Six seconds was usually a very short period of time, but at this very moment, time seemed to move at a snail's pace. With each rapid, reverberating step from the approaching creature, Lucas tried to make out as much detail of it as he could, all to nail down his one shot at survival.

'It's most likely a centipede or millipede-like creature.'

He formed this opinion based on just how many steps he heard coming from the creature. This new information didn't change his plan much, he still had just one goal in mind.

The seconds ticked by, and in no time at all the creature stopped a few meters away from him. His hazy monochrome "vision" saw what could only be described as a massive centipede similar to the one the mysterious humanoids dispatched earlier.

It stood quite a bit taller than Lucas, its many legs sharp and curved as it eyed him with deadly intent. Not immediately going for the kill, it brought its gaze to the weaponized tendril Lucas had prepared all this while.

As it waited and cycled Lucas, Lucas could feel the poison draining more and more of his stamina. His focus wearing thin and his limbs feeling heavier and heavier.

'Come on you sick fuck! Come get it!!'

He roared internally as his form rippled and writhed aggressively. He pushed himself to stay awake and followed the monster centipede's jittery movements. Suddenly, Lucas felt a surge of pain within him and one of his tendrils slacked causing him to slump to the side slightly.

The monster centipede instantly noticed this change as its mandibles flared and it shot towards him like a bullet. Lucas' mind tightened to the limit as he knew this was the moment his life and death would be decided. Every extraneous thought was driven away from his mind, leaving him with only instincts.

The centipede's legs skittered against the ground, the chitin scraping like nails on stone, its mandibles almost 180 degrees open as it closed in for its kill. Lucas swiftly directed his weaponized tendril at the incoming monster's head and stabbed it out with all his might.

As the front half of the centipede's body was still mid-air, the sharp tendril buried itself into its head with pinpoint accuracy. Feeling the impact, Lucas screamed internally.

'[Leech]!!!'

At Lucas's mental command, his weaponized tendril writhed and expanded dramatically, splitting into countless needle-like offshoots in an instant. They tore through the centipede's head in a burst of wet, sickening sounds, each offshoot drinking deeply of the beast's vitality as it spasmed and collapsed forward.

Due to the centipede's momentum, it crashed into Lucas heavily before going dead still. Its head now looked like a grotesque pincushion. Lucas' mind was on its fringes as he slumped onto the centipede's corpse, almost becoming a puddle. All he could do was concentrate on draining as much vitality from the centipede as possible.

He could feel the pain caused by the poison fading considerably after about ten seconds of leeching. He could also feel how his limbs lightened once more giving him some confidence and relief. He had survived the encounter.

'That was really dangerous.'

Lucas couldn't help but sigh to himself. If something stronger and smarter had shown up, he would be dead… again. Oddly, the thought did not fill him with dread as it would have just a few hours ago. It filled him with triumph.

'I did survive. I can make it here. But first I should retreat and recover, I have already pushed my Luck far enough for one day.'

He knew his survival had been a fluke and if he kept banking on this stroke of fortune to keep hunting, he could only blame himself for his demise.

In about 30 seconds, he stopped feeling the euphoric stream of energy flowing into him. He knew that's all the monster centipede had to give so he disengaged his tendril from the centipede's head which instantly caused it to break down into dust. The rest of it looked like a dry husk, a hollow shell of its former glory.

'Damn, seems like [Leech] is an attack skill after all.'

He flexed his ninth tendril for a bit as he took in what just happened and everything still going on at the cavern floor.

'Okay, that's enough. Let's head back.'

With that, Lucas began the arduous climb back to the crevice, his tendrils sluggish and trembling as they stretched for holds on the jagged rock.

Even though he had healed a bit from killing that centipede creature, the poison from the spider still coursed through him, making every movement a struggle.

Each time a tendril latched onto the wall, a burst of pain shot through him, forcing him to momentarily recoil and shiver before he could push forward again.

His grip faltered more than once, and his form sagged against the wall, barely able to cling on. The usual ease with which he maneuvered his eight limbs now felt foreign, his tendrils spasming unpredictably. But he pushed through the discomfort, inch by agonizing inch until he finally reached the crevice.

Pulling himself into its dark embrace, Lucas collapsed, his form almost pooling on the cool stone. He curled up tightly, trembling as the pain and exhaustion coursed through him.

After a long while, the pain decreased to a manageable level. To keep himself busy, he opened his status screen to see if there were any changes to it even though he knew that was very unlikely.

'Let's see if there's anything new after that fight.'

———

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[STATUS]

Name: Lucas Maverick

Species: Mimic

Tier: 0

Level: 2

Essence: Freedom

Achievements: [Anomaly]

Stats:

•Physique: 2

•Spirit: 1

•Mind: 1

Skills:

•Guide [Special]

•Mimicry [Level 1]

•Leech [Level 2]

•Spirit Sense [Level 2]

Attribute points: 0

———

Upon confirming what he already knew, he tried to interact with the status screen a bit more to see if he could gleam any extra information from it or additional functions of the system. But he was met with disappointment.

'Yep, still don't know what most things on my status mean.'

After failing to find any additional functionality of his status screen for many minutes, even his determined mindset began to waver. He began looking at the skills and achievements more analytically, trying to deduce what they meant and what they did. Hoping to come to reasonable conclusions.

'Concerning my skills, so far I haven't used [Mimicry] and [Guide]. [Mimicry] should be the ability to copy other lifeforms or something along those lines right?'

