Warren suddenly paused while he limped down the tunnel as he tried to ignore the pain in his foot. He was still energized despite his exhausted mind and the contrast only made it that much worse. Enough time had passed while he walked for him to start to get over the shock from having the exit sealed over by the veins, but even as he returned to a somewhat normal state of mind he didn’t exactly see a way out.

At this point the entirety of the tunnel was covered in veins and waves of neon blue light washed down them as he went. Without any real goal other than to kill as many of these bugs as possible before he starved to death, or he suffered some kind of complication with his foot, Warren had been blindly following the lights in the hopes he’d find anything other than empty tunnels.

After about an hour of travel he had yet to find anything however other than a second bug like the one that had bit him originally. According to the system it was called a [Monomite Screecher] and he had only seen it due to the increase in veins and the light they shed, while killing it Warren was also able to confirm they were somehow hidden from [Sixth Sense] either due to some special trait or skill.

Slightly disappointed at his lack of omniscience Warren resolved to be more alert and had continued on his way leading him to where he now stood at a bend in the tunnel. Taking a moment to collect himself before continuing, Warren pulled up his status.

[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 —

[ You really thought going into the nest was a good idea? ]

His health had yet to drop any further despite the fact that he was pretty sure he should have bled out or at least been dizzy from blood loss because of his foot but other than pain he hadn't really noticed a loss in mobility or focus which he counted as a bles-

*thump*

Warren’s head snapped up from the screen as he felt the ground vibrate under him slightly. Trying not to be overly impulsive as that was how he had ended up here he simply waited to see if anything else would happen. A second later there was a second thump, then another, then another, and with each repetition the vibrations grew stronger and soon he could hear what sounded like beating hooves coming from the tunnel in front of him.

Tensing up as he prepared himself for a fight, the idea almost instantly left his mind as what looked like a demon came around the corner accompanied by a wave of green light. It was still clearly a Monomite but it was far more developed than any he had seen so far, its bulk filled nearly half the tunnel and diamond shaped plates of chitin covered its entire body instead of its brethrens patchy armor.

The body was the same turtle/crab shape but attached was an actual head, it was small and angular with a single eye and short jagged mandibles at the jaw. The back four legs were almost the same, they were much thicker due to the monster's considerable size, while the front two looked more like giant hammers rather than legs as the thing kept them raised while it ran. And to top it all off the thing had a hazy multi-colored aura glowing blue, white, and silver like it was a fucking saiyan.

The beast barrelled around the corridor at a pace nearly reaching Warren’s new top speed forcing him to dive out of the way shouting in pain as he leapt off his injured foot. Scrambling to his feet through the pain he turned around to see the bug doing the same, its single eye glowed a vile green as it glared at him with a hateful intelligence.

Without thinking Warren immediately started sprinting down the tunnel from where the bug had arrived not wanting to risk bypassing it. Grunting in pain every other step he did his best to block out the pain as he heard the mite start running once more, shaking the tunnel with every step.

Rounding the turn Warren did his best to maintain his pace as the tunnel lit up in a chaotic mix of bright blue and lime green. Heart racing as he ran, Warren cursed as he felt the vibrations getting closer and closer, the vibrations running up his spine and making him shiver.

As the beast closed upon him his heart beat faster and faster to the point he could hear the blood rushing through his ears. As the adrenaline started to kick in, the pain from his foot seemed to fade away and his speed began to rise ever so slowly until he was able to maintain his distance from the thing following him even if he couldn't increase it.

This balance was maintained for a few minutes until warren a patch of floor ahead of him that remained dark despite the surrounding light show. Feeling a rush of irritation at the sight, Warren stabbed his spike into the black spot on the ground as he ran by, only to nearly fall over he received a number of pings from the system

[Congratulations! You have slain a Monomite Screecher]

[Congratulations! You have reached level 9]

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

[Congratulations! You have completed a quest!]

Barely maintaining his stride as he felt his foot knit itself back together Warren let out a joyful cry as his pace immediately increased. His joy was short lived however as when he looked behind him he saw that the bug was just as close as it had been the entire time, his heart rate jumping once again as he saw the mite was also gaining speed.

Legs pumping, Warren kept running until he came to another fork in the path, without hesitation Warren did as he had been doing this entire time and followed the lights path. After running what he guessed was around 300 feet down the tunnel it opened up into a relatively large chamber. The walls of the cavern were covered in intricate twisting patterns of veins pulsing with blue and green light.

