Chapter 357: Looking Up

Chapter 357: Looking Up

The next three days settled into a rhythm Jin found he liked.

Mornings began with the borrowed mat. By Saturday, two of his five casts came out clean; on Sunday, he managed three. Between attempts, he studied the readings while Glitch waited for breakfast. Crowe’s Friday class had given him something else to think about: a convoy-defense layout that Rowan had argued over until Jin reluctantly admitted his arrangement left a supply cart exposed.

In the afternoons, Flicker practiced in the flight yard. She was returning promptly now, though she sometimes landed with an indignant chirp when recalled before she could finish admiring a scorched target.

Evenings belonged to the Engine. Glitch’s avatar swept through familiar worker patrols, and the Coin balance recovered steadily from the fifteen thousand spent on Flicker’s core.

On Sunday night, Jin opened the shop.

[Purchase: Life ×2 — 20,000 Coins]

[Life: 0 → 2]

He watched the heart icon fill. His first Life had lasted eleven seconds. These two had taken enough farming that he wanted to keep them lit for considerably longer.

Please let me finish tonight without buying another.

Before entering the tunnels, he checked Flicker’s avatar profile. He’d kept her out of combat since the evolution while farming with Glitch. The bird on the panel now had russet-tipped feathers and a small gold sun on her forehead.

[Bound Beast: Flicker — real-body evolution detected]

[Avatar form updated: Suncrest Sparrow]

[Skills added to avatar profile: Gale Dash, Ember Shot]

[Avatar development: retained]

Her accumulated development was still there. The evolution hadn’t reduced her to the real bird’s five-Star baseline, and she retained the flight experience earned through all those runs. Jin sent her around the cleared entrance chamber first, trying a short dash and an Ember Shot against bare rock. The new skills still needed their own timing, however practiced her movements were.

He made another pass, watched where she braked, and adjusted his next command. Only when he was satisfied did he lead both avatars onward.

The respawned soldier pairs in the Guard Corridor barely slowed Glitch. Jin kept Flicker behind him through the narrow sections, then stopped them both at the final arch.

Beyond it lay the cocoon cavern, pale and still. Last time, he’d watched the ground readout as Glitch walked beneath the stalactites. Now he examined the ceiling before allowing either avatar through.

Long, parallel scratches clustered around particular projections of rock. Among them hung papery husks, some empty enough that he could see the stone through their split backs. He worked inward from the arch, looking for anything that didn’t match those hollow shapes.

The first ambusher clung above the center of the room, where Glitch had died. Its folded limbs lay close against its narrow body. Farther back, Jin picked out a second, then a third near the opposite wall.

He almost moved on to choosing a target.

At least three, he reminded himself. That was what he’d written after the last attempt.

He shifted Flicker’s avatar to the other edge of the entrance and inspected the ceiling from there. A fourth creature occupied a crack to the right. The fifth took longer to distinguish, curled behind a cluster of husks in the far left corner.

Five. Jin rubbed his thumb along the side of his phone.

Sending Glitch into the middle again could easily cost a Life. If Flicker got caught trying to help him, both avatars could die, using up the entire reserve. He moved her retreat point farther back into the corridor.

Glitch waited at the arch, with open floor ahead and a short, clear section of roof above him. Jin checked that rock carefully. It offered no concealed attacker a ready drop, though anything crawling toward them would still need watching.

Flicker took a position below the lintel. From there she could fire at the nearest ambusher and retreat without crossing Glitch’s path.

"One at a time," Jin murmured. "If I’m lucky."

The Ember Shot struck the folded joint of the first creature. It unfolded with a shriek, pale limbs spreading against the rock, and dropped among the cocoons. By the time it turned toward the entrance, Flicker had withdrawn behind the arch.

Glitch was waiting in plain sight.

The ambusher charged him. Jin watched its scythes rise and ordered Harden before they struck. They scraped across Glitch’s shoulder plates; his horns caught beneath its body and drove it sideways against the wall. He pinned the thrashing creature there and bit through the narrow joint behind its head.

