Misfit’s Journey

After having meditated successfully, I felt great. It was never really severe or bothersome, but even having only half of my mana pool would already trigger some weak symptoms like exhaustion or light headache. It was annoying at most, and when I focused on some things it wasn’t even notable, yet I clearly felt the difference now that my pool was full.

Being full of energy and feeling rather good for once was nice and I was even somewhat excited to get back to the chamber.

While I was walking, I could do little about my mind wandering. And there was one particular thought it dragged me to.

Despite knowing what waited for me back in the chamber, I didn’t really care. More precisely, I had no inhibitions to return, no, I even wanted to return. Because I was excited. My worry was that getting excited over a struggle for survival did not really sound all that sane.

But there was nothing I could do about these emotions. Fighting for my life and survival was something new for me or rather, I was never really able to fight for myself with my own strength. I was always at the receiving end, unable to struggle and it felt good to have the freedom and chance to achieve something by myself.

Of course I had absolutely no plans to die and I even preferred not to have to fight an entire species by myself, but given the circumstances, what choice did I have? And until now, this little endeavor of mine even proved to be quite fruitful and rewarding.

Leaving my first few unpleasant encounters aside, I was now stronger than ever and even had a guaranteed method of getting even stronger. So even though I hated being forced into this, after some consideration, I couldn’t really call my situation a bad one. Well, if one did not mind the constant risk of ending up as bug food, but that was really just a minor part of it all.

Maybe it was all the energy I had regained, maybe it was the new skills, but I found myself strangely fond of the idea of looking for fights and get levels. Was this normal? It probably was. Who wouldn’t want to level if that was what made you stronger. And it wasn’t even difficult, you just had to kill stuff.

Was that the reason why Malik and the clan killed so many people? Maybe, but honestly, I didn’t give a shit if there was a reason behind it. I didn’t like him, he caused me years of suffering and he would pay for that.

Maybe that was the cause of my excitement? Because my recent gain of Meditation made me even stronger?

My thought process ended, when the chamber entered my sight. Once I was back inside, I saw that the corpse of the drone I killed right before leaving was already gone, but the blood soaked ground and a few remains like mandibles and exoskeleton parts told me that the corpse hadn’t been dragged away. Though I did not expect them to devour it in this short of a time.

Looking at the mandibles, both were still in good shape, so I decided to take one of them with me. Even though it only belonged to a level 10.

It would be pretty much useless since I was too weak to wield in my hand and my Telekinesis was limited to one object, but with my stats growing, it could become useful in the near future. I liked my current way of fighting, since it kept me out of direct harms way, but I couldn’t ignore the advantages of having a secondary weapon. Once I had the strength to actually wield one effectively, it would be a great addition to my arsenal. Maybe I could even two drones at once?

Noticing that no drones were in immediate proximity, I took the opportunity to search for the second corpse, but seeing only some remains of the crushed mandible and a puddle of blood, I knew that it had suffered a similar fate to the other one. It was just surprising that the drones were so fast to gobble up their kindred. Or I spent more time meditating than expected. 

Having taken a quick look around the area, I returned to the entrance. Although the corpses vanished, that was about the only noticeable changes, but that was not true for the rest of the chamber. Even from here, I could already hear that the drones had spread out even farther and had now straggled out towards the back and sides of the chamber, leaving only the entrance area free of pests. Needless to say, that was much appreciated.

For now, it was not my plan to kill drones though. Last time, I withdrew quickly and in a panic, not paying much attention to their total numbers, so for now, I would try to assess the situation, get an idea of how many enemies I was dealing with and what their respective levels were.

With the entrance area cleared, the middle was my current the point of interest. For that reason, I returned to the inside of the skeleton’s ribcage. And even before I could view the location itself, several noises—some more unpleasant than the others—prompted me to cloak myself in shadows.

Concealing myself, I maneuvered around the jaw, checking if the tooth I had removed was still there. It was. Giving it a quick telekinetic tug, I confirmed that wielding it was still out of the question and moved on. Trying didn’t hurt and I really wanted to use that tooth.

Within the ribcage, all of piles that had formed were gone by now and the place was still swarming with drones. I refrained from stepping closer and just started tallying a safe distance away. While counting, I also estimated the enemies strength with Identify.

The drones amounted to a total of fifteen individuals, with levels spanning from 10 to 21. Among them, just two had achieved level 20 or higher, one at 20 and the other at 21. They would be the most troublesome, but if I played this right, I would only face them once I was closer or even matched their current level. Since they didn’t seem interest in killing among themselves, it was unlikely they would level any further.

Once I was done with my assessment of the ribcage, the time to look at the surrounding areas had come, but it was pretty much a labyrinth out there, so first, I navigated straight through the ribcage, avoiding any of the feasting drones until I stood beside the creature’s huge tail.

Subsequently, I relied on my ears to tell me where the nearest drone was. Given that the chamber outside the skeleton cluttered with roots, my eyes were pretty much useless.

There even was a root blocking my way forward, but as it grew to the right, another root dug under it and caused a small opening between the two. It was narrow, but still allowed me to squeeze through. The moment I put both my feet down on the other side, I came to an immediate halt.

Further back, at the wall in the distance was another tunnel entrance, or exit depending how now would want to call it. It was awfully similar to the other tunnel and if not for the two curled up drones guarding it, I might have even thought that it was the tunnel from where I came from.

The drones did not move and while they did look like they were sleeping, their antennae were still moving around. I quickly identified them.

[Exapoda Drone | Lvl. 15]

[Exapoda Drone | Lvl. 17]

After seeing their levels, I quickly snuck away. I was not here for a fight and decided to let the sleeping drones lie. Or whatever they were doing. At least now I was aware of there presence and it warned me that I could not fully rely on my ears alone.

