25 Doubts and Dread

[So it's him!]

[Is he... trying to make leather? Did he really think tanning leathers was this easy?]

Vin was right, Nathan only thought of drying up the skin because of the visual effect in one of the games he played. Besides being dried up and hit by a tool similar to a bat, leather is made.

Nathan was sure of himself due to the successes he had in other aspects such as creating tools, so he thought of copying the more complicated things from other games.

Vin shook his head, unbeknownst to him, the chaos in his heart disappeared as he found out his friend was ok.

Silently, he crept up closer to the clearing.

What Vin saw surprised him.

A mud hut with windows and a thatched door and roof. Other than the look of the hut, even the size surprised him.

[Did he build this from before? Is he alone? What is he doing?]

Moving along the trees, the angle of his vision shifted, in front of the hut is Nathan meditating at the crackling of the bonfire.

With a huge doubt in his heart, Vin decided to test Nathan.

Entering [Void State] requires the person to enter a sort of sleep-like state where outside influences are filtered out. After testing it out for a couple of days, the only time they break the [Void State] is when the person is under danger or in pain.

In his past life, he was able to make a chieftain of a tribe on the planet he was to colonize, reveal his secrets by acting like a ghost.

When the chief was isolated in his room, a blue sphere of light covered his house, wisps of humanoid figure appeared all over his house as voices resounded within the space.

In the end, due to the backwards of their civilization, the chieftain revealed all of his secrets due to fear. Vin was able to plant a seed of fear in the chief's heart that he followed every single command that Vin had him do.

Vin successfully colonized the tribe by controlling the chief.

Remembering a tool from his past life, he began to calculate in his mind on how to recreate the effect of the device.

The tool is called Sound Mobilizer, when one speaks in a megaphone-like tool, the sound produced will shift around as if the source of the sound is moving. Increasing the frequency of the movement can simulate a group of people shouting at a surrounded target.

Besides the sound mobilizer was a sound curtain that formed the sphere, but in this isolated part of the forest, he did not need it.

Back in the cave, Vin and Nathan used the vents to communicate. Using vents, Vin and Nathan screamed at the hole to make themselves heard whenever they wanted to show each other their findings.

If the exit vents weren't on the cliffs, superstitious beings might have thought of it as the voices of god.

The logic is very similar to an oversized stethoscope. Without the diaphragm, of course. Magic could substitute for that.

With [Earth Manipulation], Vin started to make the hollow tubes surrounding the clearing. From the ground and up the trees.

After half an hour time of work, his set-up was complete.

Now he just has to wait.

...

At the same time, Forest Underground.

A mole whose twice the average size is rapidly digging his way as if being chased by something.

With his glowing brown hands, the soil was as soft as butter.

After a while, the mole reached a larger space.

The mole used [Earth Manipulation to close down the tunnel it dug for itself.

Then, the mole placed its ear close to the ground, waiting for vibrations if the armadillo continued to chase it.

A few hours ago, during the chaos.

The mole found a female human and an armadillo. The human was losing her mind, wriggling around as if trying to push hands away from her body. The armadillo was trying to pacify the woman with its gestures.

If it were just a random human, the mole would've run away long ago. But this human. The mole knows this woman.

It was the same person that killed his girl.

Besides the stupid crazy amount of humans in the forest, it was hard for a specific species to find someone similar to themselves.

This mole was one of the lucky ones, finding a female mole.

A few days prior, the woman and her group of three humans and four animals went out to hunt. Each human had a partner animal beside them.

The mole, who called himself Leonard and his partner Maavthe female mole were strolling themselves.

But then, Maav suddenly had an inspiration and had to breakthrough on the spot. Similar to Vin's case, her white orb made protection. She was about to turn into a level-3 being.

Unfortunately, the first group to find Maav and Leonard was the group of eight.

When Leonard saw the group, a helpless determination bloomed in his heart, he couldn't help but complain about how these humans are so numerous.

Leonard did not know his origins, when he woke up, he gained cognitive abilities and became smart. He had the mental capacity of a proper adult.

When the group attacked, Leonard faced them head-on completely disregarding tactics.

After a flurry of spells, Leonard only lasted 8 minutes before succumbing to the group.

The woman and the mole went closer to Maav as Leonard was helplessly watching on the ground.

Maav had to abort her breakthrough to save Leonard. Using her mole shaped crystal the kill the hunters, in the end only the woman and the armadillo who protected the woman survived.

They fled.

But just like Ji, Maav had her source completely broken and slowly leaked out.

Maav held the weakened Leonard who was lying on the ground, bloodied.

"Take revenge for me," she whispered as her body disintegrated into particles. Leaving only a broken orb which was her source and a mole-shaped crystal that was completely drained.

This was what happens when the source was broken, instead of leaving a corpse, the broken source will absorb the rest of the body as an attempt to survive. This, of course, does not work as it was only an instinctive action, it couldn't be cancelled.

In his nightmare, he remembered how he was devoured by a cheetah who hunted him.

But instead of falling into a frenzy, he carried on. The pain of losing Maav after finding a new hope in the new world was more painful for the mole.

Watching the chaos, he began to wander. Doing the same thing he did for the last few days, which was to hunt that damned bitch.

As if due to karma, he did find the woman. After a short deliberation, he immediately manipulated the earth to squash the woman's head like a watermelon.

The armadillo failed to react as the Leonard blasted him away with a strong gust of wind.

Leonard went in to collect his loot, there he found a pristine with a human-shaped crystal inside.

As a last form of revenge, Leonard devoured the orb.

Just as he was enjoying the surge of mana in his body, the armadillo got up and summoned sharpened earth shrapnels to rain upon Leonard.

They were both specialized in using Earth spells.

But the difference is, the armadillo is a level-4 being while Leonard is only at level 3.

After getting hit by a few shrapnels, Leonard realized that this is a battle he can't win.

Strength. He needs more strength to get his revenge.

Unlike the armadillo who had been domesticated as a pet, the Leonard thrived in the wilds.

He began to dig at speed comparable to the armadillo who's only using brute force to quicken its digging pace.

Fast forward, and here we are.

With his ears leaning on the wall that he just closed, he heard vibrations from above, none from the tunnel behind the wall.

He then summoned a small fire to lighten up the area.

In that area, different tunnels of different sizes spread out like a beehive. Leonard decided to go through one of the tunnels randomly.

"Everyone is so active today, even after the amount of blood spilt," he muttered.

Wait a sec.

[I muttered?]

So far, the animals and the beasts alike can communicate using an exclusive line given to them by the white orb. It was akin to telepathy.

Him being able to speak human words astounded him.

But it didn't last long. With all the craziness that has happened, what's another mutation to him?

He kept running.

At the end of the tunnel, he saw another mole looking at a hole inquisitively.

[Another mole!] Leonard thought excitedly.

Due to his excitement, he did not see a dislodged rock and tripped down.

The other mole turned around and saw Leonard on the ground.

Ignoring the pain, Leonard look upwards.

There he saw, a mole with a face of a human girl.

His glowing eyes turned to dread.

Then he heard the human-faced mole speak.

"Are you afraid?"