Chapter 46. An Escalating Threat

Chapter 46 — An Escalating Threat

The situation felt too familiar. So familiar that a thought crept into my head: what if this is a dream? A lucid dream?

"Why are you silent? Like last time. You know, that’s rude," Rem said.

Yeah. It was Rem.

"I’m just thinking…" I replied. "When did I even manage to fall asleep?"

If this is a dream… then how will she answer?

What will my imagination come up with?

What kind of story will it continue?

Rem exhaled in disappointment and pulled the sword blade away from my throat.

From her look, I could tell—she was staring at me like I was something pathetic.

No, I get it. This is probably my imagination.

But still… it stung.

And then a sphere formed in front of her.

Transparent, as if made of water, a little bigger than a basketball.

The next moment, the water sphere shot toward me.

I managed to raise an arm to shield myself, but I took no damage. And I shouldn’t have—because it’s just a dream. That’s what I thought.

Cold water—burningly icy—slammed into me with force.

That was enough to understand—this wasn’t a dream.

I looked at Rem.

She was still standing in front of me. Real.

This was… awkward.

And what am I supposed to say to her now?

"Well? Come to your senses, idiot?" Rem said, still looking at me with that same gaze, like I was some pathetic creature.

"Yeah… sorry. I misunderstood the situation," I said sincerely. "Sorry."

An awkward silence hung in the air.

Rem stared at me in silence for a few seconds, then asked:

"Fine. If you’ve finally come to your senses… what the hell are you even doing here?"

She frowned.

"And what are these damn creatures that devour everything around them?"

"I… don’t know," I replied.

For a few seconds, Rem just stared at me in silence.

"What do you mean, ‘you don’t know’?" she finally said.

Her gaze grew colder.

"If you don’t know what you’re doing here, then why are you here at all?"

She glanced around, gesturing at the forest.

"This is the middle of nowhere. A very remote place."

"The nearest village from here is at least ten days away."

Rem looked straight at me again.

"I don’t believe you ended up here by accident."

"Could it be… your doing?" Rem looked at me suspiciously.

For a moment, I froze.

Did she think I summoned these creatures? Or created them?

I didn’t even know if something like that was possible in this world… but if I thought about it, Rem had already said that sometimes people were born with special abilities.

People who went insane from their own power and started doing horrible things.

Damn.

If she really thinks that—this is bad. Very bad.

I need to answer. And fast.

"I’m here because of a system message," I said quickly.

"What system message?" Rem frowned.

"A couple of days ago, a system window appeared. It warned about some kind of threat… and demanded it be eliminated. Until I accepted the quest, the message wouldn’t disappear. And after that, a strange feeling appeared—like something was pointing the way. It led me here. And forced me to kill these giant… devourer caterpillars."

"Devourer caterpillars?" she repeated.

"I know they have another name," I added quickly. "It’s just more convenient for me to call them that."

"Wonderful," Rem said dryly. "So you don’t know anything either."

"Yeah… sorry. I really don’t know anything," I said.

"I was thinking…" I began uncertainly. "Sorry for asking, but are you here because of a system message too? Did you get the quest as well?"

Rem clicked her tongue in irritation.

"Yes. I got that damn system message too," she said with obvious anger. "It wouldn’t disappear. It hung in front of my eyes, blocking my view, making it hard to think."

"Damn, I don’t even understand what I’m doing here. I wasn’t even planning to go this far."

"But just like you," she shot me a brief look, "it didn’t go away until I accepted the quest."

Bzzz.

One of the beetles that had been chasing me flew out of the fog.

That meant there would be a lot more soon. I needed to get rid of it quickly—and warn Rem.

I prepared to cut it down, but the beetle was already on the ground, sliced cleanly in half.

I didn’t even have time to swing.

It was Rem.

She moved so fast—much faster than me. Considering my level was 160, that could only mean one thing: her level was far higher than mine.

"Rem, I think we should leave this place," I said.

"Why? Have you decided not to complete the System’s quest?" Rem asked.

"No, that’s not what I mean. It’s just… it’s about the beetle you just killed. There will be a lot of them here soon."

