I wrapped my fingers around the left pincer of a level 13 drone and together with Telekinesis’ assistance, tore the pincer out of the drone’s body. I ignored the unpleasant crunch and sound of ripping meat and inspected my new weapon.

It was undamaged for the most part, but I had to remove some of last remains of flesh and other organic matter that had come along. Not a pleasant task, but a necessary one for my own comfort.

This was the fourth drone I encountered ever since reaching level 5 in Novice Witch. It had brought three levels for my class and two levels for my species. Since they were all level 13, I got bonus experience for defeating them and with repetition, it became progressively easier to deal with them, however the distance between each of the drone to the next one started to shrink, but I was still lucky enough to not get into a situation where I had to fight multiple drones at once.

Since all the drones seemed to be level 13, there would be no problem as long as it remained a one-on-one fight, I had no doubt in my abilities to deal with them, but two or more were a different story.

However, even if I said that I could handle a drone, the last few fights had not transpired as smoothly as I would have wanted the to. My mana reserves took a huge hit when one of them tackled me which caused in a broken arm. Another cut my stomach and overall each fight ended with my body covered in bruises. Only this last one didn’t.

While changes were still not really obvious, the level ups did improve my Telekinesis performance slightly and resulted in cleaner executions, quite literally. I also got more familiar with Shadow Cloak, Aggravating Touch and internalized patterns and behavior of drones to a degree where it was easy for me to predict their next move.

Their response to danger was mostly panic and sheer frenzy with no plan or pattern. So while there were certain patterns at the beginning of a fight, drones seemed to quickly abandon all reason, which made my learned patterns useless the moment a fight truly began.

Veraxia had said so before, but drones certainly weren’t good fighters. Sadly, the same was true for me. After all, the Exapoda were my first real fighting experience and I certainly was not used to all the aspects of battle. The quick decision making, choosing the best option for each of my enemy’s move or dealing with my obvious physical disadvantage. Even if attacking did not require much effort, dodging, defending and moving did. So one could say, while I was starting to get a feel for it, I was still far from a good fighter.

And I was certain that the only reason I was still alive was because of my enemies being mindless idiots who attack anything that moves. One of Malik’s dogs would end me in a flash, even at level 13, so I had no delusions about suddenly being strong.

This feeling of being lacking was especially reinforced by the fact that my mana pool was starting to fall to levels where I was afraid to plunge into the next fight. It sat at four hundred now, but a single critical injury would be enough to incapacitate me. And thanks to the rough time limit Veraxia had given me, resting was sadly not an option.

And in regard to her, Veraxia had yet to make her return. Her disappearance had been sudden and without a way to contact her on my own, I could not even check up on her. In the end, I had to wait until—or if at all—Veraxia would return.

In the meantime, it was my goal to reach the end of this passage and find whatever was at the end of it. Naturally I hoped that there wouldn’t be more drones, but somehow I seriously doubted that to be the case.

I was painfully aware that I was just scratching the surface of the full force the Exapoda hive likely possessed, but harm in being a little hopeful, right?

It was at moments like these that I wished I had asked Veraxia a bit more about the Exapoda and the structure of their hive. How many there were, how strong they were and how strong I had to actually be to take them on.

Until now, their levels weren’t on the impressive side. I had seen humans five times their level with weapons and armor far more powerful than the pincer and exoskeleton of a drone. But these drones were not a force to occupy an entire lair and eradicating all of its inhabitants. Not if even someone like me could take care of them.

But time was passing too fast and each fight did not feel like a step closer to our goal. I had no idea how much time had already passed, but the three days Veraxia talked about were nearing its end and things did not look like they would play out well for either of us.

Still, what other choice did I have than pressing forward and trying my best. I was already in the depths of whatever this tree-cave lair was and turning back was not really an option anymore.

And so I walked, but there was something was missing that had always been there until now. The noises of a distant drone were not there, no matter for how long I moved. And eventually, I found something I hoped to find, but had doubted to ever reach. A faint glimmer of light, brighter than the gentle brilliance of surrounding moss.

A sudden surge of life seemed to seep through my entire body as my steps quickened. Each step, the passage widened and the cavernous chamber it opened in became clearer by the second.

The brightness strained my eyes, so I narrowed them and blocked the light with my arm, yet my feet kept carrying me forward.

And then, I saw the walls to my sides vanish. Lowering my arm and forcing my eyes open, my breath was caught in my lungs. The chamber was huge, much bigger than the other where I had initially met Veraxia. The walls, ground and ceiling were covered in patches of glowing moss from beneath grew thick roots that covered the chamber like a giant spider’s web.

But all of that was not enough to make my body momentarily freeze. The source of surprise and shock was something else.

Located in the center of the chamber, was a colossal skeleton. It sprawled across the chamber, defying all logic with its sheer size. This was unlike anything I had ever seen.

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It resembled nothing I knew, with long, curved bones that hinted at enormous wings. Its jaws, now devoid of life, were lined with rows of serrated teeth that could have torn through anything in its path. Each of its ribs pierced into the ground, forming a the cage that connected to its long spine that extended well behind its hind legs.

Drawn to this giant of a beast, I felt my heart pounding, threatening to jump out of my chest. The limbs of the beast lay to the ground, bent, twisted and damaged. It must have died after enduring a lot of pain.

Suddenly, a sense of sympathy for the beast washed over me, only to be replaced with ridicule shortly after. I doubt this thing needs my sympathy. No human needs the sympathy of an ant.

Imagining the missing layers of flesh and skin caused a horrific image in my mind and made me feel stupid for ever finding one of the drones intimidating. I thought the scariest in the world was human insanity, but this was different. I felt no hate for being scared of this skeleton, I was just… horrified. Pure and undiluted fear, even in its death.

