Master Of None

Chapter 2256: 2256. Ancient Parasite

It had been soem time since Walker had gone to look at the underground areas of Genesis especially the connecting parts where the earth dragon territory was being built. But he was there now and he was pretty amazed.

The size was just one small part of everything. Well, if you could call it a small part. In actuality, it had been expanded substantially. The large amount of supports built were expertly crafted to hold up for generations with minimal maintenance. Making the ceiling much safer.

This wasn't all of it though, the buildings were made to be able to handle a great deal of weight or damage. Meaning that even a naturally occurring earthquake causing a collapse might not cause the buildings to fall. Meaning that those within would be safe from the rocks and could be rescued.

Hence why Walker focused on the new additions of safety escapes where those living within the underground city could escape to without much stress. From there, the hidden tunnels should be accessible to them to escape as long as the maintenance on them was upkept, A perfect way to escape if there was a disaster.

The water rune formations and movable barriers also proved an amazing resistance to any potential flooding that might occur. The chances of this were slim, but the dwarven race had learned from their mistakes. If they did not plan for flooding, then they would have to deal with floods constantly.

That's how fate worked after all.

Otherwise, it was a bustling underground city where the buildings had been finished. Plenty of workshops to process ores and other goods were perfectly built to efficiently allow everyone in and out. This was just the entrance area though, the inside of the underground areas were filled with various workshops for those who could not get one on the surface.

Otherwise, there were personal workshops here that were more peaceful than those above ground. It would allow some of the people who preferred silence when crafting to have it. It was also a surprisingly vibrant area for a peaceful walk since there was already artificial light using light mana gems which gained their ability to radiate light from the light rune formations moving through the earth to the surface.

This was all to ensure that the herbs down here grew, the herbs that needed sunlight that was. Others were inside caves to ensure that they received the darkness they needed. It was all tended to very carefully which brought an interesting aspect of beauty different from the surface.

"Follow me, the best path is through the small market road." Terron seemed somewhat energetic.

From Walker's perspective, Terron had changed a lot more than the other royal dragons since he had accepted Genesis and begun to grow in his own way. Besides the fact that the earth dragons were more solitary and lower in numbers because of that, he had managed to bring them together very much more compared to the past.

On top of this, his stubbornness had calmed. There was also that prickly attitude that preferred to push people away as well. He had changed and actually become quite warm, energetic and joyful even. Not that it was clear to see this overall. He still maintained some stone faced calm on most days.

Yet, Walker could just feel it. Terron walked with an aura of pride around him. It was good to see that he had made significant changes to his life and was working very hard to see an even better change.

However, Walker had not expected that the small market streets here held a lot more traditional foods than what was even up on the larger markets on the surface rather than underground. Plenty of cultural foods set up for all the races and not just the dwarves were placed cleanly to be bought and traded.

The way that the underground flowed allowed everyone to move easily, along with small carts. Carriages were only allowed at certain hours for goods to be delivered and brought out of the market streets underground. It reduced the wear and tear on the ground and also kept it safer. The small carts were sold and were able to be pulled by most people with ease. It was a brilliant idea which Walker wished the surface could do. However, the sheer size of Genesis prevented that on the surface.

"You can see some of the damages here. They were from the stones brought from dried up underground rivers and other similar places. Most likely dormant and awakened due to the location changing." Terron was still speaking but Walker was distracted as he looked up as the portions of the ceiling cut out and carved for resting places.

Noticing this, Terron paused, "We knew that there would be flying races down here too, so perches were made. I can take my full form underground and rest on them If I wish. Right now, the herpes, batmen, dragons, and earth wyverns use them." his toothy grin proved that Terron really liked this.

Being able to fly while in the underground was like being home for the earth dragons. They preferred the safety and closeness of the ground. But they were dragons and could fly, but most caves were too small. Having the underground section of Genesis built for them like this made things much better. Terron even motioned to the road connecting the dwarven city and Genesis underground.

It was being expanded for the smaller flying races to be able to fly. A great idea yet again.

"Sorry, there is just a lot more here that has changed than what I expected. Especially the earth wyverns here and there. They are very young so I didn't expect that they would be here."

"The earth wyvern queen sent some of the younger ones to live here. They are learning and well ahead of their older siblings. It's going to be perfect when they go back to the Sigil continent and share what they have learned." Walker nodded with Terron. They were on the same page.

'So, you mentioned that these stones with the holes that look like they were gnawed on are the pens with these stone and ore eating parasites? Are there some dead ones or alive ones I can use all around appraisal on to get a little more information?" Walker Knew that an all around appraisal scroll or some form of appraisal might have been used, but he had a hunch that he might learn a little something extra.

"Right this way, we are keeping them held back, but the new building area is overridden with them. They are tough to deal with and can't just be cut up. They have to be heated and burned enough to die. Or they need to be drowned for at least a full three days."

"I take it this problem isn't just a tough to kill parasite problem. I have a feeling that the numbers are more than expected." Walker saw the slight nod of approval as they left the streets where people were and headed in to the areas under construction.

He quickly saw the many guards that had been stationed keeping workers from going in to abandoned areas which looked to have frozen in time. Some shovels even stood stuck in piles of dirt where they had been left a few days before. His eyes scanned the ground before he noticed something.

A small scratching sound caught his ears as a very small crack appeared in a fist sized brown stone. The crack soon widened as a spiky worm looking creature moved outside if it before

pulling back in.

'Earth eater

This parasite is a parasite that literally feeds on the earth and all things with earth mana itself. It is able to eat small rocks at first but will slowly grow adding new spiky sections on to its body as it does. After a certain length, it will start to follow its mana senses to find stronger earth mana within other rocks or ores.

Eventually it will even go after monsters, races, or solid metal. As long as the earth mana is stronger, it will chase after it to consume it and grow.

While extremely resistant physically, they are susceptible to magical attacks, this is to a small degree because of their physiology though. If pieces of them break off, they can survive. The larger portion of their body can regenerate by absorbing ambient earth mana.

They can be dormant within a rock for hundreds of years until the right environment allows them to awaken and grow. Often being forgotten in caves where the flow of mana stagnated due to natural disasters.

If they were to live in an extremely earth mana rich environment, they can reach sizes of immense proportion. Even being able to consume the largest dragons and earth whales. They are a plague to the world where they were born and could be an even worse plague for the

earth elemental plane.

Their natural predator...'

....

----