36: Skin-Leeches In My Breeches

Skin-leeches were a common mutant creature found mostly in marshlands, especially near or within taboo zones. Mir had dissected one in his lab class a while back. He vividly remembered its spongy, wriggling, flat body and its parasitic attributes.

"There are Skin-leeches in this taboo zone?!" He asked, voice cracking in horror. "Why wasn't there a warning?!"

"Because we've only just discovered it," the woman replied calmly. "The tunnels of this taboo zone were flooded a few hours ago. Instead of returning, the more capable transcenders from previous batches have been asked to stay back and investigate the source of the flood and how it has affected the tunnels. You're from the latest batch of explorers, right? Did you spawn inside one of the muddy tunnels?"

Mir nodded frantically while slapping himself all over, checking for any inch of his exposed skin that felt numb— the most basic way of discovering Skin-leeches in the wild.

A couple of other explorers who had been listening in on their conversation jogged towards him, looking concerned.

"Hold him down," the woman ordered, and a second later, Mir was pushed face-down onto the ground by them. He had no idea what she was doing on his back, but he felt several fingertips pushing into his skin rather forcefully. A soothing coolness seeped into his bones wherever those fingertips grazed over, like being massaged by ice-pricks on a hot summer's day.

"Found one," he heard her mutter, raising the panic in his heart. He tried to crane his neck around to get a look, but his head was pushed back into the dirt by someone.

"There's bound to be more on you. Don't look right now," said the guy who did it.

Torn between obedience and fear, Mir waited patiently as one leech after another was identified inside his skin. Once identified, the leeches were easy to extract, if one ignored the pain associated with the process. These mutant creatures could replace a part of their victim's skin, usually at the bottom of the dermis layer, where they could feed on the host's blood vessels indefinitely. So pulling them out involved quite a bit of blood, torn skin, and high-pitched screams.

Mir was a determined young man with a steadfast will. But after the seventh leech was pulled out of his skin, his voice turned hoarse from all the screaming. By then, several other members of the same batch as him had turned up inside the cavern, crawling out from gaps within the rock formations like undead abominations, and looking the part too with their dirt-soaked appearance.

"I told them not to let new batches enter before we can find a way to control those leeches. Now we have to sit here and examine each and every little brat that comes over," one of the older men complained in annoyance. "Oi, all of you, get in line and lie down if you want to leave this place safe and sound. Especially those among you who spawned inside the flooded tunnels. Look what's happening to that kid over there."

The same panic that had Mir sweating profusely gripped the newcomers as well. Some of them were the trainees he had traveled with on the bus. Seeing him bleeding all over as he was held down by the older explorers left them even more stunned than the rest. But they weren't given the chance to come over and enquire about what was going on.

The dozen older explorers were not only incredibly strong as Transcenders, their teamwork was smooth too. A few smacks were all it took to convince the newcomers to do as ordered.

"....Aaand, we're done." The woman who was 'operating' on Mir dusted her palms and stood up. Feeling the grips over his limbs loosening, Mir slowly tried to sit up, legs spasming uncontrollably as he did so. As most of the Skin-leeches had snuck into his legs, the extraction procedure had left him missing large strips of skin there.

But he was just glad that the ordeal was over without having to examine the skin covered by his underwear. If the material hadn't contained repellants to ward off small mutant creatures, especially insects... Mir didn't dare to imagine the scene. He could only be thankful to whoever it was that designed the undergarments issued to all explorers.

"Not even a 'thank you'? I charge people for that kind of treatment, kid," the woman said, appearing a little bemused. "I'm off to deal with the rest. I expect to see some manners next time."

"I think it's his first time here." One of her companions hit the mark. "Definitely a rookie. Didn't you notice that he didn't introduce himself after arriving? Boy has no idea about the standard behaviour."

"Er... I'm not really affiliated with any organizations, just a student who won a license. Are there some implicit rules of introduction that I should have known?"

The man sighed. "Yeah, you have to declare your identity and name your license issuer if you meet anyone in a sacred ground or even a taboo zone. Makes it a little more convenient for parties to work together if they have to."

"People can just lie if they have bad intentions, can't they?" Mir asked, puzzled.

"Yeah, they sure can." The man smiled in an odd way, as if recalling something funny. "And those people have to be prepared to be lied to."

"Can I see those leeches?" Mir asked. "You didn't kill them all, right?"

"No matter how small, mutant creatures are still resources to be harvested," said the other guy who had held Mir down during the extraction. He was squatting on the ground just a few meters away, and only after he spoke did Mir notice what he was squatting over.

It was a caved-in rock cradling a small puddle of clean water. The leeches that had been pulled out of his skin were wriggling crazily in the water. Mir crawled over hastily for a better look, his heartbeat rising as he took in the scene.

About an inch-wide, and a couple inches in length, the exterior of the leeches shifted between several skin-tones every few seconds. Nine of them had been pulled out of his body, and almost none of them had had the time to feed much off him. Their shriveled, leathery bodies in the water almost activated a fight of flight response in the depths of his mind.

"Grade-1 mutants," the man squatting beside him said. "Very low mutation potential. Has an affinity to water, predictably. It can shift between solid state and fluid state to burrow into its victim's body. The danger rating is the only thing that makes it interesting. One point fourteen, almost reaching the mid-level of the lethal category. But that's not unusual for mutant parasites. They evolve to be better at feeding, greedy little things."

"Skin-leeches have a soulslot consumption of only 1 unit, right?" Mir asked quietly. Both men beside him fell silent, an incredulous expression dawning on their faces.

"...You can't be serious? Kid, do you understand how dangerous it is to contract unintelligent soulbeasts? If you're a commoner, choose something within your means, not something that can corrupt your neural network!"