Following the discovery of the new tunnel, I tried to find my way through the labyrinth of roots, which was by no means an easy task. My weak body forced me to look for gaps between roots or look for places low enough to climb, so finding my way around was not easy.

And thanks to my encounter with the last two drones, I was now successfully paranoid and the only thing that kept me from second-guessing every single one of my steps was the fact that I was operating on limited time.

Since I was using Shadow Cloak to avoid being swarmed by drones, my mana was constantly drained and before long, I would need to retreat and recover.

However, I had no intentions to return until I had accounted for all the drones in the chamber. And even though it was difficult, my hearing did help somewhat since not many of the drones decided to be as quiet as the two guards. Some were and almost caused a situation, but I managed to get through it without a fight.

By the time only a fifth of my mana remained, I had located a total of ten drones outside the ribcage area, excluding the two guarding the tunnel entrance. That made a total of twenty-seven drones, the two dead ones already subtracted. While that were a lot, most of the drones outside the ribcage were below level 15 and isolated, which made them not very difficult to deal with.

I was pretty sure that I had covered the entire chamber, but saying that I was confident in that would be a lie. The roots made this place a mess, so it was possible I missed a few silent ones. But that was all I could do for now and it was time to retreat for now. Additionally, mana depravation started to hit me and my head already started ringing, although it was not enough to impede me on my way out.

I tried to get back to the ribcage by retracing my steps, which failed and so I somehow ended up at the side of the ribcage and entered it through two of the rips which pierced into the ground. From there, it was easy to find my way back and eventually, I left the chamber behind and cancelled Shadow Cloak since I was back in safety.

When I checked my mana in my status, I let out a short breath after realizing that I hadn’t left enough in case of possible grave injury. Then again, it was pretty much impossible for any drone to sneak up on me and I didn’t plan to hurt myself, so I should be fine.

In the future though, I shouldn’t get careless like this again. So much things happened in the last few hours and days that I couldn’t tell what would happen next. I mean, drones could dig through the ground and I wasn’t aware of a rule that forbid them to do the same with walls.

Damn, now that I think about it, was I too careless? I thought to myself as I distanced myself a little from the wall. But if they were digging in the walls, I was confident that I would hear them, so I let this fear drop as I walked.

After a few minutes, I plopped to the ground, giving my body the rest it deserved. My body still wasn’t the fittest and especially now, after an hour or so of walking, exploring and tons of tension, I really felt the ache. It was only by luck that I didn’t need to run or significantly strain myself today.

Anyways, time for meditation.

Like last time, I rested my back against the wall, the cold moss brushing against it and closed my eyes. Then I opened them again, distanced myself from the wall, straightened my back, then closed my eyes again.

Unlike before, it did not take very long until I felt my senses drifting again. Seconds into it, I opened my eyes again, my mana pool full.

It only felt like seconds again, but judging by how my body felt better than before, it was clear that more time passed in reality. I didn’t think I would ever get used to that feeling. It was like skipping time into the future, a curious feeling.

I slowly stood up, feeling my body remind me that some time had passed. Once it didn’t fell like I would collapse if I tried to take a few steps, I made my way back towards the chamber.

From all the areas in the chamber, the ribcage was the most troublesome, since it was were most of the drones gathered. My only real chance at beating them would be to isolate one after the other, but that would be too time consuming, if even possible at all.

For that reason, before bothering with dealing with those fifteen, I decided it would be wiser to handle those around the ribcage first. Most of these were by themselves and at a level I could handle.

My hope was that after killing those ten spread out through the chamber, I would level up enough to gain stats with which I could use the skeleton’s tooth in combat. There was basically a guarantee on it that it was far more powerful than any mandible I could acquire from one of the drones. Or my assumptions were wrong and the giant skeleton, when alive, was below level twenty and unable to damage a drone. Although that possibility was harder to believe than the other one.

After entering the chamber, I searched for the closest drone, which led me to a to a path that was enclosed by roots on both sides. It led to a small clearing not too far away from the skeleton, but isolated with roots that almost formed something like an arena. Within this enclosure was a single drone.

[Exapoda Drone | Lvl. 13]

I had already hidden myself preemptively and sneaked up on it. Finding a fitting gap in between its backplates, I fired one of the mandibles with Telekinesis into it. Instead of pulling it out, I lifted my second mandible and fired it at the drone’s underside the moment it screeched in pain and in doing so, also raised up its head, creating a wide opening in its defense.
The mandible went right into its head and ended the drone’s life even before a fight could break out.

You have slain [Exapoda Drone | Lvl. 13]. Experience will be awarded.

After confirming its death, I left my mandibles stuck and instead harvested the two from this drone, since they were of a higher level, even if only slightly. Since most drones on the outside of the skeleton were around level 13, these would make my job even easier.

With the drone dead, I left the enclosure and continued on my way to find the next one. Navigating around this room was still far from easy, but now that I had familiarized myself a bit, I could at least walk around without Shadow Cloak active the whole time, which was very good for my mana.

It did not take long before I found the next drone, similarly to the one before, isolated and alone. I had yet to find out what the purpose of their coming out here was. As far as I could tell, they just munched on the roots and damaged moss by eating it, but I had no idea why they would leave the corpses back inside the ribcage alone. After all, the other drones seemed to really enjoy eating their own. Maybe the ones who didn’t just were more interested in plants or there was some other reason, but whatever it was, they unintentionally made my work easier. I wouldn’t thank them for it, but I would at least not torture them into literally crushing their own heads followed by death. That had to count for something, right?