Monster

by Sergey Belsky

  “What am I supposed to do with these? They are poisonous,” the gravedigger looked at me in bewilderment.

  “If the spikers catch you, eat one right away, then they can’t do anything to you,” I explained. “True, you will die, but you will find yourself at the respawn point, and not in captivity.

  You do understand that if they catch you, I won’t be able to help you. I could not get the explosive balls, and I can’t fight them, because they would splatter me all over the cave’s walls faster than I could say spit.

  Besides, once they get you, you might not have the chance to die and you would remain a prisoner. I think that they have foreseen all this long time ago and that is why your relatives cannot escape them, even with a different respawn point.

  “Maybe they were forced to change the respawn point?”

  “Maybe,” I could not argue with that. “I just cannot imagine the way to do it. On the other hand, the spikers were here before us, they had time to figure it out. Anyway, you better think about what you’ll do if you’re in danger and I cannot help you. It’s better to eat these mushrooms. You never know if they anticipated this as well, and if they did, we’re in real trouble. Let’s go.”

  ***

  We got to the cave-in rather quickly, and this time it was Skal who led me through the traps, which was only for his benefit. Let him develop thinking and memory.

  By the way, he made only a couple of mistakes, but I warned my friend beforehand, so no one died. Sighing with anxiety, we began to climb over the landslide, and when we got to the other side, enemies seemed to hide behind every stone. Having calmed down a bit, we headed to the lakeside.

  First, we needed to pick up transparentus. Together we could do it much faster, and I hoped ice cold water would not stop Skal.

  “It’s so cold!” Skal shivered, as he put one of the claws into the water. And I... it turned out I was right to worry.

  “Well, you need to overcome this, jump in and swim a little, when your health bar drops to seventy percent, get out and warm up, and then go back in again.”

  “Ok-kay,” the gravedigger said, his jaws chattering, and he entered the water reluctantly.

  “Just don’t forget to find the transparentus,” I reminded the beetle of our goal.

  It took a while, but I was lucky to find one mushroom, and then Skal found another. The gravedigger got out only twice and, despite the apparent fear of the cold, he did quite well.

  A bit later, I heard Skal scream and it startled me. How could I not have thought that other dangerous creatures might be living in the lake? Damn it! But seeing my friend I sighed with relief - he was screaming with joy.

  “You’d better not yell so loud,” I said. “Spikers could be nearby. Why are you screaming?”

  “The shell has evolved and acquired another property! You know you know what it is?” Skal was jumping around me like mad.

  “What?”

  “Cold resistance with two percent protection from the cold!” the beetle rejoiced, and so was I because I also got this property in this lake. Why then hasn’t Skal, in his many experiences with the cold in the ancient city, acquired this property before, but only got it here?

  “This is good, now our job will be easier,” I patted my friend on the shell and we continued our search.

  After some time, I found another one and decided that four mushrooms would last us a while, so we went further to collect turquoitus.

  It was easier here, though only to me, because these mushrooms grew on the walls and Skal, however much he wanted to, could not reach them, neither could he throw stones at them.

  I hit the turquoitus with stones, and the gravedigger picked them up. This way we scored as many as ten mushrooms. For the first time, that would be enough. Now we need to collect moss, haloptirius, and other mushrooms, as well as search for something else interesting.

  But we needed to be on alert because the spikers might attack, and something was telling me this might happen sooner rather than later.

  Having carefully covered a part of the distance, I noticed something strange passing the graves of my relatives, and this strange thing noticed me.

  Spiker-Guard, level 57

  Spiker-Guard, level 59

  Spiker-Guard, level 62

  And beside them, there were another ten, TEN, lower level spikers. Fuck off! I swore again in an incomprehensible language, and Skal looked at me in fear.

  “This is the language of the rippers,” he said in surprise. “How come you know it?”

  “I don’t,” I said. “Run!”

  It’s good that we had a head start and managed to break away. Unfortunately, we could not retreat to the landslide since they were standing in the way, so we moved to an air-free space.

  I thought out the options for retreat beforehand, so the spikers, despite their levels, could not keep up with us, but they were rapidly gaining ground. As a result, we barely managed to get to the entrance of this unusual area of the cave.

  “You run right behind me and don’t turn around or you’ll die,” I told my friend. “And before we enter, hold your breath.”

  I remembered about the oxygen sources, but anything could have happened. We managed to reach the second source when I heard the spikers cursing.

  Many of them first rushed after us, not paying attention to the lack of oxygen, and three of them died, simply dropping down somewhere between the first and second source.

  However, the rest were able to find the first source, which was a surprise to me, but even if this was an unlikely scenario, I thought of it as well. In the meantime, we were already running towards the third source, and this was where my plan had a serious flaw - Skal fell and lost consciousness, and the gravedigger’s health began to decrease. I barely managed to pull him up.

  “Skal, are you alright?” I asked. The question was, of course, stupid, but it woke him from his stupor and he just nodded. “Well, we have a little time before they get here, so let’s have some rest.”

