《Banished Talent》


 Introducing Alvin - Chapter 1

    Alvin Smithson was always a loner, with few friends and fewer close ones. It didn¡¯t help that names passed him by like smoke in the wind. Early on, this led to him being bullied. Not that he particularly cared.


    Though this probably had more to do with the people who tried to bully him. They weren¡¯t the cool kids, but rather a small group led by a small triangle of a boy with a mouth full of rotten teeth. It was a mystery how he ended up in charge of his little gang of kids. The group liked to try and beat up Alvin.


    Operative word there is try. Alvin was a wild child. While he loved a good book and could often be found reading late into the night. He was in the end a child filled to the brim with energy and imagination. Living on a small hill half covered by a small forest meant much of his days were spent out exploring.


    The bullies would try to corner him on the playground but Alvin would run circles around them. Not that he always avoided them. He loved a good fight but it was easier to avoid trouble if no one ended up bleeding.


    Not that a bit of blood bothered him. Alvin didn¡¯t mind the pain. Others cried over it but he would just not care about it. Though that covered most things if he was to be honest. He was in his own little world and everything else could take a hike.


    Speaking of hiking, Alvin¡¯s family enjoyed it and while out on the trails Alvin would pick up all the interesting rocks. Very few times Would he get home without the pocket¡¯s of his cargo shorts filled to bursting.


    One of his favorite trails had an abundance of serpentine. A beautiful green mineral that turned out lovely when you put it through a rock tumbler. His favorite find started out as a fang shaped piece of the stuff with a base of some normal rock and what appeared to be the smallest seam of gold in it.


    After a run through the rock tumbler, the edges were smoothed and the golden seam was brought out more. It was his, and thoughts of dragons and snakes danced in his head.


    Years passed and eventually the bullying stopped and the instigator vanished. Where? Alvin didn¡¯t know or care. The kid just stopped being there. It might even have been as simple as being on one of the alternative lunch times as Alvin¡¯s grade alone had over a thousand kids in it. The bully¡¯s disappearance however didn¡¯t mean he started making friends.


    There were, of course a few groups he would hang out with because of shared interests or situations. Mostly trading card games and being stuck in church together. On the playground, he kept to himself. Running around and causing chaos or with his nose stuck in a book.


    During this time, a number of beliefs had grown within him. Beliefs that even he admitted were crazy. But that didn¡¯t matter because they had become founding principles for him.


    Magic was real. Dragons were real. He was immortal.


    Alvin would joke about it with others and of course no one realized, no one could believe that it wasn¡¯t a joke to him. Delusional, weird, a few marbles short? He readily admitted it. But he was too far gone at that point. In fact, one of his goals was to be rich in the future so he can be eccentric.


    As he put it, if you¡¯re poor, you¡¯re called crazy because you can¡¯t pay for a psychiatrist. If you¡¯re middle class, you¡¯re insane because you can pay for one. But if you¡¯re rich? If you¡¯re rich, you¡¯re eccentric because you can afford to not get help.


    Not that anyone really thought he was crazy. You might think that an unshakeable belief in one¡¯s own immortality would lead to some risk taking. Alvin however saw that as a fool¡¯s path. Living forever doesn¡¯t mean you¡¯re in a good situation. If anything, he was more careful. After all, who knows how long it would take to heal a broken spine?


    And with that, he started to spend more time immersed in books. Digging deep into fantasy and science fiction. Soon enough, he was known for never being without a book. And as time changes all things he stopped his physical exploration for mental. The wild child became the bookworm. Reading more books in a summer than most of his classmates would in their entire lives.


    Yes, time changes everything. His favorite stone broke along the golden seam and the woods next to his house became overgrown with thorny vines. He still wasn¡¯t normal. In fact, his classmates leave him alone even more so and see him as a force of nature. Something that happens and all you can do is hold on.


    Then more time passes and his parents separate. He didn¡¯t see it coming though it was obvious in hindsight. Alvin never cared enough or paid enough attention to notice. While it didn¡¯t really bother him, that didn¡¯t change the fact he ended up going to therapy for a while because of his dad¡¯s insurance.


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    While in therapy, he smiled and spoke endlessly about how he didn¡¯t care. Not specifically but in general. Alvin didn¡¯t know what the therapist thought of this, but assumed they chalked it up to the divorce.


    In the end, he went with his father. Not because he cared one way or another. More of just because it was expected of him and that was a lot easier on his side.


    During this time, he fell into a new thing. ¡®Twas of the devil if the church was to be believed. Not that he even pretended to care about that. So with a great gusto he started learning about tabletop roleplaying games.


    To start with just the latest version of the original because everyone knew it and ¡°dragon¡± was in the title. What¡¯s not to love? Though he definitely didn¡¯t stick to just that. Alvin dived into both the older versions and entire other games.


    In a near haze, the next couple years passed and with it highschool wrapped up. He wasn¡¯t top of his class but it wasn¡¯t so bad that he wouldn¡¯t get into college. Not that he had any solid plan for that beyond going in general. The claims of getting a degree equaling a good job were pounded into even his thick skull.


    Alvin probably would have ended up going for a business or IT degree. Would have, that is, if not for one little incident.


    There was a bright light in my eyes. Not the best way to wake up. Especially when the last thing I remembered is driving home in the middle of the night.


    On the bright side, heh, the light wasn¡¯t from the sun. It wasn¡¯t from a hospital room either, so going by what I recalled from the night before, things weren¡¯t kosher.


    When my eyes had adjusted and I was greeted with the sight of two guys who looked like they couldn¡¯t decide between cosplaying as the men in black or wizards, so split the difference. Well, suffice to say my thoughts were confirmed. That and my memories of the night before were probably a lot realer than I wanted to deal with right now. Not that the cosplay duo let me get too far down that mental rabbit hole.


    The dude on the left gave me the most curdled milk smile I had ever seen up till that point. ¡°So, what do you remember from last night? We found you on the side of the road, car totaled.¡±


    The other guy smiles. ¡°Don¡¯t mind him. You aren¡¯t in trouble as all the evidence points towards this not being your fault. We just need to get your side of the story.¡±


    I laughed, ¡°Fifth amendment, I want a lawyer.¡±


    The guy playing the good cop sighed at that and turned to the other dude. ¡°You know what Jeff? Ever since that became well known our job has gotten so much more frustrating.¡±


    Harold shrugs, ¡°What are you complaining about? We both know you love any chance to play with your toys. Plus, it isn¡¯t like we could actually trust his statement, anyway.¡±


    The other guy shakes his head at that. ¡°It doesn¡¯t work as well if they aren¡¯t already talking.¡±


    Harold rolled his eyes, ¡°He already knows something is up. Just zap him.¡±


    At that point I tried to speak up but something prevented me. Then the guy brought out an egg-shaped piece of metal. Not being able to verbally respond and with a growing sense of unease I focused on that metal egg and watched as etchings appeared on its surface.


    What looked like a mix of Arabic and Chinese characters with some Viking runes thrown in for style points spread across the bottom two-thirds. The top third of the metal egg instead developed deep grooves until the outer layer of metal was split apart. Once both sides finished, the upper part opened up and a sickly near blue glow flowed over the edge closest to where I was sitting.


    I really tried to struggle at that point. Light shouldn¡¯t move like that. Of course, however they had me secured was top grade. If it hadn¡¯t been for my ability to wiggle my fingers and toes, I would have thought myself paralyzed.


    Though even their best restraints started to fail when the glow approached my face. I can¡¯t quite remember the details but I think I got an arm up when the glow flowed into my eyes, nose, and mouth.


    At that point, there was a disconnect between me and my body. I was still trying to scream my head off but my body just relaxed. Though I was soon to follow its example as I clearly wasn¡¯t going to accomplish much. And a good thing too because that let me pay attention to the two cosplayer wannabees as they got my body to spill the beans.


    For the first bit, things were normal. They just asked me what I remembered from last night and my body began reciting what had happened. Nothing too interesting, I had been at the local game shop for a trading card game tournament that went late. Didn¡¯t place well but I had stuck around to play some games against the others.


    It was easy to tell that the two mooks weren¡¯t interested in what I was saying. Though more importantly, they were looking for something or else they could have had me skip the boring parts. Then they perked up when my ride home was approaching the ridge.


    Living in the middle of nowhere means I have to drive by a lot of farmland and forests. The thing is that the forests are well back from the road for most of the distance. Not on the ridge, though. A horrible bit of landscaping left behind by the glaciers that draws a line between my dad¡¯s house and the closest thing to a city within a few hours drive.


    The two leaned in as I described going up the ridge nice and slow to save fuel. And my body, in the most nonchalant manner, drops the bomb. ¡°Then halfway up the ridge a werewolf looking git was thrown out of the woods and smashed the front end of my car. I came to a stop and threw on the emergency brake. After that, I sat there and watched the werewolf change back into a guy. I think something else came out of the woods at that point but I can¡¯t be certain as whatever it was knocked me out.¡±

 Do You Believe In Magic? - Chapter 2

    Harold smacked the other guy. ¡°Come on Jay, we¡¯re supposed to get his shrouded memories of the event.¡±


    George brushed the smack away. ¡°I did! You heard the question I asked and everything.¡±


    Harold sighed, ¡°Then how did he recall an aether damned werewolf!? He even remembers the blighted beast turning back after being knocked out!¡±


    George threw his hands up, ¡°I don¡¯t blighted know!¡±


    And he turned back towards me. ¡°Tell us that last bit as you remember it from a mundane perspective.¡±


    I tried to shrug but yeah, still restrained. Good thing I didn¡¯t have control as I suspect they would have been a lot rougher if I had been able to throw in some backtalk.


    ¡°I was driving up the ridge when a werewolf was thro-¡°


    George cut my body off at that point. ¡°Enough! How do you remember that? You don¡¯t have a bloody iota of magic in you! If you did, our hypno-egg wouldn¡¯t work on you!¡±


    My body starts to answer using my eyes, but is shushed again. This time by Jay. ¡°He¡¯s clearly not privy to magic so anything he says will be nonsense. There must be some kind of loophole or local phenomenon. We need to call this in.¡±


    From behind him, a voice then spoke up, ¡°No, you should have called it in the moment you two found out that one of the veiled was involved in a contagious curse holder.¡±


    George jumped a little while Harold gritted his teeth and turned around. ¡°Well, hello Countess Ann. May I know what another CCH is doing at our crime scene?¡±


    Ann laughed, ¡°While I am sure using my family¡¯s title burns you up inside, we both know how you should really be referring to me. I am on the so please, use my work title.¡±


    Through his tightly clenched teeth, Harold repeats himself. ¡°Investigator Ann, why are you, another cursed b... Being doing on the site of a crime involving a veiled?¡±


    Ann sighed, ¡°I will never understand why me being an investigator causes you so much grief. I have personally been in the position since before your father¡¯s time, even with the extra years magic gives. By the blood, my family has been in the business since the time of the Pharaohs.


    ¡°I know it is not my skin color. While my Egyptian heritage is clear, they use forbidden mind magic to root out such nonsense. The veiled police can get away with being trash, but on this side of the veil you never know who might have power greater than even the most fearsome nuke.¡±


    Harold growled, ¡°Drop the act. We both know the reason and you¡¯re just dragging it out so I have to say it myself. You want everyone in my precinct to know, don¡¯t you?


    ¡°Since you want me to say, then I will! You¡¯re a thrice damned bloodsucker! Dead enough, the heavens and earth don¡¯t want you, but alive enough none of the hells will take you. Screw your culture for accepting you and your cursed kin!¡±


    While Harold was ranting, George was slowly backing away from him with his radio behind his back and broadcasting. ¡°Uh, Jeff, that¡¯s a little toxic. You should have gotten the same lessons I did. She isn¡¯t one of the vampire strains classified as fully dead. Investigator Ann is just as alive as you or me.¡±


    Harold spits at George¡¯s feet. ¡°Making such pissant distinctions is for the weak! My grandfather made his name hunting vampires. All this political correctness went and destroyed my family¡¯s business! A wooden stake to the heart kills them all the same.¡±


    Ann shakes her head, ¡°Just like it would kill you as well. I do not have any bad blood with your family. Everyone else moved on. And it is not like they even had to close the business, anyway.


    ¡°Hunting down the restless dead is still making the rest of your family a lot of money. You are just angered that you do not get to relive your ancestors¡¯ glory of killing peaceful villages.¡±


    Harold doubled up on giving her the middle finger. ¡°We scrubbed out your kind from this continent and kept it that way for a couple hundred years! The rest of my family is just brainwashed. One of my nieces is even friends with a fleabag! She should be hunting that beast down with silver and holy lead.¡±


    Ann looked at George who could only shrug. Well, not only. He also pressed a button on his radio.


    Seeing this interaction Harold pulled out what I could only describe as a magic wand. With an aggressive jab, Harold tried to do something to George. Except nothing happened.


    George shook his head in disappointment, ¡°You think they trust someone new to the force with your history to have one of our signature wands and no strings attached?¡±


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    Harold rages, ¡°What do you mean new to the force? I¡¯ve been on this god damn force for over a decade! And besides, you just joined up a few years ago.¡±


    Ann laughed at this. ¡°Just a decade? You are still a newbie until the second. This is not even a secret. If you had paid attention at all to those around you instead of focusing on your stupid grudge, it would have been obvious. As obvious as that grudge was to those in charge. Why do you think you bump into me so often and yet no other vampires?¡±


    Harold pointed at her and yelled, ¡°It was your fault! I was supposed to be bringing in scum like you left and right. Enough so that the others would come around to my side. And that doesn¡¯t explain the baby face over there. He¡¯s younger than me and just joined. Why would he have control of my wand?¡±


    George sighed at this. ¡°Baby faced is a good description of it. I¡¯m over twice your age and have been on the force over ten times as long. Like seriously? You¡¯re going to judge age by my looks? Some of the oldest beings around regularly go out looking like kids to mess with people.


    ¡°The precinct paired me up with you after sustained contact with Investigator Ann didn¡¯t blunt the edges of your insanity. Normally we would catch someone like you but your ancestors were just too damned clever.


    ¡°I¡¯ve read over the transcript of your tests and if I wasn¡¯t looking for it, I wouldn¡¯t have noticed how you skimmed around the speciesism questions. Now I hate to do this, but I have to bring you in.¡±


    Harold barked out a mad laugh and drew an old-fashioned revolver. ¡°You think I would trust the traitorous equipment you scum kludged together? I know you used her people¡¯s magic in it. No, I¡¯ve always had my grand pappy¡¯s old faithful on me! Now back away or he gets it!¡± And of course he pointed that big fuck off gun directly at me.


    Ann sighed, ¡°Do you want to tell him or me?¡±


    Harold shakes the gun at me. ¡°Do you think I¡¯m not serious?!¡±


    George rubbed the bridge of his nose. ¡°Before we were just going to kick you off the force. Now you¡¯ve gone and threatened a veiled mortal.¡±


    Ann butted in, ¡°And with a gun! At least the wand would be forgotten.¡±


    Harold pulled the trigger while saying, ¡°Screw you!¡±


    If I could have flinched, I am not ashamed to say my flinch would have flinched. Good thing George wasn¡¯t a slouch when it came to his job or my story might have ended early.


    George shakes his head as a deafening silence descended over the area. ¡°Did you really think I missed your gun? You hid it in an unguarded extra dimensional space! What were you even thinking? Any half competent mage could spot the thing from across a football field, let alone when I¡¯m sitting next to you every day for years.


    ¡°Now give up. Your family never had true magic in your veins to begin with so you can¡¯t cast without a focus. You know what the punishment will be and you¡¯re probably stoked for it.¡±


    After that, besides a bunch of nasty insults, the excitement wrapped up. Harold was handcuffed and put in the back of what had just moments before been his own cop car. Ann asked if she could ride along because she was going to need to do some paperwork back at the precinct.


    And when I was half certain they had forgotten about me, George turned towards me. ¡°Well, you¡¯ve seen and heard a bit too much so I guess you get to come with.¡±


    The next thing I knew, I was waking up with another damn bright light in my face. This time, I was allowed to notice my surroundings. Though there wasn¡¯t much to see. Just imagine any of the interrogation you see in the cop dramas and then let someone with a fetish for old school magic circles decorate.


    Of course, by that point, I was willing to believe they were for more than artistic expression. This was only confirmed after they let me chill for a bit. Once they had decided I was cowed enough by being unable to move while alone in a room, those magic circles lit up and lifted off the walls. It was at that point that I was detached from my body again.


    With that, they didn¡¯t make me wait long. After the circles had cycled up to full power going by how they stopped getting brighter, George entered through the door across from me with someone who is best described as a medieval scribe. The guy had a roll of vellum, a feather quill, and so on.


    George let him set up, but then the questions began. It started with what were obviously calibration questions. Why yes, my name is Alvin Smithson and I do live with my dad. Simple stuff, which I assumed caused something behind my head to glow green. Not that I saw what it was, I wasn¡¯t really allowed to look around.


    The questions didn¡¯t get interesting for me until after they had me recount my entire previous day in excruciating detail. Then it was asked, almost as an afterthought. A question I could tell they had asked a thousand times before and that they always got the same answer for. ¡°Do you believe in magic?¡±


    So, of course, my answer was yes. That got a nice reaction out of them. The look of bafflement as George stumbled over his word. The scratch noise when the scribe reflexively tried to write no, but his training had him also attempt to write yes. I really wish I had been able to laugh. Though the solid green light behind my head mocking them would have to do.


    George then tried to figure out a way to ask so my answer wasn¡¯t yes. Do you believe in actual magic and not just stage magic or church miracles? Did you believe in magic before last night¡¯s incident? And so on. Of course, my answer didn¡¯t change. Then he asked the important question, why?


    My answer was simple. ¡°Because magic is real. Though I guess it started with dragons. They¡¯re real too and the belief in magic only developed once I knew enough to realize a real dragon wouldn¡¯t work without it. I don¡¯t really have any proof.¡±


    The scribe puts his quill down on its stand and groans. ¡°This isn¡¯t a matter of catch and release anymore. Even if we overwrite his memory of the last few days, it will just make him a ticking time bomb. The fact we found him is almost a miracle in and of itself.¡±


    George nodded in agreement. ¡°Since he believes in magic, he is technically on our side of the veil. If I had to guess, this is the first time that he interacted directly with the supernatural. Before now, he was skimming along between the two sides. Now that he has been touched, even wiping his memory of it wouldn¡¯t undo the awakening.¡±

 Antarctic City - Chapter 3

    The scribe scratches his head. ¡°So, what do we do with him? My section is full up. In fact, I think the entire precinct¡¯s budget for newly awakened is spent.¡±


    George nods, ¡°I guess we¡¯ll have to scan him and see if there are any civilian positions available. People who are accidentally awakened tend to have some decent innates so we might even get to keep him.¡±


    The two continued to talk but I wasn¡¯t around to listen in. Once a decision was made, the scribe activated something and I faded out.


    And guess what? For what seemed like the first in forever, I woke up without a bright light in my eyes. Mind you, pure darkness isn¡¯t exactly a step up, but at the time I was willing to take what I could get. The biggest change was that I could move again. Not much as I was stuck in a tight cylinder but any control was welcome.


    So there I was squirming in a tight dark space just because I could when a hatch irised open at about waist height. Of course I tried to poke at the gently glowing alcove but there was some kind of field blocking me


    Then I heard what sounded like the scribe. ¡°After I finish speaking, the force field will power down. At that point, if you want you may of your own free will touch the glowing rune in the alcove. If you choose to do so, you will experience a feeling similar to a light shock and you will be registered as awakened.


    ¡°It will also reveal your potential. Let me repeat. We are not forcing you to touch the rune and doing so will not in any way indebted yourself to us or force our will upon you. You will be given 24 hours to make your decision starting now.¡±


    And with that, the force field vanished under my fingers. So, I shoved my hand right in there and poked that rune. Yes, they gave me 24 hours to decide. Sure, they went on about it being my choice. But I wasn¡¯t raised an idiot.


    That was a false choice and everyone knew it. Clearly, something involved required it to be my decision. But is it really a choice if given the option between doing it or being stuck in this tube with no assurance of my safety afterwards?


    Then any attempts at thought fade away as the ¡°light¡± shock isn¡¯t quite as advertised. While it truly isn¡¯t that powerful, there is one big difference. The shock didn¡¯t move through my body, it lingered. The feeling saturated my body and for like, the third or fourth time, I lost consciousness.


    First thoughts when I came to? ¡®Oh hey, guess it¡¯s back to having lights in my eyes.¡¯ Because of course they¡¯re shining one of those doctor light things in my face. I guess to be fair it meant some semblance of care.


    A semblance that quickly crumbles. Apparently, the output of whatever test they did has to be read by the one being tested. So they shove the paper in my face, giving just a moment to read it before they grab it back to analyze.


    There was an absolute ton of information on that sheet. So while I might be a quick reader I only managed to pick up a few things. Psionic, talent in flux, and most troubling ¡°Extreme Threat¡±. Seeing that I was half expecting to die right there.


    As luck would have it though, even with magic, my world was still one of laws and rules. Though, as Ann informed me after I was handed off to her, I¡¯m not in the best of positions. Apparently, my roll of the dice came up with a result even more hated than vampires.


    Not being psionic mind you. Everything with a nervous system is to some extent. Rather, it was the ¡°talent in flux¡± bit. Because while everyone is psionic, those with enough ability in it have what they have. Even unawakened, this will shine through with the classic example of the guy who can predict the weather.


    That¡¯s why they are called talents. You have your talent and no matter how weak or strong it is, that¡¯s it. Being in flux doesn¡¯t mean my talent hasn¡¯t settled. It means it can grow and change in unpredictable ways.


    See, no matter how strong of a weather sense someone has, that is all they can do. The highest level of weather sense can¡¯t change the weather even if they can predict what it will be like for the next hundred years.


    That is where magic would come in. A talent to predict the weather is a massive boost to anyone practicing weather magic. So even powerful talents are seen as supportive and in no way necessary. Especially when so few people have any measurable talent.


    That isn¡¯t a path I can take. When I asked why, Ann explained, ¡°what if you are trying to cast a spell to start a fireplace only for my talent to shift and overcharge the spell into a fireball?¡±


    Ann then shrugged, ¡°If that was all, though, it would not cause such a fuss. The real danger is in passive effects. A talent for fire becomes a fire aura that burns everything within a mile radius.


    ¡°While aura talents aren¡¯t rare, the dangerous ones tend to solve themselves. After all, the ability to manifest fire does mean protection from fire or suffocation when the fire burns all the oxygen.¡±


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    Then we stood there silently for a bit before I realized I could actually ask questions now. ¡°So, what happens to me?¡±


    Ann sighs, ¡°You get to suffer the same punishment as that speciest Harold. In fact, the only reason we have free time at the moment is they are pushing his judgement through.


    ¡°Heh, he probably thought he was going to have a decade to try and escape lockup. Your talent wrecked his plans something fierce. See, your destination is Solomon¡¯s Labyrinth. And before you ask, it is unrelated to Solomon. People just like invoking his name for style points.


    ¡°Besides, that is the modern name for it. Far as anyone can tell, it is a naturally occurring chain of shattered dimensions. No one knows how old it is except that the connection point likely existed here since before the solar system did.¡±


    To me that honestly just sounded like a fun time. So of course I asked why going there was a punishment.


    Ann laughed, ¡°So does every civilization when they first find it. Problem is you can¡¯t go back. We haven¡¯t managed to scry too far down the chain but the one constant is once you go to a lower dimension you can¡¯t rise up again.


    ¡°Oh, and if that wasn¡¯t fun enough, our entrance isn¡¯t the only one. We don¡¯t know if the other entrances are in this dimension or another but other beings show up in the place.¡±


    I nodded, ¡°So why are they rushing that guy¡¯s punishment through?¡±


    Ann shrugged, ¡°The entrance can only be opened for free once a century and if someone wants to open it more often, it costs an arm and a leg. The council generally likes to let it ride a bit in case something comes up so we still had another decade and change before the next opening. But you happen to be one of those ¡°somethings¡± that come up.¡±


    After that, I questioned her a good bit about what to expect but she wasn¡¯t too much help. While she knew that the area around our world¡¯s entrance was under control by those stuck over there, that wasn¡¯t going to help much. Criminals and threats are pushed out and they have a couple people over there strong enough to enforce the rules.


    And before I knew it a soft chime signaled the start of my last moments on Earth. Though it wasn¡¯t going to be a quick process. Apparently, the entrance is in Antarctica. A place that even with magic isn¡¯t the easiest to reach.


    Despite that danger, the trip was boring. Just a long plane flight all the way to our destination. Even though the plane was thrown around like crazy, they had magic up to dampen all the nonsense. If it wasn¡¯t for my fellow passengers, the trip would have been the quietest flight I had ever been on.


    With Ann and Harold along, things were anything but quiet. To say Harold was pissed off about his speedy trial would be an understatement. But no amount of complaints was turning the plane around and we were soon landing at what looked like a cross between an archeology site, a war zone, and a high-tech city.


    In a huge swath along an arc following a mountain range, there were ending fields of destruction. It was as if years ago someone carpet bombed the area. Yet still there were odd buildings standing among the wreckage, with multicolor smoke still rising despite all the damage being many years old by now.


    Despite this damage, there was still a small section of what must have been an absolutely massive city of stone in the past. Though the entire area is cordoned off with barriers and such. A number of people and things are crawling over the ruins even now as they try to learn even an iota more about the past.


    At the center of this area, all the ancient buildings have been demolished and in their place stands skyscrapers. Though the older examples in the area appear to be made from wood and stone instead of steel and glass. Quite an odd look.


    Though the skyscrapers fell away near the middle as short buildings more reminiscent of bunkers took over. But the very center was taken up by a dome of metal that seemed to shift in color when I wasn¡¯t looking at it.


    Then we landed, and the sound cancelation dropped. Boy, did I wish it hadn¡¯t. The sound of the winds and maybe other things scratched at our ears and brains. It was quite annoying though Harold seemed overly affected by it.


    Ann just laughed, ¡°If you think this is bad, you should hear what it is like outside the city shield. Madness is only the beginning for the weak willed out there.¡±


    Luckily for Harold we didn¡¯t stay out there long as a group of people in gray robes came out to collect us. Soon we were ushered into the building nearest the airfield. But we didn¡¯t stay there long as it soon became apparent that the entire city was connected by underground tunnels.


    So it was only a quick subway ride before we ended up in the outskirts of the bunker area. From there, we had to surface again as there weren¡¯t any direct connections within that area.


    Into the oldest looking bunker we went and Harold was split off from me and Ann. Then the waiting started. While they were in a rush to get us out here, the opening of the portal apparently took a bit of time. This ended up being a good thing for me as it gave me some more time with Ann.


    And of course she started with the bad news. ¡°You are Fucked. Harold is going to blame you and the people over there won¡¯t care if he kills you once they kick you both out. And he is going to try and kill you. There is no doubt in my mind and the only reason he was not yelling death threats at you on the plane ride over is he probably does not want you to run.


    ¡°Now, I do not care if you live or die. I do feel a little bad about your situation but that doesn¡¯t change anything. Finding you is like finding an active nuke. However, that does not mean I am against helping you.


    ¡°Specifically, I know someone on the other side. They can not, and more to the point, would not help a human stay even a second longer in the city they have over there. What they will do is make sure you leave from the opposite side of the city from Harold.


    ¡°If we take into account his movement magic that gives you three to five days to prepare. During that time, you are going to have to force out some kind of talent to deal with him.¡±

 The Other Leg Has Bells On It - Chapter 4

    Not dying on the first day sounded fine to me. But I did have some questions. Specifically, ¡°How is your contact going to know to help me? Also, I¡¯m a little leery of the whole forcing a talent thing.¡±


    Ann laughed, ¡°And you should be! While most would consider your talent random, it is based on your mind and nervous system. This means that if you are in a dangerous situation, the chances of a useful combat ability goes up by a lot.


    ¡°As for the other thing? Right before you get sent through, I will give you a note card with some magic runes on it. The magic won¡¯t last long, but luckily they kick you guys out of the settlement as soon as possible. Just hold the card above your head and you will get where you need to be.¡±


    I nodded as it would make sense that she had a way to pass messages on. Though that left one last worry of mine. ¡°So, why are you helping me?¡±


    Ann shrugged, ¡°Like I said, I feel a bit bad about¡±


    Yeah, I wasn¡¯t buying that and interrupted, ¡°Yeah right, pull the other leg, it has bells on it. You don¡¯t know me and I don¡¯t know you. What¡¯s the real reason you want to help me?¡±


    With my interruption, Ann clammed up but I kept my eyes on her. She lasted a while, but despite me being the one with a time limit, she caved first. ¡°It is not about you. I am helping you to get at Harold. I have been assigned to watch him for over a decade. The man has a vile mind of just the right type to thrive over there. And while it is a one-way trip, Solomon¡¯s Labyrinth is the perfect place to grow stronger.


