Hey guys!
Great news: Today, I recieved my Nintendo Switch!
Bad news: It's been delivered to my family's house, not mine. So my brothers are currently playing the new Zelda, not me.
*Angry noises*
Well, whatever, this weekend I shall reclaim it!
Forward, companions, for the new chapter is here!
He ran away.
From everything. From the responsibilities pushed unto him. From people he doesn't trust at all. From a reality that no human could accept.
He ran away, rushing through the nearby forests with the sole wish to outwit them.
If they can't perceive him anymore, it'll become a total mess.
If they can't smell his presence, a big hole will be left behind, leaving his seat empty until they could refill it again.
Let them find a substitute… Is a task that cannot be easily achieved.
If the children are puzzle's pieces, then the Mother was the frame that kept them together in one place.
All of them, nailed down on the same spot of the wall. Without the nail, the frame would fall down, but could still endure the shock and contain all the pieces.
But without the frame, the whole will only disperse and run the risk of not being put together again.
In other word: if the Mother die, the nest will run amok and rampage heartlessly. Devouring, destroying, and ruining everything in their path of desolation.
Such an event was welcomed by most of the players. Magicians that specialized in spells that affects large zone, warriors that loved spending time on those beat'em all kind of games, heroes that devoted their body to protect villagers and citizens of kingdoms, the so-called NPCs.
As a gamer, as someone that loves playing role-playing games, an event involving a nefarious invasion could only be viewed as an enjoyable hobby.
The trigger of the event was to drag down the final boss of the dungeon, the Mother, without cleaning more than eighty percent of the mobs.
It basically meant that you had to also complete the various scripted encounters, run in predefined traps and so to defeat the mentioned amount of enemies.
The players either had the choice to finish the dungeon safely, taking care of one group of spiders after another, or simply take them all at once outside.
The rewards were also better than the original quest, that's why it quickly graduated from a secret event to a globally known daily quest.
And because he knew of it, Netere ran away as far as possible.
He was neither fond of PvP or PvE. Actually, he always thought of himself more like an explorer than an adventurer.
He loved travelling around the world of Yggdrasil, discovering its mysteries, unravelling its enigmas, revealing its uncharted lands.
Of course, it was a common occurrence to meet with other players. He avoided the hostile ones, cloaked with his illusions, but also preferred to keep a certain distance with the friendly ones, sending forward a decoy of himself to make sure they won't suddenly backstab him at the last second.
When he had to fight, he used his tricks to escape, not to defeat.
Due to his attitude, he tended to neutrality. Not the kind that helped the one who hired him, but the kind that stayed behind, outside of the battles.
He was called a coward many times, however he didn't mind at all.
Because he hated playing for the purpose of trampling on others.
That's why, both because of his favoured choice of life and of his unconscious blockade, he couldn't face an army of spiders.
Maybe his strength was enough, maybe his magical prowess was sufficient to deal with all of them, but he still couldn't.
Emotionally speaking, he couldn't face them all, because he couldn't face himself right now.
He murdered innocent souls, drunk their blood and ate their flesh. His body was that of a spiderling, but his human's mind still remained inside of him.
As a spiderling, it was okay to kill and eat and continue like this. Because it was natural, because he was hungry.
But as a human, that course of actions went against his morals. Because of his ethics, his spirit went in disarray.
Confused, enraged by his doings, fearful of the future that awaited him, he chose the easier way.
Running away from his responsibilities. Running, far far away, so that nobody will be able to recognize him, so that nobody will know of his wicked butchery.
Inspired by a desperate might, Netere ran as fast as he could, as far as his legs permitted him to.
Until finally… Finally, he couldn't recognize the landscape anymore.
The dense forest and the green meadow couldn't be seen anymore.
He turned around to face the path he came from, but even he wasn't able to recognize the scenery.
Neither the soil nor the air harboured any sense of familiarity to him.
"Did… Did I make it?"
He ran so fast, so far, so desperately that he forgot to check his surroundings and his destination. He hadn't any time to mentally draw a map, and even if he wanted he would probably not be able to find his way back.
But that didn't matter for him, because the priority was to make sure they'll never meet again.
As soon as he regained a more-or-less stable mental state, he put his all in the evasion of the nest.
Regarded as a king, the hardest part was to wait for the best timing.
Waiting, waiting, waiting… Until S'stri left him alone. Just for a few minutes, just a bit farther from his room, so that he could discretely and quickly cast the most efficient spells with the aim of making him indiscernible.
Invisible, odourless, intangible, his life and magic essence masked.
A Super-Tier spell would have also make impossible for characters blessed with an acute sixth sense to detect him, however Netere knew of no monsters with such ability.
Maybe a high-leveled player specialized in detection could achieve the feat of surpassing his illusions, but none of the nest's residents were capable of such prowess.
That's why he was able to run away. That's why he ran away the instant he felt he could run away.
