Into The Portal: Monster Invasion

Miles decided to hunt in The Lonely Cave to test his new abilities. It was a cave with a mysterious darkness element. Even light brought from outside could not illuminate the inside. Those who entered would start to hear weird noises bouncing from wall to wall.

At first, people presumed that the cave is shrouded in vantablack or something similar that can absorb light. But when the rock samples from the cave were brought out, they discovered that all of them, although dark, weren’t able to absorb the light around. The darkness inside the cave was something special — formed from some other phenomena. The reason for the cave to be dark was not only about the rock but something beneath it. It couldn’t be discovered because of the darkness until now.

Miles wanted to test the limit of his new eyes and wanted to explore this undiscoverable cave. Also, the monsters inside the cave were mostly wasps, as large as dogs.

When Lucy made him train archery, Miles decided to take his rusty bow once again. He was well-versed when it came to the bows but arrows cost a bomb, making it impossible for financially struggling Miles to purchase arrows. Since Arrow Orbs were too expensive, and could hardly injure monsters he could only choose an alternative, alloy arrow made in Unity. But he soon noticed the infeasibility of his alternate plan too. They too were unaffordable. He searched on the Uninet all night and discovered that The Lonely Cave had many wasps that would drop arrow orbs, and decided to try his luck.

Miles arrived at the cave after half a day of running. With his speed close to 50 km/h, it was a long way to go. Luckily after taking the second serum, his endurance soared. Let aside half a day, even running a full day without resting, wouldn’t tire him too much.

The cave was opened in a giant mountain. The entrance of the cave was dark, and nothing could be seen from the outside.

Miles walked in and looked around with his new eyes — Heat vision.

There were some small monsters far away from the cave, but nothing alive as far as Miles could see. After that, Miles donned his armor. The interior of the cave was humid, and one could faintly hear buzzings and running of a water source. Sweet fragrance could be smelled everywhere in the cave.

Miles felt satisfied and walked into the cave. He could read heat signals from deep within the den, but the fireflies flying all around the cave were the only things he could see with his heat vision. The heat signature of the wasps looked like fireflies floating in the night.

Miles switched to the dark vision, and a purple film covered his sight. He was able to see the interior of the nest now. It was covered with sticky yellow gook.

“Is that honey?” Miles walked to the yellow thing on the wall and grabbed a handful. The mouth part of his armor opened, and he smelled it.

“Do wasps make honey?” He asked.

“Some of them do.” Coin answered. “Drop a sample, so I can analyze it.” Coin said while a little section opened the side of the wristwatch.

Miles dripped a drop and Coin started to run some tests After a few minutes, Coin reported. “It seems like regular honey. Although it should be better, it is not harmful. The honey that comes from this cave is highly valuable, as it is rare.”

Miles brought a finger and licked the yellow gook. “It's... delicious.” He exclaimed. “It is much sweeter!” Miles fished out a plastic bag the size of a button. Then, it expanded to a giant plastic vacuum bag that can take 50 liters. “I think we can sell this!”

Miles started to fill the bag with the honey, but as he was working on it, a sound came behind him, making his feet go cold. It was like thousands of wings flapping.

“Of course, the wasps would get me when I am trying to collect some honey!” Miles rolled his eyes and turned back. He wasn’t overly concerned over the wasps attacking him because of his armor. He could defend against their attacks.

Miles slowly turned back and grabbed his sword orb. Coin charged it right away. He swung his sword, and the wind started to shine on it.

“I came here for you guys anyway, I hope you would drop a decent Psychic Arrow for me!” Miles looked at the tens of wasps eying him, flying in the distance and said slowly with a smile.

Wasps in the Lonely Cave had three elements. Their main element was poison, the second element was pierce, and their weakest element was psychic. The most common drop of the wasps was an arrow, but the arrow elements were usually poison elemental. Even if it wasn't, the second most common was the piercing element. The psychic arrow Miles was hoping to get was the rarest.

The reason why Miles wanted a Psychic Elemental Arrow Orb was its handy specialty. Psychic Alloy Arrow Orbs would return to their users after firing. Unlike other arrows, users could fire them over and over again, allowing the user to have unlimited ammunition. Even though it was lacking power-wise, the repeating use was covering up its deficiency.

Miles was hoping to get one, so he wouldn’t have to pay for arrows. After all, a few weeks ago, he was penniless. Although he earned some now, he wasn’t planning to use them on sky-high arrows made in Unity. They weren’t as effective as orbs against monsters. Although monster cores were blended into them to increase their damage output, they were still not as good as orbs.

Miles ran to the monster horde with his wind sword alone. He was still crude when it came to handling swords because of his lack of studying it. He only knew the basics. Thus, he was able to hold the sword and swing it to kill an enemy. But his expertise lay in ranged weapons. So, the arrow was essential.

