After pondering Cecilia’s translated journal entries, Alice spent several minutes mulling over the words from the other transmigrator. Knowing that she was, for sure, not entirely alone was comforting. The idea that there might be an easy way back home was also comforting. However, Alice couldn’t help but worry. The System had been utterly ruined at this point. Would the path back home still exist? Alice shook her head, and pushed those thoughts aside. She would worry about it when she got to that point. Then, she went back to the map, to see if she could figure out anything else now that she had a little more context to work with.
Unfortunately, the map was just as frustratingly obscure and difficult to read as it had been before. Knowing more about when and how the System had been created hadn’t done a thing to make the map easier to read.
Alice had to wonder what the heck was wrong with the creator of the System. He had clearly intended to provide assistance for anyone else who came to this world and wanted to go back home. If that was the case, why had he made the map for this place so difficult to parse? It would have made far more sense for him to create something that was easier to access and understand. Originally, Alice had assumed that the System’s map was intentionally built to be obscure and difficult to understand, as a method of screening out people who didn’t belong inside of the System. However, now that she knew there was explicitly supposed to be a back door in the System for transmigrators, Alice wondered why the creator hadn’t made more information accessible within the System.
Of course, with how much of the System had been destroyed recently, it was hard to guess how many user-friendly parts of the System had been ruined. Alice strongly suspected that there might have been a few user-friendly goodies left behind by the System’s creator that were not in working order anymore. Still, Alice found herself wishing that the System would just bestow a ‘how to use this map’ manual upon her.
While Alice didn’t find any miraculous instructions on how to use the System’s map, she did notice something she hadn’t before. Near the center of the System, there were gaps in the map. Since the map was overly simplistic, Alice wasn’t sure whether those meant there was a room there that the map couldn’t access, or whether there was some other oddity. In any case, Alice decided that those gaps in the map were probably important, unless they were simply terrain quirks. Still, it was worth exploring. If she teleported the group to an adjacent room, it wouldn’t be too far to travel. Alice decided to set her sights on those odd gaps in the map first.
Of course, before they could teleport anywhere, the group still needed to restore the power. Alice detailed what she had learned about the System’s energy system to Doll, Ethan, Myra, and Allira, to see what ideas they had for removing the ‘blockage’ further upstream in the power supply.
Allira first took action by sending a few shadowy scouts up the pipeline to see what was happening. While Alice suspected the problem was ‘monsters are absorbing all of the mana upstream,’ there was always a chance the problem was something different.
That chance did not come to pass. Just as Alice had suspected, the upstream source of power was filled with another nest of monsters. Furthermore, the monster infestation was even more severe than it had been in the first room they cleared.
According to what Allira had seen through her shadowy scouts, the ‘second evolution’ shadow spiders weren’t the end of what monster evolution could do. In addition to the unusually powerful second-evolution spiders that the group had fought previously, Allira had seen an even larger and more powerful monster alpha within the power-grid infestation.
Alice had no idea what kind of power level that represented. This was because there weren’t even any records of the step beyond ‘monster alpha’, at least until the group had found their first second-stage evolution monster within the System. Now that there was a third-stage evolution. Alice wasn’t sure whether the Immortals could handle this thing… but more than that, she was also worried about what else they might find as they got closer to the heart of the System. The further into the System they went, the more dense the mana became. The third stage of evolution for monsters was probably not the end of their evolution tree.
“What kind of abilities do you think they’ll have?” asked Ethan. You’re the only one who has seen it, and I don’t like the idea of going into a fight blind.”
“Well… the first thing I noticed is some kind of… contortion ability?” said Allira. “I’m not entirely sure what was going on, but the spider is somehow moving around comfortably in a space that is clearly too small for it to fit. If it stood at full height, I think it would be eight meters tall, which is about three times higher than these corridors are meant to handle. Somehow, that doesn’t seem to be bothering it, though. I think that the bottom of its legs are bending and compressing in weird ways to make it fit, but I also didn’t get a very good look. Perhaps this ability takes up some mana. In that case, we might be able to exploit this size problem if we’re clever.”
Myra rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. “That might work, but the problem is the amount of mana that monster has. Even if it needs mana to operate inside of these passageways, it might not matter much in the time span of a fight. Worse, its limbs might also be abnormally structured due to biology, rather than magic. We’ve never seen a third evolution monster before. We have no idea what changes happen between the second and third stage of evolution. We don’t even really have a full picture what changes between a monster alpha and a second-evolution monster, really. There’s just not enough data. Myra grimaced as she looked at the walls of the System around them. “Not to mention, you can’t detect System mana using your Perks, so we have no idea if the third-evolution spider has a Perk. If it does, it might pull something terrifying out right as we’re on the verge of victory.”
“Alice can probably handle a monster’s Perks,” said Ethan. “Don’t forget the role she has been filling in many of our fights so far.”
Myra paused. “I suppose that’s true. I don’t know if her reflexes can keep up, though. Third evolution monsters might have a lot of unpredictable elements to them, but I can certainly assume they will be fast. Alice is clearly not a combat oriented near-Immortal.”
