Kyle woke to the light of dawn, stretching as he rose. C.H.A.D.D. had remained silent through the course of the night, which made him sigh in relief. He had been concerned that whatever was giving off those signals would have left during the night, and that they wouldn’t be able to track it down. Stepping out of the primitive shelter with his companion tucked under one arm and a stick in the other, he began to walk. C.H.A.D.D. was convinced the source of the fluctuations was below them, but Kyle first wanted to narrow down the effective range on the surface.

He walked until C.H.A.D.D. lost track of the signal, then would change course to establish his perimeter. When all was said and done, they had marked out a circle with a roughly two-hundred-meter radius. Satisfied that he had a good grasp of the ground they would need to cover, Kyle and C.H.A.D.D. systematically walked one edge of the circle to another, Kyle looking for physical indications while the drone tracked the intensity of the pulses.

During their walk, Kyle was also paying closer attention to the mana in his body. Now that C.H.A.D.D. had brought it to his attention, Kyle thought he could faintly feel small amounts of mana leaving his body as it pulsed. It was miniscule – easily replaced by his natural generation of the energy – but it was there. As they searched the area, Kyle tried to control the flow of his mana to prevent the leak, and was surprised by just how difficult the task was.

He was used to controlling the energy when he activated his skills, but trying to manipulate the passive flow was an order of magnitude more challenging. It was like trying to change the way that blood was moving through his veins. He could maintain an awareness of the mana moving through his pathways. Manipulate it without using a skill required equal attention all the way across his system, particularly if he wanted to localize an effect. Even with the added control his Intelligence attribute gave him, it was still a task that was proving beyond him.

He would have to focus on accelerating the flow of mana in one part of his body while intentionally maintaining the flow elsewhere. He couldn’t help but smile at the challenge. This felt like the next extension of the work he’d been doing to more tightly regulate the energy he used when HASTE was active, and he had a gut feeling that these exercises were two sides of the same coin.

He was broken out of his contemplation as he came across a small mound about halfway through their sweep of the area. There was a fallen tree along one side, but Kyle could see the entrance to a cave beyond.

“Are you still picking up the signatures from below?”

[YES, DR. MAYHEW.]

“That’s all I needed to hear. Thanks, C.H.A.D.D.”

With that, Kyle began to work clearing the entrance. Pulling the log away was much easier than he’d thought, and he had to marvel at the progress he’d experienced. Even without investing in Strength it’s incredible what a difference these levels made. By virtue of being awakened Kyle had been strong, but when confronted with other awakened warriors it was easy to lose sight of how large the gap had grown between himself and a regular unawakened person.

The cave entrance was tight, though as he peered in he saw that it opened into a larger network of tunnels beyond. Walking inside, he looked at the drone in his arms.

“Any chance you’d be able to give a little light here?”

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The drone sputtered as it projected out a gentle orange glow around them.

“Thanks buddy. Let me know when we’re getting close. If it looks like it could turn into a nasty fight I might have to set you aside to keep the lights on for me, are you okay with that.”

[HAPPY TO HELP, DR. MAYHEW. SO LONG AS YOU REMEMBER TO PICK ME UP AFTERWARD.]

The cave network was extensive. Kyle was relieved that there weren’t too many branching paths. The ones they encountered typically led to empty, larger chambers, making it easy to retrace their steps and progress further through the labyrinth of tunnels. One of the chambers had a small pool of water, trickling down from a crack above and flowing into another below. From what C.H.A.D.D. could tell it was clean, and Kyle drank his fill, topping off his drained canteen as well. The drone told him that the intensity of the pulses had been growing increasingly more potent, and as the hours wore on Kyle could begin to feel them himself.

Changes in the cave itself also contributed to Kyle’s growing sense of unease. At the entrance they were mostly walking in tunnels of light stone and reddish-brown clay, but the deeper they explored the more they encountered entire sections that were littered with dark, smooth chips. These segments were becoming more and more common as they continued, the pulses progressively growing stronger. Finally, they turned a corner and saw the tunnel open into a much larger chamber.

In the center was a large, gently glowing beetle unlike any Kyle had seen before. It was facing them, mandibles chewing on the remains of one of the larger beetles Kyle had grown used to fighting above. It was covered in crimson chitin, its head and thorax standing just over a meter off the ground. It had no discernible eyes that Kyle could see, but it did have two long, segmented antennae that were constantly bobbing up and down.

Six elegant legs, supported its most bizarre feature – a massive abdomen that was twice as thick as the creature’s head, with two large spikes jutting from the front of the abdomen all the way to the base of the head. The rest of the abdomen was bulbous - completely smooth with a pattern of glowing runes running across its surface, forming a series of five connected circles.

It looked incredibly out of place compared to the rest of the sleek body, but it was the source of the pulsing mana exuding from the creature, and a familiar feeling started to come over Kyle the longer he watched it. Just like with the fly, something primal told Kyle that this creature was an enemy. He resisted the urge to burst into the chamber and attack the creature, which was harder than he thought it would be. That gave him pause, though before he had a chance to consider his reaction further, the creature raised its head in Kyle’s direction as its antennae went wild. Its mandibles opened, and it issued an ear-splitting screech.

The sound startled Kyle for a moment, and his eyes widened as he saw the ground beetle raise its abdomen perpendicular to the ground, the glow of the circular patterns intensifying. Crap. That was the only thought he had time for as he dove out of the mouth of the tunnel. Each of the circles shot a beam of heat energy into the space where he’d been standing, and Kyle looked back to see the stone glowing from the attack.

[DR. MAYHEW, MAY I ASK A FAVOR?] C.H.A.D.D. asked, as Kyle dodged another volley of heat blasts.

“Kind of busy here C.H.A.D.D.”

[I’D LIKE TO REVOKE MY CONSENT TO BE PUT DOWN. THAT SEEMS INCREDIBLY UNSAFE GIVEN THE CURRENT CIRCUMSTANCES.]

Kyle was inclined to agree as he dodged a third set of attacks, but each time he dodged he was closing the distance between himself and the beetle. Two more, and I’ll be close enough to strike. Kyle’s plan was simple: get used to the timing of the attacks, get closer between them, and then attack the creature from inside its range to put it down.

It was a solid plan, but Kyle realized that he’d made a critical error. Similar to the fly, this ground beetle had intelligence beyond what Kyle had seen in the other mutated creatures. Seeming to notice that its attacks were ineffective, the monstrous beetle screeched once more and began to run into a tunnel on the opposite side of the chamber. Kyle took a step to pursue before he realized his error. Now that he was standing directly behind the beetle in this narrower tunnel, all five of the arrays on its abdomen were now pointing directly behind the creature. Directly at the man who was in hot pursuit.