The machine froze, not daring to take another step. Silence pervaded the space where the sound of crunching bones had generously resounded just moments ago. It was so quiet now... if whatever that thing was hadn't been feasting before, the machine would have walked right into its lair without even realizing it was there. It was disturbing how quickly the unknown creature was able to conceal its presence.
For a few torturous seconds, nothing happened. The machine stood perfectly still and focused on the disturbing silence with his full attention.
The cave was extremely quiet, but after a few seconds he realized it wasn't entirely silent. He could hear... something, but just barely. It was so quiet that he couldn't be sure he had heard anything at all.
pat...
A few seconds later, he heard it again. It was just barely audible. The sound of an extremely gentle impact, like the sound of a needle gently piercing a patch of cloth.
pat...
'What... What is that thing doing?'
He tried to analyze the sound, staring into the darkness ahead. He focused more on it, hearing the sound only once every several seconds.
He didn't realize what he was hearing until the darkness in front of him moved.
He stared in horror as a long, bony limb covered with a pale and pinkish skin slowly crossed into his line of sight from around the corner he was hiding behind. At the end of the limb was a bony extremity that only had three incredibly long fingers sprouting from a small palm. The fingers seemed too long and had too many joints. They ended in sharp claws and glistened with what must have been fresh blood. The limb moved with an incredible slowness as the disgusting "hand" reached the end of its current step and came to the ground.
pat...
It was slowly creeping towards him.
The mind of the machine almost devolved into panic, but he remained motionless and instead rushed to make a decision.
From what he could see in the darkness, the thing in front of him was emaciated. Its limbs were long, but had little muscle. The beast was also moving as slowly and as quietly as possible, likely meaning it had to depend on stealth for survival, yet it was moving towards him instead of away from him.
The machine quickly assumed the creature's hunting method. It probably crept up to its intended prey very slowly, as it was moving now. When it got within attacking range, it would most likely raise its incredibly long arm and utilize the leverage to bring down the bloodied claws on its victim, killing them in one strike. If that were the case...
The creature's other front limb was now visible, another "hand" with only three long fingers slowly moving past the edge of the rock.
The machine made his decision. Moving with an equal degree of silence, the machine raised one arm high in the air while quietly extending his jagged, metallic claw. He was barely within arm's reach of the monster, but he didn't dare move any more than he needed to.
Finally, the round head of the beast came into sight.
The machine didn't wait any longer and lowered his stance while throwing down his claw with all his might. The beast seemed to notice the movement at the last second and tilted its head towards him, but it was too late. The machine's claws punctured the skull of the ugly creature and tore downwards with no resistance.
The metal claw cut all the way through, leaving three fatally deep gashes in its wake. The power behind the machine's strike was extreme. Momentum carried the claw downwards until it punctured even the stone ground, causing a burst of sparks to briefly illuminate the surroundings.
The dark tunnel was bright for just a moment, but it was enough for the machine to see the disgusting creature in greater detail.
It looked almost human. The body was large and bony. It looked like it was starving. Pale skin was thinly stretched over long bones and it had hardly any muscle at all. Most of the thing's face was now gone due to his preemptive strike, but one dark eye was still visible there, reflecting the brief moment of sparklight. It was colorless and murky, hinting that the beast might have been blind. The maw of the creature was soaked with the blood of its most recent victim. The jaw hung unnaturally low, displaying sharp teeth which were jaggedly angled inwards.
As soon as the sparks faded, the cave returned to darkness and the gruesome creature's body collapsed.
[Noctic abomination defeated!]
[Contribution: 100%]
[XP + 302]
The machine stayed crouched there for a moment, his claw still embedded in the stone floor. He was trying to process what he just saw.
That thing looked... too similar to a human being.
The machine shook its head to stop his imagination from taking off. He didn't want to theorize too much on this topic without needing to. The stone let out a little squeal as the machine pulled his claw free from the cave floor.
He checked his other claw to make sure the four crystals he was carrying weren't damaged. Seeing them unharmed, he gave a mental sigh of relief and quickly left the gruesome creature behind. He continued making his way down the tunnel, this time paying more attention to his surroundings. The noctic abomination didn't seem to pose much of a threat to him, but he wanted to avoid encountering another one of those things if he could help it.
After another hour or so of walking down the branching tunnel, the pathway opened into a much larger cavern. White and blue light fluttered around the massive walls, illuminating the machine's face as he stared in awe of a newly discovered city.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The safe haven was lovely.
Golden inscriptions were written along the walls, one line of glowing text forming an unending ring of unknown words. The words encircled the whole cavern, obscured only in one place by a wall of magic ice crystals.
Beautiful streams of clear water flowed down the ice wall like water from a glacier, forming a blue, mana-rich pool at the bottom which gave life to lush and green vegetation.
The marksman was currently using a knife to chip away a few of the smaller ice crystals before stashing them in his bag. It wasn't every day he got access to a large amount of free ammunition. The cave was large too, so he planned to set up a range and get some target practice in over the next few days.
The ice crystal had a light blue hue and was cool to the touch, but not quite as cold as ice. The marksman turned it over in his hands a few times, marveling at the work of nature.
Each person was born with their own mana attribute. A person's mana attribute determined what kind of magic they would be most powerful with, and it never changed. This meant that each person would be somewhat limited when casting a spell with a different attribute. However, if you were to cast the spell while feeding it mana directly from a crystal with a matching attribute, then it would be exceptionally powerful.
Cole had memorized a number of ranged spells that he could use with his rifle, but he mostly used ice attribute spells since the matching crystals were more common and relatively inexpensive. Tucking one more of the pale blue crystals into his bag, he decided to return to the rest of the party.
The Gentle Dog party set up camp a short distance from the pond and were currently trying to prepare a meal. The cleric typically did the cooking, but he was sound asleep and still recovering from mana exhaustion, so no one wanted to disturb him.
The marksman chuckled to himself when he saw everyone working together to get dinner ready. The blade caster was cutting vegetables while the guardsman stirred something in a pot. The little mage was close by too, writing down the details on how they were preparing the meal and dealing with the measurements. The three hired carriers were fetching water or selecting spices they thought might work well with the meal.
In any case, they had the cooking under control so Cole decided to check up on the duelist. He opened the flap of the tent just enough to peer in. Both the duelist and the cleric were sleeping inside. The duelist had a slightly bloody bandage wrapped around his torso, but he was doing much better than before. The cleric still looked exhausted, even as he slept. He was glad they safely found a nearby safe haven where they could recover.
Cole let the flap of the tent fall closed. The marksman sat on a stool which had been placed outside the tent and spent some time thinking on everything that had happened.
He thought back to the fight and reviewed his mistakes. The lizardmen were surprisingly resistant to his ice shard attacks. For the sake of efficiency and cost reduction, he made it a habit to spend each crystal entirely before ejecting it from the rifle. But this time, he spent too much time trying to get the ice shards to work. His friend got injured because the fight went on for too long. If he had switched to using the crimson lightning crystals sooner...
The marksman clenched his fist in frustration.
'What else can I improve?'
He thought about the fight with the redscale. It was strange. He remembered how the beast was about to crush the cart as well as everyone who had been hiding under it. But luckily it seemed to hesitate. It was just long enough for him to load a new crystal then roll out from under the cart and put a fatal shot through the underside of the beast's jaw. He was extremely lucky, but it was strange all the same.
He still remembered the look in that beast's eye as it fell to the ground. It looked... relieved.
He lingered on that thought for a moment, but soon shook his head to free it from unnecessary thoughts. Thinking about that wouldn't help him improve.
Instead, he reached into his bag and pulled out his spell book. It was time to learn a new trick.