Raseiniai

“Big Brother, what should we do if the tunnel stops?”

“You mean a dead end? Well, we have to at least make a dug in. They are hunting for us after all, I imagine they would want us alive.”

It is simply sad that for us to survive, we must end other people's lives. But we, as the survivors, cannot choose what we want to do. How did the saying goes, again?

“Big Brother, what is the old saying of that something bigger and closer?”

“Beggars cannot be choosers?”

That one.

Big Brother is amazing. He knows a lot, and he is very smart. He is also good at....what was it, ‘Martial Arts’?

....

We had been walking for a really long time. The deeper we walk in, the dustier the air is, and the less mine carts are there.

We are getting deeper, into the depths where only some people have ever been.

But we are far enough from the room before. It should be okay to step on the ground now.

*step*

Big Brother sees me jumping down, but he didn't judge. It really is far enough after all. Walking on dusty wood hurt my feet.

I quickly regret walking on dirt, as it is even more painful.

“Big Brother, I cannot walk anymore.”

“You got blisters already? Sit down here, I will heal you.”

Big Brother motions me to sit on an upside-down cart. Very dusty, but that does not matter now. What matters now is my hurting feet.

[Low Biological Healing]!

Big Brother uses his healing spell on me. Healing spell users are uncommon, but most who can can also use it on other people.

My feet are covered in fuzzy cool light, they erase pain from my feet.

Big Brother learned the healing spell from our town’s healer. Big Brother regularly sneaks out of mansion at night time, learning magic and spells from other people. He does not like boring things like dipli- diplomacy?

“There, done. You should be able to walk again soon. We can rest here for the minute.”

Big Brother knows when to stop and rest, and when to keep walking. As I am already really tired from hours of walking, it is good that Big Brother calls for a rest.

And so, we rest.

"Hmm, we might be far enough to finally use this as lighting."

[Light Source]!

The spell [Light Source] is too bright to use early on, as the people chasing might see us. Before, Big Brother slits his fingers with his sword at some intervals and uses the weak light from [Low Biological Healing] to light out path, just enough for us to see, not enough to be quickly visible from far away.

Using the bright light, Big Brother take out a book and read it to me, teaching me language, reading, and other stuff. Big Brother is really kind to do that for me, even in this dire time.

After some time, we start walking again down the cave.

We meet a difficult cave monster on the way down. We wanted to run past, but since we are really hungry, Big Brother and I agree on a plan to take it down instead, for food.

The plan is for me to distract the monster while Big Brother bring it down. I will run to the left while Big Brother close in from the right.

These kinds of fights are always scary, but I trust Big Brother to protect me.

I run deeper into the cave while Big Brother let us pass. The monster can run faster than me, but not Big Brother. While i run, Big Brother starts to catch up and starts slicing on the monster's feet.

The monster did not slow down as expected. I almost get hit, but I dodge and run back to Big Brother’s position. Now I am between the monster and Big Brother.

While I run pass Big Brother, he runs onto the monster and spears it with his sword. He stabs the monster directly on the trunk, into the face, and into the facial bones.

With that one stab, the monster is dead. Blood dripping from the sword, onto the ground.

“This is something I have never seen before. Similar to a Trunka, but way bigger. Trunka Maxima, perhaps?”

“Big Brother, why are bigger Trunkas a problem? Don't we get more food from bigger monsters?”

“It is not a problem, but it is just strange. You know, it is realy rare to see one in such large size. Except if my hypothesis is correct; which is we’re nearing a high-level dungeon, or what is left of it.”

“But can we eat this?”

“We should be able to. Their meat is traditionally eaten raw. We should butcher the entire thing and move along.”

“Ooooohh.”

Again, we stop and rest. Since the monster is big, we need to cut them into smaller slices to eat and store.

We eat quite a lot of it. What is left is stored in Big Brother's [Spatial Bank]. It tastes sweet, but chewy and weird. I guess I just don’t like raw meat.

From what Big Brother told me, Dungeons are a really scary, but useful place. Dungeons will have lots of strong monsters, but is also where mana crystals are from. I will guess that that’s why most dead Dungeons are remade as mines, everyone wants the crystals.

After quite some time walking, the rail tracks finally sunk into damp dirt. The cave becomes a dirt cave, with occasional mine carts left around.

We start to see drawings on the walls, floor, and raised dirt mounds. The deeper we go, the more drawings we see.

Big Brother seems really fascinated with all these drawings.

“What in the name of the guardians are these?!”

“They are just carvings, Big Brother. Very old ones perhaps?”

“No, see here, they are orderly. This must be some sort of unknown language. See how the text has no dust on them? They are practically brand new. There are people down there making these.”

“Big Brother is really smart to notice so much details in just a few moments. Should we still walk down, though? I mean, who knows, the cave people inside might be kinder to us than those outside?”

“Yeah, thanks. At this point we can only hope you are right, Rai.”

“No problem, Big Brother.”

Randy

I scuttle back into the mine tunnel, a few hours’ worth of slithering won’t shorten themselves.

Now how should I approach this, exactly? With my current mana level, I can either make some dug outs, or an entire crystal castle. I can pepper the entire walls with preset [Bullet Spear] and [Scatterbomb], or I can dig the entirety of my way from here to the doors full of those Vietnamese spike traps.

…look at me here, planning to purge an entire group of people out of existence. What happened to my doubts of killing from before?

I can’t help it though, it’s self defense.

