“Well, shit…” Viran cursed under his breath as he saw the empty insides of the head.

 

"What, what is it?" One of the slaves nearby overheard the man and asked in a fearful voice.

 

"He's dead..." Viran replied sarcastically as he got up. "Get this head out of here!"

 

"Wait, what?! Where should we-"

 

"I don't know, throw it to the guards up there for all I care!" He turned towards Gruff. "Gather the rest of your group and bring them to the meeting chamber. The rest of you," Viran continued, addressing the gathered slaves. "Go tell whoever is still alive to go there too. Immediately!"

 

With that, the old soldier walked off past the circle of people and into the tunnel beyond. Red followed shortly after, catching up to the man with a short sprint.

 

"What did you find out?" The boy asked.

 

"Bertel was his name, right?" Viran answered his question with one of his own. "Wasn't he one of the first to disappear?"

 

"The first one." Red replied. "He liked to dive deeper than the others to search for moonstones."

 

"Makes sense. It was one of the first times it was hunting one of us so it was bound to make a mistake..."

 

"Do you know what it is?"

 

"Hardly." Viran shook his head. "This place is full of undocumented creatures that have never appeared on the surface. No person wants to explore these caves, and these creatures rarely make their way out of here, so our information on the kind of monster that lives in these depths is very low..."

 

"But you do know something." Red completed the rest of his sentence.

 

"Yes..." The man sighed. "I don't know what it is, but from that head back there I know what it can do. It was sucked dry of blood but none of the flesh itself was eaten, meaning it's something that feeds off the blood essence of other creatures. It's not unheard of, but that's not what makes it special." Viran tapped the center of his forehead.

 

"...The brain." The boy answered. He started considering an issue that he had seemingly ignored at first glance. "How did it disappear from inside the head through such a small hole?"

 

"You're getting to the crux of the matter. There are several ways that could happen. Some insects start digesting food outside of their body and then consume it a bit later in liquid form, so there is a way for the brain to simply disappear like that. However, none of the flesh in the head seemed to bear any signs of acid damage. Alternatively, the creature may also have a protruding that it used to pierce the forehead and eat the brain no problem. There are many ways that that could be accomplished. The main problem is why it was only the brain that was eaten in the first place."

 

"Could it not have a selective diet?" Red raised a counterpoint.

 

"Possibly, but it's a rare trait to find in a monster, much more so down here where food is so scarce. The fact of the matter is that it sucked out all of the blood from its prey and it didn't bother eating any flesh except for the brain..."

 

"You mean it may have another use for the brain beside food." The boy knew what the man was implying. "What makes you so sure?"

 

"Its behavior..." Viran replied. "In the end, you may be right, and it may turn out to be just a particularly picky monster, but even then, a normal creature down here wouldn't be so thorough with hiding its tracks and intentionally going after vulnerable and isolated prey while constantly avoiding the ones it can't kill." The man pointed to himself. "Besides, I've never seen them, but I've heard of them before on the surface. Monsters that can absorb memories and knowledge from its victims by messing with their brains..."

 

"...You mean to say it knew not to fight you because it absorbed the other slave's memories?" Red asked after considering the whole situation in silence.

 

"Maybe. It might also be capable of judging my strength based on instinct. That's not an uncommon trait amongst stronger monsters either."

 

"So, if I have this right, we have an undetectable monster that can perfectly hide its presence while hunting and is capable of absorbing a person's knowledge by eating their brain, slowly becoming smarter and smarter as a result?" Red finished his short description.

 

"Definitely matches the behavior we've seen. It was sloppy on its first hunt, which is why we were able to get some clues about it, but eventually it got smarter and started to cover its tracks even better than before. Not to mention, the appearance of such a monster in these caves would also explain why the rest of the insects have been moving up into our territory." Viran continued. "Stronger monsters have a naturally commanding influence over their lesser counterparts, and they can give them certain orders..."

 

They had first thought the ambush they had suffered by those centipedes was due to them being pushed off their home territory due to overbreeding or a stronger creature claiming it for them, but it seemed like this was not the case. Instead, a possibly sentient monster was ordering them to move up and attack the slaves. At one point, Red wondered whether or not the blob was behind this, but the boy was quite sure that the creature was stuck inside that chamber and he didn't see how this situation would benefit it.

 

The whole problem of the situation, as the two of them saw it, wasn't so much this hidden monster's strength. Since it was afraid of Viran, its strength wasn't beyond them and they could still possibly find a way to track and kill it. The real issue came in the fact that it could seemingly control those masses of insects, waging a siege against the slaves where they would either die against the flood of monsters attacking them or would starve to death isolated inside the mine.

