Misfit’s Journey

In a matter of seconds, shadows clung to my skin, and I tightened my lips, struggling to restrain a curse aimed at my own negligence. I just assumed them to be also corpses since there were so many dead lying around and it came back to bite me. Maybe even quite literally. The lack of injuries on the piled up bodies should have at least raised my suspicion.

Shit.

The mounds of bodies diminished as drones emerged one after another, combing the area around the giant skeleton's ribcage and exploring their immediate surroundings with their antennae. As they covered more and more ground, the urgency of the situation hit me. I had to get away right now. There was nothing I could do at the moment. At this point, it was better to let the situation unfold and return later. Even if I started to fight them now, it would only be a matter of time until they overran me with sheer numbers.

Unfortunately, even escaping was going to be challenge of its own. The drones had already started putting their antennae to work and surveyed their surroundings. With growing numbers and their current course, it was only a matter of time until one of them spotted me.

Simply turning and running was an option, but dangerous. The piles basically encircled me, so drones were all around me and while they had no ears, rash movements would still alert them. I had to be careful and silent if I wanted to get out of this unscathed.

As I watched, thinking about the best course of action, the situation took a strange turn when one of the drones ran its antennae across the corpse of another drone. The strange part, not long after discovering the corpse, the drone started to dig in and devour its own kin. When it ripped out a leg and a chunk of meat, I scrunched my nose in disgust.

Ugh, cannibals…

I was not entirely unfamiliar with the idea of cannibalism and the act of eating one’s own kin, but it was a practice that I failed to appreciate. From the first time I had seen Malik chewing on a human arm to now, it just felt repulsive to look at.

Gradually, the drones gathered around the corpses and started to feast on them. Even though I hated to see it, it definitely was a good distraction. At least it would have been, if it weren’t for the corpse at my feet. And it wasn’t helping that drones were all around me.

My window for escape was narrowing by the second and I knew that I had to act soon. A wrong move would be my demise, but if I stayed here, I would become food either way, so I decided that it was now or never.

I began to retreat cautiously, taking one step back, then another, and another, maintaining a deliberate and measured pace, while keeping track of the drones closest to me. Everything appeared to be fine until one drone changed its course toward me, or more specifically the corpse which was still close to me.

However, if I were to be far enough from it, I would be fine and go unnoticed. But in an unexpected turn of events, the drone completely disregarded the corpse when it reached there and continued to walk straight toward me.

Uncertain whether it had spotted me or if it was merely coincidental, I hesitated. My first instinct was to jump out of the way, my second to run away, but suppressing the two, I decided to remain where I was and observe.

There were no obvious signs of aggression coming from the drone and that convinced me that it had not discovered me. Yet.

It came closer and closer and when one of its antennae almost grazed my stomach, I took a quiet step to the side. The drone was uncaring for my movement and simply continued on, oblivious to my presence.

A wave of relief washed over my entire body and I felt like dropping to my knees on this very spot as the tension left my body, but something else reminded me that I might have avoided one dangerous situation, but was still far from safety. While I focused on this one drone, another had already made its way into my close vicinity.

My relief was quickly turning into panic when it almost bumped into me, but with a quick step to the side, the worst of outcomes was avoided. I had to fight my balance for a bit to keep on my feet, but managed to stay afoot.

Once both drones had passed and found themselves a corpse, I continued my silent escape. Luckily, after these two, there was no noteworthy situation and I managed to get into the jaw area without problems.

Outside the ring of drones, I finally quickened my steps and prepared to leave, when my eyes landed on the tooth I had procured earlier. I really wanted to take it with me, but its weight would slow me down too much and just put me at risk. And so I had no other choice but to leave if behind and remain without a weapon. If only I hadn’t shattered the level 13 mandible before.

I only relaxed and took a deep breath once I was back in the tunnel and far away from any drone. My entire body was covered in sweat, not from physical exercise, but from the pressure and tension that weighed on me until moments ago.