"So what?" she asked, clearly not understanding.

"There will be a lot—really, really a lot," I said, trying to explain.

She raised an eyebrow, waiting for me to continue.

But how am I supposed to explain that they…

Too late.

Hundreds of beetles began flying out of the fog. And not from one direction—they appeared everywhere, emerging from the mist and surrounding us. Tens of thousands. The ring tightened quickly.

I think the best option right now is to teleport into the training room together with Rem.

"VUUUUMM—"

What was that? Some kind of wave spread out from Rem in all directions. I didn’t understand what ability it was. It didn’t affect me at all—I didn’t even feel anything.

But the beetles around us… tens of thousands of beetles that had flown out of the fog dropped to the ground dead all at once.

"So, do you have some kind of phobia? Fear of bugs?" Rem asked.

"What? No—why would you think that?" I said, surprised.

"Well… you said we needed to get out of here. And if I understood correctly, you said that because of these little beetles," she said.

"No, I don’t have any phobia," I tried to explain. "It’s just that earlier they surrounded me from all sides. So I thought it would be better to retreat."

While we were talking, beetles kept flying out of the fog. When they got close enough, another wave burst from Rem, spreading in a full 360 degrees. And again—beetles. Tens of thousands of them dropped dead. A very useful ability in this situation.

"Since you arrived earlier, can you tell me how many of these gluttonous creatures are here?" she asked, meaning the devourer caterpillars. "Though… you probably couldn’t count them because of the fog."

"No," I said. "When I arrived, there was no fog yet. I saw this place from above. I think there were around ten thousand of them. Worms… well, devourer caterpillars. But I don’t know the exact number. I could be off by a few thousand."

"And how many did you manage to kill?" she asked.

"Well… around a thousand," I replied.

"Then we’ll assume there are about nine thousand left," she said.

"No, I think there are more than eleven thousand now, maybe even twelve," I said.

"What? Can you even count? You said yourself there were around ten thousand," she asked irritably.

"No, no, I did say that," I answered quickly. "It’s just that while I was killing them, it seemed like their numbers were growing faster than I could kill them. While I killed about a thousand, a couple thousand more devourer caterpillars appeared."

I think while I was running from those small beetles, there were even more. But it’s better not to tell Rem that I spent several hours just running away from them.

Another wave burst from Rem, wiping out another group of beetles. Yeah… it’s probably best to keep quiet about the fact that for several hours all I did was flee from those beetles.

"Then we’ll have to kill them faster than they reproduce," Rem said.

"Maybe we should destroy their hive… or whatever their home is called?" I suggested.

"They have a hive?" she asked.

"I’m not sure," I said. "But in the center of that empty space, there was something big. All those devourer caterpillars went there and came from there. Something clearly unnatural. It was in the very center, and it was huge."

Rem thought for a few seconds, then nodded.

"Then we’ll have to go and see what it is," she said, and headed in the direction where her golems were already moving.

We started moving toward the center. Because of the thick fog, we couldn’t see more than thirty or forty meters ahead.

I was about to attack one of the devourer caterpillars that appeared, but Rem was faster. She didn’t even close the distance. Rem simply swung her sword toward the monster, and a shining wave burst from the blade, slicing the massive devourer caterpillar in half.

Damn… why does she have skills like that? I have nothing like it. I actually felt a little jealous.

We kept moving farther and farther. I thought there would hardly be any devourer caterpillars left—after all, Rem’s golems had already passed through here. I assumed they obeyed her.

But the caterpillars still appeared. There were more than I expected. And I didn’t manage to kill a single one. Rem killed them all—easily, quickly, without even getting close.

And I just walked beside her. Silent. Envious of her skills.

About ten minutes passed, and I think we were already close to the start of that root-like structure.

[Threat detected]

[Threat Class: Existential]

[Required Action: Elimination]

[Current Threat Rank: 6]

This is bad. Threat Rank six. I was too slow.

Rem stopped too, staring forward into the emptiness. That means she received the system message too.

"We’re in trouble, right?" I asked.

"Yes, we’re in trouble," Rem answered.

Her voice was serious. Very serious.

And at that moment, the ground began to shake.