The group advanced into the bowels of the Nest with slow, cautious steps.

For what felt like hours the tunnels coiled and narrowed, dripping with thick resin that hissed faintly where it struck stone.

Each drop struck like a drumbeat in the silence, too loud, too steady, until every sound seemed to throb inside their skulls. The oppressive air weighed heavy, thick with damp heat and the scent of decay.

The claustrophobic sensation deepened with every pace. Roots pressed in from overhead, bending low like ribs of some colossal beast. Resin pooled along the floor and tugged at their boots, clinging like tar.

Kalrek, of course, had claimed the lead. He forced laughter every few minutes, each nervous chuckle bouncing against the walls and vanishing abruptly as if swallowed whole.

Furthermore, he didn't forget his craft—every so often he pressed a rune-stone against the wall, whispering, leaving behind faintly glowing sigils that shimmered in the resin-light before dimming out and blending back into the bland brown of the tunnel.

Ash tilted his head, eyes lingering on the faint glow, "But how do they actually work? The lines you carve… they look like veins. Do they channel something?"

Kalrek chuckled, sticking another rune to the wall, "Channels, circuits, call them what you want. The stone holds aether like a flask. The etchings tell it where to flow when I send the specific aether wave."

"Aether wave..." Ash narrowed his eyes, pondering as it felt similar to something he had seen before, he couldn't help but ask another question, "So the glow is just excess energy leaking out?"

"Exactly," Kalrek said with a smirk, "Well not exactly... It's more like a bleed-off. Pretty, isn't it? My personal touch. You push too much through and boom—no more rune, and maybe no more wall either."

Ash fell silent, considering.

"Nice place," Kalrek continued muttering, his voice squeaking, "Good acoustics if you're into horror choirs."

He cast glances left and right, never keeping his eyes still, as though expecting the resin to peel open into teeth.

Behind him Tholn prowled with his usual predatory stillness. The Murkfen's voice was low and clipped, a knife's edge of warning: "Keep your weapons ready. We never know when we'll encounter the next batch."

He halted occasionally to sniff at the stagnant air, his long limbs tense, every motion betraying his readiness to strike.

Veyra trailed next, bow in hand, her gaze sharp but restless.

The faint sound of distant clicking drifted through the tunnels, fading only to return louder and closer, making her knuckles whiten on the bowstring.

Yvren brought up the rear, his staff brushing the ground with each step. He murmured words older than the tunnels, and a faint shimmer rippled in the air.

His protective wards pulsed outward like a heartbeat, offering momentary relief from the suffocating press of the Nest.

The others felt it like a breath of clean air before the pressure returned heavier than before.

Their voices were few and brittle. Kalrek muttered jokes; Veyra snapped at him to keep quiet; Tholn scolded them both with sharp words. The fragile silence returned, broken only by footsteps and the resin's ceaseless dripping.

At last the tunnel widened.

Before them opened a clearing of resin and bone.

The shift in atmosphere was immediate—an oppressive weight lifted, just enough for them to breathe, before crashing back with crushing force.

Kalrek, relieved, muttered, "Finally! Not another cramped corridor. I was starting to think we'd die of boredom before bugs."

He stepped ahead boldly, his shoulders loosening for the first time.

"See? Nothing to worry about," he said over his shoulder, grinning.

Tholn's low voice snapped back a warning to be careful, and Veyra hissed that charging ahead was reckless. But Kalrek waved them off.

"Relax, it's fine," he said breezily as he rounded a jutting rock.

And there, he nearly collided face‑to‑face with a Grunt Beetle.

He froze mid‑step. The stocky insect clicked its mandibles once, its eyes reflecting dull green resin‑light.

For a long heartbeat, the two simply stared at each other.

In absolute silence, Kalrek shuffled backwards behind the rock, his expression stretched into a pained smile.

The beetle slowly leaned its head around the corner, staring at him as if unimpressed.

Kalrek coughed, lifted a finger as though to excuse himself, and muttered, "...Before you ask, yes, I am very lost."

The Beetle tilted its head, then slowly turned away.

Every head in the group followed its motion—and their breath caught as the shadows parted to reveal three massive Keeper Beetles behind it, flanked by a swarm of nearly thirty more drones, their mandibles clashing in dreadful unison.

The others stiffened in silence, watching.

