Stumbling In the Dark Part 1
Descending down to the 2nd floor, I hurriedly walked past splintered bookshelves, demolished rubble, and decaying bodies. Each of my steps carried a sense of heavy urgency, spurred by the aching anxiety that blossomed within my heart.
I left the library, went down the giant hole in the floor, and found myself back at the Cafeteria. By now, the floors were all dried up, and the room smelled distinctly of charred corpses and stale air.
I crossed the large span of empty space, and stopped in front of the broken down corridor. Like previously, the scene before me was unchanged. A massive congestion of giant pieces of concrete, and loose rubble. The metallic ventilation shaft, scratched and disfigured by its fall was like a centerpiece, decorating the mass of devastation.
For less than a second, I stood there, unmoving.
The first thing I did was test the “wall” of concrete. I shifted around some of the loose pieces of rubble and attempted to move a few of the heavier pieces that blocked my way. As expected, after a few rounds, I quickly came to the conclusion that it was next to impossible to make any real progress like this. The obstacles were too firmly in place, if I wanted to get to the other side of the corridor, then I’d need to find another way around.
Glancing up at it again, the fear that Cielle might be under all this concrete and metal shook my heart to the core. Cielle was someone… important to me. She was the first person I met during the apocalypse, and she’s pretty much been with me throughout the whole experience. A sort of friendship blossomed between us. She didn’t talk much, and sometimes, she’d give off this weird vibe, but it’s not like I hated her company. In retrospect, she may be one of the very first friends that I’ve had in a long time.
Even without factoring in her skills and combat potential, she was a person I could not afford to lose.
Just as the thought of losing her came to my mind, I quickly and forcibly pushed it away. There was no use thinking about things like that. That type of loser mentality was the worst to have in this type of situation. Besides, the slightly overweight survivor had told me, he had seen Cielle fly through the corridor, not crushed under all the falling debris.
I stood there for a moment before I walked into a spot on the floor where a particularly large shadow enveloped its surroundings. I began to emulate the feeling from earlier at the Library and, within the recesses of my mind, I whispered, [Shadow Sprint]!
“....”
Nothing happened.
I frowned as I reflexively scratched my head. Although I had considered the possibility, it seems like I can’t exactly teleport through walls. This limitation wasn’t expressly stated within the Skill’s information panel, but somehow, I had a gut feeling something like this would happen. In the first place, I did not know whether the limitation had something to do with the physical structure obscuring my path, or due to lack of visibility.
I let out a disappointed sigh and turned back around.
As I prepared to walk away, something from underneath a few loosely turned slabs of concrete caught my attention.
I gingerly lifted up the slab of concrete, revealing an outdated, black-and-grey walkie talkie. It obviously belonged to Cielle, and seeing it here wasn’t all that surprising, if I really think about it. Looking closely, the walkie talkie was thoroughly destroyed. It was painfully obvious with a single glance that under all the weight of the concrete, this precious piece of equipment was now as useful as a pile of dirty underwear.
Adding this with my own, which was damaged by the electrical shock from earlier, that left us with only Hina’s walkie talkie. A single walkie talkie alone was useless. Without anything to receive the messages with, what good was that piece of junk?
I chucked the walkie talkie towards the congregated mass of rubble with as much strength as I could muster. The walkie talkie shattered into several smaller pieces the moment it crashed into a giant slab of concrete.
I watched, dark eyed and solemn as the shattered remains filtered through to the cracks and open spaces of the congregated wall.
“....”
Paying the incident no further heed, I quickly turned back around and began making my way to the hole in the wall. I did not like it, but I needed to take a detour in order to get to the other side of the corridor.
****
Cielle lifted up her small, clenched fists and stared at it with pale almost fish like eyes. Her hands were covered red with fresh blood. Open wounds that made it hurt to so much as move her fingers were numerous and abundant. The continuously seeping blood was like a curtain, masking and hiding her hands’ originally pale-cream like complexion.
She blankly looked at her still clenched hands before a transparent light blue substance appeared from seemingly out of nowhere and quickly enveloped her two fists. As the magic quickly did its job, a slight throbbing suddenly flared up in the back of Cielle’s head.
The cause of this ache was unknown to Cielle. Her mana was still fairly high, so she ruled out [Mana Exhaustion] as a cause, leaving her to wonder why exactly this sort of throbbing persisted as [Blue Gemini] continued to do its job.
After stomaching through the pain, Cielle offhandedly checked her status, only to discover that she had acquired the detrimental status affect, [Mental Strain].
[Mental Strain] was a detrimental status effect that results from the excessive use and piled up stress of anything relating to the mind. In Cielle’s case, her [Mental Strain] was a condition brought on by the combination of her almost non stop constant use of magic, as well as the psychological pressures her current situation put her in.
