Chapter 16: Meditations.

Hunting for the rest of the day yielded no more levels. Not that I expected any.

[Meditation] allowed me to sense Psy far more clearly than before and regenerate it faster than ever, even while in motion. My hunting speed had therefore skyrocketed without the constant need for breaks or the constant drag of fatigue. Yet, with those improved feelings came a greater understanding of the levelling process.

I had grown too strong, too fast. Nothing in my near vicinity came even close to posing a threat. Not that I let my guard down of course.

The old adage still rang true.

Pride cometh before the fall; which is a fancy way to say people who think they’re untouchable tend to get their teeth kicked in sooner rather than later. Case in point, any of the regular monsters I was passing could have killed me in seconds if they actually figured out where I was.

No, the problem was one of challenge, in that, I was not being forced to go beyond my current limits in any of the fights I had ended during the past few hours.

For example, all my training with [Mental Bolt] had focused on how I could supercharge a strike or trying to bypass the cooldown. What I hadn’t realized until acquiring this new perspective was that I had also slowly adjusted the delivery of each bolt as I fought over the course of days.

In the beginning, I was pooling energy together and sending it off, without any care or forethought other than picking the target. By the second day, I’d been subconsciously leading the bolt towards my target even after firing. Now, I was able to fully move it around mid-flight, making it spiral and sharpen its edge to better penetrate the stronger monster’s innate resistances.

As for those resistances, they all had a lesser awareness that they used to dampen blows. That was why stronger monsters with more Psy had endured more than one bolt or survived my [Fever].

Now, my own abilities were so strong they could overwhelm the centipedes, the eels, the rabbits, the moles and the beetles with little issue.

Besides all those reasons, there was something else that I couldn’t properly describe. A nagging sensation at the back of my head that a vital piece of the puzzle was eluding me. It’d started when I fully opened up to Buddy and more or less accepted what I was. Since then, I’d become restless, not sure whether to release or supress this new, familiar echo.

I kept having that dream too. The one where I would find myself in my old bedroom, wearing my old pajamas. It, somehow became more and more disturbing the more I revisited.

The corners and the walls whispering more frequently and more ferociously. Beating me down from all sides within the dream.

That was definitely annoying, but it was a minor issue in the grander scheme of things.

The greatest problem was that I had hit a ceiling. My regular hunting methods were very well-adapted to surviving down here in the Labyrinth, but they were not allowing me to level as I’d previously done.

Of course, there were other ways to level besides hunting. I had gained levels before, when I made breakthroughs with my abilities or acted in such a way that I received new ones.

That was how I had gotten my hands on [Meditation] and [Friendship] after all.

Which meant the only way I’d advance was through experimentation.

To that end, I was trying something a little different.

“Hello there scamp. Can I call you scamp?”

The mandibles clacked in a different way than before, faster and more upbeat.

‘Yes yes. This blood bag can call me scamp. Yes.’

Both my fog and the link I’d created with [Message] buzzed with conflicting emotions. The centipede in front of me was hungry and perfectly aware that I had just killed its comrades.

Yet, it saw me as an ally.

Well, maybe that was too strong a word.

It saw me as a thing that gave it happy feelings. Yeah, that was more apt.

[Friendship] wasn’t as benevolent as it sounded.

What it did was activate the ‘feel good’ part of the brain while a conversation was in place.

Like a sinister roofie that deluded one to perceive the attacking party more favourably. Moreover, the target wouldn’t know I was the source unless I pointed it out.

With that established, I was trying to see how much I could get away with while the ability was still in effect.

“So, buddy. Can you jump for me?”

‘I don’t want to jump.’

“Really? I think you’ll feel a lot better if you jump.”

I injected a snippet of Psy into the conversation, giving it a taste of pleasure.

As I did so, a stream of bile threatened to overflow from within my stomach. Memories of the tall man and the community center breaking free of their suppression to remind me of what I could become if I went down this path. My teeth clenched as I willed my focus back to the skittering horror before me.

This was not the time.

This was not the place.

What I was doing was different.

This wasn’t mind-control.

