Chapter 7. Auditory Lighthouse

Alas it was not to be for less than five minutes later distant screams once again drifted through the moist cavern air. Everyone startled and looked warily towards the tunnel in front of us.

We should continue moving and searching for survivors” Kyle said as he stood. Rika who was kneeling by her fallen brother stiffened and looked up. “What about…” she trailed off while looking at her brother. “We can’t do anything for him” Kyle responded. “But!…” Rika exclaimed while looking at Kyle. “We can’t just sit here, we have to search for others!” Kyle said with a bit of force in his voice. Rika went still “I’m sorry” Kyle said with a softer voice. “Come on sweetie” Maggie said helping Rika up.

The rest of us got up as well but some seemed to be wary of entering the tunnel. “Maybe we should just stay here” Chris said. Kyle looked at him with an irritated look “if we want to survive we need the overwhelming power of numbers, besides with these sabers Zen made we should be able to fend off most of the monsters here!” Kyle exclaimed. I felt it was time to pitch in “We have not been going about this efficiently, we need to call out to people so they can find us” I said. “Are you crazy!” Chris exclaimed “The that will draw them right to us!”.

I was not sure about what I was about to say but my logic was sound enough. We needed to not just to survive but to thrive and having more people join the group was a must. I also wanted to find my parents. “Predators only react to cries of distress and will not risk attacking something that can seriously hurt them. A bad leg or antenna could mean a death sentence to some of the creatures down here, we just need to show we aren't worth it and they will back off” I lectured. Chris and the others reluctantly nodded. “Alright” Kyle nodded “let's get moving”. We started moving and began shouting out things like ‘survivors are here’ or ‘join up with us’.

Maggie had to pull Rika a bit to get her to move but eventually they too quietly joined the procession. I hung back a bit after almost forgetting something and quickly identified the bodies in the room.

Glow Cave Hive Roach Lv. 5

Large roach type

Hive like behavior

Opportunistic scavenger

Glow Cave variant: increased night vision

A pretty normal status, the levels of the dead roaches seem to be between three and five. The system also gave me information about our fallen.

Elisa Thornton Lv. 16

Ren Masamoto Lv. 17

It's a real pity…

I sighed and turned to catch up with the group.

Our shouting did indeed attract attention from the cave denizens for after we reached the next cavern a trio of Burfen bats came swooping down from the upper reaches of the cave and dive bombed us.

The encounter did not last long since they appeared to be wary of our swinging weapons and quickly flew off. As we continued we would be harassed from time to time by bats in small groups. We did see solitary ones but they never attacked us.

The high rate of incidences was probably due to the nature of the cavern we had entered. It was long and the ceiling was very high, more like a ravine. The bats would fly back up and disappear to the side of the cavern almost as if there were tunnels in the upper reaches running perpendicular to the tunnel. There might be a metaphorical highway for the bats above us.

Eventually we exited the tunnel and entered a large cavern were a group of five survivors peaked out from behind some stalagmites. There were two girls, a women I figured was the mother of one of the girls due to how close she was to her and a teacher I recognized as Miss Burns a young english teacher in the lower grades who was pretty popular with the students, the last one was one of Kyle's teammates. Everyone got acquainted and told their stories, apparently they had only been harassed by bats and seen glimpses of cave roaches before they heard us and made their way towards our location. Moreover they witnessed a giant batlike creature capture and kill one of the Burfen bats. The description was rather interesting, it was as big as a wolf and had four limbs and wings like a dragon but definitely had fur and mammal characteristics. It sounds terrifying like a monster from dracula movies. After that things were a little quiet but we pressed on after a little break.

Soon I was given a sign that Rika would be alright. After a couple caverns we came upon a group of roaches nibbling something on the ground and Rika grabbed a low hanging stalactite and sprinted towards the cockroaches. Most of them scattered but one tried to take his prize with him, it was a huge mistake. Rick quickly closed the distance and smashed the roach killing it instantly and breaking the thin stalactite.

Me and a couple of the guys had run up to her and noticed the piece of food was the lower part of an arm. Rika just looked angry while staring at the cockroach. “I must get stronger” she muttered and she walked back to the group, she looked like a warrior goddess for a second but her shoulders soon slumped down a bit and the image faded. I bet she was thinking of her brother, Kyle ran after her to ask if she was okay and the rest followed after. I tried to identify the arm but only got ‘Human Arm’ back. Caught between relief and disappointment I walked back to the group.

As we traveled we encountered more groups of people, mostly in twos and threes. Our group had grown to 21 people and we were starting to feel safe. We had encountered a giant beetle like the one’s Rika and her group encountered but we managed to quickly surround and kill it by attacking its legs and bashing it with well sized stalagmites. It really injured one of the guys though when it first charged but I was able to heal him. It wasn’t complete though the bones he had cracked were still very sore and we had to carry him. Others had been bruised a bit but I had used most of my restored mana helping the first guy.

After I healed the guy who’s name was Trevor everyone got a bit excited and started really practicing mana manipulation. It wasn’t a secret that this world was game like but people were a bit on edge and could not focus on practicing with mana. I was relegated to a healers position and kept in the middle of the group by some of the guys who were into games and were talking about classes and the importance of specialization. I told them this is still reality and being balanced was the smart decision but the argument did not go anywhere so I gave my saber to Rika who took a leading role in killing the beetle despite only fighting with a stalagmite club that I had broken off.

Turns out whenever I break a stalagmite off it almost always breaks at a convenient spot. It must be the influence of my Unusual Crafter title. When this happens the system actually decrees it a weapon, a horrible one but a weapon nonetheless.

Limestone Club (natural)

Club made from a limestone stalactite

Unwieldy weight

Water affinity

High chance of break

The water affinity tag is interesting but none of us know what to do with that information. In the end it's just an unwieldy disposable club. Other people can make a club accepted by the system but it's more reliable for me to make the clubs for them.

When I walked over and identified the beetle I got

Cave Tiger Beetle Lv. 25

Giant beetle with tiger like stripes

Cave variant: loss of flight but more armor

Not much of a description but the stripes on its shell do resemble a tigers. The mandibles are not as sharp as the Mantike’s but they could be used to stab. I have the group rest while I make a pair of knives. They look odd but should probably work well enough.

Beetle Shiv (poor)

Made from a beetle's mandibles

Very little cutting edge and odd shape reduces usability

Iron hard

Barely a weapon

Well sorry for using such unusual materials. At least my proper wrapping of the handle stops it from being a very poor quality. I wish I had leather or cloth to work with instead of sinew I am kind of happy that I don’t have to carry the soggy saber around anymore.

There was a little argument over who got the weapons but Kyle resolved it. It seems like some of the adults are a little irritated over how the students are taking charge. We don’t have time for this but Kyles charisma seems to be keeping them in check.

The environment had started to change as we trekked through the cave. While at first the air had been rather dry it was becoming progressively more humid. Moreover we began to notice what appeared to be roots hanging down from ceiling. I tried to identify them but all I got was tree root. I was starting to think identify was starting to become useful but it seems it will be awhile before I can fully identify something without seeing the entirety of the object in question.

During a break in our shouting Jeff sudden yells “Quiet!”. We all stop to listen and make out a yelling in the distance. It does not sound like distress and as we draw closer together we can make out a multitude of voices. It sounds like another large group of people and finally it becomes obvious that they are around the next bend.