His gaze was lost somewhere along the distance he came from. He was trying to retrace his way, to calculate the distance he travelled, and to predict the time those monsters would need to catch upon him.
"Well… Whatever… I did it…"
And just like that, as if those few words were the strings that kept him standing up, he fell on the ground.
Not shouldering anymore those heavy chains, free of the stress provoked by breathing the underground atmosphere, he only noticed now something quite evident.
He was exhausted, his breathing was rough and his muscles were sore due to this much exercise.
Right now, he needed to rest more than anything. However, his painful muscles became a huge burden to bear.
Hardly breathing, flatly laying on the ground, he didn't dare to move anymore.
He had thoughts like, if he did struggle a bit longer, he would run mad from the ache.
Netere endured the soreness, the burning feelings from his lungs, the torment transmitted through his legs.
He thought he would never be able to breathe anymore, he thought of killing himself to cease the pain at last, but the soft flow of drowsiness never welcomed him until the sunset.
But even when night fell, even when the light was shut and his numbness disappeared, his condition prohibited him from sleeping.
Hunger commanded him once more, driving him crazy for food.
Or so it should have been, but this time, Netere was mentally prepared to resist the urge.
Without stamina, without a good night sleep, his spirit was of course wavering.
But still, he knew far better than obeying this feeling.
It was impossible to deny his current starvation, yet he couldn't allow himself to rampage once more.
That's why… He endured, and walked away. Because, until he found some sort of food, he couldn't do anything else.
"This is… A forest. Maybe there are some animals roaming, or berries I can gather."
While suppressing his yearning for meat, he went deeper in this new territory, which was outside of his gamer's knowledge.
An eerie impression huffed in between his bristle, making him more nervous the more he walked forward.
The trees weren't so different from the previous forest, however the trunks seemed larger, and the roots tended to leave the warmth of the soil to expose themselves, making the trail harder to follow.
They were quite slippy, if Netere may add when he almost lost his balance when he set his foot on one of them.
The leaves covered the sky, creating a canopy that didn't permit the sunlight to brighten this land.
"This scenery would be perfect for a horror game… What was his name again, with the faceless man… Shit, now I'm scared."
Netere adventured alone on this ominous landscape, however, after a couple of minutes, he noticed something strange.
For unknown reasons, he felt zero presences.
No animals peacefully eating grass, no birds chirping on the branches. He couldn't even hear insects crawling.
"That's strange, I'm pretty sure I haven't reactivated [Natural predator] yet, so why is there nobody here?"
Leaving animals aside, even monsters should at least be present in this kind of environment.
Were they wiped out? Were they hiding in an ambush?
The first question was hard to answer. There were no bodies to be found. Netere didn't even sniffed the smell of battle or of scattered blood.
If they were wiped out, then it means it happened a few years ago, and the forest would probably have been repopulated by the time.
So… Was someone preparing an ambush to trap him?
Netere wasn't stupid enough to blindly run in a snare, but how would they have lured him here to begin with?
Who would have prepared a trap here? Someone he knew of? But he was certain he distanced himself enough to never meet them again.
And in such a short time, it was impossible that they caught up on him.
This could only lead to another meaning.
"… What's happening, here?"
If it wasn't due to his passive ability, to a previous genocide or an ambush designated for him, then he simply had no idea.
He tried to remember the other events that appeared in Yggdrasil, something that could be compared to the present situation, but nothing came to his mind.
Maybe something will pop in his head, but for now he'll have to improvise his way out.
"Ahhh… I'm so hungry…"
Being remembered by his growling stomach, Netere quickly scanned his surroundings, wishing to find something suitable for his palate.
All he could do while looking for food was munching on the bark of a tree, which helped him to ease his hunger.
"… W-wait, when did I start eating this tree?!"
Without him noticing, the tree he gently grasped was already half eaten.
His fangs were planted in the trunk, sucking the sap and devouring the wood.
Netere wanted to throw it away, however, for some reasons… It was actually kind of edible.
The taste was interesting, his skin was tough enough to prevent the splinters from hurting him, and most importantly… His stomach accepted this dinner.
"Could… Could it mean that I can fill my belly with trees from the beginning?!"
If he knew sooner, just a bit sooner, maybe… Maybe he wouldn't have had to burn the town. Maybe he wouldn't have had to ransack the town, and convert the citizens into conservable commodities.
"But it's too late now… At least I now know of it…"
Half satisfied by the food, Netere diligently swallowed the whole tree. If he converted them in numerical values, it was actually quite a benefit to use them as daily meals.
Maybe… It was a great strike of luck, that he found this place.
And while he was eating his first tree of the day, a shy voice interrupted his feast.
"S-Stop it, you monster!"
I hope you enjoyed this chapter aswell.
And sorry for the delay, because it looks like it won't be a chapter-per-week as I thought.
Oh well, as long as I finish the story, it's all good.