    ¡°I can¡¯t do much against him so you are my last chance. Give him a couple centuries in the labyrinth and he could cause real problems for the vampires caught over there. Though I wasn¡¯t lying about him coming for you.¡±


    This time I believed her. While I am sure she is better than Harold, it makes a lot more sense for her to be helping her own species. ¡°There we go, that wasn¡¯t too hard! Now, since you want me to pull a miracle out of my hat, how about you go over some of the details of what I can expect in there?¡±


    Suffice it to say, Ann had a lot to tell me. In fact, I¡¯m sure that she could have talked for days if we had the time. Though the lack of time was more of a ¡°me¡± thing. She had all the time in the world while it took less than a quarter of a day for the portal to be ready.


    And they did not dally around. With ten minutes to spare, they had gathered everyone up. At first, I was surprised at how many people were going through. Though with a bit of listening, the reason became clear. It isn¡¯t just convicts and wild cards that enter.


    The other side is a miraculous place and even if they can¡¯t come back, there are people willing to go. Whether it is someone at the end of their life hoping to manage one last breakthrough for a new lease on life or the proverbial third son with nothing to his name looking for a better future. The only rules are you have to be over 100 years old and have wrapped up all unveiled connections.


    So besides the twenty-ish convicts I¡¯m grouped with there are a stunning number of others here to get in on the gate opening. Ann laughs at my stunned look. ¡°Do not worry, your group gets to go through first. They do not want to chance any of you missing the bus as it were.


    ¡°Then, to be polite, age before beauty. Though that has more to do with the fact that if you are looking old, you have one foot in the grave. And that translates to being more than willing to go all out for their place and no one wants to deal with that. Now, since you are about to go through, here is the note card. Remember, hold it up when you get through and things will be taken care of.¡±


    Grabbing the note, the both of us lapse into silence again until in the middle of the open field a tear opens up. Like, just a big rip in the middle of the air as if it was some stage backdrop. At the time, I gave it a six out of ten because while it looked odd, there weren¡¯t really any interesting effects. That was my ignorance showing, by the way. The less odd a portal, the more powerful it is because it takes a lot to stabilize them.


    Anyway, with the portal open, no delay was allowed. At least not for the convicts and me. A force grabbed the group as a whole and shoved us through. Not wanting any mistakes at this point I had the note card clenched tightly and held aloft.


    I won¡¯t say much about the transition from Earth to the other side. Mostly because I was so focused on the note card. But partly because there just isn¡¯t much to say. That portal was as solid as a rock.


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    On the other side, I once again didn¡¯t have much choice in things. The note card worked though as a new force took hold of me and set me amongst a group that screamed vampires. One of them grabbed the card from my hand without a word and after reading it sighed. Then, as my habit had become over the last couple days, I was rendered unconscious.


    Bright light? Why, of course one was in my eyes when I woke up. Not the sun, but the closest I was going to see for a good long while. And off to the side I caught a small door slam shut, which got my attention off of the almost sun and onto the giant wall that stretched off to both sides until I couldn¡¯t see any further.


    I wasn¡¯t able to tell if the wall was straight or curved, which was a little scary. The scale of the wall, however, did a good job of hammering into my skull what to expect. It also gave a hint to how fast Harold was going to be moving to get to me.


    I shook my head to clear it and looked away from the only civilization I knew of in this dimension and stared out at an unflinching wilderness that allowed no other signs of sapient life. While technically the area was likely classified as a plain it might as well have been the thickest forest ever.


    There were stalks of grass as thick around as my biceps and tall as trees. A good thing whatever type of grass this was, it grew in bunches instead of a carpet. Otherwise, I doubt I could have moved in the stuff.


    I sighed, ¡°Welp, let¡¯s get dangerous.¡± And so, with a ton of second thoughts that I didn¡¯t let hold me back, I walked into the tall grass.


    Not that I was wandering randomly. The grass was cut back far enough from the wall that it let me see tufts of dark green grass rising up in the distance. A stark difference from the rest of the grass, which was more of a golden color with touches of lime green.


    Of course, this could have meant nothing. But my thoughts equated dark green with a water source. Something that would be useful in finding danger. Not that I completely trusted Ann but I didn¡¯t have anything else to go on. And honestly? I didn¡¯t want to wait for death. If I was going to die, I was going to die trying.


    Then things got really boring. It was like walking through an odd banana plantation before the bananas fruited. And it wasn¡¯t a short walk, either. After walking long enough for the fake sun¡¯s angle to be obviously changed, I climbed up one of the grass stalks. Which, as a side note, felt like metal bars instead of a plant.


    Anyway, when I got up far enough, something became clear that I couldn¡¯t see back at the wall. Those dark green stalks of grass are at least a magnitude taller than the other grass. As luck would have it, my choice of direction was the best of a bad lot. The clump I had set as my goal was the closest.


    Still meant I ended up walking until twilight. Though the worst part was how for the first half, there was nothing else around. It wasn¡¯t even just a lack of animals, the giant grass were the only living things around. Even when farming other plants will crop up, but there was nothing.


    When other plants started showing up, it was a real weight off my mind. There was no way for me to determine if any of it was edible but at least with the new stuff I could try. Grass as tough as metal likely would never be part of my meal except as a plate.


    Then, once there was a nice bit of underbrush, various animals became clear. Whether it was the sound of birds chirping or things rustling in the bushes, the forest of grass became truly alive.


    Still, there wasn¡¯t anything that threatened me. No wolves jumped out, snakes weren¡¯t hanging off the grass stalks, and there weren¡¯t even larger herbivores. A thorough disappointment when one is out looking for adventure. My only guess was that the settlement kept things culled way back.


    I didn¡¯t have long to consider this though as soon the grass around me started to take on a deeper green coloring. Not like the taller grass, but still noticeable. A quick check on my part confirmed an earlier guess. The soil was much damper than when I started out. This discovery raised my hopes of finding open water soon as the massive grass was just ahead of me.


    And of course, since I had let my guard down, this was when danger found me. A big praying mantis attacked me. Not giant, mind you, but it was bigger than my hand. Normally, even with its size the bug wouldn¡¯t be much of a threat.


    However, with the way its blades glowed silver and cleaved right through the meat below the knee of my right leg said otherwise. I, of course, crumpled like a marionette with its strings cut. Most of the time, such a reaction would be a death sentence. This time, it saved my life.


    As I fell, my eyes stayed focused on the mantis, bearing witness to a hunting strategy that was ingrained into the bugs¡¯ very being. One meant specifically for hunting humanoids made of much tougher stuff than me.


    It had barely finished cutting my leg when it jumped up, boosted by a flap of its wings. Paralyzed by the sudden pain and fear I watched as the bug reached the exact height my neck was just at and swiped out with both blades. If I had stayed standing, my neck would have been sliced open.


    Ignoring the pain I stayed focused on the mantis. This act opened up my way forward. To cut through the kind of enemies found in this world, the mantis had supercharged its blades in hope of a quick finish. Missing the second attack meant the bug was out of power and I saw it.


    The blades went dark and the body lost its luster. A one-shot glass cannon, but my window of opportunity was quite short. Even before I finished falling, the mantis had started to recover. Then I hit the ground.

 Aqua? - Chapter 5

    Pain spiked through my body once more but I was ready. I didn¡¯t resist the pain. I accepted it and then ignored it. The pain was still there, more than I had experienced up until then. My mind was cleared and the fear receded like the tide.


    If only my reaction had been better. Even with a clear mind, all I could think was ¡°get it away from me¡± and so I did. With a wide swing, I slapped the mantis flying. Though seeing as a mantis can fly, that didn¡¯t exactly do much. The bug just flew a couple yards before it flared its wings and came to a stop.


    I must admit, as it came right back at me I stopped being able to react. The damn bug flew with blades ready and my mind froze. Good thing my body decided at that moment to go on autopilot.


    Something flying at your face? Why not clap your hands and see if it squashes the thing? Of course, this was not the best course of action. It worked mind you; the mantis died. A perfect plan if not for the blades that were now sticking through my hands.


    Worse yet, the mantis had managed to get its blades powered up. So instead of the usual knife wound where the flesh is split, those blades managed to destroy. If I had been stupid enough to remove the blades, it would have looked like someone took a hole punch to my hands.


    Suffice it to say, I was starting to run out of blood at that point even without removing the blades so things started to blur for me. Wish I could say that I reached deep inside myself and pulled out my power to save myself. Hell, for all I know I might have.


    Anyway, next thing I knew I was waking up to a soft glow. Ten out of ten, would wake up to again. Much better than bright lights or pure darkness.


    Oh, and there wasn¡¯t any pain. While I appreciated it, that fact was a major cause for concern. There was a dead mantis of considerable size on my chest so it wasn¡¯t a dream. If someone had come along and saved me, the mantis wouldn¡¯t be there anymore.


    With trepidation, I opened my eyes and yep, still in the strange grass forest. Since that hadn¡¯t changed, I lifted my hands up, expecting the worst. Especially when the bug corpse didn¡¯t move, meaning I should be dead from bleeding out.


    Then I see my hands. How to describe what has happened to them? Aqua? At least that is the first thing that comes to mind. I still had a hole in both hands but they had been filled with the color between blue and green. A soothing color if not for me being able to see my blood flowing through it as if the blood vessels were still there. That and the cross section of the bones was quite spooky.


    So of course I poked it. Felt exactly like my palm should. Not just with my finger, either. I could feel my finger poking it as well. A quick check finds my right leg to be in a similar situation.


    I sighed. It wasn¡¯t regeneration and I didn¡¯t know how quick it worked, but my power had manifested and saved my life. At least it wasn¡¯t an out-of-control healing that accidentally turns all of my cells cancerous.


    Now it is nice that my power ended up in the ¡°not killing me¡± category. The problem? The clock is ticking and a murderous wizard is going to be showing up as soon as two days from now. Assuming of course my little nap took hours and not days.


    How was I supposed to use a bit of translucent aqua colored pseudo natural flesh to not only live, but to kill? For some reason, I doubted that if the guy took my head off, I would be a proud owner of a brand new aqua colored head. Even in fantasy, people tend to die if you take out the brain.


    Worries about the future aside, it was strangely easy when I sat up. I had slept on the ground and that should have caused a great amount of stiffness. Still not useful for killing a wizard but the ability to sleep anywhere is a standout long term power in a place like this.


    After a quick look around, I grabbed the mantis corpse from where it had fallen when I sat up. The blades might not be magically reinforced anymore but I had plans for them. Though once I accidentally snapped one in half, all the plans that involved using them as a weapon fell away.


    Still, they were sharp if fragile tools. So of course the next thing I did was cut myself. Twice. They were still able to cut my normal flesh something fierce. I had tried to just do a small nick but even in death the mantis spited me, leaving a much deeper gouge on my right arm than planned.


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    Before I attempted my second test, I took a moment to watch the cut. At first, it bled like normal. I got worried when nothing seemed to happen and was about to try some first aid. After all, maybe I got a power that only worked when I was asleep.


    But no, my power was just a slow starter. The wound had started scabbing when aqua colored gel began to ooze out of the meat of my arm. It pooled in the wound ignoring outside forces as even turning the opening towards the ground didn¡¯t change a thing.


    Once filled in, I could see blood start to flow. But that didn¡¯t last long. Unlike with my hands and leg, the blade hadn¡¯t been powered and so the flesh wasn¡¯t actually missing. Because apparently that mattered with my power. Instead of staying an open wound filled with aqua the cut closed up as if it hadn¡¯t been there in the first place.


    The only thing to indicate it had happened was the slight light-headedness from losing even more blood in such a short period of time. But like I said, that didn¡¯t stop me from cutting myself again. There was a method to my madness, though.


    The second cut was across my palm and intersected the hole. Had to test if it was tougher than my normal flesh after all. It didn¡¯t even hurt the same. About the only difference I could find, was the aqua material was homogeneous. Something that might spell trouble as part of it was taking the place of bone.


    Though the healing process was quicker as the aqua gel began to ooze out of the aqua flesh within moments. That, that called for some more experiments. And pain, can¡¯t forget the pain.


    Over an hour of pain and literal torture, in fact. Why? As I already proved, wounds connecting with a changed area of flesh heals faster. I had also assumed that for an area to be changed the flesh needs to actually be gone. A simple enough assumption to test.


    Though I wasn¡¯t too much of an idiot about it. No cutting off fingers to see if they would grow back or not. No, I simply used the curved mantis blade to lop off some skin right next to the pre-existing area on my leg. Not touching it to make certain it would work in new places and not just spread. It did and was similarly transparent.


    I had been planning something quite gruesome, but with the transparency I scaled it back. So instead I just skinned myself in areas you can¡¯t normally see. Because while I¡¯m a loner no man¡¯s an island and seeing my actual muscles would strain my meager social skills.


    So yes, I spent over an hour strategically skinning myself. All the sensitive fun places except that one. The arm pits, strips off my lower hips, small bits from behind my ears, and the most extensive part of course being the bottoms of both my feet. I didn¡¯t trust my shoes to last and once barefoot I wanted them to heal as quickly as possible.


    The pain was sickeningly bad but I knew it was coming. Didn¡¯t stop it or reduce it but I could ignore the pain. The worst part was the tools I had available made it very awkward. How am I supposed to skin myself and get straight lines with only the blade of an oversized mantis? Honestly, the bits behind my ears worried me the most. Once again, the brain is generally not replaceable.


    It was only after I finished that a certain thought graced my mind. The idea that maybe it isn¡¯t the best idea to stick around an area covered in blood. That mantis couldn¡¯t be the only one and it was a miracle that another hadn¡¯t come around to get me while I was distracted.


    They must be fiercely territorial and the apex predators of the area for nothing else to show up. Of course, I didn¡¯t believe a bug that doesn¡¯t even measure up to my knees could hold down the area. I just had great faith in there being bigger ones further in. It made too much sense that younger members of the species would be pushed to the outskirts until strong enough to compete for a better place.


    A place I had to find because while a healing factor was important long term, I need a weapon. And since one mantis had already awakened a healing power, maybe another will give me an attack. Wishful thinking yes, but my powers partly run on that so worth a try.


    What followed was a cavalcade of failure. You would think that knowing they attack the legs from behind would make it easier to avoid. The five new aqua scars across my legs told a different story. Now, I still folded like a house of cards but I had gotten really good at reacting by clapping above my head.


    Problem is that it wasn¡¯t helping with new powers. At the time I was frustrated, though in hindsight it wasn¡¯t like I was doing anything different from when I got my healing ability. The thing is not only was I on a time limit because of a homicidal mage but also for self development.


    One little fact I had learned was that I had a limited window of time to gain new powers before it would lock down for a time. Good news when the next power might kill me, but inconvenient when I still don¡¯t have a way to defend myself.


    Good thing seventh times the charm, which I¡¯m sure someone beside me has said before. Anyway, I spotted one of the mantises ahead of time. Not from any skill on my part, but purely from spotting it on the move.


    So of course upon being spotted it flew at me. Experience with this meant I didn¡¯t freeze but instead tried to clap the bug out of the air. Tried because without the first attack, the mantis had enough juice to boost its wings, flying right between my hands.


    Quite the bad time for me as it followed that up with a nasty swipe across my upper sternum. The good news was it hadn¡¯t fully charged its attack so the bone was just scratched. The bad news was that I was once again falling on my butt, except this time I didn¡¯t have a chance to kill the mantis.


    In desperation, I slapped out with my left hand hoping to fling it away to give myself a chance to stand up. But once again, its wings sped up to escape my attack. Except this time was different.

 I Dont Remember - Chapter 6

    Pain radiated from the hole in my hand as five streams of aqua jelly burst out of the back. Those streams jerked apart and slapped onto the back of my fingers and thumb before hardening into claws. Not just any claws, though. They were jagged organic looking things that felt unfinished and yet sublimely dangerous.


    That and the things extended out twice as far as my actual fingers. This turned a near miss into quite the success as the claws dug ragged canyons through the surprised mantis¡¯ exoskeleton. That my claws were able to do so much damage to the bug was a near miracle, but the bug had redirected power to the wings leaving an opening.


    Then the lights went out for me again, as you do. Not for long though as my new claws had apparently used a bit too much power. And upon waking up I was introduced to the cost of overdrawing my power. As if someone had cut out triangles towards my fingers, there were new areas extending out of the holes. All shiny and aqua. Oh, and of course the claws had gone away. Because no, you can¡¯t keep your only means of attack.


    The annoying yet good news is I could still feel the claws. It felt like someone had injected a ton of liquid into the palm of my hand. Didn¡¯t look different but it was there. Worst part though was I could tell it was on cool down or some such. If I needed to, I could use them, but it would hurt.


    So of course I tried to flex the claws. As I put it, ¡°Memo to self, be more specific¡±, because I didn¡¯t just get claws on my one hand. A nice new wave of pain assaulted me as aqua ooze came out of my hands, temples, and feet.


    The hands matched what had already happened and the start of a couple horns gelled together at my temples. Normal enough stuff, as far as my current life was concerned. The feet, though? They were all kinds of body horror.


    The middle of both feet ripped apart and extended, increasing the length of my feet by a good fifty percent or so. Then from right behind the balls of my feet a claw speared out forcing me to stand digitigrade. And of course, even more claws in the style of my hands popped out of the top of my feet. Though they ended up tripling my toe length.


    And boy, what a funny scene that made. I¡¯d seen something like it in the past, stilts meant to make you walk digitigrade and let me tell you. Without any costume assistance, your upper body ends up looking completely undersized. It¡¯s like one of those leggy boy maned wolves except without the elegance.


    Then I fell over as the claws withdrew, the horns melted away, and my feet sprang back together. Laying on my back I congratulated myself on not fainting again. Though I could feel that it had more to do with my one claw not being ready yet.


    Not wanting to stand up, it took a while to process the new areas of aqua. Both hands matched with areas reaching towards my fingers. The feet managed to get through relatively unchanged despite literally being split apart. Just a thin line where the two parts had reconnected. Though I could tell that came from the fact that the entire bottom of my feet was already aqua gel.


    As for the horns? That was interesting. It didn¡¯t take my flesh and turn it into aqua. Rather from what I could feel there was a thin dome of the material over my temples. A strange occurrence when previously the goal seemed to be to replace it all.


    Not really sure what to do I lay there for much longer than I should have. The aqua goo and the claws had been shocking, sure. But this new development had taken things a little too far for me. Everything else was either temporary or simply replaced what was already there.


    With my feet and horns, a new direction came about. A warping of my body that was diverged from the human form. But that wasn¡¯t the problem. Body dysmorphia will ruin a person¡¯s life if they aren¡¯t allowed to change things. That wasn¡¯t what I felt nor what made me pause.


    Rather, it was the lack of discomfort. A complete lack of connection to my form. This did not hold my thoughts for too long once I realized what the feeling was. Through my voracious consumption of fantasy and sci-fi books, I had long ago come across such things.


    The concepts of  forced transformation, evil clones, and numerous other mind-screws were thought over such that I had an answer. I¡¯m me, end of story. As long as the effect isn¡¯t truly warping my mind, it doesn¡¯t matter. However, it was only the recent changes which allowed me to connect the dots.


    Something about my mind was fundamentally different. To others, a warped body or a true copy of themselves would have concerning consequences. To me? I just didn¡¯t care, a theme of my life, but that¡¯s simply how things shook out. At least it was finally working for me instead of ruining my social life.


    With that out of the way, or at the very least suppressed for now, I turned my attention to the grass forest. Things had been getting greener  but the grass wasn¡¯t growing in height. So either the tall grass I had seen was a different breed or a lot closer to the water. Either way, I had set it as my goal.


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    Problem was, I had gotten a little turned about at some point. My path was still taking me deeper into the greener area but besides that I was clueless. The solution was obvious enough as well. Climb one of the grass stalks.


    They were sturdy enough for it. I just needed a method to get a grip and what do you know? Claws were the traditional method for animals. Better yet, enough time had passed for my claws to be ready again. While nothing bad had happened after pulling them out before they were ready, I wasn¡¯t willing to bet that would continue to be the case.


    So in my ignorance I popped all my claws and climbed up the grass, getting the juices all over my hands and feet. Fragrant, sticky, and most of all, defensive juice. I¡¯m about to learn a lesson the hard way that anyone who wasn¡¯t exiled to this place would learn. Let me share with you a small snippet from an info packet.


    ¡°[The Grass Forest] is a safe enough place as long as you don¡¯t damage the grass. Through untold years, the local mantids have developed the ability to smell the juices of a damaged stalk from miles away. A helpful mutation as their main prey are gargantuan herbivores who find the grass a delicacy. While the mantids live alone, the scent will drive them into a feeding frenzy which gathers them together into what some have described as a flying swarm of piranhas.¡±


    Suffice it to say, things were about to get bad for me.


    Of course, things didn¡¯t go bad right away. I had killed the nearest mantis already so it was going to take some time for trouble to find me. And during that time I had a goal again. Even though the climb had rang a dinner bell, it also allowed me to reacquire the direction to the closest area of tall grass.


    But in the end, it was literally walking into trouble. The only way I could have avoided the mantid menace would have been to run in the opposite direction. Even then, it would have been a coin flip.


    Still, I¡¯m not down with changing the past so there is no going back. Especially not by this point. I had walked too far and entered the next mantis¡¯ territory. A mantis that introduced itself to me at high speed.


    The bug flew right at me with blades extended. I don¡¯t know how I managed to react to it. Until now they had all gone for the stealth kill so such a direct approach stunned me. Yet despite my mind being frozen, my body was not.


    There wasn¡¯t time to fully dodge, but my body managed to sway to the side. Then, as the mantis flew past, it left a nasty cut across my side. Though I would take a cut to my side over disembowelment any day.


    And I got my pound of flesh as well. The mantis tried to swing back around but at that point I had recovered and was ready. All it took was a step to the side and a quick flare of a claw. Then the bug took care of the rest for me as momentum ripped the mantis in half on said claw.


    Of course, this action also snapped my finger like a pretzel stick. While the claw gave some support, it wasn¡¯t able to fully negate all that deadly momentum that had finished the bug.


    On one hand, this taught me that my goo ability, goobility if you will, can heal bones. It does so slowly and painfully, but I was willing to take what I could get. Not like I had a choice in the matter.


    Anyway, I sat around for a bit to let my finger heal and that is how the swarm found me. I wasn¡¯t caught completely unaware, thank goodness. While alone, the mantid monsters are silent enough. As a swarm, any pretense of being quiet was thrown out the window.


    There I was, feeling the aftershocks of a finger shattering. When suddenly there is this deep, almost bone rumbling buzz. I had no clue what it was except trouble and it sounded as if it was coming from all directions. So, I started running towards the area I thought had water.


    Or, in other words, directly towards the largest concentration of the frenzied mantids. Not to say my plan was necessarily wrong. I had figured that whatever was coming likely was tracking me by smell. This was technically true and a dip in some water would have washed off the grass¡¯s scent. Except for the fact, most of the mantises lived by said water.


    I soon learned the error of my ways as tens of mantises rose up in front of me. At that point, I gave up. Not on myself, but on any hold I had left on my previous life. When killing the previous bugs? I barely managed them one at a time and still got what would have been life-threatening injuries.


    And now? Now I faced a swarm. So fuck my humanity. I hadn¡¯t been holding back, per se. Rather, I just didn¡¯t have to go all the way before. This time, I let go.


    The flesh on my feet shredded, expanding in a moment what had taken seconds. A scale-like texture covers them and spreads up my legs as a thin coating of aqua goo.


    From the holes on the back of my hands a deluge of goo bursts forth, wrapping everything as it flows two-thirds of the way up my forearms. The scale pattern once again covered everything and the claws take on a deadly glint like well sharpened knives.


    A pressure builds on my upper arms and back, only to explode outward. A great rift splits my back, shoulder to shoulder, as my spine sends out aqua spikes and elongates. My shirt is shredded as the spines extend out a membrane that connects them all.


    Mid bicep, my arms completely split, increasing their length by a third and adding extra leverage to muscles that flatten out despite the feeling of much greater power being hidden within.


    And while all of that happened at the same time, my head was saved for last. As if it had waited to make sure I could stand the pain of my body ripping itself apart. That or it knew. Knew that no matter how well I could handle pain, what was to come next would have pushed me over the edge.


    At this point, you would expect me to start going into body horror levels of detail on the process. That isn¡¯t going to happen. Don¡¯t get me wrong, I¡¯m sure it was gory enough with things like my skull grinding itself into a fine powder or what have you.


    The fact of the matter is that either the pain was too great or the process messed with just the right bits of my brain. Long story short, I don¡¯t remember anything from that moment. The only reason I even know it had hurt comes from a memory of a memory. Though like a shortcut on your desktop after you¡¯ve deleted the original file, it only shows what might have been.

 A Quick Dip - Chapter 7

    Anyway, once the gate to my memory reopens I felt right away that my head was different, more reptilian. Then the mantis are upon me and I don¡¯t get a chance to navel gaze over my makeover. It was time to fight.


    Not that I was going to stand for it. Rather, I ran for it. Of course, I now know that wasn¡¯t the smartest idea. Hell, I knew then that it wasn¡¯t a smart idea. Don¡¯t rush into an unknown area, especially not while in the middle of a fight.


    The thing is, even if I didn¡¯t know how they found me, I assumed they had. So as far as I knew they would keep coming and the best way I thought of to lose them was water. So irrespective of the danger, I raced off towards where I thought it was.


    Of course, with the mantids flying it wasn¡¯t like I out ran them, nevermind the ones coming at me from in front of me. Good thing my claws were more than a match for the bugs.


    Too bad I didn¡¯t exactly have training with any claw-like weapons, but I made do. My flailing at least contained some semblance of style from the time I had taken martial arts lessons as a kid. Still, if it wasn¡¯t for my healing factor, I wouldn¡¯t have made it far.


    For every mantis I cut down, another would leave their mark on my body. Despite that, I ran, the pain falling away as I focused on how my body now moved. With my legs taking on a digitigrade form, I could feel an innate difference.


    My body now felt like it was made to run and fight, all I needed to do was get out of its way. So I did. I had never been one for moving mediation but in this situation it fell into place.


    What was a somewhat awkward gait smoothed out and I sped up by almost half again. The punch-like swipes lost their jerkiness and became flowing scythes of death. As I passed by mantis after mantis, they fell from the sky, split in twain.


    Where before they were scoring hit after hit on me, they now had a hard time touching me. But this couldn¡¯t last. I had never been much of a runner and while I held onto some of my humanity, my new form wasn¡¯t that of a persistence hunter.


    Still, my healing factor held me together as I overdrew my stamina. Each moment brought more and more of the mantid menace and I started to take hits again. I could feel as I converted more and more of my body to the aqua colored gel to the point I doubted any of my legs would be remaining after this. If any of me remained at all.


    Onward I ran, gasping for breath as the green area grew closer. I didn¡¯t even know if there would be a solution. Not that by this point I even had room to doubt in my head. I devoted every last bit of brain power to continuing my escape.


    Even my attempts to slash at my enemies started to fall to the wayside till my claws ended up simply held in front of my muzzle. Sure, it killed a few of the bugs, but it was more to keep them out of my mouth so I could breathe.


    Then, as the green area came into sight, even my regeneration started to flag and my legs began to stumble. Cuts that before would have closed in moments, instead starting to ooze blood and my legs had long gone numb. I held on though, and was greeted by a large pool of water.


    More important for me was the stream that led out of the pool. I didn¡¯t have any room to think about this at the time though and instead dived into the pool, ignoring everything else as I dive towards the bottom. Deeper and deeper, then darkness takes me as I finally reach the bottom and grasp onto a stone I find there.


    Waking up was a surprise for me. Not only was I not dead, but I had even managed to maintain my grip on the rock. Of course, this wasn¡¯t exactly a good thing as I hadn¡¯t developed some miracle ability to breathe underwater.


    Rather, my entire body and especially my lungs felt like they were burning and my brain screamed for oxygen. Except I was still where I had entered the deep pond so I couldn¡¯t exactly do anything about it right then. So, instead I forced my pain fogged brain to take stock of things.


    Which actually revealed things weren¡¯t that bad. About the worst was that I had probably been in the pond a few more hours than I could afford, what with a mad wizard hunting me.


