How To Survive A Calamity

How does everything hurt?

I slowly opened my eyes to a world of pain. My whole body was sore and hurting as if having been put through a grinder. I stared emptily into space for a while, clearly dazed. My thoughts were sloe and murky as I slowly tried to recall what happened.

[You passed out from blood loss on your way out of the cave.] A feminine synthetic voice, like an overlap of vibrations resounded in my throbbing head.

It was Meta.

I passed out, huh...I thought, feeling listless.

"... I remember." After a while I said hoarsely. My throat was dry and itchy. I felt thirsty and perched, and my lips were cracked.

My memories cut off at the moment I was in the process of fleeing the cave. I held my gaping wound while leaving a long trail of blood. Then after that, everything just went blank.

That means there was only one way I could have gotten out.

'You took control of my body, didn't you? ' I asked after a slight hesitation.

Meta's response was immediate and unsympathetic.

[Affirmative. That Bone Spike didn't come after you, but others would have if you were found laying around like that.]

When Meta said it like that, I felt obliged to be greatful. But rather than that, my nature drew me to the one unpleasant detail.

She could take control of my body even while I'm unconscious.

But at the same time, I was too weak and exhausted to deeply pondered it. I couldn't even throw out my usual commentary and admonish Meta for taking my body without my permission again. For now I just pushed the matter to a deep corner of my heart and said hoarsely.

"... Thank you."

[...]

Meta didn't deem it necessary to respond and remained quiet.

I didn't mind the System's dismissive attitude and slowly tried to turn around. A blinding pain shot through my body the moment I attempted to lean to my side.

A suppressed wince pressed at my lips as I held my stomach and knit my brows in anguish.

[You should be careful. You are still injured.] Meta's reminder came late, I had to find out the hard way.

That was true. The wound I sustained from the Bone spike was still there, unlike the one from the Silver Knight.

"Oh right. I didn't die." I muttered in realization and instantly gave up on trying to get up. I fell back flat to the ground and looked up emptily.

There was a gnawing void in my heart.

[There was nothing I could do about your wound. So instead i brought you here.] Meta said in a cacaphony of synthetic vibrations.

"What do you mean?" My thoughts and mind were slow so it took a while before I could realize I didn't recognize the rocky ceiling I was underneath.

[A smaller cave deep inside the cavern with a higher concentration of Aether in the air,] Meta said, responding to my enquiry.

[It has been a couple of hours since you passed out from blood lost. The bleeding has receded completely within that time, and the wound is already working to close itself.]

"... Already?" I was baffled. How could my injury heal in only a couple of hours?

Even as a Mortal Ranked Awakened, a wound of that degree would take a couple of days at the very least.

[That has to do with why I brought you here. The healing and reinvigorating properties of the air caused by the higher concentration of Aether have helped to revitalize your body and heal your wounds passively.]

Just as Meta said, I indeed was in a much different place. The cave ceiling here hung lower but still shimmered with the glowing crystals rocks that were like stars in a distant night sky. A soft translucent blue glow suffesed the whole surrounding.

But what truly made this place a stark contract to the larger cavern, was the sheer amount of Aether that was gathered here.

It's amazing...I thought, unable to hide my amazement.

'So that's what is healing me? ' I recalled that the air in the cavern did indeed have healing and reinvigorating properties. I felt a part of my exhaustion lift, and my bones slowly mend.

It was the same now, but no matter how long I lingered against the ground underneath the crystal ceiling, I couldn't muster the strength to get up.

Quite frankly, I didn't want to.

If I get up, then I have go back to there again...I grumbled to myself emptily.

I had zero motivations to get killed again and zero enthusiasm to be humbled a second time.

The confrontation against the Bone Spike was still vivid in my memories and heart. And when I just thought back to the silver Sentinel, i felt the great urge to groan and bury my face in a pillow.

I felt like a middle schooler on a Monday morning who refused to get out of bed. I knew what the rest of the dey held for me, and I just didn't want to face it.

I knew I would have to fight against those monsters, and die again. I had no other option of I wanted to get out of this forsaken place.

I was tired and exhausted. Depressed and listless.

Was I too arrogant? No that wasn't it. My world had just been smaller, and I was forcefully made to see the true size.

This feeling... hopelessness and powerlessness. Ah, yes. Just like that time.

I had only ever felt this way once before; when Meta showed me a vision of the future.

Then I felt true hopelessness and despair.

Something stirred inside my dull heart.

"...I still have to also deal with that." I muttered silently as if I just realized and the urge to groan swept me once more.

Indeed, I had a rocky journey ahead. I realized I had been taking it too easy. If I couldn't even clear a dungeon where the strongest creature was only a 'measly' Hero Ranked, then perhaps I truly did deserve to die here.

Mind you, measley was only attributed when compared to what I had to face later on in my life; abominations that broke the sky and rained meteorites half the size of a moon upon the world.

'I should get up. '

I had to get up. I didn't want to, but who cares?

The world didn't give a shit. No one gives a fuck how I feel, after all, I'm in this situation; reborn, only to be forced to survive a doomsday.

If I whined, then so what?

If I died then so what all the same.

The universe was just that vast —

My existence was insignificant.

Because it was, that was why I had to keep fighting.

Reborn to survive an apocalypse... I'm fate's bitch in the flesh. I mocked silently.

My cracked lips parted slightly and my throat itched as I croaked a small voice. I smacked my lips a few times and felt my eye lids slowly turn heavier.

"I'm thirsty." I croaked in a raspy voice.

Restraining an almost non existent sigh, I forced myself to get up, ignoring the sharp pain the wound in my stomach sent through my body. With unsteady steps and trembling limbs I made my way to a small flowing stream of sparkling transparent water and gulped.

'Meta—'

[Affirmative, it is safe. This is a liquefied matter of Aether, and has properties to even further refine your body and heal your wounds. Drinking it could be one of the best decisions of your life.]

I nodded and, without another word, quickly scooped a handful of the sparkling stream water into my mouth, gulping deeply. The water felt reinvigorating as it moistened my parched throat, a refreshing relief after what felt like an eternity of dryness.

But I had underestimated my thirst, or perhaps the water's effect.

One gulp wasn't enough, and a second barely sufficed.

The cool liquid seemed to evaporate the moment it touched my tongue, leaving me craving more. Desperation set in as I realized how dire my need for hydration was.

Abandoning the effort of using my hands, I knelt by the stream and plunged my entire face into the rushing water.

The icy current enveloped my skin, sending shivers down my spine, but I didn't care. I drank deeply, the water rushing into my mouth, each swallow a burst of life. I stayed there, submerged, until I finally felt a sense of fullness, my thirst quenched at last.

As I pulled back, droplets streaming down my face, I took a deep breath, feeling more alive and invigorated than I had in days. The stream, with its life-giving water, had revived me, and I sat back, grateful, as i stared into the empty space in silence.

My finger twitched, and my heart beat rhythmically.

I felt a cold chill seep into my mind as I involuntarily sorted my thoughts.

"Time..."

I needed time.

But down here, I had enough of that

The goal was still the same, the journey hadn't changed either.

I had to defeat the Boss and leave. I had to get stronger.

And before then-

I recalled the aloof indifference of the bone spike, and the edge of my lips involuntarily pulled darkly.

"-i'll get my revenge."