Chapter 25: Risk comes with reward

The sun blazes on my skin and leaves as I try to capture it all with my skill. Someone might think that it’s boring to just stand still for hours on end for three days straight. But that isn’t true. In fact, it feels amazing as if I’m getting caressed by the sun, aches that I didn’t even know I had pushed out of my body.

The sun rises and sags in the sky as fast as the eye can track. And before I know it, the sun has fallen past the horizon, ending the feast of sunlight.

After another long day of tanning, I check on Sairal’s tree.

It still doesn’t look healthy but it’s recovering fast. Most of the main branches are recovering, the bark melding back together and getting back that healthy tone. Leaves bud from them, growing with unnatural speed.

It should only take two or three more days before his dryad heart is back to normal. After that, he should return just a few days later, five at the maximum.

I check my notifications from the last three days.

*Photosynthesis (C) lvl 15/20 -> Photosynthesis (C) lvl 18/20.

*Identify (C) lvl 8/20 -> Identify (C) lvl 9/20.

*Claw Slash (B) lvl 18/20 -> Claw Slash (B) lvl 19/20.

Not much for three days. But when you consider that most of that has been spent photosynthesising and wandering the nearby forest occasionally, it’s quite good.

I open my menu and stare at my level.

Mandrake of nature lvl 9/10 (H)

The last level just won’t come. No matter how much (I) or (H) grades I kill, no matter how many hours I spend absorbing all the energy of the sun and convert it into experience. It just won’t come.

It’s as if something is withholding that last level from me just out of reach; not achievable with the steady experience I’ve been gaining over the last few days.

I need something to ‘push’ me to the next level. I need enough experience in a single moment to break whatever is blocking that last level.

The bad thing is, there is no such thing around. There are no (H) grades close to the peak. And I won’t go out of my way to search for humans.

With a shrug I return back to sunning, hoping that tomorrow I will get that level. Else, I need to get out there again and fight for my life.

***

*Photosynthesis (C) lvl 18/20 -> Photosynthesis lvl (C) 19/20.

Okay, that’s enough. This won’t work. I need a challenge. But where are all the challenges?

Well, I stare into the cave that leads to the Depths, the Valeroal moss deep inside lighting the way.

Last time I almost died and I lost a limb down there.

Hesitation floods through me. Somewhere deep inside of me, I know that killing weak monsters or tanning won’t do it for this last level. And yet, I want to go back to it. My body has healed from the fight with the Chimera, though my mind still feels exhausted.

I look over my surroundings and stare at the plumes of smoke outside of the forest. The human army still hasn’t left, but they haven’t invaded the forest either. They must be waiting for something to happen. I’m sure of it, letting soldiers just wait there as they burn through rations, water, and anything else is just wasteful.

No one is wasteful in this world. Not the mushroom guardians that strip every scrap of meat from monsters they kill, and certainly not a city that houses 500 million humans.

I turn back to the cave, whatever they are waiting for, it won’t be good for the forest. So, with reluctance that makes place for determination, I head into the cave.

Just one level, I don’t need to kill an entire hive of Cave crawlers. I just need to gain a single level.

I walk past the first clumps of Valeroal moss and slow down. I can’t get lost in the Depths. It’s unlikely that I’ll meet that blue beetle that helped me return to the surface.

Luckily, I have plenty of skill slots to fill.

I open the menu with available skills and peruse it while keeping track of everything around me. I don’t want to get shot by one of those spitter snails.

Ah, there is it.

Depth Sense (O) lvl 0/20: Grants a sense of the depths and a vague awareness of where the surface is.

I know it isn’t great but what can you expect from a skill with Ordinary as a rarity? At least it’s better than nothing. And I can always discard it later when I filled all my skill slots, at least according to Sairal.

With A shrug I grab the skill and watch the number of free slots tick down by one.

I go over my menu one last time and see that I still have three free stat points. I throw two into Perception and the last one into Mind.

The caves aren’t that dark but with the memory of the Cave crawler that snuck up on me fresh in my mind, some points into perception won’t be wasted.

On my way down I have to take care of one of the stupid spitter snails that tried to attack me. The monster was at the bottom of (H) grade and therefore barely put up a fight.

I keep a faint trickle of stamina going to both my claws, finding it to be more useful than powering them up during a fight.

Soon enough, the cave opens up in one of those large chambers.

*Depth Sense (O) lvl 1/20 -> Depth Sense (O) lvl 2/20.

I don’t notice anything different. The skill offers no visible improvement.