    Besides that, though? I had fully healed barring the continued suffocation damage. Damage that I was more than capable of healing through. That wouldn¡¯t hold if something else was damaging me, but useful nonetheless.


    There was one tiny thing that worried me beyond just wasting time. My lower body? It felt different.


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    From the waist down, I could feel things that shouldn¡¯t be and also not feel things I should. Though I must admit, at the time, what worried me the most wasn¡¯t my physical body, but the complete lack of clothes. I put it to the side quickly, but as the narrator let me assure you, this does not end up being a problem.


    Anyway, while I wasn¡¯t certain then, my instincts blared that surfacing right where I had entered would be a bad idea. Whether that would have been true or not didn¡¯t matter, as being in the middle of literally drowning wasn¡¯t the most conducive to thinking straight. So, instead of thinking I took a moment to gather myself and swam out of the pond and into the stream.


    Let me tell you, a stream is not the easiest place to stay submerged. I managed it though and after an indeterminate distance the stream met up with another and suddenly there was enough room to maneuver and get the lay of the land. That was a bit hard at first, what with having to look through water and my eyes finding the less than clear liquid somewhat irritating.


    Then I felt the urge to blink my eyes and at the same time keep my eyelids closed. A strange feeling for anyone who started as a classical humanoid, but I went with it. So yeah, it was a new addition to my ability.


    With a quick blink, the world took on an aqua shade while becoming unnaturally clear. Oh, and my eyes didn¡¯t sting anymore, but the fact that I now had nictitating membranes like a lizard sort of stole my attention. Not just that, but they had some sort of special power because if you¡¯re only wearing goggles that won¡¯t make the water clearer.


    A nice feature as it allowed me to see there weren¡¯t any mantids nearby. Oh, and my entire lower body from the waist down was replaced. Though not just replaced, but changed.


    Instead of taking on the form of my old legs, they were now shaped like my altered form except not as extreme. If when I changed, my legs looked to be a part of some sort of large monster. They were now the size and appearance of a more classic lizardman, tail included.


    I don¡¯t know how I managed to miss that addition! You would think having a tail while swimming would be pretty darn obvious. I guess this just shows how natural my new form was to me. After all, it isn¡¯t like you notice the fact you have two legs when you¡¯re walking around and paying attention to other things.


    Oh, and I took after lizards in a few other ways as well. One of the more important being the scales. Not for any protection, but because, unlike the rest of my aqua gel, the scales were quite opaque. I didn¡¯t particularly mind being see-through, but I¡¯m sure it would have made it harder whenever I next had to socialize with others.


    Though my moment of introspection couldn¡¯t last forever and a wandering mantis as tall as my forearm ended up forcing the issue. It wasn¡¯t the biggest I saw in the swarm earlier, but still a step up from the ones I fought individually and I hadn¡¯t yet gotten used to my new strength.


    Still changed as I was, my power was more than enough to handle the mantid. If only I had still been panicked and attacking based on pure instinct. Because let me tell you, I was not ready for the physical changes at all. Sure, they felt natural, but that doesn¡¯t change the fact that I was used to a certain amount of strength and now had significantly more.


    In theory, I had the speed to get out of that fight unharmed. In reality, I ended up all slashed to hell and back. Still won though! It just took me longer than it should have.


    Good thing that after my stay in the water, all the grass gunk had washed off so no other mantids joined in the fun. Though it is embarrassing to admit that I had so much trouble with a single bug. I guess we all have to start somewhere.


    Anyway, I was still brain fogged from the whole ¡°drowning for hours thing¡± so the next bit just involved me wandering around aimlessly. Even looking back on it, I can¡¯t be certain that I didn¡¯t end up going in circles or some such. Though there were a lot of fights to pound my new capabilities into my head.


    Oh, and speaking of head, at some point my horns became a permanent fixture? At the time I was a little worried and I can respect that. Not even I had the proper appreciation for a good set of horns right from the start.


    Anyway, at some point I found the end of the grass forest and what a view it was! This wasn¡¯t some natural fade to another terrain type. It was a sudden change where it turned into a barren land of ground level stubble.


    It wasn¡¯t hard to see why, either. Grand beasts stood around, at least six times the height of the grass and that looked to be the smaller ones. I couldn¡¯t tell at the time, but off in the far distance there were behemoths over ten times that size.


    As for why there was a strict line between grass forest and barren land? Well, that had something to do with some absolutely massive mantids standing guard. They blended into the background something fierce and at the time I only found out about their presence because one beast tried to wander into the grass area.


    I didn¡¯t personally see the attack, though not because I had been looking in the wrong direction or anything. Rather, I kept staring right at the beast and the mantis simply attacked at a speed I was incapable of even noticing. So yeah, that straight line? It represented the edge of the mantis¡¯s territory and stepping into it meant death.


    Then I ran. Remember, the sap of the grass calls all the mantids in the area. So when that giant beast fell, it crushed at least some of the grass and called in a new swarm of mantises. Except unlike near the water, these all started at man size and grew from there.


    Hah! I was so unprepared for the new world I had been thrust into. Good thing I had an advantage of my own. The people back on Earth were right to be afraid of people with my power. It represents potential that honestly shouldn¡¯t appear in such a backwoods sort of place.


    Of course, it only represents potential and not actual power, so nothing was assured for me. Every inch needed to be grabbed and held onto.

 Parasite Pummeling - Chapter 8

    My hurried retreat ended up taking me further into the wasteland. I had a good reason for this. After all, the colossal beasts might just be vegetarians, while I knew for certain the mantids wanted my flesh. Oh, and being so big I thought they wouldn¡¯t even bother looking at me.


    I turned out to be half right. Those giant beasts weren¡¯t interested in me. The problem is that their passengers turned out to not be so picky. Not that I found that out right away. I was a decent way into the wasteland before I first got a taste of the suffering that would come.


    Hole through the arm.


    Now, that was a little sudden, wasn¡¯t it? Well, let me tell you, it felt quite sudden for me as well! Stupid flea jumped at me and was not ready for how weak I turned out to be.


    The damn thing barely missed the bone. Not that such a blessing would continue. The only savings grace was that the parasites preferred the enormous beasts almost to the exclusion of anything else.


    Still, more than when I tortured myself, this was the tipping point that stripped me of my old body. Fleas, ticks, mites, and other more wriggly pests made themselves known. Limbs would shrink from blood loss and holes appeared in me, seemingly at random.


    So I pulled more and more on my power. Over-drafting it again and again as the day passed, making up for the flesh and blood lost with the mysterious aqua gel that seemed to come from nowhere. By the end of the day, what remained of my limbs was held together purely by the gel.


    Of my whole body, only my head stayed intact, the horns providing more protection than anyone would expect. I was quite the frightening scene. It honestly looked like some slime monster had absorbed my body and was part way through dissolving me.


    There was one upside to this all. Well, I call it an upside now, at the time I was a bit distraught over it. Anyway, disconnecting those pesky human nerves really knocked the edge off the pain.


    Not that I didn¡¯t feel pain. It was still there, just less of an ¡°Ow¡± and more of ¡°Hey, there¡¯s damage here, just so you know¡±. Heh, back then I worried that I would lose all feeling. Instead, this was a switching over from human limits to a nerve system more calibrated for a powerful regenerator.


    Anyway, after wandering for a bit, I found a small spring fed pool. Oh, and almost died. Water was a bit rare and so there were a lot of bugs nearby. I ended up with a good 17 ping-pong ball sized holes in me all at once.


    The only thing that saved me was how much of my body had been reduced to gel at that point. Only about five holes actually bled, and not much at that. So, while the other monsters came to attack me, it wasn¡¯t quite a stampede.


    This gave me both the chance to ready myself and close up a few of the more critical holes. You know, such as one right around where my heart should be. That hole had bled more than not.


    Then the ticks were on me. Not literally, but they would be soon enough. My claws came out, covering up the fact that both hands should be missing a couple fingers each and I stepped back to ready myself.


    The first few ticks were easy prey, their type more meant to hold on to things instead of hunting. Claws sliced through their weak exoskeletons as they mindlessly tried to chomp down on me. If only there weren¡¯t so many of them!


    Good news? They don¡¯t particularly like my aqua gel. Bad news? I still had more than enough flesh that they kept coming.


    I slashed and kicked, blocked and dodged. They just kept coming though and soon enough I could see the remnants of my human body begin to shrink and dry up. Now, some of you might assume this wouldn¡¯t be too much of a problem.


    After all, I do have a significant healing factor going on. Except, while I didn¡¯t really have a feel for it at this time, there was a limit. I wasn¡¯t sitting on some pool of infinite blue goop. If I wasn¡¯t in the bigger war form, there would be more leeway.


    As it was, though? My already groggy mind slipped deeper into darkness. Attacks became blunter. Defenses less solid. Then I fainted.


    This was pretty traumatic. By all rights, I should have died. It wasn¡¯t time to awaken a new power. I didn¡¯t have some hidden well of potential waiting to be unearthed. To black out then should have been a death sentence.


    My one saving grace was that I tasted bad and so the pests didn¡¯t exactly rush to eat me. Now, I don¡¯t know what happened but my assumption is that one of the colossal beasts stopped for some water and all my attackers decided that would be a better meal. And so it was that I woke up with both my few remaining human parts and my gel shriveled. Because, sure, they might not have liked the flavor, but it was still edible.


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    I wasn¡¯t safe, though. The small spring was tapped out for the moment. However, given a little time, it would refill and attract a new parade of parasites. So yeah, I sort of needed to get out of there.


    The problem with that is I also needed some of that water. Food as well, but I could tell my gel direly needed hydration. Not to say I¡¯m made of water or anything so mundane! Trust me, the aqua gel isn¡¯t of this world.


    However, I will admit that replacing it works best when well hydrated. So, I dragged myself over to the muddy hole and waited. Of course, the wait wasn¡¯t going to be peaceful.


    Despite the mud being more dirt than water, there were enough critters perfectly fine with that situation. I could already see worms and their ilk making their way over to me. The real nasty kind too! These weren¡¯t your common earthworms.


    Now, technically, I didn¡¯t know the exact details. But worms with nasty jaws? A clear sign of problems to come so I didn¡¯t need those details.


    Not that I had the option to retreat. Any watering hole with water included, would also have enough monsters to kill me. My back was to the wall and I needed to defend my place. Worse, I did not want to eat these nasties so there was nothing to gain from killing them.


    At least with the mantises, I could imagine them as some sort of crustacean. These nasties, though? They¡¯re parasites! The kind that even if they¡¯re not meant for you, still mess you up something fierce if you aren¡¯t careful.


    Sure, I wasn¡¯t exactly going to be infested by them, but hell no was I going to eat them! Who knows what nonsense they had? Maybe smaller parasites.


    As far as I was concerned, better safe than sorry. Of course, I completely missed that if there were regular parasites, the mud pool would be a nest of them. That didn¡¯t matter in the end, though.


    I fought, my claws withered like a dessicated corpse yet still they sliced through the worms. Except they¡¯re worms. Me slicing them in half? Like those fishers who wanted to reduce the number of starfish found out, it does the opposite of reducing the numbers.


    Sure, dice them enough and they¡¯ll die. I wasn¡¯t getting the chance to do that. Instead, the worms ended up being split and guess what? Magic works on regeneration abilities in a very uncomfortable way. Oh, and it would be at this point that I realized that while my power did have hints of regeneration, that wasn¡¯t the major thrust of it.


    After all, those worms weren¡¯t hiding an entire worm¡¯s worth of material in them somewhere. So growing back, the missing pieces on both sides had to be pulled from somewhere. If I had the same ability, my claws wouldn¡¯t be withered. Nah, I was the much more boring form of regeneration that didn¡¯t get magically sped up like some sort of time lapse.


    Anyway, try as I might, the worms wouldn¡¯t die and those I did cut, healed before my very eyes. And as long as the piece I cut off was bigger than a foot in length? Well, that soon enough turned into two worms. So no matter what I tried, the small spring wasn¡¯t something I could hold.


    Then a silly thought hit me. I was fighting myself. Not literally, of course, but there I stood, someone with regeneration stuck fighting someone else with regeneration. Except, of course, the worms turned out to be better at it than me and I clearly wasn¡¯t able to pull mass out of nowhere in the same way they could.


    As much as it pained me to abandon the spring, the fight was going nowhere except my defeat and so I fought a careful retreat. Is what I would like to say, but not the truth. Instead, what happened is that I stumbled sideways until there wasn¡¯t any mud behind me and then turned and ran. If I had been fighting anything besides worms, that would have probably been my end.


    Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and it should be obvious with how easily I ran away, that there were other solutions. Stand and fight? Such a ridiculous idea! No, I should have put my superior movement to use to circle the mess and make sure those I struck had died. Oh well, most tend not to be born with combat instincts and I can¡¯t blame myself for the inexperience.


    What I can blame myself for is not heading back to the grass forest. I mean seriously, there might have been an absolute ton of mantises in there, but I could handle that and there was more than enough water. Hell, even being forced to eat a giant insect wouldn¡¯t be the worst thing in the world. Well, out of the world because I certainly wasn¡¯t in it at this point.


    Anyway, there I was, thirst and running deeper into the unknown, because that always solves your problems. So yeah, I wasn¡¯t completely without a plan. While I did avoid the grass forest, I paralleled it to an extent, hoping to find a better place to set up shop.


    At this point, I had been in and out of consciousness enough to have no clue how long it was until an angry racist wizard found me. I could not even tell how closely the light cycle in the sky matched up with the 24 hour system I was used to. Either way, I need a place to set up shop and maybe some traps to even the playing field.


    So, this is where dumb luck comes into play. I accidentally chose the right direction to run. See, me and Harold had ended up on opposite sides of the city. At the start, because I had walked straight away from the place, Harold had to choose a direction to circle the place and I had just started to run away from him instead of towards.


    Even better? The edge of a new biome ended up being only a strenuous three and a half hour run away. Why did I run? Because I was chased. Not continuously, but those sky scraping behemoths shed fleas and such with every step so the entire cleared land turned out to be packed with them. It was hard to go a hundred feet without running into a parasite of some sort. So, adding in the occasional break, it actually took me four hours and change to reach the new biome. I also figured out that the concept of gradual transitions between biomes wasn¡¯t going to be a thing here.

 Hills, But Not Quite - Chapter 9

    Nope, no transitions at all, just going from a desolate plains to a rocky hill country. The change is so abrupt that some hills have a cliff facing the plains, as if something had cut the hill in half. Maybe the lack of transitions is the result of those Titanic beasts in the distance? I didn¡¯t particularly pay attention to such detail.


    Anyway, this new area seemed perfect, not just for avoiding the damn parasites, but for facing a certain racist wizard when he shows up. Well, I thought it was perfect. I may have made a slight mistake when identifying the biome. What looked like a bunch of hills, if a little regular, wasn¡¯t.


    Okay, they are hills, if a little artificial. The problem is that artificial part. See, while they had filled in and abandoned the hills near the titan plains, that wasn¡¯t the case for anything past those few. This area was a mind bogglingly enormous collection of burial mounds.


    How did I figure this out? Well, the first ¡°cave¡± I found had a bunch of skeletons and grave goods in it. I, of course, retreated and tried the next to the same result. In fact, I tried over seven caves before I was willing to admit this to myself.


    As for why I stopped looking for an empty cave? I was attacked. The skeletons didn¡¯t like me looking in on them, but in the end, they didn¡¯t care as long as I didn¡¯t try to take anything. Then a mummy showed up and they were more than just a mindless guard.


    So it cursed me. Don¡¯t worry, I got better. It was less ¡°curse of the mummy¡± and more ¡°roleplaying debuff¡±. The solution turned out to also be easy to figure out, but we can get back to that as the mummy wasn¡¯t satisfied with just cursing me. They attacked me as well!


    So while I was dealing with my joints feeling gummed up and my reaction speed slowed, a disk of sickly green, black flame sliced towards me. I attempted to dodge, but there seemed to be a mild tracking effect applied to it and combined with the curse, all I could do was block it.


    The results of which shocked us both. For me, the fact the spell acted more like a solid blade instead of fire was quite strange. For the mummy? Well, the fact my forearms could block the disk instead of just having it slice through them was quite unexpected. Not to say the attack didn¡¯t hurt!


    The nega-flame disc cut both my forearms, leaving a wound about half an inch deep. Worse, the flame was cursed to prevent regeneration. So, with me already being a bit low on aqua goo, this stopped my healing factor in its tracks.


    Good thing the mummy focused on spells to the point of discounting physical attacks. Though it helped that within its burial chambers, the thing was mostly immune to mortal weapons. That meant when my claws scythed through the mummy¡¯s arm mid-cast, it wasn¡¯t ready to lose the hand.


    While my goo wasn¡¯t magical, my psionic power had at least some interoperability with magic. Oh, and being distracted mid-cast isn¡¯t exactly healthy for you, believe it or not. Anyway, the mummy dropped the spell and the growing fire was sucked into the undead¡¯s arms. Then moments later, they flared out of the being¡¯s eyes, before it slumped over dead.


    After that, I cleared up the skeletal attendants. They hadn¡¯t been hostile, but better safe than sorry. I needed a place to stay and this mummy¡¯s lair was going to be that place, so clearing a few mindless skeletons was just part and parcel with claiming the area.


    Oh, and that curse? Not a very effective one as it crumbles moments after the mummy died. The undead mage apparently didn¡¯t care what happened after it was gone and such a curse was quite cheap to cast. Not that I paid attention to such things, I had a tomb to raid!


    Gold, gems, and magical trinkets are scattered all over the room. That scattering was less a result of the mummy being messy and more an after effect of the fight. Either way, I was a bit shocked by the amount of wealth this one hill represented and what it might mean for the rest of the area. Not that I thought extracting this wealth would be easy.


    A giant city of mages is just a stone¡¯s throw that-a-way and yet a mummy I could beat had this much treasure? Either gold wasn¡¯t worth as much as I thought or something was up. And Gold? It is worth even more than I thought! They used the stuff as the most basic form of magical energy for enchanting things. Sure, you can use specialized components like a morning glory harvest during an eclipse or the heart of a dragon, but they can use gold as a substitute for almost anything. Even if the efficiency might not be the best.


    Suffice it to say, these tombs weren¡¯t without protection. I only survived my little dalliance with tomb raiding because I hadn¡¯t intended it. That was enough though as I only needed one cave to set things up. Though it certainly helped that after a bit of work, I realized my claws can slice through stone.


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    Except this seemed all too easy! How could I possibly have a peaceful time carving out a little murder cave to trap a mage in? Of course, that wasn¡¯t going to happen! After all, not only did I need water and food, but the neighbors weren¡¯t going to let me rest.


    I didn¡¯t know it, but with the local undead, it is sort of a tradition to constantly attempt to conquer a better burial mound. Better in this case meaning ones that were closer to the center of the region, so at least I didn¡¯t seem to be in some sort of prized location or anything. While not the worst, it wasn¡¯t even in the middle of the outermost mounds.


    That meant I didn¡¯t even see a single vampire. Oh, and speaking of vampires, this was the reason they dropped me off on the side they did. While there was nothing official, they saw this as the undead quadrant. So, if they had released the racist mage too close, well, not everyone lives in the city.


    Anyway, the first signs of trouble was a trickle of skeletons. I handled them easy enough. Yes, their bones had been reinforced with magic, but these were the lowest of minions. So my claws, which as mentioned can cut through stone, made quick work of them.


    Except, this trickle of skeletons is not because someone was being stupid. Rather, each small group of them represents a different interested party. At least they were polite enough to wait for me to get back to the cave after grabbing some water from a nearby spring.


    Refreshed, but unprepared, I faced the first challenger looking to claim my mound. A common ghoul followed by a small horde of zombies and skeletons. This could have, should have, been dangerous. The ghoul¡¯s paralyzing touch would spell doom for any mortal, which is exactly why it was attempting to take my mound. Without that, the ghoul was a subpar fighter compared to other similarly ranked undead.


    Good thing my aqua colored goo is apparently immune to whatever it is about a ghoul that causes that to happen. Though I didn¡¯t know what was up at first when I fought it. It seemed like such a simple fight as the ghoul appeared to want to win by dealing a thousand cuts. So, while the cursed wound from the nega-fire disk was causing me more than enough pain. The ghoul¡¯s shallow slashes could be ignored.


    Oh, and the ghoul turned out to be kind of stupid, even by the standards of other similar level undead. It took half the fight for it to even realize that no; I wasn¡¯t going to freeze up. And by then, it was hurt while I had mostly healed any wound it had scored. Still took me a hot second to kill it. Once the damned thing gave up trying to paralyze me, it focused on avoiding my attacks and trying to line up some powerful strikes.


    Try being the operative word. At this point, I wasn¡¯t some kind of a combat genius, but I knew enough to get out of the way. So yeah, we danced around a bit until my small strikes managed to add up enough that the damn thing missed a dodge and I managed to put a claw through its throat. Not that the throat is a particularly vital location on an undead, but the spine behind it was still important. And with a hole in it, the ghoul lost control of most of its body and allowed me to finish hacking off its head.


    Messy work, but thankfully there wasn¡¯t all that much blood to deal with. Though I guess that if the thing did have blood, the fight would have ended sooner. Not that I can complain since I am transcending such things as well. I guess at least my aqua goo was more photogenic than undead gore.


    Anyway, after that I face a never ending conga line of undead looking to take my cave. Mummies, skeleton knights, furred zombies, orphaned vampire thralls, and of course more ghouls showed up one after another for a good half a day or so. Each one came with a small gang of minions and the absolute belief that all the others had just been weaklings and they would be the one to kill me.


    They couldn¡¯t. Except for the mummy spellcaster who I originally took this cave from, none of them were even able leave a lasting mark. Though even the magic burns on my arms had started to vanish by the time things calmed down.


    Not that I had only been fighting during this period. In-between fights, I put my claws to good use. While there certainly wasn¡¯t enough time to dig out entire new rooms. I was more than able to make a number of novel adjustments to what I had to work with.


    Though that wasn¡¯t much. There¡¯s an entrance hallway that did this loop thing? Like, whoever dug it, started with a straight tunnel with a slight upward slope and then suddenly a sideways loop with a steeper upward slant. After that, the tunnel returned to straight though this time angles downward, placing the rooms at about ground level as far as I could tell. My guess was that they meant for this to prevent water from getting into the burial chamber.


    While there are some undead that love being waterlogged, mummies aren¡¯t one of them. Though the loop might also be used to prevent light from filtering out of the cave at night. Anyway, that tunnel connected to a handful of rooms.


    Then there was the entrance hall, a simple enough room chamber. The place is mostly empty, though there are some carvings on the walls, and in one corner there is a stone vase filled with stone flowers. Which while interesting, are completely mundane as even from a distance, you could tell the flowers were carved from stone instead of grown that way.


    Then there were three rooms branching off from the entrance hall. To either side are rooms for minion storage, blank squares of space for the skeletons to stand around in until needed. Straight ahead, though, was a different story.


    The third room off the entrance had a proper door and was designed to mimic a throne room, if a good bit smaller than any noble would stand for. This was where the mummy had been hanging out, a real fancy place. Carvings in the wall depicting some sort of victory by the former owner. The roof has glowing gems embedded into it. And of course they made the throne of gold, because why not?

 Should Have Stayed Home - Chapter 10

    Though the throne room was actually mostly loot free, barring the throne. No, all the really expensive stuff was in the place¡¯s last room. Directly behind the golden throne was a final chamber with the door blocked by a heavy stone slab. That last room was the treasury.


    Now, while there was a lot of good stuff, numerous gems, and a few magical trinkets. You could definitely tell the mummy had not been happy with the size of its collection. Treasure had taken up less than a fourth of the room.


    And it would stay that way. I didn¡¯t exactly have a method of lugging it all around with me. Not that I paid it much attention beyond sticking some of the more expensive looking gems into my body, which was an interesting experience. I didn¡¯t know it would work, but I was now made of gel, so I figured it couldn¡¯t hurt to try.


    It was quite shocking to me when it didn¡¯t hurt at all. You would assume shoving sharp crystals into your skin would hurt, especially when getting cut still hurts. Good thing what was actually happening was the gem sinking into my body with the skin surrounding it. Not the most pleasant to see happening, but no worse than holding something under your arm.


    Then, once the local undead decided to slow their roll, I needed to go out for food and water. I even had a plan for that first once, since I knew where the water was. All I needed to do was follow the water. Presumably I would eventually find something edible, whether that was plants or animals.


    And it worked! What started as a small trickle of water, gathered together until it was a proper river. Then that river flowed into the mantis grass forest, because of course I would end up back there. At least it seems that the border between the two territories was at peace. Though I guess it isn¡¯t like the undead care about the grass and the mantids aren¡¯t going to have anything to eat within the burial mounds.


    Well, I didn¡¯t care about the grass, but I was looking for some land crab. Or maybe lobster? Shrimp? Eh, they¡¯ve got an exoskeleton and I was going to eat them. Land crab? Seriously? Even at the time I knew about literal crabs that live on land.


    Anyway, there were mostly hand size and forearm size bugs around. Not the best, but as I traveled further into the grass forest, the river bank turned into a steep canyon and I didn¡¯t want to lose my way. So I stuck with the smaller mantids, even if the amount of meat from each was pitiful.


    Plus, I wasn¡¯t exactly an insect butcher, so I lost a lot. Still, I hunted the mantids like crazy. My hunger was unnatural and I only bothered settling down to roast the first few batches of bugs. After that? Well, let¡¯s just say I refilled my gel tanks and then some.


    The only downside was that I lost a good chunk of time to this. In fact, originally, the mage should have already caught up to me. Except the fool was having some problems. His method of tracking me down seemed to have suffered a problem or two on his journey. Not that I¡¯m complaining.


    Anyway, that wasn¡¯t going to buy me much time and besides, I didn¡¯t know it so it isn¡¯t like my choices were affected. More important to me? Someone had come along and taken my cave!


    I mean, sure, it was to be expected. Leave a place like that alone and it was bound to happen, but I figured I would have at least some time to hunt. Of course, then I went and took more than just ¡°some time¡±. That meant more skull bashing for me.


    I say that, because the undead that took over my cave was some kind of skeleton mage. Not a lich, mind you. This one died and never came back to haunt me. Still, I¡¯m not exactly designed for fighting skeletons.


    Claws are wonderful! No complaints on my part, they kept me alive after all. I would have liked a nice hammer for the fight. I had to slowly claw my way through the mage¡¯s minions. All the while, said mage was throwing spells on me.


    That kind of hurt. Though I did learn a few things. For one, fire and heat doesn¡¯t hurt me all that much until it does. Then I boil, literally. What with being made of a gel, I guess it was one of the more likely outcomes. That, or I was flammable and would burn like a pool of lighter fluid.


    I¡¯m happy to boil. This did make me a bit leery of the skeleton¡¯s more powerful cold spells. Except, I¡¯m apparently much more resistant to being frozen than I am to boiling. It did slow me, but my gel got denser, which honestly made me more effective at smashing skeletons.


    Oh, and I¡¯m immune to acid at the time? The question mark is because I¡¯m assuming there was a catch or a limit. The fire? The ice? They both hurt, even when not doing anything in particular. Acid just splashed over me like water.


    Poison did a better job, but my body¡¯s new nature altered how it worked. On the one hand, I was more susceptible. My gel isn¡¯t as good as regular skin at keeping it out. Splash me with poison and I¡¯ll suck it up. The difference at that point is my body works on diffusion.


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    Well, okay, there is a circulatory system, but that was much more protected. My gel just also worked as an open circulatory system like, well, a mantis. Okay, bugs in general, but come on, I¡¯ve killed enough mantids to name drop them at this point.


    Anyway, the poison would soak into my gel, causing nasty damage. However, gel is much easier to replace than flesh. Of course, it is sort of a problem that I had to replace it. That actually created a bit of a problem because the undead all seemed to catch onto the fact poison did work on me.


    While easy to heal if I just eat something. I could create a potentially never-ending cycle of reclaiming my cave and having it taken while out healing. So instead, I chose to stick it out and defend my temporary home.


    Upside? The Undead stopped challenging me a lot sooner. Downside? Well, in theory, there wasn¡¯t one. I simply had to sit around in my cave, preparing it for my fight with the mage coming to kill me.


    Instead, I let the quicker drop-off of challenges, only three in about an hour, convince me to go eat some more mantids. Stupid, stupid, stupid decision on my part for so many reasons. Most important of which was that I forgot how damn dangerous the mantids were.


    I just assumed that I could take a quick jaunt down to the forest and pick up some snacks. You know, instead of finding that killing a bunch of them would cause the older and much bigger mantids to respond. Which is exactly what happened.


