I paced back and forth as we waited for the elevator to finish descending, unable to get rid of my nervous energy. Leading troops into battle was something I’d gotten used to; waiting while they fought on their own was something else.

  In the middle of a fight, my worries fell away, and I was able to focus on making a difference. Leading from the rear like this, there was nothing I could do but wait until the mercenary team made contact.

  At least with the signal repeaters we’d left behind in the elevator shaft, I’d know when it happened. While that was something of a comfort, it also left me staring at my watch, waiting for the update.

  I was so tense I almost jumped out of my skin when Linnea placed a hand on my arm. Realizing it was just her, I stopped and turned to face her.

  “They’ll be fine,” she said with an understanding smile. “These are some of the best fighters in the whole guild. They’re not going down to a few spiders.”

  I was touched by her concern for me, and I forced myself to smile back. “You're right. They’re better trained and armed than we were when we took a group down. I’m just worried about how they might have evolved since we were last here.”

  Linnea nodded but stayed silent as she pulled me into a hug. We stayed like that for the next few minutes until my watch finally vibrated with an incoming call. I accepted the call in an instant, my heart freezing in anticipation.

  “Lord Hope,” Harold’s voice echoed from the watch. “The entrance is secure.”

  I relaxed at the man’s tone. There was no hint of grief in the man’s voice, nor did he sound particularly tired. “Good work,” I responded, a grin crossing my face. “Was there any resistance?”

  “Indeed. We were ambushed as we opened the door.” Harold continued in a steady tone. “Multiple species of spider beasts assaulted us, several of which do not match your previous encounters.”

  My grin fell as my heartbeat skyrocketed again. “Any casualties?”

  “Two injured, neither badly enough to require evac,” Harold responded as if describing the weather. “Our medic is already patching them up. When he’s finished, I’ll send them up with the return elevator.”

  “Right,” I sighed in relief. “That’s well within our predictions. Again, good work, Harold.”

  Linnea hummed as she listened over my shoulder. “The main worry was taking more causalities than our reserves. Half that is an excellent start, and it still leaves us with two backups until the injured heal up.

  I nodded my agreement. “We’ll be down once the elevator returns. Be careful until then; you're in the most danger when it’s in transit.”

  “Understood, we’ll dig in until you arrive,” Harold responded before cutting the call.

  With nothing else to do, I settled back into a calmer period of waiting. Despite my warning, I didn’t expect another attack to happen so soon. While we weren’t out of the woods yet, we were past one of the biggest obstacles.

  Soon, it would be time to go down in person.

  The cargo elevator finished its slow descent with a thud. A moment later, the doors cracked open, revealing a sea of carnage.

  Beyond a line of mercenaries, spider parts were scattered across a hallway dotted with immobile corpses. While the total number was less than the vast swarms I’d seen before, many of the individual bodies were significantly larger.

  Harold was right; I could see at least three types I hadn’t encountered before. Grimacing, I moved past the corden for a closer look.

  One looked like a larger version of the sword spider that nearly killed one of my men. Its elongated legs would give it even more reach, allowing it to attack over the bodies of its kin.

  Another had a transparent camel-like hump filled with some kind of liquid. A third was covered in hard chiten armor. Much of it was pitted and scarred as if it had taken many shots to pierce.

  There were also a decent number of the normal spiders, along with the smaller sword-like version to bulk out the numbers. It was a force I wasn’t sure I’d have been able to take with my previous group, and I turned to look at Harold with new respect.

  “The hump ones are the worst,” Harold shrugged carelessly. “They spit some kind of webbing in mass quantities. It’s soft and stringy at first, slowing you down but not much more.”

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  “Then it hardens into crystal, trapping you if you're not careful. Both our injuries were from that before we figured it out.”

  “Nasty,” I winced in sympathy. That sounded like a nightmare to deal with when you were fighting everything else.

  “It’s not too bad,” Harold chuckled, shaking his head. “When it’s soft, the stuff isn’t strong enough to tie you up, so you can break it if you know it’s an issue. And even if you don’t, the stuff is actually quite defensive once it crystallizes.”

  “That’s why no one died even though they got trapped. The sword spiders were having a mighty hard time trying to cut them down all wrapped up in crystal.”

  “Huh,” I muttered, rubbing my chin. Either whatever was behind this hadn’t had enough time to prepare, or they were trying untested strategies. Either way, it was an advantage for us.

  “We should keep pushing hard then,” I concluded with a nod. “That way, we don’t give them time to iron out the issues.”

  “Agreed,” Harold nodded, despite not being party to my internal monologue. “First, we need somewhere to hole up for the night. If I remember right, those quarters you spoke of are nearby.”

