What Waits Beneath

The wind shifted.

It carried with it something foul—faint, like rot clinging to wet stone, but sharp enough to turn every stomach in the group. Grent stopped first, raising a closed fist. The others froze behind him in practiced quiet.

Koda's hand drifted toward the invisible hilt only he could summon.

The air had changed.

The woods they moved through had turned thick with damp undergrowth and fallen pine. No sun touched the forest floor here—just a diffused haze, sickly green from the canopy above. Wet leaves clung to their boots. The ground grew softer underfoot, spongy and silent.

Then they heard it: low grunting, the faint shuffle of feet… and the unmistakable click of worn weapons.

Kobolds.

But not just one or two scavengers.

Koda squinted through the thick underbrush ahead.

There, nestled between two rock faces at the base of a steep ravine, lay a crude forward camp. Cobbled together with bone, wood, and stolen canvas, the kobolds had constructed what looked like a war den—a mess of sharpened posts, skin-stretched banners, and the faint flicker of firelight curling into the trees.

Three stood on watch.

One gnawed at something limp and unidentifiable. Another scraped the edge of a jagged spear along a tree stump, muttering in its harsh tongue. The third just twitched—its body covered in patches of raw, scabbed skin, its yellow eyes flicking erratically.

"They've settled in," Renn whispered from a low crouch, bow already strung. "This isn't a stray group. This is a perimeter."

"I count eight tents," Lumia murmured. "More inside."

"They're guarding something," the librarian, Erilan, added. His fingers twitched slightly, tracing quiet symbols in the air. "There's a ley distortion here. The mana… it's bleeding sideways."

"Scar," Grent said.

No one moved.

No one breathed.

A dungeon.

Out here?

Koda's gut tightened.

"Orders?" Renn asked.

Grent's jaw worked. "We hit hard. Fast. Don't let them cry out. Then check the cave."

Everyone nodded.

It happened quickly.

Renn loosed first—an arrow through the twitching kobold's throat. It didn't even scream, just gurgled and crumpled into the dirt. Koda surged forward with Grent beside him, the blade of will forming in his hand mid-run like smoke catching fire.

The first guard barely turned before Grent crushed it into the ground with his shield. Koda ducked under a wild swing from the second, his foot catching on a root but recovering just in time to drive his weapon through the creature's midsection.

It wailed—but only once.

Then it was over.

Erilan moved through the remains with eerie calm, hand glowing faintly as he traced runes to mask the sounds of the skirmish. Lumia checked their wounds, though there were none. The whole camp had fallen in less than ten seconds.

But Koda's eyes were already on the cave.

The opening was rough, uneven stone, flanked by crude totems of bone and claw. Something had been dragged across the dirt repeatedly—creating a shallow channel that led deeper into the earth.

And from inside… a pulsing.

Low. Almost imperceptible.

Like breath behind the stone.

Renn approached the entrance, knelt, and placed her palm against the ground.

"It's fresh. They've been feeding it. That's what the camp was for."

"Sealing team's two days out," Erilan said quietly. "This isn't supposed to be here. The last census said this sector was clear."

Grent stared into the dark.

"Then something changed."

Koda didn't speak.

He didn't need to.

The pressure behind his eyes told him everything.

This dungeon wasn't a fluke.

It had been waiting.

They made the decision in silence.

Renn was the first to nod. "If we leave it two days, they'll breed. Multiply. If they're already nesting—"

"Then waiting is worse," Erilan finished grimly. "Better to stop the rot before it reaches the surface."

"Then we clear it," Grent said.

Koda didn't voice his agreement, but he was already adjusting the grip on his summoned weapon. It pulsed faintly now, a low, hot thrum that matched the breath behind the portal's veil.

They stepped into the cave, its mouth swallowing them instantly.

The shift was total—light vanished behind the first bend, replaced by the thick press of damp air and the acrid reek of decay. The walls were slick, sweating moss and something stickier. Every step forward drew up the scent of rotting meat and old iron. The floor was uneven, patches of stone interrupted by clumps of soft, trodden earth. Occasionally, bones.

The darkness wasn't pure—it breathed. The deeper they moved, the more it seemed to coil around them like wet fabric, brushing skin and rustling faintly just beyond torchlight.

Renn took the lead, bow half-drawn, eyes flicking like a hunting cat's.

Erilan walked just behind, fingers weaving low-light glyphs that clung to the walls like fireflies. They pulsed slowly—faint, white-gold glimmers tracing the edges of the cave as if trying to warn them back.

They didn't listen.

The first ambush came fast.

A side tunnel—almost too small to notice—opened just ahead, and with a hiss, two kobolds burst from it, their bodies twisted and emaciated, eyes wide and filmed over with the pale milky sheen. Their spears were rusted nails tied to sticks. Their skin sloughed off in patches, sickly green clinging to open sores.

They shrieked.

Koda ducked the first lunge, slashing his blade sideways in a wide arc. He felt it catch—a crunch, a wet snap—and the first creature went down, its scream cut short. The second tried to stab him but found Grent's shield instead. The impact echoed through the tunnel like a bell rung underwater.

Lumia reached out from behind, her fingers glowing briefly. A shimmer of warmth passed across Koda's ribs as her support spell dulled the bruising he hadn't even noticed yet.

