Alex twitched a bit before jumping to his feet, he had heard something scurrying around, so he quickly merged with Globby. He searched for it and saw it was a rat, he sighed before sitting back down.
He had been wandering in the dark for days, and he still couldn't find any openings to the outside. The darkness kept him in a nervous state, he hadn't bathed, and his body itched, if not for Globby, he would have gone insane. Thanks to Globby, most of the times he wasn't in complete darkness, and the overuse of [Merge] allowed him to level up to level three, and he unlocked the shared skill [Devour], so when they merged, he would be able to eat what Globby could eat without tasting them. Most of the times they ate dead rats, when merged Alex would use devour, and slimy tentacles would come out of his palms and slowly devour their bodies. Even though it was disgusting, Alex had to it, or else he would starve.
Even then, he still looked thinner than before, his hair was bushy and disheveled, and his pickaxe was covered in dried rat's blood. He also needed water, real water, not the bodies of dead slimes – which tasted caustic – that he used as substitute.
Alex licked his chapped lips as he summoned Globby from the Beast Space, Globby had grown significantly brighter since he got that weird feeling a few days ago, and when he used [Merge] the magical energy in the air looked thicker and more plentiful.
Another rat scurried by, making Alex twitch. He glared at the rat till it disappeared, they were getting bolder. If another one comes, he would kill it, he was getting hungry anyway.
Globby creeped left and right, with the level ups its speed had grown considerably quicker. Alex always lets it out once in a while to satiate its curious mind, while he gets lost in his imagination. Most of the times he imagined food, but that was normal for him as he had always done that even before he was trapped, other times he dreamt of finding a route out, he would either stumble into an opening or get saved by an adventurer.
Other times, mostly when he was asleep, he dreamt of monsters chasing him in the dark. He'd look for Globby but wouldn't be able to find it. He'd be chased into a corner and be torn to pieces, then he'd wake up, shivering in the dark –
"Ow!" Alex flung the rat that was gnawing on his finger to the wall, it squeaked in pain before running back into the darkness. Actually, it wasn't the darkness, with Globby's mild light Alex could see with horror that a horde of rats had surrounded him, and their red eyes were looking at him like he was food.
"Globby!" he quickly merged with Globby to make him see better, and to make his movements nimbler. The rats all squeaked and rushed towards him immediately Globby's light disappeared, he picked us his pickaxe and fought back.
But the rats were too numerous. No matter how many he killed, even more would take their places. He didn't even need to aim when he struck, even if he spun around in a circle, he'd still be able to hit some. The only reason he wasn't filled with cuts was because of his glossy skin.
[You have leveled up]
[You have leveled up]
He leveled up twice because of the sheer number of rats he killed, and the more he leveled up the stronger Globby gets, although it was a shame, he couldn't bring him out to fight. Globby unlocked a skill called [Rush], the skill would give him a sudden burst of speed, while he used his skill points to unlock the shared skill called [Slime Physiology], which he immediately used.
His glossy skin produced a substance like the surface of Globby's skin, which mildly glowed blue. Despite the way he looked his body wasn't amorphous, the skill made his skin corrosive like a slime's, he could also stick unto surfaces.
The rats that jumped on him get burnt by his acidic body, they squealed in pain as the acids burn though their skin, they would die and get replaced by other rats.
"They won't stop coming!" Alex cried out; he could even see some rats feasting on the dead bodies of the other rats. The gruesome sight heightened his fear, "I need to get out of here!" He bulldozed his way through the wall of rats. As he was running, he killed the rats that jumped out of every crevice and hole, the ones he couldn't kill joined the swarm of rats that chased him.
Alex wasn't just running around aimlessly, the area he was had been memorized with the map and he was just following it. He had stayed in the area for three days now, because even though there were a lot of tunnels, they all lead to the same place: down a deep, wide hole. He had been avoiding going down there since, but now it seemed like he would have to. He kept on running and soon came to a familiar place, he knew that if he kept on moving, he would fall into the hole.
Before that happened, he thew off his shoes, dropped down and slid on the floor, before he fell, he quickly spun around and stuck his palms and feet on the surface of the wall, then climbed down like a spider. The rats on his heels tried to pause in their steps but the ones in the front were pushed in, they squealed in fright as they disappeared down the hole.
Alex looked up, the rats that didn't fall in were glaring at him, he could feel the madness and hunger in their eyes. After a while, they slowly left, but Alex knew he could no longer go back to that area. So, he focused of climbing down.
