NOVEL NEXT Chapter 16: The Seventh Assignment
Once again I found myself standing in a dank dark cave. I wasn't sure why it wasn't pitch black in here since I couldn't find any light source, but I filed that away for later. I did a quick scan and let out a sigh of relief. I was alone. The chamber I was in was around twenty feet tall if you didn't count the stalactites. I conjured Psychic Aegis just in case. I only had to wait a few more minutes before a prompt from the System arrived.
Reach the core of the cave system and defeat the beast inside. Reward: 10 2nd-Realm Spirit Crystals
What the fuck is a Spirit Crystal? I spoke out loud though I was sure the System wouldn't answer. Once again my irritation at this tutorial sparked inside me. Why the fuck did I have to know something and ask about it before I would be taught about it? I let out a deep breath and calmed down. Ultimately it didn't matter if I knew what the reward was. It wasn't like I could choose not to complete the quest. If I were to hazard a guess they would have something to do with spiritual energy. They could be stored energy. I was assuming that it could be stored in a physical form. I tightened my grip on my bag before I turned to the cave. There were two paths, one on either side of me. I shrugged and decided to head right.
I had walked for a few minutes when the ground began to tremble. I raised both hands ready for battle but nothing happened. The tremor stopped and I once again stood in a still cave. I raised an eyebrow but pushed forward. "So either the cave is dealing with seismic issues or the creatures here can dig? Or is it some timer?" I mumbled to myself. The tremors continued off and on for another ten minutes before my danger sense went off. I leapt back a step expecting something to leap out of the ground for me. Instead, the sense of danger only grew. My eyes widened as I backed off. I was forced to break into a sprint as everything inside screamed to run. That if I stayed here I would die. I was less than ten feet from a pair of stalactites when something told me to jump.
I put every last bit of power I could into jumping for the ceiling. No sooner did I reach the closest pillar of stone did a trio of monsters ripped through the earth. One came from below while the two others came from either side. They looked like demonic sharks with four limbs. Their jaws were filled with dozens of sharp glistening teeth. Each of their limbs had four claws and fingers that looked like they belonged to some kind of bug. Their skin was the grey of the rocks around us. To top it off they were covered in dense-looking muscle. They had no eyes nor any other features on their heads. It only took a second for me to put together what I was dealing with. Subterranean hunters would be able to sense through the ground.
If the three of them came at me together then that meant they could coordinate. Based on their appearance they were more than likely physical fighters so it should give me an advantage. I also had to assume they weren't alone. The trio didn't give me any more time to process what had happened. They all dived back into the ground and a second later my danger sense went off. I let go of the stalactite just as one of the three leaped for me. I unleashed Psychic Blast. The mental attack slammed into the beast in less than a second. I prepared myself for a follow up but the beast let out a cry of pain and plummeted to the ground. I landed a second and started to run. The two impacts confused the other two as one emerged just below its brethren. It wasted no time in ripping the corpse apart.
A second warning filled my mind a second before the ground collapsed. I leapt as high as I could narrowly avoiding the new sinkhole. I unleashed another blast of psychic energy beneath as the third monster came into view. The attack connected and another surge of energy filled me. My surprise nearly made me release the stalactite holding me in the air. Why were they so easy to kill? It was like their minds were barely even there as if they were barely alive to begin with. My eyes opened in horror as my danger sense went off again. My sudden realization was just enough to cause me to miss timing. I let go of the stalactite and began my fall. The monster leaped from the ceiling just fast enough to slam into my barrier. Its jaws tore a hole through it effortlessly. I brought my legs and placed them on either of its shoulders and pushed off. Its jaws came way too close to removing my lower half but it worked. I crashed into the ground with a thud before rolling and sprinting away.
These things had some kind of hive mind. I wasn't dealing with multiple monsters, not really. I was fighting a single queen that had potentially thousands of drones. I couldn't help but grin at the challenge. Another warning caused me to stop and reverse course. The wall in front of me turned into a maw as my third target leaped for me. Instead of retreating I attacked. Indigo light washed over it just as its jaws began to close around my arm. The kill energy surged as I yanked it back. "That was a bit too close for my blood." I looked around adrenaline still flooding my body. When nothing happened after several seconds I let out a sigh of relief. I was just about to leave when I had an idea. I slapped myself on the forehead and shook my head. Why the fuck hadn't I been collecting the bodies? Nearly every adventure game had a system where you collect the body parts and sell or cook them. Of course that assumed the bodies could be collected.
