Regina kept still for a short while, trying to get a handle on what had happened and see if anything else was going to. If it had been an earthquake, no aftershocks seemed to be coming.

“Is this region known for tectonic activity?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” Janis frowned and looked around.

“I mean, are there occasionally earthquakes here?”

“No, I’ve never heard of one before.” The young mage glanced questioningly at the Delvers. They had gathered in a group a short distance away from the hive, but they were still clearly paying attention.

“No, there shouldn’t be any earthquakes here,” Gwen confirmed now. She looked at Regina. “Where did you hear the word ‘tectonic’?”

That was a question she would rather not answer. Instead, she stepped forward cautiously, drawing in a deep breath. The forest had fallen silent, and the birds were only sporadically starting to sing again. She couldn’t smell anything out of the ordinary, apart from the commotion among the wildlife, but that didn’t mean much.

“We need to go investigate where that came from,” Owin said. His expression seemed a bit suspicious as he looked at Regina and her hive members.

“You won’t be doing that alone.” Regina glanced at the others, then quickly dove into the psychic link.

She only took a moment to give the other drones, especially those waiting back at the base, a quick update on what had happened. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like Ace or the others in the forest base had any more information, although they’d also noticed what was happening.

She started walking, the others following suit. They had barely taken a few steps into the forest before a few of the Delvers pulled ahead of them.

“It might have come from underground,” Owin said. “Either way, we cannot just let you traipse around here, especially since you could be related to what happened in some way.”

Regina snorted. “I don’t particularly like the thought of you following us, either,” she retorted. “But it looks like we’ll both have to put up with each others’ presence.”

His party members and her own followers exchanged some less than pleasant looks and a few hands drifted to their weapons, though fortunately, no one drew steel yet.

“You’re both wrong,” someone else said suddenly. “And you should get going in a hurry.”

Regina blinked. A familiar figure of a pointy-eared woman with shimmery skin and silver eyes stood in front of them all of a sudden, bringing with her a sensation of charged power.

“Leian?” she asked. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t recall giving you permission to call me that,” the minor goddess replied sternly, though the expression soon melted into a grin. “I don’t mind, though.”

Owin cleared his throat. Like most of the Delvers, he had taken a step back and dropped into a defensive stance. “Why is a messenger of the gods here?” he asked with unconcealed suspicion. “Are you responsible for this disturbance?”

Regina raised an eyebrow. It seemed like the Delvers really didn’t think too highly of the gods.

Leian gave him a dismissive glance, before she refocused on Regina. “To oversimplify it, Deirianon is not happy with what you’re doing.”

“The peace god?” Regina blinked. “Does he not like me building my hive, or is this about us coming to terms with the Delvers?”

“While you’ve been sitting around making eggs, things have been happening, girl.” Leian sighed and glanced back in the direction of what Regina suspected might have been an explosion. “You’re a threat to the status quo he wants to protect. Gods can’t just go around killing mortals that they don’t like and others are interested in, but they’re always bending the rules. In this case, I think he just nudged a few events to make things a lot harder for you. And, presumably, stop you or at least slow you down. Anyway, I’m supposed to tell you this and also to make haste, you may still be able to do some proper damage control.”

“What exactly happened?” she asked.

“There’s no time for long explanations, you’ll find out soon enough.” Leian shook her head. “I won’t keep you any longer. Go on.” Then she shimmered slightly and disappeared.

There was a moment of silence as everyone seemed to digest what they’d just heard.

“Well, you heard her, let’s go.” Regina glanced at her companions, then started running in the direction Leian had looked. It sounded like they didn’t have any time to stop and talk.

The Delvers exchanged a few hurried words, before they started moving as well, running to close the gap between Regina and her companions. The drones had spread out into an impromptu formation, with Ada and a few others a bit ahead of Regina and others covering their back, while Max and Tim flanked her. Janis was also in the center, just behind her, along with the other magic users.

None of the elves had appeared, and Regina assumed they were busy reacting to whatever happened. She would have preferred to wait until they made contact, but that didn’t seem to be in the cards today.

While they ran through the forest, Regina took the time to check on the rest of her hive, diving into drones’ minds in short bursts. She quickly realized that this event seemed to be relatively concentrated, since even people in Forest’s Haunt hadn’t felt it. But then she came to their main base in the new land, or rather, the underground part. She couldn’t feel the Swarm Drone she’d stationed down there. She must have been too distracted when she felt its death. They were getting less prominent as her hive grew, anyway. Now, a few drones had gathered at the entrance to the tunnels, from which she could hear a rather ominous-sounding rumbling.

Try to investigate what’s going on there, but be really careful, Regina told Bea, the most experienced drone present and the one temporarily in charge. Then she withdrew her attention again to focus on her surroundings. Running through a forest was difficult enough without distractions.

She tried to keep an eye out for any danger and knew her people were doing the same, but it was almost eerily calm and quiet. It seemed like the monsters were hunkering down or fleeing. She supposed a group as strong as theirs crashing through the forest in a hurry would cause that reaction, too, at least here in the outer parts.

Soon, they reached the entrance to the tunnels they’d used before. While they hadn’t coordinated it, everyone clearly agreed this was their goal. Regina slowed down as she stepped into the open clearing around it, breathing hard. For once, she wished she had a few more stat points in the physical stats. She held up a hand to signal for quiet and listened intently.

In the sudden silence caused by the birds going quiet, which was only broken by the occasional rustle of the wind and the leaves, she could just barely hear a low sound, at the edge of her hearing range.

“It sounds like some kind of rumble,” Ada muttered in a low voice.

