Right now though, he did not think about the 2 suns, the unnatural geographical formation or even the looming danger he was walking right into. The only thoughts in his mind was food and water.

‘So… hungry.. and thirsty’. It seemed like the initial influence of the Beyond did not enhance his bbody that much yet so he couldn’t continue like this for much longer. 

Gritting his teeth, he steeled himself and continued moving forward. After about an hour, he finally reached the field of white. He initially thought that it was snow that was falling but now realized that it was falling ash. He carefully looked around if the underground dweller was nearby. After confirming it wasn’t, he trudged carefully along the field of ash and checked the ground under his feet. It was covered in thick layer of ash but he could still reach the trapped soil underneath. ‘So this rain of ash is relatively recent. What happened here?’

Just as he was thinking about the place, he could feel a subtle tremor running through the ground. Cursing, he ran as fast he could and started looking around for places to hide. ‘I scouted this area before stepping into it. That underground monster or whatever it was should not be able reach here so quickly. The distance was far too great and I would’ve sensed it way earlier. Damn it, maybe it’s something I couldn’t perceive before.’

The tremor was getting closer and he could feel it was not too far from him now. Focusing on his surrounding, he saw a mound a few hundred meters ahead of him and dashed towards it.

Finally reaching it, Rowan climbed the ground protrusion and checked the place where he was previously, keeping himself absolutely still. The creature was approaching at breakneck speed and finally it stopped around where he used to be. It circled around for a while and finally came out.

What Rowan saw made him curse silently. The creature looked like a worm with many dagger like teeth protruding from a circular mouth. It had gray, stone-like covering and it was almost the size of fully grown dog. It did not approach too close to where he was perched.

‘Huh, so it is indeed blind’. Sure enough, the creature seemed truly blind. It was turning it’s head aimlessly around and clicking it’s many serrated teeth. Rowan had guessed that the way the creature detected him was from the vibration produced any movements. 

Activating his ability, Rowan tried to guess the rank of the creature. ‘Huh?’ he could not see any complex pattern hidden beneath it’s surface, only a single thin line stretching far away. Looking towards the direction of the faint string, he came to a startling realization that made his blood run cold. ‘Th-this worm…it’s just a part of the main body… That means the original body i-is a…Brood’

‘Now this is simply too unfair! How the hell am I supposed deal with a Brood when I’m not even fully assimilated?! Even if I was, the chances would still be way too low! AHHHHH! I’m truly cursed!’ 

He knew he was ranting like a child right now but he did not care. The stress has been piling up for quite a while now. After a few minutes, he finally calmed down and looked at the tyrant’s underling again. ‘I have to come up with a plan. This thing seems like it’s hunting this part of the area, so any big movements I do will be too risky.’

‘Come to think of it, doesn’t that thing look kinda…tasty?’

Rowan didn’t like the idea forming in his head but he didn’t have much choice. The worm was now heading slowly towards the small hill mound he was perched on. After crawling around for a while, it thumped it’s tail in a strange manner and burrowed underground and went where it came from.

After about an hour of staying absolutely still, Rowan finally took a deep breath and stood up. If he wanted his plan to work, he had to act fast. There was another similar mound on his left, to the south-west, with the flickering light to the east.

He climbed down slowly and went cautiously towards that mound. He was moving slowly, careful not to disturb the ground too much and after reaching halfway, he started dashing towards the mound but not directly towards it, making sure his feet touched the soil below the carpet of ash. Sure enough, he could faintly feel that the creature was approaching. ‘That was fast. At least food delivery around this area isn’t so bad!’

After reaching a certain point near the small hill, around a few hundred meters from it, He started another careful, slow trek towards the top. Staying absolutely still he repeated the process of observation as the worm furiously broke through the ground.

He repeated these processes 2 more times before finally arriving at his desired battleground. Looking down at the worm where it was right where he wanted it to be, Rowan took a deep breath ‘Well, it’s now or never’ With that, he brandished his spear and jumped down directly on top of the abomination.