Looking at the eerie twilight enshrouded wasteland I felt no fear. I fear darkness but this twilight had light from the eclipse covered sun that still let me see in bland color.
Well for moments that is.
As the portal to the outside closed behind me the possibility of making a new one appears and I activate it and call the Flare Flies.
All the living adults came out. 59 of them in total but there were eggs and larva that were in the phase of growth or already morphing into adults.
Like fire flies these can make a light. Outside in the world they have a skill where they can make a bright light that can light up the area around them but it lasts only 5 seconds because it consumes mana.
But it is different here. In this dimension where mana from the food I eat, the air I breathe and everything is gathered instead of simply passed through my body. After a few weeks it has begun to get denser and because of this the flies can hold the light indefinitely.
Just so you know, this is INSIDE my body so the size of everything that passes the portal is technically reduced so the consumption of mana is much MUCH more reduced. Strange how I can enter my own body but it doesn’t really matter. I blame magic.
With a thought all 59 bugs lit up making the area of around 10 meters very bright. The ground finally gained color besides black. It was proper brown packed dirt.
“Okay, now to find that thing.” I say.
I spread out my senses over the wasteland. It took no less than five seconds for me to feel a presence that caused my body to shake and be covered in cold sweat.
Looking 10 degrees to the left of where I came out of was a presence that screamed, DEMON!
I breathed in deeply and pulled out the Glaive before summoning the combo breed of Str and Agi of Lightning Strider.
They were now as long and thick as my thumb and could fly rather fast. They could also discharge a small bit of electricity on impact. Here it would be much stronger since it was a magic skill.
I had 78 of these types of bugs since I wasn’t able to breed many since it was only recently that they achieved the conditions to crossbreed.
Their potential as I guessed had combined and they kept about 75% of the potential from both stats.
Now I had to continue finding the one with the best genes for both stats to keep breeding them well or use the separate stats and strengthen each stat one at a time per generation.
After preparations were complete, for now, I started walking with all the bugs circling me like satellites.
I walked and walked without end towards that dark feeling that was probably the center of the wasteland.
As the oppressive feeling gets stronger suddenly a wave of mist comes towards us.
I freeze up seeing the complete darkness in front of me. It was unlike the twilight I have seen around me, it was like a cloud of darkness.
Thankfully when it reached the wall of light it stopped and avoided the light.
Even though it didn’t come into the light, my nervousness didn’t subside and thankfully it didn’t because the sound of crawling could be heard from out there and soon pure black beetles appeared from the darkness.
“Attack!” I instantly ordered the striders and they flew quickly and slammed into the bugs releasing a surprisingly large snap like a small bolt of lightning.
They released a shock, took flight and began hitting more and more, killing them by the dozens but it didn’t stop the swarm because they outnumbered us 20 to 1 so I began stomping on them with a shockwave spell to push those near away. This was the effect of earth magic covering a body part instead of used as a spell.
Seeing no end to this I summoned all the lightning striders except the breeders I would need later and recall several of the strongest of the combo that had the most potential. I didn’t want to risk it.
With more numbers the waves of lightning crackling onto the dark beetles kept rampaging for several minutes until the dark mist dispersed.
My bugs began circling me making a buzzing wall.
I recalled most of them leaving about 100 of them.
Seeing the twilight was a relief without a doubt but I didn’t let that go to my head and started moving after I sharpened my mind to not let it off guard.
After a while a new wave came. This time were flies. They were big and they were strong. They came rapidly hitting several dozens of the current lightning striders injuring their wings. I saw these were built for strength and speed so I called on my toxic blood suckers that were of the same configuration. I had 120 of these and they came like a storm slamming into them without mercy.
I couldn’t help smiling a bit. Strength type toxic bloodsuckers were a bit unique because their endurance was also higher than normal. Some time ago it had begun increasing faster like Str so they were becoming more durable or at least durable enough.
With my guidance I aimed for the back mostly to make the enemy break a wing or get injured so that the lightning gliders would come and finish them.
