Creep knew it was time to leave and find some answers. Adult bats that looked even stronger, and bigger than them younglings, flew into the nursery to bring them away. Every youngling ecstatically flapped his wings- as if promising to do their best. Creep instead questioned their purpose.

There were five adult bats. All were the size of a normal household cat. Four out of the five bats had bulging belies and a big bushy brown mane covering their necks; the fifth one had a sleek overall look and slim figure: darker hide, and bigger fangs. And he was a female.

Not all the infants had reached the stage where they could leave the colony. Only those, who had evoked their memory of flying, were called by the adults. Creep was one of them. Flying was simpler, much easier, than echolocation, which every youngling had been practicing since infancy- to get used to its induced complications.

Flying, however, was in their instincts, but not every youngling could fly on its first try. The adults behaved nicely, however, encouraging those that failed to get anywhere on their first some tries. The other bunch -that learned to fly on their own- was left to their own devices instead.

Although creep wasn’t the strongest, biggest, or the meanest of the bunch, he clearly was the smartest of them all. He was the first one to jump off his stalactite to fly, which he did without fidgeting. Moreover, unlike the other younglings that were driven by their instincts, Creep took a more systematic approach to the whole endeavor. He strictly followed the guidelines set by the new information which had appeared in his mind; and viola, he was flying- albeit quite comically for a bat. It wasn’t a conscious calculation from his part but was passive assistance done by one of his special skills.

He hovered in one place instead of flying around erratically. He achieved this by flapping his wings once every second, which created enough force to counter the gravitational pull. It took a toll on his mind, but he got a pretty sweet result.

[Computing has risen to lv 2]

His wings moved smoothly, with grace. He still didn’t have precise control over his motor movements explaining his overall stiff movements. However, the ethereal noises only he could hear, acknowledged his performance, turning his instinct into a skill. It was the second criteria a youngling needed to achieve in order to leave their hidden sanctum.

 [It takes monumental courage to jump off a cliff to test your limits.]

[Skill ‘Flying’ has been created.]

[Flying: Flying is more than flapping wings and catching wind.]
[Flying consumes stamina. Therefore, either keep feeding or only fly when necessary.]
[Lv-1][Active][AGI +1, WIS +1]

[Agility attribute has been created.]

This wasn’t the first time Creep had heard the noise deviate from its norm. Such had also happened on the second day since his birth. He had been observing his surroundings while feeding when the same kind of noise had disturbed him.

[A keen sense is key for survival. Pay attention to detail.]

[Skill ‘Sound Sense’ has been created.]

[Sound Sense: The answers lie in audible differences.]
[Lv-1][Passive/Active][INT +2]

Two hours later, it was finally time for the young bats to enter the second stage of their lives. The younglings were divided into five groups; each group was supervised by an adult, and once it was done, they left the cave where their colony thrived. With the adults at the helm, the younglings followed. A stupefying number of clicks chimed in the cave as the excited greenhorns left through the circular opening in the roof.

The adult flew fast to weed out the cream from the fat; there is no point in discussing who came in last. It wasn’t Creep. Although, his strength, agility, and endurance were low because of his unusual stat distribution; he was still better off than those younglings that were too stupid to effectively use echolocation or fly normally. Those younglings flying behind him were a sight to behold. There were even some that flew with their legs hanging from their torso, like the figure ‘7’ with wings. Observing them, Creep noticed them shivering. Comparing them with the bats that flew at the front, Creep concluded it to be the result of their position.

[You have made an excellent observation. Sound sense has risen to lv 2]
[Fear might act as a shackling emotion in most cases, but it can also become a driving force during certain circumstances.]
[INT +2]

[Skill: Eidetic memory unlocked.]
[Requirement: INT-10, Title-Emotionless.]
[Eidetic memory: Allows you to recall with startling accuracy.]
[Lv-fixed][Passive][Doubles Intelligence]

[You had an epiphany about emotions and behaviors.]
[WIS +1]

The noises explained. The explanation allowed him to think back to others behavior at certain times: the joy of the bats that were selected, grief of the unfortunate ones. This small epiphany allowed him to understand a little about the relation between emotions and behavior. However, he still wasn’t wise enough to understand the effect bad or good emotions had on behavior.

The bats flew through a pitch black tunnel, which opened up into a maze of a dozen more tunnels, crisscrossing into the distance, in all direction. Creep saw three huge bats with shaded fur and massive wings hanging upside down from the roof. The tunnels were connected to each other by a system of chamber each of which housed a certain number of bats both big and small. The further they flew however, the thinner the Crop of bats inside the chambers became.

Eventually, Creep and his group of ten young bats found themselves in a dimly lit chamber where light bounced off wet stalactites and drops of water fell from the roof upon an uneven wet floor- setting countless ripples racing forward on the water covered surface.

The supervising adult told them to be silent and to be ready. Creep, who was a natural mute and emotionally calm, stopped to hang from the roof at the very back of the group- not to stay hidden, but to get a clean look at both his fellows and the chamber. He didn’t find anything odd at first glance, but when he relaxed his senses to let the sounds give him a hint, he discovered a foreign presence in the chamber next to theirs. The sound was slowly becoming clearer and louder.

He conveyed his finding to the adult bat supervising the group and got back the bat equivalent of well done- a winged back massage. He didn’t know, but conveying this simple information had saved his life. The adult had obviously sensed the presence long before Creep had. It was simply testing the younglings. However, it wasn’t expecting him to be the one who would sense the invader among the younglings. It had actually chosen Creep as the meat shield, to demonstrate how to fight against the invaders, but now it had to change its line of action.

