The Apprentice of Ouroboros [Monster Evo LitRPG Adventure]

Neska didn’t need an engineering class to know the danger these goblins presented. She triggered her [Ember Hex] on the blast charges in their hands as they tried to close within throwing range. One device started to smolder in the goblin's hand.

The stick of explosives detonated, throwing shrapnel and bits of goblin her way. She shielded her body with a [Runic Barrier], but the detonation felt like little more than a summer breeze at this distance. The chunky goblin bits and shrapnel, not so much.

In reflection, her new Title, [Environmental Opportunist], was paying dividends. The increased hex range was a perk she never thought would be useful until now. And it was quite useful against charging goblins equipped with lit explosives.

“Suicide goblins! If they didn’t know we were here, the whole damn hive will know real soon!” Neska called out

Indeed, the buzzing grew louder, and the team huddled up, with Hadley pointing toward an egress tunnel. “We can’t fight them in the open! Close quarters, where the bugs can’t hit us from multiple angles."

They were too late. Those oddly shaped hexagonal holes were not there for decorative or structural purposes.

Wasps began swarming out of the holes, each about a foot long. Soon, dozens of them flew forward, letting out a shrilling noise that hurt her ears. Their stingers gleamed in the dim light as they charged forward, a most horrendous swarm no one should ever face alone.

And they were alone down here, in the dark. Neska primed [Venom Bolts] and prepared for the assault as everyone began firing off abilities and arrows.

Chaos reigned as the team withdrew down the sloping tunnel. Neska quickly threw down one of Brienne’s seeds to summon roots to cut the attackers' advance. Surprisingly, the wasps had great difficulty navigating the thrashing vines she conjured, jamming the roots deep into the abnormal tunnels and patchy honeycomb hive material.

“Keep the fire going!”

That was Hadley, coordinating the push down the cavern ramp to the next floor. Neska chose that moment to ignite her ember hex on the tarry substance Trevor cast out, coating the rapidly growing vines in an accelerant

As the wasps tried to wriggle through, the hex ignited the substance, setting off an inferno. Dozens of the insects turned to ash in a matter of seconds.

Neska thought things couldn't get worse: they had parasitic wasps that wanted to burrow into people and take over their bodies, and they were stuck in a giant underground hive.

That was probably the easiest part of this whole journey. They had a plan for that.

They didn't have a plan for goblins armed with explosives in close quarters, forcing them into open areas, where the wasps would have a much easier time picking them off. Neska had to hand it to the Varadur: This was quite clever, if exceedingly messy. It also remained quite shocking how willing the goblins were to charge in, only to be slaughtered. They truly had no care for their own survival.

She marvelled at how they managed to make explosives. Either they had appropriated them from the mine and had an ample supply from before the position was abandoned, or worse, the goblins were making them.

Well, probably the hobgoblins. The goblins' self-preservation instincts were next to nil. A hobgoblin was actually quite clever and more dangerous. All she knew was that her ears were ringing after taking out the next set of grenade-throwing goblins.

They developed an improvised strategy: The goblins would take time to lob their grenades, allowing her to either get an [Ember Hex] off to set off a chain reaction, or Brent would cover her with a sonic blast that would throw the lit boom sticks back at the goblins, or extinguish the sparking flame from the wicks.

After several rounds of this, she realized that there was no getting used to seeing flying goblin giblets. Syrona shrilled in her back where she'd retreated, and Neska's [Runic Barrier] was being used more to keep shrapnel and flying goblin bits from hitting her.

Through the controlled push, they heard intermittent communications from their lapels where the stone grew thinner. Apparently, the other two squads were having similar problems, with the goblins chasing them into open areas, where the wasps would attempt to surround them.

Out of curiosity, she listened to what was most effective against them, as Jurik and Corvin's team crackled through the lapel.

Kasfew had it easiest and was currently burning all the wasps in sight, and the icy bird would freeze those that survived. She also served a more supportive role and erected ice barriers to deter the swarm from their flanks. The rest of his team covered their backs as they cut through the swarm with ease.

Despite his boisterous attitude, Kasfew sounded like he had a good grasp of how risky his powers were, barking out orders to his team to stay back and out of the line of fire.

Maybe she misjudged the hothead; he could listen when it truly mattered.