Its legs went still. Jin checked Glitch’s condition, then looked back at the ceiling.

One down, with barely a scrape to show for it.

The next pull brought two.

Flicker’s shot dislodged her target, but the noise stirred the creature in the right-hand crack as well. Both dropped and came toward the entrance, one crossing directly while the other ran beside the wall.

Jin’s thumb hovered over the advance command. Glitch could meet the nearer one halfway—right beneath the remaining ambushers.

He selected hold instead.

"Stay there. Let them come."

The arch narrowed their approach. Glitch caught the first against his horns and chest before the second could squeeze past. Jin directed him to brace, keeping the struggling body between himself and the other creature’s scythes.

Flicker burst out from beneath the lintel, raked her talons across the second ambusher’s face, and banked back toward the corridor. It recoiled long enough for Glitch to crush the pinned creature against the stone jamb. As its limbs sagged, he shoved it aside and swung his tail into the second one’s legs.

That one fell on its side. Glitch planted a forefoot across its body and tore through the exposed neck with his jaws before it could rise.

Jin loosened his grip on the phone. Two carcasses lay across the entrance now. He had Glitch drag them clear while Flicker watched the ceiling, then paused to check both avatars before choosing the next target.

The fourth came alone. Another carefully aimed shot brought it down; when it charged, Glitch met its scythes with his armored shoulder, drove it against the cleared side of the arch, and finished it with a bite.

The fifth refused to drop.

Flicker moved along the entrance until Jin had an angle past the hanging husks. Her shot clipped a leg. The creature unfolded and scuttled toward them along the ceiling, keeping its body tight against the rock.

Jin drew Glitch several steps into the corridor. The ambusher kept coming. He could see each leg finding a new grip as it reached the arch, still trying to get above the drake.

There you are.

At the lip of the entrance, it had to stretch two forelimbs over the stone to pull its body through. Jin angled Flicker beneath it and fired at that exposed grip.

One leg jerked free. The other skidded across the edge, and the ambusher dropped awkwardly into the doorway. Glitch lunged before it could turn, catching its body against the floor with a forefoot. Its scythes struck sparks from his hardened plates. He held it down and closed his jaws behind its head.

Jin waited until the legs stopped moving before letting himself smile.

They searched before advancing farther.

From the entrance, Flicker checked the ceiling again. Then Jin moved her a little at a time along the cleared edge, inspecting each new angle before sending Glitch beneath it. He found two shapes that made him pause. Both proved to be empty skins, one still hanging in the outline of the creature that had shed it.

Glitch checked the floor and the spaces between cocoons. Nothing moved toward them. Jin returned to the crack where the fourth ambusher had hidden and examined it from the opposite side before accepting the result.

[Cocoon Cavern — cleared]

[Reward: 16,000 Coins]

[Materials: Pale Ambusher Scythe ×5, Husk Silk ×12]

[Life: 2]

He grinned at the last line. The clear had returned most of the purchase cost, and the two Lives were still available. He closed the dungeon before curiosity could send him looking for another doorway tonight.

On Monday afternoon, he selected all five scythes and four bundles of silk for physical transfer. The displayed charge came to a few hundred Coins. He checked it against the dealer’s usual prices before confirming, leaving eight silk bundles in storage.

The dealer turned a scythe under her lamp, examining its edge, then pulled a short length from one of the silk bundles. Jin stood across the counter, trying not to look as eager as he felt.

"Two thousand six hundred Credits after my fee," she said. "For everything you’ve brought."

"I’ll take it," Jin replied.

He waited for the payment notice before putting his phone away. Outside, he bought a bun from the cart beside the tram stop and ate it on the walk back. He’d spent far longer staring at a cavern ceiling than fighting anything, and still finished with loot, two Lives, and enough time to get Flicker to the flight yard before dinner.

For once, he didn’t feel the slightest urge to squeeze in another run.