This was… not fun.

Out of immediate danger, I could also cancel Shadow Cloak and let my mana recover. This whole escape had taken quite some time and burned through two hundred mana. After sitting down and leaning my back against the soft, moss-covered wall, I had some time to think about my next step.

Unlike before, I was facing the risk of battling multiple opponents at once. And frankly spoke, I lacked the means for that. Without a weapon, my skill best suited for combat—Telekinesis—was out of the picture. If it were any closer, I would go look for the last drone I killed in this tunnel, but that would be a waste of time. Time I was uncertain I even had.

There was also the possibility of the drones gaining interest in this tunnel. And the only thing worse fighting multiple drones in a giant tree-cavern chamber, was to fight multiple drones in a underground tree-tunnel.

This basically meant I would have to fight with my mana and Aggravating Touch. Which after some contemplation, maybe wasn’t even necessarily a bad thing. Growing too used to a single skill was not a good thing. I got so used to Telekinesis that I had used Aggravating Touch only once, and I used my mana only in the first few battles and not at all in the latest ones.

Well, to be fair, none of the skills really were that suited for combat, so it was only natural to use the one that performed the best in combat.

The only downside to my current arsenal was that it would require me to get in close with my opponent since Aggravating Touch needed me, well, to touch my enemy. Mentally, I already prepared myself for the times I would need to use Regeneration.

Enough time elapsed for my mana pool to fill up, which retrospectively, might have been a bit too long, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

And since I did not recover my mana to waste it, I refrained from using Shadow Cloak as of yet. It wouldn’t be a problem, since the perceptive range of drones wasn’t the biggest to begin with and I would confidently say that my ears detected their movement from a distance twice as far as necessary for them to locate me. Which was also why Shadow Cloak was only useful when I was close to them.

When I reached the chamber again, things had developed unexpectedly fast and the drones had expanded their territory—if it could be called that—quite a bit. Just beyond the passage, I spotted one drone to the left, almost too close to the entrance for my comfort. And somewhere to my right, there were another two who were doing something with their mandibles, but they were behind one of the many roots, so I could not confirm their location, however, judging from the volume of the clacking, they seemed to be quite far. Definitely too far away to hear me.

On the left on the other hand, one single root was growing like a small wall that cut me off from anything that was behind it and the drone was peaceful digging into it.

Observing it harm the root, especially after recalling Veraxia's revelations about her connection to the tree, left me with an uncomfortable feeling. It was a peculiar blend of disgust and anger, and for some reason, it just irked me.

And so it was decided in that moment, that the drone had to die.

Since the closest drones were quite far away, even if our fight made some noise, I would probably be fine since technically I would be the only one able to hear it. And given the distance, the fight should end before any drone could come to assist.

I approached the drone and activated Shadow Cloak after taking a few steps in its direction. Even if I said that my hearing was better than theirs, I still didn’t know the precise range and so I activated it as a precaution. I also identified it to get an estimate of my opponent.

[Exapoda Drone | Lvl. 12]

My eyes widened slightly when I saw its level. If I remembered correctly, this was the first time a drone was actually below my level. Considering I was working with a handicap, that was actually perfect right now.

Before engaging in battle, I took one last glance at my surroundings and environment to not get surprised during the battle. When a drone didn’t move, it could avoid being detected by my ears, so I wanted to get confirmation with my eyes. Just in case.

And when I ensured that nothing was out of the ordinary, everything was ready.

Then, let’s do to it.

I drew upon my mana and it responded quickly. Golden veins appeared on my right arm and flowed into my palm, where the mana trickled out and upwards, weaving itself into an orb. When I watched the orb slowly growing, I realized that orbs really weren’t that great a shape for combat. Maybe I should try a sword… or an arrow. In the future though, for now, this will have to do, I thought as I stopped my mana to leak out of my hand and grasped the orb in my hand. Although grasping was not really accurate, but whatever.

