After another hour, everyone went to sleep except for Justin, who was left out to keep watch. Other than Carl explaining the route they would be taking once they woke up, I heard a couple of other pieces of information.
For now, that route was the most vital piece of information, however.
I quietly leapt out of my puddle, causing my vision to return to normal. I snuck around the brightly lit futuristic campsite and Justin, who was hard at work on his handheld instead of keeping watch.
I moved into the passage Carl had pointed out earlier, leaving behind the warm light of the campsite. I tread down the wide pathway, deeper into the tunnels. There weren't many turns, so at the first crossroads I found, I scooped up some blood from a nearby puddle and tried to paint on the wall. I mashed my hands onto the wall, but it didn't work. The blood just smoothly slid off the wall back onto the ground
'Strange. It didn't let me absorb it either. I guess it's not normal blood,' I lamented the unfortunate turn of events. Who could've guessed blood would defy physics here?
With this part of the plan failing, I needed an alternative. Luckily, I knew which direction the group would take, so I followed the same path, hoping to find an alternative source of blood.
'Guess it's time for another fight,' I thought self-deprecatingly to myself. I still wasn't completely recovered, but it seemed that absorbing blood had helped me heal. It must've been a perk of [Blood Absorb].
But I wasn't that worried about dying.
From what I learned from the group, this place is divided into four layers - the Outer Layer, the Middle Layer, the Inner Layer, and the Core. The monsters got progressively stronger with each Layer, but none were above Gifted Rank 3.
I didn't really understand the Rank 3 part, but the important bit was that monsters in the Outer Layer were all Gifted Rank 1 or 2 at worst. The lower the number, the weaker, right? I assumed that the Gifted Lurker Flower Angler was equivalent to a Gifted Rank 1 if the group called it weak, so I should be able to handle other monsters of the same Rank.
I continued down the dark, blood-filled halls for 20 minutes, occasionally spotting a luminescent crystal. Soon, the halls widened into an oval-shaped room. The room was unlit by crystals like previously, although I could see just fine.
I could feel the years of gaming experience speaking to my soul.
'There's definitely something here. That's one thing I can figure out from my years of gaming.'
After scanning the room a bit, I spotted it. In a dark corner, several string-like shadows cascaded to the floor from the ceiling. I couldn't fully make out the details from where I was standing.
I cautiously approached the shadowy strings, hoping they wouldn't sense me. After I took a couple of steps, the bundle of strings trembled. I didn't hesitate and used [Blood Dive] on a nearby puddle. A moment later, the strings swiftly crashed into the place I had just been in a second prior, sending up a small cloud of dust.
From my puddle, I could see that the strings were wrinkly and deathly pale. They were dried out like raisins, suggesting they would crack any second. Violet suckers covered its entire length, each oozing a murky liquid. At the end of the strings were several large tassels resembling rugged fingers groping around the area I had been seconds prior. The shadowy strings now resembled elongated arms. Sensing it couldn't find anything, the arms retracted their tassels back to the corner of the room.
It couldn't find me. I felt a small smile forming on my currently non-existent lips.
'Can't see me without your arms, huh? Good, no need for a brawl in that case. With [Blood Dive], this bundle of raisins will be light work.'
Unlike my fight with the Flower Angler, this time I knew what my Ability actually did. I could definitely take it down with minimal injuries to myself. I just had to be patient and cautious.
I leapt out of the puddle and took another few steps forward. The arms shot at me again, and I leapt into a new puddle.
With such a game of blind cat and mouse, I slowly inched my way towards the source of the arms. After a couple more repeats of the previous scene, I was only a couple of meters away from the source of the bundle. From up close, I counted six tightly packed pale, wrinkly arms covered in purple suckers.
I was beginning to feel slightly light-headed and dizzy, however. I hadn't used my Ability consecutively before, so it was most likely the result of that. I knew I had to finish it after I leapt out of this puddle.
'Nothing comes without cost, I suppose.'
I took a deep breath and created a mental projection of how I would kill this bundle of raisins. After a moment of stillness, a loud splash sounded in the room as my small, nimble body burst from the puddle and dashed towards the bundle of arms. My still-injured leg tensed and screamed as I made my final push.
Before the arms could react to my presence, I had managed to land a clean slash with my sharp claws. Three of the six pale arms fell onto the ground with a thud. Gore shot out from the three severed ends. I heard a loud screech above me as the remaining three flew towards me.
'Fuck!'
I was aiming to get all the sucker-covered arms in one swoop. I had miscalculated their toughness, leaving me in a vulnerable state. This might've been a fatal mistake.
I tried to dodge backwards, into a nearby puddle, but I was too late. I felt several cold and slimy rope-like objects wrap themselves around my tiny body, throwing me off balance. Before I could regain my stance, several piercing sensations enveloped my torso, and my strength slowly began leaving me. Just like that, the tables had turned.
