Monster

by Sergey Belsky

  “But why? Who’s stopping you?” I asked, trying to get more information.

  “My duty,” the bug said, again lowering his voice. “I shouldn’t let rippers go further and I can’t let them go either, so I was chasing them. Very rarely do they manage to escape and today they were out of luck again.”

  “But why do they come down here?” I asked bewildered. “Why do they come to us?”

  “Hm...” the Supreme thought, and several pairs of eyes looked upwards. “Everyone has different reasons. Some come for us to get stronger at their expense, some come for ancient treasures, some are simply interested in this place. These,” Kroark pointed his claw at the dead rippers. “tried to find something on the second level, but I can’t figure out what they were doing here in such few numbers.”

  “Kroark, have the rippers ever passed by you?”

  “Unfortunately, yes, they have” the Supreme sighed, lifting a cloud of stone dust with his breath. "Sometimes the rippers are very strong and very numerous, and then even I cannot hold them back. I am already the fourth Lord of the Underworld. Now, do you understand how often the rippers pass by?"

  “Honestly, I don’t,” I said, quite sincerely.

  “In order for the Lord of my level to reach a final death, he needs to die more than a thousand times just as a Lord,” the Supreme explained. “The number of previous deaths does not count, neither does his type.”

  “Can I become a Lord?” I asked hopefully.

  “Khe-khe,” the giant gasped out, and his voice revealed some amusement. “Of course you can, only you first have to gain strength, then prove that you are worthy of it to the inhabitants of my domain. You will also need to complete my task.”

  “I will grow stronger, and I will be able to prove my strength,” I decided to get a little cocky. “But maybe you can give me your task now?”

  “Ph-khe-he?” His five pairs of eyes stared at me, and the beetle puffed – like... a teapot if I only knew what that was. “You are not bad, kid. It has been a long time since someone asked me that.

  Well then... my time is really coming to an end and I need a successor, so why not. As you understand, this cave is an ancient place, shrouded in many different secrets and mysteries, but one of them is much more important than others. This riddle was very hard to solve, and it took me a long time to do it, but all the masters went through it.

  Kroark Karak offers you the task “The Mystery of the Lord”!

  The goal: Find the energy source of all the domains of the current Lord of the Underworld.

  Accept: Yes / No?

  Chapter 24

  The argument. The symbol. The blood

  I accepted the task and immediately started to mull it over. The cave would have to be searched thoroughly later, but first I’d need to somehow deal with the spikers.

  “By the way, do you know what is behind the airless space in the southwestern area and what kind of centipedes live there?” I remembered another question that I wanted to ask, but I needed these answers first.

  “I have never been there, I always thought of it as simply a place with no air. How could someone live there? Although... the very first Lord was a centipede.

  “And what is the statue in the ancient city?”

  “So, you have already been there,” the Supreme said. “That’s commendable. Do the traps still work?”

  “Yes.”

  “Ah, so many memories. I also managed to find a path between the stones, although I was much smaller then, so I could easily squeeze in between the boulders. That statue, as you put it, is not quite a statue. This is the goddess who looked after the ancient people of Sel Nurs, I never found out what had happened to her. Though I was not interested in messing with this semblance of the rippers. I never understood why Sel Nurs were friends with her,” said the Supreme, and I had to object.

  “You’re wrong,” I said. “This two-legged is not like those rippers, and it seems to me that they are completely different.”

  “All the rippers are the same and it doesn’t make a difference what they look like,” the bug grunted disapprovingly.

  “Tell me one more thing, Kroark,” I asked. “How can I look in other creatures’ spatial pockets?”

  “Just upgrade your ability to 10 and you can pick up some items from the spatial pocket of other creatures. The greater your ability, the more items you can see. I forgot why you wanted to help the rippers?”

  "To study their language and deal with spikers," I said firmly, although in my heart I was somewhat worried about the sharp tone.

  “Curious,” the giant squinted all his eyes.

  “You don’t look after your domains, even though you have so many eyes,” Skal said, and I opened my jaws in horror.

  “And you lad, the boldest of all your little folk,” the giant’s jaws curved upward in delight.

  “Courage alone will not help me defeat the spikers and free the survivors,” my friend said again.

  “Eh-h, such is the fate of the Lord,” Kroark Karak sighed deeply. “To follow the passage to the next level without knowing what’s going on in his domains. Good luck, you will need it, but it’s time for me to go back,” said the Lord of the Underworld and headed back to the tunnel from which he emerged.

  Meanwhile, my trembling subsided, as fear finally began to loosen its grip. The same thing was happening to Skal.

  Okay, there is no time to be idle and shake, first we need to inspect the dead rippers and try to devour their blood, you never know if you’ll be lucky and learn something.

  Going from one body to the next, I noticed one similarity. Each ripper had the same sign marking different parts of the armor: five small sparkling stars heading towards each other, leaving a long tail behind.

  The looked like they were headed to the center where they would meet, but did not reach it. Coming closer, I noticed the coats of two rippers. The two-legged one with pointed ears and the big man killed by the Supreme had a slightly different symbol.

