Chapter 59: Scavengers
Like an asteroid, Aster fell upon a mound of bones.
CRASH
The force of the fall broke quite a few bones and blew the rest away.
"Argh, that hurt."
He could not feel physical pain but he could feel the force behind it. He had a sneaking suspicion that something inside him cracked and not just the bones that he fell on.
And lo and behold, he couldn't move his legs.
'...'
'*sigh*'
'What a pain.'
He crawled crawled out of the crater he had created with his fall. He could not get a solid grasp as the bones couldn't support him.
Grunting in frustration, he persisted and finally made it out. He laid on his back and looked up.
'It's deeper than I thought.'
The walls of the ravine seemed like two long pillars supporting the sky, which now looked so far away.
Dim moonlight descended the trench, providing little to no light. However, Aster could see just fine thanks to this light as his [Perception] attribute was quite high.
His [Magic aura sense] detected that there was something like a barrier on the edge of the cliffs.
Considering he just went through it and fell, it is the type of barrier that lets things go through but won't let out.
Basically, a type of barrier that is used for imprisonment, and Aster was 50% sure that this barrier was already there and not placed after he fell.
'It's not the time for rest. I need to keep moving. They are gonna send people after me sooner or later.
[[Regeneration[Master]] has been activated]
[-4,000 EP]
[+800 Hp]
He utilized his regeneration skill which has been cultivated to [Master] level to its full potential at the cost of a bulk of energy points.
Aster was no doctor. Now that his body do not feel pain anymore, his hp was the only way he could keep track of his body's condition.
'800 hp isn't enough to completely heal my condition but it is better than nothing.'
Aster's face grimaced. He smelled decay, rotten eggs, and an unidentifiable scent in the air.
The smell down there was absolutely horrendous, his brain had only registered it now.
In a vain effort to protect himself from it, he ripped a piece of his clothes to use it as a mask.
'Shit, the smell has contaminated my clothes.'
He created a small wind disk and used it to cut his nose off. Thanks to his bleed immunity, he did not bleed. He cauterized the wound with a small fireball afterward.
He had no knowledge about biology but he had hoped this would solve the problem.
Aster completely closed the hole where his nose used to be just in case.
Now he had to breathe through his mouth and was unable to follow the [Basic breathing technique] but it was infinitely more times better than smelling the air even though it was a bit unsafe.
'I hope my body can handle some dust in the air cuz I really need it to be able to handle it right now.'
'Now I need a way to move while my presumably broken spine heals.'
Finding a mode of transportation was easy. He created a wind vortex in both of his hands and used it to propel himself upwards similar to how a certain metallic man uses his propulsors to fly.
He leaned forward a little and he started moving onwards, following the path of the ravine.
It was crude and he moved much slower, slow enough to be negligible.
'Hmm, I should try to find a way to stabilize myself so I can go faster.'
He achieved it by creating another wind vortex around his immobile legs. Aster leaned ahead about 45 degrees and he started going with significant speed.
It was still nothing compared to his speed when he ran but it was the fastest he could go for now.
FWOOSH
Bones covered the ground and oftentimes, they created huge mounds which was a hassle to go over.
While scaling one of those mounds, he had an epiphany.
'Where the hell am I going?'
'I am just going without any direction!'
To be fair, there weren't many choices. He could either go forward or backward but he chose a random one and followed it.
'I need to know which part of the world it is, where this ravine is, and how to get out of here. And after that, how to escape for real.
'Fuck it, I will just keep going this way.'
At that moment, his keen eyes spotted something on the periphery of his vision.
He looked up and saw something big and ugly and it was carrying a cart.
It seemed to be a golem and there were a lot of them. As soon as Aster noticed them, everyone flipped over their carts and the contents fell.
'Oh shi-'
Without further ado, he burrowed under the pile of bones and dug deep as far as he could.
PLOP
CRACK
He felt something shift in the pile of bones.
His ears picked up tiny movements gathering in response to the contents being dumped.
'Eww!'
His hands brushed past something wet and slimy.
As he went deeper, the bones became increasingly damp.
'I regret my decision.'
Some stuff went inside his mouth which he had opened to take a gulp of air. Instantly, a plethora of tastes exploded in his mouth.
"BLEGH"
Throwing up is always unpleasant, no matter what. That unpleasant feeling gets amplified by the hundreds when one does it in the middle of rotting bones, 6 meters below the surface.
[Magic aura sense] detected the appearance of hundreds or even thousands of small energy bundles approaching the surface at alarming speeds.
It seems the ravine was not a lifeless dump he had thought. It was a home to a species of scavengers.
Neatly butchered and evenly cut human flesh fell from the sky and collided with the ground.
Immediately, the blocks of flesh were snatched by something with a piranha-like body but small goblin-like legs and arms.
CHOMP
SHRIEK
The sounds of their feast were equally as nauseating and sickening as the taste of decomposing feces.
Blood was spewed and seeped into the bones below, contributing to the monstrosity of waste below.
Thousands of piranha goblins roared and competed against each other for more pieces of meat. Sounds of their little shrieks and fights kept on going for a short period but it felt like hours.
During this short period, Aster realized why they didn't swarm up to him when he fell.
It was because of his excellent [Conceal] skill and [Stealth] attribute. Both make his energy and physical traces harder to detect.
Those ugly bastards are definitely weak monsters individually. That's why they didn't sense Aster.
However now that Aster had thrown up, they were bound to come after him next after their dinner.
Vomit couldn't be hid by either [Conceal] or [Stealth] after all. There was a physical trail leading to Aster now.
'Ah, shit.'
'It seems they are on the move… straight to me.
Wow, they are quite proficient at swimming in bones, don't they?
Is that something they all collectively learned or is this an advantage provided by their race?
Well, that doesn't matter.
I'm sure I can beat a few thousand canon fodder…
Even while being paralyzed and in their habitat… I hope.'
[[Phantom flame] has been activated]
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone