B3 Chapter 310: Roots, pt. 1

They needed to move.

The other Kolnirs would catch up soon. Even if they were moderately separated by a barred wall of supernaturally tough roots, he didn’t want to test the beasts — they’d proven their persistence enough.

Kaius nodded to his team.

“Porkchop — you’re first. I’ll take the rear.”

In a tunnel like this, the safest place for Ianmus and Kenva to be was between them, and Porkchop couldn’t defend their backs. As large as he was, his brother had almost no room to manoeuvre in the tight confines. He could walk at a sort of half-hunch, but turning was out of the question. If something approached from behind, Porkchop wouldn’t be able to defend himself.

His brother nodded, “I assume we’re pushing below ground?”

Kaius caught Ianmus wincing at his brother’s question. It was a fair response — they’d found plenty of passageways lining the roots of the previous tree that ran far beneath the earth. They’d left those well enough alone — the chances that such tunnels would be empty of threats wasn’t even worth mentioning, he’d bet his father’s honour on it.

It was their only option.

The surface passages might have been well defended by walls of woven roots, but they were still largely exposed. Any focused kolnir would spot them moving through, and with how many there were after them, they needed to vanish.

“We are — though just deep enough to hide and wait out the heat. Now let’s hurry! We can talk more on the way.”

Porkchop flicked his ears, pushing his acknowledgement along their bond. Crouched low, he shuffled forwards, Ianmus and Kenva pressing themselves tight to the main root that made up one wall of the tunnel. Jade heavy-plate dissolved into mana — too bulky to be used in such tight quarters.

Kaius followed behind, guarding their rear. He adjusted his grip on his sword, not willing to slacken his focus for even a moment as they left behind a kolnir carcass wedged into the matted curtain of roots on his left.

As they moved, Kaius kept one eye on the wall of visible undergrowth just a hundred longstrides away as enraged cries carried from far distant canopies.

The view vanished as Porkchop led them deeper below the earth, shadow swallowing them. Rather than having his vision dominated by the greyscale of the darkvision granted by his Truesight, Kaius found a soft golden glow emanating from a root that wove through the earth to shift around the edges of the cave. It twinkled with softly moving lights.

Worried it might be another threat, Kaius peered closer. They were grubs, thousands of them meandering over the root. Occasionally one would stop and latch on. He assumed that they were draining what they needed from the nutrients it carried within.

“Well, at least they seem harmless.” Kaius muttered to himself.

“How’s everyone holding up?”

He raised his voice — only slightly — to check on his team. While he didn’t think they were safe yet, their battle and flight had been a tense affair. They hadn’t had the time or safety to do much more than coordinate strategy.

“Tired, and low on mana, but otherwise alright. The jungle’s pretty, at least.” Ianmus replied.

Kenva snorted. “Yeah, if you ignore the thousands of beasts who want to rip us limb from limb.”

“We survived, that’s enough for me — the whole troop coming down on our heads wasn’t what I would call ideal, but individually we managed them just fine. I expect after increasing our level another dozen or two more times, and working on our skills, we’ll be in a far less tenuous position.”

Kenva shook her head, running her hand through her hair, “I still find it utterly mad that we are actually seriously planning on hitting the second tier in less than a month. We should be dead. Should have never even made it past the first damned ruinbringer! Yet, here I am, ten levels higher than I was an hour ago, with the skulls of two more beasts in the middle of the second tier to my name. It’s lunacy!”

Kaius grinned, concern leaving him. If they could squabble and joke, then they were holding up just fine. Still, he could understand Kenva taking some time to adjust. He and Porkchop had a full year to slowly grow their capabilities, while Ianmus had months between guild missions to grow used to their feats.

The ranger hadn’t gotten that — she’d been hurled directly into their greatest challenge with no time to adapt to the full extent of what their strength actually meant. Even if she’d accrued some honours on her own, that was not quite the same as tackling a high powered delve with frontliners like him and Porkchop.

“You get used to it,” he replied. “Just wait until we hit the second tier ourselves — I expect that is when we’ll really start to notice the difference between us and the average delver. I bet you won’t even recognise yourself.”

It had been on his mind for a while. Their honours were one thing, but the stat advantage they had from their classes would only grow as they ascended. It was only a matter of time until they outstripped everyone else — excluding those who took the same risks and pursued Honours like they had, at least.

“What do you mean?” Kenva asked.

A hearty chuckle came from the front of the line.

“You haven’t thought about it, have you? You have an Unusual class right, how much of an advantage do you think that gave you over the average delver?”

Kaius watched the ranger tilt her head at the question.

“I…a fair bit, I suppose. Most only have Uncommons, so between the skill and stat advantage, maybe twice as effective? Which would compound every tier, especially if we keep gaining honours.”

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Kaius knew then that the ranger had never stopped to consider what Honours actually meant. Nor what they would get completing this delve. It was an understandable blind spot. Before he’d seen his own selections, he’d been utterly convinced that everything he had done might just earn him a Unique class — common wisdom was that Unusual was the absolute peak of what was possible for tier one. That same glass ceiling applied to the second tier.

“Kenva, you’re likely to be offered a Heroic class when we reach the next tier, and a Unique is all but guaranteed.”

She stumbled, before whipping around to stare at him in shock.