In the end, Rex was able to make a very comfortable tunnel for us to pass through. While we were able to make good time, we also took brief moments to rest and let our Energy recharge. The last thing anyone of us wanted was to be attacked by another Eater while we were still struggling with our Energy reserves.
Then again, we couldn't just completely stop while the battle continued to rage on above ground. That is, if the battle still continued. Down here, we had no way of knowing that. It was very much possible that all the Rodenti had managed to kill the Eaters outside the nest and were now just waiting or discussing if they should try to invade the Eaters' home or not.
At the same time, it was possible for the opposite to be true. The Eaters could have won, and now we were going to be the last remaining fighters in this battle, the last hope the Rodenti had for destroying the nest. One way or another, thinking about that was a waste of time, plain and simple.
Still, there wasn't much we could do right now except think, since Rex was the only one actively doing anything. Or at least, that's what I thought. Upon closer inspection, Riley was still preparing more spell stones, trying to replenish some of the ammo that they spent dealing with the swarm of Cleaners. Michael was making more arrows using the rocks left behind by Rex.
In the end, the only two people who were actually not doing anything were Astrid and me. That wasn't because we didn't want to help, but that there was just nothing either one of us could do. Then again, we were essentially acting like bodyguards here. We wouldn't need to do anything unless we were attacked. The hope was that our work was never going to be a necessity.
I was having this same conversation with myself for the eleventh time when Rex stopped and looked to the right. "Found something." The Rodenti said. He pointed up. "Space there feels small. Maybe tunnel." He then pointed directly to the left and a little bit down. "Space there. Big. Weird."
"Big and weird probably has something to do with the core of the nest," Michael spoke up.
"Yeah, but it also means that we would get right into the thick of it. Going up might give us a chance to at least scout ahead," I added.
There was a pause when everybody was just thinking about what we should do, although Rex seemed to have already decided on his opinion. Yet, Astrid was the first to speak. "No time. Already wasted too much."
"I agree. We don't know how the Rodenti are faring out there. Twenty minutes might be more than enough time for them to have finished the fight," Riley added.
"Then, go for weird?" Rex asked.
We all nodded in agreement. Rex turned back to the tunnel, ready to start continuing his spell. However, before he truly began, he made a gesture for everybody to gather close. The moment we approached, Rex put out his hand and said, "Go in alive."
With a smile and a nod, we all placed our hands on top of his and waited for him to say it again. It took a few seconds, but Rex understood what we were expecting and said, "Go in alive!"
We took off our hands off while saying, "And come back dead!" Everybody made sure not to scream, but still say it with some gusto. It seemed like this was now our battle cry, and honestly I quite liked it. The small Rodenti opened a big smile and turned back to the tunnel with a resolute look in his eye.
"Tell us when we were getting really close, little man," Michael added as he started to speed up the production of his arrows.
Beside him, Riley was changing a bit how they were setting up the Spell Stones. Instead of having them carved with the spell in question, they were simply placing silk around the stone with a specific pattern engraved on it. In addition, they had foregone the whole aspect of allowing anyone to put some Energy on the Spell Stone.
I could tell that the actual spell circles forming from the strands of silk coming out of their sleeves were not as intricate as the ones that they had used before. This likely meant that Riley was the only person who could activate those spells, but right now, it was all that we were going to need since we still had some of the Spell Stones that we had prepared previously.
All the while, Astrid and I kept flanking the group, making sure that if anything was going to appear out of nowhere, we would be the first ones to intercept it. Rex didn't really explain to us how close that place was, but we sensed that it wasn't that far off. Even then, the seconds seemed to tick down very slowly as we waited and watched as the tunnel formed.
It quickly became clear that there was truly something going on nearby. Earlier, we could occasionally find a large, glowing piece of metal or Eater skin like growth. However, they were always following a pattern of sorts, either moving in a specific direction or making some kind of squiggly line and never being too close together. When Rex found one of them, a quick shift in the direction of the tunnel was more than enough to make sure we wouldn't be following that strange formation.
However, now things were becoming much more hectic. The more Rex moved towards that empty space he was able to sense, more of those mix of rock and metal protrusions would appear. And they didn't feel like it had any sort of purpose. Some were just jagged spikes blocking our passage.
Others were rounded rocks that seemed to just exist. It even reached the point where Rex had to push forward on a part of the tunnel where there were dozens of very thin strands of that metal formation, almost forming a net in front of us. Thankfully, the netting was nowhere near as effective as it should be, and we were able to pass along just fine.
As we continued our approach, more and more of those metallic growths appeared. The frequency of those clusters grew higher and higher until we were all getting worried that we would end up getting completely boxed in. Thankfully, just a few moments after we got worried, Rex broke through the very edge of that large opening he had seen. On the other side was a sight that nothing in my life would have ever prepared me for.
We were entering this large oval chamber. The walls were almost completely covered by that same strange metallic skin that Eaters had, and only a few small patches of dirt could be seen. Although at the very base of the wall, where it connected to the ground, those patches were a bit more frequent, meaning that we were not just lucky to enter through the one passage we could enter, but Rex was capable of recognizing the best path forward.
From those metallic protrusions around the walls, we could see tiny glowing parts that gave the entire area a strange orange hue. Suddenly, there was a pulse of Energy that traveled quickly all around the cave, from something in the center to the ceiling, and then spreading to the walls before vanishing deeper into the nest. Or I suppose I should say closer to the surface, as I had a good feeling this place was the deepest part of the home of Eaters.