I struggled to free myself or at least my claws, but it was no use. The cold, dead hands had a firm grip on me, and I was getting weaker by the second. I could feel myself growing dizzier with each passing moment. I had to do something and fast. My mind fogged up, and it was getting harder to form meaningful thoughts. Soon, my whole vision was out of focus.
'S..hi...t. So...me...thi...n...g-'
Suddenly, with my last bit of clarity, an idea struck me. It sounded absurd, but why couldn't it be possible?
With the last bit of my strength, I bent myself forward as much as I could and, with all my might, bit down on the cold, chewy flesh around my body. A cold metallic taste began moving down my throat as [Blood Absorb] activated.
Whoever said that in order to use [Blood Absorb], the creature had to be dead? The cold liquid dripped down my throat much slower than usual, however.
A couple of moments later, I heard another searing screech above me, as the slimy sensation retracted from my small body.
I didn't hesitate.
With the tiny amount of strength I regained from absorbing the creature's blood and whatever bit of consciousness I had left, my muscles flared as I blindly shot towards the retracting arms. My arms violently lashed out, and I felt rough, cold flesh pass underneath my claws.
A second later, three loud consecutive thuds sounded.
The remaining arms fell to the ground all at once. A wave of gore shot out from all the severed ends, covering the detached arms on the ground in scarlet. After a moment, a giant black mass shot down from the ceiling along with the severed ends. It flailed and squealed, flinging its hollow ends about, covering the walls in dark, murky crimson.
I fell to the ground to catch my breath. The macabre show continued for a couple of minutes as I recovered my senses before its screeching slowly faded along with the shower of blood. It was now dead.
[You have vanquished a Gifted Groper, Flesh Shredder]
'...What a name,' I thought to myself as the world came back into focus properly. I was slightly sluggish, and my body ached, but otherwise I was fine.
'I need to be more careful. I underestimated that bundle of raisins and almost got myself killed. I would've been screwed if I hadn't come up with that trick at the last moment. It was stupid carelessness! Note to self, do not underestimate the deadly monsters capable of sucking you dry or decapacitating you with a thought,' I self-deprecatingly reprimanded myself.
I could analyze this later. I was short on time.
I decided to get to work.
Ignoring the visage of the grotesque scene in front of me, I shot my claws into the black mass, covering my hand in the dark liquid. I went up to one of the walls and began making huge strokes with the homemade paint. I had to jump to make them as large as possible. Luckily, despite its smallness, my new body could jump halfway to the ceiling without trouble.
'I'm quite strong, surprisingly,' I thought to myself, impressed. My main advantage was speed and surprising sturdiness. Both definitely kept me alive last time and could've saved me a lot of trouble this time around if I weren't so careless.
After gathering more painting material a couple of times, my project was finished.
A truly macabre masterpiece.
'Nothing like a bit of psychological warfare. I don't know how tough they are mentally, but they've got quite a while left in here. They'll crack eventually,' I thought to myself, grinning mischievously.
To finish it all off, it was time to gather the leftover spoils. I sat down at the corpse and sank my fangs into its flesh, enjoying the metallic taste. After a couple of minutes, the System spoke up.
[6.8L/100L of blood absorbed]
'Makes sense, most of it's on the wall or floor,' I sighed to myself. I didn't get that much from when I bit it earlier, so most of it came from the meal I had a moment ago. Still, I felt somewhat better. Progress was progress.
Then my expression turned serious. Something was wrong with me. It's been bothering me for a while now, but my mind's been doing weird things ever since I arrived in this world. I was accepting all this death and gore disturbingly easily.
'I can't help but feel a bit off, though. I don't really feel anything from doing such inhumane things. I was a human not too long ago, and now suddenly I'm casually bathing in blood like some kind of psycho, not to mention the sudden taste for blood, as if I've always been a damn vampire. What's next? Can't eat garlic anymore? I feel like the monster's psychology is affecting me more than I initially thought.'
I didn't want to lose sight of myself. Maybe if I weren't careful, I'd truly end up as a brainless, blood thirsty psychopath. Before I know it, I might start seeing everything that moves as a walking bloodbag. I decided to try to keep myself in check a bit more from now on.
I let out a deep sigh.
'Alright, at least there'll be a nice surprise waiting for them tomorrow.'
I stared at the grotesque scene on the wall before looking at the object in my palm.
'Guess I'll keep this for now. Serves as a nice trophy. I don't particularly feel an appetite to eat it either to gain power or something...Maybe it'll be useful later, who knows.'
I observed the pulsating brown orb I had found in the creature, while dyeing my hand scarlet in its gut. I had noticed this earlier, but didn't pay it any mind. All the orbs were a different colour. The first one was brown, the last one was grey, and this one was purple.
'Interesting.'
I turned on my heel and left the room through the passage I came from, heading back to the campsite. I continued to observe my shiny prize.
'Could've been better. What a shame,' I thought, while shaking my head in dissatisfaction.
As my footsteps echoed into the distance, only silence remained in the blood-drenched room.
The gruesome artwork was left waiting for its intended critics.