Leaping forward into the car as heard a ping from the system, Warren threw the other spike towards a mite as he entered. This one failed to kill it but still pinned a leg to the wall keeping it out of the fight before running towards the remaining two.
Chittering as it did so one leaped forward to meet him as the other began to glow a bright green from within. Feeling an extremely unpleasant sense of deja vu, Warren hurriedly threw his main weapon as well towards the glowing bug striking it in its eye.
[Congratulations! You have slain a Monocular Mite]
[Throw has leveled up]
Ignoring the messages Warren slammed his now empty fist into the underside of the bug leaping towards him in an attempt to knock it away. Only for its comparatively soft underbelly to shatter on impact, the mite twitched while impaled upon his hand for a moment before going limp. Fighting the urge to puke at feeling the inside of a giant bug warren swung the thing into the mite that was only immobilized turning both into a gory mess eliciting another notification and freeing his hand.
Wiping his hands on the jacket tied around his waist Warren solemnly vowed to burn it upon reaching the city. Shaking his head he quickly moved through the car reclaiming his weapons before moving onto the next.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sitting atop the wrecked train Warren decided he was definitely going crazy. It had been nearly a day since his last meal, a day spent doing nothing but running and fighting and even if the stats from the system explained some of it he really felt like he should be getting hungry or tired by now [Tireless] or no.
On top of that he had killed more than a dozen more mites since returning to the crash and despite feeling the surge of energy enter his body he had nothing to show for it. It was approaching the point where he was concerned it was a much bigger issue than just an increase in the required energy but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't follow the energy inside him to see where the problem lay.
And above all else here he was seriously contemplating the act of jumping into a massive hole pulsing with green light where he was certain all manner of pain awaited him.
After defeating all the bugs around the train he'd realized he was still a few kills short of the goal. After walking past the melted train puddle he'd arrived at the very end of the thing which was in similar shape to the front.
The one major difference being this end was sitting about fifty feet away from a subway tunnel sized hole in the ground. There were pretty distinctive claw prints leading in and out so he assumed it had to be a hive or nest of the things.
That being said, he had reason to believe it wouldn’t be a guaranteed suicide mission, at least it wouldnt be if he didn’t get too greedy. As interested as he was in clearing the things from the face of the earth he had no idea what could be down there, but he had already killed all the bugs above ground that he could find. Indecisive, he pulled up the quest once more as he considered his options.
[Quest]
387 People’s Tragedy Is Another Man's Treasure
Details:
On the eve of Integration a first wave Monomite invasion derailed your train, using your quick wit and unparalleled skill you were able to quickly abandon the other victims ensuring your sole survival. Now armed with newfound strength return to the scene of the crash and claim your revenge, and most importantly your spoils
Objectives
[ Monomites Killed (22/25) ]
[ Spoils Claimed (7/? ]
Rewards
[ 1x Random General Skill ]
(Quality of skill will be relative to Spoils Claimed)
Warren had realized somewhat belatedly that his kills on the mites before receiving the quest had been counted, yet he hadn't gotten anything on the spoils counter for them which was a litle aggravating. He’d take what he could get however since it meant that once he went down he’d only need to kill three more mites to complete the quest. Knowing his brother would be disappointed if this was how he died, he hopped off the train and sauntered up to the edge of the hole.
Looking inside there wasn't much to see other than a wide passage into the earth slowly growing steeper the deeper it went. Now that he was up close he could see the source of the light was a creepy as hell network of veins seeming to grow out of the walls of the tunnel.
Shivering as watched one twitch he slowly walked into the tunnel, the faster he got in the faster he could get out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Warren froze mid-step as he felt [Sixth Sense] activate trying to find where the threat was. Looking around he saw nothing except the same damn tunnel that had been steadily getting deeper and deeper for the last 10 minutes. That was until the pressure from the skill gathered on his feet, looking down he saw he had been about to step on one of the green veins growing from the floor.
[Congratulations! Sixth Sense has leveled up]
Shifting his leg so that it wouldn’t land on it, the pressure vanished and he took a deep breath to calm his nerves. He didn’t know what awaited him if he had stepped on the vein but doubted it was a pleasant one.
Pausing for a moment Warren hesitated about whether this was worth it or not. Yes he’d receive a skill but he had no guarantee it would be useful, he was also hesitant to go too much deeper as he had yet to see a single Monomite since entering and didn't want to get in a fight where half the floor was potentially deadly.
On top of all that the fact that the tunnel had yet to branch in any way shape or form was honestly far creepier than anything else. It gave the sense that this hole was dug to achieve something rather than build a nest.
Nodding to himself that the best idea was clearly to just cut his losses, Warren promptly turned around to cut his losses. The free skill would be nice but it wouldn’t really be free if he got himself killed trying to get it. Chuckling quietly at how insane this idea felt in hindsight he began walking back towards the exit.
*CRUNCH*
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As Warren took his first step he suddenly felt a searing pain cut through his foot. Reflexively he stomped his foot down eliciting a ding from the system as he leaped backwards on one leg. As he was mid air he was able to see what had injured his foot.
It looked like- Was that a goddamn rock? Sitting on the floor with a puddle of green blood leaking out from it was a small flat creature. Roughly the size of a tire but much thinner it was clearly a variant of those damn bugs, Its chitin had grown in the same rough texture as the floor of the tunnel and he could now see raised portions that seemed to be imitating the veins.
