Chapter 30: Beetles

  Noseen, elsewhere…

  Traveling to the Great Ones took time, especially since the call had come at a very inopportune time. Alex needed guidance, and I’d had to cut the dream short.

  The path from the Sisters to the correct portal let me ponder the situation with Alex. Her profession needed to change, and she needed to do it before her class reached the next rank. While she had time on her side, given how long progress usually took, by our standards, the situations she found herself in were forcing her upward quickly.

  Which didn’t normally happen without interference, and it wasn’t me interfering.

  Now the call.

  This had the same feeling as my now-completed quest. A tugging at my center which wouldn’t let me rest until I answered. Attendance was required.

  Flying through the massive city didn’t take long, and keeping hidden made it even easier. The bustle of creatures going down each of the streets, like blood traveling through veins, used to make me smile.

  Now it worried me.

  Stagnation led to conflict, conflict led to growth, growth led to whatever dangled outside of my knowledge.

  I’d eaten the first owner of the Sisters, but ever since the war I hadn’t grown much.

  Was I next to be replaced?

  The worry instantly resolved itself as the thought morphed into one of excitement.

  Let someone try and take my planets.

  My mouth watered.

  I arrived in front of the single portal set off all by itself. The entire courtyard was empty, yet as I entered, the feeling of the being on the other side set me on edge. The stone archway blocked most of what the portal couldn’t contain.

  My form rippled and I went from barely a spec to a massive being with more eyes and wings than most could imagine.

  Stretching felt good, as I let my shields fall. I needed everything I had to survive on the other side.

  I didn’t pause as I flew into the portal, ready to answer the summons.

  ###

  Alex, in the camp…

  “Why are you putting it on my hand, instead of by my ear?” I asked as Dan pulled out his blue paint.

  “Your ear?” he asked as his eyes drew close together.

  “Yeah, that's where someone else I knew put them when we used them as a group.” I tapped the space beneath my ear, partially on the side of my throat.

  He blinked twice, and his lips parted. “If I do that, it will naturally pull on the energies already used to talk and listen. That… changes things.”

  I chuckled as he pulled out a book and started writing frantic notes in it.

  I pulled out my canteen and took several sips while watching him think things through. If I had time, I’d study the rune he created and see if I could get any insight into using crystals from it, like he did with the crystal.

  The clarity rune still sat on the back of my other hand, waiting to be used. I hadn’t felt the push to use it just yet. Though I worried about the energy fading, at least up until now the deep lines remained, and they hadn’t smudged. I didn’t dare look at it like a crystal, too worried that it’d trigger.

  After a couple of moments, Dan nodded to himself. “Okay, I have an idea.”

  “You ready?” I asked as I pulled my hair back. The various braids had frayed a little, but they still kept it out of my face.

  “Yep.”

  He painted with the blue color, and it tickled as the brush traveled across my skin. He smiled and pulled away the brush, then touched it with a finger. A cooling sensation traced through the lines, then vanished.

  “Okay, it should have worked. Basically, it lets you send a single message across long distances.” He smiled brightly as he traced a rune on his own skin, moving much slower.

  Cekta’s rune had let us communicate like with a phone over distances. Obviously, Dan wasn’t on the same scale as Kabi’s brother.

  “Alright, I’ll save it to use in case of emergencies,” I said with a chuckle once he finished his own.

  “Hopefully it works, but isn’t needed. I’ll use mine to tell you when I get to the end of the tunnel.” He packed away his supplies. “I hadn’t thought about how the location of runes can affect their abilities. This is going to be something I need to study and test.”

  “No longer relying on your teacher, good,” I said, only slightly sassing him.

  “I have much to learn, and it's clear that I will not get that education as quickly as I’d hoped. Or that what I’ve been paying to learn is sufficient.” He paused and frowned. “I’ve learned more with you in a few hours than from my so-called teachers.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “You should find a way into the Academy within the labyrinth,” said Kabi, approaching from the east. “There is a rune master there that did the one on Alex’s hand. I bet she’d be happy to teach you.”

  “That’d be life-changing.” He leaned back on his heels with a smile.

  “Ask my father about it when you get there.” Kabi gave him a nod. “He’ll help. Tell him I said it was worth it.”

  “Thank you.” Dan nodded, his eyes growing wide.

  I caught feelings of remorse from my bond with Kabi, and he wouldn’t look directly at me. A wall went up within the bond again, so I turned away.

  “Can I study that rune a little?” Dan asked as his cheeks turned a darker blue.

  “Sure.” I held out my hand, which he carefully took in his. I caught Lenna glancing in our direction with a curious look.

  “How's the stew coming along?” I asked. While the heart, and a few other bites of meat I’d sneaked when giving Dengu his dinner, had largely stopped my stomach from growling, I was still hungry. Especially if we were gonna hunt some Forgers in the badlands.

  “It should be done soon.”

  Bored, I reached out to Strange and caught him chasing a small crawling bug, which he quickly chomped down on. I pulled away as he hunted down another. At least he kept himself busy as he slowly scouted the tunnel.

  I closed my eyes and turned my thoughts inward to my stat sheet. I had 24 free stat points to spend and two experience tokens. My class currently sat at level 98, while my profession lingered at 67.