Wasps were dangerous monsters because of their hive minds. They had psychic elements to allow them to communicate telepathically and could act in teams and formations.

The Queen, the Chief of the army, would mostly oversee the battles through her minion’s eyes. The generals would control the large colonies, and under them, there would be other smaller teams. What Miles was fighting looked like a battalion. And by now, every wasp in the cave should have learned the existence of the intruder.

As the first battalion, they would test Miles. Then either the generals or the Queen would take the command to take off the enemy. Because of their venomous and piercing stings, any man walking into the cave would be dead without a doubt.

Miles swung his sword left and right to cut down the wasps. Because of his lack of weapon mastery and the seamless formation of the enemy, most of the time he would clash with ten stings based on each other like a giant spear. When the wasps deflect the attack together, then they would attack Miles from every angle. Thanks to his armor, the attacks were useless. Not even a scratch appeared on the armor after five minutes of the clash, but being unable to damage the monsters still frustrated him.

“C’mon. Remember the instructions Master Kenway taught! ‘Sword is an extension of your arm. It is not a tool. It is not a dead object. It is as flexible as your arm.” Miles chanted to himself. He learned all the weapons for a short amount of time, but he could still remember the teachings. Had no chance to practice it deeply before, so he was not proficient at all of them. But now, he had to use it as the sword was his only weapon.

“Since wasps can’t hurt me, I can practice the sword to my heart's content! Or shall I use the Cross Family Art? No, I will not use it if I still have a choice.” Miles said, closing his eyes then. Even with his new eyes, he was as blind as a mole with his eyes closed. But now, he wasn’t aiming at the wasps, but only swinging the sword in his hand.

The force of the stings was hitting his body behind the armor, creating impacts on his flesh, but they were minuscule. Miles twisted his hand and waved the sword. It was the opposite of the training he had with the bow. While using a bow, he had to be steady. Even a breath shouldn’t escape from his lungs. His eyes should always be on the target, and his posture should be as steady as a mountain. But when using the sword, he had to move. He had to use his flexibility to attack from different angles, and postures. It wasn’t as straightforward as a bow.

Miles, with his closed eyes, swung his sword. Unlike his previous ignorant self, he started to attack with his wrist, elbow, and shoulder, waist and legs. His smallest step was part of the attack delivered through his sword. Not only with his muscles but with his body as a whole.

The sword wasn’t a bat he could swing as hard as he could to hope for a result. It had to be swung with finesse.

All of a sudden, Miles opened his eyes. For a second, a red sun was born into the cave and disappeared as fast as it bloomed.

The sword in Miles’s hand rose to the air with a whistle. It was able to cut the air and created a symphony.

Miles then turned his wrist with a swift movement and slashed to the side where a wasp was preparing to dive into his armor.

The sound of music was heard once again and with it, an enemy was down. Like a conductor, Miles swung his baton and cut down the enemies with the howling of the winds and voice of cut air like a seamless symphony.

One by one, the wasps started to lose to his extra limb and lost their seamless formation.

Before long, ten bodies were lying on the ground. The only thing separating the blood from the ground in Miles's red eyes was the mild light coming off from the blood.

Miles cut down the monster’s brains and took out the cores. Unfortunately, none of them were orbs. None of them were a psychic core either.

Miles wasn’t depressed by this. There were still many wasps in the cave, and the monster cores with poison and pierce elements were also making lots of money. He also improved his way of using a sword.

Miles looked deeper into the cave and saw no more monsters coming his way. He then filled the plastic bag with the honey and sealed it. He left it at the entrance and walked towards the cave once again.

“Hmm?” Miles suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

“What happened?” Coin asked when he heard Miles’s exclamation.

“There is a different heat signal than wasps deep in the cave. It— looks like a human.” Miles finished his sentence with uncertainty.

“Can it be a humanoid monster evolved from wasps?” Coin asked with trepidation in his voice.

“No. Wasps are avoiding it as if it is not there. Also, I can see the queen at the center of the cave. The most likely humanoid monster would be the queen, right?” Miles pondered out loud.

“Yeah, you are right.” Coin said and then asked. “Can a human come here?”

“I am here right?” Miles said and smiled. “Although I was lucky, there are millions of people entering the portal world. Some of them can enter the cave with their superpowers and armor as strong or stronger than mine.

I know that in the past, humans tried many devices to enter this cave without any result, but the orbs are mysterious. Who could have known that an orb can grant ability, as it did to me? But here I am.”

“You are right.” Coin agreed.

The duo walked further and encountered a wall of wasps. There were more than 50 of them, waiting for Miles.

Of course, Miles long knew their preparations thanks to his heat vision. But he walked forward anyway.

“Those must be the Queen and her generals.” Miles looked at the bigger wasps standing at the four corners of the formation and the biggest at the back. He looked at the with greed, as he brandished his sword.