Chapter 22 Wyrm

Year 1023 of the new calendar, Month of the Sun, 11th day

The entire area just made me feel such an intense feeling of déjà vu as if I had been here before. I looked around the area, every single piece of dust and leaves on the branches of the tree felt familiar. I walked up to the scale, and the gravity shifted as expected. Then I walked out of range, the power emanating off of it was certainly too strong for me to do anything. Of the houses, I noticed that they looked similar, too similar. I walked up to one, the Hiddle still in my claws, and saw a small hole in the wall. It held a small box, I pulled it out and a small piece of blue jewelry was in it, the blue gem in the center held what looked to be a white scale. I took it out of the house and put it in the center, maybe it would be useful for something later?

The next house was the same, with a hole in the spot and a piece of blue jewelry with a scale in it. Indeed, it looked that all were the same, down to the very last detail and how 2 people were inside them that bowed down to the scale in the center. I took it out, like the last one, and started to study the two. They both had a blue jewel on a golden ring, and inside the jewel was a scale. The two jewels were identical, the color was a light blue, and they had no blemishes or any other impurities. The gems were perfect, and inside them was a white scale with a red line running through it. When I put the two side by side, I did notice a few minor differences, though. The scale was slightly different, with the one from the second house being slightly larger than the one I found first.

Hmmm, interesting. The Hiddle was waking up slightly, now, I put him down to his own devices. It looked like he would survive, if only barely, and there did not seem to be anything other than us here. Just as I said that I heard a small scurrying in the surrounding walls, I raised my hand next to the wall and then stuck my claws through when I heard little feet moving around. My claws felt a slight bit of resistance, I felt the inside organs of the little thing pierced through by my claws. I took it out, and it looked to be a gray Hiddle, with the same 6 legs and furry body. Come to think of it, I was pretty hungry at the moment, I lifted the already dead body and swallowed it down.

It wasn’t the best thing I ever had, but certainly not the worst, I had eaten some vile things just to survive. The memory of those eggs came back to me, ahh, how I wish to eat those again. Shaking my head, I walked out of the little house, taking the Hiddle with me back to the square. This area was weird, and my premonition only got worse when I walked past what looked to be an administration building. I started to walk around the building, trying to see if there was anything of note. Once I reached the west wall, I could see a small crack in the exterior with something inside it.

I stuck my hand into it and pulled out a gigantic necklace, with many pearls and a giant ruby in the center of it, as the star of this necklace. What was more interesting was that there was an actual scale in the same dark crack on the side of the building, it was white with a red line running through the center of it. I tried to scratch it with my claws, wanting to see what would happen, and not even a tiny scrape formed. The result was no different with my mana enhanced claw, what kind of monster did it take to have a scale this strong?

I took it up and compared it with my scales on my way to the center, where the Hiddle and, more importantly, the scale was at the moment. The scale in my hand was larger than my own, but its structure was very different. Mine were like triangles and tapered off to a narrow point that connected it to a chain of interlocking scales, but this scale didn’t have the same sharp edges as mine did. It looked like an oval and was white, contrasting completely with the even larger scale that was atop the altar. I walked up to it and put the white scale and ruby necklace beside the other trinkets I found. The Hiddle was there as well, looking no better than when I left him.

My eyes lingered on the scale in the center, and after some contemplation, my curiosity got the better of me. I needed to see what would happen if someone with Dragon blood touched the scale that was a scale of a Dragon or Drake. The gravity became nearly unbearable a foot away from the scale, and each step I took left a very prominent imprint on the ground. I barely made my way close enough for me to grab it, my entire body laid on the floor, suffering the entire weight of its remnant power. I injected all the mana I could control straight into my arm, and thankfully it helped my arm resist a little, I made my way to the scale, and finally, my two claws touched it and grabbed it.

The moment I grabbed the scale off its altar, the entire underground cavern we were in shook. A purple shockwave of pure mass released from the scale, tossing me and the Hiddle into the air and flattening down all 70 houses in the first ring. It caused catastrophic levels of damage to the massive tree in the center and the second ring of houses, even the giant administration building had taken damage. It was pure chaos, and my head was ringing, the jewelry near it was tossed, but the white scale remained exactly where it was. After I landed, I ran to the Hiddle falling and grabbed him — couldn’t have him dying on me yet. Two large splinters from the tree landed right on me, skewering my left leg, and one went straight into my back, threatening to destroy my organs.

