Three days had passed since David had killed the Shleem-low centipede, each day David went back to the corpse and used his knife to remove the exoskeleton plates. The chitin plates were turned into weird and awkward armor plates that were held together by sinew. The first thing he made once he had finally separated the exoskeleton plates from each other was clean and organize them. Using his knife, he cut small holes into the chitin and fed sinew through the holes. He made a sort of chitinous chest plate and back plate. The chitin was somewhat durable but with enough force would break easily. His new armor was bulky and uncomfortable, but it would offer him protection and could save his life.
David set about collecting the rocks and debris caused by his battle. He had been a massive fan of open world survival video games, and he was hoping he could make stone tools or equipment from the corpses of the creatures he had slain.
He grinded a few stones together in hopes of sharpening them, it was a highly laborious task, and the result was dismal at best. He found much greater success in using the creatures' corpses. He was able to build small spike traps using the centipede's legs and chitin plates. He took 4 dozen legs from the centipede, removed any material that might rot or decay and tied them together to make bicep, forearm, thigh and shin guards. The centipede's remaining mandible was turned into a small, curved dagger that David used for cutting apart the corpses and an emergency weapon if needed.
David took the remaining chitin plates and tried them together making a sled. He used some of the spare bones that he hadn't used to make a pair of handles and a makeshift rim.
'If I can make this work, it will be so much easier to transport materials from anything else I kill.'
6 hours after starting on building the sled, it was complete, it looked horrendous, but it was functional. David started placing the improvised spike traps in designated places so that if he was ever being chased by a creature, he could lead them into his gauntlet of traps. using the meat of the centipede he set up more bait throughout the intersecting tunnels. over the few days since fighting the centipede he had encounter a mutant lizard, 3 mutant bats, another Shleem-low centipede, and some sort of disjointed six limbed fox, with an elongated head. None of the creatures attacked and instead fled when he approached, never even giving him a chance to fire his pistol, as if knowing he would gain rather than lose if they engaged him.
The Cave glower's corpse had been eaten away by the tiny creatures and insects and now a few large chunks of centipede meat were all that remained to act as bait for David. Realizing that the creatures had learned to avoid him, he chose the only option he had he had to become like them, he must no longer stay on the defensive and fortify his camp he must head out and hunt the beasts and horrors that he has been surviving alongside.
David set up the bait and covered himself in the remains of the centipede, hoping that it would mask his scent and presences. It took long than he hoped, the mutants were cautious and let the smaller creatures feed, hoping to draw out any would be ambushes.
David could feel the legs of dozens of insects on his skin, their skittering and crawling over his body. He tried his best to remain composed and still but with all the nibbling and scratching it was difficult. A baby cave glower, now having grown slightly over the past few days bit into the centipede's flesh, creating a shallow gash in Davids back as it feasted. David gritted his teeth, holding himself together, holding onto hope that his gambit would pay off and his prey would show itself.
5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes passed before they finally revealed themselves, a pair of Shleem-low centipedes appeared skittering along the side of the wall, they weren't as big as the one he had killed but both were around 3.5 feet long. They were nowhere near as terrifying as the first one, David had the element of surprise and that gave him comfort. He waited for them to close in on him, the distance would make all the difference if the trap would be successful or not.
The lead centipede slowed as it approached the mound of partially eaten flesh, The flesh was writhing and convulsing with the number of insects and arthropods feasting on it. The Shleem-low's mate approached the meat eager to feed so it could provide for it still developing young when they hatched. The larger male stood guard ready to give warning for any signs of threat, never noticing that the largest threat was already there and waiting.
David waited for the perfect moment, he saw the larger of the two Shleem-lows halt and move into a sort of overwatch or guarding position. The second Shleem-low was different then the one on guard and the one he had killed; a small blue stripe ran along the underside of its body. Ten large sack like areas formed in a row along the middle of its undersection.
The new centipede approached Davids's position and prepared to feed. In a sudden burst of violence David sprung from his location, shoving the barrel of his pistol into the Shleem-low's face before pulling the trigger. Three rounds fired in rapid succession, their casings flying through the air as the back of the centipede's head erupted in gore. Chunks of brain matter, bone and chitin sprayed everywhere as the Shleem-low's orange/yellow blood spilled from the almost detonated like head and neck.
