Near an unknown planet
Continental shelves vanished into seas of rolling magma. Tiny people fled from the encroaching tidal waves of red hot rock that rose up from the sundered core of the planet. Far above this apocalyptic vision, a massive image of Berrigious stood. He was standing in the middle of the image, glaring down at the planet that he was in the middle of destroying. Someone of his stature was able to crack a planet in half with just an expression of their aura, without even having to use their Dao.
Berrigious funneled all of his rage into his aura as he yet again thought about how his prize had escaped him. If he was able to visit Earth in person, he would be able to find Sam as easy as breathing, but stuck with using his astral imprint as he was, it was impossible for him to scan the planet. Even worse, the System imprint would not do it for him, citing some inane law in the multiversal constitution. That name was more of a misnomer than anything else, but since the words of the Creator Kings were the absolute law in this Multiverse, they could have called it a banana sundae and everyone would still have had to take it seriously. There was something in that constitution about the usage of one's aura in this manner, but since Berrigious owned this planet, and much of the surrounding billion lightyears, nobody would come to check on him. This was his due as a cultivator, to take out his rage on the lesser beings. No mortal would think twice of stepping on an ant, and neither would a god about eradicating his subjects at will. One of the main reasons that barely anyone ever made it out of the Mortal Tier was because of things like this. This was especially true out near the multiversal rim where new universes were added each year. The word of Berrigious was the holy gospel among his subjects, and nobody would dare to censure him for such a flagrant breach of ethics such as this.
As he watched the planet vanish into the ether, he smiled, imagining the screams of its inhabitants as they vanished into the eternal void. Nobody made it to D Rank without being a little insane, and Berrigious was no exception.
The Troglodytes' Cave
Unaware of his inadvertent triggering of the death of a planet, Sam sat calmly in the troglodyte house, listening to Torg tell him about his origins. After they had worked out the complicated stuff, namely how Sam was to get out, he had decided to immerse himself in their culture a little bit. Mainly it was to distract himself from what was to come. Apparently, this was not a natural cavern, and it was actually the home to a species of giant centipede that had colonized the entire area. These bunkers were created to protect the troglodytes from the creatures and that was why they never ventured far away from them. The exit from the cave was guarded by the brood mother, who guarded the supply of eggs that the centipedes hatched from. Centipedes were scary enough, but these ones were tens of feet long, creating horror of a whole new level. Coupled with venom that could melt steel and jaws that could cut through a human body in a single chomp, Sam was right to be nervous. He would have been happy to remain in this bunker for another few days before trying to tackle the centipedes, but he had been informed that once per week they went out to hunt and that was the only time that the broodmother was left undefended. Any other time of the week was a suicide mission.
Sam was scheduled to leave in four hours and he was whiling away the time, trying not to think about the fight that he would soon be in. As he waited, he half listened to what Torg was saying. It was interesting stuff, but he wasn't really engaged in it.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
On the planet of the troglodytes, there was no habitable surface, and the living creatures of the planet lived on the inside in the vast cave systems that filled it. The surface was populated by a race of robotic creatures that had arrived there millions of years ago, sent by some unknown source to colonize the planet. They had discovered that the planet was unsuitable for their purposes, so they had razed it to the ground, forcing the troglodytes to flee underground. They were a fully System integrated race, so they were no pushovers by any metric, but the robots were far more powerful. Despite the fact that only about a thousand actually made it to the planet, they had wiped out 99 percent of the troglodytes while only suffering a single casualty who had taken out the king of the troglodytes as it died.
Left without a leader and a planet to live on, they instead decided to live in it. This had successfully diverted the attention of the robots elsewhere and allowed them to live in peace. Over the years, they evolved to live in their new environment and eventually became the creatures that they were today. Weak eyes unused to the sun were made obsolete by vastly enhanced senses of touch and smell. They still kept some of their vision as there were many light sources underground such as the glowing moss that decorated the houses here, but in general they did not rely on it much. Their small stature was designed to make cave-ins less of a problem as there would be more space for them to move in. Rather than losing their mass, they had instead compressed into that shape, with bones like metal and skin like stone. A fully grown troglodyte was barely up to the waist of a human, but they weighed easily double that of the human.
Torg stopped talking as one of the other troglodytes entered the room, carrying a tray of stone pitchers. Setting one down between Torg and Sam, the creature left. Torg smiled at Sam and poured him a drink into a small receptacle in the table nearby. Unsure of how to drink it, Sam watched Torg closely. The troglodyte opened his mouth wide and a tendril came out, dipping down into the drink and siphoning it up. Upon seeing that Sam was unable to replicate such a feat, Torg frowned. Before the other man worked himself up over such a minor matter, Sam cupped his hands and sipped at the drink like that. It was like drinking industrial acid and it took all that he had not to scream as the liquid burned its way down his throat. Torg chuckled.
“It has a bit of a kick to it, true, but you get used to it over time.” Sam thought that was the understatement of a lifetime, but instead focused on swallowing, not bothering to go back for another drink.
The effects hit him a moment later and everything around him blurred, before crystallizing into hyperfocus. All of his senses were drastically heightened, and things appeared gigantic in his vision. It was like being high, only ten times more potent.
You have consumed Chorcha Plant Brew.
This alcohol is made from the mushroom species called chorcha that grows in the caverns of Ferad, the homeworld of the troglodytes. Drinking it will grant the consumer heightened senses until the effect wears off. May be toxic to people below a certain threshold in Constitution and Resilience.
The System notification explained everything to him and Sam chuckled. He was drinking magic mushroom alcohol. No wonder the effects were so potent. Sam wondered why the troglodytes had a use for this kind of thing, but Torg answered him almost immediately.
“Whoo, that hits the spot. My people use this to enhance our already prodigious senses. When under the influence of this brew, we can sense impending cave-ins from miles away. It's like having the senses of someone an entire rank above you.” Sam tried to respond, but the effects of the drug were too potent. Instead, he was left staring at random places around the room, marveling at the details that he could pick out. From the other side of the room, he was able to see a minuscule crack on the wall that led off into some tiny annex in the wall. His ears were bombarded with faint sounds from far away, and something that disconcertingly sounded like chittering. The presence of the centipedes was painfully obvious.