Chapter 184: The Hybrid (2/2)

At the same time, I heated the metal over my armor until shined white. With the sweat on my brow evaporating, I dived forward. I sunk through the shell and into the beast. Just as I reached inside the iron, I cooled the surrounding metals.

We were both trapped inside.

The wires and veins tried invading me. Using my armor, I fought back. I molded my armor into a thousand spears in every direction. From each spear, I launched even more needles. The beast swirled in its cage, wrestling for escape. I gave it no leeway or opportunity to do so.

Without a direct means to get away from me and feed on other silvers, I slowly whittled it away into nothing. As my armor devoured the final piece of the creature, I tapped against something ephemeral. Blue light illuminated the darkness around me, revealing a dungeon heart.

As I tore out of the hollow iron ball I created, I held up the blue dungeon core with a notification of the Hybrid's death. We killed the damn thing. Althea cheered with one of her arms flopping at her side. I sat down, splashing into a pool of the black blood. After a few minutes, my armor sapped even that, leaving nothing behind.

With the beast finished, I stood up, put the blue dungeon core into my inventory, and paced over to Althea. She laid back on a crag of metal, blood dripping down her hands. I grinned at her, and she grinned back. As I got beside Althea, I laid down beside her,

”You look like you could use a hand.”

Althea raised her arm, showing several fingers twisted in wrong directions,

”Oh hah hah, very funny.”

I reached into my dimensional storage, ”What? Something looks off about them. I can't quite put my finger on it...”

Althea winced, ”Ok, stop it, or you'll actually kill me.”

I laughed, pulling out a green health potion. As I poured it over Althea's shoulders, she gasped in relief. I put her fingers into the right directions, Althea grunting in pain as I set each of them. After she healed up, we laid there for a moment. Her healed hand wrapped around mine and Althea leaned her head on my arm. With Giess's warm sun shining on us, she fell asleep.

I let her rest for a bit before lifting her with magic, suspending her in the air. She pulled an all-nighter by fighting a giant monster. She deserved a break. Carrying her behind me, I traveled towards the Skyburner's base to investigate what happened. If I waited much longer, the silvers would strip any evidence left behind.

As I got there, several engorgs already scoured the blood stains on the steel for nutrients. I threw blocks of sheered metal at several of them, killing them at a distance. Althea slept through all of it, her exhaustion absolute. After clearing the camp, I combed the area for any clues about what the Hybrid was.

I found several odd signs in seconds. The hybrid traveled by land, destroying a lane of spires as it did. Where its feet landed, it stripped the metal beneath it as well. These factors made following its trail obvious.

That's why it threw me off that there was no oncoming trail of destruction here. It was as if the hybrid just popped up in the middle of the base.

Another strange signal came in how the Skyburner's died. I expected burn marks from their fiery breath in all directions in the base. The few scorch marks I did find were right beside the blood stains where the Skyburner's were crushed. Even worse, the trails of blood were short, meaning they didn't fight for long. From what I could tell, none of the Skyburners escaped by flight either.

That giant mass of screeching metal had somehow snuck up on the Skyburners while they were asleep. Gialgathens owned sharp senses, the Skyburners even more so. They'd hear something like the Hybrid coming from a mile away. That monster being stealthy was impossible without some kind of intervention from an outside source.

I was sure of it.

With that conviction, I found the final clue. At the center of the camp, there was a sludge well that fed the now dead slaves here. Around the bubbling pit, the metal was stripped at odd angles and places. Putting the pieces of the puzzle together, I came up with a picture of what happened here.

The Hybrid crawled out of the well beneath the camp. It devoured the surrounding slaves, evolving into a threat. After killing the zombified espens, it must have infected a nearby Skyburner. If anything, it crawled into the Skyburner's mouth or something while it absorbed the gialgathen from the inside. Otherwise, it would make too much noise.

After that, the Hybrid lashed out and crushed the surrounding Skyburner's before they could retaliate. Before I made any more assumptions, I pulled Althea to me. I held her against my side while casting an antigravity well at the center of my chest. Without delay, I jumped into the bubbling pit of purple sludge.

The gunk molded around us, the antigravity keeping it from touching Althea or me. After about thirty seconds of sinking down, the sound of rushing liquid passed by my ears. Using Hunter of Many, I used the sound of rushing water to find an opening in the well. Althea and I crashed out of the sludge tunnel, uncovering a vast cavern.

In all directions, multi-colored fungi glowed in hues of blue and orange. Crystalline creatures darted between these faunae, hiding under the caps of the glowing mushrooms. Birds of glass hid inside clusters of gleaming moss. The light passed through the bird, making them hard to make out among the curtain of lichens and mosses.

Several crystal shards glowed here, created from pure mana crystals. They hummed with a radiant power, untouched by the surface world. Many tiny, subterranean animals fought for dominance over this glow, harvesting the latent energy. I analyzed everything here as I walked, but none of the species were categorized by Schema.

No one had seen these creatures but me.

Pacing deeper into the cavern, I found the opened rift deep underground. Behind a set of intricate stone doorways, a vast collection of starfish hung onto rocks on the ceiling.

Well, starfish wasn't the right word. The tiny critters were like sea cucumbers with many legs spread out in all directions. Before stepping further in, I analyzed them.

Harvesters(lvl 32) - These creatures wobble their way around caverns and eat the native plant life. They're attracted to sources of energy of all kinds, giving them some potential for growth. This kind of expansion is rare as there is often times very little to eat deep under the earth.

This stunts the growth rate of these monsters.

Despite this lack of danger present from these creatures, an unarmored individual can be killed by these creatures. Harvesters are sticky, and their entire bodies are composed of a multi-purpose cellular composite. All of the creature's biology is simultaneously muscle, nerves, and brain. This gives them surprising strength given their rather limp forms.

They can also eat in all directions, making them hardy survivors. These interesting characteristics make them the subject of much study from scientists. They aim to hone the survival characteristics of the harvesters into biologically enhanced power armors. While little progress has been made, they still attract many biologists to research them for their potential uses.

You won't struggle against the creatures at all.

I cast event horizon over the harvesters. They disintegrated in an instant, raining down black liquid as I passed by them. The vermin fell from half-eaten lichens, giving the cavern back its natural lighting. As I did so, I found no marks from the hybrid traveling up to the surface anywhere.

After a few minutes of exploration, I found a collapsed portion of the cave. It was a reasonable enough occurrence in most caverns. What made this piece different was two factors.

First, it was the only portion of the cave split off from the rest. The rest of the expanse was a single, wide tunnel that twisted and turned. Second, the cavern smelled like gunpowder and ash. Armed with my curiosity, I pulled the stones out of the cavern, setting aside large piles of rubble. A few minutes later and I cleared the room.

Inside, I found broken test tubes, ripped up electronics, and burnt papers. Someone studied the creatures here and ran after doing something. As I searched closer, I came across several unharmed vials of purple sludge. They sat on top of a bent, metal desk.

Beside them, a cluster of saysha formed a matrice from a cracked vial of the muck. The saysha almost covered another glass container. Almost. I crept closer, finding a language on the jar. I tore a strip of my armor off, melting it. As I did, it glowed white-hot above me, giving me a light.

I read aloud, ”Saysha Sample-B103. Hmm...”

I stood and wiped some dust off the battered desk, pulling open the drawers. No papers were left, but I discovered several suspended jars of the harvesters. I picked one out, dusted it off, and read aloud once more,

”Hybrid Sample-B103.”

I sighed while crushing the container in my hand.

Someone had created the hybrid.