Read Novel Full Chapter 495: Primal Fear
Chapter 495: Primal Fear
"..." I hide in a hole in the ground, my body is full of fear, a primal fear I never thought I’d feel, a fear that not even being attacked by monsters or parasites in the abyss would normally cause.
[The system reports that the damage was @$&@%(¨@¨@...]
"Ghmm," I let out a pained groan as I curl up in the hole I’ve squeezed into. I can’t read the system—everything’s blurred and a scrambled mess of letters because of what happened to me.
"Haaa... Haaa..." I breathe deeply, tasting and smelling my own blood. My tail coils over me protectively. Unfortunately, I had the displeasure of finding out who made the holes in that area of the abyss biome.
And after being attacked by it, my body could only flee madly until I was out of that area, escaping the reach of that aberration.
"..." I feel more violated than if I’d been raped. My body feels so much of the damage it caused that it’s trying to create an urgent ability to deal with this problem.
"This hurts..." I curl up tighter, remembering what happened a few hours ago and trying to organize this memory I’ll never forget.
...
...
...
"Hey Violet, you know, I’m thinking about eating the parasites that must be stuck in these holes. They have an interesting ability to pierce mana armor, and I want it for myself."
"I’m sure it’s a racial trait rather than an actual skill, since if it were a skill or magic it’d be impossible for all of them to have it. So it must be something about their bodies, and that I can steal," I say, quite approving of this plan.
"...Violet? Nothing to say? You were talking just a few minutes ago!! Why do you keep disappearing like this? It’s annoying!" I say to her, frustrated, as I leap from tree to tree.
"Tsk... it’s not like I need to talk to you either..." I climb down from the tree, irritated with her for ignoring me like this. Or maybe she has some problem I don’t know about and she won’t tell me? Well, never mind! Right now I’m going to spend some time eating.
"Hmmm."
’How do I get these parasites out of there?...’ I decide to use fire magic, but in a very different way. Ever since my level increased, using magic has become easier, and I’ll probably be able to use spells in fights soon.
"..." I generate a magic circle in my hand and release gas into the hole. With another magic circle, I create an air current that pushes the gas deeper into the hole. I keep doing this for a while.
When I deduce it’s spread enough, I release flames. This ignites the gas in seconds, spreading fire through the tunnels. I hear a loud rumble and the ground shakes.
"..." Soon, several parasites come rushing out of the holes, on fire. They squeal and run wildly before stopping and falling dead.
"Oh!! Parasites are weak to fire?" I notice they’re dying too easily for something not even meant to kill them, while the other one I crushed against a tree was still moving.
’Maybe it’s because they have no defenses, so their skin is sensitive and fragile...’ I decide not to care. Now that I’ve discovered this weakness and so many of these arthropod parasites have come out of the ground, I should be able to get the ability.
"..." I start picking them up to eat, until I notice something.
"But aren’t you kind of small to have dug these holes?" I murmur, biting into one and tearing off a large piece. It turns out these things are about 50 centimeters on average, with a one-meter tail. That’s big, but they could fit into smaller holes.
’Maybe the hole isn’t made for them... maybe something else?’ I go to others. To maximize the process, I just take one big bite out of each and drop the rest, picking up ones from the ground.
After doing this for a few minutes, I finally gain something—a stolen trait from one of them.
27= Geo-Parasitism-Advanced - Ability to parasitically invade the burrows of other monsters and cohabitate there undetected, with the body simulating the scent, texture, and other small details of the environment, causing the true owner of the burrow to only notice if directly seen.
"Tsk, that’s it? A parasitism ability? What the hell for... wait, why do they have a burrow-parasitism ability?... then..." I look at the holes in the ground with this realization. The holes aren’t from this parasite. They’re from something else.
"...Oh, this is... bad..." I realize I just blew up someone’s house, and I don’t even know who it is. I thought it belonged to the parasites, but if this is their trait, it means they all have it, which means this house isn’t theirs.
"..." I decide to leave the area. I’ve already stolen one trait, and I don’t know if I can steal two traits from the same being, so it’s better to get out of here before the place’s owner shows up. I don’t want a fight.
"..." I turn to continue onward until I see something—a claw emerging from the ground. I watch it until the claw twists and spins, drilling downward and creating a new hole exactly one meter wide, with a sound like a drill.
