With Stella off to clean up and meditate in the courtyard with a still intact runic formation, Ashlock was left to focus on Diana, exploring the caves below.
His roots had grown throughout the mineshaft, especially in the direction the giant rats originated from. His {Deep Roots} skill, combined with his higher cultivation stage, allowed for rapid growth, so in just a week, he had traversed around a mile down the mineshaft and had yet to encounter anything of interest. Just more rusted rails tipped minecarts and grey stone walls.
His natural spirit sight only reached a hundred meters from his roots, so if he wanted to explore more of the cave, his only option had been to overtake the entire mine with his roots.
But now he had a human with legs that he could order around. So by lighting his desired path with lilac Qi, Ashlock guided Diana into the depths. He honestly didn't know what lurked down here, so he had been hesitant to agree that Diana could go alone, but out of the two, she had the skills and techniques that best-suited combat down here.
Diana reached the edge of his roots. The path beyond was obscured by darkness for Ashlock, so he was stunned when Diana said, "Is that a town?"
A town? Down here, under thousands of meters of rock? Where these giant rats paraded around like they owned the place. How could anyone survive in such an environment?
Unless the legendary dwarves truly did grace this land with their drunken laughter and magnificent beards. The image of a dwarf flying around on a sword while laughing and hurling rocks at monsters amused him.
Ashlock could only see Diana standing at the edge of his perception with her sword drawn as she looked left and right—likely observing the town he wasn't privy to. In a time like this, Ashlock wished his {Eye of the Tree God} skill functioned underground.
It used his trunk as the anchor and gave him a bird's eye view of the world from the sky. So naturally, he couldn't use it via his roots underground and had to rely on his limited spirit vision that increased in view distance as his cultivation realm improved.
"Ashlock, I don't know if you can see or hear me, but an abandoned town is up ahead within an enormous cavern. I can hear the sound of rushing water and the presence of those rat monsters." Blue flames then coated Diana's skin. She stepped forward and vanished from his sight.
"An abandoned town within a cavern, so Diana couldn't detect people other than the rats. That's a shame but also a relief." Ashlock was around a hundred meters from the entrance to this cavern and, unfortunately, couldn't grow that far fast enough to be of any assistance.
"But a cavern should be rather big, right?" Ashlock felt for his roots that covered thousands of meters throughout the mountain and located the end of a root that should be above where Diana was. Forcing through some Qi, his {Deep Roots} skill went to work, allowing his root to rapidly tunnel through the rock.
***
Something felt off.
Diana strolled into the center of the mining town. As the heir to house Ravenborne, which acquired most of its wealth from spirit stone mining, she naturally knew the purpose of this town.
The plain buildings carved into the cavern's stone walls were a rest stop—where food was sold to the hungry miners pulling extra long shifts. The distance between here and the exit to the mine was likely an hour's walk, so miners would sometimes even sleep down here if they were extra short of silver crowns.
This was all normal. Even the presence of the cave rats was expected, although not in this large a number and size. What wasn't expected was their behavior. The rats all stood on their haunches in a ring around the center of the cavern, watching her walk with their beady eyes from a safe distance.
Some peeked their snouts through shutterless window frames, and others camped out near the building doorways. The more daring even slowly approached Diana but never got too close.
Were they scared of her? That didn't make any sense. The grey-furred cave rats were cruel and intelligent but also ferocious and famished. If they showed any signs of weakness to their brethren, they would be eaten alive by their brothers and sisters. Only the strong could survive down here.
Diana scanned the room with her Qi. She had tabs on every living thing in the cavern that emitted some Qi. There were hundreds of rats, all keeping an ample distance. It was bizarre, eerie, and downright confusing.
They had to know something she didn't. Was something commanding them and holding them back? Would this commanding monster want to save the tasty snack for themselves?
A lot of questions and not many answers.
Diana tensed up, and her gaze briefly snapped to the cavern's ceiling as it trembled. Something was coming, and the rats also became restless. Bits of rock rained down and smashed on the cavern's floor, which drowned out the rat's chittering.
Her Qi sense became distracted. Too much was going on, but one thing caught her attention—her foot was stuck. A viscous substance had latched onto her shoe and slowly crawled up her leg. Tearing her sights from the ceiling, Diana looked at the ground, which had been plain grey stone but was now shimmering slightly in the flickering of her soul fire.
It moved, squirming around as if alive. Diana pulled her leg back—the strange thing lurched upwards and latched onto her knee—panic set in as she found herself unable to escape the thing's clutches.
Diana ignored the pebbles that pelted her back and shattered on impact as they knocked her head. Her Soul Core hummed with power as her soul fire flared to life around her entire body, but condensing around her balled fist.
With a grunt, she punched down onto the thing latched to her leg with all the force she could muster. On impact, the grey slime rippled and shrunk back. A flash of relief was quickly discarded as the thing transitioned from the dull grey that had let it blend in with the floor into a dark blue.
"What the fu—" Diana barely dodged to the side as the now blue slime crashed beside her like a wave trying to engulf her. It was huge, and more worryingly, she could feel Qi coming from it.
If before, it had been a null element without a whiff of Qi. It was now water Qi aligned. Diana cursed as she figured out why the rats had never stepped too close, they knew of this creature's existence and avoided it.
