《The Hapless Progressionist Series》


 Untried: Prologue

    A surge of purple light pulsed through the energy field before it disappeared entirely, plunging Brent into darkness. Rather than fear, he felt relief. His entire being ached from the constant pressure exerted by the Zone Barrier, even after he had gotten the skill Mental Resistance to help cope with it.


    He could only assume that with the Zone Barrier dropping, Mike had probably won the battle, which would mean he would hopefully be set free soon. All he had to do was wait.


    ?????????????


    System Administrator watched as the anomaly was transported through the core of the planet, which was now thousands of times larger than before the Hive had arrived. The scene left a bad taste in their mouth, as they had never had to initiate Phase 3 before. It marked a clear delineation from the normal assimilation of a planet, as resources were now actively being expended to expunge the anomaly. A key example being the energy field that was currently transporting the anomaly through rock, magma, and all other physical obstacles.


    While Phase 3 wasn¡¯t uncommon in the billions of planets being assimilated each cycle, it did require following proper protocols for reporting the incident. The Hive Queen, may she spawn forever, was ever protective of her cultivation resources, and avoiding the procedures her Spawnliness had put in place was a one way ticket to being harvested like any of the billions of lifeforms that System Administrator had helped acquire for her themself.


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    Not only would hiding the information be considered a waste of resources, but it could potentially trigger the war that had been brewing among the ruling factions of the multiverse for several millennia.  The Hive¡¯s cultivation method was considered evil by most, but due to its strength, it was tolerated. Afterall, although other factions would rail against them verbally, they were unwilling to actually go to war for the sake of unenlightened planets whose resources were inconsequential to most. Thus, as long as the Hive followed the accords set forth in the third age, their cultivation method was permitted.


    Fortunately, there was still time to get rid of the anomaly through the proper methods. Phase 3 and 4, while embarrassing, ultimately wouldn¡¯t make much of a difference in the Hive at large. No, that would only come if Phase 5 was reached, and then System Administrator¡¯s only chance of a comfortable retirement and maybe a status advancement would truly be eliminated.


    Turning away from the screen projecting the anomaly, System Leader marched towards their personal chamber. Sector Assimilator would not be happy to hear that Phase 3 had been enacted, and System Administrator¡¯s only scapegoat was Junior Administrator, who was from the same Hive faction as the current ruling Grulthar.

 Untried: Chapter 1

    [Congratulations Untried!


    Continue to excel by forging your way through difficult situations.


    +5 stat points by assignment per level ]


    Mike cursed under his breath as the notification confirmed his fears: his new Class would require him to undergo more hardships. Another notification appeared, offering a ray of hope in the storm of acid reflux caused by the first notification and the speed of his travel.


    [You are awarded a Class Skill to remember your old Class by


    Class Skill calculating¡­]


    The swirling background made reading the notification difficult, forcing him to squint his eyes against the kaleidoscope of colors and bringing back the stinging memory of when he had become old enough to require reading glasses. Aging past 30 was more pain than it was worth when focusing purely on physical characteristics.


    [Class Skill Unlocked: Fortune''s Folly


    Once per day, you can influence a situation directly by channeling your Luck into it]


    Well that will be worthless, he thought to himself, even as he struggled to subdue the vomit creeping up his throat. Something told him that should the substance breach his lips, high speed travel would become immensely more uncomfortable, especially without wind to blow off any stray debris.


    [Congratulations! Level 12 reached!


    +5  Stat Points by Assignment]


    [Congratulations! Level 13 reached!


    +5  Stat Points by Assignment]


    Forcing his mind to think about something other than the building bile, Mike pulled up his Character Sheet and was amazed to see that between his last Level as an Unlucky and his two Levels as an Untried, he had 26 stat points waiting to be assigned. That was as much Intelligence as he had total.


    A horrible realization struck him then, bringing with it a torrent of incriminating thoughts: How could I have been so stupid? That means I had 13 points I could have used to defend the valley. Would that have been enough to save Creeagle? Would I have needed the hobgoblins'' help at all?


    He was saved from even more introspection when the energy path parted abruptly in front of him and he was barely able to register the sand before he collided headfirst into it, burying the upper half of his body like a carrot in some tasty garlic sauce. His body was already sore from the days spent fighting for his valley, which made the process of extracting himself from being halfway buried even more cumbersome. Before the System, the force of the collision surely would have broken his neck, and if he had survived, he doubted he would have been able to dig his way out before suffocating. Now, however, it was a tiresome inconvenience, but he was in no immediate danger.


    After a few attempts at shifting the sand around, he took the easy route and summoned Quicksilver from the spatial storage bag at his side, which expanded underneath him and pushed his body free from the uncomfortable confinement and caused a small cascade of sand to flow on either side of him. Turning around, he took in his surroundings for the first time.


    He was on the largest sand dune he had ever seen¨Cnearly as tall as some mountains. Incredibly, it wasn¡¯t the largest one in sight. As far as he could see in every direction was an ocean of sand with cresting dunes that rose thousands of feet. As he squinted into the glaring sunlight that reflected from the sand¡¯s surface, two notifications appeared before him:


    [Congratulations on entering the Elite Zone!


    Monsters here range from Level 75-150 and represent the strongest foes earth has to offer.]


    [As always, no XP will be awarded for killing fellow monsters,


    But that doesn''t mean you can¡¯t progress.


    Push for excellence and you survive this crucible to become Unstoppable]


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    He couldn¡¯t help feeling that he was once again being stiffed by the System as he read how strong the other monsters in the zone would be. And that was only heightened by reading that he couldn¡¯t even Level Up here, which meant he would stay 62 levels weaker than any foe he would come across. And he was confident there would be foes¨Cmuch as he had hunted buffalo, he would likely be targeted for food. Some things were always the same regardless of the ecosystem. His thoughts were interrupted by another notification:


    [Congratulations! You have learned the ability Energy Sense.


    +2 to Intelligence


    It¡¯s rare to survive energy transport at such a low level.


    You can now sense Cosmic Energy.]


    I got a skill that makes me a hippie?  It was the first thought that came to mind. Cosmic Energy just sounded way too much like the counterculture that he had survived in high school. I guess I will just put this in the same category of uselessness that Fatalistic Prophet falls into.


    Energy Sense appeared to be even more useless and ¡°far out¡± when he checked on the parameters required to level it up:  Learn to trace your own energy pathways.


    ¡°Yep, there have gotta be some drugs involved with that one.¡± he said allowed, before yet another notification appeared:


    .[Congratulations!  New Quest Initiated: Return Home.


    Follow the arrow and survive until the Zone Barrier falls.


    Then, return to your valley.


    Rewards: Variable upon completion.]


    He was initially stumped as to what ¡°arrow¡± he was being told to follow, but soon found out that whenever he closed his eyes, a large yellow arrow would appear in his field of vision, and regardless of which way he turned his head, it always pointed the same direction. Judging by the position of the sun, that direction was North West.


    As he turned his head about with his eyes closed, experimenting with the new sense, he became aware of just how hot it was getting. The sun told him that it was about 10 o¡¯clock in the morning, but it was already hotter than any day he had ever experienced before. Knowing that it would only get worse, his survival skills kicked in and he began preparing for the uncomfortable day ahead of him.


    Desert travel had a few rules, foremost among them was to always minimize travel and energy expenditure during the day. With that in mind, he began digging a hole into the side of the sand dune where he found himself. The task initially seemed impossible, as the perfectly dry particles simply flowed into any divet he managed to create that was larger than his head. With a little ingenuity and more patience than he would have had for the task if it wasn¡¯t a life or death situation, he was able to use Quicksilver to shore up his tunnel, enabling him to make a proper shelter.


    As he dug, he began to notice that Aeromancy picked up quite a bit more than it had in the past, which he decided must be due to the openness of the landscape. No trees were in sight, and the hills made the perfect channels for air streams to flow through. If he wasn¡¯t acutely aware of how important building a shelter was, he would have stopped then and there to practice the kata. As it was, it required all of his focus to manipulate the Quicksilver so that his tunnel didn¡¯t cave in.


    The process took about two hours, by which time he was dripping in sweat and his. He had no experience that would allow him to know exactly how hot it was, but having done some training in Death Valley, he could say with confidence that it was well over 120 ¨H. For the second time in as many hours, he realized that he would have died if it wasn¡¯t for how much the System had improved his body.


    Of course I wouldn¡¯t need to survive these experiences if it wasn¡¯t for the blasted System. He thought to himself.


    When he was done, the cavern he had built was quite large, around 3 feet high, 4 feet wide, and 8 feet long. He would have to crawl around in it and could only lay one direction, but he had covered all of the metal so that it wouldn¡¯t directly heat up from the sunlight¨Cfrom his experience of stomach surfing in the Quicksilver dungeon and building cannons, he knew the metal was incredibly conductive.


    The entrance to the room was a small hole which he had angled to the North minimize its exposure to sunlight. It wasn¡¯t as good as building his shelter on the North side of the dune, but it was the best he could for the day. He was only about half way up the mountain, and didn¡¯t want to chance cresting it that day. He had also installed a ventilation shaft using a pipe with a 3 foot diameter near the back of the metal room, which ran diagonally to the surface. Surprisingly, this had been the easiest part of the cave to construct as it was simply a matter of shaping the Quicksilver once the rest of the room was in place. The outlet of the pipe was also buried in a small lump of sand and angled northward.


    Crawling into position, he found that the room was cooler than it was outside, but still uncomfortably warm. However, if there was one thing that SEAL training taught it was how to be uncomfortable, and he settled in to wait.


    ?????????????


    The day passed as slowly as any in Mike¡¯s life. During the first couple hours, he periodically checked the temperature outside, but eventually gave that up when he felt his hand begin to sunburn the moment he stuck it outside. This, despite his very considerable farmer¡¯s tan which he had cultivated over many years and truly perfected after the System.  Thankfully, due to the insulation provided by the sand, he found that his hole only reached around 95 degrees, a temperature he could easily survive in.


    After failing in his attempts to catch up on some much needed sleep, he turned to his spatial storage bag to take stock of what he had available to him. His large bag contained almost a ton of Quicksilver, in addition to the considerable amount he had used on his shelter. He also had a few pounds of Blasting Powder from when he had worked on creating the cannons for the valley, rawhide, some sweet potatoes, berries, dried fish, a few clay pots of water, and thankfully, the salt and pepper he had kept upon his person to prevent the hobgoblins from wasting it.  Within the larger spatial storage bag, he found his original bag, which had much smaller dimensions and only contained some random seeds and the large jar filled with the Potion of Uselessness, which had been his attempt at creating a healing potion.  Altogether, he figured he had enough water and food to survive up to a week. Not a long time when trapped in the desert, but hopefully it would be enough to find a more permanent place to settle and regroup.


    Around 4 in the afternoon, he was finally able to fall asleep, the plush ground of Montana woefully absent as his bald head sweat against the hot metal.

 Untried: Chapter 2

    System Administrator reviewed the knowledge with which every cadet was instructed during their first mission as they waited for their screen to connect with Sector Assimilator¡¯s. Phase 3 was reserved for situations where an anomaly had become too powerful to easily dispatch in their current zone. It worked by transporting the anomaly to the Elite Zone, where they would be hunted by monsters many times their own strength. Without a means to Level Up, they would easily be defeated.  In cases where they managed to go unnoticed, the powerful zone barrier, which was pure destructive energy several orders of magnitude stronger than the Noob Zone barrier, would ensure they remained until they met their demise. System Administrator reviewed all of this, and found peace in knowing that the Hive¡¯s methods were tested over eons. They could trust in the protocols.


    The calm they felt shattered as soon as the communications channel connected and Sector Assimlator¡¯s face came onto the screen.


    ¡°Laud, The Queen!¡± System Administrator said with fervor before flattening all of their tentacles tight across their body as was protocol.


    ¡°May her spawn creep forth forever.¡± came the expected reply. System Administrator heard some brief laughter in addition to tinkling serving dishes before Sector Assimilator continued in an even tone, ¡°For what purpose have you contacted us, Administrator 41356?¡±


    ¡°Our humblest apologies for interrupting you, but in accordance with the Protocols, specifically subsection IV, we are obligated to report an initiation of the Phase 3 for an anomaly on planet X5117.¡± The words were spoken stiffly, for even though System Administrator thrived on seeing forth the will of The Queen, they couldn¡¯t help but hate that after all of these years, they were beholden to someone much younger than themselves¨Ca spawn who had been made Sector Assimimlator purely because they originated from one of the more centralized nests.¡±


    ¡°A first for you if we are not mistaken?¡±


    Are we being interrogated? System Administrator thought before responding, ¡°Yes, as well as for many of the Hive aboard this vessel.¡±


    ¡°Was the unenlightened planet too hard for your veteran crew?¡±


    ¡°Your pardon, but we don¡¯t understand.¡± The question was rude and definitely wouldn¡¯t have been asked within the Hive proper, thus System Administrator¡¯s confusion. It wasn¡¯t until a brief moment later, when muffled laughter was once again heard that they realized they were being mocked.


    ¡°We are asking if you were too weak to be able to handle a world of non-cultivators, but reaching Phase 3 makes that obvious. No wonder you are still only an Administrator.¡± The mockery and raw condescension which had replaced the more formal tone that permeated and was even a hallmark of assimilation vessels was enough to push System Administrator over the edge.


    ¡°We are not to blame, but rather Junior Administrator, who assisted the anomaly and enacted treason.¡± The words came pouring forth before System Administrator could stop them and they instantly regretted it. Blaming someone of lower rank was a sign of weakness, and it didn¡¯t help that Junior Administrator was from the same nest as them.


    The distinct absence of any sound made System Administrator aware that their remark was heard by all on the other end, which meant that a full investigation would now take place.


    ¡°And where is Junior Administrator now?¡± Sector Assimilator asked at length.


    ¡°Under confinement in their quarters while we wait to know how to proceed.¡±


    ¡°You would punish one of higher rank than yourself?¡±


    ¡°We would follow the Protocols, which clearly dictate that we do so.¡± They replied in angry annoyance, which was met with more uncomfortable silence.


    ¡°Well, consider the Protocols properly reported. You will hear from us soon.¡± Sector Assimilator said before disconnecting the line.


    System Administrator slammed their fists and spinal tentacles down on the seat in fury. That had not gone well. The rising generation have no professionalism and don¡¯t deserve or truly appreciate the luxuries they possess.


    Even as they thought the words, they realized that while true, they were just trying to justify their own behavior. They would have to walk more carefully in the future or they would be more likely to die than retire.


    ?????????????


    Mike awoke after only a few hours. The temperature had diminished somewhat, but not enough to prevent the exposed skin on his back from sticking grossly to the Quicksilver through the holes in his shirt. As it was still too hot to leave his den, he took the opportunity to eat a small serving of fish while he watched the light slowly dampen.  At length, the temperature was bearable enough that he scooted surprisingly gracefully from his nook, where he was greeted with a vista that surpassed his expectations. The sky was awash in reds, purples, pinks, and even a small hint of blue, all of which seemed to reflect across the golden sand dunes in a mesmerizing kaleidoscope of colors that caused him to whistle appreciatively as he took it all in.


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    The dunes were linear, being marked by the regularly intervalled waves like a beach at high surf. From where he stood, nearly 1.5 miles above the troughs, he could only estimate that the valley between himself and the next dune was roughly a mile across. As far as he could see, the pattern repeated itself.


    The height of the dunes meant that the valleys were already darkened by deep shadows, which gave him pause. He could either travel along the tops of the dunes, which would inhibit the distance traveled but also offered safety in that he would have a better view of any other monsters in the area. Or, he could travel along the valleys, which would increase his speed and make it harder for monsters to see him.


    After thinking it over for a few moments, he realized that the arrow which guided him actually pointed somewhat perpendicular to the dunes, meaning that he was once again dealing with a worst case scenario, as travel would be slow and he would be easily spotted.  However, he couldn¡¯t help the excitement building in his chest as he stored up his Quicksilver den, a process which took close to 20 minutes since he wanted to be sure he didn¡¯t leave any of the substance behind him. That accomplished, he strapped some rawhide across his stomach and chest, created a sled of Quicksilver, and whooped boyishly as he launched himself headfirst down the dune while activating Stomach Surfing. It likely wasn¡¯t the safest possible way of descending, but it was definitely the fastest as well as the most fun¨Cand any true danger would be in the form of other monsters, due to the desolate emptiness of his surroundings in addition to the amazing amount of control he had thanks to the Stomach Surfing skill.


    After only a few seconds, his body was moving much faster than a man could run, and after a minute of his unabated, headlong luge, he was moving faster than he could even with Footsteps of the Wind activated. Yet still he continued onward, until the rushing of the wind became almost deafening and the sand particles struck his exposed face with biting force.


    Suddenly, the light around him vanished and his acceleration slowed as he approached the trough of the dunes. Only a handful of seconds later and his body had fully leveled out, skimming across the valley¡¯s floor in 20 seconds or so before he was ascending the other side. The sharp change in angle caused his head to jerk forward, and he very nearly smashed his nose on the sled beneath him, an occurrence which he felt would have been guaranteed if it wasn¡¯t for the extra control afforded him by his skill set.


    He couldn¡¯t be sure how high he had started on the previous dune, but he didn¡¯t come to a complete stop until he was almost 20 yards past the line where the sun ended and shadows began. With slightly shaking knees, tearfilled eyes due to the flying sand particles, beard and mustache askew, and a huge smile on his face, Mike climbed to his feet and began ascending the dune in front of him. That was better than his first time jumping out of a plane.


    ?????????????


    His progress continued through the night, the tall mountains causing even his reinforced stats to be exhausted, until he was using Tactics to funnel his Dexterity into Strength and Toughness to help increase his endurance.  The exhaustion he felt wasn¡¯t the exhaustion of an old man however, but the exhaustion of youthful play. Each time his sled came to rest, he wasted no time getting to his feet, excited to do it again.  If Mother could see me now, she would say that I haven¡¯t changed at all from that 12 year old boy who would spend an entire day climbing and sledding down the big hill behind our house.


    In addition to simply being fun, the constant exertion of climbing, combined with the friction between his sled and the sand as he slid down each hill, meant that he was able to keep the cold from getting to him. A cold which continued to deepen with each hour that the sun wasn¡¯t shining.


    Other than the cold, and a brief instance where he got bold and attempted to catch some air off of a small ridge, he faced no real difficulties for the first 6 hours or so of darkness. It wasn¡¯t until he was halfway down the last hill of the night that danger struck. A thunderous noise, like firing the main artillery round of a tank, was his only warning before a huge creature emerged from the sand. It was pellet shaped, with a diameter that Mike guessed to be around 15 feet, at least as far as he could tell from hundreds of yards away while riding downhill in the middle of the night. He reflexively tried to Analyze it, but received only a series of messages instead.


    [Warning: Analyze failed due to level disparity]


    [Overridden: Boss status]


    [Warning: Underdeveloped skill usage can lead to catastrophic failure]


    After the confusing messages ended, during which time he had continued to approach the bottom of the dune, and subsequently the waiting monster, he finally was able to see what it was.


    Name: Islthin


    Monster Type: Greater Sand Wurmlet


    Level: 75


    Strength: 800


    Dexterity: 40


    Intelligence: 15


    Charisma: 2


    Toughness: 75


    Luck: 30


    Abilities: Entrancing Song¨CUses vibrations of the earth to sway the minds of its prey, forcing them to come to its mouth. Sand Excavation¨CConsumes sand at a rapid rate to pull objects closer to it.


    ¡°A wurmlet?  How can that thing be considered a baby? And why is the System misspelling things now?¡±  he screamed into the wind. The fact that it had higher Toughness, almost 20 times as much Strength, and nearly equal Dexterity was almost ignored as he saw how much higher the wurmlet¡¯s Luck was.


    At the very least, the creature was Level 75, which was the lowest possible in this Zone according to the notifications he read earlier. He briefly thought about how big the fully grown wurm must be to birth such a large baby and shuddered. Hopefully he wouldn¡¯t have to find out tonight.


    Not knowing what else to do, and hoping that his current speed was enough to avoid the creature, he angled his sled as far to the side of the creature as he could without causing him to lose momentum or fall outright. The front of the creature''s body lifted slightly as if sensing the change in direction, but made no move to follow him, and he ended up passing beside it with over a hundred yards of clearance.


    As his streaking form continued to increase the distance between himself and the monster, his worries began to abate. Just when he thought he was past the danger altogether, he felt a deep vibration in his bones and a faint rush of energy, before his body turned, much to the protests of his panicking brain, angling the sled straight towards the awaiting jaws of a creature that was larger than a school bus.

 Untried: Chapter 3

    Despite his best attempts at breaking the ability that had him enthralled, Mike unerringly directed himself towards the wurmlet¡¯s cavernous mouth. As he got closer, he could see row upon row of ridge like teeth, each nearly a foot tall. They were eerily similar to the dunescape he found himself in. They were teeth made for crushing and splitting, not for tearing or biting, and seeing them left little doubt in his mind that once inside of that maw, there would be no escape.


    When he was still 20 feet away, the sled slowed to a halt. The sense of relief he felt was short lived, however, as after only a few seconds, he felt a small wave of energy emanate from the creature before the beast lowered the bottom half of its mouth into the sand and to Mike¡¯s horror, he saw the ridged teeth begin to spin.  The rotation was slow at first, but slowly increased each second.  With each revolution, a large mound of sand was tossed towards the back of the creature''s mouth, where it inevitably disappeared down the creature¡¯s throat with increasing speed. Soon, the ground in front of the creature became a small river, which slowly made its way towards Mike¡¯s location.


    Just when he became confused how so much sand could be consumed, a large plume of dust erupted from the back of the creature as its sedimentary meal was forcefully expelled from its body. Despite his increasingly desperate situation, Mike found himself overly curious about the mechanics of this strange ability, and stood up to get a better view. It took almost a second for him to realize that he had been able to move. Thinking himself free from the enthrallment, he tried jumping off the sled and making a break for it, but found that he was still unable to so much as look away from the creature¡¯s direction.


    Before he could try escaping again, the river of sand reached his location, causing his sled to continue its journey towards the awaiting monster. As his voyage resumed, his desperation mounted, and he willed himself to move, attempting everything from throwing himself backwards to jumping in the air. What he found was that any movement that didn¡¯t cause him to turn or move away from the creature was permitted. That too was limited though, as he was unable to throw the Quicksilver spears he had made into the creature''s throat.


    At only 5 feet from the wurmlet¡¯s mouth, he was struck with inspiration. Removing some of the raw hide from his chest, he took a few large handfuls of Blasting Powder from his spatial storage bag and wrapped it into a satchel¨Cthe substance was more powerful than the explosives he had been trained with, but he estimated it would be enough to split an aircraft carrier in half, he just hoped it would be enough to kill a baby worm.


    Unable as he was to toss the explosive, he did the only thing he could and dove into the waiting jaws, his hands extended in front of him with the explosives as he activated Unflinching Meteor.  Even with his improved Strength, the sled he took off from was moving awkwardly, causing his dive to fall slightly short, so that only his chest was inside of the beast. He felt nothing as the rotating teeth beneath him lifted his body up and shoved him back with the same ease with which they were excavating sand. As soon as his whole body was inside the mouth, it snapped shut and all he saw was darkness.


    *Snap.*


    *Crackle.¡±


    *Boom!!!¡±


    All at once, blinding light expanded in front of Mike¡¯s face as the Blasting Powder exploded, shredding the wurmlet¡¯s head instantly and launching him backwards, his body spinning  end over end due the the weird way in which he had been forced to hold the package. Normally, he might have enjoyed such a flight, but instead he was distracted by a coursing torrent of energy inside of him. It started somewhere near his navel and branched out, reaching all the way to the tips of his toes. It seemed like its only purpose was to destroy him, and so powerful was its effect that he didn¡¯t even notice as his cartwheeling flight through the air carried him all the way to the next dune, where he crashed several hundred yards up its slope. Creenchez would have been impressed.


    Just when he thought he would be torn asunder by the ferocity of the energy inside of him, it disappeared¨Cnot the gradual easing of a stinging pain, but like a vacuum had sucked it out from him in an instant, leaving him feeling completely whole. He waited for a moment, expecting notifications to appear, but for once, the System was quiet. Left on his own, he opened his Character Sheet, and after a quick scan, found that the only thing that had changed was his kills towards Unflinching Meteor Level 4 had increased from 4 to 5.


    Climbing to his feet, he first took in the sad remains of the wurmlet below, the 15 foot creature was now just 5 feet long.  His gaze then traveled to his shredded clothes, which would do little to protect him from the harsh elements of this environment.


    ¡°Great, I¡¯m practically naked in the biggest desert ever. What good does my impressive farmer¡¯s tan do if I¡¯m exposed from thighs to toes and waist to head?¡± he said aloud, even as he turned and began inexorably climbing the hill behind him.


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    He was briefly tempted to walk back down and retrieve the Quicksilver shield, which he could see glinting in the sunshine, where it had come to rest at the bottom of the same dune he was on, but then he remembered a saying from his training: Blood attracts blood. With that in mind, he quickened his pace up the side of the mountain. Not three minutes later, a deafening sound emerged from the valley behind him, causing him to look over his shoulder at the 90 foot wurm that seemed to be sniffing around the carcass.


    Name: Ishgoba


    Monster Type: Greater Sand Wurm


    Level: 120


    Strength: 2500


    Dexterity: 300


    Intelligence: 50


    Charisma: 2


    Toughness: 400


    Luck: 50


    Abilities: Entrancing Song¨CUses vibrations of the earth to sway the minds of its prey, forcing them to come to its mouth. Sand Excavation¨CConsumes sand at a rapid rate to pull objects closer to it. Sand Tunneling¨CUses its ability to manipulate the sand to travel rapidly through it. Sand Sensing¨Crather than relying on sight, this monster senses its prey through the vibrations in the earth around it.


    Where the wurmlet was strong, what Mike could only assume was its mother seemed unstoppable. Every one of its stats dwarfed his own, and he held no illusions that he could escape from such a creature should it try to catch him.


    The beast sniffed around the corpse, keening softly as it nudged a piece of the wurmlet¡¯s body. It was a sight that tore Mike¡¯s heart. He hadn¡¯t asked for this. He never did. He had joined the SEALs because he wanted to protect his country and he trusted those who were in charge. Since leaving the SEALs, he had avoided confrontation as much as possible, and that extended to animals. While he loved meat, he was a huge proponent of not wasting any of it.


    The scene before him was made worse by the human-like actions of the wurm. This wasn¡¯t simply a dumb beast, but a creature with intelligence greater than his own, which led him to assume that it could love just like he could. A sentiment that was strengthened as he reflected on the hobgoblins waiting for him in his valley.


    Still, while he didn¡¯t like it, he would fight to survive. It was part of the world, more so now after the System than ever before. He was now part of an ecosystem where he was the bottom of the food chain, and he wouldn¡¯t back down from fighting to survive. There were still those counting on him.


    No longer wanting to witness the scene in front of him and wanting to escape the grim thoughts, he crept backwards. After only taking a single step, the wurm¡¯s very large head snapped away from its child and towards him like an uncoiling viper, causing Mike to freeze up instinctively. After its initial motion, it too remained still, only sniffing the air as it tried to search for his location. Once again Analyzing the creature, he was drawn to Sand Sensing, which was the obvious cause for why the wurm had so easily sensed his movement but couldn¡¯t seem to find his location at present.


    Knowing that a single movement would mean his demise, he had no choice but to hold completely still, willing with all of his might for the beast to turn away from him. Seconds turned to minutes, and minutes stretched to hours as neither of them moved, a feat made especially difficult for Mike due to the extreme cold. Bad got worse however, as the sun crested the dune behind the wurm, bathing Mike in its warm rays. It was initially a relief, until his pasty skin began to redden despite it being barely morning, getting darker with each passing moment. Even with the mounting pain, he remained motionless.


    Another hour and his sunburn had begun to blister, forcing him to recognize that he couldn¡¯t hold out forever. At some point, escaping the wurm would be more likely than surviving a day in the desert¡¯s heat.


    After another five minutes, just before the sunlight hit the wurm¡¯s position, it turned away and buried into the sand dune behind it, leaving no trace that it had ever been there. Mike counted backwards from 100 before he turned and began running up the slope as fast as he could, forming a thin sheet of metal behind him to block the sun. It was only about 9 o¡¯clock in the morning, but already it was incredibly hot and he needed the extra protection after his exposure.


    Reaching the top of the dune, he dug down and began constructing his shelter. He had spent a decent amount of the night thinking of how he could improve upon yesterday¡¯s design, but that would have to wait. Once again, he was left only with the time to construct only what was necessary for survival. The one exception to that being that he would always build on the top of a dune from now on, as he theorized that it would make the excavation process much easier.


    Arriving at the top of the dune, He quickly constructed a short tent out of quicksilver maybe 3 feet tall at the apex and lacking a bottom. Thus protected from the sun, he began scooping out sand as as fast as he could. Digging a hole that he constantly reinforced with Quicksilver.


    When he was done, the pit underneath was 4 feet deep. Of necessity, it was lined completely with Quicksilver, as the sand was too dry to hold any shape on its own. Because Quicksilver was so conductive, he was forced to mostly bury the structure on the outside, this also prevented the Quicksilver from reflecting and giving away his position¨Cthoughts of vultures larger than skyscrapers were on his mind more than usual that morning.


    With his shelter finished, he was obliged to sit down and care for his wounds. The blisters had long ago split all over his body, and their moisture had attracted the dry sand he worked with, covering him in a coat of visceral filth. Knowing that it was possibly his only way of surviving his current predicament, he sat down and prepared to use Hands of Healing. At least the medicinal coma would allow him to sleep better than he had yesterday.

 Untried: Chapter 4

    Mike awoke feeling more refreshed than he had in days¨Cin fact, the last time he had slept that good had been before Brent had come to warn the valley of Bart¡¯s impending attack. He was pleased to see that Hands of Healing had been completely effective, erasing the cuts and blisters that covered his body, and even going so far as to turn his sunburned skin into the coppery bronze that was the color of his arms and neck.


    Well there goes my farmer¡¯s tan that was years in the making. Hopefully Ethan Huberfield didn¡¯t know what he was talking about when he wrote that song. He thought to himself, before realizing that he was very unlikely to attract any woman so long as he was classified as a monster.


    It was still fairly early in the evening, and far too hot to leave his shelter. With little else to do, he sat still and tried to meditate, despite the heat and the way that his sweat ticked the underside of his arms as it trickled down his body. It took longer than usual for him to find peace, but eventually he did, and with it, he became acutely aware of the airflow moving through the tent through the four holes he had made on each side of the shelter''s pyramid-like roof. The majority of the air entered in through the North-facing hole and sank down towards the floor. He felt how it displaced the air around him which was being heated by his body, causing it to rise and exit through the other holes.


    After noticing this first stream, he allowed his focus to expand. Reaching from the main air stream were long fingers of air, which seemed to probe throughout the room as they too displaced heated air. Eventually, he noticed how the air in the corners of the room often became trapped in small eddies, creating both hot and cold pockets which could shift completely in an instant.  He didn¡¯t gain any new knowledge from the meditation, but he did learn to sense the air around him like never before.


    He concluded his meditation sooner than he would have liked and prepared to leave his shelter though the sun was still in the sky. Something told him that the wurm would come searching tonight, and he wanted to make sure he was as far away as possible when it did.


    ?????????????


    The next few days seemed to fly by as Mike got deeper into his rhythm. By night, he surfed through the desert on his Quicksilver sled¨Cmore cautious of running into monsters than he had in the past, but thoroughly enjoying each ride he took. The scenery never changed, save for an exceptionally large sand dune that he could see from the tops of all the other dunes. Where most dunes were bordering on the height of small mountains, this one would dwarf even the Rocky Mountains he had found himself around in Montana.  His current trajectory had him passing near to it, but not so near as to


    He would break each morning an hour before the sun rose so that he had plenty of time to build his shelter, a process which took a little bit more time each day as he continually incorporated new ideas. The second day he had built a bigger bunker, tall enough that he could practice the kata in. The mostly enclosed space continued to assist him in feeling the air, and he made his way further into the kata than ever before¨Cuntil he almost fainted from the heat. Which is why, on the third day he had added in a small fan near the top of the shelter, which was powered by a gear and some pedals on his feet. The contraption had truly tested his capacity to manipulate the Quicksilver, and it ended up failing after only a few minutes of him running it, resulting in yet another day of nearly unbearable heat. Even still, he pushed through an hour of training in the kata, although it was a distracted practice as his mind was working on how he could improve the fan for the next day.


    As the sun set on the fourth day, a day where his fan had once again failed, he opened up his spatial storage bag and checked inventory. Even knowing what he would find, he found his situation depressing. He only had a few more days worth of water and food, and so far, he had been able to find a way to remedy that. The only potential food source he had seen was the wurmlet¡¯s body¨Ceven putting aside the baby¡¯s mother that almost killed him, he had tried wurm before and found it wasn¡¯t to his liking.


    Without any other options, he decided that he would have to make a slight detour on his course to see if the large sand dune would offer him a better vantage point¨Chopefully, it would allow him to see some kind of water source or barring that, at least any hints as to what would lead him to water.


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    He left as early as he could that night, the last of the sun¡¯s rays beating down upon him and the skin of his feet nearly blistering due to the still hot sand. He would have to make good time if he wanted to reach the dune that night and climb it before morning¨Cany vantage it provided would only be useful in the light of day.


    With a goal in mind, made more urgent by his dwindling stores, he pushed himself hard, clearing dunes more rapidly than ever before. Despite this, and in accordance with male stereotypes, he had underestimated the distance he would need to travel. And so it was that with only a few minutes remaining before the sun started rising, he found himself nearing the top of the last dune between himself and his destination.


    The same explosive sound he had heard the first night he had arrived in the elite zone shook the twilight air behind him, causing him to nearly stumble. Judging distances from noises was made more difficult by the unending obstacles in every direction, but he reckoned the sound was still several sand dunes behind him. Rather than give him confidence, the distance seemed small, and he decided it would be best if he vacated the area as fast as possible. If the wurm was coming for him, his only hope was to make the chase last until sunrise.


    Activating Footsteps of the Wind, he raced up the last few feet of the dune, and with the skill still active, launched himself forward. He hadn¡¯t used this combination of skills since he had been in the Quicksilver Dungeon, and his stats had increased dramatically since then. The sand, whose stinging bite he had acclimatized to over the previous nights, eroded his face with a primal vigor, causing small cuts to appear across his skin and forcing him to close his eyes. Only a few seconds later, Footsteps of the Wind went on cooldown, dropping his Dexterity to near zero and removing all of the control he usually exuded while Stomach Surfing. Eyes pressed tightly shut and hands gripping the sled with all of the strength he could muster, it was all he could do to not fall off the sled.


    An eternal minute later, when he had somehow managed to thwart death and reach the bottom of the dune in one piece, he heard the noise again, this time closer than before. Still unable to open his eyes, he was forced to sled blindly while he waited for his speed to decrease along the flat terrain, all the while hoping that some monster hadn¡¯t appeared directly in front of him. After another 30 seconds, he was able to squint and blurrily see the sand dune in front of him, thankfully, no monsters barred his path as best as he could see.


    Only moments later, his sled had reached the bottom of the monolithic dune, and began coasting up its side. The glowing line where the sun kissed its face felt both blessedly close and impossibly far as the sled came to a complete stop and Mike began running as fast as he could, ignoring both the pain in his over-exerted limbs and the periodic booming sound which continued to get closer with each iteration.


    He was just reaching the peak when he heard the noise behind him again, and he knew without looking that the creature was within a few hundred yards. Without any warnings coming from Damage Premonition, he could only assume the attack wasn¡¯t coming quite yet, and he scrambled up the last few feet before turning around.


    Unused to picking one greater sand wurm out from another, he had to use Analyze to confirm that it was indeed Ishgoba, the same wurm that had haunted his sweat filled dreams over the last few days, who was now only 100 yards behind him. The creature had stopped only five feet in front of the sun¡¯s demarcation of the peak, its head pointed directly towards Mike¡¯s position.


    For several seconds, the two only stared at each other as the sunlight shifted ever closer to the wurm¡¯s position.  Then, right before the sunlight hit it, the creature snaked its head down and disappeared with barely a ripple into the sand dune¡¯s depths.


    ¡°I guess I¡¯m building my shelter above ground today.¡± Mike said aloud after a few more seconds of staring at where the monster had just been and trying to comprehend how something so massive could disappear so rapidly and completely.


    With that stoic remark, he pivoted and walked the last few feet to the peak with a resoluteness honed from years of facing dangers unknown.  The serious demeanor was broken as he took in the view for the first time. In the early morning hours, the vista provided by his elevation was unmatched. Directly in front of him and along the front side of each dune were shadowy sections that the sun had yet to reach, adding depth to the otherwise golden landscape.  For several moments, he allowed himself to simply take it all in, allowing himself to find a measure of peace, before the sun began to make his back uncomfortably hot and he was forced to focus on the task at hand.


    His eyes tracked the outlines of the dunes, looking for the most likely location of an oasis. For nearly ten minutes he looked, but without any success¨Cthe only thing in front of him was more sand dunes.


    But then he caught a blur in the corner of his eye, which resolved into a bird cresting a dune no more than 3 miles away.  It was a big bird, since he could see it from this distance, likely big enough to eat him in one bite, but nonetheless a small smile lit his face. Rule number 2 of desert survival was to follow the birds, as they followed the water.

 Untried: Chapter 5

    Darkness.


    Total and complete darkness.


    A darkness so dense and cloying that it felt like Brent was suffocating, despite his best efforts at slowing his breathing¨Ca technique his therapist had taught him several years ago. Of course, that technique was supposed to be used to help him cope with the stress of his day job more than coping with the stress of being trapped in an abyssal cave¨Che hadn¡¯t known then just how scary being buried alive could be or else he probably would have talked with the therapist about it. It was impossible for him to know how long he simply sat there and breathed. It could have been an hour or it could have been a day. He felt no passage of time. All he felt was panic.


    After that indeterminate amount of time, his survival instincts must have kicked in, because he began to feel again. The first sensation was the way his unshaven face pressed against his knees, causing his face to itch. It was an innocuous feeling, one that had become normal for him ever since his facial hair had come in about 10 years ago, and it brought him comfort. The next thing he felt was the painful, prickling sensation all through his legs, which had been clenched tightly and were suffering from reduced blood flow. As the pain abated, so too did his initial panic, and he received a notification:


    [Congratulations! You have learned the skill Mental Fortitude.


    +2 to Intelligence


    You have faced your demons and emerged stronger for it]


    The text caused him to mentally snort in derision. Not only was Intelligence a worthless stat, but the pain he had endured was worth far more than increasing any stat by only 2 points.


    Still something is better than¡­ He began thinking


    *Shriek*


    *Squeal*


    He was unsure if the sounds that interrupted his thoughts had been ongoing since the zone barrier fell or if he hadn¡¯t noticed them until that instant, but either way, they caused his terror to return in full force, and he started his breathing exercises again. After several minutes when the sounds got no closer to his location, he was able to calm himself down again.


    [Congratulations!  You have leveled up your skill Mental Fortitude, now level 2.


    +2 to Intelligence


    Outside stimuli that would normally render you useless are now reduced by 15%.]


    Well, maybe the Intelligence would be good for something if he kept leveling it up like this. Perhaps he could become a mage of some kind and simply annihilate any of the other adventurers who were hunting him under the System¡¯s direction.


    ?????????????


    It was almost a day after his skill had upgraded when the hunger became unbearable. It had slowly been building, but until that moment, his fear of what lay out of sight had exceeded the clawing of his stomach. On hands and knees, he began crawling forward.  Having explored his prison before the Zone Barrier collapsed, he knew for a fact that no food lay in what had once been the Noob Zone. Luckily, he was fairly certain that he knew which way would take him into the Ranker Zone, and hopefully, towards food.


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    At first his crawl was slow and tentative, as each hand was deliberately placed in front of him and probed about to make sure he wouldn¡¯t bump into anything. Over the span of a couple of minutes, however, he got into a rhythm and began exploring with more gusto, which is how he managed to smack his head roughly against a jagged stone in front of him. Pain exploded from the center of his forehead and he flopped onto his back, cursing and writhing in a vain attempt to dull it¨Ca not atypical action in response to extreme pain. By the time the agony subsided and his thrashing ceased, he had completely lost track of which direction he was currently facing in the cavern.


    ?????????????


    For an entire day, all Brent did was crawl around on the floor, his only company was the demanding voice of his stomach which periodically screamed into the darkness. Unsure of which direction he should be going, he had chosen to go towards the shrieking sounds which he had heard earlier. Sound meant monsters, and even a monster sounded good enough to eat in that moment.


    He thought he was hallucinating when he spotted the first mote of light. A small speck high above his head that glowed like the afterimage of the sun after it had been looked at for too long¨Calthough it remained stationary despite him looking away from it.  By the time the tenth mote appeared, his fear that he was beginning to go crazy actually diminished, and hope bloomed that he was getting closer to something.


    He had seen hundreds of the moats from a distance before he found one on the ground only a few feet from his face. Overcome with an irrational bout of hunger, his head lunged forward, tongue extended, and licked up the moat of light. No satiation was gained from the small morsel, but only moments later, he received a notification:


    [Congratulations! Level 4 reached!


    +3  Stat Points by Assignment]


    The thought hadn¡¯t even occurred to him that the moats of darkness could possibly be monsters. He hadn¡¯t even been completely sure they weren¡¯t all in his head until he got the notification. He was slightly concerned that eating one had gained him an entire Level however. That had only ever happened before when he had managed to land the killing blow on a bear several levels above himself. The thought prompted him to analyze the speck of light nearest him:


    Monster Type: Abyssal Moss of the Depths


    Level: 11


    Without an advanced version of the Analyze ability, he was only able to see the most basic of information about a monster, but the information he did see didn¡¯t inspire confidence. First there was the name, which was either melodramatic or hinted at the nasty side effects he would endure for eating it. Second was the monster''s Level. Had the one he had eaten been that high?  It would explain the instant Level Up, but it didn¡¯t explain why it was easier to kill than a hobgoblin baby.


    *Grrrrr*


    The interruption reminded Brent that he was too hungry to care, and he began crawling towards his next morsel.


    Worst case scenario, I can always just respawn. He thought to himself, as he made his way through the darkness towards another bit of moss that was on the ground.


    As he got close to its position, the fact that it was many levels above his own came to mind, causing him to shrink back and think logically.


    It¡¯s probably better if I kill it before I eat it. After all, I never eat chicken alive.


    That decided, he lunged forward, swatting the moss as hard as he could with his hand, but he received no Level Up notification. As a matter of fact, nothing happened. The moss continued to glow, and nothing had changed about it when he Analyzed it again¨Cthat was until he felt a sharp pain on his hand and he felt as the moss began to dig inside of him. In a panic, he dug his teeth around the intruder, ripping it out despite the pain and swallowing it whole.


    [Congratulations! Level 5 reached!


    +3  Stat Points by Assignment]


    While pleasant, the notification did little to dull his throbbing hand, and he found his anger towards Mike returning. Brent had done the Boss a favor by warning him of Bart¡¯s plans, it was the least Mike could do to not keep him trapped in this cave any longer.

 Untried: Chapter 6

    Building a metal shelter on top of sand dune in the middle of a desert that is far hotter than Death Valley has many drawbacks, but as Mike took his first step into his shelter, he concluded that chief among those drawbacks was the blisters. After years of hardening his hands to the point where they no longer got blisters even after hours of chopping trees, he found the small bubbles where the heated metal had touched his fingers more painful than the blunted arrows the hobgoblins had peppered him with in the Pit. How he missed those seemingly carefree weeks of simply growing stronger in his valley, before the Arena had come into existence and Bart had attacked his home.


    It had only been a little over an hour since the sun had risen, but already his small shelter was nearly steaming. Owing to the fact that the wurm was currently burrowed somewhere beneath him, he didn¡¯t feel safe creating his usual shelter, which required digging into the earth. Instead, he had built a small hut, completely out of metal. That material extended even to the construction of the floor, which was the only thing between himself and being eaten alive.


    Since it would be impossible to completely cover the shelter with sand, he had to compromise a bit. The sides he had managed to pile sand around, while the top he had covered with the dilapidated raw hide that usually served to protect him from sled-burns. The entire shelter was rather small, but he had made a small compartment for the working model of his fan. It was smaller than normal, too small to be powered with his legs, so his plan for the day was to spin the fan to keep air circulating with one hand, while using his other hand to try to find a way to escape his current predicament. It was a sad, yet foregone conclusion that he would have to use most of his remaining water to survive the day. Still, he had hopes that he would find another water source before the night was out.


    ?????????????


    Once again, Mike found himself leaving his shelter before the world had fully cooled off. Rather than leaving the peak, however, his burly form set about collecting his Quicksilver and methodically wrapping his core up in the sun-hardened leather that had served to cover his roof that day. That completed, he fashioned a sled out of Quicksilver, before taking out a large satchel from his storage bag.


    His initial ploy for surviving had been to simply flee the premises before the wurm could come out and hunt him¨Ca plan that had lasted about as long as it took for him to remember how quickly the wurm had caught up to him the night before. With that plan effectively ruined, he wracked his brain to find a suitable solution, but for all of his efforts, only two came to mind. The first was to somehow reach the end of the kata and maybe gain the skill Avis, which could possibly grant flight. The second was the tried and true method of SEALs¨Cexplosives. Blasting Powder had killed the wurmlet, and he was confident that if he used enough, it could kill the fully grown wurm as well. The only problem with this solution was that he was unsure how much was necessary to kill the wurm, and he only had around 3 pounds left. Deciding that this was an instance where it was better to be safe than sorry, he deposited all but a small handful of Blasting Powder into one of his precious clay vessels, which was sitting at the ready as he finished preparing himself for the inevitable confrontation.


