D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

--- Kat ---

After two hours of travel the group was standing in front of something that looked suspiciously well maintained. The issue? At the edge of their vision they could tell it descended into a cave. Kat let out a long sigh as she said, "This looks pretty well maintained right?"

"Agreed," stated Hunter.

"Which means it's probably the work of an earth mage?" continued Kat.

"That makes sense," stated Hunter.

"So we're going to have to check it out aren't we?" asked Kat.

"It does seem that way," stated Hunter.

"And I'm not disagreeing with that… but is anyone else getting the feeling that there's one strong earth mage, or like a whole group of them that just maintain the roads around here? Even some of the smaller paths that we all agreed lead to farmsteads seemed to be pretty well maintained," complained Kat.

Hunter shrugged. "There is nothing to be done about it Kat. While I do agree that the delays are no ideal if we wish to end up at Forest Village instead of Forest Town we need to accept these delays. The advice we received was terrible, but at least we are unlikely to skip over the settlement we are looking for this way,"

"Um… while I think you're right… we keep getting attacked and you… you said that means the drake is on the move? Is it worth the risk?" asked Kamiko with some worry on her face.

"It is unlikely to be a major issue just yet. The drake should not be too close to civilisation. The migrations you see are simply the knock-on effects. The closest animals move out and into the territory around them, setting off another exodus in the chain, and eventually leading to the animals running into us here. They are not terribly strong so I suspect they are from the edges of the forest.

"Of course, if we hear rumours of the drake at any point we should head straight for that area but as of right now I am not yet concerned. It is something to watch, just in case these detours take significant amounts of time but for now at least I find them to be acceptable," stated Hunter.

"Right, well, onwards into the dark I guess?" said Kat as the group all shrugged and ran forward. It didn't take long to get to the cave when they were going at full speed. As they approached it became clear that it wasn't natural as evidenced by the pickaxe marks in the rock and the fact the whole thing was large enough for Kamiko to ride inside without issue.

Kat was a touch surprised about the lack of minecart tracks but shrugged that off quickly.

There was a sign off to the side of the entrance, but when Kat picked it up to see if it had any information there was nothing. The backside had been left facing upwards and a number of bugs had made their home on the front. Any lettering that might have once been there had been scrubbed away by time and thousands of bugs going about their business.

Kat sighed a bit and placed the board back where it was. Then as a group they entered.

The first thing they noticed was the crystals. It took a bit to get out of the natural light, but once they did it was clear what the miners had been looking for. Imbedded in the walls were tiny glowing crystals that kept the pathway lit. Occasionally they'd seen some larger crystals on the ceiling, but even those were no bigger than a finger.
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It looked really nice, almost like walking through a tunnel of stars.

It gave the group plenty of light to see by and allowed Kamiko to remain on her horse. So for a time they kept up, nearly, full speed. The slowest of them was actually Hunter as she didn't wish to risk the integrity of the tunnel by bouncing off the walls. She was much faster then Kat would've expected, but it was only about seventy-five percent of the maximum speed she'd shown off so far.

Sadly, the pleasant times had to come to an end. They'd managed to keep going for over an hour without a single attack and that alone was call for celebration. The problems started not long after that.

Now, up to this point they'd seen a few turn-offs but because of their reduced size they were clearly just side paths.

Kat did dash down one of them as the fastest of the three and found it was winding tunnel that eventually ended in a dead end, so after backtracking they'd collectively agreed that the miners had just followed the veins of crystal until they ran dry and then turned back to the main branch.

In front of them now? Two large tunnels both going in separate directions. They were more or less the same size and had no markings at all to show which one would be the right direction. Though that wasn't to say they were without markings at all. One of the paths was clearly less well off. Large chunks of the floor were missing all over the place but the crystals seemed to be glowing extra brightly.

Down the other path, the floor was polished smooth.

Which might make it seem like the better option, but so too were the walls and ceilings. It was all completely and totally smooth with a mirror finish. Lily had hopped out of Kat's arms just to check it and the slightest application of force let her paw simply slide. It wasn't cold at all, but it felt like someone had invented real life 'ice physics' to play with.

As such Lily transformed and said, "I think there's got to be something down both paths… but perhaps not anything we want? Monsters probably… but I'm very curious as to WHY they are kept so cleanly sperate. I mean, I'd expect a bit of fighting between whatever the two groups of monsters are…"

"This is actually moderately common behaviour. Monsters will expand their territory until it abuts up against the territory of other monsters. Most will pause their expansion towards competitors until they are surrounded on all sides. From that point it really depends on the monsters in question.

Some will pick a side and continually send wave after wave of their own kind until the enemy is dead, others will simply turtle up and ignore the other groups until someone attacks them. Then they might go hard on the offense, or just ignore it more.

"Responses can very between the two extremes, but in this case I suspect that monsters broke up into the tunnels from somewhere else, expanded until they reached this crossroad, and then smelt or sensed competitors down the other tunnel and decided it was not worth antagonising the other.

Perhaps because they are more defensive monsters, perhaps because they are already fighting other groups down their own paths, perhaps because there is ample space. It is too early to tell at this moment,"

"Right but do we keep going?" asked Kat. "We're heading for a place called Forest Village. There's no way it's deep in a cave.

We've kept this up for an hour, which let us cover a good bit of distance as there was no attacks, but now we're looking at two paths that both seem to be heading downwards a bit more and while there might be a settlement further down, I find it unlikely to be the place we're looking for,"

"No, I suspect that this is far enough," agreed Hunter. "If these tunnels were heading upwards perhaps the answer would be different but I do not believe Forest Village would keep their road in such disrepair if there is indeed an earth mage leaving there. Not to mention that these marks are obviously quite old. Nobody has taken the time to mend these tunnels in at least a year, likely longer.

In fact, I would guess the mine was abandoned due to whatever monsters these are moving in,"

"Um… that's… that's all fine and all… but um… how do I have my horse turn around?" asked Kamiko. Kat frowned and looked at the walls. It was a bit tight… and the horse could probably manage to turn in place but coaxing them to do so would be a challenge. The slippery side of the tunnel was obviously out, but the other was filled with holes and debris from those holes.

Eventually Kat just shrugged and picked the horse up, being careful not to hit anything. She simply lifted the horse far enough down one of the tunnels so that she could then pull it backwards over the second almost like she was doing a three-point turn with a car. Once the horse was facing the exit once again Kat put the beast down.

It had remained remarkably calm throughout the process, simply giving a huff once it was back on t he ground. "There you go, one horse turned around," confirmed Kat.