Jurik's team also had several strategies to combat the creatures. Juni was using her [Terra Spikes] to isolate the goblins, keeping them from detonating their volatile alchemical munitions too closely. Neska had heard the results as the stone pebbles fell from the ceiling from the distant blasts. By the sound of it, Syra's abilities were highly effective as well. She had been using a blast of water to either drown out the wasps in a widespread area or get their wings soaking wet, inhibiting their movement. Her [Hydro cutter] did the rest.

Sarisse had also been using alchemical grenades to create fumes that cause the insects to curl up and die, a pesticide that she'd concocted on the side when she and Neska were making the various explosive satchels to bring this whole hive down for good. According to Juni, she was tranquil and steady-handed, even in the face of battle.

Everyone was alive and still fighting. That was promising.

Several of the wasps closed in on Neska's team from the corners of what seemed to be a large hatching chaber where grublike creatures no longer than her hand wiggled in the recesses lining the walls. Given what she saw before this, there seemed to be a low number of grublike beings wriggling about, maybe a hundred or so

She tried something she'd been meaning to try for a while, and let out a [Witch Cackle], disorienting the wasps and causing them to fall to the ground.

Brent and Roche made short work of the fallen insects, heavily disoriented by her ability. She filed a mental note that the Witch Cackle's sonic component was rather effective against these creatures.

The goblin's reckless bravery, however, was throwing a wrench in their plans. If the explosives didn't kill them, they rushed with rusty knives and other mining equipment like pickaxes and large hammers, screeching and babbling in the common tongue, threatening to gut them; they were rather unintimidating threats by this point.

All of them either received an arrow in the neck, a magical bolt through the chest, or several stabbings courtesy of Brent and Roche.

Trevor was also making effective use of his area denial, using a variant of Neska's [Mana Bolt] to snipe survivors who didn't get blasted by their area denial attacks. His aim wasn't as certain as his hands shook.

But, after three rounds of this, his hands were getting steadier, and his composure more collected. During a break in the intensity, she clasped a hand over his shoulder, showing how she would steady one hand with the other. "Steady your aim with your free hand. Don't flinch. Just relax and let the ability flow."

He took her advice, and the next two goblins to charge were cut down by their abilities.

They caught a lapse inattacks, as they continued working their way further down. For now, Neska heard the buzzing abate. Either they'd taken out most of them, or the wasps were regrouping elsewhere.

Brent skewered the corpse of a goblin, disgusted when the belly heaved as the wasp inside was pierced and died. "You know, I never thought I'd feel sorry for goblins, but this is a fate almost worse than death. Do they have full control of themselves when they're infested?"

Neska nodded. "In part. However, it sounds like the wasp exerts a strong influence when it taps into their nervous system. I don't know how they get in there. Something would have to inject the eggs, or they would ingest them. Either way is exceedingly disturbing."

Hadley cleaned her light short sword after being forced into close quarters in the last round of attacks. "You seem to be hitting these wasps with excessive force, Cassia. What's with that?"

"Name one thing that wasps do that is beneficial to the environment?" she asked darkly.

"Yeah, I can't," Hadley shrugged. "But you have to be suffering from mana withdrawal." Neska tipped back a mana potion while keeping her gaze fixed on Hadley, who looked mildly amused. "Uh huh."

Trevor cautiously raised a hand after wiping bug guts off; he'd been collecting the corpses for arcanist science. "They actually do pollinate a little bit. A few species can actually make honey, though they are in the minority," he offered helpfully.

It wasn't helping Neska's mood in the slightest. A spring picnic must have surely been ruined by wasps when she was younger, hence her utter hatred of them.

They came upon another chamber, with numerous intersecting pathways, but these looked like they were part of the actual mine itself, with only a trace of the papery nest material. It appeared the process was still ongoing. It made Neska's head hurt to look at where the lines were starting to blur between the two biomes.

If a person sat in these places for long enough...would they turn into a hive? She hoped no one had ever attempted to find out.

"Trevor, what do you know about Instances? I think this might be the first time I've seen one, at least that I can remember," she inquired.

"At one point, there was an attempt to use an instance to 'farm' monster carapaces. That worked for a little while, until they realized that the Instance core could spread its influence. Either the core itself or the monsters guarding it would grow stronger over time. It's very strange. No other monster class can alter the environment like this. If it goes on long enough, some really weird things start happening."