    Now, these weren¡¯t the two plus meter tall mantids, but waist-high versions of them are still pretty deadly. Oh, and they gave me enough rope. When I first entered the forest, there weren¡¯t any mantids around. Should have clued me into the fact that something was up, but I simply assumed I had cleared the area.


    Yeah, they were just letting me walk into their ambush. One moment I was wandering through the forest, looking for a snack. The next I had a swarm of about thirty waist high mantids charging at me from every direction. That includes maybe three of them from above. I didn¡¯t exactly have the time to count.


    Aqua gel bursts out of my body. Though with so much of my body having already being gel, it was less a burst and more of a rapid oozing at this point. At least it seemed to be faster. Kind of important when in the middle of an ambush.


    So, as I raised my arms to block the overhead attacks, my claws were in place fast enough to prevent me from losing said arms. I guess I should also be thankful that at this point my claws were already tough enough to block mantis blades. Those things are sharp!


    Not that I had time to pay attention to these details. After defending against death from above, I had to combo into defending against death from the sides. Though I used the attacks on top to help. They hit first and provided a push that allowed me to drop to the ground fast enough.


    I watched as numerous green blades slashed through where my body had been less than a second before. Except now, a few mantids occupy that space. Too bad for them.


    Once the blades had passed through the space above me, I thrust my arms directly out to my sides. This tossed the remains of the mantids that attacked from above and slashed through a few mantids to each side.


    Then I lost an arm. One of the surrounding bugs brought a blade arm down right around mid-bicep. That blade was sharp enough and the swing fast enough, my arm probably could have done that cool cartoon thing where it looks like it wasn¡¯t actually cut, only for the parts to separate dramatically. Except unlike a weapon, mantid blades where a part of the mantis and the spine was much wider than the rest, forcing my arm away from the stump.


    This was not pleasant, but compared to losing myself from the waist down, not the worst. Plus, after my experience with the rocket ticks blasting holes through my body, there wasn¡¯t much flesh left. Sure, the gel could still feel pain, but it definitely knew when sending those signals didn¡¯t really matter as much.


    Almost worse than losing the arm was that it messed with my balance. There I was, dropped back, yet still on my feet and I couldn¡¯t quite manage to stand. Instead, I gave up trying and used my remaining arm to push myself into a roll, knocking into a couple dead bodies and one living mantid.


    The living mantid got knocked over as once again I avoided a barrage of arm blades. Many such blades sank into the ground with weighty thunks as the bugs tried to take me out with overhead swings. My one leg I bring up to my chest and slam it down, the claws on my foot slicing through the disoriented mantid¡¯s guts.


    Then I use the momentum to spin myself into a roll in the opposite direction as I bash into the few blades that got stuck in the ground. Not the most pleasant experience as those blades are sharp enough to cut you just by pressing up against them. My saving grace with this particular stupidity was that many of the blades were faced away from me, something about how they had swung around me.


    Anyway, I flailed my claws outward, slicing off the hand blades of about five of the mantids. That removed them from the fight, sort of. They would continue to attempt to chomp on me with their mouths, but their attempts were utterly useless all things considered.


    Of course, rolling back and forth on the ground doesn¡¯t exactly allow for all that much dodging and I take a slash to my side and lower hip. My side parts easily, spewing a foamy aqua, pink gel as I ooze out a mix of blood and gel. The attack to my hip goes a lot better for me, the opaque scales located there prevent any more damage than a scrape. It is a pretty nasty scrape, but certainly better than being cut open and my gel quickly solidifies and stops leaking.


    Around me the twenty-ish remaining mantids flair their wings and whip up dust off the ground. Maybe to block my sight or maybe an instinctive preparation to take flight, it gave me enough time to get back to my feet. My arm stump has at this point stopped bleeding and a lump of dirty gel has formed on it. And by dirty, I mean that literally. Dirt, leaves, and twigs had gotten stuck in the sticky gel I had been leaking.


    No time to pay attention to that though, as I had a plan for how to win this fight. My legs seemed to be resistant to their weapons, so all I have to do is use kicks to fight the mantids. Except there was a problem. I was hungry.

 Still Surprises Me - Chapter 11

    From my maw, a primal snarl emerged. I knew I should be kicking the mantids to preserve my health. Instead, I lunged forward and bit the head off of the closest mantid while the bugs next to it sliced into me. The pain, sadly, did not bring me out of my frenzy.


    Good news? I¡¯m apparently a good monster and as I went and tore chunks out of various mantids, something inside of me had gone into overdrive. Each wound oozes twice as much gel as before, but this was a good thing. It was the result of my body turning each chunk of meat into more gel almost instantly.


    The problem with this is that it wasn¡¯t very efficient and took a good bit of stamina. Like trying to fill a black hole, I kept killing and eating until I was the last one standing. At that point, my enhanced digestion fell away, though the frenzy remained as I ripped and tore through all the bodies, including the exoskeletons which I had been avoiding up to that point.


    And what do you know? Dense exoskeleton seems to be pretty decent for creating gel. Rocks and stuff sadly don¡¯t work at this point though or I could have just camped out in my cave. Anyway, I didn¡¯t quite eat all the mantids, but I definitely worked my way through most of them.


    I wish I could say I was full at that point. I really do. However, I was still hungry, with all the previous eating going purely to regenerating my gel. None of it stuck around in my stomach to actually feed me.


    At least this gave me a chance to have a cooked meal as that still probably helps with hunger. Whatever psionic nonsense is going on with creating more gel seems to ignore basic things like bioavailability. After all, it was able to make use of the exoskeletons, which I wasn¡¯t normally able to digest.


    Anyway, I dragged a collection of limbs back with me to my cave. While the legs aren¡¯t exactly heavy with meat, I at least know I can eat the meat when not psionically digesting stuff. Plus, who doesn¡¯t enjoy crab legs? Me. I don¡¯t mind them, but they¡¯re a bit more work than I prefer. Good news, these mantid limbs are big enough to be worth my time.


    And of course my cave had a new inhabitant. This time, it turned out to be some kind of zombie all by itself. Not the classic version from modern movies, though. Damn thing was covered in hair? Maybe mold? Whatever it was, the zombie was fuzzy and oddly enough, green. Because why not? Oh, and it had skin as tough as wood.


    Before this, the most resistance my claws faced was trying to cut bone. All the other more fleshy undead, the parasites, and even the mantids with their exoskeletons were cut through. My claws leave trails of sundered flesh.


    Against this zombie, my claws sheared off fur, but barely dug into the flesh. After my frenzy to start the fight, they forced me to take a step back. I growled and lowered my stance.


    The zombie charged at me and tried to slam tackle me, but it wasn¡¯t any heavier than a normal person and so with a shoulder strike, I flipped it over my back. It tried to grab me, but it had put a bit too much into the charge. As it lands, I move deeper into my cave.


    It recovers quickly, but I¡¯ve already made it to the throne room. This sets me up to take advantage of some of my preparations. Though the zombie falls for the most simple change, I made before I can even try anything fancy. I¡¯m actually kind of embarrassed for the zombie.


    All I did was carve up a section of floor so that it was deceptively uneven. It was nowhere near perfect, but from the entrance of the room, the floor looks relatively flat. So yeah, the zombie tries to chase me into the room and after putting a foot wrong, takes a header face first into the ground.


    I wasn¡¯t expecting this to work? After all, the zombie had the run of the place. There wasn¡¯t even any defeated undead scattered around so it likely had been here for a good while. Yet it fell for the stupidest trap? A trap it should have known about?


    I almost hesitated, assuming this was a trick as the zombie didn¡¯t seem quite so brainless. However, so far in the fight, I hadn¡¯t been seeing any openings so against my better judgment; I jumped on the chance.


    And guess what?


    It wasn¡¯t a trap! Even to this day, I am flabbergasted. That damn zombie made a rookie mistake despite being an evolved undead? Sure, at the time I didn¡¯t recognize what evolution did for the undead, but now? It might not be adult human levels of smart, but the cunning it should have had was completely missing. May either was a forced evolution by some necromancer?


    Whatever, the important part was I got in there and grabbed the damn thing¡¯s head and neck. Which was when how big I got in my combat form really hit me. My claws were too big to just grab the zombies throat, even if I had tried to with a single claw. In fact, while I hadn¡¯t noticed it yet, my combat form had been growing in size.


    Anyway, I crushed the zombie¡¯s rotten skull, slaying it. You really shouldn¡¯t let an enemy grab one of your weak points. Though this was quite lucky for me, as the skin was tough enough to have made the fight a long drawn out one. A thing I could not afford.


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    As it was, I managed to get those mantid legs roasted and packed away. Then Harold showed up. My time had run out, but at least I was in my cave. Oh, and Harold wasn¡¯t exactly being stealthy. He arrived at my cave while firing off some explosive spells to clear out the next group of undead planning to assault me.


    I wasn¡¯t ready, but I wasn¡¯t not ready either. So him showing up at that moment wasn¡¯t optimal and yet I assumed I could manage it. One teensy tiny little problem. Because yeah, under normal circumstances, I stood maybe a thirty percent chance of not dying. Which all things considered, is pretty gosh darn peak performance for someone that, what, under a week ago didn¡¯t even know magic existed?


    The problem I didn¡¯t consider was what he would have on him. See, the vampires had just kicked me out of the city with barely a goodbye. I didn¡¯t consider that Harold might receive a different sort of welcome, such as being gifted a few powerful magic items. I hadn¡¯t considered that the mages would take this as a proxy fight of sorts against the vampires and other such undead.


    It doesn¡¯t make any sense to me even now. After all, the only support I got was to be released on the opposite side of the city. No shade on that, mind you. The extra time I got was vital to my gaining what power I had. It¡¯s just, I¡¯m not undead nor being materially supported by them. The mage faction isn¡¯t even run by speciests like Harold.


    Whatever, anyway, Harold arrived through the hallway and unlike a certain zombie, got around the not-a-trap trip trap. Though Harold cheated, so I¡¯ll leave it up in the air on whether I actually did a good job of it.


    How did he cheat, you might ask? Simple, remember those magic items he got gifted? Well, one allowed him to just hover about a half-foot off the ground.


    So there he was floating into the room. His arms crossed, visible shield spell going, and a couple of glowing orbs over his right shoulder. Then the orbs started to pulse out glowing darts at me. I expected that though so I was already dodging behind the gold throne. Oh, and Harold started chanting to cast his own spell, because all that other stuff was from various magic items.


    This was not going to go well for me and I very much realized that. I still needed to try, though, so I started activating my various tricks. They aren¡¯t the most technically complex. I wasn¡¯t a mechanic or some such. But after all those undead kindly donated their gear, I had more than enough supplies to have some fun.


    From behind the throne, I pulled a strip of cloth and from deep lines in the ground, a forest of rusty swords popped up. It actually caused Harold to pause his chants and drop his spell. Now, these swords weren¡¯t going to do much, but at least he couldn¡¯t just float over them.


    I¡¯m actually quite proud of this little trick. It is amazing what you can do with claws that can carve through regular stone so easily. I basically just carved deep lines into the ground and then made wider areas to stash the swords. It took a little fancy carving to angle the swords enough that I only need to pull a cloth rope and they¡¯d flip up.


    It took so many pants being shredded that I could have worn. Not really, though. Only the zombie style undead bothered with clothes and no way was I putting those pants on.


    Anyway, this trick was supposed to be used to surprise him so I would be able charge into melee range. Hell, more of the swords failed to rise up than I expected. My hope for this was to create hazards I could body slam him into. With my gel nonsense, being impaled on a sword wouldn¡¯t be too much of a problem so a bear hug into slamming us both onto a sword would have ended as my win. After all, even as a mage, Harold had a human body.


    With that shield he was rocking? So not an option anymore. If I stayed in this cave, it would become a burial mound for reasons other than the undead. That called for me to make use of the golf throne and one piece of prep I figured I wouldn¡¯t have a chance to use.


    Then a spell blasted the chair, melting off the gold leaf, because of course it wasn¡¯t pure gold. I took that as a sign and hopped on top of the chair back. Good thing the throne was actually a part of the floor or it would have flipped over.


    Harold¡¯s shoulder turrets, of course began to fire again, but good news! They weren¡¯t meant to cause damage. Well, maybe a little damage, but their main purpose was likely for applying status effects. One of which, going by the tingly feeling as it splashed across my left leg was to stun me. Good thing I¡¯m not exactly running on nerves in my lower body or that would have spelled my end.


    Heh, spelled, because it was magic. Cheap magic at that. A proper stun spell should at least have some effect even on someone like me. After all, it¡¯s magic!


    Not complaining, mind you. Even at the time, I simply ignored him and jumped into the ceiling. Yes, into. See, I took some time to carve out a small area right above the throne, just until I hit dirt. It didn¡¯t look like much, because it wasn¡¯t.


    For most people, this would not only be pointless, but also dangerous. I had risked a collapse, especially with how little stone there was in-between the room and the dirt above. It was worth the effort, though. After all, if my claws and strength was already enough to go through stone with a little effort, imagine of what I could do with dirt!


    Well, I guess you don¡¯t have to since I¡¯m about to tell you. While I wouldn¡¯t say my new form was built for digging, it certainly wasn¡¯t a slouch in such matters. So, when I jumped up, I used my hand claws to grab the edges of the hole, then pulled my feet up.


    A rain of dirt fell past me as my legs made quick work of the dirt and I pulled myself up through the hole. Below me, Harold really got mad and began to go on about how I could never escape him and how no matter what he would track me. A little disturbing, but I needed out. So once I had fully pulled myself up above the stone, and having taken a few more shots to the legs, I began to dig up and to the side.


    Each swipe of a claw tore out a ton of dirt. Of course, if I tried to make a standing tunnel, that would have been a bit much, but I was just going for a tunnel I fit through. And you couldn¡¯t really call it that much of a tunnel as I sealed it behind me with the dirt I was digging. Oh, and I didn¡¯t expect this to get me ahead of Harold, even if it was going much faster than I had expected.

 Running Away - Chapter 12

    It took me a solid minute to dig my way out of the tomb. That was more than enough time for Harold to hover his butt out and figure out where I would emerge. Good thing I wasn¡¯t a complete idiot and had a plan. A basic plan, sure, but at least I had an idea of what to do so I didn¡¯t exit into a barrage of magic.


    Oh, and on top of basic, it was incredibly stupid. See, all I did was stick my arm out and wriggle it around. Harold took the bait and blasted my arm to smithereens. This hurt quite a bit, the only saving grace is the second part of my plan.


    There was a decent size sheet of shale stone and I had used that for cover. So while my arm did get blasted, most of the rest of me stayed out of the line of fire. Then, when the magical explosions finally stopped, I burst out of the ground and made a run for it. Harold was not too happy about this.


    As I ran from down the hill from him, Harold had more than a few choice words for me. Stuff like how I, ¡°was the lowest worm and should stand still¡±, so he could finish me. All the while I was zigzagging to avoid as much damage as possible. I still ended up with more than just a few burns on my back. While Harold wasn¡¯t the best shot, the floating shoulder mounted auto turrets more than managed to make up for his failings.


    Oh, and I learned something new. Like, at the time I knew that my form was malleable to a point, but I had been limiting myself to the classic human form factor. Anyway, all it took was me tripping to find out I could shift into a four-legged form. Good thing too, as soon after Harold gets a lucky shot with some sort of slicing spell that managed to cut off my left leg at the knee.


    Yeah, that sucked, but at least I could continue running away. I didn¡¯t have a plan, but I did have a course of action that might save me and the discovery of a four-legged form gave it more weight. Though it also led to Harold insulting me more and calling me a beast not worth being called human. Which I¡¯m fine with, being human isn¡¯t the end all be all. He did let drop that ¡°maybe my degeneration was why his spell was spotty on tracking me¡±.


    Anyway, at this point most stories would lead you on for a while and have a dramatic scene of someone, their back to a cliff, and a bit of monologuing. Fuck that. Harold had magical auto turrets and he had already revealed enough for me to escape.


    I didn¡¯t give him a chance to monologuing and so the moment I reached the ravine where the river plummeted into a cave; I dived off the side. Then, after a brief fall of a couple stories, my arms shattered on impact with the water. At that point, by design if I¡¯m to be honest, I lost consciousness.


    See, as I was running away the blabbermouth revealed a few things that pointed towards me wanting to do some serious damage to myself. Harold couldn¡¯t help but to go on about how even if his tracking spell was on the fritz, his life sense spell worked fine. That doesn¡¯t really say much, except for the fact that he mentioned when the spell started to fail and it lined up with the times I lost large parts of my original body.


    My guess? The tracking spell used my blood or some such and it didn¡¯t have a lock on my gel. So the solution to avoiding him? Remove the rest of my flesh and blood. With that in mind and not having a better plan, I shifted from plan B to C.


    Instead of getting into the river and trying for an aquatic form, I would let the rapids tear me apart. I gave myself a low chance to survive, but then again, most people have a pretty low chance of survival when the plan is to remove their body from their body. But I¡¯ve gone on about this long enough.


    The next time I could put more than one brain cell together, I had lost a ton of mass. My trip in the river shredded more than just flesh and blood, it took my gel as well. Oh, and I was stuck on a stalagmite next to a small section of rapids.


    At some point, the river clearly split up, as this was more like a stream of water. Though it was turbulent enough to throw what was left of me out of it. In fact, this likely helped me survive as the constant splashing of water kept me moist for however long I was out of it.


    Not that this was the first thing I thought about. Rather, it seems whatever Harold used to monitor whether I was alive or not worked off of a different tell than the tracking spell. Otherwise, I doubt he would have spent the Mana and money to send me a message.


    [I don¡¯t know what you did, but I will find you! Don¡¯t think escaping into the Underdark will save your life. Once I get close enough, not even the interference down there will protect you from my spell. My backers will make sure of it!]


    Which was stupid of him because it told me a ton of stuff. For instance, he thinks his tracking spell stopped working because there is interference underground. Also, they are calling it the Underdark, which has connotations all of its own. However, most importantly for me, it told me that Harold was still after me. Oh, and he was likely being forced to hunt me, for what that¡¯s worth.


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    Except, none of that would matter if I stayed as a bit of slime coating a stalagmite. So after another undetermined amount of time, which when added to the last, likely added up to around three to five days, I pulled myself together. Literally. Though as I mentioned, I lost some weight on the way and so my new form likely only reached mid-stomach on my original body.


    A body which after I inspected myself, was completely gone. In its place, gel had replaced everything. There were those opaque scales I had grown on my lower body before now covering everything, so at least I wasn¡¯t like one of those transparent fish. Still, if I had to describe myself, I would go with ¡°kobold made of jello¡±.


    And how did I see this? Well, with the stream, there were enough pools of water to get a decent look at myself. That, plus a bunch of fluorescent mushrooms coating the ceiling meant not only could I see myself, but I also noticed something was approaching me as said pools of water did that ripple thing. You know the one, like the glass of water in the one dinosaur movie.


    Suffice it to say, I wasn¡¯t ready for a fight, so I hid myself deep in a corner behind a small collection of stalagmites. Excellent decision on my part, as a beetle as tall as I currently was came into view. Not sure if it was based on any beetle I knew of, as it had certainly diverged from normal beetledom. If you could even call it a beetle in the first place.


    While the monster had the basic shape, that was about as far as it got. For some reason, it has only four legs. Odd, but maybe it just lost a pair. However, it also lacked wings and two pairs of extra large mandibles in an X shape. Oh, and going by the shine, it might actually make its shell of metal or at least a bio-alloy of some sort.


    Good thing the beetle monster was just in the area for a sip of water. Then it left and against my better judgment, I followed at a distance. This was definitely a situation where I preferred losing it over being discovered. Thank goodness it only went through a couple intersections before arriving at what I was looking for, a large cavern.


    Except the caver was too large. I was expecting a decent sized cave, maybe a little more. This was a full-on fantasy ¡°world within a world¡± style cave. Oh, and I learned how lucky I had gotten. Because there were a few visible waterfalls falling directly from the ceiling.


    I survived because despite the damage, my gel stuck together. A fall from that height? With water crashing down on me? That would have reduced me to a very dead mist. Hell, if I had been reduced in size too much more, I would have died. Though at least I was now beyond death by decapitation. So, instead of a thousand and one ways to die, I only needed to worry about an even thousand. Well, that plus all the new nonsense magic introduced.


    Anyway, I let the maybe-beetle vanish into the undergrowth, which yes, was big enough to hide it. This, in turn, meant that when I went into the room, it did an extra good job of hiding me. Useful when the lizards that seemed to make up most of the food chain stood around two stories tall. They weren¡¯t giant in the way the beast above were, but that doesn¡¯t make me feel any better.


    These were clearly just large reptiles with a couple that looked suspiciously close to dinosaurs. So, I killed one of the veggie eating dinos. It wasn¡¯t hard as they weren¡¯t exactly expecting something my size to be a threat. And I would like to say that by eating said dino, I was able to recover my size. That was not the case.


    I did manage to eat a decent portion before being chased off by more sort-of-beetles. The problem was my body prioritized filling the tanks over reforming my body. This isn¡¯t a bad thing, per se, but it did mean I was going to be fun-sized for a while longer.


    Oh, and no more easy kills. One of the herbivore dinosaurs kicking the bucket seemed to alert the others. They spontaneously gathered into groups. Well, as spontaneous as they can be when I actually tried my luck on them a few more times. I suspect there was a bit more of a mind behind their dull eyes than expected.


    So, having ruined this cave area, which has to be the size of a large town or maybe a small city, I moved on. Harold wasn¡¯t going to slow down his hunt to find me and I was the weakest I had been since thrown into this new world. Anyway, this ¡°Underdark¡± proved to only match some of my expectations as over the next week I didn¡¯t find a single sign of ¡°insert surface race, but dark¡±.


    Though it certainly had a surfeit of magically large caves. Not all of them were the same size as that first, but even the smallest cavern areas tended towards being bigger than one of those pro sports stadiums. The only constant and honestly ironic feature of them was the glow mushrooms as they made the Under¡°dark¡± anything but.


    Not that I didn¡¯t find more than enough fungivores chomping away at them. They just grew back extra quickly and caused intense intestinal distress. Which brings me to where I currently find myself. The room is dark and after so long that is honestly unsettling.


    Not only does it represent the unknown, but going by the markings, two powerful beings fought in this city sized cavern and were strong enough to blast clear a good nine-tenths of the ceiling. Oh, and I can¡¯t tell if whatever caused this was still around, what with it being dark and all. The problem?


    This was the direction I wanted to go. While the terrain down here was shockingly flat, I had found a path leading upwards and it led me here. So, using my genre savviness, I figured there were distinct layers to the Underdark and the steep incline I just climbed had led me up to a new area. Whether this ended up being actually true is completely up in the air, but at least heading upward means getting closer to the surface, which I wanted to do, at least at the time.


    ..

 Past The Nostrils - Chapter 13

    I cautiously made my way into the dark. Not too cautious, though, I did have to traverse an area the size of a city, after all. At least there was a guiding light, quite literally.


    Directly in front of me and about two-thirds of the way across the room, a weak ray of illumination shone down on a jumble of rocks. Not proper sunlight, mind you, but more mushroom light. It seemed to me that the roof had collapsed at some point, probably because of the monstrous fight. And as luck would have it, the stones piled up to the ceiling, so all I had to do was some climbing.


    Sure, it was a bit of free solo climbing on a treacherous and likely unstable pile of rocks. A pile that was many stories tall, but I figured I could survive whatever it might throw at me. Of course, looking back on it, I have to question whether I would have survived if a giant rock fell on me and smashed me into a fine paste. Anyway, to even try my hand at it would require crossing the room first and that wasn¡¯t going to be a walk in the park.


    While the lit up areas had been mostly barren, the local wildlife preferred to remain hidden. This was not the case in the dark. I made it a block in before something ambushed me. Please excuse my less than stellar description, it was kind of dark at the time.


    Anyway, this gray-black blob surged up at me, the beast having been resting in a likely self-made hole. There were some nasty metallic claws slicing at me and I certainly couldn¡¯t block the attack. So I made the most sensible decision!


    The claws scythed over me, digging into the stone right where I was just standing as I dove towards the monster. There was some sort of tentacle sensory organ in my way that really didn¡¯t like it when I slammed into it. Then, as the beast reared back, I made my escape by ducking under its armpit and running away from it. And thankfully, instead of chasing, it grumbled and settled back down into place.


    My best guess as to what that was? Some sort of monster version of a star-nosed mole. Though that would be another ambush predator after I just said things were more active. Well, running introduced me to a new monster that was sadly more my speed. Both in terms of fighting ability and more importantly, how fast we could run. So no running from this problem.


    Anyway, it was some sort of kiwi raptor. Why kiwi specifically? Well, if you¡¯ve ever heard a kiwi, you would understand. As for the raptor part? Those claws are pretty distinctive as well, though I guess it might have been something else. Not like I saw it all that well to begin with.


    Oh, and unlike the kiwi, this monster seemed to hunt similar sized creatures. After all, its head was up to my chest and wanted a go. Then again, maybe I just smell like something else. At this point, I didn¡¯t smell too human anymore and slimes tend to be on the small side. Whatever the case, it was ready to rumble and I couldn¡¯t say no.


    At least the bird was more of the stand and fight type. This brought the fight to a much more even playing field as it attempted to disembowel me with powerful kicks. A little odd considering the impressive beak the thing has, but kiwis are like, one of the only birds to have their nostrils at the end of their beak as they hunt by smell. So yeah, I guess I wouldn¡¯t want to shove my nose into the bodies of others, either.


    It, however, wasn¡¯t shy about using said beak to defend itself and my vaunted claws, capable of slicing through mantids and smash skeletons, weren¡¯t quite up to the task of breaking this beak. Quite unfortunate that, as the beak allowed the bird to keep a distance between us that I very much needed to close. After all, as I had found out, my regeneration isn¡¯t free and I was hungry.


    As far as I was concerned at the time, I had no choice but to accept being hit to finish the fight quickly. So I speared myself on the damn thing¡¯s beak. Suffice it to say, the monster was not expecting this move. It tried to shake me off, but by the time the monster managed to react, I had pushed myself farther onto the beak and grabbed its head.


    From there, the fight ended quickly. With the bird¡¯s head in hand, it was simplicity itself to jam one of my claws through the eye and into the brain. The critter couldn¡¯t even flinch back as the beak was well and truly stuck at this point.


    My eyes glowed as the last bit of fire in the bird¡¯s other eye dies. And no, I don¡¯t mean figuratively when I mention my own eyes glowing, they literally produced a bit of illumination. At the time, I didn¡¯t know what was up with that, but it painted a bit of a target on my back.


    Hell, the glow wasn¡¯t even to where you would notice it in a room that was even moderately lit up. This place was not that. Instead, my eyes created a small pool of light, likely drawing attention from those all around. At least it didn¡¯t last more than a moment or two, during which I used my claws to carve off the flanks of the bird, not even bothering to remove the beak from my side.


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    Then, once the glow was gone, I grabbed the chunks of meat and jumped back with all my strength. This was quite an impressive leap now that my legs are full-time digitigrade. And it needed to be, as while still in the air, there was the sound of something large smashing down next to the bird and of a massive maw chomping down on the corpse.


    Welp, I wasn¡¯t going to keep a couple of targets on me, no matter how much I needed to eat. So, as I landed, I tossed the two bloody chunks to my sides before taking another powerful leap back. This was the correct decision on my part as I heard the almost metallic snap of teeth in one of the directions.


    Not needing the situation spelled out to me, I turned tail and ran as I heard another snap of teeth. That wasn¡¯t one of the nature-like forces that darkened the cavern in the first place, but to me it might as well have been. Though as I ran, a smile stretched across my face almost painfully.


    It hadn¡¯t hit me until now, not really. Sure, I had seen beings of unimaginable power, but they were all special. Beasts and insects bigger than buildings would obviously be strong, but that beast? I couldn¡¯t see much, but the face was distinctive. That was likely at one point a normal dog! A beagle!


    I could just see it. Some criminal or sentimental old dude decides to bring their pet with them and when out and about, it gets away. But instead of the dog ending up dead, it survived and grew stronger. I could grow stronger!


    Oh sure, I was quite strong by that point, at least compared to regular humans. But I was in a land of giants and magical machine guns! I needed more than just a little bit stronger. That dog, though? It promised me growth as it had to be the size of a small house.


    I was hopeful that this didn¡¯t require actual growth as I had guessed that there were undead of great power yet human stature. But that would be a bridge for me to cross later. For that moment, though? Desire blossomed to not only kill my hunter, but reach for power beyond those who armed him as well.


