Chapter 69: Echoes in the Depths

Upon seeing the familiar system screen, Arthur felt a very heavy burden lift from his shoulders, and all the worries that had accumulated inside him over the past weeks disappeared.

As though he had seen an old friend, his lips twisted in a small happy smile, and he said in a soft voice: "You have finally returned."

Although he had been awaiting this moment with great anticipation, he did not let excitement sweep him away, he quickly regained his composure, and directed his full focus toward the centipede monsters, which all suddenly pounced on him.

With the greatest speed and agility possible, he jumped right and left, rolled and ducked, doing everything in his power to dodge as many attacks as possible, and although he sustained several injuries, he did not flinch even for a moment, and continued evading them.

After a short while, he found a small gap in their suffocating siege, dodged the mandibles of one of the centipede monsters, and without slowing his momentum, pounced on a weak F-Rank centipede that was in his path. He bit into its abdomen, and shook it powerfully, tearing its long body into two halves.

[ +6XP ]

’This is disgusting.’ Disgusted, he opened his mouth intending to spit out the sticky yellow remnants of flesh, but, at that moment, an overwhelming sense of danger came over him, and without any hesitation, he jumped to the right avoiding a centipede that passed directly beside him like a fast train. He was forced to swallow the flesh.

Before his legs touched the ground, another centipede attacked him. He had no escape, so he struggled to twist his body, and turn in the air blocking the attack. He opened his mouth wide, and bit the centipede’s metal-hard mandibles.

Slash!

Sparks flew from around his fangs, and his gums bled profusely. He instinctively realized he was not capable of breaking the mandibles, so he drove his claws into the centipede’s chest, and tore its entrails, then released its jaw, and using its body as a foothold, pushed himself away backward.

The centipede fell to the ground and began to writhe in pain, and before he found enough time to finish it off, another centipede attacked him, then another, and so on the attacks rained on him from all directions, but he managed to deal with most of them with great skill, and only sustained a few injuries.

After several minutes of exhausting combat, he had injured and killed more than ten centipede monsters. The rest were showing signs of hesitation and retreat. He, on the other hand, had only grown several times more savage and ferocious.

His eyes gradually reddened, his body began to change, and his wounds started regenerating faster. With every additional minute that passed, he felt his consciousness growing hazier, and without needing to think, he understood what was happening to him.

’I was so focused on the fight that I completely forgot about the Full Moon Frenzy. It has already begun... I just hope this night passes without incident.’ He sighed resignedly.

Just like during the first and second Full Moon Frenzies he had experienced, his form changed slightly, he became larger and more ferocious. As usual he maintained a small portion of his consciousness, but unfortunately it was not enough to prevent the beast instincts within him from acting freely.

Ding!

[ Alert ]

[ Entered Full Moon Frenzy mode. All basic Attributes have increased by 12%. Rationality has decreased by 45%. ]

[ Warning ]

[ Due to the negative effects of the Primal Predator bloodline, the effects of Full Moon Frenzy have been increased by 100%.]

He stared at the system screen for a brief moment, then opened his mouth wide, showing a smile that could only be described as terrifying.

Without thinking about anything, he pounced on the nearest centipede, and tore it to shreds, then pounced on a second centipede, and did the same to it.

A third centipede attacked him from behind while he was unaware, and when it was about to stab him in the back with its sickle-like mandibles, he turned his head at an angle approaching one hundred and eighty degrees, opened his mouth wide, then bit the centipede from its mandibles.

Sparks flew again, but this time they were accompanied by fragments of shattered mandibles.

The centipede was greatly shocked, for its mandibles were its strongest weapons. It was nearly impossible for them to be shattered by a being that wasn’t of a higher rank.

Arthur’s smile widened, and without giving the shocked centipede any chance to flee, he tore its body to shreds, and even that disgusting yellow flesh that had revolted him before, he ate without the slightest hesitation. In frenzy mode, he was simply a beast in the literal sense.

The centipede monsters had already reached their limit, and seeing him grow more ferocious and powerful like this, made them lose all desire to fight.

In terror, they retreated slowly and cautiously, then fled through a group of narrow holes in the walls of the cave. They were the same holes they had come out of in the beginning.

When everything was over, Arthur stood imposingly amid the remnants of the carcasses, puffed his chest with pride and raised his head high, then howled as loudly as he could. Immediately after that he headed off to search for better prey he could eat.

Awooooo!

The echo of his howl reverberated through the vast network of tunnels and caves, and traveled for a very great distance, until it finally reached a vast cave deep in the earth, where thousands of glowing plant roots converged, some infected with the parasitic mushroom.

In its walls there were several holes from which water poured abundantly like small waterfalls, and on the ground there was a deep lake glowing with a faint blue light. Amid this breathtaking scene, stood a very enormous tree, with dense canopy and large leaves, its right half pulsing with life, and from it floated thousands of brightly colored sparks of breathtaking beauty.

As for the left side, it was dark, emanating a gloomy aura, and on it grew many black and blood-red mushrooms, which had absorbed the life from everything near it, spreading death and misery, forming an incomprehensible stark contrast.

There, and above that part of the tree, and connected to many thin pulsing red roots, rested a massive black dragon with deformed features, hideous in appearance, laden with injuries and with a festering body, looking more like a lifeless carcass that had begun to decompose.

But it was not dead. It suddenly opened its eyes, revealing its vertical yellow pupil. It raised its dark wing, and the tree trembled, and all the mushrooms pulsed with excitement, and the lake around the tree rippled.

"..." The dragon turned over and returned to its sleep, and the cave fell silent once more.

...

In the upper part of the tunnel network, the spider woman stood before the three passages with a confused expression on her face, despite her worry, and her strong desire to find Arthur, she paused and thought seriously about which passage she would go through. Unfortunately, she did not possess the Tracking skill.

’It is clear that the deceitful wolf is somewhere here, there are faint remnants of his scent and aura, yet I am not able to determine where they lead, tsk, this mushroom is confusing my senses, no, it is not alone, there is something else here that is affecting my instincts.’

While she was distracted, a massive ant crept toward her silently, and the moment it drew close to her it opened its toothless mouth, and prepared to spray her with venom, but, at that moment, hundreds of silk threads appeared around her, and imprisoned it inside a dense cocoon, which stuck to the ceiling of the cave, alongside several other cocoons that were trembling.

The spider woman hesitated, and did not dare to advance further, for she did not know the type of danger that awaited her in the depths of this place, and thinking about it, she found that Arthur was not worth risking her life for.

’Why am I searching for this wolf in the first place? His death and his life do not truly matter to me, and will not make any difference, but why do I feel so lost like this? This is not my nature.’

Her feelings became mixed up, and although she tried, she could not bring herself to leave. She remained standing in her place, trying to understand these new feelings she had never experienced before.

Deep down she was merely a monster with a simple goal in life, to feed, evolve, and dominate. And throughout all the years she had lived, there was one being that could be said she had cared for, which was her mother who was killed by humans when she was a small monster.

At that time she was still at F-Rank, and her intelligence had barely approached that of a five-year-old child, so she no longer remembered well that feeling she had harbored for her mother.

Awooooo!

Suddenly a very faint howl reached her ears, coming from the third passage, her eyes widened and she felt great relief. Without further hesitation, she followed the sound.