Breeding Stock

I held the serpents back with a brief telekinetic tug on their tails and just watched with my probe as the light golem steadily pushed the enemies back into the cavern.

If I was lucky I would be able to fit all of the serpents in the cavern behind me while the rodents and arachnids thinned each other out. From there, I could use a few kinetic slashes to cheaply level the field before testing the waters with the smallest of the rock terror serpents. The smaller water terrors would be good to use paired up and waiting along the edges of the cavern.

Once the golem had pushed the dozens of bodies to the back two thirds of the cavern, I used my enhanced Strength to cover the last hundred yards in a few bounding lunges before walking out into the cavern. The bugs were more dominant in numbers here so the rodents were not putting up enough resistance to keep them distractedly moving for long.

Slowly but surely, insects with nothing to kill began to realize the light was not hurting them and began less afraid. Now they were starting to use their antennae to sense the sounds and 'scents' in the air while searching for magical signatures like I did. I was currently the only thing present and soon all of the insects were turning to face me.

Many of them were had battered bodies but there were also some fresh specimens with undamaged scythes. Upon seeing this as I walked out for a serpent's body length into the cavern, I used two percent of my mana to produce two telekinetic barriers above and under the sack containing my current specimens and crushed them. They were now nothing more than alchemy materials.

Seeking to preserve my own mana I draw energy from several synthetic stones set in my armor and unleash it through the motion of drawing one of my swords. The blurred air from the wave of kinetic energy passed through a large portion of the bodies on the right side of the cavern. This was where most of the rats were and intended to preserve their bodies.

Their upper and lower frontal teeth were denser than most ivory and several of the bodies I came across previously had concentrations of their mana in their fangs as they neared awakening mutation. Their thick elastic hides and many of their teeth could prove profitable.

The insects remaining at the back and all over the other half of the room collectively backed up and gathered together in unison. I did not know if they simply gathered together as part of their colony mind or because they understood my attack, but they almost responded appropriately by packing together densely. The only thing better would have been to try scaling the rough granite walls and spread out as much as possible.

By now, though, the caver terrors were exiting the tunnel behind me and stretching out into the cavern behind me. With their sizes and the small phalanx before me, I could dominate space and control their positions with magic. First, though, I needed to clear away the alchemy material.

For this distance, less than a percent of my own magic was enough to chop down the front line of bodies with a second kinetic crescent. The next two rows of insects went down in similar fashion before the first healthy bodies came into view. Now, I telekinetically urged the serpents to spread out and act as a distraction while I reached out to examine the closest goods.

Three females and a single male insect were promptly snatched forward from the front lines while the main mass was divided down the middle around turning to watch the serpents encircling the cavern. This limited my flippant scything attacks but it allowed me time to concuss my catches with a flick of my wrist. However, it was likely to pay off.

As I sought out another expanded sack from my voided purse, I started tapping into the life and magic signatures of the insects in front of me while guiding the light golem to descend upon the center of the insects.

The serpents coiled back toward the walls of the cavern as the insects subconsciously spread out from the golem. By the time I 'hacked' the first insect's drone-like mind, the golem was alread half of the way down and the rock terrors were already 'striking' out at the mantis creatures. Their mouths were closed, though, relying on the blunt force impact of their hard and heavy scale heads to send smaller bodies flying.

After the first volley of bodies fell back into the center of the phalanx I sent out a controlled five-percent kinetic slash straight through the middle. Then I turned all of my attention to hacking the females in my collection. The rock terrors had proven they could handle themselves.

The phalanx had wisely stopped spreading out after realizing the bright orb of light could not damage them in any way by the time I had bagged the breeding harem. This helped to ensure the safety of the serpents who only occasionally had to lash out at the enemy.

Luckily, the magic serpents also had secondary senses with which to track their opponents in the blinding light.

Ten percent of my mana, dropping me somewhere just below seventy percent, was spent swiping my free hand up and down to shove the outer sides of the insects back and in. Then another ten percent of my armor's reserves were spent halving the enemy numbers. Because the venom glands located in their arm pits were high up, I had no problem sweeping my sword lower to the floor of the cavern to bisect their thoraxes.

The the only things of importance that I found in their lower bodies were their carapaces. These insects appeared to disprove my original theories that the creature that caused all this originated from lightning element. Instead, these insects that looked like tiny versions of the potential queen were creatures with affinity for darkness.

When healthy, their carapaces did not shine even under the light from the golem. This matte affect was a perfect camouflage for dark settings and the magical nature of the creatures would give it a naturally high conductivity. With my means, these could very well make the upgrades for Gryn's party's future armor.

They were probably collecting the leather products necessary right now.

I let the enemy reform their ranks and simply watched for a few moments before drawing a voided dagger from my purse. Drawing on the ambient energy of the cavern and dead creatures by unsheathing the dagger, I easily cut the remaining insects in half with a single slash. Now I found myself faced with an important decision to make.

Do I continue down one of the side tunnels or simply return to the surface to try again another day?

I wanted to get the hell out of here with my current haul I did not doubt that every serpent that came with me felt likewise. So, to speed things along, I withdrew a small geode of water formed amethyst that weighed just under a pound from my purse. With this I could use my consciousness as an extension to tap into the surrounding mana and consume it.

Because of the dark colored crystal's natural affinities, it even consumed the death energies from the slaughter that had taken place. With this giant battery I dissected and cleaned the mass of bodies to empty carapaces and glands and strip hides. Then I used a new layered bag to contain all of the solid materials- including giant rats for food.

To contain all of the poison and biological acids I had collects, I spent thirty percent of my mana performing basic voiding on a pair of empty water skins. These half-gallon skins ended up holding several gallons of fluids apiece. By the time I was done, the geode had been halfway emptied of its energy.

Then again, it had never even gotten close to full.

After giving each of the serpents here two rear rat legs apiece, I walked around the cavern integrating my mana into the walls and floor and ceiling to appraise the rock with alchemy. The most abundant minerals were those found in granite but there were various metamorphic agate combinations of those minerals strewn about the cavern and lining the walls in both exposed, superficial, and deeper deposits.

These stones had naturally accumulated mana from the river and the previous locals for generations and then even more historic mana. Many of the pieces in the cavern were already filled with what mana they could hold. Naturally formed, these stones actually had weight value bu to me they were currently much more useful as batteries.

With the few hundred pounds of just brownish red iron enriched quartz agate found in the ceiling of the cavern I could craft a couple thousand arrows of explosive thermal energy with the natural heat and earth alignments of iron. There were, however, many other minerals present. Including silver and lead impurities.

Silver itself was an expensive alchemy and enchanting component, but I could extract minerals with alchemy and there was several pounds of it literally in the floor of the cavern. The entire floor, sadly, not just one spot.

The silver alone was almost worth its weight in gold after I had my way with it in alloyed weaponry and religious rites.

Several thousand pounds worth of various age-enriched agates and most of the amethyst geode's energy later, I was leading the way back to the second floor entry caverns while drawing the surrounding energies to recharge the geode. Until I recovered at least fifty percent of my own magic, I would be wielding this geode like a sword. Alongside my real sword.

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