Chapter 34 - First Shot

All the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that had clawed its way into Sal’s mind dissipated as he analyzed the information being presented to him. The visor picked up every little thing in his proximity, and it eliminated the chances of anything sneaking up on him. He was keenly aware of all the materials that surrounded him, but he forced his eye to discount those and focused on the enemies that lay in wait.

Thankfully, the visor was able to read his intentions and the materials disappeared from view. His left eye, which didn’t have the benefit of the visor, could only see the dilapidated station stop and another twenty feet into the darkness of the tunnel. There were countless signs of battle around the stop and more than a few of the columns connecting the ceiling to the platform were completely destroyed, their steel cable innards being clearly visible through the mess of rubble.

Display posters on the wall were shredded beyond repair, hinting at the state of the world well before Sal’s time. It was surreal to see relics of the past in such a horrific state. His right eye told a completely different story, and it had nothing to do with his current location. They needed to walk for a few minutes before they’d meet a single demon, and just knowing that was enough to keep Sal’s heartbeat at a reasonable level of panic.

“Looks like the main concentration of demons are farther down the tunnel. There are loads of materials in the area, but I’m ignoring them for now,” Sal explained as he pointed to the subway tunnel tracks that led off into the distance.

Out of curiosity, he turned to look in the opposite direction but was met with a collapsed wall that had cut off the rest of the railway. There was just a single path for them to follow, and it went straight ahead. His visor couldn’t pick up any demonic activity beyond the blockade, which put him at ease that there wasn’t going to be an ambush behind them.

One thing that he did notice about the path leading forward was demons were in pockets of areas to the left and right of the tracks. He didn’t know the layout of the subway, but he guessed they had somehow burrowed their way into the walls.

Chatfield laughed as he took the lead and hopped off the platform to the tracks below. “Glad to hear that your Crafter brain isn’t overriding your common sense. I don’t know what I would have done if you ran off to scavenge for materials. That visor telling you anything interesting about the demons in the area?”

Chatfield could have easily made a replica of his visor with the Concept ability, so the fact that he hadn’t and was asking questions meant that he was being tested. Sal wasn’t in the mood for tests, but he was very much in the mood to stay on the platform for as long as possible. If humoring Chatfield delayed his hunting spree, then Sal was game for it.

“So far, it’s just giving me locations and a few generalist pieces of information about how to approach them. I don’t think we’re close enough for a full breakdown.”

Sal realized his mistake the instant he spoke, and his facial expression definitely betrayed the moment of horror. His clue was when Upgrade finally broke out of her stony persona and laughed. He turned on her, and she quickly angled her head away from him, a smile still lingering on her lips.

Chatfield grinned at Sal from the tracks below. “Excellent idea, Sal. Let’s get closer to them to see how your visor performs with a real combat scenario.”

Sal wanted the platform to swallow him up so he could just get out of this crazy scenario. He hopped down to the uneven surface of the metal tracks underneath his left boot.

With a slight stumble to the right, he regained his composure and looked down at his feet. Even though he had dismissed the material analysis from his visor, it broke down the details of what he was looking at. What should have been regular steel had at some point been converted into an essence-infused variant that he recognized as void metal.

Upgrade seemed to sense his confusion as she stepped off the platform to land beside him, albeit a lot more gracefully. “Dungeon ecosystems are able to transform commonly manufactured materials into essence-enriched ones. I hope you didn’t think that those ingots fell out of a demon’s arse.”

Sal looked at Upgrade quietly and could see that she was trying to lighten the mood. It was a stark contrast to her behavior over the last few hours, and Sal couldn’t for the life of him figure it out.

Was she feeling sorry for dragging him into this encounter, or was she finally relaxing now that he was guaranteed to carry out the task of killing a demon? Either way, he was happy to have the regular Upgrade back, so he smiled before following Chatfield, who was now a few paces ahead of them.

Sal took slow and steady steps to ensure that he didn’t trip over himself. There was some lighting from the glowing segments of the tunnel, and even after just a few steps, he could finally appreciate how much of the ecosystem was changing the environment. Mystical-looking fauna hung from the ceiling, giving off a dull hue of bioluminescence. As soon as the visor caught sight of it, Sal stopped abruptly. It was targeting the fauna, but not as a potential material.