Regina nodded. She wasn’t sure what was going on down there, but something clearly was. At least the mana in the place didn’t seem to have changed much … not that she could probably sense it from up here.

"Well, there’s no point hanging around out here,” she said, setting her shoulders. “Let’s get down.”

She left a few drones up here, the weaker sapient ones as well as some of the Swarm Drones. They could guard their backs and secure their exit - she didn’t like the idea of something potentially attacking them from behind, if she was wrong about the source of the disturbance. The narrow tunnels weren’t good for large groups, anyway. The Delvers didn’t seem to think that was necessary, or maybe they actually trusted her hive to hold the path open, but all of them prepared to descend underground together.

At first, everything was quiet and seemed basically the same as before. But that quickly changed once they got further down. Regina took a deep breath, trying to suppress a shiver. Her mana senses had gotten more acute as she’d leveled up and gained both more experience and a larger mana pool. If they hadn’t, she might not have sensed any change. But it felt a little like the mana was agitated, but in a weird way. She wondered if it was some aftereffect of whatever had caused the mana to be more ‘twisted’, presumably the mana surges after the gods’ portals had broken.

They encountered the first group of Tunnelers quickly. She barely had the time to read their System status before the three beasts threw themselves at the group, looking almost frenzied.

Regina readied a Spell, but before she could act, the others decimated the monsters. Janis and Via quickly fired a Magic Missile, hitting the same Tunneler and killing it. Max rushed the second one and bashed it against the wall of the tunnel. The last one was pierced by an arrow coming from one of the Delvers before it could take more than a few steps towards them.

I guess I’m not needed, Regina thought with a bit of amusement. She glanced around. “Alright, the tunnels are going to get narrower from here on out. Max and Tim will be at the front, Ben and Dan guarding our backs, with the casters and Shooters in the middle. Via and Ira, concentrate on support and healing.”

Sure enough, their path took them into smaller side tunnels soon. Regina dipped into her drones’ senses to get a better view of everything. They quickly emerged into one of the main tunnels, which she was pretty sure were the remains of old subway lines. That was also when they met their most difficult opponent so far.

Tunnel Terror — Level ?

Regina hadn’t forgotten about the one near the door further in, although she hadn’t known what one would actually look like. Instead of a hulking troll, it was thinner and looked more like an elongated monkey, though there were strange bends in its shape that made it fit into the tunnel. Its skin was pebbly gray, and it only had tiny eyes, but rather large ears and a prominent jaw.

She still couldn’t see its level, which meant it was almost definitely in the third Tier. Luckily, they had a few people with them in the same level range.

Owin drew his sword and stepped forward, shouting something incomprehensible in a low voice. The beast’s head snapped around to focus on him, and she saw his armor shimmer slightly. At the same time, his party members spread out and readied their weapons, with the archer nocking an arrow.

The first shot came from her own group, though. Len fired a small metal bolt she’d made for them, tipped with titanium, into the monster’s eye. It roared and reeled back, before it shook itself and stepped forward again.

Before it reached Owin, the ranged fighters opened fire on it. Regina contributed two Magic Missiles, since she wasn’t sure if using Fireball was a good idea given the tunnel. It might even steal its attention from Owin, who seemed to make a good tank.

Gwen kept back and presumably held her powers in reserve, but Owin engaged the monster right away. He stabbed the monster’s arm, but it seemed to ignore the attack and instead swiped at him. It pushed him back until he almost crashed into the side of the tunnel.

Regina prepared to launch a stronger Spell, but Owin didn’t seem bothered. Instead, he jumped the monster, burying his weapon in its side. At the same time, a mostly translucent shell enveloped him as Janis cast Magic Armor on him.

The Tunnel Terror roared again, bringing a few stones clattering down further away. But its moment of distraction cost it. Two bolts and two arrows embedded themselves in each of its hands, and it flinched back. Three Magic Missiles shot into its eyes, blinding it and sending its head shaking. Then Owin jumped up and his sword suddenly seemed to grow longer as he buried it into the monster’s neck.

Regina flinched and covered her ears as the monster crashed down onto the ground. It was still twitching, but Owin cut into it again, and a few others did likewise. Then she couldn’t see its System descriptor anymore, indicating that it was dead.

Regina opened her mouth to say something, but paused when the System showed her another notification.

You have leveled up

She blinked and hid a smile as she walked forward, eying the corpse of the Tunnel Terror curiously. Level 39. Only one more to go until I reach the next Tier.

She glanced at the Delvers. They’re a well-balanced team, she noted. I wouldn’t want to fight against them. At least not in a head-on confrontation …

They continued on quickly, but Regina still took a moment to check in on the others. Especially at her new base. Unfortunately, the news was not good. My Queen, it seems the tunnel collapsed, Ina reported. We can’t get through. There were two Swarm Drones in the cavern system, and we can’t reach the minds of either of them. I’m not sure if they’re still alive and just blocked or too weak.

They’re not, Regina answered. I just checked, and I can’t feel anything. They’re dead.

She withdrew from her mind, sighing. This did not look good. Regina knew she needed to investigate what was happening there, but it did seem like the epicenter of what was going on was here.

Or maybe just one epicenter? That there hadn’t been a quake there didn’t necessarily mean anything, or mean that it wasn’t connected.

Regina sighed and glanced at her drones, then at the Delvers. Hopefully, they wouldn’t take too long down here, or she’d have to reassess her priorities. And possibly try to find some way of getting there quickly with more than just the few people Winged Mounts would carry.

The Delvers might be useful in a fight, but she couldn’t help but wish that they hadn’t been there for whatever happened.