Chapter 4

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Despair

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I have been going trough tunnels after tunnels for what felt like a eternity and can't seem to go anywhere. For all i know i may possibly be going in circles... Thank to my newly acquired speed i feel like i'm covering quite a bit of ground but without any sign of approaching my goal it is a little bit demoralizing.

These tunnels are going in all directions and all look the same, every-time i happily find a path going up i end up going down a few feet later. Visibly not making any progress i'm starting to consider the possibility of never being able to get out of here. I think i'm going to take a break here and make some cubes..

The area i stopped at is larger than most tunnels i've encountered but not big enough to be considered a 'room'... The ceiling is getting higher which is giving me hope but still no light in sight.. While making various shapes i suddenly get another brilliant idea. I take a bit of mana and expand is as much as i can. Being expanded to that extend the mana become almost invisible but that's not all... By being expanded mana become lighter and easier for wind to blow around.

I then stand there watching this little cloud of barely visible mana floating in the air when i finally see what i was waiting for. Movement! The small cloud is slowwwlyyy being pushed the direction i came from. That is really good news ! Wind!! And wind mean a opening up ahead !

Quickly stopping my shape making practice and reabsorbing my little cloud of expanded mana, i get back on my feet (Not that i have any) and keep going forward ! I can smell the end coming soon ! I'm sick of this damned cave !

I then reach a 4 way junction. The tunnel crossing path with the one i was floating in is humongous ! Not only that but is perfectly circular, as if dug by a circular machine. (You know the big tunnelling machines we dig metro lines and tunnels with back on earth..)

I'm in a situation where i need to make a choice.. Keep going forward in the smaller tunnel, of turn left or right on this gigantic tunnel.. The choice seem obvious, the bigger the tunnel the bigger the chance of it leading to the surface. But i'm no one to take blind guesses, so i decide to use the expanded mana test once again, but before i had time to do anything something caught my attention..

I could see some small dirt particles falling from the ceiling followed with a faint rumble of the ground giving the impression of small earthquakes. Don't tell me.. Is there a tunnel cave in nearby ? Not helping calming my worries the tremors seem to grow stronger and closer every seconds..

Rummbleeee* [...pause...] Rumblee* [...pause...] Ruummble* [...pause...] Ruummbleeee* [...pause...] Rummmblleeee* [...pause...] Rummble* [...pause...]

Michael immediately seemed to have an idea of what's happening, he then quickly used expanded mana to check the winds in the middle of the 4 ways intersection.

'Dammit, as i thought..' (Michael)

The movement and reactions of his little mana cloud were indicating wind being pushed trough the tunnels coming from the right flowing in the other 3 tunnels. What was most peculiar was that the wind was coming in waves perfectly coordinated to the tremor he could feel and hear.

In Michael mind this could mean only one thing.. Something is coming, and something big enough to push air trough the tunnel at each of his steps and heavy enough to make the earth tremble. So if you can make 2+2 that mean that the thing coming was most likely the thing that dug this gigantic tunnel.. And it's no joke the tunnel must be around 25 feet in diameter..

Suddenly feeling cold feet Michael started to weight his options.

I'm immune to physical attacks certainly but who know if that thing that's coming can use magic... but i'm positive that going right is the way to reach the surface because whatever dug that tunnel had to have made an exit to the surface somewhere...

If i take in consideration the size of his tunnel i can assume it to be to big to get in smaller tunnel like those i'm currently in.. So my best bet would to stay here, hide in a corner and wait for what ever is coming to pass by before proceeding further ahead.. Hopefully the thing wouldn't turn around and appear on my back later...

I then found a small crack in which i compacted my body becoming part of the wall. I should be perfectly hidden here. Of course i placed one of my eyes in a perfect position to see what the leviathan that can shake the earth look like..

A few moment later the deep rumbles got really close and i could finally see it. Well not that there's much to see it didn't even slow down a bit and just kept going on it's way. But what i saw was a wall of meat.. Pink-whitish wet looking meat... Since it came from the right and entered the left tunnel in a flash i could only have a good view of it's flank and i immediately knew what i was looking at..

It kept going from right to left for a few seconds even tho he was moving so fast.. It was the same exact thing as waiting at a train crossing for a train to go by.... Yep you should have guessed it by now, if i say a long subterranean pink creature as long as a train digging it's own tunnels... Did you guessed it ?

Yep what i had just seen was a 200 feet long earthworm.. Even if inoffensive i can guaranteed you that anyone would be frightened by one of this size.. Feeling reassured i immediately engaged myself into the tunnel the worm ad came from ready to squid myself trough it as fast as i could.

'I have no intention of staying to long in this tunnel and see what happen is that thing decide to come back this way.' (Michael)

Normally i would simply stand aside and let it pass by but the worm being the same size as the tunnel.. Let's just say i'm not curious enough to try and see what would happen. This tunel is truly amazing, perfectly circular... You rarely see geometrical shape this perfect in nature. When you see perfect geometry this generally mean man made.

On a side note, an earthworm tunnel, right after a worm went trough is quite... how should i say... The walls are covered in milky snot textured goo... 'Ewww!'...

Eventually i finally reach a point where i can start feeling air current and my vision become a lot clearer.

