The tunnel mouth swallowed both light and intruders.
"You got anything that can produce light? A torch or something?" Ken asked.
"Yep." Esme nodded.
A strange lantern appeared in her hand. She walked towards Ken. He reached for the lantern with his left hand, but she circled around him to deposit it in his right hand.
"I know Systems make Items appear in people's hands, but you can just toss me the Items."
"Nu-uh." Esme shook her head. "I'm doing this properly."
'But it's not efficient at all…'
Ken shook his head and stared at the lantern.
"You just need to shake it. It's called an Everlasting Lantern. It'll always be able to produce light. Except if it's broken, of course."
"Cool." Ken muttered as he shook the Everlasting Lantern, causing it to emit a soft, steady glow that pushed back against the darkness just enough to see rough dirt walls ribbed with claw marks.
A damp, sour smell rolled up from below, like vinegar and spoiled meat.
Ken wrinkled his nose. "Smells like something died in here and fermented for a century."
"That's a good sign," Esme said brightly, her voice echoing faintly through the tunnel. "Means we're on the right track."
Ken shot her a flat look. "Don't look so happy about it. Bet you can't bad smells either."
"I really can't." She nodded. "How could you tell?"
"..."
The light of the Everlasting Lantern swayed with each step, stretching and shrinking shadows along the walls.
The tunnel descended in a gentle slope, wide enough for four or five people to walk side by side, though Ken took the lead with Esme trailing a few steps behind.
The air grew heavier, warmer, and more humid the deeper they went.
The buzzing and chittering sounds that had been faint at the entrance now pressed at his ears from every direction, like distant static.
Ken adjusted his grip on the mace with his left hand and kept the lantern in his right. "Maybe it's the bug spray I should be holding… But I can't use that to protect myself. With the mace, I can block and smack them into next week."
"It'll be more efficient if you crush their heads first," Esme said matter-of-factly. "Insects usually don't survive long without their central-"
"Aim for the head, yeah. That's pretty basic, thanks."
"I see…"
They reached a bend where the tunnel widened slightly.
Esme gestured at the walls. "See those?"
Ken raised the lantern closer. Dark streaks and faint glistening lines ran across the walls. He frowned and rubbed his eyes.
"Pheromone trails," Esme explained. "You might feel weird seeing them, and that would be because it isn't exactly your sense of vision that is sensing them.
"They're fresh, I can somehow tell." Ken whispered. "There's a lot of activity down here. They're probably aware that something entered their territory." His grip tightened around the lantern. "Great."
"Relax," Esme said with a grin. "That's why you have Pest Sense. Try focusing. You should feel them if they're nearby."
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a moment, and let the background noise settle.
It wasn't instantaneous, but pretty quickly, something clicked. A wave of faint impressions washed over him like tiny pulses, as if invisible threads were connecting him to multiple points in the darkness ahead. He could sense movement. The movements of dozens of small creatures scuttling through the tunnels. Some were closer. Some were far, like faint whispers he could hear with a sixth sense.
His eyes opened. "Whoa."
Esme nodded proudly with her arms crossed. "See? Told you it was useful. That's your Pest Sense kicking in. It works through vibrations, pheromones, and movement signatures."
"It's creepy," Ken muttered. "But also pretty cool."
As they moved deeper, the tunnel began to split into branches. Esme pointed at the faint pheromone markings along the wall. "These are worker trails. If we follow the freshest ones, we'll get closer to the heart of the colony."
"And the Queen's dead," Ken said, recalling the Chief's words. "So the nest itself is the problem."
"Exactly. Without a Queen, their instincts are scattered."
"Still," Ken frowned. "Their attacks haven't been random. They were coordinated when attacking the village. Maybe the Queen died and something else took her place?."
Esme shrugged.
They walked in silence for a while, descending deeper through twisting paths. Occasionally, Ken would stop and hold up the lantern to inspect claw marks or cracks in the earth. Once or twice, he thought he saw shapes scuttling just outside the reach of the light. When he raised the lantern higher, nothing was there, just damp dirt and tunnels curving away.
