Skill-Eater: Prison World Saga-Chapter 46: Clearing Time

With that, everyone moved into formation, drew their weapons, and started walking down the path.

Edge soon learned that the visibility varied depending on what was growing nearby. The spaces around the larger trunks were less crowded, while the rest of the zone was covered with dense vegetation. Although they could only see it from time to time, the towering bamboo wall was on their left, giving them one reliable landmark to help navigate the twisting confines of the Savage Garden.

“We will have to stick to the path after all,” Snake whispered. “The rest of this growth looks impenetrable. Anything could be hiding in there. Be careful. Since our way forward is limited, these trails are a prime location to place traps and prepare ambushes. Be on guard against monsters lurking in the trees and the plants growing alongside the trail.”

Edge took the shadowkiller’s words to heart, relying on his ears as much as his eyes to warn him of impending danger. The tension grew by the footfall as the crew crossed the dungeon’s first zone. The other hunters had already passed through by the time that he walked past, but that didn’t mean it was safe. Plenty of monsters were smart enough to attack the most vulnerable position, and there were certain to be other dangers too.

He had never been a rear guard before. It was frightening to know that no one was watching his back in a jungle stuffed to the brim with ravenous monstrosities. But he agreed with Lilly’s assessment that he was best-suited for the position, since he was the only one who could Regenerate his wounds. He shrank the shaft of his naginata as far as he could after deciding that he didn’t have room to swing the longer version.

Delving the dungeon felt rather different from exploring a high-threat biome, even a frontier region. Although the air was filled with magicytes, they didn’t flow in from the outside, following the great bands of magic that spanned the globe. Instead, the magic permeating the Savage Garden rose from the ground in a manner that was clearly unnatural.

There weren’t any beasts, and the dungeon was home to far fewer animals than Edge was used to. The bamboo walls blocked the wind and kept the plants from rubbing together, making it far quieter in here than he was expecting. The pervasive silence made it that much more shocking when the clamor of combat erupted in the distance, setting his pulse pounding until the crew was certain that nothing was headed their way.

The dense foliage reduced visibility to just a few feet on either side of the trail, which made it seem like they were the only people in the dungeon. Five minutes after he left the entrance, he couldn’t detect any sign of the other crews.

He forced his breathing to stay slow and steady, although he was ready to spring into action a moment’s notice. While Edge listened for approaching predators, he reviewed which powers he would reveal under what circumstances, while saving the rest for an emergency.

After some consideration, he had decided to keep the existence of his Auxiliary Skill Slot a secret for now. That way, if he showed a new skill after revealing five, he would have an excuse ready to go. More than that, and he would claim to have evolved to stage two. But he was hoping to complete this mission without weaving an elaborate deception that might fall apart later.

Although Edge expected to be attacked at any moment, for the next fifteen minutes, nothing happened. The crew had advanced less than a quarter mile, though it felt much further given the winding path they followed beneath the treetops. Every shifting shadow and snapping branch sent a fresh jolt of adrenaline coursing through his arteries, setting the sound of his own heartbeat pounding in his ears.

The clearing crews’ first objective was to survey the area within an hour’s hike of the entrance. Before they began hunting the monsters that were certain to be lurking nearby, they needed to locate additional landmarks that would help them navigate the mazelike terrain, and even more importantly, find defensible ground to fall back to when danger inevitably reared its ugly head.

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Edge had never explored an environment with such poor visibility, and he hated it right from the start. Snake is right. Anything could be lurking behind the twin walls of vegetation, and he would never know until it was right on top of them. If it wasn’t for Tessa’s mana sensitivity and sensory-boosting skills, the crew would have been flying blind in a hostile wilderness.

All of that would have been bad enough in a normal jungle, where predators and other lethal threats could cross your path at any moment. But inside the Savage Garden, everything bigger than a ground squirrel was certain to be a monstrous life form. He was surrounded by cored predators that had been designed to hunt human beings, challenging them on their own turf no less.

Walking through the dungeon felt incredibly dangerous because it was incredibly dangerous. It made Edge glad that he wasn’t the strongest person in the party. Well, maybe during those thirty seconds while Overdrive is active. He might be the most versatile, considering how many skills he could slot. But in terms of experience, attributes, equipment, and raw damage, he was clearly in the second tier, along with Mel and Jumo.

It was deeply comforting to have some of the settlement’s heavy hitters along for the ride. Doubly so that Fox and Snake were experienced shadowkillers, and Tessa was one of the best scouts Puppet Town had to offer.

Not long after, Edge caught his first whiff of what he would come to call “the filth.” It began as just the faintest suggestion of rot—like something had died nearby. But it grew thicker with every step he took, until the stench was nearly overpowering.

It was bad enough to have the stink filling his nostrils. But it was so much worse when he realized what it was. Monsters. For reasons that were still fiercely debated on the feed, most monsters gave off one manner of foul odor or another. On Ord, it was common wisdom that if you smelled something horrible coming from one direction, it was a good idea to start running in the other.

But this was something different. Something he had never encountered or even imagined. The filth wasn’t the localized stench of a monster standing beside him, it was ubiquitous—the combined reek of hundreds of bloodthirsty abominations floating across the dungeon. It sent Edge into a draining state of hypervigilance as a parade of horrors danced across the theater of his mind’s eye.

His instincts were screaming that he had made a terrible mistake. That being here was certain to bring him face-to-face with nightmarish creatures who would be delighted to rend him limb from limb. But that part of his brain belonged to a man who didn’t exist anymore. The man who had toiled away in an endless haze of impersonal monotony. Whose only moments of joy had come vicariously, through the lives of the hunters he watched on the feed.

The man Edge had become since waking up on the most dangerous planet in inhabited space, where every day might be his last, but each moment felt oh so alive, reminded the ghost of his former self that the danger was the reason why he had come to the Savage Garden in the first place.

Yes, this dungeon was full of powerful predators. Creatures armed with deadly magic that could kill him in a thousand different ways. But after binding Skill-Eater, Edge was a predator too. And those juicy powers—all those wonderful skills filling the dungeon like a trophy case—were his. All he had to do was hunt down their wielders and claim them for his own.

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So, rather than succumbing to his fears, he embraced them instead. Looked his worries in the eye and gave them a new form. Instead of being terrified, he was thrilled to be here. The fright he felt, the hunger and the joy when that hunger was sated, were proof that he was alive. Whether he conquered the Savage Garden or succumbed to its dangers, he was living the life that he had always dreamed of.

I wouldn’t trade a second of it for decades back on Earth. He realized that his hands were shaking. No longer in suppressed terror, but in sheer expectation. Living nightmares were headed his way, and Edge was ready to face them head-on.

When Mel turned around to check on him, she misjudged the situation. “Don’t worry,” she breathed into his ear—so soft that he could barely hear the words although her lips brushed against his skin. “I’ve got your back.” She reached out and gave his hand a squeeze, leaving him grinning at the gesture.

“Thanks, Mel. Right back at you.”