I bent down and immediately learned the limits of my strength. I couldn't even move them let alone pick them up and put them in the bag. I stared at the bag for a moment and tried to will the body inside. I felt like an idiot for the first several tries but eventually, the body turned into a streak of light and flew into the bag. "Fuck me," I called out before collecting the remains of the other two monsters. One had a large chunk bit in it. "If it's a hive beast why was it tricked by the corpse?" I knelt at the impact sight but didn't see anything that explained what happened. Maybe they were just all stupid? Kind of like locusts?
That didn't explain the coordination though. I gave up trying to piece it together and pushed on. The only way I was going to get my answers was by killing the thing in the center of this place. I ran into a pair of them and dealt with them in much the same way. Their bodies joined the rest and I continued. This time they hadn't managed to break my shield. I was starting to worry that the spell was at its limit on usefulness. I walked for what felt like another thirty minutes before I entered a large square chamber. It was the beast in the middle of the chamber that drew my attention. It was a misshapen beast that looked a bit like a cross between the land sharks and some sort of mantis.
Instead of the clawed arms, it had scythe-like ones which made me wonder how it would dig. That thought was pushed to the back of my mind as it raised its head. It looked at me, with beady little eyes before raising its scythes and rushing me. The surprise left me stunned for a moment. Why the hell did this one have eyes? Once it crossed half the distance I raised a hand and Psychic Aegis appeared in its wall form. The beast stopped moving just before crashing into it. It swung one of its scythes into the barrier and instead of shattering the point went straight through. I cocked my head to the side as it withdrew its arm.
It brought it down again and again with a strange determination. By the third hit I decided that I had seen enough, I unleashed Psychic Blast in its concentrated form while slowly backing away from the monster. Unlike the rest of its brethren, this one survived the initial onslaught. A strange sigil appeared on its chest before pulsing with a deep orange light. I felt a pressure in my mind. It wasn't enough to make me concerned nor was it dangerous enough to trigger my danger sense.
I chuckled at it when I realized what it was doing. It was trying to use some kind of mental attack. If this had been well anyone but him probably would have died. The monster must have realized that something had gone wrong because it raised both of its scythes and rushed me. It only made it halfway before it collapsed. I raised an eyebrow at it half expecting it to transform into something else. Or more of them to appear but nothing happened. "I can't tell if the quests are easier or if I am just stronger. Of course, the whole quest difficulty system stops making sense if it was easier." I stepped forward and collected the body before heading back toward the entrance. The "map" if he called it seemed to be two paths with mini-bosses that would unlock the real boss chamber.
Which meant that the next boss was probably going to lack the mental attack. I entered the next pathway and quickly ran across another group of the basic monsters. They were quickly eliminated and I found myself standing in another chamber. What I found this time was a humanoid best. It was still vaguely shark-like though it looked more like a were-shark with four arms. It had relatively human eyes though they were located on two opposite points on its head. In one of its arms, it held a glaive with a slightly curved tip. It locked eyes with me and spun its weapon. A scream of danger filled my mind as it blurred. I dived to the side and unleashed Psychic Blast before I finished my roll.
The indigo light hit it just as it reappeared. The glaive thrusting through the space my heart had been just a moment before. The space the glaive passed through tremored somehow as if the air was buckling under the attack. I summoned my defensive barrier a second later. There was no way I would win in a physical battle but the same couldn't be said for mental damage. The humanoid monster stumbled before it got its weapons up. We circled each other for a moment before it blurred again. It slammed straight through the barrier only to charge straight into the psychic blast. I spun away and retreated. It was strong and fast but not very smart. It was almost like its attack patterns were predetermined. The only question was if it was because the monster lacked intelligence or if its speed was limited to straight lines.
I got my answer a second later when it pulled back its arm and launched the glaive. The glaive didn't so much as shoot toward as teleport. If it hadn't been for the warning the glaive would have gone straight through my body. I turned toward the glaive only to watch it melt into the stone. My eyes widened when I looked back at the monster and the glaive now back in its hands. I couldn't help but laugh at that. I unleashed another blast of mental energy only for it to block with the glaive. I grinned and circulated my energy faster. It blurred and I dived to the side only to feel a sharp pain in my right leg. A quick check told me that the son of a bitch was getting faster. It had managed to slice through my thigh. Not quite deep enough to get the bone but enough to stop me from moving as fast.