It changed its mind because bats aren’t thinkers. Especially younglings that haven’t even had their first fight yet. It meant that this young and thin bat was a special one- a rare commodity.

[Your forward thinking has managed to impress your superior.][INT +1]
[Charm stat has been created.] [CRM +1]

Creating a blundering set of noises, the figure entered the chamber. At this point in time, Creep had wisdom worth eleven points in total, which was akin to a toddler’s curiosity in general. He quietly observed the presence which was called an Invader by his instinct. The invader moved unusually. Instead of flying, it walked on his two feet. Creep also noticed its glaring absence of wings, even though it had movable limbs.

‘Can it not fly?’ the thought came and went without creating any echoes.

The Invader was shivering like the bats Creep had flown ahead of, albeit in frustration. This similarity in behavior shown by a being from a completely different species spiked his curiosity. The poor bats that were weeded out during the flight had behaved similarly to this invader. The short comparison led him to believe that there must be others of its kind nearby, just like them. It can’t be alone, he thought.

“Where are they, seriously?” the boy groaned and then murmured, completely unaware of the bats eyeing him.

“How deep should I go? Maybe I should turn back? But the entrance fee…” Losing sight of his surroundings, neglecting the basic rules which a rookie strictly needs to follow, creating unneeded noises, adventuring into a dungeon alone without prior experience; he was already dead, he just didn’t know it yet.

“Maybe I’ll get lucky?” he said out loud, splashing water as he walked deeper into the chamber.

The young bats started flailing excitedly upon noticing his presence, but the boy was too eager and foolish to notice them. The adult bat was naturally calm and collected, beaming with confidence and coolness. Creep was similarly observing everything without prejudice.

The adult bat had enough experience to judge whether it was the time to attack or not, but the young bats brimming for action didn’t have enough experience to considered such thoughts. The protective instinct rising inside their minds had them on the edge. Once the boy entered their range of foggy sight, the chamber rang out with the sound of their clicks, turning the boy pale in a heartbeat.

When he looked up with Goosebumps erupting over his arms, he saw the illusion of a hundred glowing red eyes watching his every move, and the short sword he was holding in his left hand fell to the ground with a clatter.

All of the young bats jumped on him at the sound, screeching joyfully at the foreign, inviting scent of his sweat, blood, and urine.

“Help!” he uttered baffled by the sudden turn of events. “HELP!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. Stepping back out of bottomless fear, he slipped, and then fell on his buttocks. The younglings pounced upon him feverishly upon hearing his oscillating scream. His arms frantically moved in the air, hitting the bats occasionally. He could have made a run for it because the younglings had no idea how to actually hurt the boy.

The younglings only knew that they needed to kill the thing. The voice inside their minds was telling them to protect the lair.

Most of them clung to his shirt, flapped their wings, and screeched loudly, with no idea what to do next. But then the boy made the mistake of raising his short sword: waiving it around, and dealing a life stealing cut on the abdomen of melon sized youngling.

The adult bat acted at this point. It attacked the boy with an inaudible sound wave which paralyzed him and the bats around him. The paralysis was short-lived, as the younglings soon started waking up one by one, but the boy was now too scared to even speak, much less use his sword to fight back.

“N-No, NO, why is an adult here?” he stuttered as the adult fell on his belly, emptying his lungs. This would have been an almost heroic tale to tell if the boy had used the chance to stab his sword through the adults head, but with an excruciating pain coercing through his body, he choked on his scream instead.

The adult took action. Paralyzing him with another sound wave, it bit his throat. The boy fell on his back. His body twitched and gurgling sounds echoed as the rest of the flock worked on him - tearing his cotton clothes and biting his exposed flesh. Eventually, with blood leaking wounds gouged all over his body and a crushed windpipe, he died.

[Your group has killed a level 2 human.]
[You have received 5% of the total experience as the party member.]

The younglings did a victory dance and the sound of their celebration clicked through the surrounding chambers, scaring the invaders on their first trip, and attracting the veterans. Meanwhile, Creep observed the bodily remains slowly disintegrating into the floor; leaving behind the shredded mess of his blood-stained clothes, his thin leather vest, and his weapon.

Creep finally understood the reason why these invaders called humans were invading their lair. He concluded that if they (he and the others) could receive that something called experience by killing those human, then the reverse could also be possible. Although the reason wasn’t enough to satisfy him, it was a start.

[A basic insight gained.][WIS+1]

Evidently, the disappearing body shocked everyone, but with no real need to freak out or to actively seek out prey, the younglings eventually settled back on the roof. They acted wildly for half an hour, then everyone went to sleep, and silence drowned the chamber.  In the end, no humans trespassed into the chamber for the rest of the day.

Slowly but surely, the signs of murder awkwardly sticking out in the almost dark and quiet chamber also disappeared. The tattered remains of the boy’s clothes were the first to be swallowed by the ground, followed by his cloth shoes, and then the leather vest. In the end, the blood covered short sword was the only object which remained behind, hidden nicely under the stagnant water. One needed to give an extra hard look to find it in the low light conditions of the chamber.

The flock of younglings hadn’t shown any interest to it because of the terrifying shrieks their now dead companion had uttered after being cut by it, but creep thought otherwise. With the thought process of a toddler -curious to everything in sight- it’s a miracle his eyes didn’t start shining like a bird from some late 80’s cartoon show while looking at it. He decided to take a look at how the thing worked.