Hector reached forward and cupped the Talent, the crystal settling in his palm. The surface hummed against his skin, feeling almost alive. He began moving it toward his chest. And as he did, something stirred from his back, [Phantom Masquerade] shifting free and beginning to move away.

  It was like a plant bulb swelling beneath his spine, slipping past bone and pushing through. The sensation made his skin crawl, though it was far from unpleasant.

  Each time he exchanged or added Talents, the sensations varied. It felt uncomfortable without being painful, like a wrongness that never quite settled. As if something was being taken. The new Talent would never sit quite right.

  Eventually, he dislodged the [Phantom Masquerade] and slotted [Verdant Luminescence] within himself. The Talent crystal sank into his chest, merging with something deep within him. At the same time, the other Talent floated free, bobbing at his side, white and pristine. Its surface swirled with the same intricate designs Hector still didn’t understand.

  He’d made no progress in deciphering the inscriptions on any of the Talents’ surfaces, but he didn’t have time to be disheartened. Right now, he had a list of problems, and understanding the language of the Talents was at the bottom of that list.

  He brought his attention within himself, and reality pulled on him. He allowed it, and his mind swirled as the soulscape began pouring away.

  His eyes flickered open to darkness.

  “Are you doing alright?”

  Jodie. She’d probably sensed him moving when he’d come back. Her voice cut through the pitch black, edged with concern.

  Hector didn’t respond. Instead, he reached for the energy at the back of his mind, for [Verdant Luminescence]. Pulling on it, energy surged within him, rushing through his body and spreading to his fingertips, which pressed against the stone.

  Then, with hundreds of cracks, the ground erupted. Plants bloomed in their small, confined space. Vines unfurled, leaves spreading wide, each one emanating soft light. The glow flickered across their masks.

  Jodie pulled hers off first, gasping and sucking in air. Lincoln followed, his mask clattering against stone as he let out a breath.

  The plants continued to grow, covering the walls. Their tendrils wove through cracks in the rock, filling the tight crevices with thick life. Roots dug deep while leaves pressed against the ceiling and floor.

  “That’s better.” Lincoln rested back against the wall, crunching some plants as his shoulders sagged.

  Outside, the chittering and clicking of insects against stone continued, mandibles scraping to dig away at the blockage. The sound itself was distant now, muffled through layers of rock. Still, Hector’s hand twitched. The bugs had probably already set their sights on them through some unknown method, digging their way toward Hector and his friends.

  It was funny. They were now in the exact situation the Flamelight scion had sent them to rescue others from. But that was life. Strange occurrences happened in ways no one could have predicted. In this case, though, there was no rescue coming.

  Not that it was a problem. They had more than enough ability to rescue themselves, because Lincoln possessed the [Surface Scraper] Talent. Digging a way out wouldn’t exactly be a challenge.

  Hector turned to his friends, who rested for a moment. “Thankfully, these plants, as well as providing light, should also give us some oxygen.”

  “Oxygen?” Lincoln raised an eyebrow. “Do you mean the air?”

  Hector paused, his eyebrows dropping into a frown. He hadn’t considered that his friends might not know the basic science behind the very air they breathed: that multiple molecules serving different purposes made up its tapestry.

  Chemistry, in a sense, didn’t exist in this world. Not in the same way as on Earth, at least. Alchemy had taken on that role. Perhaps Marcus would have some idea, but best to put that on the back burner.

  “Let’s just say the plants are going to help us breathe,” Hector said, which was true. Well, he hoped it was. Whatever [Verdant Luminescence] used to power itself, it wasn’t mana, and that could hopefully mean that the constructs produced by Talents, in this case the plants, had the benefit of functioning biology. In this situation, producing oxygen.

  Otherwise, Hector and his friends would suffocate.

  He took a breath. It didn’t feel any harder to breathe, though suffocation was hardly the same in every situation. Sometimes you’d just fall asleep and not wake up. Thrashing happened when you drowned.

  Hector shifted, taking another breath and feeling it freshen him slightly. “Alright. So, we’re going to dig our way out of here toward the survivors.”

  “Look at this mess. How could you possibly know where they are?” Jodie raised a brow, then shook her head a moment later.