Diana gripped the hilt of her blade as blue flames ignited its shiny surface. She briefly glanced at the two exits to the mineshaft. One was blocked by the blue slime slowly turning to face her like a living wave, and the other was where most of the rats were gathered.
Taking on the rats would be no issue, but with the threat of the slime combined with the rats, it wouldn't be ideal. Before she could finalize a plan, the slime attacked again.
It was like facing a tsunami. The slime took up half the cave in width and almost reached the ceiling.
'Wait... the ceiling!' Diana looked up and saw what had caused the trembling earlier, a single black root with the thickness of a person coiled down like a curious snake.
It was still far too high up, but it was lowering slowly. On either side of the cavern, the rodents had retreated into the buildings and blocked the doors with their bodies.
Diana had no choice but to face the incoming wave of slime with her blade raised. Her sword flared with her 6th-stage soul fire that was a league above this simple cave monster—even if it had absorbed her Qi and become more resistant.
The slime showing a hint of intelligence, split itself into two halves to avoid her sword slash and encircled her. No matter where Diana looked, the floor was a shimmering blue, but it had dulled.
Diana had never run into a monster like this, but she felt she had it figured out. 'A slime with the ability to absorb a person's Qi and match their element. A tricky opponent to face, especially alone. If Stella was here, she could electrify it with her lightning Dao.'
She shook her head. It was inconvenient but not an impossible challenge. If anything, Diana felt great being able to flex her Qi in a life-and-death fight that she could go all out in.
Checking on the ceiling root's progress, a sly smile appeared on Diana's face. The slime had partially attuned to her water element but still had a slight darkish grey hue, especially after splitting.
"Come, ill feed you." Diana taunted the glorified puddle that was closing in. She had no idea its level of intelligence, but after her words, it started rising off the ground again, forming a column of murky blue with her at the center.
Intending to convert the slime to the water element, Diana activated her mist technique that had been rigorously taught since the day she could walk. A thin mist and shadows appeared as her soul fire spread into the surroundings.
Diana noticed that as the mist made contact with the slime wall, it was absorbed, and that part of the slime turned a lighter shade of blue. Then, the slime began to enclose her, starting from above—clearly trying to trap her like a bird in a cage.
***
Ashlock had switched his view to the root surrounded by rock digging toward Diana. He pumped as much Qi as he could into the skill as he burrowed deeper.
It was difficult to know how much further he had to go as it all depended on how high the cavern ceiling was. Then all at once, his sight expanded to encompass the entire cavern as the root broke through the ceiling.
"What the hell is going on?"
Ashlock watched as Diana fought off a literal tsunami wave while the rats watched on from the safety of houses carved into the rock faces. They seemed to cheer on as if watching a colosseum deathmatch.
Looking around, he confirmed the lack of dwarves.
He couldn't lie, a part of him was greatly disappointed, and the town was nothing special, just holes carved into the walls with shapes for a door and window.
The fight raged for a while as Ashlock tried to lower the root to get closer to the action. It was odd. He couldn't tell who could win between the two.
The slime seemed to absorb Qi attacks as with every water Qi attack Diana launched in its direction, its presence increased and turned a lighter shade of blue. It could also split to avoid sword slashes.
A rather formidable opponent indeed. "Can the slime only transition into a single element, though? If so, it would be strong against a solo cultivator, but if faced with a duo where one had the water element and the other ice, I doubt the entire water Qi slime could handle frost Qi."
It was an interesting monster, which had apparently become the apex predator around here, judging from the rat's behavior. "Since this mountain cave system should be an enclosed ecosystem, if they all use a similar element, let's say earth, then the slime would naturally be unmatchable."
The slime rose to the ceiling as a column, surrounding its prey like a coiling viper, slowly closing in.
Diana looked upward, her grey eyes landing on Ashlock's slowly lowering root. Ashlock swore he saw a sly smile appear as she prepared to jump.
A second before the top of the slime column was fully sealed, she lept up and rocketed toward Ashlock's waiting root.
"Hello, Patriarch, sorry about this," Diana said as she clutched onto the root that swung slightly from her weight. "The slime should be unable to handle your Qi now that it has absorbed mine."
She looked down as the slime collapsed like a raging tide onto nothing, and after seeming to notice the lack of its meal, it chaotically searched around.
"Up here, you glorified puddle!" Diana shouted down to the lake-sized slime. It moved immediately, surging upwards as a swirling mass.
At the last second, Diana let go and fell to the side, leaving the slime to engulf Ashlock's root. For a brief moment, he planned to surge as much Qi into the slime as possible, but then another thought crossed his mind.
What if he used {Root Puppet} here? It didn't explicitly require a corpse— that was just the ideal subject, as anything else would defend against the slow and painful process of being taken over by hair-thin roots.
Exploding the slime with his Qi would be a waste.
The creature was more fascinating than harmful. Diana could escape easily if she needed to with his help. Also, once exploded, he doubted there would be much to absorb with his {Devour} skill.
And since the slime was so good at absorbing Qi and actually sought it out, Ashlock was genuinely curious if he could take control of this monster and if it would last far longer than any of his previous root puppets.
And if he was successful, wouldn't he be able to conquer the rest of the mine with his own strength?
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