    First, though, I need to pay more attention to where I¡¯m going. As I flee, there is a moment where another of those suspected star-nosed moles sprung up. It didn¡¯t catch me as I didn¡¯t stop running. That could have gone much worse and the shock forced me to drop my daydream of unlimited power and shooting lightning right back at a certain mage. Don¡¯t judge me! Popular fiction only has so many depictions of mind powers that aren¡¯t simply telepathy or telekinesis.


    Anyway, after that I slowed down and reoriented myself towards the light. I didn¡¯t run away from it, thankfully. But my escape didn¡¯t bring me closer, either. A bit of a wash all around and now I was hungrier than ever. Oh, and killing things made me a target for any number of reasons, which would make finding food much harder.


    Well, much harder if I stayed in this dark area. So, since I wasn¡¯t a muscle-brained type and with one last look at the light in the ceiling, I turned away and towards one of the lesser lights which represented the tunnels connecting to this place. Restocking my gel supply was critical to make it through this maze of death and darkness.


    I even resorted to eating some of the glowing mushrooms in the tunnel I arrived at. On one hand, they thankfully didn¡¯t have any nasty effects on digestion for me. On the other hand, I got hardly anything from them and it even felt like some of my gains were used to dissolve the remnants of the glow shrooms.


    That just left me to go further into the tunnel and hope to find other edible options. A task that ended up being oddly hard. Sure, there were all kinds of things growing down here, but most of them were patently hard to eat. The lichens were a film on the rocks and those tree-sized mushrooms seemed to almost be harder than the rocks they grew out of. Now, my jaw strength had improved, but straight up chomping on rocks wasn¡¯t on the menu.


    It was thankfully easy to keep track of where I was. The tunnels mostly stayed flat and most intersections had four or less connections. If it weren¡¯t for the odd angles the tunnels often met at, I would have suspected this place had been all laid out on a grid. But no, while everything seemed to be spread across a flat plane, it was more like one of those ant farms for kids that had been turned on its side.


    Which meant that eventually I ran into another chamber. Oh, and I mentioned ant farms for a reason. So yeah, guess what I found? Ants! Ants from the size of a cat to the size of a horse. At least it didn¡¯t look like they were the ones that dug out these tunnels, because that would likely mean there were even bigger ants out there. Not that there aren¡¯t, but I didn¡¯t feel like worrying about it at the time.


    After all, while they hadn¡¯t noticed me yet, I needed to do something right away or what few choices I had would be taken away. At least this didn¡¯t seem to be their nest or even connected to said nest. Rather, it appeared this was a raiding party out hunting.


    The horse-sized ants were clearly warriors, while the rest were simple haulers. From the smallest carrying mushrooms and unidentifiable gibbets, up to some the size of a large dog all working together to carry entire corpses. Most of which seemed at least dinosaur adjacent, which was bad for me as it meant I looked like food.


    Good news? I certainly didn¡¯t smell like food, otherwise I wouldn¡¯t have had time to make those observations without being attacked. However, I knew my lack couldn¡¯t last forever and so, after a quick glance around the room, decided to hide on top of one of the mushroom trees. This wasn¡¯t easy, but thankfully, one of them was short enough that I could jump up and grab the rim of the cap and pull myself up. From there, I was able to easily get on top of one of the taller mushrooms and hide.

 Yes Bugs, But Not Those Bugs - Chapter 14

    I can¡¯t help but sigh and shake my head as I look back on this. Why did I think being on top of something would hide me from ants? Sure, they were pretty big, but why would that stop them from climbing the wall? They¡¯ve already broken the square cube law, what¡¯s a little gravity? I should have been thankful they didn¡¯t have flying ants with them.


    As it was, at least the ants mostly passed by before some of the group took to the walls. The bad news was that it was a few of the larger warrior types and they easily spotted me. Oh, and did you know? Ants can jump!


    So yeah, they were on me before I could even register what was happening. It was just three of them, but they individually outweighed me and that was after the added mass from my transformation. Oh, and one of them jammed a front leg through my stomach, putting me at even more of a disadvantage.


    Good thing the strike was well off center to the right as they didn¡¯t seem to want to lift their foot. Why was it good? Because my solution was to rip myself off the leg. The force from this was enough to send me rolling off the mushroom and onto the next.


    With my right arm gripping my side to keep as much gel in as possible, I scramble to my feet right as the three ants jump the short distance down to me. This time though, I have the jump on them! Err, they were still the ones jumping, but while I did need to get to my feet, I could still get into position.


    So this time, instead of me getting a new hole, the first ant that jumped down gets one. Legs braced, left arm extended, and my claw held together in a sort of spear hand strike. As the ant lands on me, there is a squelch and a blaze of pain. My hand goes entirely through the ant.


    This isn¡¯t enough to instantly kill it, insects being tough like that, so the ant tries to bite me. Good thing it can¡¯t quite reach where I am and the legs are less than responsive. The other two ants however are more than able to take a bite out of me and more than willing to go through the ant on top of me to do so.


    And of course my arm is now a wee bit stuck. So, with very few options, I swing my legs up and straddle the dying ant from underneath. While the other ants are fine with a bit of kin slaying, they aren¡¯t quite capable of going through the body in the same way they can the legs. This wouldn¡¯t last though and I needed a way out.


    Said way ended up being through. My arm was already stuck, so I would have to break more of the ant¡¯s shell already. Plus, I needed to eat something and there was a ton of meat right on top of me.


    As I look back on this, I do have to wonder. When did I lose my yuck reaction to all this nonsense? Like, I was an average human with normal tastes for my region which very much was against eating bugs. Yet here I was, clawing my way through an ant¡¯s thorax and chowing down on its innards as I went.


    Eh, probably some kind of survival instinct or the fact that I had just recently scrambled what was left of my human brain. Whatever the case may be, the other two ants weren¡¯t expecting me to pop out of their friend¡¯s back. The exit wound from my spear hand strike provided an excellent weak point for said popping.


    There wasn¡¯t as much gore, though I came out steaming. I¡¯d managed to suck down an absurd amount of the ant¡¯s insides and my body went into overdrive to process it all. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if you could cook an egg on me with the way my temperature was spiking upwards.


    Good thing I don¡¯t have delicate internals anymore to worry about cooking. This was like the mother of all fevers. Though instead of fighting bacteria, it was turbocharging my stomach such that it could start cracking proteins and molecules. All to make more aqua gel.


    Gel that was put to work right away, repairing the accumulated damage I had from my trip in the water and having been starving. Oh, yeah, I was starving as well. Not as in, ¡°Oh, I¡¯m a bit peckish¡±, but rather, ¡°My body is eating itself to stay alive¡±. It seems I had simply gone so far that my body didn¡¯t bother to express the seriousness of the matter.


    Though now that I did manage to cram down some food? I became ravenous. Which wasn¡¯t exactly safe for me as it certainly stripped away a few things from my mind. Stuff like caution and the ability to retreat.


    So yeah, as I burst out of the one ant, I dove towards another. Not the smartest plan, but I wasn¡¯t exactly running at full capacity. Anyway, the ant I wasn¡¯t diving at snipped off my one feet, nice as you please. You would expect a rougher cut from an ant¡¯s jaw, but these were magically sharp or some such.


    Then the ant I was targeted took a chunk out of my side as I landed on the things back. Not being quite there, I ignored such trivialities and dug in. My claws gleamed with an unnatural sharpness, so hey, got an upgrade to my ability, and that let me get at the gooey insides. In fact, I stuck my entire upper body into the ant¡¯s back so I could eat quicker.


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    That was when the other ant tried to bite me again. Except, such an action would get in-between me and my meal and so on pure instincts, I kicked back with my remaining foot, rending the ants face and slicing off a jaw. An interesting result as it meant my sharpness effect was actually stronger than the ants. Otherwise, my attempt would have just resulted in either my foot being stopped or part of my foot being chopped off.


    Then I turned on the last living ant. While still not fully back, I knew I didn¡¯t have long before other ants might come to investigate. Better to eat the choice bits and flee than get stuck in a never ending battle. One that I likely would not have won. While my ability to digest food was enhanced, actually producing the gell took time. I only recovered so quickly because it has been a while and my body has stockpiled some of the needed components.


    The third ant died just as quickly as the others, with the only difference being that I went through the thing¡¯s face, what with it already being torn open. Though once I was through the head, what remained of it came off as I was forced to claw my way into the body.


    After that, it was just a matter of moments before I was out and running back the way I came from. While dangerous, that very fact would likely be my saving grace. I couldn¡¯t fight an entire ant colony and since I didn¡¯t notice any in the darkness, they likely avoided it. Which, to be fair, one of the big threats I faced was a giant star-nosed mole. Maybe their diet is different, being that big, but I assumed they wouldn¡¯t turn down snacking on ants like their normal cousins do.


    They might even be the entire reason ants hadn¡¯t claimed the entire dark cavern. I doubted it, but stranger things have happened.


    To me.


    Literally just a few days ago.


    Eh, that¡¯s life sometimes. Whatever the case may be, even if my money was on there being some nasty surprise still hidden in the dark cavern, it was my safest bet now that my mind had cleared some. Though the fact that three ants, each individually bigger than me, didn¡¯t satiate my hunger should tell you something.


    The problem was that all the food sources would likely be of the mobile sort. No easy grazing, but that just seemed to be my life at this point. At least chances are it wasn¡¯t going to be even more bugs. Because looking back, I basically became an insectivore. Mantids and now ants? What¡¯s next? Cockroaches?


    The answer is no. I don¡¯t mind saying that right out. I do not eat any cockroaches of any size. Even now, the thought of it sends shivers down my spine. There is just something about them. I don¡¯t mind seeing them, but along with flies, I draw the line at eating them.


    Good thing there are some giant kiwis in the darkness which also seems to be fine hunting the ants. I had barely entered the dark cavern before one came out of nowhere and attacked me. This was great because it meant that I wouldn¡¯t have to deal with the bigger predators that live more towards the center of the room. It also meant I should probably take another dip in some water before I attempt to go deeper.


    Anyway, five kiwis eaten later and I was full. Not that I killed five kiwis, no, I killed nine. It is just that four of the times ended with some other critters stealing the body from me. In particular, one time a shadow I could see even within the darkness rushed out.


    Said shadow tried to pass under me, but not trusting it, I dodged to the side. Good thing too, because as soon as it was under the kiwi corpse, it became as if it was a hole in the ground and the body fell in. After that, it just rushed away from me for which I am thankful. It was likely some sort of elemental shadow creature and I wasn¡¯t exactly packing any magical attacks to handle it.


    Whatever the case may be and my nearly fifty percent failure to secure my food aside, it was time to head deeper into the darkness. That was the point of getting food in the first place. Oh, and take a bath. Smelling like ant guts was convenient for hunting giant kiwis, but I didn¡¯t want to get blitzed by the monstrous star-nosed moles and whatever else lived deeper in.


    Good thing water was actually quite easy to find. All I had to do was watch the various tunnels that led into this area and whenever the light from them was blocked, take note of it. Sure, that didn¡¯t mean that specific tunnel led to water, however it at least indicated that extreme danger likely wasn¡¯t in that direction. No, how I found water was by choosing the tunnel with the most traffic.


    After all, this area already had food, so what else would they be leaving for? Now, I¡¯ll readily admit that this might not have been the best method. However, it worked! Which is all that mattered to me at the time. So, after waiting a little to allow one of the moles to pass through said tunnel, I entered it as well.


    Though at first I was worried. The tunnel itself was relatively small, only twice my new height, and barren of everything except the glowing mushrooms on the ceiling. There wasn¡¯t even one of the ever present snails, munching on said shrooms.


    However, I didn¡¯t have to go far before the air became moist. My worry however did not go away, instead transitioning to something else. Because with the moistness, also came an overbearing heat. Well, I assumed it was?


    I must admit, at this point my ability to tell normal temperature variances had truly been deadened. My gel just didn¡¯t conduct heat or react to it in a way that my mind was capable of translating, at least not yet. It¡¯s like growing up eating spicy food only to experience a numbing food. You can tell that it is doing something, but if you try and compare it to the spiciness you remember, it just doesn¡¯t make sense.


    So yeah, I guessed it was getting pretty hot because of environmental cues. Stuff like the shrooms on the ceiling taking on a more wilted appearance and the fact that any drips of water from the ceiling dried up quite fast despite the humidity. Which, thankfully? I guess? Was something I could still feel.

 What A Big Mouth You Have - Chapter 15

    Whether still being able to feel the humidity was good or not, I soon found the source. That water I was looking for? It arrived in the form of a small waterfall coming out of the ceiling and creating a small flow down the middle of the tunnel.


    As for the heat? Well, water ended up forming a pretty straight tunnel and off in the distance I could see an orange glow taking over for the mushrooms¡¯ more blue green tinted light. I didn¡¯t go all the way down there, so I don¡¯t know the truth of the matter. However, video games had given me some expectations for that sort of glow and I assumed magma would be the answer.


    It would explain the heat and also seemed like a stupid way to die. So, I only drank my fill, took a bath, and left. Though I will note, my ¡°fill¡± was much greater than even my prodigious appetite for food. I guess it makes some sense? While the human body is mostly water, my gel certainly has it beat.


    Oh, and at this point I can finally confirm the big creature I first met in the dark area is, in fact, a star-nosed mole. That being because I ran into one on my way back. Dang thing took up half the tunnel by itself and the rude critter wasn¡¯t going to let me pass by.


    I¡¯m uncertain it knew what to do with me? I didn¡¯t look like food, smell like food, or react like food. Of course, none of that stopped it from trying to eat me. Except unlike the last time I fought one, I could actually see what I¡¯m doing.


    As the mole lunged at me, trying to entangle me in its nose tentacles, I dropped to the ground. I can feel the tentacles swoosh by as I dig my claws into the ground and thrust myself forward. The mole did not like this, as while I¡¯m sure magic had a hand in making it so big, it didn¡¯t provide any kind of belly armor.


    Yes, they were quite tough compared to non-magical animals, but then again, I had shed the ¡°mundane¡± classification an entire body ago. So as I squeezed underneath the beast and rolled over, my mystically sharp claws began to slice through the moles pelt with frenzied abandon. Blood poured down on me as I worked my way through skin, fat, and muscle to get at the vulnerable vital organs beneath.


    Moles aren¡¯t exactly designed for jumping, but this one certainly gave it a try. Which hurt. Believe it or not, having a giant mole lift up and then slam down on you is not pleasant. If I had my old body, I would have died. As it stands, it still did some damage.


    To itself, that is. In raising itself up, the mole allowed me to get my arms up off the ground. Then it impaled itself on them. Pretty certain I got deep enough to reach organs, but at that point the mole realized things were not working out for it and took off.


    That resulted in me being dragged under it for a few body lengths before I could extract myself and let me tell you, it wasn¡¯t pleasant. Left a bloody skid mark on the ground. Well, bloody in the sense that it was my blood. Definitely didn¡¯t look like blood, more like someone smeared some jello across the ground.


    Maybe I should have gone after the mole, but at the time I just wanted to keep exploring the dark cavern. While I had been doing alright so far, this area was going to kill me if I stuck around too long. The presence of those ants, let alone the fact that they weren¡¯t the undisputed rulers of the area? Some oversized critters would be the least of my worries if I stuck around too long.


    So, after getting out of the tunnel without any further incidents, I hightailed it towards the rubble mountain with the light coming down from on high. While I wasn¡¯t certain it would be somewhere safer, I was leaning heavily on tropes from fantasy stories at that point and it didn¡¯t even occur to me that maybe up would lead me to worse monsters.


    Of course, my hurried journey into the darkness did that just fine. For as much as the giant star-nosed moles were dangerous, I soon came across their predators about a third of the way to my goal. I had been doing fine.


    While the moles would attack every once in a while and I still couldn¡¯t manage to kill them. My strength was enough to drive them off. It was during such an occasion that my first encounter happened. The most recent mole was scampering away when a giant maw came down and took a bite out of it. And by giant, I mean twice as wide as I was tall.


    Even to this day, I¡¯m not sure what their deal was. My best guess is some abomination of a naked mole rat as the base and then magic screwed around with it from there. Though even that guesswork is mostly based on them being hairless and wrinkled. Maybe they were actually based on those hairless cats? Or more horrific, maybe humans? What is important is that they were four times my height when standing and had some gnarly choppers to go with its silly wide mouth.


    Their teeth just made no sense. In a natural creature, teeth tend to make sense or at least follow some form of logic. Not with these abominations of the dental profession! It was like they grabbed teeth from every creature you can think of, mixed them all up in a bag, and then took turns grabbing one out and sticking it into the next available spot on their gums. I swear one even had a section of baleen.


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    The only good thing that came of this was the star-nosed moles were less willing to stick around for a fight. With predators in the wing, most of the moles would run away if their first attack didn¡¯t work. However, this did not balance out the fact that now those abominations were attacking me as well.


    Though things got really nasty about halfway there. I was sneaking along when suddenly everything got moist and claustrophobic. Seems those giant mouth¡¯s of theirs weren¡¯t just for taking a sizeable chunk out of the moles. Oh, and now that I had a closer look, it was clear the travesty that was their teeth didn¡¯t just stop at their gums as I had a fair few poking holes into me.


    I strained my arms, but they wouldn¡¯t budge. The only movement I managed was to wiggle my fingers and toes. However, that was more than enough as on the end of said fingers and toes, were some nasty sharp claws which managed to slice up the monster¡¯s mouth.


    It in turn tried to gnaw at me, but in doing so, released some of the pressure on me. Now, I wasn¡¯t able to pull the same trick that had worked on the mole in the tunnel. While my claws could certainly scrape up the monster¡¯s mouth, I was nowhere near strong enough to penetrate too deeply and its mouth would have snapped my arms like twigs.


    Even now, I honestly believe part of what saved me was that I didn¡¯t taste like meat. Anyway, with the extra wiggle room, I flailed around like crazy. I¡¯m sure what I did was more akin to paper cuts than actual injuries, just from the fact that there wasn¡¯t any blood, but it caused the beast to spit me out and run away.


    After that encounter, I decided to take a different approach to stealth. Before, I was mostly going with a human-ish style of sneaking. After that experience, I tried crawling so next time one of those things would at least have a harder time with venus fly trapping me.


    This led to me finding out a new and interesting quirk of my power. I might not have been a full on shape shifter, but I definitely had the ability to take on alternate forms. That or this was the point where I unlocked the ability. Whatever the case may be, walking on all four caused me to transform into a more traditional dragon shape.


    And let me tell you, suddenly having a long neck? That is weird. It certainly helped, though. Even gave me the flexibility to look over my shoulder as I was walking around. About the only unpleasant bit, was that I lost my thumbs as part of turning my arms digitigrade.


    Good thing I didn¡¯t completely lose my thumb privileges. Not that my actual thumbs stayed around, mind you. Rather, the index fingers had the joints shift and grind around a bit until they could offer some of the utility. Oh, and it was also at this point that I found out I still have bones, or at least bone analogs. Kind of hard for your bones to grind against each other if you don¡¯t have any.


    Now, this wasn¡¯t as bad as the first time I fully took my more anthropomorphic form, but the first go at turning into this feral form wasn¡¯t a walk in the park. Even if I did keep walking despite it. Well, scuttling might be a better term for what I was doing at that point.


    Upside, it seems scuttling is stealthier for me than sneaking around on two legs. More than that, it wasn¡¯t like this dark cavern was a flat surface like most of the other tunnels and such. However long ago the titanic fight was that broke everything, it wasn¡¯t long enough in the past for everything to be smoothed out.


    There were boulders twice my size and furrows that I¡¯m pretty sure were made by an errant swipe of a claw. It was a shame most of those swipes seemed to go perpendicular to my target. The few I did find that went the correct direction made excellent cover as I could crawl along them and keep myself entirely below ground level. Which was much safer as even when I cozied up besides the boulders, those things still managed to attack me.


    Though at least with a boulder to one side, I knew which direction they would be coming from. Their distended jaws snapping at me as I use any amount of protection I can scrounge up. Then the ground rumbled.


    At that point, it would be nice if there was simply a fourth enemy type to deal with. So far, there were the kiwis, moles, and the hairless maws. What¡¯s one more variable? Well, quite a lot, but it would be manageable.


    Instead, I got to experience the weirdness of the caverns. That first time, the shaking was because of a monster in the style of one of those dinosaurs with a tail mace. The rumbling a result of said tail slamming into any boulders it passed by. And as with most everything else down here, it wasn¡¯t a herbivore.


    A fact it made abundantly clear with its meat tearing teeth and how it tried to take a bite out of me. Even once I was fully hidden under the nearest boulder that would allow that, it attempted to smash the entire boulder to pieces. Though the rocks were pretty tough and it gave up after a few swings.


    Easy to tell why as well. I didn¡¯t trust it to not come back so I remained under the boulder, which turned out to be an excellent decision as I had a couple new friends show up not long after. One was a seven limbed reptile monster with way too many joints and the other looked like a scorpion with four legs, three tails, and two pincers that was covered in that blackest black paint.


    You would think something being black in a dark area would make it harder to see, but that isn¡¯t really the case, especially if the color is uniform. This scorpion, even in the near pitch black conditions of the cavern, stood out. I don¡¯t even really get what benefit it got from that.


    Anyway, I would have likely been screwed if only the scorpion showed up, because the stingers would have definitely fit under the boulder. However, since they both showed up and I was hidden well enough, the two ended up exchanging some blows before retreating.


    I think the lizard came out on top? It seemed like the scorpion¡¯s sting couldn¡¯t penetrate its scales. While it had no problem cracking the shell on one of the pincers. Though it failed to actually break the limb off.

 Smile - Chapter 16

    My eyes opened halfway and with great effort. I must have dozed off at some point. The boulder had protected me and my aqua gel nature seemed to remove any nasty side effects of sleeping on literal rocks, but I clearly still needed to rest despite how much had changed at this point. A slight problem with that being I didn¡¯t seem to get tired, so much as instantly lose consciousness once in a safe place.


    So yes, I did just get knocked out; again. Thank goodness for my scentless nature! If even a bit of my old body had remained, not even the boulder would have helped. I would have been found and if I was lucky, awoken by the sound of something digging me out. Now, though, I needed to get out of Dodge and hopefully make it to my goal before my next unplanned rest.


    Still, I stayed motionless at the edge of my protective little alcove, watching for even a hint of movement or noise. Better safe than sorry. I didn¡¯t want to get half out of my hole only to be bitter in half. Not only do I not think I wouldn¡¯t have survived that, but it would have been the half with my head.


    Once out from under what was likely my last safe space until the climb, I rushed as fast as possible while remaining quiet. This ended up being a lot quicker than I expected as it seems my gel had decent shock absorption properties. My naked feet didn¡¯t slap or splat against the ground, instead making barely a whisper as they smacked down.


    I wasn¡¯t quite able to go full speed, but even my stealthy speed was at least half again as fast as my old human running speed. Though my worry at this point was how to tell if I was tired? Like pain, tiredness isn¡¯t just a punishment, but rather an indicator of your body¡¯s state.


    To not have that? Despite clearly not being untiring yet? That was very much a nightmare. I doubt my body would allow me to get to the point of literal collapse, but the question was how close would it get me?


    A question which I could not answer yet and so I ran with hope. Not my favorite way to handle issues, but it was working. Well, the whole keep running thing worked. It didn¡¯t make me safe from all of the monsters.


    The closer I got to the light, the more types of monsters showed up. This includes an old ¡°friend¡± that managed to take one of my arms in passing. That¡¯s right, I¡¯m never going to escape the mantis threat. Though this one was an albino cave mantis, so at least a change of pace from the usual green. Even better, it was satisfied with just the arm and so didn¡¯t try to stop me.


    Oh, and it seemed to be alone. Which is more typical of mantises. Not exactly an insect you see grouped together except right after they are born.


    And you know what? I would have been willing to lose my arms over and over, just as long as nothing took my legs or stopped me. My one goal was to leave this underground monster playground and woe betide that which stopped me.


    I almost paused at that point. Even now, my mouth splits into a predator¡¯s smile, my teeth on display. Back then? It was all new to me and so having it all react so naturally? I could hardly control myself.


    My remaining hand curled and uncurled, claws ready as the thought of something actually managing to stop me and what I would DO to them! Even as I obsessed over the thought, my body began to fall in line.


    So far, I had been moving around naturally enough, despite the change to digitigrade. I could even say I was moving naturally, as if I was born this way. For this moment in time, though? Things got absolutely supernatural.


    This wasn¡¯t even a new power coming to light. Rather, I was hooking into a part of my new body that had been hidden from me. I guess a body made entirely of gel wasn¡¯t going to be normal from the word go.


    As I ran and my predatory smile widened, my steps lost all sound. Each impact was now a perfect rebound, my gel gathering power as my speed increases. That power wasn¡¯t limited to only improving my running speed.


    The claws on each hand shimmered with a sharpness that goes beyond simple physics. My fangs grew out as my mouth warped to better fit them. They probably shimmered as well, but I wasn¡¯t in a place to check at the time.


    Instincts were coursing through me, and back then it was too much. Thankfully, my focus on that one goal, the literal light at the end of the tunnel, kept me going. However, that didn¡¯t protect those that got in my way.


    Yes, protect, because at that point I had lost another chain holding me back. The first to run a foul of my new mindset was some sort of giant isopod, you know, pill bugs. They didn¡¯t attack me, but did happen to be in the way. As I look back, I even feel a bit bad for it as honestly, what I did wasn¡¯t warranted.


    I slammed into the insect¡¯s side, my claw scrabbling against its exoskeleton, but unfortunately for it, I found purchase where the plates came together. And so I wrenched that seam open as it tried to curl into a ball. My maw spread open with unnatural fluidity, before I lunged forward and did a repeat of how I took care of the ants previously. Except this time it was unprovoked and on a larger insect which extended its suffering.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    An utter waste. While hunting prey might cause distress, to make said prey suffer for no reason is a sign of an inferior hunter. Which I was, to be fair, but even then I could have done better.


    Though even such a large treasure trove of food couldn¡¯t keep me in one place long. I certainly ate a good bit, but more than four-fifths of the isopod remained when I burst out the opposite side. On the up side, this momentary stop gave my body the time and material to replace my arm. My recovery thereof, proving useful.


    At the edges of this dark cavern, the floor has been relatively flat. Now that I was getting closer to the light, that became less and less true. What had been a few boulders and scrapes in the ground began to turn into mounds twice my height and getting taller with subsequent pits of equal depth. Good thing I got my arm back, oh, and was in some sort of flow state.


    The bounding leaps powered by the perfect rebound of force jumped up over the first few such mounds and gave me a head start on those to come. More important was that once I couldn¡¯t just leap twice my height, my claws were able to grab onto the stone. The supernatural sharpness of them cutting into the stone like it was wax.


    Not that the rough terrain meant there weren¡¯t still dangerous monsters lurking around. In fact, the pits below hid some of the worst there was. Strange oozes gurgled as I leapt over them, pseudopods reaching up to try and slap me down, instead leaving behind smoking trenches when they missed and hit the sides of their pit.


    In others, swarms of various vermin boiled out to try and catch me. Whether it was the brightly colored millipedes as big around as my thigh, the rat swarm raising up a more humanoid looking rat with two heads, or the pit of worms that seemed to phase through the stone itself. All dangerous and likely able to reduce me to nothing in moments if I had fallen in.


    Good thing I still had some boost to my bounce, leaping over the pits and scrambling up the side of the next mound. Oh, and there were more of the classic threats both down below and up with me. However, at the time, I was certainly more susceptible to swarm tactics.


    The giant lizards? Strange mutations and combinations? And other similar larger-than-life monsters? I could see them, avoid them, and most importantly I wasn¡¯t that tempting. It wasn¡¯t safe and I was probably inches from death multiple times, but sometimes ignorance is bliss, especially since I wasn¡¯t in quite the right state of mind.


    Though what helped was that just as more monsters popped up the further into the darkness I got. The density of monsters declined as more light shined down on us. This did make the pits all the more dangerous, if I had ever slipped into one. Just from the few abominations that reached out to try and grab at me, even back then I could tell those pits were packed.


    Which is odd. Even now, I¡¯m not really certain what was going on. Like, why are there so many monsters squeezed together? You would think that unless they are a swarm, they would be fighting and eating each other. Maybe they were and there are just too many? Also weird, since nowhere else was the density of monsters so great except for the swarms. And those were a more localized mass.


    But I managed to make my way through. I managed to lose another arm or three to various grasping limbs including what looked like a crab claw. There was even an instance where I lost a leg and almost fell into a pit. But I made it to the mountain made up of stone from the collapsed roof.


