Chapter 31 Discovery

Exploring the mine again he was a lot less cautious, 'All the spiders should have come running from that silent scream for help, I do wonder how that works.'

'Is it something that we just can't hear, or is it not a sound but a smell?'

'I doubt it's a smell, in such a damp cave, we should notice a sudden smell, no?'

'Or could it be like bees? Triss used to say that if you poke a beehive, their entire family will come after you.'

'Hmm, could be...'

Pondering about how the spiders communicated he strolled through the cave. With the power of dark magic, Lucas reached a new level of power and grew a bit more confident in himself. Killing three spiders before took a lot of effort and planning, yet now, he could almost fight them head-on.

Searching the other caves didn't reveal much, he found a few mutilated corpses that seemed to be used as food for the spiders. 'If the steel spiders need to feed on large prey like humans or boars, how do they live in such large quantities in these caves? It's not like that baron sends sacrifices regularly, so how do they sustain such a large group?'

'Normal spiders can live without food for a long time, don't you remember the ones in the attic of our church? They stayed there for months without any decent meal.'

'The Giant Centipede would be too powerful for these spiders.'

'But if it is caught in a web, wouldn't it be helpless?'

Thinking about how they could survive he started to make a few parallels between normal spiders and these monstrosities. Normal spiders could survive for at least a few months without and the larger the spider the longer they could survive.

'The strangest thing might be that they aren't solitary. The ones we know of, live and hunt alone, yet these act like ants. Living in groups and setting up a nest.'

Stuck with this line of questioning he found himself back where he found the bloated and disfigured body of the miner. His belly was still bulging out of normal proportions, not knowing how to proceed he took the most basic approach. Taking his sword in hand he cut the belly open with a single swing, not caring for whatever could be inside. What came out were a bunch of big bloody orbs entwined with intestines. They looked to be made out of some kind of strange web that was hardened. He couldn't figure out what it was exactly.

Being Lucas, he just swung his sword again to see what was inside of the strange ball. Cutting it open revealed a baby steel spider, still in its early stages of development. Lucas didn't know too much about what fetuses looked like but he could recognize what it was.

'So we were wrong, that little one isn't young, rather a female steel spider.'

'Why do you think that?'

'The color of the spider was different, male specimens have a more grey color, while the female ones are a bit darker. The baby's here show a more grey color'

'I see.'

Facing the pile of bones he couldn't exactly tell from what animal it came from. The pile contained mostly long slim bones, way too big for an arm or they would be giants. In a cave that didn't seem the most practical. While thinking about which animal it could've been he started to note down everything he had discovered.

'Centipedes don't have any skeletons, so what animal would normally have long bones in them?'

'Hmm, it seems as if these bones could only fit in wings, they would be too brittle otherwise.'

'Wings in a cave? Hmm, there are bird-type creatures that live in caves. Perhaps bats, that seems the most likely.

'I guess this was the source of their food, still, in total there can only be about 6 bats, seeing the number of skulls there are.'

'Since there were only so few spiders here, could it be that this cave is in turmoil, like a war between different competitors?'

'Great, as long as they stay weak and under Rank 1, we can deal with it.'

Looking a bit further he discovered a crack in the wall. It wasn't that big, but the steel spiders could have forced themselves through it. Since this was uncharted territory Lucas started to be cautious again, he was stronger than before but still weak. Going through the crack revealed a tunnel that seemed to stretch even further. Taking his walk extremely seriously he found an opening in a wall, leading to a big cavern.

On the ceiling was a ginormous bat sleeping upside down. 'No way, an Aruna Bat?'

While Lucas assumed that it was probably a bat or bird-type monster, he wasn't expecting this kind of bat. The Aruna Bat is relatively rare compared to others in its family.

'The book said that they were harder to find nowadays since their hide is valuable.'

'Look, in that corner.'

On the ground of the cavern were a few dead bodies of a multitude of creatures. There were Steel Spiders, Giant Centipedes, and even a Moldwarp, a subterranean mole-like creature lying lifelessly on the ground. Yet, there was only a single bat in the cavern, giving off a bloodthirsty aura.

Quickly hiding he tried to remember as much as he could about this creature.

'An Aruna bat is stronger than most monsters, the reason lies in the strange patterns they have on their hide. Looking at these signs will give you a massive headache, and even make you go unconscious.'

'So the fact that there were so few monsters in this cave is because of an internal struggle of the cave's residents.'

'We should be glad that we arrived so early, the moment one species rules a place, it will take no time before there's a massive infestation of them.'

