Eight hours have passed now. On the surface the sun is starting to set. The group has remained trapped in the tunnels in their pairs of two. Julius and Marigold are in a very foggy section of the cave.
Marigold-"I'm out"
Marigold is sitting on the ground exhausted.
Julius-"Got it, support skill: stamina recovery"
Julius refuels Marigold's mana.
Julius-"I have about half my mana remaining now, we'll have to take another break soon"
Marigold-"Holy skill: holy water mist"
Marigold creates a large amount of mist that spreads out into the tunnels.
Marigold-"It will be getting dark out soon"
Julius-"Don't worry, I don't need to sleep. And with my stamina recovery skill you don't need to sleep either"
Marigold-"Yes but that's not true for our friends. If they've been fighting these monsters this whole time they have to be very tired. Creating this mist isn't fast enough"
Julius-"It's the best bet we have right now, the holy magic in the mist has already nullified the spacial distortion for over half a kilometer. Plus no monsters are being created in that area either"
Marigold-"Which explains why we haven't seen any monsters in a while"
Julius-"It also shows that the monsters aren't given targets either. Otherwise ones being created outside of the mist would run towards our location to stop us. It's clear they only attack people in their vicinity"
Marigold-"I just wish we could be faster than this"
Julius-"I've already used my power boosting support skill so that you would be able to output more mist. This is as fast as we can go"
Marigold-"What if you build some of those fans to push the mist out faster"
Julius-"For them to be helpful I would have to travel down the tunnels and place them in different spots over and over. The fans won't be too helpful in these long twisty tunnels"
Marigold-"Wait- what if you use those pipes?"
Julius-"Pipes?"
Marigold-"You used them for the bathrooms in the house you built. They can cary water across long distances"
Julius(in his head)-"It's still crazy to me that they don't have sewage systems yet. But it is a medieval world and with magic people probably have other ways of dealing with it"
Marigold-"What if you use those to carry the mist around and have fans inside of it periodically to fill the areas faster"
Julius-"That could work. But the tunnels will keep moving around so it will break the pipes. But if I make them a flexible hose... then that could make the mist travel much faster"
Marigold-"Yeah, right now there is a lot of the mist being clogged up in this room. If it's through those it should fill up the caves much faster"
Julius-"I'm already down to half mana, I'll start building some hoses and then we'll need to take our break"
Marigold-"I hope everyone else is doing alright"
Julius begins constructing the hoses that will carry liquid holy water with compartments every ten meters that spew out large amounts of mist. Meanwhile Adam and Joe have become very tired. Adam has constructed a wooden crate inside of the cavern wall.
Joe-"I'm running low on mana. Archery skill: magic arrow"
Joe shoots a magic arrow through a small horizontal wooden slit in front of him. The arrow strikes a monster through the chest that was attacking the opening of the crate. The monster than falls backwards out of the tunnel.
Adam-"You're already low on mana?"
Joe-"I've been at this for over an hour"
Adam-"Shouldn't you have higher mana reserves than this?"
Joe-"I have gained a couple levels from killing so many of these plant monsters. But I haven't been able to make use of that higher mana reserve because I can't refuel"
Adam-"Fine we'll swap for a little"
Joe walks backwards while Adam squeezed by him.
Adam-"I made the pathway to this crate as thin as I could and they still get to it.
Adam thrusts his sword through the slit and stabs a monster on the other side which falls down onto the ground.
Adam-"At least you had a good idea burrowing into the wall to make our base"
Joe-"Making it in the center of the cavern just had too many monsters attacking it at once"
Adam-"Yeah even my ironwood won't last very long against them"
Joe-"So this is a bad time, but are you feeling tired?"
Adam-"Unfortunately I am, we'll have to take turns sleeping"
Joe-"Can I go to sleep now?"
Adam-"Did you say you were almost out of mana so that you could take a nap?"
Joe-"No! This is far too serious for that, I'm genuinely on empty. I can make like a couple more magic arrows at this point"
Adam-"Fine, get some sleep"
Adam(in his head)-"This is probably how these things hunt, using their sheer numbers to tire people out until they can't fight anymore. Although hunt probably isn't the right word. If these creatures were really just trying to eat they would have given up attacking us a while ago. Or they would have at least shown some self preservation"
Adam looks back and sees Joe fast asleep.
Adam-"(in his head)-"As annoying as it sounds if Joe wasn't here I probably would die to these things eventually. I would have run out of mana and would have been toast. I really hope the others have grouped up. Elise, please be okay, I'm sorry that I'm not there to help you right now"
Adam thrusts his sword forwards and stabs through another monster. Like before it falls to the ground on a growing pile of plant monster bodies.
Adam(in his head)-"I've been such a terrible brother, I let us both get mind controlled by Lucious. I couldn't take down that wyvern, and there was nothing I could do against that stupid prince"
Adam stabs another monster.
Adam(in his head)-"What am I thinking. If Elise could hear me right now she'd be mocking me. We'll be fine, we've been through worse"
Adam-"I can make it through this. I know I can"
End of chapter 81