Alice thought about Myra’s words, and had to admit that the older woman had a point. Alice also had no clue whether she could react in time to a powerful monster’s attack, even with the benefits of her two Perks that allowed her to enter a bullet-time like state when she was in danger.
“Did you get any other information?” asked Doll.
Allira shook her head. “Unfortunately, I didn’t. I didn’t want to risk startling it, so my shadows are still hiding rather far away.”
“Then can you try attacking it with a few of your shadows? Perhaps we can get a better idea what it’s capable of. If you give me more concrete data, I might be able to make some specialized equipment to deal with the shadow spiders. I already have a few toys that I built while Alice and Cecilia were working on their projects, and if the abilities aren’t too different, they should still work. I can fine tune them to perfectly counter these creatures with better information.”
Allira tapped her chin in thought. “I can do that. Sending a few shadows to attack.”
Allira closed her eyes, and another ripple of rainbow mana shot out of her body and into the nearby shadows. A moment later, Alice saw a few more waves of shadows slip into the mana pipeline beneath their feet, while Allira closed her eyes in concentration.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
The corridor fell into silence for nearly a minute, before Allira gasped.
“It wiped out my shadows nearly instantly. It saw me. It’s coming! Get ready!” She hissed, as another wave of rainbow mana shot out of her body and into the corridor. Allira began singing.
Alice saw their surroundings start to change. The area rippled, and a moment later, the light in the room started to intensify. The shadows grew fainter as Allira sang new light sources into existence.
In moments, it was as if the group was standing right in the center of a spotlight. Light seemed to come from every direction at once, banishing even the faintest shadow. Alice resisted the urge to cover her eyes - even with her [Endurance] shielding her eyes, they still stung a bit.
The Mages travelling with the group, including Cecilia, weren’t quite so lucky. They gasped in pain, and then several of them shielded their eyes - making them considerably weaker during the upcoming fight. Allira’s decisive move caught Alice by surprise - this was something that harmed both the enemy and themselves, after all. She wasn’t sure whether it was worth it to blind their own mages just to weaken the shadow related abilities of the spider.
A moment later, Alice heard a monstrous shriek of pain as a spider materialized in front of them. Alice blinked in surprise as she realized that the spider’s body was no longer entirely physical.
Through Alice’s eyes, the spider looked at least somewhat reminiscent of an Immortal, at least as far as physique went. The spider’s body was a cloud of mana - and not just any mana. It was shadow-based mana.
It didn’t seem as though the creature was… complete yet. But Alice was sure that this creature was a literal manifestation of the concept of shadows, amped up to an extreme level of hunger and madness.
Alice also noted, with some relief, that the spider didn’t have any Perk-esque mana inside of its body. The fact that it was derived from the concept of shadow also meant that this environment wasn’t just a way to weaken it - it was almost as if the spider had jumped into a pit of acid. The environment was hurting this thing far more than it was hurting their group. Had Allira realized that due to Alice’s descriptions, or was it just some kind of combat instinct due to her decades of life as an Immortal? Either way, Alice admired her quick decision making.
Of course, while the spider was partially comprised of concepts and mana, it still had a physical component to its body. It looked like a giant, hairy ball of legs and teeth. It would have fit right into a cheesy hollywood horror film. The spider had eight massive legs, each of which was nearly as wide as Alice’s torso. The legs were bent like noodles, allowing the massive tarantula-like body attached to those legs to squeeze into the corridor.
Even more bizarre than the spider’s massive proportions was its mouth. Or more precisely, the multiple mouths attached to the spider. Each of its legs ended in something that seemed almost like a miniature mouth of its own, with a few rippling mandibles flickering in and out of reality like illusory images. It took Alice a moment to realize that she wasn’t mistaken - the spider truly had an extra mouth attached to each leg, and each mouth had fangs dripping with venom. Somehow, when the creature moved, these mouths seemed to disappear and reappear at will - allowing the monstrous spider free movement and also ensuring that every corner of its body was a threat.
For a brief moment, Alice felt hope that the corridor would truly limit the enemy’s movements, and perhaps give the group an easy way to take down this horrifying behemoth of a spider. Then, the spider took its first darting step forward - and Alice’s mouth gaped open as she realized that Allira’s earlier description was incorrect. The spider wasn’t contorting its limbs to move. Instead, the spider’s limbs were both tangible and intangible. When the spider moved to propel its body forward, its limbs literally phased through objects as if they weren’t real, allowing the spider to phase through walls and objects like an object someone had forgotten to install colliders on.
The massive spider’s legs phased through the walls, and then the creature swam inside of the surrounding terrain, propelling its massive body towards them.
It was like seeing an entire building hurtle towards them at speeds no building should ever reach. The spider was so large that its mouth alone nearly took up two thirds of the corridor. Ethan immediately launched a wave of projectiles at the spider’s head - but they phased through the spider’s body as if it didn’t exist at all. Alice immediately followed up with her own wave of enchanted bracelet beads - but they also flickered through the spider’s body. Alice noticed that little bits of mana stuck to the creature's body from her bracelet beads - so it was possible to harm the creature with mana, and probably with perks. Unfortunately, the damage Alice had inflicted was about the size of a papercut. With a creature that could stand eight meters tall, she doubted the creature had even noticed the tiny wounds.
