CHAPTER 17: Whispers of Power, Echoes of Her

Hope. It felt thin, like ice on a winter puddle, but it was there. Kaelen kept his hand pressed against the cool, sharp obsidian fragment, focusing all his will, pushing at his damaged System. Take it. Take anything.

The System message flickered: [...Attempting Non-Standard Absorption Protocol...?]

Then, a strange feeling started. Not the rush of energy like when he consumed biomass. This felt… slow. Grinding. Like trying to suck water through a tiny straw clogged with sand. There was a faint static buzz under his palm, and a weird pressure built behind his eyes. It wasn't pleasant. It actually kind of hurt.

After what felt like forever, the System updated again.

[Non-Standard Absorption Complete. Energy Gained: +8 Units. Efficiency: Critically Low.]

[Energy Reserves: 13/150. Status: Critical.]

[WARNING: Core Instability Increased. Avoid Inorganic Absorption. Seek Organic Biomass Immediately.]

Only 8 units. Barely anything. Just enough to push him from 'about to pass out' to 'just barely functioning'. And the System really didn't like it. Core instability increased? That sounded bad. Really bad. Okay, message received: don't try eating glass spiders again.

But… it was something. Enough energy to stand up, maybe. Enough to think a little clearer past the exhaustion and the fear. He pulled his hand back from the shard. He needed real food. Biomass. Now.

As the System processed the strange, weak energy signature from the shard, something else flickered across his internal display. More corrupted data, maybe related to that "Precursor" energy type?

[Analyzing Energy Trace... Cross-referencing Precursor Signatures... ERROR: Data Fragment Corruption at Sector 7G...]

[...Partial Data String Recovered: ...Secondary Abyssal Core Signature detected nearby... Designation: Subject L... Potential stabilizing influence on local Energy Matrix...? ERROR: Query Timeout...]

Secondary Abyssal Core? Subject L? Nearby? What the hell did that mean? Was there someone else out there with a System like his? The thought sent a jolt through him – was he truly not alone? But the message vanished as quickly as it appeared, leaving only questions and a faint, weird feeling… like a distant echo, a brief sense of something familiar yet unknown. He shook his head, trying to clear it. Another mystery for later. Survival came first.

He needed to get out of this weird obsidian room. He couldn't go back the way he came – that tight tunnel felt like a death trap now, and the Hound might be somewhere back there. He forced himself to stand, legs shaky. His weakened [Avian Vision] scanned the huge chamber. The central pillar was still dim, barely pulsing. The shattered Weavers lay scattered like broken toys. Was there another way out?

He used his [Vibration Sense (Basic)], trying to feel beyond the glassy walls. It was weaker now after the System reboot, the sensations fuzzy. But he focused, pushing past the background hum of the chamber itself. He felt the solid rock surrounding the obsidian structure, and… yes! Over on the far wall, where the blue glowing lines were now completely dark, he felt a faint difference in the vibrations. Maybe air currents? A hollow space behind?