CHAPTER 11: PART 2 OF 2
A REALM OF SHADOW AND SILENCE
The first thing Lucas saw was a sloth-like creature lying at his feet, not dead but clearly paralysed. Looking up he saw Combat Spider watching him expectantly, clearly feeling a bit chuffed with itself.
“Nice work.” Lucas said. Combat Spider had obviously read the gratitude in Lucas’s Aura, as its own beamed with satisfaction.
“Let’s go take a look outside.” Leaving the sloth-thing where it lay, Lucas made his way up.
The light had faded enough that he could at least keep his eyes open. Eager to see something other than cave walls, he reached the entrance and peered out. The forest was brightly lit like a sunny day, except that the colours were all saturated with blue and silver. Sensing his master's intentions, Combat Spider immediately ran out and began investigating the area for threats.
Stepping outside himself to look around, Lucas saw a sky full of gleaming stars. The light from them was so bright that most of them just blurred together into a great white swathe across the heavens. The moon shone with a silver so brilliant that he couldn't look at it directly. This was twilight, the sun having just set. Lucas was struck by the beauty of it. Reluctantly, he turned around again. He still had not finished his new design. Trusting guard-duty to Combat Spider, Lucas got back to work.
Lucas activated the Nexus again, focusing on what he needed right now; scouts or spies. First he needed a proof of concept. With a fresh egg ready and the design interface open, Lucas opened his Map ability. Having his Mana (and consciousness) flowing within the Nexus essentially made it an extension of his body and mind.
The popup he got after reaching 4 Spirit told him his Map ability was available to imprint on his Brood, but now he understood how. All of the Nexus’s functions were basically structures created by Mana patterns, and as far as Lucas understood, so were his abilities. When the pattern of his Map ability manifested, Lucas fed it into the Nexus. Thanks to his interface ability streamlining his intentions, a button appeared with a little Map Icon that would allow him to do it automatically from now on.
‘Nice nice’.
Imprinting the Map ability on the little Arach in the egg created extra complexity, which resulted in the Mana cost required to hatch it increasing from 4 to 5.
‘Yes!’ Lucas thought. Excitement building as he realised it was going to work.
He then repeated the process with his Stealth skill, bringing the cost up to his current limit of 6 Mana. That gave him an Arach with its own Map and Stealth abilities. The behaviour of the Arach still needed to be worked out. A regular Cave Arach would have trouble figuring out how to use these abilities effectively.
Lucas navigated back to the Ancestral Behaviour Templates and selected the one named ‘Spot and Ambush’. This template came with two subtypes called ‘Scout’ and ‘Ambusher'. He chose Scout then watched the dream sequences play out. Soon his new Arach was skittering through a thin blanket of snow in a dark forest of tall pines. Far above, the dense coniferous needles were coated with snow, creating a realm of shadow and silence beneath.
The Arach weaved between dense rows of nearly identical trunks. The odd uniformity and flat landscape made every direction look the same, giving the impression of being trapped in some kind of procedurally generated illusion. The Arach paused and turned to look back, then, (to Lucas’s delight) it opened its Map. Lucas could see four green dots on the Map catching up, which he understood to mean nearby allies. The dreaming Arach closed its Map to watch them approach. If the Map had not shown him where to look, Lucas would not have seen them coming.
Eight long, thin, needle-tipped legs held a little nugget of a body high in the air. Their carapace was as translucent as glass, making their legs nearly invisible and their small thoraxes look like floating drones covered in glassy eyes. Lucas’s Arach, which looked like a regular Cave Arach, continued once it had confirmed its squad was nearby. Just as with the other template, the behaviour from the ‘Spot and Ambush’ was active, but the dreaming Arach maintained its Cave Arach body in the dream. Despite being so different, the team seemed to be functioning as intended.
A shuffling sound in the otherwise heavy silence announced the presence of prey. The moment the dreaming Arach caught sight of a massive Armadillo-like creature, it turned and ran back to its alien looking broodmates. The entire squad then moved off with great speed towards an intercept point on their prey's trajectory. The four needle-leg types scampered easily up the tall pines as Lucas’s Arach moved carefully forward to keep an eye on their prey. Lucas was impressed with their team work.
