"Eh-heheh, I avoid fighting anything, but I'm really good at hiding..." Imarui responded, scratching the back of her head with one hand. She didn't have anything good for fighting. She didn't have an Arti-

The small girl paused for a few moments.

That wasn't true... and that reminded her, as much as all these people seemed nice, when it was time to locate an artifact she was going to have to get away from them as soon as she could. After all, she didn't know how they'd respond when they learned about the true nature of her necklace. She could hide its light, certainly, but she didn't want them seeing it in the first place...

But that was okay for now.

First, they'd explore!

It was pretty dark down here, and that was the remains of the building that had fallen into the pit, all smashed up and crushed... it really was good nobody had been inside it at the time!

"Anyway, exploring together is a lot better then splitting up!" declared the little white-haired girl cheerfully, even as the boy from before rushed off down the right side path. She definitely didn't mind the older girl sticking with her, but there was no reason to dawdle around here any longer! Imarui adjusted her backpack and turned to follow the skateboarder's path...

[hr]

The right side path was much brighter then the initial site of the descent, and it was immediately apparent why that was.

The walls, floor, and part of the cieling were encrusted with hundreds upon hundreds of glowcaps. The large mushrooms gave off a somewhat eerie blue-white glow, and while they in and of themselves were harmless, it did indicate something somewhat unsavory.

Something had likely died here at one point. Glowcaps could grow in incredibly harsh conditions, far moreso then this cavern was, but the initial catalyst for their growth was almost always the presence of a corpse.

The light of the glowing fungi did, however, illuminate the true hazard.

Hanging from the ceiling were thin, silvery, hairlike strands that would have been completely invisible in the darkness. Following them to the roof of the cave would reveal that they were attached to a slimy substance, within which was the bodies of the creatures the strands were attacked to. Wormlike creatures, the length and width of a grown man's arm.

On their own, they were harmless to anything larger then a rat or similar creature. But when something brushed against their sensory strands that was too large for them to pull up and consume...

They weren't called Screaming Slugs for no reason, and many subterranean predators had learned to respond to the screams of the creatures as a sign that food was nearby.

Beyond, the cavern seemed to widen again, and it almost appeared as if something other then the glowing fungi was attached to the walls. Perhaps there was an underground forest of some sort? They were hardly unheard of.

[@ERode][@AzureKnight][@Rune_Alchemist][@Searat][@Raineh Daze][@KoL][@Pyromania99]