Seeing this, Cielle cracked a bitter smile. Even though she regained her mana, without the proper amount of rest, using magic will only further worsen her current condition. In the face of this situation, Cielle could do nothing but smile in self deprecation. It was not like she could just stop using magic. In order to survive her current situation, Cielle was left with no other option but to continually push her limits beyond her current capabilities.
She swallowed down the rising negative emotions in her heart and refocused on what was infront of her.
The metallic screen that Cielle had been beating on continuously had finally given in. That was the reason, after all, for her bloody fists. Now, with the prospects of finally leaving this cramped, metallic oven, Cielle’s mood slightly improved.
She gingerly poked her head out, the weariness in her mind overriding the rising emotions in her heart.
Her eyes scanned the hallway vigilantly, and like she had feared, her constant banging had attracted the nearby monsters around the vicinity.
She regretted making so much noise, but thinking back, it was her only option.
Cielle had no other choice in the matter. The only way to leave the ventilation shafts was through sheer force after all. Her magic was useless and she didn’t have anything like a screw to uncork and loosen the bolts that held the screen in place.
This led to the constant banging which produced the sound that echoed throughout the halls. Although she had checked before hand that the hallway she had chosen was empty and devoid of life, unsurprisingly, the noise had traveled a greater distance than what she would have liked.
It was an inevitable outcome. Plus, with the constant guidance from the Boss, it would have been a mere eventuality for the monster horde to locate and catch her.
There, coming out from the corner of the hall, were dozens of short, dog sized tadpoles. Their bodies were coated in a slime like filament that gleamed a murky green which was visible even in the dimness of the night. These tadpoles had giant mouths that hanged loosely below their bodies and had no arms, but their legs were strangely well developed, having the appearance of a fully grown frog’s hind legs.
Cielle wasn’t stupid. Although she hadn’t seen them directly, due to them constantly hiding within the confines of the polluted pools, Cielle instantly knew these were immature Wetlanders. They had not yet fully developed into the ugly, frog-like monsters she was familiar with but still, the resemblance was noticeable.
Cielle frowned upon seeing the sight. 2 to 3 dozens of these dog sized monsters were currently hopping towards her direction. The scene brought an immediate chill to her mind, causing her to hesitate whether or not she should stay within the confines of the ventilation shafts.
The scene of these tadpole like creatures jumping in and chasing her through the ventilation system was what finally tipped the scale in her indecisive mind.
She hastily crawled out and staggered with shaking, somewhat numb limbs.
She glared at the monsters. Their levels were relatively low, ranging from anywhere between 3 to 6. Going by their levels, these monsters, although weak, probably had experience fighting and killing their peers. The sort of ritualistic sibling versus sibling behavior common within the animal kingdom. It was a gruesome idea, but it fully embodied the very philosophy of this new world; Survival of the Fittest.
To the current her, monsters of this level weren’t even a challenge. She was not scared of them individually, but what did frighten her was their sheer numbers. Even now, more and more dog sized tadpoles were hopping out of classrooms and congregating a little bit away from her. Their numbers had swelled up close to a hundred by now, yet that growth had no indication of stopping.
Before, when Cielle had gone level grinding with the others, she had seen these monsters within the pools, darting around the murky waters like little black dots. Back then, the several almost Olympic sized swimming pools were filled to the brim with these dots. So much so that their numbers forced the fully grown Wetlanders out of the water.
What’s more, she had seen an even more numerous amounts of eggs that either floated along the surface of the pool or gathered on the poolside.
Back then, they had not attacked any of them. Instead, they kept these tadpoles alive as future investments, or to be more accurate, future experience. Now, in the face of the hundred plus army of monsters before her eyes, Cielle could only draw her lips into a thin line. She was bitterly regretting not killing these monsters beforehand.
Still, they were low leveled. They were still weak. If she acted smart, the situation was not entirely hopeless.
Cielle began running in the opposite direction, while the first few strands of [Black Gemini] began floating out from the ventilation shaft and followed her. They bobbed up and down in the air next to her for but a moment, before a thin portion of the mucous-like substance shot out behind her at a blistering speed towards the nearest tadpole.
This whole process caused a ringing sound in Cielle’s head, but she could only grit through the pain and focus on her current predicament.
The tadpole let out an inhuman screech that vibrated the decaying air around her. It continued to scream for close to 3 seconds before it curled up and died.
The tadpole was relatively weak, plus being immature and still developing, it was more sensitive to the things around it than its older, fully matured counterparts. What’s more, from what Hide had told her before, the Wetlander monsters were creatures that absorbed matter through their skin. Be it food, water, or air, their skin was like a thin translucent outer layer that filtered all of these.
Due to this unique physiological trait, its skin was more sensitive than others. This sensitivity reflected in the effectiveness of her [Black Gemini].
