Trying to overlay the channels in his arms to manipulate air mana had been fruitless. Adam had an inspiration as he calmed his breathing before turning his focus in to his core that allowed him to understand how to move the air mana better. Breathing was essentially moving air, so if he copied the same basic principles he could imagine a bellows or lungs that would direct the air outwards. Moving from his core was easy but then trying to make channels to move it along his arms had repeatedly failed. Channels for fire and water mana ran down his left arm and channels for metal down his right. With his basic understanding he lost awareness of the air mana as it competed with either of these making it too hard to progress further.

That meant he needed to experiment elsewhere. Breakthrough number two came by redirecting the mana downwards to his legs. Using one leg had caused an imbalance that had caused him to fall sideways even though he was sitting in a chair. This continued several times until he attempted to split the mana as it reached his legs. This felt more natural so Adam continued with this approach until the telltale pressure in his head told him his mana was running low.

His stomach rumbling told Adam it was time to be getting food ready for the evening. His increased skill with fire mana gave him the control to use a short burst to light the fire rather than having to wait for enough mana to perform a firelance. While the fire caught and grew he headed to the storeroom to look for supplies. Having used all the boar meat for stew there were only the vegetables and fruit available along with a grain that the vermite had gathered during the night. Not wanting to overestimate his cooking skills he added the vegetables to the cauldron along with water drawn from the well to make a simple vegetable stew.

On returning from his second trip to the well he was surprised to see Ma sat by the fireside waiting for him.

"Hello Ma." Said Adam. He checked on his watch, it was a couple of hours earlier than the vermite normally emerged so he asked: "Why are you out of the burrow? I thought you only came out at night?"

"Good evening Adam." Replied Ma. "I was awake, and we needed to talk. Also it is not as..." She replied before looking thoughtful for a moment. "...scary outside knowing you are here. So I came to sit with you, is that ok?"

Adam considered her reply. There was a time between midnight and 6am when his stamina quickly drained if he stayed awake. That gave him eighteen hours awake every 24hrs. The vermite seemed to have the same problem if they stayed awake past 6am when he woke, their stamina draining quickly unless they went to sleep. Given that they tended to come out around dusk which was around 9pm this would be a wake period of only nine hours. So it made sense that they could wake earlier and Ma's explanation that not wanting ot be out in the daylight made sense for a nocturnal race. It was currently around 6pm. Having worked through the logic he realised Ma was still patiently waiting for an answer.

"Sorry, yes Ma, it's lovely to see you." She smiled at his reply. "You said we need to talk? Was there something you wanted from me?"

Ma stood and helped stir the stew. She looked a little worried as she asked "Where are Ti and Rai? Are they safe?"

Adam nodded. "They are safe. I left them at the mine, but don't worry all the spiders have been killed for today." He thought about how much more he should share and decided that it would be better to be honest. "Rai was injured in the mine, but he is healing."

She took a sigh of relief as Adam went into a bit more details of what they had found and the need to explore the mine further. Once she knew the other vermite were safe she relaxed and they continued a conversation about the development of the camp as the stew slowly cooked. By the time it was ready several more of the vermite had come out to join them. Ma introduced him to the two new vermite families that had joined the camp and having explained the new profession and class of bowyer and archer Ma pointed out two of the vermite that might be suitable for the roles, two younger vermite brothers that had joined the camp overnight.

He used Transfer on both and was glad to see that Ma was right; both took the roles. He gave his arrows to Jay, the new archer and the new arrowheads and his bow to the bowyer who was called Cade. His bow was too big for the vermite to use but he hoped that it would help Cade and he would have little use of it in the mine. Before they scampered away Adam set the quest of killing two birds for the archer in the hope that collecting the feathers would give better fletching for the arrows.

His next task was to walk the camp with Pa to discuss the next improvements. It seemed he had improved his builder skills and could now create a [field] that would allow the better planting and faster growth of plants. So far they had the central area and then several tracks that had developed in the directions the vermite had been exploring. These headed towards the river; orchard; forest and lastly towards the mine. They staked out plots for three fields headed in the direction of the Orchard and an area for grazing the piglet outside its pen in the direction of the forest. Though it was getting a little ahead of his plan to expand the fighting capabilities of the vermite he also marked an area for a training area to the East. He shared with Pa his vision of an archery range; barracks and training yard along with the need for an area to create and store the weapons and armour needed.

Pa built on Adam's energy and excitedly started drawing plans for the buildings with a stick in the earth; shouting for Lei and a couple of the other vermite to come and join him. It was this point when Adam realised it was almost the time the vermite normally exited the burrows and remembered that Ti and Rai would be waiting for him at the mine. As he was leaving Kai stopped him and handed him some clothes for Ti and Rai. There was a smaller version of the jerkin and trousers for both and then some bracers for Ti and a small padded hat for Rai. Adam took them with thanks and used Creation to spend a portion of his gathered mana to provide a small pile of building materials for Pa.