…
It took Alex six minutes to reach the bottom of the hole, the ground was littered with dead rats, and green moss. He tried not to focus on the squishy feeling under his feet, not knowing if it was the moss or rat's blood, he picked up his pickaxe that dropped when he was climbing down, thankfully it didn't break. There was a dim light coming in front of him, he picked up his pace and soon came out to a wide space. There was greenery all around him with a lot of firefly-like creatures floating on top of them, there was even an underwater lake at his far right.
But that wasn't the thing that awed him, in front of him was a huge wall, he was sure that normally, it would be a dead end, but there were dozens of holes carved into it, making it look quite horrific.
"I don't care about that now." he disenabled the [Merge] before running to the lake, he was so thirsty he didn't even bother to use his hands, instead he stuck his head near the surface of the lake and sucked in water. He moaned and hummed as the sweet, tasteless nectar went down his throat. When he was done, he laid spread eagled and smiled, Globby came to his side while digesting some leaves.
"Hey, Globby. Do you want some water?" he picked it up and tossed it in the lake, Globby sank to the bottom. Alex laughed at it, then he took off his clothes before jumping in the water. He swam down to Globby, leaving a trail of dirt and grime that floated to the top. He picked Globby up – which was a little hard because of Globby's gelatinous body – and sawm back to the surface, laughing cheerfully.
He and Globby played in the water for a few minutes before stopping.
After drying up, he wore his clothes and began walking around the enclosed cave. He noticed that the plants were kept in a specific order, like in a greenhouse.
"Do people… live here?"
He sniffed the plants, there was a fragrant, almost medicinal smell coming from them. Now that he was closer to them, he could clearly see the glowing insects' figures; there weren't actually fireflies, they were winged ants and the light was coming from their wings. They were amicable and didn't run from him, one of them even land on his outstretched hand.
[Would you like to tame the magical beast in front of you?]
'This is a magical beast?' Alex raised his eyebrow before choosing yes, having another creature that produced light wasn't bad. After it went into the beast space, he checked its status.
[Name: Unknown
[Race: Bright-winged Ant
[Level: 0
[HP: 20/20]
[MP: 10/10]
[PRF: 0/100]
[EXP: 0/100]
[STATS: Strength (1), Agility (1), Perception (1), Intelligence (1)]
"Bright-winged Ant, a fitting name. I'll call you, Anticus, ha-ha!" Alex said. Although he didn't know this, the ant constitution had been changed when it entered the system. Now, the ant could grow indefinitely, get skills configurationally tailored just for it. No one knows just how far it would grow.
Alex used [Merge] on it just for fun, but his eyesight stayed the same and his body didn't have any changes, Alex was beginning to think that nothing happened when he felt something on his back. He looked back and found four thin wings growing on his back, the wings veins were glowing in pale blue lights. He tried to flap them and they moved, the lights glowed brighter the faster they flapped. The wings couldn't lift him up the ground though, he figured it was because Anticus's level was small.
Globby squirmed a bit and creeped around him, it jumped back when Alex fluttered his wing. Alex laughed and chased Globby about. As he was running, Alex saw a dark figure in his peripheral vison.
"Who's there?!" Alex asked in fright. Instead of answering, the thing fled. Alex demerged with Anticus and merged with Globby, he held his pickaxe in both hands, ready to swing it at any sudden movement. Although he put up a brave front, he was actually terrified.
'I'll go to the lake, there are no plants there!' Alex thought before bolting. He could hear hurried footsteps following him. Alex was crying now, although he had cried before, it was a bit different this time, all the things that happened to him till now came hitting him like bricks. He tried his best to curb his sobs and just concentrate on running, but before he could leave the plant area, something jumped out from the side to stop him.
It looked like a human, but it had whiskers and fur all over its body. Its eyes were white, like it was blind, it had claws instead of fingers and it was holding a spear.
"Ahhh!" Alex screamed at the top of his lungs, startling it. While it was distracted Alex elbowed it out of the way and ran out to the open space in front of the lake. Then he turned around to face the monster. It slowly walked towards him with his spear pointing at him, another one came out of the plant area and did the same thing.
'Two,' Alex counted in his mind, 'I can fight two – no – three, four, five… oh god' There were now five of them coming towards him, Alex's legs trembled as he backed away from them, but there was a lake behind him so he couldn't go far.
"S-stop right there! Don't come any closer o-o-or I'll hit you!" He raised his pickaxe over his head to intimidate them. The monsters stopped when they heard his voice, then they began conversing with each other in a language he couldn't understand. Alex looked at them warily as they talked, although he couldn't understand what they were saying he could still imagine, they were probably talking about how they'd share his body…
"Who… are… you?"