The female Shleem-low's body convulsed and slumped forward. Hearing the noise the Male let out a load whistling sound and spun to face David. Seeing its mate laying dead at David's feet it became enraged and charged. David moved from his position, giving himself a better line of fire at the now rushing, enraged Male. With a quick breath and planted feet, David took aim at the second Shleem-low's head, and pulled the trigger, three rounds flew screaming towards the centipede's head. The male centipede lowered it head, using its hardened head crest and chitin to stop the bullets.
The male Shleem-low's head spun, it had never had such concussive force strike it before. Its head crest splintered, and exoskeleton cracked.
Seeing the Shleem-low dazed, David retook aim and pulled the trigger once more. The first round left the chamber but a jam occurred.
David quickly released his pistol, the jam could wait, he needed to eliminate the Shleem-low before he lost the advantage. The pistol dangled from the sinew rope tied to David's wrist as he drew his knife.
With his knife, David would need to get around the armored exoskeleton if he had any hope of a clean kill. He wanted to prevent any chance of getting injured again.
The male Shleem-low centipede shook its head as it returned from its daze. It looked up in time to see a creature coveted in parts of another of its kind. It couldn't comprehend what the creature was but knew it was dangerous. It quickly collected itself and prepared to attack, its mate was dead but the offspring were still alive inside the gestation sacks. It could see David charging towards him with a shiny object in his hand. The male coiled its body and lashed out with its tail, slashing outwards towards David.
David barely had time to react as the Shleem-low lashed out. He dived to the left avoiding the tail as it slammed into the rock where he was. David tried to roll but his injured arm and leg gave out. David stumbled to his feet just in time to see the tail once more rushing towards him again. He had no time to dodge, the tail hit David with a sickening crunch.
The chitin armor held but it didn't stop the concussive force from breaking two ribs. David was sent flying back 5 feet before crashing into the ground. His back plate of chitin blocked the broken and loose rock from cutting into his back. The wind was knocked from his lungs. Coughing, David rose to his feet, with the male Shleem-low still alive and posing a huge threat, he had no time to clear the double feed.
The Shleem-low slowly started to uncoil itself to gain further range with its tail. It knew if it could remain at a distance and keep its injured head safe, then it would be able to wear David down. It needed to press the advantage and keep David on the back foot.
As David continued to dodge the male Shleem-low's tail, retreated back towards the tunnel path he had laid with traps. The biggest problem he faced was trying to look like he wanted to attack and was slowly being driven back. The Shleem-low was starting to get bolder with its attacks, the creature before him no longer seemed a threat but he was never able to land a killing blow and that annoyed it.
David saw that the centipede was becoming more frustrated and reckless, and waited for his opening. It finally came when the Shleem-low over extended itself and revealed its broken crest and exoskeleton.
David took advantage of the opening and rushed forward, this startled the centipede but it was already too late. Davids knife found the crack in the broken chitin. With a squelch the blade sunk through flesh and tore muscle.
The male Shleem-low let out a pained hiss and tried to retreat. David held firm to his knife, using it as a sort of handle as the centipede writhed around. The beast's movement only caused the blade to inflict more damage on the unprotected flesh under the broken exoskeleton.
With a yell, David used the force of the centipede's own movement to plunge the knife further into the wound. The tip of the blade pierced through the thick muscular membrane guarding the Shleem-low's brain.
The Shleem-low's body suddenly stilled before violently twitching and convulsing, the tip of the blade was cutting into the synaptic nerves of the centipede's brain. As more of the brain was cut and torn apart its bodily functions spasmed and stopped.
David waited a minute after the Shleem-low had stopped moving before pulling his knife from the now expansive hole in its head. David's lungs burned with every breath, now that he had ended the fight and his adrenaline had slowed, his brain had time to think about the pain.
Taking a raggedy breath David rose from on top of the now dead male centipede. in the distance he could see the corpse of the female he had ambushed, there were ten large sacks attached to the underside. David's worse fears came true when he saw that 7 of them looked like they had been chewed or ripped open. He slowly approached, already knowing in his mind what these sacks were for, and he was nervous.