  On the dark blue cloth, between the tails of the stars, there were dark blue, almost black formations, from which the stars seemed to be moving. To be honest, I liked this sign, so I just took the torn-off raincoat of the two-legged and threw it into my spatial pocket, not even noticing it was filled.

  The Spatial Pocket ability is increasing! Current Level: 9!

  An additional cell is available!

  Great, I still had to collect something and hope that this will be enough to raise the ability up to 10 and then if this huge beetle is to be believed, I can see inside the rippers’ spatial pockets. I bet they keep interesting stuff there. Along the way, I tried to absorb the blood of at least someone, but nothing, absolutely nothing worked. And when I wanted to give up, it finally happened.

  Human blood is absorbed!

  New development opportunities are available!

  20 points of experience gained!

  Human Gene

  Description: -

  Stats: -

  Effects: -

  Requirements: -

  What the hell is going on? It makes no difference whether I absorb it or not. So what should I do about this? I was afraid to absorb this blood completely.

  No one knows what might happen since these rippers’ levels are higher than mine and considering that the structure parameter is responsible for evolution stability, there is a risk that it could be unstable. Consequently, ripper blood might even harm me. After all, I did not think about such things before, now I needed to be more attentive and study the absorbed elements closely, even if they appear fine to the casual eye.

  “Skal, let’s go to the next tunnel, there’s nothing left to do here,” I told my friend.

  “Look what I found,” the gravedigger came closer and showed me a small metal ripper claw.

  “Interesting,” I took the claw and immediately fell on the ground as I grabbed the handle. I kept trying for about ten minutes, but I could not lift it. However, when I took it by the blade, I
could lift it easily. I just couldn’t understand. Why can’t I use it? Shame that Skal had no hands, and it was extremely inconvenient to hold this thing with one claw.

  “Put it in a spatial pocket for now, and take some supplies too,” I gave the haloptiriuses and cave moss to Skal, then we went to see where Kroark had gone.

  Chapter 25

  The exploration of southern regions. The meeting. The mercenaries.

  There were a lot of small passages there, and I was immediately skeptical about our chances of examining everything, and whether it was necessary. In one of the side passages we heard water gurgling, in another there was crackling, in yet another there was a breeze that got lost in the darkness of the aisles, and then I saw a light in the distance.

  This light attracted me and seemed to beckon me. My mood brightened, my soul began to rejoice, and I didn’t know and didn’t care why.

  “What’s happening, Sel Er?” a voice asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “You are not reacting to anything and you’re just wondering through the cave,” the annoying voice sounded again.

  “I’m headed toward the light, stop hassling me,” I said, and this insolent beetle clung to my legs, almost tripping me. “Let me go!”

  “Do not look at the light!” said the nasty voice.

  “How could I not look, it’s so warm and inviting,” I answered euphorically, and kept looking at the source of this bright light. Then I felt a powerful blow as a stone hit me on the head. “Ahhhhhhh! Skal! What the hell are you doing?!”

  “Oh, you’re back, let’s get away from here,” said the gravedigger. “Something strange is going on, do not look at the light or you’ll go crazy.”

  “How come it doesn’t affect you?” I asked, recalling that some kind of light beckoned me onward.

  “Probably my brain is underdeveloped,” Skal grinned, bending his jaws.

  After we climbed out into the next tunnel, Skal immediately said that he’d go first, so I wouldn’t have to be hit on the head again, for it was not pleasant at all and my head was still ringing.

  This tunnel was noticeably different from the one leading to the second level passage. It was very dry here and there were almost no sounds, but there were still a lot of side passageways, and we couldn’t know if someone might come out of them.

  I also could not understand why nothing grew here. I tried to find something interesting, but there were just stones, which I slowly picked up, and then threw away. At some point, we heard muffled sounds coming out of one of the passages, and they sounded like someone was speaking, apparently in our language.

  “You had to do your duty and deal with that ripper,” someone said. “Why didn’t you do it?”

  “The information turned out to be wrong, that ripper was much stronger and because of you I lost two of my comrades,” another voice answered.

  “So you’re blaming us?” asked the first one in surprise.

  “Exactly,” the other one snapped back. “And you will pay for everything, as well as compensate all the losses and moral damage.”

  We looked out from behind the corner and saw a dozen beetles striking each other every possible way. Some used sharp claws, some the claws of others like I did.

  Some attacked remotely with some caustic mass, forcing their opponents to squeal loudly, and one beetle, whose upper body was similar to the rippers, and the lower part resembling the Supreme, was holding the claw of the two-legged.

  I was amazed, that meant that I could learn to use metal weapons as well. That’s great, but how? I needed to talk to this beetle, but I would not like to get messed up, so it was better to leave and try our luck some other time. No sooner than we proceeded down the tunnel, we heard a voice.

  “What are you doing here, kids?” there was a big beetle behind us with powerful jaws and arms. His dark gray shell was covered with blood and parts of other beetles’ bodies. “It’s not good to spy on a fight. Who do you work for?” he asked, and a stone cracked under his massive leg.

