Chapter 5 - Stranger in Strange Lands

  "I hate that fucking hat. It makes him look so smug."

  "You're just saying that because you hated Swordsman's hat."

  "You hate that hat too."

  "Yeah, but someone might overhear me say that here."

  - A conversation overheard about Solis between Ana and Hans.

  Solis liked layering his hearing protection when he could. He’d forgotten to put it on in the chaos of being ejected from the safe zone, but now that he had longer than an instant to prepare, he fell into the ritual again.

  Earplugs, then ear muffs. He kept his left ear hanging off until the end. It was the last action he took before everything usually went up in flames. The muffs could be dangerous while casually exploring, as they did dampen noise, but that didn’t matter here. He knew exactly what the danger was.

  Solis pulled the pin on the grenade, broke through the wall, and tossed it. He ducked and covered his ears, pushing mana out of his palm, controlling and anchoring it to himself all the while in preparation for what came next.

  BOOM

  The cavern rattled, debris fell, and every mana construct he had created broke into a visible, temperatureless heat haze.

  He studied the worms. Trying to see if they’d run towards or away.

  ‘Away,’ Solis clocked the movement and activated his singular [Body] for a burst of speed. He zipped out of his tunnel, pivoting on a heel and sprinting with full force to where the worms were fleeing from.

  The cave continued to rumble, the dust had yet to settle, and debris was still falling. He hoped it would’t create a ful lcave in.

  He heard a small, shrill shriek and the breaking of twigs. One had seen him, he was sure of it. He ran faster, spotting the entrance to the tunnel through the dust cloud. Stone started falling within, but beyond it, he could see a path leading further down. He had to go for it. No other option besides death.

  The idea of activating [Resonance] briefly crossed his mind, but it was overwhelmed by the need to just keep pumping his arms and legs. He booked it inside, his shield dropping by 20 points as something impacted his back. Due to [Shielding], it didn’t break the skin and latch onto him, but he could feel the monster snagged on his shirt.

  He didn’t try to throw it off. Just kept running, even as the cave collapsed behind him blocking off himself from the monsters. Only when everything had stopped rumbling did he whip his shirt off, onto the ground, and begin stomping. Killing the monster cost him thirteen [Shielding] as the creature's sparse bone plating pierced his shoe, but it died quickly enough.

  Solis collapsed onto the ground, hand flopping to the side as his heart hammered with adrenaline. His fingers met stiff, somewhat smooth stone, jointed and segmented. Evenly spaced fingers met his—

  Solis threw himself away and scrambled back until his back hit a wall. Fumbling for his bag, he pulled out his flashlight and shone it onto the spot he had just been.

  It was a skeleton. Thick, black leather covered the figure from head to toe, and a hat that looked like a cross between a sombrero and a cowboy hat sat atop its head. Other than that, it held nothing, yet its hand was gripped as if its finger pressed against a trigger.

  'What the?' Solis thought. After the initial shock of seeing the skeleton, he recovered quickly, leaning forward in a sort of morbid fascination as hundreds of questions ticked at him.

  His fingers stopped inches away from the dead person's coat before he retracted and pressed his hands together into a prayer.

  Solis didn't believe in God, especially after getting a message from aliens, but that didn't matter. To him, it was about respecting and giving thanks. He broke contact with his clasping hands just as quickly as he placed them together, and only then did he start rummaging through the dead person's things.

  He was certainly taking the hat.

  The haul consisted of oddly shaped boots, hide pants, an undershirt, a hide jacket, a sick hat, and an ivory-engraved ID card written in a language Solis didn't know, all of which besides the card going into his pack. It didn't look like any written language he'd seen before. The script flowed and resembled a combination of Mandarin and Greek, albeit vaguely.

  The bones were also strange. He didn't notice it at first, but the bones seemed different, almost as if the person had too many in the arms and legs and not enough in the spine. Instead of vertebrae, they resembled the same interlocking plates as the worm, but the rest of the body was unmistakably humanoid. What clinched it for Solis that the person was, in fact, a dead alien and not a human was something he should've noticed first. They had six fingers—an extra thumb on the other side.