Despite the death of their fellow brethren, the Wetlander tadpoles showed no indication of stopping, rather, their speed had increased. They hopped with immature vigor, like a disorganized army with no leader. Their movement speed was by no means inferior to that of a normal pre-apocalypse human. In fact, if it was any consultation, these level 3-6 monsters were just as fast as regular dogs.
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Cielle’s face paled upon seeing this. She continued to run with all her might while she pointed a shaking finger at the monsters behind her. Immediately after, a wave of [Black Gemini] gushed forward and enveloped the front lines of the approaching monster army.
A chorus of inhuman screeches resonated and close to 2 dozen Immature Wetlanders lost their lives. Cielle would have celebrated if it weren’t for her splitting headache, or the fact that more monsters quickly replaced the ones she killed and instead, inflated the army to an even larger size.
The constant screaming caused a budding fear to swell up within Cielle’s heart. If they were this noisy, then it wouldn’t be long before more monsters, attracted by the noise, came and attacked her.
She threw another wave of black liquid to the closest tadpoles before, a little bit behind her, scattered amongst the multitude of tadpoles, the fully grown Wetlanders came to view.
Those mature wetlanders were way more scarier than these baby tadpoles. Their levels were approaching 30 and their bodies rippled with amphibian muscle. These Wetlanders were of a much higher level than the ones she had encountered, which only further spurned on her fear.
Among the 100 or so tadpoles, there were about 10 Frogs.
The whole procession marched forward rather awkwardly, impeded by their large numbers and narrow halls.
Cielle turned a corner when, from the back of the crowd, came the sound of tiled floors being dislodged. In the next instant, a round of tadpoles were blasted away, losing their lives in an instant. A frog leapt through the air, its red tongue hanging loosely out of its wide mouth.
The frog hit a wall before it kicked out and leapt towards Cielle.
Cielle practically threw her body forward, dodging the Wetlander by a mere hair’s breadth away.
Her body rolled a three times before the floating congregation of [Black Gemini] that surrounded her all rushed towards the Wetlander.
The black substance seeped into every pore and orifice of the monster’s body, enveloping it into an infinite world of pain. It involuntarily let out a howl of agony before it unceremoniously died.
Its death happened in less than a span of a second, but in return, close to half of Cielle’s supply of [Black Gemini] had been expended. Plus, the attack just now caused another wave of stifling migraines to wash over her mind.
Her face wrinkled into a grimace just as she forcibly created a thin wall of black gemini that spanned the entirety of the intersection. This used up the remaining half of her supply and in addition, brought on an onset of even more severe migraines.
The pain was so great that Cielle temporarily blacked out. The sudden pain on her body caused by her inevitable fall to the floor was what woke her up just in time to see the first of the tadpoles cross the intersection.
She heard the sound of inhuman wailing as Cielle forced herself to rise. She shook her head desperately, noticing that, in addition to the migraines, a faint sense of nausea had began seeping into her mind.
Cielle ignored the pain to the best of her ability just as she continued to run. She turned into an empty classroom and continued further, deeper into the darkness, deeper into the maze of classrooms and hallways.
****
I arrived at the other side of the corridor in a little less than 10 minutes.
Along the way, I encountered numerous monsters. I did not have the time, nor leisure to fight through all of them, so tonight, I had the opportunity of experiencing [Shadow Sprint]’s functionality. Using the long distance instantaneous movement skill allowed me to avoid all the combat on my way here.
At my current location stood the other side of the wall of rubble and concrete. I did not pay this any particular mind though, as my attention was bought by the dried stain of blood on the floor. The stain was a few feet away from the rubble and, although somewhat dry, it was still noticeably newer than the rest of the blood stains that frequented the school building.
To me, the blood no doubt belonged to Cielle.
It pooled in a singular spot before trailing deeper into the corridor. I followed the blood enthusiastically, only to be met by disappointment. The droplets of blood that stained the tiles abruptly stopped the moment I got to a hallway intersection.
I knew full well that this abrupt stop was probably because Cielle healed her injuries. Honestly, this irritated me. While the blood trail confirmed her survival (for now), for once, I was irritated that Cielle was a healer. If it was like this, then I couldn’t properly track her using the blood trail, making my current task all the more difficult.
I was stumped.
I stopped at the middle of the hallway intersection and thought for a moment. I looked across the corridors, paying particular attention to see if there were any nearby monsters around. Luckily for me, the hallway was relatively empty, so I decided to use [Sensory Remapping].
I closed my eyes and completely drained my sense of sight. Since I had the best affinity with sound, I decided to reallocate it all into my hearing. My hearing expanded to twice its usual range. Still, I could not hear anything. I hesitated for a moment, before I reallocated my sense of smell, sense of taste, and sense of touch into hearing.