They pushed forward.

The next chamber was worse.

Bigger—twenty feet wide, with stalactites dripping a slow, steady rhythm onto the cavern floor. That sound—tik… tik… tik—was the only thing constant. It scraped at the edges of sanity, like the cave itself was keeping time, counting heartbeats until something broke.

Here, they met four more.

This time, they were ready.

Erilan opened with a containment glyph—a burst of tight white threads that lashed two kobolds to the ground, twitching and snarling as the spell crackled around them, tightening until it tore through their gangly flesh. Renn put two arrows through the third before it crossed half the room. Koda met the last with his blade, parrying its frenzied, clawing blows with gritted teeth.

It bled fast. It bled black.

They killed it in the dark.

The cave beyond dipped sharply, forcing them to descend a jagged slope. The ground slickened beneath their boots, and Koda slipped once, catching himself against a jagged wall. The stone bit into his hand. Blood smeared across the mossy surface, disappearing into the green-black growth like it had been waiting.

They were deeper now.

And something watched.

The kobold signs changed. More runes. Rough paint, thick symbols of clawed hands and jagged teeth. Erilan's mouth tightened every time he passed one. "They're worshipping something."

Grent didn't look surprised. "A spawn core?"

"Maybe. Could be older. Could be worse."

Koda kept silent. But he felt it. That same low thrum behind the veil. Stronger now. Like it was humming in his bones.

They killed again.

A nest this time—six of them clustered in a side tunnel, half-mad with hunger. The fight was brutal. Lumia had to throw her light barrier twice, her mana cracking through the dim like lightning as two of the kobolds broke through their formation. Koda took a shallow gash across his thigh. Grent crushed one under his shield so hard it snapped like a child's toy.

Erilan's runes turned darker now. Less light. More edge.

And the cave descended still.

Below, in the darkness, the pulse grew louder.

A sound without sound.

And a presence that stirred behind the rock.

Waiting.

The passage twisted one final time, narrowing to a crawlspace just large enough for Grent to squeeze through sideways, shield flat against his back. The air was warmer here, damper. Something alive pulsed beyond the stone. Even the moss had thinned, replaced by a mucous-like slick on the walls that clung to the touch like old blood.

Koda's knuckles were white on the hilt of his blade. He could feel it vibrating—anticipation, warning, hunger. His breath was low, silent.

Renn was the first through, then Grent. Koda followed.

The chamber opened like a wound in the earth.

A dome of stone, wide and sunken, the floor cracked and webbed with shallow pools of blackened water. In the center, on a raised mound of bone and filth, stood a kobold unlike the rest.

Twice the size of its kin.

Its flesh was torn with ritual scars, symbols carved deep and fresh into muscle. Its eyes were luminous green, filmed over with something ancient. A jagged crown of bone framed its head, lashed together from the spines of other beasts. It held a club of fused metal and broken masonry, pulsing faintly with mana—rudimentary enchantment or stolen relic, Koda couldn't tell.

It was waiting.

And then it moved.

Fast.

It lunged at Grent first, the ground cracking under its charge. The big man barely had time to raise his shield—impact sent him skidding back a full body's length. Sparks flew. The others split on instinct, Renn vanishing behind a stalagmite, Lumia chanting under her breath, casting protective wards.

Koda charged.

He brought his blade down in a clean arc—metal screamed against the kobold's bone-plate pauldron. Sparks, but no blood.

The creature spun, its club arcing wide.

It hit him in the ribs.

Pain exploded white-hot across Koda's side. He felt something give—but he stayed up, feet dragging in wet soil. He ducked under the second swing, rolled, brought his blade up under its guard.

Steel bit.

A shallow cut—just enough to bleed.

The beast howled.

Erilan's runes exploded from the far wall—binding glyphs wrapped around the kobold's legs, slowing it. Just a moment. Just enough.

Grent barreled back into the fray with a roar, shield-first, slamming the creature down. It hit the ground hard—bone cracking against stone—and Koda didn't hesitate.

He leapt.

Blade of Conviction summoned mid-fall, burning white-hot in his hand.

He drove it down into the beast's throat.

There was a sound—a wet squelch, like marrow cracking open.

Then stillness.

Black ichor spread beneath them. The packs alpha twitched once, then went slack.

And the chamber fell silent.

Only their ragged breaths remained, echoing off the cave walls like the last survivors of a storm.

A light flared across Koda's vision.

[LEVEL UP]

You have reached Level 5.

+1 to all stats via [Balance].

HP, Mana, Stamina have increased.

He staggered back, chest heaving, and pulled open his status window with a quiet, trembling breath.

⸻

Koda of the Eternal Guide

Level 5

HP: 69 / 90

Mana: 70 / 90

Stamina: 62 / 90

Stats:

Strength: 9

Vitality: 9

Agility: 9

Intelligence: 9

Wisdom: 9

Endurance: 9

Traits:

Balance (Divine) – All stat increases apply equally to all attributes. Harmony is growth.

Skills:

Blade of Conviction – Active

Summon a weapon forged of pure will. The more clarity and purpose you hold, the stronger the blade. Willpower and Wisdom affect damage.

⸻

Koda exhaled slowly.

Still alive. Stronger. But deep down, he knew—this was nothing.

This was only the beginning.