21 The World Under
Adam was sleeping on his uncomfortable bed and it was quite cold.
He had told the old man they needed to replace that door, but he said they would keep each other warm and wouldn't have to worry about the cold.
Suddenly, he felt someone grabbing his hand and touching him all over as if searching for something to steal.
Who would steal from them? They had nothing!
He opened his eyes and found the ugliest face he had ever seen a few centimetres away from his. It wasn't human!
The creature was more shocked at seeing Adam waking up than he was at seeing it.
It suddenly started screaming and jumped back.
Adam quickly realized that he wasn't in his shack with the old man and remembered where he was. He was at the bottom of the cliff!
He tried to search for his spear or anything he could use but he didn't find anything, moreover he realized that he couldn't move his right arm as it was broken and the left arm could barely move. His hand touched something wet and as he looked at it, it was the corpse of the reptile he had dragged down with him.
He looked at the creature again and it seemed to have regained its composure as it started approaching him.
Its back was hunched and its skin was a pale gray. It had sharp teeth, pointy ears with big eyes and long arms with claws at the end. It had a very short neck and a flat nose a wooden club was in its hand and it wore some sort of dirty tattered skin skirt.
Adam tried to get up, but his legs were broken. His body ached all over and he was bleeding.
He tried to think of what to do but nothing came to mind. The creature grabbed him by the foot and started pulling him over.
He suddenly remembered that he could use some spells, so he quickly used [Lesser Charm] on the creature.
Its eyes suddenly went blank and it stopped moving. It worked!
Adam let out a sigh of relief...but he couldn't relax yet. The skill was continuously using bloodline energy and he couldn't maintain it for too long as he felt the drain taking place.
He wished to see his status and it appeared in his mind.
[Status]
-------------------------------
[Name: Adam]
[Race: (Newborn) Vampire/ ????????]
[Level: 3 - 37%] [Class: None]
[HP: 4/170] [MP: 60/100] [Bloodline Energy: 260/320]
[STR: 50]
[END: 48]
[AGI: 50]
[INT: 46]
[Spells]
- [Lesser Life Essence Drain lvl 2 – 77%]
- [Lesser Mana Drain lvl 1 – 60%]
- [Lesser Shadow Stealth lvl 2 – 68%]
- [Lesser Charm lvl 1 – 14%]
- [Regeneration lvl 2 – 16%]
-------------------------------
[Replaying missed notifications]
[Host has absorbed life essence of a stronger opponent. Stronger effects detected]
[Host basic stats have improved]
[STR+5] [END+5] [AGI+5] [INT+5]
[Host has levelled up!]
[Basic Stats have increased]
[STR+10] [END+10] [AGI+10] [INT+10]
[Bloodline Energy increase affecting host]
[Additional stats increase]
[STR+10] [END+10] [AGI+10] [INT+10]
[Some skills have improved]
[Regeneration level increase will be calculated when host will have fully recovered]
[Unknown energy detected in host; effects unknown]
[Host bloodline energy scanned by external force. Unable to resist]
-------------------------------
This was too much information to receive at one go, which confused Adam.
He couldn't appreciate the increase in strength he had received as he was alarmed by his extremely low health.
He looked at the thing in front of him and considered feeding on it, but the moment that though came to mind, he crossed it out.
He couldn't bear to bite something that dirty and ugly.
He saw his spear on the ground not too far and pointed at it while looking at the creature.
It looked at the spear and then back at Adam.
He waved his hand towards himself and it somehow understood. It went and brought him his spear.
Adam grabbed the spear with his left hand and smiled.
"Thank you", said he as he stabbed the spear in the creature's neck.
The pain made it regain its consciousness and the charm effect disappeared.
It grabbed its neck while looking at Adam, eyes full of fury before it fell on its knees and then fell face first on the ground.
It twitched a bit before it stopped moving.
Adam hoped that all the noise and the blood wouldn't attract more creatures. But he couldn't really move at the moment.
He laid there and waited for his skill to heal him.
Time passed and soon enough Adam managed to get up. What he saw next completely shocked him. The reptile that he fell down the cliff with was missing most of its body! It had huge bite marks and only a third of it remained...
Adam raised his head and looked at the thick layer of fog he had given no thought earlier. His strong sense of vision didn't help him as he couldn't see through it.
He tried to reach Belekir and he managed to do it. His view soon changed to that of a bird. He saw Belekir attempt to go down but every time he tried to do so, something tried to grab him from inside the fog and barely missed him because it would fly up again.