'Light and wind, what i was looking for! I can smell it ! Where almost there!' (Michael)

A few bends later it's in front of me! The light at the end of the tunnel ! A few squid squirts later i'm standing at the exit of the tunnel but not being reckless i stop before exiting.

'I need to properly do some reconnaissance of what's outside before exposing myself to any type of danger.' (Michael)

In shape ready to release a big squid squirt aimed at retreating in the tunnel i then create a mana thread with mana 'expanded' to the maximum i can muster at the moment making it so deluded that even to me who have the ability to see mana, can hardly see the '95% invisible' thread.

Slowly sending the thread toward the exit for some reconnaissance knowing that i can see via mana and air echolocation trough any part of my body and that if something intriguing that i can't make out i could simply materialize one of my two eyes at the tip of the mana thread to get a better look at what ever i find.

As soon as the mana thread reach the outside i quickly confirm what's there and what i feel is a bit confusing to be honest... I was expecting trees but what i feel seem different. I then check for the presence of any entity by scanning for mana.

I can't sense insanely far ahead if i don't send a bit of mana in the area i want to inspect but i would say that i can sense up to a distance of 50 feet ahead of the tip of the thread so it's not extreme but if i send 50 feet long mana threads in all directions i can easily double my range just like that.

The result to my little reconnaissance is this:

Heavy jungle type vegetation.

At least 10 entity's having a hundred time more mana than i do..

Small puddles of water everywhere

'ho wait, i don't need to drink or eat anymore.' (Michael)

Sob*

Don't get me wrong, i know what it's like to be hungry in all my past life of course i have died of starvation a few times so i definitely don't miss the sensation but you don't realize how good it is to eat something good until you live a life where you don't need to eat.

At this thought Michael got more flashback from his life as a spiritual vampire. But quickly brushed it away as serious concern took priority in his mind. The only entity's he could feel were at least a hundredth time stronger than he was so how the hell was he supposed to keep growing if he is the weakest in this jungle...

'There's no way i'm just going up to them and leach them directly...' (Michael)

Maybe due to the fact he had just been thinking about his life as a spiritual vampire but most likely du to the similarity of their situation Michael remembered the easiest method to leach opponent with gigantic 'fighting spirit and/or huge mana pool' but that was as a spiritual vampire and not as a non physical mana pool.

As a vampire what he was doing is simply kill the target... The immense strength of vampire made it easy to just approach the target at eye breaking speed, grab the target's throat, squeeze while piercing your claws trough the skin, take a hold of the throat and the wind pipe then rip with all your strength.

I remember enjoying the beautiful blood geysers that followed the artery's rupture.

'Don't judge me i was a spiritual vampire, a true super predator i was just doing what nature expected me to do.' (Michael) Say Michael while looking at a round shaped rock sitting beside him. (Being alone for to long will do stuff to ya...)

Anyway, when you kill something having a mana pool the mana start leaking from the pore of the skin and go back to the atmosphere like steam and depending on the amount of mana it had this process take around 30 minutes..

Therefor a creature that had an immense fighting spirit or blood lust or worst 'both' that was preventing you from creating a mana connection will basically lose all of it after it's death. Yet the mana remain for a while after death allowing you to easily mana leach from fresh corpses...

But with that in mind i'm still not out of my predicament, being non physical how do i kill monster 100 time stronger than me ? I need more information on what i'm dealing with, i need to see what are those creatures giving off so much mana all around me..

Call me coward if you wish but i am still in the tunnel... and haven't gotten out yet. First i want to 'see' what's out there first. No way i'm dying stupidly!

Transporting my eye to the tip of the mana thread i then take a look. What i see is, peculiar.. For those of you who have seen the 1989 movie 'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'... The scenes where the kids are in a jungle of grass in the backyard... Well what i'm looking at is exactly like that.. I can't really see the sky because the vegetation is to dense and the enormous green thing around me may be as tall as trees but they look more like gigantic grass leaves.

I definitely feel miniature in this type of decor.. Finally stepping out of the tunnel and into the forest he regroup his body together and launch a mana thread in the direction of the nearest 'entity' with one eye on the tip giving him the impression of slowly creeping like a snake in the forest in search of a prey even tho most of his body remained in place.

When he finally reached visual range from the creature taking a good look at it his heart sank.

'Sighhhhh I'm starting to truly hate this world.' (Michael)

What Michael was looking at made him truly uncomfortable about the possible fauna of this planet. A few hundred feet ahead of him was a creature munching on some disgusting looking fungus laying on the floor. This creature is a creature he was familiar with but not of this size.. Michael suddenly got a flashback of the 200feet long earthworm he saw earlier...

What Michael was looking at is a grasshopper..crickets..looking thing... An evil looking one with horns everywhere but that wasn't the problem here.. The problem was that this grasshopper weighted at least 20 tons..

Spoiler :

'Insects sucks !!! Please God [...] I mean Satan make it so this world isn't a giant insect world !! Please have some pity!!!!' (Michael)

'Maybe i should let it absorb me and restart anew on a different world.' (Michael)

Michael then entered a small hole under some rocks and started considering his options.

Square* rings* cylinder* pyramid* sphere* coil*....... [...]

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