I wait and I wait, my thoughts spiral into nonsense about ungratefulness and wasted opportunities.

But the dreaded end never comes.

The lemon, I don’t know how it got here. But it’s in my right hand.

Over the next twenty minutes, as the blessing helps to hold back the effects of the lemon on my whole body, the glow from within my breached skin shifts from purple to a dim deep blue. I slowly deflate back to approximately my original form. The lemon itself eventually stops emitting mana, being back to his usual boring caustic self. The wet, strange cacophony of my body visibly trying very hard to get back in a somewhat humanoid shape from its bent, inflated, cracked state, is making it very hard to even think.

I still can’t move or feel any part of my body, but this is much better than exploding alive.

Maybe, just maybe, I should cherish this new life a bit. Treat it with a smidgen more respect.

But I hunger for the unknown. This place is all I’ve ever wanted. No need to fly a stupid spaceship for half a decade to unearth yet untainted, undiscovered marvels. No. Just walking around is enough! I can’t possibly be asked to stop now! My soul is yearning for these adventures! Maybe it’s why I had saved up so many karma points in my past lives. To finally uncover it all. And I’d do it again. The birthing of the universe. The gods. The magic. The ancient civilisations. The eternal cycle of life and death!

I.    WANT.    IT.    ALL!

Man… I sound like a fucking lunatic right now.

Let’s take it down a notch. Step by step, Arren. Step, by, step. What would ma’ think if she saw you like this? Maybe she’s even here too.

Step one is staying alive. Lots of work to be done on this one.

Then mastering magic should be a priority too. I also need to learn how to read the common language. When I’m not so weak I can explore all I want.

It’s not like coming here was my plan anyway.

I was thrown here against my will! How can I settle down and get stronger if I’m lost in some god forsaken cave full of walking, breathing abominations. What was that black thing, for real. I don’t want to see it ever again but I need to know more. I will get to the bottom of this, sooner or later.

I try to meditate until my body is back the way it should be. I could use some serenity at the moment, I’ve done it countless times in the ship, can’t be harder now.

I’m glad I didn’t fall asleep, this time.

I have no idea how long I spent on the ground. Might have been hours, might have been days. It all feels like a blur. A bad dream. But it's very real; the lemon is still in my hand.

It's about time I got up. My body has mostly recovered, even the most minute scars, powerless against my regenerative power. If anything, I feel stronger than before, but something worries me a bit, my mana crystal.

I sense more mana than before around it, that's probably a good sign, it's about the same shape and size as before. The worrisome part is this connection it seems to have with the surrounding tissues. Haphazard tendrils of manalite spreading around. Before it was just sitting there. Now it's like fused to me, my tissues, my flesh. My organs. Some of these even go up to my head. If it broke how it was before I might have been permanently unable to use magic. If it breaks now, I fear my fate would be much worse.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

My clothes didn't survive the ordeal, all I have left is the right shoe and pendant that were in the bag, the hair tie, and a bunch of imploded coton shreds from the fencing outfit. I pack it all up in the bag. I also recover the copper wire that used to make the jacket self adjusting, can't waste expensive runecrafting material.

I check the two dead centipedes. Their blood has completely dried. I press the lemon against the exoskeleton of the one that was uninfected, still don't feel too comfortable with touching the other.

It's as I thought, the lemon can't burn through, is the chitin providing that resilience? Either way, using my trusty sharp nails, I cut out one of the legs. After emptying it of the dried flesh, it's big enough to snuggly fit the lemon inside, like the first ice cream ball in a large size cone. I tie it around my waist with some remains of the jacket. The exoskeleton is a bit translucent, enough for the limelight to go through.

I don't know whether to laugh or to cry at my own lemon pun.

The exoskeleton is quite tough and difficult to work with, especially with all the random spikes. I cut out and clean up the back part of seven sections of the exoskeleton all in one piece, like a long centipede skin stripe. By carving out a hole in the middle of the 4th section, I can put my head in and there you go. Centipede poncho. The jutting spikes are unwieldy so I end up breaking most of them, on the front especially. Some spikes in my back can't hurt, I'm like a weird hedgehog now. It covers me front and back from the neck to the ankles. I don't like how exposed my sides are. I tie the lemon torch belt around my waist over the thing, closing it up a bit. Better than nothing. It's not real clothes but I feel way safer.

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That about does it for the loot. The black thing evaporated leaving nothing behind, and as expected the centipedes didn't have a mana crystal anywhere in their body. Not that I checked the infested one.

I almost wish there was a nice textbox here telling me how I gained xp and leveled up or something. Maybe you can buy that in the karma shop, who knows. Would probably be very expensive.