  ‘Like the hand. The giant stuck under the mountain.’

  He shook the thought away. That had been his imagination. Nothing more.

  Ivory ID card in hand, Solis began inspecting it, turning it over. It was thicker than he might have thought an etched card to be, and had more heft, too. On a whim, he activated [Mana Manipulation I] and pushed at 1 mp/s.

  Instead of dispersing into the air, ready to be shaped, the ID card took it, greedily eating the mana. Slowly, bright blue lines lit up the engravings, and a more detailed overlay appeared in the air. Solis couldn't read any of it, and not for the first time, he cursed the fact that the [Translate] skill didn't work for text.

  With a sigh, the young man closed his eyes and began drifting off from exhaustion.

  Then his eyes snapped open as he realized he had forgotten to check the rest of the tunnel. It went deeper in, and he debated whether or not he wanted to deal with it.

  The bags under his eyes seemed to press on his skull, and the idea of being eaten in his sleep didn't sound so bad if his attacker just wouldn't wake him. Longingly, he looked between the rocky floor and the extending cave.

  'Man. I wish I didn't care about living so much.' With that thought, he began making his way deeper. The flashlight was meager, but growing stronger with each passing step.

  Corruption drained energy from all sources not directly protected by the System. The firearms and even the grenades he had been using were weaker than they should have been. Not to say they weren’t still useful, just that their stopping power would be half, maybe less, than what it was before.

  Solis continued walking forward, flashlight pointed forward.

  Ding Ding Ding

  Solis’s adrenaline spiked at the noise. It sounded like the ringing of a tiny bell.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Another monster, in all likelihood. He killed the flashlight and pushed his mana forward. Pistol in one hand and flashlight in the other, he crept down the tunnel.

  Ding Ding Ding

  Close this time.

  ‘Curses,’ Solis thought.

  No enemy passed over his mana, but every once in a while, the bell would ring three times. Each ring Solis got closer until his mana passed over something breathing.

  It was… It was a person? Solis thought back to the alien just down the passage. Maybe a person, but maybe a humanoid monster instead.

  Solis swallowed. He could take the shot to secure his safety above all else. The thought only briefly touched him. If he did that, what type of man would he be?

  With a shuddering breath to steel himself, Solis called out.

  "Who's there? If you're human, best say something or I'll shoot."

  "Privyet? Privyet!? Droog."

  'Was that Russian?' Solis jumped in surprise, killing [Resonance] and activating [Translate] to hear more.

  "Hello?” Solis began, “Uhh. Skill. [Translate]. Are you using–"

  "Thank fuck. I didn't think there was anyone else. Nearly birthed a brick because of the–"

  The man's words were cut off as he stepped forward and came face to face with the barrel of a gun. He paled, and Solis quickly lowered his weapon, chastising himself for realizing his finger was fully on – and pressed to – the trigger.

  If he were even just a little more startled, he could've shot the man, and the man was a startling sight coming out of the darkness. Shaved head, full-arm sleeve tattoo, and built like he ate steroids for breakfast at his personal gym.

  "Spooked me, that's for sure. Forgive me for being short, but the mana drain is a lot. Any english? Any other people you ran into?"

  "People, yes. English language, no. There's a few of us, from all over. We were looking for a water source. I came from lower in the tunnels."

  "Up? For water?"

  The man looked at Solis, a little confused with a small frown.

  "You make it sound like that's crazier than being teleported, and the world exploding."

  "That," Solis began, before biting the side of his cheek to remind himself not to be an ass, "is fair. I have some water if you'd like some. I can help with the water search, too. My name's Solis."

  "Dimitri. I will accept water. I didn't think I'd get teleported away, so took nothing with myself. We… do not have much."

  Solis nodded, fishing the container from his bag, but keeping Dimitri in the corner of his vision.

  “Well, you know what they say? Ask and ye shall be answered, or something. Were you ringing that bell?”

  He saw a small nod.

  “Yeah, I saw a light from ahead. Thought it could be a monster. Was trying to lure it… you I guess, closer to get the drop.”