“What is it, Sal?” Upgrade looked up at the glowing fauna.

Sal read through the information that was presented to him, and he couldn’t make sense of it. “It recognizes that moss stuff as an enemy, but there is no threat analysis or breakdown of why.”

Upgrade frowned before whistling ahead for Chatfield to stop.

Sal flinched at how far it echoed down the tunnel, but the two lecturers didn’t seem fazed in the slightest. Sal really hoped that it hadn’t alerted anything in the area.

Chatfield came back to them with a curious expression before reading their movements and following their gaze up to the fauna on the ceiling. He looked back at their faces with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s just moss. It’ll take more than our lifetimes for it to evolve into anything remotely threatening.” He shook his head with a grin. “Let’s get a move on, and Salvatore…please don’t feel threatened by everything around you. It’ll slow us down. A good rule of thumb is that if it’s trying to claw your face off, it’s an enemy. Sound good?”

Chatfield’s pep talk did very little to reassure Sal, and the blood rushed from his face as he went deathly pale. Upgrade gave Chatfield a withering look, but he shrugged and turned around to face the darkness ahead.

“We should be nearing one of their nests. How far out is it, Salvatore?”

Sal sighed as he focused his visor down the tunnel. From his recollection, they should have been a few minutes away from the first collection of leechers. A series of six dots moved rapidly toward their direction, due to appear in less than a minute. Sal took an involuntary step backward as his eyes widened in shock. Upgrade’s whistling had definitely attracted their attention.

When Sal didn’t so much as utter a word, Chatfield glanced back and grinned at his reaction.

“We’ll work on your communication etiquette later. Usually, it’s polite to warn everyone when a nest is approaching. Don’t worry, you’ve got this.” Chatfield practically laughed as he clapped Sal’s shoulder on his way past.

Sal had to do a double take. Chatfield and Upgrade stood behind him, with the former giving him a thumbs-up gesture and the latter looking conflicted.

Chatfield nodded toward the tunnel ahead and pointed at Sal’s revolver. “It’s not going to be much use pointed at the ground like that. Show us what you’ve got, Mr. Argento.”

Lightheadedness consumed Sal as he visibly trembled on the spot. He couldn’t summon a single word. Did they expect him to fight off multiple leechers without having ever seen one in real life? Weren’t they going to coach him and provide backup?

Sal cursed himself for letting it get to this point. Of course he wanted to face his fears and get stronger, but this was too far. He had never even fired a weapon before, so what chance did he have against a half dozen moving targets?

His visor flashed, bringing him out of his stupor. They were closing in and would be visible at any moment.

Sal raised his revolver and tried to look down the sights, but the uncontrollable trembling in his right hand made it impossible to keep it steady. He took a step forward and clasped his right wrist with his left hand, praying that his body would listen to him for just a few moments. It slowed the swaying ever so slightly, and Sal was able to line up the visor with the sights of the revolver.

If it weren’t for the darkness surrounding them, Sal wouldn’t have noticed the streak of red light that illuminated along the top of the revolver. The scarlet screen material was reacting with the visor and changed the information he received. With a few quick breaths, Sal closed his left eye and relied completely on the visor with his right. A half second later, the first leecher came into view, and it felt like time slowed for a moment.

