Since I don''t want to have to run around with wheels on my feet, that sounds awkward, I make a total of 16 sleeve bearings, 4 of which are longer than the others for the wheels.
It takes me a few tries, but I settle on arranging them in a rhombus with the point at the bottom, with a pair of pseudo-muscles to extend and retract the wheels. I need to make the entire arrangement flexible only at the joints and the muscles strong enough to support me. I also need to rework one of the sleeve bearings, as it rubs too much under heavy weight, but the end result is worth it!
Using my fairly long viney toes to propel myself up to speed looks really creepy, but I don''t care, I''m fast now! I''m burning ground at a breakneck pace! This is a lot of fun!
Wow, there''s a lot of obstacles in this cafeteria, I forgot how much random dross was lying on the ground. Oh, shit, I forgot to make brakes! Steer! Steer!
*Crash!*
*Bang*
*Crunch*
Man, I really showed that table who''s boss. And the wall too. The hive didn''t appreciate the jostling though and I''ve scored my limbs up pretty thoroughly. It''s a testament to how tired Grimal is that he literally slept right through it though.
I spend the next few hours calming down bees, directing repairs on the hive, and forcing my bark heal up properly instead of scarring itself. The jostling convinced one of the baby bees to crawl out of his cell early though, and I''ve got to say, he''s somehow cute and ugly at the same time. I have a few adults set up a larger cell with little footholds so he doesn''t get jostled too much while he finishes maturing, because after adding some little vine thumbs and fabricating some crude stone brake pads for them to hold, I''m ready to see what''s on the end of that tunnel!
---Eliza---
*chew chew chew*
*chew chew chew*
I''ve been thinking about it for a while, but I don''t have room to put cores like Brian. All my body space is being used by my organs. I''ve been watching the creatures in this swamp kill each other for a while though, and they all seem to dig out the mana crystal first then eat them before they eat the rest of the body.
I''m not really sure why, but I''m tired of being weak and they''re all still alive. But why are these crystals so hard to chew? My mandibles hurt and I haven''t even managed to break any off yet.
*chew chew chew*
*chew chew chew*
Ah, there''s a fragment.
*crunch*
Foxglove! I can''t believe it! This is the stuff! I can feel power coursing through me, and I''m instantly strong enough to crush the crystal in my jaws and eat more. Within seconds, it''s gone, but I want more! More! MORE!
Blood glistens in an appealing manner on my carapace, and I pause for a moment to admire how the light glistens crimson of my legs. The moment passes, and soon I climb out of the bloody crater I''ve made in the chest of a frog and start looking around for new prey. The frog''s single remaining eye stares out into the fog as its swollen and lacerated legs twitch feebly even after death.
Brian
*Bssssoooooooooooom!*
*PSHHHHHHHHHHHHH*
After a while traveling down the long hallway going off the cafeteria, I sped up. I passed a number of side passages along the way, but at this point, I''m traveling extremely fast. The wheels are making a loud buzzing sound, and it''s a good thing I greased the axles up with some old cooking oil before I left, because it''s starting to smoke off. That might be a fault of the oil quality and the shoddy bearings though.
This is extremely dangerous, but I''m having the time of my life. Unfortunately, all things must pass, and after another minute or so, I come to a screeching halt as I see brighter light ahead. I never thought I''d need to use STAB braking after the advent of ABS, but I guess I was wrong. Stopping so fast tears up my wheels, looks like I''m walking back. I''m not exactly ready to sit down for 20 minutes in hostile territory growing a new set. Proceeding slowly, I enter the lit up portion of the hallway and spy a doorway ahead, silouetted in light. There''s strange but faint noises coming from that direction.
After approaching slowly and silently, I lean around the corner.
It''s a jungle!
Cool!
I even see a bird!
It might be dangerous but I''ve always liked jungles. Plus, I''m a plant chimera now, maybe I can get a little stronger if I''m cautious!
21 A sticky subject
WHO ALLOWED SPIDERS TO GET THIS BIG!
There I was, carefully walking around the edge of this giant jungle room. Listening the birds, and watching the jungle carefully, I edged my way around a giant, funny looking boulder when the entire boulder lifted up and I was overwhelmed by terror.
LEGS. SO MANY HAIRY LEGS.
I barely have any time to process as I get grabbed, pierced by giant fangs, and dragged into a hole in the ground. I fire my flamethrower belatedly, and manage to set myself, and the spider on fire.
The giant trapdoor spider yanks both of us underground with amazing speed. The lid slams above us and suddenly the only sources of light are our own smouldering bodies and the magic lamp-limb I made, though it''s furled up by my basket rim.
I am panic punching and kicking everywhere I can reach as I get stabbed by fangs covered in some gross fluids in non vital places when I realize. I don''t feel pain the same way as a plant. Plants don''t have an ability to do anything on their own, so they have no need for a self preservation alarm. Most of me is non vital areas also, the hive is still pretty small in comparison to the big body I built, and the spider''s fangs aren''t penetrating my woody material well, leading to lots of puncture holes but no damage. Its fangs are only sticking about 8 inches into my body, which isn''t quite enough to reach my hive. I''m glad my hive isn''t bigger for once.
My panic subsides a bit. It''s still there, but I gain some breathing room to make a rational thought.
First, I send away the bees. No point in letting the only vulnerable creatures here get killed while I make my plan. I don''t send them too far, after all, I might fail and need to call on them. I doubt it would do much good, the spider is a bit bigger than I am, but if it comes down to it... No, let''s make a different plan.
Fire didn''t seem to hurt it that badly, but I bet all this web is flammable. We''d both cook like soft boiled eggs in here, but maybe I could do it anyway? There''s a few bee larvae in the hive who wouldn''t survive that. Let''s save that for later. Just in case.
Agh, those fangs wiggling in the new hole above my leg feel gross. That sensation is disconcerting and I don''t like it. Have a hard right to the knee joint! And another to the eyes! And a kick to the.... whatever that''s called. I don''t think I''m hurting it much, but this is a fight of principle. Also I need more time to think.
Plants? I could grow some plants I guess. I don''t think that would be fast enough, plants don''t grow very fast, even assisted by magic, but maybe if I got a nearby tree to donate some extra fluids through a root or something I could be more prepared to survive fire? I know I could seal the trapdoor shut pretty fast, it''s right next to some roots that are already there. I''m not confident that would help, but I''ll keep it in mind.
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My strongest ability is in psionics. Maybe I can just talk to it? Very aggressive creature though.
I form a link. It feels kind of like a bee mind, only there''s at least 3 separate brains working in tandem. Also that vision and the feeling of the legs and hearts pumping from the inside is nauseating. I feel ill.
The mind of the thing is like a hurricane. There''s a lot going on but it''s all bent to one purpose.
Also I''ve hurt it more than I thought, there is some serious damage to two of the legs and two eyes, and it actually distracts me for a moment as I feel the spider''s pain.
¡°Hey!¡± I mentally shout. ¡°Let me go, you old hairy octopus! You''re starting to annoy me!¡±
Surprisingly, the spider pulls back, and I feel wariness coming from it.
Suddenly I see the spider''s leg tips twitch as I hear a sputtering whistle. The emotion I feel from it changes to... amusement?
I''m being laughed at. It sounds really unpleasant too, like a songbird choking on a penny.
A reply comes via the link. ¡°Who are you to make demands of me, little sapling? You''re in my house and I can practically taste your mana already!¡±
There''s a lot to unpack here. It doesn''t care that I''m sentient, and it doesn''t want to actually eat me, just eat my mana. Also if this is its house I might have more leverage than I thought.
¡°You haven''t really hurt me yet, but if you do, I will set the entire place on fire. I can make an awful lot of fire, but I didn''t really want to set myself on fire too. I''m starting to think it would be worth it.¡± I don''t even have to lie, it''s true.
I feel a shift in emotion back to wariness. ¡°I can be out of here in a flash of legs, and I will wait outside to feast on your charred crystal when the fire burns out.¡± The spider''s mental voice sounds like 4 record scratches coincidentally making speech, and I hate it, but I''m getting somewhere.
I raise my vine limb, and mentally shout ¡°Observe!¡± while pointing at the lid and showing off my grow spell. The lid seals shut with writhing roots that moved to block the entryway.
I feel actual worry coming from the spider, but the mental voice of the thing is steady as before.
¡°Well? Burn us already, Sapling.¡±
¡°Honestly, I''d rather not. It will take me a long time to heal from such severe burns as will destroy your majestic form.¡± A little flattery never hurt anyone. I continue. ¡°Also you did best me in melee combat, I have much to learn in that area. Since you did teach me a few things, I could offer you a payment in exchange for your tutelage? Perhaps a mana crystal, since you seem to value them?¡±
¡°I''m listening.¡±
¡°How about one of these crystals?¡± I ask, and reach inside my basket to remove a crystal extracted from a moleratmadillow.
¡°Tiny, hardly worth my time.¡±
I relax a little. Now that we''ve started haggling over price, we''ve practically agreed I''m going to live through this.
¡°How about this?¡± I ask, and unleash my life force, merging the single crystal with another, nearly tripling its size.
I feel greed flash over my one of my opponent''s minds. There''s so much going on in there that it''s hard to say what happened, but I can tell it is pleased.
¡°That''s almost worth my time. Now how will you compensate me for my lost hunting time and injuries?¡±
Now we are speaking my language. If it wasn''t for the horror of being locked in a mexican standoff underground with a giant spider, and if I had a face, I''d surely be grinning.
After a few minutes more haggling, we settle on a third tier crystal. However what comes next has me flabbergasted.
¡°I''ll only accept this if you come back for some proper tutelage. With appropriate payment of course. It''s been a literal age since I had a proper student, and you''re durable enough to make the cut. Also you are an absolute mess. I''ve never seen anyone so inept at fighting that wasn''t already dead from something or another.¡±
Gee, thanks. Now I''m getting insulted by the thing that tried to eat me. Wonderful. Try not to be rude. Try not to be rude..
¡°If you insist, sir?¡±
¡°I do insist. If you don''t come to me, I''ll come to you. And I believe I''ve learned your weaknesses. But bring me another offering like this, and clean up that mess you made of the roof and I''ll forgive your trespass and beat you until you stop flailing around like a retarded antelope. Perhaps we can get you to improve to the level of a retarded jaguar instead.¡±
¡°That would be... nice. Could we, maybe, train me to fight like a regular animal instead of a retarded one though?¡±
¡°I apologize, but I don''t think you''ve the capacity, Sapling.¡±
Lovely. Now I''m being blackmailed into spending some time being physically and mentally abused by a giant spider.
Shit.
What the hell is wrong with my life.
22 Too many problems, not enough Thyme
Well. That was harrowing.
Unpleasant too.
I''ve lost a wheel somewhere so I can''t even roll back.
I''m definitely not going to try and go back for it, nor check any of these tempting side corridors.
My recent brush with death and the long walk has me feeling disconnected. I can''t really feel anything right now, I can''t focus, and oly those moments replay in my head.
If I had lingered longer in the fight, I''m sure it would have been my demise.
That thing was smart, strong, and looking back, I''m certain it was toying with me.
I need a bigger gun.
A bigger gun...
Not just that but a better body too. I don''t even know where to start.
Let''s ask Grimal. He''s probably awake by now.
