Misfit’s Journey

The rumbling stopped and silence returned to the tunnels, perplexing me and Veraxia momentarily since no enemy was in sight. Yet, only seconds later, I heard the violent tapping of legs on the ground.

The bugs saw it not necessary to tear down another part of the wall and instead entered through the already open hole created by the last soldier. The first soldier slowly climbed over the rubble, followed by a bunch of drones.

The soldier was level 41. It was troublesome, but together with Veraxia, something we could handle. However, my optimism was crushed when not only one, but two soldiers—level 44 and 46—entered the tunnel shortly after. With this, the enemy’s forces amounted to twelve drones and three soldiers. This was definitely bad.

The drones were not much of a threat, but with the soldiers around, they could be very annoying. I could not take a soldier by myself, so if Veraxia could not distract all three of them at once, I was going to be in trouble, especially if I also was attacked by drones at the same time.

I had new skills and better stats, but I still had a long way to go to actually be able to face a soldier head on and now we were even greatly outnumbered. The soldiers were massive, too, and with their large bodies, the normally wide tunnel seemed awfully narrow and cramped.

And while the worst of thoughts crossed my mind, it appeared I had underestimated the sheer madness of Veraxia, who, without any hint of hesitation, charged forward into the enemy.

She rammed into the soldier closest to us, knocking it off its legs and flipping it on its back. With her tail, she grabbed the second soldier, who tried to interfere with her charge. She wrapped her tail around its neck and dragged it with her as she headed for the last soldier. She bit into the third’s neck, lifting it and hurling it away as she tore a large chunk of flesh out of it. Their screams resonated throughout the entire tunnel and even though they did not burst my eardrums this time, it was still painful.

“Finish it off!” Veraxia yelled through the screeching, which I could barely hear, yet I did as she said. While I approached the soldier who struggled to get back on its feet, the third soldier was trying to attack Veraxia again, but she used the soldier wrapped up in her tail to slap it away. Which stopped at least two of the three from continuously screaming, although their pained cries were just as annoying.

While I made my way to the immobilized soldier, the drones attempted to block my path, but with all of my mana restored, I just threw them aside without bothering to fight or kill them. For now, the only thing that mattered was that the soldier died. I could deal with the drones afterward.

Well, even though I was not particularly making an effort to kill them, some of the drones just could not resist the impact of being slammed into the walls or ground at high velocity and died as a result.

Once I was in range, the soldier already managed to get back on its legs, but its focus was solely on Veraxia, which allowed me to sneak up on it. With its back turned to me, I readied both mandibles from my belt and drove them right into the soldier's head. There was a slight resistance of its plates, but after some pushing, they pierced through and ended their life on the spot.

You have slain [Exapoda Soldier | Lvl. 41]. Experience will be awarded. Bonus Experience for slaying a higher-leveled enemy will be awarded.

[Unregistered] has leveled up! Stat points have been allocated! 3 Free Stat Point acquired!

[Unregistered] is now Level 22.

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

[Novice Witch] is now Level 26.

Even though I just killed a soldier in a single attack, I had no time to celebrate the feat, since this was only the beginning. Looking over, I confirmed that Veraxia was still doing more than well and throwing around soldiers without killing them, but I had to stop watching when the few drones that had survived targeted me.

Eight drones had survived, but each looked to be in a worse shape than the next. Their exoskeleton was cracked in multiple places and they left trails of blue blood wherever they walked.

Still, they tenaciously kept going. Their injuries, however, slowed them down significantly, so even without using the mandibles, I just walked from drone to drone, giving them a simple stab into the head with a mana arrow.

When I was about to finish the last drone, I stopped my arm before the golden arrow pierced the top of its head and retreated. This was a good opportunity and the sooner I did it, the better.

Of course, I was talking about testing my new Class skill, Bind.

There was an instinctual understanding of activating the skill, which led me to raise my hand. Mana flowed into my arm and shot out of it in the form of golden chains. They sprang forth and ensnared the drone in an instant.

There were a total of five chains, one of them connected to one of my fingers respectively. Rolling my fingers up into a fist, the pressure on the chains tightened and the damaged exoskeleton of the drone could offer little resistance and gave in to the force. With a pull of my arm, the chains crushed the body of the drone in several places and a system message notified me of its death. Although I certainly would not have needed it to see that it died.

Just as I dismissed the notification, I heard a loud, but short rumble, prompting me to turn around.  Veraxia just had flattened one of the soldiers, literally. The ground below her had cracked, creating a small crater in which the soldier lay covered in wounds, yet still breathing. The last soldier was still wrapped up in her tail and she let it hang in the air where it was left to struggle for freedom. A pointless effort.

I walked over, and in passing, fetched the mandibles still stuck in the soldier I had killed. When Veraxia noticed me, a crooked smile appeared on her face. That face of hers really was not suited for smiles.

