The group met with other monsters aside from the veinleeches along the way. The stonemites, despite being a weaker type of monster, were the more irritating lot, as they ate ores, steel, and other inanimate things.
They skittered through the tunnels in small swarms, their bodies pressed low to the ground and unnaturally wide, like flattened beetles carved from living stone.
Each movement was accompanied by a faint grinding sound, mineral plates scraping against one another as if the creatures were constantly reshaping themselves to match the tunnel walls.
Their shells were layered with mineral plates of uneven colors, each one stained differently depending on what they had been feeding on.
Some gleamed dully with iron. Others bore faint greenish streaks where traces of copper or lesser mana-infused ore had been consumed.
