[BT] Getting Lost To Find My Way - Chapter 20 (Patreon)

The plants, gone. The water, gone. Even the dirt, gone. All that remains in the tunnel was rock walls. And that is correct, “tunnel” singular. All of the branches had eventually met up into a single large tunnel that swayed back and forth through the rock. Which is super frustrating as it didn’t let me see what was ahead!

Though I guess I can’t say they were completely empty. It was here that I found the most signs of outsiders, delvers, adventurers. Markings from a campfire, holes in a rectangle that at one point probably anchored a tent, and so on and so forth.

Oh, and blood stains. In drips and drops along the floor, boot prints of someone limping along, and in one place, a weathered patch that outlined a person and the pool next to them. But no bones, so that’s nice. Well, nice because it means this area has visitors often enough that even the people who do die here have their bodies removed.

What wasn’t nice is that everything pointed towards there being something up ahead that was quite dangerous. Every boot print and scrape mark decrying a rapid escape from something. Though by the evidence, even if they did get away, they didn’t survive doing so. Maybe they didn’t get away at all? The lack of bones might not be people clearing them, but whatever is ahead gathering them for itself.

Eh, if anything this discovery pointed towards the exit being this way. After all, there has to be some reason the underground area isn’t filled with more evidence of people. While spelunking for treasure and combat experience likely wasn’t as popular as the media portrayed it, people would still do it if there wasn’t a roadblock. You know, like some kind of boss monster or devious trap.

And honestly? I was already on the path. At this point, I’m pretty committed to following it to the end. An end which turned out to be a lot closer than expected.

Just a couple more turns in the tunnel and I faced a giant open cavern. Not that I could see much of it as right in front of the tunnel was a well and proper chimera as seen in classic mythology. Most obvious to me? The snake tale, seeing as its back was to me to start.

Though once it turned to face me, the goat, lion, and dragon heads easily made themselves known. Uh yeah, I wasn’t ready for this and so I backed out of the room and began to run. It wasn’t chasing me and in fact, wouldn’t have fit into the tunnel. A scary prospect in and of itself, seeing as this was the biggest tunnel I’d seen down here. However, being so myth accurate, I was more than willing to believe it might have some kind of breath weapon.

I guess I now know what is keeping the city above from having more of a presence down here. The question being how I’m going to deal with it. After all, there was one important detail I almost missed. The beast had that halo of light effect you get when there is a light source behind something. This wasn’t mushroom light or even firelight either. It was sunlight, if a little weak. Though that could be from the time of day or an overcast sky.

So while I ran away, I also plotted. Strength was the answer, but how to gain it? My body was stronger than likely possible for a normal human, but that seemed to be the case for everything down here. My power, on the other hand, had been dormant for a while.

Without any human flesh to return to, there wasn’t any toggle to withdraw my aqua colored gel. Sure, I had managed a few adaptations, but those felt more like drawing out potential already there instead of new abilities. Even the slight morph effect to take on more of a quadruped shape didn’t really feel new.

And yeah, I only knew of one way to awaken my psionic talent further. Stress, and a lot of it. Good thing I’m in a tunnel system jam packed with monsters!

Then again, I doubt the surface is going to be all that much safer. It didn’t really come to mind when I was first thrown into this new land, but why would so many groups who are patently at each other’s throats agree to live in the same city? There was more than enough space that each group could, in theory, have their own little fiefdom.

The fact they haven’t broken apart into smaller groups points towards one particular truth. They can’t. There is something that only the gathered threat of all of them can keep at bay. Or maybe not even that. It is entirely possible that some beast like that chimera is out there and will smack down any attempts at making another living area. After all, the only evidence I’ve seen so far of people living anywhere else is that door. Besides that, it is all temporary camps and evidence of death.

Though seeing as I was now looking for a more stressful time, this was perfect. When looking for trouble, it always helps to have a target rich environment. Proven when I don’t even manage to leave the nearly empty area before finding some.

As the tunnels just barely began to split out again, I heard some bug hisses and pained squeaks, deciding which path I was going to take. To the right it was! And this led me directly into a fight between one of the large beetles and a trio of rous.

Now, the smart thing to do, would be to wait until one side was beaten or at the very least, significantly weakened. Instead, I threw myself into the fight and landed a solid swipe on the beetle, shearing off an antenna. Disoriented by this, the big failed to stop one of the rous from grabbing its other antenna and soon the bug was missing that one as well.

