I scanned my surroundings, trying to at least get a notion as to where I was. The map showed me my surrounding area, but I could not see anything further out, no matter how much I zoomed. There was complete silence, as if I was buried in a tomb, which might not have been as far off as I thought at first. The question wasn’t whether I was underground, it was how deep.

  I looked at around again, eeking out some points of interest, trying to guess my location from them. The luminescent mushrooms produced dim light, providing me with at least some vision. They looked ethereal - deep blue caps with bone-white stems, the edges of the caps cyan blue and shiny. Other than that, the cavern walls were different from the swamp cavern’s. They were full of vegetation, blue grass hidden in the ridges of the rocks, giving them a welcoming, soft feeling.

  The walls boxed me in, but there was a small opening on one end from which fresh air came in through, barely bigger than I was. Honestly, this place was very pretty, probably more beautiful than even the field of flowers.

  I used [Analyze] on the mushrooms and grass. Either the gods were feeling generous or lazy, because they actually chose to give some useful info without their usual jabs. The grass was just that - grass. It didn’t explain why it was blue, as usual. Why explain something that seems boring, right?

  At least the system told me that the mushrooms were often used in some cultures as source of dust, and could be used in alchemy or as a base for paint. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be glowy - I looked gorgeous enough already - but I decided to grab a few off the walls anyway.

  They separated from the walls with a wet crunch, reminding me of the Clobbers I fought a few moments ago. I tucked them into my inventory, and headed straight into the small hole that would show me more.

  And that’s when Mark clipped through the wall, arriving at an unimaginably fast speed.

  He stood on the ground, eyes wide, and just looked at my face for a few moments. He looked even more surprised than I felt.

  “Jesus christ, I never want to experience that again.” His voice was shocked. “Do you have any ideas how scary it is to be inside the walls? I do now.”

  “How the hell did you get here?”

  “I’m your guide, dude! Bound to your soul. I literally cannot get away from you.”

  “Maybe you should have mentioned that.” A thought struck me. “Hey, on that first day, when we had a fight. Is that the reason you didn’t leave?”

  “I told you about it already. Literally.”

  I sighed. “Were you baiting me into that question so you could bicker again?”

  He seemed confused for only a moment, and then he raised his arms in a mock surrender. “Caught red handed, huh?” He looked around now, trying to take the area in. “The damn mage teleported all three of you away. I kinda wished that you’d stay together, but it seems we’re out of luck. How are the other two doing?”

  “How should I know?”

  He stared into my eyes then, his face completely deadpan, as if waiting for me to remember something. OH, the chat! Immediately, I set to texting the others.

  Party

  Shrimpie: Hey, are you two okay?

  Silence followed, and I was about to actually start fearing for their safety, but Talisha responded just when I was beginning to panic.

  Talisha : Crudia is running away from some weird Arachnids. We’ll try to get to where we were separated. Stay safe you all.

  Dusk: Sorry, I’m fighting too. I don’t know my location, but we’ll do our best to get to the black plains. see you in a bit.

  That was a relief. Wherever they were, they were alive, at least. Mark nodded, and looked to the same hole that I was about to exit from. “It seems like we have our work cut out for us. I’ll be looking at the map, trying to see if I can spot an unmarked corner. We should probably head south, though. Judging by the grass, we’re still in the tall tree and mushroom biome.”

  That made sense. Without further ado, I walked through the hole, and watched the new beauty that surrounded me. The cavern was a copy of the last one, except just.. bigger. Taller grass in the cracks of stone, bigger mushrooms, there were even some tiny blue crystals on the ceiling.

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  “It’s so… gorgeous.”

  Mark smiled. “It is, right? Reminds me of a survival game I used to play, with the glowing shrooms and all. Ah, good times.”

  “You played survival games willingly?” I said, not bothering to hide my shock. Who would choose to navigate crafting menus by their own choice? Was he a masochist?

  “Oh, among other things. I used to play literally anything that seemed at least a bit interesting. It was my way of blocking out the things happening at home.” He smiled, though the expression shifted from a happy one to something else.

  I waited for a moment, standing still, holding onto the silence to give Mark the chance to expand on his sentence, but he didn’t choose to.

  I sighed, thinking of what to say. Royalty should not let their underlings live in misery. “What was happening at home, Mark? You can say it to your king, at least.”

