It took Tormacc another few days to heal his arm, during which he was lucky enough to only face one more mole. It was more cautious than its comrades, but since he had two corpses he wedged himself between them, so that when the third mole eventually gave in to its curiosity and came closer he was able to ambush it just like the second one.

Now that his arm was better it was time to leave the cavern, but before that he took a final look around the pond to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. He went over the pond and the surrounding stalagmites again, but not finding anything, decided it was time to set off. He had been hoping for some sort of treasure, as this was supposed to be a starting area, but so far the cave had been mostly bare.

His water flask was full and he had as much meat as he could stuff into his pack, which should last him at least a few days if he wasn’t able to find any other food or water sources. But unless those were the only moles around he should have a steady supply of food, and if there were more of them then the pool was definitely not the only place for them to drink, meaning there should be water ahead too.

The tunnel leading away from the cavern was much the same as the one that lead to it. The only difference was he occasionally passed large holes gouged out of the walls. At first, he wasn’t sure what they were, but upon closer inspection, he could see more of the red crystal around the edges, meaning these were likely deposits that the moles had previously cleared out. As he progressed through the tunnel the gouges in the wall only became larger and more numerous, and he began to think that there might be a whole colony of giant moles, and the reason he hadn’t run into more was this part of the tunnel system was lacking in their food source.

His fears were realized when he reached the end of the tunnel. The tunnel ended at a crossroads. It wasn’t quite a full room and was more the meeting three tunnels, the one he was in and two others. And also the lair of the giant moles. He had been cautious approaching the end of the tunnel, and it was that caution that prevented him from waking up the two inhabitants of the chamber.

There were various leaves and mosses strewn about the lair forming piles of bedding. Counting it out, there were four unoccupied spots, equaling the four giant moles he had killed. Two other piles of bedding were occupied, but thankfully those occupants were asleep. As soon as he got a good look at the two moles he froze, slowly down his breathing to the bare minimum. As he watched, one of the moles shifted a bit, wriggling its nose in its sleep. Tormacc had his foresight to thank that he hadn’t washed the blood off. He was sure he wouldn’t have passed an actual sniff test, but for his current situation it was enough.

The lair was small, but it was still big enough that the two sleeping moles had some distance between them. He would have an easier time ambushing them were their nests next to each other, but they were separated by a few other piles of bedding. After a quick glance around to see if he had missed anything, Tormacc crept up to the closer mole. He would have liked more time to plan his approach, but the longer he waited the greater the chance he would ruin his ambush. If he could kill both moles without them waking up, great, but if not, facing one angry mole was much better than two.

Reaching the first mole, Tormacc readied his blade. A moment of stillness followed by a precise strike and the deed was done. He was as silent as possible, but whether it was from the quiet death throes of the mole he just killed or some sixth sense the other mole stirred from its slumber, and by the time Tormacc turned around he was faced by a mass of muscle and claws with eyes glowing red.

The mole charged, screeching an inhuman wail, but he was ready for it, already diving out of the way as soon as it started to move. He had a brief moment of respite as the mole nuzzled its snout into its dead companion before turning on him, even more enraged than before, froth dripping from its mouth as it wailed for its slain family.

Tormacc was immune to its cries of woe. Right now, he was the predator and the mole was the prey, waiting to be turned into Essence for his Fate Wheel. But the mole wasn’t going down without a fight, and it launched itself forward, a whirlwind of flying claws. Each strike was deadly, and while Tormacc was able to dance and dodge away from each strike, the bedding was not. With each strike leaves and moss flew everywhere, creating a tornado of debris that followed the mole as it chased the intruder who had dared disturb its nest.

It only took a few swipes of the mole’s claws before his vision started to be impacted. He had severely underestimated the terrain. He already had to be careful of his footing so he didn’t slip on some moss, but with his enemy rampaging like this is wouldn’t be long before the lair was a complete mess and he lost most of his vision, and at that point it wasn’t a question of if he would slip up with his defenses, only when.

Tormacc waited out a few more strikes, biding his time. Striking too soon was just as bad as not striking at all. Finally, he saw his chance. The mole overextended itself, just slightly overbalancing, putting too much weight on its front claws. He was ready for it. He lashed out with left first, aiming a blow at the top of its head. The mole reacted quickly, raising its head and baring its fangs, ready for his blow. But it was a feint, and as soon as the mole raised it head, he launched the real strike, plunging his dagger through the base of its skull and into its brain.

