NOVEL SIMPLE Ch. 20: The Cavern
Cass looked up at the tear of grey skies far above. She was at the bottom of a very deep, very long, tear in the ground. And there wasn’t much in the way of wind down here. Just a tiny draft slowly spinning from one end of the cavern to the other.
The cavern ran more or less straight in either direction, with shelves of stone lining the otherwise shear walls. Occasionally, those walls were dotted with cave entrances. In the distance, she could hear the gush of water, though she couldn’t tell if that was a surface river dropping into the crevice or an underground river water falling into another underground chamber somewhere below her.
It was dark, but the glowing mushrooms of the forest above had followed her down and sporadically sprouted from what looked to her to be sheer stone. They lit the underground space well enough. It was only a little darker here than it had been under the forest canopy.
All in all, except for the man-sized beetle in front of her, she wasn’t any worse off than she had been before.
The man-sized beetle in front of her was kind of worrying though. Neither she nor it had moved since she stood up.
Identify!
Lesser Titan Roach
Lvl 7
[It's a small giant cockroach. They are as gross as that sounds. Where you find one you will find a lot more. They are adept at simple spell casting.]
Cass did her best not to shudder at the thought of more of the things. Or that this was just a “Lesser” variant. Or that it could do magic.
She and it stared at one another unmoving: she hoping it wasn’t as aggressive as the monsters on the surface; it probably wondering where the humanoid had come from. Or maybe what humanoids tasted like. Or maybe it wasn’t sentient enough to wonder anything. Cass had no idea and frankly didn’t want to find out.
Suddenly, it was in motion. And so was Cass.
It skittered back, its wings vibrating, sending the air around it into a whirl of razor blades flying toward her. They were invisible to her eyes and ears but she could tell where they were and how they moved with Atmospheric Sense. There weren’t many of the blades, thankfully. She sidestepped one. It missed her by a hairsbreadth, only possible because of her heightened dexterity and Atmospheric Senses.
Skill Earned: Dodge (lvl 1)
[Bob and weave. The best defense is not getting hit in the first place!
Passively increases one’s reaction time to a small degree.
Actively increases one’s speed in getting out of the way and advises on how best to move one’s body to avoid unwanted impacts.
Modified by Dex.]
Cass didn’t actually read the new skill notification, but she felt the instinct to move a little more to the right as another wind blade flew from the cockroach’s wing.
It clipped her cheek, she wasn’t quite coordinated enough to get entirely out of the way. But it was a shallow slit instead of a deep gash under her eye.
She didn’t let the injury slow her as she chased after the cockroach. It was fast, but she was fueled by disgust. She and her staff caught up quickly.
She swung at it. With a SQUELCH her staff went through one of the wings and broke its exoskeleton. Her staff came away with a booger of gooey, green guts attached to the end.
But the thing wasn’t done.
It spun on her, rearing up. One of its front legs swung down on her. She raised her staff to block. The impact sent her flying. She bounced across the cavern floor away from the bug.
She blinked away the disorientation as she pushed herself back to her feet. She was sure that she felt the impact before the leg hit her. Moreover, she was sure the bug hadn’t summoned a wall of wind with its arm to knock her back. Atmospheric Sense wouldn’t have missed something as obvious as that.
The cockroach had gone back to whipping up wind blades. They were less effective now that it only had one wing, but that didn’t seem to stop it or cause it to re-think its strategy.
Cass was able to avoid them easily at this frequency while she considered her opponent.
Honestly, despite its higher level, Cass didn’t feel pressured by its power or skills. She’d already crippled it and could likely do it again just as easily. But the attack that had knocked her back made her nervous. If she couldn’t figure out how it did that, who knew what else it could do?
More importantly, this was just one cockroach. One “lesser” cockroach. There would be more of them. There would be stronger versions of them. She would likely find groups of them before she found her way out of this crevasse. If she couldn’t figure out how to avoid this now, who knew how it could be used against her later?
So, she was going to figure it out. Except to do that, she was probably going to need to take that attack a few more times. She checked her stats real quick.
Stamina: 24/30
Focus: 83/117
Health: 20/25
Between the slice to her cheek and getting knocked back, she hadn’t been too badly hurt. The wounds she’d taken from the boar earlier were worse, even with her super healing working their magic on them.
She was down a little Stamina from the running and dodging, but she could feel that recovering now even as she continued sidestepping the wind blades. At this range, at this density, they just weren’t that much of a threat. She could get out of the way without much effort.
Her Focus was still down from the Wind Step that had gotten her into this mess, but that too was already recovering.
All in all, as long as nothing else showed up, she could afford to experiment with the cockroach.
Steeling her nerves, she rushed the cockroach again. She tried to keep to its injured side as there were fewer wind blades shot in that direction. This time as she got close the bug turned before she could strike. Again, it swung at her.
She tried to dodge this time, her dodge skill instructing her to step under the attack. She tried the maneuver, but again found herself sprawling backward. She landed better that time, bouncing back to her feet.
She was certain now that it wasn’t a wind attack or the bug’s arm. There was another force at play.
She dove into the fray again.
And again.
She could feel it, at the edges of her senses. It was that other mystery sense, the one that was like Atmospheric Sense but was something else again. She watched the bug, almost, almost able to feel it.
There was a pulse of it. And another. Cass watched, tapping her foot as she felt each pulse. Whatever it was doing to push her back, it was using something similar regularly. Pulse, sidestep wind blade. Pulse, sidestep wind blade. Pulse, sidestep wind blade.
She blinked. Why were the pulses accompanying wind blades? She watched more closely. It happened as the wind blades were summoned.
She clicked her tongue as she realized what it was. It was so obvious she almost laughed.
She could sense magic.
Skill Earned: Mana Sense (lvl 1)
[Through careful observation of the forces of unspooled potential, you have come to see it in all its glory.
Intuitively sense the position, type, and movement of mana.
Modified by Per. Modified by understanding of what is being sensed.]
She grinned. Focusing on the skill, the world lit up with the glow of magic. Mana hung in the air, breathy and sparse. The cockroach glowed brightly with Mana. It accumulated along its wing before forming the blade of wind. The wind glowed just as brightly as it sailed through the cavern toward her, dimming as it passed her, darkening to nothing as the spell sputtered out behind her.
She raced forward, ready this time. As she approached the cockroach, it once again spun to face her.
Mana accumulated in its arm. It swung down, the mana flying out and spreading as it did. But she could see it this time. This time she knew what she was dodging.
Dodge had her leap to the right. She did and burst toward the bug again as soon as she was clear. Grinning, she slammed her staff down on the thing’s head. It squelched into a gooey mess and her grin was replaced with a scowl of regret as the smell of its guts overwhelmed her.
Dodge has increased to level 2.
Mana Sense has increased to level 2.
She shook off the feeling and moved away from the bug. Her staff was covered in cockroach guts. She used Elemental Manipulation to wash it off. It took three castings before she was satisfied.
Was that the most strategic use of her Focus? Probably not.
Good for her already strained mental health? Unquestionably.