“You took your time. Come over here and finish these two off,” she said, gesturing towards the soldier in the crater. Since this was free experience, I did not say no and proceeded to kill the two soldiers. In their current states, they were unable to defend themselves and for at least one of them, death was probably a mercy. Veraxia was not nice to them.

[Unregistered] has leveled up! Stat points have been allocated! 3 Free Stat Point acquired!

[Unregistered] has leveled up! Stat points have been allocated! 3 Free Stat Point acquired!

[Unregistered] is now Level 24.

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

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

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

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

[Novice Witch] is now Level 30.

Despite all the bad expectations I held for this fight, I came out of it completely unscathed, and even my mana pool was barely touched. I had only spent a hundred, and with my mana pool, that still left me with over a thousand mana to go.

Also, thanks to Veraxia letting me kill both soldiers, I had gotten a massive amount of experience and the respective levels to go along with. Although it left me quite curious about something.

“Why did you not kill them yourself?” I asked as Veraxia tossed away a soldier’s corpse after extracting its mana crystal.

I was not asking because I thought she had ulterior motives or something, but out of plain curiosity. She was over level 100, so the experience from these things probably did not matter much to her, but experience was experience.

“Because, as I am now, even if I leveled up, this body would be unaffected,” she said, looking down at herself. “It would be wasted on me, and we have to get you to a higher level. There will be a point when I cannot defend you, and you need to be ready for that time.”

Unexpectedly, I was hearing something rather interesting.

“So this is not your real body?” Veraxia shook her head in response.

Since I knew that Veraxia could hijack other people’s minds, I might have been able to foresee something like this, but it was certainly not within my expectations.

Before answering, she descended into the crater and clawed the next soldier open. “It is not,” she replied before starting to rummage through the insides of the soldier. 

“Then what about your original one?”

If this body was unable to level up, why would she use it instead of her real one? It sounded inconvenient and inefficient.

“It is resting inside this lair’s core. Coincidentally, that is also where the two of us need to go.”

“The core?”

“The deepest part of my lair. Basically, its heart, if it crumbles, everything is lost. Unfortunately, the Exapoda Queen knows this, too, so she is focusing most of the hive on breaching it. That is also why we should hurry up,” she explained while throwing me the mana crystal she extracted from the corpse. I caught it with Telekinesis and grabbed it out of the air after pulling it closer. Since my mana was still recovering, I stored it in my bag for now.

Before leaving, Veraxia still had to get the last soldier’s crystal, so while she was playing with corpses, I decided to finally take some time to assign my new stat points. I hadn’t done so ever since awakening after gaining my new skills, which was why I now had a total of twenty-three stat points to assign.

My stats had increased a lot, which was hard to believe since aside from my magic and mana control, I really could not tell. Maybe I also was a little faster, although my body still felt weak and the vambraces still felt heavy on my forearms.

Willpower and Intelligence were by far my highest stats, and since they were so close to a hundred, I decided to give them the last push.

Once I had done so, something inside of me changed. It was no grand enlightening or a huge improvement, but my mind felt slightly clearer. Even more noticeable was the connection to my mana, which had grown stronger. Its presence within me felt clearer and more significant. It was a nice feeling.

With this change occurring, I finally decided that it was probably time to do something about my other stats which I had neglected quite a bit so far. Of course that excluded Faith, it still was and would remain at zero.

After I was finished distributing the points, my stats looked like this:

Vitality: 30

Strength: 25

Agility: 60

Dexterity: 25

Intelligence: 100

Willpower: 100

Perception: 70

Faith: 0

Strength and Dexterity were still the stats I put the smallest amount of points into, mainly because  I was not relying on them that much. Instead, I decided that it was about time to increase my Vitality and Agility. They would primarily improve my survivability in case I found myself in close-quarter combat. Also, I would rather dodge than try to block an attack, because I doubted I would survive more than one hit from anything above level 30.

Just as I closed my status, Veraxia tossed another crystal my way, which I caught the same way as before, but now that I had two of them, the third seemed to be missing.

“Where’s the last one?”

“I ate it,” she stated matter-of-factly.

My eyes widened in surprise, and I couldn’t help but ask, “What?”

I didn’t even understand why I was surprised, after all, I basically did the same, maybe just because it was unexpected to hear from her.

“This body is fueled by mana, without it, this body shuts down. And I do not have any intention to leave you alone just yet.”

‘Just yet’? Well, it was fine anyway. She was the only reason I was currently still alive and even had a chance to keep going, so I was not about to complain for her to take some of the crystals. If she wanted to, she could even have them all.

Since my mana pool was still not full, I stored the second crystal. “What’s next?” I asked.

“We should probably move. Even though we gained some time now that the hive is hunting you, time is still not on our side and I am itching for a bug massacre,” Veraxia said with sudden vigor.

