Return to Jorgaldur Volume V: Reunion (2)

Open passage

"Forty-seven... No, forty-eight," the mole-explorer announced.

"Goldmi, can you detect something?" Gjaki asked.

"Not at all. I sense some traces of mana, but I can't identify them. The wall is too thick, and the structure somehow blocks detection," the elf explained.

The main advantage of Life Detection over Ear to the Ground was being able to identify the power of their enemies. However, the thick rock wall, the part they hadn't yet drilled, blocked her perception. In addition, there was a strange interference due to the nexus itself. Therefore, they could only enter blindly.

It is true that the toads they had encountered in the past were no match for them, but they wanted to avoid surprises.

They had to wait another hour until there was only a huge rock to perforate.

"Can you make a small hole, the size of a fist, without breaking everything?" the vampiress asked the dwarf who was operating the drill.

"Not with his fucking girl, but we can do it by hand. There's only one damn big rock left. If we remove the fucking rubble, we'll surely can make a hole," Trelka intervened.

So they did it. They not only removed the remains of rocks, but also the surrounding ground. Finally, they were able to clear an opening large enough for Gjaki's Bats to pass through.

What the vampiress didn't expect was that she barely had time to perceive their surroundings. Her three explorers were eliminated in an instant by the flashing tongues of the toads gathered there. They didn't even give her time to try to figure out their levels.

"They've eaten them..." she admitted, with a strange grimace. She felt somewhat uncomfortable, she should have known.

"Pfffft," the elf held back her laughter.

"Goldmi!"

"Pfffft...! Ha, ha!" Eldi couldn't take it anymore.

"Ha, ha. The fucking toads have eaten them... Ha, ha, ha!" Trelka didn't hold back either.

Soon, the rest were infected by their laughter, while the toads were hearing sounds they didn't understand. They felt somewhat intimidated, while Gjaki felt embarrassed.

It would have lasted longer, but everyone suddenly regained their composure when they heard an impact against the rock that was still between them and the city.

"Goldmi, can you detect something now that it's cleaner?" Gjaki was the first to react. Mainly, because she wanted to divert attention from what had happened before.

The elf approached the exit and cast Life Detection again, then frowned. Although only one rock remained, the result wasn't entirely satisfactory. Somehow, the nexus itself kept interfering with the mana.

"There's some type of interference. The presences are somewhat blurry, although they shouldn't be higher than level 60. Surely, around 50," the elf reported.

"Amazing. Despite the time that has passed, the mana neutralization still works," Fita was surprised.

"Not a surprise. We dwarfs helped build the city," the father of the drilling rig boasted.

Actually, it wasn't clear if that particular effect was the work of the dwarfs, the mole-beings, or there was some other explanation. Nonetheless, that hadn't stopped the dwarf from boasting about dwarf technology and manufacturing.

"So, do we open it and go in...?" Gjaki proposed, before being interrupted.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The blows to what was left of separation became more and more frequent. Without a doubt, the toads were getting impatient. Now, they once again had the opportunity to collect new prey, to open new paths.

"What if we let them come?" Tica proposed timidly, in an almost inaudible voice.

"Good idea. We could hide," Eldi had heard it.

"Who's the bait?" Goldmi asked.

"Bait?" the apprentice was surprised.

"Food on the other side!" one of the toads expressed.

The thunderous sound of the enormous drill breaking the rock had attracted many of those beings. They had been suspiciously observing the blocked passage through which their prey had fled months ago.

Finally, they had seen part of the soil that had accumulated on the rock come loose, and some strange bugs had come out through the holes created. However, those bugs had hardly any substance.

Shortly after, they had heard strange noises, and the scent of the beings that were on the other side had reached them, "their food". Excited, they had begun to hit the remains of the last remaining rock.

Cracked by the girl's previous advances, it ended up breaking due to the amphibians' push. They encountered a small group of mole-beings, who were watching them in horror from the other end. Said group turned around and ran.

After seeing that their prey was escaping, the toads rushed to chase them, pushing into the tunnel. The nexus was wide enough for cartloads of goods to enter, but much of it was now covered in rocks. Only one tunnel had been drilled, and wasn't completely cleared. Therefore, the toads could barely enter one by one.

Because of the limited space, they advanced through the tunnel at a slower speed than they would have liked. Luckily, their "stupid" prey had stumbled a couple of times, which had prevented them from escaping too far.

The entrance to the tunnel was chaotic, where dozens of toads crowded to enter, anxious, fearful that there was no "food" for everyone. Due to this, most suffered some minor injuries. A couple of them even had some heavier wounds.

Finally, the first of the toads emerged from the tunnel. It didn't realize that it was longer than it had to be, as some rock walls had been improvised, also widening the path. Their objective was to conceal those who were hiding behind.

"Where's the food?" the toad asked itself, confused.

It didn't know how, but its prey had disappeared. In fact, it felt somewhat strange. Even though the toad was moving forward, it didn't seem to advance. Little did it know that it had fallen into a Mirror Trap, as its intellect was rather limited.

That caused its companions to catch up with it, crash into it, fall into other traps, trip over each other. Some wanted to stop in front of the strange scene, but those behind them pushed them. They were forced to move forward or be trampled. Without really knowing how, most of them ended up on top of each other.

The last to arrive were the only ones who could avoid falling into that strange pile of toads. Even two of them, scared, wanted to flee. However, it was impossible for them. Some thin but resistant invisible threads prevented it. They had already fallen into the trap.

Other threads became tangled around the piled-up toads, thanks to Live Thread. However, the vampiress didn't use Lethal Thread. Killing them wasn't her role.