Chapter Seven: Trapped
Bouncing a few times before coming to a stop, Karl stayed still on the ground while looking up towards the hole in the cap that he fell down, and he saw more Sporelings still falling down into it. Just swarming into the hole like water filling a crater.
Using his single arm that is still attached, Karl dragged himself to the Guardian, and he hid under one of it's giant arms. Sounds of impact continuously rang inside the hole while the Sporelings were still falling, which continued for half an hour before no more sounds of impact could be heard.
After the sounds stopped, Karl received a message from his system right after, and he was stunned at what it said. "Congratulations! You have indirectly killed four Sporelings, and you will receive half of the EXP awarded for each kill. You have gained a level."
Exuberant that he has discovered that he can get EXP from indirectly killing a Sporeling, Karl was all smiles, but then he realized something. If you got EXP from indirectly killing a Sporeling, then why didn't he get EXP from killing all of these Sporelings? And then he got his answer.
With a rumble, the Guardian started standing up, along with almost all of the other Sporelings, and they started searching. Karl had taken the opportunity to grab on to the Guardian's arm as it was standing up, so he was being pulled up far away out of sight of the smaller Sporelings.
Using his remaining three points that he has, Karl put them into his constitution stat, and that was the best choice he could have made at that moment. With the each point he put into constitution, it would increase by five points as well, so it went from 6 to 21 since he put three points into it.
As the first point was added, all of Karl's bones that weren't attached to his skeleton flew back from the locations that they were scattered, and they just tore through the bodies of the Sporelings as if they were nothing.
When the second point was added, his bones became two times denser, and when the third point was added a small bone tail grew from his tailbone. Of course, this magical scene didn't go unnoticed as most of the Sporelings, especially the ones who got their bodies torn through, all looked at the magical flying bones.
Which caused them to see Karl clinging to the Guardian, and then the smaller Sporelings started attacking the Guardian to try and get to Karl. Furious at the ants that were pestering it, the Guardian swept it's leg as if it was a person moving the ice cube under the fridge, and it hit thousands of Sporelings with that one attack.
Because of the deaths of those Sporelings, Karl received some EXP from killing them indirectly. "Congratulations! You have gained 300 EXP for indirectly killing 3000 Sporelings with another beings might." Yes, he only got 0.1 EXP per Sporeling. What? Did you think that he would gain hundreds of thousands of EXP points and rise to level one hundred?
Even though 300 EXP might seem like a small amount it was actually still quite large for his level, considering he was level 5 and he needed 2100 more EXP to level up. Indirectly kill 21,000 more Sporelings and he will have his level up.
After a another three sweeps and gaining 625 EXP, Karl finally felt like something had changed as the Guardian had stopped killing the other Sporelings. Looking at it's face, he saw that it was looking at him, and then he saw it's hand flying towards him.
Accompanied by his lower mandible falling off, Karl jumped to the torso of the Guardian instead of staying on it's arm, and because it was so large and the gap between it's arms and torso was quite far, he ended up landing on it's thigh and sliding down a little bit.
Climbing up the leg as fast as a monkey climbing a tree, Karl had to time his jumps just right or he will be blown off of the Guardian's leg. Just before the Guardian's hand would hit the spot that Karl had been a few seconds prior, Karl would launch himself upwards while not holding onto the Guardian as to not be affected by the shockwave travelling throughout the leg.
Soon reaching near the centre of the Guardian's torso, Karl found a tiny hole that lead straight to a glowing grassy green mushroom. Described as tiny, the hole is actually large enough to fit a pickup truck, which easily allowed Karl to enter, he just used tiny as a comparison to the size of the Guardian.
Quickly running into the hole, Karl was just in time as one of the hands landed at the opening of the hole, and a loud smack was heard. The shockwave produced by the force of the hand hitting the torso and the sound produced knocked Karl off his feet and around the hole like he was a certain rag doll goat in a video game.
After five seconds of being thrown around, Karl stood up and continued running towards the glowing mushroom that he could see, but the surrounding walls/flesh of the hole started constricting as he got closer.
Not long after they started constricting, Karl wasn't able to go any further as his surroundings became smaller and tighter. Getting a brilliant idea that he couldn't put into action if he was still alive, Karl took his left arm off, attached it to the back of his skull, took his skull off, and then he threw it like a javelin the rest of the way to the mushroom.
Just barely making it through before the opening closed, Karl looked around as he saw more holes leading into this area that were still opening, and then he was scared as he could feel something tightening around his body even though he wasn't connected to it.
Moving swiftly, Karl rearranged the positions of his arm and skull, so now instead of being in the grasp of his hand like a baseball, he was now on the other end that connects into the shoulder socket.
Hopping around like a one legged man, Karl went towards the glowing mushroom, that was actually quite large, as fast as he could, and he started attacking it in whatever way he could. Biting, scraping, unsuccessfully trying to punch, and even trying to headbutt it.
But nothing was working fast enough. Looking at the mushroom, Karl got a "bright" idea, and he decided that it was worth a shot. Shifting closer to the mushroom, Karl stuck his skull right up to it, and he put a part of the mushroom that was jutting out into his eye socket.