  At least my stats were still in balance, which probably contributed to the skill I’d gained. I sighed and opened my eyes without messing with my sheet after all. I needed to fix my class before I used the experience tokens.

  “Hey Dan, what can you teach me about runes?” I asked, opening my eyes.

  He scribbled frantically in his journal, having already let go of my hand.

  “First food,” said Lenna with a grin. She quickly served up the very meaty stew.

  It didn’t take long for me to finish my bowl and pull out my water crystal to clean the dishes as people finished.

  Food was done, so now we should go to explore the tunnel. But if I wanted to chat with Noseen, this would be a good time to check in. That was more important than trying and failing to learn about runes yet again.

  “I want to grab a quick nap, if everyone is good?” I glanced around at nods.

  Lenna smiled. “Same.”

  “I keep watch,” said Dengu, who had joined us at some point. He stood and wandered off, circling around the campsite.

  Kabi sat near Dan, but nodded in my direction. “I’ll try as well.”

  I pulled out my sleeping blanket and tried to get comfortable. It took a while for sleep to wash over me.

  A hand shook me awake, and I opened my eyes, wondering what had happened. “I thought we were going to nap?”

  “We did, for quite some time,” said Lenna. “We should get moving. Danlino already left.”

  I blinked a few times and stretched up, reaching out with my senses. Dan wasn’t anywhere on them, and Strange was focused on something important.

  My senses went to him as something bigger than him crawled along the tunnel in his direction.

  He didn’t move from the narrow crack in the wall he hid within, even though there wasn’t any light nearby.

  [Armored Beetle, Wild, Level 100, Prey, Unknown.]

  Strange didn’t move as it passed by him, though the tension along his body increased. He lunged out at its rear leg, sinking his teeth in.

  I snapped out of it, standing up and throwing my blanket into my inventory.

  “Strange found a beetle at level 100.”

  “Let’s catch up to him then,” said Kabi, jumping to his feet.

  Lenna appeared all ready to go, like she knew we’d be off quickly. Her bow was out and ready.

  Fear traced along the bond from Strange, and I peeked in as we hiked across the bridge.

  Several beetles traveled through the tunnel as he raced away, barely staying ahead of the group. He searched for a place to hide and let them pass.

  “More than one,” I whispered to the others as I sped up.

  Wider than the others, this tunnel didn’t have any mushrooms growing inside it. Yet, a shimmering silver light shot out of Lenna and above even Kabi’s head. It provided a soft glow, making it much easier to see where we were going.

  We traveled much faster than Strange had scouted the tunnel, but still, he’d gotten much farther than I’d realized.

  The beetles didn’t seem to be chasing him, moving along at a steady pace, though he raced farther and farther ahead, outpacing them. His fear calmed down, and he slowed down just enough to keep them within our radar.

  “They haven’t found him, he’s just keeping track of them…” I added to the others as softly as I could. We kept up the steady but fast pace. The movement felt good.

  I pulled out my spear as we continued, readying myself.

  Eventually, Strange’s form appeared ahead. He sped up as he caught sight of the light and headed directly at me.

  The beetles behind him didn’t notice the light, but they sensed us somehow as the one leading the pack charged.

  Strange reached me first, vanishing into my shadow, which stretched out in front of me from Lenna’s light.

  Kabi darted ahead, reaching the Armored Beetle with his swords ready. His blades disappeared just for a moment.

  A scream came from the beetle as several large wounds appeared on it. It tried to scurry back, but my knife dug into its side.

  Strange flashed into view, biting at its leg as I twisted my knife. I paused the notification of its death.

  Dengu leaped by, landing on the next beetle that had tried to attack me.

  “Stealing my kill,” I joked as I dodged away from the large dinosaur. His tail whipped out at a different beetle's back as Kabi fought it off.

  An arrow glimmered in the air as it slammed into something farther down the tunnel that I barely felt on my radar. It highlighted a mass of beetles all rushing in our direction. The first edge hit my radar, and my eyes went wide.

  Lenna fired more arrows, somehow not hitting any of us, only the hoard. Each took out whatever beetle it hit.

  I stabbed the closet beetle in the eye and sent a shot of heat through the tip before yanking it out.

  This tunnel was too wide. Even with the ones falling from the shots Lenna took, we wouldn’t create enough of a funnel to reduce the number.

  Hopefully, the mass wasn’t as big as I feared.

  A gap appeared on the farthest reaches of my radar, and I relaxed. We could deal with this mess of them.

  Dengu stayed on the defensive as beetles made it through the arrows, while Strange leaped out here and there to nibble on something before hiding again.

  I stabbed, sliced, and ducked, sometimes tanking a hit on my defensive armor. Yet, each movement felt better than the last. My blades sliced through the creatures without a problem, doing more damage than ever before, even without triggering the crystal's attributes.

  Not needing to use my mana kept my energy levels up, and I just felt fucking good!

  I smiled as I pressed forward into the remaining creatures.

  A slightly larger beetle stabbed at me with two of its legs, but I ducked to the side. They missed me by a wide margin, as I sliced the tip off one of them.

  Yet, as I watched, the end of it shimmered, then regrew.

  [Life Beetle, Regeneration, Level 120, Predator, Unknown.]

  Regeneration?