? Cook a Cool Water Leech.

  +1 Level.

  ***

  I stared at the roasted leech I had impaled on New Arm’s finger with a satisfied grin. “Tricky, tricky, putting a Level behind a backtrack.”

  I was in the passage that led away from the bright pools, having just roasted one of these little suckers over a fire built from moss and pieces of a tattered cloak.

  I blew on it, then popped it into my mouth.

  At first, it was fine. Then the taste hit.

  Nope.

  I swallowed the rest in one go, wincing as it slid down.

  “Wish I had salt,” I said, recalling a flavor from Earth. “Too iron-y.”

  Well, that was that. Got my Level. I got up, brushed myself off, and went on my way, treading familiar ground. New Arm was interesting in that I got some sense of feedback, but it was illusory. I was able to feel the heat, for example, but it didn’t affect me in any way. It was just a recognition of the temperature. It worked the same for pressure. I could tell when something pressed against my fingers, but it wasn’t true pressure. Just recognition.

  The taste of the leech reminded me that I wasn’t getting as hungry as I should have been. The Terminal was weird in that it never occurred to me that I wasn’t hungry. If I had to guess, I would say that the Levels and HP mechanic were interfering with hunger and thirst.

  Walking through the familiar chamber, I wondered why there weren’t more Shadow Beasts around. We usually spotted them lurking near the boundary of the hunting zone. Sure, most encounters happened when hunters got desperate or disoriented, but still—these caverns should have been teeming with them.

  Were they more solitary than we thought?

  I glanced around as I passed through the cavern of rock hands. Still quiet. Still creepy. This place was huge. If I wanted, I could veer off the beaten path, wade into the deeper water, and take one of the dark, half-hidden routes around the cavern edge.

  But why tempt fate? I stayed the course, sticking to the slick path and continuing forward.

  The corpse in this chamber inspired in me a thought. Maybe there really was another settlement. Maybe this path was a vestige of something more developed.

  The thought lingered as I reached the next incline.

  I slid down, accompanied by the sounds of rushing water. This passage was becoming increasingly more alien, and full of life.

  The air was thick with a soothing scent. Strange vines dotted with pastel petals slithered along the ceiling, pulsating faintly like they had veins under their membrane. Clusters of tiny, glimmering spores drifted down like floating embers as the vines moved some bulbous content down their extents.

  Bioluminescent stalks jutted from the walls. They were spiraled formations resembling furry ferns. They brought me some comfort–I recognized them from the village outskirts. When I passed too close, their delicate leaves pulled inward, as if sensing my presence. Some of them twitched violently at even the faintest brush.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  And then there were the stones beneath my feet. They were becoming more obviously placed, with more straight edges than one would expect. Definitely worn by time, but still so suspicious.

  With every step, the feeling that I was walking to something incredible intensified. I pressed on, the sound of rushing water growing louder, with my ears picking up strange acoustics.

  And then, beyond the twisting rocks and glowing flora, the passage opened into a massive cavity–it reminded me of the safe cavern my home village was hidden in. I walked with more urgency and stopped at the edge of a cliff.

  Down there, nestled at the center of the cavern, was a village. A dark river cut through the earth, encircling the settlement like a natural moat. I could make out bridges—narrow, curved structures of stone and wood connecting the village to the outer cavern. The buildings, if they could be called that, were rounded and seamless, almost like hollowed-out stone shells. A fairly dense forest surrounded the village. I bet that was a portion of their hunting grounds.

  There were no signs of movement.

  No smoke from chimneys. No distant chatter. No figures moving across the bridges.

  The whole place was eerily still. I had never experienced a village so silent.

  My eyes drifted to the centerpiece of the settlement—an obelisk, eerily similar in shape to the one in my village. But unlike ours, this one was dead. My fears were settling in–the fears of someone in this world. That village was silent because the flame that belonged on top of that obelisk’s tip was missing.

  A dry, rasping voice whispered from below.

  "Humans were meant… to climb the walls…"

  My eyes narrowed. “What–”

  A gnarled hand, pale gray and too thin to be real, shot up from the cliffside and clamped around my ankle.

  I barely had time to react before it yanked.

  "Sh—!" My stomach lurched as it pulled my foot. My vision suddenly shifted as I was pulled down. I summoned New Arm

  I thrust New Arm forward, fingers splayed, and braced against the rocky ledge, rump crashing into rock. The false sensation of rough stone registered—an illusion, nothing more—but the grip held firm. My shoulder wrenched from the force, one leg dangled in free air and the other was in something’s grip. Below me, something I had never seen before clung to the cliff face like an over-sized insect.

  Its grey warped body was a mangled distortion of what a human should be—arms too long, hands gnarled into permanent gripping claws. White, long, and flowing cable-like protrusions hung from its head like hair. Its grey skin was loose and torn in places, making it look like the skin was tattered clothing. Its face was barely a face, more like a smoothed-over mask with only a slit of a mouth and black, many rough holes for eyes, muttering the same phrase over and over.

  "Humans were meant… to climb the walls…"

  It reached for my other leg, already pulling itself toward me like I was a wall to be climbed.

  "Too close.”

  I activated my Levels, swung my free foot, and smashed it into the monster’s wrist. The impact made a nauseating pop, but the thing didn’t let go.

  Instead, it grabbed hold of me.

  I gritted my teeth. No way was I letting this thing drag me or climb me.

  I reached for the God Arm and called it into my right hand.

  The creature twitched as it pulled its body up. The God Arm’s barrel was in its face and humming.

  I winced. “My crotch is going to hate this for a second.”

  The trigger clicked. The God Arm crackled.

  A jagged arc of lightning erupted, lancing into the monster’s twisted face. The air split with a crackling snap, and the cavern flashed white-yellow for half a second. My crotch suffered the incredible heat of a lightning bolt flying a few inches from it.

  Then came the sound. A high, shuddering shriek, followed by the scent of something synthetic.

  The monster convulsed violently, its limbs jittering like a marionette with tangled strings. Then, its grip failed. It dropped with a trail of smoke clinging to its head.

  “Humans,” it moaned as it went. It hit the ground and seemed to flatten, no more words coming up here.

  I exhaled sharply, my breath ragged. The God Arm vanished from my grip. “I don’t think that was a Shadow Beast…”