Re:Monster - Re:Vival

Day Seven

By the time the teams returned, I'd had some time to practice some of my skills. I mainly focused on [Pyrokinesis] since it was the most useful skill I had for taking out a majority of the skeletons. When the first team got back, I had figured out how to control the flames a little bit. Before, it was like an eruption. No control at all, just on or off. Now I'd managed to make it more like a rusty faucet. I could control the flow of the flames most of the time but sometimes I'd let out too much or too little if I didn't focus enough.

When the last group returned, I had them relay to me what they had found. It was honestly kind of amusing. Since none of them could speak, it became a strange sort of charades. From what I understood, the first group only found a few skeletons and none of them seemed to have any unique qualities. The second found the staircase and the third found a unique skeleton. Apparently it looked hungry? I probably misunderstood but I'd find out soon since I commanded the third pair to lead us to the hungry skeleton in question.

It took around ten minutes to find it but when we did, it was obvious which one was the hungry skeleton. In fact, hungry might not be enough to describe it. When we spotted it, it was already shoulder-deep in an adventurer's corpse, engorging itself on entrails. The adventurer didn't look any older than ten. There was some shoddy gear strewn about so I could only guess what led a child to coming down so far. I couldn't even guess how he'd managed to get there unless... right, that would make sense. His party abandoned him and ran when they came across the hungry one.

As for the skeleton itself, unlike the others on this floor, it had no clothing. However, on closer inspection, there was something else covering its bones in some places. Skin. It was uncomfortably thin and it didn't cover the bones entirely but it was there. Grey, rotting skin.

Something inside me was warning me, screaming at me. This was not normal. That thing shouldn't be on this floor. It was unnatural. Treating it like any other skeleton on this floor would only see me dead.

I had two options laid out before me. I could flee, have the second pair of summoned skeletons guide me to the stairs and hope it can't follow me down. Or the second option; it hadn't noticed me yet. Either that or it didn't care about me, probably since I didn't have any meat on my bones. Either way, I could try for an ambush. Or I could send my summons after it, though I'm sure they wouldn't last very long, they might give me enough time to strike. Simply put, fight or flee, both options held a pretty high chance of death although if it really was ignoring me, then the "flee" option could work.

After thinking about and watching the disgusting creature eating the child's corpse, reminding me of Kanata in a way, I did the cowardly thing. I fled.

I promised myself that I'd return. That thing was sure to have plenty of useful skills. I'd need them in the future, no doubt and the only way to get them was to kill that thing. I'm not an idiot though. If I didn't have to, then I wasn't going to willingly get myself in a fight to the death. I was a methodical assassin for over a decade in my past life. Gathering intel, getting stronger, finding it's weakness, these were all things I was familiar with. I'd do the same with that monster. For the first time since coming to this place, I had a proper goal. It was nostalgic in a way but I didn't have the time to think about it. I was back in my element. I'd never failed a mission and I don't intend to start now.

I had to get to work immediately. There was no telling how strong it might be when I returned, so I left a pair of skeletons, the pair that found it in the first place, to watch it and keep track of its movements and behaviour. The other two pairs came with me as we delved down to the next floor.

The same greater skeletons appeared immediately after we reached the bottom of the staircase, proving that the hungry one really wasn't normal. Admittedly, I couldn't say I was normal, I suppose, but that thing... I got shivers just thinking about it. Like something out of a horror movie.