(WORM APOCALYPSE) INTERLUDE

The last of the lizards collapsed beside a stream of molten rock, its claws scraping against the ground as it struggled to move. Colin kept his distance until it stopped moving altogether, then lowered the jagged piece of stone he had been using as a weapon. His arms ached, his breathing was ragged, and sweat ran down his face despite the heat radiating from the ground beneath his feet.

For several seconds, nobody spoke. The others stood scattered across the blackened landscape, watching the dead creatures and catching their breath. The fight had lasted thirty minutes, and the lizards had given them very little time to recover between attacks. Every time they thought they had dealt with the last of them, another pair had emerged from behind the rocks, forcing them to pick up whatever they could use as a weapon and prepare for another fight.

Colin looked over the group, checking for anyone who had fallen or appeared unable to stand. Assault had a cut running along his forehead, while Battery was holding one arm close to her body. Velocity had taken a blow to the ribs, and even Miss Militia, who had spent most of the fight keeping the creatures away from the others with makeshift projectiles, looked exhausted. The others had suffered their share of bruises and scrapes, in varying severity, but nobody appeared to be in immediate danger of collapsing.

“Everyone still with us?” Assault asked, wiping sweat and blood from his forehead with the back of his hand.

“I’m beginning to question the wisdom of our career choices,” Battery replied.

“Bit late for that, isn’t it?”

She gave him a tired look. “You could try being helpful for once.”

“I just survived half an hour of being chased by angry lizards in a volcano. I think I’ve earned a little room to complain.”

“Then complain as you check your injuries properly,” Colin said. There were a few grumbles, but everyone followed his instructions. Colin examined his own arms and legs, finding several bruises and a shallow cut along his left forearm. It stung when he moved his wrist, although he could still use his hand without difficulty. He had been fortunate enough to avoid the lizards’ claws for the most part, relying on distance and the uneven terrain to keep them from getting close. Others hadn’t been so lucky. "Velocity, how bad are your ribs?"

"Bruised, probably. I can breathe, and nothing feels broken." He took a careful breath to demonstrate, then winced slightly. "I'll survive."

Colin approached Velocity and gave him a closer look, although there was little he could do beyond checking the extent of his injuries. The bruising around his ribs didn’t appear severe, and he could move without too much difficulty, but Colin advised him to take it easy for the time being.

The System chimed again just as Colin became reasonably satisfied that nobody had sustained a serious injury. 

Tutorial Phase II: Complete.

Tutorial Phase II Completion Reward: Stat Points ×2.

Tutorial Phase III commencing…

He looked up at the words hanging in front of him, then glanced at the others to see whether they had received the same message.

“Two more points,” Assault said. “Lovely. Think they’ll let me put them into heat resistance? I’d rather not spend another half hour trying to avoid getting cooked alive.”

“Try putting them into Intelligence,” Battery suggested. “Maybe you’ll figure out a way to stop talking.”

“That would be a waste of perfectly good points.”

Colin ignored them as he studied the notification. The reward was similar to what they had received earlier, suggesting that completing these scenarios would continue to provide opportunities to improve their attributes. However, the System hadn’t explained what Phase III involved. Although the announcement said it was commencing, that didn’t necessarily mean they would be transported somewhere else immediately. But until they knew what they were dealing with, there was little point in speculating about what came next.

“Keep an eye on anyone who took a blow to the head or chest,” he said, turning his attention to the surroundings.

The immediate area was littered with black rocks, cracked earth, and the bodies of the creatures they had killed. Heat shimmered above the ground, while several streams of lava wound through the landscape, casting an orange glow over the dark stone. Farther away, smoke rose from the slopes of a distant ridge, and Colin could see no sign of buildings, roads, or anything else that might suggest human habitation.

“We can’t stay here,” Dauntless said, looking towards the nearest lava flow. “Even if nothing else attacks us, the heat alone is going to be a problem.”

“We should find somewhere with water first,” Triumph added after a moment. “We’ve been sweating for half an hour, and we don’t know how long we’ll be stuck here.”

“Agreed,” Colin said. “We’ll keep an eye out as we move away from the lava. We also need food and somewhere to sleep, but water takes priority.”

