The path continued deeper into the ravine, narrowing as AJ followed the push and pull of mana. The path grew narrower as he progressed, the walls pressing closer together until some sections forced him to navigate sideways between stone faces.
More skeletons littered his path. A human ribcage protruded from beneath a fallen boulder. The skull of some four-legged creature lay shattered against the wall, its jaw hanging at an unnatural angle. Fresh enough that scraps of hide still clung to the bone, suggesting whatever had killed it had done so recently.
The darkness intensified. What little ambient light had filtered down from above faded to nothing, leaving only the faint luminescence of mana itself to guide him. AJ withdrew small amounts of glowmelt as he walked, pressing them against the ravine walls at regular intervals. The trail of pale markers stretched behind him like breadcrumbs.
The mana signature grew stronger with each step. Not just concentrated now, but of a quality that made his core resonate with hunger.
But something else accompanied that improvement in mana quality. A growing unease was settling over him.
The left wall caught his attention.
AJ paused, his gaze tracing the stone surface. Deep gouges scored the rock face, each one wide enough to fit his entire hand inside. The marks ran parallel to each other in sets of four, carved through solid stone as if it were soft clay.
He approached the wall, running his fingers along one of the grooves. These weren't random scratches, they were the territorial markings of something that wanted to make its presence known.
AJ's thoughts drifted to the massive skull he'd found earlier. The bone structure, the size, the serrated teeth, and now these claw marks...
The thing that killed that creature, it might not have left. he realised, his unease growing.
The rational part of his mind suggested he turn around and pretend he never saw anything. But his curiosity was equally as strong, and the pull of that concentrated mana was intoxicating.
He continued forward.
More claw marks appeared as the he progressed further along the ravine.
The path suddenly opened into a wider chamber. It was 50 metres across, the space felt generous after the narrow passages behind him. He looked towards each of the walls, pausing as he looked right.
A tunnel.
The tunnel looked like it had been crudely dug out. The opening stood roughly 5 metres high and 3 wide, its edges showing the same claw marks that covered the surrounding walls. But here they were more numerous, more aggressive, gouging deep into the stone in overlapping patterns.
AJ approached cautiously, placing another glowmelt marker on a boulder near the entrance. The tunnel mouth opened before him, a passage into absolute darkness that even his adapted vision struggled to see through.
Bones scattered across the threshold. Deer remains, picked clean and cracked open for marrow. The ribcage of something larger, possibly a bear, its bones showing teeth marks the size of daggers.
The mana signature radiated from the tunnel's depths, stronger here than anywhere else in the ravine. It was high quality, and densely concentrated, his core was greedily drawing in every strand that entered his body.
But the bad feeling that had been growing since he'd spotted the first claw marks intensified into dread. Every instinct warning him of danger ahead.
He hesitated at the threshold, his human outline casting a long shadow in the glowmelt's pale light.
He could leave now. Return to the surface, report what he'd found, perhaps recruit help or at least prepare properly before exploring further. That was the smart choice, the safe choice.
But when would he get another opportunity like this? The ravine was remote, difficult to access, and he'd already made the descent. Whatever lay inside represented both danger and opportunity in equal measure.
AJ stepped across the threshold into the tunnel.
The darkness swallowed him immediately. His glowmelt markers provided only the faintest illumination, enough to see a few metres ahead but no more. The tunnel floor was worn smooth by countless passages, and the walls bore more of those massive claw marks.
He moved carefully, pressing glowmelt against the wall every couple metres. The tunnel descended gradually, sloping deeper into the earth. Fewer and fewer bones appeared as he went, but there was still the occasional skeleton lying around.
The mana quality here was extraordinary. Each breath drew in energy that required minimal refinement before settling into his core with an ease he'd only experienced from the essence crystal before. If he could cultivate here, even briefly, the advancement would be significant.
AJ stopped, there was movement in the darkness ahead. Something large and serpentine was uncoiling from its rest.
The centipede approached, it was 3 metres of segmented body covered in chitinous plates that gleamed dully in the faint light. Each segment bore a pair of legs, totalling dozens of them working in sync to propel the creature forward.
Its head featured mandibles the size of daggers, clicking rhythmically as it approached. The creature had no eyes, just smooth chitin where eyes should be, but it turned towards him with acute awareness of his presence.
A guardian, AJ realised. This creature was acting as a doorman for whatever lay deeper in the tunnel.
The centipede struck without warning, its front segments rising before lunging forward with shocking speed. He dodged aside, his human form blurring as he moved. The mandibles snapped shut on empty air, and the creature's momentum carried it past him.
His hand transformed mid-motion, becoming a blade of hardened obsidian steel. He struck at the nearest segment, aiming for what he hoped would be a vulnerable point.
The blade rebounded off the chitin with a sharp clang. The armoured plate held firm, barely scratched by the impact.
It's tough, brute force isn't going to work.
The centipede wheeled around, its body coiling in preparation for another strike. The clicking of its mandibles intensified, and ichor dripped from where they ground together, possibly some kind of venom.
It came low this time, the entire body whipping forward. AJ jumped, but it still caught his leg, the sharp edge of a chitinous plate slicing through his substance. He reformed the damage immediately, but the pain was still present.
They circled each other in the confined space. The centipede's body took up most of the tunnel width, its legs scrabbling against stone with sharp clicks that echoed off the walls.
AJ feinted left, then struck from the right, his just formed axe seeking the gaps between armoured segments. The centipede twisted with surprising agility, bringing its rear sections around to defend whilst the mandibles struck towards his torso.