With my goals engraved in my heart, I limp forward on my damaged legs. The walk to the cafeteria is long and the bees are silent. Perhaps they can sense my mood. Perhaps it''s just their mood.
I don''t want to feel like this again.
I need a bigger gun.
I need a bigger gun.
What to do...
What to do...
Let''s practice Heat on this long walk. I managed to crudely melt together some sand before.
Maybe I can make some decent metal.
It''s going to take a lot of work. My last melted mass was full of holes and mostly glass slag.
I don''t know if I can do it, but I need a bigger gun.
My stamina begins to flag, so I root myself, unfurl my leaves, and begin to see if I can accurately cut round holes in the wall. My light limb feeds my leaves a little in this dark hallway at a cost of mana, and I regain a little mana from the soil and light. I''ll run out eventually, but I have a lot of mana, and I can feed my spells with soul thread if I run low.
Given how long I rolled down that hallway, I''m going to be a while returning.
I need a bigger gun...
Where the hell is Eliza anyway? I haven''t seen her in a while.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
---Eliza---
I can see my own organs.
THis is understandably worrying, but I''ve tested my new crystalline exoskeleton in battle, and it''s far stronger than my previous chitin. But I glow in the dark, a soft blue light, and I can see my own organs now.
It''s unnerving, but after eating so many frog mana cores, its inevitable that there would be some sort of change. The benefits outweigh the negatives though, because I have grown larger, stronger, I have become more durable, and I can use magic.
Seeing my organs makes me really uncomfortable though. I feel vulnerable.
Trying out Brian''s spell for the first time, I have grown a small hollow in a tree near the entrance, and I have been stuffing soul cores inside it for later. I can''t use those, so I might as well save them for Brian. Maybe if I give him a gift he will be less likely to die.
Speaking of souls and death, I think I''d like to see if I can make that weird soul thread generator he made. I know he thinks I couldn''t have survived it, but I''m stronger now, and the patch he put on my soul is fraying into loose threads as it recovers anyway. I think I can replicate his work with these scraps.
If I survive, I''ll grow in strength. And with a few more kills, I know I can survive.
---A few hours later---
---????---
Tul Drazzak was perplexed and worried.
Energy from generator 2 was dropping.
Considering it was one of only 4 power crystals he held controlling interest in, this concerned him greatly.
The magethread output from the crystal had dropped by twenty percent a few days ago, dropped again a day later, and he had nervously waited for any change. Change had occurred again just now. An additional reduction in output by ten percent along with a steady drop of nearly a percentage point a day.
This was a disaster. What would the shareholders think?
This needed to be remedied immediately, and with all due haste. The investors could not know.
Perhaps the livestock had died?
More livestock could be purchased silently through his off network holdings.
Perhaps a host of Hartan? Their reproduction was swift but they had weak bodies and souls.
No, something was killing his livestock. He needed something small, ferocious, adept at hiding, and not vulnerable to starvation.
What about the Urgor? He had never used them in this generator yet, according to the records. In fact, the records said that this generator had not been manufactured by the Mistweavers, but looted in the War of Conquest. There was no record of a survey team ever sent inside. It was possible that the metallic ores favored by the Urgor as a food source would actually still be intact.
He would send 100 Urgor inside from one of his other generators, no need to make a purchase just yet. If they also died, he would try water adapted life or sunlight adapted life. One of them would take root. The shareholders would never know as long as he fudged the numbers a bit.
A small excursion in his shuttle with an extractor, and some instruments for basic energy readings to confirm his hypotheses would sort everything out.
He wriggled his tentacles nervously as he gathered tools and prepared to commit fraud.
---Brian---
I finally managed a clean, accurate hole cut into the wall. The lines are straight, the melt was clean.
The wall looks like swiss cheese though. It''s been a while and I was running low on mana anyway. My legs are a bit better and my holes are naturally healing, which is nice. I didn''t realize they could do that.
The bees have gotten over the shock of nearly dying and are now complaining about the lack of work and flowers nearby.
I''ve recovered a bit from my shock at nearly becoming spider bait.
I think I might be able to take some pieces of sheet metal and cut useful holes in them now.
There''s no better time than now to resume my trek.
With the aid of clean cuts, there''s not much I can actually make by itself, but I''m pretty sure a similar time investment plus a hammer and anvil will mean I can forge weld a little. I''ve heard it''s stronger than a regular weld when done right, and I''ve seen it done, so I know approximately what to do.
I was also told it was really hard, and I don''t even know what metals or alloys those scraps are made of.
Hmm. What can I build with just cutting and spells?
Wait, why am I thinking of metal when there''s plenty of rock?
I only have an axe, and it''s annoying to use because it gets stuck in flesh, and way too light for these monstrous arms. Also I have 4 arms and only one axe. I don''t know if I have the control or knowhow to temper mysterious metals, so I doubt I could make a decent replacement out of cafeteria benches and old stove parts.
I should see if I can use those rune plates I scavenged from the kitchen, too. Maybe I''ll get an idea.
What if I could cut out a pair of big stone clubs? Primitive, but it would get the job done in a big way. I could beef up my upper arms and hit like a truck. Possibly literally. A 40 lb club might be way more effective than a 10 lb axe, and it would never get stuck. I probably need a spear too in case I get charged again, like literally everything has done so far.
Wait, another primitive weapon was the crossbow. I could make it entirely out of wood. Why don''t I already have one?
Why don''t I have 4, fully loaded and hanging from my waist?
They might not be great but they''re better than not having a crossbow.
Since my skills are too crude for making any decent weapons with metal, I will attempt to make myself metal bones instead. It should increase the weight of my limbs, increase support, and increase my relilience. It will be good practice that I can hopefully build upon to make other things later. Just a few bones though, and I''m skipping the hands and feet, there''s enough support there already.
I have a plan, and it''s solid. I''m not going to bow to any giant lizards. I''m not going to let a giant scary spider push me around!
I''m going to work.
Fuck that guy.
23 I woodnt believe it if I hadnt seen it.
---Eliza---
I have made a terrible mistake.
The entire swamp is in chaos.
I''m desperate, and perched on a nearby branch, but I don''t think I can leave by the door. I''m much bigger than before, and I glow. Not very conducive to stealth. There''s a giant mass of those giant lizards climbing out of the water and engaging in combat.
One such lizard, lunging from the water, receives a bone crushing blow to the top of its head, driving it into the mud. I hear the crunching of the poor lizard''s spine and skull from here, and the crushed remnants of its teeth are no longer in its mouth. I would describe it as flattened.
The culprit is a giant tree. A giant tree I hid soul cores in.
An uppercut with a misshapen branch sends another giant lizard flying up into the air and crashing back into the water. It doesn''t rise again.
Setting up my soul thread generator just as Brian did took a lot out of me, I worried the whole time since I can''t see soul nearly as well as he, but I managed it in the end. Currently I am struggling to repatch my soul, since I used almost all the material Brian donated to keep me alive. I am doing quite well, but completely vulnerable in a nearby tree. Thank the Sun Orb I hadn''t perched in THAT tree.
Massive clublike branches swing in every direction, a maelstrom of crushing power. The lizards hides are too strong, and withstand the blows, but the bones and organs beneath are turned to pulp before my eyes.
Why did I have to stash those in the tree right next to the door?
But wait, all this death means opportunity!
Also trees don''t have eyes.
I just have to wait until the tree is done flailing about, then I can sneak in and steal some really big mana cores.
Maybe it will be grateful that I have awakened it? I might be able to able to talk to it now that I have magic.
I''m absolutely sure I can''t kill it, and neither can Brian. Maybe that will change after I eat some of those lizard''s crystals, but I doubt it. Brian might be able to set it on fire and run away, but not if I can''t warn him there''s a giant angry tree right inside the door.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH, that had to hurt! A lizard got through the hail of blows, and grabbed a branch in its jaws. The branch snapped, and left a sharp point, and the tree flailed harder! The lizard went in for another bite, and the sharp point of the branch went right in that hissing maw, lifted the whole creature up by its jaws, then impaled the lizard fully by smashing it into the ground. Repeatedly. The body count is increasing.
The tree seems panicked. It probably has never been injured before. This is my chance.
Let''s see, a link has this funny bit here, this one there, and a few squiggles... and done.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Hello?"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Hello?"
"AAAAH?"
"Yes, I made you a while ago, but it seems you are under attack. Would you like help with that?"
"Help?"
"Yes, I can help you see what''s attacking you. I can also help with the attackers to some degree. If I do though, you have to promise not to hurt me."
"See?"
"Ah, yes, you''ve never seen before. One moment."
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
"Yes, yes, it''s very useful. You see that brown wiggling thing? That''s you. Wiggle one branch at a time and you can get a feel for where they are."
"Ah!"
"You see that black thing down there coming towards you? Smash it!"
"Smash!"
"Oh My Honeysuckle. You can stop now, it''s dead."
"Smash!"
"Or I guess you can hit it until it''s literally buried underground. That mud is awfully red. You know, I think we''re going to be great friends."
"AAAAAAAAH!"
---Brian---
"Do you know any really big spiders?"
Grimal shifts about a bit.
"I hope not. The old athletics director was a real piece of work, and she was a seriously big spider. Used to run the combat training, had a fondness for maiming slow students.
I swear the Chancellor hired her to scare the students into running faster."
"Ugh... I met her then. And she took some kind of special interest. Said she wants me to come back and train, but I''m really rather doubtful."
"I highly recommend not returning." Grimal shifted again. "My wounds itch... Do you have another of those black rock I can chew on, maybe it will distract me."
"Here. And she said she''d hunt me down if I didn''t come back."
"Ah, I guess there''s no need to tell you the rest of that story. You''re as good as dust."
I paused, digesting that. "We can hold off story telling for later. I don''t know much about magic, and I think you do. Could you teach me a few things? Maybe even the odds a little? If I''m not ready to face her again, I don''t think I want to go back, so she''ll probably show up here eventually."
"You''re supposed to ask nicely before blackmailing someone. You little chert!"
"I''ve saved your spherical hide twice now, and that is what I''m going to do, it''s not blackmail if it''s the truth, is it?
I need your help and I''m on a deadline... literally. Help me out or I''ll have to do my best and run away. We can save storytime for later."
"I''m not a great luminary by any means, but I can teach you a few things, I guess. I don''t think I''ll be able to teach you enough to beat Deodora, but I can try. If we live, our slate is clean though. This kind of knowledge is valuable."
"You still owe me the rest of the story though.
"Fine, I''ll finish the damn story. Would you like to continue wasting time, or would you like to put some work into surviving?"
"Can I take option three and go home and eat a cheeseburger?"
"I don''t know, can you?"
"Probably not, lets get started."
"Listen up, because I''m not gonna repeat myself."
I settled in and began to listen, a strange rythmic thumping heard in the background.
What the hell is that noise?
24 Weeding between the lines
"So what you''re telling me is that I''m an idiot."
"Not precisely, this stuff is pretty complicated after all. Can''t believe you missed something so obvious though." Grimal almost grumbled the last part.
I sigh. The spell components are pretty difficult to figure out I guess.
To think, though, I had actually been making my mana visible with one. Mana was apparently naturally hard to see, although its owner could see it better than others.
Two of the spell components I had been using in mana links were actually lighting up my mana so it was more visible.
Apparently I hadn''t actually tried making one without either of them involved.