He supposed they would relocate the ambush if the prey changed direction, but the creature was ambling forward obliviously. Lucas’s Arach, which was acting as the Scout, continued to track their prey. It kept as far away as possible, lurking in the gloom behind trees and keeping its Aura withdrawn. When their prey reached the ambush position, Lucas could barely make out the needle-legs dropping from above, all eight legs pointed downwards like a bundle of spear tips. Lucas expected the Armadillo's armour to protect it somewhat, but the pin-like tips simply slid down the protective armour plates to sink deep into the gaps. The Scout only converged on the site of the dead creature once the fighting was done.
Lucas continued to watch the dreamscape training montages play out. During the regular Cave Arach behaviour sequences Lucas’s Scout would make use of its Map to keep track of prey. Without any squad mates trained in similar tactics, it defaulted to the hunter-killer tactics of the Cave Arachs. On the third repetition of the ambush training in the frozen forest, Lucas saw what he was waiting for.
When the prey being tracked turned to look at it directly, the Arach finally seemed to realise it had a Stealth ability. Instead of running off into the darkness it activated Stealth and stayed completely invisible as the Armadillo lumbered over to investigate. From that moment on, the Arach began using Stealth in a wide variety of dreamscape scenarios, including launching a sneak attack in a Scythe duel with another Cave Arach. The dreaming spider seemed to have trained itself to use its abilities effectively across a wide range of scenarios.
Satisfied at last with his efforts, Lucas went to hatch the egg, only to be frustrated once again. Modifying the behaviour brought up the cost of hatching it from 6 to 7, one over his current Mana pool. Feeling frustrated at hitting another wall after all the effort, Lucas paused to take a breath and consider his options. The Arach needed all three customisations; Stealth, Map and behaviour. He could sacrifice the paralysed sloth-thing that Combat Spider had brought in, but a 6 Mana design was optimal because he could hatch one every time his Mana filled.
There was really only one option for dropping its cost, the size. This design was already the size of one of the Broodlings he had been hatching in the cave. They cost 4 mana and were about the size of a cat. Lucas continued to shrink the design until the Mana cost dropped by one. Now, the cost was; 3 for hatching, 1 for Stealth, 1 for Map, and 1 for the behaviour, totaling 6. The only downside was that the little spider was now the size of his palm.
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‘Well ok, so they will be really little Scouts, maybe that's good for going unnoticed anyway.’
With no small amount of anticipation, Lucas exited the Nexus trance to get out his Perfectly Balanced Knife. Combat Spider was nowhere to be seen, probably off hunting again Lucas supposed. Dragging the paralysed sloth-creature down into the cave, Lucas searched until he found a depression in the rock of the cave wall.
It wasn't perfect but should go some way to reducing the spread from the released energy. Then, holding his Nexus and an egg in one hand, he split the sloth's throat and prepared to absorb its energy. To his dismay he was only able to absorb four Mana from its dissipating lifeforce. He was about to get very angry, but then realised he had regenerated half of his Mana pool since hatching Combat Spider.
As expected, the Scout’s egg barely increased in size before it hatched in his hand. The little Arach looked far more like spiders from his home world as it investigated him curiously from his palm. Lucas used Analyse on it.
[https://i.imgur.com/PBN7asj.jpg]
Surprisingly it still had two agility, giving Lucas hope that it would be able to cover ground quickly.
‘Now for the real test,’ Lucas thought, and entered Stealth, conscious of the fact that he was using his last Mana point. The little Arach mimicked him a moment later, even completely masking its Aura.
‘Nice.’
He then put the Arach on the cave floor and sat to watch it. It simply watched him right back until it realised Lucas didn't need anything in particular. Left to decide for itself how to help, its instincts seemed to kick in and it scurried off towards the cave entrance. Lucas was reminded of his first ever Broodling, without being given anything specific to do it had gone off to fetch him a rat.
Lucas opened his Map and, with great delight, watched as a little green dot made its way into the forest. To his surprise and even greater delight, it was adding details from the unexplored terrain to his Map as it went. It did indeed move fast and its vision was excellent. Great swathes of detail opened up on the Map in a matter of minutes.
Lucas watched the Map patiently as his tiny Scout made its way through the forest. When it got to about a hundred metres away from him it began to circle around, picking a new direction.
‘Is that its maximum roaming range? I wonder if making it larger would increase its range?’
Lucas’s daydreaming was interrupted by the sight of a new green dot on the map, near to where the Scout was roaming.
“That must be Combat Spider returning.”
Lucas left the cave again, stepping into the rocky ravine near the entrance just in time to see Combat Spider dragging a massive snake. Combat Spider had the snake's head clamped between its fangs, the long body dragging behind for at least 7 metres. After dropping the paralysed snake at Lucas’s feet Combat Spider reared up on its hind legs and struck a pose with its scythes in the air, its Aura beaming in triumph.