  In the meantime, I frantically tried to figure out how to cross the distance to the next source, since Skal’s lungs won’t cope, and he had already distributed his experience between the shell, the brain, and the claws. I told him one should always leave some just in case. Well, then I need to think of something else. Think, think hard!

  Your brain cannot sustain the workload created by your mind!

  Be careful, this can lead to your death!

  Damn! I passed out for a second, but Skal already came to his senses, I was hearing the spikers talk, but there were noticeably less of them. I just grinned wickedly. And here I had an idea.

  Chapter 22

  Pushy spikers. Shining with Life. More problems

  I remembered that I still had an empty transparentus in my spatial pocket. I took it out, walked over to the crack from which the oxygen hissed and held the mushroom over it. The transparentus began to glow strangely, which meant that my plan worked.

  “Here, Skal,” I spread my claws in joy. “When you run out of the air, inhale the oxygen from the transparentus.”

  “All right”, the gravedigger nodded.

  “Run, some of the spikers seem to be very persistent and do not want to let us go,” I said, and we ran.

  After some time, my oxygen began to run out, but I could not recall where I should run to. I couldn’t panic, because I had to save the remaining oxygen. I took a breath from the transparentus and silently gestured to Skal to do the same. A few seconds later, I heard the welcome quiet whistle of the gas passing through the crack in the ground.

  We barely reached it, but we did. Fuhhhh. I fell down next to the crack and eagerly breathed in for a while. Listening carefully, I heard someone fall in the distance and after that, the only thing that disturbed the silence of the airless space was the slight whistle.

  Obviously, the spikers got lost and suffocated. I thought they would be a bigger problem since they were larger than us, so their lungs should be better developed an
d their capacity would allow them to cross great distances, but they must have taken a wrong turn at some point.

  After waiting for a short while, we headed back. Unfortunately, I could not find a single body to absorb the blood. Apparently, they weren’t anywhere near the air sources.

  Well, never mind. We left the airless space and hid. I began to listen, but could not hear anything unusual. Apparently, all the spikers died chasing us.

  Interestingly, it seems that I hit their leader, since the squad of enemies did not retreat, even when they knew where the exit was. And this was a cause for concern, because the leader probably was 20-30 levels above most of the others, although I could be wrong, as I had no real reason to assume this.

  Before they get here, we would have enough time to collect moss, halopterius, and rubitus. Having made our way through the gravediggers’ graveyard, we made a small detour and finally reached the place where cave moss grew.

  “Oh, and it is very tasty,” Skal said approvingly, to which I just grunted. It seems that beetles and I don’t share the same taste in food.

  We quickly collected halopterius and moss, and then went for the final and most important mushroom - the rubitus. The search dragged on and we found only ten, which was very little, we were going through them so quickly.

  I also got interested in this iron ore, one could make excellent weapons from this metal, and it would be far superior to the dead spiker’s claws, but for now, I couldn’t figure out how it might be done, so I sighed with regret and continued searching for the mushrooms.

  Looking in every crack between the stones, I suddenly heard my friend cry out and quickly headed towards him.

  “I’m here,” he said, looking up from behind a stone. “There is something here. Come!”

  I snuck behind him and after a short walk through the tunnels, we finally reached the goal.

  “Wow!” I was no less impressed than Skal.

  There was a rather cozy cave filled with rubitus; they were growing everywhere, even on the walls. Some of them shined so brightly that it was blinding. We scored another twenty pieces, leaving the rest for some other time. Finding this place was really a blessing.

  I also took three bright rubitus and began to study them. Looking closer, I realized that it was a completely different mushroom, one that absorbed the rubitus light and that’s why it was red, but as soon as I turned it away from the light, it began to emit an even white glow.

  It was called “Shining with Life.” Apparently, it was rare, so it would be foolish to use it or try it, perhaps this mushroom can be useful for some other purpose. I hoped to meet someone who would tell me about these strange mushrooms.

  As soon as we stepped away from the iron ores, we stumbled upon another group of spikers, and this time I did not have a clear plan, since I did not know what was in the south-eastern areas of the cave, and the passage to the familiar terrain was blocked.

  Therefore, I made a decision to move along the extreme south-east route, hoping that the spikers would leave us alone. It would be great, of course, to hide in that cave with the mushrooms, but the bugs would see us, and then this cool place would be lost. We couldn’t allow that to happen, so we ran off at full speed in the chosen direction.

  “Grab them!” I heard the spikers shout.

  “These bastards move fast!”

  “It doesn’t matter, we’re gonna get them!”

  But then something strange happened, and we heard the sounds of battle. I managed to suppress my curiosity and not turn back to see what was happening and who the spikers were fighting. We were running for a long time and soon were exhausted.

  “Sel Er, I’m already tired,” the gravedigger sighed. “Let’s get some rest.”

  “OK,” I agreed, and we slowed down.

  “It smells like the dead,” said Skal and picked up the pace.

  We climbed over a small mount and passed a number of minor obstacles, after which an amazing view opened up. A dozen bodies of the rippers lay everywhere. Some of them were torn and badly damaged, which made me feel strange as if I wanted to spit out all the mushrooms had eaten before.

