Chương 161: Chapter 166: Prepare Yourself

I focused another Entropic Lance into a shape it didn't want to be, a single point of light, hyper-compressed and as big as a peanut, then made it float slowly in front of us, until it reached a bend in the tunnel.

I could sense a great deal of monsters buzzing all around and reaching for us, the ones in the openings in the ceilings and the sides I just drained to keep my mana consumption at bay, these kinds of experiments drained me more than I thought they would, but the ones in front I would use as target practice.

Honestly, target practice was the wrong term, they were more like test subjects, like the ballistic mannequins that are so used in videos to simulate the human body, and that get regularly blown to bits by some weapon or explosive. The monsters passed beside the point of golden-blue light and when they were mostly in position I let it go. The bead exploded with a particularly concussive sound, especially in these tunnels, it reverberated and bounced, echoing everywhere.

I could hear the buzzing intensifying, come, come to daddy. This was not a lack of judgment on my part, as Alya probably thought, given her dumbfounded expression, no, this was me trying to upgrade my Butcher achievement, it probably required ten thousand monsters in a single battle, and I had the feeling that this place had it, if it didn't, well, I would have practiced to my heart's content and gained some points, you can't go wrong with that.

I could feel my skills rapidly improving now that I wasn't focused on traveling as fast as I could and could put my mind to it, there were many dings that were not related to me killing monsters, signaling skill level-ups, that was fine and all, but the real prize would be mutating another skill.

I was thinking about what Vix said about merging skills together, while I felt that putting a hex into a projectile was fucking useless, as he proposed, I instead thought that merging Entropic Lance with Aural Manifestation would be a much greater combination. I already managed in the spar against the blue alien to merge my aura with mana and life-force, creating an attack that was much more powerful than the sum of their parts, this would be the first step towards having that all the time.

But I was tired of fighting against the shape of the skill, before it was a bullet, then a dart, now a lance. It improved yes, and I improved in modifying its shape, but I hoped that the System would give me an evolution that fixed that problem, but it didn't, so I'd take things into my own hands. The light and the blast were redirected by a thin grey aura barrier created by yours truly, as the monsters got blasted to smoking pieces.

This was actually a terrible waste of energy, single, more focused projectiles were way more efficient for killing these things, one in the brain and that was it. Instead of pursuing that path, I started to create any sort of weapon I could think about, daggers, knives, swords of any kind, javelins, spears and halberds, bardiches, maces and flails, chains were the absolute worst to make, and weren't really that good, but maybe I could mix them with a tether?

Anyway, for fun I created Captain America's shield, and threw it horizontally at the monsters, cleaving them in half, actually this was pretty good as I managed to kill many with a simple flattened pane of energy. But it was unstable as fuck, and it exploded after it went too far away and my control slipped. I was getting tired fast, the mental pressure was intense, I had to basically drop Accelerated Perception as I went about my things, but I was pushing with my eyes to pierce through the workings of my magic.

It annoyed me that I was managing some pretty awesome feats, but I couldn't understand the how. I hoped that my Piercing Eyes would pierce through the workings of the energy I was seeing. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

"Are you fucking having fun?" Alya asked me in half shock half disbelief. What was wrong with her? Except for the obvious, I always did things this way, but actually…

"Yea, a little. Magic is awesome, and being able to do this is quite intoxicating, without considering the effect of absorbing and using so much life-force, so yes, I'm having fun while training my skills. Don't give me that look, do you think nobody sees the smile you sport as you slash and impale any monster that comes your way?"

"That's… different. It's my trait making me feel that way…" I created a very thin wire, that sparked like a cut high-tension cable at the end, bleeding energy all around, then used it to trap a trio of mecopterae, and squeezing, cut them in pieces, damn, that was nasty.

"Traits are us. And we are our traits Alya, if there is something I came to understand, it is that we are shaped by them, the same way as skills, but much more personally. You can choose to not use a skill, but you can't choose to not use a trait, in your case, it is a constant fight against yourself. Didn't you notice?" She stayed silent for a long while before answering, her words echoing in the widening tunnels.

"I don't want to be this way." She punched a wall, and I stopped, hexing and draining any monster that approached us, to give us some modicum of space.

"What do you think? That I enjoy being called the angry woman? Do you think I don't hear what the others say? I hate it, I hate that I can't control myself, that every little thing can spark this… this rage within me. That I spent a lifetime resenting who I am and now that I could have changed for the better things became worse instead." She paused, tears welling into her eyes.

"I just want… I want to be fine. And I know it's not your fault what happened, but I still can't not resent you for how things became. You know what I was thinking about the other day? That if I wasn't so drunk during the party you would have come to me instead of Rhea, but it's not like that right?!" I didn't know if it was a rhetorical question or not, but I answered anyway.

"No, wouldn't have." For multiple reasons, but still, I didn't want to create a bigger problem so I said a little lie.

"Not because I don't feel anything for you, but because I don't know where me and you would go if we ever got together." She looked at me in shock.

"Wait… you're scared?" I avoided looking her in the eyes, shooting a needle of mixed energies at a monster instead, one that I left approach on purpose. Then another, and another. She started laughing, first a little then more unhinged.

"You are saying that Rhea is the safe option then? While I am the wildcard, the one you don't know what would happen if we were to start something… fucking stupid is what it is. You, who are scared of nothing, come to tell me that exploring our feelings makes you afraid?" Her tone became darker, colder.

"Or you are bullshitting me so hard it's not even funny, or you know something that you're not telling me." I killed a few more monsters, then turned to her.

"Take it as you want. But it doesn't change our situation." She looked intently at me, I could nearly hear the gears turning in her head. But contrary to my expectations, she didn't escalate it further.

"Ok, I get it. Let's move on then, I want to be out of these stinky tunnels as soon as possible." She stomped forward as I followed behind, killing any monsters before they managed to reach her. I couldn't see her face, but I felt she was pretending to be upset, it was my eyes that were telling me this, in the way she walked, the relaxed posture of her shoulders…

I didn't know which conclusion she came upon, but she was right about having to move on, less testing and more killing, we were approaching the center of the hive, the tunnels were more inclined now, and sometimes we had to drop down literally for meters to follow the right tunnel. But little by little we were approaching the mass of energy I felt was in the middle of it all. It was a matter of minutes now, I hoped she was prepared.

While proceeding I was starting to wonder how it was that I found myself talking about feelings with another girl inside some tunnels. Before it was Rhea and the spiders, now Alya and the fucking flying scorpions, who would be next? Chloe? No, I would have to break this pattern after this, I refused to make this a normal thing. While I strained my skill with more complex and strange weapons and constructs, I felt it clear, just ahead we would find the Baron.

I marched in front of Alya, who turned to me as I passed her by.

"We've arrived, prepare yourself."