    The light shined directly down on me and even if it was just the weak light of more mushrooms; I felt invigorated. My warped smile began to ease up, but of course it couldn¡¯t be this simple. As a connection point between what was at the very least, two different strata of caves, it wasn¡¯t a free pass.


    While the monsters in the dark stuck to their domain, the monsters above weren¡¯t shy about trying to make their way down. From above, a motley collection of giant insects, undead, and overly mobile plants were throwing themselves at the pits in an attempt to make their way through. They were failing, but the constant influx of more from above forced even the reluctant to eventually make their way down.


    This actually presented me with a choice to make. From what I saw, now being directly under the hole, the fallen roof had opened up into three separate areas of the cave system above. One clearly dominated by the undead, while the other two more closely matched to what I had already seen back the way I came. I could only tell it was two separate areas because one direction had a wasp presence.


    Did I say I had a choice? I meant I was going to the green area without the giant wasps. Sure, they were mostly the size of my fist with only a few as long as my arm, but hell no. But I don¡¯t trust them to remain that way. The mantises above ground certainly didn¡¯t.


    And while I don¡¯t mind the undead, they¡¯re not exactly edible. I think? I guess technically I hadn¡¯t tried to eat them at this point, what with the burial mounds being mostly humanoid undead. And these did seem to be made from the remains of beasts instead. However, I don¡¯t blame anyone for not wanting to chow down on the undead.


    Anyway, that left me one final push where I would have to circle around this mountain of stone as I climbed up. Because, of course, the area I wanted to reach was the opposite of where I was. Though the bigger problem was always going to be the upward part.


    While the monsters weren¡¯t streaming out of the holes in the ceiling, they climbed down at a steady pace. Each new addition pushes those already on the pile closer to the pits below. I would have honestly been hard pressed to get on the stone mound if not for the fact that around two-thirds of the way down, the monsters would bunch up before making a rush downward. Each hoping for quantity to overcome the dangers below. They didn¡¯t, but they also didn¡¯t have a choice.


    Which was good for me. These were weak monsters being pushed out of an overpopulated area. Though also bad for me, as it meant the region above me wasn¡¯t going to be any easier than below. If only because it seemed there would be more monsters to fight.

 Oozing Venom - Chapter 17

    My first challenge though, was to get through the monster build up. I could have waited for them to all rush down, except I¡¯m in their way. So better to attempt it while they were still building up than to wait for the avalanche of monsters to come at me.


    So I climbed upwards. My fingers and toes splaying outward to better grip the uncertain terrain around me. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that numerous monsters had already climbed down, I would have needed to be even more careful about things like loose rocks. Not that I wasn¡¯t careful, but the monsters would have dislodged anything my weight could have budged.


    Though some of that caution faded away as I got into the climb. Instead of just pulling myself up, I began to throw myself upward. Not letting myself lose momentum as I built up speed. Then I was on the monsters.


    It wasn¡¯t hard for them to see me coming and so even more of them piled up in the area. This was actually to my advantage as before, it was just a collection of monsters that had naturally gathered. So while I wouldn¡¯t say they were friends, they at least could work together. With the additions from both sides, though, that added in unruly elements.


    In particular, the wasps did not want to focus on me. Which was strange to me as I expected the undead to be the odd ones out. Sigh, I should have guessed that even in a magical world, wasps would be the biggest dicks.


    At least it opened up a way forward when otherwise I might have been blocked. As the wasps took a cheeky stab at some beetles, a solid wall of bugs, plants, and undead began to split apart. The beetles turned to face the wasps and some mobile balls of vines began to squeeze away from the conflict. So, I took that as an invitation and bounded into that forming gap.


    Of course, the beetles wanted to turn and face me, but the wasps took that as an opportunity to get in another backstab. Which meant that when I didn¡¯t go out of my way to attack them, I was quickly downgraded in threat level. That just left the vines. Except they had their own problems now.


    While inching away from the wasps was a healthy choice, it also pushed them into a group of caterpillars led by a strange butterfly monster with six pairs of wings. Not the best choice as it isn¡¯t like they were fully intelligent or anything. The situation below had simply forced a passivity on the monsters from above. Now that had been broken and I guess the vines looked pretty tasty to the caterpillars.


    Though compared to the beetles, the vines clusters were much more able to multitask. So as I scrambled up the mountain side, vines whipped at me. Some striking with such force it splashed away my gel. My claws answered in turn whenever able, slashing off the thinner vines and batting away the thicker.


    Then I was almost through, there was just one last barrier, for of course the gap I was taking advantage of didn¡¯t go the whole way through. All bunched up, the gathering of monsters was almost twenty ranks deep and the last two had managed to keep the peace. Worse, that was likely because those at the back were the most powerful and aware. Not only was the caterpillar¡¯s six-winged butterfly there, but a vine beast with 17 main vines, each as thick as a human¡¯s thigh, and a wasp as long as a leg that appeared to have three stingers instead of just one.


    Good thing the three of them weren¡¯t gathered up to stop me. In fact, they were keeping a healthy distance from one another, which meant I had a chance to thread the needle. The question was, which needle to thread? Keep going straight ahead and brave the vines and wasps or try and cut through the vines to deal with the butterfly and vines.


    Which was honestly a terrible choice whichever way I went. Would have much preferred if there was an option to skip the vines as they were the biggest threat. A bit of gel being whipped off was painful, but if even one landed a grapple I was in for some pain.


    Oh, and what about the beetles? Well, they didn¡¯t have a big bad, which was probably why the wasps felt safe attacking them. It was also why the gap didn¡¯t reach all the way through, so I guess both good and bad for me.


    Though most of this was stuff I ended up thinking about after the fact. In the moment, I could only make a snap decision. Which way? The wasp side. Why? I saw sparkling dust near the butterfly and certain pocket monsters had me instantly think of some kind of poisonous powder.


    Don¡¯t know if that really was the case, but with the decision made, it didn¡¯t matter. I gripped the rock I was clambering over, tensed my body, and thrust myself into the wasps. This was met with an instant reaction, stingers easily piercing my gel to inject potent venom. Which does make you question if the butterfly¡¯s potential poison would have been any worse?


    Well, at least the wasp venom wasn¡¯t able to paralyze me. Still felt like they were injecting me with lava or some such, but my new body is apparently at least partially able to handle such things. The venom didn¡¯t inject into me, so much as form a pocket and get pushed out once the stinger was removed.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    It had still been in contact with my inner gel and going by the pain, was being slowly absorbed, but most got squeezed out. Though that burning pain tried to cloud my mind and force me to collapse. Hah! I gained my body of gel through pain and suffering. As if a bit of a burning sensation was going to stop me.


    And a good thing too, because it seems the vine monsters have more smarts than you might expect. A massive vine from the leader slams down behind me, right about where I would have been if paralyzed or slowed down by the wasp¡¯s venom. Not that missing this one attack stopped the beast. More monstrous vines began to slam down.


    It is likely luck alone that got me through. The vine beast seemed to be one of those sorts that slowed down with size. A weakness that sadly does not always appear.


    Then I was through. While the wasps chased and the vine beast leader continued to try and slap me with its vines, I was past the chaff. Except I was also onto the hardest part where the mountain of rubble becomes much steeper.


    Which makes sense. If I was the monsters, I would rather gather in an area that didn¡¯t require me to cling to the ground. All while staying as far away from the much stronger monsters below. Well, except for the damn wasps. Not only does the much steeper climb mean nothing to them, it also allows them to catch up to me while I throw myself ever higher.


    And I¡¯m not joking when I say I¡¯m throwing myself upwards. Climbing would be too slow and so with my great strength I send myself rocketing upwards. Not only increasing my speed, but the unpredictable nature of it helped me avoid the last few attempts from the vine beasts.


    Though as I near the tunnel I chose as my target, I have to admit that the pursuit of the wasps is getting too much. They sting my back and rip chunks of my gel out as they try to cling to me. I don¡¯t know if they would follow me into the tunnel, there must be a reason why they haven¡¯t already taken it over, but even my seeming immunity to their venom feels like it might be slipping.


    I throw myself upward one more time, aiming for a specific spike of stone jutting out. My left hand grabs tight as I just reach it and I switch to my right hand while flipping myself to face away from the rocks. Below me the wasps are hot on my trail, not quite capable of keeping up when I throw myself, but more than capable of making up lost ground when I¡¯m forced to climb normally.


    The first wasp to reach my feet receives a spectacular kick to the thorax, sending it tumbling through the air and away from the light. Which turns out to be an important detail for as soon as it is immersed in the darkness of the cavern beyond, something that might share traits with a bat swoops by, snagging a snack.


    Welp, that seemed like a good enough solution to my current problem. So as the rest of the wasps came at me, I grabbed the stone with my other hand as well and began to swing my feet around. I¡¯m not going to say this was the most effective, but it stopped them from landing on me and I managed to punt half of them out into the deadly darkness.


    Down below, I could hear a harsh buzz that sounded quite annoyed. The boss wasp wasn¡¯t too pleased with me, but I ignored it and went back to hanging with just one hand. The other taking over for my feet as I grabbed one wasp after another and tossed them. Though my throw wasn¡¯t as good as my feet and some wasps managed to catch themselves. That didn¡¯t stop me from grabbing them again for another go and so soon I was wasp free. The wasp leader below was not willing to lose anymore for fear of losing its position to another.


    With that taken care of, I throw myself upward once again as venom continues to ooze out of my back and legs. Though I am more than happy that for the rest of my ascent, that is the only thing I have to worry about. Even better, there isn¡¯t a constant stream of monsters exiting the tunnel. Yes, they did leave the tunnel at a steady pace, but they weren¡¯t gathered up.


    So I flung myself upward one more time, bridging the air gap between the rubble and the tunnel. My claws were at full extension and yet I was barely able to snag onto the stone. Worse, since the monsters were dropping down instead of climbing, where I grabbed was very unstable.


    The stones began to fall away under my claws even before I managed to get a good grip on them, forcing me to scrabble for purchase. I failed. The rocks gave way too fast, my back breaking my fall as I slammed into the rubble below.


    After a couple of rolls and a few meters, I managed to slam a claw into a large boulder, breaking my fall. Though if I still had bones, this would have dislocated my shoulder, or worse. Still, I managed to keep my claw clenched as pain radiated out from the entire arm.


    It took a moment of hanging there, but after things settled, I was able to give it another go. This time, though, I didn¡¯t overestimate myself. Instead of trying to propel myself with just my arms, I got on top of a stone that jutted out.


    This stone was a little lower than where I made my last attempt, but it had enough space to fit on top of. So, with my whole body tensed up, I sprang upwards and easily surpassed the previous area I had fallen from. Still, the rocks were unstable, but forewarned is forearmed.


    Instead of trying to hang on, I went right back to climbing ever higher. Even as the rocks beneath my claws fell away, I was onto the next handhold. Above me, a beetle monster chose this time to make the jump down. Its wings allow for at least a bit of hover action, clearly not strong enough or magical enough to actually fly quite yet.


    That allowed the damn thing to take a couple nips at me. Took a chunk out of my head on the first one and almost took off one of my feet on the second. Then I was up over the edge and into the tunnel.

 Authors Note: I just launched the Kickstarter for Banished Talent!

    Heyo!


    The Kickstarter to publish Banished Talent as an ebook is now live! If you''ve enjoyed the story so far and would like to read the entire story in a more convenient form, this is your chance. Because the story has already finished, if the Kickstarter succeeds, there will be an ebook. Though I''m hoping we can get enough people because the stretch goals are for a new cover and professional editing! Please consider checking it out. If all you want is Banished Talent as an ebook, that''s only $3! Please consider checking the kickstarter out and sharing it around!Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2116937393/banished-talent-ebook

 Exploring The Tunnels - Chapter 18

    First impression? Green. I was now in a tunnel absolutely covered in greenery and not of the fungal sort. Well, except for the light mushrooms. Those seemed to have remained constant.


    Also, where the area below broke into the tunnel was right on a bend and so I could see whatever might be coming my way. Which, given how frequent bugs and plants had been dropping down meant I saw quite a lot. Though they were ignoring me for the moment as a massive brawl took place, presumably for the honor of going down.


    So, not wanting to give them a chance, I slunk into the underbrush. I¡¯m not all that skilled at hiding, but my aqua gel blended in a lot better with the green plants than it had with the grey-brown rocks below. Though it might have helped that I was leaving the hole instead of fighting for a spot to go down.


    Either way, the tunnel soon splits down the left path so I head over there. And once away from the hole, monster density drops way down. My guess at the time being all the monsters that used to be in the tunnels having gone to the way down.


    Oh, not that there weren¡¯t monsters. There are all kinds of creepy crawlies of great size. Though over represented were immobile plant monsters. Which I guess makes sense if everyone else seemed to want to go down. Of course they¡¯d be all that is here, they can¡¯t move!


    In fact, my first proper encounter in these tunnels was exactly one such monster. I found an area with a rougher floor and had been paying way too much attention to my footing. Though I wasn¡¯t blind or anything. The damn plant is obvious enough, looking like an oversized pitcher plant, flapping its lid at me.


    I ignored it to my detriment as out of nowhere, a bunch of vines grabbed my legs. They tried to dunk me in its mouth and I disagreed with that plan of action. It is unfortunate for the plant that I¡¯m now perfect for fighting their kind. My claws are shockingly proficient at slicing through them.


    And once freed from their grip, I gave the pitcher a few extra air holes. That didn¡¯t kill it, but it wouldn¡¯t be holding any food or acid until the holes healed. Oh, yeah, did I mention the pitcher had acid in it, instead of water? I got to figure that out by how the ground cover and dirt below it sizzled and melted once I opened those holes. Also, getting acid on my claws hurts. Good to know.


    After that experience, I was a lot more cautious. Didn¡¯t stop any of the super-sized bugs and overly mobile foliage from sneaking up on me. Ambushes seemed to be the norm for this area. As for what they are ambushing?


    Small, at least relatively so, mammals. If the insects are the size of trucks, the rat-like mammals scurrying all over the place are about the size of a golf cart. Still big compared to a human, but that isn¡¯t hard to do. At least it seems the addition of magic makes it much less of a hassle.


    Though it is at this point that I realize my changes went further than just replacing human flesh with aqua gel. Because the pseudo-rats weren¡¯t the only prey in this area. It seems that humans and other similar sorts would adventure into these cave systems. Even if it took a while to find them as they seem to have been kept away from the easy passage into the lower region.


    Not that I found living humans or anything. I¡¯m going to assume delving into this region is for fools and adventures, seeking treasure by staging quick raids into monster controlled areas. Which also means I¡¯m near a way out. As for what I found, well, skeletons and scraps.


    At first, it was hard to tell the bones came from a human source as even the rodents of unusual size tended to eat them. However, a bed of soporific flowers gave me a more complete skeleton to recognize. And what I recognized was that I¡¯m bigger now. Like, before this I would have compared the rous to a four-wheeler instead of a golf cart, which should tell you a bit about my size.


    I don¡¯t even know when I picked up the extra bulk. It could have been anytime after I jumped into the water way back on the surface. Though I suspect it was actually a bit more recent. My guess being during my charge towards the light in the lower area where I ended up consuming quite a bit.


    Still kind of weird for me at the time to know I was suddenly about seven and a half feet tall or if you prefer, two and a third meters. Not the tallest person ever, but I was now built like a brick house. No bean pole here. When they scaled me up, they grabbed the corner and held shift while resizing me.


    At the time, I half wondered if there was some race of small people around. Not only are copyright neutral halflings a popular fantasy trope, but even back on earth there had been some around at one point. I¡¯m just going to nip that in the bud, though. No reason to leave you wondering about something so obvious the second I meet anyone else.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    Anyway, I took the bones to mean I was on the right track of getting out of here and pressed onward. And let me just say, being differently affected by poison likely saved me. As my experience with the wasp venom showed, I could still be affected in some ways, but being lured in and put to sleep wasn¡¯t on the table.


    Then, as I skirted around another suspicious plant, it sprayed something at me. Oddest stuff, don¡¯t know what it should be doing, but it caused my scales to fizz. It was really odd because my scales would bubble and foam, yet none of their mass went away, so it must have been pretty contained.


    And what do you know? Right past that nuisance was a camp. While likely used by the unfortunate adventurers I had seen a few miles back. It was clear this is an established rest area. All vegetation has been cleared a good few paces on all sides and the pit has seen many a fire.


    Though more interesting than that is what was up against the wall. A good and proper wall at that, not some cavern wall. The campsite is on a bend and at the corner a flat section made of some sort of brick. That would be interesting all by itself, but the bronze door at the center of the wall told many stories of its own.


    Most obvious is the fact that it wasn¡¯t just bronze and the bricks aren¡¯t just clay. There were many signs of people having tried to get through the door or around it. To both sides the actual tunnel walls had someone take a pick to them to try and mine around the bricks. The door itself was covered in soot, showing that someone had tried to melt the door at some point. And right underneath, the floor was no longer flush with the door as multiple parties in the past had likely tried to go under it.


    All those attempts and more had failed. The wall stood strong and the door wasn¡¯t even the least bit crooked from what were presumably uncountable attempts to pry it open. This place has taken all comers.


    Oh, and once I saw it, my Talent started to tremble. I had been focusing on how it had changed my body, so much so I had forgotten that in the end, it is a psionic effect. And this odd little corner of the vast underground caverns system is flush with mental energy. Energy that very much was whispering to me that I should look away and the door had clearly survived more than anything I could do to it.


    Quite an effective defense, except whoever set it up wasn¡¯t around anymore. Because, it totally took me in despite my Talent reacting. That is, right until I noticed the mental prompt didn¡¯t quite match with reality.


    The burn marks were from years and years ago, that chipped away section of wall to either side had been massively expanded, and someone had flattened out the ground to be even with the door. Though despite the glaring differences, I could tell no amount of differences would have made me notice if the power within hadn¡¯t called to me. Well, if I was strong enough, but in this case I¡¯m referring to those of average mortal ability.


    So yeah, I walked up to the door and tried to push it open. That didn¡¯t work, but I also didn¡¯t get hit by some trap. I consider that an overall victory for me. Oh, and I did try to pull on the door, there just wasn¡¯t anywhere to get purchase and my gel wasn¡¯t tacky enough to stick to it.


    In fact, I¡¯m sure many had questioned if it was actually a door or not. Sure, the bronze rectangle stood out from the brick walls, but without a handle it could easily be something else. I¡¯m still going to call it a door, though.


    Whatever the case, this was a good place to get some proper rest. Well, I assume it was with the whole campsite and lack of plants growing around it. Either way, I ended up sleeping an indeterminate amount of time in a ditch.


    Maybe calling it a ditch is a little rude. There was a log near the fire pit on the door¡¯s side that was sunk about halfway into the ground. So, with a bit of leverage, I pried it up and out towards the fire pit. This provided a bit of a screen from any monsters that might have seen me, though I had to sleep in the ditch or I would have stuck up over the log.


    While not comfortable, waking up was very much a struggle. Though not as much of a struggle as what came next. I had a direction to go and so all I could do was follow it.


    Except has an underground fantasy tunnel maze ever been that simple? I tried, I really did, but I swear that no matter which way I turned I would end up back at the campsite within five or so hours. Sure, that meant I was exploring for a decent amount of time, but a lot of it was fighting.


    So many encounters, and it seemed like the tunnels got restocked if I so much as turned my back on them. Of course, in reality, I knew the actual answer had to do with how I was avoiding the more obviously monster packed tunnels. This was already a low-density area when it came to monsters, likely because of the shortcut to the layer below.


    Inevitably, once one monster is gone, another would take its place. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that the plants I killed stayed gone, replaced by other threats? I would have assumed this was some kind of dungeon and the monsters literally respawning. Though I guess some shenanigans were taking place to keep it all packed to the gills.


    But now, I am going to change things. I¡¯d been back to the camp over ten times, which was more stubbornness on my part. While I couldn¡¯t map out the tunnels, they split and joined up way more than I feel is natural, I could notice patterns.


    Not that I felt clever for realizing it. It took me ten times to notice that in a certain area, an increased monster presence would always block the one direction? I guess maybe if on the third round I hadn¡¯t tried another such area only to end up back at the camp, I would have noticed sooner. None of that matters now as I was going to get out of here and as long as I kept telling myself that, it had to come true! Or so I told myself at the time to keep trying.

 Rous - Chapter 19

    Oh, did I mention my shifting opinions of the local megafauna? For the first few times I was looped back to the campsite, I felt the plants were the worst. I¡¯d be walking along and suddenly it was all root spears and pollen clouds. All the while I had to get down and swipe at the ground, hoping to slice up something important.


    In what felt like an ironic twist, I actually found the mobile plant monsters even easier to fight. While they might be able to move around, it introduced the weakness of having all of their body out of the ground and open to attack. Though I¡¯m sure part of this was because my claws were too damn good at cutting plants.


    So no, I no longer considered plants the most annoying enemy. That title goes to the enemy I am currently fighting. It started as most of my recent fights have, a rustle in the undergrowth, only for a beetle to charge out at me.


    Yes, I¡¯m vexed by beetles. They aren¡¯t swarmers or even monsters that will actively group up against. And yet even one on one they¡¯re so annoying for me at this time.


    Their exoskeletons are a magnitude sturdier than the mantids on the surface and unlike with the plants, I can¡¯t just hack through it with my claws. Their joints and such, of course still represented a weak spot and I¡¯m sure if I had managed to tip one of them over, the underbelly would be even weaker. Except they didn¡¯t let me do that.


    And this current beetle was no exception. It stayed low to the ground so I couldn¡¯t get underneath it, all the while it tried to nip my legs off. Oh, and they could turn on the spot, so my attempts to get to the side of it fails.


    Though I still tried as I was starting to develop a strategy for these things. While fighting them alone, if I get them to turn it brings the front leg opposite the way they turned forward. Not by much, but enough, and my leg slams forward.


    This doesn¡¯t hit the beetle, but it isn¡¯t meant to. Instead, the attack comes as I swing my leg down, claws stretched out. Now, it didn¡¯t always work, but this time it did and my claws manage to hook onto the joint of said leg. The beetle, of course, tries to pull away, but I slam my foot to the ground, ripping out the joint and leaving the leg dangling there.


    The beetle really didn¡¯t like that, but who cares what a beetle thinks? Definitely not me when it is trying to kill me. So with one limb disabled, I can take advantage of it being off balance and hit up the other front leg. This takes a while longer as the bug is defensive now, but I get in there eventually.


    Though instead of using my lower claws, I dodge in under the beast¡¯s snapping jaws and get my fingers poked right into the joint where the leg attaches to the body. One of the mid legs manages to smack me, but with my claws hooked in, all that does is rip the hole open even more. With that, the remaining front leg stops moving as something important gets cut or opened up.


    The body of the beetle falls onto my left leg as its front half can no longer support itself. Which is certainly uncomfortable, but I don¡¯t feel the urgent pain you would expect from being crushed. I guess being made of a gel has some advantages against being squished.


    Either way, with the beetle¡¯s front legs disabled, I can get my claws into the neck seam and scramble some important connections. The body still twitches and the head snaps at me, but they aren¡¯t working together anymore. So, once I extract my leg, I¡¯m able to retreat.


    It would have been nice to have a meal, but these tunnels have way too many monsters. A fact proven out with how not even a minute later, a pack of those rous show up. And sure, I can kill the rats easily enough, but even the more dangerous monsters avoid them when they¡¯re swarming and I¡¯m nowhere near that strong. But I need to be.


    For now though, a bit of sneaky sneaky is called for. These tunnels are crawling with monsters and I can¡¯t secure a path of safe retreat. In fact, with every time the tunnel splits I¡¯m in even more danger and this underground maze loves to have the tunnels branch off. That damn beetle just got lucky as I had to cross an area cleared of plants by something or another.


    Though with the rous riled up in that direction, I backtrack to the last branching point and take a new tunnel. And like that, I spend a good ten hours or so sneaking around, getting an idea for what is where, at least in a general sense. Even now, I swear those damn tunnels had some form of magic upon them that makes it hard to remember the layout. Normally, I¡¯m good at remembering my way through mazes and such.


    Whatever, I wasn¡¯t going to ignore the same stuff that guided me to this section and so noticed right away that this monster dense area had another low density area opposite the camp. So even if I didn¡¯t know which tunnel was which, I knew the general direction to head.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Though as less and less monsters showed up, the more worried I got. Like, sure, if I was heading into more ¡°civilized¡± territory, the locals would try and keep it clear of threats. Except for the fact that the word ¡°try¡± is what it all hangs on. I didn¡¯t pass through some monster repelling barrier nor smell something meant to fend them away. The tunnels just went from full to near empty.


    Maybe if there has been a shift in the general strength of the monsters I would be less worried. Like, if the monsters were also getting weaker, then I¡¯d just assume this was the edge of their territory and I might find some undead or some such around the next bend. Nope, just the same range of strength with less and less monsters.


    Until there weren¡¯t any. The monsters were gone and I was alone. Except it really felt like one of those horror games and I tense up, waiting for something to jump out at me.


    Yeah, I wasn¡¯t going to deal with this on an empty stomach. Besides, this situation was perfect for me to hunt for some food. Instead of eating on the run with whatever I could slice off a monster before even more monsters showed up, I could properly butcher a kill. Thank goodness my dietary requirements had radically changed, because I wasn¡¯t getting a fire to roast stuff over any time soon.


    Not that I thought a fire would get over my cultural based twinge at eating bugs and rats. Even before all this nonsense, I was conscious of the nonsense behind the social norms of what is and is not proper to eat. Yet at the same time, I wasn¡¯t going to claim to be above it, that¡¯s for sure.


    I would love to switch to eating all the lovely greenery around me, except it would have been a waste of time. Every once in a while when I spotted a new plant, I would give it a chomp and universally, the stems were too damn hard. What even eats these things?


    Well, I guess probably the rats and bugs do to some extent. Still, the best I could do was gnaw on a leaf, leaving behind the veins. The animals and plants down here must be getting a bunch of their energy needs met by the magic because there certainly isn¡¯t enough food to keep it all afloat.


    Hell, maybe I was as well. For now though, I was hunting for a lone rous. Even when not in a swarm, they did prefer to stay near others of their kind, but the lack of monsters in this area didn¡¯t really give them that option and I soon found my prey.


    The rous was nibbling at some exoskeleton shards. A bug of some sort had died and now the clean-up crew was removing the last bits of evidence that said bug had ever existed. Except I didn¡¯t give it a chance to finish.


    I lept on its back and got one arm around the rodent¡¯s neck. Not that I was going to try and choke it or anything. There was a much more effective method and so I brought my other hand back and brought my claws together.


    Then it was over. The rous didn¡¯t have a chance to respond as I brought my hand down, piercing through its eye and into the brain. There is a reason they prefer to be in groups.


    Though the quick kill does mean the following part was a bit bloody. I didn¡¯t trust other monsters to wait until I could properly bleed the corpse. So I was forced to butcher it then and there. The saving grace being that my claws were an excellent stand in for a knife.


    While thicker than I would prefer for this task, having feeling in them allowed me to follow the bones and muscles. And sure, I could have probably eaten the entire rous from the tip of its whiskers to the end of its tail. Except I had a chance to be at least a little more civilized and it felt good to not just eat like a starved beast.


    Now I was just eating like an uncivilized beast pretending to be civilized. Because yeah, I wasn¡¯t going through the effort to dress this up as meat tartar and it wasn¡¯t fish so I wasn¡¯t pretending it was sashimi. Still provided all the nutrients and minerals a growing gel needs or some such.


    When I was done, all that was left were the hide, bones, and organs I didn¡¯t want to eat or couldn¡¯t identify. All without gaining a single inch around my waist or to my height. Which I must admit, is pretty convenient. Though I did feel that my gel tank wasn¡¯t even half full after that meal.


    And to be fair, I had been taking a lot of damage since my last meal. So since I was still worried about what I would find beyond the area without monsters, I decided to eat my fill for the first time in this new body. This took a while and three other rous. Well, two and maybe a third of the third.


    Though I did use the chance to find out what happens if I try to overeat. Nothing! Or rather, nothing happens to the extra food. Sort of just sits there and gives me a bit of a belly. Not as big chunks of food, though.


    It seems part of swallowing it for me involves rendering it down into fine particles and liquid. I bet if someone poked my belly while full, it would feel like one of those sand filled stress balls. Not that I would let just anyone poke my belly.


    Anyway, I was full now, though it didn¡¯t feel as satisfying as I remember, and I was ready to head out. Whatever was in the monster free zone would be facing me while my health tank was topped up. Though for a moment, I considered heading back to the camp on the opposite side for some sleep.


