The Crumbling Maze

I continued along the ridge of the wall, quietly following behind the bulky wasp. From high up, I saw the corridor ahead open outwards, branching off into tunnels on the left side of the passage with occasionally a few wasps making an appearance.

They followed each other in a spacious queue but always stuck to the left side of the corridor, travelling along the distance before entering one of the tunnels on the left, and exiting afterwards much lighter than before, without their creature cargo.

All except the wasp I followed. It stuck to the edge of the corridor, moving suspiciously away from the others. Its load was the largest, yet it did not enter the tunnels and simply continued its laborious walk.

This I found strange, shouldn't it drop the creatures like the others?

Was it stashing them secretly to eat later?

Scanning with [Heat Sense], I detected no signs of heat in the tunnels except for those close to the entrance, with the depth of the chamber sadly out of range for me to figure out anything more. However, from the echoed vibrations of the wasps inside I guessed the tunnels extended to a spacious chamber at the bottom.

But I wouldn't know for certain until I entered and I scanned again. I focused my mind and increased the range of my heat sense into the tunnel and saw the red outlines of the wasps going further ahead.

But I realised my MP started to drain at a faster rate, so I stopped and my [Heat Sense] flickered back to normal.

Disappointed, I continued to move along the wall. But then.

〚Skill Aptitude Increase: 『Heat Sense LV 4』has become『Heat Sense LV 5』〛

The system's ding made me realise it would be worth training to test the limits of my abilities, but perhaps at another time.

It was likely the chamber inside was where the injured creatures were kept but I couldn't gauge its size to know how many to expect, so I didn't enter.

I continued following after the strange wasp but it was much further ahead so I increased my speed to catch up. But it was strange, the path it took kept moving it away to more isolated areas and soon the tunnel entrances came to a stop.

At the fringes there were very few wasps remaining, they had all dropped off their cargo and were returning to the upper levels.

Looking ahead from my high vantage point I saw there was nowhere else to go other than a corridor veering sharply to the right that looked very rundown.

The ash grey walls were flaky and covered in imperfections with parts that were new and smooth along with older dusty patches that made it look out of place. It seemed like part of an older structure that had simply been built over, rather than destroyed.

Just where was this wasp going?

The bulky wasp and its heavy load had entered into this area, quickly vanishing from view and I feared I'd lost it when I suddenly felt loose grains of sand shifting beneath me followed by a whooshing sound as the little debris cascaded down the walls. Realising the wall I crawled on was starting to break off I immediately stopped moving.

But it was too late.

The falling debris already showered a wasp below and I saw it stop moving and look up in the direction of the wall with [Heat Sense]. 

Luckily, it was the only wasp that noticed, as the others continued moving along the corridor and did not pay it any mind. 

However, the bulky wasp left the ground, much to my horror and started to climb. It was slow and heavy but it made up for it with brute strength and I felt deep tremors as its limbs punched through the ash grey walls and the falling debris from the sands it shook loose.

I quickly slithered along the top of the wall, fleeing into the worn out tunnel.

The wasp did not immediately detect that I had moved as the falling debris from its own climb masking that of my escape. But as I slithered away from it, more dust was shaken loose from the old walls, cascading below like a trail showing my direct path.

The bulky wasp was slower and dumber than the average wasp but even it wouldn't miss such an obvious clue.

The interior was the size of multiple host caverns, only it was crumbling and covered with dust. The room was like a large honeycomb with thin walls shaped like hexagons reaching up from the ground to make up a cell, unlike the hexagonal chambers on the top level that had them as holes in the ground.

The walls covered everywhere on the surface in scattered rows like a formed maze with a tall spacious ceiling that went on for ages.

The cavern looked like a very old host chamber that had fallen to misuse and when I entered it, I almost crashed into one of its walls.

There was no sign of the wasp that entered earlier and I wasn't sure where to proceed but I quickly found some crumbled gaps between the cells that I could navigate and hide from view.

However, the wasp pursuing me was not so lucky. As soon as it turned the corner it slammed head first into one of the thin walls with enough force to punch through, raising up clouds of dusty debris in its wake.

Whenever it came close to where I was I quickly moved away behind another wall. But it did not stop. It seemed this bulky variant of wasp was not very bright. Although it did not know my position it kept chasing me and without the patience to find a path through the maze of walls, it was attempting to break each one relentlessly.

Right after I hid, the wasp came crashing through with brute strength, like the walls were merely made of paper and I had no choice but to continue moving. It moved largely in a straight line so I veered left and right, weaving a sporadic path through the hexagons.

The chaotic chase brought me further into the maze than I would have liked and I almost reached the centre, when I was suddenly struck by an unpleasant sensation.

[Heat Sense] detected a large creature up ahead. It didn't bother to hide its presence and was emitting an aura so intense and terrifying, my consciousness splintered like shards of glass when I came into contact.

〚Skill Aptitude Increase: 『Stealth LV 3』has become『Stealth LV 4』〛

My immediate instinct was to flee but I was struck by an overwhelming fear that rooted me in place and I could barely hear Sensei's voice in my head.

«Stay still. Don't move. Any closer and it will detect your presence. That thing can see minute traces of heat that aren't covered by [Stealth.]»

Even as all my instincts were screaming to turn about and run away, I willed myself to stay there and coiled myself tightly as I pushed the limits of my [Stealth], trying to conceal every last minute trace of me completely. Chilling cold permeated my whole body and I hoped I'd done enough to escape notice.

A crashing noise was heard on my left and the bulking wasp emerged from the chaos shaking off clouds of debris from its body.

I was certain it would attack me but surprisingly it continued to move past me with surging speed, plunging deep into the centre of the hive, right where the terrifying creature was.

It only took a few steps when I felt the vibrations of a fast moving object slicing through the air and in less than a second the wasp's hardened head and thick mandibles were cleaved cleanly from its body in a glorious rain of purple ichor.