  I shuddered as the memories of my two previous trips hit me. Both had ended after visiting those quarters, but I could see his point.

  It was getting late in the day after flying out here, and we wouldn’t be able to push much further before needing to rest. Unless we wanted to waste all our efforts in taking the elevator, that rest would need to be down here where we could keep it secure.

  "You’re right,” I responded, forcing myself to keep my voice steady. “We’ll have to secure the intersection as well, though. Otherwise, there’s no path to retreat if things get bad.”

  Harold nodded gravely. “Understood, boss. We’ll get the turrets set up and post watches.”

  “Sounds like I plan,” I said, pushing aside my fears. Yes, this had gone bad twice already, but we were far better equipped than on either of my previous trips. The turrets spoke of were just one way the mercenaries showed their experience with this kind of exploration.

  While they required too much setup to be used in most fights, the deployable turrets were perfect for securing a camp. With them, we’d be able to lock down the intersection and sleep with only a minimal watch.

  Squaring my shoulders, I continued, “Let’s get to it.”

  Despite my concerns, we encountered no more resistance that night. I didn’t know if it was because our enemy was out of spiders, didn’t have any in position, or had cut their losses.

  Whatever the cause, we were able to get a solid night's sleep by rotating two-person watches. It was a solid first day, and I couldn’t be happier at the foothold we’d managed to secure.

  Now, we just had to keep pushing into the unknown.

  The next morning, we had a quick breakfast, packed up the turrets, and got moving. This was the first time I’d made it past the initial intersection, and we had little idea of what to expect.

  Within the first few hundred feet, the tunnel shifted from manufactured concrete to raw stone. The only light now came from tiny lanterns hooked into the ceiling at intervals, and the rough nature of the walls, floor, and ceiling showed clear signs of being dug out.

  We’d finally passed the entryway and entered the mine in truth. Before long, we began to encounter branching tunnels at uneven intervals. They extended unlit into the darkness, lacking even the minimal infrastructure of the main path.

  After pausing to discuss in hushed whispers, we resigned ourselves to clearing each one in turn. As much as I dislike the waste of time, we couldn’t afford to leave a possible enemy force behind us.

  While we had plenty of food with us and a decent supply of ammo, we needed to resupply on water from the surface. This was a task I’d set our maintenance robots to, along with dragging any spider corpses back to the surface.

  They were ill-suited to combat, however, and having our supply lines cut would leave us in a difficult position. Not to mention that I needed to be sure the entire mine was secure before I could send workers down here.

  There was no other option, so we set ourselves on the long and nerve-wracking task of tunnel exploration. At each turnoff, we left half our team behind to secure the main tunnel while the rest pushed on until we hit a dead end.

  Splitting up was something of a risk, but we couldn’t afford to miss an attack down the main tunnel either. Given the smaller size of the side tunnels, it would have been difficult to fit the entire group in any case.

  We cleared dozens as the day wore on, none extending more than half a mile before narrowing down to nothing. The reason behind them was unclear, but I suspected they were exploratory in nature.

  Perhaps the Arkathians hadn’t been sure where the full deposit lay and had needed to dig around before finding it. Or perhaps the spiders had dug them out, looking for food or other resources.

  The only clue we found was the obvious similarities between the two kinds of tunnels. Both types had almost identical markings on the walls, suggesting they had been dug by the same method.

  That could have pointed towards it all being from the original Arkathian excavation, but I had an alternate theory growing in my mode. What if the spiders were the equipment the Arkathians had used to dig this place out?

  They were clearly an adaptable species capable of thriving underground, and this wasn’t the first time I’d encountered them in an Arkathian facility. It could be a coincidence, but something told me they were connected.

  It would explain why they were down here at all and why they were so different from every other beast I’d encountered. I might never know if I’d guessed right, but it was interesting to think about.

  By the end of the second day, we were still pushing down the same tunnel. It would have been concerning if we weren’t seeing an increasing number of larger alcoves. Each one hinted at the original miners hitting on a section of valuable ore and suggested we were on the right track.

  To my surprise, we’d encountered limited resistance throughout the day. Only five small clumps of spiders hid down side tunnels, the total of which didn’t even reach the elevator ambush.

  It would have been enough to cause problems, but even grouping up, they wouldn’t have risked taking us out. Even so, we made sure to set up our defenses when we settled in for the night in the largest alcove yet.

  As the night wore on and I finished the first watch, I was beginning to wonder if we’d actually taken out the bulk of our enemy’s forces. The idea of steamrolling the rest of the mine was enticing, and I slept easier than I had in days.

  Until I was woken hours later by the deafening crack of plasma fire.