Chapter 40

Hell Thus Began

Some six hours into their second hunt, the group, for the first time, ran into a different monster from the lions–it was a six-foot-long constrictor snake, coiled unto itself, seeping strange-looking liquid over its skin. Its hue shifted from blindingly white to cool azure, its body uncoiling as soon as they got within a hundred feet of it. It 'stood up', reaching the height of a grown man quickly, and it hissed lowly, its pair of beady eyes flaming red.

It didn’t wait for them to attack; contrary to its size, it moved quickly–even more quickly than the lions, crossing a hundred feet of separation within seconds. Ethan stepped forward quickly and summoned a crimson blade, slashing it out at range and recoiling the creature's attack, dealing enough damage to break through its skin.

“I’ll take the lead with this one,” he said. “Support only.”

Ethan sprung forward and attacked the beast with a bloody whip; the latter used itself as a coil, springing backwards and dodging the strike while, at the same time, shaking midair and shedding the liquid around it, spraying it toward Ethan. The air cooled down to dangerous levels, prompting him to swiftly duck and evade the strike. As the liquid landed on the cracked, burning ground, it froze that very ground for a few moments. The answer as to how the snake survived in such temperatures became evident–it was the strange liquid that covered its whole body.

As the snake landed, Ethan pursued, bloody sword hovering to his side, following his movements precisely. The snake hissed once more, tossing itself forward at Ethan and taking the hit directly, cleaving its HP down below 50%, with the goal of constricting him. However, just then, Ronald arrived with a thrust of the bloody spear, its speed like a bolt of lightning, with even Ethan unable to perceive it properly or react to it just yet. However, as fast as it was, it was also beyond difficult to properly control and aim–while Ronald wanted to stab the snake’s eyes, he just grazed its halfway point, opening up a wound and shooting over the snake as the strike momentum pulled him with it.

Though comical, it afforded Ethan enough room to get out of the snake’s range and round it for the final slash, beheading it and killing it. The creature fell to the ground and vanished with a sizzle a moment later, having not dropped anything but just barely enough XP for Ronald to reach Level 6.

The group moved on after a momentary rest, hunting for another couple of hours before returning to the tent. Tara and Ethan both reached Level 8, unlocking no new Systems, but each gaining a new Passive ability. Tara’s increased the range of all of her abilities by 10%, while Ethan’s gave him a flat 2% leech rate on all attacks that deal damage. Though it didn’t matter at the moment, stacking flat leech rate was the cornerstone of the Blood Inheritor as a drain-tank Class.

Elijah and Tara skipped the meal and immediately went to the cool (relatively) chambers underground to rest while Ethan and Ronald stayed on the surface, inside the tent whose colour was already beginning to bleach due to sun exposure. It was hardly any cooler than the outside, but at least they weren’t exposed to the sunlight directly.

“I’m guessing we’re also gonna speed up tomorrow as well, right?” Ronald asked suddenly, his gaze glazed in exhaustion.

“... you can stay,” Ethan’s words surprised him, startling him awake momentarily.

“W-what?”

“You can stay. In the underground room, I mean,” Ethan elaborated. “You all can, to be honest.”

“... no, seriously. What? If you could have done this without us, why’d you bring us along?”

“Because I didn’t know I could,” Ethan shrugged. “Now I do, however.”

“... will we get any XP?”

“No.”

“So, in effect, you’ll shoot so far past us we’ll become pretty much useless outside of babysitting Layla?”

“...” Ethan stayed silent, though the answer was rather clear. Ronald sighed, taking a sip of water; though the Inventory maintained the water’s temperature, that was it: it maintained it. They hardly had the foresight to cool the water down; though, in comparison, they did feel quite frosted… for a few moments before they quickly heated up. "What's your end goal, Ronald?" Ethan asked suddenly, causing the young boy to look at him in confusion.

“Huh?”

"Where do you hope this journey takes you?" Ethan elaborated. "Do you want to become famous? So strong nothing can harm you? Or do you just want to survive? Tara is simple–in so much a person can be simple–she wants to help people, so much so that it's a sickness. On the surface, it's because she's a good person; in truth, it's because she's selfish. Elijah's just like her… except his surface is the truth. They fit the mould of 'saviours', the consummate vigilantes that never quite fit in properly, no matter the scenario.

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"And while I haven't a clue what their end goal is either, I imagine it is along the lines of opening up a human equivalent of an animal sanctuary and keeping everyone in it safe from the outside. What about you, though? What do you hope to achieve?"

“... seeing as you’ve got those two figured out, you probably already know the answer,” Ronald replied defensively. “So, why ask?”

“I don’t have them figured out, though?”

“H-huh?”

