Chapter 5: Humanity [5]

Sharp eyes flit across the compact dirt walls of the tunnel. The ranger's sight is keen as he seeks out any traps or hidden monsters. The group makes it into the first chamber before he notices anything amiss.

"Wait. Something's strange here." The range pauses as the other two warriors in the group stop moving for a moment.

The range gently presses his foot against the odd grooves and cracks which coat the dirt floor of the chamber. The soil feels as though it has been overturned recently. The ranger peers into the tall grass at the center of the room, but finds no hiding serpents.

"I'm not sure why, but something was digging at the floor here. Just keep your guards up." The ranger moves to the back of the group with his bow held in hand. The other two warriors take up the front and march into the first room of the burrow.

The blonde man's armor gleams in the sunlight filtering through the hole in the roof. He frowns as he moves toward the other tunnel connected to the room.

"Do you hear something?" The axe wielding man says with a confused expression on his face. The ranger nods before frowning deeply.

"I hear snakes. But I'm not sure where they are." The ranger confirms he has noticed the strange sounds. They all look at each other with mildly anxious expressions before turning to continue through the room.

The grass and dirt in the center of the room grows soft, and the Axe wielder is wide eyed as his feet fall out from beneath him. The sound of his surprised yelling startles the other party members, however the sword wielder is too slow to back away from the unexpected sinkhole.

The ranger is on the edge of the room while flitting his gaze around the room to figure out what's happening. He has no answer as both his party members scream. He peers into the hole with an arrow nocked into his bow.

"Hey! What's down there?!" The ranger is irritated as the dust that was kicked up during the collapse is blocking visibility.

Two full seconds pass before he sees the shapes of a mass of writhing serpent monsters coiling around two bloodied human corpses. The armor is leaking blood as their exposed skin is covered with puncture wounds.

"Shit! Screw this!" The ranger turns and runs at a breathtaking speed out of the tunnel. The movements are so fast he doesn't notice the dirt bubbling up behind him. 

Tendrils of meat try to snatch his legs, however they fail to catch up to his agile speed.

~

The snakes are feasting upon the dead bodies of the two adventurers. Core is irritated that he lost the third of the group, however he is very pleased with the effectiveness of the trap he laid for the intruders.

'Why are these humans so different?' Core's tendrils grab the bodies of the two men and absorb the flesh as well as the metal pieces. Core is confused as he feels something new being absorbed from their corpses.

Thoughts and feelings he didn't recall having surge within him. Memories that are not his own flow through his consciousness like water.

'What is this?' Core's body pulses as he gains strange knowledge and experiences that are not his own. Knowledge about adventurers, the adventurer's guild, human life, cities and towns. The feeling is terrifying as his perception of the world around him rapidly expands.

Core feels like a speck with each new memory that increases his knowledge.

'Those men were adventurers... two D rank and one C rank.' Core's thoughts are conflicted as he takes time to digest the newly acquired knowledge as well as the corpses of the intruders.

'Everyone roam around the burrow freely, but don't leave. Kill any intruders.' Core gives his minions orders before fixing the first chamber.

Introspective thoughts are hard for Core to process. Things like morals and family, as well as desires he never knew one could have are complicated for him.

It will take him some time to understand this revelation.

~

"I'm telling you there were at least twenty snakes! What do you expect me to do against that when I'm left alone?!" The anguished voice of a bow wielding ranger responds to the disdainful comments made by his fellow guild members.

"You're supposed to find traps and the like for your party. It's your fault those two got done in by a bunch of stinkin' worms." The condescending words come from the mouth of a rough looking man wearing an eyepatch. There are two short swords at his waist.

The ranger glares at the man before turning his back to take a big gulp of alcohol. The man is beyond trying to defend his actions.

One elderly woman carrying a gnarled oak staff approaches the half drunk ranger. She wears a black cloak that covers her nearly completely.

"You said there were over twenty snakes in that burrow?" The old woman's voice is surprisingly healthy and clear as she asks the man for confirmation.

The ranger turns and glares at her before answering her question with a nod. He takes another full swig of the cheap mead.