I called the gliders back again and again and it was a complete submission once more.
It was getting harder as we went but something was strange.
That suffocating feeling was there but it felt like it wasn’t in front but all around.
A sudden thought appeared in my mind. Darkness magic has illusion magic as a subcategory.
I looked back then up and around. That sense of oppression was definitely all around me.
“Ho~! So you can tell! Hehehe!” A voice said.
It felt so familiar that voice, it was exactly the same as my brother, my tormentor.
A shiver ran down my back as I felt this.
“You idiot. I am your nightmare. Your darkness. You followed some fake sense of oppression I created just in front of you. I have been behind, in front and around you ever since you stepped into this place. This place grants me a corporeal form yet it wasn’t hard to hide because your darkness is inside you. You have nothing to aid you, no reason to kick me out.” He said with that all too familiar voice.
My body was trembling as if I was cold. The bugs didn’t even notice anything even through the hive mind.
“It's funny how you think. These bugs are nonsense brainless insects. They aren’t the almighty beings from long ago that you read about. What you have been killing, they are simple illusions made to humor you.”
He insulted me so profoundly that I felt like crying.
I opened a portal and recalled them all since it was worthless. I let the twilight cover me.
“Heh, I see you aren’t so stupid as to think that I would appear with light around. Yeah, light magic solidifies my body making it hurt like hell when hit just like my illusions gained mass.” He said.
From my chest a black smoke came and gathered in front of me. From this smoke a face appeared. It was the face of my brother. My brother was always cocky because he was spoiled by my step mother. My real mother divorced and my dad got custody. My dad then remarried and that woman was trash beyond trash and her son wasn’t any better.
My trauma of being in dark and tight places was simply a side effect of him beating and torturing me mentally and physically every day. It wasn’t until he was 12 and I was 10 that he took it too far by beating me to an inch of death. I didn’t die and my father rescued me and tried investigating but didn’t find anything. I was in shock for a good 6 months and when I got out of it I tried to kill my brother slowly and painfully.
I knocked him out and set the car to drive us to an isolated warehouse where, for two weeks, I slowly broke his body and mind.
At the end my father found me and when he saw my state he was shocked himself.
I laughed like a madman and when my stepmother cursed me as a wretch I threw a knife in her leg and one by one I told my father what these two had done to me.
I couldn’t kill my step brother but he was crippled and I was put in a mental hospital to help recover mentally. It took 2 years before I was back but my personality had turned dull and my fixation towards bugs had grown into an obsession. It was a form of relief really.
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“You know, I was created from your memories. I know what you did to the real me and what I did to you. Your step brother, I have his face and his anger, your darkness is my darkness and your rage is my rage. You are an empty piece of shit that hides behind insects for protection. Even when you entered college you had no one. At work only that bitch seems to care abo…”
PAW!
Before he could finish my fist connected with his face and sent him to the ground.
I grabbed my Glaive.
“Don’t speak about my life like you know. I know who liked me and hated me. Every single one so don’t you dare say the people that cared for me don’t.” I said.
Without either noticing a small crack appeared on the obstacle in front of the sun.
“Heh! Did you forget? I was made from your memories! I am all that makes your darkness! Though I’m not your real step brother I will make you suffer just like him!”
“If you have all my memories then you have my skills?” I asked.
“HAHAHA! Finally noticed.” he shouted as a Glaive similar to mine appeared except the instrument was switched with a second blade.
“I have all your skills and as you read in that stupid book, I am 7 levels above you!” he shouted.
“7 levels… then you are that weak.” I said.
His face turned blank as I said that.
“What, too stunned? You can read my mind so you should know what I am thinking right now.” I said calmly.
He was quiet before a scowl appeared on his face and a grin began spreading on my face.
“You are only a shadow of a human at level 11. You only copy my skills but your stats are of a player at level 11. You would have only 55 more points of stats unlike me who has trained diligently to gain more. I am your equal if not stronger.” I said.
“YOU PIECE OF SHIT YOU THINK I FEAR YOU!?!? YOU SHOULD FEAR ME! YOUR FEAR!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.