Assault glanced at the bodies scattered across the rocks. “Anyone want to take a guess at whether those things are edible?”

Nobody answered immediately.

“They look like lizards,” he continued. “Lizards are animals. People eat animals. I’m just following the logic here.”

“Your logic leaves out quite a few important details,” Battery said.

“Such as?”

“Such as whether they’re poisonous, whether their flesh is safe to eat, and whether cooking them over a pool of molten rock is a good idea.”

“All right, so we have a few minor concerns.”

Colin looked at the nearest carcass. The creatures had thick, scaly hides, powerful limbs, and rows of teeth that had made them unpleasant opponents at close range. He had no idea what they were biologically, let alone whether their meat was safe for human consumption. However, there was no visible vegetation in the area, and they hadn’t found anything resembling food since arriving.

They couldn’t afford to ignore the possibility.

“We’ll examine them once we’ve found somewhere safer,” he said. “If we have to eat them, we’ll make sure the meat is cooked thoroughly. We should also avoid eating anything that looks unusual, although that doesn’t guarantee we’ll be safe.”

“Comforting,” Assault muttered.

They began moving away from the lava flows, choosing a route across the more stable sections of rock. Colin took the lead, keeping an eye on the ground while the others followed at a cautious pace. The terrain was uneven, and several patches of stone had cracked beneath their weight during the fight. He didn’t want anyone twisting an ankle or falling into a fissure simply because they were too tired to watch where they were going.

They made slow progress, stopping whenever the ground ahead appeared unstable or a plume of smoke drifted across their path. The air remained unpleasantly hot, but the temperature became more bearable as they gained distance from the largest lava flows. Colin kept looking for signs of water, whether a stream cutting through the rocks or vegetation growing in a place where moisture might collect, but nothing promising appeared. He was beginning to wonder how far they would have to travel before finding anything useful when Miss Militia pointed towards a dark line on the horizon.

Trees.

They weren’t particularly large from this distance, and the vegetation appeared sparse compared to what Colin would have expected from a forest, but it was the first sign of anything resembling a natural source of shelter. More importantly, trees meant they might find branches, leaves, and possibly water if they were lucky.

“Let’s head that way,” Colin said. “We don’t need to go deep into the forest. We just need enough cover to get through the night.”

“Assuming this place has nights,” Assault said.

Colin glanced at the sky. It was difficult to judge the time from the sun, which hung behind a haze of smoke, but the light had begun to change since they first arrived. Whether that was a natural feature of the environment or another effect of the System, he couldn’t say.

“We’ll find out soon enough.”

The trees were farther away than they had initially appeared, and by the time they reached them, Colin’s legs were beginning to protest every step. The ground grew less barren as they approached the tree line, with patches of coarse grass and low shrubs appearing between the rocks. The trees themselves were thin and widely spaced, their branches twisted and their leaves dulled by a layer of dust. Still, they offered some relief from the exposed landscape.

Colin stopped at the edge of the trees and examined the area before allowing the others to spread out.

“We stay close,” he said. “Nobody wanders off alone, and if you find anything that looks like food or water, don’t touch it until we’ve had a chance to examine it.”

“Understood,” Battery replied.

They searched the immediate surroundings without venturing farther into the forest. There was no obvious source of water, and the undergrowth offered little that Colin could identify as edible. They did, however, find plenty of dead branches, fallen leaves, and smaller pieces of wood that could be used to build a fire. A few of the trees had low, sturdy branches that might support a crude shelter if they could find a way to arrange them properly.

It wasn’t much, but it was more than they had possessed an hour earlier.

Their next problem was food. Finding water remained a priority, but their search around the trees had yielded nothing, and Colin wasn’t keen on pushing farther into unfamiliar territory with night approaching. They were already exhausted from the fight, and he wanted them to have at least some food before settling down for the night. They would have to resume their search for water in the morning, hopefully before the lack of it began to take a serious toll.

With that in mind, they returned to the lizard carcasses they had left behind, taking care to approach them from different angles in case any of the creatures were still alive. Once they were satisfied that the animals were dead, Colin used a sharp piece of stone to cut into the flesh beneath the scales. The hide was difficult to penetrate, and the work took longer than he would have liked, but eventually they managed to remove several usable portions.