Apparently they''re used as a training aid and a mana stabilizer. It makes it easier to show your teacher what you''re doing with mana, but it increases the cost of spells to use them.
It was going to be annoying to remember to make mana links differently, but removing them helped me stretch my mana pool 10% farther.
Slow and steady wins the race. I need any improvement. Give me more, Grimal!
I pulled a brain core out of my chest cavity while I was thinking about the implications.
"I''ve been trying, but I haven''t figured out how to engrave cores like this. Do you know the secret?"
"Naw, we used to just pay the lower tier Archons to do it. Some people would enter indentured service for a set period of time in exchange for getting a mana crystal engraved. The hard part is growing yourself a new one, it''s very painful and difficult. They were always recruiting for the squabbles between factions, but they needed mundane help too, and kept their secret pretty well to make sure they always had it. Supposedly it was something only they could do."
*Thump*
"What about these rune plate things I found in the oven? don''t they work on the same principles?"
"Yeah, they do. They are a bit different though. In a mana crystal, the mana flowing through the engravings strengthens them and makes flow more consistent. In rune plates, mana will eventually destroy them. The ones like these are made of a special alloy that lasts a fairly long time, but you can make a rune plate out of anything really, it just tends to stop working pretty fast. One use runeplates made out of paper used to be pretty popular."
That gives me an idea. Vine runeplates? Investigate later, question more now.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
*Thump*
*Thump*
*Distant crashing sounds*
I''d like to know what''s making those noises, but I don''t want to get reduced to wood pulp. I''m going to continue ignoring them and hope they go away. I''m getting pretty on edge though. This place is punishing me for being curious though. Don''t investigate, Brian. Leave it alone, Brian. If it comes over here, deal with it then. Until then it''s not my problem. Not my problem.
*Thump*
Convincing myself not to go look isn''t working very well. Quick, let''s talk with Grimal more and distract myself.
"Oh, also, what''s the deal with the sun orb and all the little baby versions of you? I think I should see if I can go get the sun orb, I''d like a better source of light I don''t have to power, but I''ll have to get through that room I found you in, might be nice to know what I''m up against."
"Well, I don''t know what sun orb you''re talking about, but there''s a ritual circle nearby you can use to make clones of yourself. The teachers used to use it to populate the monster rooms with creatures to kill. It takes a really long time for creatures made that way to become sentient, but I was hoping I could gain a few allies once they awakened. Needed some help to fight off the rockworms. Turns out I''m an asshole though, didn''t work out. The stronger ones awakened, but they teamed up to push me around. Had to keep making more or the stronger ones started getting aggressive because they didn''t have anyone to fight. It wouldn''t surprise me at all to learn they had already killed each other without me there making more."
Good news, I guess. Makes me look at Grimal a little differently though. Back on topic.
"I just call it the sun orb. It''s a big, bright floating ball that looks like the sun, it had a bunch of zombies marching around it, and I think it was telling them to DEFEND really loudly."
"Ah, one of the defense sparks is still online? Those things are pretty useful. They used to all link together in a big network, and the headmaster could add unawakened creatures to the network, and given certain stimuli they could mobilize a small army of mindless creatures to put out fires, perform emergency labor, and act as cannon fodder in a fight. We could use them to communicate at a distance also, circulate announcements, they''re generally very useful in the hands of a decent Psionic who knows the command languages."
It''s a computer. They have a magic computer.
Holy shit.
Well, they''re about to have had a magic computer, because I''m going to steal it. I have no idea how to program it, but I might be able to figure it out. At the very least, free light, all the time. I can get rid of this lamp limb, and replace it with something more useful.
I wonder if it can run doom?
*Thump*
Ah, no, please stop with the creepy noises, thank you.
"Ah, I see. I only have a few more questi..."
"You''ve been asking questions for a while now. My voice is gong out and I''m tired. I''m going to cast some basic spells, for you then go back to sleep. Watch carefully."
"Candle"
a little flame appears. I scoff internally. I already figured out how to do that.
When I look at the actual spell, I freeze. This looks nothing like mine at all.
This might be useful.
"Stoneshape"
Wait, I was still trying to remember the other one!
A little lump bulges up from the ground and forms a pillow
"Snowball"
Oh god, I''m not going to remember any of this, am I?
An icy sphere manifests, and hits me in the knee. You punk!
"Sunder"
Hey, that actually looks kind of like my heat spell. Not quite like the flamethrower one.
A rock on the ground heats up and literally explodes!
That is absolutely cool.
Grimal lays down on his earthen pillow and I hear snoring in moments. Impressive!
Lets go play around and see how much of that I can remember.
Then I''m going to build some weapons and clean out the Mini-Grimal room.
*Thump*
*Thump*
Or maybe I need to check and see what that noise is first.
25 Meeting with the branch manager
Imagine my surprise, investigating loud thumping noises coming from nearby only to stumble across this scene:
A tree flails about wildly, swinging its massive branches like massive clubs. At its feet is a massive puddle of muddy, rust red water.
As I watch it picks up a giant lizard corpse, and drives it into the ground like a nail. It takes 12 blows due to how the corpse squishes unpleasantly instead of disappearing into the earth. 12 earth shaking blows.
Now I know the source of the thumping, and I slowly back towards the door and get ready to see if I can erect a barricade of plant matter. That is, until a connection forms between me and an airborne creature.
I''ve never seen anything like it. It''s a massive glowing crystal bee. I''d compare its mass with that of a human head. But it speaks out loud instead of telepathically. In english too? I can''t hear, but I pick up the words through Herman, sitting on my lamp.
"Azzz you can see, I''ve been buzy. You and I both had lots of problemzzzz, so I decided to solve a few ovvv them. Also, here izzz my new friend!"
I can see the internal organs of the bee and its mouthparts flexing in rather disturbing ways. It''s unsettling. I think I know who this is, but I''m not confident enough to put away my flamethrower.
"We talked, and he decided he wanted to be named Blackjack. Let''s have a full round ovvvv introductionzzz. Brian, meet Blackjack. Also gazzze upon the glory that is the new Elizzzaa."
I can''t help but notice the 4 inch long crysalline stinger she now bears flexing menacingly as she talks. A drop of glowing blue venom drips from the end. I''m immediately brought out of my reverie when Blackjack begins waving wildly and starts yelling.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Eliza twitches her antennae.
"I''m sorry, I''ve been attempting to teach him words, but he seems to enjoy yelling instead. That was supposed to be something like ''Nice to meet you'' if I''m reading this right. I have a few gifts for you, courtesy of Blackjack here."Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
"I have to admit to feeling a little overwhelmed. I thought I was going to get my bark tanned again, honestly. FInding you here and a friendly face.. wait no he doesn''t have a face... a friend is kind of blowing my mind. At least I hope we can be friends, Blackjack."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
"...OK. Yeah, just lay it all on me Eliza, this is weird."
"Ah, yes. Well I''ve solved a few of our problems. Now you can come in the swamp without getting mobbed by giant lizards, for one. I''m pretty sure Blackjack killed them all. We saved you 5 soul cores, also. The rest are either buried in the mud or I gave them to Blackjack."
"Very nice."
"Also, I am now strong enough to participate in real combat. You needn''t worry about my safety any longer. And of course, the most important part. Blackjack has agreed to house and protect the bees who do not wish to risk their lives in battle. He can''t leave the room because he''s too big, but the lighting in here is decent, there''s lots of flowering plants, and none will dare bother Blackjack."
"Yes, I''m certain no one will mess with Blackjack." I say, eyeing his giant swinging limbs and subtly shifting backwards.
"Well, what do you think?"
"You''ve obviously put a lot of thought and work into this. How could I turn you down? Let''s do it."
"Excellent! I''ll direct the hive. You''re not the most social creature, but I''m more than capable of covering for you."
A few hours later, most of the bees resided within a hollow towards the top of Blackjack''s trunk. The beginnings of another hive.
"Excellent. If we travel only with volunteerzzz, there will be no need to worry about thoze who do not wish to fight. Blackjack will care for them, he izz a mighty tree."
Blackjack''s leaves rustle and I swear I can feel a blush through the link. Awkward....
"Well I don''t think he''ll fit through the door or the halls, so he''ll have to stay here. If the workers are staying here, how will we keep the others fed?"
"That''z what you''re concerned about? We can come back and reztock, I know you''ve heard of jarzz, go find a container in the kitchen for them to fill up while we''re gone."
"Oh, yeah. That one''s pretty easy. Well if we''re making a military unit, it needs a cool name. Also who''s going to keep things running smooth here?"
A mental transmission reaches out to me, and I see Herman, in his green fuzzy glory sitting on a tree branch watching. I thought he was a leaf! "I can watch the flock. The light here is strong, worry not. They will grow and prosper in the light."
Well that''s one problem solved. Herman is kinda weird but I think I can trust him. Names though. What should we call the unit?
"What about the First Volunteer Drone Wing?"
"Isn''t that a little sexist? I''m not a Drone, after all."
"It was just a dumb joke. Let''s keep it simple. First, who''s volunteering?"
Three bees alight next to Eliza. It''s the delinquents. They must have already discussed this at some point, because that was fast. Wait, no, a link confirms their willingness is fairly new. I sense some... admiration for Eliza, and some... desire to... not be bored? Is this a normal reason to join the military? Whatever. I guess I won''t turn down recruits who think Eliza is cool. Honestly Eliza is kind of cool.
"All right, no need to shake things up I guess. There''s four of you, so I guess you can be Flight Alpha. Eliza is your... Um... Captain. She can be Captain Eliza, and her orders are absolute."
"Sounds good"
"Ok"
I can already tell this is going to be a shitshow... But it''s my shitshow so I will own it.
I look forward, making plans. Maybe I''m going to live after all.
Suddenly a flickering purple portal opens and a giant metallic centipede falls out. It rolls around disoriented for a bit, then burrows into the earth with such speed that its entire length disappears in under two seconds. It was as big around as a human head and at least ten feet long.
"Uh, Did anyone else see that?"
26 Ferning curve
I find myself staring down into a deep hole, listening to a distant chewing. A dozen or so bees, one Eliza (not sure she counts as a bee anymore) and a giant tree are all attempting to get a look. Blackjack doesn''t have eyes, but he''s very eager.
I say the words everyone''s thinking. Well, everyone except Blackjack.
"What the fuck is that? How did it dig a hole so fast?"
"No idea." Buzzes Eliza. "But we should kll it in case it''s dangerous."
"How do you propose we do that? It''s huge, and it is definitely out of reach now. I don''t have any way to tunnel, and I absolutely couldn''t dig that fast even if I could. I think it might have been made of metal too..."
"It''ll have to come up sometime. When it does, we''ll kill it." Eliza seems very confident.
"What if it doesn''t?"
"If it never comes up, then it doesn''t matter. We can ignore it then. But I don''t think that will be the case."
"Hmm. That sounds right." I send. "I need to go build some better weapons and work on my magic. It''ll be a bit boring. How about you and Blackjack see if you can dig it up or something, and send someone to let me know if you guys need a hand pulping it. I''m going to wander around here for a while, then head back to the cafeteria. I''ve got something I''ve been wanting to try for a while." I pause for a second. "Then I''m going to go and clean out those moleratmadillows and liberate that glowing orb back where we started, if you want to come."
"Yes, do invvvite me to the zzzlaughter. I would be happy to aid you."