Adam was shocked and immediately ordered his bird to stop. He relayed the thought of staying safe until they could reunite once again and asked it to be discreet.
His vision returning back to normal, Adam stretched his body and the pain was still there. It was at a degree he could bear, but was still very uncomfortable.
He decided to find a hiding spot to rest and wait until he fully recovered before he would start moving around.
He scanned the vicinity and found a cave entrance. It was the only one around and he didn't feel like walking at the bottom of this ravine for much longer. A certain sense of danger had been assaulting him ever since he had opened his eyes earlier.
Adam went inside the cave with careful steps. His senses searching for any sound or movement.
A few steps inside made him realize something unfortunate, he wasn't alone in there.
The horrible smell of decay and rot filled the place and different beastly sounds could be heard. And even if the place was pitch black, Adam could see perfectly.
In front of him was a nest of creatures similar to the one he had just killed. Some were similar and some were different. But they all were obviously from the same species.
He tried to find a way through them but with his body in such a sorry state and no blind spot he could slip through, it was almost impossible to go deeper without getting noticed.
Adam turned around to leave this cave when one of the creatures jumped from a hole in the wall that he hadn't noticed earlier.
It stretched and scratched its eyes; it must have been sleeping.
Adam was tense. He stopped moving, breathing and had even stopped thinking for a moment.
The creature didn't seem to have noticed him, as it walked towards a pile of rotting something...He couldn't figure out what that thing was.
It crouched next to it and started munching on it.
Adam slowly tried to walk around it when he carelessly walked on something. This something must have been a bone or a dried piece of wood, for it made a cracking sound.
There was a short moment of surprise, as the creature stopped munching. It turned around and made a sniffing sound. It got rid of the sleeping drowsiness that had somehow prevented it from smelling the stench of blood coming from whatever was behind it.
It stood up and with all its might, screamed!
There was a noise that came from deeper inside, and that noise was followed by another noise and then by a hundred noises.
The ground shook as whatever was inside rapidly approached.
Adam got flustered as he hadn't expected any of this to happen. He hastily used his skill [Lesser Shadow Stealth] and wanted to run away from the cave, but as soon as he had the idea, he saw a huge crack in the wall.
It was risky but trying to escape with his body wounded would be riskier, so he quickly made his way to the crack and tried to fit inside.
His backpack didn't fit, so he threw it away and pushed himself inside. As soon as he did, they arrived.
A horde of creatures ran past him and towards the exit. Adam grabbed his spear tight and was preparing for the worst, but they didn't see or smell him.
They looked like the one he had killed outside, but some were bigger and had darker skin. He couldn't count how many there were but it must have been above fifty.
They all rushed to the exit of the cave and this gave Adam the opportunity to go deeper in the cave.
He got out of the crack when he saw a crippled creature approaching, it was trying to follow the group that had gone past earlier but it was much slower because of its bad leg.
It walked at a slow pace and as it arrived to where Adam was, it didn't see him. But it looked at the ground and found his backpack. It limped towards it and started inspecting it.
Adam was about to leave but he remembered that his book was in the backpack.
He hesitated for a moment, and then stabbed his spear in the creature's head from behind.
The stab went deep and the creature didn't struggle. Adam then cleaned the tip of the spear on the creature's body, grabbed his backpack and ran towards the depths of the cave.
He didn't know what awaited him inside, but going outside was not an option anymore.
His wounds were a bit better but he was still in a bad state, and the shadow stealth skill had reached its end.
Fortunately, most of the creatures had rushed outside and he could sneak past the few that remained.
They were very small and must have been too young to fight or hunt.
Adam didn't touch them as he sneaked past them and kept going deeper.
The cave system seemed to be huge as it seemed to stretch deeper and deeper. A few minutes passed and the cave only got wider and bigger.
At some point he found an exit, or so he had thought.
What was in front of him was a huge underground space with many holes or entrances that most likely led to tunnels just like the one Adam had come from.
He couldn't see the other end of this space as it was simply huge, and there were giant mushrooms instead of trees.
There were some glowing crystals here and there and some were as big as houses. Most of the crystals were blue, some were green and a few were purple.
Adam was in a quite sorry state, yet he couldn't not appreciate the beauty of this underground world. But the most beautiful thing he could see was the huge blue crystal that was sticking out from the ceiling. It was at the highest point and he guessed that must have been the middle of this underground pocket.