    The final piece of the puzzle had been figuring out a way to trick the sand wurm from not simply emerging directly beneath him and eating him in one bite, which would give him no time to use the Blasting Powder effectively. To that end, he now stood with a thick beam of Quicksilver in his hand, which extended to the ground in front of him. He held the beam under his left arm, while activating Sonic Sounding with his right hand, sending the vibrations through the metal and into the sand nearly 10 feet from his position. For the next 10 minutes, as the sun waned, he continued to use the ability. Then, just before the sun fully set, he ceased Sonic Sounding, manipulated the Quicksilver back into his storage bag, and waited with the ceramic vessel held above his head, ready to be thrown.


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    He didn¡¯t have to wait long. Less than two minutes later, he felt a shaking coming from deep beneath him, which was followed almost immediately after by the sand disappearing from the exact place where the end of his beam had been touching the ground. Knowing he only had one shot, Mike tossed his package towards the hole. It had just crossed the hole¡¯s edge when the wurm¡¯s enormous jaws emerged, shooting upwards and devouring the package, with the same amount of effort it takes for a grown man to swallow a fly. The wurm continued to pour out from the depths of the dune, until its body extended a 10 feet from the hole. For a moment, Mike worried that his attack had been unsuccessful but then a deep rumble began and the wurm jolted to a stop with an ear-splitting screech.


    Evidently, the amount of Blasting Powder had been sufficient, as the pieces of the wurm¡¯s body were launched in every direction, even as the peak of the dune exploded outward, creating a cresting wave of sand.  Mike only had time to jump forward and activate Stomach Surfing and Unflinching Meteor before the 30 foot wave caught him and began carrying him down the hill in a terrifying conglomeration of an avalanche and a tidal wave. He was unable to enjoy the ride, however, as once again his body was wracked with the same horrific pain that had accompanied the death of the wurmlet¨Calthough somehow to an even greater degree. It was as if the energy of an atomic bomb churned inside of him, and he was only dimly aware of his body as it coasted downhill at the front of the torrential wave of sand.


    As the seconds wore on, he noticed that there seemed to be a pattern to the energy¡¯s movement within him. Due to the sharpness of the pain, he was able to trace its course precisely as it spread from somewhere around his navel to every point in his body. Once the energy reached his extremities, he watched as it seemed to loop back towards its source, before shooting out again in pulses, an unceasing chain of agony. He began to notice that not all of the energy was circulating. Some of it seemed to be absorbed by a rune-like pattern that existed within the energy pathways inside of him. That pattern seemed to get slightly brighter with every painful throb of energy.


    Then, all at once,  the energy, and with it, the pain, suddenly disappeared from his body and he was once again cognizant of what lay around him. To his surprise, he was still coasting down the sand dune with unfettered speed.  Rather than fear, Mike¡¯s face was grinning and he whooped loudly into the night air as he gracefully maneuvered down the slope. The manic gleam in his eye seemed to visibly increase as he read the System notification that had just appeared:


    [Congratulations!  For surfing the big one, Stomach Surfing has reached Level 2


    +1 Toughness and Dexterity


    Friction and air resistance reduced by 15% while Skill Ability is active.]


    Not only was he on the most exhilarating ride of his life, but he could now travel faster and further with the skill increase. His enthusiasm waned somewhat as he read the requirements for the Skill Ability to reach Level 3, Teach a gremmie what you know. It was illogically unspecific, as was swiftly becoming the norm for his more complex skills. He knew what a gremmie was from his time stationed in Hawaii, but the actual information he knew about stomach surfing was limited. Furthermore, where could he find a gremmie in the middle of a desert?


    His thoughts were interrupted by a particularly large divot that launched him heavenword for a brief instant, before he crashed back down hard enough to make his teeth rattle.


    I probably shouldn¡¯t let my mind wander too much while riding at the head of a giant landslide


    ?????????????


    System Administrator¡¯s frustration mounted as they watched the anomaly sled down the sand down with all of the joy of a young hatchling, completely oblivious to the enormity of the task he had just accomplished¨Cthat he had managed to kill a greater sand wurm many times his own Level seemed to not even phase the aging Terran.  Even more surprising was that the anomaly had remained conscious during the influx of cosmic energy from the wurm¡¯s demise. The pain must have been excruciating, and not for the first time, System Administrator wondered at what sort of function the anomaly must have fulfilled before the integration.

 Untried: Chapter 7

    Mike continued flying down the giant sand dune at the front of the sand-alanche, a term he had made up during his downward path and which he thought was quite clever, until he reached the valley floor and continued up the side of the next dune. When he finally came to a stop, he turned around and squinted into the twilight, just barely making out the massive wurm¡¯s destroyed figure. He had a decision to make.


    Do I turn around and collect me some wurm flank-steak or do I keep going and trust that I¡¯ll be able to hunt another monster way above my own level? Laughing at the idea of flank-steak from a creature with no flanks, he began the trek back up the large sand dune. It really wasn¡¯t a hard decision. His spatial storage would preserve the meat as long as he needed it to, and leaving the meat would just be a waste.


    Increasing his pace, he was able to reach the dune¡¯s summit, and Quicksilver clever in hand, he approached the wurm¡¯s remains. A large chunk of the body had been blown to pieces, which would normally be unusable except that a piece of this wurm was generally larger than the average bicycle before the System. Approaching one such piece, he began scraping the skin off, a task which he decided would have been impossible for him if he wasn¡¯t working his way from the inside out. The skin was almost a foot thick, and while it felt like leather, it was tougher than rock.  It was far too sturdy to be usable in its current state, but he packed it away in his storage bag along with the meat he had scraped off, a few ideas already churning in his head about how he could use it down the line.


    Thankfully, though the skin was hard as rock, the meat was still palatable. It lacked the marbling of a good cut of beef, but with a little salt and pepper and maybe a day of stewing, he anticipated that he would quite enjoy it.


    After the first chunk was fully processed, he realized that it wouldn¡¯t be safe to keep butchering in his current location. The explosion and large amount of available meat would definitely attract other scavengers and he needed to be long gone before they arrived. With that in mind, he ran from one piece of the remains to the next, shoving it into his spatial storage bag as quickly as he could. After grabbing the 20 largest chunks in his general vicinity, he came across what remained of the creature¡¯s jaw. The large, rotary teeth were still set firmly to the bone, and he instinctively shuddered, remembering how close he had come to being crushed by them only a few days earlier. Shaking himself out of it, he stuffed that piece into his bag as well.


    With the majority of the pieces stowed away, he approached the back half of the creature, which had been blown out of the mountainside by the explosion. A good 20 feet of it still remained intact. He tried storing it, but found that for the first time, his storage bag wouldn¡¯t let him. It wasn¡¯t full yet, so he came to the forced conclusion that there was a limit to how big of an item he could put into it. He briefly considered chopping it up, but knew that the skin would be impervious to his blows from the outside and would take far too long to simply carve out the meat. So with some regret, he left it where it was.


    Sprinting across the now flattened dune and diving headfirst down the side, he did his best to match the speed that had been provided by the explosion and subsequent avalanche. He wasn¡¯t quite able to do so, but he still made good time, and with several hours still remaining before morning, he came to the top of a dune that overlooked the oasis, if a fetid pool of water could be called such. It was plenty big, around the size of a small lake, but even from his current position, he could hear the buzzing of insects. He was grateful to note that the insects were still almost as small as they had always been, only around the size of a large dinner plate instead of a school bus like the wurms had been.   Their presence only increased his reticence to approach the fetid waters, and he decided that simply watching the area would be in his best interest for the night. Finding a good vantage point, he dug a small burrow in the ground, and began to meticulously cover himself until only his two eyes were visible.


    Throughout his nighttime vigil, he saw a few wild foxes, cats, and other quadrupeds that generally inhabited the deserts on pre-System earth. Unfortunately, the System hadn¡¯t lied in its notification about the elite zone: even the desert cottontail which came within a few hundred yards of his location was Level 80. Sadly, he wasn¡¯t having cooked rabbit anytime soon.


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    In addition to the animals he was familiar with, he saw some new species. One was an amorphous blob of sand that rolled across the valley¡¯s floor without any concern for what lay in front of it. Creatures both big and small leaped to get out of its path. Another creature was more humanoid looking, but stood almost 10 feet tall and appeared to be made completely of stone¨Cit came close enough that Mike was able to use Analyze it and learn it was a Stone Troll. Still another new species was a creature that had the lower body of a reptile, but had long, grass-like growths along its back. Positioned in the shallows, it was immaculately camouflaged and Mike only managed to notice it because he saw as it pounced on an unsuspecting fox, devouring it instantly before blending back into the surroundings, causing Mike to make a mental note to never go near the grasses.


    The nighttime ecosystem ground to a complete stop an hour before sunrise, all at once, the creatures vanished into the surrounding hillsides. After five minutes of quiet, Mike emerged and began making his shelter. He had little time, and he wanted to build quietly so as not to alert any predators. However, this was the first real source of water he had seen, and he planned on being here for at least a few days. With all of this in mind, he silently dug down into the sand, working to a depth that he could stand up in. Thanks to his improved physicality, the 6 foot deep hole with an approximate 4 foot radius was completed within an hour, and he was just finishing putting a  grate-like cover over the top of it when the sun began to rise. After another 10 minutes of reinforcing the pit¡¯s edges with Quicksilver, squatted down and began digging at an angle.


    The process started off slow, with his body stopped in an awkward position and him being forced to bail out sand through the shelter¡¯s entrance, but as more space was created and he could move more freely, it became easier. When he had created another chamber in which he could easily lay down in, he received a notification:


    [Congratulations! You have learned the skill Burrow.


    +2 to Strength


    Many of the plant¡¯s least intelligent lifeforms dig their homes into the ground.


    Now you do too.]


    The air around him seemed to hum as he read the notification, and he felt his body begin sucking in energy from all around. Flashbacks to the excruciating pain he had endured the night before caused him to break out in a cold sweat, but rather than overwhelming him, his body sucked up only a fraction of what it had previously, before it forced the energy into his arms and hands, where it shaped itself into incomprehensible runes. After a few moments, where he looked on in silent wonder, the energy vanished, just like it always did.


    ¡°As if snarky comments and getting a skill way after I deserved it isn¡¯t annoying enough, now I am forced to watch the System change my own body without any say in the matter.¡± he grumbled aloud.


    After lining the den with Quicksilver, he slowly crawled backward til he had reached the entrance shaft, and stood up to look outside. The sun was shining down in earnest, and not a creature was in sight. It was likely the best opportunity he would get to retrieve water.


    Sliding from the hole, Mike held a piece of sand wurm skin above his head for camouflage and carefully made his way down to the water. The mile-long distance felt more like 20 and his nerves frayed both from the heat and the knowledge that at any moment he could come across the burrow of a creature that was far stronger than himself. Breathing deeply and focusing on his body, the one thing he could control, he was able to push through the stress and safely make it to the water¡¯s edge. Filling up his water jugs as fast as he could, he retraced his steps back to his burrow, where he collapsed into a humid heap of unwashed flesh. The last week had changed his perspective on reality. He was no longer the apex predator, but found himself at the bottom of the food chain, and he would need all of his training if he was going to survive.


    After a few minutes, he arranged himself more comfortably and began looking through his Character Sheet while he waited for sleep to come. As he saw the requirement for leveling up Burrow, he cursed aloud: Dig a burrow for two. It wasn¡¯t enough for the System to be sarcastic, it had to also make fun of his relationship status and loneliness too.

 Untried: Chapter 8

    Mike awoke after a few hours and began the process of purifying his water. He had no desire to ingest a Level 90 parasite. Quicksilver made this process very quick and simple. He started by forming a small basin, around 1 foot across and 1 foot high, which he filled with water, which would be used to boil the water. He then built some miniature scaffolding around the basin¡¯s edge, which expanded outwards a few inches from the bowl''s edge, before pivoting inwards . With the scaffolding built up to a height of around 6 inches, he formed a larger dome with a diameter of 2 feet and placed it facing downwards on top of the scaffolding. This would be used to condense the steam. The final step was creating a ring of Quicksilver around the widest point of the scaffolding. The ring extended a full foot from the scaffolding, and around 3-4 inches further than the upper dome. When the steam condensed, the water droplets would fall along the edge of the dome and would be caught in the ring.  The design was more intricate than he was trained to build in a survival situation, however, because of Quicksilver, it was not only possible, but easy to create.


    His only problem was figuring out a way to heat up the basin water. He would prefer to light a fire, but without wood and trapped as he was in a hole, he felt that another situation needed to be found. The solution once again came in the form of the Quicksilver, which he had already learned had a very high conductivity. Creating 20 clumps the size of charcoal, he placed them outside the entrance to the den and waited thirty minutes until they were emanating heat from them. He then took the clumps and placed them under the lower basin and watched as the water rapidly began heating. Once steam was formed, he placed the jug with the remainder of the water on top of the apparatus to act as a heat sink, and watched as droplets began leaking out on all sides.


    The process was very involved and required Mike to constantly rotate the Quicksilver clumps in order to keep it running, but as the ring of water continued to rise, Mike felt a sense of relief at having solved one of his largest problems.


    ?????????????


    Mike recognized that the oasis wasn¡¯t a safe place long term, and to that end, he devoted all of his time and energy to preparing to move on over the next four weeks. It just so happened that many of the tasks he needed to complete before he could do so required him to tinker around a bit, which was one of his favorite activities.


    After finagling with the water purification system, he next moved on to what he considered the most important part of any homestead, the kitchen. The idea had formed as he was replacing his makeshift charcoal and wishing he had a better system to heat up the water. His first thought was to use the Quicksilver like a mirror to reflect the sunlight onto the water bed, but soon realized that that would cause the heat in his small home to increase dramatically, something he was barely tolerating. Then he thought about creating a secondary room that could cook food in without heating up his whole house. These two thoughts came together and the mirror-powered oven room was born.


    The floor of the room was situated almost 8 feet underground and was 6 feet to a side. The entire room was made of metal, as was customary for all of his shelters. However, the upper edges of the wall were pivoted downward at an angle so that the sunshine was reflected into the room, regardless of its position during the day. Just that much of the construction took the better part of two days, and it wasn¡¯t even the worst part. The part that took the longest was creating the grating system which would make up the roof of the room and needed to be camouflaged from above while also letting the light in. This he had completed by creating a grate of Quicksilver and lining the outside edge of it with sand wurm hide. The hide was just as hard to cut as he had remembered, but he finally managed it when he heated up one of his axes until it was red hot and then sawed through it. It still took an eternity, and the finished product was far from perfect, but it was serviceable. The final task was creating a door and roof cover, which he accomplished with a very thick piece of hide. The door prevented the heat from leaking from the kitchen into the rest of his den, while the roof was put on each night and prevented other animals from coming to his location. As it so happened, the stench of slightly charred wurm hide was enough to keep most animals away.


    He got a nice surprise in the form of an additional level to Tinkering when the room was finished and with it, 9 stat points he could assign. After stowing his first batch of meat in the oven and setting the temperature to scorching hot, he sat down and considered where he should put the 32 stat points he had saved up.  Dexterity had always been what got him out of a pinch, but since arriving in the desert where Stomach Surfing was his main mode of transportation, he required it less than before. Strength and Toughness would likely help him be able to dig faster, but he hoped that his current excavation activities would be short-term. Charisma was out, as always. No sense looking beautiful if no one else was around to see it. And Intelligence seemed as nebulous as always¨Che had been smart enough to find his way out of situations thus far, and he trusted he could do it again. After ruling out every single stat, he decided to just continue sitting on the stockpile he had.


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    With the kitchen completed, he was able to move his water boiler out of the entryway and began cooking wurm steaks and purifying water as quickly as he could. Since the process required very little of his attention, aside from loading and unloading the room morning and night, he set his sight on creating a better bedroom. His logic was that a few good nights of uninterrupted sleep would prepare him to relocate more than almost any other activity. He was tired to the core of his bones. It wasn¡¯t that he didn''t try to sleep, it was just that he was unable to sleep well, as even after relocating the boiler, the room was excessively hot.


    Foregoing any attempts at creating a fan, he simply decided to dig deeper, where the layers of earth would act as a natural barrier from the sun¡¯s heat. He was grateful that no matter how far down he dug, the process never got much harder. He had yet to find a single rock, and relocating sand had become almost as familiar to him as rigging an enemy¡¯s base with explosives. It was easy then, to expand his bedroom into a small workshop, and from there, dig a shoot that extended 10 feet deeper. Once reaching his desired depth, he created a bedroom that would have been small by most pre-System humans, but was incredibly spacious for a an underground bunker. He did find that the air grew stuffy rather quickly, and he was forced to create a small tube which connected back to the den¡¯s entryway. The influx of hot air wasn¡¯t negligible, but it was small enough that he could live with it. The first night¡¯s sleep he got in the bunker was the best he had had in what felt like months.


    With his food situation sorted out and his sleep on the mend, he decided it was time to focus on getting stronger once more. He had no way to gain experience in the Elite Zone, but he could still train his skills. The one that appealed to him the most was the Aeromancy. Ever since sensing the air currents in one of his previous bunkers, he had felt like he was getting close to a breakthrough, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to push himself to the next level.


    Not wanting to make his bedroom even stuffier, he hollowed out a room halfway down the shaft leading to his bedroom. It was the largest one he had created yet, and once it was covered in Quicksilver, he had only enough remaining to create armor and weapons for himself. He was amazed that his spatial storage bag had enough room to fit all of the Quicksilver he had in addition to the meat he was carrying. He also wondered at the sheer volume of Quicksilver. He didn¡¯t remember stowing that much away, but the events leading up to the valley¡¯s invasion were a blur to some degree and he couldn¡¯t be sure he hadn¡¯t decided to shove all of it into his bag.


    With his bunker finally completed, he was able to devote most of his waking hours to practicing the kata. As he had hoped, the moves came to him more easily than they ever had before thanks to his training setup and the pipes he had installed to help move airflow in a regular pattern.


    His progress did plateau a week after the room was built, much to his frustration. He could sense the end was right around the corner, but he was held back for two reasons. The first was that, despite all of Dexterity, he still was unable to perform the necessary movements. The second was that he couldn¡¯t process the final movements as fast as he needed to. He could sense them, but his brain was unable to send the message fast enough to the rest of his body. Where the starting stances required him to flow, the ending ones required him to whip out explosively like a gust of wind, only to redirect his body in a completely different direction.


    Not one to do something by half measures, he decided to route some of his stockpiled points into Intelligence and Dexterity. He had 32, and he decided to put 10 into each, while holding back the remaining 12 for a rainy day. After doing so, he approached the kata again, and found he was able to complete the final moves.


    [Congratulations!  For reaching the end of the kata, Aeromancy has reached Level 2


    +2 Intelligence]


    Finally completing the requirements for a skill that had eluded him for months felt like a greater accomplishment than any skill he had Leveled Up to date¨Cit was satisfaction that he usually only felt when biting into a perfectly cooked steak. It felt so good, that he only got slightly annoyed when he saw that the next Level required him to ¡°Assimilate the wind.¡± A sudden explosion followed by pitiful squeals of pain broke him from his reverie and had him hustling to peek outside.

 Untried: Chapter 9

    Creeanth¡¯s face was squished in thought as he surveyed the valley from its entrance. It had been weeks since Big Bossy Boss had simply vanished, taking with him the barrier that protected the valley from the Ranker Zone. At first, Creeanth had simply maintained order and ensured the valley¡¯s defenses were on high alert, certain that Big Bossy Boss would return. That certainty hadn¡¯t vanished, but the timeline had become less clear. Creeanth had seen both the way the boss fought and the way that he loved, and he knew the valley wouldn¡¯t be deserted. Regardless of what had befallen his idol, he was sure he would come back to them.


    After three days of remaining on high alert, the hobgoblins had needed some return to normalcy, and Creeanth had allowed it, with some modifications. Almost every single hobgoblin that had fought to defend the valley against Bart had gotten some type of combat skill, and he felt it was important for them to not only maintain them, but to grow them. To that end, he had divided the valley into 5 groups, which each took a turn guarding the valley one day in five. Thanks to Big Bossy Boss¡¯s foresight, there were plenty of hobgoblins trained well enough to lead the divisions, in the form of the scouts who had been trained by the boss himself.


    On three of the days when a division wasn¡¯t responsible for the valley, the hobgoblins enjoyed normal life, the smiths smithed, the fishers fished, the miners mined and the gardeners gardened. The final day off was different however. Creeanth had witnessed how powerful the Quicksilver could be, both as a set of living armor and also in the form of weaponry, and he felt getting everyone in the valley an affinity for it would be essential to their survival. Because of this, each member of the valley spent one day in five moving the shiny metal from the dungeon to the surface, where they continued to coat the surrounding mountains to aid in their defense should another attack come. With time, he hoped that some of the more enterprising hobgoblins would even be able to replicate the cannons.


    Becoming the horde leader had impacted Creeagle personally just as much as it had impacted the valley as a whole.  As expected, his physical body had grown with the new appointment¨Chis height increasing by over 30%. Additionally, He had gotten 20 points that he could allocate by assignment¨Cgiven that the sum of most Level 1 hobgoblins entire stat pool was under 20, this was a huge advancement for him.  These 20 points were what made a horde leader so much stronger than those they led.


    It was the accepted norm for horde leaders to put those points into Strength and Toughness, which is what helped their elongated frames bulk up and appear dominant to those under them. Creeagle was unsure if it was due to his already high Intelligence and capacity for flame-based skills, but he decided to continue to elevate his strengths rather than give into vanity, at least for the most part. He had put 15 of the points into Intelligence, while the remainder had gone into Strength. This meant that he appeared much less muscular than most horde leaders, but at least he would be able to defend the valley.


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    He felt like Big Bossy Boss would approve of the decision. Their valley of hobgoblins had always been abnormal, and further distancing themselves from the low-leveled, intelligence-lacking beasts they had once been was the only way they would survive in the Ranker Zone. He hoped that Big Bossy Boss would approve of all of the decisions he had made.


    A flick to his ear broke him out of his reverie, and he turned to see the female responsible for the flirtatious contact smiling at him coyly. He had always known that the horde leader was held in high regard by the fairer sex of his species, but he hadn¡¯t known just how aggressively he would be sought after.  Being the horde leader was a lot of work, but this part he could get used to. He hadn¡¯t garnered this much attention since his arms had first burst into fire, and he was loving every minute of it¡­ He just wished the hobgobleness he esteemed above all others would take notice of him.


    ?????????????


    Creenchez led the congregation away from the statue of the patron in silence. While silence was appropriate for the grandeur of the unveiling, it was inappropriate in its origins. She and those who worshipped with her weren¡¯t being silent out of respect or reverence, but rather they were forced to be silent so they would go unseen. They had been restricted in their worship by that oaf of a horde leader.


    Oh, he was handsome enough¨Cthe usually blocky and overly-bulky look of most horde leaders being replaced by the trim, lithe look of someone who was both a warrior and a scholar. In that regard she approved of him tremendously. If she was being honest, she approved of almost every rule he had put in place since leaving the valley save one. She and her followers couldn¡¯t be responsible for guarding the valley or mining. They had a greater work to do that eclipsed any gained skill a thousand fold both in terms of importance and urgency. The groves needed to be planted.


    They had just made a major breakthrough in production, which allowed them to plant more than 1000 trees a day, but it required all of their time. Why couldn¡¯t that hunky chunk of green flesh understand that fulfilling the Quest given to Big Bossy Boss was the best way for him to come back alive?  True, she hadn¡¯t told anyone about Spiritual Tracking, which now showed their patron¡¯s position to be in the middle of the Elite Zone, but how could she?  The difficulty of surviving in such a place was beyond anyone under Level 75, let alone someone under Level 20. The only way she could help was to complete the quest and hope that the rewards would be enough. It was something that Creeanth would never understand though. He had the noble heart of Big Bossy Boss and would focus on protecting the lives of the valley over anything else.


    So the task of saving Big Bossy Boss had fallen to her, and she wouldn¡¯t fail him.

 Untried: Chapter 10

    The awful squeals of a being in pain continued unabated as Mike hustled from his training chamber, motivating him to climb the ladder in record time, despite the narrowness of the shaft. He barely noticed the wave of heat that sat on his upper floor, a product of the oven room having imperfect insulation and the heat of noon-day sunshine. Before he reached his entryway, another crash sounded, and the keening peals of pain took an angry note, urging him to move faster still. Only his training enabled him to overcome the compulsion, and he forced his mind to be calm as he quickly made his way to the entrance of his shelter and peaked outside.


    He located the source of the noise instantly, near the water¡¯s edge, a desert fox as large as a horse lay bloody and broken in what had once been its burrow. He initially thought that the den had collapsed but as he looked closer, it was evident that the den had been destroyed from the outside.


    A blinding flash of feathers streaked from above and collided into the wounded animal, gouging at it with talons the size of Ka-Bars. The exchange was too fast for Mike to see or understand all of it, but he did see that the fox was fighting back, despite the multitude of its wounds, it continued fighting with a fury that surprised him. He knew it would be suicide to assist, but he found himself routing for the fox. For a brief moment, he actually believed it would come out on top, but then another streak of feathers pounced on the fox from behind as a second vulture joined in the combat.


    Rather than back down, Mike sensed a growing accumulation of energy within the fox as it seemed to drain its surroundings of all lifeforce and it fought harder than ever before. It was a dazzling display of ferocity and raw power, but Mike recognized it for what it was, the last ditch effort of a protector who was willing to give its life to guard its wards for a few final moments. His fears and suspicions were validated as a particularly nasty attack from the bird on its right side forced it to take a step back, and 5 fox cubs were revealed.


    Any control Mike had managed to maintain in that moment was shattered at the sight of the small, soft, fury creatures, and he was out the door of his shelter and launching himself into a wreckless dive into Stomach Surfing before he had taken conscious thought of his action. He took no notice of his surroundings nor the way that the sand was heating his sled beneath him until it glowed red hot, so focused was he on the battle raging before him. He had heard stories and even seen instances where superhuman feats were performed in an effort to save the life of another, but with the System enhancements, this was on a different level. He was unable to comprehend the speed of most attacks, but he was surprised to see that some of the fox¡¯s attacks were enhanced with air-infused strikes that extended its reach and left ghastly wounds wherever they landed.


    When Mike was still 50 feet from the battle the world seemed to slow as yet another vulture descended with mind-numbing speed. The moment before it struck, the fox turned its head towards him, looking directly into his eyes. In that instant, which was shorter than a single beat of his raging heart, he felt as if the mother both recognized his attempt to help and evaluated his worthiness to do so. He must have been found worthy, since the fox flicked two of its cubs airborne and in the path of his trajectory only a split second before the bird struck with the sound of a thunderclap. The resulting shockwave followed immediately after, and it took all of his concentration to not be buffeted off course.


    He managed to snatch the first foxling by the scruff of its neck as it flew past his location, forcing him to steer the sled with only one hand as he aimed for the cub that was tumbling through the air.  The final instincts of the dying parent had been precise however, and he managed to grab it with his other hand in the instant before it struck the ground, forcing his hand to touch the scorching sand and causing blisters to form. Yelping against the pain, he guided the sled sideways, gently at first to lose momentum, and then more sharply to come to a complete stop, a task that was more difficult with both hands being occupied.


    Conscientious of the killer vultures that had surely turned their attention to him in the two seconds that had transpired since the fox¡¯s death, he found his feet in an instant, tucked the foxes in his arms like two footballs, channeled Strength and Toughness into Dexterity, and charged up the hill, activating Footsteps of the Wind as he did so. By siphoning 10 of each attribute and with the subsequent tripling from the skill, he was able to reach a 252 Dexterity, almost as high as the 280 he had reached before. He was briefly tempted to dump his remaining unassigned points into Dexterity, which would help reach a new record, but decided against it almost as fast as the thought surfaced. The vultures likely had over 400 dexterity, and an extra 30 wasn¡¯t going to make much of a difference in the here now, while they might just be essential in progressing one of his skills down the road.


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    Though his Dexterity was much higher than anyone of his Level, it was nowhere near the amount that the birds had, and were it not for Damage Premonition, he would have stood no chance of escaping. Damage Premonition also wouldn¡¯t have been enough had any other monster been chasing him, but as these enemies attacked by dive bombing from above, he only had to avoid three attacks.


    At the first warning, he skipped to the left, off balance, but managing to stay upright despite the shockwave of sand that hit him a moment later. The second warning followed immediately after, and he dove forward, rolling ungracefully in a desperate attempt to protect his payload. Finding his feet as quickly as he could, he began running again, only taking two steps before the final warning forced him to leap into a dive, which brought him to the door of his shelter just as Footsteps of the Wind died out.


    After seeing the destroyed burrow earlier, he knew he wasn¡¯t out of danger yet, and he wiggled forward into the tunnel and down the shaft until he reached his bedroom. Crawling to the corner, he leaned against the metal wall, cradling each whelp and sushing gently despite the way the walls shook and the very air seemed to vibrate with each concussive blast.


    ?????????????


    The assault lasted for an entire hour, after which Mike heard the raspy, hissing sounds that the species emitted while feeding. He didn¡¯t have to be a genius to realize that they had found the meat room. The loss piled onto the load he was already carrying from being unable to save the other cubs. There was no denying it, he would have to move again. Thankfully, despite the meat he had lost, he had managed to process enough food and water to last him for months, although he was unsure how that timeline changed with the newest members of his traveling group. Surely foxcubs couldn¡¯t eat too much, right?


    Once the cubs had been triple checked for injuries and given some food, he pulled out some wurm hide and began to fashion a carrying device for his charges. The work was slow going due to the thickness of the leather, but thanks to extra energy provided by the adrenaline stemming from the day¡¯s events, he was able to rig something together. The completed piece was a set of of shoulder pads that had a pouch fashioned on each side. The pouches could be closed when he needed to sled, which would prevent the sand from hitting the cubs and stop them from falling out. The final touch was adding air holes to the bottom of each pouch.


    When at last the feasting noises above ended and all was silent, he began the arduous task of leaving his burrow. He had to be very careful as he slowly made his way upward, extracting the Quicksilver with him as he went. He couldn¡¯t be sure, but it seemed the metal was beginning to respond to his wishes more quickly than it had before. Despite the care with which he extracted the metal, his excavated abode began to fall apart when the supporting endoskeleton had been removed, and it was with no small measure of relief when he was once again in his entryway, with only the oven still needing to be salvaged. It was as bad as he feared. The birds must have dive bombed straight through the vent as it was strewn in pieces throughout the room. The carefully designed, mirrored walls were bent and distorted, their usefulness destroyed. It was hard to see so much work be destroyed so thoroughly, almost vengefully, but more than anything, he regretted the loss of the meat. Several hundred pounds had been ravenously devoured, and getting more was always a worry. In his third interaction with monsters in this zone, he had once again barely been able to escape with his life.


    Twenty minutes later, he had collected all of the Quicksilver, as well as the door to the room, which while obviously damaged from beaks, was still serviceable.  It was still not quite twilight, but he made his way from his hideout anyways. He was certain that more than one other monster had seen the events of the day, and he wanted to be far away when they came looking for an easy meal.

 Untried: Chapter 11

    For 12 grueling hours, Mike maintained a furious pace through the desert, jogging up hills and sliding down them one after another. Every three dunes, he took a moment to check on the cubs, who were completely silent while traveling, but yipped happily each time they saw him. While he was unable to take them out and play with them as he would like, he did give them a piece of wurm jerky, which they ate voraciously. While they ate, he took in the surroundings, remaining alert while also studying them. They were both a dusky goldenrod with small red highlights around their feet and noses. He felt the tension in his shoulders ease somewhat as he watched them chew. It was good to not be alone. The first time he fed them, he gave them a piece of jerky no bigger than his thumb, but by the end of the night, he was giving them pieces as large as his hand.  With each iteration, as soon as they had finished eating, he stowed them away once more, conscious of the need to get as far away from the shelter as possible.


    An hour before sunrise, he stopped to make a shelter. Using the wurm-hide made it very easy to camouflage the top of the structure, which freed up some of his usual preparation time to add depth. This, in addition to his new Burrowing skill, made it possible for him to build a very respectable shelter. It wasn¡¯t as large as others he had made, but it was large enough and deep enough to keep the whelps cool throughout the day, as well as giving them space to play.


    The same uncomfortable pressure built in him once more, but similar to previous skill advancements, gaining a level in Burrow was devoid of pain. Instead, the energy was sucked in from around him, feeding the energy into the rune that he was beginning to recognize as a marking for the skill, before disappearing. The two points to Strength were happy additions, even if his fundamental understanding of how the System interacted with his being was changing. Did the System create these runes?  Was it possible for him to create them himself?  Where was the energy coming from that filled his body and Leveled-Up the runes? There was so much he still didn¡¯t know.


    His exhaustion eventually overcame his curiosity, and he allowed himself to drift off the pleasant sounds of two fox cubs happily wrestling.


    ?????????????


    Small yipping noises awoke him sometime later, interspersed by rough, wet tongues licking the skin of his fingers. He remembered his mother saying that babies only did two things, eat and poop. While he had never had kids of his own, he had raised enough animals to know that the saying applied to all baby animals, and in some cases, it applied to adult animals as well. Since they bothered to wake him, he could only assume that they were ready to eat again, and a pungent aroma made him aware that they had done the other thing too, so it appeared that he would need to muck out the shelter a bit.


    With that done, he decided to do something special for his charges. Normally he would push himself to train during this part of the day, but since he hadn¡¯t had enough time to build a separate area for training, he allowed himself a bit of time to pursue his true passion, cooking.  He still had quite a bit of raw wurm meat, and a decent amount of spices to go with it. After giving the two a small piece of jerky as an appetizer, he set a few rods of Quicksilver outside to begin heating.  He then dug a small alcove into the wall, leaving the sand visible so that the heat wouldn¡¯t transfer into his shelter¡¯s floor. After searing the meat, he added it to a pot and filled it with water, adding a generous helping of sweet potatoes as well. He would need to save the remainder for planting in the future, but he had enough for a single meal, and he felt like the cubs could use something special after the day they had just experienced.


    While the stew sat, he took the opportunity to learn more about the cubs. He had already determined that they were both female, but he had been too busy to do much else. When he attempted to Analyze one of them, he was met with a prompt:


    [Unnamed monster cub found. Locating parent to assign name¡­.]


    A spike of fear caused his heart to start palpitating and  a light sweat to instantly bead upon his forward at the thought of an angry parent tracking down the creature that had run a few dozen miles away with its cubs. He wasn¡¯t sure if it was the mother or father that had died in the fight only a day earlier, but either surviving parent would be able to finish him off near instantaneously. Before true panic could set in, another notification appeared:


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    [No parent found. As a boss monster, you are assigned to name the cub.


    Please provide a name now.]


    What would have previously been an arduous task of figuring out how to use the System to assign names took only a few moments, proof of his burgeoning adaption to the post-System world. Staring at the text box where he could mentally enter a name, he paused in thought. Naming an animal was a special experience, and there were many factors to consider. Should he go with his favorite foods, thus blessing the creatures with health and happiness?  Should he go with epithets that described who he wanted them to be as adults? Remembering the small chihuahua, Gidgette, he had growing up, he settled on naming them as he had any other housepet¨Ca human name that worked with animals too. Though they looked almost identical, one of them had just a touch of grey to their orange coat, which he named Ash. No sooner had he put the name in, then the fur began to change. What had once been only hints of grey, became true highlights, the color matching an ash tree almost exactly.


    ¡°The power of a name.¡± he murmured in wonder, remembering the sermons he had heard growing up.


    The other cub he named Autumn, and her fur changed from a solid orange to having hints of red¨Cthe once nearly identical cubs were now easily distinguishable, and he was grateful he hadn¡¯t followed through with his joke of naming them Cub 1 and Cub 2.


    With names assigned, he was finally able to Analyze them successfully. Both were Level 20, and aside from their names, their stats were identical.


    Name: Autumn


    Monster Type: Fleetfoot Fox Cub


    Level: 20


    Strength: 10


    Dexterity: 40


    Intelligence: 40


    Charisma: 30


    Toughness: 10


    Luck: 20


    Abilities: Dash-Gain massively increased Dexterity for a short duration. Wind Ax-Propel a sharp gust of wind through the air.


    They seemed to possess an ability very similar to Footsteps of the Wind, although it didn¡¯t have the drawbacks of dropping their Dexterity after use. Their Wind Ax ability must have been what their parent had used in their defense the day prior. It had been a devastating attack and wasn¡¯t that far off from his Aeromancy ability. With any luck, he would be able to learn from them.


    What puzzled him most about their Character Sheets was them being only Level 20, since even the wurmlet had been Level 75, and the System itself had said that this Zone was only supposed to spawn monsters at that threshold or higher. Though their Strength and Toughness weren¡¯t amazing, their other attributes were similar to his own. Their high Intelligence also gave him pause, seeing as it exceeded his own Intelligence, when clearly he was far more capable of coping with situations. The thought caused him to think back on his interactions with the wurm. Clearly that creature had had a far higher Intelligence attribute than his own, and yet he had managed to defeat it. Maybe Intelligence wasn¡¯t a measure of how smart or capable at problem solving a being was? Instead, maybe it was a measure of how easily they could use their brain to interact with the System abilities. This resonated with him, as he had finally had his breakthrough in the kata after he had reached a sufficient Intelligence score.


    When the stew was finished, the cubs each at a large portion, before curling up to nap. Mike took a moment to meditate some more, before the sun began to set and he packed up and set out again.


    ?????????????


    For two days, Mike fell into a routine that mirrored the first day: travel, sleep, eat. His shelters remained small, and he pushed himself as hard as he dared each night. Nothing changed until the third morning, when an hour before he usually stopped, he detected a blanket of clouds blacking out the sky to the east. Within ten minutes, it had almost completely closed the distance to him forcing himself to stop and build a shelter as fast as he could.


    He had barely dug the foundation of his shelter when the storm reached him, with winds strong enough to force him down on his hands and knees. Instead of rain, the storm brought an onslaught of sand that caused any of his exposed skin to chafe instantly¨Cwhich, due to his recent mishaps destroying his clothing, was the majority of his body. Hunkering down over the foxes, he pushed himself past the pain and erected a small tent out of Quicksilver, encasing them in complete darkness as the world screamed around them.

 Untried: Chapter 12

    Brent had learned a number of things over the last few weeks. For starters, he had learned to greatly fear the larger patches of Abyssal Moss of the Depths. While a morsel was easily digested, the larger groupings couldn¡¯t be handled as safely. He had acquired this knowledge the hard way, when a spiteful patch of moss attacked him back after he took a large bite from it. He had only survived after taking multiple bites from his own leg, a process which disgusted him in retrospect but seemed only natural in the moment. His only other option had been to allow himself to die, which he was unwilling to do. Not only was it more pain than he was capable of handling, but also because of the second thing he had learned: while terrifying, uncomfortable, and hard, his current predicament was a wonderful opportunity. He was gaining levels faster than anyone had back in Noobtown, and he was doing it consistently. This was his chance for power, and he was unwilling to allow it to pass by him. Plus, if he did respawn outside, he would simply go back to being hunted. At least here, among the small, unthinking, microbes, he was the pinnacle of the food chain¨Cat least for as long as he was only around patches of moss that he could eat with one bite.


    The third thing he learned was that while he felt hungry, a single mote of moss actually had plenty of sustenance to maintain his bodily functions, despite his stomach and head feeling otherwise. This led to the fourth thing he had learned, he was a very hangry person. After learning that lashing out in anger in pitch darkness was likely to result in injury, he took the high road and continued to focus all of his anger at Mike, the reason he was down here in the first place.


    Another thing he learned was that his mindset and intent went a long way in shaping his experience with the System. This was driven home when he reached Level 11 and got his first class.


    [Congratulations! Level 11 Reached.


    Calculating class¡­]


    After only a few seconds, the notifications continued.


    [Calculations complete. Unique pathway unlocked, rare class earned: Devourer.]


    [Congratulations Devourer!!


    You forge onward, eating your way through challenges that cause others to retreat.


    +7 stat points by assignment per level ]


    He was nearly dizzy with excitement. 7 stat points per level was more than double what he got before, and the notifications hadn¡¯t finished yet.


    [For reaching your first class, Class Skill Unlocked: Consume.


    [The might of your jaws are unstoppable and undisputed.


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Instantly consume anything they latch around]


    Flush with the euphoria of Leveling Up and gaining strength, Brent had wasted no time as he rushed to continue hunting even more immobile foes. After only a few days, it became apparent that his windfall hadn¡¯t been everything he thought it would be. He no longer Leveled Up as quickly, which he could only assume was due to him being around the same level of the moss that he ate. He also found that the Consume ability really did require him to be able to latch around something for it to take effect. When he tried to use it on a large boulder, nothing happened. However, when he fit his mouth halfway around a rock, it disappeared instantly, his body sucking in any energy it contained. Admittedly, there was no energy gained from rocks, but that wasn¡¯t true for moss. He now no longer needed to chew or swallow the disgusting greens, as soon as they passed between his maws, they were absorbed.


    To compensate for the limitation of his mouth size, he had begun doing stretches with it each day using a number of increasingly large rocks he had come across in his wanderings. He was only a few days in so far, but he was already dreaming of being able to unlatch his jaw on a whim, not unlike snakes were able to do.


    There was nothing he could do to mitigate Consume''s biggest drawback however, the inability to eat. While he survived on the energy he sucked from the moss, the food never actually reached his stomach. The offended organ had railed at him with ever increasing urgency, driving him forward from one bit of moss to the next, making it impossible for him to rest or sleep. With each forced step he took, his hunger and hatred for Mike only grew.


    ?????????????


    System Administrator turned from viewing the fledgling wraith as the communication screen chimed, prompting them to answer an incoming message. As Sector Assimilator¡¯s face appeared, the many weeks of worry that had plagued System Administrator about their future came to head, causing him to stutter slightly before initiating the formal greeting, as was their place.


    ¡°Ttdh¡­ Laud the Queen!¡±


    ¡°May her spawn creep forth forever.¡± Sector Assimilator replied, before continuing almost immediately,  ¡°Our vessel is still two local weeks out, due to the denseness of the populations in this sector and the relatively low energy levels, we are forced to travel much slower than we are accustomed to.¡±


    The unnecessary bit of information seemed out of place to System Administrator, especially after the most recent encounter 6 weeks earlier, and they struggled to come up with a reply. Was it an olive branch of some kind? If it was, it would be a Queen-send. System Administrator would take any path out of their current predicament. They eventually decided on a courteous reply that wouldn¡¯t put them at any more of a disadvantage going forward.


    ¡°Our vessel appreciates the advance warning. We are humbled that we need your help, but grateful for it.¡± It was a respectable thing to say, both humble and dignified, and none would find fault with it even nearer the hive¡¯s heartlands.


    The show of deference seemed to please Sector Assimilator who leaned forward slightly in their chair. ¡°Yes.¡±


    The single word wasn¡¯t quite a sneer, simply a statement that System Administrator did need their help and should be grateful for it.


    ¡°Owing to the delay, we thought it prudent to check in on how things are progressing, both in terms of the assimilation as a whole as well as in regards to the anomaly and Junior Administrator.¡± Sector Assimilator continued.


    System Administrator centered themselves as they tried to think through the best way to give an update on three very sensitive topics. Resolving to report the worst thing first, they decided to start with the anomaly¡¯s growing ability to interact with cosmic energy, something that might push the assimilation to phase 4 even sooner than System Administrator had thought possible, after which they would talk about the state of Junior Administrator wallowing in their cell. They would then finish the report with the newly developing wraith¨Ca phenomena that was impossible to artificially create and only occurred one in ten thousand assimilations. That assimilant alone would increase the estimated value of the assimilation by a minimum of 10%, if he managed to fully progress to a wraith. Hopefully the news would buy System Administrator some leeway.

 Untried: Chapter 13

    The darkness inside of the shelter was oppressive and absolute. After only a few minutes had passed, Mike realized he hadn¡¯t thought up a way to get air into the shelter. His first solution was to create small holes for air, but that failed miserably¨Cthe sand storm outside was so fierce that sand immediately began pelting the structures inhabitants, despite him angling the holes in multiple directions. The next solution was to create a couple of tubes to breathe from, but those became clogged. Finally, in a stroke of inspiration, he simply added another four feet of space to one side of the room on the outside wall. It required all of his concentration to form the Quicksilver without being able to see it, but after months of working with the substance, it was doable. Once the addition had been completed, he opened up the wall and greedily drank in the fresh air.  After catching his breath, he guided the pups to wiggle over to the new area before following after them on his hands and knees¨Ca necessity in the short metal tent. When they were situated, he closed off the new portion of the tent, dissolved the metal not being used, and began the process again.


    For the next 8 hours, the process continued, his ability to manipulate the unseen metal growing with each iteration so that he was slowly able to open up more space and thus rest for longer periods of time. By 16 hours, his eyes throbbed, an interesting reaction to the total darkness that he was experiencing. Despite this, he couldn¡¯t help but feel grateful that he wasn¡¯t alone. The young pups took to the new situation without complaint, nipping his hands occasionally whenever they were hungry.


    At 24 hours, his eyes began to see motes of yellow in the darkness, which moved in and out of his field of vision.