Not really comforting, but I''ll take all the help I can get.
All right, Bob, Sam and Josephine are coming with me and eveyone else is staying with Blackjack for the moment. I can get behind that. The delinquents will be relatively safe, since I''m not planning anything violent.
If I''m going to ascend a weight class and get stronger, I think I need to better use the abilities I have.
For example, I''m a Chimera, but I haven''t actually done anything cool with that besides add more body parts.
If I go back and look at my lifeforce menu
|
Lifeforce MenuA case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
1 life force equals the life energy of a low leveled living being. Only beings beyond a certain level of intelligence and size can condense a soul core to store their life force and anchor their soul in. Unanchored souls can be stolen, it is highly advised to anchor your soul. Life force may also be generated with mana at a low rate. In this menu you may spend the stolen life force of your foes to reshape yourself in their image.
Current Lifeforce: 170
Maximum Lifeforce: 170
Lifeforce Regeneration Rate: .05/s
Upgrades
Merge Soul Core: 5 Life Force
Merge Mana Core: 5 Life Force
Graft Flesh: 25 Life Force
Examine Blueprint: 10 Life Force
Remodel Flesh: Active Drain
More unlocks may be available, consume your enemies and grow stronger!
|
There''s an ability I never used that I probably should have been using. Now that my lifeforce is full and I have nothing to spend it on, let''s see what Examine Blueprint does.
Let''s try it on this viney plant I made my body out of first, get some idea what it does...
Oh my.
This is way too much data.
|
Common Blackvine
Turgidity : 4
Fibrosity: 12
Meristematic Activity: 8
Cloning: False
Ovulation: 4
Major nutrient needs: Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium
Minor Nutrient needs: Copper, Iron, Zinc
More Info -->
|
I scroll through, pressing More Info repeatedly, and there''s 26 pages. 26! PAGES!
A lot of it doesn''t mean anything without context. Cytokinesis has a value of 5. Is that good? I have no idea.
Some of it I don''t even know what the words mean. It''s been ages since I was in school after all.
After paging through all the info on the plant, I conclude that Examine Blueprint might be useful for a Botanist, but it''s going to take way too much effort for me to get anything useful out of it.
Let''s use a better method instead.
Experimentation.
There''s quite a bit of plant life here in the swamp. I see a plant with gray flowers on it, some kind of parasitic vine clinging to a tree, lots of lichens and mosses, and a few other kinds of plants.
I find a few samples of a nice fern, and graft it up near where I tend to grow my leaves. I figure it''s more energy efficient to save leaves than to grow new ones every time, and fern leaves roll up when prompted. We''ll see if these really work better though with some use.
I take a hard look at the parasitic vine, and decide there''s no real way to see if it''s better than what I have than to try it out. I grow a piece of vine into a replica of my left lower arm, and stick it on below while I do some tests.
How far can I throw this rock with each arm?
Hmm.
How well does it bend?
Hmmmmmm.
How well do they resist damage?
This parasitic vine sucks. It heals really easy, but it''s inferior in evey other way that I care about.
I rip the test arm free and toss it on the ground.
I have another idea. Leaves get in the way too much while I''m moving around, so I''m mostly bare woody vines. If I graft some moss on the surface, I should be able to harvest more light without hindering myself.
Let''s try it on my arm first.
That... actually feels quite nice. Let''s do it.
It''s moss time.
Annnnnd now! Presenting the Jolly Green Giant!
Or something like that.
This is actually quite nice, I''m glad I thought of it.
I think that sums up what I can do here, lets go back to the cafeteria and work on weapons.
*Rustle*
I pause. Where''s that noise coming from?
It stopped.
I move again and I hear more rustling.
Oh, I forgot to roll up the fern leaves. They''re pretty noisy. I might have to rethink those later.
I enter the cafeteria, and there''s holes in the floor. I see two giant metal centipedes eating one of the metal tables, and Grimal is nowhere to be seen.
You''re telling me there''s more of these things?
27 Swimming against the currant
Nooooo! They can''t have eaten Grimal! I still need to pick his brain some more!
Oh, wait, there he is, he chewed a hole in the wall right behind where he was sleeping. He must think he''s safe because they can''t fit inside the hole. He must not have seen them dig yet, the only thing keeping him safe is their profound interest in the table they''re eating. I slowly follow the wall across to where Grimal is hiding, careful to move in a smooth manner to not attract attention. Most creatures react to sudden movement, after all.
Finally I reach Grimal''s hidey hole. "Psst! Grimal, you healed up enough to walk a little yet? We need to get out of here."
I get a grumbled reply. "I''ll manage. What''s the plan?"
"The plan is to get out of here before they run out of tables to munch, then you and me are going to put together some kind of weapon that can kill them. You haven''t seen these guys dig, this hidey hole will last exactly 2 seconds till they start chewing on your feet, and I can''t kill them. We can go hole up in one of the rooms in the hallway down to the jungle, and I think I''ll open the barricade to your old place and see if the rest of the Tiny Grimal army can buy us some time. Maybe they''ll even win, in which case Eliza can go clean house afterwards."
"Come on, enough chitchat, let''s move!" The nice thing about not having a voice is that I don''t have to whisper.
We begin the painstakingly slow trek out of the room as I grab up my bag and the miscellaneous papers I left for Grimal to read.
A hole opens in the barricade as we pass, and it grows larger the closer we get to safety. No need for chaos while we are still here, after all.
----------------------
"So if you link this mana construct to that one, it overloads and explodes?"
"Yes, it''s really dangerous, one of the things you need to avoid. Wait, stop that!"
"You just said it explodes. That sounds like exactly what we need right now. If I make these temporary mana constructs with soulthread and link it to one of these mana crystals... and put more soulthread in the crystal to temporarily convert it to a fire crystal like the temporary fire crystal I had for my flamethrower at one point... then leave the circuit broken like so... Does it explode immediately, or is there a delay?You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
"That''s so wasteful... I''m horrified to have taken part in this."
"Grimal. How long is the delay before it explodes?"
"Oh, a few seconds, maybe a minute or two."
"All right, so we need three things. We need to figure out how to make the time consistent till the explosion. We need to see if we can make it impact triggered, it would be nice to have exploding crossbow bolts. And we need to figure out how to make bigger explosions!"
"Why don''t you use a mana battery rune instead of mana cores?"
.....
Brain.exe is experiencing abnormal activity and must be shut down. If you experience this problem again, please contact your system administrators.
Rebooting...
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"Mana Battery rune?"
"Yeah, you use it in all your spells, it looks like this." He scrawls it in the rock with a claw.
That squiggly thing.... was this useful the whole time?
The key to godlike power was hiding in plain sight?
How did I miss this?
"Tell me Grimal, do you know what I mean when I say the word Logic?"
........
Let''s go back to the drawing board, I can do better.
...........
Unfortunately, the mana battery squiggle is not rechargable. It also is way slower at transferring mana than a mana crystal. This means that the explosions I can manage with them are weak at best. But I managed to get some info out of Grimal about some Logic after I explained a bit. With some knowledge of how to make a few gates, I make an array which can continuously provide mana when hooked to multiple mana batteries. It switches to the next mana battery in line once the signal cuts. This means I can set up a spell and make it last as long as I want, and just leave. I''m no longer necessary.
In short, after a bit of work, I now have lots of one use flamethrowers and 2 magic crystal grenades.
I can''t believe I thought I''d be making clubs. Instead, Grimal suggests I just make bigger arms. Clubbing something is just punching with extra steps, and he happens to notice that I have 4 arms, after all.
I grow my lower arms up until the point I start to have problems with balance, then cut it back a bit.
I might not have figured out the crossbow yet, but I have a bandolier of rocks that spew fire in two directions at once after throwing. They spin around like flaming wheels of death, and I love them.
And I made a pile of "Magic wands". I guess they might literally be magic wands, but they''re just sticks that spew fire from the end.
I''ve got a hunch that the grenades are the best part of the whole thing though. I left blast marks with a radius of three feet when I was testing. There was even a small crater in the stone floor. That''s a lot of damage. I have a hunch, also, that they won''t quite work like regular grenades. A lot of creatures seem rather dumb, after all.
..........
I trudge back to the cafeteria, a grenade in one hand and a Flaming Death Wheel in the other.
I have each of them on the verge of being primed as I peer into the room, trying to get a good view. The rodents are being massacred. They''re pouring into the room, yipping the whole while, and frantically chewing on the metallic armor of the giant centipedes but they''re not really making a lot of progress chewing through the metal plating. There''s teethmarks, but no penetration. Meanwhile, the centipedes are flailing wildly, crushing rodents in their massive jaws, and under their roiling bodies.
I prime and hurl one of the mana crystal grenades. It''s a rather large mana crystal, one from one of the lizards in the swamp. Everything fighting pauses, and one of the centipedes dives for the crystal and swallows it.
Yes! They''re as dumb as I thought!
28 On its last legs
I wait with trembling fern leaves as I watch the centipedes. It only takes four seconds to detonate a magic crystal grenade, but with the nervousness and anticipation, it feels like an eternity. Maybe I should "Bake" the grenade a little, like people did in call of duty? Ah, I forgot about call of duty until now! Are more of my memories returning?
KABLAMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Smoke and fire blasts out of... both ends of the giant steel centipede. As I watch it writhe, I can only think one thing.
Is this the fabled "Taco Bell Syndrome"?
Wait, it''s still flailing around. It''s making a horrible screeching too... Don''t tell me it''s going to live!
It rolled back on its legs... and it''s running around. That doesn''t look like something that''s just eaten a grenade.
It''s obviously horrifically wounded, there''s some kind of fluid drooling out of it, and the mouthparts appear to be damaged, and who knows how much internal damage has been inflicted, and its still running around.
Oh crud, it''s coming right for me! Run!
I begin chucking flaming death wheels at the creature as I run away. Aside from seeing the metallic plating on the creature heat up and start boiling off the splatters of its own bodily fluids, it also starts screeching even louder. I think I made it even madder. Is this where I die?
It gains on me rapidly. Think! Think! What do I do?
Maybe if I put down my wheels again and start spewing fire, I can gain some thrust? The floor is flat enough here, and I did fix the busted bearing...
As an added bonus I''ll be spraying fire in the centipedes eyes, and although it''s not yet close enough to burn, I won''t have to worry about that for long.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Changing from a flat out run to dropping my wheels and getting my speed back up costs me almost my whole lead, and I''ve got a giant monster right on my heels. A magic stick in each hand and my flamethrower limb extended, I light all of them off at the same time. It''s glorious! I speed up significantly and the centipede slows a little as the fluids dripping from its mouth down its body burst into steam!
I barely manage to keep a lead on the creature as I fly ahead on my sweet robo-heelies, flames blasting into the creature''s face the whole while.
The centipede slows more, and my flamethrower sticks begin to run out of charge. I frantically pump more power int my flamethrower limb with the mana crystal in it. My reserves begin to drain faster, but the flame coming out of my limb gets larger, just as my magic wands run out of charge and I toss them, still smoking, at the centipede in a desperate attempt to slow it down a little more.
My mana drains rapidly. My power dwindles by the moment. I''m afraid I''m going to run out, when suddenly the centipede crashes to the floor, plowing up a massive trench in the rock.
