44

Most of the serpents inhabiting the cave and steppe spent the next day asleep when I made it clear to them that I would not be feeding them today. The youngest and the oldest, though, remained awake if not active along the sides of the waterway around the end of the steppe where I built the shrine bridge. These magic reptiles were already intelligent enough to be social creatures as well as feel curiosity.

Since I had spent the day before resting, I went back to increasing my Strength stat and praying while healing. It honestly took me longer to work out than it took for me to heal because of my Endurance stat but I was not exactly pressed for time. If I waited until the serpents were in need of food, I could easily raise my stats around twenty points.

Once they started becoming active and antsy from hunger, I could try to make use of the rock terrors by having them show me the way deeper into the caves. I might not be able to do much considering the enigmatic mutation that I was dealing with, but I could at least scout it out for now. If I could understand its behavior then I could come up with a plan of attack.

No plans or attacks would be taking place until I finished this shrine, though, because I wanted to be working under its direct blessings. If I was right, being in the area of this shrine once it was anointed would naturally buff my healing and other magics. If I was up against an awakened ancestry, I was going to need all the help I could get.

When I was finally tired of both working out and meditating with prayer later in the evening, I started to organize my equipment and supplies. Everything was an assortment of small and large 'stretched' sacks that my parents allowed me to use outside of home. In these sacks were all my gear and food and weapons and reagents that I had brought on the trip.

For the intent of a scouting trip I set aside a small crossbow and a slim wooden case made to carry hollow alloy bolts. Into the metal lined bottom of this case I poured a compound of paralyzing and necrotic neurotoxins. Because these came from species that existed outside the underground ecosystems, they would potentially have greater effect.

Just a few drops of this in the body was enough to cripple a deer in two minutes and kill them within the hour. To some of the creatures I might come across in these caves, it should be enough to let them die quietly and out of my way in around ten minutes. In the event that I came across some form of larger game, I packed another crossbow bolt case with hollow glass-tipped heads.

Unlike the originals that had no control over their yield or explosion type, these hollow tips contained less energy and the shafts were all enchanted to conduct kinetic energy. These arrowheads were basically super-sized concussion grenades that could blow apart the human body. Against a giant rock terror… oh, where did its head go?

Could either of these weapons be suitably used against the monster down below? Probably not. All of the toxins in the bolt case probably would not even slow down a creature of that size for at least an hour and it would probably take days to die.

If it died at all from the poison. As for the explosive crossbow bolts, the slime covering the beast's upper body part would probably be the only thing to take damage. Which would only be useful for giving the poisonous bolts somewhere to land.

I had some equipment such as pieces to a collapsible ballista and small spears with a variety of heads, but using those underground was just plain foolish. I did not plan on dying alongside the enemy. Maybe if it was in a way more public and dramatic setting while I had a slim chance for survival, but as I was now it was pointless with zero chances.

Alongside the crossbow's bolt cases I affixed to a naked belt went a pair of short single-edged swords. The swords had no abilities despite having a high conductivity enchantment, they were mostly just wands with sharp points and sides in my hands. However, there was no telling what numbers of what displaced creatures I might come across.

It was better to be safe than sorry.

To that end, I finally changed out of my self-cleaning leather traveling suit and into a light canvas jumpsuit over which I put on a set of scaled leather coat and leggings. The scales were a light alloy from metallic carapaces and mithril which were enchanted individually to be high magic resistant while the leather suit itself was enchanted to augment my Strength and Agility stats.

The matching scaled helmet I put on was alternately enchanted to augment my Willpower and Endurance stats. For gloves I wore a simple pair of leather gauntlets which were enchanted to only increase the Strength and Endurance of my arms. When I first made them, I punched apart a boulder that could fill the average living room and only hurt myself a little.

Suited up in what I considered light armor, my Strength stat was now well over one hundred and my Agility had increased so sharply so quickly that the flowing water appeared slow for a few seconds.

After those few seconds, my speed of thought and speed of body caught up with one another and the flow of time seemed to return to normal. Reaching into the drawstring purse I still carried on my person, I take out several synthetic topaz and toss them out into the waning afternoon light. A minute later three bright glowing orbs of light mana were hovering above the ground and shining like small suns.