    At 26 hours he realized that the motes of yellow light were tied to where the cubs were¡­ something he probably should have realized sooner, but nonetheless he was proud of himself for realizing.


    At 28 hours he was sick of watching the lights, but found that he saw them faintly even when his eyes were closed.


    At 30 hours the whelps asked for more food. A dozen minutes later, he began to notice a faint gas that seemed to form around the yellow dots he had come to associate with his charges. It glowed faintly, albeit much less than even the dim glow of the main sphere. The gas seemed to trickle in from all sides, the cloud growing bigger and thicker, and he soon began to be concerned. All at once, it was absorbed into the dot, like a vacuum sucking up spilled flour. While minute, he was certain that the dots were now fractionally larger than they were before. Curious, he Analyzed the foxes. Both had gained two levels and were now 22.


    The implications were staggering. Somehow, without killing anything, the two cubs had gotten stronger. And based on everything he had seen, he could only surmise that the foxes were pulling energy from the meat of the wurm. With nothing better to do, he ate a piece of meat and closed his eyes, looking inward. For thirty minutes, he sat there unmoving, willing the gas to form, but then the air got heavy and he was forced to move the shelter again.


    It wasn¡¯t until another 12 hours had passed that his next breakthrough came. He wished that he could say it was perseverance and insight that had led to it, but that would be lying. The truth was that he had gotten curious with his seemingly new ability to see energy and had begun to search his body for his favorite organ: the stomach. He had first found his core, a process made easier by having found it previously. It still leaked trace amounts of energy into his body, which slowly circulated before coming back. Had it not been for the pitch darkness, this would have been impossible for him.


    The next major organ had been his heart, which seemed to be more saturated with energy than anything other than his core. After that, he found his stomach, well actually, he found the piece of wurm jerky that was sitting in his stomach. The energy was faint, but it was there. Rather than circulating, the energy given off by the meat seemed to simply disappear downwards almost as fast as it was given off, and he could only theorize that it was going into his digestive track where it would be excreted at the time of his next bowel movement. The sudden thought made him realize that he had been stuck in the shelter for almost two days and it was really time to do some business.


    At the 50 hour mark, and after consuming way more meat than was healthy, he figured out how to not let the energy be wasted. His issue had been trying to will the energy from his stomach into his body, when he actually needed to do it as it began to leave his stomach, it was a slight change in perspective, but it made all the difference. Focusing in on one small pocket of gas, he followed it from his abdomen, up through his arm, down his leg, and finally back to his core, where it built up just like he had seen in the cubs.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    After being in the shelter for 72 hours, three entire days, he finally had enough gas built up around his core that he felt he could try to Level Up. He had gotten much more efficient at extracting the energy, even if he was still much worse than the foxes. He still had to focus to get each bit of energy, a process that fatigued his mind more than any test had in school, but it was getting faster. He could push the energy through his channels and to his center, rather than just absorbing it and watching it circulate. He did find that he needed to focus on it the whole time or else it would just get mixed in with the rest of his circulating energy and seemingly disappear.


    After a short break, he gathered himself, then tried to gather the energy and willed it to merge with his core. After ten minutes of intense concentration, the only reward he had to show was a splitting headache. Deciding he had put off sleep for far too long, he expanded the shelter as much as he could before drifting off to sleep.


    ?????????????


    Sleep didn¡¯t help. After another 30 attempts at forcefully increasing his level, he was left feeling completely defeated. A sentiment which was only made stronger when he saw that the cubs were now Level 26. The only thing he could be grateful for was that the energy stayed around his core once he put it there.


    Still, he was trapped in a tiny shelter in a storm that was still going after three and a half days, so he pushed onward. He could sense that he was onto something big, even if information still eluded him. On a whim, he broke off some of the gas and willed it to become more dense, shrinking it down from around the size of a quarter to only a pin drop. From there, he allowed it to follow the stream of outgoing energy from his core, watching as it circulated throughout his body.


    Most of the time, the stream seemed to follow long, straight, paths, which looped throughout his body much like the veins and arteries he had learned about in his anatomy classes in college. Every once in a while, the pathways became much more stiff, like something carved into stone rather than the natural pathways his body possessed. It wasn¡¯t until the energy reached the back of his hand where he had watched the glyph for his Burrowing skill take shape that he realized the unnatural areas were his various skills.


    ?????????????


    For the next three days, he only stopped watching the circulating energy for a few activities: 1) Moving the shelter so they wouldn¡¯t suffocate. 2) Sleeping. Something that had only happened one time so far. 3) Playing with the fox cubs. While they had at first been very willing to hide from the storm, their fear had slowly turned to boredom and he was forced to spend a few minutes playing with them in the darkness each time he moved the shilter. 4) Gathering energy after eating a meal. He had long since stopped overeating when he found that he couldn¡¯t gain levels, but he saw no reason to not increase the size and density of his energy cloud. On the contrary, it felt wasteful not to gather it now that he knew it had a purpose. If there was one thing ingrained in him from his Great Depression Era mother, it was to never waste.


    So strenuous had been the exertion on his mind, that he actually received a point to Intelligence on two separate occasions, bringing his total up to 40. That was a welcome bonus, even if it felt small. 6 and half days of nearly nonstop work, for two points in Intelligence. Definitely the worst training sessions he had had so far.


    He had slowly made a mental map of all of his pathways during his hundreds of circulations through them, and as he adjusted it slightly from his most recent iteration, his body pulled in energy from the air around him, gathering an amount almost equal to his own stored cloud, before it sent it shooting through his pathways and up into the glyph in his head, where it seemed to cling to every surface of the glyph at once before the pathways became slightly larger.


    [Congratulations! Energy Sense reaches Level 2!


    +2 to Intelligence


    Your ability to sense cosmic energy has increased.]


    A grin split his face, followed by a scowl, and a cough of frustration. From watching the energy reinforce Level Up Energy Sense, he was pretty confident he could increase the levels of his other skills, something that would allow him to continue growing even if he hadn¡¯t figured out how to level up yet. That was helpful even if he was unhappy that his Intelligence was so much higher than his physical stats.


    What wasn¡¯t helpful were the instructions for reaching the next stage of Energy Sense: Cultivate from the cosmic energy around you.


    ¡°At least I know the name of this substance is Cosmic Energy now¡­. AAArgh!¡± the scream interrupted his sentence as he looked inward, ¡°The System used up my energy for that Level Up too?! Why on earth would I waste it on such a dumb Skill?¡±

 Untried: Chapter 14

    Seven days after encompassing Mike, Autumn, and Ash, the storm ceased. Rather than the gradual decay that accompanies the tail end of natures storms, this was an abrupt termination. One moment the wind was shrieking with the hellish voices that they had become accustomed to, and the next there was only silence, a change so drastic that Mike was startled awake from his slumber induced by days of constant metal strain. Opening a hole in the top of the shelter, he found that it was still several hours from sunset, and he allowed himself to fall back asleep.


    Two hours later, he was awakened by a small, rough tongue licking his ear as Ash begged for something to eat. The bunker had become very hot in the waning light, something he hadn¡¯t thought about after 7 days of the storm completely blocking the sun¡¯s rays, and sweat dripped off of his body, its salty smell and taste pervading his senses. After pulling out a light dinner, he fanned off himself and the cubs while he looked out of his enlarged spyhole at the outside world.


    Before the storm had struck, he had been between two dunes, at almost exactly the halfway point. He now found himself almost halfway up a different dune. Creating a hole on the opposite side of the shelter, he ascertained that the distance between his dune and the one prior was about the same as it had been before the storm, meaning that either the dunes had shifted, or he had been moved through some combination of the wind blowing him and his constant shifting of the shelter to get air. He was suddenly very grateful that he hadn¡¯t tried to simply build ventilation into his shelter, as if the former case was correct and the dunes had shifted, he definitely would have suffocated before being able to extricate himself.


    With the light fading, he collected the cubs into the satchel, which had become a little tight for them due to their fast-growing bodies, and took off into the night.


    ?????????????


    The next week passed by in the usual blur of running and traveling that Mike had begun to associate with this Zone, with only few noticeable developments. Rather than spending his time training his other skills, he split his free time into three activities: 1. Collecting energy from his food. 2. Memorizing the patterns associated with his skills and determining which skill they belonged to. 3. Trying to ¡°Cultivate from the cosmic energy around him¡±.


    He noticed quite a bit of growth from his newly upgraded Skill, and gathering the energy from his food sources was quicker than ever before. He could now manipulate larger amounts of energy at a time and push it through his body from his stomach to his core more rapidly.  If he had tripled his initial ability through trial and error while memorizing his pathways, he estimated he was now nearly ten times faster than that.  Given a large enough food supply, he could now gather the amount of gas he had previously created in only a few hours. This was still three times slower than the Autumn and Ash, and more importantly, it was still a much more deliberate process for him than for them. He had witnessed on multiple occasions as their energy gathered within them while they were actively engaged in playing. The silver lining he was trying to focus on was that he could now see the cosmic energy with a little bit of focus even in broad daylight.


    Memorizing his skill patterns was much easier, albeit somewhat monotonous. He already knew the locations of some of the skills from witnessing their creations, but the majority had been carved into him before he was able to see them. After some trial and error, he found that activating the skill caused the channels to briefly pull in extra energy, causing them to light up. And so it was that he found himself activating skills as often as possible while focusing internally. This was easy for things like Unflinching Meteor where he simply sat in his shelter, but was significantly harder for things like tumble, which only activated automatically through tripping¨Cmemorizing energy pathways while your body somersaulted in the air is even harder than it sounds. Axe Throwing and Damage Premonition were also difficult, and required him to rebuild his rebounding training pit¨Cbut at least they gave him plenty of opportunities to use First aid and Hands of Healing¡­the latter of which he could unfortunately only use once a day.


    If he learned anything from this truly grueling process, it was that most of his Skills he had very little control over. Some he could activate at will, but most of them he had to activate by doing some pre-designated action chosen by the System. This realization led to a good deal of ranting which helped Autumn and Ash reach a milestone: hearing their first curse words, something he had avoided around them up until that point.


    By the end of the week, he was able to draw each of his skill fractals out on the ground from memory, other than Fortune''s Folly, ¡°Which would be a folly to ever activate¡± he chuckled aloud to himself while wishing that the fox cubs could appreciate just how humorous he was.


    While he had made some strides in his first two endeavors, his progress in cultivation was abysmal. He had tried everything from sensing the energy in the air around him, to actively attempting to draw in that supposed energy, but his efforts were without fruit. And so the hour he allotted himself towards reaching that goal was becoming another hour towards making a better dinner or sleeping just a hair longer when the heat allowed.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    If nothing else, the rotation he had established in his routine allowed him to not overextend his mental capabilities, and he never reached the near-comatose state he had been in during his frenzied pathway tracing during the storm.


    The only other development that occurred during these seven days was the cubs reaching Level 30, making it so they were officially too big to carry in his satchels. Though they whined about it and though it dramatically decreased the speed of their travel, Mike forced them to begin running with him.. At least uphill. Downhill they proudly rode on his surfing body, tongues extended in the wind like a dog on the highway as they reveled in the feeling of freedom that only high speed winds can provide.


    ?????????????


    Creenchez quickly made her way through the valley, slipping from shadow to shadow with only her immediate retinue as she anxiously watched the numbers tick up.


    99801


    99805


    99808


    Each time she checked, it was closer to the 100,000 milestone, something she had been looking forward to for literal months, and she wanted to be present when the milestone was reached. It was a logistical nightmare to keep the trees being planted both day and night, especially since it had to be done in total secrecy most of the time, since very few days were allocated as planting days by their horde leader. If she ever got two minutes alone with him, she would give him a piece of her mind. Surely if he listened to all of her reasons, he would see the light. But alas, he was a man of action and spent almost all of his time training or bettering the village as a whole.


    She was almost out of the village proper when a giggle caused her urgent steps to pause. Peeking around a corner, she saw the horde leader leaning casually against a rough-bricked wall while speaking with three female hobs. They were all under Level 5, and their low Intelligence alone should have precluded him from even speaking with them, but men are fickle when presented with a beautiful face, and Creenchez did have to admit that the three females did have a particular wanness in the shades of green found on their face in addition to some interesting knobs on their ankles and feet.


    ¡°They are beautiful.¡± she said sullenly, sucking in her breath as she realized she had spoken out loud.


    Creeanth¡¯s head snapped towards the sound of her voice, his mouth twisting to show the sharp, salivating fangs in his mouth. It was a perfect smile, if she was being honest, and she found herself just as drawn to it as any other female in the valley, despite her differences.


    ¡°Oh, Mike¡± she muttered, instantly regretting the sacrilege of her Patron regardless of the inopportune event.


    ¡°Creenchez, hello.¡± he said as he pushed off the wall and passed the three females, his dismissiveness of their presence causing a stir of pride to bloom within her.


    ¡°Greetings, honored leader¡± she said, dipping her head.


    ¡°The honor is mine, priest.¡± he responded before bowing slightly. It was a measure of respect that he didn¡¯t have to give, and she felt a thrill at his forwardness.


    As a true gentleman should, he continued the conversation, releasing her from the burden of needing to find a topic, ¡°Where you are going? Want to come eat soupy soup with me?¡±


    The tantalizing back and forth of the conversation was just one more reason why she secretly loved the horde leader¡­ he was the only hobgoblin in the valley with whom she could have such a stimulating conversation. Still, she had somewhere to be, and checking the count, only 98 more tree-plantings worth of time to get there.


    ¡°I can¡¯t. I got to check in on miners.¡± she lied, unable to tell him about the tree milestone since it wasn¡¯t a planting day. Her brain hoped it would be enough to end the conversation, but her heart bugled triumphantly when it didn¡¯t.


    ¡°This is no. You work too hard. You need relax sometimes.¡±


    ¡°I must. It is duty to big Bossy Boss.¡±


    His rough hand found her own, his gleaming, bug-like eyes shining handsomely as he spoke  next. ¡°Then go. And go with thanks. You are example to whole gobby valley.¡±


    She turned away then, her heart beating regretfully as she rounded the corner. Checking the countdown timer, she squealed quietly and took off at full pace, followed by her retinue.


    ¡°Curse his handsomeness and winning smile.¡± she panted as the number showed 99970. She would be hard pressed to make it in time.


    ¡°Next time, I tell him reasons¡± she promised herself as she continued running.


    The thought of seeing him ¡°next time¡± causing her heart to beat and making the minutes blur until she was at the planting site. The majority of trees were simply acorn trees, which could be used to help the valley gather enough food, but this tree was special. It was grown from the seed of a tree found near the valley¡¯s walls where the Quicksilver was located. Through some twist of fate, the metal had grown into the mother tree, and this saproling had iridescent veins running through its leaves and thin trunks.


    ¡°Today is special day.¡± she announced as the tree was being planted, beginning the sermon she had been preparing over the past few weeks.

 Untried: Chapter 15

    Mike stared inward at the dense cloud of gas he had formed over the past several days.


    When I have the time, I need to develop cosmic energy dense potatoes. he thought, his stomach squirming at the thought of the copious amount of meat he had eaten over the past week in order to build up the energy stores.


    If I don''t spruce up my diet soon, meat will certainly be ruined for me¡­ He continued internally, until the thought of a garlic seared pot roast came to mind and he was forced to amend his statement.  Or at the very least wurm jerky, which would be a shame since that is the only source of food I currently have. The cyclical logic becoming too much, he refocused on the task at hand.


    When Energy Sense Leveled Up, the energy flooded into my body, before coating the entirety of the skill¡¯s formation. I have spent a week memorizing my skills, so I should at least be able to do that much. He figured that after the skill was properly coated in energy, he would be able to mumble forward until he figured out the next steps. That basically summarizes all of my interactions with the System to date.


    He had gone back and forth on which skill he should attempt to transform first, on the one hand, Unflinching Meteor had saved him probably more than any other skill, and it would be nice to have that be stronger. On the other hand, Fortune''s Folly was never going to be used, and if something went wrong and a skill was ruined in his first attempt, he would prefer it was something worthless. However, he was unsure what side effects upgrading the skill would have on his life. Pulling up the skill, he found the original summary given by the System:


    [Skill: Fortune''s Folly


    Once per day, you can influence a situation directly by channeling your Luck into it]


    The worst case scenario would be that the skill started applying to actions whenever some invisible criteria was met, changing from an active skill to a passive skill that he had little control over like Damage Premonition. He felt a headache coming on at the thought of Damage Premonition warning him of an attack, only to have Fortune¡¯s Folly make him somehow trip into the attack when he attempted to dodge.


    ¡°It just isn¡¯t economical,¡± he said, causing the pups¡¯ ears to perk up at his voice, ¡°the risks are too great and there really isn¡¯t any reward.¡±


    He had already been through all of this logic multiple times, so after a moment¡¯s pause, he looked inward, condensing his cloud of energy as much as he could before guiding it through his channels until it reached a rune located behind his sternum. Foraging had been a tough skill to identify, but he had finally managed it after planting his potatoes in the sand and then digging them back out numerous times¡­ as far as he could tell, this was the only skill fractal that remotely pulled in energy during the activity, so he was around 70% sure it was in fact Foraging. If he succeeded and the skill upgraded, maybe it would help him better find food in the wilderness. If it failed¡­ Well, he still had way more meat on hand than he wanted to eat presently.


    Using all of the mental energy he could muster, he guided the densely packed energy into the skill fractal, and began coating each surface, doing his best to overlay it evenly. It took almost an hour to complete the task, and by the time he finished, sweat was dripping off of him and he felt the beginning signs of a migraine¨Csomething that had plagued him before the System, but had been remarkably absent ever since.


    When at last the skill was coating to his satisfaction, he willed the energy to be absorbed, but nothing happened. His next attempt was to force the energy into the channel''s walls, seeking to crack the sigil and force his energy into the opening. A tear fell from his eye and made its way down his cheek and into his mouth. Rather than the salty water he anticipated, he tasted the sharp metallic tang of blood.


    Bleeding out of my eyes is a bad sign, so that probably isn¡¯t the correct method.


    Finally he simply willed the energy to become solid, seaking to coat the already existing skill with a permanent new layer of energy that he provided. The channel glowed brightly, and it seemed it was going to work, but then the bottommost area coated cracked, the inaudible action sounding like thunder in his consciousness, and the energy he had meticulously collected over multiple days was sucked out of his body in an instant.


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    ¡°AAAAAaaaghh!¡± he screamed against the pain, rage, and frustration.


    The fox cubs jumped at the sudden noise, cowering in the corner and causing him to feel instant remorse.


    ¡°Anger always does more harm than good.¡± he heard his mother¡¯s voice say, and he bent down, approaching his charges as gently as he could before scooping them up into an embrace.


    ¡°Caaaaaw!  Caaaaw!¡± The distant peel of a carrion bird alerted to their position caused his embarrassment at his outburst to mount.


    ?????????????


    Every occupant of the vessel lined the hallways leading from the port doors and into the ship proper, their tentacles rigidly positioned into a salute. System Leader eyed them with pride.


    ¡°Honor to the Queen above all!¡± System Leader proclaimed, causing a few newer cadets to straighten their posture. Their words hadn¡¯t even fully died out before the hissing gas of the ships pistons was released and the port door opened, revealing the interior of the ship which had attached to their own.


    A hundred yards into the other ship, System Leader could just make out the face of Sector Assimilator walking forward with what System Leader assumed the much younger spawn thought was a confident swagger, though they recognized it for what it truly was: the uppity, gaudy walk of a being that thought themselves above all others, and had never been proven otherwise. It was the same with nobless of the younger generation. Those that had never seen unsimulated combat or felt true fear assumed that they were untouchable, because that had been shown to them their entire lives. Their combat training never had any real danger. They never faced starvation or wondering where the next meal would come from. They certainly never had anyone talk back to them. It was a true stroke of misfortune that System Leader had so many of this type accompanying what was supposed to be their final mission. Probably even more unfortunate than the anomaly, they thought.


    Still, it wasn¡¯t up to them to change things, and System Leader dipped into a bow, which rolled like dominoes down the stationed troop as Sector Assimilator crossed the threshold into the ship.


    ¡°Laud, The Queen!¡± the chorus rang out from every throat, pounding the air with the gusto that every member of the crew felt for Her Spawnliness. It was a triumphant cry, and one that still caused squidbumps to appear on System Leader¡¯s neck and tentacles, just as it always did.


    ¡°May her spawn creep forth forever.¡± Sector Assimilator said formerly, though System Leader felt with more haughtiness than one of such low cultivation should feel.


    System Leader fell in line behind Sector Assimilator as the procession made its way up from the port to the central chamber. No sooner had they arrived, than the interrogation began.


    ¡°Has the anomaly managed true cultivation yet?¡±


    ¡°No. He has managed to trace all of his pathways and has even learned to crudely gather the cosmic energy from meat, but he has yet to figure out how to integrate it.¡± It was an accurate and complete accounting, and hopefully the straightforward nature would make the whole situation more cordial. System Leader was not one to make excuses, that was for the younger generation.


    ¡°Understood. And so far he is following the prescribed course of learning to cultivate from his Skill Tree, is that correct?¡±


    ¡°As far as we can tell, yes¡­ alth¡­¡±


    ¡°Excellent, well then the matter should fix itself without further need to implement Phase 4.¡±


    ¡°We think it prudent to remind Sector Assimilator that this anomaly in particular has a way of never conforming to what is expected. They have repeatedly circumnavigated our attempts at stunting their growth. It may be wise to think of secondary¡­¡± System Leader was rudely cut off again.


    ¡°If they manage to cultivate, it will be with energy that we provided, which means we can continue to strengthen the skills, methods, and core structure that the Hive has provided. This means that they will be at our complete mercy whenever we decide to cut off the cosmic energy, it also means that the built in safeguards will continue to be strengthened. Tell us, why is it that you are so dumb that you don¡¯t even know these basic tenants?  How many missions have you led again?  How did you make it to the rank of System Leader?¡±


    A low hum filled the chamber as the crew heard their leader addressed in such a manner, but that was subdued, as the innate fear of those from more central regions of the hivelands was well ingrained in them. More audible were the slight chuckles coming from the posy who surrounded Sector Assimilator, the ones they had raised up to be officers and leaders over the entire integration of the sector.


    A flush of red crept through System Leader¡¯s neck and they sucked in air as they tried to stay calm, unfortunately, the sound sounded more like they were puzzled than that they were just trying not to explode in anger.


    ¡°Hah, can¡¯t even answer that question, huh? Don¡¯t worry, it was rhetorical, which means you weren¡¯t actually supposed to answer. Show us the way to Junior Administrator so we can get off of this farce of a ship.¡±


    Thoughts of retirement and not being boiled alive and fed to young spawn enabled System Leader to remain calm, as they nodded and began leading the retinue to where Junior Administrator was being held.


    All assembled were so shocked or entertained by the conversation that no one saw on the screen as the anomaly stepped from his makeshift shelter and walked towards the approaching monsters with way more confidence than anyone of his Level should have a right to feel.

 Untried: Chapter 16

    Focusing on his breathing, Mike deliberately placed one foot in front of the other as he sought to put distance between himself and the shelter where the cubs lay. The cry of the vultures had continued minute after minute, slowly getting closer, and he was forced to assume that he had been found. As he reached the edge of the dune, a sprawling vista lay in front of him, and he thought he could just make out where the dunes finally ended. They had been all he could see for months.


    To his right, several shadows raced across the dunes towards his location, and he was taken back to standing across James Baxter in the SEALS sparring sessions.


    It had all started when James, a fellow green recruit, had overheard Mike telling another member of their squad about the guillotine hold. It had been Mike¡¯s trump card in high school wrestling, enabling him to take state both his junior and senior years¨Cthis was before the extremely painful move had been banned.


    ¡°So once you have the legs pinned and the arm grabbed, all you need to do is lean back slightly, and it is impossible for anyone to get out. They will be in too much pain¡­¡± Mike had been saying to Lenny when James cut him off.


    ¡°That¡¯s hogwash, I could easily get out of it. It only worked because you were doing it to someone your own size. Against a real opponent, someone with actual strength, it would be easy to get out of.¡±


    ¡°It always worked for me.¡± Mike said, trying to end the conversation with the much larger, and very hostile man. It was a wonder he had made it to SEAL training at all.


    ¡°Do it on me, and I¡¯ll show you.¡±


    ¡°I really don¡¯t think that is a good idea. If you are unfamiliar with the hold and fight against it, there is potential for you to pull something.¡±


    ¡°Yeah right. Do it to me. Or are you too afraid?  Can you not back up your stories with action?¡±


    Mike thought for a few seconds before finally replying, ¡°Alright, but only because you are asking me to. I did nothing to initiate this.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah. Enough talk, let¡¯s show everyone what you are made of, Tiny.¡±


    At the time, Mike had been only slightly over 5 feet tall, and waid around 125 pounds¨Cmuch smaller than the 6 foot, 3 inch mountain. Still, he had performed the move more times than he could count, and with a compliant subject, it took only moments before they were sprawled out on the ground, James screaming in pain while Mike applied very little pressure in the hold. James tried to jerk free, but Mike held firm, knowing that the larger man would likely have bruises when he woke up the next morning. After only 30 seconds, his screams had turned into soft mewing, and Mike released him, standing up quickly to put distance between them. He saw murder in the downed man¡¯s eyes, and he felt a momentary pang of regret. It wasn¡¯t fair that he had been put in the situation.


    The next morning, Mike had been called into a private room with all of the training officers, and he passed a smirking James as he made his way inside. They had begun to interrogate him, telling him that it was against the rules to have unsanctioned fights, and could lead to immediate dismissal. Apparently, he had jumped an unknowing James and put him in the hold for no reason other than to bully him. It had taken 20 minutes for the trainer to listen to him enough to call in the rest of the squad, who had all witnessed the events as they actually occurred. Lenny¡¯s testimony was enough for them let Mike go, and James had been given a week of extra duties for lying.


    It was a full two weeks later when things came to a head for the second time. Mike stood across from James in the sparring ring, and was confused why none of the trainers could see the murder written in the larger man¡¯s eyes. It wasn¡¯t training, it was a fight for his life against a much larger opponent. James was an excellent fighter, had 6 inches of reach on Mike, and at least 60 pounds. Still, not attempting a task was an automatic expulsion, and he refused to go out like that.


    The match started, and James came in fast, attempting to end the fight before it even


    began. Mike barely registered the opening and reacted in time, implementing the Jiu-Jitsu move he had learned from one of the trainers in a few extra sessions he had attended, and soon he stood above James, his hand resting lightly on his throat, the clear victor.


    Face smoldering, James demanded a rematch, and the trainer allowed it, still completely oblivious to the very real danger that Mike had been in.


    The second fight had been even shorter. James had come in just as hot, but with the additional anger he felt, he had been careless, and Mike counted the check boxes as he slowly led the man from one position to the next, until he was once again on the ground, whimpering in the guillotine hold.


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    ¡°Good form, Mayhew! That was very well executed. Point to you!¡± the trainer had said.


    Mike released James and stepped back, wincing at the sound of the door slamming as the man stormed out.


    As he watched the shadows approach, he felt much as he had back then. He was against a far stronger foe, and in this case, his enemies also outnumbered him four to one, but his course of action would be the same. He would rely on the techniques that had proven true, and do his best to survive. It was all he could do, and he refused to simply give up.


    As he activated Tactics, channeling as much Strength and Toughness into Dexterity as he dared, he whispered to James, ¡°It¡¯s too bad you aren¡¯t here now, buddy. You¡¯d laugh about how these buzzards were easy to kill for a real man. I¡¯m glad we were able to form a friendship in the end, even if it took you almost dying to get there.¡±


    When the buzzards were one dune away, only about one seconds of their flight time, he activated Footsteps of the Wind and began running. Damage Premonition warned him as the first bird dive-bombed him, and he dodged to the side, causing the bird to slam into the sand with an angry hiss.


    Stumbling from the force of the impact, he was force to rely on Tumble to bring himself back to his feet, before the next bird was upon him. This time he activated stomach surfing and shot down the face of the dune, dodging the predator with enough space that he heard, rather than felt, the impact of yet another bird ramming into the sand dune.


    At his fastest speed, he was able to dodge the other two birds as they attacked him, and he was even able to wait out some of the decreased Dexterity caused by Footsteps of the Wind as he continued to ride down the dune, dodging a few more attacks. Their cries had gotten more and more angry as the low-leveled human had managed to evade them so easily, and he could tell that they were beginning to let the emotion guide there actions, much as James had done.


    ¡°Finally got them where I want them.¡± he said, as all four of the birds lined up and dove at him at once.


    With no Dexterity, he simply tried to get comfortable before activating Unflinching Meteor. Thinking he had given up, the first bird reached him at a speed that had to be close to breaking the sound barrier, but instead of finding soft flesh, the bird smashed into his immovable body, its legs breaking and pancaking across him before its body followed an instant later. Being immobile, he couldn¡¯t even flinch as the large beak smacked right between his eyes and shattered with the bang of a cannon.


    An instant later, the second bird smashed against him, though he could only tell from the second booming noise since his vision was completely obscured by the first bird''s remnants.


    The noise of the third bird matched the second, and it wasn¡¯t until the fourth bird that things changed. A gust of air cleared his face as the bird managed to change its trajectory, smashing one of its wings, but not dying as its peers had. Then his world was awash in pain, as energy from killing three creatures filled his body. It was far more energy than he had ever been filled with, and for a moment, his mind went blank.


    Turning inward, Mike saw the energy that completely engulfed him, filling every channel to bursting. His brain turning towards survival, he fell back on the training he had been doing over the past few weeks, and pulled the excess energy towards the only sigil that glowed brightly and could be processed by his foggy brain: Unflinching Meteor.


    Unable to expend the mental energy required to check how long the skill would remain active, he focused on gathering as much of the energy as he could, coating the fractal multiple times over with the speed and precision that only adrenaline can produce, before willing the layers to become one with their base. The glow the sigil emitted grew many times over, and Mike felt that somehow his mind would become blind.


    A small crack formed, and he pulled more energy from the abundant amount that still ravaged his body, filling the crack, before it could expand. He saw the next crack appear, and was still filling it when another formed. Mentally growing, he dumped his remaining stat points into Intelligence, knowing that his predicament was balancing on a knife¡¯s edge and could go either way. The 12 points represented more than a 25% increase in his mental capability, and more importantly, his ability to interface with the System and it was enough that he was able to keep filling the cracks as they formed.


    The battle seemed to last forever, until at long last, his imagination seemed to quake as the sigil flashed one more time, a brilliant gold that eclipsed the sun, before fading to match the color of the rest of his channels. He ignored the notification, knowing that he had succeeded, and focused instead on the sigil that appeared in his consciousness, which pulled all of the excess energy from his body, leaving only enough left for his usual functions.


    When the last drop had vanished, he exited his inner world, gasping for breath as he looked around. Two feet away from him, Ash and Autumn were happily eating the carcass of the fourth bird.


    ¡°So you two managed to actually do something, huh?  Well, good for you.¡± He managed to gasp out, his neurons still telling his brain that he was in dire pain, despite him knowing that the danger had vanished.


    ¡°Make sure to save me one of those drumsticks, you own me that much.¡± he continued, ¡°Actually, you ladies should just stop eating now. I have a recipe that will make you rethink your whole relationship with birds. Think KFC, but better, much better.¡±


    They ignored him, and unable to move yet, he sighed in defeat before finally checking his notifications.


    [Congratulations! Unflinching Meteor has reached Level 4.


    Duration now increased to 20 seconds, with a cooldown of 8 seconds.


    Due to not meeting previously set requirements, no new Skill Ability will be awarded.]

 Untried: Chapter 17

    The procession made its way into the depths of the ship to the ¡°Administrator¡¯s Brig¡±, which was specifically designed to hold high-ranking individuals who were awaiting full trial. It was one of the more comfortable prisons that existed within the Hive, and could be considered more of sabbatical than a prison. The vessel sent a constant stream of cosmic energy to the chamber, making it a decent cultivation cave. Someone like Junior Administrator would have a spatial storage device of some kind and would have plenty to do if they so desired. However, as the doors opened to the chamber, it became apparent that Junior Administrator had taken to the paid and comfy leave similar to how a young child approaches bedtime¨Cwith a tantrum. The walls and floors were scorched, evidence of their boredom and anger. A large pile of waste lay in the corner, just two feet from where it should be properly disposed of. System Administrator took a long look and felt sick inside, more than anything, the feeling was due to the lack of growth shown by their subordinate, they thought they would have learned something over the time serving together.


    ¡°Bi¡¯Jhove! This is how they have kept you, cousin, in this squalor?¡± Sector Assimilator cried out, his outrage palpable.


    System Administrator gulped as he glanced around at the destroyed space that many on the Hive¡¯s outskirts would kill for the opportunity to use. Apparently this wasn¡¯t going to fall in their favor either. Blast it, they are actual cousins? These accursed young pupachs are bent on taking everything away that has taken a lifetime to acquire. Nothing is safe in the face of their entitlement.


    ¡°It is the standard room and conditions under the Code.¡± They heard their voice saying, even as they groaned internally about how much worse this conversation would make everything.


    ¡°Oh, is it really?  It is in the code to deprive an officer and member of the Hive¡¯s third ring basic necessities like a servant?¡± Sector Assimilator said, voice growing louder with every word. ¡°Well you are the veteran, so I suppose you would know.  But I happen to think that there are many back home who would bury you for this.¡±


    System Administrator sputtered, Do I really need to point out the disposal system that is only feet away from where they have piled their trash?  They only stopped themselves by realizing that pointing that out in this particular moment would likely make Junior Administrator feel embarrassed and would lead to more anger from Sector Assimilator.


    ¡°Do I even dare ask what you have been feeding my cousin?  Is it even worth it to¨C..¡±


    Beep!


    Beep!


    Beep!


    Red lights started flashing as the alarm sounded from the cockpit and viewing room, cutting of Sector Assimilator mid-rant and causing everyone to turn an run towards the main cabin.


    ¡°Status¨C¡±


    ¡°Status report!¡± Sector Assimilator yelled loudly, overpowering System Administrator¡¯s question with the unnecessary volume while shooting them a glare.


    ¡°The anomaly has manually upgraded a skill using only energy provided by killing monsters.¡± An automated voice replied. ¡°This could be considered a step towards cultivation. Initiating Phase 4 recommended.¡±


    System Administrator didn¡¯t know whether to feel relieved or frustrated. Phase 4 represented a loss of actual resources beyond just cosmic energy. The anomaly had become strong, and there were several skill fractals worth acquiring that were higher leveled than was normal for an integration. On the other hand, the anomaly continued to caused headaches for System Administrator, and the idea of not having to worry about him anymore was very appealing.


    ¡°Recommendation received and denied.¡± Sector Assimilator announced and System Administrator had to hold in their groan of annoyance. ¡°We will not be breaching any part of the Accords while on my watch unless we have to.¡±


    They paused briefly before continuing, ¡°System, replay events on the main screen.¡±


    The crew was silent as they watched the anomaly dodge the much higher leveled creatures, though he earned a few grunts of respect when he took the attacking birds head on, killing three of them. The grunts turned to full on murmurs as they witnessed him containing the energy that had flooded his channels¨Cit was enough to kill many of the crew members, and each present understood the truth: the anomaly¡¯s ability to fight through that pain had nothing to do with the System¡¯s influence, and everything to do with the individuals willpower.


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    Just our luck that we find an anomaly who would be a prodigy if they had been raised in any faction of the multiverse. System Administrator thought.


    Just when it seemed that the anomaly would burst apart, their skill and body cracking with the energy, a change seemed to occur. The glow began dimming, until, over the course of several minutes, it dimmed completely and the anomaly lay gasping on the ground.


    ¡°Replay that last part and turn Characteristic Display on.¡± Sector Assimilator commanded.


    This time, it became apparent that the anomaly had survived only due to increasing Intelligence, not simply through pure willpower, and several sighs of relief were heard.


    ¡°There, that settles it. There is no need for Phase 4. The anomaly may have managed some very minor cultivation, but our hold on them has gotten stronger for it.¡±


    System Administrator mentally debated whether or not to say anything, knowing that the consequences would be severe, but ultimately their devotion was towards the Hive Queen, and it would be against their own identity to not speak up.


    ¡°With respect, I believe this is a mistake.¡±


    The room was silent, all eyes trained on the two competing officers. Seeing that they had room to speak, System Administrator continued, ¡°That anomaly has proven to have resiliency without peer, and it is exactly for reasons like this that Phase 4 exists. We believe it likely that if we don¡¯t enact Phase 4 now, we will be forced to enact it later.¡±


    When Sector Assimilator was still silent, System Administrator felt the momentum was building and finished their thought, ¡°If we stop this now, we may lose some face, but if things get worse and we have to initiate Phase 5, all will be lost for this ship. Your father will understand.¡±


    Their final words caused Sector Assimilator¡¯s face to contort in anger. That had been the wrong tactic.


    ¡°No, I am the leader of this mission. I have the final say. You will not sway me with your cowardice.¡± Many of the crew gasped at the insult. Cowardice was the trait most despised in the Hive, and younglings had it beaten out of them. To accuse one as decorated as System Administrator of cowardice was reproachful. But rather than putting out Sector Assimilator¡¯s anger, the reaction of the crew only seemed to stoke it further.


    ¡°No, we cannot allow this attitude to permeate the vessel. And for that reason, I hereby put you under arrest, pending trial upon returning to the Hive.¡± Sector Assimilator leaned in and whispered at a pitch only the two of them could hear ¡°If you even survive that long.¡±


    ¡°Guards, see to it!¡±


    As the guards stepped forward, taking System Administrator gently on each side with slight nods of apology, Sector Assimilator began speaking again, ¡°In the meantime, Junior Administrator will take over the management of this vessel.¡±


    System Administrator stood in a daze, missing the congratulatory speech that was given, the awkward cheering of only Sector Assimilator¡¯s lackeys, and the hug given from one cousin to another. It was only as they began to be lead out of the room that System Administrator breathed deeply through their gills, found the strength to remain calm and departed the room with dignity. By the time they had taken two steps into the hallway, they were already plotting their next move. There were those loyal to them, and all of their cards were not yet on the table. They were loath to play some of them, but as things stood, they didn¡¯t see any other choice. Better to be banished than to die or support corruption.


    Sector Assimilator¡¯s words echoed from the viewing chamber as System Administrator was guided around the corner by the guards and led towards the Administrator¡¯s Brig, ¡°Now that that is all settled, let¡¯s move over to checking on our fledgling wraith. I¡¯m very interested in how the assimilant is progressing. We may have stumbled upon a goldmine with this integration.¡±


    ?????????????


    Brent¡¯s face smiled at the notification:


    [Congratulations!  For forcing your jaw to stretch to double its normal capacity, you have unlocked a new skill.


    New Skill Unlocked: Maxilla Proten


    While painful, you can now stretch your jaw three times its normal width.


    Continue pushing the limits to increase this skill further.]


    Brent used his facial ligaments to push his jaw wide open before closing it again. Repeating the process multiple times.


    ¡°The pain is manageable. And if I keep it open, I think it is actually negligible.¡± he concluded, before eyeing a patch of moss that was outside of his abilities only moments before.


    ¡°Let¡¯s see if you can give me some nourishment, little one.¡± He said as he crouched down and laid prone near the moss before stretching his mouth open til it could fit in an entire softball.

 Untried: Chapter 18

    Though Mike¡¯s body radiated pain, he was cognizant of the noise that his recent battle had produced, and he knew that scavengers wouldn¡¯t be too far away. Unable to summon the strength to lift Autumn and Ash, he called weakly to the cubs, before turning and shuffling up the sand dune as fast as he could. As he trudged along, he inspected his body for any injuries he may have missed, but he didn¡¯t manage to find any.


    At the top of the dune, he collected the Quicksilver he had used to make the previous day¡¯s shelter, and looked sullenly at the large hill he would be stomach surfing down. Though the activity had pained him in the Quicksilver dungeon, his tolerance and technique had improved, and aside from some minor bumps and bruises when he wanted to try a cool jump with the cubs, he never really got hurt anymore. He had no illusions that that would be the case tonight.


    Every bump was excruciating, and it was only thanks to his lifetime full of painful experiences that he managed to not cry out. The pups seemed to be aware of his plight, as they whined softly and rode gently on his back. His increased sensitivity made him acutely aware that the cubs were bigger than they had been the night before, and after checking, he saw that they had both made it to Level 35 after killing the single vulture. While happy for their success, he couldn¡¯t help but feel frustrated at his lack of growth. With the number of monsters he had killed since arriving in the zone, he certainly would have been at or above Level 50 by now.


    Blast the System and its uncanny ability to target me. He said vehemently, albeit in his head where the seemingly omnipresent being couldn¡¯t hear and exact retribution. Not that I am superstitious, just cautious. He assured himself.


    Despite his best efforts, his stoic optimism, and every means he could think of to distract himself, the pain was too much for him, and he only made it three dunes over in the course of the next 4 hours. He was at his breaking point, and he knew it. As he began digging out his den, he was pleasantly surprised when the fox cubs pitched in, digging right beside him with an ease that put him to shame.


    ¡°So you two have been capable of helping me this whole time and have simply chose to watch me do everything?  I¡¯ll definitely be remembering this.¡± He said to them, unsure if they could understand him despite their high Intelligence.


    With the small den formed, he quickly coated it in Quicksilver and crawled inside before blacking out completely.


    ?????????????


    Mike woke up sometime in the middle of the morning, but despite the depth of his slumber the night before, his body was still in mind-numbing pain. After checking over his entire body another time, he looked inward, tracing each of his channels with meticulous care, but could still find nothing. If there was no surface damage, and no damage to his channels, he was left concluding that there was some internal damage. Because the damage seemed to affect all of him, he figured he either had microscopic tears throughout most of his body, or else he had some nerve damage. Normally, neither would have been too treatable, but thanks to Hands of Healing, he actually hoped it was the latter.


    He knew from personal experience that nerve damage usually caused some amount of radiating pain, and was often hard to pinpoint the source, so without any other options, he placed his hands on the back of his neck and activated the skill, before once again blacking out.


    ?????????????


    When he awoke the next time, he found that his right leg below the knee as well as parts of his right arm no longer felt pain, but the rest of his body still felt as if it was on fire. For the next 18 hours, he could do little more than watch the foxes play, providing food for them when they asked. When their playfulness got aggressive and led to him being bumped multiple times, he opened up a small bit of the shelter wall and allowed them to dig underground.


    Yep, they are definitely faster than me and have just been mooching. He concluded after watching them rapidly disappear from his view.


    When the 18 hours were up, he placed his hands on the small of his back and activated Hands of Healing again.


    ?????????????


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    It took six applications of Hands of Healing before the pain fully subsided, but finally, on the sixth night since arriving, he made his way out into the twilight air. The cubs had managed to dig an extensive tunnel network during that time, and aside from a level 75 beetle that took all three of them to kill, it was without incident. As they left their week-long home, the cubs were eager to be out in the open, and chose to run down the slopes rather than ride on Mike¡¯s back.


    Only six hours into their march, they finally came to the edge of the dunes. In front of them lay a two mile wide strip of flat ground, and on the other side, Mike could make out the cliffs he had seen before fighting the vultures. This was the direction he had seen the birds fly back at the oasis, and hopefully it would have a clean water supply. He still had enough to last about a week, but they would need to find something else soon.


    As he stepped forward, he noticed that the sand had a softer feel to it, like a rototilled garden bed, this sand seemed to have retained a small bit of moisture in addition to having been churned recently. Bending down to test the sand''s consistency with his hands, he barely registered Damage Premonition in time to activate Unflinching Meteor before a medium sized wurm shot out of the ground in front of him, bent forward with whip-like speed, and ate him whole.


    ?????????????


    It was a strange sensation to know he was being chewed by a giant monster and yet not feel anything.  As the wurm¡¯s mouth opened and closed in its struggle to swallow his uncrushable body, Mike caught glimpses of the rings of ridges that the beast had in place of teeth. Yet despite all of its thrashing, squeezing, and chomping in the two seconds since he had been swallowed, the only thing the wurm accomplished was lodging Mike vertically near the back of its mouth. The jawless structure meant that the wurm was unable to expand its mouth any further, and his rigid body had caught on the slightly softer tissue found near its throat. The wurm seemed to understand that Mike¡¯s invulnerable body wouldn¡¯t last forever, for once he became fully lodged, the thrashing subsided and the beast settled in to wait.


    The seconds seem to tick down in slow motion as he racked his brain for a way to escape.  With the wurm¡¯s mouth closed, his ability to sense the air around him was reduced to near zero, and even if he could, he had only had any real success manipulating it when practicing the Kata, so Aeromancy was out. He could try Hands of Healing to put the creature to sleep, but he doubted that he would be able to escape its mouth even if he used Undeviating Juggernaut and channeled all his Dexterity into Strength, the wurm was simply too large.


    Without any other options and in a desperate gamble to survive he began casting Sonic Sounding through the hand that he had instinctively raised to protect his head as the wurm descended, the hand that was now pressed flush against the soft tissue of the wurm¡¯s throat. Not waiting for a reaction, he began activating the ability again and again.


    A rush of wind and an ear-wrending shriek began soon after the second time he used the skill, which only grew worse each time he activated it. Soon, the beast was once again thrashing, but this time in pain as it sought to expel him. Despite its best efforts, he remained lodged and unmoving as he continued to activate Sonic Sounding as quickly as possible. By the 6th repetition, the shrieking increased in pitch and volume and on the 7th casting, with only 2 seconds left on Unflinching Meteor, the wurm¡¯s head exploded. Ejecting Mike in a shower of yellow gore that sprayed in all directions.