Out of my 5 primary senses, I only had my sense of hearing to rely on. My hearing expanded to 10 times its usual range. I could now hear more quieter sound waves at a much greater distance. From somewhere to my right, I could hear soft, constant trodding. Like an army on horseback. These were probably the tusk boars. I couldn't exactly pinpoint the exact distance, but they were still a fair bit of distance away from me. Although, unexpectedly, they sound was gradually growing louder and louder. The boars were moving in my direction.
Despite this, I did not worry. Instead, I further enhanced my sense of hearing. The current me was not enough. I needed more. I needed a larger range.
At this moment, for the first time since I acquired my ability, I drained every single one of my sensations, with the exception of hearing. My sense of balance, temperature, pain, kinesthesis, I drained and reallocated all of it. Even the sensations which I never knew existed, I drained everything. Hunger, perception of time, I could feel my hearing exponentially increase while everything else turned to nothing.
Every other sensation aside from hearing were all gone. I was in a world of sound.
I did not know to what degree my sense of hearing had expanded to. Like a barrier, the sounds I could perceive stopped directly at the outer walls of the dungeon. I could not hear anything outside of the school, but I could hear everything within it.
The tusks boars that were gradually getting closer, as well as the hordes of various monsters that were a little bit further back but were nonetheless making their way towards me, I could perceive it all. Even the few strained conversations within the library, the sound was a bit muffled due to the impending walls that got in my way, but still, I heard it. Also, I could hear what lay directly below me. The boss monster, it writhing and squirming followed by the deep, and primal heaves it produced. I could hear it all.
The sounds around me snaked their way around and traveled down the halls, but at the same time, they permeated through the walls, ceiling and floors, creating a jumbled of maze of noise and even more noise. It was hard to navigate through, but I focused and tried to find what I was looking for amidst all the chaos.
I removed my time perception so I don’t know how much time passed, but I could eventually make out what I thought was Cielle. She did not make any particular sound, but I could instinctively perceive her approximate location. The reason for this was not because of the sound she made, but because of the sound the monsters that followed her made.
With my field of hearing expanded to cover the whole building, I noticed several patterns. One, the monsters, which were disjointed before, were now unified. They were moving in packs. To me, they were like little pockets of sound that stood out from the rest of the empty and soundless space within the building.
Another pattern was that they were moving with purpose. A pocket of sound was gradually growing thinner and thinner, indicating that it was moving away from the building and into one of the others. Judging from the direction, I’d say that particular group was heading towards the old school building. At least 3 distinct pockets of sound were moving either towards my direction, or towards the library. These were the monsters “assigned” to hunt down both the cafeteria group and me.
Lastly, one pocket of sound, was moving independently. They were not moving without direction, but rather moved with purpose. I couldn't exactly pinpoint it, but the sound came from deeper into the building, the hallways and classrooms closest to the gymnasiums.
Without a doubt, these were the monsters chasing down Cielle. From the amount of noise they made, I could tell they were a fair bit more excited than the other hordes of monsters. The fact that they were still moving confirmed that their prey was still alive, but it wouldn’t be for long if this kept up.
I reopened my eyes, and in an instant, my hearing decreased, and the rest of my sensations flooded back into place. The odd sense of dissonance I felt from instantaneously losing my sense of sound left me a bit perturbed, but that rushing sensation only lasts a moment, before something blinked into existence before my eyes.
Ding!
Sensory Remapping + sub skill unlocked!
Echolocation- Navigation through the use of reflected sound waves.
I looked at the window panel for a brief second before I wordlessly began running deeper into the school building. I ran in the general direction of that independent pocket of sound.
Along the way, I experimented with echolocation.
The moment I activated the skill, my five main senses, with the exception of hearing automatically dimmed and my sense of sound exponentially increased. At first, I did not know what to do, but tentatively I opened my mouth and tried to reproduce what I imagined dolphins and bats did to use echolocation.
What surprised me was my vocal chords produced an odd clicking sound. The sound was so high pitched and distinct that the normal me would have never been able to reproduce such a noise, but I came to the conclusion that the clicking was an effect of the sub skill [Echolocation].
As I ran, I continued to make the same clicking noises. The frequency of the sound was so high that most normal humans and probably other animals and monsters would have been unable to hear it. The current me could though.
I continued to click for some time before I felt the noise bounce back and in my mind, a still of what was around me was produced. The picture created by sound persisted in my mind as I ran through the hall. The picture would automatically update itself as my own location changed and more frequent reflected echoes reached me.
It helped me locate monsters before they could even get close, allowing me to preemptively avoid them using [Shadow Sprint]. Due to my constant skill usage, my stamina was draining at a rapid pace. To supplement this, I constantly ate through my emergency food supply without reserve.
I was making my way closer towards that independent pocket of sound, closer into the deepest parts of the school building, and closer to where Cielle was.
****
Author's Note: If you liked this chapter, or this story in general, please don't forget to rate and review. It helps me out.