[Psychokinetic] Eyeball Pulling - Chapter 131 (Patreon)

It was dark, too dark, until Astrid realised she was using the wrong eye. Closing her left eye, she used the dark vision in her other one.

She stood within a wide tunnel that could easily fit four exact illusions of herself on her shoulders, and around twenty of them standing to her side.

Astrid had readied her defences for any sudden attack. If the monster she was to face was a king of trees, then obviously her enemy were the roots that had taken root within the jungle soil.

Thinking of roots, she glanced at the tunnel wall to her side. The roots were… moving. Squirming to be exact. Astrid checked them with Identify, but no information was given. She fully expected them to shoot out from the wall and attack her like trap spikes, but after waiting for a few minutes, not one of them attacked her despite clearly being alive.

Why did it send us down here, instead of just attacking us? Astrid mused. But perhaps this was the way the monster fought. Astrid tutted.

Since they didn’t attack, Astrid wondered if they weren’t being controlled by the tree king after all, but were merely a sub-monster, like rats or something.

Shaking her head, she decided to use her favourite method of escape. Brute force. She controlled the matter at the ceiling of the tunnel in the distance, then [Crashed] it.

An ear splitting explosion rocked the earth as it sent dirt flying everywhere. It sprinkled against Astrid’s Mind Barrier. When the dust settled, she was disappointed at the result.

Shit… Astrid spat as her [Crash] didn’t manage to blast a hole within the ceiling, let alone even a dent. It was as if she was attempting to excavate a solid wall of Voidbent metal, impossible.

Not happy with the results, she attempted other methods that included her spiralling drill of dark matter, and her nearly created void ball, yet nothing worked.

Huffing, and gathering her breath, she levitated in the air while gathering her mana back. Clearing her thoughts, the tunnels seemed to be made of the tree king's own “skin”. That must be why she couldn’t battle through it, it's Constitution was too high for her to damage. Which didn’t bode well for her survival.

Astrid snarled at the moving tree roots. She wouldn’t die here, she would find a way to kill it from the inside. Every monster had a weakness, she just had to find it.

Deciding not to worry about the squirming tree roots for now, but renaming cautious, Astrid carefully made her way through the tunnel. The smell of the dirt tunnels was unlike anything she had sniffed before. It was a deep stench of earth, but mixed within, was the familiar copper tang of blood.

It was an unsettling stink, but there was nothing she could do but continue to walk forward. Until she heard a crunch. Removing her foot, it was a pale white that was just peeking through the ground. It was a skull.

[Crashing] it, the bone was turned into dust as she continued. She refused to let anything crawl back to life.

It didn’t take her long to reach a wall of interlocking tree roots. Thankfully these ones weren’t squirming, rather, they were as still as an iron wall.

Approaching it with care, it looked more like a sliding door than anything else. Now that she was closer, she could make out the details of the roots. They were incredibly smooth as they reminded her of the marble countertops she had within her room. Astrid placed her hand on the root and it did in fact have a strange feeling similar to that of metal.

At her touch, the roots rumbled, and a groaning sound was emitted all around the interlocking vines.

Astrid immediately jumped back and stabbed multiple metal spikes into the ground in preparation. Anything that wanted to jump out at her would be immediately impaled, she hoped so, anyway.

Immediately picking up matter rushing towards her, it seemed like her worries came to fruition. Before she laid eyes on them, Astrid could make out the picture of matter. They were small, four legged creatures that reminded her of moles, or other burrowing mammals.

She was right.

Four four legged beasts bolted straight for her, as if they could see perfect fine within the pitch black tunnels. Their fur was spotty with bald patches here and there, but the most notable thing other than the enormous four teeth hanging out its mouth was the exposed brain handing out its skull.

Level 102 - Brain Mole

Two of them leaped up at her, attempting to make it over the spears, while the other to instead aimed to move in between them.

Grinning, Astrid connected to the two jumping moles and was about to slam them down onto the spikes to create some kebabs, when a pinkish-hue emitting from their brains made her stop for only a millisecond.

Regaining her focus, she slammed them downwards. She felt her mana being sapped away as her mind gripped around their bodies, only for it to instantly cut off the strange feeling as the monsters were impaled straight down to the ground.

