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I'm a Stingray? [Book 1, Complete]
Chapter 69 - "Can insects worship the Devil?"

Chapter 69 - "Can insects worship the Devil?"

Tim wasn’t ever scared of goats, so the symbol that was carved on the stone didn’t frighten him all that much. Come to think of it, he wasn’t too scared of elongated, snake-like creatures either. However, the recent trouble that he had gone through, taught him to be aware of any and all creatures, and the dangers they could cause. He had to avoid whatever approached him, for safety’s sake!

For that matter, he tried to hide in plain sight. He wanted to get out of the way of whatever legless creature approached!

“Hello dirt, my dear friend. You always provide me with excellent camouflage.” He thought.

At this point, he was two inches deep in the dirt. He was so confident with his idea, that he felt comfortable joking with himself too. Tim had buried himself in the tunnel’s walls, on the right side of it, to be exact. No one could spot him, not even if they tried, especially if some brainless creature tried to do so.

With that said, this would be considered a calculated, and rather smart move. He had figured that if the approaching creature was heavy, then it would be a stupid idea to bury himself in the flat ground. It would be stupid, because he’d end up flattened, just like that, he’d be dead! It would be a dumb way to die.

That aside, no creature would be paranoid enough to gnaw at the tunnel’s walls either, so the move he made was beyond smart. Tim wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but even dull tools could cut off a finger sometimes, especially if the tool was paired with a couple of poor circumstances.

The creature that he had sensed approaching, was here now, and he could sense it sloshing around the tunnel. The creature couldn’t find him, though, so Tim giggled to himself as a response.

“Silly bastard,” He thought.

The legless creature passed by him, and at some point, it disappeared, at least momentarily. Tim was doing well for himself, however, since he was buried in the dirt the whole time, he couldn’t see what the creature looked like. He did sense its movements, however, and figured that the creature that had crossed him was definitely snake-like. It was also about two feet long, which would make it a hell of an opponent to deal with, far too big for Timmy to handle.

It was best to avoid that hasty snake. In fact, it was best to avoid every creature around here, for safety’s sake. However, he couldn’t stay buried in the dirt forever, so he emerged from the tunnel’s walls about five minutes later, with the idea of exploring these tunnels even further!

One would consider it very risky to be in these tunnels, but as far as facts were concerned, he couldn’t afford to waste any time. He was lost in these tunnels anyway, so if he didn’t find any food within the following hours, he’d end up risking starvation. It wasn’t ideal to die because of hunger, so he had to get moving, and risk running into any other weird creature.

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Before he explored the tunnels any further, though, Tim was tempted to have another look at the symbols that were carved on the rough, stone-covered side of the tunnel’s walls. The symbols intrigued him, he felt enthralled by them, so he observed them for a moment longer.

Tim looked at the carving of the goat, and then, he thought. “This has to be here for something, it can’t be random. No breathing motherfucker would have the nerves to carve stones out of boredom, no. There’s a story behind this ugly-looking goat.”

Tim’s ways of describing things were rash, but he wasn’t blurting out any nonsense either. These symbols were weird, he could notice a star within them too, and stars paired with goats were rarely a good thing. At least, that’s what he thought.

He spotted a couple of written scriptures too, but being a spider, and a foreigner in this world as well, it wasn’t a surprise how he couldn’t read a single word that was written on the stone wall. He was stumped.

“Even the words look spooky. Eh, I bet I can find all the evil shit in these tunnels, though, I'll find whatever evil shit this wall's talking about. Maybe there’s a reward to it as well, huh, system? What do I get for killing a bunch of demon-worshiping bastards?” He asked, and hoped for all of the points in the world.

[The rewards would be handsome,] She followed along, [But it’s unlikely that lesser animals are associated with demons, so you’re just wasting your time in these tunnels. Get out of here, and look for a soul tampering cave instead.]

“Fair enough,” He nodded.

Tim then left the carved scriptures and symbols behind him, and continued to prowl across the maze-like tunnels. He was lost, yes, but that didn’t bother him as much as the hunger he felt, the hunger which slowly increased in severity. Tim feared that he'd starve to death in the following hours, if he didn’t find something to eat. Apparently all the running and shooting around that he did earlier on, took a lot of energy out of a little spider. He had to be more cautious!

About ten minutes later, he ran into something which he would otherwise want to avoid. Tim wanted to avoid most of the things that breathed, except if it was an insect he could feast on. Come to think of it, he’d rather avoid anything that didn’t breathe either. Tim ran into some undead, and transparent entities!

“Ghost insects!” He exclaimed, “Ah hell, I can’t eat those. But… maybe this is also a good sign. Ghosts should hang around soul tampering caves, right, system?”

[Not really,] She disagreed, and refused to elaborate on the matter any further.

Tim didn’t want to pressure her with more questions either. He wasn’t really in immediate danger, and the tiny entities weren’t paying any attention to him either, so there was no point in poking at the topic any further. He was good.

With that considered, Tim walked through and away from the handful of entities, and sweated quite A bit along the way. He then assumed that he was safe, however, after he walked a few inches forward, he had this urge to turn around and look what was behind him. Right then, he noticed that the entities were following him!

As he noticed that, he couldn’t help thinking. “Let’s hope these creepy bastards don’t have any firepower in them…”