This upset the balance of the fight, skewing it towards the rats a little too much. So, I kicked the rous next to me and did some nasty damage to the rat’s side as my claws glided through its flesh. It felt nice to fight just for the sake of fighting and eating.

No overarching plan besides growing stronger and filling my belly. Though it is at this point that I realize I don’t have lips anymore. Well, okay, I have lips, but not human lips.

It makes sense, become like a lizard and gain lizard-like traits. Thus, instead of fleshy lips, I get to rock scaly lips. Noticed by me at this point because I tried to smirk. Instead, my lips pulled back and gave my enemies a full on display of my teeth. Yeah, it was going to be hard to talk.

At the moment, though, I just set this discovery aside to pounce onto the beetles back. The monster had turned to face the remaining rous and I didn’t let my access to its side go unpunished. There were wing covers and I had seen them flutter down into the lower region, so there was a target. I just had to get through the cover.

There was two main chinks in the insects defense on the back. The central line where the wings split and the upper line where they connect to the bug’s body. With two points, I could get some leverage. So I dug my feet claws into the upper seam and pried my hand claws into the central split before exerting my full strength.

The beetle went absolutely manic at this development, so thankfully I had secured myself sufficiently or I would have gone flying. Though besides clamping my feet down even harder, I ignored its frantic attempts to knock me off in favor of prying up the wing guard. Now, it wasn’t that hard for me to lift up. The problem being that the second I stopped lifting, it would slam shut.

All I could do was apply constant pressure as I tried to get more underneath the wing guard. Of course, while this was happening, the rous hadn’t gone anywhere and in fact, took this chance to renew their attacks on the bug. This led to a fatal mistake by the beetle. For just a moment, it focused on defending against the rous instead of keeping the wing guards closed and I got in.

The second I felt the pressure let up, I got an entire arm underneath that cover and my claws ravaged the delicate wing underneath. That was just the start, though. With access to the much weaker area under wings, I could dig in and start hurting the beetles organs. I’m sure I did enough damage in those few moments that the bug was going to die, but I didn’t get to finish the job. It flared its wings and that finally was enough to toss me off of its back.

There was nothing I could do about that. In my exuberance to deal some serious damage, I had loosened my grip. Still, I wasn’t out of the fight. As I fell to the group, I rolled with it and with a mighty slap, reduced a lot of the force. Then I was back on my feet, tail lashing about.

In front of me the battle continued, the rous even managing to take advantage of the weakened wing covers, the one I hurt now hanging off the beetle’s back like I had just been doing. The other two dart in to nip at any overextended bits. All the while, the bug shows major signs of weakness as it tries to stay focused on me while fending them off.

It knew who the real danger was, but it was too late. Should have ran away. I need power and it would be the first stepping stone!

My claws gripped the ground and allowed me to shoot forward, faster than I had probably ever moved under my own power. The rous tried to get out of the way, but my claws ripped through their throats as they reared back on my way, not slowing me in the least. Then I was on the bug.

My maw stretches wide, and I bite into the connection between the head and thorax. As the beetle reared back and shook, my claws found purchase in a leg joint to the left. With a jerk, that leg falls limp.

And I kept hold of the monster’s neck, savaging what I could reach until the bug stopped moving. Then I was attacked from behind. While the two rous had died from the neck wounds, the one with an injured side wasn’t going to go quietly into the night. So I obliged and with a dismissive back hand, my claws slice deep wounds into the last living enemy.

That left me with a few bodies. Since I had the option, I was going to stick with mammal based food. Nothing against bugs, but now that I wasn’t in a frenzy or starving, cultural norms reasserted themselves in my mind. Eh, that’ll be fixed soon enough.

Anyway, after a quick snack I was ready for more, my tail now slowly moving as a calm settled over me. More! More enemies, more fights, and more challenges! I stalk into the tunnels to begin my rampage.

And I got a little lost. Shows me to let myself go like that. Though in getting lost, I did find something. It was an area with an effect similar to the door, but harder to find.

The door had been too big of an effect. This is just one of the numerous dead ends. What tipped me off? That the dead end was too empty. Sure, there was dust and debris, some plants, and so on. However, there weren’t any signs of fighting or anything living there. Even the plants are just plants and not monsters!

Even with that, I wouldn’t have found the oddity if I hadn’t already found the door. The dead end put off big “nothing to see here” vibes. And there really wasn’t all that much to see.

Rous - Chapter 19

Thank Goodness For Murals - Chapter 21