Eeny, meeny, miney, mo, and I head into a random cave. Like most, it slopes further downwards towards the belly of this world.

Unlike the previous time, the monsters are far and few in between. There are some (I) grade rats. One of those stone lizards at the bottom of (H) grade.

The stupid pest was impossible to find, having blended in with cavern walls. So, I just acted like I died and took care of it as it tried to put that spiked tail into me.

Funnily enough, the pressure it could apply on my eyes was far less painful than before, though still very uncomfortable. With my next free stats, I need to increase the Mind stat more.

I enter another room and Depth sense gains yet another level. Already growing tired of it, I push any notification from it to the back of my mind to review later.

I pick another cave at random and almost feel insulted. Last time it was crawling with monsters. Now it’s empty and all that is around are some weak (I) grades. Stupid rats, annoying snails, a strange snake that floats through the air, all of it is damn weak and not enough to get me a level.

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Defeated by the caves themselves and not by any monster, I enter the next room where dozens of caves meet.

This room is a bit different though. There is a pool of water, strange plants growing in it at the centre. Some weird tortoise that looks to be made out of rock is lapping up the water.

[Cavernrock tortoise] lvl 7/10 (H)

At least it looks like I’m on the right track.

I don’t fight the monster, seeing it not as a challenge. It would just retreat into its shell and I’ll have to claw the entire thing apart.

No, I need something that fights back, something that actually is risky.

This time when picking a new cave to enter, I don’t choose at random but pick one that seems to slope downwards the most.

A few hundred metres into it the Valeroal moss begins to transition from mainly green to the browns and blues of the Depths.

I spend a long time travelling through the cave, not finding anything outside of the weird plants that seem to grow in this place. One is a strange spiky stone thing that is coloured green. To be fair, I’m not sure if it is a plant or not. There is another one that grows on the ceiling upside-down as it tries to reach for the ground with its stalks.

Some (J) grade bugs are trapped to the stalk that are lined with nectar, slowly getting dissolved by the plant.

I free one or two of the poor bugs and set them on the ground a bit further. Most second-lifers won’t fall for the schemes of plants, but maybe…

A dozen strange plants later I enter one of the intersections that is far larger, a good hundred caves meeting here instead of a dozen.

And right in the middle, I see my target. A Cave crawler, this one far different from all the others I’ve faced, is setting up a nest.

[Juvenile Cave crawler queen] lvl 10/10 (H)

There aren’t any other Cave crawlers around. She must have recently been sent out of one of the nests that lie deeper into the Depths to start her own hive close to the surface.

Too bad that will never happen.

While she is unaware, I increase the constant trickle of Stamina that goes into Claw Slash into a flood.

I let it build up until my claws begin to tingle with the familiar pain. But unlike pain, this feels good. This feels like strength incarnate. Like I now have the power in my hands to change the world around me.

I burst out of the cave taking her by surprise. Claws already outspread, my feet eat up the ground beneath me.

Contrary to what I expected she doesn’t move into a combat stance. Instead, she flicks her mandibles to the left.

There is a pull on me and the ground slips beneath my feet. A force pulls onto me and I’m dragged over the ground towards the side it flicked its mandibles to.

As I skate over the ground, I activate Roots of Nature increasing the length of my toes for more grip and sharpen them like my claws.

I push my toes into the ground, wincing as they get filed away and I’m forced to expend more Stamina to keep them in shape. Though, it is working. The force that has been increasing on me now stays constant.

I push my claws into the ground, the tips of them strong enough with all my skills combined to push into the stone.

The juvenile queen stares at me with rage. She flicks its mandibles again and I feel the pull grow as if I’m hanging onto a wall. The world turns around me and gravity switches.

My claws lose their grip and I scramble on the wall which was previously the floor.

Long grooves are scratched into it as I try to keep the speed at which I’m moving low.

The floor approaches fast, promising a painful landing.

Gravity pulls on me, making my roots groan under pressure as I keep slowly slide down, scratching grooves into the stone.

The queen looks at me smugly and continues to build her nest, content to watch me slowly slide further away to the floor.

I shake my head. I push Claw Slash to the max, feeling the skill slip since it wasn’t meant for this. With my mind, I force the skill to do my bidding, pressing against it in my mind, my head beginning to ache as if a Cavern lizard is using that strange attack on me.

I let go with my left hand, my descent to the floor speeding up. I push my hand into the wall, stone tearing away. My momentum stops and I stare at the queen who has paused her work.

She flicks her mandibles to the right and what previously was down now becomes up.

