Once Quill was out of sight and earshot of Ssevinac he stopped and pulled out the map that he had. It had occurred to him when he started walking deeper into the tunnels that he didn't actually know where he was going but felt too awkward to suddenly just stop and try and figure it out while he could still be seen.
After looking over the map he felt like he knew where he was supposed to go and quickly started moving. It wasn't like he was in a big rush but he also felt like moving faster could help remove some of this gunk that was still on him.
“I get that you didn't want to use your energy manifestations in front of the rat kin or take out one of your many hoarded weapons from your storage ring, but you could have at least picked up one of the weapons on the ground that were dropped by either the dead guards or the dead roaches. You didn't have to just keep punching and kicking everything to death.”
“You see, that would be a great point except I clearly didn't think of it when I was busy punching and kicking. If only someone might have suggested that when I was in the middle of fighting everything.” he sarcastically responded.
“Eh,I didn't want to ruin the moment.”
“So kind and thoughtful.”
“I know right?!”
Keeping the map out, he made sure to store the three health potions he had before heading off into the tunnels.
“So what's our destination? are we just going to Blitz forward towards the other Grand Station or were you thinking of something different?” she puzzled
“I was actually thinking of heading towards one of the smaller stations that we know the roaches occupy. If I am going to try and make peace with them, it probably wouldn't look good if I slaughtered everything in order to get to their ruler. My hope is that there will be some kind of lieutenant or group leader in one of the smaller stations that can then put me in touch with their King.”
It seems like a solid plan in his mind but there was still the nagging worry of what Ssevinac told him that the roaches would not care for peace and only sought to kill anything that wasn't them. Plus there could also be the system trying to encourage or nag on the fighting. It seems like enough of an asshole to do that.
“You're pretty judgmental over a thing you haven't actually met yet, you know?”
“Oh I'm sorry! I didn't realize you were such a big fan of this defective buggy piece of crap.” he shot back.
“If the system is such an asshole as you claim, perhaps insulting it will only make it worse on you.” she countered in a tone that seemed more amused than anything.
“Perhaps, in which case that's all the more reason for me to do it. If this so-called hyper powerful system has such a fragile ego that a lone, weak human is enough to insult it. Says more about it than it does me." After saying that he stopped and waited to see if the system would retaliate in some way.
“See? No direct action. Because if it did do something that would directly kill me because of my insults. I'd win and it knows that.”
“Feel like a lot of assumptions are getting thrown around here.”
“If it didn't want me to assume, it would be better at communication.”
Quill continued down the tunnels with little issue as he neared one of the outer stations that belonged to the roaches territory according to the map. Despite the horrible smell and icky sensation on his skin, he still turned on all five of his enhanced senses. He remembered how quiet the roaches had been during their ambush of the rat kin forces and he wanted to make sure he could catch something like that before it happened. Even if it was uncomfortable, unpleasant, and just gross.
“Can't wait for that bath huh?”
“Understatement of the century.”
He neared where he thought the station would be, trying to keep an ear I and nose out for any potential ambushes or enemies. However he was starting to think something was a little wrong. He hadn't come across any roaches yet, not a single patrol. With a frown he continued to walk until he got to where he thought the station would be. but there were no guards and more importantly no trap door.
“Oh yeah! forgot to mention! You read the map wrong a little while ago and are WAY off course. Oopsie daisy.”
Quill stopped mid step. “Are you fuck-” his survival instincts screamed at him and he quickly threw his body into the wall just as some kind of giant projectile flew past him and crashed behind.
His head quickly pivoted towards where the projectile came from and while he couldn't quite see Everything in the dim light even with the enhanced eyesight. He could hear various chittering and clicking that he could only associate with the cockroaches.
“Oh look at that, a patrol. Saves you the trouble of finding one.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Don't change the subject.” Quill answered as he started charging down the hall towards the cockroaches which soon came into view. “Why on Earth did you not tell me I had missed a turn or gone in the wrong direction or whatever it was that put me here and not at the station.”
He didn't bother summoning up his pizza cutter as he felt that would just be too overkill. Instead settled for manifesting a simple club smashing and started crushing the bugs before they even had a chance to resist, waiting for his answer.
“What do you want me to say? I just figured you were taking a scenic route.”
“Scenic route?” He answered with exasperation, gripping one of the roaches arms and hurling it into another group while he brought his club down and crushed another one's head. “What scenic route could I possibly have gone through? There's nothing here but dirt, walls and concrete.”
“Now that you mention it, are you sure that's dirt and not shit? These tunnels kind of remind me of a sewer.”
