So incensed by the refusal of what he thought was a reasonable offer of amnesty, the High King of the Elves begged once more with the Dragon Queen for aid, offering a dragon egg’s weight in precious silvery mithril. Greed sinking its cws into her reptilian heart, she commanded that flights of dragons unch into the sky and rain death and destruction on the Republic.

  - On the Cataclysm by an unknown Quassian Schor circa 103 AC.

  We trudged silently down the long tunnels for perhaps an hour or two, the small Zajasite stones in our hands casting strange blue shadows in the gloom. As I looked to the bottom left of my vision, I noticed that my Mana had mysteriously risen to three points, and I also received a new notification.

  You have learned Mana Regeneration (lvl.1)

  I was grateful for the new skill, and its effects were pretty self-expnatory. The mystery to me, however, was how it had been triggered. Was it due to my constant draining of Mana and then resting? Did it stack with my Rest skill? I pondered these questions fruitlessly before I almost bumped into Durhit, who had raised a hand signaling a stop.

  Up ahead in the semi-darkness, there was an offshoot tunnel. It was almost perfectly circur and smaller in diameter than the tunnel we were currently in. The dwarf raised a finger to his mouth, gesturing for silence as he looked down into the gloom. Slowly, we understood the need for caution as we strained our ears, catching the impression of an insectile clicking noise. As stealthily as possible, I ventured to the lip of the new tunnel and gazed down, holding my piece of glowing Zajasite like an icon of faith close to my chest.

  What I saw could only be described as other. A pair of dark, four-armed creatures, just over a meter high, stood on two reverse-jointed legs. Their feet had sharp-looking cws, and a bony cranium sat on a squat, almost non-existent neck. Large hairy antennae protruded from their craniums where eyes would normally be, which twitched as if tasting the air. Instead of a mouth, four deadly mandibles formed a cross shape, clicking together as they communicated with one another.

  Two long, double-jointed arms extruded from their shoulders, which ended in sharp-looking bone spurs that resembled scythe bdes. From their chests, smaller yet more dexterous arms ended with three cwed fingers and an opposable digit for possible manipution. The creatures' bodies were armored with pale ridged chitinous scales, thicker along their backs and trunks and finer along their joints.

  The whole ensemble resembled terrifying, albino, insectile alien creatures in the blue surreal light.

  The creatures chittered to each other in their unknowable alien nguage, their moth-like heads and antennae moving around as if searching. I noticed a bead of sweat forming on Durhit's brow as he moved closer, his body tensed like a drawn bow. Everyone gripped their worn mining tools, ready for a potential fight. My heart was beating like a war drum. An unknown part of me almost welcomed this potentially cathartic conflict, an alien counterpoint to the fear that I felt in equal measure in that cold darkness.

  "Echo-Stalkers," the dwarf muttered under his breath, causing Elwin the Rogue to visibly flinch and take a step back, inadvertently kicking a small pebble. Almost instantly, the pair of insectile creatures turned in our direction, their antennae swishing almost spasmodically. Their chittering grew in volume, loud in the silence of the tunnel as they stalked closer towards us, their scythe bde arms menacing the air.

  Adrenaline began pumping through my system as I cast Identify at the rightmost Echo-Stalker to try and gauge the scope of the incoming threat.

  Echo-Stalker - Drone - (lvl.6)

  Health: 45/45

  Stamina: 23/24

  Mana: 4/4

  Suddenly, without warning, their antennae stiffened, and the chittering stopped as they charged towards us, their leaping gait bounding across the distance between us. Mesmerized by their sudden burst of speed, I saw the right Echo-Stalker run across the wall of the tunnel as it sprung straight at me, dual scythe bdes raised to stab through my chest. It was met suddenly by a rock thrown with lightning speed by our Rogue, nding smack into the center of its mandibles, half-stunning it as it missed its fatal strike.

  Snapping out of my fugue, I raised my own weapon to smash down in a deadly arc with the strength of a Power Strike behind it. The force of the blow was so powerful that the chains at my wrists hit the creature before rebounding and striking me lightly across my own forearms. Feebly, as it tried to rise on unsteady limbs, I ended its suffering with a blow to its mangled head, ending its life.

  You have sin an Echo-Stalker 30 experience gained.

  The notification of its death brought a rush of etion through my veins, fierce and unrelenting. Looking around for any remaining threats, I saw that Kidu and Durhit had surrounded the remaining drone. Its own speed and eagerness to reach us had been its downfall. Kidu had been able to fnk the monster, striking at it as it leaped. The force of his blow shattered one of its scythe-like arms, leaving it dangling uselessly at its side. The Hunter and the Sapper worked in silent tandem, each delivering their own precise, probing strikes with the utmost caution.

  They knew all too well the risks of drawing more of these nightmarish creatures to our location, and so they moved with quiet, deadly efficiency.

  Elwin held another stone in his hand, testing its weight while he waited for an opening. Sensing my approach, the drone chittered wildly, mandibles ccking as it raised its head in threat. That was all the opening Elwin needed. He promptly threw his projectile, hitting the antennae square on, causing it to nearly snap off.

  We all charged the drone then, even Elwin, who picked up a shovel to join the fray. Our group struck it with everything we had, making it crash to the ground in a bundle of mangled, filing limbs. We did not stop hitting it until it finally stilled, and I received another death notification.