"You mentioned they were all inside a hidden pit in the floor?" She asks a second question, however the ranger doesn't answer before simply taking another big drink from his mug.

The old woman shakes her head as she leaves the man alone. She uses her staff as a walking stick while moving at a slow pace. It takes her a few minute to reach the stables neighboring the inn she was just visiting.

"Take me to the village just east of here, please." The old woman says to the man while holding up a silver coin as the transit fee.

The man takes her money and nods before taking a quick drink from his water flask. The two of them move out of town at a comfortable trot. The guards don't even bother stopping the inconspicuous wagon.

Something gleams within the old woman's grey eyes. They shine with an orange light for just a moment. Her chapped old lips curl into an unsettling smile.

~

The complex thoughts that had caused Core immense suffering are now under control. The concept of a moral compass has been resolved as Core decides that those beings which do not hurt him are to be left alone, however those who do harm to him or his allies will find only his belly in their future.

The innocent lives he has already taken do not weigh on him. He feels it is unreasonable to blame himself for what he did prior to having the knowledge of morals and principles. The concept of sparing something from death had not ever occurred to his primal mind of the early few days of his life.

'My desire to see the world has increased twofold. How should I go about that?' The ideas floating around in Core's mind are interrupted as he notices a new spawning node has formed within his body. He can feel something entirely different waiting to be constructed and released into the world.

Curiosity dictates Core's choice as he activates the node. His body and flesh twist into the correct shape, and the shape moves into a huge root. The feeling is similar to when he spawns huge snake monsters, however there is more to this one.

'Wait? Is that what I think it is?' Core's body pulses and shivers in confused horror. The shape of a nude human is spawned from his root. They are his biggest enemy thus far, and something he doesn't fully understand nor want to understand.

'I feel like this human is a little familiar.' Core's body pulses as he notices the human has a lot of similarities to the leader of the villager group that tried to get vengeance. Despite many similarities the face and body are still slightly different.

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Core is confused and upset with this new spawn node, however his feelings soon change as he realizes he can use this to his advantage. The naked body of the human reminds him that they always wear cloth and metal to cover their soft bare bodies.

'Ah. I can make something, right?' Core moves his inorganic clusters in conjunction with his flesh, and manages to spit out a full set of leather armor as well as a steel sword. The clothing takes more effort, however he manages to create plain cloth clothing. Underwear is unnecessary as far as Core is concerned.

The human clothes herself pretty quickly after Core provides the equipment. He is interested to see if she behaves how most humans do. The human however seems extremely dazed, as if under the influence of drugs or something similar.

'This should be fun! Yoink!' Core pushes his consciousness into the human's body much like how he entered the body of his snake monster in the past. The resulting sensations cause Core to let out a surprised yelp.

"Woah!" Hearing the somewhat guttural sound of his own voice makes Core irritated. He attempt to clear his throat and winds up coughing up some sort of gunk that gives him a new perspective on how disturbing his main body actually is.

The feeling of two legs and two arms is new, and feels partly limiting yet freeing to Core. He flexes his lean muscles and shivers his body with a highly amused smirk on his face.

"This beats being a snake any day. I can even talk!" Core giggles, then laughs, and finally belts out into disturbingly maniacal laughter which echoes throughout the burrow.

The snakes are wide eyed at the sight of their creator moving around in a human body clumsily. Many of the serpents avoid getting close as their creator swings around the steel sword like a child playing at becoming a knight.

Core has a sinister smirk on his rather delicate face as he marches out of the burrow into the peaceful looking grassland. The sky is low in the sky, and sunshine causes Core to squint slightly.

The crunch of his leather boots on the grass is strangely satisfying. Core's cheeks ache from the constant smiling he's been doing since entering this new body.

"Heh heh heh. Here I come, humans." Core's thoughts leak through his mouth as he realizes speaking his thoughts is a bad idea. Humans are very clever, after all.

~

The sun has set behind the mountains on the horizon when the old woman arrives at the unnamed farming village. She frowns as she steps down off the parked wagon. Her old body prevents her from moving too quickly, and so she decides to take a rest in the only inn within the small village.