I put my hand over my face and started laughing. At the start it was just a normal laugh but slowly it turned mad, more deranged.
My fear, my darkness felt fear of the man in front of him.
As the laugh grew to its highest I began to calm down but my hand didn’t leave my face covering my eyes.
“I can’t believe my fears were actually so small. To think my deepest fear had actually been something I had nearly killed before.” I said to myself. “Dark ass, do you know why I was able to nearly kill my brother?” I asked.
He didn’t answer but this made a wide grin appear. I move my hand out of the way of my left eye. As if possessed it seems to shine with an unnatural red light emitting from it.
“Because I went mad and simply didn’t care anymore.” I said and in the next moment a dark cloak shrouded me and my body disappeared.
The darkness in the shape of my stepbrother petrified for a moment before he finally turned around to see my Glaive blade coming at his chest.
Instantly his body dissolved and turned into smoke dodging.
“WHAT WAS THAT!?” The shadow shouted.
“Darkness spell I just thought of watching you. I cover my body in dark smoke and cause an illusion not letting you see me until I attack.” I said laughing like a madman.
I then spin the Glaive and catch it near the blade.
With all the force in my right arm I swung the Glaive to the right making a sharp loud whistle sound come from the instrument. From the left hand a portal appeared and all my Flare flies rushed out like in a frenzy.
They swarmed the cloud and lit up their lights.
Half of them light up the smoke making the shadow turn into the body that fell to the ground in pain.
With a mad grin on my face I swung the Glaive down then turned to the right making a strange series of whistles that made the other half of the flare flies spit all their acid onto the shadow.
I quickly opened a new portal and all the Bombardier Beetle rushed out.
With a similar swing all the bugs converged on the squirming man that was getting up with glowing red eyes.
With a swing of my Glaive down completely all the bugs except 10 that kept him solid with the light bombarded him with their acid burning him to the extreme.
Seeing him fall so pathetically it made me wonder why I had feared darkness, tight spaces and him so much.
I held the Glaive up and let it slide down until I gripped the center.
The bugs were holding him down with the painful acid while I began running.
“I can finally peacefully sleep, you trash! VANISH FOREVER!” I shout as I get near and plant the Glaive down and somersault myself up and spin forward pulling the Glaive with me. With the spin the blade came down right on his head splitting him in half.
In the same manner the block in front of the sun was cut in the same way letting a line of light pass through crossing just where we were.
The bugs began buzzing as the darkness was dying.
“I can’t believe I was afraid of something so pathetic. I can’t believe I never noticed the people I could consider my sunlight.” I mutter looking at the shadow.
From the center smoke was rising but turning into millions of shadow bugs.
They started to spread and were forming a cloud. It was a wild cloud of dark bugs like before.
I looked up and saw the sun that was covered. There were cracks appearing from that line I cut.
I look at the swarm as it begins to cover the sky. From one side a line begins forming like a tunnel that the dark bugs were flying through.
I recalled all my bugs before I began to swing my Glaive.
The whistle from the Glaive disturb their movements. I narrowed my eyes as I began to swing the Glaive in the pattern of the fighting style I had learned. Slowly the bugs fell and began to move around as I wanted. Slowly opening the skies they formed many tunnels of bugs that swarmed through them.
As for me, as if dancing while making my own music with the whistling of the Glaive I made this darkness adhere to me and not against me. Those that went against me were killed by the movement of the others.
It was a while that this kept up until I finally opened my eyes completely as I finished.
I carefully spun the Glaive around me before lowering it. The bugs followed this movement and as soon as I stopped they rushed towards me.
It was just like that dream I had. I awoke before seeing more but I knew what to do.
I waited. I did nothing until the final moment I shouted and with a single spin the Glaive spun with the blunt instrument glowing an infinitely bright light that hit the swarm head on and caused it all the turn to smoke and disappear as smoke. In the sky the obstacle blocking the sun was completely destroyed into dust and the sunlight felt on the wasteland bringing light that will eventually fill the land with life.
