The tunnels fell into an unsettling suspense. The atmosphere, tangible on his carapace, heavier and thicker than ever before. Laced with a muddy scent that spread to every corner of the everlasting tunnel. Adam moved quietly, cautiously brushing his legs over the damp soil. He traversed forward, making not so much as a single audible sound, ensuring complete silence. And amongst the murky smell clogging the air, a deeper sensation lurked beneath it. Thrill and excitement. It was as if the tunnels themselves seemed to hum, alive with an eagerness that mirrored his own resolve.
The smooth dirt soon gave way to stone. Each step clicked faintly now, echoing off narrow walls as he descended deeper. He passed the well, tracing the same path he once took. The place where he first met that monster...
His pace slowed, every movement measured, though hesitation crept with every step. The tunnel here was silent, and unnervingly so.
Moving eerily slowly he creeps up onto the spot where he was first ambushed. In a swift motion he looks up... though only the empty ceiling stares back at him.
Nothing.
He sighed, of course it wasn't going to be that easy. "I don't know why, but I expected that monstrosity of a spider to be here…"
The disappointment sat heavy in his chest. He thought it was its hunting spot considering it was waiting for his next victim as Adam slid through undetected on his way back. But no matter.
He continued forward, into untraversed ground. Every hundred "ant-meters", or what felt like a hundred and thirty steps, he made a tiny groove into the tunnel wall. Embedding the range extenders deep into the crevice, ensuring no one can find it. The notification manifested into the air.
[System Notification]
-Map Extended.
-New area successfully integrated.
The faint blue lines of his internal map widened, stretching further down the tunnel until they vanished into static.
Still, the difference in distance nagged him. "Strange… Why would the measurements be off? Unless…"
A thought crept into his mind. "There must be other ants! And bigger ones too!"
Yes! that made sense. Brill, Mira, the others, all smaller than him. But if there were larger ones then that would average their strides into one ant-meter! And so, his heart stirred with a mix of curiosity and unease. "Are they like me? Could there be a reincarnate amongst them too? He couldn't be the only one... right?... Or perhaps it could just be a fixed measurement. A measurement precalculated, taking into account their maximum sizes as we grew, as after each evolution, they seem to get bigger and bigger... Maybe I am just overthinking and imagining things. " Though the idea lingered, heavy against his mind, until he forced it aside. There were more pressing matters within his reach.
And then.
The air thickened, and a faint shimmer of red danced ahead. He crept closer, his antennae twitching at the strange stickiness clinging to the air. The walls glistened. Threads. But not white. Not even gray.
Crimson.
Blood-red webs stretched across the passage like veins, glinting faintly under dim light. His pace slowed as he stepped into what could only be described as a gruesome battlefield.
Dozens of beetle corpses littered the stone. Most of their shells had melted or been split open, some hollowed out entirely. Others were trapped in thick red silk, suffocating to death before they even had a chance.
"What… could have caused such a mess?" Adam murmured.
The stench hit him. A pungent smell of rot and acid, mingling into a foul, burning scent, swept the air like a cold breeze. His mandibles twitched. He tried rubbing his face as if the smell could be wiped away, but it clung stubbornly, seeping into his every breath.
He walked carefully among the dead, studying each fallen creature like a historian of tragedy. Then, something caught his eye. A horrifying and disfigured object lay at the scene. A wasp.
Its wings were half-dissolved. And its abdomen? Sliced and torn apart as it's insides stained the floor.
"Wasps? Underground?" he whispered. His voice was quiet, though it mattered not.
Then he saw them. Red, pulsing blobs clinging to its body.
Curious, he leaned closer. The orbs shimmered faintly, wet and breathing.
He touched one.
Pop.
A hiss followed, and a fine spray of acid shot outward.
Adam leapt back. The droplets sizzled against stone and flesh alike. The wasp began to dissolve almost instantly, its body melting into a bubbling puddle. The tunnel filled with the sharp stench of burnt chitin.
He stared, eyes wide. "What in the hell…?"
His mind raced. What kind of wasp is this? Questions spun faster than answers could form.
Whatever this was, it wasn't normal.
However, it didn't nudge Adam in the slightest.
His pulse steadied. The fire returned to his chest, burning through the fear that tried to crawl up his spine.
"If the universe thinks it can scare me into running again…" He paused, voice trembling not with fear, but fury.
His gaze lifted to the crimson webs ahead.
"Then it's wrong! I'll conquer everything in my path!"
And so, step by step, he ventured deeper into the red labyrinth.
The webs thickened. The air grew heavy with the smell of venom and old blood.
And somewhere ahead… something moved.
What awaited him beyond that scarlet veil would be far worse than his nightmares could ever imagine.