A Small Chance of Moles
Silence was a virtue Elijah greatly admired. However, based on the situation, silence could mean only one thing…
Danger.
Elijah was calmly standing on a large boulder while looking at his surroundings. He had expected for there to be at least a few beasts in sight, but there was nothing but silence. Dripstones echoed one after the other, drooling water into miniscule puddles, and was in sync with Elijah's heartbeat. Or rather, Elijah's heartbeat was in sync with the drops of water. The feeling of confidence left his soul, and the muscles in his legs tensed up solely from the mystery of where the first mole would erect its head from.
Slowly, Elijah lifted his head after feeling not a drop of water on his hair, but a drop of blood. Above, was a large hole wreathed in darkness that had also begun to rumble.
Something was falling from the ceiling, and fast.
The drops of blood began to thicken in frequency, motivating Elijah to the edge of the cavern. Not even a second later, a four foot long beast with a beaver-like tail, and sharp teeth in its pointed mouth came into sight. It's body was severely mutilated, creating multiple pools of blood below its body.
Elijah covered his nose in disgust while putting his guard up as the beast splattered against the floor violently — smashing into bits, with hundreds, or even thousands of smaller beasts following suit.
The sound was sure to attract more, but still, Elijah did not flee. This was definitely being caused by a stronger and unknown beast, or was simply a tactic employed by these beasts.
Stone rock formations provided support for the ceiling as usual. Elijah quickly flew around the cave looking for an exit only to find a dead end if he ignored the hole in the ceiling.
'Did I go the wrong way? The map I received was tailored to this exact cave with the surrounding caves marked as reference.'
What was once silent before, soon returned. Elijah carefully made his way up the small cavern in the ceiling while smothering his nostrils tightly.
Nose breathing being the only method of filtering air in the body was common knowledge. Still, the horrid stench forced him to hold his breath.
The long jagged stone tunnel slowly arched into a larger cavern. Elijah kept asking himself how hunters would reach this point. Either he was in the wrong place, or the next cavern had been closed off intentionally.
Slowly, Elijah dragged his hand against the floor beneath his floating body, and quickly pulled it back. Six inch fangs erected from the dirt, and came together swallowing up the ground it encircled.
What Elijah had been told about tunnel moles if the ground had been reformed was just as horrifying as he thought.
Every step could result in the loss of a limb, but begged the question as to why he was told this mission would be light.
The entire cave went haywire as the trap moles inside the floor had realized they would not be able to kill their prey with their current guerilla tactics.
Hundreds of sharp teeth viciously swallowed up the ground, and spit out the earth directly at Elijah.
Red cores beasts like these didn't necessarily have deadly attacks, but instead a spell they made with the combination of their primate brain, magical affinity, and innate ability. This did not mean by any means these beasts were weak. In great numbers, trap moles are devastating when combining their strength.
Elijah was in a predicament. Water was created within the air all around Elijah as his surroundings went completely black besides the small opening above him.
The option to fly away would've been stolen by the moles appearing above him.
Each vomit of earth smothered Elijah's spell, and even made its way through to his body. He was being buried alive, in mid air!
'This wasn't supposed to happen. I must have gone the wrong way. Was the map wrong? Was I played?'
Elijah's heart thumped rapidly, creating several possible escape routes. The skin on his body was becoming soiled and the toll his body was taking underneath the weight of the floating earthen rock was becoming too much to bear.
Knowing his spell casting was limited to one spell at a time, he prepped the mana in the environment to create a growing ball of water before his spatial spell even began. This was a loophole in the limits of his red mana core.
Within a matter of seconds, a translucent and pearlescent line reached from the bottom of Elijah's feet, the very top of his head. Slowly, the space shifted apart from each other creating a small gap Elijah flew out of.
Every single hole in the floor was filled with the nasty mud-water, and was shortly followed up with a raging wave of water Elijah had conjured out of thin air.
One by one, the pointed heads and bald bodies rose from the ground begging for air. Sharp cries that faded into silence repeatedly resounded after the feeling of the heads being severed in half simultaneously.
"Oh… my… god…" Elijah was out of breath while continuing to end the lives of the few amounts of moles still squirming.
"I need to find a way to the next cavern…But first, I will recuperate some of my mana." Elijah flew still in the air, not willing to take a chance at a worrisome and hesitant trap mole.
Close by, Elijah noticed not a single entrance or exit in sight besides the way he came.
After slowly making his way to a wall with artificial touches, he saw what seemed like an opening that had been artificially covered with a rough stucco-like stone. Man made, but Elijah assumed it was instead made from a beast…
The earthen rock was slowly split apart into a small opening. Elijah's breath was hitting the wall as he slowly but surely carved the space into a vaginal-like shape using a deviation of slicing space.
Once cut, he held his ear up to the side, and slowly pulled with his fingers between a small crack that he could fit his finger behind.
Dust flew out from underneath the fallen stone blockade, and revealed what was behind the wall of mysteries.
A horrid looking beast with wrinkly bald skin, pointed snout, and fangs the size of limbs that protruded straight forward from its snout, slowly curved inward.
This beast was adept at moving underneath the ground, and was much bigger than the average trap moles. This was its evolution, a pincer mole!
When it comes to the evolution of beasts, the kingdom does not know much of the details.
What's assumed… is after a long period of time surviving in mana dense environments, the cores are saturated with enough mana to then develop a second layer, which would create the orange core — also resulting in a painful bodily change.
Human cores and beast cores are assumed to be different due to this assumption. Instead of having stages within each core, there is only the core.
Maybe due to the intelligence of the beast, or maybe even the complexity of its soul? You can't forget the difference in the way humans level up their cores either… Usage.
Munching and gnawing sounds were the only thing coming from the beast. It was eating its own kind, and maybe even saturating its core faster.
A red glow came from the beast it was eating, and was quickly gobbled up by this monster. Elijah had never noticed the cores in the beasts beforehand.
The Hunter guild just recently taught Elijah that red cores would instantly diminish to black, and then disappear. Cores were only able to be grabbed if the situation was right, and the beast was at least an orange core beast.
However, almost every beast core that came from The Catacombs was completely useless and unable to be used for some unknown reason. Its lob-sided indentations and easily breakable structure made them difficult to work with.
Elijah quickly sat on his knees while peeking through the bottom of the crack.
His thoughts ran wild while staring at the madness coming from the pincer mole's actions… 'I understand what is happening. The strength of the catacombs must be advancing. But… this advancement is not something the guild has noticed. The average increase in stronger beasts is sure to be reported soon. I know I can catch this beast by surprise and kill it... I must continue… I must grow stronger!'