With their new equipment and having eaten a cold meal of fruit and nuts Ti and Rai were ready to continue exploring the mine. Rai's health was not perfect but had returned to 45 and he was able to move normally though his skin still looked a little raw it was now mainly protected by his clothing.

An additional level each and knowing what to expect from their opponents Adam and the vermite cleared the initial spiders without any issue. The slime had less ore within than previously and they took much more care of the acid that spilt from its wounds. Along with the increased level they found that branch of the mine quickly led to a deadend. Moving back up and along the other branch they found a small cave that contained two more spiders Adam had detected with Discern. Since they again had a warning of what was coming they were able to easily kill both spiders without any injuries.

Having completed the exploration of the first tunnel from the main room Adam's party were in good spirits as they headed deeper into the mine. They chose the other smaller tunnel. It did not take long before they came across another slime and then two spiders none of which gave much challenge. Adam dispatched the spiders easily with fire lance and they worked as a team to finish the slime. A few splashes of acid meant that each of them had lost a few HP but it showed the benefit of protective clothing when compared to the previous injuries.

They came across two forks in the tunnel and chose the left option each time, leaving a torch to mark their passage, they had now been exploring for around half hour. It wasn't until they noticed the torch Adam had left was now in front of them that they realised the tunnel they were in had circled back round on itself. Checking his map Adam realised that this meant there must be a room located down the last branch left to explore. With over an hour left before they needed to leave the mine to safely return to the safe room by the entrance Adam decided to explore this last room before returning.

As they moved down the tunnel leading to the room Adam used Discern to check for enemies ahead. There were two slimes in the room ahead. Confident they would be able to manage he used torch once more to provide more light. He moved forward to reveal a room that was about double the width of the tunnel, the light reflecting back off the two slimes ahead. Discern showed they were both level 5.

"Focus on the one on the right." Adam said to the vermite. "We should weaken one while avoiding the other." Rai moved to distract the lefthand slime while Ti moved to the right, stabbing in with her dagger before jumping back to avoid the acid and watch for it leaping after her.

"Ti." Squeaked Rai to warn her of the slime behind readying an attack. She stepped quickly to one side, improving her view of both slimes and allowing her to time the dodge between them. Stabbing with her dagger after it leapt Rai moved in with his staff to push it back while she retreated.

Engrossed in the fight Adam could not say what caused him to look behind and step to one side as a third slime appeared from the corridor behind them. He cursed as he realised the circular nature of the tunnel meant they must have not cleared all the enemies behind them allowing a slime to follow them into the deadend tunnel. Three slimes made the fight much more difficult. Unable to focus on defeating one before moving to the others it turned to a battle of attrition. This would not have been a problem except for the deadline Adam had to return to the entrance of the mine before his stamina drained.

Knowing that time was against them Adam threw himself into the fray in a way he hadn't tried before. He used his superior weight and reach compared to the vermite to stab all the slimes several times using their leap to provoke them closer to him rather than dodging away. He ignored the splashes of acid that he had shirked away from in the fights before knowing it would heal soon after anyway. Even though there was little effect he added magic to the attacks he made; small firelances and water bolts chipping away at each slime and the water barrier slowing and blunting the odd attack in his direction. With Adam taking all the attention Ti was better freed to creep around slashing at the back of all the slimes. Within minutes the fight was obviously one sided and soon the slime they had targeted initially lost its integrity and dissolved into a puddle of acid.

Adam took a deep breath and a moment to compose himself as the third slime dissolved into the floor to join its companions. He stood and waited as the acid burns on his hands and chest were slowly replaced with healthy skin. Assuming the fight had been close he checked his HP and was surprised to find it was still at 47. He leant against the wall of the tunnel as the vermite collected the ores from the defeated slimes. It was surreal to have pushed himself to what he expected to be his limit and find that he had more he could have given. Ti had fought down to 14 HP the other day without complaint and he had put himself into danger and come out with more HP left than she had in total. Not sure what to do with this knowledge he once again found himself in a situation where his expectations and limitations had been challenged.

Ti and Rai were relatively unscathed from the second exploration of the mine. The return to the entrance of the mine was uneventful and they returned to the safe room with time for Adam to check their progress. 56% explored which probably meant two more nights going into the mine. Other than the ores the main gain of the evening was the experience.

Notifications: Your party killed Cave Spider L3 x4. You gain 8 exp. Ti gains 28 exp. Rai gains 28 exp. Your party killed Cave Spider L4 x3. You gain 30 exp. Ti gains 39 exp. Rai gains 39 exp. Your party killed Slime L5 x5. You gain 85 exp. Ti gains 100 exp. Rai gains 100 exp. Ti and Rai gained a total of 167 exp each. You gain 66 exp. Ti is now Level 5. New skill [stealth] obtained. [stealth] raised to level 2. Rai is now Level 5. New skill [thrust] obtained. [thrust] raised to level 3.

He looked at Ti and Rai who both smiled. Adam smiled back and used Creation to provide a small pile of fruit and nuts for the vermite before drifting off to sleep.