I stopped moving, I could feel the skewer dangerously close to my stomach and I didn’t want to rupture it. The Hiddle in my claws looked up at me, the chaos had subdued by now, and it was just him in my claws with two splinters inside my body. He asked me, “Wh-Why?” Blood spurted from his mouth, but he kept talking, “Why would you save me?”

I looked at him and said, “You’re my emergency food in case we are stuck here for a long time.” with a slight snicker. I then put him down and looked at my back, tsk, it was going to be a pain for me to get this thing out without screwing up my insides. The Hiddle had recovered a bit and could walk around, but he was in no shape to help me at the moment. I was starting to regret my decision a bit, oh well, I can’t take back what I did now. I tried to reach back to grab it, but I could not no matter what I did, and the more I moved, the more it destroyed my insides. Tsk, how was I supposed to do this? I tried once more, and miraculously got it, but I put too much force in my grab and just broke the upper part of the splinter, oh fuck sake.

Maybe I could use my mana? I manipulated a safe amount of it and tried to move the splinter, it moved ever so slightly out of the wound — this was slow progress, but progress is progress. I didn’t want to use more in case it went berserk and the splinter inside me broke into many pieces, then I would really be screwed. After 4 hours of this painstaking process, I finally managed to remove the entire splinter, I then braced myself for the pain and removed the other splinter in my leg in one go. I winced hard, this wasn’t as painful as some other things I experienced, but I still didn’t like it. Sighing, I finally stood up… only to sit right back down again, the pain that emanated from my left leg was too much. I took another look at the scale, now that I was effectively stuck her until I healed, it was a good as time as any to look at it.

The purple color subsided now that it was off the pedestal, and the 2 brighter purple lines that glowed were nowhere to be found. Hmmm, was this a dud? I didn’t want to try to poke and prod at it, in case anything terrible happens, but I also wanted to see if it was just the altar keeping this scale going, or if it was something else. Eventually, my curiosity — or I suppose stupidity — got the better of me, and I injected some of my mana into it. The moment I did, the scale let out another wave of power, forcing me into the ground and only exacerbating my injuries, I really should have expected this. I looked around a bit and saw the Hiddle being perfectly fine, albeit scared and hiding behind a fallen piece of wood, the power was in a small radius around me? After that burst of power subsided, the scale regained its purple glow, the 2 lines running through it, and started to float atop my palm. Then the least expected thing happened, the system gave me a notification.

Congratulations! You are now in tune with your ancestors more, by aggravating a long-lost Drake scale, and can now access more of the power of this system.

Quest system unlocked, 2 quests currently underway:

Escape the current area. Find the reason your ancestors were killed.

This was so… weird. At least one of my questions was answered, this was a Drake scale and not a Dragon scale. A tingle of excitement coursed through my body, if this was what the remnant power of a Drake was, I couldn’t even imagine that of a Dragon. After a bit of giddiness, I tempered down my excitement and started to wonder what this was, the system can evolve with me? Interesting, maybe I would get more later down the line, but for now, I had to think of what to do now. My danger sense went off like crazy when I went near the administration building, and when I was near the walls of dirt behind it. I doubt that I could escape so simply, this place had something far deeper than it was letting on. The only thing that could provide me with answers seemed to be the larger buildings, everything else was either flattened or damaged to the point of no return. I signaled to the Hiddle that he should follow me, and we started to walk to the largest building on the outskirts of this small city.

The pain was ever-present, and it did hurt, but wallowing in it wouldn’t solve anything. The Hiddle looked at the scale, which was now on my chest, and back to its subdued state, and asked me, “What is that?” I looked at him and replied, “None of your business, don’t worry about it.” This was a Drake scale, and he was just a Hiddle, wait, I didn’t even know his name. “What is your name, anyway? I never caught it.” - I said to him, we were now about halfway to the building and my terror only grew, but I pushed on.

