They Wanted a Hero. They Made a Monster: Born at the Bottom
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 10: A Mouthful of Crystal
The Puffcaps were ready.
Filling every unit’s mana reserves, including Elara’s, consumed all the mana from the Ember Gnats and every last bit Evan had stored beforehand.
Natural harvesting would never replenish them quickly enough. This force would have no opportunity to recharge.
The hunt would begin today.
Four hundred Puffcaps gathered in one place made an impressive sight. Most were artillery Puffcaps.
An Earthborer was enormous and covered in a thick shell of stone. Neither Hallucinogenic Spores nor Digestive Ooze would affect it.
Armored Puffcaps would be pointless. Against a creature of that weight, even a glancing blow meant instant death, shell or no shell.
The only way Evan could defeat such a monster was by pouring damage into it.
He still had a plan.
Creatures that spent their lives tunneling underground naturally fed on minerals, and their favorite delicacy was the Amethyst Deep’s signature resource: Mana Crystals.
Evan happened to know how to make Mana Crystals explode.
He had prepared ten purpose-built Puffcaps among the army. Their hollow bodies were packed with Mana Crystals, and each possessed [Mana Storage] to supply the energy needed for detonation.
Evan had committed nearly everything he owned to this hunt.
He had dug up every Mana Crystal buried in the Mycelial Garden to accelerate Mana Harvest. The garden’s natural mana production had fallen by half as a result.
Those crystals would serve as bait to draw out the Earthborer and as the first crushing blow once it appeared.
After that, everything would depend on Lady Elara’s Mire.
“Are we really going?”
Her pink cap trembled. Fighting an Earthborer at a disadvantage of at least 15 levels inspired no sense of safety.
“Recruit, haven’t you already received your payment?”
Elara felt the large A-grade Mana Crystal atop her cap. The words of surrender refused to emerge.
It was simply too tempting.
The crystal allowed her to cast in Puffcap form and nearly doubled the power of her spells. Her old, much smaller B-grade Mana Crystal could not compare.
“If the situation truly becomes hopeless, you have permission to run. I won’t take back the Mana Crystal,” Evan added at the right moment.
Elara still wanted to point out that her short legs might not carry her to safety. Permission to flee was better than none, however. She bobbed her cap in agreement.
Evan was not allowing her to escape out of sudden kindness. If victory proved impossible, there was no reason to waste her life.
The battle at the Ember Gnat Nest had shown him how useful magic could be. Puffcaps could be produced again, and Mana Crystals could be mined again. If Elara died, where would he find another compliant mage?
The journey was far longer than the march to the Ember Gnat Nest. Elara suspected they took several deliberate detours.
Even so, they encountered almost no resistance. A giant black-and-white spider crossed their path, and Elara removed its head with a homing Ice Blade.
Their destination was a ruined cavern.
Calling it a cavern was generous. Tunnels left by passing Earthborers riddled the entire space. Describing it as open on four sides would have understated the damage.
Evan’s latest inspection revealed several new passages since his last visit.
He positioned the detonation Puffcaps and their Mana Crystals on one relatively intact patch of ground. The artillery Puffcaps dispersed around the fragmented cavern.
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