Kalrek waved at it nervously, "Hey there… uh… big guy. Love what you've done with the décor. Very… homey."

The silence shattered with a screech that tore through the cavern.

The swarm surged forward. Kalrek squeaked—actually squeaked—before flailing backward, tripping over his own boots.

"Not funny, not funny, definitely not funny!" he yelped, scrambling for cover.

Then everything snapped into motion.

Tholn widened his stance and lunged like a coiled blade, daggers flashing in reverse grip.

His strikes were surgical—gutting two drones and sending another crashing into the resin.

Veyra loosed arrows that ricocheted off resin-slick walls, piercing eyes and joints. Yvren planted his staff and invoked an old ward, light flaring in a dome that toppled beetles.

He pivoted and cracked a Keeper's shell with a sweeping blow.

Having the beetles now occupied by the party, Kalrek turned around, hurriedly reaching into his pouch and hurled rune after rune, small explosions scattering clusters of drones.

One fizzled in his hand, and he shouted, "Not on my watch!"

Next to them, Ash dropped low, large wisps of shadows spreading out from him.

Shadows of the Pack!

'This is the perfect time to gather some points for the mission…'

It had turned out that the moment that Elyrra had accepted the change for the trials of the mission, the trial mission had self updated itself.

It now read:

["Trial of the Murkfen Kin", Mission (Updated):

Info: Defeat the Beetle Nest

Objective:

Defeat the Grunt Beetles (9/50)

Locked (Complete the first objective to unlock)

Locked (Complete the first two objectives to unlock)

Locked (Complete the first three objectives to unlock)

Locked (Complete the first four objectives to unlock)

Reward:

Objective 1: 30,000 EXP, 1000 AP, 50 Stat Points

Objective 2: Locked

Objective 3: Locked

Objective 4: Locked

Objective 5: Locked]

The trial had completely reshaped itself, and what seized Ash's attention most were the rewards—now more than doubled, shining with promise that pulled at his hunger for strength.

They had already cut down a handful of beetles and his count had ticked upward, but facing an entire swarm ahead, Ash could almost taste the surge of progress waiting for him. The opportunity was too great to ignore.

Ash's lips curled in a snarl as the shadows thickened into clones around him. Beside him, the air warped as Riven materialized, summoned with a sharp tug of Ash's will.

'This is my chance to rack up progress', he thought, eyes narrowing on the swarm.

He barked to the others, "See if you can keep the Keepers busy for a while—I'll handle the rest!"

Without waiting for agreement, he unleashed the clones and called Riven to his side. The command was sharp, burning through his mind: Cut down every Grunt Beetle you see.

And Ash didn't hold back.

He surged forward, shadows spilling like a storm, tearing through lines of drones with reckless abandon. Each strike carved another corpse, his focus locked on the Grunt Beetles while the others struggled to pin the Keepers.

He darted left, invoking Umbral Bind—black tendrils erupted from the ground, ensnaring three drones at once before Riven rushed in, crushing them like brittle twigs.

Tholn parried a blow from one of the Keeper beetles and growled, "E-Rank, huh? It's far beyond his rank. If he ever reaches mine, I doubt I could best him."

One of Ash's clones lunged from behind, its claws glowing as it unleashed Eclipsing Fang, driving a shadow-infused strike clean through another's carapace.

Veyra let out a low whistle between shots, eyes wide as she tracked Ash's blur of shadow and fang.

"By the stars… he's mowing them down like a reaper in a field," she breathed, loosing another aether‑coated arrow that forced a Keeper to stumble back.

Ash spun again, jaws clamping down on a drone's neck as he used Eclipsing Fang before ripping it free, resin spraying across the floor.

Yvren's staff pulsed faintly, and his lips curved in rare approval. "Lady Elyrra's faith was not misplaced. I see now why prophecy chose him."

Riven fought alongside him like a phantom wolf, a blur of claws and fangs. The spirit‑beast darted ahead in a sudden Shadow Sprint, afterimages trailing as it tore into a Grunt Beetle and bowled two others aside.

With a savage snap, he tore a leg clean off before barreling into another, scattering the group with brutal momentum. Ash used the chaos to crash through, his shadows whipping outward like whips to flay two more drones across their armored backs.

Kalrek, meanwhile, cursed while fumbling another rune, "Blasted show-off! Stop burning through your aether with all that flair—there's still the rest of the Nest to clear!"

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