Only encouragement.

I’m not evil.

Definitely not.

Its mind hummed in response, then tried to claw itself back to its original position.

‘I want to feel good, but I don’t want to jump.’

“That’s fine, but I won’t give you the happy feelings unless you jump.”

It went back into itself, wrangling the possibilities in its tiny brain.

After a few seconds, it came up with the smartest answer it could conjure.

‘No. I want to feel good without jumping.’

“Welp.” I said, standing back a bit. “That really is a shame. I was hoping for more out of this.”

‘Why are you leaving?’

“I’m not leaving, I just don’t want ichor on my new suit.” As the words left my mouth, I struck a dramatic pose and said the fated incantation.

“You are already dead!”

‘What?’ It asked, with visible confusion.

“Wrong choice of words.” I snickered as the chitin covered skull exploded with a satisfying squelch.

The silence that followed was deafening.

“Yeah. That was bad and I should feel bad.”

Childish play acting aside, the string of failures was a bummer.

Even after all that experimenting, the prospect of having an army of goons standing between me and danger wasn’t looking too bright.

Maybe it was the low baseline for intelligence.

Maybe it was the fact I’d just killed its brood.

Probably a mix of both in all honesty. Though perhaps it was for the best. I’d had these eerie feelings all throughout the experiments. A strange sense of Deja-vu, followed by a tightness in my chest and throat.

Within me, the deep dark lake stirred. Dancing strings of power flailing like reeds within a storm. From beneath the water, slithering wisps tried to escape and breach the surface.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

It might’ve been a physiological reaction to the dubious morality of taming monsters. It might’ve been something else entirely.

Regardless of the underlying reason, I was left with no recourse but to continue slaughtering my way through this dank cave all by my lonesome.

Okay, maybe not by my lonesome.

“How are you doing Buddy?”

‘I’m great!’ Said the parasite clinging to me.

Big round eyes had formed on my chest, a little above my pectoral muscles. Their owner stared up at me, lovingly stretching to devour the last of the monsters in order to sustain us both.

I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t unsettling, but I’d gotten used to it by now. Funny how much humans are able to cope with in order to avoid starvation.

Though, I would have kept him even without that function.

Before, I was a lowly peon trudging along in the rags that used to be my pajamas. Now, I was happily spelunking in what looked like a crimson astronaut suit, complete with a thick transparent helmet, built-in air conditioning and most importantly, boots.

Not just shoes, but thick, sturdy boots. Lovely coverings that kept my feet all nice and cozy and free from the sting of pebbles every dammed step I took in this forsaken pit of despair.

Dear merciful buddha how I missed having boots. It was one of those things you never thought about until you found yourself bereft of their comfort.

Taking a deep, appreciative breath, I swore to myself that I would never again deign to go barefoot.

‘Hehe. You sure do think of silly things Sully. Of course, you won’t have to worry about that. You have me and I’ll never abandon you. Never ever! Because you are my best friend!’

“Glad to hear it buddy. You about done?”

‘Oh yeah. Nutrients coming through!’

I didn’t feel any different, but the feeling of satiation hadn’t left me, so I took it in stride.

Moving on, we continued to set up ambushes and organize instances of inter-monster violence. All while practising different ways of mixing the [Fear] and the [Fever]. It wasn’t something to be taken lightly as I felt myself getting traumatic flashbacks from the emotions my victims gave off, but the struggle was its own reward.

The presence of [Meditation] could also be felt throughout.

Before, I’d been plagued by incessant bouts of indecision. Questioning every other thing I did with an endless tirade of what ifs?

Stopping by every single corner and using [Precognition] to scout out the surrounding tunnels three times over before finally deciding it was free of traps.

Now, I could feel comfortable enough in my own skills to restrain myself to one use per intersections. Relying instead on other cues.

Like the presence of uneaten monster corpses for example.

If something down here wasn’t devoured or crushed, chances were good that a trap had gotten to them. Mutated plants and animals would have slurped them up otherwise, whereas robots would have mashed them into a bloody pulp.

Furthermore, I found that I was able to sleep better thanks to [Meditation] as well.

