11

I was kind of glad I hadn't remembered to summon the dragon egg out of my dragon storage space. It I had then I might have forgotten the poor thing back in my apartment. I gripped the pocket of my pants tensely. I started following the energy I could feel. I wasn't the only one that could feel it pulling though. 

There were several of us, and we all seemed to agree to head toward this energy all at once. None of us seemed to know why. I didn't really care. It was dangerous. I could feel that. 

The way we all moved slowly seemed to scream that we all knew that. I could feel something like a vibration from the core of my being. I realized then that I didn't have a decent weapon, and that it would probably a bad idea for me to head towards this dangerous energy. I knew I wanted to continue forward, but I needed a weapon first. I turned around, and headed back. 

No weapon meant that continuing was really a bad idea. I turned, and headed back to my apartment. I didn't have any sort of dagger skills so I created a bow from the rabbit skin, and bones using my crafting skill. I butchered my other four feeder rabbits. Stowing the meat away in the freezer section of my small combo fridge. 

Using the rest of the bone fragments, and cores to create arrows. I changed into some of my more roughed up clothes, and headed toward the energy again. Glad I've got a rabbit skin quiver for my arrows now. I hadn't had a proper quiver since I borrowed that one from the government. I'd managed to level up by butchering those four rabbits. 

I was nervous, and the source of the energy was a good distance away. I debated on using my car, but decided against it. I had a rough idea of how far the energy was from me, and it was maybe two miles away. I crossed the road before patting my pocket to make sure my phone wasn't in it. I didn't want another mishap like my last phone. 

I needed to order a backpack when I got the chance. My muscles coiled as I walked. I was glad I'd bought that belt because my pants simply didn't fit the way they used to. They would simply fall off without the belt holding them up. The length wasn't a problem, but the fact that my pants were super loose was annoying. 

I didn't mind loose shirts. I preferred for my pant to fit. Either perfectly or slightly loose. I tried to stick to footpaths, and stay away from people's houses when I could. I was heading straight to the energy, and that forced me into a few paths that were too close to houses. 

I had to walk through a few yard before I came across a large crack the cut through one of the suburbs of Arlington. It was about four feet wide, but it had swallowed up a few vehicles as well as parts of houses, and sheds. There was energy coming from the crack, and I wasn't the only person looking at it. It was disturbingly quiet despite the large number of people there. I knew why. 

It was the pressure. There was a massive amount of mana in this area. It was coming out of the crack. Even the normal sounds of nature were gone. I frowned to myself. 

This whole situation didn't feel right. I wasn't a big fan of heights so I got close to the edge, and pretty much laid down on the pavement to look down into the crack. That was when I heard the scratching sound. It was quiet, but it was clear. Something was scrambling up the walls. 

Something that blended into the walls. Something I couldn't see. Something I flinched back away from as it's attack lashed out at me. Using my high jump skill to propel me away from the crack as the thin tentacle lashed around. It wrapped around the person that was closest to me, and they were yanked in kicking, and screaming. 

Then it was chaos. Everyone decided to run away at once. Dozens of people were yanked into the crack at once by the thin tentacles that had shot out of the crack. The tentacles were followed by insect like legs. This creature had a head like that of a spider, but it's body resembled that of an ant. 

The tentacles shot out of it's middle section, and had tips that looked an awful lot like back tulips. Those black tulips had sharp barbs inside, and they looked as if they stuck to the people they grabbed. I drew the bow back, and started firing arrows. I didn't charge them with mana just to see how it went to start with. I was a good twenty feet away from them because of my high jump skill. 

I was glad I had the skill, but it was kind of sad I didn't have more reasons to use it. I didn't regret the skill, and figured it was a good idea to focus on leveling the skills I had for now. Plus I was thinking about getting the butchering skill I found earlier. Once the free parting out, and healing was gone I would need that kind of skill to give myself an edge on practical skills. Having practical skills would make life easier for me in general. 

I needed to focus on fighting for now. My arrows penetrated the creatures hide easily, but one arrow wasn't enough to kill each one. I kept on firing arrows at the creatures. An arrow to the head wasn't enough to kill them either. I decided it was better to stay out of range of those tentacles for now. 

The only problem was that I would run out of arrows soon. I needed to get my arrows back. Luckily someone had noticed that I had stayed back to fight. That simple action encouraged more people to join the fight. Barriers popped up around the insects closest to me so I had a safe moment to rush forward, and grab my arrows.