Three seconds passed before anything had started happening and the thing that did happen was quite fiery. Catching on fire, the mushroom started burning as a cerulean blue flame lit and spread across every inch of it.
Shaking violently, Karl felt the tightness around his body disappeared as he looked back and saw that the hole was opening, a hand was trying to reach into the hole and reach the burning mushroom.
From an outside point of view, the Guardian was clawing at it's chest area, normally where the heart would be, as a blue glow was originating from inside of a hole in that same spot. The cap of the Guardian was rapidly dimming as the fire continued burning, which meant that it was dying.
As for Karl, he was still just watching the mushroom burn. Watching for a few more seconds, he hopped over to the rest of his skeleton that was lying on the ground as if it was dead, and he reconnected his arm and skull.
Standing up, Karl shook a little bit as he felt like something was off, and there was. Grabbing his skull with both hands, he twisted it around so it was facing the correct direction, and then he went back to the burning mushroom.
When Karl had put one foot into the spacious area with the burning mushroom, the room had ripples spread across the walls, and when the other foot landed in the spacious area it closed all openings into it as Karl was now trapped inside.
Fifteen seconds after he was trapped inside, he suddenly felt weightless as he noticed that he started lifting off the ground, and then he blacked out. Waking up shortly after he blacked out, Karl realized that his surroundings were dark, they weren't illuminated by any mushrooms or flames anymore.
Although shortly was used, it has been a few days, and Karl had no way of knowing that three days have passed or what has happened in those three days. Pushing himself off the ground the first thing Karl did was look at the system panel, which had a strange notification that hasn't disappeared yet.
"Congratulations on killing the 'Juvenile Guardian', you have gained 7,500,000 EXP, as a reward for killing this for the first time you gain twice the EXP, and as a bonus reward you gain another four times the amount of EXP as you have killed your first Guardian, and as an extra bonus reward you have gained another four times EXP for killing something far beyond you level.
Because your level is too far from the level of the creature you killed, you will receive this EXP at level 100. The EXP will be stored in an EXP bank that is used specifically for these situations. Please understand."
Shocked at what he just read, Karl was bewildered as he wasn't even thinking about the EXP that he could get from killing the Guardian, he was just trying to kill it so he wouldn't be crushed to death. Searching around his system panel, he realized that his level had actually risen by 3, so he was now level 8, and he needed 4800 EXP to level up again.
Searching a little more, he saw that there was a tiny little box in the top right corner of the system panel, and the number displayed in the box was 75,000,000. Karl would gain 75,000,000 million EXP as soon as he reached level 100.
Putting all three of the 'free points' he had gotten into constitution again, Karl saw it rise from 21 to 36, and a few small changes and one larger change happened to his skeleton. The first point made his lower mandible fly back to his face, it had gone through any and all obstacles as if they were nothing, and his bones become thicker and denser.
The second point made his tail, which he still didn't know he had, grow longer until it was roughly the same length as his legs, and he his bones became thicker and denser. Every time his constitution increases by 5 points, his bones become thicker, denser, and stronger.
And lastly, the third point made an arrowhead shape on the end of his tail, it also made his bones thicker and denser once more. Examining the changes to his body, Karl realized that he felt something behind him, and he turned his skull around.
Seeing the tail attached to his tailbone, Karl was bewildered as to why he would grow a tail in the first place, even if it was made of bones. Feeling it with his hands, he started moving experimentally without using his hands, and he used like it was another arm.
It was quite strange to suddenly have something like a third arm, especially since you've never experienced anything like it before, so he got some thoughts on having a little bit of fun with his new appendage. Swinging it around like a whip, Karl was joyfully exploring his new capabilities with his whiplike tail, and then he struck himself in the face.
Clutching his nose, Karl was gonna cry out in pain, but then he remembered that he couldn't feel pain. You can't blame him for whipping himself in the face before, he has never used a whip, even though he lived on a farm.
Getting his thoughts together, Karl realized that the openings into the area he was in were still closed, it must be some kind of defence mechanism when something with two or more legs walks in, that could be the only explanation as it only happened when he walked in here.
Going to the wall, Karl tried to break through to the other side, but he wasn't able to even scratch it. Trying to get through the wall for a few hours, Karl eventually gave up, and then he sat down while hugging his knees.
'I guess I'll just have to wait until he decomposes to get out of here, it can't take too long, right?' Another thing Karl didn't know was that most Sporelings decompose fifteen minutes after being killed, they just turn into dirt and blend in with all of the other dirt.
Karl was actually inside of a ball made out of a hardened material that Guardians produce when they are nearing death. He was right to think that it had been a defence mechanism and he would have been able to make it out of the ball if he had decided to leave right after the material appeared, but he killed the Guardian in a very unconventional way, so he didn't get the chance to.
(P.S. I had originally planned for the previous chapter to be called "Trapped", as the walls couldn't be climbed, but I got engrossed in the flashbacks and wrote to much. Now it is called "The Fall" and this one is trapped, I already have the name for the next chapter and what's going to happen as well, but it is 3:40 as I'm writing this post script and I need to head to work, soooo. I will most likely have another chapter out by Saturday, or possibly tomorrow depending on what time I wake up.)