Theo marched in a single-file line alongside twenty other slaves.
At the mouth of the cavern, a small group of guards stood leaning against the walls.
They were laughing, passing a leather flask of wine back and forth, and playing a simple game of dice in the dirt.
They didn’t even bother looking up to inspect the laborers as the line shuffled past them into the dark.
To the sect, and especially to these lazy guards, a slave wearing a bronze collar was nothing more than a disposable tool.
If Theo wandered into the dark and a monster tore his throat out, it was no problem at all; he was just a minor loss on an overseer’s ledger.
But if he miraculously survived and came back up dragging a cart full of high-grade spirit crystals, the guards would pocket a handsome silver bonus for "supervising" a successful haul.
They held all the cards, and they won either way...
The group of slaves stopped at the first major fork in the tunnel.
The men went to work. Theo joined them for a few minutes, swinging his tool with feigned effort.
He chipped away a few chunks of low-grade crystals and tossed them into a nearby cart.
He made sure to look just as tired and miserable as the rest of the slaves around him.
However, playing the role of the diligent miner wasn’t on his actual agenda today.
After about ten minutes, while the other slaves were distracted by their labor, Theo quietly took a step backward.
He slipped around a stalagmite and started walking down the left-hand tunnel.
He walked deeper, and then much deeper.
No one yelled at him to stop.
No one ran after him to warn him that the deep zones were restricted or excessively dangerous.
The apathy of his captors ironically granted him unsupervised freedom.
Thanks to his Minor Purity Water Body and the explosive +10 stat boost from his new Iron-Blooded Guardian class, his senses were sharpened to an incredible degree.
He could hear the dripping of condensation echoing miles away, and his boots made no sound as they stepped over the loose gravel.
Suddenly, a sharp hiss echoed from a narrow crevice just above his head.
Theo sidestepped instantly, his agility kicking in flawlessly.
A Black Snake lunged from the shadows like a loaded spring, its fangs dripping with a corrosive venom that hissed as it hit the stone.
The creature slammed into the ground right where he had been standing a fraction of a second ago.
Its scales scraped against the rock as it coiled its muscular body, preparing to strike his legs.
"System space," Theo whispered.
The pickaxe vanished from his hand in a shower of digital sparks, replaced by the Novice Soul-Reaping Scythe.
The curved blade felt surprisingly balanced and deadly in his firm grip.
As the snake launched itself at his throat, Theo stepped into the strike, swinging the polearm in a smooth, upward arc.
The scythe cleanly severed the snake’s head before its fangs could even graze his skin.
The headless body crashed to the dirt, twitching in a pool of dark blood.
[Non-human entity defeated. ’Parasite’ class triggered.]
[Absorbing essence...]
[Congratulations! Host has acquired: ’Poison Breath’ and ’Heat Source Detection’.]
A warm sensation rushed through Theo’s chest and surged into his eyes.
He blinked hard, and suddenly, the cave wasn’t dark anymore.
Small, glowing red and orange signatures bloomed across his vision, highlighting the living creatures hiding within the deep crevices of the cavern.
He could see the residual heat of the dead snake fading on the ground, and more importantly, he could see the heat signatures of fresh prey crawling in the tunnels ahead.
"Oh, this is going to be incredibly fun!" Theo chuckled.
With his new Heat Source Detection active, he didn’t need a torch to navigate.
He walked briskly down the descending tunnel, his eyes locked onto a red heat signature moving along the cavern wall just around the next bend.
He turned the corner and found himself face-to-face with an Evil Centipede. It was easily the size of a large hunting dog.
The monster sensed his approach and reared up on its hind legs, its mandibles clicking together as it prepared to lunge.
Though, Theo was much faster, and his arsenal had just expanded.
He took a deep breath, feeling a strange energy gathering in his lungs, and exhaled forcefully.
A cloud of dark green mist shot out from his lips, engulfing the giant insect.
The centipede shrieked, an awful sound, as its armored body thrashed.
While the creature was blinded and flailing in agony, Theo stepped forward and brought the heel of his boot down, crushing its head against the floor.
[Non-human entity defeated. ’Parasite’ class triggered.]
[Absorbing essence...]
[Congratulations! Host has acquired: ’Paralyzing Breath’.]
"Not bad," Theo muttered to himself. "A little situational, but definitely useful for capturing things without destroying them."
He continued his descent, venturing into the true depths of the monster zone.
His thermal vision quickly picked up a round heat signature hanging upside down above a narrow chasm in the path ahead.
It was a Black Spider, roughly the size of a small carriage, waiting in ambush.
As Theo stepped closer, its eight glowing red eyes locked onto his position in the dark, and it immediately reared back, shooting a volley of sticky webbing toward his chest.
Theo activated his new Paralyzing Breath, spitting an invisible dart of numbing vapor straight up into the spider’s open maw as it descended on a silk thread.
Theo summoned the scythe back into both hands, leaped across the chasm with his agility, and cleaved the immobilized, falling spider in two with a single downward slash.
[Non-human entity defeated. ’Parasite’ class triggered.]
[Absorbing essence...]
[Congratulations! Host has acquired: ’Spiderweb Generation’ (Automatically upgraded to ’Steel Thread’ due to Host’s water/fluid affinity).]
Theo landed on the other side of the chasm and raised his left hand, pointing two fingers at the opposite wall.
Thwip! A thin thread of hardened silk shot from his fingertips, burying itself deep into the rock.
He let out a genuine laugh.
He looked up, aiming to test his new thread on a higher stalactite to see if he could swing across the wider gaps in the deeper parts of the cave.
But as he raised his hand, his Heat Source Detection picked up something massive clinging to the very ceiling of the colossal underground chamber.
It was a Giant Bat... the creature was enormous, its folded wings easily spanning the width of a small house.