It turned out that hunting monsters in dark winding tunnels really sucked. Not only did Ryan have to outright refuse to go down certain tunnels that had too much of Rax’s mana in the walls, but the monsters kept scattering away from him. Something large started thumping the caves as he got close. When Ryan stopped, he realized it was .

  “Stupid shitty fear passive.” He muttered. “I’ll never be able to retire as a regular adventurer at this rate.”

  No comments from the elf on his shoulder, nor Shara who was trying to lead them around while following Rax’s orders.

  Ryan just clicked his tongue in impatience. “Fuck it, I’m going after that thing.”

  “Wait–”

  Ryan sprinted ahead, going at speeds where Shara had to sprint to keep up. The walls lit up, trying to follow them as Ryan ran down. The broken enchantments on the walls flashing ahead and making it very clear that he couldn’t outrun the spying leader.

  It was also saying stupid stuff like ‘I will send the children’ and ‘I will collapse the tunnels.’

  Ryan just yelled back ‘If you send them you’ll have nothing to hold over me!’ and ‘shut up, I’m just hunting for food, okay?’

  That was the problem with only having one source of leverage. You either pulled the trigger and lost all your leverage or you had to suffer the cheeky adventurer that just loved to push the line.

  When he looked back, he saw the wide-open eyes of Shara scanning every crevice they were blitzing past. Ryan still couldn’t read her expressions, but she was definitely scared of sprinting like this through the tunnels. He went a little slower.

  The vibrations were getting louder anyway, and if he ran too quickly it was likely to scare the monster off.

  Ryan walked silently, almost like an actual [Rogue], wondering just how large this thing was to make the tunnels shake from so far away. The vibrations were getting louder and–he looked to a split, then turned right and down–then stopped.

  In the middle of the tunnel was another tunnel that went right through it. The ground started to give way underneath him.

  “Crap.”

  Ryan leapt backwards, rapidly going back up the tunnel, outpacing the collapsing ground before him. He tumbled back as Shara watched from behind. Standing on ground that she seemed certain wouldn’t fall underneath her.

  Shara actually hissed at him, her voice more of a whisper. “This is why you don’t run quickly, yes?”

  Ryan stared at the massive tunnel that had been dug below them. It was almost as wide as the biggest one that Shara led them through before the hatch to the city. Ryan thumbed at what he was pretty sure was a freshly dug tunnel.

  “So… what kinda monster can dig a tunnel like that?”

  Shara switched her glare from him to below, then she took a huge step back.

  “An orb-beckadle.”

  “A ”

  “A… insect–beetle covered in metal, we cannot hunt that. It is not prey. Yes?”

  “Hey, don’t make that assumption yourself. Something this big would be a lot of food right?”

  “You cannot carry it yourself. It also breaks the tunnels around it as defense.”

  “Ah. Never mind then.”

  There was a time when Ryan almost suffocated to a bunch of dirt golems in the second Trial. That thought suddenly sobered him up. It also had the added effect of making the entire underground suddenly feel uncomfortably claustrophobic.

  It seemed that Shara also had a similar thought because she moved to the walls and started digging away at them. The ground and rock parting around her fingers as she kept digging around them.

  Ryan frowned. “What are you doing?”

  “Digging a safe space, yes?”

  She had meant that in case the whole tunnel collapsed around her. Shara had her entire focus on digging away at the wall next to her. The way the ground moved around her fingers was mesmerizing, warping the little rocks and dirt like they were soft clay.

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  It was quick too, in less than five seconds she had made a hole big enough for her to squeeze into.

  Shara turned to glare at him. “This is mine, yes? Will not make it for you.”

  Ryan just scratched at his stubble, then remembered his mask didn’t have any, he scratched his chin instead“How do you make sure this doesn’t collapse with everything else?”

  Shara stared at him for a couple seconds, then turned around and squeezed into the hole, leaving a surprisingly fair amount of space. She then put one hand above her and one below. A static of magic washed out from her and hit both the upper and lower part of the ground. Whatever was going on it felt a little similar to Valee’s [Adaptive Terrain] skill.

  “Damn, that’s actually really cool.”

  Shara clearly didn’t know how to react to his open admiration of what was likely an instinctive skill by the Unwanted. She turned away from him instead.

  “Wait… are you blushing?” Ryan bumped his shoulder elf, “Hey Tar’el, I think our Unwanted elven princess is blushing.”

  Funnily enough, Tar’el seemed to have had enough.

  “Stop it!”

  That startled both Ryan and Shara. They both turned at the random outburst.

  “I get it! You don’t have to humanize them, okay? Stop making fun of her and me. Alright?! You win, Artigan. You were right, let me down.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Stop playing games, I know you’re trying to prove your point. I get it, you’ve been trying to prove that the Unwanted are a people this entire time. , they’re a people, they’re Realmers, is that what you wanted from me?”

  Neither of them paid attention to the look of surprise Shara had.

  Ryan just scratched his head. “Yeah, I mean, I already knew that. You accepted that in the city. I don’t really need anything from you.”

  “Then, why are you still making fun of me? Why am I still on your shoulder?”

  “Oh. That and this is an entirely different matter. You’re on my shoulder because this is punishment. And because I need someone to make fun of. You know, like banter between friends, right Shara?”

  The Unwanted elf still seemed shocked at Tar’el’s earlier acceptance of them as a people. She stayed silent.

