The climb up had been a lot shorter than Seras had been dreading. And what it led to was a massive chamber peppered with more tunnels. It even had some of the light crystals, and this time Seras took the chance to break off a forearm sized piece so the that she no longer had to hold up her finger.

After hours of using it a light a pounding in head had developed, only getting worse and worse with time. She eventually found a new bar in her HUD options that could list mana, stamina, and vitality next to her battery percentage. After hours of constant use her mana was bottomed out, and it recovered slightly slower than her finger drew out. Her stamina also appeared to be linked to her power storage.

She examined the light crystal.

Luminous quartz, quartz with a high sensitivity to mana. Glows brighter and dimmer depending on the ambient mana.

Ambient mana, now that she thought about it the quartz wasn’t as bright as it was in the city. Seras wondered if the feeling of richness in the air was actually this ambient mana thing.

Now equipped with a light that wasn’t giving her a headache Seras examined the new paths before her. There weren't any conveniently lit up with natural day light for her to choose, and none smelled fresher than the other. And her gut was silent on this matter.

So that left only one way to find a way out.

“Eeny meany miny moe-“she said pointing at a different tunnel with each word.

Her finger eventually landed on a tunnel with a luminous quartz cluster growing out of it. “Good as any other” she murmured glancing back to her dwindling battery life.

With her choice made Seras began down the tunnel.

Fifteen minutes Seras noticed a gradual rise to the tunnel. Slowly getting steeper with every step. That boded well for her.

An hour later Seras was somewhat regretting her choice as she was now on her stomach crawling through a tight space. Pulling herself forward with just her arms. She had to go into her settings and turn her skin sensitivity down to 10%.

Her only consolation was that the tunnel was still going up and that she never had claustrophobia as a kid. Just arachnophobia. Stupid cockroaches, despite the poisonous air and acid rain those little bastards survived.

One time in her childhood when she was still a meat sack a whole swarm of them chewed through the walls and swarmed her bed. She still sometimes had nightmares about that when she had her weekly shuteye.

Wait, arachnophobia was for those extinct spider things, what was the word for insects in general?

Just as she had the word on the tip of her tongue, she pulled through the last bit rock and emerged into a new cavern.

And this one had a breeze.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

A dry breeze, but still tinged with the tantalizing scent of pollen.

Seras nearly ran to the other side of the room when she noticed something odd.

In the center of the cavern there was a weird…thing hanging from the ceiling. It looked to be made of dry grey paper and was shaped into a swirling basket shape, but with a hole on the bottom. In fact, now that she saw it, she thought it looked familiar.

Hadn’t she seen old movies with something like this in them? What was it called?

She heard a low rumbling sound like the sound of a quad-drone, or many drones. A lot of drones.

Holy shit she knew what this was!

Bees the size of her hand came out of the nest, seemingly drawn to the light of her luminous quartz, and Seras’ mind when blank with fear. More than when that damned Golem had been after her.

They emerged in the hundreds until the whole room was filled with their buzzing. They swarmed around her and Seras wasn’t afraid to admit she screamed like a little girl.

Iron rank Desert Bee; soldier caste, has inflicted stinger venom. Biomechanical Physiology has resisted venom.

Iron rank Desert Bee; worker caste, has inflicted stinger venom. Biomechanical Physiology has resisted venom.

Over and over popup messages came up to tell that the stings were ineffectual. But Seras still felt the pain of each sting somehow bypassing her reduced nerve sensitivity. And more than that being swarmed by bees was driving her mad with panic.

She pulled out the knife and sliced at the bees. Cutting down one only for ten to take its place.

They were crawling over her skin, getting stuck in her hair.

Then she saw one that made her eyes go wide.

An arm length bee with glittering gem like skin

Bronze rank, Desert Bee princess.

It came at her, stinger aimed at her face.

Seras didn’t even bother with the knife, instead she blindly punched out with her arm.

The bee wasn’t expecting her to just punch it. It was dazed and fell to the ground, one of its wings damaged.

Seras didn’t think as she raised her quartz crystal overhead and slammed it down pointy end first.

Then she did it again.

And again.

Until it stopped twitching.

She was about to stab again when a white-hot pain pierced her abdomen. On her right she saw another giant bronze rank bee pulling its stinger out of her side. Unlike all the other bees who seemed to survive stinging her this one left its barb in her side and promptly died.

Bronze rank Desert Bee princess has inflicted stinger venom.

Warming rank disparity has overcome venom immunity.

Bronze rank Venom has had its effects reduced by 90%

Fuck, this was more than just pain. It was an insipid spread of pain that dulled her senses and caused the world to blur.

Seras rose to her feet and stumbled. She saw more of the princesses come out, and a powerful feeling that danced at the edge of her vision let her know that there was something even worse lurking in the hive still.

She also saw starlight and the night sky through a mouth shaped tunnel.

Seras brought a leg forward, looking down to see it was covered in bees, constantly trying to stab her with their stingers. She brought the next leg forward. She drunkenly ran for the exit, desperate to escape at any cost.

She got halfway through the cavern when another white-hot pain shot into her left calve.

Bronze rank Desert Bee princess has inflicted stinger venom.

Warming rank disparity has overcome venom immunity.

Bronze rank Venom has had its effects reduced by 90%

She cried out in pain and wanted to just crumple to the ground, curl up and cry. but she fought through the pain and panic and kept running, now with an added limp.

She felt a sting in her arm, then her back, but she didn’t stop moving. She made painfully slow progress the cave mouth and was able to look out.

What she saw nearly broke her.

The cave mouth ended abruptly, and thirty or forty meters down was a rushing river. There was enough light to even see a few boulders in the water.

Seras wanted to sob, water like that was very likely to kill her. But she felt that strong presence behind her stir again.

Silver rank aura from Desert Bee Matriarch has suppressed your normal rank aura. All damage is reduced. Speed is reduced. Mobility is reduced. Strain from higher ranking aura has effected your remaining internal organs. Degradation 23%

Silver rank aura has enhanced the effects of Stinger venom. Venom resistance reduced to 10%

Seras had no choice. She jumped.

For a few seconds she was weightless, and she had a flash back to dying in space. That had only been less than a day ago, crazy.

Then the weightlessness was gone and she was falling.

As she fell her body turned and she saw the silhouette of a bike sized bee emerge from the cave. Its form barely more than a shadow against the… moon. No, moons. And she didn’t even see the faint band of ice, dust, and asteroids that made up Ruin’s rings.

So that confirmed it, she wasn’t on Ruin anymore. At least she knew that much now, despite everything, she still had her doubts. One more thing to take off the list of questions.

Her back hit the water and blackness enveloped her.