“Not the point! You just wanted to see how long I would go down the route without realizing I made a wrong turn!” he dodged another projectile that flew past him at high speeds. finally seeing what was shooting that.
It looked like a scorpion but instead of firing large bolts it shot cannonballs instead. the team of roaches that were Manning it we're already loading up the next shot.
“Guilty as charged.” she said in a lackadaisical tone. “By the way, are you sure you shouldn't be concentrating on fighting here? You seem to be taking this pretty casually.”
Quill Looked around at all the dead roaches. “Not much point on concentrating if they're all dead.” he responded, suppressing the sudden guilt as it wouldn't do him any good. Instead focused on the scorpion that was taking aim at him and readied up his Club for a swing.
“Uh… Please tell me you aren't about to do what I think you're about to do. Because if you are, while I won't call you insane, I will call you a dork.”
“Don't be ridiculous.” he grinned as he strengthened his manifestation, changing it slightly into a baseball bat “Any cool guy in my position would do the same thing.”
“Dork!”
The roaches fired their scorpion and Quill swung his bat. The enhanced reflexes and all the stats into his body allowed him to hit the oncoming projectile. The moment his bat connected, he felt a massive strain in his body and, to a lesser extent, his mind. Both trying to keep the manifestation solid while his arms shook from impact as a massive crack echoed through the tunnels.
He felt a little woozy for a moment as he dissipated the manifestation, the projectile firing right back into the scorpion smashing the construction into pieces. splinters flying everywhere as the crew of roaches chittered and screeched in shock, falling over each other from the impact.
Taking a breath To steady himself, Quill pulled out a sword from his storage ring. Accidentally gripping the blade as it popped out of nothingness and In his embarrassment quickly grabbed the hilt before casting a glance at the roaches to make sure they didn't catch his blunder.
“You just decimated their entire force. I don't think they're going to be snickering at you for such an action even if they were paying attention.” he could have sworn he saw her face palm with that comment.
He walked over to the roaches brandishing his sword and trying to look as intimidating as possible. It probably helped that he was completely covered in their breathren’s guts. Unfortunately he found that reading the roaches expressions was even harder than reading the rat kins.
“Right.” He lowered his voice to try and sell the tough guy act. “I want you to take me to your leaders or your king. I wish to discuss diplomacy with him.” He kept the sword raised towards the roaches showing he meant business.
The roaches themselves chittered amongst each other before screeching and leaping at quill with reckless abandon. Instinctually he swung the blade killing them as they attacked only to face palm at his stupid actions.
“Well you were warned that they attacked anybody who wasn't their own.”
“Yeah.” He sighed with some exasperation. “ I just hoped they had some kind of self-preservation instinct. Were these systems spawned roaches?”
“Some were, some weren’t.”
He shook his head in annoyance and pulled out the map from his storage ring. “Right, can you please show me where we are and where I need to go since you clearly know.”
She reoriented him on the map and gave him the directions he needed to go. Which he immediately double checked with her just to make sure she wasn't leading him astray for shits and giggles. Then he took everything that looked like it could sell for a couple of pennies off the roaches including the cannonballs and began to make his way towards his correct destination.
He did run into another large group of roaches and dealt with them just as easily as he had dealt with the first group. With a similar result when he tried asking the few survivors he had managed to capture if they could take him to their leader. But otherwise the trip was uneventful.
He finally came to a small blockade where the trap door to the station was located. A bunch of roaches and two scorpions were positioned, ready to take on any threat that came in either direction.
After some careful analysis he realized it wouldn't be that hard for him to break through and so charged as fast as he could, easily making quick work of the roaches after he dodged the initial volley from the scorpions.
He wouldn't say he was beginning to feel a bit of strain from using his energy manifestation, but he also wouldn't say he was 100% either as he looked up at the shut trap door. There was a good chance that whatever forces were above had heard the little scuffle and we're likely getting ready. So despite wanting to rest a little bit before taking on the station he felt it made more sense to just charge on in before they had a chance to fortify.
Plus who knows, it seemed like every time his skill leveled up it was because he was straining himself immensely. Maybe this would give him the final push he needed.
He manifested two maces in his hands and jumped upwards with all of his might, smashing through the trap door and solidly hitting several roaches that had surrounded the door. Quickly manifesting his Rat Tail to take care of the rest he had missed just so he could avoid being surrounded.
Once his feet were planted firmly on the station floor, he looked around at all of the surrounding roaches, all of whom were armed and he thought looked angry. “Right. I don't suppose it would be too much of an ask that you guys introduce me to your leader without fighting?”
They instantly started screeching at him and charged. “Yeah, I thought as much,” he mumbled as he prepared his weapons.