The cave wendigo lunged at Alistair without warning or sound, its large jaw agape, seeking to impale him with its long, bony, scythe-like claws. Alistair used [Blink] to avoid it as he hovered in the air behind it. Somehow, the Wendigo landed without a sound on the wet cave floor, not sinking in or getting any mud stuck to its claws; it was coated in magic, similar to Esta's technique. It spun around, hesitating for a moment before it located Alistair lashing out at him, but this time, Alistair caught the claw with his shield before throwing a [Razor Blast] at it from point blank. The disk left a gash on its sinewy, tough hide before it twisted its body out of the way of the blast with a rapid, jerky movement, and Alistair could hear its bones crack and snap to facilitate the unnatural angle.
Alistair could visibly see the creature regenerate the gash and saw its twisted body snapping back in place before it latched itself back on the ceiling. He presumed it used the odd flaps on its body to orient itself. The [Razor Blast] was not silent, as it emitted a low humming sound, which the creature immediately detected and dodged whenever Alistair sent it after the Wendigo.
Eventually, Alistair intercepted the Wendigo, suppressing his revulsion as he seized one of its long, sinewy arms. With determination, he drove his poleaxe into its body, intending to pin it to the cave wall. However, instead of just struggling, the Wendigo chose to coat itself in magic, partially negating Alistair's technique, tearing itself free, ripping through its own body, and severing its own arm with its free claw before Alistair could land the finishing blow with his [Razor Blast]. Alistair was taken aback by the creature's sheer disregard for its own well-being as he witnessed it rapidly regenerating its lost limb and torn body.
Alistair started to run out of patience. The longer they fought, the more likely it was that they would attract more beasts to the gate room, which was the exact opposite of what Alistair wanted. The beast showed no signs of slowing down; its unnatural regeneration made it a horrifying opponent for most. Alistair had a favorable matchup in a straight-up fight, but considering the environment, he struggled to put the creature down. He contemplated using his [Fire Blast]; while not completely silent, it wouldn't generate the same level of noise as an explosion or kinetic blast, which could reverberate through the tunnels. Additionally, within the chamber, visibility wouldn't be a major concern.
Alistair could sense more echolocation hitting him and presumed more had noticed and knew he had to commit or run. He sent a rapid stream of [Fire Blasts] at the Wendigo, lighting up the room with flames. He heard the crackle of the flames that rang out like fireworks in the silent caves. He hacked and burned the Wendigo as it struggled to regenerate once the tissue was burned. Despite it all, the creature made no sounds, jumping, twisting, and lashing out at Alistair, who cut into its claws with his [Razor Slash] skill cutting off its claws before burning its stumped hand.
When the creature finally started to slow down, Alistair used his [Temporal Combat Reflexes] to hack off the creature's head, burning it and ending the fight. After hearing the chimes, Alistair took a deep, shaky breath as he hovered closer to the entrance, waiting in complete stillness, anticipating more clicking sounds to follow.
"Maybe they're solitary creatures, and seeing one of theirs killed keeps them at bay?" He pondered, his body tense in anticipation as he checked his notifications, revealing he had upgraded his [Temporal Combat Reflexes] which was confusing as he still had the option to upgrade it. Apparently, he could still linearly upgrade his skill even if he was offered to upgrade it.
Skills: Tier: Name: Description: [Epic]
Temporal Combat Reflexes Integrating magical insights from different concepts, this skill elevates the user's reaction speed, spatial awareness, and footwork to a high degree. Navigating challenging terrain becomes second nature, reinforcing overall stability. During combat, the user's perception of time is moderately slowed. The user can deliberately channel [MP] or [Qi] to engage in short bursts of intense acceleration magic, compensated for by further slowing his perception of time.
Alistair was glad to know that cutting off their heads could prevent them from regenerating. He had attempted to cut it off from the start, though the Wendigo proved quite slippery, so he had resorted to cutting down easier targets first with mixed results. It had been a while since he had last used [Temporal Combat Reflexes] actively due to its prohibitive cost. During the fight, he instinctively used the skill with [Qi] instead of [MP] as it felt more natural to him and proved more efficient. This also opened up a ton more resources to spend on the skill and made the cost much more manageable. Alistair decided to use his freshly upgraded boosting skills more aggressively and frequently in the future.
The few swipes he had blocked and redirected had shown just how much [Power] the Wendigo had; his pool was perfectly capable of tanking a lot more, though he would not risk too much attrition as he had no wishes to die alone in a dark and damp cave system. Alistair looked at the horrid-looking body; he could feel a core within its torso and stored its body to be disassembled later.
Stolen story; please report.
Alistair glanced back at the gate, contemplating, "I still have two other worlds to check. They might be less of a pain in the ass than this place. Finding any tech down here seems unlikely unless I stumble across some kind of vault..." He trailed off with a sigh.
"Who am I kidding? There could be anything out there. I might even be in another damn Asteroid," he frowned as he levitated the light crystal into his hands before storing it, plunging the chamber back into darkness.
Alistair did his best to fly slowly through the corridor, making as little noise as possible while practicing his breathing technique. Once he reached an intersection, he pulled up his map to track his progress and ensure no magical shenanigans were happening. He then directed his [Conceptual Awareness] down the three paths, hoping his intuition would pick up some treasure, dungeon, or any other indication of where to go. However, he had no such luck, as all the corridors seemed to have the same earthy and wet feel to them.
