To caverns deep, and rodents large

John had Toph lead the way forward alongside Jack, the tunnel being big enough for them to walk through upright and then some. It looked to be man-made, rusted rail tracks sticking out of the overgrown moss every now and then. Occasionally they came across a rusted out, overgrown droid. Some wielded pickaxes, others seemed to have been equipped with rifles and axes, though the amount of rust on them showed that they had been lying there for a long while.

After making their way forward for about five minutes, Toph and Jack stopped and waved at John to come closer. Just ahead of them, in the middle of the path, a creature was eating the moss growing on the cavern’s side. John crouched behind an outcropping and activated Hawkeye to observe it. The body shape looked to be a giant rodent, pale, pinkish skin, two giant buck teeth and a pair of whiskers on each side of his nose. It cut off the moss with its buck teeth before greedily inhaling it. The thing that stood out to John more than the creature’s furlessness was the fact that it had something akin to crystals growing out of its back, giving it the aesthetics of a stegosaurus. The crystals seemed mismatched, green, purple, red, all growing from its back at what looked to be at random. A quick Observe told him what it was, while his Hawkeye showed its stomach and jaw to be its weak spots.

Langtand warrior
Level: 12
Health: 20/25

As John observed it, the hp of the creature slowly ticked back up to full. When its health was back to 25, the rodent stopped eating and started to slowly move towards them. John gestured at Toph, then at the molerat. The happy pangolin put her claw to her head in the form of a salute, then burrowed underground. Just as the disgusting creature stopped and smelled something was off, earthen spikes emerged from the ground, impaling it at the shoulders. The fact that the crystals only grew on its back made its stomach a very easy target for the earth elemental pet.

+25 exp

Toph soon emerged from the ground, looking at John with her beady eyes until he patted her head. “Good job, Toph!” he praised her, the eager peeping showing that Toph was very happy to be useful. While John rewarded his pet, Ilis and Jack were looking at the corpse of the monster. Ilis took out a magnifying glass, studying the crystals as Jack sniffed at its head.

“John, these crystals are strange, like, they are high quality, hard too, but they are somewhat impure at the same time. I doubt you or I could get through this without a stygian steel pickaxe, and even then it would be hard. At the same time they look like they would grow on their own.” John, with one hand still on Toph’s head, looked at the creature. “Interesting. Well, good thing its stomach isn’t protected then, I’d hate to see what those fangs could do up close.” After that, he placed his hand on the monster, and just like that, it went up in smoke, leaving behind a bucktooth and a crystal about as long as John’s palm.

Langtand tooth
Hunting trophy

Langtand crystal (red)
A hard crystal, growing naturally on Langtand warriors. The older it is, the bigger the crystal
Crafting Material

“Well, it seems they do actually grow on them. Let’s move on, see if we can get some more of these things. I already think I have a use for these crystals,” John mumbled as he tossed the items into his inventory.

Ilis and John stayed behind Jack and Toph again as they moved further into the cave. Just a little further in, they could see a group of dead Langtands, big gashes covering their heads and a few bloody holes on their backs, the crystals nowhere to be seen. It seemed the monster they had just encountered had escaped from whatever scuffle happened in here.

John held his hand in front of his facemask to indicate their silence, activating another one of his skills, Tracking. He saw multiple footprints, along with the direction further into the cave. Information filled his mind, something he in a whispered tone conveyed to his companions. “It seems that the droids are also in these caves, though by the lack of gunshots, I think these use melee weapons. That would also explain those cuts to the heads.” He then pointed at the dead monsters. “It also looks to me that Wyxeltrax wants those crystals. So, by that logic, if we can get those droids, we can grab the crystals without much of a hassle.”

Ilis grinned as she gave him a thumbs up, Toph rubbed her claws together and Jack gave him a happy wave of his tail. After activating Camouflage John took the front of the group this time, tracking the droids deeper into the caves. Ilis took out a big wrench from Hemet knows where and Jack and Toph stuck close to his back. After a few more minutes, the sound of battle could be heard up ahead.

Lowering his center of gravity further, John crouch-walked forward, nocking an arrow to his bow as he spotted three axe wielding droids surrounding another Langtand. One of the droids indeed had a satchel on his shoulder that looked to be filled with crystals.

John gestured at Toph, then at the Langtand, then he pointed at one of the droids and then at Jack. He himself took aim at another droid. After counting down and waiting for Toph to have burrowed underground, John let his arrow loose, another Boring Shot imbued arrow. A pop up notified him of the skill leveling up, but was quickly dismissed as he still had a job to do. The moment he fired his arrow, he put his bow down and reached for his belt, taking the bolas and throwing them at the final droid. The thrown weapon coiled around the axe wielding arm and sent it veering off course. Jack pounced on his droid from behind as Ilis ran forth, wielding her giant wrench at the droid John had just disarmed. Seconds later, one droid had his main processor pierced with an arrow, one was shattered after being frozen and then smashed, and the final one was being taken apart by a very elated Ilis. The Langtand didn’t get any time to wonder what had just happened as Toph took care of it mere moments after the droids that had just been threatening its life had been dealt with.

+300 exp

Dusting off his hands, John muttered to himself.