I try to hold on like standing in the centre of a storm. Up becomes down. Left becomes right. The room feels like it is spinning as gravity plays with me, trying to throw me in any direction it can.

My claws dig deeper into the stone, rooting me into place. No matter how much it pulls with its magic and skills, I won’t move.

The Cave crawler queen seems to realise too as she stops trying to push me around with her gravity and instead goes in for the kill.

Her plan is simple, keep me incapacitated with its magic while she finishes me off with her mandibles. But that plan forces her to close in and that is something I want and desire.

The monster makes her way towards me, taking their time.

In a show she opens her mandibles, showing every barb that will soon cut into my flesh.

When she’s close enough, I fling my body towards her, arms stretching out to grab onto her.

The mandible that were meant to cut me apart become a support as she changes the gravity too late.

I feel my body get pulled towards the ceiling, but I’m hanging onto her.

So what now little queen? Increase the force and get pulled along?

Before she can make up her mind, I crawl over her towards her legs, slashing at them with one arm. I miss but as a reflex, she pulls away her legs and loses more purchase on the ground beneath her.

Slowly she is forced to let go, the remaining legs not able to offset my weight that is getting pulled to the ceiling. one by one she is forced to let go.

She screeches at me, her first sound of rage as I give a violent tug, making her fully dislodge from the floor.

We fly through the air, a good fifty metres away from the ceiling.

I clamber upon her carapace, watching out for the pincers as I try to stab one of my fingers into her eye to get to the brain.

She shakes me off, struggling all the while as she keeps trying to position me to soften her fall.

I smile as I feel Mandrake Screech build up. There isn’t enough time to unleash it at full power but I only need a moment.

The piercing wail, this time filled with a tinge of glee, echoes through the cave.

The queen doesn’t freeze but slows down enough for me to get the upper hand.

I don’t go for her eyes since that is what she is expecting. Instead, I clamber upon her stomach where I’m safe from her mandibles and pincers.

Cave crawlers usually don’t have this weakness since their stomachs are always low to the ground. But when you are flying towards the ceiling, gravity reversed?

I plunge my claws into her belly, getting rewarded by a chittering cry.

The monster sees her end, no matter what she does, she will die. And because of that, she increases the gravity to the highest amount she can muster.

I grimace, feeling the pull on me grow.

Knowing that the ceiling can only be a dozen metres away, I brace and hope that her body will be enough to cushion the fall.

We hit the ceiling later than expected. With a crunch she slams into the cavern wall, her insides spilling out of every opening. The insect lets out a faint chitter of pain, being at death’s door.

Only now, I go for her eyes and stab my finger into her eyeball. It gives some resistance thanks to her high Constitution, but not much.

*Congratulations. You have slain [Juvenile Cave crawler Queen] lvl 10/10 (H)

Congratulations. You have gained a level. You are now level 10.

+6 HP +3 SP +1 Strength +2 Constitution +3 Unallocated stat points.

With her death, the gravity magic vanishes and the ceiling which had been the floor now becomes the ceiling again.

The natural gravity takes hold and pulls me towards the floor.

I don’t let go of her body and position it under me as if it is a cushion that will lessen my impact.

Without a thought, I allocate my three free points to Constitution, now that I need every point in the stat.

My stomach hurls, the bile trying to force its way up my throat as gravity switches.

The fall takes longer than the rise, the natural gravity being a bit less than what the Cave crawler used.

I crash into the floor. The corpse of the queen explodes in a rain of green gore and chitin as it absorbs most of the force.

I don’t get off scot-free, feeling my roots snap and bruise under the force of the impact.

I lay there in a pool of gore, not caring about anything for a moment, only thinking about the fight and the crazy magic the monster used.

Then I stare at my menu, the level clear to my eyes.

Mandrake of nature lvl 10/10 (H)

I pull up the rest of the notifications.

*Congratulations. You have reached the maximum level. You have gained access to the evolution menu.

*Mandrake Screech (C) lvl 8/20 -> Mandrake Screech (C) lvl 10/20.

*Roots of Nature (R) lvl 6/20 -> Roots of Nature lvl 8/20.

*Claw Slash (B) lvl 19/20 -> Claw Slash (B) lvl 20/20.

*Depth Sense (O) lvl 3/30 -> Depth Sense lvl 8/20

*Congratulations. Thanks to your feats Claw Slash (B) has become eligible for an upgrade. Pick one of four options.

I tune the system out again, still knowing that I’m in the depths.

Groaning, I heave myself out of the green pool of gore. I stare around, looking at the hundreds of caves that connect to this large room. So from which one did I come from?