Blood, Fire, Corpses.
All around me.
-----
When I woke up on the sixth day, I could finally stand. I didn't know if it was night or day, but ever since coming here, it had been easier to assume it was day when I woke up. The nanocells had accomplished their task.
Re-growing my leg with a mixture of metal and organic stem cells. The nano cells also made my body stronger. I could now record and strengthen everything that the machines felt.
Another benefit was that I could record the information the nanocells gathered. They were part of my nervous system, so I could record every move by creating a library to store all the signals. The hard part would be making the library.
I would also no longer be sick. My medical knowledge from here and on Earth could boost my immune system. Using my understanding, the machines could effectively combat viruses, bacteria, and fungi. A continuous input stream of information from the cells would also ensure immunity. From repeated attacks, they could learn and evolve.
If I ever found valuable material, I could also break it down and strengthen myself. Iron and earth metals make up the cells. Infusing them with mithril or orichalcum would make them much better.
I had no rare metals, so I had to do what I could. I used the metals in my broken armor to make the cells. I wasn't wearing any heavy or plate armor, so it took all I had to make it. After thinking and adjusting to my new body, I began to prepare for tomorrow's big boss fight.
There was no way in hell I could win, so I had to escape. I spent the rest of the day getting my body into top shape, filling it with mana, and preparing plan Bs.
On the seventh day, I had to leave. The magic food was already making me sick. I planned to distract the Hydra with the light and fake a rock clone while booking it the hell out.
Of course, I wasn't sure it would work, but it's better to have one plan than none. I built up strength and prepared the plan for the rest of the day. By pre-inscribing magic, I could activate it at the moment the time arrived.
Usually, you would need a storage crystal to store the mana. But by making the inscribed magic work with ambient mana, the crystal wouldn't be necessary. The activation would be slower, but the ambient mana here is dense enough that it doesn't matter.
-----
All around me were ruins.
The ruins of a city on fire. Fire as red as blood, fire that fed on blood.
There was a lot of blood. Bodies as well.
And here I stood, in the middle of it all... the cause.
All their blood was on my hands.
-----
On the morning of the seventh day, I woke up ready—ready with cold sweat dripping down my back. I couldn't tell if that was because of the dreams or the upcoming events.
I prepared my magic, stocked backups, and completed my mana reserve. Over these seven days, my body gradually adapted to the high quantity of mana. I could now store ten times the amount I had before.
Before leaving, I checked my preparations. Then I checked again and then a third time. As I was going to quadruple-check, my legs gave out; they buckled under pressure. I sat there a long time, watching as the shivering continued.
My hands were also shivering. PTSD or nervousness, I couldn't tell which it was. I sat up, steadying my legs.
Taking a deep breath, I activated the teleport circle. Ten seconds later, I was on the other side. I rushed to deploy my clone and began running. My magic sense had already mapped the nearby caves, so I knew where to go.
The only wrench in my plans was that the tunnel I needed to go through was where all seven heads were pointing. It was the only one small enough that the Hydra wouldn't fit. As I crossed the halfway mark, I shot the light magic to the other side of the cave.
The Hydra was quickly stirring, and the light was the last push it needed. The three closest heads bit through the magic immediately. Two others went to the clone, but one rushed at me immediately.
'Fuck, I knew I forgot something.'
My smell is the one thing I forgot to conceal. I used concealment magic to blend in with the shadows, but my smell gave me away. The earth clone was making noise to distract the Hydra, but my smell had become much more potent after a week.
Showering hadn't been my priority. By the time I moved ten feet, the Hydra's head was already on top of me. Before it bit down, I threw down an explosive—a small bound piece of mana with some sulfur I had scraped from the walls. Thankfully, the dungeon walls seemed to have all sorts of metals.
The bomb made a 10-foot concussive blast, throwing me back to the halfway mark. The sulfur made it smell and covered the area in a bad smoke screen. Taking advantage of the Hydra's surprise, I sprinted forward again.
This time, the stench of sulfur would help cover me.
'Or not.'
Fifty feet from my escape point, the last head attacked—75 percent of the way to freedom. The massive wolf head plunged straight toward me like lightning to a rod. I only made one of the bombs, which was just as well. The puny blast wouldn't deter the force of the attack.
I could not dodge, so I could only hope to counterattack. When facing a stronger, faster opponent, you usually resort to poison or some cheap trick. I was, unfortunately, all out of cheap tricks. Nothing I had prepared prepared me for this.
Light was the only distraction I could think of, but the other heads were also approaching me. I had to think of something fast.
'I can't force the heads back, and there is no way to dodge. If I stun the Hydra, I'd have a chance.'
While the dungeon walls didn't allow you to break them, they were still elastic. I could disorient the Hydra by shaking the earth under its feet, but it wouldn't be enough. A bright enough light would stop it for a second, but no longer.
A flashbang in your face and the ground giving out would disorient most people. I hope it works on the Hydra, too.
The sulfur still clouded the smell, but it was thin. I needed one more card to push the Hydra down. At that point, I saw it. A high-ranking skeleton knight, intrigued by the noise, had come over.
'Disrupting the earth, the flashbang of a lifetime, and a monster dropping on you. That would stun me but delay the Hydra for a second at most. Do I even have enough mana for that?'
There was no more time for thinking.
I first disrupted the Hydra's footing, allowing the giant maw to miss me by a hair. The monster came next: a wind burst, carrying it to the Hydra's back. Then, the light disrupted the rest of the heads.
The flashbang and ground manipulation gave me only a second. But now, the Hydra focused on the much higher-level monster, not me. The head that smashed into the ground was the only one to chase me. By the time it recovered from crashing into the wall, I was already in the tunnel.
It was barely big enough for a child, and each head of the Hydra was at least two cubic meters. Scrambling to a safe place, I made my way up the tunnel, running past several monsters on the way up.
The only good news was that the monsters weakened as I climbed higher. After running for an hour and covering miles of tunnels, I finally found a place safe enough to stay.
It was high up, still underground, but around a mile up from Hydra's chamber. The monsters were all ranked three or below. I could beat them with my physical strength alone. I had yet to see an exit, so I hunkered down in the corner of a cave.
Going anywhere else would be too dangerous until my mana core is back.