"You think hitting its guts will make it vomit us out?"
Are we even in its guts? Because I think we're more in its throat.
"Same thing."
No, it's not.
"I'm just gonna go and ignore that." Hans squinted his eyes and once again tried to look around in the darkness, but failed. Sighing, Hans moves his way toward the wall. Taking a deep breath, Hans proceeded to slam his claw into it.
His claw bounces off it like pebbles against a brick wall, doing little to no damage. Not letting that deter him, Hans slams his claws against the flesh wall with a flurry of punches.
Hans.
"What?!"
I don't think this is going to work.
"Yes, it will! Just a little longer."
...Now you're just being stubborn. Besides, it would be best if you stopped before you tire yourself out. You'll need the energy to break yourself out of here.
Hans ignored the voice and he could hear the voice somehow sighing. He kept slamming his claws against the wall non-stop before eventually coming to a stop, huffing and puffing. To his dismay, there was no reaction from the worm whatsoever.
Told ya it wasn't gonna work.
"Shut up, you." He could feel the smugness from them even though he try his best to ignore it. Then he realized something. "What the fuck do I even call you anyway?" Hans asks.
The voice didn't immediately answer, seeming stretched silence by the question. They spend so long silence that Hans was starting to worry that he broke them. Then, they finally answered.
Why are you asking this question?
"Well...Because I don't want to keep saying "Hey you!" all the time when I'm referring to you, okay?
...
...
...
The voice hummed as they went over what he said. They didn't say anything as a minute passed by. Then another minute. Then another. Then another. Leaving Hans in an awkward position as he waited for the voice to say something. Then, they finally spoke, dispelling the awkward silence that had ensued.
Asger.
"...That's what you want to be called?"
Yes.
Hans shrugged. "Sure, Asger it is then. So...You got any idea how to get out of here?"
Perhaps try sticking your stinger in its flesh and pumping it full of venom.
"Oh yeah. That should work." Hans said. "If I could manage to cut into it." However, it doesn't mean that it wasn't a try. Hans' stinger twitched and rose above his head, aiming carefully, Han let loose his stinger, piercing through flesh, and began to inject—
Hans lost his footing when the ground below him, shook and rumbled, nearly falling deeper into the worm's stomach with the only thing preventing this being his stinger which was lodged into its flesh.
As he scrambled to regain his footing, pieces of flesh and blood began pouring in, spattering against him. "Fuck sake! When will it stop!" He yells as he knocks away a leg from his face while he holds on for dear life. Not a moment later, a bucket of blood poured down onto his face, temporarily blinding him. "Ack! Fuck!"
Just hold on!
"That's what I'm doing!" Blind, holding on for dear life, and panicking, Hans bites down the flesh of the worm to keep himself locked in place. He was turned upside down, right and left as the inside of the worm rotated before finally coming to a stop.
Leaving Hans hanging upside down.
You okay?
Pulling his mandibles and mouth out of the worm's flesh, and shaking his face free of blood, Hans spluttered, "Y-Yeah, I'm okay. Just my jaws hurt like hell." Surprisingly, he wasn't dizzy being upside down, along with all the blood flowing down his head. Also, his stinger was still lodged in the worm's flesh.
Not wasting a single second, Hans began to inject venom into the unknown creature. The flesh below him thrums as sickly green liquid flows into it.
The green slowly expanded the farther the venom spread throughout the worm's body. A low rumble could be heard before it stopped suddenly. Then, a booming roar echoed throughout the inside of the worm, the air nearly blowing Hans away while Asger started yelling in excitement.
It's working! It's working!
"I know! Stop yelling!" Hans yells over the loud roar. "You're giving me a goddamned headache!"
You're yelling as well!
"Yeah, but you're yelling in my head! That's the fucking difference!" Hans replied. "Now shut the fuck up because something is about to happen!"
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The roaring became louder as the inside began to start shaking again as a large gush of fluid flowed through, carrying Hans along with it. Bits of half-digested meat and bones could be seen in the fluid while Hans wordlessly screamed as he kept his mouth shut to prevent anything from entering his mouth.
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Outside, the ground explodes as a young Behemoth emerges from underground, violently thrashing around before vomiting out Hans and a large amount of fluid, then went back underground.
Hans twitched and got up, groaning. "That's an experience that I never wanna go through again," He muttered, Asger agreeing with him. "At least I'm free now." Taking a look around revealed that he was back on the surface, where he belong, the familiar sun beaming down on his back. Good, now he can head home and go to sleep.
After what had happened, he was way too tired to deal with anything else.