  Garadan Daragak, Garadarok, level 56

  “Leave them alone, Gard,” grinned another beetle, who had real arms, like the rippers, and held the claw of two-legged in one. “You see that they are not from around here.”

  “Oh, so I can’t make a joke?” the husky one grunted and bent his jaws, expressing joy. “But what an experience for them. They are going to remember our meeting for a long time.”

  “So, who are you?” asked this beetle who remotely resembled my relatives, more precisely, Cytrilct.

  Derergon, Garadarok, level 60

  “We are not from here,” Skal replied.

  “I have not seen karkants for a while, especially such small ones, let alone in the company of a gravedigger, that’s a surprise,” the warrior scratched his cheeks with his claw. “Anyway, what are you looking for here? Never mind, judging by your reaction, perhaps I should ask you something else. Do you know where you are?”

  “No,” I replied this time.

  “I thought so,” the beetle sighed. “Okay, let’s go to the nest, you can eat there, and we can talk. I see you have questions for me. Don’t even look at that,” the warrior pointed with his claw. “These are our customers who wanted to screw us. It didn’t work.”

  We had no choice but to follow this beetle. We decided not to use the amanita because I was hoping that this Garadarok might not be that bad. We walked through very remarkable places, with holes everywhere in which a variety of beetles lived.

  Everything around us looked like an ancient city, but there were residents here. I even saw some beetles looking like Khha. But there were no gravediggers or Karkants, which was somewhat surprising. This beetle said that he had not seen anyone like us for a long time. All this was very strange.

  All the inhabitants of this town went about their business and did not pay any attention to us. We, on the other hand, tried to observe the others. There were both big and small bugs that formed something like... families, what a good word. Watching this bustling joyful city, I did not even notice when we approached a rather large hole.

  “This way,” said Derergon, and after passing through a winding tunnel, he took us to another fairly spacious cave, where there was a bunch of all kinds of different beetles. But unlike in the city, they were all warriors.

  All these beetles ate mushrooms, worms, drank some strange liquid and were engaged in a lively discussion. There were a lot of colorful personalities with two pairs of jaws, claws, tails and several pairs of eyes. But our new acquaintance, occasionally greeting someone, finally brought us to a small cave, where he stopped.

  “Now let’s hear it,” he said. “Who are you? Where do you come from? How did you get here?

  “OK, but then you will also explain everything to us. Who are the Garadaroks? Why do you differ so much from garadaran? Why do you look like karkant and where are we?”

  “Kha, we got a deal,” Derergon grinned and turned all ears.

  “We came to this cave not long ago, our relatives died the final death, so we united and now we’re exploring this cave together. Fleeing from the spikers that were near the iron ore, we ran into this tunnel, where we stumbled upon you.”

  “You’ve cut a long story short, I see. Well, we can understand something from this,” the warrior nodded. “Now it’s my turn to answer. Garadaroks are another type of warrior beetles, as are the karkants, to whom you belong.

  Each of us chooses his own path and I wanted to be like a karkant, so I do not look like Gard. And you are in the city of Girerd, better known as the city of mercenaries.

  You see, the rippers have not discovered this city yet. The strong two-legged creatures are not interested in the first level of the cave, so they all go to the Supreme. We try to lure the weaker ones into different passageways of the cave and get rid of them there.

  Gradually, we are being killed the same way as others in the cave, and we can see the warnings about last rebirths. If you want to live longer and safely
, you pay us mercenaries, and we go to the cave instead of you.

  So now, I think, you understand our life. Let me ask you this. What are such weak beetles doing in this part of the cave? You should be closer to the surface.

  “Have you ever been close to the surface?” I asked.

  “No,” answered Derergon.

  “Neither have we,” I said. “We were in the center of the cave, and then we immediately stumbled upon rippers and spikers.”

  “I agree, the spikers have gone crazy after this crazy Narr Nutt became their new leader,” Derergon sighed. “Then you can stay in our city, I think we can find a place for you.”

  “Thank you, but we did not come here for that,” I politely declined the offer, since Skal and I had a much larger city in our possession. Well, almost, except that I had to share it with someone else’s energy spawns. “If you say you’re a mercenary, then you can be hired to do a job, right?”

  “That’s right,” the warrior replied, gazing intently into my eyes.

  “What do they pay you with?”

  "Good question," he grinned and continued. "You know, there is a wonderful metal of a very unusual color, it is also called gold. So, we accept that.”

  “And how much of these pieces do you need, and why do you need them?” I asked, looking in the spatial pocket, checking to see if I took those pieces that the old fellow Khha gave me.

  “If you have a hundred of these,” he showed me a pile of coins similar to mine, “then my squad of ten bugs will do anything you ask. We need this gold to buy the weapons from the rippers. You see, not all of them are such monsters and it’s possible to deal with them.”

  “You’ve got a deal,” my jaws curved upward in joy because I had an idea how to collect a hundred gold pieces and how to use the mercenaries’ help in the fight against spikers.

  Chapter 26