Alistair just picked the right corridor for now, following pyramid rules. He would eventually encounter something of interest. He followed the corridors for a while longer, finding multiple intersections and scanning them before choosing to go right. Eventually, he noticed he had walked in a near-perfect spiral but was now roughly beneath the gate chamber, and it required some mana to change the screen's perspective to be 3D.
After reaching another section, he noticed that one of the five paths offered went straight down. His intuition told him the environment would be different, so he decided to fly down the steep path until he found himself in a sedimentary layer. His knowledge of geology mostly stemmed from a YouTube video and his nature and technology class from when he still went to school. Without his vastly increased [Mental] capacity, he would not be able to remember such details. It felt weird to remember the drawing one of his teachers presented so clearly, as if he had left the classroom mere hours, not decades ago. A simple drawing illustrating the cutaway view of the stone layers appeared on the window.
Alistair presumed he had just left the soil layer and reached the sedimentary one, though he could also be in the metamorphic one, as the first layer was mostly a mix of stone silt and soil. He would ask Nessyra to have some of her assistants look up some geology books. Neshan was more likely to know about subterranean matters than Earth either way, and perhaps there was something valuable down here besides the dungeons strewed about. Surprisingly, no matter how much he traveled the cave system, he found no naturally occurring light crystals, fluorescent fungi, or any other sources of illumination. The only point of interest he had found so far was an underground lake that had some pale blind fish in it. He had caught a few with a sphere of force to be cooked by Barton.
As he ventured further, Alistair entered a vast chasm extending hundreds of meters upward and downward. The highest point of the chamber surpassed the height of the initial gate room; toward the ceiling, he could make out the transition from stone to more silt and dirt. He spotted many entry points and suspected they connected to many of the tunnels he had passed. Within the chamber, sprawling patches of fungi covered much of the surface, their tentacle-like roots reaching out, making them look like spreadeagled jellyfish. The emanating concepts felt toxic, prompting Alistair to avoid direct contact. He reinforced his [Comfort Array] with additional mana in an attempt to filter out any harmful spores. Deep below him, Alistair sensed another anomaly: a magically dense seam in the stone wall, entirely covered by fungi, which made it stand out even more.
Alistair descended down the sheer cliff. It looked climbable, though Alistair was glad he could fly. As he reached the seam, he used [Identify] on one of the shrooms, though he only got [Fungi]. He tried to tear away one of the mushrooms with levitation, though it resisted; using a force sphere proved more successful. He stored the fungi for later analysis as he inspected the seam more closely. Luckily, the shrooms were no monsters, and their tentacles stayed inert.
Alistair recognized it as a metal seam and even recognized the metal, but he used [Identify] to be sure it was [Mithril Ore]. Alistair made a silent fist pump as he dialed Nessyra over the link.
"Hey Nessy, check out what I am looking at," Alistair said silently over the link, sharing his vision.
"What the hell is that perspective? I presume you are using a skill?" Nessy inquired over the link, her voice tinged with confusion.
"Sorry about that. It's a perception skill of mine. This place is a pitch-black cave system, so I'm trying to keep a low profile for now. I stumbled upon a seam in the first of the three trial worlds, and what you're seeing is a vein of mithril ore," Alistair clarified over the link.
"That's great! Mithril is one of the most useful metals; extracting it would be worth the effort. Simon has been supplying me with silver and iron from his trial world, so make sure to bring him along next time you go there." Nessyra replied eagerly.
"Did you encounter any threats, or why do you bother keeping a low profile?" Nessy inquired.
"So far, nothing too threatening. Encountered a Cave Wendigo, but I'm proceeding with caution," Alistair reported. "Fighting underground can trigger collapses or attract more dangerous creatures. This wendigo was particularly stealthy and resilient, suggesting there may be other predators lurking in these caverns." He shared a mental image of the Cave Wendigo as it emerged into the light of his light crystal, captured in his memory.
He heard her shudder over the link before responding. "God damn Cave Wendigos? Those things are real?! They're creatures from Neshan folklore. I won't be venturing into that cave anytime soon. And as for something hunting the Wendigo, that's just their natural way of hunting. They're silent killers, feasting on demon flesh. However, given your low earth affinity, it's probably best to avoid risking tunnel collapses. But worst case, we can always send Simon to dig you out."
"Funny, in our folklore, they hang out in forests and have antlers. I think I will head back out and check the next trial world. Did you have luck finding any blacksmith?"
They had been searching for a blacksmith to craft gear, but most were either committed to their own plans or affiliated with other groups. Alistair marked the vein's location before flying up to one of the chamber entrances closer to the gate room.
"Antlers? Are you messing with me again, or are you serious? And sadly, no, I had no luck recruiting any additional craftsmen yet. However, your brother has built a forge to refine our ore and uses the metal for his own crafting projects."
They continued talking over the link a little longer while Alistair navigated his way back to the gate room with the help of his map. He did hear the occasional clicking sounds, though the wendigos seemed to keep their distance for now. And he would not bother hunting them yet.