 

At this point, they had walked for quite a distance. Red noticed this wasn't the way to the meeting chamber, and they didn't see many slaves down their path. Most of them had chosen to gather near the entrance of the dungeon after the monster had started pouring out from the depths.

 

"So, it all comes down to killing this creature that we haven't even seen yet." Red commented. "What's the plan you mentioned earlier?"

 

"We're gonna ambush it."

 

"How?"

 

"It's quite simple. The monster presumably knows how strong I am and that it can't fight me, but it doesn't know even half of the things I am capable of. See, you might be unable to manipulate spiritual energy without your Spiritual Sea, but you can still forcefully contain it inside your body and activate certain types of innate abilities." Viran pointed towards his chest. "If you stimulate the right acupoints in your lungs vein, for instance, you can go without breathing for quite a while. It's useful for swimming underwater..."

 

"And to keep yourself hidden." Red completed his sentence.

 

"Indeed. It's just one example of how opening your spiritual veins and their acupoints grants you more than just pure strength. However, it's extremely dangerous to try and keep spiritual energy inside your veins for too long without the help of your Spiritual Sea, and it can easily explode and cripple you if you let it go out of control. You'll learn more about it if you survive this whole affair."

 

Viran concluded, as they finally arrived back at the chamber where his tent was located. No one was around and Red saw the whole place had a lot fewer beds and possessions than it had in the past, another indication of the number of casualties Viran's goons had suffered and the fact many of them didn't want to follow him anymore. The man walked into his tent while Red waited outside.

 

"These motherfuckers really have some balls!" An angry voice came from inside the tent and Viran walked outside while carrying a heavy leather bag.

 

"What happened?" Red curiously asked.

 

"They stole from me! I thought killing a few food thieves would have been enough to teach them all a lesson, but it seems that their desperation has finally overcome their reason." Viran laughed, but the boy was easily able to tell that the man was extremely angry about it.

 

"Did they take anything important?"

 

"No, nothing here is important, but I guess some of the slaves will have to fight with their bare hands." After that, Viran walked past him, with Red followed behind.

 

This time the path they took led to the meeting chamber. Walking past the blocked tunnels, Red couldn't help but notice something felt weird. A strange expression also came over Viran's face as they got closer to their destination.

 

"There should be more people around here." The boy finally gave voice to their concerns.

 

The man only grunted in response and soon enough they arrived in the meeting chamber. What they saw there was only a handful of slaves sitting around, most of those consisting of Viran's direct subordinates, including Gruff. It was far less than what they had been expecting and the old soldier wasn't pleased about it.

 

"What the fuck is this?!" Viran's voice snapped many of the slaves out of their reverie as they saw their leader arrive.

 

"Boss!" Gruff got up, a look of worry on his face as he ran up to Viran with a few other slaves accompanying him. "I told them to get here, but they are all stupid, they wouldn't listen to reason! You need to-"

 

"Calm yourself down, idiot!" The man grabbed his shoulder and made the giant individual stand still. "Tell me what happened!"

 

"They didn't want to come here, boss, not even when I told them this was your order." Calming down, Gruff continued. "A bunch of them started making a fuss, saying how you wanted to use them as meat shields and that you would get them all killed down here just so you could keep all the food and riches to yourself. More and more people joined them, and they decided to go towards the entrance, saying that they would negotiate with the guards to help them. I told them it was a stupid idea, that they did not care about us but-"

 

"Fucking morons!" Viran suddenly bellowed in anger, pushing Gruff aside. "Idiots, the lot of them! They're gonna come back here right now even if I have to break every single limb in their bodies so that they will obey! You lot!" He pointed at the rest of the slaves and threw the leather sack onto the ground. "Pick up your weapons and follow me! Gruff, Red, you're with me! Today I'm going to show them how I became the leader of this place."

 

Viran started to march down the tunnel towards the cave entrance, as the other slaves picked up whatever weapon they could and followed behind him. Red had never considered himself as one of the man's subordinates, doing his bidding and helping him keep the order amongst the more unruly slaves, but at that moment he felt it was better if he just followed along.

 

Staying behind waiting for the other slaves to leave the chamber first, Red felt someone staring at him. Looking over, Gruff gazed at the boy with anger in his eyes.

 

"It's your fault. It all started after you went hunting with us." The man uttered with a rough voice. "I can't wait for the time you get eaten by one of those things."

 

After that, the giant left, and Red found himself alone in the chamber.