Day one of the contract started calmer than Gauss expected.
It was basically Shadow's show. They called it "keeping watch," but the surface stayed eerily quiet. Not a single monster popped up for air all day. In such desolation, it was hard to imagine so many creatures hid below.
"Something feels off," Gauss said, rubbing his chin. With a nest that big, you wouldn't expect this level of discipline—no leaks? Military lockdown underground? He shook his head. Forget monsters—keeping a thousand people penned in without a stir would be near impossible.
In their makeshift camp, a hand-drawn map still glistening with fresh ink lay spread out. Shadow emerged at intervals to report and add to a growing schematic of Brennan's tunnel network. Beyond the first "lucky" route, her long scouting had found other ways into the heart.
The design was complex: not every tunnel led to the nest; most dead-ended, and traps littered the way. Shadow's ability was broken; an ordinary rogue would be lucky to get out unhurt—and likely trigger alarms.
"They are odd," Alia agreed. They'd seen nests like this before—like the goblin warrens they'd burned, maybe a thousand strong—but even then, goblin activity around the area was obvious. Here, if not for Shadow's recon, you'd think it was an abandoned mine.
"Their kit is solid," Shadow added. "Iron—picks, swords, and such." The core's strange aura had limited her look; the barrier made the outer view hazy—but the kobolds in satellite tunnels carried good gear.
"They're forging their own," Gauss concluded. Even "exhausted," a mine was a sponge in kobold hands. And he suspected a self-sufficient ecosystem—otherwise what did they eat?
Night fell; the air chilled. They moved camp a ways off and set the Folding House. It had become home over the last month—more comfortable than most inns.
Gauss led Albena upstairs. "These two are free—pick one." Six rooms meant no one had to double up.
"Sir Gauss, where's your room?"
"Downstairs."
"Can I pick one down there?"
"…" A pause. "Sorry—already taken." The three downstairs rooms were Alia's, his, and Serandur's; Shadow stayed up top. "If you want the first floor, I can swap." He didn't carry much—easy to move.
Alia opened her mouth, then shut it. Albena just shook her head. "I'll stay upstairs, then."
"I'll get you bedding and things," Alia said, pleased, and ducked to the storeroom.
"By the way—Sir Gauss, are you hungry?" Albena produced food from nowhere and held it out. He wasn't—but after refusing a few times today, he took it. Compressed nut cake—tasty, dense. Still… she was developing a habit of "feeding" him before she ate. He couldn't match her appetite.
He sighed inwardly. Eat, then meditate more tonight.
…
Morning dawned bright. Sky scrubbed blue, soft beds and snug rooms—good for the spirit. The Folding House kept paying dividends.
Gauss rose early to make breakfast: a big pot of oatmeal porridge with dried fruit, diced meat and veg; boiled eggs; crisped bacon; a pot of strong red tea; a basket of white bread with Alia's wild-berry jam. Not lavish, but plenty and clean.
As he set plates on the table, noses led the others out. Alia, bleary, reached for an egg. Gauss tapped her hand and pointed to the washroom. "Wash first." "Oh."
Albena followed, too. "Thanks, Captain," Serandur said, sitting—already done. Soon all were at table.
"Eat up—we go in today."
"We'll be fine," Alia waved him off. "You and Albena eat more. If there's a fight, you two are the main line." She had an unspoken aside.
"Don't worry, little Alia—hide behind me and I'll protect you," Albena said, beating her chest.
"Drop the 'little,' Big Sis Albena—I'm an adult."
"You're still a child," Albena said stubbornly. She'd learned yesterday she was the oldest in the group—Gauss was even younger than her. "Sir Gauss is different." Alia clicked her tongue—double standards.
Gauss watched, amused—and oddly at peace. Sunlight spilled through the windows, lighting the table. It felt… like a family. Five people with no blood ties, brought together by a twist of fate—and this team erased the loneliness of landing in this world alone. People need anchors; if this could last awhile, it wouldn't be a bad way to live.