The dreams weren’t gone, per se. But they were more subdued. More bearable.

That change alone was worth all the points that it had sucked up.

I felt more, confident. More self assured.

To the point where I started to look forward to exploring new areas.

I was still wrestling with the idea that going up was fruitless, given how so many people from different dimensions had wound up down here with me. Yet, with [Mediation], I found that I could cope.

Breathing in and out became more rhythmical. More of a controlled trance. I could push away my fears and my doubts and focus on what I could do, instead of worrying about what I couldn’t change.

‘This maze is probably just a basement that someone powerful dug up. It may not be my world, but there has to be a border somewhere. Some way to the surface. Creating a whole subdimension just for this would be a waste of time for anyone powerful enough to actually do it.’

‘What’s a subdimension Sully?’

‘I…I don’t know how to explain it. I know physics, but I’m not a physicist. Think of it like a bubble in empty space or a place that has no defined beginning or end. So that it loops around itself.’

‘Neat! What are you going to do if the Labyrinth is a subdimension?’

I shuddered. Willing [Meditation] to overtake me and to drive away my doubts. My mind was immediately calmed. As if by some outside influence. Each of my thoughts falling into place without any hint of panic. At least, not when I compared the current me with the me from last week.

‘I guess we’ll see when we get to that point.’ I answered Buddy.

In truth, I wouldn’t even know where to start.

This whole time, I’d been moving on the assumption that there would be an end to it. That I could escape if I simply kept moving upwards.

It made sense, after all. There was definitely a breeze, which meant there was air coming in from somewhere else. Besides that, all the safe rooms had running water, yet I hadn’t found a single one that had been flooded.

Which suggested that the grates were connected to pumps as I had originally suspected and that there was a sewer system that constantly allowed water to drain out of chambers.

That suggested electricity, which suggested normal human engineering which suggested that this was one big man-made cave.

‘Yeah. That’s all well and good. But it still doesn’t explain the inverted gravity back at the pit. Nor does it address all that raw gold lining the walls. A fistful of that could have made me and anyone else on earth a millionaire. Yet, if I accept that this place was man-made, I’m also accepting that someone was either rich or stupid enough to leave literal metric tons of gold just sitting around. Also, I haven’t run into any breathing issues yet. Which means the ventilation in this place has to be top notch given how massive it is. Which is weird because I haven’t seen any air vents yet.’

Furthermore, there was the System to consider. Whatever it was, it wasn’t some mechanical implant. It couldn’t be. There were too many moving parts to this puzzle and too many inconsistencies with how machines worked. My levelling was too inconsistent. Too dependant on my actual progress rather than numbers going up by themselves.

The more I called on [Meditation] the more I felt each individual strand of power within my lake. It was, a calming sense of control.

A feeling that things were not truly out of my hands, even at this juncture. A knowledge that spoke of conquest and domination. Whispering assurances in my ear as I felt my own strength in comparison to that of the monsters around me.

‘Stop that, fool.’ I chided myself. ‘Never forget that pride is a slow and insidious killer. You are physically weak and surrounded by things that are physically strong. Get yourself together.’

I called upon my Psy to [Hide] me and sent out another volley of [Fever] to a group of eels. Feeling their deaths through my fog as if I’d been standing right next to them.

Again, no level was forthcoming.

I sucked in a breath and allowed my mind to wander for the moment.

‘Right then. Time to face the facts. This is probably not a man-made cave. At least, not a regular one. There is a chance that it could be some alternate dimension or pocket dimension. Maybe even another planet entirely. If that’s the case, then heading up might be futile. There might not be anything in the surface. Nothing that can help me, in any case.’

I released the breath, as well as some of the tension on my shoulders.

“But there’s no other option right now.” I spoke aloud. “If I stay put, I’ll eventually run out of food or air or both. Not to mention that there’s no telling how long the water will keep flowing. For all I know, the water-pumping system could be close to malfunctioning or the mastermind might decide to turn it off for (Centipede)s and giggles.”

That was also true.