"What?" Alex was stunned when he heard one of them speaking Common Tongue.
"Who… are you?" the one that spoke asked again.
"I-I am Alex."
"Alex," it drew the 's' part of his name, "Why… you want… steal… our food?"
"S-steal? I didn't come to steal your food, I'm just lost. I haven't even seen your food!"
"You… lie!" another one said, "You steal our food, I… chase you from there!" it pointed at the plants.
Alex's eyes widened in realization, "Oh, that! I thought they were just plants!"
The first one pointed at the plants, "Food."
"Well, I didn't come here to eat your… food, I'm lost. I need to get back to the surface."
For a minute they stared at him, then they began conversing again. Alex stood still, nervously waiting for what their decision would be.
"Surface," the first one finally spoke, "we… take you."
"You will?! But, why?"
"Because… we don't want… you… here."
"Oh."
"But first, we take you… to… Supreme… Elder."
Then without warning they all surrounded him, despite being shorter than him they were quite fast. They pointed the tip of their spears at him and gestured for him to walk, and even though he didn't want to he didn't feel like he had a choice, and if he followed them, they might lead him to the surface. Or they were going to kill him, who knew.
He hesitantly followed the one in front, they were leading him to one of the holes carved into the walls. Alex came to a halt but was poked on the back by one of the monsters.
"Ow." he complained but kept on walking. As he entered the hole, he realized it wasn't just a hole, it was a tunnel, and in the tunnel, there were different holes. As they went in deeper, Alex began to see more of the monsters peeking out of the holes.
"Wait, what are you people?" Alex felt like calling them monsters was too rude since they didn't eat him... yet, "and where is this place?"
"We… are… Mole People. And this," it pointed to the vast channels of tunnels, "is the Blind Tunnels."
"Oh," Alex said, "And what is your name?"
"Our names cannot be… translated… with common tongue," it said. They reached a substantial hole, one of them went inside while Alex and the others waited outside. Alex noticed more and more Mole People were gathering around them, some had fairer fur than the others and some were smaller, they were all looking at him with curiosity as they communicated with a series of clicks and weird synonyms.
Soon, the mole that entered came back out, "The Supreme Elder… will see you now." Then it moved aside to let Alex pass by. Alex steeled his resolve and moved forward since he couldn't go backwards. He passed through the curtain ropes made out of leaves and entered the abode of the Supreme Elder. The inside of the hole wasn't interesting as Alex thought it would be, there wasn't any furniture, only some mud baskets. A small Mole Person, just three foot tall, was sitting on a mud stool at the edge of the room, it held a stick twice its size.
"Alex of the surface," it spoke fluent common tongue and its voice had a higher pitch compared to the others he talked to, he assumed that they were male while this one was female, "I have been told that you are a lost kind, how did you stumble into our tunnels?"
"Yes, ma'am – uh, your supremeness, I worked in a mine in the surface, but due to a sudden attack the way out was blocked. So, I kept on walking, hoping to find another way out. I was running from some rats when I fell here." Alex tried to explain as eloquently as he could.
The Supreme Elder didn't say anything and just stared at him, making him feel a bit worried.
"Do surface people glow now?"
"What?" Her question took him aback.
She pointed at his head, "Your hair, it is glowing."
"Oh," Alex was still in his merged state, "No, they – we don't, this is just a special state I can take."
"Hmm."
"So, can you help me reach the surface?" He asked.
"Yes, we can," she said, making Alex elated, "But why should we?"
"What?" Alex's joy deflated.
"You are a stranger to us," she spread her palms out, "going near the surface would put us in danger, why should we risk our lives for someone we barely know?"
"I see," Alex said dejectedly, "Can you at least describe the way for me?"
"That is not possible. You have seen the tunnels; would you be able to understand even if I can describe it?"
Alex shook his head, "So, what now? Can I leave this place and find my way by myself?"
"I wouldn't recommend that, the tunnels have changed now, new and dangerous being lurk in their depths, and if you don't know where you're going to you can easily get yourself killed."
"What do you want me to do then? Stay here for the rest of my life?!" Alex's voice held a tinge of anger.
The Supreme elder smiled and stood up, "You are a stranger to us so we can't take you to the surface…"
"I know, you've said that already – "
"… but if you were not a stranger anymore, we would help."
Alex stared into her white eyes, "What do you mean?"
"I mean, Alex of the surface, that for us to take you to the surface, you would need to earn our trust." She played with his hair as she spoke, "If you stay here for a few days, and we see that you mean us no harm, we will take you to the surface."