  You have sin an Echo-Stalker 15 experience gained.

  You have gained 1 Dexterity.

  The fight could not have sted for more than a minute, but the surge of adrenaline and the aftermath of spent combat fervor had left my hands trembling. We stood there, our chests heaving, as we sought to catch our breaths, hands resting on our knees in an effort to recover.

  "Well, that was certainly something," the Rogue quipped, trying to mask his earlier fear.

  But the bearded dwarf's expression was grim and dour as he spoke, "Those two were just a scout pair. There will be more of them ahead... a lot more."

  The wildman, unfazed by the danger ahead, simply shrugged and spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. "They'll make for fine trophies."

  He proceeded to tear off the scythe bdes from the Drone's lifeless body with ease, showcasing his raw strength, before carefully pcing them in his wicker basket. However, when he made a move to remove the insect heads, he quickly changed his mind, shaking his head.

  Peering into the gloom, now that the immediate threat had been neutralized, we saw that the tunnel connected to a rge, wide, circur room. Within it was a vast concave floor that resembled a pit that dipped shallowly towards its center. Without so much as a whisper, we cautiously entered the space, our senses alert for any sign of peril lurking within.

  Casting our weak blue lights at the edges, we walked along the circumference, only to find the room filled with old bones, loose rocks, and a miscelny of detritus. The whole area must have been a great garbage pit for the refuse of the underground monsters.

  Seeing that no further tunnels branched from the room, the dwarf decided to explore further. Skidding down, followed by loose pebbles, Durhit made his way to the center of the room. As we followed in his wake, the crunch of animal bones beneath our feet sent shivers down our spines. Large and small, the bones were of species unknown to us, intermingled with the occasional cracked human skull, a grim reminder of the fate that may yet befall us all.

  "So, this is where the lost miners ended up," Durhit mused, his attention diverted as he lifted a humanoid skull for closer inspection. "Some of us even thought they had found a way out. No matter, let us search and see if we can find anything useful."

  We swiftly followed his lead, scouring the trash heap for any useful items. What surprised us were the occasional remnants of once-colorful garments that were strewn among the bones, a stark contrast to our own drab sve linens.

  As I examined a particurly rge femur, my attention was drawn to the remnants of a crude doll lying nearby. The small toy had small horn buttons for its mouth and eyes and was no doubt once a beloved toy of some innocent child.

  Elwin sifted through the refuse and uncovered a pin, rusty iron dagger, which he quickly concealed up his sleeve. Kidu, meanwhile, discovered a rotten bow that nearly crumbled to dust in his grip.

  After searching for a while longer, Durhit found something and tossed it my way, exciming, "Should be about your size, manling!"

  Caught off guard, I fumbled with the object, my hands clumsily passing it back and forth in a rather comical fashion. Eventually, I regained my composure and examined what he had given me. It was a conical, open-faced bronze helmet, tarnished and dull and the helm bore no special markings or patterns. The old piece of armor seemed nothing more than an old, albeit serviceable, helm. Durhit gestured for me to try it on, and I obliged him.

  Undoubtedly, I must have looked a little foolish, cd in nothing but sve linens and a simple bronze helmet, but my limited knowledge of warfare had taught me that protecting the head was of the utmost importance. To my recollection, the helmet was the first piece of armor that any soldier worth their salt would invest in. The leather straps had long since rotted away, making the helm feel loose on my head, but it was certainly better than nothing.

  Continuing our search through the rubble, I stumbled upon an iron spear lying next to an almost fully intact skeleton. The spear had seen better days, its diamond-shaped spearhead pitted with rust and corrosion. Kidu cast envious gnces at the weapon, clearly longing to wield it.

  I had hoped for a more formidable weapon than my reliable pickaxe, which, despite its power, was difficult to handle in combat. Nevertheless, I yielded to Kidu's evident fascination with the spear and handed it to him. After all, he probably had more expertise in wielding it than I did, and with his massive frame, his reach would be lethal.

  In a gesture of appreciation, Kidu handed me a pair of surprisingly well-preserved leather gloves. I donned them, feeling a slight loss of Dexterity, but knowing it would have little impact on my combat style. After all, the pickaxe was not the most subtle of weapons.

  The Rogue had discovered a pouch filled with small copper coins. Despite the fact that there was nowhere to spend the money, we agreed to split it among ourselves. Much to Elwin’s chagrin, we each ended up with ten copper pieces. Durhit skillfully fashioned basic money bags out of scraps of torn, formerly colorful fabric that y strewn about. Over Elwin's weakening protestations, the dwarf handed a pouch filled with the coins to each of us.

  Realizing that any further time spent searching through the rubbish den would be a waste, we cmbered out and cautiously made our way back to the main shaft. We continued down the tunnel as stealthily as possible. Holding his new iron spear with both hands as a precaution against potential dangers, Kidu pced himself at our van.

  Slipping further down into the tunnels, we stumbled upon the broken bodies of drones. Among the corpses, we noticed a rger, more menacing version of the Echo-Stalkers. These mutited bodies had thicker, more heavily armored chitin carapaces with rger extra vicious scythe bdes for their weapon arms. Some of the corpses were almost torn in two, while others had their skulls completely crushed by what must have been extreme blunt-force trauma.

  In the gloom, Elwin uttered, “What sort of creature could have done this?” as he visibly gulped.