’Shit, looks like I found the owner of the holes.’ I jump back, watching what will emerge. And what comes out of the hole also looks like an arthropod, or some strange kind of crab, spider, and octopus mix with a pinkish-red color. It "looks" around as if searching for something.
’It didn’t notice me? It’s blind... yeah, that makes sense... it’s blind. That’s why the parasites live down there—with that trait, they’d only be found if seen.’ I take a step back.
I can’t sense this thing’s strength, but it doesn’t seem particularly weak or strong. Yet, even without making a sound, this thing looks at me.
’M-My scent!!’ I try to move, but before I do, this thing is already on top of me, and I’m holding back its legs as they try to attack me. It’s not very strong physically.
"You little shit! You’re gonna be my dinner!!!" I try to push it off.
"GHAAAYHHHHHHHHHH!" I let out a bestial, pained scream as tears immediately stream down my face. Something like a tentacle and stinger pierced through my ear and into my brain.
My body convulses as I feel something spreading inside my head. Blood streams from my eyes while on my retina I see something like a root growing.
[Danger! Danger! The system alerts that your brain is being dominated. If the process is completed, the controlled individual will lose all forms of autonomy.]
A system alert, but I don’t even need its warning. My body understands perfectly what’s happening, and it’s struck by a fear I’ve never felt before—a fear that surpasses the fear of dying.
The fear of being controlled. Not even death would be this horrible. My body releases it while convulsing, and the flesh-roots spread inside my brain, my body losing more and more control.
"..." As a last desperate act with the little control I have left, I make my tail pierce through the back of my head. It goes straight through my skull from one side to the other, destroying almost half of my head.
My body, which functions heavily on instinct, reacts by shutting down the brain’s responses and activating all bodily responses. My body leaps back, feeling infernal pain as the roots are ripped out, almost pulling my brain out of what’s left of my skull.
Immediately, my body takes off, running in extremely long leaps through the trees. I can’t see or hear anything. I only feel that my body hurts and has involuntary muscle spasms.
A primal fear of being controlled by another being terrifies my body, which uses a large part of my Mana to accelerate and flee, running on its own.
...
...
...
"Ghmm, my head..." I murmur, finishing remembering that. The sensation of something invading my ear and piercing my brain is still fresh. Those roots trying to cover and infiltrate inside me.
"..." I notice that only now has my head regenerated. A desperate move that barely worked. If I didn’t have such strong regenerative power, I would have been controlled by that thing.
’...’
"Damn it..." I practically bury myself down here. My body doesn’t want to leave. Fear of seeing that thing. I never thought something could scare me so much that my body would be afraid to surface.
"Haa... haaa..." I spit blood. The damage to my brain is almost fully restored.
I think the worst part is knowing exactly what that thing is. It’s essentially a tentacle monster like Shogo, but unevolved, and in a much stronger, more dangerous version.
I know this because I’ve seen the process Shogo uses when putting her tentacles into someone’s brain. The difference is, Shogo tries to be gentle and uses drugs, aphrodisiacs, and anesthetics to make it pleasurable and painless.
While here in the abyss, that monster did it any way it could, focused only on controlling my brain as quickly as possible.
"Why did a common monster have to be so terrifying?" My voice comes out weak. The fear is still deeply affecting who I am. Tentacle monsters are common, meaning the abyss is full of monsters that can do this to me.
I was just lucky. Really lucky that the monster that attacked me was weak. But what if it was stronger? What if one day I’m attacked by a high-level tentacle monster? Or worse, what if I’m attacked by a humanoid tentacle monster—the strongest version?
These thoughts invade my mind, deepening the fear in my body. A revulsion and refusal to be near something like that again. If my brain is ever controlled... what would happen to me?
Can my body’s adaptation handle mind control? Could I regain consciousness and take back control? I don’t know. Maybe, after some time being controlled, my body would adapt and break free.
Or maybe not, and I’d forever remain a dumb puppet of a monster. Regardless of what would happen, I can’t leave this hole I’ve crawled into now. The trauma of the experience is still too fresh.
"H-Hahaha... how pathetic of me... being so afraid of a common monster that’s nothing special..." An empty laugh escapes me. I feel so pathetic, and it frustrates me. Because this time I was cautious, but I still got attacked.