87 Cave Depths (1/2)
Damp moss covered rocks covered the cave floor as water dripped down from its ceiling. The path in front of them was so dark that without detection magic there would be no way to move forward. The upper floor of the cave had no demonic beasts in it so they did not have to worry about being attacked. But even still Alicia still had an eye floating around her that acted as night vision to pick up any heat signatures. She was on the lookout for any demon spawn.
After around twenty minutes they finally reached a shaft that led down to the next level of the cave, ”Bleh! Mother it stinks!”
Alicia frowned the smell coming up from the shaft smelled rancid. It was so bad that Rose and Starla were gagging. ”Frey, you go play in the space with Claire.” Alicia did not want Frey to have to deal with such a horrid stench it would be too much for her little nose.
”Young Miss, call me if you need help.” Claire said before disappearing with Frey.
”Okay, I will go down first and clear a landing area for us. I will yell up when it's safe.” Alicia said.
Alicia wished she could use fire to see her surroundings better. But she dared not to in case she somehow alerted the whole floor of monsters to her location. Alicia secured a rope to a rock before dropping the other end down the shaft. Nodding her head at the others she slowly descended down to the next level. When her feet touched the ground she could feel her boots sticking to the ground which made Alicia frown even more. Her current surroundings only had a few demonic beasts so she drew her sword and dashed out towards them. But what she saw when she got close to the first demonic beast surprised her and also sickened her at the same time.
”A large maggot!?” Alicia's face turned ugly she did not want to use her poor sword to kill such a thing. Instead, she waved her hand and shot out a few wind blades that sliced the maggot up into many pieces. But the stench that came after turned Alicia's stomach even more. She quickly retreated and climbed up the rope back to the main level to get a breath of fresh air.
”Alicia, what happened?” Rose asked, seeing Alicia's face slightly pale.
”The area under us is full of large maggots and when you kill them they release a horrid stench. We will need a way to stave off the smell otherwise we will be losing our lunch before we make any progress through the tunnel. Hopefully, this is the only level that is like this...” Alicia explained.
”We can just use fragrant magic to keep the small away.” Loeri said as she waved her hand and a blast of a strong floral scent filled their noses. They were no longer able to smell any of the scents that were coming up from the shaft.
”Loeri if you had such good magic, why didn't you say something earlier! You have no idea how bad those things smell!” Alicia complained. She would not have had to smell that horrid stench if she had known such magic existed!