With preparations complete, I sneaked up on it and got close. Normally I would go for its antennae, cut off its senses and kill it, but that was not the best choice this time around.

Once they lost their antennae, drones will fall into a frenzy. They would rage like mindless monsters, lashing out randomly in an attempt to hit their enemy. If I could keep my distance, this wouldn’t be too much of a problem, but today I had to do the exact opposite and get close enough to touch it. Getting too close would still be dangerous, but its attacks wouldn’t be as unpredictable.

Hence, my initial strike has to make an injury that is grave enough that I can turn it into a wound that will cause the drone’s death.

The most vulnerable sections of a drone's body were those unprotected by its exoskeleton, encompassing the entire underside, along with the minute gaps interspersed between its segmented backplates. These fissures fluctuated in width as the drone moved, so I patiently awaited a moment when one expanded before thrusting my mana orb into it.

The gaps fluctuated in width as the drone moved, but unlike the underside, they were easily reachable and since I was hidden, it would not see the attack coming.

So I waited for a moment when one of the gaps expanded and then smashed my mana orb into it.

The impact caused quite the damage to the drone as the surrounding plates cracked, flesh was torn and blood flew. At the same time, the attack was not very friendly to me either and caused me to lose all of my finger and a majority of the skin and flesh of my palm.

I felt my two oldest skills activate as they kept me from giving in to the pain. Rather than retracting my hand, I pressed it deeper into the wound.

The drone was now aware of my presence and tried to lash out at me, but my hand was as good as stuck in its body. When it turned its head—with unexpected flexibility—I instantly activated my curse. The drone abruptly ceased all movements and emitted a piercing screech of agony.

I felt the flesh of the drone around my hand melt away as the wound grew and grew. Like before, the drone seemed unable to handle this amount of pain and started to repeatedly smash its own head into the ground until it smashed its last and went limp.

You have slain [Exapoda Drone | Lvl. 12]. Experience will be awarded.

[Novice Witch] has leveled up! Stat points have been allocated! 1 Free Stat Point acquired!

[Novice Witch] is now Level 9.

For a brief moment, I simply stood there, letting a bunch of conflicted emotions gather within me before pushing them all out with a deep breath. Carefully, I pulled by hand out of the corpse. I instantly put Regeneration to work, but the pain was still quite intense.

As I waited for my fingers to grow their skin back on, I opened my status and put my newly acquired stat point into Intelligence. I wanted to move that giant tooth as soon as possible to never fight like this again. Once that and my hand were done, I checked the corpse for its mandibles.

Unfortunately, this way of killing drones had a high probability of destroying the mandibles, but while the left one was crushed and cracked, the right one seemed to be in fairly good condition. It was only level 12, but it could inflict damage even on higher leveled drones as long as I aimed for the flesh. But having one was the most important. Like I said before, I really didn’t want to fight like this again.

Even though the fight cost almost five hundred mana, including the healing for my hand, it was more than worth it, since I had acquired a new weapon. However, this also meant I had to recover before challenging another drone. Or at least I should, for safety’s sake.

I really hope Veraxia comes back soon. I could really use some extra mana…

Since the drone was dead, I cancelled Shadow Cloak and made my way back to the tunnel. But even at this very moment, my ears twitched when I heard a noise that was closer than before. The clacking of mandibles. And sure enough, in front of the tunnel entrance, there stood a single drone.

[Exapoda Drone | Lvl. 10]

Why had it wandered here? There were no roots at the tunnel entrance nor corpses, so there shouldn’t be any reason for the drones to come here when there are still corpses and roots around to eat. But whatever the reason, it was here now and I would have to kill it to get out of the chamber. Well, there was the possibility to sneak around it with Shadow Cloak, but who knew if it wanted to explore the tunnel next?