  He looked at me, taken out of his thoughts, his face in complete shock. Was it that surprising that I asked about him? I would probably be spending what? Almost 4 more months with him? Whoever made me and gave me these human features really had a sense for humor, since I actually found myself caring, even if just a little bit.

  Mark’s shocked expression softened, and he laughed, his soft voice booming over the cavern. “Oh, I’m sorry, your Shrimpiness. I didn’t mean to bore you with the tales of thee past.” Chuckling, he held onto his side. “It wasn’t anything that bad. Just a shit mother and a father that made some fucked up choices. I might tell you sometime later. But… Thank you, Shrimpie.”

  “More than you expected, huh? Don’t get used to it.” I returned his smile, to which he only nodded.

  I looked into the huge cavern once again now, trying to see a path. There were several, actually, but only a select few looked big enough for me to pass through. I opted to head toward the one that went straight South. Just to be rewarded by a path that went downwards.

  Sighing, I went on ahead. The sooner I started exploring, the sooner I’d be able to leave. Time played a crucial role in this tournament, and I wasn’t planning on spending days being lost. Not when I could be getting items. Fighting. Preparing the city.

  There was a lot to do. I could barely wait.

  I walked through a giant corridor, the mushrooms my silent companions. I was itching to collect more, but I’ve already collected so many that I was pretty sure they’d last until the tournament was over. Worst case scenario, we could return. Hopefully.

  Probably not.

  I arrived in another big cavern, almost identical to the last. It seemed like this whole huge area was just made out of large caverns connected by thin tunnels. I was about to comment about the lack of living organisms in this area, when, as if by a stroke of god’s hands, I saw red dots. A lot of them, at that.

  Looking at the other end of the cavern I could see hundreds of ants walking from one of the tunnels into another, scurrying in a single line, each carrying some kind of biomatter, whether that be leaves, mushrooms or some animal carcasses that I could not identify.

  “Watch out. Ants are nasty in most fictions I’ve heard about.”

  That sounded like the words of an experienced adventurer. Seriously, I had the knowledge of humanity in my head now. I knew that ants were strong, there was no need to tell me! I was stronger anyway. “This isn’t a fictional piece, Mark. And I know. Let me get closer so I can analyze them.”

  He nodded, and we crawled closer, doing our best not to alert them to our location. Crudia’s skills would be really handy in situations like that, but I did my best to be as sneaky as I could. I suspected the fact that the light coming off of the mushrooms matched my own colors let me hide a bit better, though I had no clue if these ants relied on sight or on some other sense.

  Finally close enough.

  Blue Rock ant

  Creature

  Level 7

  Ah, yes. The ants. Did you know that the ants are one of the best-performing players in the tournament so far? More of the species of ants are still in the tournament than 98% of the animal species. They are off to a great start!

  Most of those things can be attributed to their personality and humble strength. While these ants are not as strong as some players you’d find on the first floor, they still retain some of the qualities that make them so scary.

  They eat the materials found in their home biome ever since they were larvae. Talk about taking the saying ‘you are what you eat’ to a next level! Not only are they as strong as ants should be, they are also pretty damn smart and their bodies are rock hard. Pun intended.

  I scrutinized their carapace more. They seemed to have these rocky protrusions all over their bodies, but I didn’t estimate that a few of them would actually give me trouble, even if I was to fight them alone. Not compared to the Clobbers, at least.

  Large feet hit the ground as they skittered in the tunnels, carrying bodies that were about half-metre long. Big for ants. Not big enough for me to not charge them.

  “I think we should retreat.” Mark said, his eyes darting from the ants to his own menu. “If there are ants, there’s also going to be a queen.”

  I smiled at that. Of course there would be. My shield materialized, the bands gripping my wrists in a familiar feeling of tension. “I guess we better find her then. We don’t want the others to get ahead, do we?”

  “You want to attack? That’s suicide! There’s bound to be thousands of them, and who knows how strong the queen is!”

  “Yes, and we had to kill bosses anyway. Finding a way out will take me a while, and I’m not sure if we’ll be able to get back here. I want to do this, Mark. I know I can beat them. Trust me? Please?”

  He looked me in the eyes, then back to the ants, and then back at me again. “We look for the boss. Try to see if we can analyze it. Then, and only then, do we decide whether to attack or if we retreat. Deal?”

  It wasn’t like he could actually force me to leave, but for the sake of keeping this kinda-friendly mood that appeared ever since we got here, I grinned and nodded. “Deal.”

  And with that, I stepped into the ant-nest.