Alice’s heart raced as the creature flowed towards them. It was like trying to fight with a lethal, terrifying illusion.
Alice felt {Adrenaline Rush} kick in, buying her extra time to think and process what was happening, but Alice felt as if she were trying to think through sludge. What was she even supposed to do here? How could she deal with this monster?
Allira seemed to be trying to ramp up the light show in their surroundings, but her song wasn’t moving fast enough to deal with the creature.
Myra stepped up next. She moved so quickly that Alice could barely see her. She dashed to the side of the monster, and a moment later, Alice saw Myra take out a kitchen knife as her body started to ripple with rainbow mana. Another wave of rainbow mana rippled through Myra’s cooking knife, and then she chopped downwards.
The chef’s knife slammed into the spider’s leg, and for a moment, Alice thought the knife had passed harmlessly through the creature’s body, just like every other physical object the spider had touched so far. Then, a splash of black blood tore out of the creature’s body, as nearly a quarter of its meter-wide leg split open. The spider didn’t even flinch as its mouth clamped down on Myra, and ripped the lower half of her body to pieces.
Myra’s body rippled with more rainbow mana, before her missing legs and intestines regrew. She took the opportunity to swing her kitchen knife twice more as the spider paused to rip apart her lost lower body - and then one of the spider’s legs fell off. It leaked shadowy fluid as Myra retreated. The spider didn’t seem to notice the loss of one of its legs at first, which made Alice’s heart sink.
Until the monster toppled over, and Alice realized the creature was just too busy eating to realize it had lost a limb.
Ethan let loose another blast of magic - this time, entirely electromagnetic mana, rather than objects propelled by kinetic mana. A blast of lightning tore into the spider’s body. Unlike the previous attacks, this one had a very noticeable effect. A few of the spider’s eyes popped like bubble wrap as the lightning blast tore into the creature’s face, and more black fluid leaked out of the creature’s body.
“Aim lightning attacks forward!” yelled Ethan, and Alice felt a ripple of rainbow mana seep into her body. A moment later, Alice felt as if she could pinpoint where the creature was… and where her allies were. It was like an incredibly rudimentary mental map.
It was enough for the Mages travelling with them. Several more blasts of lightning surged out of some of the nearby Mages, especially those with access to electromagnetic mana. Combined with Ethan’s attacks, the spider’s head rapidly became more and more charred, a the lightning twisted deeper into its body.
The spider finished munching on Myra’s lost body parts, and finally seemed to realize that it was half dead. It screeched in pain, and then leapt towards Ethan again - but this time, Doll threw a small, silver ball at the spider. There was a sudden flash of blinding light, and Alice was fairly certain that her retinas got burned beyond natural repair - but she heard a screech of pain from the spider. A moment later, she felt several more blasts of heat, before the spider’s location, which Alice had been tracking via Ethan’s Perk, disappeared.
“It’s dead! Relax and give me {Patient’s Consent} so I can heal you!” said Ethan.
Alice, along with the other nearby Mages, quickly gave Ethan consent to heal them. A moment later, Alice blinked tears out of her eyes after her eyes were rebuilt from scratch using organic mana.
The monster’s corpse in front of them looked like it had been tossed into a grill for several hours. It smelled almost as nauseating as it looked. Alice breathed a sigh of relief as she confirmed that the monster was nearly dead, and that she had a bunch of Class mana that she needed to filter in order to get a few levels.
However, another stray thought sank deeper into her mind.
This spider had managed to force an Immortal to use up one of their ‘extra lives’. Even though nobody had actually died this time… how much worse would the monsters in the heart of the System be?
Alice’s thoughts grew increasingly unsettled as Ethan healed the rest of the group.
Scheduling Notice for the rest of the year: Those of you who have been around for a while probably already know this, but I take the last week of each year and the first week of each new year off as vacation time. Basically, the week of Christmas and the week of New Year’s. This year I intend to do the same thing as usual. I will also be taking the day of Thanksgiving off, since I live in the US and I’d like to spend some time with my family and eat some turkey. As a result:
On November 27th, there will be no Markets chapter, for those of you reading my other story. Expect two chapters for that week, not three. For those of you who only read Budding Scientist, expect little change that week.
Then, from December 19th to January 5th, I will be on vacation for the year. First Budding Scientist chapter for next year will probably be up on January 9th, unless I see a reason to make some kind of scheduling change to what days of the week I release chapters. I currently tend to release chapters on Friday, but I might swap this date if I feel a need to do so. I don’t think I will, but just as a forewarning - I do sometimes make changes to how I schedule things or arrange my schedule during my vacation. Vacation is a good time to look at my schedule, my plotlines for each story, and spend some time thinking about what I need and what my stories need without the time pressure of ‘gotta release another chapter soon.’ I have no idea whether I’ll actually implement any changes, just noting that some might happen. Anyway, you get the general idea.
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