Scattered along the walls were six more tunnels at roughly equal points, as he reached the middle of the room his heart sank slightly as he saw the pulses of light spread out evenly through the tunnels robbing him of an easy choice in direction.

As he tried to make a choice Warren felt something slam into his back, recognizing the feeling of [Sixth Sense] he rolled forward feeling a rush of air as one of the mites' hammer-like front legs passed overhead. Quickly standing back up to face the bug both Warren and the monster paused as the room was suddenly dyed entirely in blue, almost immediately the sapphire veins turned emerald green. Vibrant green and blue lights began to spiral around the room faster and faster painting the cavern in a whirlpool of light.

As the lights spun around Warren the blue light began to gather in the center of the ceiling before shooting outwards to the six exits, veins once more prevented any chance of escape leaving six bright blue portals scattered across the walls.

As the exits closed Warren focused his attention on the demonic mite as his heart began to beat even faster. For a second nothing happened as the two faced off with each other before the creature's single glowing eye dimmed and it charged at him with an angry screech.

Jumping to the side as it passed by him Warren swung his spike like a bat into the bugs side only to nearly drop it as it rebounded from its armor sending shocks up his arm. Spinning to keep the beast in front of him he watched it turn around as its momentum ran out before charging towards him again.

Like the first time Warren dodged to the beasts side this time choosing not to take another swing. With that the man and the bug entered a fast and brutal dance, without space to build up speed Warren was marginally faster than his opponent allowing him to barely avoid its attacks as he searched for a way to kill the damn thing.

The first thing he noticed as he dodged around the bug was that there were small gaps in the chitin at the joints of each leg which most likely wouldn’t be fatal but could slow it down. The second only made obvious as the lights in the room stabilized was the presence of small cracks scattered across the abominations armor, none of them looked truly damaged but it was more of a start than he’d initially hoped for.

Coming out of a roll as he dodged the umpteenth charge Warren started trying to get closer to the bug as he continued. As it came back towards him he jumped out of the way again this time trying to make as little distance as possible while staying safe. His first attempt was disappointing as expected but with the second attempt he got a little closer, and on the third he got closer still.

Maintaining this routine Warren continued to approach the bug bit by bit, slowly growing more confident in his strategy. It was frustrating to fight without actually fighting back but he knew that if he kept trying to rush things his luck would run out. And so, the fight continued, Warren narrowly dodging the bug's attempt to trample him and relying on [Sixth Sense] to avoid swings of its twin hammers until eventually he saw his chance.

Quickly shuffling to the side as the mite barreled past, Warren chased after it attempting to stick the bug's side as it turned to face him. Sliding his hand up the spike to hold it by the midpoint he stepped out of the way of another swing of its front legs before slamming the point of the spike into a cracked plate of chitin where its head met its body.

Again, waves of force rebounded up the spike nearly causing him to lose his grip, but as Warren backed away he could see the cracks on the plate had grown slightly causing a slight grin to spread on his face. Elated with the preliminary success he jumped backwards to avoid another attempt at crushing him before resuming his work.

Almost a dozen such blows later Warren started to laugh wildly as he felt the plate of armor shatter under the continued abuse and the spike sunk into the beast's flesh. Before he could pull his weapon free however he watched the flickering aura surrounding the bug change. Originally the aura had been an even mix of blue, white, and silver, but as he watched the blue aspect fade away into nothing the mite craned its head upwards, locking the spike in place as it began thrashing wildly, throwing Warren to the ground in the process.

Rolling on the floor to avoid getting stomped into it he scrambled to his feet only for [Sixth Sense] to warn him of a blow to his chest. Time seemed to slow as Warren watched one of the creature's massive front legs swing towards him and realized he wouldn't be able to dodge. Doing the only thing he could think of he raised an arm between his body and the hammer in an attempt to block.

A loud crunch echoed through the cavern as Warren felt the bones in his arm shatter, he screamed in pain as the blow lifted him from the ground and sent him flying across the cave. Sailing through the air as the bug continued to thrash around in pain, Warren's vision started to darken at the edges as he impacted the wall. Sliding down the wall limply, he fought to stay conscious as he lay in a pool of blue light.

Attempting to push himself to his feet, Warren let out another anguished scream as the shards of bone in his arm shifted with the movement, his vision going black as got onto his knees. As He attempted to recover the mite finally started to recover on the other side of the cavern. Its head's range of motion was impaired by the spike lodged in its neck but as it spun in place eventually its eye landed on his kneeling form.

