Born in apocalypse

’Now, this darkness is something that I’m familiar with...’ A vivid smile appeared on Dhruv’s face as he saw that instead of whiteness, his vision was filled with nothing but darkness.

Shivering, he began to open his eyes ever so slightly... the smile on his face widened as he found himself in the present and not being trapped in the past. Even though it was somewhat pleasant to see his family. Dhruv didn’t want to be trapped in his own memory ever again.

Finding himself in the same cave, Dhruv turned to look toward Azarex in the hope of getting the answer to how much time he had spent in the dream. He was about to open his mouth but closed it as something caught his attention...

The moment he noticed it, the smile on his face changed to that of a frown, and realization began to creep inside of him. Noticing the thing, he tried to get away from his makeshift bed but was forced to stop after noticing that he couldn’t move from his place.

The feeling was the same yet different from the one he had experienced while being in the void. The good thing was that... here the boundness wasn’t magical... At this moment, he truly was bound by something... something physical.

’Is it the same thing... I’m guessing it to be...’ Dhruv thought as he tried to clearly see the culprit that was responsible for his binding. Turning his head around, he looked behind himself... he was trying to see his back.

The moment he saw what was happening to his back, he tried to jump out of his bed once again...but was unable to do that... because of obvious reasons, of course.

’Calm down... they aren’t moving.’ After realizing that whatever that was isn’t moving and wasn’t in the process of harming him, Dhruv tried to calm down. When he was calm enough, he began to observe it.

"Whose part is these ones.." Dhruv thought aloud as he saw abominations that were connected with him.

He could see that numerous little and ugly versions of the tentacles he had seen in the void were connected to him through his ribs... or more precisely, they were connected to his spinal cord.

"What is this, master..." Hearing his distress, Azarex quickly arrived in front of him. He had arrived with his hand lifted in the air, ready to attack anything that tried to lay even a finger on his master.

He was ready to attack... but the problem was... the problem was that he couldn’t see anything.

Noticing the action of his guardian, Dhruv couldn’t help but think that something is wrong here. Looking in his direction, he muttered,

"Azarex, can’t you see these tentacles here..." Dhruv muttered as he snapped the tentacles out of his back. He felt a slight pinch but nothing more than that.

"What tentacles, master? I can’t see anything." Azarex muttered while activating his mana sense. Even after activating the mana sense, he couldn’t really see anything except his master.

"Ohhh! Make sense." Dhruv answered, having solved the puzzle of how he wasn’t seeing the monster.

’So, this monster is either using some kind of spell or has some kind of mutation high enough that it could hide itself from others... because there isn’t anything I can’t pick up even with mana sensitivity, that means it isn’t a spell. And the monster has a mutation high enough to make itself invisible...’ Even though he figured this much out, there was still one question he was forced to ponder over.

’But... why am I able to see it then... Hmmm!’ While pondering about it, Dhruv began to follow the pieces of tentacles that were connected to him.

He didn’t have to follow it long to see the origin of it... because just a few meters away from him lay the abomination. All the tentacles he was holding were connected to it as well. The abomination was in a state in which it would randomly appear and disappear. Looking at this state, Dhruv got a hint of how he was able to see the monster.

’So... I could see the monster because of my illusion resistance... well, that is neat.’ Thinking this, he began to observe the monster. After a moment of glitching, the monster finally arrived at a state where it was fully visible to him.

The monster was unlike anything Dhruv had seen until today... the monster consisted of just a head from which multiple tentacles were growing. Except for that head and tentacles, there weren’t any other organs he could find on the monster.

After looking at it for a while, he recognized who it was, ’So it hadn’t truly died...’

Thinking this, he began to walk toward the monster with careful steps. One thing Dhruv found weird was that it wasn’t attacking him at all. The monster was lying there doing nothing and just staring at him.

He wasn’t even sure if the monster was staring or not... because it didn’t have an eye. The only thing its face consists of is a mouth... a big scary mouth.

Reaching the monster, Dhruv activated his mana sense. This time he was able to catch the mana signature of the monster... and after capturing it, he was more than flustered.

’Shit... this abomination is a tier 4 monster. Well, fuck me then...’ Having this thought, he carefully retraced his steps back and got as far away from the monster as possible.

’What is happening with the master? First, he grabbed something that wasn’t anything and now he is running away from the air. Did something happen to him while he was asleep?’ Having no clue what was going on, Azarex was confused out of his mind.

He was about to question the mental state of his master when a voice reached him, "Azarex, get away from there. A tier 4 monster is beside you."

"Tier 4 monster, where Master..." Even though he didn’t see anything beside him, Azarex followed his master’s words and quickly moved away from there. Reaching his master, he was about to ask the question but stopped as Dhruv interrupted him...

"You can’t truly see it, huh!... stop trusting your vision and listen to my words. If I say anything just follow the words." Knowing that he might appear as mad, Dhruv quickly suggested.

"Of course, Master," Azarex replied without having a second thought.

Having their security confirmed for the moment, Dhruv focused on the monster once again.

’Huh! Why did it not move even though we were that close to it... is it that it can’t move? No, that can’t be the case as it can’t have spawned in this cave... Uhmmm! This might be a possibility... maybe it is injured or something like that.’ Thinking this, Dhruv tried to carefully observe the monster.

Even after a minute of observing the monster, he couldn’t really see any injury marks on it. Dhruv was still clinging to the thought that he might be injured, as there are multiple types of injuries besides physical.

When Dhruv had snatched the tentacles, it might have suffered from some internal damage. Or, maybe when he had fought it in the void, it could have suffered from mental damage.

"Huh!!! You aren’t in the mood to walk... hmmm! Let’s play some games then.." Dhruv shouted for a particular reason. Even his shouting didn’t prompt any response from it... which really was disappointing.

At this point, all the fear he had for this tier 4 monster was gone for good. Now, all he was seeing in front of himself was a test subject. A test subject ready to be experimented upon.

After trying numerous methods and seeing their failure... Dhruv finally decided to increase his method by a level.

Manipulating his mana, he created a small piece of rock in his hand and threw it toward the monster. He was hoping to at least see some reaction from this attack of his.

Plop!

After hitting the head of the monster, the rock fell down. He was about to count this one as a failure as well but was surprised to see some reaction from the monster.

"Finally.." Wiping the tears of joy, Dhruv began to observe the monster as it moved one of its tentacles.

He saw as the monster lifted the rock with its tentacles and tried to throw it toward himself. Seeing the rock fall a meter away from himself, he was almost about to cheer the guy.

"Sooo, I think he hadn’t spent that much of his evolutionary energy in being muscular.." Seeing its attempt to throw the rock, Dhruv finally got some idea about why the monster was so weak in physical terms.

"Soo, you don’t have strength... but let’s see if you have defense or not.." Thinking this, Dhruv began to manipulate his mana. He was going to cast the most basic of his spells.

"Metal Bullet." Whispering this, Dhruv fired the spell toward the monster. In just a matter of seconds, the bullet hit it... and then... then something happened that Dhruv hadn’t thought of.

[You have killed the monster...]

"Huh! Really..." Dhruv couldn’t believe that he had just killed the tier 4 monster with just a single metal bullet.