Delve

Down and down into the depths we plunge, battling the furious monsters of the wave every step. The number of cold undead creatures we encounter continues to rise as we progress, and I can't believe the sheer variety of shapes the shadow monsters can take. I understand that their shadow flesh makes them the basically formless, squishy and mouldable things that they are, but some of them are just weird.

Tiny battled a disgusting beast who resembled a slug fused with a seahorse that fired some strange form of death plasma out of its face-hole. The whole thing was rather traumatic from my point of view and I wish I'd never seen it. Only Invidia's intervention managed to prevent my ape friend from suffering a premature death during that fight, and in fact during many fights.

Without much ability, or inclination, to avoid damage of any sort, Tiny has come to rely rather heavily on his armour to prevent damage, which works well against physical attacks, but doesn't help much against the more insidious attacks levelled at him by death monsters and demons. Without the eyeball of Envy, Tiny would have had to face-tank all number of poisons, curses and toxins that were sent his way and I've little doubt he wouldn't have survived long.

Before he evolves to tier six I'm going to make sure that he covers his bases and gains a few more points in cunning. I'm starting to think the reason I've never seen any of Tiny's species evolve beyond tier two is simply because the lightning fist ape and what comes after are simply too dumb to survive without constant babysitting and supervision. I might have a chat with Granin about it when we get back… Still, it would be encouraging to learn that my first pet's total lack of survival instincts was an inbuilt flaw rather than something I introduced myself.

The number of demons has also continued to rise and without the benefits of my evolution they would have been a right pain in the backside to deal with. Despite being tier five, both Tiny and Crinis struggled against tier four demons, the resilience and sheer brutal power of the creatures simply a tier above what we had seen so far.

[Disgusting trash! You will be rendered into pieces before you lay a claw on my Master!] Crinis ranted, her limbs wrapped around the foul visage of a hulking demon, sawing away at it.

[Need any help, Crinis?] I ask.

[Do not foul your mandibles or mind on this infernal creature, Master! I am enough to end its miserable suffering!]

I think you are more the cause of its suffering Crinis. Nevertheless, she is successful in ridding the poor beast of its condition, namely the one of being in one piece, and swiftly descends on the Biomass. In just a few seconds the looming threat of the Wrath Demon is gone, along with any evidence it existed in the first place, vanished into the three maws of the blob of death.

Despite her victory, we are still surrounded, and I once again bring down a domain of scorching blue flame, using my main mind to supercharge the spell and increase its range, burning any monster who dares to come close.

[This is exhausting,] I complain, [there's no end to them.]

[You didn't expect anything different; did you Master? It's a wave after all,] Crinis says.

Tiny just gives me a thumbs up, a broad grin splitting his bat face. I know you're happy, we've been fighting for hours without pause! This is basically paradise for you! For his part, Invidia just continues to float alongside us, the intense light of his eye resting on each of us briefly before flicking away to the tunnel then returning to us after a few seconds.

[I know that!] I say, the roars of burning monsters ringing in my ears and causing me to become irritable, [but I was kind of hoping they'd stop flooding upward at some point…]

Our descent has been very different than what we experienced in the first strata during the last wave. At that time the tunnels were filled with spawns of weaker monsters with occasional stronger ones feasting on the free experience and Biomass, and although it was draining in the extreme, it wasn't too difficult to clear them out. This time, it's so, so different. Moving downward in the Dungeon has felt like walking into the face of a gale force wind. We want to go deeper, but it appears as though every other monster in the Dungeon wants to go higher. Which means stronger monsters, more of them, and delivered fresh to our face in a never-ending stream from the depths. We aren't even dealing with the creatures being spawned around us, as those are snatched up and consumed by the rising monsters in a flash.

[How long can you maintain this domain, Master?] Crinis asks me.

Good question. I check the mana flooding into my core through my legs and idly check what I can grab from the ambient mana around us.

[If I keep dragging in mana, probably indefinitely? It would take most of my concentration to do so though.]

[Then might I suggest we rest here momentarily?]

[Alright, you two can relax. Invidia, can you deal with anything that gets through?]

The eye flashes dark energy.

[I ssssshall take my due…]

[Sure thing buddy.]

The pulsing sphere of blue fire isn't enough to deal with the press of monsters on its own, though it does damage them. Sadly, most of the demon spawn are resistant to the flames, which allows them to push through it, which is where the power of explosions comes into the picture.

BOOM!

The four of us are showered with dust and stones as we settle in for a short break as Invidia sucks in mana from the air and weaves his deadly magic with it.

BOOM!

[How much further do you guys think we need to go before we reach the third strata?] I ask.

[I cannot say, Master, I do not know how thick the shadow layer is, nor can I say how far we have travelled so far.]

Tiny just wobbles a hand back and forth, eyeing the exploding monsters around us sadly. By my estimation, we've come a significant number of kilometres down, the slope we've been travelling on has been fairly steep, and despite fighting every step of the way, we've been pushing hard without rest. At least the fire domain helps keep the cold off. It's freezing down here.

[Have you two managed to gain a few levels?]

Tiny pulls a face whilst Crinis just sounds frustrated.

[I have, but slowly. It will take a long time to catch up to you, Master.]

[Hey, if we don't push hard, you'll never get there,] I try to encourage them, [it's a mountain, but without climbing, you'll never reach the top. If we keep fighting and accruing experience at the pace we have been, you'll be level eighty before you know it.]

I checked on the two of them before we set out and it's a bit unfortunate, but they're lagging quite a ways behind. Both have managed to raise their levels fairly well since reaching tier five, but both were stuck in the thirties when we started. With hard work, they'll be able to evolve by the time this wave is done.

[Oh, did either of you grab any cores?]

Crinis extends a limb from within her blobby mass and deposits a few cores in front of me which I quickly leap on and devour. The capacity of my core has doubled after all, need to pump it all the way up to max!

[What about you, Tiny?]

The ape just shrugs and shakes his head. I'm not surprised, the big guy usually isn't bothered keeping track of any cores he comes across when eating, he spits them out like seeds and ignores them in favour of shovelling in more food.

[I need all the cores I can get my hands on right now,] I scold him, [and after you and Crinis evolve we'll need hundreds more in order to max out your cores as soon as possible! Don't slack off! You're making trouble for everyone else!]

He has the decency to look a little ashamed, which is a plus. His laziness is usually fine, but when he drags himself and others down I can't indulge him anymore.

[Masssster. They are clossssing in on usss.]

A quick glance is enough to confirm that Invidia is correct. Despite his frequent detonations, the monsters are pressing closer, even through my domain spell. With a weary mental sigh I push my legs under me and flex my mandibles.

[Back at it gang. We've got a long way to go.]