When would it be considered a good time to panic? He supposed if you want to be technical there is never a good time to panic. But that would have to rely on things like no emotions and Quill had a lot of emotions, all of which were now panicking.
He didn't know how much time he had but if he were to hazard a guess, running would be futile. The roaches had probably surrounded the entire dome and/or blocked off certain exits and if he had several stations worth of roaches charging him along with the leftover patrols and maybe even some forces from the Grand Station. There was no way he was getting out of this by running.
“Probably kicking yourself for not taking care of those outer stations right now huh?” she held a smug tone which annoyed the hell out of him.
“Why are you acting like this isn't an issue! I could manage dealing with one station worth of roaches, sure, but now I have several stations worth plus extra and I don't think I can flee!”
“Yeah but you are you. Even with the horrible situation I know you'll figure out a way, one way or the other. So I'm just going to sit back and watch whatever stupid or crazy idea that you come up with to get out of this.”
He let out a groan and thinking quickly started gathering all of the corpses and material off the ground. There were so many dead bodies that he was practically stepping on them with no visible floor space and that wasn't even counting all the smelly bug goo that was everywhere.
He then ran to the first entrance of the dome and dumped half the corpses he had collected in the tunnel followed by half of the bigger bulkier things including a vending machine. He then ran to the other side of the tunnel and did the same.
“Yeah, that is definitely not going to work. Even if it did you'd only be trapping yourself.”
He growled in annoyance and started looking around the dome floor desperately, hoping that the system kept with its lazy design and just did a copy paste on all domes within this dungeon.
His enhanced eyesight finally spotted what he was looking for and in roughly the same place it was last time. The thinnest crevice on the dirt floor. He quickly pried open the latched door and peered inside the small cubby.
“This is the only time I am going to be thankful for your laziness.” he spoke, directing it towards the system. He quickly hurried into the hole and shut the latch door completely. He didn't even want to risk an opening for him to peek out of in case the roaches took notice.
“Do you think the roaches know about the latch door and the little hidden compartment?”
“I'm hoping they don't. They didn't seem to know about it last time so I'm going to hope they don't know about it this time.”
If they do know about it and they checked, well he was pretty sure he was S.O.L. But who knows, maybe the skill levels in stealth would help keep him hidden in the little compartment. He was also thankful for his shorter stature and lean build for once. Had he been bigger it would have been difficult to fit inside
“By the way, you got some system notifications and I'm interested to see if you leveled up or maybe strengthened your skills. Why don't you check?”
He was about to do as she asked but then his ears picked up the faintest sounds of motion and he held his breath as he closed his eyes. Trying hard to concentrate on what he was hearing and if he could discern how much trouble he was in.
It didn't take long for the debris he had blocked the tunnels with to be moved and soon he heard hundreds if not thousands of scurrying feet scraping across the dirt floor with a mind-numbing amount of chittering going on.
Soon the sound of feet tapping came right above him and he held as still as possible, barely even breathing, afraid that would be enough to sense him. However nothing moved to try and open the hatch that he was under. He would have felt immense relief if not for the fact that the feet that were above him remained above him. In fact, it sounded like there were roaches climbing on top of each other meaning he now had to deal with several layers of roaches all within the dome and it didn't sound like any of them were leaving.
“They likely suspect you are still in here, they just don't know where, so now they're probably going to be trying to play the waiting game.”
Yeah, that was his thought too. And he would have been fine playing the waiting game too as he certainly had enough food thanks to a storage ring. But he was on a time limit when it came to trying to complete these quests. Damn system.
Though that did remind him. He decided to check his system notifications, perhaps that would give him an idea of how to get out of this mess.
You have leveled up to lvl 26
Dodge has leveled up to lvl 6
Enhanced senses has leveled up to lvl 3
Enhanced reflexes has leveled up to lvl 3
Nothing, that offered him nothing. Keeping the grumble to himself, he distributed his stat points evenly between body and mind. At least he did finally gain a level. It only took him killing who knows how many bugs to do it but he did finally get it.
“Well on the bright side, you have so many bugs above you, if you do manage to kill them all you'll probably get to another level… Maybe.”
To him, killing all of the roaches was a secondary goal. His main goal was to get out of the messy situation he put himself in. He was certainly kicking himself now for not taking care of the outer stations. He'd remember that in the future and not show mercy next time.
“No you won't. Knowing you, you'll still find a way to talk yourself into showing mercy and it will still probably bite you in the ass. But you'll keep doing it. On the bright side it will at least keep things more interesting right?”