Mostly.

Argh, I'm starting to descent into a goddamn Hypocrite, aren't I....

Thinking for hours on end as I slither down towards the original location where I plan to set up the defences in the first place, I must be subconsciously writing on the walls with Earth Manipulation, because the Trifecta skill levelled up.

I wonder why they are paired in a Trifecta, instead of being one-per-element. Not that I'm compleining though, since it makes grinding a whole lot easier, especially fire. Without fire mana and phlogiston, as I'm going to call it from now onwards, fire won’t be worth shit.

Or might it be because they’re all connected to phlogiston theory somehow? Like, earth is the phlogiston fuel of sorts, fire is the usage of phlogiston, and water is the anti-phlogiston.

That makes a whole lot of sense actually.

Trifecta is not directly mastering the elements, but controlling phlogiston instead. And since phlogiston is linked with three other elements, I can hit three birds with one skill.

Cool!

Now, back to defence planning.

I’m thinking of making some sort of crystal pikes I can launch at them, some [Scatterbomb] spots on the ground around, and another lot of [Bullet Spear] all around it.

I still want to try building that Vietnamese spikes thing though, and shall I did.

I dig out the ground with a crystal shovel, around 3 meters by 3 meters wide, with a thin pillar constructed from [Earth Manipulation] in the middle. I then craft a lot of crystal spears, sharp enough to pierce their skin easily, and thin enough to let impalement happen easily. Thinness is achievable from the crystal’s natural tensile strength.

After I’m satisfied with the number of spears stuck in there, I grab some dirt and begin to slowly close the entire thing with a thin layer of earth. The trick is to use Earth Manipulation to achieve a natural-looking ground.

I created the contraption once more before I realize that building them is just cumbersome at best and needlessly brutal at worst.

I decide to abandon the idea of making more and reabsorbing the crystals used for the spikes back into my mana pool, before I slither further down to the late Elf room.

Making a stick stack defence is really easy. Just make a shit ton of thin mana spears and arrange it like pikes sticking out. The room’s door sticks out, tightening the opening from one side of the cave to the other, making it a perfect choke point.

I set up a lot of hidden [Scatterbombs] and a whole lot of [Bullet Spear] just behind the stick wall, and several of them disguised as wall pikes. They will all regret crossing paths with me here.

Now, the waiting game. There might be hours before they actually arrive here. I might just curl up and snuggle for a bit.

Aaaaahhhhh….. What comfort…..

….mmmm……

…..zzzz……

….

….

H-Huh?!

Oh fuck I fell asleep!

How long have I been out for?

And the wall- damn...

DAMMIT!

They went through just like that! They strip the wall out from the far door side, took some crystal sticks with them, and dismantled the rest until they’re all now just piles of crystal sticks.

Those bastards! How insolent! How disgraceful! How….

Yeah, it’s all my fault for dozing off...

....

Oh, FUCK!

THE KIDS!

I hurriedly slither down the mine, in hopes of catching up to them.

But I’m not fast enough! With my current rate I can barely slither faster than someone walking in a leisure pace. A pace that I oh so desperately need to overtake.

Grrhhh fuckdammit! I swear, If you fucks mess with the kids I’ll fucking send all of you shits to kingdom come, just you stupid raider-for-hires wait!

Slithering down in an unbearably slow pace, start to I prepare for ambushes and fights, in case the worst comes to worst. 10 [Bullet Spear]s conjured, with tens more to come.

I do not believe in violence against underage kids, not before, not today, and not ever. Besides, those cruel bastards are going to use the kids for politics.

Stupid upper-class bigwigs and their stupid armchair games. I always hate the bourgeois for obvious reasons, and this shit proves that they can’t be trusted.

Why the fuck would you use kids as pawns. Messed up idiot fucks.

I mean, I get that this is another world, and a medieval one at that. But still, how backwards are you guys going to be to involve kids’ livelihoods in political matters.

I will protect those kids even if it’s the last thing I’ll do.

The bootprints from those raider bandits stops in a jumble of messed up bootprints from and to all over, for quite the while, indicating they took a rest before diving in deeper.

I might still have a chance. I might still catch up with them.

I have slithered for so long that I am now within the area where I had been writing shit with my [Earth Manipulation]. The kids must’ve noticed this by now. I wonder how they will react. Might there be a latin-like writing system? Might there be English-like language from this world?

Gahh, that’s assuming they’re alive in the first place!

What matters now is that I have to catch up on them.

HEY! I remembered one of those video games where the snake would bite his own tail and make a makeshift hoop or something

That’s kinda smart actually. I wonder if I can do it too.

I try making a simple hoop and biting my tail. The resulting roll being a pathetic little tumble down before I went down crashing.

Maybe it’s too thin? I try making a double loop, as tire-like as I can possibly make, before securing a bite on my tail.

Trying again, I build up some momentum and roll down the slope like a tire doing literally the same thing.

It works really great, only for the first minute or so. I have to repeat the same process two more times, due to unfortunate crashes, before I finally get a decent roll down the slope.

Really feels like that Cheese Rolling tradition of...where was it, UK?

The more you roll down and the more speed you gain, the more the bumps on the slope will affect you. It didn’t hurt per se, but the accumulated little scratches will eventually pile to make quite the nasty itchy bruise.

[Low Biological Healing]!

The bioheal do work, but the pain still persists. But this is not the time for that.

My only hope is that the kids are fine.

They better be.