    Even as he sailed immobile through the air in the direction of the cubs, he was already looking inwards, focusing the kill energy towards Sonic Sounding, which was still glowing. He could try leveling up Unflinching Meteor again, but he had only recovered from the pain a few hours earlier, and he hoped that a lower leveled skill would be easier.


    Having already completed the task once, and beginning the endeavor with already increased Intelligence, he found it much easier this time around. He anticipated the cracks and was able to fill them before they spread, and he was ready when the Sigil appeared and began sucking the excess energy from his body.


    When he opened his eyes, only a minute after being ejected, it was with a triumphant grin and only half the pain he had experienced previously. The grin faded instantly as he saw a host of wurms all fighting over the shredded carcass he had created. His instinctive reaction was to jump up and start running, but remembering his previous experience hiding from wurms, he held perfectly still and watched the utter chaos ensuing in front of him. For three hours, he simply sat still and waiting, Autumn and Ash following his example.


    As he watched, he noticed that all of these wurms were all on the small to medium end of the wurm spectrum he had seen thus far, and in using Analyze, he found out the reason why: they were all wurmlets ranging in level from 75 to 85. He must have stumbled upon some kind of nesting ground.


    Just the kind of kind of Luck only I could have. Who else would stumble upon an entire army of creatures way stronger than myself in the middle of a barren desert? He thought to himself. Still, it wasn¡¯t all bad. He was fairly confident that had it been an adult wurm, he wouldn¡¯t have managed to be lodged in the wurm¡¯s mouth, and likely would have died in whatever process wurms used to digest their food.


    His inspection of the skill advancement notification proved nearly identical to the last one. He had gained a level. It was now slightly stronger (in this case meaning that Sonic Sounding had an increased blast radius that it could travel). He also noted that the requirements to level it up again had remained the same.


    When the last wurm disappeared beneath the surface, he slowly got up and walked carefully up the nearest sand dune. As the night slowly faded, he thoughtfully viewed the scene in front of him, wracking his brain for a way across. An hour before the sun reached him, he rose from his careful study and ran another dune away from the wurm-infested area before he began to build his shelter. It wasn¡¯t until he pulled out his wurm-skin camouflage that he had his first real solution to the problem. It would be risky, but he couldn¡¯t think of any other way.


    A solution in mind, he was able to sit comfortably in shelter before activating Hands of Healing for the seventh time in seven days and passing out again.

 Untried: Chapter 19

    Since it would be impossible to walk across the wurm nest, Mike had come to the conclusion that he either needed to go somewhere else (which also wasn¡¯t possible with his current water supply) or else he would need to fly.  Ultimately, most of his time problem solving the night before had been thinking through which methods were even possible. His first thought was a catapult, but testing that seemed a bit iffy¨Che would hate to land only halfway to his destination. There was also the issue of Autumn and Ash not having Unflinching Meteor, which was a key component to surviving being thrown two miles through the air.


    His next idea was to power level Aeromancy and gain the flight skill he had been eyeing for months. The problem with this approach was simply that he was months away from being able to Level Up the skill¨Cand if his previous attempts were anything to go by, he likely couldn¡¯t get the branching flight skill without leveling up Aeromancy through the System¡¯s defined methods.


    His final idea was true genius, he actually had a decent amount of experience already, and with a little bit of System intervention it should be possible. Hang gliding¡­. With Aeromancy providing the needed air current to carry his weight. With this plan in mind, he divided his days into several activities.


    The first was actually building the hang glider. He could build the frame out of Quicksilver, making hollow pipes to decrease the weight, but the canvas would be tricky. He tried using the dried wurm hide he had made at the oasis, but by now it was starting to get patchy. Which meant he would have to get new hides. Fortunately, he had a seemingly unlimited hide pool to poach from. Unfortunately, all of his encounters with wurms thus far had been survived by the slimmest of margins, and usually resulted in much of the wurm¡¯s body being destroyed. He briefly considered trying to find a better way of killing the much larger creatures, but constrained as he was on time, he decided to simply refine his previous method and just kill more of the creatures.


    To that end, as the sun set on the first day of his preparations, he found himself only steps away from the churned earth. Taking a deep breath, he jumped forward, legs spread wide and his arm straight above him, then immediately activated Unflinching Meteor. Just as before, he was almost instantly engulfed by a large wurmlet, although thanks to his better positioning, he managed to get caught much closer to the entrance of the wurms mouth. With the increased level, it only took 5 uses of Sonic Sounding before his job was complete and he was once again flying through the air, covered in yellow blood, completely immobile, while pain coursed through his body¨C-it was a scene that would be repeated dozens of times over the next few days. As soon as he became mobile, he inched quietly to the nearest scrap of wurm carcass, put it in his spatial storage bag, before turning inward to level up Sonic Sounding.


    After gaining a few more levels easily, something changed with his method of skill advancement: rather than gaining a level with a single kill, he was forced to kill multiple enemies to have enough energy to advance the skill. This meant that he was forced to dive into the creatures mouths while the energy coursed through him. Though it would have been impossible for him to do so when he killed his first wurm, with each iteration, he was slowly adapting. He was getting used to the pain. He was better able to pack the energy around his core, making a cloud that had almost turned into a liquid. He was also better able to coat his skill and maintain the coating¨Cthis took a vast amount of the energy, and mostly cleared out his channels to normal levels. Even with these increases, it eventually became too hard for him to contain the energy needed to Level Up Sonic Sounding, so for his last few kills, he managed to Level Up Aeromancy twice.


    After killing 30 wurmlets and gaining 2 levels in Aeromancy and 5 levels in Sonic Sounding, which from experience was now strong enough to damage the wurmlets even when he wasn¡¯t lodged into the soft flesh of their mouths, he was finally ready to start building.


    Processing the wurmskin required some rather major expansions to the trio¡¯s small lodging. But with the help of the two cubs, he was able to focus most of his time on lining the cooking room with Quicksilver and slicing thin enough sheets of skin, rather than simply digging.


    When he wasn¡¯t fighting, leveling up, or building a hang glider, Mike spent his time working on his Aeromancy. With the two extra levels, he was more attuned to the air around him than ever before, and he could even control it. Rather than his previous problem of barely being able to move the wind, he was able to control it, at least to some degree. Probably due to the method of his advancement, his control was nothing like the fine-tuned water weaving that the hobgoblins had displayed, nor was it even as fine as the Wind Blades that the foxes could use, rather, he was able to summon large, imprecise gusts of wind to go in the direction of his choosing. It certainly wouldn¡¯t be enough to make a difference in a fight, he would likely to knock himself over rather than a mobile opponent, but he hoped it would be enough to keep his small aircraft aloft.


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    Two other happenings of note were Ash and Autumn hitting to Level 40 by finishing off some wurms that hadn¡¯t died from Mike¡¯s ability¨Cthis mostly occurred when he became lodged the wrong direction in a wurms mouth and ended up not projecting his blasts directly into their brains. The other development was that after seeing it seven times, he finally had the fractal that swallowed excess energy from his body memorized to the point where he could draw it out on the sand from memory.


    ?????????????


    At the end of six days, Mike, Ash, and Autumn stood at the top of the dune nearest the wurm nest.  They  had tested the hang glider between some dunes the night before, and found that it did in fact hold their wait and that Mike could more or less control it, but they had yet to test it over any reasonable distance.


    ¡°Ok ladies, the plan is to take this out aways, then turn around and come back. We have plenty of time tonight to get it right, so might as well be cautiou¡­..¡±


    An explosion sound followed by an immense roar rocked the world behind them, and Mike¡¯s biggest fear over the past week was realized: A parent had returned to the nest.


    No communication  was needed as Mike ran down the slope and jumped the cubs running right behind him before latching onto the tethers tied around his waist. There was a brief feeling of weightlessness as gravity pulled them downwards before the large updraft that constantly assaulted this edge dune caught their weight and carried them upwards as the ground sloped down and away from them. In short order, they were over 300 feet above the desert floor.


    Just as Mike began to feel safe, the largest wurm he had encountered thus far, erupted from the ground beneath them, soaring upwards directly towards them. Calling upon the air around him, Mike caused a gust to lift them higher, barely avoiding the maw of the vengeful parent that sought to devour them whole.


    As the wurm reached the peak of its trajectory, it arced forward, before diving back into the ground face first, reminding Mike of a whale playing in the ocean. Using one of his hands, he adjusted the cubs to make sure they were secure before sighing in relief¨Cwhich proved to be a premature gesture as no sooner had they descended to its peak jumping height, the wurm shot out of the ground a second time. Feeling more in control than the first time, Mike simply summoned a large gust of air to lift them higher, but he wasn¡¯t prepared for the geyser of sand that shot from the wurm¡¯s mouth, chafing the skin from their bodies and causing them to spiral out of control.


    ¡°How is it finding us? I thought they didn¡¯t have eyes?¡± he screamed through the turbulence, not getting a response from the two terrified foxes strapped to his back.


    They were within 30 feet of the ground before he was able to rebalance their glider, something made harder by the damage it had sustained. More importantly, they were only a few hundred yards from the base of the cliffs, the time having passed much quicker than expected thanks to the adrenaline rushing through their bodies.


    Calling on the wind, he forced their aircraft upwards as sharply as he could, causing the frame to begin to bend under the extra stress. It was only thanks to his ability to add Quicksilver to the structure at will that the maneuver was possible.


    He anticipated the wurms next move, knowing it would shoot up from behind them before the sound of its thousand ton frame tearing through the earth reached them. Thanks to Damage Premonition, he was able to retract the Quicksilver at the just the right time, causing the three of them to fall towards the ground even as the wurmskin sail continued upwards on the draft. The wurm crashed to the ground 100 feet in front of them, halfway between their current position and the cliffs. They were still falling when the wurm emerged again, aiming for the sheet that was now several hundred feet above them.


    Mike was unsure if it could simply smell the sheet or if it had eyes and had lost sight of them in the chaos, but he didn¡¯t have time to worry about that issue at that particular moment, as he had to find a way to fall safely. Unable to think of a better plan, he tossed the foxes upwards right before he hit the sand, activating Unflinching Meteor before impact. His forward momentum caused him to tumble end over end across the sand, hitting into the side of the canyon wall with a loud crack as his body embedded itself feet first into it.


    He watched in mute horror as the two fox cubs dashed the last 20 feet to his location, wurmlets emerging from the ground all around them in addition to the adult wurm crashing back into the ground from its most recent jump. The impact caused sand to shoot in all directions, and the fox cubs activated their dash skill zipping across the ground almost faster than Mike could follow. In an instant, they had climbed onto his body, followed by a wave of sand that filled Mike¡¯s wide-open eyes and made him unable to see.


    Over the next ten minutes, the trio watched as the wurms hunted them, but for all of their vigor, they never crossed the line of rock that demarcated where the sand ended and the cliffs began.

 Untried: Chapter 20

    When the last wurm finally disappeared, Mike relaxed his body, allowing it to shift out of his encasement, taking special care to not touch the ground, before he retethered the cubs to his back and began climbing up the side of the cliff.


    The rock face was sheer, and handholds were few. Before the System, it would have been deemed too hard to even professional climbers to scale, but for someone with three times the strength of the average human and six times the dexterity, it wasn¡¯t overly challenging, despite having two passengers on his back. After ascending 300 yards, they crested the cliff¡¯s edge, and found themselves standing on what appeared to be a large plateau. It stretched for miles in every direction, and if it wasn¡¯t for the thousands of birds roosting on the surface, it would have been an amazing place to explore. Thankfully, the birds appeared to all be sleeping, and Mike was able to slowly inch himself backwards over the edge, and back the way he had came¨Cwhich was much more challenging than going upwards. Once he had reached around the halfway point, he changed his direction, working his way sideways in an attempt to find some sort of shelter where he could make camp.


    After two hours, his legs and arms were burning, and he had to accept a smallish ledge as the best he would be able to find for the night. He needed rest, and something told him that if he was just hanging onto the side of the cliff in the morning, he was likely to be eaten by a bird, before being regurgitated to feed its young.


    The edge he found himself on was barely wider than his foot, forcing him to stand in an uncomfortable stance with his feed splayed out sideways¨Cwhich was made even more precarious by the two cubs pulling his weight backwards. Even so, it was a rest compared to the climbing he had been doing, and after a few minutes of catching his breath, he formed a pickaxe of Quicksilver and began digging into the side of the cliff. The stone wall was a far cry from the lush soil of Montana, and after only a few minutes, he found himself wishing desperately for the extra stats he had pushed into Intelligence.


    One he had made a shallow divot, he reformed his pickaxe into a hammer and chisel, and slowly chipped away, making slow but steady progress.


    Two hours before the sun rose, he had managed to dig out a small burrow, 3 feet deep, two feet wide, and one foot tall. He had had to foresight to set the tunnel at an angle, so that even if the sun shone directly on it, there would be room towards the back that would remain shaded. It was way too small for himself, but large enough for the cubs, and after depositing them into it, then began focusing on widening the ledge on which he stood. Unable to bend over in his given position, he instead started right beneath the hole he had made and began carving the rock away in vertical strips. Going with the grain made the process easier, and within an hour, he had widened his area to the point where he could crouch slightly, relieving the stiffness that he was feeling in both legs.


    An hour before the sun rose, he heard the birds for the first time. It started with a single incessant squawk, likely a youngling asking for food, but the chorus was soon taken up by all of its counterparts, until the air was practically humming. At length, the occasional reply of the parent, harsher and angrier than the babies¡¯ began to be interspersed into the mix, and the hum turned into a deafening roar. The hubbub seemed to annoy more than just Mike and the cubs, as not too long after it commenced a bird''s cry erupted, overpowering all of the other birds with ease, and suddenly, Mike understood why the wurms hadn¡¯t dared touch the rocks. By the sound of its voice alone, he was convinced that it was much larger than even the giant wurm that had chased them the night before. What better predator to feed on the large sand wurms than a giant bird? The birds quieted down in response to their larger leader until the hum was painful, but not deafening.


    Retrieving the wurmskin that was always used as a covering for his shelters, Mike wedged it into the rocks around him, covering himself and the burrow in shade and settled in to wait.


    ?????????????


    Throughout the morning hours, the sun had shone directly upon them, and it was only through constant hydration that they had managed to survive, that and being completely shaded from the sun from just after noon onwards. Once the sun was no longer hitting them, it had cooled off enough for Mike to quietly work on enlarging their shelter, which also dehydrated him and forced him to drink more often. These combined scenarios meant that at the end of the day, the shelter was wide enough for Mike to lay down in, but there was only one vessel of water remaining. It wouldn¡¯t be enough to survive the heat of another morning. As the light faded, Mike stretched his legs out in the burrow while watching the birds circle ahead through the small holes that dotted his shelter.


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    As the sun died, so did the maddening, omnipresent voices of the birds, and he finally felt safe to leave. Saying his farewells, Mike left the cubs and began his search for water. He wasn¡¯t oblivious to the fact that the birds had to be close to a steady source, so with that in mind, he made his way to the top of the cliff, and peaked over the edge.All was still, the only noise being the constant inhales and exhales of the thousands of creatures. After watching for 10 minutes to make sure the coast was clear, he pulled his body over the edge and began to infiltrate the enemy.


    Using the skills learned decades ago, he deliberately placed each foot, testing the ground to make sure it wouldn¡¯t shift and awaken the numerous creatures that would happily eat him. He balanced this deliberateness with speed. It was a necessity to find water tonight, and there was a lot of ground that needed to be covered.


    Eventually his explorations led him to locate a small rift in the ground. It was so dark outside, that he had nearly fallen into it and had been forced to throw his body backwards, causing rocks to fall over the edge. A few birds near his location stirred briefly at the dull noise of his body hitting the ground, but thankfully, none fully awakened. He winced at the sounds of the rocks hitting the ground in the rift below, but thanks to the depth of the hole, the sounds were distant and the birds¡¯ breathing didn¡¯t even change. Noting the rift as a possible place for a shelter in future, he rose from the ground and continued his expiration.


    After circling the outside for a while, he changed his direction and went towards the middle of the plateau, where the shifting rocks were more scarce, but the feces were far deeper. Breathing to avoid smell and breathing quietly is surprisingly hard to achieve, and he was forced to breathe quietly, gagging against the fowl smell. The joke brought a smile to his face, causing him to inhale deeply, which made him gag even harder. Tears streamed down his face as he struggled to hold in his mirth and the wurm meat he had eaten for dinner. Reining himself in with thoughts of his mother scolder him, he continued on his journey towards the center of the plateau.


    It was well past the middle of the night when he finally located the water source, and right next to it, the largest bird he had ever seen in his life. It was easily the size of a Bowing 737, and dwarfed even the largest birds he had encountered that night. Beside its sleeping body was a pool of water. Though filth covered every inch of the ground around him, the water was crystal clear and seemed to unnaturally emanate the moonlight shining from above.


    Pristine Solar-Lunar Water


    Quality: Exquisite


    Durability: Low


    Rarity: Mythic


    Elemental Attunement: Very High


    Attributes: Water that has basked in the light of sun and moon undisturbed until it has distilled their essence. Always remains pure. Contains high amounts of cosmic energy.


    He was shocked by the high Quality, Rarity, and Elemental Attunement of the water, and the it containing cosmic energy was an added bonus as he wouldn¡¯t have to kill to continue leveling up his skills. More than anything though, he was thrilled that it was pure water. Hurrying down to the small lake, he filled every storage container he had available to him. When those were full, he formed containers out of Quicksilver and filled those as well. When he was done, the small lake was little more than a pond.


    Elated at his find, he was able to ignore the stench as he made his way back to the clift and to his home. He spent an hour digging the tunnel back even further, creating an s shape that made it so their bodies were two corners away from the sun, then he covered the opening and bedded down as the baby birds began to awaken.


    ?????????????


    A screech rent the air, causing Mike to awaken and jump from his bed¡­ or at least he tried to. He succeeded only in hitting his head hard against the cave floor that was only a foot above it. Though dazed, he didn¡¯t miss the second screech, this one just as loud and angry. A multitude of angry voices joined it. Mike rubbed his throbbing head and went to peak out of the shelter through a small opening he had left for ventilation. Birds were everywhere, some in the sky, some within reaching distance of where he lay hidden. They were angry and they were searching. Mike took a sip of water, sighing softly at its cool, pure texture, and crawled back into his cave. It was nice to be fully stocked again.

 Untried: Chapter 21

    Mike groggily opened his eyes a few hours later. While the heat was bearable it was still too hot to sleep well during the day, and that, in conjunction with constant echo of birds hunting for him, led to a bunch of repositioning, tossing and turning. Despite this, he was bone tired from the previous nine days of grueling work, and allowed himself to be lazy for most of the daylight hours.


    As the dimming surroundings of the cave, he noticed the two fox cubs sleeping next to him. He had given them each a small bit of water upon returning the night before, and both had promptly eaten and gone to sleep. As far as he could tell, neither of them had stirred since, which was definitely odd. Figuring that they also must be exhausted from crash landing in a wurm infested desert, hanging on the side of a cliff all day, and sweating it out in a small burrow, he allowed his concern to drain away and focus on the tasks at hand.


    With water and food taken care of for the foreseeable future, he turned his attention to creating a more comfortable home. Adding additional distance from the entrance would decrease the oppressive heat of this Zone, in addition to making the noise of the birds dimmer. In addition to distance, they would need more space. The thought of crawling and laying down for the next few weeks was enough to tempt him to brave fighting a couple of thousand giant birds.


    As night began and the birds outside ceased their hunting, he felt safe in continuing to dig, despite the sharp noises it made. Deciding to prioritize distance first, he created another full switchback that night. At regular intervals, as he took a load of the debris and threw it out of the shelter, he checked in on the cubs. His concern grew as the night wore on, but he forced himself to give them until morning since their pulse was strong, their noses were cold, and they just appeared to be sleeping.  His progress slowed when the darkness in the tunnel became absolute, even with the entrance unblocked. After smashing his thumb several times in attempting to use the chisel by feel alone, which seems impossible with Damage Premonition, he gave up for the night, deciding to take some time to solve his light problem the next day.


    Returning to where the foxes lay, he used Analyze on them for the first time, and was surprised to find that they were both Level 55¨Ca dramatic increase compared to the last time he had checked at 5 Levels in two days. Willing himself to see the energy around him, he quickly located their cores, and say that the usual buildup of energy surrounding them was much denser than ever before. In addition to the exceptional core-space, he noticed another bright spot inside of each of them, about the size of a golf ball, which he deduced was the cosmic water they had both consumed. As he peered closer, he noticed that they were actively channeling the energy coming from the water and to their cores, something he had never been able to see before when they were only consuming the wurm meat.


    Realizing this was a wonderful opportunity to look at how the foxes managed to gain Levels from cosmic energy, he closed his eyes and spent the rest of the night watching the process.


    ?????????????


    Five hours later, Mike¡¯s eyes opened as the sound of birds stirring made him realize that he had forgotten to close up the cave entrance. A grin was plastered on his face at the fruits of the previous night¡¯s efforts. At first, he hadn¡¯t noticed anything different about what the foxes were doing, the energy was sucked into their channels and pushed to their core where the energy was stored until it reached a sufficient density. He had been unable to figure out how exactly the energy merged with the core, even after witnessing it a few more times, so instead he had focused back on where the energy was being siphoned from the water. After careful inspection that took over an hour, he had found something very interesting: a fractal, not dissimilar to the fractal that appeared and sucked energy out of him when he Leveled Up a skill, was included in the channels that surrounded the foxes stomachs. It appeared to him that that fractal alone was responsible for moving the energy, and it finally made sense how they were able to gather the energy passively.


    Now the only question that remained was: How was he going to create that fractal within himself?


    In true form, he got in a comfortable position, drank a bit of water, and turned inward, figuring it would come to him as he was in the process.


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    ?????????????


    An entire day wasted. Mike had explored every angle he could think of short of cutting himself open and physically carbing the runes into his own body¨Cand he had only talked himself away from that option because he was unsure whether or not channels even existed on a physical level. He had never noticed any in the many wurms he had butchered, so he was leaning towards the theory that they didn¡¯t.


    Disgruntled, he turned his efforts to creating a light source so he could expand the tunnel further. Fire wasn¡¯t going to work¨Cnot only was he lacking wood, but without a secondary airshaft and due to the low ceilings, he was more likely to smoke himself out than anything else. His next thought was reflecting the moonlight using Quicksilver mirrors at every corner, something that wasted a good deal of his time, but proved ineffective by the 3 turn. Genius had struck when he asked himself why he had used all of his Blasting Stone, which had glowed naturally, causing him to realize that he now had another glowing substance: Pristine Solar-Lunar Water.


    Taking out one of his smaller jars, he placed it in the cave next to him, causing the space to fill with a dim light. He had no doubts that he was using something precious for a very mundane task, but he was proud of that¨Cpeople often overlooked tools in survival situations because they were unable to see past the monetary value of items, something he hoped he would never be guilty of.


    By the light of the water, he continued carving his way into the cavern, completing another switchback before beginning to form the first actual room in the structure. By the time the sun was rising, it was still a far cry from being anything different from the rest of the tunnel, but given a few more nights of work, he was confident it would turn into a very comfortable home. Closing up the entrance to the cave, he lightly carved his skill patterns into the rock ceiling above him with the light of his tiny water lamp while he allowed his mind to empty and sleep to take him.


    ?????????????


    Mike was startled awake to the sound of crashing rocks followed by squaking coming from the tunnel¡¯s entrance, which echoed loudly throughout the entirety of his burgeoning home. Cursing quietly, he stowed the Cosmic Water, which he had been stupid enough to leave out when he fell asleep several hours prior. The draw of the energy must have alerted the scouting bird to its location.


    Not knowing how he would manage to silence the bird, but knowing that he needed to, he quickly made his way towards the tunnel''s entrance, where light and heat were streaming in. The wurm skin covering had been pulled away, in addition to about ? of the rocks, making it very easy to see the large bird responsible for the mess. With a wingspan of almost 10 feet, and talons easily three times the size of Mike¡¯s hands, the predator had no problem grabbing rocks and throwing them at the sand below.


    His brain cranked through options rapidly: Do I cave in the tunnel, no good as the bird would remember the incident. That means that killing the bird is necessary. How do I kill the bird without dying myself or being seen by other birds? How do best cook it when it is dead? Wait, focus, that surely isn¡¯t applicable!


    The tunnel continued to widen, and without anymore time to think, he simply acted. Activating Footsteps of the Wind, he launched himself out of the cave entrance as the bird began picking up the next rock. Completely unprepared for the very dense man to emerge at high speeds, it had no chance to counterattack before Mike latched onto its body, activating sonic sounding and causing it to burst in a plume of feathers.


    Mike was blasted backwards into the rock face, his hands barely managing to grab onto the edge of the tunnel above him. Pulling himself back inside, he unloaded a bunch of rocks from his spatial storage bag that he had been saving for just such a situation. Usually, filling a small tunnel opening with rocks is easy, but thanks to Footsteps of the Wind being on cooldown, he was somehow failing. Thankfully, Autumn and Ash broke from their concentrated leveling to come and assist him, giving him the stink-eye as they returned to their places.


    ¡°Yep, I definitely coddle the two of you.¡± he growled to their sleeping forms.


    ?????????????


    Junior Adminstrator, now known as Acting System Administrator to their subordinates laughed along as System Assimilator regaled the congregated spawn with how the anomaly was using Cosmic Water to see in the dark, causing one of the more overly ambitious lackeys to guffaw so uncontrollably that their tentacles slapped those around them. It was clearly all for show. Still, Junior Administrator was thankful to their cousin, and laughed along with the rest. This was far easier than being under that old vet.

 Untried: Chapter 22

    Little changed over the following two days. The cubs continued to hibernate as they processed the dense energy of the water, while Mike, unable to gather much energy from it, was forced to drink it like he would any other water. He was able to accumulate enough that he though he could level one of his lower leveled skills whenever he wanted to, but he was unsure what the best option was in his current predicament.


    By day, he slept, gathered energy from the water, and watched the cubs gain levels: they were now in the low 60s.  His understanding of cosmic energy and how it was used by the cubs was growing slowly but steadily.  By night, he continued digging out the first room of their shelter. It was now tall enough that he could sit comfortably in, and wide enough that all three of them could be in the room together, not that the foxes moved or deigned to speak with him. Spoiled brats.


    It was at the end of his second day of digging that something changed:


    [Congratulations!  Branching skill unlocked, Rock Tunneling!


    +3 Strength


    Would you like to replace your current Burrowing skill? y/n]


    Recognizing this branching skill for the unique opportunity that it was, he selected yes, then dove inside of himself to where the Burrowing skill was located, monitoring the pathways that made up the fractal. As he watched, the pathways seemed to grow outward. His focus was pulled away as he felt the System once again take from his energy reserves, rather than provide the energy itself to upgrade the skill. The stinginess proved a boon though, as he noted how the energy was being pulled, directed, and utilized. When he was confident that he could replicate what the System was doing, he extended his focus, looking to see the changes to the pathways at a large scale, rather than looking at the underlying mechanism. He was fairly surprised by what he saw. Rather than a complete overhaul of the pathways, there seemed to be only a minor addition, a small symbol added to the corner of each fractal on both of his hands.


    Within a few seconds, though it felt longer with his focus turned inward, the process was complete, and in its customary greediness, the System sucked all of his excess energy away before sending another notification.


    [Congratulations! New Skill learned, Rock Tunneling!


    Some choose to truly excel in life, but you have chosen a different path.


    You carve through rock as though it was only densely packed clay.]


    Huh. He had forgotten how snarky the System could be, mostly because he had been interacting with it less and less as he focused on building his skills using cosmic energy. The lack of leveling was also a contributing factor. He was pleasantly surprised that he had retroactively received an extra point into Strength for both levels of Burrow that had been changed into Rock Tunneling. Although, the requirements for leveling the skill had gotten significantly harder. He now had to dig a 300 yard tunnel, rather than digging a long-term home. Luckily for him, he had plenty of rock and little else to do with his evenings. Or at least that had been true only minutes before.


    With his crash course in growing pathways in his own body, there was a lot he wanted to do. Sadly, before he could do anything, he would need to build up his energy reserves again.


    ?????????????


    Another two days had passed before Mike¡¯s energy reserves were in a place where he felt sufficiently confident in growing some new pathways. With his newly upgraded ability, the tunneling process was much faster, and he had carved a large room that was two feet taller than his own height, allowing him to stand up and stretch fully, something he had truly missed since the birds started hunting for him in earnest six days prior. He had even carved some small shelves into the room, places where he and the cubs could easily lay, which he had padded with some tough wurmskin that was only slightly better than rock.


    I really need to plant a garden so I can get some softer leaves to sleep on. He had thought after testing out the new beds, following which, he had gently moved the cubs to their places one at a time.


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    He checked the energy within them, and realized with a mixture of embarrassment and frustration that the water they had consumed 6 days ago had still retained half of its mass in their stomachs. His understanding of the full value of what he was wasting as he drank the water grew each day. Hopefully that would begin to change moving forwards.


    Laying down on his new bed, he allowed himself to see the energy of the world. Locating his own core quickly, he grabbed as much energy as he could and traced his pathways until he found those that resided just over his stomach, where his most recent cup of water was shining brightly. Following the same process as the System had used, he began growing the symbol that appeared every time the System took energy away from him, which he had fondly named Energy Sucker.


    From the moment his pathways extended, it became clear that he hadn¡¯t fully comprehended everything the System had done, because he hadn¡¯t felt anything physically when the System was doing its process, but when he did, it was excruciating. Each time he enlarged the pathway, it felt like his very being was stretching apart, like muscles pulling and tearing past their capacity. Doggedly, he carried on. The sigil was intricate and vast. When drawing by hand, it took upwards of 10 minutes, and judging by his current pace, it would take 10 days to create with channels.


    The pain became a dull roar in his head as he did his best to block it out. An entire day passed as he grit his teeth and continued onward. This was the only way he could continue getting stronger in this Zone, something he needed to do if he was going to survive. More importantly, if he learned to do this, if he could grow his own channels, create his own skills, and increase his own levels, he wouldn¡¯t need the System.


    While the pain had remained relatively constant through the first day, things changed as he got to the second day. The sigil had multiple pathways, and rather than creating them in one continuous line, something that was impossible, he was forced to create branching paths. It seemed that with each unfinished endpoint, his pain increased. He also learned on the second day that he was much less efficient with the energy than the System was, and he was forced to take a break to consume water and gather energy while in the most intense pain of his life.


    It was only thanks to the drastic methods he had used to gain levels in Sonic Sounding, storing the energy and pushing through the pain, that he was able to stay conscious, he had unknowingly primed his soul for this moment.


    On the third day, he learned an important lesson.  Succumbing to the pain and the needs of his body, he fell into a short nap that lasted no longer than twenty minutes. Upon awaking, he found his body completely lacking energy. Like he had gone without food for months. His tongue clung swollenly to the roof of his mouth. Apparently, if he wasn¡¯t actively feeding the channels energy, they would take it from his physical body. He was certain that he had almost died, and it was only after nearly 10 hours of focused energy gathering that he felt somewhat normal. But the lesson was learned: the path he was on was not one of half measures. If he fell short, chances are, he would die.


    There was a reprieve on the fourth day. Several of the branches were finished and with their edges closed off, the pain was diminished. The sweet relief of only having two branches working was exquisite, and in his semi-delirious state, Mike likened it to going from all of his fingers being burned, to only his two thumbs being burned.


    As the fifth day closed, he finished off the sigil. His speed had increased with practice over the past five days, halving the estimated time it would take. With the final touch completed, he went over the whole pattern, making sure that each piece matched exactly with his memory of it. When he was sure it matched exactly, he pulled away from the channels and watched as energy was actively sucked from the water¡­. Or at least he tried to watch it. Nothing happened. The water continued to shoot water into his intestines, and nothing was pulled into his body. Frustrated, he double checked the fractal, but everything looked correct. In frustration, he flared energy through his new channels, which ended up doing the trick.


    ¡°Sometimes you just gotta hit it with a hammer.¡± It was his father¡¯s favorite saying, and it proved correct in this instance as well.


    He gleefully watched as the energy from the water in his stomach was sucked into his channels, automatically flowing directly to his core. His replica of the System¡¯s symbol was much smaller, and its sucking effect seemed to match it, pulling energy at a much slower rate. Still, as best he could tell, only a very small amount of the water¡¯s energy was being lost to his bodily functions, and after taking another long pull of the cosmic energy, he closed his eyes and went to sleep. Eager to get work done while doing absolutely nothing.


    ?????????????


    ¡°Everyspawn, evacuate the chamber immediately!¡± Sector Assimilator announced, grabbing Junior Administrator¡¯s shoulder so they knew the order didn¡¯t include them.


    Tensions were already somewhat high among the crew after System Administrator had been put in the brig, and the last thing they needed was the inconsequential, outer-ring dwellers pressuring them into making a decision. Clearly the anomaly was about to do something big, but whether or not it was cultivation, that was up to the two of them to decide together.


    They watched as the subject grew new pathways, eventually forming one of the cultivation symbols that the multiverse battled over. That he should know such a symbol was dangerous at best.


    ¡°What do we do?¡±  Junior Administrator asked as the anomaly fell asleep.


    ¡°We watch.¡± Sector Assimilator replied, ¡°And we record any more symbols he shows us. Opportunities to learn the symbols usually aren¡¯t available until we are much more senior. So for now, we watch. We wait. We keep everyone out of the viewing chamber. And we use his insights to further our own paths.¡±

 Untried: Chapter 23

    ¡°Huuuungrrrrryyyyyyy¡± the word was long and drawn out, as it was hard to communicate with Brent¡¯s mouth stretched across part of a boulder that was almost a foot across.


    The hunger was getting worse, making it hard for him to focus on his skill growth and goals. Only his desire for revenge upon Mike was allowing him to push forward.


    The ligaments in his jaw cracked loudly, and he whimpered in pain, even as his jaw stretched a few inches further, reaching the point where the rock was half-way in his mouth, causing it to disappear completely.


    [Congratulations! Maxilla Proten has reached Level 2.


    Your mouth¡¯s capacity continues to increase as you set your sights on true power.]


    The pain cleared his head, and with his morning stretches done (if it was even morning, it was impossible to tell in a pitch dark world with only small patches of glowing moss) he approached the largest patch of moss he had ever attempted. Kneeling down in front of it on his hands and knees, he stretched his mouth wide, until his chin touched the floor over a foot below his nose and began to suck in as hard as he could. On his first attempt, nothing happened. Fortunately, despite inhaling furiously and his mouth being wide open, Consume made it impossible for any dust or other debris to be inhaled into his lungs, so there was little danger in his actions.


    After stopping to catch his breath, he gave it another go, inhaling with all of the Strength his System-enhanced body was capable of. The edges of the moss began to peel upwards as his lungs reached capacity and he was forced to stop.


    On his third attempt, the moss curled inward against the force of the gale, before slipping from the ground and entering his mouth.


    [Congratulations, Devourer! Level 20 reached!


    +7 stat points by assignment]


    [Congratulations! Consume has reached Level 4.


    +2 Strength]


    [Congratulations! You have learned the skill Wraith¡¯s Gale


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    +4 to Intelligence


    Unsatisfied with having to hunt food, you can now use your lungs to bring it to you.


    Strength of suction force strongly correlated with Intelligence.]


    Gargling with pleasure at the rapid gains of the morning''s growth, he promptly invested  all of his available points into Intelligence, powering up his Consume and Wraith¡¯s Gale. He felt as if the System¡¯s approval of him was almost palatable as the stats distributed and his new Intelligence came to bear.  Enough dawdling for one morning, its time to get after some breakfast.


    ?????????????


    Another week passed in a flurry of hunger-tinged images. Brent licking the ground longingly after consuming a rather large piece of moss. His mouth expansion skill gaining another level, causing him to lose his training prop and forcing him to creep around in the darkness to find another. Even the few dreams he had had during the scarce times he could bring his starving body to sleep were focused on his mouth.


    Brent¡¯s mouth had remained open for the entire time. Thanks to Consume, nothing unwanted ever flew in, and no slobber ever made it out. HIs lower jaw now hung close to his navel as he crept along in the darkness towards the noises that had plagued him for months. Meat would be a good addition to his exclusive greens diet¡­ even if he wouldn¡¯t be able to actually taste any of it, and at Level 28, he thought he was finally ready for it. It was nearly impossible to find moss of a higher level than himself anymore, and he needed a new jolt to his leveling speed if he wanted to overpower Mike.


    Though the bats were invisible in the pitch darkness, he deemed he had traveled far enough when he started to hear some of their cries coming from behind him. Finding a large boulder, he climbed on top of it and stood still, inhaling as hard as he could. His lung capacity had also improved over the last few weeks, and he could now inhale steadily at 50% power for over a minute. At full power, the duration was decreased significantly, but the strength of the pull scaled up to match it. He had yet to get a skill from his efforts, but he was confident the System would award him soon.


    After two hours, his need for energy was overwhelming, and he was thinking of going back when a sharp pain twinged his foot. Frantically scanning about for the attacking moss, he saw no source of light. Unsure what else could be the culprit if not his second-greatest foe, he began casting Analyze all over his body, finally locating the source when another sharp sting on his hand allowed him to find it.


    Monster Type: Abyssal Worker Ant


    Level: 34


    Seeing the ¡°Abyssal¡± prefix reassured him that this was another attempt by his cunning foe, and he greedily inhaled the ant, instantly bringing him to Level 29. After allotting another 7 stat points to Intelligence, he began searching for where the ant had come from. He was well into the heart of bat territory before he finally found the colony.  Kneeling down in front of it, his mouth wide open, he began to inhale. Three levels accrued immediately, but soon after, he was forced to stop and retreat. The ants had sensed the danger and swarmed their attacker, biting and stinging him with wild abandon.


    After running blindly away, hitting his head and tripping more times than he wished to admit, it took an hour to inhale all the ants off of his body. Luckily, his lower jaw was flexible enough to swing around to his back or he never would have gotten all of them. His safety ensured, he fell into the sweet bliss of a poison induced coma.

 Untried: Chapter 24

    Mike blearily opened his eyes an indeterminate number of hours later with a pressing  need to relieve himself¨Csomething that had become less and less foreign to him as his body aged. It was only when he began sitting up that he realized it wasn¡¯t a full bladder he was experiencing, but a full inner world. The Energy Sucker had been hard at work as he had slept, and his core was surrounded by a very dense layer of energy.


    A smile split his face at his success and he chuckled aloud, ¡°What better way to start a morning than leveling a few skills?¡± After a brief pause, continued in a somewhat less chipper voice, ¡°Well, eggs and bacon with a slice of homemade bread and some raspberry jam might be better. Or really anything other than wurm meat at this point. Still, I¡¯ll take whatever success I can get.¡±


    Needing a pick-me-up, he decided to level up the skill he had been avoiding for several weeks, Unflinching Meteor. Last time it had nearly killed him to level the skill, but he was far more prepared now.


    ¡°And after that, I think I will level Rock Tunneling so I can build out a proper kitchen.¡± he concluded with a smile, his plans cheering him up enough to take his mind mostly away from bacon.


    Things went much smoother than they ever had before. He activated the skill so that it glowed brightly to his mind¡¯s eye, before coating it in a thick layer of his energy stores. Having now leveled his skills this way more than ten times, he was often able to predict where cracks would form, proactively filling them in before any problems arose.


    A notification announced that he had been successful, and he was about to check it as a way to celebrate his victory, when the giant Energy Sucker symbol appeared, rapidly stealing his energy at a rate visible to his internal eye. In his eagerness to upgrade skills, he had forgotten that this occurred every time, and a surge of anger at the unwanted intrusion caused him to attack the invading System. It was hard to say what he did, as this was all occurring in what was, as best as he could tell, an imaginary world that existed within him. All he knew is that his energy heeded his call and battered against the symbol that had formed. It sputtered for a moment, seemingly shocked at the attack, before it began to consume even faster than before.


    Gritting his teeth, Mike directed the energy to destroy specific parts of the symbol¨Che didn¡¯t know if or what this symbol was connected to, but from experience, he knew where to leave the symbol incomplete to cause the most pain.


    ¡°Chod¡¯te pre?!¡± he yelled internally at the symbol as he attacked, falling back on the few Slovak words he had learned from his time spent there. They had the benefit of sounding like he was swearing, without actually doing so.


    As soon as the first pathway was fully severed, the symbol disappeared completely. Mike was happy to note that he still had just enough energy left to upgrade Rock Tunneling, which he decided to do immediately. He stood ready to fight back with the last dregs of his energy as the skill finished upgraded, but to his amazement, the symbol didn¡¯t show.


    Without the invasion, for the first time ever he was able to notice how the symbol had changed slightly upon Leveling Up. A slight curl on one of the edges was all it was, but he noted it nonetheless.


    ?????????????


    Unable to see what was happening in Mike¡¯s inner world, as that would reveal the sacred cultivation symbols embedded into the System which the Hive guarded with jealousy, Sector Assimilator and Junior Administrator watched patiently as he simply sat there, until a warning appeared.


    ¡°Warning!  Warning! Anomaly is actively retaliated against energy recuperation systems. Enacting self-preservation sequence 88b: kill switch.¡±


    ¡°No!  Abort!  Override!¡± Sector Assimilator yelled in panic, not wanting his free access to the most valuable knowledge in the multiverse to be destroyed so easily.


    ¡°Are you sure you want to override energy recuperation for anomaly XCV23?¡± the screen prompted.


    ¡°Yes, override¡± Sector Assimilator said in a relieved voice, they had made it on time.


    ¡°Authorization needed for override, please provide verification.¡±


    ¡°Gaah, are we not signed in?  Why does technology never function the way it is intended??¡±


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    ¡°Oh, it looks like Cadet Gerrofilius is still signed in¡±. Junior Administrator helpfully supplied.


    ¡°Tsssk. Well then quick, let¡¯s resign-in and fix this before the anomaly dies trying to fight the System¡¯s powers.¡±


    Tentacles flew unceremoniously about as they hastily rectified the situation, just managing to shut off energy recuperation right as Mike cut the symbol¡¯s pathway, saving his life and procuring them additional time to learn from his unique ability to see cultivation symbols.


    The two cousins gave each other a high-tentacle before turning back to the screen, eager to see what would happen next.


    ?????????????


    Mike blew his nose into his raggedy sleeve to get some of the rock dust out. Though his upgraded skills allowed his hands to move through the rock as if it was little more than sand, it didn¡¯t prevent dust from coating his body and entering his eyes, ears and nose.


    ¡°Hard work is good work, and it always comes with a cost¡± he said, repeating the mantra his father had taught him.


    Over the past couple of hours, the kitchen had slowly began to take shape. It was small by most house standards, but tall enough for him to stand up in. By the light of cosmic water, he could make out the booth-like table and benches he had created in one corner, as well as the countertop, which was complete with a basin for water to sit in and a space for an oven. He had enough meat to last months still, especially with the foxes subsisting solely on cosmic water, so the kitchen was solely for his personal edification and enjoyment. He could probably live on just cosmic water as well if he learned how to Level Up with it.


    He had purposefully carved the kitchen back towards the opening of his tunnels, so that he could create a chimney for the hot air to escape, which was what he intended to do next. The problem was, while the kitchen was closer to the plateau''s outer-face than his bedroom, it was still a good ten feet of rock before he could reach open air, much further than his arms could reach, and he needed to keep the chimney narrow so that it was hard for birds to see and, more importantly, too small for giant man-eating, angry birds to enter.


    Sitting down on his new bench, he began thinking through the situation in an attempt to problem solve. He had promised himself he was going to be better about problem solving with the mechanics of his new world in mind, and to that end, his thoughts led him to think about the fractals that made up his skills. If it was the fractals on his hands that made it possible for his hands to so easily dig out solid rock, couldn¡¯t he just put those fractals on a piece of equipment to get the same result? Enlivened by the prospect, he created a small shovel out of Quicksilver, before painstakingly carving the symbol onto its surface. He wasn¡¯t surprised, although slightly disappointed, when nothing happened.


    Remembering his nephew complaining about spending hours of time digging through code to find a single mistake, he went back over his work, slightly enhancing some of the lines before trying it again. When that still didn¡¯t work, he recreated the shovel anew, this time making the symbol larger so that it was easier to work with. But this still didn¡¯t work.


    Frustrated, he turned inward to once again look at the symbol that he could draw in front of him with ease, only to realize his very glaring mistake: the symbol was 3D. Some parts of it were deeper than other parts. Some channels went behind others. This wasn¡¯t a simple two dimensional drawing, even though that is what he had been trying to create.


    With this new knowledge, he spent the better part of the night tracing the symbol to perfection before trying it again. Still nothing happened, and he threw the shovel away in anger. If there was one thing that made him angry, it was when an inanimate object didn¡¯t behave as it was supposed to. Didn¡¯t it know that he was its master? Shouldn¡¯t the hammer not hit his finger when he was aiming for the chisel?


    Regaining control, he bent to pick up the cosmic water lamp so he could stow it away for the night, only then realizing his final misconception: his skills took energy to function, so why would a symbol on a shovel work any differently?


    Pouring a bit of water on the symbol, he watched as the light increased dramatically. This time, when he went to dig, the shovel parted the stone easily.


    ?????????????


    ¡°What a pupach! Using the sacred symbols of the multiverse to carve some stone?¡± Junior Administrator snorted in derision.


