Spending My Retirement In A Game-Chapter 932: Fortress in the Mist

Entering the boss room, a large open cave was revealed to the group. Along the walls, ceiling, and floor, there massive tunnels stretching out. Brody looked over at Eisen, who nodded with a smile.

"Sal, if you will," the old man said, looking over at the spider-boy. He nodded and stepped to the front of the group. The boss monster wasn't here yet, so they could take this moment to prepare properly. Sal held forward his hand, as a magic circle was being formed in the air in front of him at a rapid speed. From his palm, Sal then pushed out dozens and dozens of threads that entered the center of the magic circle, being shot out into seemingly random directions from there. After a few moments, he was holding onto a fist-sized ring of intertwined threads that were each connecting to different sections of the cave's walls.

He then carefully gave the ring to Bree, who held into it with both sides, almost as if she were holding a small steering wheel, and just a moment later, pulses of magic flowed through the threads. Using them as a conduit, Bree activated her sensor skill to vastly expand the range. This specific trick was only usable within a cave such as this though, and only really acted as a time saver. It basically changed the position from which the sensor skill was used from to the place that the thread connected to. When creating as many sources as there were in here, it did take Bree a lot of mana, but Eisen had given her an item to supplement her mana for this ability a long time ago, so that was not anything to worry about. Not that Bree, as a half-fey, really needed it. Both her and Sky had almost bottomless mana. Even Xenia only barely managed to catch up to them recently.

Bree quickly placed her hand onto the map-projector that Eisen was holding toward her, and a three-dimensional representation of the cave started being displayed. Brody quickly took a look, trying to practically burn the terrain into his memory. However, there was an issue here. This area was so absolutely massive that it was impossible for Bree to scan this entire floor in one go. However, there was something that she could already conclude just from seeing the edges of the revealed map.

"It looks like there will be a number of individual caves that are connected by these tunnels. There are smaller pockets right here and here already," Bree explained, pointing out specific parts of the map to Brody and Eisen, "And then here, you can see the beginning of a sharp falloff that would make me assume there's an extremely large cave, similar in size to this one if not larger."

Eisen raised a brow. He looked at it intensely, and he wasn't the only one that noticed. Melissa stepped forward and stared at the map, "Nest."

"Hm?" Bree asked, looking at Melissa and then back at the map. Quickly, she realized what the young monster girl was saying, "Oh! Yes, okay, that would make sense. Its structure is similar to an ants' nest. Or well, ground-bee hive, so I guess that's how you figured it out?"

Melissa quickly nodded with a slight smile that she was hiding behind her loose sleeve. But Brody just let out a sigh, "So what, we're dealing with ants, not a worm?"

Bree looked closer at some of the parts of the currently revealed map, "No... there's two different types of tunnels. One that's presumably made by the worm, another that was made by the ants. It also looks like this place is still in use... all the marks are fairly fresh."

"So a ton of giant ants, and a massive worm. Alright, that's doable," Brody nodded, glancing around the area, trying to compare what he was seeing to the map that Bree made. Not because he was double checking the map, but because he wanted to get a better idea of the scale of things. Despite how impulsive he may seem at times, Brody's combat was actually very tactical and methodical. It was just that a lot of these tactics and methods came to Brody like instincts when the actual fighting began, partially because his prepwork was immaculate.

Due to his powerful internal energy combined with his already natural physical abilities as a demon-orc halfling, his body was basically superior to others in almost every way. It meant that he was immune to most poisons, or that his skin was more effective than even specifically treated and picked leather hide, which is why he barely wore full armour either. And on top of that, Brody's senses were by far the most fine tuned out of the five originals.

"Okay. I got it. Let's set up a defensive perimeter here for the ants. We need to make sure that we can't be surrounded," Brody explained, looking at Eisen who quickly nodded, already on it. He was picking out some items from his storage that would work well for this, "As for the worm, I'm going to head out and scout first. Let's use the bees to do a large-scale search and manually expand the map without the sensor ability. Once or if I encounter anything, I will let you all know."

Brody was slightly stretching in preparation, pushing his foot into the ground. The solid rock gave way as if it were snow, leaving behind a deep footprint. He glanced at Eisen, who returned a nod to him. And with that, Brody went off. He shot off like some kind of race car, kicking up dust as he did. With the first jump, he basically leapt across the entire cave, and made his way into the first tunnel. Meanwhile, as Brody had suggested, Melissa called on her bees.

A couple of swarms immediately spread out. Some of them flew into the tunnels, while others burrowed into the ground to make their own small paths. Plus, since sound travelled faster through the ground than through air, these ground bees would be able to act as perfect warning system before the first wave of monsters appeared. Though, it did seem a bit eery the longer it took for the first of them to arrive. Usually, in boss rooms you were immediately swarmed and attacked, but that didn't quite seem to be the case here for some reason. However, it didn't take long for the first vibrations to be noticed by both Melissa and Sal, whose threads were still sticking to the cave walls and would help warn them of potential monsters.

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Meanwhile, Eisen deployed a certain amount of artillery that could be used to fire powerful projectiles or explosives, on top of basic defenses and traps that would hinder the ants as they came toward them. The rest of the 'transcendent killer' group, the elite soldiers that Brody had personally picked out, got to their positions and made sure they were ready to react to anything that could happen, as did the monster kids. Eisen stayed somewhat in the back so that he could take command. Plus, because he was a giant and could manipulate his own size, he was able to react and get to whatever place needed him the fastest out of everyone here.

"Eisen..." Sky walked up to the old man, eagerly, "I know this might not be the best time, but do you think I could try out one of the stories I wrote?"

The old man raised his brow, looking down at the young half-fey in front of him, "If you think it will help, then go ahead. Just don't do something you're uncertain of. I don't want to take any risks right now, okay?"

Sky immediately and furiously nodded his head, quickly turning around. He flipped open his storybook, starting to read. Ink started dripping from the page, right onto the ground. The black liquid quickly spread out across the entire floor of the cave, reaching up to the fortifications that Eisen had put down. The soldiers were taken aback, but Eisen quickly calmed them down.

The ink soon seeped into the ground, flowing into grooves in the floor that definitely weren't there before. It was creating cobbled stone all over the place. Where the basic fortifications stood, the ink climbed up onto the basic walls that Eisen created with an item and turned them into solid, thick castle walls. Some of the ink gathered together, turning into skeletal soldiers that were running around the area, resupplying the stationary weapons and standing on lookout, or readying their bows on top of the walls. And at last, a thin mist rose up from the bricks, reaching up to roughly the middle of everyone's shins.

Sky grinned broadly, turning around toward Eisen with a smug expression, "You like it? I call it, 'The Fortress in the Mist'."