As soon as he felt the dagger fully penetrate, he jumped away, leaving the mole to fail helplessly as it lay dying. As he watched, its red eyes faded to black, and eventually those finally dimmed and closed, signifying its demise. He wasn’t out of the woods yet though. It was possible this wasn’t the only mole nest, and if anything else was around they would have heard the sounds of battle and the screams of the mole. Retrieving his dagger, Tormacc settled in to see if reinforcements would arrive. After fighting a few of the giant moles he realized he had been lucky with the first one. They were a dangerous enemy, but beatable in an open space. He didn’t fancy his chances nearly as much in an enclosed tunnel. Their ability to charge in a straight line was more than he could cope with.

He waited for a long time, but no giant moles emerged from either tunnel. Either there were no more, as the six piles of bedding suggested, or they were far enough away that they couldn’t hear the battle, similar to the situation with his previous battles. Or it was possible the moles were poor of hearing. He knew very little about their capabilities. He called them moles, but that was mostly because of their large claws and short legs. Their snout was shorter than he thought it should be for a proper mole, and they didn’t have those weird nose tentacles that some moles had.

Finally satisfied there was nothing approaching, at least for the moment, Tormacc was then faced with the decision of which tunnel to enter. To his eyes they were indistinguishable, so he just chose the left tunnel. As it turned out that was the wrong choice. The tunnel was empty, just a long stretch filled with former red crystal deposits. On the bright side when he came back to take the other tunnel he knew for a fact there wouldn’t be any enemies at his back.

The right tunnel started mostly the same as the left one, with gouges in the wall every few meters. But unless he had appeared in an enclosed cave system this tunnel had to lead somewhere, whether that was the surface, more moles, or potentially some other type of creature. He took the tunnel rather slowly, wary of any dangers, but the tunnel itself was as empty as the previous one. But where it led couldn’t have been any different.

As the tunnel continued, it slowly started to slope upwards, first gently, then more steeply. As the incline grew, the tunnel started to be littered with soil, leaves, and other detritus. Tormacc thought it would lead him to the surface, but instead the tunnel opened up into a large cave, open to the sky. It was currently night, and despite the large jagged opening above his head, he could only see a small stretch of sky, the rest covered by leaves. From what he could make out in the low light the edges of the hole were ringed with trees, their roots stretching down the crevice towards the floor below. There was little moss in the cave, and with the scant starlight he could only make out the rough outline of multiple tunnels branching out in different directions. He suspected that one of them lead to the surface while others lead to more mole nests. The area before him showed clear evidence of giant moles passing through, and it didn’t look like all the tracks lead to his current tunnel.

Retreating back down the tunnel, Tormacc found a large gouge in the wall to spend the rest of the night. There was no reason to explore in the semi-darkness when he could wait for the light of day. Curling up with his pack for a pillow, he slipped into a light doze, waiting for light to filter down into the tunnel.

He woke up as the light caressed his eyelids, rousing him to consciousness. Before heading out he ate some of his mole meat, knowing that this was one of the last times he could safely do so without cooking it. But if he could make his way to the surface creating a fire shouldn’t be a problem, and in the forest above him there should be plenty of other things to eat too. As long as he avoided sustaining any injuries he should have no problem finding sustenance.

Making his way back to the large cave Tormacc cautiously poked his head out to get a good look around. The cave was huge, even bigger than his initial estimations. And it was much farther from the surface than he had assumed, the walls swooping up to meet the large crack in the ceiling high above. Squinting to try and make out the details, he thought the trees above looked tropical. There were vines coiling around the trees and hanging into the crevice, which were what he had mistaken for roots before in the low light. Combined with the colorful scenery and distant bird cries he thought it was some sort of rainforest above him. That was both good and bad. Rainforests were rife with animals of all sorts, which would make farming Essence easy, but with any environment hosting that much life there were bound to be predators. And unless the giant moles were at the top of the food chain, which he doubted, he had to keep his wits about him. Even with his ritual enhanced strength he was in no way fit to wrestle a giant jungle cat.

Turning back to the cave itself, he moved around to investigate the tunnels. He had been right about the tracks. The floor was covered in them, with varying sets each leading from the tunnel he assumed went to the surface to eight others. If he included the tunnel he came from, that meant there were a total of nine mole nests. He planned to come back eventually to take out the rest, but for the moment he was ill-equipped to fight in a narrow tunnel. He would need a weapon with greater reach for that, so he decided to explore the rainforest above first.

After making sure there was nothing of interest in the cave Tormacc made his way to the tunnel leading to the surface. The tunnel had the most tracks in it as well as a greater amount of dirt and leaves, making it easy to see it led up and out. But as his eyes adjusted to the gloom he froze. The combination of the birdcalls above and the dirt muting their footfalls must have caused him to be caught off guard, as standing just a few meters into the tunnel were two giant moles, sniffing about inquisitively.