    ¡°Clearly he has no idea just how valuable these symbols are.¡± Sector Assimilator agreed with a sneer. ¡°All the better for us.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Progression never seemed so easy.¡±


    After a few minutes of silence, Junior Administrator ventured to ask what had been bothering them for the last several hours. ¡°So we won¡¯t be held accountable for the loss of the cosmic water?  I know at the academy we learned that it is one of the most valuable resources put into an integration, and without energy recuperation, the System isn¡¯t recycling any of its energy. That won¡¯t reflect badly on us?¡±


    ¡°Ah, my young cousin, you are thinking about this through the eyes of a subordinate, rather than a leader. For starters, the System is still recycling any of the energy he is wasting when using water to shovel dirt. The only thing it isn¡¯t recycling is the excess energy he is storing within himself as he works to upgrade his skills. Which we won¡¯t allow to go on forever. Once he stops giving us easy access to the sacred symbols, we will enact Phase 4, and blame any energy loss on someone beneath us. Maybe Cadet Gerrofilius since they were the ones signed in?¡±


    Slightly mollified, Junior Administrator got back to copying down the symbol on the shovel. They didn¡¯t understand what it meant fully yet, but in time, they definitely would.

 Untried: Chapter 25

    Mike lay down to sleep, but his mind kept returning to the slight variation made to Rock Tunneling when he had last increased its level. Eventually he gave up on the fruitless endeavor of calming his churning brain and turned inwards, examining anew the skills he had memorized over the previous weeks.  To his surprise, each of the skills he had upgraded had changed slightly from what he remembered. For the most part, the changes were small enough that had he not seen the skill change, he likely would have chalked up the differences to some error on his part. But taken as a whole, it was clear that the symbols were being changed as he upgraded them. This led him to, what he considered, a very fundamental question: Did the System make the changes to the skill when he leveled it up, or was it the natural progression of the pattern?


    The fact that the System imposed levels on earth¡¯s inhabitants and slowly increased them made him lean towards believing that the System simply started with a worse symbol and slowly made it better, which explained the idea of Levels to some degree. That got him wondering if he could optimize his existing skills by simply growing and changing them into their perfect forms, rather than relying on the System to do it for him.


    Eventually, the thoughts became too complex and he was worried much of his thought process was originating from sleep deprivation. Falling asleep had rarely been a struggle for ever since SEAL training, and he refused to let it impact him now. So, without further ado,  he smashed his hand on the ground as hard as he could, then used Hands of Healing on the small injury, putting him to sleep immediately.


    ?????????????


    That night, as he recreated the Rock Tunneling symbol on a long drill and excavated a small narrow hole from his kitchen to the outside world, a near perfect chimney, his thoughts kept returning back to the symbols, their changes, and the many different ways he could apply that knowledge.


    Most important to him was being free from the System¡¯s interference as soon as possible, which helped him make a priority list: 1. He needed to keep leveling his skills to monitor how they changed and hopefully understand if the System was to blame. 2. He needed to understand the relationship of the symbols. Were they some form of language? Could he piece apart a few key words by comparing his skills? 3. Once he had a better grasp of the language, he needed to upgrade his skills to their purest forms, and maybe create new skills that he deemed helpful. 4. He needed to steal the rest of the cosmic water, as forming and upgrading skills was energy intensive and he liked having an unlimited supply. 5. He needed more vessels to store the water.


    His list formed, he sat at his table and enjoyed a long draught of cosmic water with some wurm jerky, where he was surprised to see a notification he hadn¡¯t noticed during construction:


    [Congratulations! Tinkering Skill advanced to Level 5!


    +1 stat point by assignment.


    Keep testing the limits of your imagination]


    Apparently the System saw his drill a method towards advancement, though whether that was because he had made a tool with a skill fractal or because a drill was going to become key to his progression was still undecided. After dismissing the notification, he climbed outside to where his chimney lay, and spent the rest of the night making it blend into the stone around it. He wasn¡¯t sure if the birds would notice it, but it was better to be safe than dead.


    The following days blurred together. Each day around noon, he awoke and spent a few hours leveling his skills and memorizing them, and without being distracted by the invading symbol that sucked away all of his excess energy, he was able to focus on how the skills were modified upon leveling up. He devoted a large amount of energy towards Rock Tunneling, both because it sped up his digging speed, and because he thought it was a more easy concept to decipher than Sonic Sounding or Damage Premonition. Hopefully, it was just two simple symbols, one for ¡°separate¡± and one for ¡°rock¡±. His original theory was that it was that the symbols actually meant tunnel and rock, but decided that was less likely than merely separating the stone from its surroundings.


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    When the skill reached Level 8 he could pretty much scoop the stone away with his bare hands as easily as he could move them through air. This was also the point where the amount of energy he awoke with in the morning from the water wasn¡¯t enough to level the skill further. At that point, he turned his attention to Pottery, which he also advanced to Level 8, gaining him 12 points towards Dexterity. It may have been an odd choice, but he needed to make more vessels to store cosmic water, and his previous attempts at doing so were mediocre at best. Hopefully the upgrades would allow him to be more successful.


    Sometime around the third day, he began trying to decipher how his internal world was changed by increased stats. Gaining Strength from Rock Tunneling and Dexterity from Pottery allowed him to see how the energy seemed to seep out of his channels, reinforcing his body. It happened so quickly that he was positive he would be able to replicate it, but as best as he could tell, the energy improved the entirety of his being. His organs, ligaments, muscles, and even the very cells that made up his body seemed to be changed as his stats increased. Which caused him to begin to wonder if that was the secret to Leveling Up. He had been so focused on upgrading his central energy deposit, because he had watched the cubs¡¯ grow as they gain levels, that maybe he had missed something different. Maybe increasing his body would lead to the growth of his core. It was another unknown that he tried to make time for in his busy schedule.


    After leveling his skills, he spent a few hours updating his memory of his pathways. This started with him simply tracing the pathways, and ended with him going towards the entrance of the tunnel, where some light bled through, and carving them into Quicksilver. Understanding that the symbols were three dimensional made it feel like he was learning them for the first time, and it was a slow, arduous process to truly commit them to memory.


    When it was finally dark, he turned his attention to digging. While he had gotten faster at the actual digging part, to the point where he felt he could dig faster through rock than any pre-System machinery, he still had to carry all of his debris to the tunnel¡¯s entrance, something that got more and more difficult with each passing day.


    During his time tracing his skills, he began to notice that more and more birds were taking note of the large pile of rubble outside of his home, and he was worried that they would soon be onto him. So now, in addition to carrying his large buckets of rocks out from his tunnel, he had to go outside, climb horizontally for a while, and then dump them. He had made the process easier by carving some narrow pathways, but it still was a frustrating decrease to the amount of progress he made.


    After around 10 days, the first major change occurred, he was digging forward, when all of a sudden, his hand broke through the rock in front of him, hitting nothing but air. Had it not been for the ease with which he dug through the rock, the motion would have caused his body to fall forward, but as it was, the only reason why he realized it was that his hand was empty when he went to drop the expected dirt into his debris bucket. Widening the hole and looking upwards through a narrow gap at distant stars, he realized where he was: he had dug to the crevice he had found on the plateau¡¯s top.


    Fearing what lurked inside, he did his best to cork the hole, deciding it was best to wait until morning to check and see


    ?????????????


    Usually Mike hunkered down as the sun reached its peak, but instead, he found himself peering into a dark crevice bellow. The sun was overhead enough that it blistered the skin of his bald head, even with the tiny amount of exposure he was getting.


    ¡°Guess living in a cave is bad for one¡¯s tan.¡± he muttered, as he shimmied around the edge of his tunnel''s entrance to a wall that was mostly shaded and beginning his descent. He didn¡¯t have to worry about the birds hearing his words or his movement, as their own cacophony of voices echoed loudly on the walls around him.


    Deeper and deeper he went, reaching the solid rock floor only when he was twice as far below ground as the plateau stood above it. By then, the sun had vanished from overhead, and the entirety of the crevice was only gently lit from the reflected light outside.


    In total, the crevice¡¯s floor was about the size of three football fields, as it had slowly gotten narrower the further he crawled down. This made the overall shape somewhat of a diamond standing on end, as the top was so narrow that his body could barely fit through, growing much wider where his tunnel emerged from, before narrowing again towards its floor.


    He remained vigilant as he explored the floor, ready to activate Unflinching Meteor the second anything changed. He was glad no one saw him activate it when a pebble had been kicked down from above, landing only a few feet away from him and causing him to startle.


    As he made his way around the area, he found a disgusting amount of bird feces, which made him wonder if they took enjoyment from defecating from the cliffs above. More interestingly, he found many areas where the rock had been charred. Other than these two discoveries, the cavern seemed completely devoid of anything.


    It wasn¡¯t until the sun was far enough past noon that the crevice was actually somewhat dark, that he found anything of import. As he scaled the walls back towards his tunnel, a glowing purple stone caught his eye, and a smile split his face. Blasting Stone. Its presence explained both the charred stone and the reason why nothing was living in the crevice, as he had proven that the explosive was strong enough to destroy a large wurm.


    Mining the stone and placing it in his spatial storage bag, he promised himself he would find time in his busy schedule to collect more of it, before he made his way back to his cave. His final act in the near complete darkness was to smash some rock into a fine powder, put it in an empty storage pot, and place his sweet potatoes into it. Usually he would be concerned that they wouldn¡¯t grow in the rough soil and lacking sunlight, but as he added some cosmic water to his new garden, he felt very confident he would be cooking hashbrowns in his kitchen before the week was out.

 Untried: Chapter 26

    Creeanth made his way back into the valley before the sun¡¯s first rays touched upon its inhabitants. Inspired by Big Bossy Boss, he had insisted that the elite scouts continue training early in the morning, and that he would train with them. As much respect as coating his body in flames brought, it would be his superiority on the battlefield that would help him watch over the valley until the boss returned. As he passed through the sturdy Quicksilver gates that barred all entrance to the valley, he saw the newer scouting groups only a small distance away. These were all between levels 8 and 10, and were waiting for the more senior scouts to continue training them.


    Since the Zone barrier had fallen, he had done all he could to shepherd the horde, as was his duty. His first action had been to increase and regulate the time each hobgoblin spent mining. Their numbers had continued to grow, and were swiftly approaching 20,000, although only about 5000 were competent enough to perform most functions. That was enough to ensure that the essential tasks were completed, in addition to guarding the valley. But where Big Bossy Boss had allowed some hobs to be fully devoted to food production or Aquamancy, Creeanth wanted a more traditional hobgoblin balance, every hob a warrior.


    To that end, he had specified that 2 days in five, each hob was expected to spend time mining. This had proven to be one of the best decisions he could make, as now a large subset of the horde had an affinity with Quicksilver. They could arm themselves with it easily. They could put up defenses almost instantly. And they could erect shelters with very little manpower to continue housing their growing population. He hadn¡¯t foreseen that such a large benefit would come from simply continuing to coat the valley in Quicksilver, but it had.


    He had at first wondered whether or not the dungeon had enough Quicksilver to even coat the topmost edge of the valley, but another interesting development, unfortunately discovered by his biggest rival and his heart¡¯s deepest desire, Creenchez, was that the Quicksilver was growing. Both in the dungeon and in the valley. No matter how much they mined, the dungeon was more or less just as packed with Quicksilver the next day. It was something that they should have noticed sooner, but he blamed the delay on the low Intelligence score of most of the hobgoblins.


    The Quicksilver now coated many trees in the valley, which had at first alarmed him, how was the valley going to keep surviving on acorn trees if all of the seeds were metal?  But after consulting with the Gardeners, he found that the fruits still remained perfectly edible.


    Two of the other three free days, each hob was expected to spend time training. This also proved to help the valley grow, and was the reason why they now boasted 5000 capable warriors. In addition to arms training in the valley, battalions were sent out to prey on adventuring parties, which helped keep the experience and levels flowing.  They valley had tried to retaliate a few times, but nothing as well thought out or as impressive as Bart¡¯s invasion, and they had proved too hard a nut to crack. Now, the adventurers usually avoided fighting hobgoblins where they could. That wasn¡¯t always possible however, as, in addition to the hobgoblins roaming, they were still called to the Arena occasionally, where they more often than not defeated the enemy adventurers.


    The final day was allocated as a day of industry. Gardening. Aquamancy. Cooking. Making vessels and shelters. Planting the groves. With the numbers of the valley, the rotating schedule meant that there was a decent amount of industrial growth happening each day, enough so that the horde was beginning to have a surplus of many different foods.


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    His attention was brought back to the valley as he saw a familiar face marching towards him. Creenchez. His feet began sweating at the sight, and he began to berate such a weak reaction.


    Why couldn¡¯t he be satisfied with the many females who threw themselves at his feet like a good horde leader?  Maybe it was the stringy-thinness to her hair. Maybe it was the ichor-colored eyes that he couldn¡¯t look away from.  Maybe it was her high Intelligence that kept him guessing what she was thinking. Maybe it was her singular devotion to Big Bossy Boss, his liege. At any rate, he couldn¡¯t be certain why it is that he only wanted her, he just knew that he did. Thoughts of her encroached on his encounters with every other female, making them feel flat and undesirable.


    Things were only made more awkward by the fact that she insisted on going against his express commands. Obviously he knew that she organized renegades to continue planting the groves when they should be mining or on guard duty, and it made him look weak. But even in these actions, her devotion to Big Bossy Boss only endeared her to him more.


    She was in front of him then and his heart began to beat faster, his anticipation of the upcoming conversation growing.


    ¡°Greetings, honored leader.¡± she said, initiation the conversation.


    ¡°Greetings, honored priestess.¡± he replied, addressing her by her title as a female such as herself deserved.


    ¡°I want to discuss the planting of the groves.¡± Her voice was like the crackling of fall leaves or the scraping of two sharp stones and Creeanth found himself losing focus as he lost himself in the melodious sound.


    ¡°Yes.¡± he said dreamily, not realizing that his answer didn¡¯t make much sense until he noticed Creenchez looking at him strangely. ¡°I mean, yes. Let us discuss.¡±


    He was surprised when she stepped even closer, to the point where he could clearly see the guano-colored flecks in her black eyes. It was the proximity that most females tried to use on him, but had always failed. Suddenly however, he was unable to think of anything else but making this gorgeous creature happy.


    Her hand brushed her long, pointy ear as she said, ¡°We need the horde to plant groves one day in five. It is most sacred mission.¡±


    Though her body language had been alluring, the words were enough to bring Creeanth back to the situation. ¡°One in five?  But industry day is essential. How else would valley survive?¡±


    He felt her hand rest on his shoulder and he was once again powerless against her wiles. ¡°Agree. We no remove industry day. We remove half day of mining and half day of warrioring.¡±


    Who was he to say no to such profound logic?


    ?????????????


    Creenchez held back the desire to jump up and down. She had won! Males were so easy to manipulate with the right body language.  Although, much to her shame, she was unsure if she was more happy that the groves would be planted faster or by the fact that the horde leader clearly admired her. In her wildest dreams, she never thought that such a prospect would ever come her way.

 Untried: Chapter 27

    To his surprise and elation, Mike was busy steaming up some sweet potatoes only three days later, less than half the time he had originally predicted. A grater made from Quicksilver allowed him to easy for the hash, some salt and pepper that he had thankfully had on him would be used the flavor the hash¡­ and the only thing missing was oil, which he was determined to get.


    He had spent the last three days digging towards the cosmic water while he waited for the tubers to mature, and he was ready to take a break and do some home maintenance. He had another 9.5 years in the zone, so he felt no need to rush this goal towards completion, especially since he suspected once he drained the cosmic water, the giant bird would be onto him. He had no illusions that even his highly leveled Rock Tunneling could dig faster than talons that were as big as he was.


    Covering his sweet potatoes in some water to prevent them from browning in the exposed air, he exited his home and scaled down the cliff until he stood on the rocky edge separating the plateau from the wurm nest. Feeling an eagerness to see how much he had grown in the past few weeks, he stepped off the rock and into the sand.


    ?????????????


    It was nearly sunrise when the savory smell of hashbrowns filled the tunnel system, enough so that Autumn and Ash came to investigate.


    Mike¡¯s clothes were even more shredded than before the night began, and he was covered in the visceral remains of the many wurmlets he had killed. Apparently, they had been waiting for him to return, as he had no sooner entered the sand before he was eaten whole. He had been suspecting this, and quickly dispatched the predator, but he wasn¡¯t prepared when he was eaten whole again shortly after that. It was only due to Sonic Sounding and Unflinching Meteor being higher leveled that he had managed to escape alive¡­ after killing 4 wurms in a row. He would have stopped there, but he had yet to get any of the wurm meat in his bid for survival. So after recuperating, he tried again. And again. And again.


    Between each iteration, he pushed the kill energy into Hardened Skin, giving him a measly 4 Toughness, but managing to bring his blunt damage reduction all the way up to 60%. That mattered little against the much larger and stronger enemies, but owing to the amount of time he found himself being nearly crushed to death in the last 6 months, he felt like it was a smart choice.


    Finally, 8 hours later, he had collected enough small bits of wurm that he was confident he could get enough fat to cook his hashbrowns. And he had been right.


    The sweet orange tuber mixed perfectly with the unique, gamey taste of wurm oil, and he couldn¡¯t help but feel that had his life with the System gone differently, he might have become a wurm-oil monger, taking this delicious delicacy around the world.


    After finishing his food, he took a small nap, and upon waking up, he double leveled Impervious Skin to Level 3, gaining 2 more Toughness and bringing his reduction to bladed attacks up to 30%. After studying how the System interacted with his body to increase his stats, he headed to the chasm to work on his pet project: basket weaving.


    The large leaves of the potato plant, which had been strengthened by the cosmic energy infusing their capillaries, made for the perfect basket fibers. By tearing the leaves lengthwise into strips, and then weaving them together, he was able to create a service basket very quickly. It wasn¡¯t a basket that could hold water, but it would work perfectly as a basket to store blasting stone.


    After weaving two baskets, he carved away some more space and expanded his garden of sweet potatoes. Between the leaves that could be used for baskets and as a fuel source for fire, and the fruit which could be used for hashbrowns, it didn''t feel like he was wasting his cosmic water with the endeavor. More importantly, he wanted to create some sweet potatoes that he could store with him for the future. If everything went according to plan, he would never have to live on only wurm meat ever again.


    With his baskets drying and hardening, he descended into the gorge and began mining for rocks. It was about the only thing he could do during the daylight hours, and thanks to his skill, the process of removing rock from its surroundings was near soundless¡­ the other half of his ability was that he had to be supremely careful mining Blasting Stone with his ability. He didn¡¯t know what would happen if he accidentally took a scoop out of a large piece, and he didn¡¯t want to find out.


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    After returning to the caves and mining through the night, he went to bed, with the anticipation of eating more hashbrowns the next morning.


    ?????????????


    Within two days, Mike¡¯s effort to mine blaststone had already provided dividends. The glowing purple rock allowed him to mine during the day, without fear of the birds being attracted to exposed cosmic water. Because of this, he was able to spend even more time mining, his distance to the water source getting palpably closer. The only downside to mining during the day was the inability to offload the debris easily. He feared dumping it into the crevice, and outside of the plateau wasn¡¯t an option¨Cthough the birds had seemed to tire of searching for him of late, he had no illusions that he wouldn¡¯t be spotted if he ventured out during the day.


    With this in mind, he simply filled up a bunch of space in his tunnels during the day, and then spent a few hours taking out the trash each night. It wasn¡¯t the best case scenario, but it was faster.


    Two weeks later, small baskets holding the light source could be found in each room of his tunnel, which now extended nearly a full half mile. As far as he could tell, he was about halfway to reaching the water.


    In addition to the blasting stone providing light, another major development was a torrential rainstorm that had come through the area. The water cascaded down into the chasm, pulling down all of the bird feces, feathers, and other trinkets that can be found in a nest of thousands


    In the fading light, he had surveyed the cesspool, trying not to gag as he formed a plan for saving as much of the precious resource as he could. The plan had taken several days to enact, and involved a large Quicksilver basin which he had filled with small pebbles and sand. A hole at the bottom led into a second Quicksilver basin, where the strained water was stored. At the far end of the second basin, was a small tunnel, which led to a stone shamber he had mined in the floor of the chasm.


    Creating that much alone had taken him the better part of the afternoon¨Cmostly due to needing to carve out a large basin in the middle of what seemed to be a blasting stone vain. He had an overabundance of both sand and pebbles from his digging, and his affinity with Quicksilver made forming the vessel easy.


    Working through the night and into the next day, he shoveled water into the vessel, until the basin was at capacity¨Cwhich he estimated to be around 300 gallons.


    With a large storage of water, he spent a good chunk of time on each of the days following, purifying the water through evaporation as he had at the oasis several months earlier.


    As he watered his garden with fresh water, he was reassured that it had all been worth it. 300 gallons was enough to last several months if he was careful, and that represented 300 gallons of cosmic water that he wouldn¡¯t waste on watering plants or drinking himself.


    A week after the rainstorm, Mike made his first real progress in regards to understanding his skills. One day, while comparing Unflinching Meteor to Rock Tunneling, he had noticed that some portions of the form seemed slightly related to the latter, and it occurred to him that the definition of hardness might coincide with rock. Doing his best to extract that portion of the symbol, he carved it into a piece of Quicksilver and pushed cosmic energy into the pattern. Nothing seemed to happen at first, but after a moment, the metal flashed brightly, obscuring his vision completely. When it dimmed only moments later, in front of him lay not a piece of Quicksilver, but a piece of ordinary rock. He might have lost it had the symbol not remained in it and the color of the rock not matched the color of his surroundings.


    A pinprick of energy caught his attention. He wasn¡¯t sure what it was, but it was definitely System related. He had spent enough time leveling skills to recognize its influence.


    ?????????????


    Sector Assimilator and Junior Administrator looked on earnestly as metal glowed brighter and brighter. After weeks of watching, it appeared that they would finally learn something. In the darkness following, it was impossible to properly see what changes had occurred, especially on the viewing screen.


    Sector Assimilator prompted the System to identify the object:


    [Object identified: common stone.


    Mass: 1 kg


    Surface Area: 200 cm^3


    Volume¡­]


    An unnecessary amount of information popped up, all of it confirming that the piece of metal was now a normal stone. Both of them stared at the screen in wonder. They had learned a base concept of the sacred language. An actual word. True, it might not be enough to topple empires, but for a new mining faction on the Outskirts, it would be worth a lot. Suddenly, all of their days silently observing seemed worthwhile.


    ¡°Not even privacy in my own home.¡± the anomaly mumbled, and both Sector Assimilator and Junior Administrator were startled when they noticed he seemed to be staring right at them.

 Untried: Chapter 28

    ¡°Not even privacy in my own home.¡± Mike mused softly to himself as he stared at the point that radiated the System¡¯s influence.


    After a few moments, he turned back to look at his newly created rock, but now that he had noticed the System¡¯s observance, he couldn¡¯t get his mind off of it. He had debated with himself what the System actually was many times over the previous year, and he always knew that there was the possibility that it monitored his every move, but he had never felt observed until that moment. There were occasions where he felt like it was logging his actions, a snarky message when getting a new Skill or the custom Quests he had received, but this was the first time where he felt like it was watching him.


    Unable to focus on anything else, he returned to his bedroom and decided to meditate. He didn¡¯t know if the System could see his channels, but he felt confident that it couldn¡¯t see what he was thinking.


    After a half hour, he was able to calm his troubled mind, despite still being able to locate the small dot above him that seemed to be watching. Nothing about his situation had truly changed. As far as he knew, the System had always been watching, he was just able to detect it all of a sudden.


    He was eventually roused from his meditation by a wet tongue licking his cheek. Opening his eyes, he saw both Ash and Autumn sitting patiently in front of him. They were clearly asking for more cosmic water, but rather than simply giving it to them, he took a moment to check in on their growth.


    Name: Ash


    Monster Type: Fleetfoot Fox


    Level: 75


    Strength: 70


    Dexterity: 150


    Intelligence: 80


    Charisma: 55


    Toughness: 30


    Luck: 40


    Abilities: Dash-Gain massively increased Dexterity for a short duration. Wind Ax-Propel a sharp gust of wind through the air. Aeromancy. Avis.


    Affinity: Solar-Lunar


    So much had changed since he first rescued them. Not only were all of their stats higher, they had gained a few new abilities¨Che was eager to see if Avis actually allowed them to fly or not. He also realized in that moment how much they had grown physically. Where once they had easily fit in his arms, each of their heads was now up to his waist, and he knew they would only get stronger.


    A soft whine broke him from his reverie. They wanted more water, but for the first time, he was unwilling to give it to them. Not because he didn¡¯t want to waste it, but because he didn¡¯t feel like it would be in their best interests. Even gaining stats and skills, were they actually any better off at protecting themselves than they had been before?  They had gained no real experience in fighting or using their abilities, and he decided to change that.


    It was still 5 hours until daylight by that point, so he immediately walked towards the tunnel''s entrance, calling for the cubs to follow him.  As he began his descent, they both whined softly, standing away from the edge while looking gingerly in every direction.


    ¡°I¡¯ve raised a couple of wussies¡± he muttered before hollering up to them, ¡°Hurry on down here you won¡¯t get any more cosmic water from me.¡± That said, he simply kept climbing down without looking up again.


    He was still a few body-lengths away from the ground when both of the cubs descended past him, gliding on the air with all of the grace of a baby bird. Just as he suspected, some hands-on training would benefit them both greatly.  Releasing the wall, he fell the remaining distance and landed lightly on his feet.


    ¡°Ok ladies, I¡¯m going to go wake up some wurms and I want you to see what you can do to them.¡± He said, before immediately stepping off into the sand and activating Unflinching Meteor.


    He had already shattered his first wurmlet and was flying through the air from its explosion when he heard their first attacks.


    *Whip*


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    *Thud*


    *Screeeeeech*


    The noises continued intermittently while he killed two more wurms and was finally able to move again. Using a gust of wind as he jumped, he propelled himself back to safety, where he was finally able to see how the foxes were doing. The short answer was, not great. Though their wind blades seemed powerful, they were directly countered by the hard skin of the wurms, and it was only when they managed to land a blade in an enemies mouth that any damage was delivered.


    The good news was that they had a seemingly unending amount of targets. With the wurms fighting over their brethren¡¯s scraps and being unable to see their attackers, not to mention being unwilling to exit the sand and enter the rocky ground of the plateau, the foxes were able to hone their skills without any risk. While Mike was positive that this wasn¡¯t the way to gain experience using skills in the long run, it was a good place for them to at least measure their power.


    Over the next 20 minutes, Mike noticed a dramatic improvement to their attacks, both in terms of power and accuracy, and a few bladed actually managed to take out a wurmlet altogether. It was evident that they had both gained at least one level in their skills.


    Not wanting to overstay their welcome, Mike instructed them to return to their home while he began climbing the tunnel. Rather than asking for more water, both seemed content to consolidate their gains through the kill energy already shadowing their cores, and they both settled bedded down for the night.  Mike decided to follow their lead. With his ability to mine during the day, his need to regulate his sleeping time was dramatically diminished.


    ?????????????


    After that first hunt, He had been forced to make a decision: either he could keep giving them water and they would continue to grow in his cavern, or he could help them achieve true independence. It was a no-brainer, and he held his course, even when the foxes tried to cute their way into getting more of the cosmic water.


    Over the next several weeks, the cubs continued to grow dramatically, and their insistence at wanting to hunt was becoming troubling for one very specific reason: wurmlets were no longer strong enough to help them grow. Much as Mike had been required to kill hundreds of adventurers to gain a level, the fox cubs were reaching a similar pain point. The issue was, the only other things to hunt were birds, and with the ruling giant being in their midst, all three knew that wasn¡¯t an option.


    They no longer simply processed energy all day long either. Without the energy dense cosmic water, they spent much more time awake and alert, practicing their Aeromancy. He tried to get them to help move rocks, but it seemed they could only understand his commands not related to working¨Cat least that was what he told himself when he was alone working and they were playing.


    At length, the day came that Mike had been dreading. The fox cubs were ready to go hunting on their own. Their ability to fly had grown truly impressive, and as he watched them soar over the wurm-nest in the moonlight, his heart hurt. For the first time in months, he was completely alone again. He would miss their flying practice in the gorge while he collected blasting stone and the sound of their wind blades hammering against the caves while he dug. He knew it wasn¡¯t goodbye forever¨Cwithout another water source, they would likely be back within a few days. But he worried that that might be just around the corner.


    In his semi-depressed state, he turned to symbol carving and creation, feeling less careful and more willing to press the boundaries than ever before. Throughout the previous week, he was fairly confident that he had figured out what portion of the Energy Suck symbol was responsible for doing the sucking¨Calthough it was more complicated than simply sucking. It was more like absorption.


    Eager to create his first sentence, Mike combined the symbols for Rock and Absorption into a piece of Quicksilver. He didn¡¯t know the right way to connect the symbols, so he simply went with his gut. By now he had spent so much time studying the fractals that he felt he could at least make an educated guess.


    Boy was he wrong.


    After combining the symbols, he pushed energy into the Quicksilver and touched the stick to a rock lying on the ground. The same blinding light occurred as when he had transmuted metal into stone, but this time, it was accompanied by a massive energy discharge, which expanded across the room, some of it going through Mike¡¯s body as it made its way to the ground. He had built up a tolerance to electrical shocks after years of wiring homes, so he could say for certain that while this acted like electricity, it definitely wasn¡¯t. Burns covered his body and he could tell he was going to pass out. Before the darkness could take him, he activated Hands of Healing on the largest patches of burns.


    Six hours later, when he awoke, he was still riddled with pain. Unable to activate the skill again, he simply poured cosmic water on the wounds, believing that somehow it would help, before he turned inwards. His channels had been harmed too, further confirming that the energy that entered him was something much different than electricity.


    As gingerly as he could manage, he pulled energy from his core and began pushing it through his channels. It was painful, almost on the level of carving new channels, but he kept at it, because he noticed that as the energy circulated, the channels healed.  Bit by bit, he continued working, taking breaks only when he could stand the pain no longer.


    During one such break, he opened his character sheet and was surprised to find that Johnny Appleseed had reached 500000 trees. When did that happened?  He didn¡¯t check it regularly, but that still seemed like exponential growth. It brought him a small bit of comfort to know that the valley was still doing well.


    After the happy thought, he turned to see how his stats had changed over the previous weeks. Bringing Dodge up 4 Levels had given him 8 more Dexterity, and bringing Tumble up 7 Levels had led to him gaining 7 points in Strength, Dexterity, and Toughness each. He was missing something with the Level 8 barrier. No matter how much energy he threw at the problem, it always seemed like an impossible barrier, so instead of trying to get any skill to Level 9, he had decided to simply start by getting all his skills to Level 8.


    It was only in noticing taking the time to look at his Character Sheet that he realized a grievous mistake: why hadn¡¯t he been leveling Energy Sense? Surely that could only help him in understanding his channels. Mentally facepalming, he vowed to do better, before activating Hands of Healing and passing out again.

 Untried: Chapter 29

    Junior Administrator peaked over at Sector Assimilator¡¯s notes. Over the past few days as the anomaly recuperated, they had spent the majority of their time trying to copy down his latest symbol. One portion of it was clearly the ¡°Rock¡± symbol that they already knew, but the other symbol was far more complex, made more so by the fact that it had to be created in three dimensions. Even with the help of the System pulling up different angles of the captured image and using technology to measure distances, it was beyond their ability to recreate.


    ?????????????


    System Administrator opened the latch where their daily rations would be deposited, doing their best to plaster on a pleasant face for their jailor.


    ¡°So any news today? Are the Acting Administrator and the Assimilator still holed up in the command chain?¡±


    The words were more direct than was proper, something that wouldn¡¯t have been possible only a few weeks prior, but as the leadership remained absent, the crew had gradually relaxed towards System Administrator. Not enough for a full on revolution. At least not yet. But enough that they could get a sense of what was going on in the ship.


    ¡°Indeed. Not a word in or out.¡±


    ¡°Any new rumors as to what they are doing?¡±


    ¡°All information remains the same. Some claim that the anomaly has knowledge of the sacred language and that they are doing their due diligence in preserving the Hive¡¯s sacred knowledge. Others claim that they are taking the knowledge for themselves. Still others claim that they have grown bored with the frontier and are kiling time til this integration is over and they can return to the Hive proper.¡±


    ¡°That is mutinous talk.¡± System Leader said probingly.


    ¡°Aye.¡± the jailer responded, looking unflinchingly into their eyes before giving a brief salute and shutting the panel.


    The time is closer than anticipated. System Leader thought to themselves as their tentacles grabbed the squirming mass of food and shoveled it into their mouth.


    ?????????????


    [Congratulations, Devourer! Level 40 reached!


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    +7 stat points by assignment]


    Brent acknowledged the notification just enough to dump 7 more points into intelligence, before resuming his destruction of the anthill, the third such conquest he had undertaken. At this point, even the ant queens were several levels beneath him, but they made up for the lack of experience by sheer quantity. Each anthill had millions of ants, allowing him to breeze through the last 10 levels. Of course, gaining a skill that mitigated the effects of poison had also made it possible. He was also getting much better at using Wraith¡¯s Gale, allowing him to attack the hives from a distance, picking off any ants that were standing guard, before putting his mouth over the hive and inhaling while using Consume.


    [Congratulations, Devourer! Level 41 reached!


    +7 stat points by assignment]


    With another level under his belt, the anthill was destroyed, and his hunger drove him forward. Step by step, he inched his way through the darkness, pausing to inhale every thirty seconds to make sure no vengeful warriors were tailing him¨Csomething he had learned was a necessity after the first two anthills.


    A shriek sounded loudly in the air, alerting him to a bat not far from his current location. So focused had he been on destroying insects, that he had mostly forgotten his plan to get some meat, but with his mind now clear, the thought of a greasy, bat drumstick was all consuming. Had his mouth not been a withered black hole, some of the saliva would have dripped down his chin as he drooled at the thought. As it was, his moisture deprived lips remained as wrinkly and dry as ever.


    Awkwardly climbing up a nearby boulder, which entailed forcibly lifting his lower jaw from its now constant resting place on his chest, he perched and awaited his next victim. After 20 seconds, his patience was growing thin as his need to obtain food urged him onwards, but then a squeak sounded somewhere to his right. With an agility that was only made possibly by months living in the darkness, he turned his head towards the sound, activating both Wraith¡¯s Gale and Consume at the same time.


    The small creature''s cry turned from one of communication, to one of fear, before it changed to pure terror as it was sucked from the air and between his jaws. Just as he feared, no sustenance for his starving body. It wasn¡¯t a shock at this point, but it was a let down.


    [Congratulations, Devourer! Level 42 reached!


    +7 stat points by assignment]


    His surprise at the instant Level Up was enough to cut through his hunger. Maybe there is a reason to stay here for a bit? He thought as he made his way down from the boulder and to his next perch.


    ?????????????


    The growth from each bat had diminished, making them an unsustainable source of experience to feed his growth. Without the constant levels, they were no longer enough to distract Brent from his constant hunger. At level 50, he finally felt ready to go exact his revenge.


    ¡°Miiiiiiiiiiiiike, I am coooooommmmming for yoooooooooouuuuu!¡± he bellowed into the cavern, causing any remaining beasts in the area to cower in fear.


    He stopped barely long enough to suck a two foot patch of moss into his mouth as he walked purposefully forward. Now all he had to do was find a way out.

 Untried: Chapter 30

    True to his word, upon recovery, Mike used the daily buildup of energy from the cosmic water to swiftly level Energy Sense, with mixed results. One of the major bonuses was that he believed he had figured out where he went wrong with his attempt at Rock Sucking. As far as he could tell, he hadn¡¯t fully differentiated the ¡°energy¡± portion of the Energy Sucking symbol, making his explosive attempt something along the lines of Rock-Energy Sucking. He wasn¡¯t sure why that had led to the backlash that it had, but it made him feel better having some explanation for the near-death experience. Though he was unwilling to try again, he was fairly confident that he had distilled the true symbol for energy between Energy Sucking and Energy Sense. So much so that he was able to turn Quicksilver into cosmic energy.


    His first attempt at doing so resulted in the rock simply disappearing. It was only when he was on his second attempt that he realized he wouldn¡¯t be able to see the resulting energy from the transmutation unless he was looking with Energy Sense. Sure enough, the metal turned into pure cosmic energy, but at a rate that was far from worthwhile. He estimated that it took nearly twice the amount of cosmic energy to complete the transmutation than it actually yielded. So good for learning and maybe as a cool party trick, but bad for stockpiling the energy.


    Another result of leveling Energy Sense that he was firmly placing in the ¡°Pro¡± side of his pro-con list, was that he could now sense energy well outside of his body. At Level 1, he was able to see his own channels and some of the foxes, as well as seeing the energy inside Pristine Solar-Lunar Water, but that was it. At Level 2, he began to see the energy in the air around him, which was surprisingly present, although lacking density. Small pinpricks of light floated all around him, trace amounts even found in the rocks. By Level 3 he could see the cores from worms he fought and also see the cosmic energy in Blasting Stone, which was flush with it. At Level 4 he had a mild panic attack when he could suddenly see all of the energy passively, no longer needing to meditate or look with his eye¨Cwhich was terribly distracting. As with most System related things, there was a switch to turn it off. Although after a few days, he found himself keeping it on more often than not. His mind was becoming used to seeing the energy as a part of everything and it wasn¡¯t distracting.


    Levels 5 through 7 all simply increased the range and depth of what he could see, making the few hundred feet of rock between himself and the thousands of bright blobs of energy which were the birds above him seem like a much more flimsy protection. He reckoned that he had only survived this long because the birds must not have energy sense at all. By tracking the energy of others, he found that each being had a feel to their energy. This held true even for Autumn and Ash, who were born at the same time, to the same parent, and had identical stats. They felt different. At Level 8, the System finally gave him a name for this phenomenon, energy signatures. Level 8 also made it much easier to identify the energy signatures much more quickly.


    Sometime around Level 6 or 7, he began to notice that very fine chords of energy were connected to him. There were 2 that both headed below him and to the right, no matter where he moved. At Level 8, he was able to sense that on the other end of those chords were Creeanth and Creenchez. He wasn¡¯t sure what the cords did, but he was positive it was connected to the hobgoblins based on the aura he felt from them. It made a strange sort of sense that he would be connected them, since both of them had gained their power through his intervention.


    On the ¡°Con¡± side of the list, was the cord he could now see, which was connected to that strange pinprick of System influence which seemed to watch him at all times. The cord ran directly up into the sky. While, creepy, he was grateful for two pieces of insight that cord provided. The first was that he hadn''t imagined the System watching him. The second was that whatever controlled the System must be above him somewhere¨Cthis piece of information was more theoretically helpful than anything, knowing your enemy and all that.


    Increased Energy Sense allowed him to better understand how the System implemented Stat Bonuses and Level Ups. He had plenty of time to see Stat Bonuses within himself, and even after doing so, he wasn¡¯t sure he was up to the task. The level of complexity was more than he could understand. Level Ups were another matter¨Cafter watching Ash and Autumn both grow to Level 78 during one of their visits, he was confident he could replicate the process. It was simple really¨Call of this time he had been so focused on how the energy was pushed around the core, that he had failed to notice how the energy also needed to upgrade the channels. Essentially, both the core and the channels needed to be reinforced simultaneously.


    Interestingly, he didn¡¯t see the System increase the stats of the foxes when increasing their level. Rather, it seemed that when the core and channels were reinforced, increased cosmic energy was carried throughout the body, which made it stronger, faster, and denser¨Cincluding the neurological pathways, allowing increased brain functionality.


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    While he was eager to get stronger, he had a bad feeling about increasing his levels, which stemmed from the most major ¡°Con¡± of increasing energy sense: the System¡¯s influence. With each increase in Energy Senese, he was able to detect more and more cords which bound the beings around him, including himself. Each time the System came to improve a symbol in his body, he noticed another cord connected to him that followed the cord connected to the speck of space watching him. They were worrisome enough that he had stopped drinking cosmic water altogether, in addition to shutting off the Energy Sucking symbol in his stomach. He knew there was a limit to the amount of energy his body could handle at one time, and he didn¡¯t want to be forced into upgrading an ability and increasing his connection with the System.


    At one point, he began to wonder if the System was actually Satan, when he remembered a Bible verse describing Satan chaining men down with a ¡°flaxen cord¡± and ¡°leading them carefully down to hell¡±. This theory was given credence by the fact that the System seemed to encourage violence at every turn. However, he ultimately dismissed the idea, chalking it up to a wandering mind and isolation, both of which his mother had warned him about.


    Without the extra time required to always stay up to date on his channels, he found himself making more progress than ever in reaching the pool of cosmic water. Thanks to Energy Sense, he could now clearly see the large well of energy that was the water and the slightly less large core of energy that was the 727 size bird. This made his tunnel straighter than ever, and were it not for him needing to mine blast stone to light his tunnels, he likely would have reached the pool of water in under two weeks, instead of nearly four weeks.


    With the tunnel completed, he waited until the foxes went out on their next hunting trip before enacting the plan. In the middle of the night, he found himself positioned directly under the cosmic water, silently checking off his preparations and reviewing each step to the plan.


    Step 0A: Removing blasting stone from tunnels other than immediate needs¨Cthis served the purpose of not tripping in Step 3.


    Step 0B: Wait until night time so the birds don¡¯t notice the water leaving.


    Step 1: Mine a small hole into the bottom of the reservoir.


    Step 2: Allow water to flow into the vessels he had prepared.


    Step 3: Run like crazy back to his sleeping quarters, which were much deeper into the rock and would be harder for the bird to track.


    Step 4: Enter hidden base number two whose entrance was located in said sleeping quarters. It was a small bunker down a decently long shaft. It had taken almost 3 days to carve it out.


    Step 5: Dig a new home while figuring out how to circumvent the System¡¯s influence in his life.


    Step 6: Use all the water to make himself stronger and fight the System.


    Admittedly, the plan had some gaps. But he was never one for extraneous details unless he was crafting something. With both parts of Step 0 already completed, the majority of the blasting stone stockpiled in the gorge, and only a single large bucket of Blasting Stone to see by, he began Step 1.


    Gently scooping away the stone as quietly as he could, he managed to form a small hole, no larger than the tips of three of his fingers crammed together¨Cit had to be small enough to not make noise and wake up the birds, yet big enough so that he cold drain the pool in one night as the guardian would know if water was missing. The water immediately began pouring down and he moved a bucket underneath it.


    Step 1 done, Step 2 underway. He thought to himself.


    He had already filled his three largest vessels, each the size of a 5 gallon bucket, when his plan went awry. His ever-present vision of cosmic energy allowed him to see as the giant bird above him began to stir. His prayers that it would go back to sleep remained unheard, as he rose to its feed and dipped its head towards the water.


    Knowing his plan had been caught, he stowed vessel number 4 and skipped directly to Step 3, running towards his bedroom. He had taken less than one step, when his accursed Luck score took effect. Quicker than a blink, the highl-leveled bird struck forward, its beak tearing through the floor of the pool and directly into Mike¡¯s tunnel. In the next instant, the beak retracted, allowing tens of gallons of water to rush in, directly onto the Blasting Stone. The bird then struck again, this time his beak penetrating further and smacking directly into the energy infused explosive rocks.


    Mike only had enough time to activate Unflinching Meteor as all reality became a raging inferno. He flipped outwards, his rotations per minute exceeding that of a car tire. Another devastating explosion echoed through the desert as all of the blasting stone he had stockpiled in the gorge erupted. His momentum was arrested and for a brief moment he found himself held completely still, his face pointed towards the nightie sky, before his motion reversed, and he was sucked backwards at speeds too fast to process.

 Untried: Chapter 31

    Junior Administrator and Sector Assimilator had at first been disturbed by the anomaly¡¯s ability to sense their observations, but it soon became apparent that it was only in the broadest sense of the word. That had seemed to change as the anomaly continued to grow their Energy Sense skill over the coming days. From its ramblings, the two knew that he was beginning to sense more and more when the System interfered.


    This anomaly was truly unprecedented, at least as far as either of them knew, and Junior Administrator had been worried enough to voice his concerns to Sector Assimilator. As was always true of their older cousin, Sector Assimilator had managed to hush Junior Administrator¡¯s fears, telling them that the anomaly was getting more and more locked into the System with every skill increase. More importantly, Sector Assimilator had asked them to imagine how powerful the Energy Sense skill must be. It was a true rarity in the Hive¨Cseeing one¡¯s own channels was normal, but being able to see another¡¯s that was rare. Usually, only the elite members of the inner circle had such a skill, and usually it was only a partial fractal. Unbeknownst the to the anomaly, Level 9 was the most pure form of a symbol that the Hive knew, making it also the highest level. This was going to make their first integration incredibly successful, and that was just a bonus to the many other skills the anomaly had cultivated close to perfection.


    ¡°System Administrator was thinking small and would have pulled the plug already. But we know better.¡± Sector Assimilator said with a pat on shoulder. ¡°This anomaly is probably the most valuable assimilant in the last 10,000 integrations.¡±


    The statement went against everything they had learned in training, and they felt compelled to point it out. ¡°But he isn¡¯t an assimilant. He is an anomaly. Doesn¡¯t that mean he can¡¯t be harvested?¡±


    ¡°Oh, my dear young cousin, you are thinking like an outer ring spawn. True, the System will have a hard time assimilating him, but there are other ways of extracting those skill fractals.¡±


    ¡°But isn¡¯t that illeg¡­¡±


    ¡°Silence!¡± Sector Assimilator roared.  ¡°You dare to question us after all we have done for you? We saved you. We have allowed you to take part in this amazing cultivation opportunity. And now you dare to question if we go to far?¡±


    Junior administrator was not ready for the outburst. They had seen this behavior from their cousin before, but never directed at them. That Sector Assimilator could destroy them physically and politically suddenly felt like a possible outcome for the first time. In an act of self-preservation, they chose the path of immediate self preservation.