He really wanted to refute her out loud, heck he probably should refute her in his head. But he had that nagging feeling that she was right which only added to his annoyance.
“Oh please, I am always right, you know this.”
Yeah, he did. she was always….. he dug his nails into the skin of his hand as he focused up. He didn't have time for this; he needed to think of a solution on how to get out.
What he needed was a way to cut through all of the roaches that were likely stacked on top of each other while not losing any kind of momentum and make a break for the tunnel while going as fast as he possibly could.
He might have tried manifesting a car around him and driving through the roaches. Unfortunately it felt like it would become difficult to keep pushing forward as he could easily see the bugs stacking on top of each other even more to block him. No, he needed something that could shake them off while still moving forward.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Also manifesting a car around him would likely put a lot of strain on him so he would need to get out of the situation quickly which he didn't think would be possible. Plus if he was being honest cars seem like such a basic thing to manifest and didn't really fit his style.
“This coming from the guy who's first manifestation for transportation was a skateboard.”
He ignored her comment as he sat and thought. He needed to be quick so manifesting something that he could ride would be good, but he also needed something that could clear out all of the roaches that would likely try and bar his way. He didn't think wielding weapons while on the transportation would do him much good as there were just too many. So he needed his mode of transportation to be able to hurt and kill anything that attacked him from a 360 radius.
A very slow idea started to take shape in his mind. Taking inspiration from one of the few pleasant memories he actually had from one of the few toys he was actually allowed to own. He wished he had a chance to test it out or even enough room inside his little cubby to test out a miniature prototype but that just wasn't feasible so instead he tried to think of what exactly he needed to do.
As he sat thinking he could somehow sense her anticipation of what he was planning.
“This is either going to be really cool, utterly hilarious, or stupidly tragic. Either way, it's a good time.”
Seeing as how stupidly tragic would result in his death, he wasn't sure that would count as a good time.
“ Perhaps not for you at the moment. But it would absolutely give us something to laugh about much later once you are done moping.”
The implications of that statement raised many questions And he had to suppress the unease that threatened to surface. It was absolutely something that he needed to discuss with her later but not now.
He licked his dry lips as he mentally prepared. Through his time waiting he had recovered from his previous engagement and all of the roaches above seemed perfectly content in staying where they were. The first hurdle would be to manifest his transportation fast enough before the roaches could dogpile him in time.
With no further reason to stall other than your classic procrastination, Quill placed his hands on the hatch door and with a deep breath shoved it open while jumping as high as he possibly could, flinging all the roaches that were on top out of the way.
As he jumped higher he quickly began manifesting a gigantic Beyblade below his feet, making sure said feet were latched on to the center of the manifestation. It was widest at the top with Jagged teeth at the edges, and four more layers below that each meant to spin in opposite directions all with their own Jagged teeth. Balancing precariously at a sharpened tip at the bottom. He could already feel the start of the exertion on his body due to the contraption but not really to his mind which he attributed to his new powerful mind trait. So without further ado, he opted to spin to win and let it rip.
The roaches were already leaping towards him, having recovered from the initial surprise of his sudden appearance. But by then it was too late as each layer spun ripping through all of the roaches that tried to get close.
In fact they charged in with so little regard to their own life that Quill wondered if they had some kind of lemming DNA in them. Or perhaps they were all just suicidal. Either way it worked out for him as none could reach Quill in the center, the blades instantly killing and shredding every roach that tried to get near him.
He quickly pivoted his Beyblade towards the wall, allowing the teeth on the top layer to dig into the stone which launched him towards one of the exits, slaughtering and making mincemeat out of everything that came near him. He was thankful that he was smart enough to make the top platform center not movable otherwise he'd be getting very dizzy right now.
As he reached the exit tunnel it became all too apparent he might have celebrated too early with his smarts because he had made an egregious mistake. The Beyblade was too big. The teeth smashed into the entrance of the tunnel and ricocheted Quill away from the wall and he began to shoot across the dome slaughtering everything in his path.
“Why don't you just control where the Beyblade is going.” she managed to get out between the constant snickering.
“ I'm having enough issues keeping the blades turning at high speeds I can't focus on where it's going!” he screamed back in response as the Beyblade hit the far edge of the wall and sadly the teeth didn't grip into it as he was soon ricocheting across the Dome again.
“On the bright side, this is pretty accurate to a Beyblade.”
“Trying to concentrate!” he managed to get out as he noted two larger roaches exiting both of the tunnels and flying up into the air. They had likely been put there as a final stop gap in case Quill did manage to get out of the dome.