The meat was dark and unfamiliar, with a texture that reminded Colin of something between fish and poultry. He had no way of knowing whether that resemblance meant anything, and the smell did little to reassure him.

“We could always wait until we’re starving,” Assault suggested, looking at the pieces they had collected.

“By then, we might be too weak to do anything about it,” Battery replied. “We don’t know how long we’ll be here, and we can’t count on finding food tomorrow.”

“She’s right,” Colin said. “We’ll cook a small amount first and see how it goes. Nobody eats a large portion until we’re reasonably certain it isn’t making anyone sick.”

“That’s assuming cooking actually helps,” Battery pointed out.

“It helps with some of the risks. That’s the best we can do with what we have.”

They carried the meat towards a section of exposed rock near one of the smaller lava channels. The ground there was hot enough to make standing uncomfortable, and the air above the molten rock distorted the view, but they could use the heat without placing the food directly into the lava. Colin found a broad, flat stone and tested it cautiously before allowing them to lay the meat across its surface.

The first attempt went badly. The stone was too hot in the centre, and one piece of meat began to char before the rest had cooked through. They moved it farther away from the lava, using smaller stones to raise the cooking surface, and eventually found a position where the heat was intense enough to cook the meat without burning it immediately.

It was an awkward arrangement, and Colin disliked how close they had to work to the molten rock. Still, the alternative wasn't exactly desirable. 

They turned the pieces regularly, watching for any signs that the flesh remained uncooked. Once the meat appeared thoroughly done, Colin allowed it to cool before dividing it into smaller portions. The taste was unpleasantly strong, and the texture was tougher than he would have preferred, but he managed to swallow his share without complaint. The others were less enthusiastic, but hunger eventually won out over their reservations.

Nobody felt sick immediately, which was encouraging, though Colin knew that meant very little. They would have to watch for symptoms over the next several hours and hope that the cooking had been enough.

By the time they finished eating, the light had dimmed considerably. Returning to the open volcanic landscape was out of the question, so they gathered the branches and leaves they had collected earlier and began putting together a place to sleep.

Their shelter was crude, consisting of several branches propped against the sturdier trees and covered with whatever leaves they could gather. It wouldn’t keep out heavy rain, and Colin doubted it would offer much protection from anything determined to get inside, but it provided some cover and helped keep them off the bare ground. They cleared the area of loose stones and sharp branches before arranging the remaining wood into a small fire.

Starting it took longer than expected. They had no matches, lighters, or other equipment, and the first few attempts produced little more than smoke. Eventually, they managed to get a flame going with dry leaves and thin twigs, adding thicker branches once it had caught properly. The fire wasn’t large, but it provided light and some warmth as the temperature began to fall.

Colin sat with his back against a tree, stretching his legs in front of him while the others settled nearby. His injuries had started to ache more now that the immediate danger had passed, and he could feel the exhaustion catching up with him. They had survived the first scenario, killed every creature that had attacked them, and found enough food and shelter to make it through the evening. Under ordinary circumstances, that might have been considered a successful day.

But these circumstances were anything but ordinary.

He looked at the others gathered around the fire. They were all experienced heroes, accustomed to dealing with situations that would have overwhelmed most people, yet none of them had any real understanding of the place they had been brought to. Their powers were gone, their equipment was missing, and whatever authority the Protectorate might have carried in the outside world meant nothing here.

The System had given them several Stat Points and announced the beginning of another phase, but it hadn’t told them what they were expected to do next. Colin could only assume that the challenges would continue, and that surviving them would require more than simply fighting whatever happened to come their way.

For now, though, they needed rest. Tomorrow they could resume their search for water, investigate the forest, and work out how to make better use of their attributes and abilities. If the System intended to keep them here for any length of time, they would need a more sustainable way to survive than cooking unfamiliar lizards beside streams of lava.

Colin watched the fire for a little longer before finally leaning back against the tree. The others were settling down as well, each finding whatever position offered the least discomfort, and for the first time since their arrival, nobody was preparing for another attack.

Their first day in the volcanic landscape had come to an end.