One mandible caught his shoulder, clamping down with immense force. He felt the pressure threatening to tear through his form entirely. He struck back desperately, his other hand forming a spike that drove upward into the centipede's head.
The spike scraped across chitin, failing to penetrate.
The mouth, the inside of the mouth won't be armoured.
He stopped trying to escape the mandible's grip and instead let go of his axe, and thrust his hand directly between the creature's jaws. His substance formed into a blade inside the centipede's mouth, driving upward into the soft tissue.
The centipede's shriek was awful, a piercing sound that resonated through the tunnel. Its mandibles released him as it thrashed, blood pouring from its mouth. But it wasn't dead or even significantly wounded for that matter, just enraged.
It came at him with renewed fury, all strategy abandoned. The body whipped and coiled, mandibles snapping, legs clawing at anything within reach.
AJ met the assault head-on. His blade-hand struck again and again at the creature's mouth, targeting the vulnerable flesh inside whilst dodging the worst of its thrashing. His other hand formed a shield of refined iron, blocking the mandibles as they struck at him.
The fight became a desperate exchange. The centipede's armour protected it from most attacks, but AJ's targeting of its mouth slowly accumulated damage. Green ichor flowed freely now, and the creature's movements became erratic.
A mandible caught his side, tearing away a chunk of his substance. He tried to reform it but the green ichor continued to gnaw at his substance. Another strike from the centipede sent him stumbling into the tunnel wall.
But the creature was weakening. Its shrieking had subsided to a wet gurgling sound, with blood and poisonous ichor pooled beneath its body. The legs on several segments twitched randomly, losing their coordination.
AJ pressed the advantage. He swung his axe, driving it deep into the centipede's mouth one final time, it sliced down, splitting the creature's bottom side open.
The centipede convulsed multiple times before collapsing.
Its segmented body sprawled across the tunnel floor, legs still twitching in death spasms. Fluids continued to leak from its mouth, and the sound of its mandibles clicking finally ceased.
AJ stood over the corpse, his form showing damage. Chunks of his substance were missing and still sizzling due to the acidic poison.
The centipede was no pushover, the fight could have ended very differently had he not quickly identified the mouth as a weakness.
His substance slowly regenerated, as he absorbed the corpse, sealing the damaged sections one by one.
The mana influx was substantial, far more than any other creature had provided. The creature's extended stay in the high density mana had led to it containing plenty, and AJ felt his reserves increase noticeably as the body dissolved into his substance.
But more interesting was the chitin itself.
As he absorbed the centipede's chitin, he experimented with covering himself in it. The material was incredibly durable and relatively lightweight. He focused his will, reshaping his form.
Chitinous plates emerged across his surface. Starting with his chest, the armour spread outward, across his shoulders, down his arms, over his legs. The plates overlapped like the centipede's segments, creating full-body coverage that gleamed dully in the glowmelt's light.
AJ now resembled a medieval knight, and as he moved around the armour didn't restrict his movement at all. His substance simply incorporated the chitin as another layer, flexible where it needed to be and rigid where protection mattered most.
He dismissed the armour after a moment, the chitin sinking back into his substance, he then turned his attention back to the tunnel ahead.
The fight with the centipede had been exhausting, and the urge to return to the surface grew stronger. He'd found valuable minerals, discovered the ravine's depths, fought and defeated a creature that expanded his arsenal. That was success by any reasonable measure.
But the mana signature ahead was stronger than ever, and now that he'd come this far...
He pressed forward, leaving the centipede's pool of blood and ichor behind.
The tunnel continued its gradual descent. He spotted a few bones that belonged to larger creatures that must have been formidable in their own right but had still ended up as prey.
The tunnel then opened into a vast chamber, and AJ's advance stopped, he created a large amount of glowmelt to better see.
The space was enormous, at least a hundred metres across, with a ceiling that soared into darkness overhead. The floor was smooth, worn down by countless passages of something massive.
But what caught AJ's attention first were the glints scattered throughout the chamber. Crystalline formations that caught his glowmelt's light and reflected it back in prismatic colours. Essence crystals, dozens of them, he even saw one as large as his torso. They grew from the chamber floor and walls like a garden of solidified mana.
Around them lay other treasures, other gems and crystals, chunks of minerals, and more bones. It was a hoard, many resources had been collected and gathered into one place.
And in the centre of it all, coiled upon itself in the chamber's deepest shadows, something was moving with slow, consistent rhythm.
AJ's gaze followed the coiled form, trying to identify the creature. The body was as large as a house, scales covered its length, each one the size of a dinner plate, gleaming with a dark iridescence.
A wing lay folded against its side, the skin pulled tight against finger-like bones that could span tens of metres if extended.
The head rested atop the coiled body, easily the size of a smaller car. Even in sleep, it radiated power. The snout was long and filled with teeth, not serrated like the skull he'd found, but straight, sharp, designed for piercing and holding rather than tearing. Horns curved back from the skull, and its nostrils flared with each breath, releasing small puffs of heated air.
Each claw was as long as AJ's human form was tall, curved and wickedly sharp. They rested folded against the body, their size and shape matched with the gouges he'd seen throughout the ravine.
The creature slept, its breathing slow and deep, each exhale radiating mana and each inhale drawing mana back towards itself.
AJ stood, frozen, his body locked in place by the presence radiating from the sleeping creature. He felt an instinctive fear permeate his whole body, the creature could end him with a single motion, and he would be helpless to resist.