Chapter 55: Chapter 51: Hunted

Making my way back to my pair of corpses, ignoring my zombie twin's hysterics on the way, I carefully avoided the slimes and picked up my dropped chunk of shell and torch. They may have won this round, but as soon as I found a way of actually hurting the things, I was coming back for my revenge!

My first corpse had been completely picked clean, and only bones remained. The slime had gone, presumably returned to the ceiling, so its corrosion had limits. Either it couldn't dissolve them, or it would take too long for it to be worthwhile.

To keep both hands free, I stuck the torch to my helmet with my silk. Maybe it wouldn't help much, but having two empty hands I could summon a shield to wasn't going to hurt.

Proceeding carefully, keeping an eye on the ceiling at all times, I managed to avoid a dozen more of the things and made it past them into a large cavern. Or at least, I assumed it was a cavern; the passage opened up on both sides, but the entire space was pitch black with no light sources whatsoever beyond the single torch I was holding, so I couldn't see how far it went on for.

The fox-kin torch revealed some of the surrounding area, and I could see orange, pulsating vines snaking around the floor. They didn't respond to appraisal, despite obviously being alive. I could see them with sense mana, though, flows of mana within them moving in time with the pulses.

I gave one a prod with my spear, but it didn't seem to react. A harder thrust severed it, causing a viscous green liquid to spill out for twenty seconds before it dried up and hardened, sealing the exposed ends. Again, there was no response to my attack, so hopefully these vines wouldn't jump up and throttle me the moment I stepped inside.

I took a few paces in, feeling a touch of relief when nothing jumped out and murdered me, before beginning to explore in earnest. Once again, I was glad of my mapping skill. Just like the centipede cavern above, there would be no way to orientate myself in this place without it. At best, I could have mounted my glowing shield at the passage entrance and tried to keep it in view.

I spotted a denser cluster of vines and followed them to a... flower? Fruit? Lump of pulsating, exposed flesh? Whatever it was, it was the source of the mana that was being pumped through the vines. It was a bowl shaped, brown structure, coming up as far as my waist. The vines spread out from the bottom, like roots, while from the top sprouted an array of crystalline structures that looked very much like smaller versions of the crystal trees above. Mana was being drawn in from the air into those crystal trees, then pulled down into the vines.

It still didn't respond to appraisal. Come to think of it, I'd never tried to appraise the trees up above, but I'd appraised all the plant life in the jungle, when I was trying to find resources to build a method of descent, so it wasn't as if appraisal didn't work on plants. Why had I never appraised the murder tree? That was one hell of an oversight... I suppose it was so long after meeting it I got the appraisal skill that I'd never considered it.

I continued walking, passing several more of the strange mana collectors, before spotting something new. A tall stalagmite thrust from the ground, the vines wrapping around and climbing it, then ending at the top in a bulbous protrusion. As I approached, disease nullification kicked in and informed me of some sort of pathogen in the air. It wasn't struggling to neutralise it, though, so I continued forward.

Still nothing from appraisal, but sense mana showed the mana being pumped into the bulbous section, where it was building up. It couldn't keep building up indefinitely, so where did it go from there? Was it the source of the disease in the air? With disease nullification fighting it off with ease, I approached for a closer look, only for the tip of the swollen vine to split open and squirt out a large aerosol cloud.

Disease nullification helpfully informed me that the pathogen concentration had leapt by multiple orders of magnitude. Stupid curiosity. It wasn't as if it was important how the plant worked. I fled the area, but it was too late, and my skill informed me it could no longer fight off the infection. Oh well, hopefully it would count towards the next skill evolution.

I didn't seem to be feeling any ill effects for now, so I continued my exploration of the cavern. I found more of the mana collectors and pathogen-spitting fruits, but it wasn't until I'd travelled a fair distance from the entrance that I spotted something new. Or rather, a lack of something old. There was another of the bowl-shaped mana collectors, but the pieces of crystal were missing, along with sections of the bowl. The wounds to the plant were sharp and straight, and despite having long since sealed over with the green fluid, it was obvious they were deliberate. Something had cut away parts of the flesh.

It was a shame I had no tracking skills. Was this done with teeth, claws or tools? Did something eat part of the plant, or collect materials? I saw no other signs of disturbance in the vicinity, but it was a sign that somewhere in the cavern was something other than the vines. I just had no idea as to what.

Sense presence hadn't reacted to a single thing on this floor, so there was nothing strong nearby. Alas, as the slimes had proven, power wasn't everything; things could hard counter all of my abilities despite being physically slow and weak. Thankfully, despite my lack of tracking skills, I could be fairly sure the wounds to this plant had not been inflicted by slimes.