    ¡°This one apologizes for their lack of trust in Elder Cousin.¡± Junior Administrator said as they dipped to a kow-tow, using all of the possible formalities they could to show their contrition.


    After a moment of silence where Junior Administrator¡¯s future seemed to balance on a knife¡¯s edge, Sector Assimilator replied. ¡°Apology accepted.¡± before continuing further, ¡°This one is sorry for their outburst. It was unbecoming. You need to understand though that this has already gone to far. If you don¡¯t have the stomachs for going the rest of the distance, say so now.¡±


    Junior Administrator remained motionless, not even for a moment considering voicing their true thoughts, and not fully sure what those thoughts were. On the one hand, Sector Assimilator was a rising star that was sure to reach the upper echelons of the inner Hive. On the other hand, they clearly acted impulsively, bending rules and bullying their way to get what they wanted. When it had purely been in Junior Administrator¡¯s favor, freeing them from prison and giving them command of the vessel, it had been easy to stomach. Even when they had shut themselves off from the rest of the vessel and learned from the anomaly¡¯s pseudo cultivation, rather than enacting Phase 4, it had been bearable. But a line was going to be crossed, harvesting fractals was expressly forbidden.


    So much cosmic energy and resources went into growing these symbols in assimilants, and that would all be wasted if individuals went and harvested those symbols for themselves.  It was one of the most fundamental tenets of integrating new planets¨Conly the System harvests skills. The System was optimized to harvest skill fractals for transplanting, but if someone untrained did it, there was a good chance it would be ruined. On top of that, this protected the Hive¡¯s knowledge of the sacred language and made sure that it was only disseminated to those most worthy, in addition to making sure that the sacred symbols weren¡¯t destroyed.


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    ¡°Cheer up, Junior Cousin.¡± Sector Assimilator said, breaking their chain of thought. ¡°An anomaly¡¯s log is much easier to erase than an assimilant. It will be as if the anomaly never existed, and we both shall be rewarded handsomely for bringing the skills back. Besides, after the amount of pain this anomaly has caused, would you really be ok simply allowing it to be reconstituted as cosmic energy upon integration completed? That would be a waste of value and a waste of effort¡±


    The logic, while perhaps not fully sound, was enough to push Junior Administrator into abandoning any thoughts of going against Sector Assimilator, and after apologizing again, they returned to their vigil.


    For several more planetary rotations, they gleaned very little, as the anomaly spent most of its time digging towards the cosmic water. The one boon they got was when it had traced out the sacred symbol for cosmic energy¨Cthis was the one symbol that almost every cultivator in the multiverse knew, at least in its more basic forms. In a language created solely for the purpose of manipulating cosmic energy, the symbol was both the most widely known, and also the most important. So when it became apparent that the anomaly knew a much improved form of the symbol, the two of them had been elated, spending days to copy it down meticulously.


    Sector Assimilator had nudged Junior Administrator as they neared completion of recording the symbol.  From their view, it was readily apparent when the large bird became aware of the anomaly¡¯s activities.


    ¡°System, what are the odds of survival?¡± Sector Assimilator asked, before whispering quietly to Junior Administrator, ¡°This could be the perfect opportunity to harvest.¡±


    [Survival rate calculated at 15%]


    ¡°Hah!¡± Sector Assimilator cheered. ¡°Let¡¯s be prepared to beam the anomaly up then.¡±


    Junior administrator was still walking over to the controls when the explosion started. They looked up, but the only thing visible on the screen was a roaring conflagration. Sector Assimlator prompted the view to zoom out, making it very easy to see when the stockpiled explosives added their firepower.


    A speck of darkness near the explosions origin grew dramatically, sundering reality before it rapidly began to consume everything around it.


    ¡°Feepach!¡± Sector Assimilator cursed. ¡°System, situation report.¡±


    [Quantum Tear detected. Space is unstable.


    Tear engulfing plant at a rate of ¡­¡­]


    Junior Administrator¡¯s eyes glazed over as they processed the rate. What had been a greedy attempt to gain some extra cultivation resources had become a full on catastrophe, and they internally wished that they could be back at Space Camp instead of actually facing Quantum Tears.


    ¡°Convert System operations towards stabilization, use portion of energy allocated for integration if necessary.¡± Sector Assimilator instructed, even as they walked over and opened the door to the viewing chamber. They then pushed the button on the intercom and made an announcement.


    ¡°Attention vessel. A Quantum Tear has been detected. Please report to emergency stations. Strike Leader, prepare your team for hostile invaders.¡±


    As everyspawn aboard the ship ran to comply, Sector Assimilator made their way back to the main viewing area. ¡°System, locate the anomaly.¡±


    [Location undefined. No trace of the anomaly remains.


    Probability of being consumed by Quantum Tear is 97.8%]


    ¡°Feepach! What is the probability of the anomaly having survived entering the tear?¡±


    [Due to active skill, probability of survival is at 80%]


    Finally, a piece of good news. Now they just had to wait for the anomaly to return.


    ?????????????


    The announcement came over the intercom of the Officer¡¯s Brig, waking System Administrator from their nap¨Cwhile they spent most of their day planning and cultivating, the allowed themselves this one small piece of comfort.


    ¡°Feepach! Those two luggards have doomed us all!¡± He yelled as he began banging on the door to get in touch with the jailor.


    A few moments later, the small hatch opened. ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°Tell those two idiots that they had better close the tear immediately¡±


    ¡°This one feels unqualified to relay such a message.¡± the jailor responded before closing the hatch.


    ¡°Ghwaaaaaaaa!¡± System Administrator screamed, losing the placating calm they usually maintained constantly.

 Untried: Chapter 32

    Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.


    Creenchez had been busy directing the planting of the grove when the feeling had come on. It stole her breath away, causing her to squat on all fours. In mere moments, without checking her status screen or notifications, she knew what it was. Something had happened to Big Bossy Boss.


    Picking up her priestess garb to free up her legs, she began running towards the camp, activating her divine ability as she did so to locate her patron. Only a blank screen greeted her.


    When she was still only halfway back to the main camp, her path crossed with the horde leaders. They crashed into each other in a comforting embrace, each trying to communicate what they were feeling.


    ¡°Big Bossy Boss¡­¡±


    ¡°Something is wrong¡­¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t feel him anymore¡­¡±


    ¡°What will we do?¡± they both said in unison.


    ?????????????


    Mike was pulled backwards, his speed increasing rapidly until it matched and then exceeding his speed after the cosmic-water enhanced explosion. Suddenly, an intense pressure squeezed his body, seeming to overwhelm Unflinching Meteor and turning his face red as it built. It reminded him of the internal abdominal pressure he felt when reaching his 500 pound squat record in college, only much much worse, and had he been able to feel anything, he was sure he would have felt blood leaking from his nose.  Before he could think too much about it, the nighttime sky and fiery explosion vanished, and with it, the pressure decreased.


    Facing upwards, still moving through the air, he was struck by the vast cosmos above him. Far different from Earth¡¯s sky, there was no one celestial object that gave off light. Rather, uncountable stars and planets filled the sky, and swaths of interstellar were visible.


    A moment later his motion halted as his body careened into the ground, encapsulating his head and and shoulders. For three seconds he lay unmoving, waiting for Unflinching Meteor to finally end. As it did, he became acutely aware that it wasn¡¯t just the sky that was different, the atmospheric pressure was too. Even his enhanced body struggled to function properly in the environment.


    With his head, neck, and shoulders buried in the ground, he became acutely aware of his inability to breathe. Trying to remain calm, he reached up and began to dig himself out, only to find that it wasn¡¯t merely dirt he was stuck in, but hard rock. He didn¡¯t think about the physics behind him somehow entering solid rock as if it was jello in the moment, rather, he focused on not panicking as he activated Rock Tunneling and began to dig himself out, only nothing happened. He next tried Tactics, pushing his Dexterity into Strength, but again, this only led to him feeling foolish.


    He did everything he could think of as the pressure built in his chest, his body screaming for oxygen. He remembered hearing that drowning was the most peaceful way to die, well his SEAL trainers had clearly never experienced it before, because that was a lie. He wriggled his body back and forth, his legs bucking, causing the rock beneath his to dig into his back, cutting his skin and causing him to bleed.


    Determined to fight til the very end, he continued struggling, trying to activate any of his skills, even something as ineffective as Fortune¡¯s Folly, but for once, the System remained absolutely silent.


    Eventually he began to wonder why he hadn¡¯t died yet. 5 minutes turned into 7, which rapidly became 10 in his state of alarm.  At first he had thought that maybe the System had expanded his lung capacity, but it wasn¡¯t nearly 15 minutes of constant exertion that he gave in, allowing his body to succumb to the darkness. Which never came.


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    By 25 minutes, he had the startling realization that he no longer needed to breathe anymore. Sure, his body still wanted to, as it had been keeping up with the habit for nigh on 70 years, but it simply didn¡¯t need to anymore.


    With imminent death out of the way, he began to think more logically once again. Worried he had contracted some kind of debuff and wanting to understand why none of his skills had activated, he pulled up his notifications, only to find that they too were missing, as was his Character Sheet. The feeling was surreal. Having interacted with the System regularly for over a year, only to have it suddenly disappear. The only thing he could liken it to was returning home from war. That first step on his home soil and instantly all of the fear of death and constant threats was simply gone, so suddenly that it had left him wondering if he had dreamed it all up. Of course, the memories never truly left, it was just an illusion of finally being safe and returning to the ¡°normal¡± world.


    Turning inwards, he got his first concrete evidence that it hadn¡¯t simply all been a dream. His channels were still as strong as ever, the energy cloud around his core being as dense as he had left it ever since he determined that he didn¡¯t want to upgrade skills anymore.


    Tracing his pathways, he found the fractals for Rock Tunneling on his hands. If the channels are still there, I still have energy inside of me, and the fractals don¡¯t look damaged, why won¡¯t they work? He would have spoken the thought aloud had his mouth not been completely ensconced by rock.


    Gathering some energy from his center, he guided it to the skill and pushed it into it, much as he had done with his Quicksilver Drill when creating his underground kitchen chimney. The skill immediately lit up, and with much greater confidence, he reached his hand up and began to dig himself out. The rock parting around his hands like water. Within a few moments, he had uncovered his body, and pushed his way to his feet.


    He found himself in a large-ish crater, around 30 feet in diameter. The walls were high enough that he couldn¡¯t see outside, however, as he took in his surroundings, it became very apparent to him that he was no longer on Earth. The sky still looked completely different. The pressure was immense. And the rock on which he stood was unlike anything he had ever seen before. He used Analyze on it out of habit, but of course that returned nothing.


    A mighty roar emaciated outside of the walls, and rather than explore as he had intended, he instead turned back to wear he had just been buried and began to tunnel deeper. Call him crazy, but if he could barely walk in this strange place, he had no idea to test his mettle against the local wildlife.


    ?????????????


    Many hours larter, he found himself hunkered in a small burrow about 20 meters below the surface. He had dug a spiral tunnel that hopefully would be hard for any large creatures to follow¡­ unless they were big enough to simply scoop him up from the surface. He really had no idea what kind of titans existed in his current environment. Throughout digging, he had found that his body used up large amounts of cosmic energy to activate certain skills, while others took barely any at all. He came to realize that skills like Unflinching Meteor and Footsteps of the Wind, which had long cooldown times, were also the abilities that required more energy. The only logical conclusion stemming from this, is that the System had been powering his skills and abilities with cosmic energy before he even knew how to manipulate the energy on his own. It was a strange realization, and like everything related to the System, it made him feel slightly violated.


    In the darkness of his small burrow, he cycled energy into Energy Sense, taking in his surroundings for the first time. The first thing he noticed was that the density of the energy in the air was much higher than that on Earth¨Che estimated about four times as much.


    The next thing he noticed was the large cores of energy existing on the surface above him. Clearly there were entities on the surface that dwarfed even the giant bird.


    The next realization was that the System was nowhere to be found. No strings went from his core outward. Meticulously searching his surroundings, he couldn''t detect even a speck of influence watching him. On finding this, he immediately attempted to level Tactics, which was still at lower levels and should be incredibly easy to do. 30 minutes later, after throwing all of his experience and energy at the problem, the symbol hadn¡¯t changed.


    ¡°Freeeedom!¡± he yelled in his best impersonation of Braveheart, not caring that the noise might attract predators.


    After months of constant observation and a year of endless violence, he was finally alone. It was at this moment that he realized that his core was also free of the ties that connected him to his hobgoblin horde, and the joy turned to anger. Somewhere out there, there was a force manipulating all of earth''s inhabitants. He didn¡¯t know how, and he didn¡¯t know why, but his instincts wanted him to believe that it couldn¡¯t be for any good reason.


    Firming his resolve, he sat down and turned inwards. It was time to get to work.

 Untried: Chapter 33

    Mike¡¯s first order of business was to increase his passive energy collection. The idea had been floating around in his mind for a while, but with the System always watching, he had been unwilling to put anything into practice. The way he saw it, there was energy all around him, so why should he only have an Energy Sucking symbol by his stomach?  Why couldn¡¯t he have one facing the outside world that would passively pull in energy? It seemed like an obvious conclusion, so the only questions remaining were determining where to put it and how big to make it.


    He was toying with two ideas in regards to placement. The first was to put it next to his core. This should, at least in theory, decrease the time required to suck in and deposit the energy. The second was to put it on his head, where no clothing would obstruct the symbol from completing its desired function. Not wanting to get it wrong, he settled on doing both locations. He could always git rid of one later if he so desired.


    In regards to size, he was leaning towards bigger being better. He had already noticed how much slower his symbol absorbed energy than the one created by the System. Having checked many times, he was fairly certain that the symbols were identical, so he could only assume that size was what was impacting efficiency. The only reason he had made his symbol smaller to begin with was because he was limited when creating channels that faced internally to his anatomy¨Ca problem that shouldn¡¯t exist if he wanted the symbol facing outwards.


    After deciding on two symbols, one stationed as near as his core as possible and the other on his head, he steeled himself for the immense pain that he was already expecting, and got to work.


    He had only begun to grow the tiniest amount of the first symbol positioned above his head, when he became acutely aware of something. The pain he had felt before was nothing compared to what he was feeling this time around. In the first instant, he thought he had just forgotten how painful the process was, but within 30 seconds, he was already near blacking out.


    ¡°The accursed System must have dulled the pain.¡± he reasoned at length, ¡°Why that would be, I don¡¯t know. But nothing good ever comes without some amount of sacrifice, so the only way forward is through it.¡±


    Minutes turned to hours, which slowly became days. Whenever he got close to passing out, he remembered how that had turned out last time, and forced himself to keep going. He thought of the hobgoblins, the fox cubs, and all of earth¡¯s inhabitants were still being toyed with by some unknown entity. It was his duty to protect them. Even if, in the case of some of the humans, it was likely unwanted, he had an obligation to protect those who couldn¡¯t protect themselves.


    His thoughts often drifted whenever he wasn¡¯t completely focused on his task. He found himself wondering about Bart. He had been good people before the System, so had the System caused him to turn into the crazed villain he had become, or had it simply brought forth what was already there?  It was a question he never found the answer to, despite returning to it often.


    Having already completed the process once, he was faster this time around. After only three days, the symbol on his head was complete. His eyes were bloodshot from the sleep deprivation, and blood dripped freely from his nose and hands¨Cthe latter because of how hard he had clenched his fingers, causing them to tear the skin. With his last bit of energy, he unstopped the symbol, officially making it a part of his channels. Energy began to flow in, slower than he got from food, but completely passively. As soon as he saw that it was working, he collapsed into a deep sleep.


    ?????????????


    Sometime later, he awoke to the sound of his stomach angrily demanding to be fed. HIs face was pressed uncomfortably across the rocky ground, and drool dripped freely from his mouth, evidence of the near comatose state he had been put in. Opening his spatial storage bag, he found that he only had wurm meat, and not much of it. He did have plenty of cosmic water, which he had seen from watching the foxes, was enough to sustain him if he sat still and focused on his energy channels, but he really wanted actual food.


    Sure wish I had thought to store some hashbrowns in my bag. He thought glumly, only to have his eyes shoot open in the next moment with alarm and realization.


    ¡°I don¡¯t even know how to get back!?¡± he said.


    It went against all of his training to not have scouted that out already, and after reviewing his arrival on this strange world, he could only attribute his lack of reconnaissance to the shocking absence of the System. Regardless of why he hadn¡¯t done so already, he was determined to do so now.


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    Chewing on a piece of meat, he quickly made his way up the tunnel, stopping when he was still one turn away and using Energy Sense to scout what lay outside. There was nothing in his immediate vicinity, although there were numerous energy signatures at greater distances.


    Moving on silent feet, he stole from his burrow and made his way up to the crater¡¯s edge, seeing the world for the first time, and he turned in a circle to take in his surroundings. If the sky was the most amazing view he had ever seen, then the planet itself was somewhat lacking.  Calling it a planet was a bit of a stretch; as far as the eye could see, the world was mostly flat, aside from small craters which resembled the one he found himself in. No, rather than a world, it was more of a moon or an asteroid as far as he could tell.


    I never would have thought that I would be relieved at no longer needing to breathe¡­ especially twice in only a few days. He chuckled to himself as he completed his circle.


    ¡°The good news is that I found the way home.¡± he mused, wishing someone was there to hear him, ¡°The bad news is that there¡¯s no way I will make it back alive at my current strength.


    Around a half mile away, a large rip split the otherwise monotonous vista. It was hundreds of feet tall and a few dozen wide. Between its edges, daylight streamed through, illuminating the surrounding world, and the dozens of monsters queued up to walk through.


    The sight of the massive titans, each of which stood at least 10 feet tall, combined with his native desire to protect others, was almost enough to convince him to at least try to protect earth. He was still contemplating it, when what appeared to be a small fighter jet flew into view, blasting the monsters with explosives and (was he seeing this correctly?) lasers?


    First hippies and now sci-fi finatics, he thought glumly, you¡¯d think the people most lacking in basic survival skills would be the ones to fail in the System, but by what I have seen so far, they seem to be curiously well adapted.


    The monster currently at the front of the queue roared in defiance, pushing its way into the explosives, and for a moment, Mike was worried that it would somehow manage to get past the Star Trek zealot. However, as it entered the actual tear, its forward momentum stuttered, and Mike was reminded of the great pressure he had felt when being brought here. A second ship flew into view, adding its artillery to the barrage.


    A squelching noise, the the popping of the grape, loud enough for Mike to hear from his current location, marked the demise of the would-be intruder, causing him to sigh in relief. He watched as the next in line made its attempt, meeting the same fate, as did the few after that. By this point, it was readily apparent that earth had protectors other than himself, and he decided to head back to his shelter to continue getting stronger.


    It turned out that adding the second symbol came with some difficulties. Firstly, he found that the channels nearer to his core were more resistant to change and growth, making the process take longer, a lot longer. It wasn¡¯t until five days later that he finished the process. Secondly, he found that the energy responded more slowly than ever before, and the pain was greater. Still, he had pushed through. Thanks to the Energy Sucking symbol on his head, he had been able to maintain the constant stream of energy necessary to complete the process. With the second symbol at work, he once again fell into a deep sleep.


    ?????????????


    Mike awoke to a well of dense energy in his center. Despite the amount of energy, he found that the energy was slow in circulating his channels, which reminded him of the hard time he had when building the final symbol¨Che had thought that the slow circulation was due purely to him renovating his inner world, but appeared that that wasn¡¯t the case. Taking a step back, he tried to analyze the situation.


    He had two problems, the first was an oversupply of energy that was beginning to get uncomfortable, which he had no way to use since he couldn¡¯t level his skills. The second was that his energy was responding slowly.


    One way of alleviating the first problem was to add more channels to his body, a process that took energy. The problem was that he didn¡¯t know what other symbols to add. The only one he had successfully added thus far was Energy Suck, which would only exacerbate the problem.


    Not seeing an easy solution to the first problem, he put his mind towards the second. Why would his energy suddenly not react as quickly?  He had plenty of it. Upon double checking, both symbols had been done correctly, so that wasn¡¯t the issue later.


    What do I know for sure? He asked himself. I know that I have increased the rate at which I passively gather energy. By doing so, I have increased the channels in my body. Wait, could that be it?


    A brief perusal of his body only heightened his suspicions. Using the segment of straight channel from his core, behind his navel, to his heart, which he estimated to be around eight or nine inches a reference, he determined that the total length of channels he had added to his system exceeded 400 feet. Not that the symbols themselves were ginormous, they weren¡¯t. Rather, they were incredibly dense and intricate, with thousands of twists and turns.


    If I added another 400 feet of sprinkler pipe to my yard, it would have trouble getting enough pressure too. He concluded, feeling that he was on the right track. So where do I get a bigger pump?

 Untried: Chapter 34

    Strike Leader¡¯s eyes widened in horror and they were unable to restrain their nape tentacles from flaring as a large, clawed hand reached through the Quantum Tear and effortlessly swatted both defensive vessels from the sky. The two vessels impacted the ground a fraction of a second later. One of the pilots was lucky, and his auto-ejection mechanism released him into the sky before impact. The other spawn was less fortunate, its fate displayed on the viewing screen, where full notifications had been enabled.


    [Two fighter vessels destroyed.


    One fighter spawn lost.]


    ¡°Retrieve the other fighter spawn.¡± Strike Leader said, watching as a large beam of light extended to the falling fighter, before pulling it back aboard the command vessel.


    ¡°Do you think me incapable of issuing so simple a command?¡± Sector Assimilator said, giving a warning glance.


    ¡°Not at all, your Spawnliness. This one simply didn¡¯t want you to have to go through the trouble of completing so small a task.¡± Strike Leader lied, hoping that it would be enough to placate the crazed commander.


    At first, Strike Leader had followed the chain of command properly, only giving input when asked. But, as the tear continued to remain open, and the death toll mounted, the atmosphere had become more heated. Sector Assimilator was apparently unwilling to close the tear, something that would have been easy initially, but got harder with every passing moment¨Charder was the wrong term, it got more expensive, costing the mission in precious resources. Apparently, that wasn¡¯t important to Sector Assimilator, and neither were the crew members.


    Their train of thought was broken off as a second arm pushed its way through the rift, the large appendages seeming to condense at the point of entrance in order to make it possible for the much-to-large creature to pass through the tear. Four fighter vessels responded this time, prepared for the speed of the beast; they dodged its flailing appendages, doing damage at every possible opening, until eventually, the damage was sufficient to break through the beast''s natural defenses. Blood rained from the sky, before an appendage was broken off entirely, falling to the desert floor below, where the waiting wurms swarmed the fresh meat.


    Strike Leader barely managed to check their sigh of relief. That was a mid Tier Two beast, just below the cusp of what their vessel was prepared to handle. If things continued to progress this way, they would soon find themselves overpowered.


    ¡°Is Sector Assimilator positive that the tear shall continue to remain open?¡± Strike Leader dared ask after a few moments of internal debate.


    ¡°Again with this conversation?  The command was already given clearly, the tear remains open until the anomaly returns.¡±


    For a few moments, Strike Leader remained silent, burning with anger at the lack of care for their direct reports, until a close dodge displayed by one of the spawn on the viewing screen forced their hand and they spoke up again.


    ¡°The beasts are getting stronger. We aren¡¯t prepared for a Tier 3¡­. we weren¡¯t even expecting to face anything Tier 2. This is the edge of the known Multiverse, and the Strike Team is on board only as a precaution.¡±


    Sector Assimilator¡¯s face took on deathly pallor the longer Strike Leader spoke, but they shouldered onward. ¡°Would it not be best to simply close the tear, accept our losses, and continue with the integration?¡±


    Sector Assimilator¡¯s voice was dangerously calm as they began to answer. ¡°What is your rank?  Have you been trained to make decisions that pertain to an integration? Have you been trained in System economics and the importance of recuperating losses created by anomalies?¡± The calm voice slowly grew in volume as each question was asked, until it rang through the chamber. Strike Leader could tell that every spawn within the room was listening, some in fear and morbid fascination at their impending doom, others hoping that Sector Assimilator would see reason.


    ¡°No answer? Figures. Well, here are the basic economics. Anomalies are only allowed within the constraints of the System because much of the cosmic energy invested in them is regained upon full integration. That is just for a basic anomaly, but this anomaly is in a category all of its own. It has in its possession, nearly the entirety of the cosmic pool, which all of you should have remembered.¡± Sector Assimilator paused there, allowing the information to settle.


    ¡°Yes, unfortunately it is stored in its spatial storage bag, which, by the way, was a huge mistake in allowing an anomaly to keep. That will definitely be a part of my reports¡­¡±


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    Sector Assimilator continued their discourse and Strike Leader could tell that the crew had been swayed, but they weren¡¯t. They hadn¡¯t forgotten that the two higher ups had sat in the chamber for weeks on end, watching the anomaly.


    If anything, those two were the cause of the current predicament, and I highly doubt that this is truly in regards to the cosmic pool, though it is a major loss. they thought. Horror dawned on them only moments later. They must have truly discovered something incredibly valuable in the anomaly, and that is why they actually want it back. And the only way to get resources from an anomaly is to disobey the fundamental tenets.


    Seeing things clearly, Strike Leader went through the motions of an apology, then excused themselves from the chamber. As soon as they turned the corner, they quickened their pace towards the Officer¡¯s Brig. It was time to pay System Administrator a visit.


    ?????????????


    Junior Administrator watched Strike Leader exit the room with relief. Hopefully the tension they were feeling would die down now that someone wasn¡¯t digging into details surrounding the anomaly.


    ¡°Now where do you think they are off to?¡± Sector Assimilator mused.


    ¡°They said something about needing to check on the crew.¡±


    ¡°And you believed that?  No, they are up to something. Let¡¯s wait a few minutes and then go see if we can catch a rat.¡±


    ?????????????


    System Administrator¡¯s head hurt from the constant worry caused by not knowing what was going on. The general alarm sounded seemingly at random, alerting him that the issue with the Quantum Tear persisted.


    ¡°Psst..¡± a hiss got his attention.


    Moving to the door hatch, he peaked out, just making out the face of Strike Leader.


    ¡°Strike Leader, greetings.¡± he said, finding the words surprisingly difficult. Strike Leader had been a part of many integrations with System Administrator, and it was painful to have to abase themselves when addressing someone who for many years had been their inferior.


    ¡°Listen quickly, there isn¡¯t much time.¡± Strike Leader said, before launching into a description of all that had been going on.


    ¡°So you see,¡± he said in conclusion, ¡°if they are actually planning to harvest fractals from the anomaly, that would have to be done illegally. And that got this one thinking, what does that mean for the crew?  The mission would be a wash for everyspawn but them, and we would be lucky to gain janitorial duty for any other integration.¡±


    After a few moments, System Administrator responded, his words measured, slow, and laced with caution. ¡°You realize what you are suggesting would be mutiny? We would never be welcome back to the Hive.¡±


    ¡°Yes. But I also realize that we may not make it back to the Hive if something doesn¡¯t change, and I don¡¯t just mean because a Tier 3 beast could come and wipe us out at any minute. I mean that those two are the types of spawn to kill over something like this. Seems likely that you and I simply fail to make it back to the Hive in either case.¡±


    ¡°It is a valid point, so what is you¡­¡± System Administrator began to ask, only to be cut off as the hatch ont he door slammed closed.


    Leaning against the door, they were just able to make out the conversation on the other side.


    ¡°Oh, what do we have here?¡± Sector Assimilator¡¯s asked.


    ¡°Uhh¡­. We¡­ That is¡­ ¡° Strike Leader began to crumble in the face of scrutiny.


    ¡°Just coming to pay an old friend a visit, or is there more to this little meeting than meets the eye?¡±


    ¡°Visiting an.. o.. old friend.¡± Strike Leader managed to get out, and System Administrator could easily envision the sweat literally dripping down their tentacles, Strike Leader had never been good at politics. They were much to honest.


    ¡°How touching. Well, unfortunately, the meeting needs to be cut short. As leader of this sector, I have come to the conclusion that our forces are in need of more expertise on the frontlines. So I am sending you down to personally ensure the safety of the mission. You understand, I''m sure.¡± None of the assembled group had any doubt exactly what was happening, Strike Leader was going to the front where they would likely die.


    Rather than cowering any longer, Strike Leader seemed to reign in their fear as a short moment later, System Administrator heard a much more steady voice through the door. ¡°Goodbye, Administrator. It has been an honor serving under you.¡±


    Sector Assimilator¡¯s retreating voice was just barely audible, ¡°Who knows, if you do well enough, perhaps we can rotate in some fun for everyone on the ship. It is always good to give the crew experience.¡±


    That was the last that System Administrator heard. As they once again sat alone, pondering everything that had just happened, they felt that things had actually progressed better than expected. If anything incriminating had actually been heard, then a swift execution was in store, which was much easier to enact than having someone killed in the line of duty. No, it appeared that Sector Assimilator still only had their suspicions. Which meant System Administrator still had time.

 Untried: Chapter 35

    The answer to where Mike could get a bigger pump for his imaginary sprinkler system that pushed energy throughout his body was obviously increasing the size and power of his core. He had tried many times in the past to do just this, but he had come a long way since then and was eager to see what was possible.


    With his soul space already near bursting with the excess energy that he had passively collected, he began collecting it and condensing it around his core, forming a layer as he had done with his skill fractals in the past. His increased ability to guide the energy made up for the lack of speed with which the energy circulated.


    He wasn¡¯t surprised, although slightly disappointed, when he had finished surrounding the core completely, only to have nothing happen. Definition of insanity he chided himself as he thought through the problem.


    What was the functionality he was trying to achieve?  Was it simply making the core bigger?  No. He also needed it to be more powerful. Although being bigger means having a larger capacity which should lead to some increased power.


    Despite the high mental strain, he kept the energy in place around his core while observing it. Within a few minutes, he realized a fundamental difference between his core and his skill fractals. The core was moving. Very slowly, almost to the point of being nonexistent, the small circle rotated. It was a detail he had never noticed before.


    ¡°That explains why the energy never fused,¡± he murmured, ¡°I have been trying to stick something completely stationary to an object in motion.¡±


    He had another decision, and once again he had no idea which method was right. Should he try to stop his core and then apply the extra energy, or should he try to get the energy to rotate at the same speed as the core so they could fuse?  It was already a mental strain to hold the energy in place without trying to make it rotate uniformly, so he opted for the first option. No sooner had he willed his core to slow down than an impending sense of doom settled upon him as the energy within him sputtered.


    ¡°Ohhhhh.. Kaaaay¡± he wheezed, ¡°I guess we will try option two.¡±


    It took time, hours, and his head was ringing from the effort, but eventually he got the energy to circle at the same rate as his core. As soon as he did so, the core picked up speed marginally. Going with his gut, he increased the energy to match it. A blinding light emanated from his core which bound the energy he had been holding in orbit, combining them into one larger mass.


    A surge of energy emanated from his core, churning through his channels, causing them to burn slightly as they were forced to widen a hair to accommodate the influx of energy. When the flow had circulated through the entirety of his channels, he pushed some of the energy into Unflinching Meteor. It responded slightly more quickly than before he had added the extra channels.


    ¡°Success!¡± he whooped, feeling as happy as he had hit his first bulls-eye with his childhood bow.


    ?????????????


    Mike exited the tunnel, stumbling for the up-teenth time since he had stood up from strengthening his core. In the last three days, he had managed to upgrade his core three more times¨Ca process which got harder with each iteration as more energy was required to coat the increased surface area, and that energy also had to move faster to match the increased rotational speed.


    ¡°Glad I had that cosmic water, it would have taken me years to gather enough energy, even with two external methods of pulling it.¡± he said.


    By far, his favorite method for quickly consuming the cosmic water was to simply pour it on his navel Energy Sucker. To the untrained eye, it would look like he really enjoyed bathing his belly button, but with Energy Sense active, he watched as the increased symbol size led to a near perfect consumption of the energy from the dripping water. And being so close to his center meant that the energy reached his core at record speeds.


    Increasing his energy pressure also impacted him physically. He moved faster, as evidenced by his somewhat drunken walk while exiting his burrow. It was hard to not stumble when your brain communicates with your body faster than ever before and your body responds in turn. It almost felt like the world was moving in slow motion.


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    In addition to speed, he found that his physicality had improved in every way. He was stronger, his body was denser and harder, and as already mentioned, his thought process was clearer. It was like increasing his core had managed to improve him in every way the System had categorized. Well, except Luck. He now more than ever believed that luck was just a social construct designed to make lazy people feel good about why they weren¡¯t as ¡°fortunate¡± as those who worked hard.


    ¡°Millennials and their work ethic.¡± he grumped, as he punched the ground as hard as he could.


    Cracks spread out as it impacted with a satisfying crunch, although his first remained unharmed. Blowing off a bit of dust from his knuckles he began to train. The increased speed and power would only be helpful if he could manage to not move like a newborn foal.


    He started off with just the basics of walking, which turned to short sprints. When he was ready, he began running around the base of his crater, the incline of slope allowed him to truly increase his speed to his maximum.  He briefly tried activating Tactics, but found the skill unresponsive¨Csomething to explore at another time.


    When he was moving freely, he added in Footsteps of the Wind, and even without Tactics, he was confident that he was running faster than he ever had before. Once running was comfortable, he formed some axes of Quicksilver and began going through some of his forms. Finally, as the light coming through the rift changed from daylight to night, he felt ready to test out his skills on a real opponent.


    Feeling somewhat heady from his newfound power, he found himself wandering across a giant asteroid, seeking out an energy synergy that was similar in size to his own, while thinking how he could best ask for a sparring match. He held no actual hostility towards any of the beasts around him, and he didn¡¯t need more food yet, so he thought it was probably polite to ask. Luckily, beasts as weak as he was were scarce, giving him plenty of time to work on his introduction.


    ¡°Hello, care to fight?¡± No, that one was too forward, they might get the wrong idea that he wanted to actually hurt them.


    ¡°Greetings, I am Mike, a warrior, a protector, and a lover of all things meat-related.  I have come to see if I am stronger than you.¡± No, too prideful.


    ¡°Hi, wanna test your mettle in the dance of death that reveals a person''s true character?¡±  Definitely not. He wasn¡¯t even sure where that one had come from, but he blamed the hippy vibes of the System.


    He was still unsure what exactly he was going to say when he spied the perfect beast to train with. It stood around 8 feet tall and was humanoid in shape. It appeared to have a rocky exoskeleton, which would be a natural defense for his axes, meaning he could attack with some real force without causing real damage. Had he found the ideal sparring partner so quickly?


    It was at that moment that he realized a flaw in his plan, could the beast even understand English? Clearing his throat, he prepared to ask the beast if it wanted to fight, only to have it turn around aggressively before bellowing and charging him. He was pleasantly surprised that the beast seemed to be marginally slower than himself.


    ¡°I guess I don¡¯t have to be polite about fighting.¡± he assured himself as he sprinted towards the oncoming berserker.


    When they were still a dozen feet apart, the beast lowered its neck, rocklike horns growing from its head as it prepared for impact, an exchange that Mike would normally be perfectly fine with, but not on this occasion. He already knew that Unflinching Meteor would be able to absorb the impact, but could his fist?


    No, no it could not. In retrospect, trying to collide with something much heavier than oneself was a bad idea. He felt the bones in his arm shatter as he was sent flying back. The pain was very manageable compared to growing channels, so despite the jarring, he managed to land on his feet as the charging beast came at him again.


    Falling back on his training, this time he allowed the beast to come to him, dashing sideways at the last moment to avoid its horns, before hitting it with a solid ax swing as it went by. Something that proved very ineffective with its impervious hide.


    A grin split his face. So it was to be boxing then?  His father would be proud.


    The beast came again, its size, strength, and speed apparently not making it any wiser than a charging bull. He once again dodged, but this time, rather than using an ax, he activated rock tunneling, before punching the beast on the side of its left flank. A fist-sized swatch of exoskeleton was obliterated, leading to cracks spreading the point of injury.


    With an effective means of attack and a very unimaginative enemy, the fight was uneventful from that point forward. Mike slowly got rid of the creature¡¯s hide, revealing pink, squishy flesh beneath. When a large enough swath of hide was removed, he went on the offensive with his axes, cutting the beast bit by bit until it fell over.


    He was confused when no kill-energy entered his channels upon defeating his opponent, until he activated energy sense and saw it slowly bleeding out from the core into the rest of the world. Not wanting to be wasteful, he stopped down, debating whether it would look more weird to put his navel or his head on the stomach of his fallen foe.


    ¡°I need to figure out a less embarrassing way of collecting kill energy.¡± he said with gusto and he hugged the beast tightly.

 Untried: Chapter 36

    While not debilitating, Mike¡¯s mutilated arm was painful, especially without adrenaline distracting him in a fight to the death. Bending down to cut the pieces of meat as quickly as he could, he couldn¡¯t help but miss Analyze, so he could know what kind of steak he would be making for dinner that night.


    After salvaging some of the meat, he walked the 30 minutes back to his crater, grateful for his heightened brain activity which made retracing his steps easy, despite his surroundings being uniform. A quick nap later using Hands of Healing, and he was ready to back out and keep training. He had been sloppy and overconfident during the last fight, and he was lucky that he had been a natural counter to the beast, or else it could have ended far worse.


    It took quite a bit longer to find a beast of similar strength to himself the second time around, enough so that as he stood behind what appeared to be a giant arachnid, but with a total of 12 legs, he had the perfect line prepared.


    ¡°Hello. I am not sure if you can understand me, but I have been stranded¡­¡±


    The spider moved much more quickly than the rock monster had, and he was forced to activate Damage Premonition immediately in order to interpret the 8 different attacks coming his way simultaneously. He stepped forward into the first attack, brushing it to the side as he did so, finding to his surprise that his strength was on par with the large creature.


    A sensation warned him of the surprise stinger that was hidden underneath the beast''s body, and he jumped backwards through the air, just managing to dodge it in time. The move had been anticipated however, and he was unable to do anything other than use Unflinching Meteor to avoid being impaled on the many claws no pincering in from behind, ready to impale him. Unable to move, he was forced to simply hope that his initial force would be enough to break free.


    For the second time in as many fights, Mike was on the losing end of the mass category, and rather than breaking free, the spider caught his body. He was forced to simply wait patiently, biding his time as he watched the beast first try in vain to first impale him, second sting him, and finally crush him to death.


    As the skill was about to end, he found himself pressed firmly against the creature, and he prepared for his strike. As soon as he was able to move again, he raised his hand and activated Sonic Sounding, sending a deadly concussive force straight into the beast''s body, even as the knife-like limb dug into his body, remaining partially embedded as he fell back down to the ground. In worse shape than he had been after the first fight, he was forced to use Hands of Healing where he currently sat, or risk bleeding out immediately. For the second time ever, the skill didn¡¯t actually cause him to black out, and after collecting some of the claws which were sturdier and sharper than what he could currently form with Quicksilver, he continued hunting.


    Like this, the next few days passed, during which time, he only returned to his crater a single time to rest and recuperate. By the end of his hunting spree, he felt he had a good feel for his current body and was ready to progress further.


    ?????????????


    Two days later, Mike stared at his core like a proud father. What had once been the size of an apple, was now bordering on large grapefruit after his fourth successful improvement. The rotational speed had still proved to be his biggest challenge, which is why it had taken him so long to only gain a single level. Not wanting to fall out of touch with his body again, he decided to take it for another spin before gaining another level.


    It has nothing to do with upgrading my core being boring. He reaffirmed to himself as he made his way outside. Although, not spending the day staring at a floating ball of energy does sound exciting. Besides, even in SEAL training we were able to work some of our pent up energy out through sparring, and that is all I am doing now.


    While walking, he reflected on the different sizes of cores he had seen thus far, having long since given up on engaging a monster civilly and needing to construct an introduction.  It seemed to him that there were three size categories, at least from what he had seen so far. The first were beings with cores that were close to his own size, around the size of an apple to the size of a coconut¨Cwith his being somewhere in the middle. He had yet to see anything with a core between the size of a coconut and a watermelon, rather there seemed to be a bit of a gap, which he postulated was due to some kind of dramatic increase in core strength. Then there were beasts who had cores ranging from watermelons to large pumpkins. It was beasts of this strength that were lining up to enter the rift, giving him a pretty good idea of what his strength needed to be to reenter¨Cat a minimum. Finally, he had detected one beast who had a core that was double the size of a large pumpkin. He had sensed the energy signature from a ways away, as it seemed to glow with more energy than the whole of the cosmic pool, and had opted to steer very far away from it.


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    Luckily, it seemed that most of the beasts were unable to sense energy signatures, as he was the one constantly approaching others, and had yet to have anything approach him, at least until that day. Thoughts of watermelon sized pumpkins had filled his head as he walked from one crater to the next, causing him to daydream of the way a sweet, freshly-picked watermelon tasted on a summer day, and he had almost missed the humongous purple blob that oozed silently across the ground to his location. His initial reaction had been to escape the situation, but upon noticing that its core was only marginally bigger than his own and that it was actually a bit slower than him, he decided to give it a shot.


    Dashing forward, he sent a jab at the beast, intending to test its defenses, but was completely shocked when the gelatinous mass simply retracted around his fist, causing him to miss completely. Having not fully committed to the attack, he withdrew his fist quickly, in preparation for getting some more jabs in, only to have the creature''s body converge back to its original position in an instant, engulfing the knuckle on his pinky. A sharp pain on his hand caused him to look at his hand, where he saw that the flesh and even bone that had been engulfed were completely gone.


    A twinge from Damage Premonition alerted him to the creature''s follow-up, which was simply moving forward to engulf more of his body, and he jumped backwards several feet to buy himself space. As he took in his enemy from a distance, he noticed the missing piece of his hand floating in the top layer of the creature, where it was slowly dissolving.


    ¡°Note to self, don¡¯t actually touch that creature.¡± He said as he called forth one of the spider¡¯s claws, which had become a staple of his fighting lately. They were easy to wield and so far had held up very well against anything he had fought.


    Jumping forwards at an angle, he landed to the side of the beast and stuck out with the claw. The creature reacted by retracting its body as it had done before. Figuring this would be the case, he pulled the weapon back just in time, but was forced to fall sideways into a roll, dropping his weapon, as a spear-like protrusion formed from the creature and almost impaled him. He rolled quickly to his feet, but was too late to save his weapon, which he saw was already being digested.


    ¡°Scratch that. Note to self, touching any unknown creature is probably a bad idea.¡± he amended as he thought through his next move.


    He wasn¡¯t given much time to think, as the creature pursued him relentlessly, forcing him to relinquish another claw in their next exchange. Frustration at losing two perfectly good weapons caused him to form a long blade of Quicksilver. A sword was far from his go-to weapon, but he thought the increased reach and slashing power would come in handy.


    For the next two minutes, the two kept up a steady pattern of Mike attacking, the monster dodging, the monster retaliating, and Mike jumping away to get space. Finally, he found his opening, and the key to securing the victory when he correctly anticipated that the monster would counter-attack with the gelatinous body javelin (as he had named it in his head), allowing him to side step before swinging his blade through the protrusion. This resulted in the creature making its first noise of the engagement, a horrendous, hissing scream that made what little hair he had on his head stand on end.


    A follow-up attack came quickly, and he jumped backward, where he saw the creature retrieve its fallen, unmoving, body part, absorbing it back into itself. Realization dawned on him then, and he spent the next 30 seconds testing his theory. Sure enough, if a part of the creature was separate from its body, it would lie lifelessly on the ground, just as any creature''s appendage would. It was a relief to know that the creature was killable, and with this knowledge obtained, he once again went on the offensive.


    Creating a longer blade of Quicksilver, he attacked with large, looping arcs that forced the creature to give ground or risk losing a bunch of mass in one go. Bit by bit, he reduced the creature, steering it always backwards so it couldn¡¯t regain any of its fallen mass. During this process, he learned that whatever mass was larger of the two segments he created when cutting it would be the one to retain sentient thought¨Ca hard one bit of knowledge that he gained when he thought he had beheaded the creature, only to have its bottom two thirds surge at his feet.


    Finally, when it was no bigger than a small dog, he activated Footsteps of the Wind, further cutting it down until it was no larger than a marble, before scoping out a bit of rock using Rock Tunneling, and flicking the creature into the pit with the sword tip. He watched it struggle for a bit, unsure if there was a way to kill the stupid creature, but upon seeing that it couldn¡¯t get out of the tiny pit, he decided to simply walk away. The fight had worn him out.


    As he began walking back to his crater, his mind was put at ease as he saw that bits of the creature were dissolving, with the earliest cut portions already being completely gone. The knowledge put his mind at ease that the evil Jell-O monster wasn¡¯t going to hunt him back to his den anytime soon, and he was able to get back to dreaming of his favorite fruits and veggies to make the return journey easier. He had had enough training for one day.

 Untried: Chapter 37

    With a seemingly bottomless supply of cosmic water and an unending number of opponents, it wasn¡¯t long before Mike¡¯s core had reached the size of a coconut, and completed a full revolution in around 5 seconds.


    ¡°I''m officially a nutter!¡± he joked to himself upon reaching the new core size, before heading out to assimilate his upgraded physical prowess.