  The ground was covered with scarlet blood and I saw my kinsmen dying before my eyes again. I felt sick, and I stood motionless, but Skal confidently moved forward. I wanted to stop him, but I could not take another step. With tremendous effort, I finally pulled away and caught up with the gravedigger.

  “Go away, you bastard,” whispered the body of one of the rippers in his unknown language.

  “You said that before,” Skal snickered.

  This ripper resembled a statue. The long, light filaments growing from its head, which my memory called hair, were completely covered in blood. Big emerald eyes, the same as those of Trirlil, looked at me with some sort of malice and fatigue.

  The strange metal shell, though damaged, was still shining, and around the lower part of this body was a metal... skirt with a cloth attached to it. Yes, despite this armor, it was obvious that the body of this two-legged was very thin or, more correctly, slender. I slowly extended my hand to touch this beautiful armor and unknown fabric.

  I was curious to see what kind of strange two-legged she was because these ears were not like those of the previous ripper I had seen and were long and pointed.

  If she’s not well, perhaps the rubitus can help her and then she could teach me the language of the rippers, so I can talk to them and ask for help in the fight against the spikers. Great idea! I took out a mushroom from my spatial pocket and handed it to her, but this two-legged only grimaced in disgust and choked on her blood.

  Lintirionel, The Cascade of Stars, level 71

  The letters above her head turned gray. I wondered why this two-legged reacted this way to the mushroom? Okay, this time it didn’t work, maybe it would with someone else.

  “Come, here’s another one!” my friend shouted.

  This time it was a more familiar two-legged, whose legs were slightly separated from the main body, but he was still alive.

  “Damn bastards!” the two-legged said. “Can’t wait for us to die! You decided to eat us alive?!” Suddenly a bright light appeared in his hand, and it looked so menacing that dying from spiker claws suddenly didn’t sound so bad. However, this ball immediately dispelled. “Damn it! Not enough force…”

  Next to this ripper, there was a large shield, full of scratches and dents, and I couldn’t tell what was depicted on it from all the blood. The whole armor of this husky ripper, who was almost twice as big as the previous one, was twisted and broken, and the symbols that were on it glowed with blue light. This time I hurried and gave him the rubitus. He stared at me in surprise, and then ate the mushroom.

  “Wow! It works!” he said joyfully. His legs began healing and rejoining his body, and a happy smile lit up this ripper’s face. “No one is ever going to believe this. I was saved by good bugs, ah-hah-ha...” his voice was cut off.

  “What are you doing?!” I heard someone roar, and a hefty sharp claw slashed through the ripper, sending him to respawn.

  Chapter 23

  The Supreme. The talk. The task.

  First I looked at the huge sharp claw, and then at its owner. It was a giant beetle with a coal-black shell, which occasionally lit up with a greenish glow.

  His powerful claws were covered with thick plates of natural armor. On his head, there was a colossal horn, slightly curved towards the body.

  His six claws seemed to bend under such a huge body, but they did their job. His sharp jaws could eat about fifty bugs like me, without even noticing.

  This beetle bowed down his head slightly to have a closer look at us. I was scared, I wanted to run away and hide in the farthest darkest corner of the cave, where five pairs of those blue eyes could not find me. His gaze was so intense that breathing became difficult and Skal had similar problems.

  “What are you doing here, little ones?” the beetle’s loud voice thundered, hurting our eardrums. “This is the wrong place for
you.”

  I looked into those eyes, trying to focus on the central pair, and saw the inscription.

  Kroark Karak, The Lord of the Underworld, level 97

  Wow, that’s a strongman! I was very surprised at such a high level, although the centipede’s level was higher, but they did not inspire such fear and trembling. Maybe I just did not have enough time to be scared.

  “What is the right place for us?” I asked this Kroark.

  “A place not far from the entrance to our cave,” his voice has now become a little quieter.

  “But both of us appeared in the center.”

  “Hmmm...” the giant growled thoughtfully. “I have been absent from my domain for a while. It seems that much has changed during my absence.”

  “Sel Er,” the gravedigger called out to me. “This is the Supreme. He guards the passage to the next level.”

  Well, this is interesting. So, he should know a lot of things, one should not miss this opportunity.

  “I appeared not so long ago, so could you tell me something about your domain, where we are?” I asked, trying to learn a little more about the world around us.

  “Hmm...” he roared again. “Well, I will satisfy your curiosity, little karkant. It is strange to see a gravedigger in your company because they usually do not associate with anyone.

  If you appeared in the center of the cave, then you should know that there is a landslide to the north-west. Behind this collapse lay the ruins of an ancient city, about which little is known even to me, since I appeared much later.

  In the south-west, there is a lake connected to an extensive network of other underground sources. There you can find large transparents. To the right of the cave-in, there is a tunnel that leads to the place where the spikers have always lived.

  And the northern tunnel, branching out a little, leads to the exit to the surface, and it is from there that ripper squads come to us. This tunnel leads to my lair and the passage to the next level, and the neighboring one is a gathering place for many different inhabitants of my domain. Unfortunately, I cannot walk among them, as before.