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77.53% Path of Evolution (Dropped) / Chapter 107: Caught in the roots

章 107: Caught in the roots

Something sharp poking my leg brought me back to consciousness. I slowly opened my eyes and raised my head to find a blurry figure standing in front of me.

I felt weak. So weak.

"Hey. You alive?" the voice of a girl. I knew she was in front of me, but her voice sounded so distant.

As if she was speaking from some far away place.

Doesn't really matter.

I'm exhausted. Very very exhausted.

Let me sleep. Just for a little while.

I closed my eyes and was about to nod off when I felt something sharp poking my leg once again.

"Don't you know it's rude to nod off while a lady is talking to you." Her distant voice rang in my ears and I opened my heavy eyelids to see her form once again. This time, it was a bit clear.

I shook my head weakly and tried to wipe my eyes but realized that I couldn't move my hands.

I was too tired to get frustrated over this.

I looked at her and this time, the blur went away and I surprised by the beauty in front of me.

She looked to be about my age, and was wearing a revealing skirt along with a small top. She had large breasts and had an hourglass figure. Black hair, brown eyes. A little shorter than me.

She was just perfect for me.

'How can someone be so beautiful.' I wondered. 'Is she an illusion?'

Perhaps I'm dead???

"Am I dead?" I asked and was a bit surprised by how hoarse and weak I sounded.

But then again, I was feeling rather weak at the moment.

She giggled at my words and then laughed.

Such sweet laugh.

"No you're not dead. In fact, I just saved your life. If I had come a few hours later, you would not have survived." She said with a grin.

"What are you talking about?" I thought and shook my head once again.

And then, I smelled a strong decaying smell and almost emptied my stomach as my senses cleared a bit

The feeling of euphoria lifted along with the thing that was confusing my senses.

My body hurt all over. As if I was stabbed by thousands of needles.

I looked down and found myself fully covered by the roots of a tree and half submerged in a small pond.

I looked around and found found roots as far as my eyes could see.

And then the corpses came into view.

Dozens, no, hundreds of mutant fish corpses decaying in the water as the roots surrounded their body and sucked the life out of them in a slow manner.

'So that's where the stench was coming from.' I thought and looking at the source of the roots and found a half destroyed truck at the edge of the lake.

A mutant tree.

But I already knew it the moment I saw the roots.

But it was destroyed at the trunk. As if blown by some kind of explosive.

This particular mutant tree did not have any eyes in it's trunks and had most of it's roots going into the water instead of the land. It was different than the mutant trees I had seen so far.

Now that I think about it, every single mutant tree I have come across was different from one another in some shape or form.

My the mutate differently than mutant beasts and abnormals.

This particular mutant tree had small holes in the roots and I could see a black liquid leaking out of it to and merging with the pond.

'That must be the thing attracting so many mutant fishes to this small pond.' I thought and looked at the the person who just saved my life from a horrible death.

Now that the euphoria I was feeling had worn off, she didn't look like the angel or the perfect girl I had imagined.

Sure she was still looked beautiful, but the type of beauty you see in some girls in the classroom.

Not the kind that 'makes you it's slave and forces you to lose your morals so that you could achieve it'.

The roots had attached themselves to my body and had released some kind of toxin in my body as that my mind would remain muddled while it slowly absorbed the nutrients from my body and left my an empty husk.

What a scary attack mechanism.

Suddenly, my thoughts came to a halt as the pain and exhaustion hit me once again.

I felt my vision blur a bit and saw the girl in front of me move forward to support my body.

"Hold on. Don't fall asleep you fool. Just hold on for a few more moments." Her distant voice entered my ears and for a small moment I wondered why cared about me at all before the exhaustion took over and I lost myself to the darkness.

—————

When I woke up the next time, I had the biggest headache I suffered in my entire lifetime. I tried to hold my head to dampen the pain but realized that I could not move my body at all.

This time, I knew that I was not tied to anything this time but was just so weak that I was not able to lift even a single finger of my hand.

'Fuck!!!' I screamed in my mind as the pain threatened to split apart my head as unbidden tears formed in my eyes.

'It's alright… Shh… Everything will be fine.' Lily's gentle voice rang in my mind and I felt a bit relieved that at least I had someone with me for the moment.

'Everything will be alright. It's just a headache. You'll over come it like you've done everything else.' Lily continued to say sweet nothings in my mind and despite the fact that the pain didn't lessen even a little bit, I found myself capable for shouldering the pain this time.

'Everything will be alright.' Lily said in a melodies and gentle voice, as if singing a lullaby and I soon found myself forgetting the pain and falling for the gentle words.

It was not too long before I fell in the gentle embrace of sleep once again.


クリエイターの想い
Fortunate_Soul Fortunate_Soul

The next few chapters will have a slower pace.

You can see this as a romance-buildup arc.

章 108: Weakness

The next time I woke up, my head was still aching, but it was bearable this time.

I still felt weak but this time I had regained enough strength to raise my hands up to my head.

My hands, they were covered in bandages and even then I was able to tell that they were thin.

Thinner than they used to be.

'What the hell.' I thought and looked around the room.

It was a small room with walls made of mud and a single door and window made of wood.