There was another pulse of Energy emanating from the center of the room, and this time, I was able to take a better look at what was creating it. That giant central pillar with the metal casing going all the way to the ceiling and the base dug into the ground reminded me of the reactors that I would see in movies. There was another pulse of Energy, which made the orange lights shine even brighter, and I heard Riley by my side gasping.
"It's like a giant tree!"
Honestly, I could see that. The metal that was going up to the ceiling once it was illuminated by the pulse seemed to be split into smaller branches, but they were so close together that it was hard for me not to think of them as a singular thing.
"No," Astrid replied, "A heart."
Looking around, I had to admit she wasn't wrong. The pulse created by the central pillar had a specific rhythm to it. In a way, it did make it feel as if we were looking at the very heart of this nest. There was another pulse, and this time, I was able to tell that there was something different going on.
The wave of light started on the ground and kept going for a couple of seconds before there was a flash of darkness. Only then would the main body of the pillar start to glow and send out that beam of Energy to the rest of the nest. This heart was taking Energy from below and sending it out. Or at least, that's what I was assuming was happening here.
Looking at that giant pillar, there was another thing that caught my eye. Near the base, but still maybe 2 meters [6.6 ft] above the ground, which was still far from the ceiling of this place, there was this central glowing protrusion that had small tendrils around them. Just as I saw it, the System also revealed more about what I found.
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Eater Hatchery - Tier 3
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"Is this what we were looking for?" Riley asked with a puzzled expression.
"I don't know. It was a Hatchling, so maybe a Hatchery is what we are looking for," I said with a frown while slowly approaching.
"I mean, it does make sense," Michael nodded. "The Hatchling becomes a Hatchery. If anything, that's kind of uninspired, you know."
Despite the conversation, everybody had their weapons drawn and were ready to attack anything that might come our way. We all seriously doubted that the Eaters would just let someone walk in here without trying to stop us.
"What do you need to do to use {Vault Of The Static Memory}?" Riley turned towards me.
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Vault Of The Static Memory - Skilled - Active
The minds of others contain secrets that can be extracted by those who understand it.
You are able to create the copy of a creature's mind and store it inside a vault in order to access it at a later date.
Only one mind can be stored at a time.
Energy Cost: 3 Energy
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While looking at the description, the System sent me more information about the skill. Not actually speaking it, just making me know almost by instinct.
"The skill is not flawless. It won't just extract the information we want from anyone. The target can resist the extraction, so it's better if it's wounded or worried about something else first. And I need to keep touching it for it to work."
"Really? You can't do that through you need to touch it?" Michael frowned.
"I mean, yeah. I wasn't expecting anything different, really. This sounds too complicated to be something that can be done at range." I pointed out.
"Fair point. So, do we just start?" I said.
"If Cassandra is saying that it needs to be worried about something else, maybe we need to hurt it a bit," Riley was staring at the Hatchery.
"And if hurt, call help," Rex said the one thing that all of us were thinking.
He wasn't wrong. The moment we started hurting this Hatchery, it would probably call Eaters that were still on the nest and maybe even the ones outside. To make matters worse, we couldn't even try to really destroy it since the target needed to be alive for the skill to work.
"Should I just try to use it from the get go?" I suggested, but got a disapproving look from Astrid and the others.
"No. Waste Energy." The Huskcarver replied bluntly. And as much as I hated to admit it, it was true. This skill still took a lot of Energy to be used, and I couldn't really afford to play around with it.
Before I could continue, Astrid stepped forward, brandishing her axe. "I start. Wait until actually hurt. Protect everybody else."
"You want to do this alone?" Michael frowned.
Astrid just smiled. "Yes. Big heart but also big tree. Easy for me."
She was smart, and I couldn't really argue against that. After all, before leveling up, the Huskcarver was the Frosted Lumberjack. If anyone here would be good at bringing down something that looked like a tree, it would be her.
She brought her weapon back after stepping closer to the trunk of the pillar, and I saw particles covering the blade before a {Frost Chop} came crashing down on the Hatchery. With that one single swing, the entire thing shuddered, and a large gash appeared on the side of the mix of metal and stone body.
What surprised me the most was the fact that it didn't start regenerating right away. Almost as if the Hatchery didn't have {Body Regeneration} or a skill to quickly recover from wounds. Astrid was pulling her axe back for the second swing when all the lights in the area flashed, the orange color growing deeper and turning red.
From the ceiling, two large, round protrusions that I assumed were just metal boulders shuddered and dropped, landing on both sides of the central pillar. The boulders suddenly sprouted legs and raised themselves up as the shell cracked, before starting to move. Every seam being cracked, the metal was broken as there were countless tentacles holding those plates like they were shields.
The spider-like legs were almost as thick as the ones that a Guardian Eater would have. With a clang, the plates connected again, forming one almost seamless massive plate on top of the creatures before spreading out, revealing a body very different for an Eater. It wasn't just an amalgamation of limbs and appendages connected in something that could barely be described as a torso.
Instead, there was an actual body inside, or at least the beginnings of one. It was oval with a round waist and a ring of eyes on top of it. If that wasn't enough, this creature didn't seem to have any mouth to speak of, but it was clear that the eyes were focused on us, and its job was to defend the Hatchery.
As if we needed any more proof, the moment the System showed their name, it became obvious that this really was the case. Like an ant queen that was protected by her royal guard, this Hatchery was also protected.
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Guard Eater - Tier 2 - saturated
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