Ding!

〚Skill『Faint Resistance: LV1』has been activated〛

The familiar robotic voice of the system alerted me.

In the darkness, my consciousness flickered in and out as I resisted the urge to fall asleep. Battling fiercely against the rhythmic swaying that seemed to lure me with the promise of relief from my injuries.

Somehow I was still alive.

However, when I tried to move, I was met with resistance. I felt myself trapped in the cage of my own body, a world apart, for what felt like days until at last, something stirred.

I felt the air running along the fissures of my scales again, returning my blood from its cold state to a basic warmth. With the feeling returned to my body, I was able to gauge the passage of time through changes in the temperature around me, until finally…

〚Skill『Paralysis Resistance: LV1』has been acquired. Activating status effect. Success〛

I jolted awake as soon as my body was freed.

Throwing off the darkness of something over my head, I was able to regain my sight. The sudden lurch of my body set the object in motion and it fell, landing with a soft thud beside me.

Realising my mistake I lowered to the ground, staying still to recover my bearings. Wherever I was, it seemed to be my saving grace that I appeared to be dead.

I took in my surroundings warily, hoping nothing had heard. Luckily, the object was light and the noise it made when it fell was small. There were no movements of wasp creatures in my vicinity in response to the sound.

I was in a tall spacious cavern with rounded walls that looked similar to the inside of a cave. But the ground felt rough against my skin, like I was crawling over a woven surface like dried grass instead of soil. The area was quiet and devoid of movement, not at all what I was expecting to wake up to.

Where was I?

Besides the dull pain coming from my injured tail, there were small cuts on my underbelly from where the wasp had grabbed me. The wounds had since scabbed over, but they were still painful. My body felt completely battered, but to my relief I was able to move around without feeling any stiffness.

«You are finally awake.» Sensei said with a sigh.

I glanced at the object that had fallen and was surprised to see a huge palm covered in fur, followed by the body of a monster resembling a primate lying on its side. It was white in colour with its red face contorted in an anguished snarl.

I nearly jumped in back fright, but the creature remained still. As if frozen in time.

Its wide open mouth exposed rows of sharp teeth, and it's cloudy pair of eyes were, staring lifelessly at nothing. It was dead.

It was not the frozen expression of anguish on its face that frightened me, but the state of its body.

When I accidentally touched its palm, it had easily rolled off, when it shouldn't have for something that large. Peering closer at it, I saw the reason why.

The body was stiff and coarse like it had been placed to dry in the sweltering sun for days. The once lustrous white fur was brittle and shedding, the skin on its forehead and chest collapsing in on itself, deflated and loose, like there were no internal bones to speak of.

The ape's corpse was so gaunt and shrivelled that its skin looked more like tanned leather with fur attached.

Was it alive at the time of its mummification or had its body just contorted to that expression in death?

I was horrified to think of how it had died. Its face with that screaming expression made me imagine scenarios that made me shiver.

I pierced the ape's skin with my horns expecting to hit something hard but there was little resistance. My horns passed through like its skin was made of a stiff membrane rather than flesh, easily punching in two holes.

When I retracted them, there were snowy particles of dust from where they had touched.

For flesh to become hardened and brittle that it crumbled away was too strange. I peered through the holes and saw the inside of its body was completely dry and devoid of blood. Even stranger was that there was another large hole cut away at its back.

No wonder it felt so light when pushed. The inside was completely hollow!

The ape's skin had hardened while its insides were completely emptied out of every bit of flesh and blood, leaving only a shell.

Had its bones been melted?

There was no trace of them inside, only the hard shell of skin that made up the entirety of its mass. This was clearly a dangerous situation.

I looked around me and noticed the dead ape was not the only one.

There were corpses of creatures strewn about everywhere, in a great upheaval of the dead. I saw every sort of monster – ants, spiders, caterpillars, rodents, slugs. All dried up and shrivelled like raisins with holes cut out of their heads or backs. There were even a few large felines!

It looked like a mass grave.

I wasn't sure at all what to make of the strange dumping site with dead creatures spread out all over the rough ground. Had someone deliberately placed them there?

It all felt very eerie. But I couldn't understand why I was here? Wasn't I carried off by the wasp?

Unless this was actually the wasp's nest. However, it didn't explain why I was still alive.

I'd read about species of arthropod who ate by injecting their digestive fluid into prey, before sucking up the melted insides through their feeders. It looked very similar to the remains of the corpses, but wasn't that method of feeding limited to spiders?

But among the dead, there were spiders too.

Not that this ruled them out as the culprits because spiders were also known to eat their dead. But there was no sign of webbing anywhere and the cavern looked nothing like the den of a spider.

Shouldn't they have just eaten me? It didn't make sense to discard my body among those of the dead, unless… they needed me to be alive and they thought I was dead.

I recalled the appraisal results of Sairon's Bell, giving the eater the appearance of death for 24 hours.

"What happened?" I asked Sensei.

«The wasps brought you to their nesting chamber, but you arrived dead, so your remains were discarded.»

Sensei replied in a voice so nonchalant, I felt my body twitch in annoyance.

How could he say that so casually!

My heart sank. I really thought I was going to die when I got captured, so to wake up here was a relief although my situation was still uncertain. I wasn't happy to come so close to death while being helpless to do anything. So for him to react so heartlessly made me annoyed.

As terrible as Sensei was, I didn't want him to leave me for another host. If I knew how, I would seal him with me so that our fates were linked together permanently whether he liked it or not.

Let's see how he could remain unbothered when he was just as much at risk as me. He would be very concerned for 'our' safety then.

«Of course, that was only after I slowed down the poison, extending the length of its effect to the intended time of 24 hours. You ate three mushrooms at once instead of one. If I didn't slow it down your fake death would have only lasted eight hours before your heartbeat returned.»

His response left me speechless. I didn't know how to respond to that. Had I misjudged him? To think that he would help me. How did he do it?

«I didn't do it for your benefit.» Sensei responded. His voice was cold as ice. «I realise I may have assigned you this quest prematurely. You make rash decisions based on emotion. You are not prepared to handle the risks of your actions and behave immaturely when things don't go your way. This sort of selfish behaviour will only lead you to danger in the future. Frankly, I think you are unworthy of the goddess's gift.»

"Is that all you have to say?" I received his admonishment serenely. "I could have told you all that myself. Why don't we leave that to the Goddess to judge. I'm the Apostle here, not you, despite all the traits you find so defective."

«Is stubbornness your only good trait?» Sensei retorted.

I wasn't sure if it was imagined but I detected a hint of amusement in his voice. I couldn't help but think consuming Sairon's Bell had become my curse as well as a blessing.

However, it didn't make sense why the wasps had discarded me. Wasn't the best prey the non-struggling kind?

I had a creepy foreboding feeling as I looked around. The corpses I saw were all shrivelled up with holes in them like they'd been sucked dry.

Were the wasps the kind to only feast on live prey? Did they puncture the skin to suck up the liquefied remains after injecting their acid?

Now that I was alive, didn't this put me right back on their menu?