Couldn't My Reincarnation have been more Cliche!

Chapter 11 (Certamen Irritum)Untitled part

I don't know how it wasn't on my map, but now, checking in the corner of my eye as if to taunt me, was a pulsing red circle covering up my own, confirming that I was indeed in very real danger. The beam lit up the entire room, casting the place in a golden glow which I would have loved to look at more closely had the circumstances been different. As the beam continued to carve out the rock, I was hit by a wave of heat across my face. As the heat died down, I felt a cold sense of anticipation creeping up on me.

What emerged from the still-molten rock Was a mass of undulating tentacles. They landed on top of the pile like a group of earthworms who, having had their home dug up, were desperately in search of a new one. Only, it was clear by the scene that had occurred a moment ago that their purpose was not going to be so passive. As they moved around, squirming in different directions, causing their paths to distort into strange patterns that encompassed the area in every direction around the entrance to the hole before they stopped their movement entirely.


This stillness lasted only long enough for an eerie feeling to creep down my spine before the tentacles retracted back to the entrance of the hole, digging themselves into the ground, the strange tendrils slashed at the ground as if trying to find a grip in the burning stone, the few tendrils which had not retracted now frantically dance atop the hole as if to announce something.

Out of the pile of rubble came the same strange red ant that I had seen before the collapse of the cave. Its arrival was not that surprising, frankly with the light show it had put on just a moment ago, It was silly to expect anything else. Still, seeing it emerge made my heart drop. I could tell that it was different from the other ants I had seen so far.

I mean, sure, the other ants weren't exactly normal by any reasonable standards, but this thing flew in the face of whatever little bit of reasonableness remained of my impression of this world. It was unnatural, more like a loose amalgamation of a living being than one unified concept. Its small size, which should have been the least intimidating fact about it, served to further this contrast between it and the rest of its kind. Just as my thoughts were becoming overwhelmed with the arrival of this fellow survivor, the sound of a system message rang out in my ear. When I opened the system panel I was met with a flurry of new messages, which quickly covered the page.

System:>

Skill "cloak" {on}

Current status {unimpai....


*ding*

System:>

Warning Abnormal source of soul energy detected!

Calculating new operation parameters. . . . .Solution found}

System:>




{Quest Issued "KIng Maker" [Reward:{Undecipherable}

{Absorb the "Red Ant Lord"?}

{mission progress 0/1}

As I look over the system's messages in my mind, my emotions fluctuate between dread and anticipation at the new quest projected in front of me.


The quest wants me to kill this thing huh? It was almost a laughable request, but one I was tempted to complete anyways. Sighing internally, I made up my mind. I couldn't expect to remain hidden down here forever. It was better to use the element of surprise while I still had it to gain some advantage, maybe if I was lucky I could kill it in an ambush.



What really interested me was the mention of "soul energy." From what I understood this term was somehow related to the new power I was given when I absorbed the three ants next to the pond earlier. I didn't know exactly how it worked, or why the system wanted me to absorb these monsters in the first place, but If my theory was right then I could only imagine what would happen if I was able to complete this quest.


It's probably good that I was never a philosophy, as I'm pretty sure that my body was quickly losing its humanity; although if I think about it that way, then I guess I already lost that when I died in my previous life, so it was totally okay to try to get as much power as possible from these monsters without having to worry about any moral consequences or something. See who even needs philosophy in the first place when you have good old-fashioned backward reasoning?

Anyway, it didn't really matter what would happen to me if I absorbed it. If I couldn't even survive a few minutes in a real fight against it. When I thought about it, I really had been screwed over here, right? It wasn't enough to barely survive being trapped at the bottom of a collapsed cave, but some monster with nothing better to do than kill me had to come with me.