Demonic Devourer’s Development

Chapter 95: Impenetrable fortress

After the dust from the fight settled, the bugmen took their game away. I was tempted to follow them to their lair or settlement, but I didn’t dare to risk it. I didn’t like at all how their antennas twitched when they got closer to me, and at one moment I was sure one of them spotted me… but no.

But the stronger and brighter the water in the stream was, the more powerful the monsters, the closer I got to the source, and it boosted my spirits even when my stomach gnawed at me to feed it with something better than wood lice. Or were they mushroom lice if I found them near mushrooms?

I ate mushrooms too. At least I didn’t have to care if they were poisonous or not—I would digest anything. It was another question if I would gain anything from what I ate, or I could’ve just ate stones and be happy with it. There was, after all, no shortage of stones around.

After that long track, it was especially rewarding to finally see the end of it. When I first saw ahead what was definitely walls, made of crudely cut stone, I was elated. The stream disappeared under them, and whoever built them, I was ready to swear on my teeth that the origin was there, behind these walls that rose to the very ceiling of the cave.

Then my elation dimmed, as I realised that I would have to deal with them and whoever was behind to get to whatever was the source of the water. The stone walls were three meters—the cave’s ceiling wasn’t that high in that place—tall, and the only weaknesses in them I spotted were a few narrow embrasures and, when I got a little closer and watched from another side, a gate made of giant bones.

I had a choice of circling around through the cave passages to try and come from another side of that fortress, squeezing in through an embrasure—I knew I would fit, but I’d be very vulnerable during the process—or break in through the gate.

All choices were pretty meh.

I wondered who lived inside. I was ready to bet on bugmen. There was, though, no reasons to hurry with my judgements. There seemed to be relatively fewer monsters that close to the fortress than on my way to it, so I had a luxury of a marginally calmer place to rest.

Then, when I scavenged some bat to chew—I took the fact that I found a non-gigantic bat around there as a sign that my luck was smiling at me—I went to survey the fortress. Sooner or later, someone would come in or out. Hunters, gatherers, scouts.

When the bone gate opened, I expected to see bugmen coming out, or some other monstrous creatures like kobolds. But what I saw… well, it was the last thing I could’ve imagined.

The group of four men, each armed with hunting spears and scantily dressed in leathers, were all human. They even carried lights with them: something that looked like lanterns filled with rainbow water, which gave enough light for me to see their faces in colour.

They were all much paler and gaunter than any surface-dwelling humans I’ve seen. There was also something strange about their features… something unhealthy. One had a chin so long and triangular that it could’ve been used as a natural weapon. Another’s eyes couldn’t focus on a single point in front of them. The third just had a creepy, dumb smile on his face.

But the fourth was the strangest. He had no nose or lips at all, just slits for mouth and nostrils. There were strange bumps under the leather tunic he wore, like there was something hiding at his sides, and he held his arms awkwardly. He also, despite all that, looked the healthiest of the group.

Why humans lived so deep underground? How come I never heard of them… except for the rumours about ancient civilisation, but this didn’t look like much of a civilisation. Why these humans were so weird?

The best way to learn was to follow. I followed them. It was much easier with the most monsters around—I knew human senses well enough to know how to avoid getting caught by them. As long as I stayed away from the night and was quiet, hunters won’t spot me, and they didn’t.

I watched how they tracked the monsters, made an ambush, used one of the hunters to lure the monster in and killed it with teamwork just as great—and quiet—as that of bugmen. They did talk, though—in hushed whispers, but I could hear enough to discern at least some of it.

Simple stuff about life, but the language was… also weird. I recognised it as the same one everyone I knew spoke, but at the same time, different. I could understand it, but it certainly was another dialect.

Then I watched how the hunters announced themselves to whoever waited on the other side of the gates and were let in. I knew more about this fortress now… and about its inhabitants. Simple humans, but not so simple. The rainbow water made them as strong as any of the monsters around, though I was sure they weren’t adventurers.

And I still had no plan of how to get inside. No plan yet, at least. But as I stared at the closed gates, a vague idea became to form in my mind. It would be risky and daring… and I still didn’t know what would wait for me on the other side of these gates. But if I did everything well, I would be inside of the fortress and free to explore. Free from anyone’s scrutiny.

If I did everything well… They wouldn’t know I was there in the first place. Not until I find out what the source of the water is, and if I can take it for myself—do just that.

Just you wait for me, shiny water!