  Of course, he knew where they were. [Crowd Compass] would tell him exactly that.

  Hector turned inward to the back of his mind, reaching for that Talent in particular. A ping sounded through his consciousness, reverberating through his skull, unseen by his friends.

  A moment later, the ping returned within his mental map. The lights representing his targets came back with clarity, clustered together as they were before.

  Hector and his friends hadn’t moved too far from the tunnel they’d been in, thankfully. It seemed the bugs didn’t want their prey getting too separated.

  With Lincoln’s digging, hopefully, they could find access to a larger tunnel and begin moving on foot again without having to crawl through these tight confines. It would be difficult to avoid the horde once they made it out, though, considering they’d rattled the hive.

  But if they were lucky—and luck was not something they’d had very much of lately—the bugs wouldn’t notice them moving from this hiding spot. They’d hopefully continue working on their pointless endeavour of trying to dig them out, wasting time while Hector and his friends secured the survivors and left.

  Though that was again assuming they were lucky.

  And if he was honest, Hector didn’t particularly feel lucky.

  —- —- —- —-

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  Hector crawled across the tunnel floor, the knees of his trousers scraping against stone. Above and around him, bioluminescent plants pulsed with soft light, courtesy of [Verdant Luminescence].

  The glow highlighted every cramped inch of their makeshift tunnel, not that there was much of it. Vines twisted through cracks in the rock, their leaves casting shifting shadows that made the already tight space feel tighter.

  Hector’s shoulders brushed stone with every shuffle forward. His breath was shallow from the weight of earth above him and the sparse air in this space. Still lacking a bit of oxygen. Probably more comparable to the air on a mountain path than what they should be breathing.

  “Are we almost there?” Hector asked more for reassurance than actually caring about the distance they’d travelled.

  Lincoln continued ahead, hands sheathed in brown light, ploughing through stone as if it were hard butter beneath hot scoops. They’d been crawling for a while now, the temperature growing warmer. Sweat traced down Hector’s spine, soaking into his shirt.

  Thankfully, the screeching and clacking of insects that had been digging for them had become distant. Muffled through layers of collapsed tunnel.

  Who knew how far those damned bugs had made it by now?

  All that mattered was their distance. Far enough behind that Hector was pretty sure they wouldn’t catch up for a long while. That was good.

  Though there was also the fact that if they were as smart as he thought—and he suspected they were—there was also a non-zero chance they’d circle around and have ambushes ready anywhere they popped up. Signalling to each other almost as soon as Hector and his friends made an appearance.

  How reassuring.

  He stopped, and Jodie bumped into him.

  “Oi, what are you doing? Get your butt out of my face!”

  “Sorry,” he said. “Just thinking.”

  “About?”

  Ahead, Lincoln paused, glancing over his shoulder. Dirt smudged across his cheek, his eyes still fairly bright despite the exhaustion pulling at his features. “Are you alright back there? I think we’re close, by the way.”

  A relief. They were going to push through.

  In Hector’s other hand, he held Lincoln’s spear, grip tight against the wooden shaft. He’d give it back to the boy as soon as they made it through the hole. Though he wasn’t too sure how Lincoln would be as a vanguard. If he climbed out and there was a horde of bugs waiting on the other side, he would more than likely freeze.

  If that happened, screwed wouldn’t even describe the situation they’d find themselves in.

  They’d be crushed. Churned. And any other word that meant flattened to paste as large ants and other furry horrors writhed over their dying bodies.

  Hector’s jaw tightened. He pushed the image away.

  “I’m fine,” he said. “Keep going.”

  Lincoln turned back, brown light intensifying around his knuckles. The glow painted the cramped tunnel in earthy hues. He drove his fist forward, rock crumbling beneath the impact. Again. Again. The sound reverberated through the tight space, dull thuds that Hector felt in his chest.

  Then Lincoln’s hand punched through empty air.

  Light spilt through the gap. Not daylight—still the dim blue-purple glow of bioluminescent bulbs—but broader. Less confined. The stone around the opening fractured, spider-webbing outward. Lincoln pulled his arm back and struck again.

  The layer gave.