I continued my search, and the next point of interest I came across was a damaged patch of vines. Unlike the damaged mana collector, this didn't look deliberate. Nothing had been cut away, but they had simply been damaged, as if by being bashed or stepped on. There were also shards of crystal around, as well as brown, crusty patches. Blood? Again, appraisal showed a weakness by not working on random substances I found on the floor. My best guess was that there had been a fight here, so a sign that whatever else shared the cavern with these vines consisted of more than one group.

The next point of interest wasn't something I discovered, but rather it discovered me. I was examining another harvested bowl when I heard a quiet twang. Still being on edge from the slimes, and ready to dive out of the way of falling objects at the slightest provocation, I dived to the side, only to see a shard of crystal embed itself into the bowl a moment later.

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New skill gained: Sense danger
Few beings would pass up the opportunity for a surprise attack, and any adventurer must keep a constant watch for traps and ambushes. This skill provides a low level awareness of when something is targeting you with malicious intent.

Oh, nice! I bet that would have warned me about the slimes. Maybe not in enough time to do anything about them, given how little effect level one skills had, but at least I'd have been able to start uselessly panicking a fraction of a second earlier.

I found it hard to imagine that twang as anything other than a bowstring, which meant intelligent enemies. I hadn't seen the exact direction the crystal arrow had been fired from, but I had a rough idea, and stared out into the darkness. I could see or hear nothing, and sense presence drew a blank. Should I hang around here and hope that they ran out of arrows before I missed a dodge, or run forward and hope I met them?

Remaining still, not wanting to mask the sound of another fired arrow with the rustling of my armour, I waited. Soon enough, another twang came. No, not one. There had been three. I now had a better idea of direction, though, so I crouched down and summoned my shield. Moments later, I heard the clangs as three crystal arrows impacted it but failed to penetrate.

Deciding I would rather see my enemy, I ran in the direction of the shots, with the combined output of my shield and torch lighting my way. I saw nothing. What sort of range would they have had? They couldn't have been far away, or I wouldn't have heard them. Did they flee once their first sneak attacks failed? Had they just moved to the side, and were still watching me from the darkness? Should I stash my torch and shield in the hopes they wouldn't be able to see me either? No, they lived here, so I should assume that whatever method of perception they were using didn't require light.

Given the crystal arrows, presumably they were the things that were harvesting the crystals. Continuing my exploration in the knowledge that there were things in the darkness with enough intelligence to use tools was not exactly ideal. Doubly so, given that they'd taken pot-shots at me without warning or provocation. At least, deliberate provocation. Perhaps I'd wandered into their territory, which they'd marked in some way I couldn't perceive. Alas, I had little choice. I couldn't just leave.

Despite my fears, I wasn't bothered again as I found more harvested bowls. Should I move towards or away from the signs of activity? Less chance of attack, but also less chance of finding anything interesting. If the mystery creatures had a communal settlement somewhere, there was a good chance that it also contained the way down to the next floor.

What was the worst that could happen? No, silly question. Their leader could turn out to be a powerful soul mage again, or heck, their whole species might subsist by devouring souls. Better question; what was the worst that was likely to happen? Going from previous patterns, they'd stab me a bit, engage in a spot of heavy bondage, then eat me. I could cope.

Noting the position of the harvested bowls on my map, I walked in the direction where they were densest.

Sense danger advanced to level 2

I ducked as another crystal arrow went flying over my head. Wow, apparently my pessimism about that skill was unwarranted. I hadn't heard the twang that time, but still had enough warning to dodge.

The skill fired another warning, but this time, rather than a feeling of danger approach my top half, it was more of a full body experience, leaving me none the wiser about how I was supposed to dodge. Moments later, at least half a dozen arrows hammered into me from all sides. Nothing penetrated my armour, and the silk and my own chitinous skin beneath absorbed the impact.

I ran forward, with no idea what I was running towards, but simply not wanting to be surrounded by things I couldn't see, only to come up against a wall of stone. It wasn't built, but looked almost natural, the ground sloping upwards until it hit ninety degrees, then jutting up for a few metres. Almost as if something had told the rock to reshape itself.

Sense danger advanced to level 3

This time, the warning from sense danger was larger, but again, it offered no clue as to what I was supposed to do about it. Maybe my pessimism about the skill was warranted after all. Or alternatively, I thought as I spotted the giant boulder, far larger than I was, flying towards me in complete defiance of gravity, maybe it was just that there was nothing I could do about it. Given the flying lump of rock and the wall, they must have an earth mage of some kind. Shame I was stuck in between the two.

Not wanting my equipment to get crushed, I stored it and waited to get flattened between a rock and a hard place.

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