'How many could these things hold? are they going to attack and swarm me? I have fought so hard, I can't let myself me eaten alive by dozens of baby centipedes.'
As David approached, he could see movement in one of the unopened sacks. It was writhing and moving, until a small mandible pierced the membrane. Seeing this David started to run towards the corpse, he needed to get to it before the babies could eat their way out.
David reached the corpse and immediately began to start stabbing into the sack hoping to kill whatever was inside before it could escape. He could feel his blade getting stuck in the unhardened chitin of the baby centipedes, but he didn't care, all he wanted to do was kill them before they could escape.
With a final stab, all movement in the sack stopped. David then quickly moved from sack to sack, stabbing anything that was alive in the unopened ones. He knew he had arrived too late and a large majority of the babies had been able to escape, this worried him. How many of those babies would be able to grow into the large monstrosity's he had fought so far?
'Will they remember me or my scent as the one that killed their parent? Will they grow and hunt me down?' These were the questions David kept rhetorically asking over and over in his head as he began to open the sacks to find out how many babies each sack contained.
'5 babies per sack, that would mean 35 were able to escape. Fuck if they are able to grow up and come after me, I'm screwed.'
David closed his eyes to see if he had gotten any new notifications. Three red boxes floated in the inky blackness. The long awaited signature chime sounded in David's mind as he clicked the through the notifications.
"You have killed a teenage male Shleem-low centipede. You have earned 2XP ."
"You have killed a pregnant teenage female Shleem-low centipede. You have earned 2XP. and 1 summon"
"You have killed 15 baby Shleem-low centipedes. You have earned 1 XP."
David opened his eyes; he was surprised that he received a notification for killing the baby centipedes. But he was elated, with that extra point of XP. He would be able to summon a second survival kit. More importantly he would have more food, water and a spare auto gun.
David headed back down the tunnel towards his makeshift sled. He grabbed the sled a pulled it behind him as he made his way back to the corpses. He wouldn't be able to carry the full corpse of either centipede on the sled with his strength. So he chose to only take the parts he could use. He used the mandible to separate the chitin from the flesh and stacked it on the sled.
David made his way back through the spike traps and bone barrier dragging the sled. The sled was heavy and unwieldy, but it was far easier than carrying each chitin segment individually.
Four trips later David had collected all the usable materials he could from the two corpses. He started working on building a second barrier, fortifying his tent, and then started working on a makeshift storage.
He fortified the tent by tying chitin plates to the main joints for extra protection, taking the tips of the centipede legs and turning them into makeshift nails and supports to hold the bones and hide together. He laid down the softer chitin underbelly of the centipedes as a floor, so he no longer had just bare rock inside the tent. He used the mandibles from the two new centipedes and chitin joint sections to build a very rudimentary shield wall with the four mandibles acting as spears. He used the soft chitin and membrane from the baby Shleem-lows to make himself a pair of shoes so his feet would no longer continue to suffer. The few remaining chitinous plates and legs, along with the remaining sinew were used to build an amalgamation that would serve as David's storage.
He had used the corpses well, and the meat David had harvested from them would serve him well as bait so he could continue his hunts. With this thought at the forefront of David's mind, he needed to decide if he should use his XP or save it to summon better gear and equipment in the future.
'I only have 5 rounds left, but two of them are questionable due to the double feed. I could summon a magazine pouch and get two more full mags, but then I wouldn't be able to get any more medical supplies without earning another summon. If I summon another survival kit it will give me more rations, fresh water, medical supplies, and more ammo but I would have to spend all of my XP and I would have to start from scratch again.'
As David contemplated, his still healing burns, freshly broken ribs, new cuts, imbedded rock fragments, torn bandages, and broken arm made the choice very obvious to him. He should summon another survival kit, use the medicine to help heal quicker while he hunkers downs and gives his body some time to recover. The rations he can draw out so he should have plenty of food for at least ten days, the water won't last as long but he can still use the stalactite runoff. He can let his body recover and heal and he can work on improving his shelter in any way he can.