Neska felt a shiver down her tail. There was something ominous in his words; he knew far more than he was willing to share. "What do you mean by weird things?"

"Things start blending the lines of reality, and spontaneous life starts up. Simple things, usually. Mold, lichen, grass, plants, carnivorous blooms. Things of that sort." He pointed at the resin and the proto nest that the wasps had been forming.

The larvae were shaped almost like oversized grubs, wriggling helplessly in the small recesses; they also had a lemonish glow emanating from their bodies. "This is an unnatural warping of reality. These monsters are pulling from another place. The instance core causes a bleeding of our reality between here and somewhere else. The theory is that these monsters create a link to the Umbral Shoal. But the things that come through are typically one-way."

"I thought the Umbral Shoal only housed passing spirits as they reincarnate into the world, the life, death, and rebirth cycle," Neska countered. "I also thought that the Shoal was theoretical."

"Tell that to Arivol," Hadley muttered.

Trevor shook his head. "There is so little of the Umbral Shoal that we understand. A lot of it is just theory; the hard evidence we have is collected from strange places like this. There are reports of unusual structures manifesting within these Instances; some contain even more dangerous monsters, monsters that were not initially there. Some Instances look like warped towns, twisted underground forests, and floating fungus colonies. Nobody's sure how these things manifest, but we are certain that they are not random generations from these Instance cores."

"It's like they're building from a template," Hadley uttered darkly. "All the more reason to burn this place to the ground, top to bottom. Trying to capture an Instance core alive is too dangerous, and we should not be in here without a sizable force to back us up."

Before Hadley could continue, the buzzing intensified again, with Neska motioning to the others. "We need to keep moving. We're already down here, and we have backup on standby."

They did a quick ammo count, and most everyone still had at least half their ammo reserve. Everybody was doing well on Mana, with only mild depletion. Neska worried about how many more of these things they'd have to destroy.

Up ahead, she saw a steel-lined door set into one tunnel. In broken common, and presumably written by a goblin. It said, and she couldn't believe it, 'big boom room.'

"It's a trap," Brent muttered.

"Are goblins smart enough to make traps?" Trevor pushed back. "Because hobgoblins might, but the room label suggests very bad things would happen if one were to open this door, like a careless goblin. Not exactly a smart idea when your less enlightened counterparts are likely to set it off."

Neska cautiously twisted the handle and pulled the door open, surprised that it opened without any resistance. Her arms went slack to her sides, and she stared. "I think I have a solution to our hive problem."

Hadley took one look inside the room, her eyes widened, and she let out a whisper-quiet swear. She then gently nudged Neska to slither backward, and Hadley closed the door, gritting her teeth as she did so.

"We are absolutely not using that. It's made by goblins. It will kill us all if we so much as breathe on it wrong."

"What is it?" Trevor asked, before opening the door to view it himself. He held his breath as he quickly closed the door, and he let out a disturbing, high-pitched laugh. "That is a giant room of nope. I haven't seen that much explosive primer in one place. If that blows up, it'll take half the hive with it. And us."

"I hate to break into you guys, but you couldn't really destroy an instance that way unless you blew up the entire thing, including the Instance core. They form an interstitial pocket, remember?" Brent reminded them, one ear twitching irritably. "Anyway, goblins are not exactly known for their genius moves. This has 'bad idea' written all over it."

"I don't like encouraging bad ideas, but this could be sufficient ordnance to bring down the main target. We don't need to destroy the hive. All we need to do is destroy the Instance core," Neska argued.

"She's right," Roche affirmed. "Destroying or uprooting the core will cause the reality 'infection' to wither and die, and revert to normal. There are several documented examples of this, though they came at high cost."

Everyone turned to look at Roche, surprisingly, the voice of reason. "I'm on board with her idea, just saying."

"How would we transport it? Trevor asked. "Even assuming the goblins made this stuff correctly, which is a massive 'if,' the recommended solution is to stow it into a dimensional satchel. Where it can't get shaken to oblivion. And we don't have any of those."

Neska heard a ping and realized she had just risen a level after the nonstop combat. And she had another essence point to use.

She grimaced. She was hoping she would not have to take this power, certainly not like this, with several variables up in the air. "Guys? I have a very terrible idea."