But no, the only reward I get is two dead arthropods.

I'm not thirsty, not hungry, I don't even feel the need to sleep when I've been awake so long. I can probably still live off of the mana I absorbed from this ordeal for months.

Time to move on.

I'm a bit weary of going towards the place the infested centipede came from. I end up backtracking all the way to the giant's room, and pick the other way at the intersection of this same tunnel. Too bad I won't know how the hatchet got there. I took it just in case, even if my nails are better tools.

I'm more aware of holes in the cave's ceiling now.

Hmm. Here's something new. Stacked stones. I'm not risking raising my voice again, let's continue forward.

At the next intersection, another pile of stacked rocks sits at the entrance of the left path. So it's a way to mark a path? A path to what is the question. Clearly some intelligent being made this, and the stone hatchet, let's cautiously follow this trail.

Every intersection after that sports the same stacked stones. Sometimes two paths are marked and I can only randomly choose one. I'm marking the walls to be able to find my way back if necessary. My nails don't work on the stone here so I just imprint the lemon in there.

Maybe I should rename to Arren Lemon after this. This fruit is without a doubt my most valuable possession now.

Yet another intersection. I wonder if the stacker of rocks is still around, or if I'll eventually happen unto a dried corpse. I sure hope they're alive. It's even better if they know how to get out. Worst case I can probably just dig up a staircase and feed myself via the lemon until I hit the surface… but just how long would that take…

Noise! Wait no. Not just noise. Someone is talking… A child? That's not the common language the people were speaking until now, it's a bit more… rough around the edges?

There's at least two of them speaking, coming from around a corner a bit further, let's get closer slowly alright.

"... fish! Sell market? Eat good…"

"Sell no. Eat good brother yes!"

"Eat good!"

What… What am I listening to? They seem to be advanced enough to know the value of things and trading… With a bit of luck they're peaceful, right? I'm ready to fucking run under a full boost if they are hostile at all. Can I maybe come up with a peace offering or something… All I know is they like fish. If I had some I'd eat it too…

Oh. No more time to decide. They just came around the corner, we're staring at each other from twenty meters away.

Is it bad that I want a pet from an intelligent species? They're so cute!

They’re two small childlike figures fully covered in short and fuzzy orange-brown fur. Like bear cubs kinda? But more human like, although they are a tiny bit chubby. They have what look like long fox or rabbit ears pointing straight up atop their heads, with curly white horns that circle around the ears a few times before slightly expanding outwards. They both have three equally fluffy tails, currently standing very straight , due to surprise, I think. I can't really tell if they have hands or paws under all the fur but they do have small claws showing.

They're both wearing some rudimentary clothes or accessories made of centipede parts, strewn together large fish scales and shiny rocks. It doesn't seem to have any order or functionality to it besides the gold parts making light, and they don't cover anything in particular. Everything is fur covered already anyway. They shine brightly in the dark cave, that must be a lot of gold.

They are visibly shocked silly at my presence, as they are standing very upright, arms out and up like they're surrendering or something, mouth and eyes wide open, and not moving at all.

The smaller one even dropped the fish he was holding in his stupor. I think the small one is a boy and the slightly taller one is a girl, just looking at their body shape. Could be wrong. They're about 100 - 120cm tall I'd say. I could probably lift them both with one hand.

"Hello?" Might as well try.

No answer.

"You dropped your fish, you’re not going to pick it up?" I point to the fish.

They look even more shocked now.

"Talk like big!" The smaller one finally unfroze. He's pointing at me now.

"Like big yes! Soft yes?" the girly one asks towards me. Soft? What does she even mean, hoy?

I point to myself, "Soft ,yes?" I don't even know.

She seems to be happy with this 'answer' anyway, smiling and nodding "Soft yes! See big. Yes!"

Uh?

The other one seems happy too "Soft yes! Home fish. Eat good!" he picks the fish back up, it's at least half his size.

I just now realized they have small backpacks with rudimentary wood and plant made fishing gear, the bags straps are lost in the fur.

Where do they even find fish in here? I haven't seen or heard water streams once in three days.

The taller one wobbles over to me, they have short legs and arms, she's looking up at me now "Follow see big, yes?"

"Ok… I mean, uh, yes."

"Hum hum, follow, yes!"

"Woa, sister strong!" the other one says. The sister in question is acting like she didn't hear and proceeding ahead towards where they came from, but she's walking a bit straighter now.

Let's go see 'big' I guess, what the hell have I gotten myself into?

It's better than more centipedes though. Yep, way better.