Chapter Twenty Six

Bob, he would willingly admit sometime later, had been very stupid.

It wasn’t a hard conclusion to come to, honestly. Him arriving at it only a few minutes into his self-imposed ‘recuperation’ time. After he was unable to justify even a single one of his actions upon going over them inside his own head.

Looking back, everything from his rude awakening to the fight with the larger crab felt like one singular moment in time. His initial fury had mixed with the elation of actually being able to do something for once. To fight back. And it caused him to utterly abandon his own advantages and throw himself into the meat grinder. An action which nearly got him killed.

In retrospect, he shouldn’t have attacked that crab at all. Or even snuck a look down the hallway in the first place. He’d had no need to do either. He was a creature which didn’t require rest or sustenance. One who could now passively sense his foes over extended distances; completely negating his need to verify their locations in person.

He should have just waited.

It wouldn’t have taken that long for the crab to make its way down one of the other hallways. And on the off-chance it decided to head up the stairs, well, it’s not like that would have been any worse than facing it in the corridor. Heck, it might have actually been better; the crabs not being as stable afoot as he was on the steps. Which was probably one of the reasons they seemed to largely avoid them.

Something he felt he could state fairly affirmatively, having spent the last day-or-so basically unbothered while dozens of them skittered around directly underneath him.

He’d been right about the corpse of his honored foe acting as something equivalent to monster chum. It hadn’t taken long for the nearest crabs to catch the scent. And not much longer after that for the news to apparently spread to the rest of the building.

The truly monstrous crabs – like the one beyond the corridor – didn’t seem to pay much attention. But it seemed like every other crustacean in the manor passed by at least once, despite the fact that Bob was pretty sure the corpse was picked clean after the first fifteen to twenty minutes.

Though, to be fair, it could also have something to do with the fact that, after noticing their apparent desperation for food, Bob had shoved down the remains of the two crabs he’d killed upstairs. Less, it should be noted, in an act of humanitarianism, than in hopes it would stop them from venturing any further upwards.

An attempt which had, evidentially, succeeded. Seeing as he’d spent most of his time being bored, rather than terrified.

The situation had allowed him to gain a firmer grip on ‘Treasure Sense’ at least. Now having a far better idea how to calculate where on his ‘map’ each particular ‘ping’ was coming from. The crabs almost continual migration throughout the manor had also given him some more clues about its layout. Including the likely position of at least a few staircases.

Unfortunately, that migration hadn’t seemed to do much to thin their numbers. If anything, his battle had drawn more of them into the building. The better portion of which were still wandering around not terribly far from the base of his tower.

Something which pretty much guaranteed his continued stay in its upper levels.

Though, to be fair, he would have still been stuck here even if the entire first floor had somehow cleared itself out. His health regeneration had improved by a fair measure since his evolution, but not enough to heal a major injury in a single day.

Besides, what hours hadn’t been dedicated to ‘staring’ at the crabs below were being spent equally productively. Mostly with long planning sessions and periods of testing where he tried to better understand his new Skills.

While his assault on a monster obviously outside of his league was objectively stupid, it also wasn’t without its rewards. The acquisition of ‘Constrict’ almost making the insane act seem warranted. That is, if Bob ignored the fact that he probably could have picked it up crushing crabs slightly less able to do the same to him. If perhaps less quickly. What with ‘the system’ seeming to more frequently reward high-risk situations.

Either way, he had it now. And, upon his return to the tower room, had almost immediately started putting it to work. Bringing it from level four to level six in just a few fruitless attempts to crush the indestructible cauldron at the rooms center.

After which point, he stopped.

Despite his desperate desire to do otherwise.

The feeling of leveling up ‘Constrict’ was a heady one. Not having yet evolved, it didn’t have the passive ‘always on’ aspect that ‘Toothless Grasp’ had. But its active component almost made up for that. The sheer surge of crushing might that ripped through his tongue when it activated was intoxicating. Especially shortly after a level increase.

But it was because of that coming evolution that he resisted gaining any more experience. Not wanting to ruin what options he had available to him.

While he didn’t regret evolving ‘bite’ into what it was today, he also had no interest in repeating the procedure. He’d already lost the first of his offensive skills by going down a pacifistic skill tree, he wasn’t going to lose another just to speed up its leveling process. Especially when he was surrounded by an army of very ‘crunchable’ enemies who might well help him gain something better.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

At least, if he could kill any of them without being swarmed by fifty of their friends.

Which, admittedly, was a bit of an issue.

The near hive-mind reaction from the manor’s crabs during the fight had terrified Bob. He hadn’t expected it. Which, in retrospect, was beyond foolish. Every single crab chasing him during his arrival here certainly hadn’t spotted him independently. Assuming that they weren’t capable of communicating between themselves was a fairly egregious mistake on his part.

Unfortunately, this communicative ability was going to make getting to the upper stories of the Manor, or anywhere else for that matter, far more complicated than he’d previously hoped. With a single prolonged encounter likely to spell his doom.

Which was why he had to make sure to keep them short. And limited to a single opponent.

Bob had initially been very confused by the differences between his first two encounters with the crabs. When he’d escaped into the tower, the calls from the monsters outside had certainly immediately lessened, but it had taken a good ten to twenty seconds before they’d all finally died out. More than that, for the bastard who’d ripped him in half.

This made the near-instantaneous silence which had erupted upon his most recent opponent’s death seem… odd.