Chapter 44 New Environment, New Prey

Growls, hisses, and the click-clack of claws reverberated off the cavern walls. Tiny waves of vibrations tingled at the bottom of Ethoss's claws.

He could sense it— no, he could taste it. This cavern swarmed with creatures, fighting and moving through an thoroughfare in the part of the cave network.

Ethoss was mesmerized by all the scents. The scent of blood, excrement, sweat, urine, and other bodily fluids permeated the air. It was like a feast for his senses. He wanted to grab one of those creatures, tear them apart limb by limb, and devour their insides. His stomach growled loudly as he took in more smells.

His eyes glowed a bright nightly blue as they scanned the environment.

A faint light illuminated the entire area, but there were pockets where it wasn't enough. There were small holes formed throughout the surroundings. These tiny openings were filled with glowing mana crystals, which created a glow. This reminded him a lot of his birthplace, which also had formed these crystals.

Almost immediately, Ethoss activated his camouflage and entered into the cavern. With growing curiosity, he cast his eyes around.

The slits of blue hue that he had been seeing in the tunnel was here as well. In fact even more of them were present, twisting and branching throughout every surface, even bending around the pillars of pointed rock that bursted from the ceiling and and floor. It continued to stretch and vine, diving in deep before peeking back out of the rock.

The mana that flowed through and hovered around these slits were now moving oddly however. Ethoss had gotten quite used to being able to perceive mana, and with that he also got accustomed to the patterns of mana's movement. Presently, in contrast to what he was used to, the mana around here was traveling in a unorthodox direction. It moved as if it was following a current or it was being sucked in from somewhere.

Despite his interest being peaked, Ethoss snatched his eyes off of the slits of mana. He wanted one thing and one thing only at the moment: prey.

Tasting the air, he moved tactically. He had pinpointed a few locations already. He darted down the cavern, turning left into another thoroughfare before then making a right moving into another. As he moved, he passed tons of other monsters, ones that were either too small to satisfy him, or they were out of his reach.

Most of these monster denizens were insects that weren't even a third of his size. They crawled on the ceilings and walls, fleeing upon noticing him, running toward the dark shelters of stalactites which were hanging like spear tips from the roof. As they moved, they made a eerie clacking sound which made Ethoss feel itchy.

He also passed small puddles, which was fed by steady drips of water from the cracks in the ceiling. These puddles also contained small portions of mana, still, obviously not as much as the miracle lake. Growing fungi and moss bloomed around these puddles, creating small patches of green with the cavern. But it wasn't enough to keep Ethoss interested for long.

Other monsters were eating carrions of dead insects, leftover from another creatures meal. As Ethoss moved further into the deep caves, he noticed more signs of life. The ground changed from rocky to dirt, and holes in the ground began appearing, most likely from other insects. It seemed that this cavern was home to more insects than other monster species.

Progressively, the scent he was following grew closer and closer— until…!

Ethoss suddenly paused his movement and wiggled his nubby tail. In front of him was a pit falling trench, one that was very deep. Had he taken another step, if he couldn't see as clearly as he could within this dark cavern, he would have most likely fallen to his death! The trench extended so far that even to Ethoss it appeared to grow dark further down.

Looking closely, Ethoss could see a pair of red eyes staring at him from within the darkness. This was most likely the prey he was looking for, unfortunately, he didn't have the ability to climb walls. Even if he did, his large body would probably make it dramatically more difficult. Ethoss observed the monster as it stare at him; It crawled up the wall slow steadily.

Eventually, the creature climbed high enough, letting him see it more clearly. What looked like a mass of blackness with crimson red eyes that flowed in the darkness was instead, a black lizard like monster. It didn't have very strong scales for defense, in fact, it was quite the opposite. Thorny spikes resembling horns grew all over its body, possibly to ram into others, injuring them with its sharp pointers.

It's eyes suddenly twitched and began to orbit independently of each other. One looked at Ethoss's face, while the other analyzed his body, obsessively eyeing his missing limb.

Ethoss felt his claws dig deeply into the stone, and he hissed in anticipation. He knew that this was the one. He would eat it. It was large enough to at least allow him to regain most of his HP. But more importantly, it could probably provide a nice amount of biomass for himself.

Suddenly, the black lizard lashed out. It's mouth opened and it's long sticky tongue forced out a mass of bubbling saliva, narrowly missing Ethoss. As the saliva landed right underneath Ethoss, it began eating into the rock, slowly liquifying it. The process was hypnotizing to watch.

Ethoss watched as droplets of the liquid smeared across the rock, forming a thin film over the area. Soon another spit of saliva flew at him, this time landing directly on his face.

Hiss!!

Ethoss flinched and jumped back, hissing loudly in pain. The acidic saliva soon dried up leaving burns right on the scales of his snout. The black lizard didn't move any further up, closer to him anymore. Instead, it looked as if it was going to get comfortable, preparing to shoot another mass of saliva.

Annoyed with this bottom feeding creature, Ethoss peeked his head back over the ledge and opened his mouth. Soon a orange glow bloomed, highlighting his chest area. Then it changed, becoming red, and traveled up from his chest to his neck.

'Now it's my turn!' He thought.