  Tar’el however was anything but silent. “There is no way you have friends if this is how you treat them!”

  “Yeah, that’s because you’re not that good at bantering back. You should try it sometime. Maybe not with the Leafstalkers, they all seem a little too intense.”

  “Banter is what adventurers do so they can keep the masses entertained! They wouldn’t act that way if they had nobody to appeal to!”

  Ryan shook his head. “It’s such a shame you think that way. Well, me and my friends act like this, and we only have ourselves to entertain.”

  “I refuse to believe you have friends.”

  “That’s the spirit!” Ryan jostled the elf on his shoulder, then turned to the still-shocked Shara in her corner. “What about you Shara, do you have any banter for us?”

  Her big eyes were stuck on Tar’el. “You, a Realmer, see us as people?”

  The intensity of her stare was enough to make even Tar’el look away. “I–yeah. You guys aren’t elves. But you can think, talk–whatever! Alright? You’re Realmers as well.”

  “See?” Ryan slapped Shara on the shoulder, it elicited a surprised shriek and she instinctively took a swipe at him. Ryan dodged the swipe. “Whoa, sorry.”

  Shara hissed in annoyance–then realized who she was hissing to and drew back into her hidey hole.

  Ryan put his hands up. “Look, I am sorry about overstepping my boundaries. That was a little too friendly and I apologize.”

  Shara’s huge eyes just looked at him in confusion. As if apologizing was the last thing she expected.

  “Hey, this is how friendship works. You try to have fun while learning each others’ boundaries. I went too far by slapping your shoulder, and for that I’m apologizing.”

  At this point it was getting very clear that the idea of friends and banter was a step too far for the poor Unwanted elf. As if she hadn’t dared dream for much more than being recognized as a real person. Her head tilted curiously at him.

  “Oof, okay, baby steps. Okay, let’s start over. My name is Artigan, it’s nice to meet you. I hope I can keep calling you Shara, but I’ll call you by your real name if you want to, .”

  The use of her real name startled the girl out of her reverie. She eyed the hand hesitantly, as if scared that it would bite her. Then took his hand in hers and shook it. When they let go, Shara stared at her own hands, as if they were the most fascinating thing in the world.

  Ryan smiled.

  that was when the creepy disembodied magical voice started to reach them. Following lines of rapidly forming enchantments that crawled towards them. Ryan turned around, no longer smiling. The mood ruined.

  Rax’s voice became clearer as the enchantments creeped in,

  It was as if the leader of the Unwanted only knew how to go for the jugular and nothing else. No thought of subtlety or maybe pushing one child into the tunnel to keep Ryan in line. In this case, it was a relief.

  A simple opponent was good when there were lives at stake.

  Ryan scowled, pretending as if the Witch Tyrant had threatened his friends. “We were going to go hunt the monster, but it turns out it was bigger than I first thought. Do you have any other suggestions?”

  ‘

  “And I’m not walking down tunnels that look like you’ve rigged to blow up. Either find me a monster that isn’t around them or go hunt for food for the Unwanted yourself. But I’m not staying around while starve.”

  –

  The worst part was that it didn’t even take that long for Rax to direct them to a Bullipede’s nest. It confirmed everything Ryan had thought about the bastard. That the leader of the Unwanted was fully willing to let his people starve so they would look even more monstrous as they attacked the settlements above.

  Despite Ryan’s annoyance at the confirmation, the little quest was satisfying.

  A bullipede scuttled for its dear life as he approached. It dug and dug but was too slow. It started detaching its legs, hoping that the offering to the smaller predator would be enough to leave it alone.

  It was a good reminder of how far he had come. When he could clear out a nest of bullipedes when a single one would have caused him trouble only a couple months ago.

  While this bullipede wasn’t quite as big as the one he’d fought in Sector Two, it was still more than large enough to feed hundreds of people.

  Assuming they were okay with eating green insect guts of course.

  He turned to Shara who was gently cradling a stone bowl full of fat squirming grubs. She’d crafted the bowl herself in an insanely quick time and was now salivating over the grubs.

  “I’m sure nobody will say anything if you have some for yourself.”

  Shara looked up then shook her head.

  “This is for sire. He enjoys these.”

  “Oh come on. Surely you deserve to have some yourself. Go on, take it. I’m sure he doesn’t mind.”

  The look that Shara had around the walls indicated that it was likely that her was probably watching and would disapprove.

  Ryan sighed. Rax was too paranoid to let Ryan out of his sight. He was going to have to come up with a different plan.

  Shara was still salivating over the grubs she was holding, drool almost dripping down her lower lip. Ryan thought about it, then shrugged. He took his phone out for a selfie.

  After all, when everything was over and done with, and things went right, Shara would be an elven princess. Having some sort of blackmail material for the distant future would be excellent. Tar’el being hogtied would also add to the picture.

  When he did go to take the photo, Ryan froze.

  There was a small alert on the phone he carried. A feature he had left to silent mode. A black mark signaled with a crest of the Tyrants.

  An adventurer’s emergency beacon.

  The last time he had checked his phone had been when they were in the city. That meant that it had been triggered only recently. Perhaps when they had gone past the tunnel that the orb-beckadle had carved.

  Ryan went ahead and pressed the button. A message saved while he had been in range.

  “”

  Adventurers often had the worst of timings.

  Adventurers smh.

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  24 chapters ahead!