Desperately he tried to jump out of the way as the abomination charged but was barely able to do so, his leg getting hit as he leaped sending waves of pain up his body as he spun through the air and landed on his back. Feeling a familiar unwillingness to die at the hands of a goddamn bug Warren pushed himself up once more.

Only to be stopped as the mite placed a single massive foreleg on his chest, pinning him to the ground. Feeling any semblance of composure slip away, Warren grabbed one of the smaller spikes in his functioning arm and began wildly attempting to stab it into the creature's foot as it began to press it down, slowly crushing his chest.

Feeling the weight gradually increase as the bones in his chest began to pop and creak, Warren felt an indescribable anger at the events of the past two days well up inside him. He was supposed to be drinking with his brother right now for god’s sake, not getting crushed to death by some insectoid demon in the middle of an ants nest from hell.

Vision growing dimmer and dimmer Warren continued striking the leg in vain as he felt the life slowly getting squeezed out of him. The pain in his chest continued to mount before suddenly turning sharp as felt his ribs crack fully, unable to withstand the pain any further his eyes rolled back into his head as Warren screamed once more, this time failing to stop.

The bug kept pressing down on his chest until he stopped thrashing and the cavern was once more cast into silence except for the sound of its chitin grinding against the length of steel in its neck. Raising its leg the bug turned around and began walking towards one of the neon blue gates opposite from where they had entered.

Taking an extremely shallow breath, the nearly-dead Warren closed his eyes and resolved to play dead until the monster was gone, the thing was clearly out of his league and at this point just breathing was nearly enough to make him start screaming again. The anger he felt hadn’t subsided in any way and his helplessness to do anything about it only made it worse.

Gritting his teeth, Warren kept his eyes closed as the mite walked away and tried to come up with a way to live through this. The bug was leaving sure but it was taking his main weapon with it, and even if he had kept the spike he didn’t think it would matter if he couldn’t move, sure he’d heal if managed to level up but killing enough monsters for that to happen was definitely out of the question with his injuries.

Warren's contemplations were interrupted by a loud thud as the mite slammed its foreleg into the Veins barring its path causing dust to rain down from the ceiling. The veins held strong against the blow, flashing green as it made contact. Angrily the mite began slinging blow after blow into the veins causing them to shudder violently but ultimately having no effect.

Enraged, it began charging wildly through the room running into a random gate before turning and rushing into another one. Heart beating faster as the mindless ramming began to bring it towards where he lay on the ground Warren simply waited, unable to act, as the anger continued to build inside him, mixing with an equally unbearable sense of indignation at the circumstances.

Lying on the floor filled with loathing towards himself and the world around him, he cracked an eye open to see the mites' state only to see it headed straight for him. As he watched it approach His heart rate continued to rise to the point Warren could feel it moving the shards of his ribcage with every beat causing him to writhe in pain.

Unwilling to die but unable to move, his vision turned blurry from the pain as he desperately fought to make his body work. Only for Warren to freeze as he heard his brother's voice whisper softly, dripping with venom.

“Pathetic”

Instantly he felt his blood run cold, obviously his brother wasn’t here but hearing his voice reminded Warren about why he was fighting. Yes, completing the quest was important, both for the free skill and the whole champion ordeal, but both those things were secondary, what really mattered to him was getting to Stellar City and finding his brother.

Going from a burning anger to a calm and cold rage, he felt the pain slowly fade to the back of his mind as his heart sped up even more. His heart kept beating more and more violently as the mite approached and he struggled to move, and then it was over, the mite reached him and raised its foreleg for a final time prepared to turn him into paste.

Raising his arm in a vain attempt to protect himself Warren closed his eyes when he suddenly heard the faint sound of glass shattering. Eyes shooting open he was shocked but excited at what he saw, the bug had paused in its motion, seemingly put off by something that he quickly saw.

Earlier when he had freed himself from the veins Warren saw that they had left silvery marks down his arms that were exceedingly similar to the scars from being struck by lightning. Those same markings were now glowing the same neon blue as roughly half the veins surrounding them. Currently the light only reached halfway down his arm but as he watched it continued to spread until it reached his hands and his entire body started to tingle, wary of making any sudden movements without a plan he started to slowly lower his raised arm. However the moment he moved the world around him exploded with electricity.