It takes me several minutes to stop at the speed I''ve built up, but I trudge back, retracting my wheels on the slight uphill grade.
I direct a quick thought to the delinquents, who''ve been hanging on for dear life the whole time. "Wow, that was close! You guys were watching the whole time, got any suggestions as to how we can do that better? I''d rather not do that again!"
Bob chimes in "I think you should leave the giant centipedes alone. But you could have used your other grenade I guess."
Oh, I forgot about it in my panic.
"Feel free to add a few suggestions like that next time we''re about to die, I forgot I had it.... And yes, we''re definitely leaving them alone for now."
"Ah, sure."
Not very talkative, is he.
I reach the giant centipede corpse, and I can''t fit through the hallway around it. It probably has a nice crystal but I wasn''t planning on spending a few hours digging through the thing to get it. I guess it''s dissection time though.
*squelch*
*pop*
*crunch*
I''m not making it very far, so I pry off one of its damaged metal mandibles and use that to dig under the plates and peel them off. I mostly find more plates. Where''s all the gooey bits?
After a bit more digging I come to a conclusion. This thing is made of lots of metallic plates and some kind of metallic muscle/tendon hybrid.
I have no idea how this could possibly work. It''s kind of intriguing!
Finally I find it. The thing has a meaty-centered spine leading to a big heavily armored pocket at the top of its head, and apparently that''s where it keeps all of its organs besides the digestive ones, which were mostly destroyed by the grenade. It appears I killed it by boiling its brain, and whatever else these weird chunky organs are. After a little digging, I find a mana crystal by its heart and boy is it massive. Way bigger than mine, I''m ready to celebrate, when I dig out a big soul core. It''s larger than mine, and it swirls in a violent green tornado. I stare into it''s depths as I realize I''ve been underutilizing my life force. I need to figure out how to shape metal magically, otherwise I''ll never achieve this kind of metallic perfection.
Most of this centipede is intact.... What if....
Gathering my thoughts and will, I realize a way forward.
It won''t be ideal, but I desperately need to increase my combat power without getting myself stuck somewhere.
I gather my focus and begin pulling out the metallic tendons and replacing them with vines.
29 Id be in the dark without you!
I wiggle my legs around. This is going to take some getting used to.
I don''t have any way to repair any damage to all of these plates, so after I burned away all the soft tissue and replaced it all with wood, I replaced all the metal tendons with vines also. I''m not sure how long I''ll be able to get some use out of this body, so I built a new vine body designed for ultimate speed, with only barely enough room for my cores and hive, the wheels, and the flamethrower for thrust. There''s no arms, and it looks like a medium sized dog when I don''t fold up the legs. I shove it in the space where the organs of the centipede used to be, and leave it an escape hatch into the digestive organ area, and another escape hatch in the front and rear,
I link it to the centipede body with easily severable vines, and feel a lot more secure in the fact I can easily bail if I get into trouble.
My vines are not nearly as good as the metallic tendons previously moving the beast about, but I don''t need a mouth or digestive organs, so I can compress the metal plates a bit and reduce the size and weight of the body by a fair amount, so I think I can go almost as fast as it could.
And this thing is fast. The mechanical advantage provided by all of these interlocking metal plates and cams is amazing. A small amount of force in the right places can throw around even the enormous weight of this creature''s armor. I am amazed by the efficiency! Is it natural, or was it designed? I feel like answering that question is key to my future.
I''m a bit disturbed by the feeling that this is what my power was made for. Am I going to be stealing bodies often? I hope not, this is both creepy and gross.
The best part, which makes up for all the flaws, is that this centipede possesses metallic eyes which integrate into my senses quite easily. They appear to see in some other spectrum of light, since I can''t see color, but I can no longer tell the difference between light and dark, so it balances out.
Getting used to all the legs is going to be a pain though.
I grow fern leaves all down the spine of my new centipede form, mount my flamethrower-limb between the eyes, and detach both the big beefy vine arms I painstakingly crafted recently, and the smaller original vine arms I made, and think about where to put them. I want arms, but I don''t want to look dumb. After a while, I give up, and mount both the smaller arms under my chin, and one beefy arm on each side. I don''t fit through the hallway very well with them out, but the vine arms are very flexible and can lay flat when not in use.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
Satisfied, I turn around, chewing at the rock with surprising ease, and stumble crookedly down the hallway, wobbling back and forth as I headed back to the cafeteria.
.................
I''ve arrived, and the battle is still raging, if you can call it that. The centipede is missing more metal than it was before, but it has killed angry rodents by the score.
Bob sends me a quick message. "You''re not used to this, yet, and the centipede is ignoring you. Didn''t you want to go get the Sun Orb?"
He''s got a point. As much as I want to grab another massive soul orb and mana core, I haven''t even added the others to my system yet. I''m not sure what will happen if I add a soul to my body that''s stronger than mine, but given what happened when I was born in the zombie, I can guess that I wouldn''t like it.
With a little reluctance, mostly thinking about all those rodent cores the centipede has painstakingly harvested for me, I line up next to the barricade and begin digging through the wall.
...........
A great while and some rodent chewing later, I make it to the place where it all began.
Once I reach the Sun Orb, I''m struck by how odd it looks in my new vision. It only glows faintly, and I can see weird paths across its surface resembling very fine circuitry. After studying it for a while, I''m a bit less sure of what I''m about to do. What if it doesn''t like being stolen? Does it have defenses?
I''ve come this far, might as well follow through, but a little caution might be in order. I make a psionic connection to the, what did Grimal call it? Defense core? I make a psionic connection to the Defense core, and it loudly shouts at me. "DEFEND"
"Ey, stop that! You startled me!"
A quieter voice follows. "Defend?"
"Um, sure, let''s defend. Want to kill some monsters?"
"Command not found. Help?"
"Help?"
"Commands available:
Defend: Unrestricted
Attack: Administrator only
Construct: Unrestricted
Manufacture: Administrator only
To see more commands, please use the command "login"and enter your credentials."
I know Grimal described this like a computer but this is a little eerie.
Let''s try the old standby.
"Login"
"Username?"
"admin"
"Password?"
"password"
"credentials invalid."
Aww, damn, it was worth a try.
Suddenly I recieve another transmission from the core. "defend?"
It''s very quiet and there''s a definite plaintive air to it. It definitely sounds like a question.
Is this thing alive?
Holy Crow, the poor thing. How bored is it, after sitting here for who knows how long? And I killed its zombies, that had to have made a bad situation even worse. I get a sour feeling. I was the bad guy here.
If what this little dude wants to do is defend, then we''ll defend, I can spare a little time to help clean up some monsters if the little dude will come along.
I muster up all of my enthusiasm, and send it to the core, along with a single word. "Defend!"
I can feel the happiness roll off of it as it responds "DEFEND!" "DEFEND!" "DEFEND!" "DEFEND!" "DEFEND!"
I rear up onto my hind legs until I reach the height of the Defense Core. "We defend!" I say, as I open my new jaws and swallow the core into the rather large empty chamber in my middle.
It briefly gets nervous but settles down as it realizes I''m not going to do anything.
Together we go back into the lair of Moleratmadillows to finish the job. I gently wrap the core inside me with leaves and hold it snug next to my escape hatch, where I can have my tiny escape body grab it on the way out if I need to bail.
I click my razor sharp metal mandibles together, and prepare for combat.
30 Winning the Sweep Steaks
I have no idea what kind of metal these mandibles are made out of, but it''s really great. It''s sharper than a razor, bisecting enemies and rocks with ease. This is the kind of magic bullshit I can get behind.
As I''m ripping a rodent in half, I fling part of it across the room as part of a swing to get my mandibles on another, which quickly passes out from blood loss as I slice it to ribbons. I swing my massive, ridiculous looking arms and paste another with a single swing. The only reason they''re giving that other centipede a hard time is because it only has 1 weapon and there''s several hundred of them. It can only kill them so fast.
The rodents must be reading my mind, because a pack of around 20 charges out of a larger tunnel on my left, trying to take me off guard. I leap back by pushing with all of my legs at once like an antelope, hosing the group down with fire as I defy gravity, flying backwards through the air. They''re dead before I hit the ground. These creatures are no longer a challenge.
If it wasn''t for Sunny being so excited, I''d be bored. This new body is using a ridiculous amount of mana though, and thanks to sunny, that''s being mitigated a little. All the leaves around that sweet light source of his have tripled my mana regen. Unfortunately, I''m using somewhere between 10 and 15 times more than before. Looks like every upgrade comes with new problems. At least these problems are far less serious than potentially getting killed by giant rats. I retreat back to the original room I first woke up in, and block the door while I ponder solutions.
I''m not sure if I can improve my mana regen but if I can figure out a better/faster way to retrieve mana cores, I can improve my longevity in combat. My lifeforce fills back up in under two minutes, and I estimate at least 5 until I fill back up on mana, so I have plenty of room to make modifications.
What if I make use of all that empty space where the digestive bits used to be. I could kill a rodent, "swallow" it, then dig through for its core and dump it out the back all while still in combat!
"Defend!"
Ah, yes, my new passenger.
"Rest first, then defend. I''m tired."Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
Ah yes, I''m supposed to be helping beef up the three bees that are accompanying me too. Let''s crush up this little rodent mana crystal, since apparently that makes bees get super big.
"You guys wanted to be like Eliza, right? Give this a try. I suspect it will take a lot, but this should get you started on the path."
I feel a twitch of gratitude. I wish I wasn''t so easily distracted, I keep forgetting about important stuff like this. Speaking of, let''s begin remodeling the gut cavity a bit.
I''m going to take a little inspiration from the human body and line the whole thing with roots that wave, pushing everything in one direction like the cilia in the lungs. I''ll make a bunch of roots on the ceiling with sharp tips for digging out the cores and finishing off survivors. And some extra pockets on the sides to store all these cores, and I think I''m about ready to test it out. Back to the slaughter.
I head back into the main tunnel room, and can''t help but notice the rodents are getting sparser. They''re not all gone, but I don''t think it will be long until they start to dwindle away. Fine with me!
Scooping dead rodents into my maw, the cilia conveyor works great, but the stabbing implements, not so much. I end up having to make an additional kind of limb for picking up the soul orbs, because it''s like trying to pick up a marble with chopsticks. Also the rodents keep getting stuck on the back hatch, so I have to make some adjustments to the rear as well.
The whole time I''m doing this, I''m busily killing creatures of course. Once I get the system working, I start shoving them into my maw as fast as I can manage.
There''s an addtional positive effect I didn''t foresee also! The root cilia end up absolutely slathered in blood in no time at all, and since they''re roots, they end up drawing in a little nutrients and mana from the raw material. A bit gruesome, but I won''t say no to any help I can get. I add more stabbing roots inside the harvesting chamber, if I perforate the corpses more, I should get more blood out, right?
I spend another hour mindlessly killing rodents, and suddenly, the tide finally ends. I still see some hiding, but they''re not the fighting type I guess. As long as they aren''t hostile, I''ll leave them alone. Maybe Grimal could use some friends.
As I finish scooping up the dead rodents, blood dripping from my maw all down my metallic underbelly, a trail of clotted blood and shredded bodyparts following behind, it never occurs to me that they''re the ones smart enough to be terrified.
I''ve gotten a handle on my new body, and it''s time to see what that other centipede outside is up to.
...............
