I'm suddenly kicked from behind by Ghost and fall face first to the floor. Barely avoiding getting impaled by an aggressive beetle.
"Kill It you Idiot!"
"R Right." I pull my machete from my bag as I stand. Immediately seeing that the beetle has impaled the door with its lance like horn. Its wings fluttering angrily as it tries desperately to fly away. Clearly unable to grasp that it is keeping it stuck.
Feeling a little depressed I still move to finish the beast. With 2 hacks of my blade the beetle stops moving and I feel a small but dense Force invade then settle inside my center.
"You just stood there like an idiot… do you want to die or something?" Ghost angrily accuses me.
"Of course I don't want to die, it's just… I got distracted by the vines taking over the floor. There oddly familiar?" I scratch my head in confusion. There's no way that a single tree that should be miles away could grow this farm and much in only a few days, right?
"It's all just raw lumber, nothing special. Now what's your plan for killing these things?"Ghost asks eagerly.
"Being quiet was a start." Pulling out the Carving Rock I separate the dead beetle from its horn before chucking it a few feet away from the door along the wall. Before the corpse hits the ground 3 more beetles impale it. While one misses and gets impaled on the wall near me.
Leaving Ghost behind I creep forward towards the stuck insect barely dogging another one of the beetles. But I manage to hack it apart when gets stuck on a bush. I cut up 2 more beetles in a similar fashion before reaching the wall bound one.
The beetle is practically glowing as it discharges into the wall in a desperate bid to free itself. This time I try using Cleave through my machete. Force flickers along the edge for a brief moment, before sputtering out. I don't really want to cut myself every time I need to use my ability with an item.But the regular Force my center collects is too thin and isn't reaching the blade fast enough, instead it's mostly dispating though out my arm. But what if I use the denser Force collected from killing the bugs instead?
Pulling on this Force is much harder since it's trying to build into something, dubblely so since I'm not high on adrenaline or my body numb with shock like the first time. Even still i painfully pull a large glob of this dense Force from my center and shunt it into my machete with intent. The intent to Cut!
CLICK
As easily as the mantis could my blade Cleaves though the insect. Returning a little less force then I spent to kill it. Though I'm positive I used more Force than I had too…
With a bit of effort I return to the stair well with all 3 beetles. 4 actually as another one tried impaling me on the way back. Finding Ghosts and impatiently sitting there haven't not decided to risk following me."Hey Ghost what to you know about Force?"
"What the heck are you talking about?"
"You know the strange energy used to fuel our abilities? I can feel it constantly following thoughts my body and pooling behind my sternum." My center aches a little at that moment.
"I don't feel anything when I use my ability and I definitely don't feel anything flowing through me, or pooling inside me… are you sure you're not hallucinating or something."
Frowning I sit on the steps and begin absentmindedly hacking apart the beetles I brought back into little chunks, much to Ghosts discust. Force is real right?
" isn't there a line inside your Pra…inside the book you can summon?" I ask now uncertain.
"I…let me check…" Ghost summons her Parasite book thing in front of me for the first time, an uncertain look also on her face. Her book is made from clear plastic with what looks like platinum trim and bindings. Not a hint of age or ware mares it's surface, unlike mine.
"Apparently I do have Force? 5% remaining? What did I spend it all on?"
"Probably on staying solid, but I've also haven't seen my Force rise above 9% so you're ability seems pretty efficient if nothing else. What did you want the Force potion for if you didn't know what Force was?"
Ghost looks at me with an uncomfortable expression. "I felt drawn to it okay… like if I drank enough something good would happen to me. I still want it by the way."
"Weird I don't feel anything from it? Maybe it's because of your trait? If we find a another potion we can see what happens if you drink one?"
She scoffs clearly not happy having to wait for something that might not happen.
Eventually I finish mincing up the beetles into some surprisingly pungent chunks and begin the second stage of my shaky plan. In no uncertain terms can I safely clear out the 5th floor. Let alone do so before the entire building is converted into a giant tree, dungeon, thing. The bugs are simply far to fast and numerous for me to avoid them all for ever. Within a simple 6 foot stretch from the floor entrance I was attacked 5 times! My only saving grace is that they are dumb and clearly not built for living in confined spaces.
My solution, to lure what remains of mister whiskers down here and let the fleshy monstrosity he's become wreak havoc on this burgeoning ecosystem. I just hope I can avoid getting caught between a hungry monster and the swarm of territorial beetles!
Cutting off the door way entrances with my Carvings Rock proves an easy if time consuming task. Making sure the doors don't fall a summon ether monsters is the hard part, but with a bit of bribery Ghost lends a hand ensuring the lower door is proped up. Now I just need to lay the bait!