Jace sat there, leaning against the wall. The hallway was bright as the sunlight was reflected from rough stone floor. The sun had just risen. Taking a deep breath, letting the fresh morning breeze enter his lungs, he opened his mouth as he slowly exhaled.

"So?" Jace asked as he looked up to a black cat lying on a red cushion.

"I'm tired." Alec groaned as he shifted on the giant cushion.

"Hey! You told me that you would explain everything once we reach your so called safe zone."

"But we are not in the safe zone yet."

"What?"

"Yep!" Alec said as he looked up to Jace, "This is not a safe zone, we are on first floor of the castle. Centipedes don't spawn here but we are not exactly safe yet."

"So, why are we even here? And where did you even get that cushion?" Jace groaned

"Ah! To bathe in this precious sunlight. Believe me Vitamin-D is necessary for our bodies. This vitamin is made from cholesterol in your skin when it’s exposed to the sun. That’s why getting enough sunlight is very important for maintaining optimal vitamin D levels. I don't even know if my body needs nutritions anymore, like I haven't felt hungry or even took a shit in last seven days. Which I am kind of thankful as there is nothing to eat or even wipe my arse." Alec said as he veered his small frame across the pillow, letting more sunlight wash over him. "Ah, this is bliss."

"... What in the world are you talking about? And you do remember that we literally died down there."

"... Ok, let's do this. What do you want to ask about?"

"What exactly did you do down there?" Jace asked meeting the emerald gaze of kitten.

"I exploited everything I could, to survive."

"How?"

"Well, you all adventurers need to study the way the monsters track, attack and defend", Alec drawled.

"That doesn't answer my question." Jace groaned.

"Read how to survive in a centipede dungeon, a survival guide by Alec Jones.''

"What?"

"Nothing. Just consider two major facts. Nature is known to balance everything and centipedes are multilegged blind abominations. Now, don't interrupt while I explain or I'll miss something.''

Alec sat on the red cushion as he cleared his throat.

"So, I already told you that centipedes can sense vibrations through their feet and antennae. They can precisely calculate the intensity and source of the vibrations. This is as far as my knowlege goes. Next part was just a theory based upon hundreds of centipedes I hunted in last seven days." Alec said as he looked up to Jace, listening quietly as he leaned against the wall. "The second method, by which they can perceive their surroundings in a more precise way. An ability. As far as I know, it's called Blood Sense. A broken ability which lets them use the surrounding blood mana as a extension of their bodies."

Jace was about to open his mouth when Alec interrupted him by raising one of his tiny paws.

"I'll explain later by using a nice example, but please, shut up for now. Some people are not good at explanations, it gets even harder when you are being interrupted every time you are about to finish a sentence."

Jace rolled his eyes and decided to save any further question for later.

"So, where was I? Oh, yes. The blood sense. According to my hypothesis, they can make out literally everything using this ability. The shape, size and even temperature of creature near them. It lets them differentiate between friend and foes as everything emit a different mana signature, which is not a fact, I have just assumed this thing based upon their behaviour that they do not just randomly attack other centipedes. Now, here's the question for you. If you were thrown inside a dungeon, as a centipede, which ability would you trust the most?"

Jace had a look of bewilderment on his face as he took a moment to process everthing before finally opening his mouth.

"The blood sense, obviously."

"Yep, and that's exactly what these centipedes are doing. They trust their blood senses more than their hearing senses. And here's the catch." Alec paused for a moment before continuing. "They are not the only ones who can use a broken ability. Mystic allows us to hide from such senses, though I have no idea how this ability actually works. But, it can not block the vibrations we produce while we walk over the floor or talk while running around the corridors."

"So, every single centipede we've passed by now knew exactly where we were?", Jace asked.

"Yep, they precisely knew where we were. Yet they didn't move because they were smart enough to trust their blood sense more than their natural senses. And I can't blame them, no one in their right mind would jump at a unknown vibration coming out of nowhere beacuse-"

"It might be a trap." Jace interrupted as he felt a piece of puzzle click in.

"Exactly! They are smart enough to not to fall in for a cheap trap and I exploited that fact."

Alec paused for a moment before continuing.

"Now that leaves us to the blue boy. I consider it a stage higher than those normal red centipedes. Blue boy had the same senses, which I am truely thankful for. It was a gamble I took and won."

"Then, what was the whole shouting thing for? We could have ran past it without doing anything." Jace asked as the black cat shifted his position on red pillow.

"You might be overlooking the most important point here." Alec said.

"Which is?"

"That, it was not a normal centipede. Now, look at it from the blue boy's prospective." Alec said as he gestured with his paws. "You, are the boss of this certain area, you are more powerful than any of your species, you have never met someone more powerful than yourself. Now, someone trespasses in your territory and pulls the vibration trap. And when you reach the source of vibrations, they suddenly stop and now you don't know the exact location of tresspasser. What would you do?"

"I don't know, might get angry and try to find the tresspasser?", Jace replied.

"But that's from a human prospective, but our self proclaimed all powerful, all seeing, omnipotent blue centipede god would destroy the whole damn place."

"You mean?"

"Yep! If we try to move, we die. If we stay, we die. You might not have been able to see that, but the crimson mana around us was already running rampant before the creature even arrived behind us." Alec said he shifted on the pillow, allowing the opposing part of his black fur have some sunlight.

"So, the reason you asked me to shout was?"

"To give our exact location to the blue boy. The mentality of some creatures is not as complex as you think. You just need to give them, what they came looking for. He came looking for our exact location and I gave it to him. But as usual, he recieved the vibrations but didn't sense anything except a sudden fluctuation in mana at opposite wall, caused by one of my chains. That was how, I gave our blue boy two options: first, attack the unknown vibration; second: attack the source of mana interruption. And the result was predictable, as all centipedes trust their blood senses more than their hearing senses, it too, went for the second option." Alec said as he rolled over the red cushion.

Jace had a mixed look of bewilderment and confusion on his face, "so, you just figured all that out? Just like that? And I think I understand what you did afterwards. You lured it out, took advantage of its blindness and-"

"Nope", Alec said as he interrupted Jace, "I didn't lure it out, I planned to kill it the moment we stepped out of its home. But I kind of underestimated the defenses of a monster nineteen levels higher than me. Even after putting twenty points in my mind stat, I was unable to breach it's defenses. Then, it became just too angry to leave us be, it would have eventually-"

Jace interrupted Alec as he opened his mouth, "Ok, hold up, did I misheard something or you just said that you put TWENTY FUCKING POINTS IN YOUR MIND STAT AT ONCE?"

".... Sure.... I mean... I kind of did.... What's with the overreaction?"

Jace looked down as he ran both of his hands across his face before finally meeting the emerald gaze of oblivious kitten relaxing on the red cushion.

"Listen here, you little shit."