Turns out the other centipede is gone. It left a few tables with large bite chunks taken out of them, and a large pile of corpses behind. I can clearly see it ate most of them, but it must have gotten full.
Well if you''re not going to eat that.... Don''t mind if I do!
I end up having to make more space for mana crystals and soul orbs, between the other centipede and I, it''s likely I retrieved almost 800 cores of each kind. I begin leveraging my lifeforce to see if I can increase the size of my cores enough so I feel safe adding the larger centipede cores to my reserves
A few minutes later, I''m off to go see Eliza and ask for advice before I go see if I can give that asshole spider a piece of my mind. Maybe it''s time to remake my armory a little too. I need more grenades......
31 Who watches the watchers?
Eleven...
Plink.
Twelve...
Plink
That''s probably enough grenades.
Eliza had a good point about the spider. Grimal is afraid of the spider. Grimal knows more than we do. It didn''t show off any weird powers, and everything here has weird powers. Therefore, I shouldn''t underestimate the huge spider.
I need a perfect plan. I''ll delay a bit longer on that front
Eliza is not a big fan of the giant centipedes. Her hunt for the one was completely unsuccessful and I''m pretty sure she hates that.
I almost got clobbered by Blackjack, but after much screaming, she agreed that exploring the hallways and rooms on the way to the swamp was probably the best next step, just in case we can pick up more secrets and trinkets. She''s planning and plotting how to get rid of more centipedes, but I need to get stronger. Any amount of power is useful, I need every edge I can get in this weird place.
I''ve still been talking to Sunny, even though his vocabulary is a bit small. Every time he sees someone new, he asks me to "Defend?" He makes a little sad noise every time I tell him someone''s a friend. He doesn''t ask again for the same person, though, so he has a good memory. Is it wrong that he''s making me feel slightly guilty for NOT killing people? I don''t want to make the poor sphere sad... This is messed up.
.................
Heading down the halls and exploring the old classrooms is rather eerie. Every place I arrive at, there''s signs this was once a nice place to be. And then there''s the Antelope. It''s not really an antelope, but it kind of looks like one. It''s pitch black with 4 straight horns pointing up, and it''s incredibly fast. I can barely see it move.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
As I lumber around, chewing on doorways to fit my new bulk inside while exploring, I didn''t find much. I went into a classroom, rummaging through a cabinet when I first noticed it. A pair of eyes caught the reflected light of one of the light inscriptions I recovered from my old body. I had gone back to get them after realizing I DID actually need those unless I wanted to mount Sunny to my forehead and look even sillier.
I reached out with psionics, but got no response, and my lights weren''t that bright. I saw a vague outline, then heard a wooshing sound as a black blur exited through the door.
Ever since then it''s been following me, just outside the range of my light. I can see its reflective eyes. I brought Sunny out and managed to get a look at it a few times, but in the dark I need the extra mana regen from the light to keep me moving, so I had to put him away.
I can''t tell if it means me harm or not, and it is way faster than me... This reminds me of a survival horror game. I hope the Antelope is friendly, but I have grenades and wands ready if its not.
I have found some interesting things, but I''m reluctant to spend time figuring out what they are or do while being watched by a creepy black antelope, so I grow a few storage containers in my gut and just start shoving whatever looks interesting or useful in my mouth.
If I get more space, I need a bookshelf in here at some point. I don''t plan to be illiterate forever, and there''s so much knowledge here. With the intention of stashing them for later, I take books, papers, inscription plates, esoteric looking tools and ingredients, and then I find the motherlode. There''s an armory. There''s all sorts of things in here I recognize: swords, armor, staffs, and the like. However, there''s a large number of things in here that don''t look like they were made for hands at all. Still more things look kind of familiar, but I have no idea what they do, for instance, I find something that looks remarkably like a magitech walkman, It''s with the weapons, so I don''t think it is, however.
A lot of it looks to be made of wood, like these are practice items, but the real treasure is the inscriptions. I have no idea what a lot of these do! There''s a bunch I do recognize, but a lot of those have mana constructs attached that I don''t recognize!
If I can figure this out, I''ll gain another edge. With that in mind, I grab everything I can and shove it into my maw, then start digging to see if I can lose my antelope stalker. If I fold my legs up and take tiny steps, it won''t be able to fit in the tunnel, since I am shorter than an antelope, especially with those horns.
..................
It''s still following. I don''t know how, but I had a feeling I was being watched, and turned around in the tunnel with great difficulty to alleviate my worries. My worries were not alleviated when I spotted eyes out in the darkness. I quickly dug back to the surface, since the tunnel was apparently pointless, then took off running back to base. I had to stop for an extended rest due to depleting my mana by running so hard, and while I rested, it stayed just outside my light. Staring...
How did it fit in the tunnel? Why is it here? What does it want?
I have no idea and that scares me a lot.
Fortunately I don''t have to worry for too long. I reach the semi-lit area on the border of the cafeteria, and begin growing a vine barricade up ahead. I leave enough room for me to pass through, and once I do, I close the hallway up behind me. For good measure, I spend entirely too long adding extra thickness to the blockade.
That should do it. Now I can go study my loot in peace. Let''s see if Grimal has any insight.
32 Once more, with soul
Going to see Grimal, he seems a bit healthier, even though his bandages bled through a bit from being so active lately. I think he''s nervous about the centipedes, because he''s chewed a set of clawholds into the wall in a sort of ladder, and he made himself a nice little cubby in the ceiling. Climbing up a ladder as a big centipede is hard, but mostly due to the weird balance required. The extra legs make it easier than I expected though.
I psionically announce my presence as I head up the ladder. "Grimal! If you''re awake, I''m coming up to ask you questions! Also I''m a centipede now!" What I didn''t realize, is there''s cool stuff up here in the ceiling! Wires made of some bluish metal, some odd machines, I think it''s related to the light system though, so I don''t poke at it. I don''t want to be in the dark, especially after my trip through the old classrooms, so I pick an empty area nearby and gouge out some room for me to coil up and show off my treasures.
"All right, what weird questions do you want to ask now? You''re an interestin- GAH!"
"Calm down, Grimal, I''m a centipede now."
"You''re... You just decided to turn into a centipede, is that it? Wanted to scare old Grimal half to death? How did you even get up here?"
"Well, I killed a centipede, but I almost died, so I thought about it, and if you can''t beat em, join em! Right? I climbed up the ladder."
"You just... climbed up the ladder. You''re telling me they can all do that and my ladder is useless?"
"It''s not useless! It''s really cool! I never knew this was up here. Also if you like, we can make a one use flamethrower array at the top of the ladder. It wasn''t a fast climb, and if you can get the centipede in the head long enough, they''ll cook inside. Maybe set up 10 or 12 flamethrowers pointing down the ladder, and serve up some centipede BBQ!"
"If you could help me get that set up, I would really appreciate it. It''s hard to sleep knowing those things are out there lurking."
I had better not mention the antelope. He wouldn''t like that at all.
"Sure, let''s get you set up. Then I got some cool loot to ask you about from the old classrooms."
"Ah, very good. Maybe with enough of the old lab equipment we can figure out how to get rid of those things."
He might be right. Sunny seems to think so. On hearing that, he shouts "Defend!"If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"Who was that?" Grimal swivels his head about, looking for an intruder.
"Oh, you remember how we were talking about getting the defense core? That''s the defense core. I call him Sunny, and he really gets excited about defense sometimes. Here, you wanna see?"
I move some plates aside and roll Sunny out of my storage space with a vine, uncurling the fern leaves covering him, but still keeping a grip so I won''t drop him. That would be rude.
Sunny, meet Grimal! Grimal, this is Sunny. Sunny immediately pipes up. "Defend?" he asks. "No, Grimal is a friend." Sunny makes his sad noise. "Don''t worry Sunny, we''ll track down more invaders soon." "Defend!"
"Ah, very nice, but I can''t see anything since Sunny is so bright. If you could put him away?"
Ah, I see. My weird vision must be pretty good then, since I can still see.
I wrap him back up, and we get to work.
Let''s see.
Let''s just add the flamethrowers into the ladder and around the hole in the ceiling to Grimal''s hidey hole. Then we''ll put the triggers next to where Grimal sleeps, and link them in two groups. The ladder flamethrowers and the ceiling flamethrowers. Then we''ll start adding mana batteries and filling them up. How about some more? Ah, I''m running out... Unless... I''ve been burning lifeforce this whole time to assemble crystals and soul orbs into their larger counterparts. Let''s take the next step and move from a size 64 orb to a 128 orb, size up my mana crystal, then go grab that centipede''s orb and crystal where I stashed them.
I combine soul orbs with a little trepidation, but I don''t feel the nausea that I felt before. Instead, I''m instantly present in a realm with a black sky, and green glowing winds swirling above. I''m in a human shape, which feels unfamiliar now, floating on my back in a black sea. I watch the swirling green and black sky for what seems like ages, until I see something move out of the corner of my eye. I turn over in the water and look down, only to see a sea of drowning moleratmadillows reaching for the surface. Oh....
I know these are supposed to be soul orbs, but I didn''t think it was this kind of soul. Off in the distance, I see a spark of green light rise from the deeps and join the swirling clouds of green above. I look closer, and see it again. There''s a figure down there chopping up moleratmadillows. Every time he swings, another green light leaves the depths, but some of it swirls and gathers into him. And he has Mr. Axe! Is that... The poor sap I found dead in the hallway?
It''s a good thing he''s good with that axe, and the moleratmadillows are mostly flailing about, but the ones nearest him are assaulting him.
I cup my hands together and shout. "Hello! Sorry about the mess in here! Didn''t know you were in here! I''ll be more careful in the future! Good luck!"
Suddenly I''m back to reality.
That was weird. I don''t feel guilty about the vermin, they''re mostly not sentient, and they hurt me and Grimal first, but knowing I trapped some random dude''s soul makes me unhappy. I hope the zombies didn''t get their original souls stuck in there too.
Looking closely at my big soul orb, it looks exactly like the vision. Swirling green sky, deep black ocean. I can''t see anything smaller, but looking at it for a while, I see a little green wisp rise from the depths.
I''ll wait to add the centipede''s soul orb to my collection. And these ones over here, those were the giant lizards, it''s a good thing I didn''t add those in to the big orb yet, wouldn''t want to make the dude''s life even more miserable.
When I join the mana crystal from the centipede into my system though, my mana capacity practically doubles! Yesssssssss!
With that, it''s trivial to finish Grimal''s defenses but I''m depleted by the time I''m done. I curl up, and listen to Grimal talk about everything I picked up, pulling items out of my mouth one at a time with a giant hand. Maybe this isn''t so bad after all.
33 LOOT!
"This one''s for accurately siphoning off units of mana for alchemy, but I think it''s broken. that piece isn''t supposed to be hanging off like that."
"That''s a training sword for novices, it automatically leaches mana from the user when held after a drop of the user''s blood is added to the formation in the middle there. It uses the mana to soften impacts. It''s useful for training young ones who might lose their mental grip on powering an enchantment, but not for much else. It has a mana crystal in the hilt though, if you want to take it apart."
Oh! This is actually really promising. There''s a full spell on this for softening impacts! I''m going to inscribe this on my belly so I can jump off cliffs! And endure beatings! Grimal is looking at me funny, but this is actually a grand breakthrough. And the other spell, that leaches mana... I wonder if I could leach mana from someone if I got a drop of their blood and hung on to them. I don''t think it''s practical, but I can try it sometime later.