"I have no idea if you can understand me. As much fun as fighting you is I can't afford to let you hurt me too much." I grinned and unleashed my killing intent. I narrowed it until it was overlapping my attack. When they slammed into the monster it was forced to one knee. I grinned as I forced more energy at it. The creature wasn't content to just die and in its last moments, it launched its glaive at me with everything it had. Even with my danger sense, there wasn't enough time for me to avoid it. I abandoned the attack and brought both hands across my chest in a desperate attempt to catch the glaive. My hands got there just as the glaive did. I managed to stop the stone blade from cutting through my sternum but could do nothing about the force. I was thrown backward and slammed into the wall with a sickening thud. The pain was the only thing keeping my conscious as a surge of kill energy filled me. Just enough to push me to level 15.
I collapsed to the ground and lay there. My sternum was bruised maybe even cracked but I could still breathe. I could still move. "I could do without the near deaths." I chuckled to myself before slowly getting back to my feet. I pulled up my status screen and dumped the new points into the constitution. I gave myself a few minutes to cultivate and to recover before I stood up and made my way back to the main path. Once I arrived at the spot I teleported into I found a staircase. I was surprised to find that I wasn't attacked during the descent. So either I had killed all the monsters or the System decided not to spawn them anymore. That most likely meant that I would face the boss one-on-one. I reached the bottom of the stairs and found myself in an arena. It was still a cave but it looked like someone had carved it into an actual battle arena.
On the other side of the room was another humanoid creature. This one only had two arms but they were thick and covered in a hard exoskeleton. It was much more like a bug with two mandibles on its face. It still had the shark-like mouth. It also looked vaguely feminine though I wasn't sure if that was because I expected it to be or if it did look like it. Either way that was the least important part. As I entered the chamber properly it got to its feet. It did not attempt to grab a weapon which made me a bit concerned. I began circulating my energy but the monster didn't move. I gave it another minute before I unleashed my killing intent.
It filled the room to the point that the stones around me began to tremble. The creature finally reacted. It clenched its hands and leaped toward me. It swung its fist through the air and every part of me screamed that I couldn't let it hit me. I leaped to the side just in time to avoid the punch. Before I could complete the roll the monster was on me. Pain exploded in my stomach as it kicked me through the air. I screamed as I slammed into the wall. I launched a wave of mental energy. This time the attack hit. The monster stumbled slightly before continuing its attack.
I abandoned my offense and summoned a psychic barrier. The monster arrived just as it finished forming. Its fist punched a hole through the barrier trapping it for just a second. A second that allowed me to unleash both my killing intent and Psychic Blast into its face. The amplified attack forced the beast back and I followed. I dropped my shield and shot forward with every bit of speed my body could give me. I brought both hands up and around the beast's head before unleashing another Psychic Blast. The beast unleashed a cry of pain that made my soul feel like it was being crushed. I gritted my teeth through the pain until a scream of danger filled my mind. I planned on enduring the attack to ensure this son of a bitch died. That idea died as the scream of danger turned up to an eleven.
I couldn't even call it out a warning anymore. My body practically moved on as the beast brought its fists up as if trying to bear hug me. My eyes widened in fear and shock when I saw its hands. They gave up a sense of heaviness as if they bore the weight of a mountain. The beast turned its attention to me. Its eyes darkened as if it was furious it hadn't killed me just then. It rushed me. I summoned another barrier only to watch as it shattered under the blow. The barrier didn't even slow the thing down. I roared in desperation and fury as it closed in. I met its fist with my own. While unleashing Psychic Blast with everything I had in my other hand. As soon as our fists met I knew I had lost. It felt like I had just punched a steel plate. I screamed as I felt bones break.
I held it until my wrist snapped. I spat a scream of pain and abandoned my defense. As if it knew what I would do as soon as my hand dropped it abandoned the punch and launched a kick into my ribs. Pain exploded as I felt my ribs break. I was shot across the room like a cannonball until I slammed into the wall. Throughout it all I focused on maintaining my attack. The indigo light was the only thing that mattered. I fought against the darkness crawling in at the edges of my vision until I felt the sweet sweet surge of kill energy. I waited another few seconds just in case there was something else. Once I was sure I was safe I let the darkness claim me again.