"People are more than their motivations and desires," Ethan said. "You can never truly 'figure' someone out because people aren't puzzles made up of unmoving pieces. If anything, it's the opposite of that. We are constructs in constant flux, adapting to not just ourselves and how our thoughts change with new experiences, but how the world around us perceives us, and how the world in general changes independent of us. I understand parts of them–what makes them tick as humans at their very core. But they are more than their righteous anger, as I'm more than my, outdated terminology aside, sociopathic tendencies."

“...”

"You don't believe me? Let's see–I'm a loving brother, a charming dance partner, a damn fine cook if I say so myself–"

“No, no, I believe you, I believe you,” Ronald interrupted. “I… I honestly don’t know. I don’t know what I want out of this. Haven’t really got time to think about it, what with all the surviving and being beaten an inch away from death repeatedly. Can’t it just be surviving for now and figuring it out later?”

“Yeah, that’s about as well as anyone’s gonna look into the future for a while,” Ethan nodded, taking a sip of water. “So, I take it that you’ll come and not stay and rest?”

“... yeah,” Ronald said, sighing. “I’ll be there. Right there.”

The young boy sauntered off, leaving Ethan alone. He wasn't particularly tired; if anything, he was finally beginning to readjust himself to the life of an Awakened. His body would continue to change as he'd Level Up, and unlock new abilities and features, and even its fundamentals would eventually change, but he can't simply wait for his body to catch up to his mind. Twenty years into the future, human bodies weren't really human any longer.

Just one example of the change that went beyond simple evolution was how the body reacted to infections. What is a very complex, multi-pronged defence by various components of the immune system would be replaced entirely by a beyond-simplified version where the infection was fought by Mana-grown cells that the body would adapt into its bloodstream over the course of many years of Mana exposure.

Beyond that, on the genetic level, humans would simply cease to be–especially all newborns after the second year of post-Descent. One example is how the body reacted to the varying degrees of oxygen levels. Whereas, normally, prolonged exposure to highly oxygenated environments could lead to oxygen toxicity, hyperoxia, and a whole host of pulmonary and neurological issues, the new human body simply… didn't. It worked perfectly fine, whether the air had 99% or 1% oxygen. In fact, it could even survive in no oxygen environments for several hours. Mana was that powerful and exerted more influence on a human genome than anything else in the world, by far.

His mind was calibrated for that body–for a body that could withstand virtually everything that would probably kill him as of now. As such, he had to reconfigure it himself, forcibly break certain habits that he'd developed over the course of his life, namely, the fact that he used to barely sleep–on average, most Awakened slept for about 1 hour per month of activity as Mana, once again, acted as a natural, refreshing stimulant with almost no side effects.

While getting used to sleeping almost daily was difficult and he’d often just close his eyes for 6-7 hours without a wink of sleep, he still didn’t get up as habits took time to develop as well as break.

Some five minutes later, he, too, got up and went underground. All three were already fast asleep and though he knew he wouldn’t sleep even a minute, he still lay down and closed his eyes. He didn’t think about anything, he didn’t plan anything, he emptied his mind of all things and enjoyed the silence and darkness, grand rarities in the world consumed by monsters, human and otherwise.

By the time the trio woke up, Ethan had already gone to the tent and fixed them a quick breakfast–a smoothie. It was enough sustenance to hold them steady until the ‘lunch’ break later on, and they hardly cared for taste much in an environment as unholy as the Scorching Savanna.

They’d gotten through precisely 44 monsters in two full days of hunting, and that was simply too slow. Ethan’s plan, in fact, was to double that amount by the end of the day–whether with them or without them. He still adjusted to them and their needs in hopes that they might get acclimated fast enough, but it was no longer a luxury he wanted them to have. In some ways, perhaps, it was best they see first-hand what the life of a hunter was like. There were no lunch breaks, no quick rests in the shade, no prolonged battles for safety measures… all of those things were tossed in a bin in lieu of the most important thing of the hunt: efficiency.

As such, he set the tone from the very first battle they engaged–with another lion that had the ability to send out scorching flames around him. Unlike before, however, when it did, Ethan didn't retreat as Tara and Ronald did–he unloaded as much damage as he physically could during that window, managing to kill the creature before it could cast its ability. He didn't dilly-dally after, either, running off even before the creature's body vanished. By the time the other three caught up to him, he was halfway through the battle with a pyraconda. Within just a few battles, they were sweating and panting–their lungs and legs demanded rest, but they knew that they wouldn't get it. Ethan was setting the pace wordlessly and whether they could keep up with him or not… they knew, he didn't care. This was his world, now, and if they wanted to be a part of it, they'd have to prove themselves in ways that exceeded simple battle capabilities. They 'just' had to keep up–they barely even fought–and yet, within half an hour, they were more tired than when they hunted for hours the two days prior. Hell, they realised, was just beginning.