The impact softening spell devours mana though, I''m going to have to use it with care.
Let''s see, what else do we have here... What about this!
"Ah, that''s a good find. That''s a lifeform scanner. Pretty hard to use, but if someone practices, they can tell where nearby life is. I knew a fellow who could tell you were coming from a mile off!"
"How do you use it?"
"I don''t really know... never was any good with the things."
"Ah, thanks again for your insight"
I look closely. There''s a clearly labeled input and output, but it doesn''t actually say what kind of mana it takes. Maybe there''s a manual somewhere in these books. Not sure if this will be useful in the short term, but maybe later. Let''s look at something else.
"Hmm. Not actually sure what that is. Looks cool though."
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"Oh, that one is a beam sword. It shoots a beam of energy out, they aren''t that popular, kind of weak, but they''re good for training matches since they rarely cause fatal injuries. Not good for the eyes."
HOLY SHIT! MAGIC LASER! All right, gotta stay calm so I don''t annoy Grimal... Focus. Calm. MAGIC LASER!
Precision engraving! Distance weapon! Magic Laser!
I carefully stow that one for later, since I know if I start playing with it now, I''ll never finish learning about this stuff. Calm... Let''s pull out the next item.
"Oh. Um. You should get rid of that... It''s gross."
Oh. I didn''t really look at it before but I found this in a secret drawer with a bunch of books. I got excited because of hidden loot... but...
Yeah. Let''s take this and those books and put it in the old fridge in the kitchen.
Gross...
Let''s move on.
"Ah, very good find, that''s a mana splitter. You can use it to seperate unpurified mana into various component types."
Wait. What?
"A lot of folks who specialize would get a splitter mounted on a wristband, feed the kinds of mana they wanted into their mana core, then fed the rest into a converter core like that fire one you use for your flamethrower"
WAIT. WHAT.
"So, you''re telling me regular mana is just... mixed together specialized mana."
"Yep."
"Spells can use any kind of mana?"
"Well, yes, but not as well. If you put fire mana into your flamethrower spell, it should last longer and burn hotter than if you used regular mana. Most important people end up specializing in a mana type and only storing that kind in their mana core."
"Why? That seems a bit limiting."
"You can still cast other spells, just not as well, but your specialty gets really strong. A specialized mage is twice as strong as a non specialized one."
Hmm. I need to rethink my "Make one big mana core" strategy now that I have a splitter.
I show Grimal a few more things until he gets tired, but a lot of it is worn out, non magical, or kind of lame. I don''t actually have a use for a magic tooth whitener, for instance. There''s a few elemental weapons that I store to study their spells later, and a few instruments for studying microbial life, analysing organic and inorganic samples, and refining materials, but I decide most of that can wait in favor of messing about with typed mana and playing with a magic laser.
*BZZZZZZT*
*BZZZZZZT*
*BZZZZZZT*
I might not have figured out how to use magic to make decent metal parts yet, but I have gained the power of subtractive manufacturing. So far, I made a box to put all the scientific tools in out of what was left of the ovens and some chunks of benches, and a couple of book boxes to store all the books in but still keep them clean and dry. I''m going to figure out how to read them. But later, there''s still too much combat at hand.
After playing about with the laser for a while, I get a feel for it and decide to try something a bit harder.
The engravings in the mana crystals that are typed... is this how they were made?
The answer is no. Sigh. I''ll find out your secrets someday.
I attempted to play with the splitter, but aside from my mana crystal grenades, I don''t have enough mana crystals to store all the types of mana it splits into. I combined most of them, and I have only 4, of increasing size. They''re uncombineable because I don''t have enough crystals to combine with them. I could just feed the leftovers into the fire crystal like Grimal said, but that seems wasteful somehow. I don''t even know what some of this is.
It''s obvious. I''ve spent too long playing with toys, and now it''s time to get back to work.
Prepping my mana crystal grenades, I wiggle all my legs in the ever more familiar pattern of a centipede''s walk as I head off to the jungle. Let''s see what that spider is made of, then go investigate the place if I survive.
update: resumption of chapters soon (not a chapter)
things got tough for a bit but I''m still here, and better than ever. I''ll have a power system running to get my desktop online soon. sorry about the delay, some serious stuff came up.
lots of work still to do but I want to sit down and work on non life or death sorts of things for a short while, being this productive is tiring.
anyway, hope you folks are still doing ok. Have a lovely summer!
heres some lorem ipsum as filler.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, et mel inermis adipiscing. Ea quo enim malis adolescens, probatus lobortis ad pri. Mei feugait sensibus salutatus id, cum sint repudiare cu. Quas omnes vocibus ex his, pri audiam constituto ne, ad option docendi voluptaria vix.
At per prima facilisi scribentur, has ne prima vitae, te cum idque timeam. Duo probo vocibus eu. Et duo sint epicuri consequat, pro iudicabit democritum te, ei aperiri saperet omittantur usu. Dolores mnesarchum ius an, at mel congue utinam senserit. Ferri justo harum ad sea.
Qui ocurreret concludaturque cu, nulla quaerendum concludaturque cum ut. Sit erant vocent ne, vel at ferri consul. Sea affert noluisse petentium et. Sint aliquid ea mel, no ius fuisset facilisis repudiandae. Solum altera fabellas at vis, eros alienum luptatum qui cu. Saepe pericula qualisque per cu. Duo autem latine facilisi et.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Ex tation tincidunt liberavisse cum, et sed altera abhorreant. Homero persius persecuti no usu, cu elit mediocrem dissentiet eam. Diam erat velit per an, omnis laudem labores ne his. Ex pri mutat quando. Ne vel fugit partiendo disputando, meis oratio perpetua qui et. Vix an paulo percipitur, nec audiam alterum ei. Per omnis fabulas at, his ne homero probatus accusamus, eu pri tollit bonorum intellegebat.
Quo unum wisi detraxit cu, te mazim impetus ius. Facilis assentior maiestatis eos no, pri ne phaedrum cotidieque. Reque consul omittam mel no. Ne ridens fuisset indoctum qui, in tota voluptua pro.
Melius similique disputationi ne qui. Iusto volumus persecuti ut sit, et posse dicit usu, probo meliore recusabo ad nam. Te nostro quaeque invidunt vis, ius cu illud graeci partiendo. Vix iriure civibus in. Alia convenire usu no, eripuit laoreet epicuri ea eum.
Vis delicata facilisis et, unum quodsi comprehensam te eos. Nam ut labores postulant signiferumque, illud prompta disputando duo id. Debet senserit accommodare ex mea, per at brute summo apeirian, tacimates efficiendi at vix. Nam inani definitionem et, assum voluptatibus no cum, ad erat viderer efficiantur vis. Eam ea nonumy timeam commodo, has dicant copiosae eu. Mel dictas aperiam ad, no dicta impetus postulant vim.
Etiam viderer omnesque ex quo. Sit causae mediocrem maiestatis ne, vis accusam invenire pericula id. Te erant saepe detraxit vim, cu eam mollis constituam, nam ei tantas ubique quaerendum. Ea augue tantas ceteros sea, vix simul ancillae interpretaris et. Munere legimus minimum mei ad, choro quaestio vim at.
At per iriure voluptua epicurei. Ex impetus deterruisset sit, vim eu etiam iriure, placerat dissentiet sea ne. Ei maiorum perfecto forensibus pro, has te nibh omnium. In dicta commodo recteque vix. Qui ridens legendos concludaturque no, vitae tibique in sed. Epicurei adolescens per te.
At eam audire voluptua probatus. Vis inani disputando in. Sed ad utamur appetere electram, ne eripuit vocibus eam, soleat dolores ei nec. Praesent intellegebat te mel.
Sea et tantas discere suscipit, ut duo hinc albucius. Usu brute augue causae ex. Vivendo persequeris voluptatibus mei eu. Te vivendo conceptam eos. Sed in alii movet indoctum, sit id referrentur repudiandae voluptatibus, vix liber sanctus voluptaria cu.
Ei quidam suscipiantur quo.
34 Itsy Bitsy Spider
The doorway to the jungle yawns in my vision, and I feel a churning in my hive. Wait, no, that''s the delinquents having a snack. Or is it? I thought I didn''t have a sense of touch before but now I do? It''s probably just the nerves. It''s one thing to march down here with intent to kill, but it''s another to go through with it.
Steeling my nerves, I approach with extreme trepidation, moving extremely slowly, making the softest possible footfalls and examining every inch of ground. It''s much easier with so many legs.
That spider lives underground, and I have a suspicion about how he knew I was there last time. I almost don''t notice it in time, but Bob manages to catch sight of it before I do and warns me.
A tiny thread of spidersilk about 2 feet off the ground. I can''t see it with these metal eyes very well, an unfortunate flaw, but the delinquents are more than happy to lend me their eyes instead.
I carefully follow the spidersilk back along its length, where the thread ends, I''ll find the spider waiting. I know where it was last time, but I doubt it stayed put after I trashed the place.
Following the threads, I find a massive junction of threads all leading to one semi-realistic looking rock. This one''s probably made of spidersilk like the other, and a big spider hides underneath.
It''s time to execute the plan. I climb up a tree, position myself above the likely hideout, and begin unhinging my jaw. Once my mouth is open as far as I can make it, I spit up a small boulder, grabbing on with all my arms so I don''t drop it. I carefully position it so I can grip it with my metal mandibles, and begin heating it up with magic.
A small application of heat, then a short wait, then another, repeated gradually over a period of time to make sure the rock doesn''t heat up too fast, and soon the rock is smoking and starts to faintly glow.
The rock softens up enough so that it slips from my grip, and plummets, nearly molten, from the tree, smashing through the facade below and soon sending flames licking up from below ground.
I don''t see a spider.
Huh.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Well I''ve lost the surprise now. I thought for sure he''d be in there. The only reasons he wouldn''t...
Maybe he was hiding somewhere else or out running errand or something.
or maybe he noticed me coming.
If I were a sneaky spider, I''d have climbed the tree too. Fuck it, paranoia is the only reasonable answer to this, isn''t it?
Making a snap decision, I draw flamethrower wands with all four hands and spray fire in all directions, setting as much of the tree on fire at once as I can. I want to say I leaped from the tree, but considering I was hanging upside down from a branch by my legs, I simply let go and tried to right myself before I struck the ground. The delinquents all bail, watching in all directions to see if my paranoia paid off or if I am a fool.
Jessica spots a suspiciously prolonged and directional rustling of leaves as something unseen moves to another tree, and I chase after it, burning the canopy as I go.
Make a fool of me once, and I''ll write it off. Pull the same thing again and I''ll burn your house down.
I am so done with this kind of thing. As if I didn''t get enough of that back home.
I quickly lose track of the rustling in the treetops as the forest blazes around me, but that''s ok. I know everywhere the spider isn''t, and everywhere he could be. The parts where he could be aren''t on fire yet.
That can be solved by adding more fire.
after seeding the fire enough, I head back to the entrance and cover myself in dirt, while sending the delinquents to safety.
Nowhere to run, you bastard!
Unless there''s another exit somewhere, I''ll see the spider soon.
A few minutes later, I see it approaching. The smoke is messing with whatever magic it''s using to shroud its form, and a wavery outline shows up.