  Rock cascaded outward in a tumbling rush, chunks and fragments clattering against unseen ground beyond. Dust billowed back through the hole, catching in Hector’s throat. He coughed, squinting as the space ahead suddenly opened wide.

  The three of them shuffled forward, squirming through the gap Lincoln had carved. Hector’s shoulders scraped against jagged edges, his hands finding purchase on smoother stone beyond. Pulling himself through, he came to his feet in one fluid motion.

  Air.

  He breathed in. Still stale, still underground, but definitely better than the air produced by [Verdant Luminescence] in the tight confines they’d been crawling through. His lungs expanded fully for the first time in what felt like hours. The surrounding space stretched higher, wider. A proper tunnel rather than a potential coffin.

  Over his shoulder, he noted the plants. Several creeping vines continued to grow outward from the hole where Hector had touched the stone earlier. The soft luminescence spread like spilt paint, coating rock and filling crevices. His Talent didn’t stop just because he’d moved on.

  Good thing he’d kept this Talent; it was his first hybrid after all. Though the thought of replanting it had never been far off. A thought he’d been wise to kill. Because right now he had it and, thankfully, had switched out [Phantom Masquerade] for it.

  After all, a decoy wouldn’t have done them any good if the swarm had found them.

  Focusing up, Hector pulled on [Crowd Compass], reaching for that familiar tug at the back of his mind. The Talent responded immediately—a ping echoing through the space, rippling outward through stone and air. It returned a moment later. Clear.

  “Alright,” Hector said, raising a hand and jabbing forward. “They’re that way.”

  Jodie adjusted her sword at her hip, combing a strand of ginger hair behind her ear before slipping on her mask. The smooth wood surface caught the plant’s glow, reflecting light across its carved features. “Alright. I guess it’s time we go greet our guests. Or hostages?” She tilted her head. “What are they in this sense?”

  Hector rolled his eyes as he slipped on his own mask. It didn’t matter what they called the survivors. It’s not like that would change what they had to do, which was get them out of here.

  Fast.

  Lincoln shook his head, bits of dirt falling from his hair. He dusted off his hands—the brown glow still coating them—then reached down and plucked his spear off the ground. He tested its weight, shifting his grip, before nodding at Hector. “Ready when you are.”

  His gaze, though, was hesitant as he glanced back at the hole they’d carved.

  He was probably thinking of collapsing it. At least before it collapsed on its own in about six hours, when the Talents’ effect ran out.

  “Worried the bugs will come after us?” Hector asked.

  Lincoln nodded.

  Hector considered causing another explosion with [Blazing Arsenal]. A fireball would seal the tunnel nicely. But that would draw far too much attention. If he were honest, it was probably better to leave it open.

  That way, even if the bugs stumbled across it, they’d arrive much later. Not immediately drawn by a large explosion signalling exactly where their prey had gone.

  “Leave it,” Hector said. “Let’s move.”

  —- —- —- —-

  They moved through the tunnels like shadows.

  Staying low. Ducking beneath overhangs where the ceiling dipped. Pressing against walls when chittering echoed too close. The bioluminescent bulbs grew sparse in places, their light fading into patches of near-darkness that Hector’s eyes struggled to adjust to. He relied on [Crowd Compass] more than sight, following the general direction it pulled him in.

  As the group moved, bugs scattered through the tunnels. Not in organised patrols, more like frantic search patterns. Hector caught glimpses of them as he peered around corners.

  The massive ant-like creatures clacked their serrated mandibles, their carapaces gleaming dully in the faint light. They clicked and scraped against stone, communicating in sharp bursts of sound.

  When the patrols began increasing, Jodie led the way, mask removed, her nose transformed. Where a human nose should have been, a wolf’s snout protruded, nostrils flaring as she tested the air. [Beast Integration]. An unsettling Talent, but so far undeniably useful.

  Every few steps, she’d pause, inhale deeply, then gesture in which direction to avoid. Hector would provide general direction if they were ever close to drifting off course.

  “Pheromones,” she’d whispered earlier, when Lincoln had asked how she was tracking the bugs’ movements through the tunnels. “They’re releasing signals. Marking paths.”