"Whoa! How do you navigate this labyrinth of a tunnel?" Rhean asked whispering as the tunnels were quite silent except of the occasional buzzing of the glow worms.
"I smell my way out. See those small sticks with the black stuff on the wall there. That's my marker, I made those with very aromatic insect repellants. I have an improved sense of smell so I could find my way out depending on the differences in the mixture I made." Brad explained as he followed Bread inside the tunnels.
"I could smell it too but what differences? I could find none in the various markers we passed through." Brendel said.
"I made three types of these stick which I put on systematically to know if I am going back or going further. if the order of smell is followed then I am going further but if I follow the opposite order then I would find myself back to my own cave." Brad looked around to observe his surroundings.
"That's very clever, and Bread here seems to very skilled in scouting ahead." Kent was impressed at the way Brad used his sense in this caves that all looked the same to him.
"This Bristle Boar seemed to have mutated into something else. It still had it's former kinds features but it seems to be able to evolve further. I really wanted a pet like this." Rhean realized this boar would do great on the Elven forrest where she lived as a guard of sorts with it's strong sense of smell.
"Boars have very great sense of smell, and if you want the Boar in the pens have gotten pregnant again and we night be able to get new piglets which you could train as your pet. You'll only need to wait for three weeks until it could give birth again." Brad walked calmly as he found no disturbance here since he last came.
"Really? can I get one too?" Rhean was ecstatic hearing that.
"A Boar rider huh, having a safe environment with food made the boars you have reproduce faster. Thought it would take it's ferocity it would be easier to tame when it is still a child. Could I take one as well?" Kent was imagining himself riding a large Boar in battle. A Paladin with shining armor riding a large brown Boar decked in shining armor as well.
"A gold ranked steed, now that's very rare. Even our Prairie Birds are only Iron Ranked and getting a gold ranked boar as a new steed would make our friend really jealous when we go home." Brendel laughed but she realized an awkward atmosphere build up.
"We're here!" Brad smiled cheerfully as they arrived in a open cave space where there are various lumps of rocks scattered around. They had passed by broken rocks earlier like these which the four didn't think were important.
"So where are the ores?" Ashea looked around at the dimly lit cave and noticed that only small amounts of glow worms exist here.
"There are no ores, we're here to gett metal nuggets directly." Brad then went to break a rock after wearing some leather gloves. The four were attracted to his actions and saw him take out shining metal nuggets from the broken rocks. This surprised the four as they looked around the open cave room and look at the many lump of racks scattered about.
"Holy shit, are these rocks full of these metal nugget?" Kent then went to break one and was greeted with a shiny metal with a silver luster.
"Oh my Berond! This is Mithril! This is where you get so much precious metal? How marvelous!" Kent went and pulled the mithril nugget barehanded and realized he is now holding hundreds of Platinum coins worth of mithril. He smiled foolishly as he went to kiss the metal nugget.
"Ughh, I wouldn't do that If I were you. Oh too late!" Brad felt déjàvu as he saw Kent's actions.
"What? Why is that?" Kent saw the three girls look at him in disgust as Ashea pointed upwards which Kent followed. He saw bunch of large worms stuck in the ceiling and saw some hang half of their bodies down and eject a steaming lump of rock on the floor.
*Thud*
*Thud*
Every thud reverberated throughout the room as Kent stood there frozen as his eyes felt like they were deceiving him.
"That's right Kent, you just kissed worm poop." Ashea tried to hold her laughter in as she said that but the small priestess couldn't
"Ahahahahaha!! You kissed poop!!" Rhean was hysterical as well as Brendel whose green face was turing red from holding back. Brad hid his face as he too did the same but thankfully no one was there to see it. He felt sorry for Kent who seemed to have lost his soul.
*Grrrr!*
The group suddenly went silent as a growl from the depths made them realize they were deep withing the cave tunnels in this Dangerous continent. Everybody collectively forgot about the matter as they went on full alert. They went to a dark tunnel where they could hid their presence.
Brad took out his Warhammer and put it besides him as he readied his atlatl. Brendel put her shield in front of the cave opening slightly so they would get noticed as Rhean cast a simple 'Hide Presence' spell over the party. Kent took out his sword and shield as he too waited for the one who made the sound come out. Ashea had already prepared her healing spells and buffs for the party.
Soon loud footsteps were heard inside one of the large cave tunnels as an enormous head with long horns adorned on it's large crown. The party was mostly confused at what king of beast this is but Brad's eyes were literally shining as he saw one of the favorite things he had when he was a child. Dinosaurs, though the one in front is not exactly like any dinosaurs he knew cause it looked like a triceratops but it has more horns rather that the three-horned he used to know.
This was also larger as it stood up to six meters tall with a body that he could tell was more than ten tonnes. It looked like an absolute beast with it's frilled neck decked with horns, it was followed by a small herd of the same kind that seemed to follow the one in front to navigate these caves. Brad remembered watching a documentary about how the large triceratops travel the caves to look for a certain type of clay to eat and help it cover their stomachs against deadly toxins.
The five watch the herd walk through another large cave tunnel after about a dozen and a half of them walked past the bunch of worm poop. The five relaxed after the area seemed to be clear, they came out the tunnel where they were hiding as they looked at the large footprints that were left behind. Looking closely they could see that the floor had clear signs of the herd passing through this place ocasionally.
They looked at each other and hurriedly gathered the metal lumps they could find regardless of size as they were not sure if there are any beast that travel these caves. If those large Beast could find their way in what more could some smaller yet faster beast find it's way inside. Kent still had an ugly expression as he watched lump after lump being opened. He felt that he should wash his mouth with lots of water or wine when he gets back.