What direction was back home again?
Should be somehow around that direction.
"What direction?" Hans questioned. "Cause I don't know if you noticed, you're a voice in my head." Asger grunts in response, not even bothering to speak, instead prodding his mind to a certain direction. To which, Hans obliged.
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There had been an increase in monster presence around here and it has been happening for quite a while now.
Narrowing their 'eye', they noticed that these monsters were seemingly searching for something or someone. These monsters were also ignoring these others which was curious, to say the least. However, any further questioning into why this was happening, was cut off by their hostile reaction to them, periodically attacking them.
Concentrating, they 'grab' the ground and shape spikes from it to skewer the offending monsters that were lunging toward them, causing them to fall limp like puppets with their strings cut.
You have slain [Fanged Rat - Lv. 4]!
You have slain [Acid Spitter - Lv. 3]!
You have slain [Fanged Rat - Lv. 6]!
You have slain [Rockhead Lizard - Lv. 3]!
Huffing, they 'pulled' up stone walls to separate themselves from the monster and went back to sorting the memories which were thankfully halfway done. Sorting through the memories has given them many answers, such as what the outside world was like, the inhabitants of this world, and the many gods and beings that were worshipped.
Unfortunately, These memories have also given them many questions that couldn't be answered. At least not yet. The corrupted memories were sitting in a pile in a corner of their while they tried their best to ignore them.
Just thinking about them was making them irritated.
They pulled themselves out of their task temporarily to prune the number of monsters nearby, sending waves of spikes at them.
You have slain [Fanged Rat - Lv. 6]!
You have slain [Jackalope - Lv. 4]!
You have slain [Screecher Mice - Lv. 7]!
You have slain [Crouching Spider - Lv. 4]!
You have slain [Fanged Rat - Lv. 3]!
You have slain [Jackalope - Lv. 4]!
You have slain [Acid Spitter - Lv. 8]!
You have slain [Fanged Rat - Lv. 10]!
You have slain [Crouching Spider - Lv. 6]!
You have slain [Acid Spitter - Lv. 4]!
You have slain [Screecher Mice - Lv. 5]!
You Have Leveled Up! [Life Crystal Golem - Lv. 10 —> Lv. 11 —> 12 —> 13]
Watching as the number of life signatures dropped next to nothing, they ceased their attack and went back to their task.
...
Hmm? What was that?
Their 'eye' narrow as it dart toward the life signature that had appeared. It was...Stronger than the rest of the life signature, by an alarmingly amount. It was dwarfed the rest, more "shaped". This was...interesting to say the least and gathered their full and undivided attention.
Driven by an urge to study whatever the life signature belongs to, they threw waves of spikes toward it, still keeping their stone walls up for protection. To their astonishment, the owner of the signature simply bulldozes through the spikes, heading straight toward them.
'Grabbing' a part of the ground, they created a stone wall from it before letting it crash down on the being. However, it survives, with its life signature traveling deeper down underground, traveling at a blitzing speed.
They tried to encase the tunnel that the being was creating and traveling through, only for it to be moving too fast for them to do so.
The ground in front of them cracks and bursts open. Their 'eye' widens as it reveals a familiar yet unfamiliar shape. One that they knew very well. Cased in a golden shining exoskeleton, eight limbs, a stinger that was more like a blade, its mouth chittering something that they couldn't understand, swinging around its claws wildly.
It was the scorpion.
Yet, why does it feel so much different than before? Was it because of their skill that granted them the ability to see life signatures? And what were they chitterin' about? There was one way to find out.
[Telepathy]. Well, [Lesser Telepathy]. A skill that they had never used due to the lesser intelligence of the monsters around them, leaving the skill unused and mostly useless. Until now. Concentrating, they attempt to use [Lesser Telepathy] to talk to the scorpion by linking their mind together. Activating the skill causes them to feel...strange to say the least.
Like they were in someone else shoes, thankfully, it only lasted for a second before the link between their mind and the scorpion's was created, allowing them to communicate with it.
Now, time to get some answers. They patiently waited as voices started to flood into their mind as the connection finalized.
████ █ our ██!
"██? And █ █ head, not your head!"
We literally share the same ██!
"...I ██ my ██."
Oh for ██ sake...
"Why are ██ sounding so █████? You're the one who got us ██."
I'm █████ with how ██ you are. Besides, I did get █ lost, considering we're ██ now.
"'██ get us lost' my ██."
I can still ██ █, you know.
...
...
...
What is this? Why are there two voices from one being? Why?
[Lesser Telepathy - Lv. 1] Leveled Up!