A faint clicking sound echoed from behind. Ken turned around swiftly, mace ready.
"Could you be quiet?" He grumbled, his eyebrow twitching.
"Sorry." Esme said while enjoying a snack given to her by some of the villagers.
A dozen steps later, the space opened into a chamber large enough to fit a small house. Pillars of rock rose from floor to ceiling, forming strange structures. There were holes all over the walls, each large enough for a crouching person to pass through, clearly tunnels for ants to crawl through.
As soon as Ken stepped forward, half a dozen dog-sized ants emerged from the holes. Their chitin glistened in the lantern light, mandibles clicking.
"Well," Ken muttered. "Here we go."
The ants formed a semi-circle, antennae twitching, bodies tense.
"They're analyzing me. They're…!" Ken's words trailed off, and he put the lantern down.
By reading their pheromones, he could read their next move.
The first ant lunged.
Ken swung his mace with both hands. It connected with the ant's head with a wet CRACK, sending greenish fluid spraying onto the dirt floor. The ant's body twitched once before going still.
[You have gained 5 Experience Points!]
Another came from his left. Ken pivoted and brought the mace down like a hammer, smashing its thorax. It convulsed and curled in on itself.
[You have gained 5 Experience Points!]
'My Stats are high enough to deal with them!'
The remaining four rushed simultaneously. Ken stepped back quickly.
"Spray." He said and, the next second, it was in his hand.
He shifted his weight, raising the bug spray canister with his left hand and pressing the trigger. A plume of greenish mist spread outward, enveloping the ants. They froze mid-lunge, their legs locking up. Ken didn't hesitate.
He instantly raised his mace and crushed the paralyzed ants' skulls one by one.
[You have gained 5 Experience Points!]
[You have gained 5 Experience Points!]
[You have gained 5 Experience Points!]
[You have gained 5 Experience Points!]
The entire fight had lasted less than twenty seconds. Ken exhaled heavily.
"You're getting the hang of this," Esme said approvingly. "Good job."
"It's pretty simple since I can tell what they're about to do." Ken said, wiping the nervous sweat from his forehead. "It's stressful though. Stressful on my brain."
"Yes, having more than five senses will take some time to get used to."
Ken raised the lantern and examined the chamber. "The holes are everywhere. This has to be some kind of main crossroad." Ken sniffed the air. The sour stench was stronger here, clinging to his clothes. He tightened his grip on the mace. "Alright…" He approached each hole, smelling and sniffing. "Which one will it be…?"
Esme remained standing, tilting her head from right to left with her hands behind her back like a teacher watching his student pass an exam.
"This one smells the most." Ken nodded. "Must be where the Queen used to be." He muttered, and moved forward, ducking through the opening. The tunnel beyond was steeper, forcing them to descend carefully. The buzzing grew louder, and the walls occasionally pulsed with faint vibrations.
After several minutes, the tunnel widened again. But this time, the floor was slick with some kind of resin, causing Ken to nearly slip. "What the hell is this stuff?"
"Structural secretion," Esme said casually. "They use it to reinforce tunnels and build chambers."
"Gross."
"It's actually quite fascinating, biologically speaking-"
"Don't care."
They reached another chamber, this one filled with strange resinous growths like stalagmites. The pheromone trails here were intense, almost visible as faint glimmers in the lantern light.
Esme's tone shifted slightly. "Be careful. You're near the heart of the colony now."
Ken nodded. "Yeah. I can feel it."
His Pest Sense was going haywire. He could sense hundreds of signatures moving through the tunnels all around them. Above, below, and behind the walls. It felt like standing in the middle of a hornet's nest.
'That probably will happen at some point, huh? Standing in an actual hornet's nest… Except that the hornets will be two meters long… Or two meters tall? Whatever…'
He raised the lantern slowly, and that's when he saw it: a massive tunnel at the far end of the chamber, wide enough for a bus to fit through.
"That's where I'll find the dead Queen, right?" Ken said as he entered the tunnel.
Esme remained silent.