Chapter 26: The cave of suffering and the not so beautiful things

*Chirp!*

*Chirp!*

*Chirp!*

"Yeah, I already saw that copper vein. No need to tell me."

*Chirp!*

Sigh...

*Clanck!*

*Clanck!*

*Clanck!*

*Clanck!*

...

"Alright, that should be everything in this area. Should we venture deeper?"

*Chirp!*

"Alright"

It has been a few hours since we entered the cave in the forest, and I must say, although I have never been inside a cave in my past life, I don't think there were THIS many minerals in any cave from my previous world.

Though until now I have jut found copper, iron, a bit of silver, and even some tungsten.

It seemed that this world had every kind of ore. In the game there was just one type of ore per world. Either silver or tungsten, or tin and copper. There could only be one of them in  a world.

But in reality there doesn't seem to have that restriction.

Also, until now I have not found any underground chest. So I guess that those also don't exist on reality? Or maybe I'm just being really unlucky.

*Chirp!!*

"What's wrong Neo?"

When I looked back I saw two red eyes observing me in the darkness, from the look of it, and the way it was hanging from the ceiling, I assumed it was just a bat.

"Calm down Neo, it's just a normal b-"

*SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!*

OH SHIT!

As soon as I illuminated the creature using my torch, its horrendous appearance presented itself before my eyes. A blueish gray color adorned his whole skinny and malnourished body, terrifying fangs on each side of his wide open mouth and red eyes that seemed to suck your own very soul.

(Imagine this shit with far longer fangs and literally a few meters away from you)

"AAAAH!!"

*SCREEEEEEEEEECH!!"

As soon as it heard me scream it launched itself towards my neck at full speed.

"Shit...!"

I protected my self using my arms as fast as I could. The appearance of this fucker scared me so much that I forgot to react correctly to this situation.

*Bite*

"AAAAH FUCK!!!"

I threw him away using my full force. However, the bat took away a big piece of flesh from my arm after being launched away by me.

After separating itself from me, it started flying around me like a vulture eyeing his prey. All this while still eating the piece of flesh he took from my arm.

This little piece of shit...!

"Neo! Attack his wings!" I yelled at Neo while trying to calm myself a bit.

Just a bit though...

*Chirp!*

As soon as the bat saw Neo attack, it launched itself towards what he thought to be an easy prey, after all, Neo was at least 4 times smaller than the bat, and the bat could probably eat him in just one bite. However, to his demise, Neo just passed through its mouth like a ghost and attacked directly the wings of the bat, ripping one of them easily.

After noticing its failure at killing Neo, the bat tried to attack me instead, but when he tried to launch himself flying towards me, it failed miserably.

*CRASH!*

The bat horribly crashed against the hard floor of the cave due to its almost uncontrollable speed after being deprived of one of his wings.

*SCREEEEEEEECH!*

After landing on the floor it tried to fly once again, however, it soon found that he could not fly anymore and started screeching in fury while flapping its wing like crazy.

"Shut the fuck up!"

*Splat!*

Soon the bat found his whole body covered in a very thick layer of liquid gel.

"See you in hell bitch"

I threw a fireball towards him and ignited his body, to what he started screeching again due to the pain.

I knew that just a bit of fire wasn't going to kill him fast enough, so I took my sword and started slashing at him without stop.

I swung and swung and swung once again. When the fire subsided, a carbonized and wounded bat layed there while leaving a small screech of pain.

*... Screeeeeeech....*

"Yeah, fuck you too" 

I took out my Wooden hammer, and started smashing his body constantly until it ended up turning into meat paste.

...

What?

I've seen enough movies to know that this fucker may have an offspring in his stomach that could come out off his body and attack me the moment I stop paying attention. So what better option than just smash its whole body to paste until nothing remains? Just in case something was really there...

...

Ok, maybe I'm being a bit paranoid.

But who cares?

*Chirp!*

"Yeah, it hurts like hell. We better stay in this place to rest for a little bit until I'm fully recovered"

I looked at my status while glancing from time to time my bitten arm.

Name: Aspen (Aeron)  [Human...] Age: 19 (38) -STATUS:  [Hp: 117/200] [Mana: 40/40]

I placed various blocks around us, so that no monster could attack me while I sleep, and then placed a campfire, since it actually increased my passive regeneration.

*Yawn*

"I'm going to sleep for a while, you watch this place in my stead Neo"

*Chirp!* Neo said while shaking his head in disagreement.

"Yeah, goodnight to you too"

*Chiiirp!!*

...

---

Some hours later...

It took me a while to wake up, however, when I opened my eyes and checked my status, I noticed that I already recovered fully. The wound in my arm? It completely disappeared, like it was never there to begin with.

I also noticed a certain bird sleeping peacefully on top of my head.

Sigh...

"Hey Neo, we are leaving"

*...Chirp...* Neo muttered lazily.

"Yeah, I want to sleep more too, but if we take too long inside this cave we may not make it on time before the war"

*Chirp*

It didn't took long before we cleaned everything our camp and continued exploring the cave.

*Chirp!*

"Ah right! the hunter potion, I think we are low enough for dangerous monsters to appear"

As I drank the potion, my eyes soon cleared and a lot of red auras became visible through the walls of the cave. And to make it far worse, they were all bats.

"These guys are a pest..."

We continued walking steadily across the cave while collecting various expensive minerals, gold and a bit of platinum ore included. However, our walking came to a stop when we found ourselves in front of the exit of the tunnel.

"Whoa..." I couldn't help but exclaim.

And why shouldn't I? In front of me was a gigantic cave covered in a lot of stalactites and cobwebs. When I looked how deep the ground was, it shocked me that I was standing at least 30 meters above the ground of such a gigantic cave.

However...

There were also dozens of bats watching me in silence while hanging upside down from the ceiling. Each of them eyeing me like I was just a hopeless prey, however, they stayed still as long as I didn't move.

While preparing to block the entrance of the cave with stone blocks and then escape, I noticed something in the distance of the cave.

A crimson glow covered the whole structure of a certain object on top of the floor, It shone like a ruby, and It had the same shape of the typical cartoon heart used to represent the real human heart.

...

"That's a..."

...

That's a life crystal.

...

Fuuuuuh...

Calm down...

"I know that it looks really tempting, however, I must resist! There's no way that I can defeat dozens of bats at the same time..."

Right?

...

No, there's no way I can do that.

"We are leaving Neo"

*Chirp*

"What do you mean I'm drooling...? Oh, shit!"

I cleaned the drool on my face and turned back slowly so to not alert the bats.

I selected the stone blocks ready to place them at the exit to prevent the bats from following me and leave finally this place.

Yeah...

We are leaving...

Leaving...

Leave...

Lea...

L...

...

...

...

"GIVE ME THAT LIFE CRYSTAL YOU WINGED BASTARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

 

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