I understood where she was coming from, and after experiencing so much growth, I couldn’t say that I was not also interested in fighting another battle. Maybe it was because of my past, but beating up the Exapoda felt good. Since they were—and some still are—stronger than me, triumphing over them in battle made me feel better. It was a confirmation that I was getting stronger.

“I’m ready whenever you are,” I said while I was trying to cut off the mandibles of the level 46 soldier.

Veraxia walked up to me, assisting me in my efforts, severing all four mandibles at once with a single claw strike.

“About that. The end of this tunnel is still far away and traveling at your speed will be insufficient.”

“What are you trying to say?” I frowned, picking up the two largest mandibles and securing them on my belt.

“If we want to make it in time, I will have to carry you on my back.”

It was true that I was slow, but riding on Veraxia’s back would mean that I had to get close to her. While her beastly form lessened my hesitation, I still felt anything but comfortable with the idea of getting into contact with someone else. I was still… I was still scared.

Shit, I cursed inwardly.

“How would I even get on your back?”

In response to my question, she lowered herself to the ground and created an improvised foothold with her tail.

“I will fall off if you run too fast.”

“I can hold you with my tail.”

I pressed my lips together, trying to come up with another excuse, but at the same time, I was starting to get annoyed over my feelings. Letting Veraxia carry me was a lot faster and I didn’t even want to travel as slowly as I did, but there was just this repulse I was feeling at the very idea.

No, I have decided to get stronger… Fuck this.

I took deep breaths, and finally forced the words out of my mouth, “Alright.”

Veraxia leaped to her feet, her tail coiling around my waist and hoisting me into the air. I wanted to scream, but before I got the chance, I was placed on her back, her tail firmly holding onto me. I remained in shock for a while, before finally snapping.

“What was that for?!” I yelled, kicking my feet against her sides in protest.

Veraxia sighed, “Well you had some issue with this whole thing, so I thought of helping you out a bit,” she replied warmly.

Clicking my tongue at her demeanor, I tried to calm myself down. I knew that this was just my unreasonable frustration, but despite the emotion being unwanted, it distracted me from the very thing I initially worried about and when I realized it, I was sitting on Veraxia’s back without any problems or the need to immediately get away.

“I will get going now,” Veraxia said before starting to accelerate. I had seen her speed before, but experiencing it myself was an entirely different thing. And I was glad that Veraxia was holding on to me. The wind whipped through my hair, and my ears lay flat against my head, as the only thing keeping me atop Veraxia was her tail.

Time passed as we traveled, but even at this speed, we were traveling for a long time. I didn’t even want to imagine how long it would have taken me to walk. Much less if I was regularly assaulted by Exapoda.

It was hard to tell how time exactly passed, but eventually, Veraxia slowed down when the end of the tunnel was in sight.

“The outer core is just ahead,” Veraxia said, her voice calm, but her gaze fixated on the chamber beyond the tunnel’s end.

“The outer core?”

“It is the area that encapsulates the core and also the place where the Exapoda have built their nest,” she replied, revealing that we were heading right into enemy territory.

“Let me guess, there will be a lot of bugs?” I inquired, looking ahead with a worried frown on my face.

“Yes.”

“How many do you think there are?”

“Hundreds, probably,” she replied briefly, her words weighing heavily on me.

“That is a lot.” Even with my improved stats and recent victories, hundreds of Exapoda were too many, far too many.

“It is. However, the roots of my bonded tree extend throughout the entire space. It will be difficult for large forces of Exapoda to move at once,” replied without even a hint of worry or doubt in her voice.

“I hope you are right.”

“I am.”

We were getting closer to the end of the tunnel, so before anything happened, I decided it was finally time to absorb the mana crystals.

This time, I did not just bite into it and sucked out all of the mana at once, but instead I drank it carefully and slowly. Unfortunately, this did not change much and the pain remained mostly the same. After suffering once, it was time for one more. And unsurprisingly, the second time was exactly as painful as the first, still it was definitely worth it.

Mana: 1620/1620

It was not long after finishing the absorption that we reached the end of the tunnel and as it turned out, the chamber and tunnel were not on the same level instead there was quite a steep slope leading downward.

The chamber itself was enormous and multiple times bigger than any of the other chambers I had found before. In the middle of it grew multiple thick roots that intertwined with each other, almost as if multiple tree trunks were spiraling down. Toward the ground, they split into hundreds of roots that grew through the ground and created small spaces and narrow passages.

This made me understand what Veraxia meant when she said no large force could travel through here. I doubted some of the passages were even wide enough for Veraxia to fit through.

However, in all of this, the area right below the entrance was quite open and already filled with Exapoda. I counted six soldiers and at least a couple dozen drones.

“This place is quite lively.”