There were some very thick vines growing on the walls and ceiling and some had grown long enough to reach the ground of this space. But they all seemed to originate from around the huge crystal.
He didn't feel like exploring right now, so he tried to find a place to rest.
He got out of the tunnel he was in and stayed close to the wall. He looked for some place to hide and after a while he saw something.
There was a vine that had been creeping down until the ground, and it went all the way to the top of the cave.
Adam decided to climb it and find a spot to rest. The vine was quite easy to climb as it had many holding spots.
He was a few meters high when he noticed a cave entrance behind the vine and the entrance was just narrow enough for him to get in.
He peeked inside it and it was perfect to rest as it wasn't very deep as he could see that it was a dead end. He threw his backpack inside first and then squeezed in between the vines.
Adam sat next to a rock at the back of the cave and leaned on it, but as soon as he did, it gave in and collapsed making him fall on his back.
A cloud of dust rose up from the commotion and when it settled down, Adam found a skull next to his face.
He was a little bit surprised, but he made no sound as he got up and understood what happened after he looked at the ground.
The rock he had leaned on wasn't a rock, it was a cloak and what was inside the cloak was a skeleton.
He noticed that whatever the skeleton had been wearing was completely destroyed and wondered how the cloak had survived.
Adam also noticed a cloth bag next to the skeleton and after looking inside, he found two books, a pan and some dried meat that was inedible at this point and some exploration tools like a rope, a climbing pick and a dagger.
He had some waiting to do so he grabbed the two books and checked their titles. The first one was titled "Aurora's Adventure Book: Bestiary, Useful Plants, and Survival tips!", and the second one had no title.
Adam started reading the one with no title out of curiosity, as he wanted to know what it was about.
The first page only had a few lines and they were:
"My name is Mary Biffers and this is my own adventure book / diary! I have always admired Ms. Aurora and my dream is to become a famous adventurer just like her!"
He flipped to the next page and started reading...
As Adam read through the diary, time passed and his wounds recovered slowly.
Soon enough his body was back to full health and he was almost done reading the diary. It was basically the diary of a town girl who dreamed of becoming an adventurer just like her idol Aurora and the author of the second book he found in the bag.
She had met some rich guy who tried to woo her by gifting her an enchanted cloak that could take the shape of a rock and hide its wearer.
He knew that she wanted to become an adventurer and thought it would impress her. Unfortunately for him, she had heard rumors about how many girls he had fooled into believing he loved them and then threw them away afterwards.
She accepted the gift and escaped to live her new life. Her adventure wasn't very much like Aurora's as she fell into a cave and was abducted by some goblins. She managed to escape before they could do anything to her thanks to her cloak.
After escaping, she found her way to the huge cave and was almost killed by some huge lizard monster before finding her way to this cave.
She was wounded and had nothing to heal herself. She was alone and had no hope of making it alive so she wrote what little adventure she had lived in her diary and hid in her cloak waiting for the end.
The last page said: "I wish I had met Ms. Aurora at least once in my life, and I wish I had listened to my mother. She was always right about everything in my life...if only I could say goodbye to her."
Adam closed the book and looked at the skeleton with pity in his eyes. He felt sorry for this girl as he imagined how lonely she must have felt during her last moments in such a place.
He gathered the bones and packed them in the cloth bag, he then attached it to his backpack and decided to bury her whenever he would find soil.
Adam picked up the cloak and put it on, he then crouched down and covered himself with it and it suddenly inflated into a solid shape that covered him.
He could see through the cloth and even if he couldn't see himself, he guessed that the cloak looked like a rock.
He had felt some of his mana being consumed, but it had only happened at the beginning and it hadn't used anymore mana afterwards. Since it had stayed for God knows how long in that shape around its original owner, Adam guessed it would remain this way as long as he wished.
He picked up the second book and started reading it. A few pages in, Adam found the reptilian creatures that had chased him in the tall grass. Their name was "Hill Raptors" and they were considered dangerous as they hunted in packs.
He kept flipping through the pages and found that the ugly creatures he had met at the bottom of the ravine was a goblin. Nasty creatures that lived in groups, they kidnapped women to reproduce and ate about anything.
Reading this, Adam thought that this Mary was lucky to have escaped, even if she ended up dying after it.
He closed the book and decided to rest a bit before he would try to find a way out of here.