    However, I felt energized, maybe a side effect of being full, and so stealthily crept my way through the underbrush of the empty tunnels. Well, I thought of them as empty tunnels. Life had to prove me wrong on that as well. Not even a mile past where I had stopped last time, even the plants began to thin out. It seemed I wasn¡¯t going to have anywhere to hide soon enough.

 Authors Note: Just 3 days left to the Banished Talent Kickstarter

    Tuesday is the last days of the Kickstarter and we''re only $91 away (as of my writing this post) from hitting the goal! I am a little worried about it though, so if you''d be one looking for an ebook version of this story, please check the Kickstarter out now! For only $3 you get the finished ebook and if you want to put in even more, $12 will get a name of your choice on the acknowledgements. You can also pledge for $36 to have your name at the top of the acknowledgements page with a short message of thanks, though I did limit this reward. Not that I expected to reach the limit, but I am both shocked and honored that a decent number of the slots have been filled.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    EDIT: Just $37 to go! Almost there!

 Getting Lost To Find My Way - Chapter 20

    The plants, gone. The water, gone. Even the dirt, gone. All that remains in the tunnel was rock walls. And that is correct, ¡°tunnel¡± singular. All of the branches had eventually met up into a single large tunnel that swayed back and forth through the rock. Which is super frustrating as it didn¡¯t let me see what was ahead!


    Though I guess I can¡¯t say they were completely empty. It was here that I found the most signs of outsiders, delvers, adventurers. Markings from a campfire, holes in a rectangle that at one point probably anchored a tent, and so on and so forth.


    Oh, and blood stains. In drips and drops along the floor, boot prints of someone limping along, and in one place, a weathered patch that outlined a person and the pool next to them. But no bones, so that¡¯s nice. Well, nice because it means this area has visitors often enough that even the people who do die here have their bodies removed.


    What wasn¡¯t nice is that everything pointed towards there being something up ahead that was quite dangerous. Every boot print and scrape mark decrying a rapid escape from something. Though by the evidence, even if they did get away, they didn¡¯t survive doing so. Maybe they didn¡¯t get away at all? The lack of bones might not be people clearing them, but whatever is ahead gathering them for itself.


    Eh, if anything this discovery pointed towards the exit being this way. After all, there has to be some reason the underground area isn¡¯t filled with more evidence of people. While spelunking for treasure and combat experience likely wasn¡¯t as popular as the media portrayed it, people would still do it if there wasn¡¯t a roadblock. You know, like some kind of boss monster or devious trap.


    And honestly? I was already on the path. At this point, I¡¯m pretty committed to following it to the end. An end which turned out to be a lot closer than expected.


    Just a couple more turns in the tunnel and I faced a giant open cavern. Not that I could see much of it as right in front of the tunnel was a well and proper chimera as seen in classic mythology. Most obvious to me? The snake tale, seeing as its back was to me to start.


    Though once it turned to face me, the goat, lion, and dragon heads easily made themselves known. Uh yeah, I wasn¡¯t ready for this and so I backed out of the room and began to run. It wasn¡¯t chasing me and in fact, wouldn¡¯t have fit into the tunnel. A scary prospect in and of itself, seeing as this was the biggest tunnel I¡¯d seen down here. However, being so myth accurate, I was more than willing to believe it might have some kind of breath weapon.


    I guess I now know what is keeping the city above from having more of a presence down here. The question being how I¡¯m going to deal with it. After all, there was one important detail I almost missed. The beast had that halo of light effect you get when there is a light source behind something. This wasn¡¯t mushroom light or even firelight either. It was sunlight, if a little weak. Though that could be from the time of day or an overcast sky.


    So while I ran away, I also plotted. Strength was the answer, but how to gain it? My body was stronger than likely possible for a normal human, but that seemed to be the case for everything down here. My power, on the other hand, had been dormant for a while.


    Without any human flesh to return to, there wasn¡¯t any toggle to withdraw my aqua colored gel. Sure, I had managed a few adaptations, but those felt more like drawing out potential already there instead of new abilities. Even the slight morph effect to take on more of a quadruped shape didn¡¯t really feel new.


    And yeah, I only knew of one way to awaken my psionic talent further. Stress, and a lot of it. Good thing I¡¯m in a tunnel system jam packed with monsters!


    Then again, I doubt the surface is going to be all that much safer. It didn¡¯t really come to mind when I was first thrown into this new land, but why would so many groups who are patently at each other¡¯s throats agree to live in the same city? There was more than enough space that each group could, in theory, have their own little fiefdom.


    The fact they haven¡¯t broken apart into smaller groups points towards one particular truth. They can¡¯t. There is something that only the gathered threat of all of them can keep at bay. Or maybe not even that. It is entirely possible that some beast like that chimera is out there and will smack down any attempts at making another living area. After all, the only evidence I¡¯ve seen so far of people living anywhere else is that door. Besides that, it is all temporary camps and evidence of death.


    Though seeing as I was now looking for a more stressful time, this was perfect. When looking for trouble, it always helps to have a target rich environment. Proven when I don¡¯t even manage to leave the nearly empty area before finding some.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    As the tunnels just barely began to split out again, I heard some bug hisses and pained squeaks, deciding which path I was going to take. To the right it was! And this led me directly into a fight between one of the large beetles and a trio of rous.


    Now, the smart thing to do, would be to wait until one side was beaten or at the very least, significantly weakened. Instead, I threw myself into the fight and landed a solid swipe on the beetle, shearing off an antenna. Disoriented by this, the big failed to stop one of the rous from grabbing its other antenna and soon the bug was missing that one as well.


    This upset the balance of the fight, skewing it towards the rats a little too much. So, I kicked the rous next to me and did some nasty damage to the rat¡¯s side as my claws glided through its flesh. It felt nice to fight just for the sake of fighting and eating.


    No overarching plan besides growing stronger and filling my belly. Though it is at this point that I realize I don¡¯t have lips anymore. Well, okay, I have lips, but not human lips.


    It makes sense, become like a lizard and gain lizard-like traits. Thus, instead of fleshy lips, I get to rock scaly lips. Noticed by me at this point because I tried to smirk. Instead, my lips pulled back and gave my enemies a full on display of my teeth. Yeah, it was going to be hard to talk.


    At the moment, though, I just set this discovery aside to pounce onto the beetles back. The monster had turned to face the remaining rous and I didn¡¯t let my access to its side go unpunished. There were wing covers and I had seen them flutter down into the lower region, so there was a target. I just had to get through the cover.


    There was two main chinks in the insects defense on the back. The central line where the wings split and the upper line where they connect to the bug¡¯s body. With two points, I could get some leverage. So I dug my feet claws into the upper seam and pried my hand claws into the central split before exerting my full strength.


    The beetle went absolutely manic at this development, so thankfully I had secured myself sufficiently or I would have gone flying. Though besides clamping my feet down even harder, I ignored its frantic attempts to knock me off in favor of prying up the wing guard. Now, it wasn¡¯t that hard for me to lift up. The problem being that the second I stopped lifting, it would slam shut.


    All I could do was apply constant pressure as I tried to get more underneath the wing guard. Of course, while this was happening, the rous hadn¡¯t gone anywhere and in fact, took this chance to renew their attacks on the bug. This led to a fatal mistake by the beetle. For just a moment, it focused on defending against the rous instead of keeping the wing guards closed and I got in.


    The second I felt the pressure let up, I got an entire arm underneath that cover and my claws ravaged the delicate wing underneath. That was just the start, though. With access to the much weaker area under wings, I could dig in and start hurting the beetles organs. I¡¯m sure I did enough damage in those few moments that the bug was going to die, but I didn¡¯t get to finish the job. It flared its wings and that finally was enough to toss me off of its back.


    There was nothing I could do about that. In my exuberance to deal some serious damage, I had loosened my grip. Still, I wasn¡¯t out of the fight. As I fell to the group, I rolled with it and with a mighty slap, reduced a lot of the force. Then I was back on my feet, tail lashing about.


    In front of me the battle continued, the rous even managing to take advantage of the weakened wing covers, the one I hurt now hanging off the beetle¡¯s back like I had just been doing. The other two dart in to nip at any overextended bits. All the while, the bug shows major signs of weakness as it tries to stay focused on me while fending them off.


    It knew who the real danger was, but it was too late. Should have ran away. I need power and it would be the first stepping stone!


    My claws gripped the ground and allowed me to shoot forward, faster than I had probably ever moved under my own power. The rous tried to get out of the way, but my claws ripped through their throats as they reared back on my way, not slowing me in the least. Then I was on the bug.


    My maw stretches wide, and I bite into the connection between the head and thorax. As the beetle reared back and shook, my claws found purchase in a leg joint to the left. With a jerk, that leg falls limp.


    And I kept hold of the monster¡¯s neck, savaging what I could reach until the bug stopped moving. Then I was attacked from behind. While the two rous had died from the neck wounds, the one with an injured side wasn¡¯t going to go quietly into the night. So I obliged and with a dismissive back hand, my claws slice deep wounds into the last living enemy.


    That left me with a few bodies. Since I had the option, I was going to stick with mammal based food. Nothing against bugs, but now that I wasn¡¯t in a frenzy or starving, cultural norms reasserted themselves in my mind. Eh, that¡¯ll be fixed soon enough.


    Anyway, after a quick snack I was ready for more, my tail now slowly moving as a calm settled over me. More! More enemies, more fights, and more challenges! I stalk into the tunnels to begin my rampage.


    And I got a little lost. Shows me to let myself go like that. Though in getting lost, I did find something. It was an area with an effect similar to the door, but harder to find.


    The door had been too big of an effect. This is just one of the numerous dead ends. What tipped me off? That the dead end was too empty. Sure, there was dust and debris, some plants, and so on. However, there weren¡¯t any signs of fighting or anything living there. Even the plants are just plants and not monsters!


    Even with that, I wouldn¡¯t have found the oddity if I hadn¡¯t already found the door. The dead end put off big ¡°nothing to see here¡± vibes. And there really wasn¡¯t all that much to see.

 Thank Goodness For Murals - Chapter 21

    Well, not much else besides a ton of hand?prints on the back wall like those cave paintings. Some were obvious enough, being humanoid in appearance. Though quite varied. From a handprint that was so close to human as to not matter to prints that if you squint, look like they have a thumb or so, plus fingers maybe.


    Then there were those I could not see as hands. Hoofprints of all sorts, odd blobs, and a few spots that looked like they just painted the wall except for hints that there might be points. So of course I tried to line my hand up with a print which matched my own. You know, humanoid lizard.


    That didn¡¯t do anything and neither did the most human print. Now, clearly this was here for a reason and since it didn¡¯t smite me for my nerve to touch it, might as well go big. This time I went for the handprint that drew me in, a large lizard hand. Don''t know why it drew me, maybe because I always liked dragons?


    Anyway, this time? Nothing happened!


    Well, nothing I could pinpoint. There was a vague feeling that something had changed. So, being a bit savvy I figured this would be a good time to head back to the door. If anything, I¡¯d be able to get a good night¡¯s sleep. But I can also do simple math and for some reason psionic illusion plus psionic illusion equals a connection.


    Well, I was assuming they were psionic, but the way they affected the mind made it a decent bet. Anyway, I was still lost, so making it back to the door was more of an aspirational goal. Now, I knew what I was going to try first wasn¡¯t anywhere near likely to work, but can you really say you¡¯ve been lost in a maze of tunnels if you haven¡¯t tried keeping your right or left hand on the wall? You might just get lucky!


    I didn¡¯t, but you might. However, after a few rowdy fights, I did find something else and it was about the opposite of what I wanted. That being a connection between the beetle and rous section of the caves and the wasps home turf.


    So uh, I know I was being all gung-ho about fighting? Yeah, that didn¡¯t last. I ran away from there like a scaredy cat. To be fair to myself, wasps.


    After that experience and having to deal with around fifty or so smaller wasps that decided to chase me, I was a good bit more cautious. For instance, I¡¯m pretty certain I found a connection to the undead section of the tunnels. Didn¡¯t confirm the fact, though. There was just a point where the plants all began to look sickly and die. It might have been the territory of something dreadfully venomous.


    Whatever the case, I eventually backtracked all the way to the tunnel out. From there, it was a simple matter of keeping towards the center. Still, it took me, by my best guess about a week and a half to find my way back to the door.


    A door which looked exactly like how I left it. To be expected, but I must admit a small part of me was sad that the door wasn¡¯t open, like in some sort of video game dungeon. That clearly isn¡¯t how it would work in real life. Even if there is a level to unlock a door, you aren¡¯t going to just open it for someone or something to wander through while you¡¯re halfway across the world.


    And since whatever may or may not have happened at the handprint wall started with my hand, I figured it was a good place to start with this as well. So, without a handy handprint to guide me, I just put my claw up against the midpoint of the door.


    Then it swung open.


    Just that simple. So uh, at this point I probably should have been a little more paranoid? But who has time for that? I walked right in through the door and into the area beyond.


    Good thing this wasn¡¯t a trap. Though what greeted me wasn¡¯t some sort of futuristic magical fantasy land. No, instead it was a very basic camp, with the fanciest thing noticeable right off the bat being the brick floor. Also, there were permanent structures and the cavern wasn¡¯t exactly small, covering enough area you could fit ten or twelve houses including a modest yard for each.


    Though the structures were a good bit tighter together. Well, a lot tighter. And being underground, whoever built this place went for a more tent-based approach.


    Now, many of the structures had fallen over time, being for the most part four wooden poles with some sort of canvas strung up on every side, including the top. I guess they didn¡¯t want dust from the ceiling getting into their stuff.


    But there were some exceptions that stood the test of time. A few random outliers that I¡¯d guess simply had newer canvas. Then there were the structures built right up against the outer wall of the place. I stuck my head into the first couple on the left.


    Yeah, they didn¡¯t have a ceiling cloth for some reason? However, that did mean they stood the test of time better, likely because of the poles being driven into the ceiling and the floor. Oh, and a handful of buildings at the very back of the cavern, which were literally carved into the stone. They weren¡¯t anything fancy, but the square windows gave it away.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    And did I mention the door closed behind me? Of course I didn¡¯t! After all, it was only at this point that I noticed it myself. Gave me a right food fright. Though thankfully palming the door again opened it up just fine and so I went back to exploring the cave settlement.


    I wouldn¡¯t say it was empty, but there wasn¡¯t much of worth to me. A few bars of metal and no way for me to identify them. Various pieces of jewelry and some uncut gems. Pretty certain some of them were magical, but I wasn¡¯t going to touch that with a ten-foot pole. If it glowed, I left it alone!


    Where¡¯s my sense of adventure? I left back in my old world with the secret organization hell bent on hiding magic to the point of exiling you from reality itself and my roleplaying books full of cursed items with names like ¡°necklace of strangulation¡±. Maybe if they had been left in a state that I would describe as abandoned.


    But no, anything of value that was left in this encampment had a clear intent of the owner coming back for them. Lots of glass enclosures for some reason. Anyway, about the only thing that might have been of worth to me was the clothes all over the place, but they suffered even more than the canvas walls.


    I guess it makes some sense for how barren the place was. You aren¡¯t going to feel secure in keeping your valuables in a place with cloth walls. Then I was almost on to the most interesting part.


    There were a couple more wall tents I could look through, but at this point I just skipped them. The buildings that were carved into the walls were too big of a draw and more details revealed themselves as I drew closer. What I had thought was simply a rough job at carving them out soon revealed itself to be so much more.


    While still rough, basic shapes and creatures adorn the walls of the buildings. It meant nothing to me, but I¡¯m pretty sure it was a display of the species that worked together to create this place. And once inside, I saw more of the same except with figures repeating.


    It wasn¡¯t until I went a couple of rooms in that things changed. From rough carvings, it transitioned to smooth engravings and what I assume is some sort of language. Being that I only knew one language at the time, I had no chance of gleaning any meaning. They didn¡¯t even look like some languages I could at least identify, so it was probably some sort of language for the supernatural.


    Thank goodness for murals and such or I would have been left scratching my head. Or not, those murals guided me to the deepest room with another wall of handprints. Though this time they were carved into the wall instead of painted on. As I said earlier, I am capable of basic math so I would have likely put my hand on the dragon print, anyway. Would have taken longer to find, though.


    As for why I was willing to do this, but not loot the shiny jewelry? One part sunk cost fallacy and two parts the fact that the murals were literally inviting people to do this instead of having them behind glass. So I walked right up to the human print and placed my hand on it.


    And unlike last time, something happened. The feeling of an electric shock going up my arm. A reverberation in my head that sounds like hymns. You know, all those classics, which I guess are classics for a reason?


    Anyway, I sadly didn¡¯t get a direct download of how to read the language. That would have been helpful! Though I can¡¯t be too harsh as it did have some basic information and one really important exercise.


    Information such as the fact that I was worried for nothing. The chimera guarding the way out is actually guarding the way in exclusively. Because of course it knew I was there the entire time. I¡¯m not some stealth master. If I had wanted to, I could have walked out right then and there. Though I would have missed this chance.


    Now, don¡¯t get me wrong. This wasn¡¯t some treasure trove. For instance, it informed me that there were other such gatherings for other types of powers. While interesting to know, I couldn¡¯t access them. In fact, me finding the handprint wall and even the door is less me being special and more the fact I have a talent for psionics.


    The prints and door wouldn¡¯t have even worked if I wasn¡¯t transformed as I am. They require you to channel your psionic power into them and I didn¡¯t have a clue on that. I was just lucky abilities with a physical manifestation put out a bit of a charge.


    Though it also explained why I got so little from the first wall. It was a passive thing that required more on the user¡¯s end. So, since it just got the passive charge from my hand, I only got a small twinge.


    Anyway, all that information is fun, but not too useful and seemed to be more of a primer in case something happened. Which it clearly did, seeing as this place was abandoned. So good on them for planning ahead, I guess?


    But yeah, the most important information was a simple exercise to train core psionic strength. Not whatever talent a psionic might have, but the base psionic oomph. Oh, and the information made sure to very specifically note that this wasn¡¯t connected to intelligence or wisdom. You wouldn¡¯t get smarter unless that was your talent.


    Now, it seemed this was important to a certain point, after which the talent you have will be strong enough that further training won¡¯t give the same returns. That it would be smarter at that point to focus on training your talent instead of your core. It might even be true.


    For most other people. In case you missed it, my body was now made of my psionic power. Sure, it was filtered through my talent, but going by the example it gives of a person capable of creating ectoplasm? Which is apparently what my body is made of. Well, a greater core psionic strength apparently makes the ectoplasm more.


    Need a solid object? It will be sturdier. Need a rope to lower something? It will have a higher weight limit. Need a sword? The edge will be sharper. And more! So yeah, a higher core strength equals whatever you make with ectoplasm being better at what it is meant to do. Which when my entire body is ectoplasm, sounds like a pretty good deal!

 Them Plants - Chapter 22

    I could now leave at any time. Since the guardian chimera wouldn¡¯t attack me as I left, all I¡¯d have to worry about is getting there. A thing I literally just did.


    Yeah, not going to do that quite yet. After all, if getting in here requires you to fight that thing? Well, if that stupid mage was able to come get me I¡¯m doomed . Better to take some time to improve in a way that doesn¡¯t involve throwing myself at the monsters down here.


    So I sat myself down and spent most of the next week practicing. Good thing the technique wasn¡¯t like something from one of those cultivation novels. It¡¯s a simple exercise guide, with the only twist being that it is an exercise for the mind.


    And not in the sense you see puzzles and such so often described. This exercise would be the equivalent of lifting weights. There was no finesse or cleverness to it.


    After only an hour, my first attempt resulted in me as a puddle on the floor, exhausted. And I¡¯m not exaggerating. My gel had literally turned semi-liquid.


    I probably should have realized that was a possible outcome, though it might just be one of those hindsight things. After all, what do you expect when you exercise past your limits? It isn¡¯t like you¡¯ll be all fine afterwards.


    On top of that, my body consisted entirely of ectoplasm and I knew the exercise would make it sturdier. Makes sense overdoing the exercise could result in the reverse. Whatever the case, I made sure to not go too hard after the first time. Feeling like jelly after exercising? Bad enough when it was only a turn of phrase.


    The good news is unlike with muscles, I don¡¯t have to wait for something physical to heal. Or I guess, maybe it would be faster now if I was to try building actual muscles? You really have to wonder how my regeneration would have affected that sort of thing.


    Anyway, mental recovery was easy, I just had to take a nap. Which I admit, is quite odd for me. I always tended towards having a hard time getting to sleep. That wasn¡¯t a problem after the psionic exercise. I could drop right to sleep after a session.


    Now, I said I spent a week doing this and that is what I believe. However, it might not strictly be true. A week was just what my general sense of time told me. I spent most of it sleeping. Probably a three to one ratio of sleep to exercise. Oh, and occasionally going out and hunting a snack.


    My gel wasn¡¯t depleting all that quickly, but I felt better keeping it close to capped. Who knows what might happen next? Anyway, what happened next was a sudden breakthrough in the exercise.


    It wasn¡¯t a magnitude of difference or anything. My core psionic power did the equivalent of going from nine to ten. Not a big difference, but I did go from single digits to double digits, which was a qualitative change.


    The most obvious change was that my scales looked like actual scales. Before, even if they were opaque, the scales had a translucent quality to them. Now each scale was fully opaque.


    On top of that, it was at this point where I would say I had become fully scaled. Though maybe that had happened before this? It was one of those slow processes I hadn¡¯t really noticed. A simple matter of my scales covering more and more of my body.


    Then I look down, and what do you know? All scales! Was it because of the exercises? Possibly. Either way, I looked like a right proper lizardman or maybe some sort of half dragon.


    Didn¡¯t change anything, except maybe a bit more defense. The bigger change was back when my head decided to keep the snout full time. Whatever the case, I could also tell that the exercise wasn¡¯t going to show any more rapid growth in the near future, so better for me to head out.


    Me sticking around this place for a week or two was one thing. If I tried to wait it out for years, that would just be asking for trouble. That damn wizard should still be able to tell I¡¯m alive and so not exactly likely to slack off. Even if he can¡¯t find me. I might have shed the flesh he has locked onto, but I was still metaphysically the same guy.


    So, after one final good night¡¯s sleep, I walked away from the hidden outpost for the last time. And right into fight after fight. After all, just because I found a new way to progress, doesn¡¯t mean the old ways no longer work! That and I may have gotten a little bit lost.


    It wasn¡¯t my fault! Pretty certain the tunnels shifted around, or at least the various junctions could open and close paths. There simply was not that many three-way paths last time I went through the place.


    At least I got to test how my body had changed. As not all changes were without downsides. For instance, while my scales were indeed sturdier, this also meant I quite as flexible.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Didn¡¯t stop me from curb stomping the low end bugs and rous. That didn¡¯t mean there weren¡¯t any good fights. I had been avoiding them, but this time through, I took the fight to the plants.


    I won¡¯t bore you with my first few fights. They were a bit embarrassing, I must admit. Oh hell, why bother hiding it when I¡¯ve already admitted to that?


    The first fight took me over an hour to end. It wasn¡¯t even a fight I meant to take. The plant had just been a field of grass that didn¡¯t look too much different from the rest of the ground cover. Except as I was about a third of the way into the field, they revealed their true form.


    Instead of a bunch of small blades of grass, the monster had actually been hiding most of the length of those leaves. So yeah, they shot up around me and tied me down. I, I didn¡¯t do too well with that.


    Ended up pressed flat against the ground and heavily secured. The saving grace being that it couldn¡¯t pierce my scales. So uh, good results there? Anyway, I did eventually get out of it. Though it took a lot of straining and more gnawing at the grass than I would have preferred. Stuff tastes rank.


    So, of course, I stumbled into the next plant monsters right after. Though this fight was a lot quicker. It was another ambush plant with a method of capture. I got out quicker because it didn¡¯t literally tie me down.


    Now, I felt doubly stupid for this one. It was a variety of those pitcher plants I had seen down here previously. The biggest change being that it had sunk itself much deeper into the ground and had gotten some ground cover to grow over the lid. Stepped right into!


    Damn thing was full of slimy acid. The rous, which were its primary prey going by what was left in the acid, would have found it impossible to claw their way out. The slime did a good job of coating even mine, to prevent any attempts to slice and dice.


    I¡¯m sure a rat of unusual size would have soon found all sharpness melted off their claws. Even my ectoplasm felt a slight burn. Which, given my experiences in the lower area meant this was some serious acid. Kind of surprised that any of the prey had managed to remain down there.


    Or at least I was until I killed the plant. Within moments, any sense of a tingle faded away. So yeah, that stuff wasn¡¯t actually high quality acid. Rather, the pitcher plant had some kind of ability to acidify the liquid inside of it.


    So, once a rous was reduced to bones, the plant likely turned off the ability to not waste the energy. While it could dissolve everything, it was much better to focus on extracting the much easier to digest flesh and leave the bones to be slowly broken down.


    Besides, it isn¡¯t like the liquid wasn¡¯t acidic. It just wasn¡¯t only a ¡°reduce bones to goop in minutes¡± sort of acid. I¡¯m sure it was just as capable of killing those rats. If anything, the boosted acid was likely in case any of the bugs managed to fall in. Though that would require quite a small bug.


    Like ants. Did I mention I ran across some ants? No? Well, that¡¯s what happened next, so let¡¯s get into it.


    Unlike down in the lower region, this wasn¡¯t an army of ants. Rather, there was a group of maybe thirty ants, each about the size of a cat. And then I learned my scales were where most of my acid resistance resided.


    Being a bit cocky I waded into their midst to lay out the smack down. And I did! While cat-sized ants aren¡¯t weak, their exoskeletons were about as successful as the mantises had been. Except, while the exoskeleton isn¡¯t as tough as the beetles, that doesn¡¯t mean they can¡¯t bite me.


    And so I found out the above fact, as their jaws were able and willing to inject me full of what I presume was formic acid. That burned something fierce. Left little hollows in my legs.


    Worse, even after I killed the ants, their acid didn¡¯t suddenly become water like with the pitcher plants. This meant I had pockets of acid burning away underneath my scales. I uh, had to pierce some holes to let it drain out. At least my claws did a decent job of it. Anyway, after that I started to stomp on all the plants I came across.


    Flowers with exploding seed pods? A bit nasty when the seeds actually managed to pierce my scales, especially as those that did attempted to grow. Good thing I¡¯m not made of flesh so they didn¡¯t do much before starving.


    A vine curtain predictably ended up wanting to strangle me. I didn¡¯t give it the chance to try. A few quick swipes a claw and the curtain got a haircut.


    More pitcher plants, not that interesting, but it shared space with some enormous sundews. Those were a thing, so big they had to grow horizontal. Of note, I actually got to see one eating. The sundew had captured a rous, all rolled up in the sticky goo it produced. But yeah, not exactly the most threatening when I could avoid the trap part and just cut them off at the root.


    After that, though, things got a bit repetitive. More of the various plants, more rous, more ants, and more beetles. They all fell to my claws!


    Not that I wasn¡¯t worried. After all, where did the ants come from? I took a while exploring the tunnels before this and yet suddenly there is a new species? One which might be a legit threat to me?


    A new area must have opened up and released the ants. An area that I made sure to avoid to the best of my ability. While 30 or so ants was a simple matter to smash, an entire army? Not so much.


    Besides, I had no way to determine if these cat-sized ants were actually as big as they got up here. Down under there were certainly much larger ants to deal with. It was just a question of if those bigger ants could exist up here.


    I¡¯d bet no, but I also wasn¡¯t going to stake my life in a bet I don¡¯t have to. Besides, why try and find the source of the ants, when I finally started to recognize things? The chimera should be just a bit farther ahead of me.


    Not that I was recognizing any marks I had left behind or even the tunnels themselves. No, I assumed it. The plants and even the dirt had begun to shrink, leaving only bare stone.

 Blood Drinkers But Not Those Blood Drinkers - Chapter 23

    And soon enough, my assumptions were proven correct as the tunnels narrowed down to just a single bare tunnel of stone. So in theory I could just walk out, at least going by the info dump to the brain I had received. I was... a bit cautious about it.


    After all, the place I got this information from had been abandoned for quite a while. Maybe that was how it was supposed to work, but I didn¡¯t know if it still did l. And so, I tried to sneak up on the thing.


    Uh yeah, that didn¡¯t work. The snake tail had eyes on me the moment I was in the chamber. Hell, it had likely been alerted to my presence well before it could even smell me. Not like there was anything else in this area making noise.


    I still worked my way around the outer edge of the cavern, though. No way was I going to die from trying to brush past it all nonchalant. It was still a living creature, from what I saw. Artificial, of course, but a creature nonetheless.


