“Kindred of the mine revel!

Raise your drill and raise your level!

Below and down into the deep

Whatever will we find beneath?

Creatures, monsters, gold and shine

Buried in the dungeon mine!

We are gnomes and we’re drilling in the walls

Drilly drilly walls, drilly drilly walls

We are gnomes and we’re drilling in the walls

Drilly drilly walls, drilly drilly walls”

Traditional Folk Song, from: “Can you Dig it? An introduction to Gnome Culture.” AC 1245.

I wake up to a slew of notifications and a splitting headache. I brush them aside for a moment and try to take stock of the current situation. Everyone seems to be relatively intact, though covered in dirt and debris. A dim light is emitting from Mina. I remember talking about our relative capabilities to each other weeks ago and her saying that her class gave her a slew of random minor effects. She said she couldn’t level them up or improve them, but in this situation, I was just happy to be able to see everyone. I take stock of my own body.

Claws okay? *snip snip*

Check.

Legs good? *wiggle wiggle*

Appear to be fine.

My movements draw the other’s attention and before I can say a word, I’m almost tackled into the dirt wall by Luna giving me a hug. She begins whisper shouting at me.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

I wave a weary claw in the universal “quiet down” motion and whisper.

“I just ran out of mana. What’s the current situation?”

Wilhelm chimes in,

“Whatever you did caused the collapse of the tunnel leading to the surface. It has been a couple of hours, and we’ve spent that time digging towards the entry point of the forest. We’ve made it about halfway so far.”

I begin to nod before curtailing the motion. The simple effect of moving causes my headache to surge with a vengeance. I take a look at the hole we’ve found ourselves in. As I look around, I see the fruits of their labor thus far. They’ve been moving earth by hand to progress forward, packing the dirt behind them and shifting it from the route ahead. Something gnaws at me though, and it takes a minute for my tired mind to realize what it is.

“Shouldn’t the water have run out by now?”

Wilhelm and Mina are still floating along. I would assume the water would drain away, and I think we’re too far below the surface for the weight of the ocean water to make it so far. Especially with the sealed passage behind us. Luna speaks up,

“We were worried about that as well, but Wilhelm has a skill to [Create Water]. We’ve been using that as we run low.”

I turn an inquiring eye at Wilhelm, and he responds with a simple response,

“[By-the-Sweat-of-my-Brow].”

Okkkaaayyy… not going to ask how that skill works. Salt water is salt water Crabby. Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to. Before I shy away too far though, I have one question.

“Does that skill use mana? Are you going to be able to maintain it long enough for us to get out of here?”

The catfish’s eyes squint in thought. I can almost see the gears moving in his head as he grunts,

“Yeah, uses mana and stamina. Hmm… should be okay.”

He squints harder.

“Maybe.”

He squints so hard I can barely see his eyes.

“Not sure.”

I wave a claw to get him to relax. I’ve already passed out; I don’t want Wilhelm to follow me into slumber. Bill and Billy approach me with a section of stone in their claws. It’s small and on closer inspection, I can see a mess of lines and figures drawn on it. It appears to be a diagram of some sort. They begin rambling.

“If you look here, we’ve made an intersectional set of plans for an extensive cave system. As long as we build supports here, here and here…” he points out various sections, “we can burrow diagonally as well as horizontally. Once you have fully recovered, you can use your [Earth Manipulation] skill to compact the walls. We have provisions in our spatial storage for several months. Once the basic structure is built, a series of rudimentary traps can be emplaced, here, here and here. We recommend rockfall traps for their ease of use and the surrounding materials.”

I stare at the plan he is holding in front of me. I can’t make heads or tails of it, but I’m starting to suspect Bill and Billy start making schematics and building things when they’re stressed. I slowly push the rock away and think about how to let them down gently. It takes a moment, but I figure it out.

“Hey guys. Excellent work with this, I really appreciate you coming up with it. We’re going to hold off on this for right now. We’ll use it as plan B though.”

I look around at the others.

“Plan A is continuing what you’ve been doing so far. We’ll get out of reach of the forest and then call in for assistance. I have a sneaking suspicion that the kelp is doing something to block our transmissions.”

Everyone acknowledges, and I begin to clamor to my feet to help with the digging. At my jerky motions, Luna waves me back down.

“Take a break Crabby. Let your mana recover. We’re still good for a while, right guys?”

I look and see everyone nod towards me.

“Yeah, take a break boss.”

“We got this.”

“Good work with the tunnel cap.”

A gentle pulse of appreciation reverberates in my shell and I sit back down. I manage a quiet, “Thanks,” as everyone else gets to work. I make a promise that no matter how I’m feeling, in an hour I’ll get up and help. The squad deserves no less. The quiet sounds of earth shifting in the dim light lulls me to sleep once more.

Meanwhile, in the training operation center.

Sergeant Lee launches into the briefing for the Commander in charge of training. The older octopus stares at him with a dispassionate gaze as he is apprised of the situation.

“Sir, at approximately 1200 hours local time, training squad 492 was translocated to begin their final assessment. As best we can currently determine, there was most likely an error in the teleportation out there.”

The commander raises a tentacle to interrupt. “Have a technician inspect the tertiary circuits which determine teleportation emplacement. They may provide insight as to where they ended up.”

Sergeant Lee continues, “Already ordered sir. They’ll take time to go over it though. Current projection time for completion is within the next two hours. Moving on, we received a transmission from the training team that was broken and barely readable. Through that communication, it was determined that the squad entered the demon kelp forest approximately two hours ago. QRF and medical evacuations are standing by. I took the initiative as well to dispatch experienced fast scouts to the last known location of the kelp forest. They are expanding outward to search for it but as of ten minutes ago, we have yet to receive any word.”

The commander says, “Good work so far Sergeant Lee. We’ll continue searching, but the likelihood of a squad of new recruits surviving an encounter like that are incredibly low. Notify me when the scouts determine the forest’s position while I go write bereavement letters to the families. Damn shame this is.”

As the commander turns to float away Sergeant Lee cuts in, a thin thread of desperation lacing his voice. “Sir, if I may, the team isn’t your average city born. The squad is all first generation, straight from the dungeon.”

“Even so, the chance…”

“If I may sir, I’ve asked around… there’s some talk that there’s something… special about these recruits.”

The octopus halts his floating and wordlessly summons a crystal screen from his inventory. Two of his tentacles begin tapping on the screen with a muttered,

“If you’re wasting my time Sergeant, I’m going to…”

The furious taps halt.

“Huh.”

The commander turns a wary eye at the lobster. “WHO exactly were you talking to about the recruits?”

Sergeant Lee looks around at the corners of the room, the walls, the ceiling, the floor, in a very pointed and obvious manner.

“I couldn’t rightly say sir. You know us enlisted types, just hanging around bars, talking about our days. I might have overheard it over a pint or two, I’m sure.”

An annoyed tone enters the octopus voice as he says, “Really? It’s going to be like that?”

“I’m not sure what you mean sir.”

“Fine. In that case, continue your efforts. I’m going to talk to the battalion commander. There’s a chance they’re still alive. He’ll have the pull needed to get some scryers to track down the forest.”

A quick salute from Sergeant Lee and as the commander turns to float away the lobster could hear him muttering under his breath,

“Blasted men in blue. What’s the point of redacting something to the point you can’t read it?”

Once the octopus is gone, Sergeant Lee heaves a sigh of relief. He managed to get the support he needed, now they just need to find the squad. He *clacks* his pincers in the water.

“Come on privates, just hang on.”