'The spiders and some creatures aren't affected, they can't see that well, so even one of the stronger creatures in its rank has its natural predators.'

Lucas wanted to leave as fast as he could, but he also wanted to check out the bat now that it was asleep. Taking a peek at how it looked wouldn't be that bad, would it? Slowly peeking around a corner, Lucas looked with one eye at the bat. It looked like a normal bat but it was a few meters long with strange white runes that seemed to give off its own light on its wings.

He already had a headache from staring with a single eye, but he felt that he could handle both eyes. He turned the corner completely and looked straight at the bat. His head started to hurt, like a migraine on drugs. Yet, something inside Lucas was telling him that he needed to keep staring, it would be good, it would be useful. Holding out a little longer he felt like something was on the breakthrough of happening, either he would fall unconscious, or an event Lucas had no idea about.

His instinct told him he would be rewarded if he held out, even if there wasn't any sign of that possible reward. Still, he kept on staring, the headache got worse and worse. It felt like his head was about to explode. Memories were forced to appear in his mind. Thousands of memories were playing over each other. His split mind tried to follow everything, but even with two minds comprehending everything and pushing it away, nothing changed. They started to blend with reality, millions of thoughts and sceneries started to play over each other. He couldn't keep track of time or any conversation he could remember. Scenes of his brothers and sisters appeared, the destroyed village, the bad-tasting ash he got in his mouth while hiding, the brutal training, the potions, the experiments, the duel, ….

The emotions of all those moments started to flow to his brain, a scene of Marie laughing showed itself, making him feel happy, then a monster eating Olivia's arm appeared that filled him with fear. At a certain point his emotions and the memories couldn't keep up with each other, everything started to feel wrong. He felt glad when he saw his brother being pierced by a Steel Spider, and felt fear when looking at Triss and her clumsiness. He lost everything, hiding in soot and ash and felt empowered, but then felt depressed when he hugged Liam. Nothing made sense, reality or illusion, memory or made-up scenarios? There was simply too much happening at once.

He was about to go crazy when suddenly he felt an extremely unsettling coldness spread over his mind and body. All his emotions were stolen and locked away. Anything unnecessary was destroyed, his sadness and happiness were gone, forgotten. Complete apathy started to cover his heart and mind. The memories that were playing over and over started to slow down. He could start to differentiate every sound and smell from each memory. As the mess of past events started to make sense, and his headache disappeared, something else had taken form.

He averted his eyes from the bat now that he had control again and focused on the change in his personality. Looking inside his mind he found a sphere where there was normally nothing. Entering this sphere with his mind he found a small spherical room. Inspecting the room revealed certain runes on the wall, all the runes of Light and Darkness were carved into them.

'It seems the mind sphere has been formed, good. The runes are in place as well, perfect. The next step is to gather a lot of magical energy to grow to a Rank 1 mage. Hmm, there doesn't seem to be a need for me.'

Noticing he could affect the sphere a bit he felt something being held back. Like something was being kept behind bars, waiting to be released. Sending intentions of release towards the globe, it freed all of his previous emotions and experiences.

Everything came back in a split second, every ounce of stress, sadness, happiness, pessimism and any other emotions flowed back into him. Lucas fell down to the ground, panting. The sweat on his forehead started to drop and flow onto his brows and cheeks.

'Huff, huff, what happened? I couldn't sense you at all?'

'Pant, pant, What are you talking about?! It was you that suddenly disappeared and left me alone!'

'That's not true, I was dealing with those memories when I suddenly didn't hear you talking anymore, you just up and vanished!'

'Wait? Hold on a second, what did you experience after I disappeared?'

'I... I felt different, like I lost all my outlooks, all my feelings were gone.'

'I had the same feeling, I should've been happy to lose all your naivety, yet when I didn't hear you anymore, I also lost my entire being?'

After some bickering and discussion they finally reached a conclusion

'Did we become one?'

'I...don't know, but I don't want it anymore.'

'We can agree on that at least.'

Lucas felt terrified of the experience, losing all of his emotions, locking away all his happy or sad memories. Losing your hatred or basic instincts, to lose all your desires except the one for survival was horrifying for Lucas.

His reason for existence was questioned, almost succumbing to existential dread. He lived his life with the mindset of an animal for only a few seconds, but it was a big enough shock. 'Does every mage have this? There have to be a multitude of crazed mages if that's the case.'

'If they can handle this mindset, so can I.'

'Didn't you hear what I said, the reason why Venion is Venion is that he probably must've gone insane from this.'

Gathering his confidence and his insatiable desire for power, he got back in control of his thoughts.