    And I did make it out of the chimera boss fight arena alright, even if the snake tail kept its eyes glued to me. I guess it probably has to do that so people inside don¡¯t try and help those who are still outside. Or rather, so that if they do help, the chimera can attack them right away.


    Whatever the case, I was past the beast and into another rock tunnel. Though on this side, things look a good bit more desolate. If on the other side it was clean and maintained, this side is desolate.


    While there aren¡¯t signs of dead people attempting to escape the chimera. There aren¡¯t any signs of people at all. No campfires or similar. This disturbed me a good bit.


    After all, how could there be recent signs of people after the chimera and none before it, especially when you can literally just walk past the beast? Even the small spiderwebs in the corners of the tunnel looked old and in disrepair!


    The actual answer was that the tunnel to the chimera wasn¡¯t the same for everyone. I was in an unused tunnel out in the wilds, while the people from the city had an entrance right on their doorstep. How do I know this? Maybe it was in the info dump?


    Of course not! That would make sense. I didn¡¯t find this out until later on. However, it would be pretty boring for me to detail my treck through that empty tunnel as I jumped at shadows.


    So yeah, I made it through there and found myself at the entrance of the tunnel, which was half collapsed and overgrown with vines. There were even a couple trees that had grown up right in front of the thing. Those proved useful as I was completely lost.


    And while climbing a tree didn¡¯t really get my bearings in relation to my old stomping grounds. As old as a place I only stayed a couple days can be, I could see what seemed to be the city. Or at least, I assumed the bright spot against the night sky was as good of a place to head towards as any other, because of course I exited the cave at night.


    I honestly wasn¡¯t too surprised at that. My sleep cycle has always tilted more towards being a night owl. No reason for turning into a scaled ectoplasm monster should change that. Though I just thought of something. I¡¯m still alive, but I am made entirely of ectoplasm, does that make me a ghost at this point?


    Meh, I didn¡¯t think of that at the time and so to keep up with the story we¡¯ll ignore the implications and keep following along. Because this wasn¡¯t going to be the easiest of trecks. There was a reason they abandoned this entrance to the underground.


    As I soon found out, a nasty danger zone had formed between here and the city. The first signs of this was a mosquito swarm. Said mosquitos being about the size of a thumb. However, I didn¡¯t have blood anymore and it wasn¡¯t like I was sweating. Though my breathing did seem to attract their attention for a moment.


    Either way, they passed me by in the search for prey they could actually drain. What followed them wasn¡¯t as picky, though. Seems giant bats, specifically vampire bats still saw as prey me.


    Pretty certain there was more to the ¡°vampire¡± than normal as well. Though it did solidify the area¡¯s theme for me, bloodsuckers. Which some might think would make this an easier time, but they¡¯d be wrong. After all, it isn¡¯t like they had to play by the rulebook for normal nature.


    This bat proved it well enough for me. Dang thing swooped in and took a bite out of me. Now, I probably could have dodged it, but not with some excuses about how ¡°if I saw it coming¡±. No, like most bars, the thing was using echolocation and my entire body acted like a membrane for picking up sound and such.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    So, I knew where it was coming from. My problem was that its damn echolocation ended up acting as a bit of a flash bang for my senses as well. Thus, any attempt to dodge on my part quickly became a jittery stumble and the bat nipped at my one arm.


    Oh, and when I said ¡°giant bat¡±, I wasn¡¯t kidding. The beast pinned me down and its weight alone was enough to keep me down. Except it still wanted to feed on the softer inner ectoplasm and so had to let my one limb up.


    With one arm free, I was more than able to reflect on the beast¡¯s two biggest weaknesses. Those delicate wing membranes and the weakness to loud noises. So, as the beast wrestled me into a position that it would be able to feed without worry, I let out an ear-piercing whistle and swiped my claws back.


    Now, if I had normal bones and flesh, I¡¯m mostly certain that at best I would have a dislocated elbow or shoulder. Instead, my arm flexed back uncomfortably and as my whistle distracted the bat, my claws slice through a wing. This wasn¡¯t the end of the fight, though.


    While it wouldn¡¯t be flying away, that just meant it couldn¡¯t retreat from the fight, either. This made the bar a little mad and so it tried to chomp down on my neck. Well, ¡°tried¡± would imply that it didn¡¯t manage to. Nope, the bat got a good grip on my neck.


    Except in exchange for this, the bad gave up even more of the control it had over my body. And well, my body was one giant weapon so losing control over any of it spelled doom for the bat. Once released, my feet claws easily took out chunks of the beast¡¯s legs and it was downhill from there.


    Though I did end up stuck under the damn bat¡¯s corpse for a couple minutes. And I¡¯ve got to say, that was the perfect ¡°fuck you¡± send off by the bat. Remember, this was a danger zone focused on blood sucking.


    So while my own wounds weren¡¯t attracting trouble, the bleeding corpse on top of me did the job just fine. By the time I got out from under the thing, the night was alive with all kinds of horrible howls. Though the mosquitos were the first on the scene and they thankfully had still ignored me, despite having bled out some of my ectoplasm.


    Not smelling like dinner is a ten out of ten perk. Would turn my entire body into ectoplasm again. Though joking aside, even if the mosquitos were ignoring me, not all of the creatures that got attracted to this mess were so kind.


    In particular, there was a small pack of chupacabra. And not just the pack was small, the actual cryptids themselves were small. I doubt they would have come up to my waist when I was a human if they stood up straight. Now they were knee high on a good day.


    They took to the phrase ¡°ankle biters¡± like fish to water. If I still had Achilles tendons to snip, they would have taken me down. Instead, I ended up having to scare them off as I retreated from the scrum going on over the bar corpse. Good thing for their cowardly nature as it would have been quite tedious to actually kill them.


    Those chupacabras might have looked all skin and bones, but they had some dense muscles. If I got a claw on them, I would have crushed them, but swipes were just leaving angry red marks on their skin. Guess you can¡¯t underestimate any of the mythical critters, no matter how weak they might have seemed.


    Anyway, soon after I chased them off, I decided it was time to settle down for some rest. This mostly involved finding a tree with broad roots that I couldn¡¯t slice with my claws and digging out a burrow. Yes, it seems every main character and their grandma goes and hollows out a tree trunk or finds a cave, but none of that is safe in my opinion.


    No, a sturdy tree you can¡¯t hurt so hopefully others can¡¯t. Then you make a small space to sleep in that uses the roots as a natural defense. Just make sure you only dig out a place that you can barely fit through. I combined that with some fallen branches to cover the hole and managed to sleep till the sun came up.


    Not sure how long that took, but during the day this section of forest was a lot calmer. Sure, the mosquitos still swarmed all over the place, but they were ignoring me still. In fact, when I ran into some sort of sabertooth tiger which seemed to have hollow fangs, I managed to avoid a fight by ducking into a nearby mosquito swarm.


    This wasn¡¯t pleasant and some bugs did bite me, but they didn¡¯t like the taste. The tiger wasn¡¯t as fortunate. It tried to stay away, it really did, but something about the tiger attracted a swarm. That sent the big car running off, squalling for all to hear and probably having lost more blood than healthy despite the short time.


    I mostly ignored these dramas after the first few and in doing so, made fantastic time towards the city. And it was the city I was looking for. Maybe after the initial wall got set up, more creative freedom was allowed in building your own home. Though I guess having a standardized blueprint for the outer wall¡¯s construction is probably a good idea.


    Now to do something stupid!


    I walked right up to a gate and waited to gather some attention. That didn¡¯t take long, I guess an aqua dragon man isn¡¯t the most common sight. The guards on the wall aimed various implements and even a few guns at me, but from what I could see kept decent trigger discipline.


    Now, there were enough gates so once the crowd noticed me, the mess in front of this gate cleared out and a silence fell. I guess the guards were waiting for someone with actual authority to show up as the first to speak was a pudgy guy who looked like he just ran from a desk job. ¡°Oye, you coming in or staying out? Don¡¯t be like my cat! We won¡¯t hold the door for you.¡±


    Time for that stupidity I mentioned!


    I cross my arms, look at the gate and shout, ¡°I am Alvin and I¡¯m here to challenge Harold! When I got dumped here unprepared, he had fun hunting me. Now I¡¯m going to face him because this has been going on for too long! I only wonder if he is brave enough to actually face me now?¡±

 Sub-City Arena - Chapter 24

    Anyway, you know something they tend to leave out of stories when the ¡°hero¡± makes some declaration or challenge? The time it takes for it to actually happen. After all, this isn¡¯t some play or movie scene and the villain isn¡¯t just off screen, ready to step into view.


    I wasn¡¯t really paying attention, but if I had to guess, it took a good hour and a half for Harold to show up with a bunch of mooks backing him up. Seems this still counts as a test for him so the elders of the bigoted mage faction weren¡¯t going to nuke me from a distance. Though it probably helped the vampires still wanted to see if I could humiliate their enemies.


    Hard to tell now that the moment it passed, but it probably helped that I no longer looked human. No human here, just a big naked dragon lizard thing. If anything, I was even less human than the vampires.


    Anyway, you would think that with both stars in one place, everything would align and the fight would start. Nope, it took another half hour. The high up muckety mucks had to hammer out the details of this impromptu challenge. Though it did mean we got to fight in the arena instead of outside of the city, so that¡¯s nice.


    Oh, and the arena was underground, because of course it was. Though I guess it makes sense. Space is at a premium here and so what waste a view of the sky on something like an arena?


    Not to say it was cramped or anything. Rather, as they led us down, I saw they had excavated the entire space under the city. All around us, seemingly so close you could touch them simply because of how mind numbingly big they were, are stone pillars. Honest to whatever deity you worship, looked like one of those dwarven holds you see in fantasy movies.


    Don¡¯t know why they bothered with such a high ceiling. But that is neither here nor there as I didn¡¯t get to see much of it. The fighting arena was to the right of the giant staircase and I was being pushed along with some urgency. I guess 30 minutes of my time isn¡¯t worth anything, but 5 of theirs is irreplaceable.


    Still, despite the rush, I got a good look at the arena before the fight. It was clear this place was used like the colosseum of old. There was even a damn watermark half way up the arena¡¯s wall from using the place for aquatic fights. Though maybe not boats? Maybe there¡¯s a water environment out in the wilds somewhere?


    Whatever the case may be, I was put into a waiting area slash cage that would lead straight out into the arena. Real obvious this side was for holding the monsters and such. Claw marks everywhere, including the metal bars.


    Though to be fair to them, maybe the other side is like this as well? Anyway, a bell sounded and the gate out into the arena fell open. Not that I got to even leave the cage before being attacked.


    Harold must have been charging up a spell while we waited as it packed quite a punch! Straight through the now open gate and right into my gut. Not sure the exact spell, it was just some kind of sphere with a nasty spin to the thing.


    I want to say I took it like a champ, but we both know that isn¡¯t true. Stupid spell knocked me right into the back wall and that is after I managed to shift to the side and deflect the thing. Guess I¡¯m lucky it wasn¡¯t an exploding spell?


    Though Harold probably only held back on that so as to not damage the room any. While it was a sturdy cage, I don¡¯t think they had bothered to activate any of the supernatural defense it might have. Unfortunate for him, as once I got my balance, I managed to dodge a follow-up spell and get into the arena proper.


    From there, I charged the man. Though he still had those shoulder turret auto spell casters. So as soon as I got close, those little blasters did exactly that and blasted me.


    You would think that after surviving the more powerful blast Harold had sent my way, these would be easy to tank. You¡¯d be wrong, though. The little things were as dangerous as the first encounter. So, either part of the hour and a half was him getting them updated or those magical shoulder spheres were so above either of us and didn¡¯t just vaporize me because their damage output was purposefully limited.


    I lean towards the second one as I could totally see them having already decided upon minutia like this. After all, back when we first got here they managed to provide Harold with the gear in the time it took to get from the portal in, to the gate out. For that to happen, they must have had the gear ready to go.


    Either way, those stupid rapid fire bursts were still just as dangerous. Good thing my flexibility wasn¡¯t too negatively impacted by my sales. As long as I kept moving, the auto-fire wasn¡¯t going to hit me. That was up to Harold to accomplish.


    Of course, with me dodging all around the arena, he had more than enough time to charge up his spells. Nevermind what I now realized was my core weakness. A complete lack of ranged attack.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    So I waited until his next spell was ready and took a chance. The turrets fire and Harold let¡¯s go right after, likely in an attempt to hit me as I¡¯m dodging. I don¡¯t.


    Instead, I charge straight forward! The two turret blasts reach me one after another and I swing my hands out to block or deflect them. The first blast does just that, exploding on contact with me, which is new and not very pleasant. Maybe he did get them adjusted at some point?


    Anyway, this sent a couple of my fingers flying and left the palm of my hand ripped up and ragged. Didn¡¯t stop me from blocking with my other hand, though I did manage to shift things so that it hit the lower side of my hand, losing only my pinky. Harold wasn¡¯t expecting this in the least bit and his spell went wide of me.


    The next volley of auto-fire comes my way as Harold is now stumbling backwards, trying to weave a quick defense spell. I don¡¯t trust that, though. Instead of blocking, I throw myself into a forward roll.


    Just in time for the magical sparkles of his ¡°spell¡± to fall away and Harold to instead toss out a marble sized pellet. There is an audible gasp from the crowd. And yeah, glad I dodged because when that pellet hit the ground, it exploded into some way too goopy fire.


    Fire which stuck around and kept burning through the floor of the arena. Not just the sand and dirt, either. That stuff hit rock and kept going till the arena¡¯s magical defenses stopped it.


    The boos from the crowd are nice to hear, but no one¡¯s coming out to stop the match so either I¡¯m on my own or Harold¡¯s group are stopping any help from arriving. Worse, at this point Harold doesn¡¯t even bother hiding his new toys anymore. I guess not rolling over on the second spell was too much of a slight for him.


    Anyway, I¡¯m now dodging the auto-fire and fire pellets. Good thing he likely doesn¡¯t have too many of them as he chooses his shots carefully. Which also sucks because that means I can¡¯t just dodge, I have to instantly be in position to dodge again. Though I¡¯ll take it over him carpet bombing the arena with those things.


    After a few volleys, I¡¯m ready for another attempt. Harold wasn¡¯t paying attention to them and so failed to notice my hands had already healed. Still, I held off.


    Now ready, I put another plan into motion. Up till now, I had been dodging in both directions, but mostly to the left. In most fights, this wouldn¡¯t matter, except we were in a round arena and Harold wasn¡¯t moving. So I stopped dodging right at all and soon I was much closer to him than during my last attempt.


    The crowd also got a bit heated so I figure they noticed what was happening. Harold didn¡¯t though and it came as a complete surprise to him when I dodge a pellet, lost two more pinkies, and was suddenly on him. My claws stretched out to take a piece of him.


    More boos from the crowd though as with a snap-hiss a blue bubble appears around Harold and pushes me back. Though the boos soon turn to laugh when they notice that I didn¡¯t completely fail. My claws had managed to sneak in a slice before his shield activated and Harold was now sporting a nasty slice across the side of his chest.


    Worse for him, this was a calculated move on my part. With how many pellets he was throwing, it had been child¡¯s play to figure out where they were. A shame, though as it seems they needed to be primed or activated as when the leather pouch falls out from under his leather jacket; it doesn¡¯t burst into fire despite the round pellets spilling out of it.


    Though it seems Harold doesn¡¯t trust them anyway as he scampers back from the pouch as his shield dissipates. Which seems like a good enough reason for me not to approach either. Even if that does put distance between us again.


    Oh, and I might have been slightly distracted by those pellets. A bad thing to be when the enemy has auto-fire turrets. Got my attention dragged right back to the fact though, courtesy of a new hole in my shoulder.


    And much to my displeasure, this is when Harold broke the silence. ¡°YEAH! That¡¯s right, you should have just died when I first found you. At least then you would have been human. Though I can see why the bloodsuckers were so into you, you traitor! I¡¯m going to blast you into so many pieces people will wonder who painted the damn arena green.¡±


    Yeah, he didn¡¯t exactly have the most unique of insights to share besides, ¡°I¡¯m fucking aqua you idiot!¡±


    He didn¡¯t particularly like my comeback and started rapidly casting some kind of dart spell. Might as well have been a kids toy though. They did manage to penetrate my scales, but it seems I¡¯m relatively unaffected by simple piercing attacks. My ectoplasm filled the holes back in as soon as the dart was gone.


    Not that I let him in on this. I made a decent attempt at dodging all the darts, even if I put more focus on the turret fire. Though it seems Harold has learned his lesson and wasn¡¯t standing in one place, allowing me to get close to him again.


    That¡¯s fine, I still had one more card to play. There was just a matter of waiting for my shoulder to heal. Though I had come into the fight on a mostly full ecto-tank so my healing factor wasn¡¯t being a slouch.


    Then it was a matter of waiting for the right moment. We circled the arena. Him blasting at me and at some point he started cackling? Like, I can get behind a good villain¡¯s laugh, but he needed more practice.


    Anyway, I began to force him into a corner by approaching the center of the arena. Harold didn¡¯t seem to mind this, at least until his back was literally up against the wall. He wasn¡¯t happy about that.


    He honest to goodness snarled at me, ¡°Trying to trap me you lizard? I had a harder time cutting the legs off of salamanders as a kid than I will removing yours!¡±


    Serial killer much? Whatever, I was almost in position. I ducked to the right, but right away reversed directions. Harold had just sent a wave of darts in the direction and I simply let them pass through. Felt like the weirdest pin pricks ever.


    Harold himself ended up dodging in the same direction I was now going and for the first time since the shield protected him, we were closer than half the arena from each other.

 I Salute You - Chapter 25

    My tail couldn¡¯t help but wag as I pounced in Harold¡¯s direction. As I sailed through the air, my body shifted into the quadruped form I had used down below. My fore-claws hit the ground as I turned the leap into a bounding charge.


    I was on Harold before he could even process what I had just done and with a final pounce; I rended his throat with my claws. Bloody gashes obvious as I back away, returning to my bipedal form. The arena, silent.


    Now, don¡¯t think me stupid. I know what I was doing as I turned around with my arms up in triumph. The sudden gasp from the crowd? Expected.


    What I didn¡¯t expect was the metal pole through where the heart would be on a human. I honestly thought he would have gone for the head. Because the fight wasn¡¯t going to be over that easily.


    Harold had already shown off a number of trump cards, so assuming he didn¡¯t have one to protect against death would be stupid. Though if I¡¯m to be honest, I look pretty stupid right now. Metal pole through my chest, ectoplasm oozing out around it.


    I guess I can¡¯t really blame him for aiming there. In all of my dodging, I mostly tried to keep my center of mass from being hit. Not as some sort of misdirection, though it seems to have ended up working that way. Rather, it was because getting dismembered at the trunk of the body would take longer to fix.


    And no matter how good my healing factor is, I¡¯m going to assume being stun locked while a mage roasts me with fire magic would kill me. However, a metal pole through my chest was categorically not going to kill me. Well, as long as the pole¡¯s diameter isn¡¯t bigger than my body.


    So I do this turn and look over the shoulder thing. Harold is there, panting heavily. Seems the life saving trump card required more out of him than he expected it to. That or I did a better job at trying to kill him than he expected.


    And then the shoulder turrets fire again. Those were really getting annoying! Worse, I wasn¡¯t exactly in a position to dodge, what with a metal spear through my chest.


    I still tried, but those blasts seared my side. Though the pain did get me back into gear. I guess even if the attack wasn¡¯t fatal to my current biology, it still managed to put me into shock.


    Well, the only way to stop the turrets is to win, and so, with a quick jerk, the metal spear is out. And at this point I could have used it as a weapon, but I decided against it, not knowing if it had any sort of ownership enchantments on it. However, I also wasn¡¯t going to leave it for Harold to potentially use against me and so with a flick, the spear goes hurtling to the opposite side of the arena.


    I¡¯m not the most proficient at spear throwing and so it tumbles a bit and smacks into the wall side on. A loud smack echoes across the arena and Harold glances over at where the spear hit.


    And by the time he looked back, I was on him. It wasn¡¯t like we were all that far apart. Though, as I swiped at him, the magic barrier snapped into effect again.


    An annoying turn of events that meant he had let himself be hurt for the turn around. Well, I wasn¡¯t going to back off this time. As Harold began to cast a spell, I grabbed onto the side of the magic barrier, causing sparks of magic as my claws scratch across it.


    Harold is sweating now. I guess there was a reason he let it drop so quickly the first time. This wasn¡¯t free for him. Which was perfect for me!


    Oh, and he couldn¡¯t seem to move. Though I figured that little tidbit after my next move. See, if my claws were working, what if I tried to take a bite out of it? Well, Harold was a bit surprised by that and stumbled backwards as sparks flew. He landed on the back wall for the thing and it didn¡¯t budge.


    Which was quite convenient for me as it basically gave me free rein to keep gnawing on the shield. Sure, he began charging up a spell, but I could taste the shield wouldn¡¯t last long. When I first bit it, the sparks had a sharper citrus flavor, which is weird.


    However, after a few moments it was like one of those sour hard candies where you suck in it for a moment and it goes from pucker city to sweet nothing. Except instead of sweet, the shield just changed to tasting bland.


    I¡¯m sure this isn¡¯t the strangest way for a person to find out they can taste Mana, but it certainly ranks up there. Anyway, I guess Harold expected his shield to last a little bit longer as his spell seemed almost finished when it shattered. He fell backwards onto his butt and I stumbled forward before catching myself.


    Harold tried to hold on to his spell, but there I was standing over him and so a quick stomp from me broke a leg and had him drop the spell. Though I guess he had some training to handle pain as he instantly tried to begin another spell as the shoulder turrets both send blasts into my chest. Which hurt, but there isn¡¯t much room to dodge when you¡¯re this close.


    I think he was expecting this to finally do something as when I ignored it and stomped his other leg; he seemed more shocked than in pain. Then again, maybe he was literally in shock? Either way, since he thought piercing my heart would kill me, I assumed the same would be true for him.


    So with Harold stunned from the pain and in shock, I am easily able to bring the claws on one hand together and like a bird peck, pierce his chest right through. Now, I¡¯m mostly certain this killed him, however I wasn¡¯t going to take chances on it. And without him resisting, it is actually quite easy for me to lop his head off. My claws are more than enough to do the job, if a little messy. Remember folks, double tap and confirm when possible.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    Around me, the arena is echos with a mix of cheers and gasps. It seems that while the humans had been frowning on Harold¡¯s methods; they didn¡¯t actually want me to win. Well, that is unfair. Not all the humans were like that. It is just that the loudest people were human and they¡¯re booing me.


    For a moment, I pause. I just killed a man. This should be when the realization of what I did crashes down on me. When the questions of if there was a better way.


    None of that happens. Not just deep down, but on all levels, I realize it was only ever going to end with one of us dead. And yes, I acknowledge he was a human, that which I came from. Eh, maybe I¡¯ll break down when I¡¯m not in the middle of an arena of which half the crowd probably wants to kill me for one reason or another. For now, I can simply take it all in.


    Though I didn¡¯t get to bask in the cheers and hate for long. A trio of vampires rushed into the arena from the way I had entered and without asking escorted me forcefully out. Heh, even if I¡¯m not the most socially adept, I could tell despite being happy for my win, they very much did not appreciate my continued existence.


    This proved true an hour later. I had been waiting in various blank rooms, being moved from building to building, until we were near the center of the city. Then one last move brought me to a council chamber.


    There was a slight recoil from those nearest me, though what do they expect if they don¡¯t let me clean up after a fight like that? Luckily for the councilors, a humanoid plant cast some kind of cleaning spell and cleared up the problem of me smelling like a battlefield and being covered in the blood of my enemy. Another being had been about to cast a healing spell as well, only to realize I didn¡¯t have a scratch on me. Quite obvious when I only had my scales to protect my modesty.


    Soon enough, things get down to business and the main vampire representative just came out and said it to me straight. ¡°We have nothing against you, but you can¡¯t stay.¡±


    So yeah, that reason I was originally exiled from my planet? Welp, that followed me here. It seems they were fine with me running around when I was, to them, assured to die. Now though? Well, I¡¯d outstayed my welcome and had proven to be quite a threat. Or at least, my rate of growth was threatening.


    By their common sense, I should not have been able to kill Harold, even if I didn¡¯t end up dying. It still took forever for them to get around to what would happen to me. Oh, and since I had relatively decent relations with the vampires, they had them break the news to me.


    Yep, I was double exiled! Exiled squared! To be honest, I had forgotten by this point what kind of place I had been exiled to. This wasn¡¯t just any inescapable sub-dimension. It was turtles all the way down, baby!


    It was at this point I found out they weren¡¯t even sure that this was the top level. They simply hadn¡¯t had anyone arrive here from another layer in recorded history. Anyway, I was being sent down.


    So I asked the obvious questions, ¡°And what does that mean for me exactly? Also, what is it like there?¡±


    The vampire they had found to talk to me squirmed. He clearly got picked because he ranked high enough to matter, but low enough that everyone else could push this onto him. ¡°Just as those back in the main universe have an idea of what they face when arriving here, we have an idea of what the next level down contains.


    ¡°Unlike here, there is not a united city to succor the weak. The area you arrive will be a desert, which we believe is a blessing. As for what this means for you?


    ¡°When you first arrived, things would have been better.¡±


    I stared him straight in the eyes, not dropping my gaze. Oh, and an interesting fact about my new body. Since my eyes are made of the same thing as the rest of my body, I don¡¯t actually need to blink. The vampire found this very disturbing.


    So he kept talking. Sure, I could have asked him questions, but I had already asked the important ones. Since I don¡¯t know what I don¡¯t know, better to let him spill what he figures I should know. Sort of like when a cop asks you why they pulled you over. The correct answer is, ¡°no, why did you pull me over¡±, but as with this situation, most people are too nervous to realize that.


    ¡°So, the next floor is a ¡®might makes right¡¯ sort of place, right? And while we aren¡¯t cruel enough to send on what your Talent is, the humans will tell them that you used to be human, if you don¡¯t mind me using past tense.¡±


    I shake my head, ¡°I¡¯m not too attached to that label.¡±


    He nods, ¡°Okay, anyway, the humans are going to hate you. Which here wouldn¡¯t be the worst. The problem is that unless you find a good group, the non-humans will hate you for being human. So you¡¯re going to end up with the worst of both worlds. Oh, and humans earned the rep.


    ¡°Anyway, uh, I guess the good news is that the next place is much bigger than here? So at least you¡¯ll have more space to hide in. It is actually kind of rare going by our records. Most news from places lower on the chain report that they¡¯re all about the size of this area.¡±


    I nod, it was pretty obvious that even without them knowing my Talent, things wouldn¡¯t be easy. Just one last thing to ask, ¡°What¡¯s the catch? You don¡¯t suddenly have a giant area if it isn¡¯t needed.¡±


    The vampire shrugs, ¡°Not like something like this could be manmade. It doesn¡¯t need a purpose.¡±


    I raise an eyebrow, ¡°And the catch?¡±


    The vampire sighs, ¡°The reason it is big is because it¡¯s a funnel. The place pulls from a lot of realms like this one. Also, you don¡¯t get to just settle there. A city doesn¡¯t exist because the realm itself prevents it. You are forced to progress deeper or die and most people do the second.


    ¡°The only reason there is still a population there is because if we don¡¯t send people down, someone random will slip through.¡±


    After that, I don¡¯t get anything else useful from him, mostly because he still denies that anything could be so powerful as to create this place. Once he is gone, I am led from where I was being held to back underneath the city. Though we quickly passed the arena and continued until we were under the plaza where I first arrived. Down below even the already deep cavern, there was an active portal of sorts at the bottom of a bowl shaped depression.


    Looked more like a rip in space that, as if it was a piece of clothing, had been partially sewn up so at least it wouldn¡¯t continue to rip wider. Oh, and you couldn¡¯t actually see what was on the other side because where it led shifted too quickly. Anyway, everyone else is pretty afraid to even get close to it, so they stand back and threaten me to go through. Not that I mind, though I can¡¯t just walk into the portal without the last word.


    I stand right in front of it and turn back to them, give a jaunty salute and declare, ¡°I¡¯ma blow this pop stand!¡± Then I give them a double one-finger salute and fall backwards through the portal. Hah! They were so shocked they didn¡¯t even manage to bring their weapons halfway up.


    Then I got knocked out AGAIN!


    My fault this time. Who thought it was a good idea to fall backwards like that? I was told there was a sand desert on the other side. And there was. I just managed to smack my fool head on a damn rock.