after a few minutes of walking. Until Mason smelled...something. Something rotten. But he blinked because he felt a slight breeze, and there was more than just rot on the wind. Was that the surface? How was that possible?

“Oh, disgusting.” Carl said a little while later as he covered his nose.

They soon saw something like a hill in the distance. And as far as Mason was concerned, anything new was good. He ran forward, soon finding something like garbage surrounding a huge mound of...more garbage.

“Yep, this is why it stinks. Great.” Carl was panting a bit behind him when they arrived, making faces with every breath.

He shone his light directly onto the hill, discovering a moment after Mason that it was made mostly of bones.

“Oh. That...can’t be good.”

Above the mound was a large hole going straight up.

No. It probably couldn’t. And if Mason had to guess, he would say that hole was somewhere near the giant castle that ‘wasn’t a problem’.

He turned his head as he heard something— a rattling sound somewhere near, that came closer and closer and was clearly something coming down the hole. Mason put an arm across Carl’s chest and backed them both away. Then several corpses fell onto the bone pile.

The bones started to rattle. The floor was vibrating slightly.

“Get ready,” Mason whispered, noticing Violet had mysteriously disappeared behind them.

“For what?” Carl pulled one of his daggers and looked back and forth.

“I have no idea.”