He said, “Ah, right. I’m Tiflis, and you are?” I stopped for a second and pondered on this, I didn’t have a name, “I don’t have a name.” He stopped too, looking at me peculiarly, and said, “What? Why don’t you have a name?” I looked at the distance, “My parents… left this world before I was even born. I don’t even know the name of my mother, much less what to name myself.”

Tiflis looked at the ground and then said - “Oh… I’m sorry.” I shook my head, “You do not need to be sorry for what you didn’t know, anyway, we can leave this talk for later-”. I started with a neutral tone, that turned into a grave one the more I talked, “-We are here at the house.”. Tiflis and I looked up at the massive home, my danger sense was not ringing here as it was at the administration building. Even still, I held an uneasy feeling about this place, and looking at the expression Tiflis had, so did he. “What even is this place?” he asked, but it was more of a way for him to keep the mind off the atmosphere.

We walked through the door frame into the decrepit building and saw what looked to be 2 servants at the front. Tiflis hid behind my back leg instantly, as I walked in front of the people. Wait, they were no longer looking at the altar, but at my chest. How did the skeletons move? A shiver ran down my spine, I thought it was the fact that the scale was in the altar that made these skeletons bow to it, but it was the scale itself? I turned around and walked up the stairs, I took a final glimpse at the skeletons and noticed they were now prostrating straight at me. I walked down and saw that they didn't move, “Heh, would you look at that? Creepy.” I said in a confident-sounding voice, but it was just a facade. Tiflis didn't seem to notice that it was just a cover, though, thankfully. I ignored it, or tried to at least, and started walking again.

We moved on, and the rooms were all barren of anything noteworthy, the skeletons moving still creeped me and Tiflis out. We were now in the master bedroom, and at first glance, there was nothing there to indicate that it was anything more. “Can you look under the bed for anything?” I asked, more demanded, and he looked at me, and then back at the bed. With a gulp of his breath, he complied and scurried under the bed. After half a minute, he ran back out again, holding a small key.

“There seems to be a trap door under this bed, and I believe this key is the-” Before he could finish his sentence, I already lifted the already collapsing bed and threw it to another side. As Tiflis said, there was a very obvious trap door beneath the bed, and unlike the rest of the area, it was still in good condition. I took the key from Tiflis and then opened up the door. We both started to walk down into the depths of it, no light was there and unlike me who could see, Tiflis was blind in the dark. I picked him up and put him on my back, “Just stay there.” I said as we walked down the tunnel, I could hear some water dripping down, and the ground was generally pretty moist.

The ground was steadily going upwards, and we eventually reached a door. Before that, though, I could see a tunnel leading to someplace else. I ignored the door for the moment and started to walk down this other corridor, I didn’t want to leave anything under a rock. When walking there, I could smell a very distinct scent, one of those gray rats. Perhaps this was their nesting ground? If I have to fight them all at once, then I should leave Tiflis behind. I walked back to the door and opened it, putting him in what looked to be a storage room. I will come back to it later, I went back up to the other tunnel and started walking again. Being alone was scarier than being with Tiflis, he was weak and couldn’t help me, but at least he was familiar.

I shook my head and started to walk a bit faster, I reached their den in just under 5 minutes and looked inside. There were plenty of little rats inside the den, and they looked at me with both fear and hatred in their eyes. I waited to see if someone talked to me, but they seemed to be primitive animals that couldn’t communicate. I could see their young children in the back, and something else back there that glittered a bit, I needed to know. When I took my first step, a few of them hissed and growled at me. Their sharp teeth were glistening in the air, but their size didn’t make it scary at all. One of them could fit in my claws, I walked up again and let out a low growl to quell them, surprisingly it didn’t work, and they were only more agitated.

Tsk, I moved up a bit and twenty little rats rushed up to me. They were hesitating on attacking me, I could smell the fear they had in the air. I didn’t want to kill them, but I needed to see what was behind them. There was tension in the air and one of the rats broke first, rushing at my legs. When I saw it run towards me, I looked down at it and lifted my claw.