As I approached, uncloaked, it was not long before the drone detected my presence and advanced my way in obvious hostile manner, its mandibles clicking together and ready to slice me apart.

But what the drone had not considered was that I just found a new weapon. A weapon that was more than capable to sever its exoskeleton.

The drone rushed forward, but instead of impaling me with its mandibles, my own mandible pierced its head right at the front and went all the way through, leaving only a half-way through split corpse. Well, proof again that they really weren’t made for fights.

You have slain [Exapoda Drone | Lvl. 10]. Experience will be awarded.

[Novice Witch] has leveled up! Stat points have been allocated! 1 Free Stat Point acquired!

[Novice Witch] is now Level 10.

You have acquired the Class Skill [Meditation—Mana (Common)].

It was a new skill and of course I wanted to check it out right now, but I also knew that it was better not to. I restrained my curiosity and retrieved the mandible from the corpse and letting it fall into my hand. Then I exited the chamber once again, while allocating my stat point into Willpower.

And when I was roughly at the location where I had rested before, I opened my status and gave my new skill a read.

[Meditation—Mana (Common)]

Accelerates your mana regeneration when your body is resting by 100%. The skill can be used indefinitely, but will be interrupted when you break concentration or move.

Now that was a welcome sight. A skill that enhanced my mana regeneration was precisely what I needed, and a hundred percent increase meant it doubled, so I'd spend only half the usual time on mana recovery. This was beyond great.

Given that the reason for retreating back here was mana replenishment, I promptly decided to put the skill to the test. The skill's description mentioned I should be resting, so I followed my usual resting routine, settled down, leaned against the wall, but this time, to keep track of my mana, I kept my status open.

If memory served me right, I had been regenerating mana at a rate of roughly one point every fifty seconds or thereabouts. With the skill in play, it should now be closer to twenty-five seconds. Therefore, I patiently waited for one mana to replenish and started counting from there as soon as it did.

Ten seconds dragged on, then twenty, thirty, and to my bewilderment, a full sixty seconds passed before my mana increased by another point. I furrowed my brow, my gaze fixating on the skill description, particularly the part about not allowing my concentration to break. Maybe I wasn’t concentrated enough?

The only reason that came to mind was that my mind was busy counting and keeping track of my mana. Maybe that had been a mistake.

I dismissed my status and closed my eyes, inhaling deeply as I quelled every errant thought that crossed my mind. I solely focused on Meditation.

Guided by the skill, or perhaps driven by pure coincidence, I found my attention wandering to my breath, but it felt right to focus on my breath, so I just followed as my instincts guided me. Then suddenly something within me seemed to shift and my attention once again wandered.

This time, it was drawn to my mana as it streamed through my body. The flow was normal, but there was a slight difference. My mana seemed to flow faster, smoother and its simple presence felt stronger.

My senses gradually faded, drawn inward into the depths of my being. Mana surged through me, increasing with every passing moment, until it completely ceased to grow any further. As if I had reached the finish line of a race, everything calmed down. At that point, my eyes snapped open and I gasped.

The change was noticeable in an instant. The slight fatigue that always lingered over me whenever I drew upon my mana was gone and from the feeling alone I could tell that my mana had recovered, but it was only when I opened my status that it was confirmed and my eyes widened.

Mana: 1,000/1,000

In what felt like seconds, I had recovered over six hundred mana, but I knew that it couldn’t be the truth. Remembering the sensation I had felt until a few moments ago, I was certain that the skill somehow screwed my perception of time while under the skill’s effect. At least that theory made more sense than the system giving me wrong information.

Then it dawned on me that I had spent at least several hours without being able to do anything. Had I used this skill in a less secure environment, I might have been bug food already. Good to know that luck hadn’t left me for good.

At that instant, my heart overflowed with gratitude towards my past self for choosing to retreat into the tunnel.

But the avoided dangers aside, I had a weapon, my mana pool was overflowing with mana and there were dozens of bugs waiting to be killed.