I form a link and rise from the earth.
"Did you come to concede?"
The spider pauses. "Well played, Sapling. I never thought you had it in you. It appears you have put me in a corner. But no, I am not here to concede. I am here to kill you for burning down my home." mid speech, the spider lunges towards me, but I am ready. The mana crystal grenade I buried only takes a small spark of mana to detonate, and both of us are caught in the blast. While the shockwave stunned the spider, I lunged forward myself, pincers forward and gnashing. My limbs met its limbs, and while I scored some grievous wounds with my mandibles, it was much, much stronger than I.
I was thrown back, but not before I left another grenade behind. The wounds I had made were now gaping chasms where muscle and blood could be seen moving beneath the skin. Burnt gashes leaked a bloodlike greenish fluid that stopped falling on the way to the ground, reentering the body through some kind of magic. Energy came from the spider, sealing the gashes with some kind of translucent energy barrier. A screeching angry sound could be heard from the creature, as translucent blades formed on the ends of its legs and it reared back to strike again.
Spewing fire at the angry spider, I wove through the burning trees, running as fast as I could.
I knocked down a tree towards the spider, only to see it split the tree in pieces and knock them aside, continuing its charge.
I deployed two more mana grenades, but it was watching for them now, and I barely grazed it with either explosion.
It''s time... A quick link, and a message goes through, and Eliza descends from the ceiling, camouflaged by her transparent frame. She lands right in the middle of its back and starts driving her massive new crystal stinger home, again and again. I cut the link after it''s apparent she has it covered. Her laughter is unsettling.
35 Laid to roast
I''m starting to get a rather strong feeling that Eliza eating mana crystals is not going to end well.
The sounds she''s making while chewing on the spider''s crystal are rather horrifying, and I think she is getting more bloodthirsty every day.
Herman isn''t having similar problems, and while he is a bit... odd... he isn''t going off the deep end. He''s still at his previous level of odd.
I don''t think I should let the delinquents have any more mana crystal. After a brief discussion with Sam, Bob, and Josephine, they all agree. They were here the whole time after all, and they''re seeing the same thing I am right now. I''m pretty sure mana crystal is addictive somehow, and the way Eliza is busily slurping up spider blood makes my nonexistent guts roil.
They agree to let Josephine go first, she''s the smallest. I tell them we''ll work on it while I''m healing up, and drag my carcass towards the exit.
There''s severe rents in my plating, slices in my vine musculature, burns and shrapnel damage all over, and I''m not in great condition. I''m not sure if I can fix all this damage, but I need to try. This body is the best thing I have going for me right now.
One of my mandibles and two of my legs are hanging at off angles due to damage to the plant matter I''m using to move around, so I heal that up first and make a little extra plant material to hold the damaged pieces in place so I don''t lose any parts on my way back to the cafeteria. It stiffens everything up, but beggars can''t be choosers. At least I can still ambulate.
Why didn''t Sunny say anything about the spider? Did he already have permissions? Sunny didn''t ask me to kick his ass... strange. Another puzzle.
I drag myself back to the cafeteria and begin considering how to make repairs. While I''m thinking, Josephine holds still while I add soul thread on to her soul, weaving it together so it won''t come unraveled before it gets incorporated.
I end up being unable to melt the centipede''s metal, I can''t seem to get it hot enough, so I build a sand mold around each damaged part, melt some forks from the cafeteria down, and pour in molten metal to join the pieces back together. A little buffing with a brick of freshly made sandstone, and it looks terrible, but it works. One part at a time I put everything back together.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Gremal peeks in from the ceiling occasionally when I drop something or otherwise cause a disturbance, and for some reason that makes it all seem just a bit better. I might have some problems to deal with, but they don''t seem that bad anymore. Eliza even brings me the spider''s soul orb while I''m working. It''s massive, and it doesn''t have the green streaks flowing through it that mine does, it''s pure black.
That reminds me... I remove one of my eyes, and grow the vines attaching it to my system, and bring it close to my soul orb while I work. After a few minutes of watching, I can see the tiny flicker of a moleratmadillow soul being struck down, a tiny glowing axe barely visible. I''m not sure what I can do for them in there, but it puts me at ease a little knowing they''re still running about. After that I realize I can''t ungrow vines, and have to perform some minor surgery to fit my eye back in the socket.
After some time, I''m as patched up as I can get, and Josephine''s soul is done for now. She''s already turning slightly green, which is a good sign going by Herman''s transformation. He''s gotten pretty big, but it''s taken a while.
Looks like we''re ready to roll out on a small expedition. Time to go find out what else is in the jungle. If I can take down a few centipedes while I''m at it I could use the spare parts. I''m still uncomfortable with them hanging around hiding undernath the floors, given how dangerous they have the potential to be.
There''s evidence of centipede activity pretty much everywhere now, strange depressions and holes in the floor where the ground has collapsed due to tunnels.
I''m not sure how many of these things are around, but I''m ready to do my part trimming the numbers.
After some looking around, I find a section of floor that''s more chewed up than the others. I decide to borrow a trick from the spider, and grow a cutting off myself in a crack in the floor, making sure it has tiny, delicate leaves, easily stirred by the tiniest vibrations, then lay down on the floor watching the plant carefully for any sign of subterranian movement.
and I wait....
and wait....
and wait....
until I see a tentative quiver in the tiny leaf. It grows more pronounced, and I wait, wound like a spring.
Suddenly, I can feel it, and I know the centipede is below. I rear up and slam down, busting through the flimsy tunnel ceiling where I chewed the surface just enough to make this easier. I grasp the creature below with arms and mandibles, positioning each carefully. With my knowledge of the centipede''s anatomy, I slide my mandible between two plates, and pry them up like popping off a bottlecap. With a well placed snip, I sever the centipede''s spine, and its writhing and flailing are greatly reduced. I wrestle the creature from the ground and since it now is paralyzed, it struggles mightily but dragging its own bulk behind it prevents escape.
I crawl just behind its head and get a strong grip as I peel my way in and grow a root directly into the centipede''s brain and organs. It''s a slower process, but far more humane than pulling its organs out while it still lived.
Another one down. I''ll stash the body with Grimal, then head into the jungle for some exploration.
36 Not remotely interesting
Now that I have some spare parts, I''m less worried about getting trashed for a while. Grimal complained mightily about me leaving a centipede in the ceiling with him, but if I leave it on the floir I''m pretty sure one of the others will eat it.
Once I make sure there''s no imminent danger from the direction of the jungle, I can sit down and learn some more spells from my loot. I''m very excited.
Still pretty nervous about the antelope-thing on the other side of the barricade, but it doesn''t seem like it can cross the barricade.
The jungle, as I arrive and look it over, is absolutely savaged. The spider and I burned a lot more of it than I thought and there''s still smoke in the air even though all the fires appear to be out.
Did the fires go out because of a lack of oxygen? Slightly concerning... It''s good I don''t need to breathe, but everything else does.
For now, I think I will do my part. I don''t expect to get into combat soon, so I sit down for a few minutes and grow a few seeds I find into larger plants. I grab a few cuttings off myself and plant them for additional coverage.
I burned this whole area, and it probably was providing oxygen to the residents. Maybe a few more plants will stave off a complete catastrophe.
After a while longer, I manage a small amount of ground cover and leafy bushes. Many places in the soil are still too alkaline to grow plants, but I''m not really sure if it ever rains down here.
Maybe there''s a magic doodad that simulates rain - I can''t see a jungle flourishing without precipitation after all.
Along the way as I hold very still and painstakingly grow or fail to grow plants, I see quite a few small animals come out of hiding. There''s birds, small rodents, larger rodents, and a few snakes.
I don''t see any bugs, but they''re probably sleeping because of the smoke. Hopefully regrowing this jungle a bit will be enough to help support their lives. I feel bad, but fire is the best weapon available to me. Maybe it''s time to come up with a new one.
This jungle is rather large actually, and a good portion of it didn''t burn. With a little help from me, everything should be ok, right?If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
That done, I follow the wall around back, looking for other exits. After some considerable hunting, I find a sliding door made out of rock against the rock wall. It looks just like the wall, but there''s 2 visible seams. Nice!
I can''t figure out how to get it open though. Theres no handles or mechanisms. After 20 minutes of trying to figure it out, I smash though the door, chewing a large hole through it, and knocking the fragments of the rock door out of the way.
It''s a small room full of esoteric machinery. Not really sure what any of this does, but if I take some time, maybe I can figure it out?
Digging to follow some mana linkages from the door leads me to a nearby tree that''s actually fake, and has a control panel in a secret compartment revealed by sliding away a fake section of bark.
All right, the buttons are labeled, but I still can''t read. let''s just actuate them and find out what they do.
The first control is a sliding switch, and when slid to the left the remnants of the door move about like they are trying to open. Oops. Well, I never would have found this otherwise, there''s no avoiding it I guess. The second switch has a huge label on it with a lot of words.
I''m not sure what it does, but if someone needed several sentences to describe it, it might be subtle or dangerous. I''ll do that one last if the other buttons don''t do anything terrible.
All right, next button. Three word description. I press it, and the lights go out. A soft glow, not unlike that of moonlight illuminates everything, but only a little.
Ah, I see. Those are the lights. I press the button again and the lights don''t turn back on. Hmmmm.
Maybe the next button is for turning the lights back on?
A press of the next button causes it to start raining.
Additional presses do not make it stop...
Why won''t it stop? I mash the button a bit just in case it is broken. Nothing changes.
Great. Well, I''m in this deep, what else can I do?
I press the next button and something falls from the ceiling, making a loud thump. I look towards the direction where the noise originated and press it again. I faintly see something fall from the ceiling. What is that? I press the button again and watch carefully as another thing falls from the ceiling.
Still no idea. Oh well. Next button.
I press on the next button and the sticks and leaves on the ground begin to lift off the ground by themselves and form a large pile nearby. Hmm. Maybe that''s for cleaning up the place? An auto rake feature is one I would appreciate.
The next button turns the lights back on, but it''s still raining. The last button causes a breeze to pick up, but pressing it again doesn''t stop it.
I don''t get it. This is a weird control panel.
Let me write down these notes on the buttons for Grimal. I guess I overestimated my ability to puzzle this out. I grab a piece of door and carve an approximation of the letters into it with my mandibles. It takes a ridiculous amount of time.
Finally I''m done, and though the handwriting is bad, I think Grimal will be able to read it.
Let''s go find out what fell from the ceiling.
I head in that direction, and soon arrive to find a VERY big snake. I don''t mean it''s long, or huge, necessarily, though it is pretty large. It is so fat, it looks like it ate something way bigger than it.
Huh. I probe at it mentally and form a link. "Hello?"
I recieve a jumble of anger in response. Hissing emanates from the snake, along with some incoherent territorial thoughts.
It''s a regular snake, only 20 feet long.
I decide to kill it and see what it ate, since whatever it is is probably what dropped from the ceiling.
A quick slice and the now headless snake is no longer sending me incoherent thoughts of violence.
Another few slices and I find out what is in the snake. It''s two other dead snakes.
I see. The button is a snake dispenser. I have a snake dispenser. Where do the snakes come from?
But first, let''s see if there''s cores in these. All right, there are, though they''re a bit small for such a large snake.
Very strange.
Not a chapter
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