    By now, he was relatively used to the incremental growth and after only one fight, which was against another rock-like creature that died easily to his Rock Tunneling fists, he headed back to focus on making it to the next stage. He didn¡¯t know what to expect, whether he would need to coat his core many times over in one go to grow it from the size of a coconut to the size of a watermelon, but he trusted that he would be able to figure it out, just like he always had.


    One thing he had noticed was that each progressive growth of his core and channels required more and more energy. It used to be that a single kill would fill up his soul space, but it barely made a dent in his core¡¯s bottomless appetite.


    Laying on his back, he proceeded to bring out vessel after vessel of cosmic water from his spatial storage bag, but the core seemed bottomless.


    ¡°Can you imagine how many creatures¡¯ dead bodies I would have had to hug to extract this much energy?¡± he said in wonder as he poured the last few drops of a vessel onto his stomach, ¡°No wonder that huge bird was so greedy about this stuff.¡±


    Eventually, he did manage to reach capacity, but at the cost of consuming a quarter of all of the remaining water he had. At this point, his small, rocky cave was covered in a small puddle that would take weeks to dry out, but he paid it little attention as he turned inwards, eager to make the jump to the next tier of power.


    Not knowing what else to do, his first approach was to simply do what he had done every other time. Grabbing the energy in his saturated channels, he pulled it together and forced it to surround his core, even matching the speed, but nothing happened. Figuring that the failure was likely due to the core not yet being watermelon sized, he continued making coat after coat of energy, until the mental strain became too great and the great ball of energy he had formed burst apart, creating waves that crashed painfully through his system.


    The pain was almost on par with growing new channels, and he found himself gasping for breath. Which is ironic considering I don¡¯t breathe anymore. Just one more habit my body has created that is no longer applicable.


    Not knowing what else to do, he fell back on thinking about his channels like a sprinkler system, which hadn¡¯t steered him wrong yet. Increasing the size of the core was secondary, what he really wanted to do was to make the core push more power through his body, which, as far as he could tell, was accomplished by the core¡¯s rotation. The core had always increased its rotation on its own, and he had simply aimed to match it, did he dare increase the speed?


    An idea suddenly occurred to him, what if he increased its rotation simply by having it spin in both directions at once. It was already spinning on the horizontal plane, so maybe he should just try to have it spin on the vertical plane as well.


    And due to angular acceleration always pulling inwards, increasing this kind of speed should naturally allow the core to retain more mass. He concluded, happy that his brain could now easily recall physics lessons from decades prior.


    Gathering the energy again, he proceeded to surround the core, forcing the energy to match the horizontal rotation of the core. When they were fully synchronized, he willed his core to begin turning vertically as well. Nothing happened at first, but as he continued focusing, it began to shift ever so slightly, and suddenly all of the energy he had accumulated was being sucked into the core as it grew and expanded.


    After the most painful channel-wash he had experienced to date, he looked at his now watermelon sized core with delight, noticing how it was now spinning slightly on an axis.


    ¡°Huh, I am really surprised that worked.¡± he said aloud, ¡°I really didn¡¯t think that would.¡±


    ?????????????


    After a much needed rest, which Mike could take only after digging out a small side tunnel to avoid his flooded den, he set out to train some more. He could tell just by walking that his channels had undergone yet another fundamental shift, as his every movement excluded power in ways he had never been capable of before.


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    Upon exiting the tunnel, he took a few laps around his crater to make sure he had a handle on his movements, before heading out to find something to fight. He already knew that there were thousands of beasts at the watermelon to pumpkin stage near the spatial tear, but he wanted to find an isolated opponent if at all possible.


    After a few hours of searching, it became apparent that that was not possible, and he began to suspect that every creature at his new power level had congregated at the rift, so with some reluctance he made his way over to them.


    Spying from a few craters away, he noticed again how the beasts formed a reasonably orderly line, each waiting their turn, which stood in juxtapose to his encounters with them. It was eerie to see creatures that could single handedly destroy a country¡¯s capital before the System integration simply sit and wait their turn. It wasn¡¯t that he doubted at all that they were intelligent, rather, he doubted their self control after fighting with them time and time again.


    Finally, after a few hours of watching, he spotted some commotion. He didn¡¯t know what had caused it, but two beasts began tearing into each other. Both were far more powerful than Mike was, with cores in the early pumpkin stages, however, one core was decidedly bigger, making him suspect who would be the winner.


    The stronger of the two was a humanoid beast with four arms, each carrying large rock hammers, which were currently parrying a steady stream of fireballs, being launched from the second creature, which appeared to be a weird mixture of a large cat and a star. Not only was the first beast stronger, but in Mike¡¯s estimation, it had a natural advantage, being that rocks were so resilient to heat¡­ at least that is what he thought initially. The heat emanating off of the second beast began to rise, until the space around it seemed to distort. Thought the rock humanoid was able to keep up with the stream of fireballs, parts of its hammers began to sluff off under the pressure of the calefaction.


    Rather than being put on the back foot, the damage seemed to enrage the creature, and it seized the momentum of the fight, charging forward until it was within striking distance of the other creature, and began its own assault.


    It was a somewhat surreal experience to watch two mythical creatures fight each other, especially with lights from laser cannons and earth¡¯s sun streaming through a magical hole in reality less than a half mile away.


    The confrontation ended when the fire cat had had enough, and it bolted away into the surrounding countryside¨Cor maybe asteroid-side a was more apt name. A few creatures behind the rock creature seemed to weigh it with calculating eyes, but none of them made a move to start a confrontation. Rather, the patient line reformed as did the monotony of Mike¡¯s vigil.


    After another few hours, another fight broke out, and Mike actually witnessed the cause of this one¨Cit was so childish that he had a hard time not laughing out loud. Two creatures of similar power level were standing in line, when one of them simply cut in front of the other.


    Rather than simply explaining, ¡°No buts, no cuts, no coconuts¡± as any school child would, the offended party immediately attacked the other creature, large metallic quills appearing from its body. The offender was prepared for this outcome, and a similar scene to earlier replayed itself. These two creatures were more powerful than first, and Mike was struck with just how far he still had to grow before he was ready to pass through the rift.


    When the fight concluded, Mike felt reasonably confident on how to test his prowess against creatures of similar power level to himself, having cut many a school-bus line as a kid, so the only real question was which creature to cut. As he traced the energy signatures, it became readily apparent that the beasts were more or less lined up in order of core-size, with some outliers for beasts who were outliers for their fighting prowess at their given core strength. This made it easy to find a good candidate, as he just had to walk to the beginning of the line where the rest of the watermelons hung out.


    Not wanting to bite off more than he could chew, he decided to just cut in front of the very last creature in line, whose core was equal to his own. He was fully prepared for the confrontation, but it never came. The batlike creature behind him simply bowed its head, refusing to meet his challenging gaze.


    The next creature was similarly shy, as was the next. This made sense to Mike, as each of their cores were all about the same size, so it was a toss up to know who would win in a fight. It wasn¡¯t until the fifth beast, whose core was around Mike¡¯s size but definitely bigger, that he got himself a battle.


    The slim humanoid had been eyeing him with each progression he made up the line, and attacked as soon as he was in front of her, at least he thought it was a she, gender identity only got harder the more unknown an entity was.


    Standing slightly below his own height, she was wiry and fast, wielding two pieces of metal that seemed to burn with cosmic energy. He activated Footsteps of the Wind right from the get go and in conjunction with Damage Premonition, managed to avoid all of her strikes. He sensed that she was somewhat close to rational thought, but wasn¡¯t quite there, making her strikes mostly predictable, although ruthlessly vicious.


    Within a few moments he had isolated her attack patterns and sent in a strike of his own, taking her completely off guard and knocking her backwards. Realizing that he had underestimated himself, he bowed to his opponent and left the line. He would come back later and cut a little more towards the front.

 Untried: Chapter 38

    Mike basked in the pulsating light entering from the rift only a short distance away¨Ca habit he had grown accustomed to over the past few weeks. It wasn¡¯t quite the same as lounging on a nice beach or hammocking in a verdant, green forest, but it was as close to cozy as he had found on this barren asteroid.


    Each afternoon, after a hours spent challenging his way up the line, he would sit down a couple of craters away from the rift, consolidate his gains, reflect on how he could have fought better, and watch as earth was successfully defended against his fellow queues-man, a term he had derived for the creatures who were so patient in waiting to have their chance at destroying his home planet.


    His core had officially reached pumpkin stage the night prior, making him firmly in the middle of the next stage. Unfortunately, he was down to only having about a third of his total water supply left. It took significantly less energy to grow a single stage compared to the jump from coconut to watermelon, but it was still eating through his stock fast. He hoped he would be able to make large pumpkin with what he had remaining, but he would need at least a few weeks to make that happen, time he wasn¡¯t sure he still had.


    Though he was able to pass more and more of the line each day, he found that his position relative to the rift had remained more or less the same, the reason for this being that the line was growing as more and more greater-pumpkin stage beasts arrived.


    His thoughts were interrupted as a fight broke out right at the front of the rift. A large fishlike creature with thousands of long antennas had decided to cut to the very front of the rift. Using energy sense, he saw with alarm that the creature had a core that was around double the size of a large pumpkin, meaning that this creature was a tier up from everything else that was currently gathered to enter earth.


    The beast standing in line behind the newly-arrived behemoth kept its gaze firmly down as it was replaced as head of the line, a clear indication that it wasn¡¯t about to voice any complaints it may have had. With the line leader subdued, the fish continued to break protocol, because rather than wait its turn to enter the rift, its antennas reached out and wrapped around the 50 meter tall titan that was currently trying to break through.


    A distorted roar emanated from the other side of the spatial tear as the creature felt the interruption, which quickly became a whine of pain as it was split apart like an overripe melon. Then the fish began to pass through.


    ?????????????


    Strike Leader dodged the claw of the invading beast with ease, trying hard not to whoop in delight as that would be heard by the rest of the strike force in addition to those watching from the viewing chamber, talk about embarrassing.


    Time had seemed to fly by since Strike Leader had been sent down to guard the rift, an assignment which they were now grateful for. Sure, it had been intended as a death sentence, and maybe still would be, but their own cultivation had increased dramatically since the constant engagements had started, even going so far as to reach the midpoint of the second tier. And they weren¡¯t the only ones who had been able to advance.


    With a constant stream of enemies who seemed happy to enter the debilitating choke point one at a time, everyone involved in the fighting was able to get some of the cosmic energy left behind when a creature died, and that was even including the System taking the majority of it for maintenance.


    A decent amount of the energy the System gained went towards keeping the rift stabilized, but Strike Leader had heard through the chain that some of it was being stockpiled, turning a near disastrous Integration into one that was profitable even outside of the fractals that would be harvested from the natives upon full Assimilation.


    They had only lost a total of two more fighters since being sent down, both had been rookies who were overconfident. The truth was, as long as a Tier 3 didn¡¯t come through the rift, Strike Leader felt confident they could hold this position indefinitely.


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    Directing their vessel upwards with a command, they went to dodge another strike from the beast, but stopped short when a purplish mass of tentacles wrapped themselves around the creature, before it was torn apart.


    ¡°Attention all deployed units: Tier 3 signature detected. For the Hive and Glory, use any means at your disposal necessary to eliminate the threat.¡± The voice of Sector Assimilator came over the intercom.


    Strike Leader cursed under their breath at the information, even as they reflexively moved to avoid the Tier 3 beast¡¯s attack. Others on the strike force weren¡¯t so lucky, and three ships were blown out of the sky in the few seconds following the announcement.


    The fighters who were off duty moved to assist, swelling their attack force to the hundreds as they sought to destroy the creature, but the only result was giving the creature more targets to easily knock from the sky.


    ¡°Requesting Cannon Support¡± Strike Leader said through the intercom, asking for the ship¡¯s massive laser to intercede on their behalf. It was the only weapon that could take down a Tier 3, but with an exorbitant resource cost, it was held in reserve as a fail-safe.


    ¡°Negative, strike force deemed sufficient.¡± Sector Assimilator¡¯s voice said, followed by a separate message sent only to Strike Leader¡¯s vessel, ¡° I think you know what it will take to get Cannon Support. So the question is, do you care more about yourself, or the crew?¡±


    ¡°Where in the abyss did they drag this spawn from?¡± Strike Leader cursed, already knowing what their decision was. They were loyal to the hive through and through, and giving their life to the hive had always been a possibility. If they were going to die, they wanted to do so bravely.


    Directing their message through the private channel, they replied, ¡°You¡¯ll burn for this.¡± Before turning to the main communication channel and bellowing, ¡°Laud, the Queen!¡±


    Their message delivered, Strike Leader dive bombed the enemy, knowing that only with them dead would Sector Assimilator be willing to save the rest of the crew. When they were 10 meters away from the creature''s body, it reacted, its tentacles wrapping around the ship and tossing it through the tear like a worthless piece of garbage.


    ?????????????


    Mike watched the powerful beast decimate the defenders forces, and for the first time in many weeks, his concern for earth was sufficient for him to consider trying to break through. But even as the thought crossed his mind, he saw a ship enter the rift, its body crunching under the denseness of space, causing it to smoke. Tracing its trajectory, he activated Footsteps of the Wind and began to sprint, arriving at the site of impact only a few moments after its uncontrolled landing.


    Knowing that the human in the ship would likely attack him didn¡¯t dissuade him from immediately rushing to the pilot¡¯s aid, saving someone from a shipwreck was a no brainer, especially for someone who had been in the Navy. The ship''s structure was solid, and he had a hard time moving it, even with Unyielding Juggernaut active and all of his prodigious strength bent towards the task. Eventually, he found purchase on the bottom side and was able to create an opening large enough to drag the pilot''s body through.


    One leg came out, followed by a second, and then a third? The surprise appendage caused him to drop the leg in shock, only then noticing how irregular the body felt, like a slightly springy piece of spaghetti.


    A groan caused him to regain his focus: human or not, he wasn¡¯t one to simply leave a creature suffering, regardless of how irregular it was. He tugged, twisted, and pulled on the body, excavating it bit by bit, confident in his ability to heal it, even if some of the damage was caused by him trying to save it.


    Finally, the head came free and he viewed the pilot''s face for the first time. Its 4 eyes were all centered in its face, which was made of blue, spongy skin. A protrusion reminiscent of a nose sat between the four eyes. Tentacles coated the top of the head like hair, and even traced a pattern along the bottom of the jaw, much like a beard.


    ¡°What in tarnation.¡± he breathed in wonder.


    At the sound of his voice, the eyes fluttered open, ¡°Anomaly¡­ System Administrator was right¡± the creature was clearly dying, but Mike grasped onto the English that was coming out of its mouth.


    ¡°You know about the System? Tell me more.¡±


    No response was forthcoming as the creature once again fell into unconsciousness.


    ¡°Nothing Hands of Healing can¡¯t fix.¡± he said while rubbing them together.

 Untried: Chapter 39

    Mike carried the unconscious squid-creature to his cave and spent the afternoon making sure it was both comfortable and secured¨Cboth of which were made more complicated by him not knowing anything about the creature. Did it like lying on its stomach or back better?  Were its legs truly as flexible as they appeared, or should he straighten them out?  Is looping Quicksilver around its entire body enough to hold it in place, or should he bury it in the ground as well?


    Mike watched the creature¡¯s eyes flutter open sometime later as they groggily opened, only to widen when they found themselves in a dark cave lit by some blasting stone. Their eyes got even bigger when they realized that they were buried neck-deep in a very tight fitting hole and somehow unable to wiggle even the ends of their tentacles¨CYep, he had outdown himself with some of those half-hitches. As it turned out, tentacle based appendages actually do. uble as built-in hostage ropes.


    ¡°Achpar, pupach ale medved provost!¡± the creature garbled at him when it finally noticed his presence. Mike couldn¡¯t tell where the sound was actually coming from since no mouth was visible.


    ¡°Come now, I know you speak English.¡± he replied, ¡°Since you already mentioned the System to me when I saved you from the wreckage?¡±


    Recognition seemed to pass through the creature¡¯s eyes, ¡°You pulled me out?¡± it exclaimed, before realizing its mistake and shutting up again.


    ¡°Ahah! See, you do speak English!¡± Mike exclaimed as he squatted down to get in a better position to meet his prisoner¡¯s eyes, all four of which were doing their best to avoid them.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you tell me more about the System, where it comes from, and what it is doing on Earth?¡±


    No response.


    ¡°Ok, well how about you tell me where you learned English?¡±


    The creature responded with only silence, a pattern which continued as Mike tried every angle he could think of. At length, he came to the conclusion that he was in a position where he had to choose between the proverbial carrot or stick. He really hated torture, but he loved carrots, so he decided to try his hand at making a new friend. And what better way to make a new friend than to share some recipes?


    ¡°Ok, let¡¯s say for a minute you want to make a honey-cured ham. You may be tempted into thinking that the process starts with just heating up your oven, but in reality, it starts long before that. Let¡¯s go way back to how you properly select a good cut of pork, then we will move to how to cure it into ham¡­¡± without further ado, his quest for friendship had begun.


    ?????????????


    The torture was unending. Strike Leader had no idea how the anomaly knew about its aversion to eating meats, but one thing was for certain: he knew. Why else would he go into so much detail about butchering, curing, preparing and cooking the revolting food groups. Throughout the first recipe, they endured by telling themselves that it would all be over soon, after all, how much can one unenlightened anomaly know about cooking meat, right? Hours later, with no end in sight, they learned the answer to that question: Everything.


    After the third recipe, they tried to zone it out, but the anomaly seemed to know just when to ask the right questions to force their mind back to the topic at hand.


    By the fifth recipe, they found himself wondering what sort of abyssal creature would be so sadistic as to toy with its food for this long?


    At the tenth recipe, their eyes glazed over, their will to live completely gone¡­ or at least they thought so, but it turned out that the anomaly was well versed in keeping a hostage alive. Acting like it thought Strike Leader was hungry, the anomaly pulled out a piece of revolting jerky and pushed it towards Strike Leader¡¯s face. The smell was enough to make its tentacles curl, and the revulsion was enough to bring it fully back to the present.


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    By the 15th recipe, they found their will to continue almost fully depleted, and they bolstered themselves with thoughts of home. They would remain strong, the Hive deserved that much.


    By the 17th recipe, their reason for enduring was singular, the Queen. Sector Assimilator, Junior Administrator and many other leaders had only ever looked out for themselves, but her Spawnliness was all benevolence.


    By the 20th recipe, they found themselves wondering what the Queen had ever done for them. Their whole life had been a struggle for resources that were a mere pittance compared to what inner-Hive members received. Why should they keep toiling on for a being who would never even notice them?


    They were about to give in, when suddenly, the torture stopped.


    ?????????????


    It was difficult to talk to someone non stop when they weren¡¯t involved in the conversation, but Mike felt that he excelled at it, especially with a topic as robust as cooking. He could talk for hours. Try as he might, however, he just couldn¡¯t get the carrot to land. It was like the creature had a will of iron. Here he was pouring his soul and recipes out freely, and the creature only responded with silence. It had even refused his offering of wurm-jerky when he realized it must be starving. While he wasn¡¯t running out of recipes, his belief in the ability of cooking to cross all borders was waning, and in desperation he changed tactics.


    Pulling out some dried sweet-potato stalks which he had been storing for basket weaving, he laid them out in formation, then struck one of his old steel axes on the rocky ground to get a spark. With a small fire going, he pulled out a piece of meat, he was unsure what it was from as he had fought too many unknown creatures in the previous days, but he was positive it was relatively fresh, especially since it had sat in his spatial storage device, and began preparing it. He layered each side with a generous supply of salt and pepper, despite his diminishing supply, and even went so far as to get the last bit of garlic from his pouch. Boy, he couldn¡¯t wait to get back to earth and restock on some essentials.


    He was missing butter to get a proper sear, but luckily the meat was decently fatty, so when the pan was screaming-hot he threw it on. The sound meat makes when cooking at high temperatures is fantastic, and for a moment, he almost forgot he had guests until a croaked voice reminded him.


    ¡°Alright¡­ I¡¯ll do it. Just please make it stop¡±


    Proud of his success in using diplomacy, he flipped the steak while giving his soon-to-be-friend a wide smile.


    ¡°Please, I beg you. Just make it stop.¡±


    Realizing the creature must be referring to his tied up tentacles, he replied with a helpless shrug, ¡°Sorry, not until I feel I can trust you and you tell me what I need to know.¡±


    The meat was done cooking, so he took it off the fire and set it down to rest so it could reabsorb some of the juices. ¡°How about we try again? Where did you learn English?¡±


    ?????????????


    The anomaly was a monster, and to their shame, Strike Leader was capitulating.


    ¡°I don¡¯t. But the System equipment I still have on me allows me to hear, understand, and speak your language when I want to?¡±


    ¡°So the System is here?¡± it asked, while eyeing Strike Leader weirdly.


    Strike Leader briefly considered leading the anomaly astray, but that thought was dashed when the bald, burly, native picked up the meat and put it near its face, forcing their hand into answering the question that the anomaly should be asking, not the question it actually was asking. In no circumstance did they want the anomaly feeling like it needed to get retribution for deception down the road, it was far too scary.


    ¡°The System is nothing more than the compilation of thousands of different sigils from the sacred cultivation language which empowers our order to assimilate planets. Some of those sigils have been included in the construction of my body suit and with an influx of cosmic energy from my soul space, can be activated to function.¡±


    The anomaly paused in thought for several minutes, before asking a terrifying question: ¡°What does it mean to assimilate a planet?¡±


    Strike Leader was hesitant to answer, sure that the answer to that question would mean certain death, but then the anomaly picked up the piece of meat which had been sitting in front of Strike Leader¡¯s fate and bit off a fat chunk. They watched as blood and fat dripped from its mouth and across the hair follicles it had in place of tentacles. They weren¡¯t proud of it, but in that moment, they didn¡¯t care. Strike Leader gave up every secret without hesitation and in full transparency. They had been broken.

 Untried: Chapter 41

    Mike was reeling at the information. The System was an elaborate, cosmic-energy machine with the whole purpose of growing skill fractals within a planet¡¯s inhabitants so that they could then be harvested and given back to their Hive¡¯s ¡°inner¡± members. If that didn¡¯t sound like a cult, he didn¡¯t know what did. These lunatics sound like the type of crazies that would be in favor of suicide bombings.


    ¡°How do I stop the System? Can I save Earth?¡± The questions came without conscious thought, and he asked them without considering that his prisoners might lie to him.


    ¡°It has never been known to happen. An assimilation isn¡¯t about whether or not the planet will be harvested, that is a foregone conclusion. Rather, it is about the efficiency of the yield and what unique fractals are grown. Our faction has honed this method over billions of years worth of your world¡¯s time.¡± The monster said while staring at Mike¡¯s mouth in horror, causing him to realize that he still had food in his mouth and should finish chewing as politeness dictated.


    *Smack. Chomp. Swallow* Mike did his best to chew the food silently, which was nearly impossible with the piece of gristle he had eaten. He could only watch the horror grow on the creature¡¯s face with every awkward movement of his scrutinized mouth. But what was he to do?  Taking the piece of gristle out without a napkin would be even worse than chewing loudly.


    ¡°So..¡± *Gulp* ¡°Why don¡¯t the inner members just grow the skill fractals themselves? It has got to be costly to have others grow them instead.¡± He asked at length when the food was finally finished.


    ¡°I can sense that you are already mid-Tier 2, so I am surprised you don¡¯t know this already, but growing new channels gets more costly the more you cultivate.¡±


    ¡°Costly in terms of what? And also, what is Tier 2?  Do you mean melon stage?¡±


    ¡°Haven¡¯t you noticed by now that your channels get sturdier and more robust with each increase to your core size?  That makes growing new channels not only more painful, but also cost more energy. To grow even a small subsection of channels at Tier 3 would require all of the energy from that pool of cosmic water you stole. And the minimum tier for an inner member is Tier 4. And that¡¯s not even mentioning that very few can grow an entire skill fractal and survive. You are an anomaly in every sense of the word and have been the source of constant drama during this integration.¡± The last sentence was said with no small measure of vehemence, before it looked at Mike¡¯s mouth again and seemed to stop in its tracks.


    Mike thought of his diminishing cosmic water with trepidation. So I only have a small window where I can improve my skills? But that would mean that this would be the only means of getting stronger in the universe, which I refuse to believe.


    ¡°So how do other factions do it then?¡± He asked, before clarifying, ¡°You mentioned earlier that your faction had honed this practice over billions of years, surely there are other ways of doing it.¡±


    ¡°Well of course there are, but those are closely guarded secrets that I wouldn¡¯t even be able to venture an accurate guess at. All this one knows is how I was raised.¡±


    They sat in silence then, each processing the conversation. Mike¡¯s brain was in turmoil over two main questions: 1. How should he use the last of his cosmic water, to advance or to increase his channels? 2. How could he beat the System, a force or entity that had apparently never been beaten?


    No matter how he thought about the problems, he couldn¡¯t come up with a good answer, and at length he realized he would just need more information.


    ¡°Say I wanted to grow my channels more, what skill fractals could you teach me?¡±


    ¡°Hah!  You act as if those symbols are well-known, when in reality, you already know more than many of the inner Hive. Having more than 5 skills at the equivalent purity of a Level 8 would not only make you an inner member, but an elite one.¡±


    Mike took the information in stride, pleasantly surprised that he had guessed correctly where skills were concerned: each level was an increase in the symbols purity more than anything else. He mentally counted the skills he had had to Level 8 before being sucked through the spatial tear: Hardened Skin, Pottery, Dodge, Energy Sense, and Rock Tunneling. Exactly 5. Although he imagined that some of them, like Pottery, wouldn¡¯t usually be too helpful, and he found himself wishing he had put more energy into Unflinching Meteor and Footsteps of the Wind, the two skills he had found most useful in combat.


    ¡°So how do individuals learn more skill fractals if they are such closely guarded secrets? Surely there are beings at the top who are still discovering new knowledge.¡±


    ¡°Mostly trial and error in addition to fortuitous encounters or stealing them from others. Usually, it is those who are new to the knowledge of cultivation and are forced to take risks to survive who discover new symbols, and more often than not, those individuals get pulled into a faction where their knowledge is traded in exchange for power and standing. Or else they refuse to join and are killed so that the symbols can be extracted from their channels.¡±


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    The knowledge was just what he was looking for. ¡°So I can extract skill fractals from other¡¯s channels?¡±


    The creature was quiet, seemingly aghast at the question. ¡°The accords forbid it. It is not something spoken of lightly. It is agonizing for the recipient and requires them to be alive for the process. It is done by shady individuals in dark corners where none can see.¡±


    ¡°But you said that the System extracts them, so why is that different? Also, what are the accords?¡±


    ¡°The System is capable of dulling the pain and fully integrates itself with the person first. The accords are multiversal laws agreed to by the 9 largest factions to prevent widespread conflict. They are agreed upon rules that are punishable by death to an individual or collaborated assault in the case of an entire faction being guilty.¡±


    ¡°Wait, so just because it doesn¡¯t hurt, it is ok to extract the symbols?¡± Mike asked, not seeing how that logic made sense.


    ¡°No, it is deemed ok because by the time the System extracts them, the individuals are considered part of the System, seeing as they have willingly allowed its presence to creep into their beings. Basically, they become a part of the Hive.¡±


    ¡°So genocide is ok based on a technicality?¡± Mike couldn¡¯t hold back his anger.


    ¡°Yeah.¡± the creature responded with a slight movement which Mike took to be a shrug.


    The lack of caring drove home just how cruel the multiverse must be. The creature wasn¡¯t being heartless, it was truly just the way of things and it seemed surprised that that was hard for him to understand. A sudden worry caused him to continue the conversation.


    ¡°So how close am I to being harvested then? With the number of skills I have at Level 8, surely the System will come for me next.¡±


    ¡°Oh that won¡¯t happen for three reasons: 1. You are an anomaly so your energy will just be recycled. 2. You are no longer within the bounds of the System¡¯s influence. It won¡¯t impact you unless you go back to your world. 3. You are far more likely to be harvested by Sector Assimilator and Junior Administrator before full assimilation happens. Everyspawn aboard the vessel knows they want your fractals.¡±


    Mike chewed on the inside of his cheek as he thought through the information that was shared. It seemed that with every exchange, he found out just how much he didn¡¯t know. He didn¡¯t know what the right questions to ask were, so he just kept building wherever his mind took him.


    ¡°What is an anomaly?  And also, I am going back home. We just need to find a way to make it possible without the System catching me.¡± The final statement was said with total confidence. Even should it be the end of his existence, he wouldn¡¯t simply run from invaders taking over his home.


    ¡°An anomaly is someone deemed by the System as not worth fostering skill fractals in¨Cusually this is accused by a number of factors, but age and physical location are the most impactful. If they die, they will die forever. They are labeled as monsters so that their fellow natives will kill them quickly and the System can regain most of the resources it has spent to nurture them.¡±


    Mike was struck by how dire his situation was. He had always suspected that he wouldn¡¯t respawn, but hadn¡¯t known for sure until that moment. Another question formed then.  ¡°Why not just kill anomalies?  Clearly I have caused problems, I certainly haven¡¯t died like I was supposed to. Why go through the trouble at all?¡±


    ¡°Again, the accords. Blatant destruction of unenlightened lifeforms is strictly forbidden as a path to gain more cultivation resources.¡±


    So I am only alive because some random aliens decided that killing me was bad?  That seems messed up. He sat pondering on the state of earth for many minutes, but ultimately came to the conclusion that nothing had truly changed. He had always been fighting against the System and that was still true. If anything, at least he had an idea of what he was up against now.


    ¡°So is there any way to prevent the System from reattaching itself to me when I return?¡±


    ¡°There is. You can learn to deflect against soul invasions rather easily. The problem is experience and practice. It is rare to find a beast who will help you practice against soul invasions that won¡¯t simply eat you as a snack.¡±


    So he just needed to find a soul attacking creature, that should be double with the thousands of creatures at his disposal. ¡°How long do I have before the rift closes?¡±


    ¡°You mean the Quantum Tear?  They are keeping it open for you. As long as another Tier 3 doesn¡¯t decide to enter soon, I think they will maintain it indefinitely. You must have some very valuable skill fractals to make the energy expenditure worth it.¡±


    The knowledge that he had time was a huge relief. That was all he could really ask for at this point. He stopped to think if he had any more questions, which he did, he had hundreds, but most of them could wait.


    ¡°So what do we do with you?¡± He asked, realizing he hadn¡¯t had a piece of meat in a while. It was cold now, but that didn¡¯t stop him from taking another large bite.


    ¡°Please, I¡¯m ok to die, just stop with the torture. I can¡¯t return to the vessel as they want me dead. I can no longer return to the Hive since I have told you all of our secrets. Please, just put me out of my misery.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to kill you though¡­.¡± Mike mused as his mouth chewed. ¡°How about we be friends instead?¡± his mouth splitting into a grin that leaked out the smallest bit of juice¨Cmonster meat is crazy juicy.


    The creature¡¯s already pale skin got even more pallid as he nodded.


    ¡°Ok, first things first, friend, what do I call you?¡±


    ¡°I was Strike Leader on the vessel, before that I was Pupach ZB2376%$#.¡±


    ¡°Ok, Pupach it is!¡±


    Noticing Pupach¡¯s face fall, Mike could only assume that they were disappointed because he couldn¡¯t pronounce the crazy string of noises he had just heard. He vowed to work on it with time.

 Untried: Chapter 41

    Although still fully confident he could trust Pupach, Mike quickly dug them out of the small burrow and untied their limbs, remaining vigilant all the while to a surprise attack. Thankfully none came and he was able to keep his new friend. Neither of them had any delusions about the situation: Mike was far stronger and had many more skills at his disposal. He didn¡¯t know if Pupach could see energy signatures, but Mike¡¯s core was clearly several steps above his own, although both were in the pumpkin¨CTier 2 stage. It is going to take some getting used to not calling the core sizes by their vegetable comparables. He mused.


    ¡°So how do I go about identifying monsters that can attack my soul without actually allowing it to attack my soul?¡±


    ¡°You mean sacred beasts?  Only barbarians use the term monster in the multiverse. And there isn¡¯t a good way. That would take the ability to see another creature¡¯s channels and skill fractals and know what a soul attack fractal looks like, both of which are way beyond our capacity.¡±


    Mike took the correction in stride, it was always good to be polite, plus he was more focused on the news that seeing other¡¯s channels was rare. ¡°I can see channels, but I unfortunately don¡¯t know what the skill fractal looks like.¡±


    Pupach¡¯s downturned head shot upwards at the information, before they exclaimed, ¡°You have Energy Sense at that high of a level?!  No wonder they are willing to go through the headache of harvesting you!¡±


    Mike was still processing how to feel about the last statement as Pupach continued, ¡°Luckily for you, you don¡¯t actually need to find such a creature, because members of the Hive are all trained in attacking and defending the soul. It is at the heart of the System after all, and it is what allows the faction to flourish.


    ¡°You should know however that I will only be able to teach you the basics¨Cenough that you can recognize when you are being attacked. You will need to find stronger attackers before you are ready to face the System though.¡±


    Mike looked suspiciously at the squid-man. It sounded like the perfect way for a prisoner to surprise their unknowing jailor, but eventually decided it was the most sensible path forward. More importantly, it was a show of good-faith for the friendship.


    ?????????????


    Strike Leader, no Pupach as they needed to refer to themselves now, had at first been very wary of the anomaly, Mike, and they still were if they were being honest with themselves. The native was absurdly powerful for his level of cultivation, and yet completely clueless. However, because of his relative power, Pupach realized that maybe Mike was the right being to tie their cultivation chariot to.


    They had meant what they said earlier, there was no going back for them. Sector Assimilator would kill them on sight and if anyone ever found out about their betrayal to an anomaly, they would never be welcomed back into the Hive. They had hit rock bottom and were stranded in some unknown part of the multiverse. They might be able to survive by themselves for a time, but so much of their power was propped up by the System augments that they wore, that they would inevitably perish. Pupach didn¡¯t know if Mike could actually overcome the integration, it was highly unlikely at the very least. But it seemed like the only way out of their current situation. So they offered to help.


    ?????????????


    Mike didn¡¯t know what he had been expecting when he heard the term soul attack, but he was surprised when it felt very similar to his previous experience of kicking the Energy Sucking symbol from his soul space. All of a sudden an unknown symbol appeared and began attempting to suck the energy straight from his channels, causing him to feel a wave of panic. After only a few moments, however, it became apparent that the attack was much weaker than the System¡¯s.


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    Pupach had instructed him to fight back, and just as he had done with the System he managed it almost instinctively, willing the tides of his consciousness and the power of his channels to rise up and fight against the symbol. Within a matter of moments, it was completely overwhelmed, and he opened his eyes to see Pupach eyeing him with an unreadable expression.


    ¡°That was very good.¡± Pupach said at length, ¡°I thought you said you hadn¡¯t done this before.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t actually know what a soul intrusion constituted. As it turns out, I have done this many times with the System when I first learned to level my skills. Until one day it stopped happening.¡±


    ¡°Interesting¡­¡± Pupach mused while stroking his facial tentacles. The gesture looked so human that Mike had a hard time not laughing. ¡°They turned off energy recuperation. I wonder why that is¡­.   Well, it probably doesn¡¯t matter too much. Let¡¯s keep practicing. You aren¡¯t lacking in power, but your response time needs to be faster.


    ¡°Also, have you only ever defended against energy consumption techniques, or have you battled energy influx techniques as well?¡±


    ¡°I am not sure what an influx technique is, but I¡¯m guessing that it is where someone pushes cosmic energy into another?¡±


    ¡°Exactly, they are trickier to defend against, although usually they require less energy to fight.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t understand, why would someone want to push energy into me?  Wouldn¡¯t that just make me stronger?¡±


    ¡°Ah, well the key is that they push more than just energy into you. Hidden in the cosmic energy can be a myriad of different effects. Small sigils designed to destroy your channels or sigils that would change your physical body. Think germs but on a much higher level of power.¡±


    The discussion continued followed by more training. In this manner, the next couple of weeks flew by. In only a couple of days, Mike was able to easily brush off Pupach¡¯s attacks almost instantly. He insisted that Pupach make sneak attacks whenever possible to help him be ready to defend against a true attack.


    When Pupach was no longer strong enough to present a challenge, they went in search of a creature to fit their needs. This was an awkward process. Mike could very easily see energy pathways in others, but seeing as all of the creatures were grouped together, it was like trying to follow a single strand of Christmas lights in a forest full of Christmas trees, it wasn¡¯t possible at a distance.


    Instead, they took to the process of working their way up the line one by one. Of course, any creature near the back of the line was unwilling to attack, so they had to start their inspection far enough up the chain that the beast would be willing to fight. Once a place in line was secured, Mike would inspect the creature in front of him. This could often take hours as energy pathways perpetually increase in complexity as a beast gets higher tiered.


    Once he verified whether or not a creature had the appropriate symbol, his next action was always the same, cut in front of the creature and fight once more. If they didn¡¯t have the symbol, he was just moving up his place one position so he could inspect the energy channels of the next creature, but if they did, he could get some practice in. The vast majority of the time, the process resulted in him simply fighting with his skills, but every once in a while he got lucky.


    His first exposure to energy influx happened just two days into the process, and boy was he glad Pupach had prepared him. He almost reflexively began circulating the extra energy when it entered his channels, and it was only through the preparation that he knew instead to surround the intruding energy with his own energy before hurling it at the invading symbol¨Cat least, that''s the way he thought about it. It was hard to describe the process, like explaining the color orange to someone who had only ever seen in black and white.


    In addition to gaining experience in his soul defending capabilities, he was able to gain two more sizes to his core from the constant fighting and the subsequent hugging of his slain foes¨Ca process which was much more embarrassing with Pupach watching than it had been when he was alone. The levels had been gained without the use of cosmic water, as he was saving that to add to his channels, a discussion that was ongoing.


    He learned a lot about sacred symbols by studying the pathways of others, and had at first been tempted to simply add on a few new sigils from what he saw. That is until Pupach pointed out that he had no idea how accurate the symbol was. It was better to wait for a true cultivation opportunity that would lead to long-term strength than wasting his precious resource on something where the outcome was unknown.


    Finally, in addition to all of his personal growth, Mike felt that he and Pupach had grown as a team. A weird team, yes. One where neither fully trusted the other. But a team nonetheless. It felt good to have someone to talk to, especially someone who had much more knowledge than himself. His only complaint was that Pupach never joined him for dinner, even though he did his best to have meat each night¨Cnot because either needed to eat much at their current stage of cultivation, but because food was good.

 Untried: Chapter 42

    Sector Assimilator watched the Quantum Tear with a mixture of longing and boredom. Hour after hour, they watched as the strike team grew stronger and more experienced, while they were stuck aboard the vessel, waiting with no small amount of boredom for the anomaly to return. The only point of enjoyment after the initial excitement wore off had been when Strike Leader¡¯s vessel had been crushed and sent flying through the tear. Nothing quite hit the spot like seeing someone annoying be killed.


    Still that had been weeks ago (local time) and Sector Assimilator was itching for more bloodshed. They were tempted to send System Administrator down to die in a like manner, but knew better. That old koot was the type of spawn that would much rather die honorably fighting than being disgraced and imprisoned, which meant that the only fitting punishment was to make sure they made it back to stand trial. They were sure that they could build a solid enough case against them to see it happen at court, and if not, they could always line a few pockets to ensure that it fell in their favor. Especially with the crazy amount of coinage they would reap from this integration and the anomaly.


    ¡°Pity we are stuck up here doing nothing.¡± Junior Administrator said, reading Sector Assimilator¡¯s thoughts perfectly.


    ¡°It is, isn¡¯t it? We who are strongest in this entire sector and yet we are simply stuck watching.¡±


    ¡°It would take the main cannons breaking and another Tier 3 coming to force us to go down and fight.¡±


    Their junior cousin¡¯s words prompted an idea to come to Sector Assimilator¡¯s mind. ¡°Who''s to say that a Tier 3 isn¡¯t coming through that tear right now? It would be irresponsible of us to simply assume from here that there isn¡¯t a Tier 3. Maybe I need to go down and investigate.¡±


    ¡°I mean, the viewing screen has everything at Tier 2.¡± their daft cousin said, not catching their inflection.


    ¡°Does it though?¡± Sector Assimilator asked, nudging Junior Administrator and swishing his jugular tentacles back and forth quickly¨Cthe spawn equivalent of a human wink.


    ¡°Ah, I see.¡± Junior Administrator said with a little too much sarcasm, spawn, their cousin was stupid. ¡°Perhaps you should go check it out.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I think I will. I am leaving you in charge, be ready to beam me up if necessary.¡± Sector Assimilator said as they made their way from the chamber towards the main boarding station where their fighting equipment was stored. Things were going to get a lot more fun.


    ?????????????


    A large rock came free, flying three feet through the air and into Brent¡¯s elongated maw, turning into nothing before it reached the back of his throat. Light streamed through the opening created by the rock¡¯s absence, the first he had seen in months, causing him to shriek in pain.


    ¡°AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHGG!!!!!¡±


    It was much closer to the scream of a child than that of a man, but he didn¡¯t care in that moment, all he could think was, ¡°Why are my eyes burning!?!¡± As he reflexively scooted backwards. By this point, he had spent so long underground bumping into rocks, that he was completely oblivious to the sharp objects his body impacted as he hastily retreated. It took hundreds of yards of backpedaling before he finally felt comfortable enough to open his eyes, and even then, the light caused them to water.


    ¡°Miiiiiiiiiiike!¡± he raged, his now chronic anger for the man becoming his tangible excuse for every slight uncomfort he experienced, before his hunger overshadowed the pain and he set about inhaling every loose object in sight.


    Several hours later, as full darkness finally enshrouded northern Montana, he was able to leave the cave, although even the light of the crescent-moon was near blinding, but not as blinding as the large System-enforced arrow pointing down at his location. He had forgotten that was even a thing. Not knowing which way to go, he simply set off into the woods, blindly crashing through the forest. Eventually, he would find someone that could direct him to Mike, they may even taste good too if he was lucky.


    Every once in a while, he called loudly for the man who was to blame for his hunger-induced predicament, but no response was forthcoming, and instead he was forced to slurp up any sleeping creature he came upon. Mmmmm Travel Snacks! He thought joyfully, though the awaited bloating that most travel foods induced wasn¡¯t forthcoming. Still, level 65 was way higher than anything else in this area, and it felt good to be on top.


    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    ?????????????


    Bjarn held back the whimpers as he took up position near the rear of the party. They had set out days ago from the village to gain some quick levels. Everything near their village was now underwhelming and scarce, forcing them to go further and further with each trip.


    Bjarn had originally loved the integration into this new reality, as it felt like his weekly Dungeons and Dragons game had come to life¨Ceach day was an exciting adventure offering new opportunities. Or it had been until the Zone barrier fell and the whole village suddenly had to fight monsters way outside their comfort zone. Six months later, even after conquering much of the land around Tarenford, (yeah, somehow Taren got a System award to name the town and that was the best he had) venturing out was still scary business.


    The party had been tracking a herd of exceedingly large bobcats for the past two days, when suddenly, a large arrow appeared in the sky, causing everyone excitement to grow, especially when they Analyzed it.


    [Existing Zone Quest Found: Headhunt


    Kill the marked adventurer on sight.


    Rewards: Double XP, Lottery Item]


    ¡°A lottery item?! Imagine if it was a new bow?¡± Ross, their archer had said.


    ¡°Or a new throwing dagger!¡± Angela, their rogue had chimed in.


    Bjarn had remained silent, nervously eating through their stockpile of gooseberries as his compatriots agreed to leave the trail of the large cats and head towards their arrow, which had steadily grown closer.


    Around five minutes ago, they had first heard it, the whirring of a tornado, occasionally punctuated by the howl of small forest creatures, but they hadn¡¯t seen the source until 20 seconds ago. A withered man was wandering aimlessly through the forest, completely oblivious to his surroundings. His skin was pasty white and flaky, like there was no moisture in it all. His hair was stringy and filthy. But worst of all was his mouth. The enlarged orifice was stretched, spanning over a foot and a half in height. As the man walked, he constantly sucked any loose debris up before making it magically disappear. Bjarn had thought it was some kind of item until he caught the glint of small, yellow teeth inside.


    Ben, the party leader, gave hand signals to the group, assigning each person a role in the upcoming battle, before he gave a final signal, having them all split up. Bjarn couldn¡¯t remember what his role was, and woodenly shoved a few more berries in his mouth as he watched the battle commence.


    ?????????????


    Brent sensed the lifeform approaching from his side, a perk of his most recent level advancement in Consume. Feeling that it was larger than just a small forest animal, he made the only assumption he could: Mike had heard him and had come to feed his unceasing hunger.


    Pouncing forward and sucking as hard as he could, Brent stripped all the leaves from the bushes in front of him, revealing an archer with their bow pulled taught, who released the arrow immediately upon being seen. The useless projectile was gobbled up like everything else as Brent moved several more steps forward, all the while, inhaling as hard as he could.


    The archer¡¯s bow broke loose and joined the arrow, followed by his hat. In an instant, the man himself was being drug across the ground before his head entered Brent¡¯s awaiting jaws. For the first time in months, he found himself with something edible in his mouth that didn¡¯t simply vanish, and he chomped down with fervor, barely registering the shrieks coming from his meal. What he did register that nothing was entering his stomach despite his vigorous chewing. Not a drop of blood or a scrap of meat.