He glanced out the window—the golden sun climbing hills.
…
Breakfast done, they got serious. No rookies here—they knew how to switch on for a dive and treat teammates' lives with care.
"Alright. We'll take Shadow's Map Three," Gauss said—the third route she'd found, best by a mix of distance, tunnel height, enemy numbers and trap density.
"We need to get here," he circled a point, X'ing out icons for monsters and traps. "Clear these nuisances quietly on the way. Once we're within shared-vision range for the clay constructs, I'll send a micro clay spider ahead to scout."
They still lacked hard intel on the core. Shadow had tried to enter yesterday but quickly pinged a few kobolds; thankfully her talent kept her hidden and she bailed the "barrier" zone at once—the weird pulse lasted only a blink, and the kobolds stayed put.
"The unknown alert barrier likely keys on threat level," Gauss said. Alarm fields don't ping on everything; otherwise the caster would never sleep. Everything that crosses gets tested; whitelisted creatures pass freely; the rest only trigger above a threshold—set by the spell and the caster. He guessed the kobold barrier worked the same way, scaled up, probably maintained by multiple casters.
The clay scouts' edge? They can be "weak." A fingernail-sized clay spider is little different from an insect—it should slip the firewall and get him eyes inside.
"Anything to add?"
"No," Alia said. The plan was set last night; this was ritual.
They packed the house and prepped spells, then moved to the surface entrance for Route Three. The mine was quiet as ever. Aside from Shadow, Gauss wrapped everyone in the powder from Alia's scale-butterfly—rendering them invisible and muffling their auras.
They walked the barren ground. Time's bite lay everywhere: a dry stone well; a broken pot half-buried in dirt; a rotted wheel from some long-dead machine, fallen in pieces. A graveyard.
"Stay close," Shadow whispered. Soon they reached a tunnel mouth half-hidden by weeds and stones. Cloaked in butterfly dust, they could still pick each other out by the shared glimmer.
Nods all round; their silhouettes wavered in sun and slid into the dark.
…
"Tenth."
"Done," Gauss counted silently, hand crushing a kobold's long snout—one twist, and the croc-headed neck snapped. No sound, no struggle. For the weak, a sad and lucky death—quiet, painless. He bagged the corpse; the others sprayed de-scenting tincture on the blood. The scout camp vanished like a hand had wiped it away. Caution costs little.
They knocked over several more nodes; nothing stirred. Clearing scouts was easy; traps took thought, but didn't slow them. After an hour along the underways, they reached the mark.
"Here?" Shadow breathed. "If not, we can move."
"This will do," Gauss said—he'd left himself some margin; farther in got riskier, denser, and any spell could draw eyes.
He took out the White Wand; a pinch of clay jumped from his sleeve; a lick of mana sank into it. The lump wriggled and shrank, becoming a tiny spider—near invisible in the dark.
"Go," he whispered. He pushed a sliver of mind into it; eight legs tapped—boing-boing—down the tunnel. He hadn't used micro-shared vision in a while; everything looked enormous. The upside: it was nearly invisible—boldly boinging past kobolds in the halls. Small and fragile, yes, but fast.
At the marked fork, the spider paused—then went in.
Vmmm.
The space opened—massively. Eerie green light fell from the phosphorescent walls. First in sight: buildings of wood and stone. A smear of smoke in the distance. Deeper in, the view turned cloudy—barrier again.
Found it—Kobold Town.
Suddenly—black. The spider leapt, and—
THUD!
A giant claw slammed where it had been—a kobold trooper with a spear had spotted it and stomped on purpose. When it jumped aside, he just quickened his pace to rejoin his squad.
"I'll remember you," Gauss thought, noting the back.
He pressed on. Soon he felt the barrier Shadow had mentioned—an invisible fog in the air. He nudged the spider through; vision thickened like pushing through a water skin—then snapped clear.
"So many kobolds…"
~~~
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