The little bit of light coming from the small window dimly illuminated the room and made me realize that there was nothing else in the room except for the bed I was sleepign in. Oh, and the blood stain at the corner of the wall.

The strong smell of medicine lingered in the air and I wondered if it was the girl I saw there who brought me and bandaged me up.

I felt thirsty.

'My ring…'

I removed the bandage from my left arm to check if I still had my ring and was horrified by what I saw.

The spatial ring was still there, but that was not the problem.

Dozens of tiny little holes covered every inch of my hand which looked devoid of any sort of muscles.

I felt fear rise in my heart and as I unwrapped the bandage on my arm, the fear turned into dismay and then intense sadness as I saw the condition of my arm.

Hundreds, if not thousands tiny holes covered my entire arm from top to bottom and the hand, which had once been muscular and robust had no muscle mass at all as the skin hung limply to the side.

I felt a tear escape my eyes at the sight and felt the urge to cry but the overwhelming thirst took over and I used all of the strength in my body to raise myself on the bed.

Then I took out a bottle from my ring and realized my mistake as my skinny hands were not capable of handling the weight of the bottle and if fell to the side with a thud.

'Fuck' I mentally cursed in frustration at my inability and felt anger and hopelessness rise in my heart before I clamped it down and my face regained an stoic expression.

I brought both the hands together and was able to raise the bottle with immense difficulty but became dismayed once again when I failed to open the cap of the bottle.

'Damn!!' I cursed myself for my weakness and in a moment of frustration, brought my mouth forward, opened my jaw and tore apart the upper part of the bottle.

Cold liquid spurted out of the bottle in my face and I spit aside the torn portion of the bottle with satisfaction.

'Better.' I thought and clomped down on the bottle.

Water never felt so sweet before and soon enough I had finished the entire bottle.

I threw aside the bottle and looked around at my surroundings once again.

Now that I was no longer thirsty, my mind became clear of any distractions and I was able to concentrate better on my surroundings.

A few mud huts and a tree blocked my sight as I looked out of the window so my eyes were not of much help here.

The room was filled with strong medicinal smell so my nose was compromised as well.

But my hearing proved to be useful as I heard the sound of churning water in the distance.

It meant I was not that far off from the river.

Whoever that girl was, she saved my ass and brought me to this empty village, put medicines on my wounds and wrapped my up like a mummy.

She save my life.

Which means I owe her big time.

'But where is she?' I thought and tried to listen with rapt attention but aside from the river in the distance and the chirping of the crickets, there was nothing else.

'Annoying little crickets.' I thought and laid down on the bed once again.

I looked at the wooden beams on the ceiling and wondered how the world would have changed if the insects had mutated as well.

The mere thought of a swarm of man eating giant locusts filled me with dread and I thanked the gods that such a thing had not happened.

Surviving against rats is already tough enough.

I don't even want to think about our condition if those insects mutated as well.

A world filled with giant mosquitoes with sharp needles that a capable of penetrating through defensive suit.

~~Shivers~~

Such thoughts went through my mind for a while longer before exhaustion took over and I feel asleep once again.

—————

The next time I woke up, the room was even darker than before.

I looked outside and realized that it must be dawn or dusk.

Getting severely injured and falling unconscious for a long time distorted my sense of time and I had no idea if it was morning or evening.

I looked down and realized that someone had wrapped the bandages around my hands while I was sleeping.

It was most likely the girl whom I saw earlier. Or maybe some other person who travelled along with her.

'I really owe her for saving my life back there and healing me.' I thought and tried to move my body.

After a slight discomfort, I realized that I had regained a bit of my strength.

Not much, but enough to get out of the bed and walk around for a while.

I did not know what my condition would have been like if I had suffered such wounds before the apocalypse but I was sure that I would have taken me weeks, if not months to recover to this point.

Whatever medicine she used on me must have been rather expensive.

I got off the bed slowly went outside the hut.

Just as I had assumed from the sounds earlier, this was a small fishing village that had been deserted by this point.

I felt a bit of pain coursing through my leg as I started walking around.

It was the place when the mutant snake had pierced it's fang.

That area was still swollen and from the looks of it, even the medicines she gave me was not able to fully negate the effects of the poison.

I shivered at how close I came to death.

'This is a truly a dangerous world.' I thought to myself as I looked around, searching for some clue for the location of the girl.

Except for the huts and trees, there was nothing in sight.

I looked at the watch and realized that it was 6:43 pm now.

So evening it was.

'At least the sunset is beautiful.' I thought and looked at the re hue in the horizon in silence.

Silence which was soon broken by the munching sound coming from behind a hut.

I hoped it was not what I think it was and slowly made my way to the hut where the sound was coming from.

Yeah. Definitely the sound of someone eating something. And not the kind of sound that a human makes when eating.

Trepidation filled my heart as I took each step forward. I really owed a lot to the girl. If she died at this point, then I'll never be able to forgive myself.

Considering I survive the night.

If something killed her, then I would not live long either considering my current status.

I reached the hut and looked around with worry and my eyes went wide with fear.

"What the hell!!!" the words left my mouth before I had the chance to think anything else.

'Shit!!!' I cursed in my mind.


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  • テキストの品質
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  • ストーリー展開
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