"Here you are, ma'am." The sole person working at the inn is the one who owns the semi large house which is passed off as an inn. The young woman hands the old lady a set of fresh blankets before bowing her head ever so slightly. "Please have a good night."

The elderly woman smiles back warmly before taking the blankets and shutting the door to her small room.

She frowns suddenly as she stares through the glassless window in the room. The sight of a hill in the distance causes her eyes to shine with that mysterious orange power once again. Her gaze moves away from the window as she gets ready to sleep for the night.

Tomorrow she will enter the burrow.

~

Core's feet are aching. The main body has no concept of true fatigue, however while walking for hours in this human body Core finally understand exhaustion. He feels utterly miserable as pain throbs in his legs. Thankfully Core has reached Farstead's town gate by following the fragmented memories he gained from eating the adventurers.

"Halt. State your business." The older man watching the gate late into the night stops the young woman walking toward the gate. She has deep circles under her eyes and looks downright dead on her feet.

Core realizes he's being spoken to, and his eyes brighten for a moment at the prospect of an actual conversation. He hadn't realized he was lonely this whole time.

"Ah! Yes, I want to go inside... to become an adventurer?" Core fumbled through giving a spontaneous answer. The idea is now in his head and causes him to seriously consider whether or not working as an adventurer would be enjoyable or not.

The old man guarding the gate nods in disinterest before pushing open the heavy wooden doors for the young lady. "Well, have fun with that young lady." His voice seems to say he doesn't think she can do it.

Core of course does not catch this intention and merely gives a big smile as he enters the doors of the town. The desire for sleep is dulled since Core's body is not exactly 100% human, however he decides to find a quiet place to pass out for a while.

He has no coin, so the inns he learned about via eating memories are out of the question. The driest back alley will have to do.

Core finds a suitable narrow alleyway that he can slip into, and lays down on the rocks to let his human body rest. The sun is rising as he closes his human vessel's eyes. He'll slip out of the body and return after its rested.

~

Orange mist radiates around the figure of a hunched old woman as she walks through the dirt paths of the village. She can sense the despair and death that has plagued the villagers living here. Her eyes are glowing orange, and fail to dim as she walks slowly toward the cave.

Her eyes had opened before the sun had risen, and her legs carried her steadily towards the mouth of the snake burrow.

"Wretched monster." Her words drip like poison as she steps right up to the outside of the snake burrow's entrance tunnel. Her steps stop as the orange glow surrounding her increases in thickness and speed. The mist like substance is moving more like flames at this point.

The old lady raises her gnarled staff in one hand, and cracks a maddened smile.

The blazing hot orange substance in the air begins to form in front of her as her mind flickers through the patterns of a glyph. The huge circle in front of her is at least as big as her. Glowing orange forms into a precise pattern. The curves and lines drawn out of mana hover there intimidatingly.

"Remain forgotten, wicked one." Her words are almost silent. The mana in the air shimmers as the glyph finishes forming. Her orange eyes resemble two eclipsed suns.

Heat rapidly flows through the soil and air inside the burrow. Flames form like blades as they rush into the burrow's entrance. Searing heat burns the grass into ash, while the snake's scales peel like paper. Their eyes boil and evaporate. The flesh and blood turns into charred curled husks.

The intense fires reach through the soil, and burn the thick meaty roots. Core's network of tendrils blacken and curl like worms in the sun. The pain shoots through Core's body and minions. Core's main body pulses rapidly as the hellish fire smashes into it like waves into a rocky cliff.

~

Core is laying there in the alleyway watching the sun rise in the distance when a sudden pain courses through his vessel. The sensation threatens to pull him out of his vessel, however before he can leave the makeshift body his connection to his main body is completely severed.

The feeling of pain and panic consumes his false human brain. The seeds of his flesh sprout suddenly, and the flesh of the human body he is contained within suddenly mutates into the flesh of Core's own original body.

"AHH!" Core's screams are the high pitched screams of a dying human, and blood leaks from his eyes as he collapses to the ground. He is unconscious, while his main body and other subordinates are turned to ash and dust.

Guards approach the source of the scream, and find a collapsed woman. They carry her to the nearest apothecary while keeping an eye out for anyone suspicious who might have hurt the young lady.

They find no one.

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