Chapter 23: Chapter 23: Civilization

I stood in front of a crystal forest, pentagonal protrusions in pinks and yellows jutting through the floor, bifurcating repeatedly at odd angles until they ended in narrow points. They were lit up not only with normal light, glowing gently from within, but also shone brightly to my sense mana skill, pulses of mana rising through their trunks and building up in the tips, where it sparked off into the air in some sort of magical lightning.

Sense mana advanced to level 2

I could see at least ten different varieties of beetle flitting between the crystal trees, muncher sized, but with colourful crystalline shells, catching and absorbing the discharging mana. A snake wrapped around one of the larger crystal branches, camouflaged with scales the same pink as the branch it was resting on, snapped out its head and grabbed a beetle out of mid-air. It pulled the struggling creature back to its branch before crunching into it, sending fragments of its pearlescent shell falling to the floor below.

A very strange creature drifted slowly above the forest, blue in colour, with a ten metre long cylindrical body, tapered at one end and rounded at the other. The ends had no features, and I saw nothing that I could identify as eyes or mouth. Seven symmetrically arranged fins sprouted from the centre of the body, two longer than the rest, their orientation suggesting that the tapered end was the front. It certainly bore no resemblance to any creature I was familiar with.

It didn't seem to be expending any effort to remain aloft, drifting in a way that suggested it simply matched the density of the surrounding air. It reminded me of the silhouette I'd seen when first looking down over the cliff edge, except that this one must be far smaller. Alas, my new appraisal skill was foiled by distance; it turned out to have a rather limited range.

It didn't have the air to itself; I also saw a few pale red creatures that looked very much like jellyfish, drifting above the crystal trees. Their tendrils draped over the forest below, and where they contacted a tree, I could see them sucking out the mana, the parasitised trees losing some of their glow for a few minutes.

Sense mana advanced to level 3

If it wasn't for all the beetles, I'd have thought whoever built this place had never heard of wings. Although even in the case of the beetles, I struggled to imagine mere physics was sufficient to keep them in the air; their wings weren't big enough. This was a mana based biome through and through.

Thankfully, none of it was trying to eat me. I showed my appreciation for that fact by bisecting whatever wildlife I came across.

New skill gained: Sword dabbler
Swords may come in many different styles, but the general idea of getting a long bit of metal and sharpening one or both sides is only slightly less ubiquitous than getting something big and heavy and bashing things with it. There's a reason why they're so popular; they work. This skill increases your competence when attacking with a sword, and gives a slight damage bonus.
Sword dabbler advanced to level 2
Sword dabbler advanced to level 3
Sword dabbler advanced to level 4

I had a new type of weapon, after all, which meant a new skill to grind. I needed to research whether I was better off using the higher rated weapon with a lower level skill, or a lower rated weapon with a second tier skill. The brood-mother centipede corpse was going to need another visit.

Assuming it was still there, of course. I was on my way back to check on my respawn cave and pet murder tree, and the colourful, bright and active cavern I was walking through had previously been home to nothing more than four wolves, some munchers and a whole lot of nothing. If the other two large chambers of this floor had undergone changes as dramatic as this one, I couldn't guarantee the corpse was still intact.

For that matter, how would the floor's resident dragon react if the spiky crystal trees suddenly sprouted up underneath it?

The crevice leading to my original respawn cave had sprouted veins of blue glowing crystal in the wall, increasing the light level and colouring everything in odd alien colours, but there were no new monsters. My respawn cave was the same, while the murder tree's room was completely unchanged. Something of a let-down after the extreme change of the cavern, but also a bit of a relief. The bit of this dungeon I considered my home base was still intact.

The former centipede's territory was still pitch black, and the floor was still crawling with them, but they were no longer alone.

Sense presence advanced to level 3

I could see nothing, but sense presence picked up multiple signals high up on the ceiling of the cavern. Multiple monsters strong enough for sense presence to react to them meant that carelessly walking around would be a bad idea, but I at least confirmed the brood-mother's corpse was still there.

As I approached it to try out a few sword swings, one of the presences detached itself from the ceiling, falling rapidly towards the ground. My heart lurched briefly, but it quickly became obvious it wasn't heading towards me. Instead, it hit the ground, then reversed direction and started climbing. Half a second later, I heard an echoey crunch. Whatever they were, they were apparently eating the centipedes, or else killing them for some other reason, and had the strength to crush their shells.

Carving up more of the brood-mother's shell while keeping a constant watch with sense presence for the unidentified monsters up above, I quickly raised sword dabbler to level ten, as well as gaining another level of sense presence, but alas, shelling a dead monster didn't count as an achievement for evolution. Still, the sword cut through the shell with greater ease than a spider claw, so attack rating won out over the higher tier skill in this case.

The final open cavern of this level was different again. There were glowing blue veins running up the walls, and presumably over the ceiling, given its glow, but it was too far away for me to see them properly. I could see vast protrusions hanging from the ceiling, like stalactites, but with large bulbous ends that shone a bright yellow. Whether they were there before but hidden in the darkness, or were new, and possibly some form of plant life, I couldn't guess. They were far above my appraisal range.

At ground level was a jungle. Tall, wide trees with intertwined canopies, with thick undergrowth. Everything was normal plant colours; greens, browns and deep reds, although the lack of white light sources gave the landscape a completely alien appearance regardless.

As per usual, there were more beetles around. I saw something a metre long sitting on a tree trunk, while more reasonably sized versions flitted through the air. Whoever built this place seemed to like beetles as much as whoever put Earth together. And it was yet another testament to my dwindling common sense that I now considered a thirty centimetre long beetle as reasonably sized...

