The Mother Rock Worm had poked its body out of the hole it made and lingered there. He couldn't see too much from the natural light of the cave but he could at least tell that she was a few shades lighter than the ground she came from. He couldn't see her stare at him, since he saw no facial features, but he felt it. He felt it even more when she spoke.

"You killed my babies!" Rather, she shrieked more than anything. If he had ear drums, he would be covering them right now. For that, he was thankful, at least.

Since he couldn't talk, he only stared at her, which seemed to make her mad.

"You won't even respond? Impudent brat! I'll show you your place!" When she said that, all done with different shriek sounds, her head began to spin extremely fast and she leaped at him.

Jumping out of the way, he felt a rush of air burst past him and he stumbled to gain his footing. She was fast and the air rush after her movements packed a good hit.

He didn't know how he was going to fight her. All he had was a bow. Regardless, he took the bow out of the Inventory and the arrow pouch materialized on his back, prompted by two messages.

[Basic Hunting Bow]

[10 arrows]

Only ten? This sucked. He grabbed an arrow and prepared for a strike. He guided the arrow head, following the orange silhouette of the giant worm. When the creature turned around and began heading his way, he drew back the arrow, waiting.

As soon as she broke out and dived towards him, he jumped out of the way and let the arrow fly. He saw it hit the body and bounce back, not a scratch was probably left. The arrow head landed at his feet, useless.

Since arrows were useless and he saw no openings to shoot them into, he returned the gear back to the Inventory. He needed to think of a way before the worm collapsed the walls and buried him.

As the worm passed by on another round of her attacks, his bony fingers scraped her rock rough skin and he saw a small portion of the orange light fall away and enter his fingers.

He had a way of defeating her. Now he just had to wait.

Waiting was not fun at all. The mother worm was either smart or it took her forever to turn around, because she kept her distance before striking again. Each strike felt minutes apart, so he had time to prepare when she lunged for another strike.

As soon as she did, he sidestepped and pressed both hands against her body, feeling the forced drag try to rip them away. That didn't matter to him, since he saw a larger chunk of the light enter his hands and the light surrounding the worm became more yellow, on the tipping point of becoming white as she vanished in the ground again.

He felt the ground shake, but she didn't attack him. She was circling him below, but her shrieking voice still reached him.

"What are you? I have never seen a skeleton eat Mana before. I do not like it."

He shrugged and placed his hands on the ground and did what he thought might work. He dug his fingers into the broken rock and concentrated with all his might on her Mana. With a ripping motion, he saw the light dart for his hands like tendrils of light.

Feeling her life force drain, the mother worm began her attack, digging her way towards him. But as her Mana began to change from yellow to white and slowly disappear, she was slowing down. By the time he absorbed all her life force, she was about to breach the ground, but stopped barely a foot from the surface.

When he didn't get the message like he was expecting, he noticed that the other worms he didn't get to in the other rooms began to advance towards their mother. When the first baby got to her, it stopped and the Mana surrounding it began to move into the mother, the silhouette slowly coming back to life as the others did the same.

'Shit. Can't have that happen.'

He dug his fingers back into the ground and repeated the process. The Mana began to move again, but the amount he was taking away was being replaced by the babies. He needed them gone.

Removing one hand, he aimed for the baby worm furthest away, but nothing happened. He moved on until the baby worm that was about ten feet away died as the light tendrilled its way to his hand.

So it had a distance limit. Would the distance increase with each level? He hoped so.

With one hand on the mother and the other sapping the baby worms, his concentration was beginning to waver. There also seemed to be no end to these baby worms.

After a brief moment, the baby worms no longer came out from the other rooms and the current baby worms were small in number, with just eight remaining. Since the mother didn't have a large amount of Mana at the moment, he took his hand off of her and aimed it at the babies. With both hands working, they began to fade quickly.

When no babies remained, he placed his hands back on the mother and gave it all he had. His vision began to fade as he sapped the last of her Mana. He knew he was done when the messages popped up.

[You have killed a Rock Worm. You have gained 12 experience. (x34)]

[You have killed a Mother Rock Worm. You have gained 132 experience.]

[Mana Absorption 1 (6.6%)]

[6 Rock Worm Skin]

He didn't see a level up message, which made him a little upset, but he still gained enough. Even though he had no muscles to become tired, he felt drained. There might be a limit to how much he could absorb at one time. He wished he had more information on the Mana system in this world. It looked like he also received a part of the rock worms.

[Rock Worm Skin] Made of hardened stone, this skin is extremely durable. It can be consumed to strengthen the skeletal structure and gain a defensive boost.

'So I can strengthen my body with this? The status mentioned that I could do that. I'll give it a try.'

Mentally calling the skin out of the Inventory, they materialized in his bony hands. He expected them to be solid, but it felt like he was holding cloth. The question was how was he going to consume these?

[Consume Rock Worm Skin. Yes/No?]

'Yes.'

Like with the book, all six pieces melted into his hands.

[Durability threshold increased]

[+2 Defense]

This was pretty cool. It hasn't even been a day, so he hoped, and he has already gotten stronger. Either the System was broken or it favored him very well. He felt like it shouldn't be this easy to become strong.

While he was thinking, he felt his mind slip and he hit the ground, the mental drawback of using the skill catching up to him.