  Solis chuckled and tossed one of his canteens to the man. Dimitri caught it and nodded gratefully. Then he finally noticed Solis’s pack.

  "You are a military man?" Dimitri asked wearily.

  Solis laughed; the thought of him joining Boot and Greenly making his life hell filled him with mirth. He didn't know if that would've actually happened, but it was a funny image to him. "No, just have some of their supplies."

  The tension in Dimitri's shoulders tightened. Possibilities of combat filled Solis as he activated [Simulate].

  Simulation activated

  The simulation ended.

  Solis breathed a subtle breath, and his heart settled. The man was just wary, not immediately dangerous. [Simulate] wasn’t a perfect simulation, but in the past month, he realized how much the skill could pick up on body language alone when Solis didn’t.

  "A gift for services rendered." Solis clarified, "I didn't become a vagabond in the past month, relax."

  “What services?”

  “Saved an officer's daughter.”

  "Explains the guns. I had a fire axe, but the teleportation…"

  "I get it, shit's crazy. Take me to your camp? I'd prefer to get shut-eye where a monster couldn't get to me. Also, it’d be nice to talk to other people again. It’s only been a few days, but I already miss it."

  Dimitri paused for a moment, his eyes watching Solis for any danger or deceit. He found some, but not enough to deny the request. “Okay, but first what’s above? The way you came from. I need to map out the area.”

  Solis grimaced. “Nothing good. Monsters, and a lot of them. I was lucky that the tunnel collapsed behind me.”

  Dimitri swore, and Solis was amused to find that [Translate] didn’t actually translate his series of words.

  “Another dead end. Unfortunate. Come, I’ll lead the way.”

  "Good, because I have to cancel [Translate] now." Solis let the skill go, unhappy with his mana usage. That entire time, he hadn’t deactivated [Body] in fear of a monster attack, and it had drained his pool yet again.

  ‘Always too many uses and not enough mana,’ he thought.

  Solis stood up, holstered his gun, and extended a hand for Dimitri to shake.

  The other man hesitated for a moment, but met him halfway. His hand was large and calloused, but thankfully, he didn't put all his force into squeezing Solis's hand hard or some other such petty play.

  Solis then gestured to his gun and offered it to the man, who, at this point, just seemed really confused. With a little more prodding, the man took the gun.

  With his hand free, Solis then proceeded to unsling his pack, dig for the rifle case, and another set of earplugs, which he tossed to Dimitri. From the case, Solis produced the disassembled bolt-action rifle, and began to reassemble it.

  Dimitri looked uncertain at Solis's actions, but seeing that he was having trouble holding his flashlight and assembling the gun, offered to hold it while Solis worked.

  "Skol'ko Der'ma u tebya tam?" the Russian man asked, gesturing to Solis’s bag.

  "I have no clue what you're saying," Solis laughed. He smiled up at Dimitri, just happy to have another human around.

  Assembling the rifle took longer than Solis would've liked, making him feel distinctly lame as he fumbled with one of the pieces. He even had to partially disassemble a section towards the end due to a mistake. Only after four mana points had regenerated did Solis finish and turn on the flashlight, pointing it down the cave.

  ‘Wait. Four?’

  Solis checked the corruption levels and smiled. He was safe now; there was no denying that.

  "Lead the way." Solis made a sweeping gesture as he spoke, voice full of zen. He didn’t actually know what zen was, but context clues were pretty useful, and no one had corrected him thus far.

  Dimitri understood and began walking forward through the cave network.

  As they walked, Solis felt a small mental pressure, synonymous with getting a system message. With Dimitri leading, Solis opened the message.

  Solis stared at the notification in disbelief. The scale was too large for him to wrap his head around, so he dismissed the message and continued following Dimitri.

  The Earth was flat.

  He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to feel about that, but confused was the main one. It didn’t change the fact that a group of survivors needed food and water.

  After a moment to center himself, Solis nodded.

  Needs first, then he could have an existential breakdown. He wanted to at least appear sane when meeting the other survivors.