There was wildlife here other than beetles. My eyes caught movement deeper in, and I looked over in time to see a feline shaped creature leap from ground level onto the lower branches of a tree, about three metres into the air. Even deeper in the forest, far beyond the distance the wall of trees permitted me to see, something was responding strongly to sense presence, a beacon shining as brightly as my least favourite centipede. It was nowhere near the level of the dragon, but was still a sign that this jungle was not a safe place.

I retreated to the shrine. The quest reward had effectively given me three new areas to explore, each with a unique set of plant and animal life. Perhaps I could train more resistances and find new valuable resources, but at the moment what I wanted was more quests. My most powerful abilities came from my class. Trigger respawn, item box and appraisal were all vital. Mapping was a bit of a bust, but I was still getting more use out of it than, for example, artistry.

So far, all my class levels had come from quests, and all of my quests had come from this shrine. The text wasn't definite, but was highly suggestive that other such shrines existed. There were no more on this floor. It was time to descend.

I did pay a brief visit to the window back out to the real world. Or another world, or whatever it was. Shouty-guy's expression didn't appear to have changed since the last time I'd looked, so I didn't need to worry about how much time I was taking, but even so, I had no intention of dawdling.

The final passage was much the same as the others, aside from the downward slope. It had a rough, natural appearance, formed from grey stone. Large patches of moss provided sufficient light to walk with, with the occasional muncher grazing on it. It lacked any centipede corpses, so obviously they had made it further down before whatever happened to them happened. It was a long walk, and mapping showed me that the passage was curving towards an area adjacent to but lower than the wolves' cavern, confirming that I was going to come out below the cliff. I might be about to encounter civilization for the first time in a while.

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The tunnel was wide enough for three of me to walk side by side, at least until I reached an obviously artificial brick wall, blocking off the outer two-thirds of the passage. The middle section was occupied by a heavy gate, forged from chitin and metal, which was resolutely closed. Now what? Was I supposed to knock?

"What in the abyss is that?"

The sounds of voices behind the wall caused me to come to a sudden stop. The dim light made it hard to tell, but were there spy holes in it? Or arrowslits?

"It's not any sort of chilopoda, and frankly, that's all I care about. If I never see another chilopoda in my life, it'll be too soon."

"You sure? That looks like chilopoda shell all over it. Maybe they got fed up of losing their grunts and sent in the big guns?"

"Nah, there's aranea silk coating it too, and it's rough stuff. Looks like it disassembled a cobweb to get it. Most likely it's a scavenger, building its shell out of anything it comes across. What sort of monster do you think it is, though? Some sort of shapeshifter?"

"Could be, but if so, it's a rather inconsistent one. Look at the detail on those eyes, yet it's completely forgotten the ears and tail!"

"Hey, it's looking straight at us. Do you think it can hear us?"

"Without any ears? I guess that would confirm it's a shifter of some sort, and sensory organs are just for show."

"Well, should we kill it? It's not coming any closer."

"Not unless it steps over the line. You know the drill."

I looked down at the ground, where there was indeed a marked line. I could forgive their opinions of centipedes, given how many of them flooded this corridor, but jumping to the conclusion that I was some sort of scavenging shapeshifter seemed a bit of a stretch.

"Hi," I called. "I'm human, actually, not any sort of shapeshifter, and I do have ears. They're just hidden under my helmet. I'll admit the lack of tail though. Do most people have one around here?"

"By the Goddess, it understands us!"

"Shh!"

The group behind the wall went silent. I'd heard three distinct voices, but who knew how many of them were there. Sense presence only picked up a single individual, but that didn't mean much, given the skill's limitations. Coupled with this wall, I didn't fancy my chances of forcing my way through. Luckily, I understood them, they understood me, and unlike the dragon they weren't trying to murder me on sight, so I was hopeful I could talk them into letting me through.

"I'm not a monster, and I don't want to make any trouble," I called. I wasn't sure whether I should tell them what I did want, though. They obviously didn't know what humans were, and it could turn out that they consider the holy sword to be some sort of divine artefact, in which case I doubt they'd be happy about me stealing it. I could say I was looking for shrines?

I waited a few more minutes, but there was no further response from the other side of the wall. Were they ignoring me? Still deciding what to do with me? I suppose with all the new resources from the new biomes upstairs, along with the physical boosts from my class, it's possible I could make my way down the cliff face now and bypass this blockade completely. Maybe I should go and investigate that option while they deliberate.

"Tell you what, you obviously aren't familiar with humans and I have no intention of trying to force my way through, so I'll just turn back here and revisit you some other time. You can decide what to do, or go look up what a human is, in the meantime."

I turned around and took a few steps before one of the hidden voices called, "Wait."

"Yes?" I asked, turning back, surprised to see the gate grinding open. They were going to let me through?

Two heavily armoured and even more heavily muscled men stepped through, each holding a spear that they kept firmly pointed at me. Both must have been close to two metres tall, or taller if I included the large fluffy ears sticking out the tops of their heads. Mostly fluffy, anyway; both men were scarred, lacking patches of fur, and one was missing a whole section of one ear. They both looked like grizzled, well-seasoned warriors. Meanwhile, I was a touch under one and a half metres, with no muscle definition at all, and I had all my kit other than my armour stashed in my item box, so I wasn't even armed. The sight of those two being so obviously afraid of me would have been comical had they not been pointing weapons at my chest. Maybe the mandibles I'd stuck to my helmet for fun were actually pretty intimidating?

"We've decided to take you to someone more likely to know what to do with you," said one of them.

"For our safety, we'll have to insist you remain bound while on our way."

A third muscle-bound guardsman stepped through the gate, this one not holding a weapon, but instead a long coil of rope.

Great... More bondage. Was it bad that I was starting to get used to this?

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