    Sensing another lifeform within his sphere of perception, he vigorously yanked on the archer¡¯s neck, causing it to detach from his body before simply ceasing to exist, the qualifications of the skill having been met.


    Raging at not getting any actual sustenance, Brent pounced on the new life form, not caring that his body was being punctured by a small dagger¨Cin fact, the pain was nonexistent compared to the insatiable hunger he felt.


    [Congratulation: New Skill Unlocked, Blood Rites


    Your enemy is the fuel that will make you whole.


    Passively heal wounds using energy gained from Consume.]


    The notification came as his second attacker was killed, and his wounds sealed themselves up in a matter of moments. Just in time for his next meal to come charging in from the side, a warrior covered in scale male. I¡¯ve never tasted metal before, Brent though as he sucked the lunging sword from his attacker¡¯s hand, Consuming it whole. Tastes just like everything else. He thought with no small measure of sadness.


    As the last attacker fell, he continued walking through the woods, only to sense a final lifeform. Rushing over to its location, he saw a man staring at him with mute horror, his only movement was shoving small berries into his mouth.


    ¡°You would mock my hunger?!!?¡± he screamed, before lunging at the man and eating him bit by tasteless bit.


    It was only when the last morsel was consumed that he realized he had missed a good opportunity to ask for directions.

 Untried: Chapter 43

    Energy coursed through Mike¡¯s body, the source of which was a giant sigil in his soul space, and for the first time since fighting up the queue, he felt overwhelmed. Physically, he could destroy his opponent, it was only because he was allowing the fight to drag on to gain experience in mental combat that he was being overpowered.


    He tried his best to grab all of the energy that had been injected into him, but it was entering too fast and had already begun leaking into the rest of his channels. After another minute of valiant effort, he activated Footsteps of the Wind and ran away. The invasive energy caused the skill activation to feel like his channels were burning slightly, making each step painful. Thankfully, as was the custom for the hosts waiting to enter the rift, he wasn¡¯t pursued.


    Cresting the nearest crater, he began running around the upward edge, where, upon reaching the far side, he ran down the slope and into the crater that lay beyond. Pupach was waiting there, their eyes darting around nervously as they checked their surroundings¨Ca habit Mike had noticed multiple times over the previous weeks. Mike once again felt grateful for his ability to see energy signatures from a distance, since it made it so he could stay alert without looking like a lost schoolboy, or schoolsquid in this case?


    ¡°How did the training go? I noticed you were forced to retreat.¡±


    ¡°Yes, the injection rate was overpowering, and I couldn¡¯t keep up with it.¡±


    Pupach audibly hissed, though Mike had yet to see the creature¡¯s mouth. He just knew it was somewhere on the underside of their jaw based on where sounds came from. It would be easier to find out if they would just share in some of my southern hospitality, he lamented.


    ¡°So you still have foreign energy?  Have you allowed it to spread?¡±


    ¡°Well yeah, when I activated my skill it pretty much spread everywhere.¡±


    *Tsssk* ¡°That isn¡¯t good. Is it causing pain?¡±


    ¡°A bit. I¡¯d say it feels like a sore muscle. Nothing a little time won¡¯t fix.¡±


    ¡°It may be more complicated than that depending on the type of energy injected. This one recommends isolation while you try to gather the energy and expel it forcefully.¡±


    ¡°Well can¡¯t I just use up my energy stores?¡±


    ¡°In theory that could work. But there is no guarantee that the injected energy will be processed and not simply stay in the channels. There also is no guarantee that it won¡¯t propagate or harm your channels by being used.¡±


    The information made Mike¡¯s chest constrict. ¡°So the only option is to manually pick it out?  That is like separating grains of sand in a large sprinkler system¨Cit could take months. Who knows if we even have that long?¡±


    ¡°In the Hive we have a saying, It is better to build one¡¯s foundation on stone than sand, even though it takes longer. You will be grateful you did this now rather than dealing with the consequences later.¡±


    Idly wondering why the saying was so similar to biblical sayings, Mike agreed and followed the squid back to their base. Finding a comfortable spot, he turned inward and began locating the intruders. It was hard to explain. The energy within him wasn¡¯t like pure water, it had small packets which he had never been able to explain. Some of those packets were the intruders and needed to be picked out.


    ¡°This is going to take forever.¡± he lamented as he buckled down and focused.


    ?????????????


    Two days later, Mike sat on a rim overlooking the queue. The truth was, he had gotten bored of picking out the energy and had insisted that they at least catch some vitamin D through the rift while he worked, the constant dwelling on an asteroid was beginning to impact his farmers'' tan. Which, if he was being honest, hadn¡¯t been the same ever since his clothes had turned into little more than scraps.


    He wasn¡¯t a robot or super hippy, so when his life wasn¡¯t on the line, he preferred to only focus on his channels for a few hours at a time, before taking a short break. During his breaks, he enjoyed watching the battles unfolding below him. It was a unique opportunity to learn from the strengths and skills of others. He had been working diligently until only a few minutes ago, when Pupach had nudged him out of his meditation with the agreed upon signal, which meant that the beast that had infected him was fighting again. He hoped he would be able to learn something about expelling the invasive packets faster by watching it battle again.


    The three-headed cross between a vulture and lion towered over the small, slug-like creature below it, although Mike could see from Energy Sense that the slug actually had a slightly larger core. It was one of the weirdest battles he had ever witnessed, as neither of the beasts moved, both being soul-focused combatants. While he could see their channels, Mike couldn¡¯t see their soul space¨Cor the way they envisioned their inner world¨Cwhich made the battle about as exciting as watching golf. Now there was a sport he had never gotten into. Real sports should include contact between two people, a fact he would argue with anyone.


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    As the minutes dragged on without any visible changes, he stood up and crept closer to see if he could get a better idea of what skill fractals were at play. The three-headed, vulture, griffin had his injection skill active, which Mike was able to locate quickly having spent so much time under its pressure, but he didn¡¯t see any skills active in the slug. In addition to the active skill, he knew that combat was taking place because energy was building up around the slugs core, proof that the griffin was going all out.


    If I had absorbed that much energy, my channels would have been totally fried. He mused as he watched the core density grow. There must be something going on here that I haven¡¯t noticed yet.


    Stepping even closer to the battle, passing what was generally considered an appropriate distance for the queued beasts, he began tracing the slugs channels, eventually finding what appeared to be a filter of sorts. He wasn¡¯t positive on its entire function, but what he did notice was that the energy on one side of the filter was  slightly murky, and after passing through the filter, it glowed brightly. It was a minute difference, and one he wouldn¡¯t have noticed a few weeks ago.


    Is this creature able to simply filter out invasive energy? This could be perfect! Beasts were beginning to nip at him in warning, but he stayed a few more minutes as he tried to memorize the pathways. However, after only a few more seconds, it became apparent that he either needed to step back or else fight a dozen frustrated beasts who had been standing in line for weeks.


    Backing away he began to formulate a plan.


    ?????????????


    Pupach¡¯s tentacles felt sweaty as they approached the waiting slug. How did I get roped into this again? He asked himself. He was still unsure how an interesting discussion on the principles of filtration fractals had turned into him approaching a beast that was quite a bit stronger than himself.


    ¡°Just distract it for ten minutes or so, that¡¯s all it will take.¡± Mike had assured him. ¡°I¡¯ll make you a wonderful dinner as compensation.¡± The threat had been the only thing that had caused him to capitulate.


    And to think he was mad I hadn¡¯t brought up filtration techniques earlier? LIke it is just common to find such a symbol, let alone obtain it legally simply from viewing the owner of it. Their angst mellowed somewhat as the thought landed. He is going to be an absolute powerhouse one day if he survives all of this. What faction wouldn¡¯t want him? Abyss, the Hive would likely take him on even if he foiled an integration.


    Having reached the slug, they stepped in front of it, flaring their sigils in preparation for battle, only to find that nothing happened. The slug simply stood there, waiting for Pupach to make the first move. Aiming to prolong the fight, Pupach stood there as well, doing their best to remain vigilant as the minutes ticked by. Occasionally they would look over at the anomaly, only to see him staring with great focus at the slug.


    So he can focus when he wants to. That¡¯s good to know. Based on his diligence in clearing out his channels, I was beginning to worry.


    Minutes turned to hours. Finally, after 12 hours, Mike took a gasp of air, as he came to his surroundings. With a thumbs-up in Pupach¡¯s direction, he headed away from the beasts. Unsure what the gesture meant, Pupach waited a few moments before following after him.


    ?????????????


    Pupach had been telling the truth, growing channels was even more agonizing now that Mike was at a higher tier¨Cas well as more expensive. The only reason he had finished at all was because the filtration symbol was much smaller than the symbol for sucking energy. Even so, it had taken three days and the last of his cosmic water to finish the skill fractal. But the end result was worth it.


    Mike watched as energy passed from one side of the filter to the other. When active, every single packet that entered the filter was broken down and vented outside of his body. The downside was that it cost energy to maintain the filter, but the upside was that it was thousands of times faster than picking out packets of energy on his own, plus it wasn¡¯t boring.


    Satisfied with the results, he turned to Pupach and thanked him for his help, before promising that he would make a satisfactory meal just as soon as he got his rest. The squidman squirmed slightly, before finally speaking.


    ¡°Mike, there is something you should know.¡± Pupach said nervously.


    Worried that he had been betrayed, Mike was instantly on guard, but tried not to show it as he coaxed out the information. ¡°Whatever it is, we will do our best to work it out.¡±


    ¡°I hate meat. Talking about it. Smelling it cook. Watching you eat it. It is worse than torture.¡± as Mike¡¯s face fell, Pupach rushed onwards. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I thought you already knew that and were using it as a means of torture all this time. It is only in the last hour of reflection that I realized you may not know at all.¡±


    ¡°Whaaaaat?! How is that even possible? What is better than meat? What do you even eat then?¡±


    ¡°Well as a pupach, we mostly lived on web sap. And as adults, my kind doesn¡¯t eat much. Unless it is a cultivation treasure of some kind.¡±


    No food?  This would be my luck to befriend someone who is revolted by my greatest passion. And what on earth is web sap?  Wait, I don¡¯t even want to know.


    After a moment, Mike probed further, ¡°Well what about  brownies? Have you tried those before?¡±


    ¡°This one is not familiar with what a brownie is.¡±


    ¡°Well it is no wonder that you don¡¯t eat unless you have to then. Trust me, they are worth it. When we get back to earth, I¡¯m gonna rock your world.¡± Mike declared, his resolve to return sooner rather than later growing.

 Untried: Chapter 44

    It took only a few more hours before all of the energy in Mike¡¯s channels had been processed, and he was in awe of how much cleaner his channels were. Gone was every packet that had hitherto infested him, and all that remained was the perfectly-clear, golden energy. Flexing an ability, he found that his energy was more responsive than ever before. After some testing, he came to the conclusion that his speed of thought and his reaction times would now be his limiting factor, not his ability to activate an ability. It was a good place to be, and signaled to him that he had fully integrated his skills into his fighting arsenal.


    After talking more with Pupach about the small packets of energy, he learned that cosmic energy could have inherent traits, and that likely many of the packets were Solar and Lunar traits from all of the cosmic water he had used. He also surmised that some of the existing packets within him were System influence, and likely the mechanism of harvesting assimilants at the end of an integration and that he likely gained them simply from being inundated by System infected energy. Pupach was physically unable to tell him everything, but he could confirm Mike¡¯s assumptions. Mike tried to gain information on how Pupach was being blocked from speaking, but apparently he was blocked on that too, and he was left believing that the HIve was nothing more than a large-scale cult that spanned multiple universes and limited its members¡¯ freedom of speech.


    Filthy galactic communists! He raged as he went back to the surface. It was time to find the beast that had injected him and ask for a rematch.


    ?????????????


    Mike¡¯s eyes seemed to peer into the eyes of the vulture-griffen-cerberus¡¯s middle head, although both were mostly unaware of the outside world as they internally struggled. ¡°Struggled¡± was a bit of a misnomer at this point. After a week of daily battles with his opponent, it felt more like stretching than a true workout for Mike. Though the beast kept up a steady stream of injections, Mike was able to process the energy as fast as it came in, the upkeep cost of maintaining his filtration ability being negated by the energy coming in with the infections energy packets.


    Feeling the energy supply decrease, Mike knew his opponent was running low on steam and rather than forcing the creature to retreat, he bowed and walked away. It wasn¡¯t worth causing the creature to run away, then he would have to spend hours searching for it.


    ¡°How¡¯d it go?¡± Pupach asked when he entered the nearby crater.


    ¡°Eh, even less growth than yesterday I think. I need more opponents.¡±


    ¡°If you can handle that, you are going to be fine handling the ambient effects of the System. Anything short of a direct injection should be manageable.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good to hear, but something tells me that I will be on the receiving end of a direct injection with my luck.¡± Mike said grimly before adding in a somewhat more optimistic tone, ¡°Plus, look at all of those beasts down there who are willing to train with me. I don¡¯t have to hunt them. I don¡¯t have to worry about being ambushed, I can train to my heart¡¯s content. It feels wasteful to simply leave that if I haven¡¯t extracted all of the potential from it.¡±


    Pupach made an odd sound like a squirrel being stuck on a record player, which Mike had come to learn was laughter.


    ¡°What¡¯s so funny?¡±


    ¡°Ahaha!  Oh, nothing really. You are just finally speaking like a true cultivator. Extracting every ounce of gain from every resource is how it works.¡±


    ¡°You call it true cultivation, I call it growing up under a mother who lived through the Great Depression.¡± Mike shot right back, thinking himself clever until he saw Pupach¡¯s blank look and remembered he had no idea what the Great Depression was.


    After an awkward silence, Mike fled the scene, excusing himself to go train some more.


    Two more days passed with little variation. Mike killed a few of his opponents and extracted their energy, gaining himself a single increase to the size of his core. It had been weeks since the last time he had been able to increase its size, and the experience left him wishing he had managed to steal the rest of the cosmic water more than anything else.


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    Other than his daily trip to train with the strong soul-bender, he spent his time slowly creeping forward up the line. With only around three more steps to being peak Tier 2, he was only a few dozen places from actually entering the rift, and he spent a small amount of time watching the fights unfold. He needed to be prepared to pass through soon, and he still wasn¡¯t sure how he was going to do it.


    On the morning of the third day, he was busy fighting with the soul-bender, who had slowly lost places in line due to his daily taxes of the beast''s energy, when suddenly he was tackled from behind, breaking his concentration. Sputtering, he looked around, noticing Pupach lying beside him, evidently his assailant, before a burst from Damage Premonition caused him to roll away, narrowly avoiding a pink spear of gooey flesh. Quickly finding his feet, he set himself in a battle stance as he took in his opponent¨Cthe goo monster from weeks prior that he had left in a small hole.


    It must have escaped and it looks¡­. No that can¡¯t be right¡­ He thought, dodging another attack. Ok, yeah, it is angry. Seems dumb to hold a grudge against someone in a fair fight.


    The surrounding beasts took a step back from the battle, giving the combatants more room to maneuver, but it didn¡¯t prove sufficient. Mike dodged the creature¡¯s attacks, waiting for the openings that had existed previously, but found that they had become almost nonexistent. The creature changed tactics and charged at the fallen Pupach, forcing Mike to intercept. He slashed through a projectile, wove under the followup and forcefully booted Pupach a few dozen yards away. Though he managed to come out of the exchange unscathed, he couldn¡¯t say the same for his blade. He had lost another bit of Quicksilver, which rankled him greatly.


    For a handful of minutes, the fight appeared to be a stalemate, which shocked MIke since he could see that his core was much larger than his enemy¡¯s. But then the tide began to turn. Mike couldn¡¯t believe his eyes the first time it happened: as he dodged a predicted attack, the creature slurped sideways and engulfed a spectator, instantly consuming it. A fete it did two more times in the next minute, regaining any lost mass in addition to growing slightly larger.


    Though worrisome, Mike wasn¡¯t overly concerned about the creature regenerating, until he checked its core and found that it had also grown. It is growing its core while in the middle of a battle?


    ¡°Mike! You need to get out of there. Splurgeslimes are notoriously hard to defeat. This isn¡¯t a battle you can win.¡± Pupach hollered from the side.


    Not one to exaggerate, Mike took his friend¡¯s council seriously, disengaging and sprinting away from the fight towards Pupach¡¯s location.


    ¡°Thank goodness for the weird line mechani¡­¡±


    Mike¡¯s sentence was interrupted by Damage Premonition, forcing him to jump forward. Landing and pivoting, he cut off the follow-up spear and saw with chagrin that the splurgeslime had followed him.


    ¡°Mike, why is it following you?¡± Pupach yelled.


    With little time or attention available to answer, Mike focused on the battle at hand. No longer surrounded by onlookers, the beast slowly loss mass under Mike¡¯s assault. Though the beast had gotten stronger, so had Mike, and his previous tactic of hacking off flesh-spears was still effective. He vaguely heard Pupach cheering him on from a distance, but tried to ignore it.


    Right as he began to think that he could beat the splurgeslime, the creature used an ability it hadn¡¯t had before: a loud sucking noise emanated from the beast, like a mouth slurping up excess spittle. After a few moments of the disgusting sound, the amputated pieces of flesh began wriggling on the ground before they shot towards the beast, reattaching themselves to it.


    Well that is new. Mike thought with trepidation.


    ¡°Uh Mike, this one really thinks we should be getting out of here now.¡±


    In total agreement, Mike ran to Pupach, picked him up over under his arms, and began sprinting towards the rift. Beasts blurred past him as he ran towards the front of the line, and it wasn¡¯t until he was five places from the entrance that a large bird with a stinger stopped him from proceeding. In his haste, he had forgotten that everyone had to wait their turns. Setting Pupach down, he aggressively charged the bird. For weeks he had been holding back in fights, focusing on training techniques rather than fighting for survival¨Cthis was different. The skills he had been honing were now his tools of death has quickly decimated his foe, despite the creature having a larger core.


    His right hand blocked a strike from the beast¡¯s stinger, deflecting it into the ground as he stepped inside the beast¡¯s guards. His left hand lashed out with an ax of Quicksilver, cutting the stinger off at the joint, leaving a broken stump spewing ichor. His next movement brought his right arm back up, blocking the creature¡¯s closing wing and giving him space to bring his ax up and chop the beast¡¯s head off at the neck. The other beasts who had been inching forwards to get a piece of Mike inched backwards at the brutal display, giving him space to look around.


    He had hoped that the splurgeslime would be somewhat slowed by the need to challenge others in line, but he saw that wasn¡¯t the case. Slipping forward in a straight line, it devoured one creature after another, the only ones being spared were those who managed to flee in time. Using Energy Sense, he watched as its core reached peak pumpkin for a brief moment while digesting its latest victim before bursting outwards.


    ¡°Oh shoot.¡± he whispered.


    ¡°Great Webmilkers¡­¡± Pupach breathed,  ¡°Tier 3.¡±

 Untried: Chapter 45

    Mike eyed the back of the creature trying to enter the rift, wondering how he could force his way through and escape the vengeful beast behind him. Casting his eyes about, he noticed Pupach eyeing him warily.


    ¡°Mike, there is something you should know. I can¡¯t come with you. I thought I could but the risk of entering back into the System¡¯s domain is too great for me if you fail.¡± The words were spoken meekly, as if expecting retribution.


    ¡°I understand.¡± he responded, fighting between dismay at losing the only intelligent being he had talked to in months and relief that it would be easier to get back through the tear with only himself. Unflinching Meteor could protect him, and it had really been Pupach he had been worried about. ¡°So you will just stay here forever?¡±


    ¡°I was hoping I could give you my tracker. If you defeat the integration, come find me.¡± Pupach said as they pulled a small, metallic device from their suit and placed it in Mike¡¯s hand.


    Mike closed his hand around the interesting shape, feeling a greater sense of loss than he had anticipated. ¡°Of course, Pupach. Good luck!¡±


    Pupach nodded before turning and sprinting as fast as they could towards their shared den, Mike watched for a few moments before he realized that the Tier 3 splurgslime had closed the distance to only 100 yards. By now it was almost the size of a small house, and though creatures fled in every direction from it, tendrils of flesh chased them, more often than not, catching the retreating beasts and dragging them towards the center of mass where they would be consumed and grow the splurgeslime further. Time was running out, it was now or never.


    Removing a bucket of Blasting Stone from his spatial storage bag, he placed it on the ground in front of him, his movements precise and fluid despite the rampaging monster bearing down on him.


    ¡°There¡¯s gotta be a better way of doing this.¡± he thought with some chagrin as he lined up the Quantum Tear to his rear and the Blasting Stone in front of him.


    Forming a pickaxe of Quicksilver, he raised it high above his head before bringing it in front of him in a great looping motion. Though it looked awkward, the movement allowed him to almost hug the large pile of explosives, his body arcing around its shape as the pickax aimed for the backside. Right before contact, he activated Unflinching Meteor.


    Light exploded in front of him as his body was blasted backwards.


    If only Creenchez could see me now.  He thought, remembering fondly his first flight through the air as he escaped the collapsed tunnel in his valley. Then the pressure around him mounted and he was forced to focus solely on pumping his Unflinching Meteor skill with energy.


    ?????????????


    Brent sucked in the squealing hobgoblin with ease, his level dozens above that of his foes. Sharp jabs where metal weapons impaled his body reminded him that he needed to move locations if he wanted to heal fully¨Cit is hard to heal when impaled even with a healing skill.


    It had taken consuming three more parties, but eventually he had the presence of mind to extract information before eating them. The ten parties after that were just bonuses, as each party was far too weak to come close to competing with his prowess.


    Having finally found the valley, he had been making his way to the entrance when he came upon a light snack¨Cor at least he had thought so upon first engagement. As it turned out, the small green creatures were much better at fighting than any of the 13 parties he had beaten thus far. Their attacks were coordinated, as was their retreat.


    It mattered little to him if a few made it back to the valley¨Call that meant was that hopefully Mike would come to him and he wouldn''t have to walk as far.


    His thoughts were interrupted as he finally broke through the treeline and was momentarily blinded by the shining, metallic walls in front of him. What once had been a wooden gate between walls of stone was now a solid wall of metal. He wouldn¡¯t have thought it opened at all except for the hole that formed around one of the fleeing hobgoblins when it reached the shimmering surface.


    Wishing he had some water to go with the amount of metal he was about to consume, he began making his way up the slope to the valley¡¯s wall. He had only gone a few dozen steps when a loud explosion sounded, followed by a large ball of metal flying at him. Sucking grotesquely, the missile was pulled off course and into his awaiting jaws.


    More cannons erupted soon after, and while most of the cannonballs were consumed a few rammed into his body, breaking bones and causing him to wonder if he should have invested more of his stat points into Toughness. He hadn¡¯t thought through a scenario where he couldn¡¯t just eat a few enemies to regenerate.


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    Turning back towards the forest, he ignored the cry of triumph coming from the walls as he went in search of a healing tonic, Tonic? No. What was the word? Oh, squirrel, yes, that is what the creature was called. Although really any living organism would do.


    ?????????????


    Creenchez hurried to plant the next tree. Usually she simply directed the throngs, but when the alarm had been sounded, she had gathered the most ardent followers and ran to the groves. Her mate was adorable, but dense sometimes. From the report she had heard, the valley was dealing with a foe that they couldn¡¯t beat alone. Though initially crushed when she lost connection to Big Bossy Boss, her faith that he would once again save them burned brightly. She just needed to finish planting the trees as she had been commanded. Luckily, there were only a few thousand left before they finished the Quest.


    ?????????????


    The pressure endured far longer than it had in the past, and Mike could only assume it was because he wasn¡¯t being sucked through the tear with space-warping speed, but was instead only launching his way through at a few thousand feet per second.


    In addition to the pressure, his soul space was being assaulted by a constant injection of System-riddled cosmic energy. He briefly thought of closing of his Energy Sucking fractals, but knew that that would only result in him running out of power before he reached the other side. Instead, he focused on pushing the energy through his filtration fractal. With concentration, he was able to keep his channels clear, but he found himself wishing that he had created multiple filtration fractals.


    After what seemed like minutes but was likely only 20 seconds, the pressure decreased dramatically before vanishing entirely and he opened his eyes to see the sky shining above him, where several ships were flying, shooting lasers into the rift.


    Suddenly, large, pink, fleshy spears impaled a few of the ships, alerting him even before Damage Premonition did that the splurgeslime was following him through to earth, and he jumped backwards before activating Footsteps of the Wind to put some space between himself and the battle.


    Damage premonition warned him of the incoming attack and he jumped sideways to avoid the incoming laser. Pivoting, he took blasting stone from his spatial storage bag and threw it at the incoming vessel. The impact was enough to set off the explosive, and the ship¡¯s pilot, momentarily blinded by the explosion, was unable to correct the vessel in time. The ground shook with the force of the impact and Mike felt it even as he sprinted away.


    When the skill was finally running out, he turned around ready to fight any other pursuers, but to his surprise, he saw that all of the other vessels were busy fighting the splurgeslime, and as far as he could tell, they were losing. He briefly wondered if he should go help, but remembered what Pupach had told him about the vessel¡¯s cannon and decided to let them handle it. Turning from the scene, he ran, hoping to lose himself in the kerfuffle despite the speck of System influence he could once again sense in his periphery.


    ?????????????


    ¡°You¡¯re sure?¡± Sector Assimilator asked through the channel.


    ¡°Positive. The anomaly exited the Quantum Tear moments ago and is running away from it.¡± Junior Administrator replied.


    ¡°Excellent. Does it appear aware of our monitoring?¡±


    ¡°Negative, Sector Assimilator. It simply appears to be running¡­.¡±


    Sector Assimilator lost track of the conversation as they dodged the incoming tentacles of the Tier 3 splurgeslime. They navigated it easily, but the Strike Team wasn¡¯t as lucky.


    ¡°Have Acting Strike Leader pull forces from the front and activate the cannon.¡± Sector Assimilator ordered.


    ¡°Relaying message.¡±


    Mere seconds later, the 20 remaining vessels pulled away, Sector Assimilator among them. The force was barely a token of the nearly 100 ships that had engaged the monster less than 3 minutes prior. A large beam descended from the heavens, blasting into the resilient creature. For a few moments nothing happened and Sector Assimilator began to worry, which turned to dismay as the splurgeslime began forcing its way through the tear despite the ship¡¯s cannon.


    ¡°Engage full power!¡± They ordered crisply, and the burning laser visibly changed as the intensity increased. It was a costly maneuver, but not as bad as allowing the creature to enter the integration domain.


    A moment later, the creature exploded into hundreds of pieces.


    ¡°Enemy vanquished.¡± Junior Administrator reported.


    ¡°Very good. Beam up the others.¡±


    ¡°What about you, Senior Cousin?¡±


    ¡°Direct me to the target and then turn off monitoring¡± Sector Assimlator said before turning off their communication arrays. They would need to do this next part on their own to avoid any kind of formal retribution for their actions. It is time to harvest.


    ?????????????


    *Squish*


    *Squish*


    *Slurp*


    A small morsel of the splurgeslime twitched slowly before it began to move. It was far smaller than its previous form and had lost much of its strength, but it remembered the being who had imprisoned it.

 Untried: Chapter 46

    In order to not have the entire vessel view their actions, Sector Assimilator was required to fly dark, without any System assistance to track down the anomaly. They reached the last known location given to them fairly quickly, but from there, they were at a loss as to which direction to go.


    Landing their vessel a short distance away, they left its confines and began searching the area on foot. It took a few minutes to find proof of the anomaly¡¯s passing, as the wind was already beginning to blow sand over the tracks, but it was sufficient to follow, and activating their bodysuit, Sector Assimilator took off at max speed.


    They had to hand it to the old native, they had managed to travel far all things considered, but after cresting a couple of dunes, they saw him stomach surfing only a small distance away. Activating flight mode, they took to the sky and began to climb. Once they were certain that they had gained enough altitude that they would only be taken for a variation of local wildlife, they dove downwards, aiming to take the anomaly unawares.


    It was a tricky scenario. Not only could they not activate their main System powers, but they also had to take out the anomaly without damaging its soulspace¨Cwhich precluded most forms of physical harm¨Calthough a precise, surgical attack to the brain was possible, but it would require the anomaly to be strapped down and unmoving. Instead, they would go for a direct attack on the soulspace. Sector Assimilator¡¯s suit was equipped with an energy injection technique that resulted in no damage to the channels, while also disabling an opponent when it reached the correct concentration. It¡¯s like the Hive expects us to harvest illicitly with these kinds of suit modifications.


    In truth, the technique wasn¡¯t meant for illegal purposes, but as a failsafe should the integration not go as planned and a few assimilation needed to be harvested, but Sector Assimilator wasn¡¯t looking for a way not to justify their actions.


    Diving down, they approached the anomaly at full speed. When a safe yet viable distance had been established, they activated the technique at full capacity, hoping to harvest as quickly as possible and return to the ship before anyspawn noticed their activities.


    ?????????????


    Mike saw the shadow approach and was prepared to fight off the angry vulture¨Cafter weeks spent fighting against much stronger creatures, it would be simple to stop something barely in the early stages of Tier 2. Instead of the anticipated impact, he was pulled into his soulspace as a very large sigil appeared and began to inject energy into him rapidly.


    Pupach mentioned that local beasts wouldn¡¯t have soulspace abilities as they were deemed to risky to an integration to be worth the cost, so this must be another member of the Hive. He thought with alarm as he began cycling through the energy as fast as he could, ridding it of any unwanted packets. He found the attack to be roughly on par with the three-headed vulture, maybe slightly stronger.


    The increased use put strain on his already occupied filtration fractal, and he found himself unable to keep up. He would be fine for a while still, but he guessed that around 5% of the attack was unable to be processed as fast as it was coming in, causing it to clog up in front of the filtration system, reminding him of shower drains he had had to clean out in years past.


    For several minutes he simply endured the onslaught, focusing on processing the energy as efficiently as possible. But as time wore on and there was no end of the skill in sight, he realized he would have to go on the offensive. Leaving his soul space, he removed a fist-sized chunk of Blasting Stone from his spatial storage bag and lobbed it at his assailant. The squid-man had the presence of mind to dodge it before once again aligning above him.


    ¡°Game on!¡± he said as he removed a continuous stream of Blasting Stone  from his bag and began throwing them as quickly as he could. ¡°I wasn¡¯t the neighborhood champion of snowball fights for nothing.¡±


    One. Two. Three projectiles were dodged easily, but on the fourth, the creature¡¯s leg was impacted, causing them to wobble in the air.  Another struck soon after, forcing them to gain altitude. Unfortunately for his assailant, Mike had grown tremendously on the other side of the rift, and could now throw a stone a few thousand feet vertically.


    At a certain point, the squid must have left range, as the injection skill stopped and Mike was able to clear out the sludge-like packets that had continued building up. A process which happened rapidly when he only had to deal with the System domain injections by themselves.


    He prepared himself for another onslaught when his opponent began flying at him again, but it soon became apparent that they weren¡¯t planning on simply injecting him this time around as they blasted past their formerly maintained range and bulleted towards his position, resulting in a warning from Damage Premonition that helped him move out of the way in time.


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    *Crash*


    The suited warrior careened into where he had stood only moments before, causing the ground to shake as Mike once again found his feet and looked over to see the wreckage. Instead of the broken heap of flesh and metal that he expected, he barely had time to react to the incoming bladed arm that swung for him.


    Man, this warrior is faster than me. He realized as he jumped backwards, putting space between them.


    ¡°Why do you bother struggling?  You can¡¯t possibly match me. My suit can take on a Tier 3 in a pinch, and while you have grown stronger, you certainly aren¡¯t a Tier 3.¡± The System spawn said, in a surprisingly nasally voice. Mike generally tried to not judge people, especially before he knew them, but something about his opponent made him want to punch the squid in the face, and that was in no way stemming from a place of self defense.


    Deciding to do just that, he activated Footsteps of the Wind and went on the offensive. With the skill up, he was quite a bit faster than his opponent and was able to get in quite a few hits, although nothing permanently damaging, as the suit proved exceedingly durable. With only a few seconds left on the skill, he backed up to give himself some space and opted to verbally reengage his opponent to try and bluff his way through the impending lack of grace when Footsteps of the Wind ended¨Conce again he wished he had put effort into upgrading that skill before the Quantum Tear.


    ¡°It¡¯s easy to accuse another of weakness when you have the bigger gun, but things would be different if we fought man to¡­ erh squidman.¡± Verbal sparring wasn¡¯t one of his strong points, and the childhood, playground-inspired barb felt weak even to his own ears.


    ¡°That makes no sense, why would I give up easily beating you.¡± It turned out his challenge made even less sense to the overly-logical hive member. ¡°Besides, it is not as if there is any real challenge going on. I am simply running down the clock so that I can simply end you with the push of a button, and I think that I have waited long enough.¡±


    With a flourish, the assimilator raised one of its arms, allowing a panel to open on its suit, before it lifted its other arm and held its hand ominously above the exposed control panel. ¡°Goodbye anomaly. Thank you for all of the insights you have already granted me and for the vast amounts of wealth your channels will grant me in the future.¡± It said before pushing the button.


    Mike felt the few remaining packets sizzle slightly, but in such a small concentration, they had no effect on his channels or energy levels. He briefly considered acting like it had, but the whole, ¡®playing dead so an opponent lets down their guard¡¯ had always felt a little melodramatic to him. Much better to simply overwhelm them. In an instant, his mind played back what the opponent had said so far in addition to things Pupach had told him. Scanning his opponent, he located his target and attacked.


    Running forwards, he went on the offensive, his mind barely registering the shocked expression of the squidlike face as it realized the injection technique hadn¡¯t worked. Securing a leg ride, he hooked the inside of his opponent''s thigh (or at least a similar position even if squidmen didn¡¯t have thighs). Step by step, he forced his opponent into position, until the head was locked against his abdomen and the guillotine lock was secured. The alien struggled against the hold with much more force than a human would have been able to, but he stubbornly held on, applying way more pressure than was used against humans¨Che didn¡¯t really care if spinal damage occurred.  At length, the struggles ceased and labored breathing was the only sound coming from both of them.


    ¡°You will run out of energy long before the suit does.¡± the assimilator said after a brief period.


    ¡°Maybe.¡± Mike said as he reapplied pressure, correctly predicting the exact moment his opponent tried to break free.


    Entire minutes later, as the fight once again died down, he did his best to continue the conversation, hoping to keep his true intentions hidden for as long as possible. ¡°But just like James Baxter, you are finding that once you are in a guillotine hold, you can¡¯t break out.¡±


    ¡°You realize this is pointless though, right?¡± the nasally voice replied. I have only chosen not to end you with a burst of energy or a laser to the face because I still want to harvest your channels. Eventually you will tire, and I will do just that.¡±


    ¡°How does that work?¡± he asked, completely ignoring the response as he turned inwards and looked at the Energy Sucking symbol that was currently draining the large cosmic energy storage device placed on the suit¡¯s chest. To his energy sense, he could see that already he had drained it halfway, and the energy continued to pour in at an alarming rate. He would easily outlast his opponent, it was really just a matter of his soulspace not being overloaded. Already it was near bursting.


    With the last bits of energy drained, he interrupted the villain¡¯s monologue. ¡°Ok, I am ready for you to kill me.¡± he said as he released the hold.


    ¡°Very well. Goodbye then.¡± the creature said as it tried to regain its feet, only to find that the suit was now too heavy to move in without the cosmic energy.


    ¡°What? You drained my suit? How is this even possible?¡± it wailed in an impressive tantrum.


    Mike didn¡¯t bother to reply, by now he was beyond sick of the constant dribble, instead opting to quickly open the suit¡¯s helmet before decapitating his opponent.


    Mentally arguing with himself over the morality of turning the neck tentacles into calamari, he sat down and began cultivating. His soulspace was beyond full, and it was time to push to the cusp of Tier 3.

 Untried: Chapter 47

    Brent snuck up the ridgeline in the darkness. Snuck was a relative word. Though he tried to be quiet, he couldn¡¯t help himself from snatching up various snacks on his journey, so squawks and shrieks announced his arrival intermittently.


    As he crested the mountain¡¯s face, he came face to face with a hobgoblin, who appeared to just be waking up from a nap. Devouring the little green creature, he idly noticed a large pile of logs situated nearby and considered eating them too, but ultimately decided that vengeance should take priority over an especially fibrous salad.


    Small fires in the valley below guided him to the town proper, and he began to pick up speed in his haste to finally get revenge. Arrows began to whiz by his head as he entered the village proper and his stomach growled in anticipation as he eyed the feast in front of him. A heavily armored hobgoblin caught him by surprise, knocking him sideways and into a fire pit. Screeching in pain, he ran into the nearest building searching for something to regenerate his charred flesh, not caring that the logs began to catch fire as he entered and devoured one hobgoblin after another.


    ?????????????


    Creeanth awakened to shrieking outside of his private cabin. Already garbed in his loincloth, he jumped from his bed and ran outside to see absolute chaos.  Several cabins were burning brightly, and their luster was reflected by the countless metallic-coated trees in the surroundings. Usually the shimmering sight was awe inspiring, but under the current conditions, it only served to heighten the pandemonium.


    Grabbing a fleeing hobgoblin as they ran past, he urgently asked what the source of commotion was, only to be told in very limited hobgobberish about an adventurer that was eating hobgoblins by the dozens. Feeling somewhat skeptical, he made his way in the direction indicated, which was further into the town towards the valley¡¯s center. It wasn¡¯t until he neared the small river that he first caught sight of the enemy. Based on the reports he had received a few hours prior, he knew Brent on sight. If the force of his inhalations wasn¡¯t obvious enough, then his unsightly pale skin and the overly stretched mouth were plenty.


    Moving into action immediately, he motioned to the trained warriors and instructed them to attack from distance and from every side. As they backed off and fell into formation, he once again felt grateful for the many tactical advantages Big Bossy Boss had taught them before he vanished.


    For a brief moment, Brent found himself in the center of an onslaught, and Creeanth felt that the fight was a foregone conclusion as the enemies body was impaled many times over, but that changed when the much larger being raced forward and sucked up Creeator, one of the best trained scouts the valley had. To Creeanth¡¯s surprise, the hobgoblin wasn¡¯t eaten, but instead seemingly vanished in only a few bites from the oversized maw, before Brent started regenerating more rapidly than the attacks fell.


    Fighting the onset of panic, Creeanth instructed his troops to continue attacking from a distance and to retreat at any motion from the enemy. It was a stalling tactic at best, hopefully a way forward would come to him soon.


    ?????????????


    Creenchez worked as fast as she could, humming along the planting song that had been developed over the months planting trees¨Cit served both to keep the horde¡¯s mind off of the repetitive and somewhat nature of the work, while also inspiring them. The discordant notes were a beautiful medley that only hobgoblins could sing perfectly, although sometimes dying animals got it almost right. As she finished her tree, the long awaited notification appeared:


    [Congratulations!  Quest Completed!


    Calculating Rewards]


    [Congratulations! 20 Additional Stat Points Awaiting Assignment]


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    [Congratulations!  New skill unlocked, Divine Smite!


    +2 Intelligence


    Channel the power of your deity directly,


    smiting your foes with the force of their energy.]


    Tears spewed from her eyes as she saw the skill. Both because she felt an unworthy vessel to use Big Bossy Boss¡¯s energy, but more so because she knew it wouldn¡¯t work. Her connection to him had been severed for weeks. Desperate to do what she could to help save the valley, she began running towards the sounds of warfare while debating where she could put her points. 20 points was far more than she had ever been able to allocate in one go and she felt confident it could make a difference if she just put it in the right place.


    She wasn¡¯t a warrior, she was a spiritual leader, and as such, most of her points had gone into Intelligence thus far, allowing her to guide the flock with a heightened ability to think and problem solve. Her Strength was poor, as was her Dexterity, and while 20 points could bring up either to compete with the highest in the valley, she was hesitant to do so.


    She still hadn¡¯t come to any conclusions when she reached the conflict.  Brent was moving towards Creeanth, inhaling deeply. The love of her life stood resolutely, launching fireballs which were snuffed out in the gale. As the distance closed, his hair began to bend and whip about his face and he began to stumble forward. In desperation,  she dumped all her points into Intelligence, hoping with desperation that something would happen. And it did.


    Suddenly, her connection to Big Bossy Boss was restored and she activated Divine Smite, drawing as much power as she could. A blindingly white beam of energy appeared, reaching towards the sky. Brighter than anything she had seen before, she was blinked to shut out the light. An instant later, the light disappeared. Brent was gone and perfectly smooth hole descended deeply into the ground.


    Maybe I should have used less energy. She thought as she pushed aside the Level-Up notification and ran towards Creeanth.


    Hopefully he will listen to my advice more often after seeing that. She thought smugly.


    ?????????????


    Mike grew his core from one stage to the next, the seemingly endless supply of energy he had stolen giving him hope that he might even make it to Tier 3. When his core reached the size of a large pumpkin, he knew his insights into cultivation were about to be tested and he began thinking through what needed to happen next.


    He had asked Pupach about the stages and had been surprised when the squidman had simply laughed at him. Apparently it was rude to discuss cultivation insights. He did learn though that Tier 3 was still considered weak in the multiverse, it wasn¡¯t a blocker on the path to power, as nearly 30% of most factions were at Tier 4 or above. That being said, assimilators assigned to integrate new sectors were limited to Tier 2 and below for two reasons. The first, and largest reason was the accords. The second was that nothing above Tier 2 was needed. The System took care of most of the process, and it wasn''t like planets had creatures stronger than Tier 2 if they had never experienced cultivation before. That information had given Mike the courage to fight back earlier, knowing that inside his opponent''s suit was an assimilator that was quite a bit weaker than himself.


    Shaking his head to remove the stray thoughts, Mike focused back on his core and thought about compression. He had grown his core layer by layer in what felt like solid sheets, but he began to wonder if they had truly been solid. And if they were solid, were they as dense as they could be? Increasing the density of his core, compressing the mass into a smaller space, would enable it to hold onto more mass due to gravity¨Cmuch like planets and stars functioned. Keeping that image in his head, he began looking at his core, delving inside layer by layer. Sure enough, he found that the layers didn¡¯t comprise a solid object, and he felt confident that smooshing them together was a good way to go.


    Preparing himself, he gathered his energy and was about to proceed when a small tendril of energy reached out to him. It was clearly System related, and he moved to destroy it, until he felt what seemed like a whiff of Creenchez, which gave him pause. He had no doubt that accepting the tendril would have negative effects, though he wasn¡¯t sure of the repercussions completely. He went back and forth for several minutes as he mentally debated his options, but then something changed.


    He sensed an urgency from the tendril, which had suddenly grown thicker, and he was confident that Creenchez was desperate for help. Knowing his life would be worth nothing if he simply turned his back on her, he pushed energy outward, grasping the tendril with one of his own. No sooner did they touch than energy began sucking out of him at an alarming rate. His channels which had been full of energy were suddenly bordering on empty after only a brief moment and his body slumped sideways.


    What just happened? He thought as his consciousness faded.

 Untried: Epilogue

    A loud hiss echoed as the hydraulic system opened the door to the Officer¡¯s Brig¨Ca sound System Administrator hadn¡¯t heard since being put inside. Opening their eyes from their cultivation efforts, they saw Junior Administrator standing warily in front of them, their posture seemed so child-like, and System Administrator was reminded just how young the spawn still was.


    ¡°To what do I owe this pleasure?¡± They asked after a time when the usurper said nothing.


    ¡°Sector Assimilator is gone. They set off hours ago to hunt the anomaly and we just now located their suit¨Cit had been drained of energy so we had to manually search for it. We can only assume that they perished.¡± Sensing that there was more, System Administrator waited for the report to continue. ¡°From all appearances, it looks like the anomaly is the one to have finished Sector Assimilator off. It is now nearly a Tier 3 from what we can tell.¡±


    The information caused their head to reel¨Cthis must be the biggest fiasco of an assimilation in the past several millennia, and that was discounting all of the horrible things they suspected had gone on behind the scenes while imprisoned.


    ¡°.... Also, the anomaly has somehow managed to throw off ties to the System and it appears simple harvesting isn¡¯t an option. This one is overwhelmed and humbly seeks your help. I can¡¯t do this.¡±


    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    The final piece of information caused System Administrator to look up in alarm and they almost missed the plea at the end of the sentence. ¡°Let¡¯s get to work.¡± they said as they left the chamber and began heading back to the viewing chamber.


    Over the next several hours, they watched as the anomaly cultivated, only a few steps shy of Tier 3, and they thought desperately of a solution. The key was reintroducing the System so that they had some advantage over the creature that was no stronger than any single individual on the ship, but how?


    The terran had always been overly sentimental, perhaps they could use the valley to force their hand?  It was foolish, every sane cultivator knew that you had to put yourself first, but the anomaly had proven anything but sane.


    Commanding the System to pull up the valley, they saw pandemonium ensuing as the wraith slaughtered its inhabitants, and they saw their opportunity. As the hobgoblin priestess finished the tree-planting quest, they maneuvered the Divine Skill into place and directed the System to communicate the green beast¡¯s desperation through to the anomaly¨Cif it worked, it would reconnect the anomaly to the System and drain it of a lot of its energy.


    When the anomaly accepted the tendril, System Administrator felt a smile form on their chin, a feeling that hadn¡¯t happened since that accursed brat had come aboard. As the drained terran fell sideways, System Administrator made a ship-wide announcement:


    ¡°Attention: Phase 4 is about to begin. Strike Team, ready yourselves for deployment. All other spawn, get to your stations.¡±