Maybe my mind was already fucked beyond rescue, because beside fear, I felt admiration. For a being that scared me even in death. To have achieved something like that was something I hadn’t expected to be so appealing, but it didn’t sound so bad.

When the storm of admiration, awe and fear calmed down, another daunting thought sneaked into my mind. A memory of my conversation with Veraxia. How all the inhabitants inside her lair had found their end at the hands… the pincers of the Exapoda.

“Fuck,” was the only word I found. “Seriously, fuck.”

Oddly enough, I was mostly calm about it. There was no way ascertain that it had been the Exapoda to kill this giant beast and I was not an expert on bones to tell how old it was or how long it had been here.

But it was probably to just assume the worst. Although that assumption made me want to curse at the world, my fate and all those related to it, but I didn’t. I would deal with this like the mature unnamed, unregistered creature I was.

So first things first, it was time to take account of the situation and take a look around, seeing what I had to deal with. Visually, I could not see very well, despite the light, because the roots really grew everywhere and blocked much of the ground before me.

My first hurdle would be to navigate around them and get closer to the skeleton. It was the center point of this entire chamber and it seemed like a good idea to take things from there and get an overview of the chamber.

The lack of noise at least assured that there were no immediate threats waiting for me anywhere around here. With the exception to cases where the drones just stayed quiet to fool me. But they wouldn’t do something like that, right? They were mindless insects after all.

Luckily, the path to the skeleton, and therefore to the center, was rather clear of any obstacles and even though I had to climb over a few roots, they were on the smaller side so not a hindrance that would stop me.

When I was closer to the skeleton, its majestic presence was even more powerful than before and the sheer difference in height even more apparent. I stood before its giant maw and each of its teeth was at least as big as me in height and width. That thing was an apex predator. Well, was until a new one appeared.

I dared to touch the jaw bone of the beast and felt like touching cold metal. It was weirdly smooth, different from what I imagined bones would feel like. Curious, I knocked against it. A dull thud proved the density and hardness of the bone.

An idea formed in my mind as I scanned the maw once again, more precisely the row of sharp teeth. My eyes fell on one particular tooth on the left side of the lower jaw that seemed to be slightly out of line with the others. Maybe it was damaged, as it tilted slightly forward.

“Let’s see,” I mumbled as I stretched my hand out, dropping the pincer I had brought with me to the ground.

My hand erupted in golden light and a streak of mana extended towards the tooth, slowly encompassing it. Once the light had fully wrapped it into its brilliance, I tried yanking upwards.

There was a silent crack and a big part of the tooth broke off and rose slightly.

The moment the full weight of the it was supported by my skill, I felt my arms tremble and soon enough, I was unable to keep it in the air and it fell down.

I took a step back, avoiding the large tooth that threatened to crush me.

“You, sir, are too heavy,” I grumbled at it and clicked my tongue. It would have been the perfect replacement for my pincer. If my theory about the level of a creature being important for the strength of weapons made out of their materials, then I doubted there would be any drone that tooth couldn’t kill. Or any Exapoda, for that matter.

But it was too soon to give up. Yes, my stats were not enough to wield it efficiently, but thankfully, stats could be improved.

“I will come for you,” I glowered at the tooth, “just wait.”

Before going, I wanted to make one last test for which I picked up my pincer again. Long story short, the moment the pincer made contact with the bone it shattered into pieces.

“Yep, I will definitely come for you,” I grinned. Definitely.

Before setting out to explore the rest of the chamber, I wanted to fully see the skeleton. Who knew what else there was to be found. So I walked around the head, passed the right arm that lay on the ground, the forearm lying too far away than natural. It had probably lost its arm before it died. Cut or torn off by its killer.

Then I reached the shoulder area, where there was nothing interesting, however, the moment I looked into the ribcage and stomach area, I instantly activated Shadow Cloak. The floor was covered in bodies. More precisely, Exapoda corpses. Some were crushed flat and turned into puddles of flesh and blood, others were torn apart or bisected, while yet others were just missing a half or a head. There were literal mountains of corpses, stacked on top of each other.

There were at least a hundred corpses, if not more and that were just the ones lying around. I didn’t even want to begin guessing to how many the piles accumulated to.

I traversed through the field of corpses and stopped before one particular corpse that caught my interest. It was bigger than that of a drone, its plates were more massive and it had no antennae. Instead of two, it had four pincers without the sharp edges, but instead covered in yellow bristles. It was cut in two halves, cleanly in the middle and each half by itself was slightly bigger than a drone was.

It was clear that this was some kind of new Exapoda, which I had not yet encountered and honestly, I would like to keep it that way. It was a shame that Identify did not work on corpses, but I did not need it to know that it was stronger than a drone and since my last pincer shattered, this was the perfect opportunity to get a temporary weapon. Until I could wield the tooth.

Since it was still fitting in both my hands, I tried to pull it physically with telekinetic support, but the moment my hands touched it, and the bristly, I felt a sharp pain that instantly made me let go.

The pain was similar to when the slime burnt my foot and I instantly send a wave of Regeneration through my hand and the pain lessened.

“No touching, got it,” I said as I shook my hand in an attempt to rid myself of the last of pain.

It was then that I heard a noise, a familiar sound. I felt my entire body tense up and turned my head to the left, origin of the sound. There was a pile of Exapoda drones, assumed dead.

Maybe it was instinct, luck or just a trick of fate that led me to use Identify.

[Exapoda Drone | Lvl. 11]

[Exapoda Drone | Lvl. 12]

[Exapoda Drone | Lvl. 9]

[Exapoda Drone | Lvl. 21]

[Exapoda Drone | Lvl. 19]

[Exapoda Drone | Lvl. 14]

….

Fuck.