I brought down my claw, jutting it inside the rat’s body, and it died instantly. His death triggered the rest of them, where they all rushed at me. Good, I did not want to drag this battle for too long, I braced myself and rushed as much mana as I could control into the scale on my chance. Unlike the previous times, it hummed for just a second before a powerful burst of energy and gravity filled the entire room, causing all the little creatures to lie on the ground. Unlike my body that could resist it, theirs couldn’t, and so after only a few seconds, most were turned into a thin smear on the ground. I smiled, and when the power subsided, I could see that all but one was dead, it was sitting there dazed and confused as I put it out of its misery.

I walked to the end of the room, ignoring the smell coming from the ground, and noticed a small egg of sorts. Do they lay eggs, or is it for something else? I picked it up and walked back to the door, opening it and noticing that Tiflis was still sleeping, and I placed the egg beside him. When I fully walked into the storage room, I looked behind me and saw that the door blended in perfectly with the wall. I then noticed that it had 5 rows of cabinets, and while I could read in the dark, it wasn’t particularly comfortable, I flicked a switch for the lights, and it didn’t work. Wait, the dragon scale should be the power source, I injected just a tiny bit of mana into it, so it released some of its energy and the room had its light instantly turn on. My danger sense was rising steadily as I walked to the first row of cabinets.

A thick layer of dust was on a wall, I went to remove it to see if there was anything under it. My senses told me not to, but I ignored them — if I wanted to get anything done, I would eventually have to do such a thing for answers, anyway — and brushed off the thick layer of dust. Surprisingly, nothing happened and all I saw was a mural. A white snake with red eyes was on it, it was biting its tail, but something seemed… off about the snake. It was as if it wasn’t complete, when I looked directly into its eyes, and then something changed in the surroundings. I felt like I was transported off into a different world, I looked at my surroundings and saw that I was in a field of berries. I tried to use my skill on them, but I found that nothing worked, much to my chagrin. Then, I started to walk around the beautiful fields, which were just rows and rows of berries.

Looking up, I could see that the nighttime sky greeted me, there was something… soothing about this place and I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it. I felt relaxed, I started to lay down on the ground and let out a yawn. A white snake came up to me, its red eyes looked straight into my own. I instantly jutted up and saw that the snake left me, I saw that it was now daytime. I had to find a way out of this area, and that was proving to be exceedingly hard. No matter how long I walked or how fast I sprinted, the surrounding areas just seemed to stay the same, this snake was the reason that they were all the same I suppose. The answer to that riddle didn’t give me any joy, I needed to find a way out of here.

Another white snake was slithering around in the field, looking to just be a normal snake. I snuck up on it and tried to catch it in my hands, only for it to vanish in a puff of white smoke. I sighed, I had already ran for 2 hours, and I was too tired to do anything extra. Now that I was on the ground, I took a little break and started to feel tired — I felt even more tired than usual after a 2-hour sprint. I closed my eyes, a little sleep wouldn’t hurt me, when I awoke it was back to nighttime. I tried to stand up, only for a gaze that felt all too familiar — though I was not sure when this gaze had laid its eyes on me before — descended upon me. The surrounding surroundings shifted back to the storage room, where I could see that Tiflis was still sleeping as if nothing had happened.

An uncontrollable urge to vomit came from me, I ran to a trashcan I had already seen earlier and started to vomit out the contents of my stomach. Hairs, the tail, the feet, and other parts of the rat that I was still digesting came out of my stomach, in the process I felt something lodged in there that wasn’t moving. After I vomited out all that was in my stomach, I felt a strong curiosity as to what was in there. I knew I could survive opening up my stomach, but… did I really need to just to know? This thing definitely came into my stomach after I fell down into this place, maybe it was the answer I needed.

I braced myself and injected some mana into my claw, and then laid upon my back. That only aggravated my earlier wound, I sucked in a deep breath and split open my underbelly, exposing my internal organs, I looked into the wound and then cut open my stomach barely. I stuck my hand in and then forcefully ripped out what was attached to my stomach wall, I screamed and screamed when I did the entire thing. The pain eventually subsided, and I laid there in a pool of my own sweat, blood, and tears. I looked at what I took out, and then looked at the mural again, this was the part of the snake that felt off. It was the missing part, now that I looked closer, there were minuscule lines that separated the snake into 10 different sections.

What did this mean? A white snake with red eyes, a loop, and a piece of it inside me, I really needed some answers right now.