Name	Leecher
Domain	Evergreen Subway Dungeon
Type	Darkness / Fauna
Description	The leecher is a menacing floating demon that preys on its targets by enveloping them in plant-like tentacles and draining their vitality and essence with its razor-sharp teeth.
Stats	Strength: 2 Dexterity: 4 Intelligence: 1 Constitution: 2
Threat Level	I
Behavior	Leechers need to attack from close range to activate their abilities. They will latch onto targets with their tentacles, and seek to weaken their prey by sapping essence. Leechers can only drain essence if they make contact with skin. They cannot activate their abilities through protective clothing. Leechers have a deadly bite attack that can be fatal if not treated immediately, but their low health makes them easy to dislodge and dispatch. Leechers also have no sense of self-preservation, which makes retreat an unlikely method for them.
Abilities	Essence Drain: Consumes target essence Razor Teeth: Deadly bite attack Tentacle Bind: Contains prey by sapping essence Regeneration: Uses stolen essence to heal itself
Weaknesses	Darkness Variant: Sunlight Vulnerability Fauna Variant: Fire Vulnerability
Evolution	No
Reputation	Hunter Bureau: +1 to Rank | Current Score: 0
Kill Count	0 Kills
Variants	0 Discovered
Target Data	0% to Next Level
Essence Gain	0% - Not Calculated

All the information that Sal could have hoped for appeared before his right eye. He disregarded the walls of text and instead looked at their weaknesses for anything he’d be able to use. Despite the fact that he had just put in a cartridge, he didn’t know which bullets were in which chamber.

As if sensing his distress, or more likely tracking his pleading stare at the revolver’s cylinder, his visor listed out each of the equipped bullets and their respective chamber. Sal gritted his teeth when he saw that none of them were compatible against the listed weaknesses, so he had to instead rely on the power of the revolver. Maybe it was because of his nerves, or maybe it was the adrenaline coursing through his body, but Sal threw caution aside as he lined his sights up at the approaching target and pulled the trigger. The reassuring snap of the hammer was drowned out by the explosive crackle of otherworldly energy.

A streak of blue lightning pierced the darkness of the tunnel, illuminating every single detail about the space and causing the approaching leechers to flinch back. Sal watched in almost bemused horror as an explosion of light erupted at the end of the subway, or at least wherever the shot had impacted. Not a single leecher had been hit, and Sal hastily moved to the next chamber, thankful that the light of the first shot had granted him a little more time.

Sal released the breath he had been holding as he tried to aim at the nearest leecher. It was clearly visible now, and its green body was like a bulbous head of demonic lettuce. If that lettuce had thorny stems trailing beneath it. If Sal wasn’t so stressed, he would have laughed at how comical it looked in comparison to the prowlers he’d seen. Even Barry’s illusionary variants were more terrifying than this. The ridiculousness of it calmed Sal ever so slightly. His aim was more calculated, and the sway of his revolver reduced.

“Let’s go,” Sal whispered as he pulled the trigger again.

There was no flashy light with this shot, and Sal knew that it had a high probability of activating a wind-element attack. But from Sal’s perspective, other than the slight recoil that made his arm vibrate, there was no discernible effect from the shot. A whooping noise sounded out behind him, and Sal was about to turn around when his visor reduced the amount of leechers by one.

Sal opened his left eye out of instinct and watched a dead leecher drop from its perch on the ceiling, slapping against the rails below.

He had done it. His first ever demon kill. It wasn’t the one he aimed at, nor was it one he saw die…but that didn’t matter. It was his first kill!

Whatever hopes he had of Upgrade and Chatfield cleaning up the rest of the leechers and calling it a day died when Chatfield pointed out that there were still another five to go. Sal grimaced as he resumed his awkward stance and closed his left eye. There were four more shots to go before he’d get the lightning attack again. It had stalled them before, so his hope would be to get more time back by cycling through the other shots quickly.

Rather than just wasting the shots, he tried his best to aim in the general direction of the leechers. He wanted to blast them away before they got anywhere near him. When Sal pulled the trigger again, his visor indicated that he had just used a bullet with the magnetism effect. What Sal had assumed would be useless turned out to be anything but.

The entire group of leechers were caught in the field of magnetism and pulled together into a clump of panicked vines. Sal didn’t need a better invitation than that as he suddenly had a much larger target area to hit.

Without a sliver of hesitation, Sal aimed down the sights and pulled the trigger again. An involuntary laugh escaped his lips as a bolt of green essence slammed into the mass of leechers, causing them to rot and decay at a rapid pace. Their twitching bodies fell as one to the ground with an unimpressive thud, a few paces away from where he stood.

“Well, that’s certainly one way of doing it.” Chatfield laughed from behind him.