Skill Hunter -Kill Monsters, Acquire Skills, Ascend to the Highest Rank!

Ike quickly grabbed Mag's mouth before he could actually chirp. He pulled him backward. "Nuh uh."

"Hey, Ike. Can I go nuts?" Wisp asked.

"Wait. Let me recover first, in case things get out of hand," Ike requested.

"I think I can manage a few minutes," she said, licking her lips.

"Could I beg you for a few hours?"

She considered, then sighed. "Yeah, sure. I could use some aether, too."

Ike sighed in relief. "Thank you, Wisp."

He looked down, over the edge of the cliff, once more. Far below them, little pink grubs squirmed on the floor. Well, 'little.' Compared to the centipedes, they were little. Compared to ordinary bugs, they were enormous. The grubs were the size of adult humans. Some of the larger ones were cow- or horse-sized.

All of them were dwarfed by the massive being curled half around the exterior of the cylinder's floor. Several times wider than an ordinary centipede and ten or more times longer, the giant, fat beast was barely recognizable as a centipede at all. Bloated as it was, its legs could no longer support it. It laid on its side, indolent, utterly secure in its safety. And why not? What could hurt a beast that size? Ike gazed at the giant centipede, gauging its width. Even if he used all his skills and stacked them all into one huge hit, he wasn't sure he could pierce through that thing's bulk to meaningfully injure it. And that was assuming its thick skin didn't act as additional armor.

Ike's core filled up enough to extend his aether-senses, so he did. Almost immediately, he jerked them back, flinching away from the huge centipede. It was at least Rank 5. Maybe a higher Rank. As fat and immobile as it looked, it could nonetheless crush him with a wave of its useless arms.

He trembled instinctively. His thoughts of taking on a Rank 5 melted away. It wasn't possible. Not yet. Not for him.

His trembling changed, turning eager instead. His eyes lit up. But one day, I will be able to. I'll be as strong as that thing, and no one will be able to oppose me.

The giant centipede sighed, and a viscous spray full of white, orb-shaped eggs emerged from its other end. The eggs joined the piles of eggs already pasted to the wall behind it. With great effort, the centipede lifted itself up, not on its legs, but on its body, as a snake would. It inched forward once, then laid down again, grunting in satisfaction.

Wisp perched on the edge of the hole and gazed hungrily at the grubs. Mag wriggled free of Ike's hold and ran up beside her. He clutched the edge, watching the grubs with just as much desire. Drool accumulated at the corners of his mouth. He swallowed it down with effort, but couldn't drag himself away from the edge.

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Chuckling under his breath, Ike sat down behind them, his back against the wall so he could see both directions in the tunnel. He settled in and breathed deeply. Although he kept his eyes open, all his being focused on absorbing aether. He entered a state of pseudo-meditation, just aware enough to react to danger, but immersed enough that he possessed no conscious thoughts except for the deep desire to suck in more aether. The mana vein was clearly in the lowest part of the cylinder, but the aether was thick enough here for Ike to rapidly recover. The aether simmered on the air. It didn't disperse the way it usually would, but circulated in the cylinder, staying close to the root. Ike didn't understand why, but he did appreciate it. Sitting here and breathing regenerated his aether faster than anything else he'd experienced, save mana potions.

Shawn sighed as well, and his body lightened, a sure sign he was absorbing the thick aether. Even the two beasts perched on the tunnel's edge didn't protest, but absorbed their own share of the aether. It was like a balm, or a healing hot spring. Just what a bunch of tired mages needed.

"Do you think other mages will come here?" Wisp asked, still watching the centipede grubs swarm.

Shawn shrugged. "You didn't notice it, did you? We mountains are particularly sensitive to mana roots. We can sense them deep underground and trace them to where they surface, whereas you beasts and humans need to stumble upon them up here, or else sense nothing at all. Unless the other parties brought their own mountains, they'd have to get very close to notice it, what with all the mana pent up here."

"Mana roots?"

"Mana roots, mana veins, same difference. Some people even call them spirit roots or dragon veins, but that last one is bladderdash. Dragons have nothing to do with them. Makes much more sense to call them mountain roots."

Wisp tilted her head. "Roots instead of veins?"

"Veins run in a body and circulate the mana already inside that body around. Roots pull water and nutrients into the bottom of a tree from deep in the earth. What they do for a properly planted mountain is much more like roots than veins," Shawn explained.

Wisp's brow furrowed. "So why do they call them veins?"

"Oh—well, humans weren't thinking of body veins. They were thinking of ore veins. You know. Valuable stones that run in patches deep underground. To humans, mana is just another valuable resource to yank out of the earth and use up, just like those stones."

"Weird."

Shawn nodded. "Humans are very strange."

"Hey," Ike protested. He glanced around, then snorted. I'm very outnumbered, aren't I. Two beasts and a mountain, and me as the lone human.

Forget bringing a mountain. I doubt any other mage party in this trial has as few humans as this one. No… I doubt there's many mage parties in this entire region with as few humans as mine.

Ike's core filled bit by bit. Centipede grubs crawled over one another, and the centipede mother spat out more eggs. The bird and the spider watched the grubs with interest, waiting eagerly for Ike to finish.

At last, Ike stood. He dusted himself off. "My core is mostly full. Do you two want to—"

"Dinner!" Mag leaped off the edge.

"Hell yeah." Wisp reached her arms out and ran down the wall, head-first.

Ike stood there, his mouth still open. At last, he looked at Shawn. "I was going to say, 'move on.'"

Shawn snorted. "You'd better get a move on if you don't want those two to enrage the mother."

Ike sucked in a sharp breath. He looked down after the two hungry beasts and sighed. "Yeah. Let's go get after them, before they do something crazy."

Shawn patted Ike's shoulder. "Now you know how I feel."

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