He had expected there to be other flying roaches within this massive Army but he didn't really expect how much effort it would take to keep the Beyblade going as he once again ricocheted off the wall and wasn’t sure if he could engage them in combat while keeping the manifestation up. He didn't even know how many roaches he was hitting that were alive or dead seeing as how the whole area now looked like a quite literal bloodbath of bug goo and bits.
Thankfully the flying roaches had a hard time trying to keep up with Quill's erratic movements as he bounced around the Thunderdome. And any roaches that tried to enter this death arena were swiftly wiped out. He even tried to take a few pot shots with his crossbow towards the flying roaches but predictably missed.
At this point escape didn't really seem necessary given how many he had just killed, he was shocked with the amount of devastation he wrought. So as he neared the next wall he jumped off his Beyblade dispersing the manifestation and jammed two thick blades into the wall before climbing on top of them as footholds.
The reason why he didn't just land on the floor was because it was probably neck deep in corpses and blood and he didn't want to fight in that unless he absolutely had to. He also felt like he was running on fumes with his energy manifestation skill given his skin was starting to crack and bleed all over so he was going to try and minimize the usage as much as possible.
The first of the flying roaches came swinging at him with lethal intensity which Quill pulled a spear out of his storage ring, managing to deflect the blow and jamming it at the roaches chest. However it was only glancing with the bug managing to turn into it, using its exoskeleton to deflect the damage.
As it flew away to go for another round, the second came at him and in order to avoid a repeated incident he ditched the spear and leapt at the charging roach, surprising it as he grabbed them and jammed a dagger into its eye. This caused the thing to fly erratically before smashing into a wall and plummeting the both of them into the pool of blood. As they landed in a splash, Quill gripped the things head and with all of his strength ripped it off of the roach killing it.
He then popped his head out of the blood noting it was about waist deep as opposed to Neck Deep which didn't really help considering he was completely drenched in the stuff which also meant he couldn't see as it had gotten into his eyes.
His enhanced hearing did pick up the fluttering of wings getting closer and relying on his survival instincts he plunged back down into the blood at just the right moment while swinging upwards with a manifested mace. He felt a satisfying crack this time and promptly got a kill notification. He would have celebrated his victory right there if he didn't also feel like he needed to throw up.
Quill popped his head out of the blood and guts and managed to rub enough out of his eyes to look around. It was a total mess, the walls were broken and destroyed from his Beyblade with chunks of rock almost as big as him scattered around the whole area. The blood and bug bits were also everywhere in a terrible blend of abstract grossness. It was only a little comforting that everything seemed to be slowly draining out of the two exits.
“Well that was both hilarious, awesome, and stupid. Even when I expect something you still have a way of surprising me. I love that about you.”
He spat out a mouthful of gunk and began to traverse his way through the debris and guts towards one of the dome's exits. He was going to head back to the previous station he had stayed at and take a long nap.
“Thought you wanted to hurry cuz you're on a time limit?”
“I don't give two shits about the time limit right now. I need a nap…. No, I need a shower. A very long hot shower. but I will settle for a nap.” he tried not to think about the bug that's getting into his open wounds and just for good measure drink one of his cleansing potions.
Plus if you wanted to be technical, he was actually ahead of schedule now given how many roaches he just killed. Probably killed more than double just from that incident alone then he had with clearing out the stations. The system seemed to agree with that as the list of kill notifications was mind-numbingly long, followed by two other notifications.
You have leveled up to lvl 27
Pseudo energy manifestation has leveled up to lvl 5
He put his skill points evenly between body and mind. Not really feeling a whole lot better given his exhaustion but he did feel a little stronger. The energy manifestation level up was a very nice bonus though. It did seem like the more complex and crazy he got, the more likely he would be able to level up his skill.
“Say” he spat out another piece of Roach “Since the skill has pseudo attached to the beginning of it. would that imply that there is a stronger version of this skill?”
“That would be my conclusion. We should definitely strive to get it.” There was a small pause before she continued. “I was about to say something flirty but given your current state and mess I decided to hold off. You're welcome. Feel free to praise me now.”
He spent the next minute telling how amazing she was in various different ways before she was finally satisfied. At the very least it did help him take his mind off of the exhaustion.
Thankfully, getting back to the station went without incident and after dropping The Throne of the Gluttony on top of the trapdoor along with a few other heavy things just for safe measure. He squelched his way, towards the break room, picked the comfiest part of the floor he could find, and fell asleep before his head even hit the ground.