One of them was killed instantly as it penetrated the brain, but the spike had only impaled the other one in its shoulder. Blood seeped and the strong copper stench wafted through the passageway. It only caused Astrid’s battle intent to surge.

Annoyed at having her delayed from the strange pink haze, she warped the spike as it swooped round like a noodle and tightened around its throat in an instant.

The other two beasts attempted to squeeze through the iron bars. Astrid was about to connect to them once more, but the annoying pink haze was not only interrupting her psychic mana, but draining by the second instead.

Astrid decided to stop projecting her mana outside and instead blasted forward with her voidbent metal longsword in hand. Thrusting it forward, the sharp, crafted blade tore into the brain of one.

With the third one dead, and the other one leaping at her, she whipped her leg to the side, kicking the mole. The kick sent the mole crashing against the wall. Astrid chased after it and finished it with another stab of her sword.

Astrid didn’t spare the monsters a second glance as she brooded on their abilities. With them able to interrupt her psychic abilities, and even drain her mana, it was foolish to overly rely upon them.

Swinging her sword this way and that, her stance looked practised, and polished. Her sword training had long been implanted within her mind, it was impossible to forget after swinging a sword for tens of thousands of times. She had hand crafted the blade with her body in mind. From the keen edge, to the hand formed handle that fit within her palm like a well fitted glove.

Inching closer to the door. She peered her head inside. It was a large room that… didn’t have a floor. Instead, large circled platforms were sparsely placed, leading to the passageway to the other side. In total, there were over thirty of them as they reached into the distance.

Taking a breath, she steeled herself and waltzed to the first platform. Astrid immediately sensed that it wouldn’t be as simple as using Levitate to fly over to the other side.

Just like the brain moles she had faced a moment ago, she felt her psychic mana being heavily restricted. She wondered why, until she peered down below into the darkness. A faint pinkish air was wafted up the enormous hole.

Scrunching up her brows, she took out a flare from the backpack that was in her Void Storage and fired it down. She began counting.

Five, fifteen, thirty…thirty-five seconds it took for the flair to reach the bottom. With her added Wisdom, she peered down into the hole. Squinting her eyes, there was a vague image of something round, and of various sizes.

Mushrooms? Astrid mused.

Although they were far away, the shape, and mottled spots on the top of their roof were unmistakable.

Was that the reason for the brain mole's strange powers? Maybe they had gone through a round of mutation from the unique properties of the mushrooms? Whatever it was, the last thing Astrid wanted was for her brain to turn inside out. Just imagining the sight sent a cold shiver up her spine, despite the heat.

Heat?

Astrid wiped the sweat from her forehead, it had no right being so hot, so far underground.

Must be the alien level of sunlight. Astrid thought as she took the first step in the room.

Jumping onto the first platform, she heard a sudden screeching down below. It sounded like cattle being rounded up and slaughtered, but instead of fear, it was excitement.

The strange sound made her look down at twelve brain moles all looking up at her as if they could sense her tasty psychic mana.

Scowling, Astrid scrunched up her nose and stuck her tongue out her mouth. Stupid rats. She spat. Only for her expression to transform into a frown as the ground trembled once more.

“What now?” Astrid shouted, the rumble was coming from down in the pink abyss down below.

The brain moles jumped up and down as they violently wiggled their noses at her. Astrid ignored it and rushed over the platforms. She reached around halfway when the rumble turned into an rabid explosion.

The air was like a vortex as it blasted upward. The sudden blast would have made her ears pop, if not for the safety of her Mind Barrier. She was about to continue when her shield shattered as if an overpowered enemy had used its final Skill.

Her hand twitched as the matter of a creature was hurtling at her head. She swept her sword in a wide arc as the brain mole was severed in two. Its innards didn’t fall to the ground, instead the violent gust of wind created from down below surged it upward as it smaller into thousands of spikes on the ceiling.

Another brain mole flew through the air. It aimed straight for her skull as its four front teeth shone a strong pink glow. It must have been what had shattered her Mind Barrier as if it was nothing but a paper mache shield.

She was about to cleave it in two, when five others appeared at her flank.

Astrid growled at the approaching rats, she wanted to annihilate them.