Regardless of the nature of this place, it remained an underground biome. Therefore, logic dictated that it must lead to somewhere on the surface. Whether that was earth or some other place, only time would tell.

For me, there was no choice but to keep positive thoughts in my mind and keep heading upwards.

Hopefully coming closer to freedom.

A queer feeling of coldness began to set in after another day of hunting and setting ambushes. It wasn’t exactly noticeable at first, merely a few momentary chills over the course of the day.

My attention was still focused on self-improvement or rather, the lack thereof. I was pulling off bigger ambushes by the hour, yet could find no good way to make a breakthrough. Psionic bolts and bombs went off and did their thing without resistance and my way became clear for another few hundred metres.

Over and over again.

The day after that revealed no more secrets either. Although I did notice a distinct lack of people the higher, I went.

There had been more deaths of course, but not so much as to explain the barren tunnels my map was capturing.

“Hey Buddy. Are you sure you don’t remember anything before the labyrinth?”

‘Nope! I already told you Sully. I was born here. I knew some things about myself since then and that was that. Oh! And I knew I wanted a friend like you!’

“So, you really don’t know what’s above us?”

‘Rocks! Duh!’

“No Buddy. I meant above those rocks.”

‘More rocks?’

“I mean. Yes. I think. That’s not…uhm.”

‘You sound frustrated Sully. Is it something I said?’

“No Buddy. You’re doing great. I really appreciate you and I couldn’t have gotten this far without you.”

Which was true, incidentally. My pace had dramatically increased since getting Buddy on board. One of the many little perks of not starving to death. Or being poisoned by fluorescent mushrooms.

Back then, I’d been desperate enough to consider the proposition, consequences be dammed. Inescapable hunger does that to otherwise rational minds. Bending perception until any old scrap looks as tantalizing as an all-you-can-eat buffet.

If pressed, I could even recall snippets of conversation between a few of my friends on the Biology Majors talking about how otherwise tame herbivores wouldn’t think twice about swallowing small critters if times got tough.

Sheep, horses, cows, deer, squirrels, giraffes, you name it and its probably eaten a few baby birds here and there to top off an otherwise green diet.

Thankfully, my ever-reliable Buddy could filter such trifles out before sending vitamins into me and all was well and good.

So long as I didn’t think too hard about how those proteins made their way into my bloodstream.

Alas, some topics are better left unexplored, though I had a sinking feeling that it bore striking resemblance to an IV drip.

Those snacks were becoming scarcer as I trudged along. For some reason, the monster population grew thinner the more I climbed. Previously, I’d be lucky to walk up a set of stairs without having to worry about a swarm descending on me from hidden crevices in the ceiling. Now, I could go half an hour before finding a cluster.

Less paranoid individuals might have rejoiced. Instead, I was bombarded by waves of stress, absolutely convinced that there was a catch.

[Meditation] pushed the feelings down and even banished the larger, irrational concerns.

But that still left me with the completely rational ones.

If the monsters were less prevalent here, then that could be due to three causes.

The first was that a group of people with similar levels of power to myself were out overhunting. It was a simple notion and one that might just be the true cause of the scarcity. Yet, I hadn’t run into any people for some time either.

The second option was that the monsters were simple less prevalent here due to traps of the temperature. Again, completely possible. It was getting pretty bloody cold now and insects couldn’t regulate their temperature as well as mammals could, at least, as far as I was aware.

The third and most worrying option, was that something else was hunting the smaller monsters. An apex predator that thinned the population to such a degree as to be plainly obvious to anyone paying attention.

‘Any one of these could be the reason. Yet, why doesn’t it feel like any one is right?’

It was nothing more than hunch on my part. An ill feeling at the base of my skull. Yet I could not banish it from my mind.

I felt as though….

The truth might be a combination of all three factors. Instead of any one.

I sneezed within Buddy’s protective suit and asked him to lower the see-through membrane making up the visor so I could clean myself up.

Then I called upon [Meditation] once more. Willing myself to focus on the here and now.

Whatever the truth was, there was nothing else to do, but train. Hoping that, when the chips were down, it would be enough.