Falling low.

John switched to his combat gear, startling the two elves. He had time, he should at least try, he was really lucky these days and could mostly handle himself in a fight.

"Girls, I will go away for a little while. I have a quest to complete and it needs to be done tonight. Please stay here and be careful, " he told them. Getting out of the room, to the entrance of the Maze.

"Wait! Where are you going? How long will you be gone? Can we help you?" asked Cali, running after him. John stopped in his tracks, he hadn't considered that he had people to help him, with Sylvia indisposed.

"It's dangerous, you have been hurt and you should take care of your sister, Cali. The offer is very generous though." he told her. He was afraid of being slowed down if he had to keep an eye on them.

"I will follow you and help. You risked your life, bled, lost a hand, to help us! Let us repay you for your help and for your hospitality. Use us as you need to achieve your goals!" she said. Someone could easily give this a very large interpretation, but John's mind wasn't focused on that... For now.

"Right, you were a huntress. I will give you a few things and you will follow me. We have to explore some tunnels and find something. You will mark our path so we know the way back and what we explored." he told her. Her face lit up when he told her that. Her sister nodded and let her go with their new liege.

Despite being offered some Cali refused the clothes John had bought, wearing only the tool belt that Sylvia had used on the previous expedition. John decided to ignore the tunnel he already partially explored, hoping to have better luck in a new one. With the Altar having moved since last time, all bets were off.

Cali was using the spools of neon orange rope and glowing spray paint to mark their way as they walked rather fast in the tunnels. John noticed a few things while advancing. The rats were more numerous than before and had pushed the beetles a lot farther into the tunnels. They had also built huge nests made of empty shells and dried mud in some of the rooms. He could spot some of them, rather big ones, walking on two legs, wearing some shell armor and even holding scarab legs or mandibles as weapon or tools. Smaller ones were running around, bringing back mushrooms or scarab flesh to the nests.

The offsprings of his summon had spread and multiplied. He wondered what would happen if he started augmenting other creatures of his kingdom using Alter body he might be able to evolve them slowly. Just as a test he used Move to pick up one of them and noticed that he couldn't target each individual body part like he could on a human. There were only three areas: head, body and genitals. He was at full mana and still had his bracelet charge for today. He gave this rat three charges of the spell on each area. The head part gave him a boost on his teeth, Intellect and Charisma. The body got better metabolism, Strength and Agility. The last part got increased fertility and apparently increased pheromones. The rat also grew in size, making it even bigger than the others, with luck this one would father many others that would spread the enhancements, sparing him from having to do it on many rats.

A few step later John spotted a mineral resource spot. He began running towards it and fell through the ground. He began sliding down like in a big toboggan, the hole had been covered in white fibers and mud, creating a trap. Using move to slow his fall John finally stopped. The thing that worried him was that the trap wouldn't have been triggered by a simple rat, it was designed for something bigger... For him!

"King John?? Are you here? If yes, catch this!" he heard Cali say a lot higher. He must have slid two or three levels down, the walls of the hole were slick and wet, making staying there already difficult.

Soon he saw what she had meant. She had thrown one of the rope spools in the hole. Of course the thing they tied the end to, would never hold his weight.
"It's alright, Cali. I'm not hurt. I will just need time to get back up, " he shouted.

John began his slow climb upward. His boots gave him a very good grip on the slippery walls, but it was still difficult to find any handholds.

"King...hm John, tie the rope around yourself!" Cali yelled. John figured that she might try to drag him out. He wasn't sure it would help much, but he tied down the rope on a few points of his harness.

Suddenly he felt a strong pull upward, making him lose contact with the walls. He looked upwards and was soon faced with... Cali's pussy!

She had obviously found something to loop the rope around and after tying it to herself jumped in the hole to use herself as a counterweight. Her descent was so quick that she ended with her legs over John's shoulders, facing him. Their combined weight and the tension on the rope made it hard for them to move from this position.

John was faced with yet another pussy, an exotic, bald one, with a strange spicy smell to it. His nose was brushing against her clit and she was very wet. "Cali?" he said.

"I'm rescuing you! Don't worry, we will get out of this hole," she replied, but all John could think of was another hole. Soon, as she tried to pull on the rope to get higher, his temptation became too great and he began licking her pussy, tasting this alien flavor, full of a spicy tang, with nothing in common with human ones or the sugary delight of Sylvia. She didn't say a word to complain, but began shaking and shivering.

"By the goddess, it is... Oh my... Aaahhhh." she exclaimed. Letting go of all efforts to climb up, succumbing to a massive orgasm.

"I'm sure we could have more of this kind of fun if you like it, Cali. But I would really like to get out of this hole first and maybe explore a few others." he told her.

In a very strange dance, they managed to climb up, holding to the ropes and each other, her naked body held tight against him, sweat glistening on her chestnut colored skin.

They got out, tired and breathless, having wasted a lot of time. Thankfully John recovered nearly as soon as the effort stopped. He carefully progressed to the resource spot, probing the floor for other traps. He extracted its contents and decided that it was too dangerous and foolish to continue.

39 units of stone
12 units of iron ore
6 units of silver ore

He had virtually no chance of finding it and could waste hours, get lost and possibly get hurt looking for something he wouldn't find, while there were a lot of other things he could be doing. He had no desire to run into the creature that was lurking here, with only a naked, unarmed elf girl at his side.