Looking at the pattern of the thing's shell, Warren’s heart sank as looked down at where he was about to land. Beneath him and quickly approaching as he lost the momentum from his jump was a mass of veins that had suddenly started writhing upon his approach. At this point [Sixth Sense] felt like a vice slowly crushing him to dust..
Quickly running through his options and deciding he didn't have any, Warren tried to twist his body in such a way as to not land on any of them but quickly realized it was in vain. He landed hard, knocking the wind out of him. Feeling the veins burst into even more violent motion following his contact, Warren was barely able to speak a single word
“Motherfu-”
And then the veins covered him, cold, slimy, and sticky to the touch, the alien green light coming from them flashed a bright electric blue. And then everything went dark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With the sound of paper tearing Warren burst out of the tangle of veins. Gasping for air as his heart raced he managed to tear himself free before climbing back up to his feet. The tunnel, previously lit by the eerie glow of the veins, was dark, the floor littered with the now withered pieces of what he hoped wasn't flesh.
Wincing as he came to his feet he looked down for a second before pointedly looking back up.He couldn't see exactly how bad it was due to the way [Night Vision] changed his sight but the fact it looked like a mass of blue spaghetti didn’t fill him with confidence for the future down here. Shaking his head, slowly he started limping back towards the entrance calling upon the System as he went.
[Name: Warren Kingsbrook]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Unearned]
[Soul: Unawakened (Aero)]
[Level: 8]
HP: 22/40
MP: 2/35
STM: 19/20
STR: 10 (+2)
AGI: 12 (+5)
VIT: 6
CON: 11
INT: 7
MNT: 5
LCK: 10 (+1)
0 Status Points Available
[Renown: 10]
— Class —
— Titles —
[Champion Select] [Trailblazer] [Wind Walker]
— Skills —
[Tireless lvl 3] [Sixth Sense lvl 5] [Aero Affinity lvl 1] [Dash lvl 4] [Stab lvl 9] [Night Vision lvl 2]
— Archetype —
Lucky Bastard: A talent for the untalented
Increases the effect of LCK
—- Evaluation —
[That was kind of embarrassing]
For once, as he read the screen Warren agreed with the Systems criticism. At the very least while he had cleaned up the crash most of his skills had leveled up, although he still had no idea how to level up [Aero Affinity]
Well it didn't really matter for now, once he made it to the city he’d either be able to find someone who had this shit figured out already or get enough time to figure it out himself. Either way he’d never get there if he died in this stupid damn tunnel so he picked up his pace as he went over the notifications he’d gotten after being mummified
[Attention! Your mana is being drained]
[Attention! Your mana is being drained]
[Attention! Your mana is being drained]
[Attention! Your mana is being drained]
[Attention! You have run out of mana]
[Attention! You have been marked by an Elemental Heart]
That…
That was concerning, what the hell even was an ‘Elemental Heart’. It explained why he had next to no mana but that was less of a relief and more of an alternate concern. But if anything was clear it was that he needed to get the hell out of here before his situation got any wor-
*dunk*
Lost in thought Warren walked straight into a wall before staring at it confused. He knew he was a little out of it right now but he was damn certain that the tunnel was a straight shot, hell that was the whole reason he’d decided to leave in the first place.
Looking closer he realized that the texture of this wall was different from the ones around him. [Night Vision] changed his sight allowing him to see with near perfect clarity in the dark, it did so by causing him to see an outline of everything around him. Even if he couldn't make out finer details or colors he was more than able to tell that thus wall was eerily similar to the veins he could still see growing from the wall.
Heart sinking he slowly raised a hand to touch the wall. As his hand met the surface three things happened at once, first he felt that it was warm to the touch, comforting almost, it seemed to beckon to him in a way he couldn't quite put into words.
The second thing to take place was a pulse of neon blue light spreading from the point he had touched the wall. This time however it stole no mana and simply traveled down the tunnel back the way he'd just came illuminating Warren once more for a brief moment.
The electric blue light revealed silvery grey markings running up his arms like the victim of a lightning strike, it also revealed that the wall he had run into was a mass of veins grown together blocking his way out of the tunnel.
The third and final event was Warren receiving two distinct pings from the System. Two pings he failed to notice as something inside him snapped.
Not even twenty-four hours ago his life was going fine, now what. Some godforsaken bug nearly bit his foot off while an alien from hell literally sucked the soul out of him.
Pulses of light began shooting down the tunnel as Warren, who was laughing hysterically, began slamming punch after punch into the grotesque wall.
He kept going until his knuckles started to bleed before stopping to stare at the wall a moment longer. His laughter suddenly turned into a furious shout as he put his all into one last blow, striking the middle of the blockade with all his might.
Light filled the tunnel as his fist created a small opening in the wall. Triumphantly he prepared another blow laughing once more.
Only for him to cut off, the tunnel falling into a deadly silence once more as he watch the veins twist back together, caging him once more.
Watching his only hope fade away, he once more began screaming in frustration at the top of his lungs. He kept on-going until his voice grew hoarse and he could barely make a sound, before slamming one last futile punch into the wall.
Turning around he began his journey into the presumed nest once more, all the while failing to notice the System's latest message
[Attention! An Enemy Champion is near]
[Attention! You have received a Quest!]