Chapter 8 - Monsters

  "What many wouldn't give to view a palimpsest of the Emperor's time on the mountain. Reports are scattered and contradictory before "The War of Three and One", but they paint a picture of someone very unlike the man the world would come to know. However, if one knows where to look, similarities between The Emperor's younger self and the man he grew into begin to appear. Namely, the ego and self-assuredness that could only be described as recklessness."

  -A high school essay on the benefits of narcissism.

  Dimitri looked between Solis and the tunnel leading up, clearly torn. "We don’t have time for this.”

  “I completely agree.” Solis nodded.

  A sneer pressed itself into every wrinkle of the man's face, and for the first time, he looked properly harsh and angry. “Are you so confident in yourself?” It came out almost as a roar.

  “Yes.” Solis flatly stated.

  That seemed to catch Dimitri off guard, and he gave Solis a more appraising once-over. “You survived Nominal Tier II?”

  “Yes.”

  With a hiss, Dimitri turned and started heading up. “Don’t die. Ira will kill me if you do.”

  Solis couldn’t help but give a bellied laugh at that and waved Dimitri off. “For your sake, I’ll try my best.”

  With a nod, Dimitri broke into a fast jog. He darted and jumped into the darkness effortlessly, despite not having a flashlight or any way to see in front of him.

  'Probably a skill,' Solis dismissed mentally. Only when the sound of footfalls went silent did Solis move. It had taken them several hours to get down here. A lot of it was backtracking, but it'd still take quite a bit of time, and until then, he'd be a sitting duck.

  That was, if he ever actually planned on waiting for Ira, which he did not. Only taking a quarter of its health would have worried Solis if they had not fired their guns while in a Nominal Tier I corruption zone. Generally, the higher the corruption, the stronger the monsters and the higher a person's mana regen, but also the less other forms of energy seemed to work.

  Which meant that the rifle and bullets fired were magnitudes less powerful than they should be. Perhaps more importantly, the monster was now in a Minor Tier 1 zone.

  It'd cause issues if they stayed; their presence could raise the area's rank if the monster was powerful enough or if enough of them showed up. Until that happened, though, they'd have less power to draw on. Still a lot of power, but far less than it should be.

  The thing was a massive cricket and acted like an ambush predator, which typically blew all of its stamina in bursts of power and didn’t do well in extended fights.

  Solis smiled. He didn't need to kill the thing directly, just tire it out until it became defenseless. As long as he didn't get caught by its initial leap, he should be fine, but just in case, he gave the problem to his simulation ability.

  Simulation Active:

  Simulation Active:

  Solis terminated the simulation with a gulp of nausea. He'd seen himself be killed more than a dozen times through the simulations, but they were generally fast. Rarely had he been eaten alive. He sat and thought about the monster. Its shell blended into the cave well enough; if it hadn't been for how loud the creature had been, Solis wouldn't have been ready for it to dart through the crack in the wall.

  The problem became clear. It was less about being aware of the creature and more about him simply not being fast enough to turn and fire his rifle if it successfully ambushed him.

  Head on, he could dodge. Otherwise, he’d die.

  If he had more points in Body, he'd certainly be fast enough even if it ambushed. If he had more points in Acuity, he might notice the creature before it leapt and gain the advantage that way.

  As-is, he was outclassed physically. Since the System's partial activation, that was nothing new to him. Even a child who put a single extra point in [Body] and activated the skill could throw him around with ease. Ricky had put two points in [Body] in the early days. Suffice to say, Solis was shocked when his smaller friend was able to pick him up like a rag doll.

  He thought about the monster, about its behavior, the shape of its shell, its weapons, and the deafening chirping sound like rocks. What did he know about crickets that could help him? An idea came to him, and he nodded slowly to himself. He activated Simulate and smiled, "Yeah, that'll work."

  Dusting non-existent dirt off his pants, Solis turned towards the tunnel the cricket had run down.

  —

  Even though his simulation had Solis being attacked unaware from behind, that was an intentional choice as the worst-case scenario, but he wouldn't be caught dead walking straight into a cave section without some precautions.

  The precautions in this case weren't great and primarily consisted of throwing a rock, listening for movement, then peeking carefully around the corner with his flashlight and rifle leveled. He did this until he found a cave with a passageway that he particularly liked.

  It was a small cavern, but there was a ten-foot-long passage that looped back to the cave. It made him change his plan slightly because it was just so perfect.

  Once he was set up, he found a fist-sized rock and then activated [Mana Manipulation]. Stepping a little way into the looping cave hallway, he focused on the energy passing through his palms, at the point closest to his skin, and dragged it across the stone wall, making a conch-shaped tuba horn. If it worked like he thought it would amplify the sound, maybe even distort it a little bit.

  It cost seven mana to solidify, the lowest he had ever had any of his constructs cost. Solis almost let out a shouting cheer. Instead of alerting everything in the cave, he pumped his fist.

  It was entirely self-absorbed and congratulatory, but there was no one else around, so Solis indulged himself.

  After calming down, Solis set his rifle down in favor of his pistol, picked up his fist-sized rock, and dragged it across the cave wall. It made a deep, clicking sound, vaguely reminiscent of the monotonous cricket. He repeated it a few more times in rapid succession.

  A return series of chirps echoed out. They were faster than before and sharper too. Solis grinned, and all the worry left him in that moment; he hadn't expected the monster to just give away its position like that, but was glad it did.

  Activating [Resonance], he focused one stream of thought to continually make the Kraa-Kraa-Kraa noise while the other started weaving a wall on either side of the shallow looping tunnel.

  [Mana Manipulation I]’s solidification had a lot of quirks. For one, the structure created had to be continuous. He also needed at least one hand on his mana construct and some body part on the material he wanted to use before solidifying it, or else it would all vanish, and he'd lose any mana he put into the construct. Holding the construct in place, he deactivated his [Resonance] and waited.

  It didn’t take long. Soon, the cricket darted into the larger cave system, temporarily blinded by Solis’s flashlight. It seemed taken aback that the sound had come from Solis and not another cricket. It chirped – a long, drawn-out one that Solis chose to interpret as confusion.

  Antenna twitching wildly, the monster grew agitated as Solis continued rubbing stone against stone.

  Solis steeled himself. From this distance, the bug looked smaller, which gave him more confidence than was likely wise. It was just a bug. A small, insignificant bug. He just kept repeating that in his head.

  Its legs bent, building energy.

  Letting go of the rock, Solis kept one hand on the cave wall and, more importantly, his construct. He retreated backwards, down the loop.

  The creature leapt early, coming to the entrance of the tunnel. It darted the rest of the way in, its mouth open and ready to ram Solis and—

  Mana: 208-> 36

  And ran straight into a metal wall. It chirped, annoyed. It backed up in the passage. It hit another metal wall behind it. It chirped again in annoyance.

  Its antenna began tapping against the walls, but it was solid, except for a single small hole at the top through which air could flow. The monster tapped its antenna there, but found no escape. The wall was solid. It chirped. Turned. Found nothing. Chipped and just… stood there. There was nothing else its small mind could come up with.

  At the end of the day, it was just a bug.

  Solis breathed a sigh of relief and backed up. Mission accomplished.

  With a grin on his face, he walked out into the smaller cavern and paled.

  He had thought that the cricket he trapped had looked smaller, because it was.

  The other cricket, the one that had actually come out of the crack and attacked, stared back at him.