'So maybe I can activate it by trying to transform into something else, after all producing tendrils comes so naturally to me now. I just simply have to step up the changes I make.'

Lucas mused, trying to identify the possible ways in which the Skill functions.

Even though he didn't know exactly what the skill did, the two skills he could use were massively helpful. Ignoring [Mimicry] and [Guide] would be very unwise and downright dangerous. This coupled with almost dying yet again in such a short time frame made him desperate for any additional tools to add to his arsenal.

'As for [Guide]… I don't even know where to begin. Instead of having its level in brackets, it just says special. What's that supposed to mean? And what type of skill is it in the first place? Wait… does it have something to do with that voice I heard when I just arrived? But it wasn't that helpful though and it hasn't said much since then…'

Multiple thoughts streamed across Lucas' mind but since he had so little info to work with, he could only reluctantly leave it alone for now.

'The achievement is also a complete mystery.' Lucas could only grumble in frustration. No matter how he racked his brain, he couldn't make sense of some very important aspects to his survival.

'Let's just focus on the skills that actually work for now: [Leech] and [Spirit sense]. As long as I can get them to higher levels, my odds of surviving will climb greatly…'

Lucas tried to encourage himself.

With [Leech], he had an offensive skill and with [Sprit sense] he had the ability to detect danger. If he used both wisely, he should be able to carve out a path of survival for himself.

After he got ambushed by the spider and almost killed by the centipede, he realized just how important every single decision he made could be. Every step he took had to be filled with purpose and intelligence or they might very well be his last.

Sure he always thought he was being cautious, but the instant he got a boost in power his confidence immediately became arrogance which subsequently, almost led to his death.

'I can't let that happen again. My life is more than mine. I have to remember that…'

Lucas vowed solemnly to himself as he still felt the poison nibble away at his insides. The memories of his mom, his friends, and his home were still clear and vivid in his mind. With his mind focused, he tried to make some progress on his skills.

'Since my perception was heightened by the boost into my Physique, leveling it up should be easier now right? This plus the fact that I'm not fully recovered yet makes it the perfect skill to try and improve.'

His blob-like form rippled in affirmation at the thought. With his goal set, he began recreating the process of how the skill leveled up in the first place.

He peacefully sat still in his little crevice trying to take in and process as many sensations as he could. Due to him currently being in a hole in the wall and given how far up he was, most of the sounds that reached him were somewhat damped. The monochrome image of the external world he had in his mind's eye was rather incomplete and fuzzy due to this.

He tried to piece together something clearer but his senses just were not powerful enough to do so. Even so, he persisted. Repeating the process over and over for minutes and possibly hours on end.

Eventually, he forgot what he was originally doing and just sat in silence. Paying attention to everything but not really contemplating on anything, it was quite a confounding state.

As the amorphous mimic sat there in silence, he began to hear a familiar sound. It was a melody he had heard just a few hours after he arrived in the cavern. Its unique rhythm seemed to envelop everything as it played gently from every direction, surrounding him with its soothing presence.

In his current entranced state, the sound resonated with him even more deeply than it did previously. Drawing him into a truly entranced state. In this current frame of mind, he could "see" something he couldn't before—himself.

A dark patchy gray, formless creature with multiple tendrils jotting from it. He could see more than this, however. Within this stillness, Lucas glimpsed something new—a faint, glowing sphere nestled at his center.

'What… is this?'

As he paid closer attention to the object, he noticed it was generating a glowing substance whose color he could not really place. It was almost liquid in its behavior and flowed through his amorphous body like streams of water. The substance moved unpredictably, twisting and curling in chaotic patterns that mirrored the unstable nature of his mimic form.

Its movement was mesmerizing—sometimes surging like a river, other times slowing to a gentle trickle. He couldn't quite grasp what the substance was, but it seemed to emanate warmth and a faint energy that resonated with his entire being. With each shift and ripple, Lucas felt a subtle rhythm, as though the core was breathing life into him in real time.

The chaotic flow felt at odds with the entrancing melody surrounding him, but somehow the two coexisted in harmony. His thoughts were disjointed, a haze of curiosity and wonderment.

'Is this some kind of special energy I can tap into?'

Despite his question, he felt no urgency to get an answer. Time seemed to lose all meaning as he focused entirely on the interplay between the object, its strange output, and the sound. He couldn't tell if he was in some deep meditative state or if his mind was slipping into delusion—but in this moment, it didn't matter. Reality felt distant and unimportant.

After what felt like both an instant and an eternity, the glowing substance began to vanish. The chaotic flow within his body waned as the small amount left retracted to the object at his center. Its radiant glow also dimmed considerably. The entrancing melody that had cradled him faded into silence as if the unseen force behind it had decided its work was complete.

Suddenly, his consciousness snapped back, rushing to the present like a cold jolt of water. The ethereal tranquility was gone, replaced by a sharp ache at his center.

'Oww… what just—'

{Congratulations, [Spirit sense] has leveled up from [level 2]—>[level 3]}

His thought was suddenly cut off by a notification. It mildly surprised him but he was more concerned about the strange thing that just happened to him and the aggressive pain he could feel in his "core".

'Wait… I have a core?!'

Lucas hastily drew his attention to himself and instantly noticed that he could actually "see" himself now. The first thing he noticed was that all his injuries had been healed, the poison within him seemed to have been cleansed completely. Apart from that, he finally saw something with color—his core, blazing with an otherworldly light.

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