Red started to make his way around the edges of the chamber towards his goal. Although the diversion had worked better than the boy had expected, there were still a few centipedes roaming around the burrow entrances. They seemed alert, but none of them wandered too far from their nest.

 

Soon, Red arrived in a part of the chamber where few rock spikes were available for use as cover. From here to the tunnel, there was still almost half of the chamber's length to cover and nothing else to help him sneak through. The remaining centipedes would most likely notice him. Nonetheless, the boy had already created as good of an opportunity as he would ever get, and wouldn't let it slip by.

 

Still in a crouched position, Red walked into plain sight. Carefully, he made his way forward step by step, making minimal noise and trying to steer clear from the centipedes. He made it halfway to his objective before one of the creatures wandered particularly close to his location. Its antennae weaved in the air in front of it, and it detected the moving figure of the human.

 

Before it could even screech, Red started sprinting. More and more centipedes noticed his fast shape waltzing through the middle of their nest, and hissing of alarm started to echo in the wide chamber. The youth could hear the sound of the monsters chasing him, but he didn't stop to look behind.

 

After pushing himself further, Red finally arrived at the tunnel and dove into it. Prepared to lose them in the passage, he kept his pace at a maximum, taxing his legs even more. The screeching of centipedes accompanied him for 20 more seconds before gradually they started to grow distant. A moment later, and Red couldn't hear them anymore.

 

Only then did he slow down and look back. The boy was surprised that he was able to lose them this easily considering how hard escaping from them last time was. He half expected to hear their approaching shrieks closing in on his position, but a minute later and he detected nothing. Some clarity on the situation came to him.

 

'They're guarding the nest.'

 

It was the only reasonable explanation Red could come up with. Since they had stayed behind while dozens of their siblings joined the hunt in a frenzy, then their role must have been something quite important, such as guarding the eggs and infants. If that was the case, then they wouldn't go off in a long chase following this human who did not appear to pose any immediate threat.

 

'Lucky me, I guess.'

 

Red didn't intend on waiting around near the premises of the nest, though. He immediately started to travel down the tunnel again, putting as much distance between the centipede lair and himself as possible.

 

Only an hour later did the youth decide to stop and rest. Sitting down against the wall, the tension accumulated in his body over the last day seemed to slowly leave him. Physically, he had not been taxed too much this time around, but the boy felt mentally exhausted.

 

The constant brushes with death and having to maintain extreme awareness over his surroundings each second was taking a lot out of Red. At least back in the upper caves, he had his hideouts and didn't have to worry about giant insects hiding behind every corner. He was familiar with that place and could run away if he encountered any danger, even from the dangerous monsters.

 

But here? Not only was this completely unfamiliar territory, but it was also inhabited by creatures which Red wouldn't even be able to outrun if he was noticed. The extreme pressure that weighed down on him knowing any mistake could be his last took a lot of him mentally. Even just sitting here and relaxing for a few minutes was already a big risk for the boy

 

Still, it was better than collapsing midway through the journey.

 

Taking out his map, the youth decided to check his progress. Now that he had made it past the centipedes, he wouldn't need to worry about any other large monster nests before he arrived in spider territory. Of course, Red learned to not completely trust this map at face value. However, there were no large chambers for groups of insects to live in for the next big leg of his journey. Hopefully whatever threats awaited him could be easily avoided.

 

'Perhaps I should be worrying about something other than the monsters, though...'

 

Red wondered how Viran would have dealt with the situation. Thinking back on it, he didn't remember seeing the man eat or drink too often. It was most likely because of the fact that he had opened his stomach vein. The youth couldn't help but think of how convenient it would be to have something like that right now.

 

With a sigh, Red got up and started moving again. He needed to find food before anything else, or he wouldn't even have the opportunity to worry about the spiders.

 

...

 

Another day went by in the underground world.

 

Red didn't have much success in his foraging. This part of the tunnel network seemed to be very desolate, and he found nothing in the way of edible mosses or mushrooms. Almost no water flowed down from the surface to this area either, so his thirst started to become a worry for the boy too.

 

Because of the barrenness of this domain, Red also didn't meet any monsters during the last day of travel. However, the youth could hardly consider himself lucky for that, given the situation he was in.

 

Every step started to become more taxing for him, and he found himself moving slower and having to take additional breaks to conserve energy. The map also started to become less specific the further down he went. Viran hadn't been able to thoroughly explore the areas closer to the underground river, and the lack of information showed, as far as Red was concerned

 

He often found passages that weren't marked on the map and had to backtrack to find the proper landmarks and make sure he was on the right path. His progress slowed down even further, and Red couldn't properly estimate how long it would take for him to pass through this section of his journey. Not to mention, he didn't have anything to look forward to either.

