The Core: The First Guest

45. Phase two? What?

With my eyes as wide as they would go I crept inwards inside the tunnel, trying to get back to where I died to see if my cr was still there. I had a bad feeling that something was going to happen at any moment and the game didn't let me down.

-Phase One is complete. All Fomys have returned from foraging for slumber. Prepare for Phase two: The Invasion-

"Wait what? No no no, I don't have any cr to use!" I whispered into the darkness as I slunk as quickly as I dared around the curved tunnel. I could hear something happening off in the distance, sounds of banging and people shouting. My Blidda ears were so much more sensitive and it allowed me to guess the direction and distance of sound. It was almost as if I had echolocation. The shouting sounded like players trying to hurry something along. The more I listened the more their voices started to fill with the sounds of panic. The banging and pounding noises seemed to intensify until all of a sudden it was all calm. What had just happened? Who was going to invade and why? The natives? Something to do with the Fomys going into a state of slumber?

Briefly, I considered using the Fomys Pheromone key but I didn't know which way to use it. Should I attract them to me or repel them? The key said nothing about changing their hostility to me if I attracted them so I was mostly thinking that I would use it to repel. The problem was... even with my amazing hearing, the tunnels around me seemed to have all gone still. Deathly still.

I hurried up my movement, keeping my eyes upwards to see if I could spy the little scoop in the crevice of the ceiling. I had already passed by the two paths that diverged to different levels and based on my map... I should be just about where I had died. The smell came to me first as I rounded the bend. I could smell the coppery tang of where I had bled out and a sweet smell of something else. The air seemed to be fluctuating within the tunnels, pulling the smell away from my sensitive nose before rushing it back into my face.

Something was moving in the tunnels.

Lots of things... enough to disrupt the flow of air to the degree that it wasn't circulating inside the curved tunnels. The air was shuddering.

I glanced around quickly in the darkness and studied the ground. The largest stain was where I died so that meant that the mote that had rolled out of the ground should be.... here. I got down on my hands and knees and ran my fingers over the dim edge of the cave floor, coming up empty.

The third mote was gone, either found by a player or swallowed by the Fomys.

Next, I got up and stood on my toes, reaching up as high as I could go with my shorter frame to run my hand along the wall near the ceiling. Ah, here it was, the place that I had cut out. I hissed when I touched something sharp that cut my fingertip, causing me to yank my hand back.

-20,000 unbound cr detected. Would you like to claim it?-

Only 20k? What happened to my other 10k? I wondered as I claimed them and willed the mesh cage to fly out and down to me while I licked off my finger. Blidda didn't seem to bleed as I expected. I stared at my finger as little fibers stretched out from each side to intertwine with the fibers on the other side of the cut. They grabbed each other and pulled the separation back together, creating perfect skin again. Ok, that was interesting.

I sighed when I saw the two little glowing motes still inside the cage.

Just as I had planned earlier I stuck one of the motes inside my mouth and back behind one of my side teeth to keep it safe. The other mote I held in my fist while I directed my cr to hover in front of me.

-Phase two beginning in 5, 4,...-

I had a bad feeling that I needed to hide or to get to a shelter as fast as possible.