“Ahhh Very impressive, wow.”
Only then did Lucas realise that Combat Spider’s abdomen was leaking translucent goo into the rocks and it was missing one back leg.
“Dammit, No! What happened to you?” Lucas said, shocked at the emotion in his own voice. “You have to look after yourself!”. Combat Spider looked stung and a bit confused by Lucas’s rebuke.
“I’m sorry, I know you were just doing your best.” From a mathematical point of view the snake and the sloth were both worth more Mana than it took to hatch a new Combat Spider, this was probably a trade that an Arach Broodmother would gladly take. Lucas, however, felt a level of emotional connection to his spider that seemed strange even to him. Maybe he had just been alone too long.
Lucas tried slipping his Regeneration Bracelet onto one of the Spiders legs. It didn't fit well but it activated normally, draining a Mana point from the wounded Combat Spider. At first the Spider was eager to go about its business again, but Lucas kept it still. Combat Spider couldn't see what was happening, but relaxed when it realised what was going on. Lucas held it as he watched the wound on its abdomen knit together.
The missing leg, however, did not regrow.
“That’s as good as I can do buddy,” Lucas said, getting up.
Combat Spider was happy enough. The missing leg didn't seem to slow it down at all as it began scampering around the area. Lucas did notice, after watching it for a moment, that it would occasionally use one of its front scythes to compensate for balance.
Lucas wasted no time repeating the process with the snake. It was a much more formidable animal and produced 6 Mana by itself, which Lucas happily harvested to hatch his second Scout. The first Scout had finished a complete circuit of the area between them and the road. It had not noticed any threats so Lucas put his second Scout to work. Feeling safe now, with his Scouts screening the area and Combat Spider near at hand, he set off into the forest.
Once his Scouts realised the direction he was heading, they both ranged ahead to scan the area in preparation for Lucas’s approach. To make up for their little legs, Lucas saw them performing formidable leaps between tree branches and over obstacles. They also had no trouble weaving between the thick underbrush that held Lucas back.
Combat Spider did laps around him, poking its blades into bushes to check for hidden enemies, or leaping into the air to hack leaves off tree branches, then landing in a combat stance as if it wanted to look cool. Lucas couldn't help but chuckle at its enthusiasm. If it felt impeded by some overgrown flora it went ‘full hedgecutter’ (as Lucas immediately decided to call it), using all four Scythes in conjunction to reduce whatever was in front of it to wood chips and bits of flying leaf.
They reached the road without incident, no sign of anyone from either direction. It was time for Lucas to decide what to do next. He had two options as far as he could tell, take the fight to the Slavers or wait for them to come to him. Lucas paused mid stride, realising that wasn't actually true. He could just make a run for it, try and get far enough away to make chasing him not worth it.
Despite being the scenario in which he is most likely to survive, he hated the idea. Thinking about Caleb and his men made his blood boil and his chest feel tight. Phantom sensations crowded the edges of his mind, threatening to take him back to the darkness of the cave, to that moment he had been immersed in a rage like molten metal. He could feel it still, like a brand or scar scorched into him. He did not want to run, nor to live only for the sake of surviving a little longer. Real power was finally in his grasp, and he was going to use it...
They would definitely come for him. Caleb's Steel Seed would track him anywhere, according to the tool tip. He needed to get it out before Caleb reached him or he could just be instantly killed. He was sure his healing potion would do it, since it had managed to extract a rib bone that had pierced his lung. He didn't want to use it if he didn't have to, the potions were an extremely powerful tool. It was risky, but everything for him was just weighing one risk against another. He decided to have another try at extracting it himself once he found a place to camp, since he now had his internal Mana sight to rely on.
Moving in the opposite direction meant Caleb having to travel further, buying more time to grow his brood before the fight. It would also force Caleb to set out sooner. Being a native to this world meant that Caleb could draw on vastly more resources than Lucas could. Also, Caleb had a low estimation of Lucas; if he believed Lucas was running for safety it might prompt him to rush to catch him with minimal preparation.
This way Lucas had the maximum time for preparation, and Caleb had the minimum, hopefully giving him an edge. Setting up an ambush seemed like his best shot, with whatever force of fighting spiders he could muster by that point. Sure of his plan now, Lucas set off in the opposite direction from where Caleb had tried to take him.