 

After all, the most dangerous part of this trip still awaited him further ahead.

 

...

 

It wasn't until another day had passed that Red witnessed a change in the environment. Signs of monster tracks became more frequent, and the boy had to become vigilant as he started coming across the beasts again.

 

The tunnels became wider and the occasional chambers bigger too. More moonstones and weird ores could be found encrusted within the stone surfaces. The boy swore that if he had access to this much material to exchange with the guards, he would never go hungry again.

 

Down here, the insect variety started to change too. The youth began to see many kinds of weird beasts wandering the chambers and tunnel network. Curiously, it seemed the creatures that inhabited these areas were relatively smaller and far less aggressive than the ones above.

 

Red witnessed monsters similar to the egg-stealer, which all ran away as soon as they noticed the human's presence. Another one had a long and thin body and camouflaged into the cave walls very well. The boy almost stumbled over it, but the monster didn't seem interested or bothered by his presence. A creature he found even resembled the centipedes, except it had many more legs and moved far slower.

 

The sudden change in behavior of the beasts gave Red some room to relax but still raised other suspicions in his mind. This was a virtually undisturbed habitat of prey for the monsters above to hunt, so why did he not see any of them in the area? Nothing in Viran's map had told him to expect this either, so he wondered whether or not it was another recent change to the underground.

 

At some points, Red considered killing a few of these creatures for food, but he thought better of it. Despite behaving peacefully, some of them still looked extremely tough and the boy didn't fancy his chances against them in his condition. Since the monsters weren't acting like predators, then it was likely they fed on something other than meat to stay alive down here.

 

Red reckoned following them to their feeding grounds was a safer play.

 

Sure enough, after another hour of travel, the boy came upon a large chamber. The place was partially illuminated, like most of this section of the cavern, with glowing moonstone veins encrusted into the rock surfaces. The ceiling was full of deep holes leading further up the soil, and a pond bigger than any body of water Red had seen before was located in the center of the room. In the walls of the cave, a green-looking tuft was growing in large quantities. It almost went unnoticed by the boy under the lighting but seeing a group of giant insects feeding on it confirmed its identity to the boy.

 

Moss. And water, too.

 

Red wondered whether or not he was having a hallucination, but the image remained there, in all its natural beauty. The inhabitants of this area didn't fight over each other either, and none of them seemed to acknowledge the human's arrival. Discovering that this kind of environment existed underground was an extreme shock to the youth, but his cautious nature didn't allow him to lower his guard.

 

He watched the chamber carefully, almost expecting some kind of horrible predator to be waiting in ambush. However, even after five minutes of observation, Red still wasn't able to notice anything out of the ordinary. Only then did the boy dare to dive deeper into the chamber.

 

The first thing he did was to approach the pond in the center of the room. The water was extremely clear and Red could see the bottom of the pool. To his relief, no monsters were waiting within it. Cautiously, the youth scooped some of the liquid with his hand and brought it up to his nose. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary judging from the smell.

 

The boy still hesitated, but he knew that this was probably the only source of water he would find for a good while. Red first tasted some of the liquid by licking his finger. However, after not feeling any adverse effects in the subsequent minutes, he began to drink the water with big scoops of his hand.

 

Only after his thirst was completely quenched, did the youth turn his attention towards the moss. Some insects were eating the green tufts in large quantities while latched to the wall, but even then there seemed to be enough to go around. This time, though, Red was a bit more cautious.

 

All living creatures drank water, it was a fact the boy knew. As for the food they could eat, though, it differed a lot from being to being. The giant monsters Red encountered before were capable of eating raw meat, for instance, but if he tried to do the same then he would likely go sick. He didn't know enough about the moss or these creatures to determine if the same logic applied in this scenario. However, he was still willing to test it.

 

Approaching the wall, Red picked off a tiny tuft off the green growth. Bringing it up to his nose, the youth felt no abnormal smell from the plant. Finally, using the same approach he had with the water, he ingested a small piece of the moss. There was no taste to speak of, and the texture was very soft and slimy, not comfortable to chew in the slightest.

 

After a few minutes of anticipation, Red was happy to see his body had no adverse reactions to the food. No longer hesitating, the boy started to tear large tufts of moss from the wall and ingest them. He didn't know how nutritious this thing was, but it was better than walking around on an empty stomach.

 

Just as the Red was finished eating, he noticed some strange movement nearby. A round insect, about a meter long, was struggling with all its might. It was stuck in place, right by a patch of moss in the ceiling on the other side of the chamber. The youth was confused for a moment before he noticed something else.

 

Movement. From the hole above the pond. And not just one of them

 

Red blinked. Long, hairy legs started to crawl out from the crevices slowly.

 

The boy felt his blood run cold.

 

Three large spiders revealed themselves before his eyes.