After some brief adjustments to their output so that they only shed light within a few hundred feet of themselves, I send the first ahead to scout the waterway tunnels until it starts to go underground. Then I used the second light golem to gather up all of the biggest rock terrors in the area to act as my escorts. The third and last light golem then rose up to permanently measure the ceiling height directly over my head.

This one's brightness would need to be adjusted at all time so that both the ceiling and the ground at my feet would be visible at all times.

Was I about to enter what could potentially be my first real dungeon with a group of spotlights? Yes. Was I going to be the most highly visible and attractive item on the menu in every 'floor'? Yes. Was this what I wanted to happen? Of course.

My goal was to walk straight through the larger and more open tunnels where the other displaced creatures were likely to be. From the looks of them through the memories of the young water terror, the other species had potentially valuable exotic hides and materials. The stomach fluids of a giant subterranean rat would make the base for much stronger acid compounds than the stuff I had access to on the surface.

Because these beasts had all been displaced, they were starving and scared while trying to survive in a new environment. The first time we stepped foot in enemy territory, I expected for the enemy to attack blindly and in bulk. However, after a flashy display or two they should all start running.

The smell of death and fear from them should teach everything the 'new' phrase, 'don't go into the light'.

After another day of rest spent praying while dressed in armor the caver terrors I was staying with were beginning to grow restless. They spent more time moving and seeking sunlight around the edge of the steppe while also keeping me in their line of sight at all times. They had seen me kill a few of their numbers as well as seen me feed all of their numbers, they wanted to go out and look for food but were afraid of doing so without some form of permission.

That evening I sent Shade, Grimm, Sili, and the recharged stone golems out to do some night hunting down the mountainside. The bridge spanning almost a hundred feet of river had begun to shine in the same eerie fashion as the shrine, telling me that it was time to start trying to perform the actual blessing rite on the shrine to see if the gods would hurry up and anoint it.

That could wait until after the scouting trip which would allow for Sili's body to assimilate the holy elements and energies I had been producing. If the anointment of the shrine was not enough to inspire their first evolution I could always force it to take place. However, those methods were full of risks that could cost me all of my efforts.

I could only hope that the gods would help me out on this one.

The morning sun rising in the sky brought with it my familiars bearing large amounts of fish and wildlife. More than enough to leave a dent in the local ecosystems. Luckily, most of what was hunted was pack predators so the lesser producers on the food chains could proliferate.

That would attract more predators back into the area and balance out neighboring territories. The few species of underground fish who escaped out into the world, though, was taking a huge beating. These, at least, would entice the serpents into returning underground with familiar foods.

After two hours spent making sure everybody had something to eat, I took the group of illuminated rock terrors and just made them start slithering deeper into the tunnel. After a while they got the point of the exercise and started slithering down familiar paths through outcroppings of rock or rubble. Keeping up with them with my smaller body was actually fairly easy, my body and equipment was so light that I could jump well over ten feet with my current Strength.

Just a standing jump straight up.

If I was running and pushing myself, I could jump ahead of the serpents just by leaping from one perch to another along their path. After an hour of this in which we took a few turns and rises or falls we finally came within of the missing light golem still quite a distance away. I was beginning to wonder if we were lost or not but the golem at least had found a location that led down.

After leaving the step we did not find much until we started nearing the first bend in the path. There we came across old remains of what looked like larger cave terrors that were picked apart and rotten. These were probably some of the older generations that had fled last while protecting their territory and died along the way.

Further along down the bend we found the bodies of what looked like the giant cave rats from the flashbacks. These bodies were markedly fresher and had only been picked at a little. While the serpents were a little more than a month old, these were only a little older than a week.

If there were not a few obvious punctures and tears in each of their bodies, they would have probably been bloated and ready to pop like a rancid fart balloon.

Not even the cave terrors who were forced dieting had an interest in their bodies, but that was probably due to how the animals had died. The wounds were stretched and torn as if done by a blunt knife and a large amount of strength, similar to a large feline's claws except that there was only one tear line. These wounds were actually a common sight on small game animals around home from the legs of arnids or scythes of other giant insects.

These rodents were dropped by giant bugs and the fact that nothing ate them as well as the low number of injuries suggested they were poisoned. This told me a few things of interest about what I would find deeper in.

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