The density of mana rose to a new league here and all traces of the darkness vanished.
I was breathing deeply from what I did. Soon several dings rang and the notifications appeared.
You have conquered your own nightmare within the wasteland. By completing this feat the Wilderness Zone shall now grow as a world of its own. By bringing vegetation, insects and animals you shall fill this place with creatures that your inhabitants shall fight and compete with.
All the habits and the Wilderness zone are now connected and your bugs can come as they please to hunt once the place has gained vegetation.
There is now a day and night cycle in all habits and the Wilderness zone.
By Conquering your fear and unblocking the sun in the Wilderness zone you have also unlocked an important part in your soul. This blocked part when unlocked increases your capacity to contain mana and release it in your dimension. You will also regenerate mp by simply eating.
You have learned a new class skill
Dance of the Bugs
Basic Level 1
The Dance of the Bugs is a fighting style where you reverse your Glaive so that you can use the instrument on the other size to control your bugs and a frenzied swarm that is attacking you.
Control of enemy swarm becomes 2% easier
Controlling you swarm becomes 2% easier
Boost to your bugs in all stats and skills by 5%
You have leveled up
You have leveled up
You have leveled up
Looking at the windows I smiled. An upgrade to the dimension and 3 levels for beating a nightmare I had surpassed a long time ago… No, I think my real nightmare was my own madness that I used myself today. Who knows?
I put the 15 extra points equally through my str, agi and end.
As I finally finish I look around and breath deeply seeing the land full of packed dirt and no vegetation.
“This will be very hard work. Maybe the dimension simply spreads what I put here. I hope it's that or it will be a serious pain.” I mutter and feel for the exit only for it to appear before me.
I chuckled and shook my head. Taking a mana potion, I drink it to regain mana I used from all the magic and portals. I opened and opened the exit up and appeared in the room I was in.
Taking a deep breath I felt relieved.
“Never thought the smell of moldy old books would be missed so much.” I said exiting the room and then the library itself before sitting next to Flor.
“Already done?” She asked, surprised.
“Yeah, it was simpler than I thought. I had already surpassed my fear without noticing.” I said and she smiled.
I returned a bright smile as well to her. A smile that had most of the burdens it held lifted.
She actually blushed a bit before getting to work. “That is good, what was it?”
“My brother and my darkness.” I said. That was all I needed to say since I had already told her of my past. She didn’t judge me since I had nightmares of it.
“I’m glad you finally noticed. You are already brighter than before and no longer gloomy.”
“Was I gloomy?” I asked.
“Yep, always.” She said bluntly.
I chuckled as I also realized how I wasn’t happy most of the time. The weight on my shoulders always kept me down and I distracted myself with work. Maybe this was why I never properly found a partner.
“You should rest a bit.” Flor said but I got up.
“Don’t feel like it. I’m going to get rid of every alley’s corpses TODAY and I don’t care if people see me opening portals.” I said.
Florista’s eyes widened but I was running before she could say anything.
Like I said, I, for the rest of the day, went to each and every alleyway and had my bugs gather the bodies in piles and I dumped them into the hive and had the strongest of each breed make more eggs. The largest number went to the firebug pair that were carnivorous of larva. The rest of the carcasses would later be dumped for the beetles that ate them.
In that single day I literally did clean the town of all dead bodies without exception from just how well I felt.
And from it rumors of a man that controlled bugs rose and with some rumors spread by me I made the guards find all the men that were breeding bugs to spread disease.
The final thing I did before night fell was release all my spiders and carnivorous bugs and told them to catch and eat as many bugs as possible. At midnight I got this message.
Quest:
Bug Invasion (Complete)
You have cleaned the entire city of bodies and found the culprits for the bug invasion. By spreading rumors to the guards they were able to catch them all before they could redo their attempts and continue hurting the public. Also by killing off all the wild bugs in the city you have prevented the possibility of any of this from repeating again.
Reward:
4 levels, speak with the Librarian Thomas Magi for further reward.