Chapter Three

Oh. My God. This little murderhobo is amazing. The little monster assaulted every roach in sight with almost psychotic glee. Killing and maiming its way through the entire cavern in less than 15 minutes, screeching tiny battle cries the whole while. I love it.

After finishing its inaugural killing spree it began to drag the roach bodies- some still living- over before piling almost 30 of them in front of me. It turned to me and presented the pile with a hunched bow and a small jolt to my link with it, giving me a sense of not words but a feeling almost like a puppy seeking recognition. Did I do good?

Despite the [Blightling]'s horrific appearance I couldn't help but find its attitude a little endearing. I sent a bunch of positive affirmation down to it which had the little terror hopping around the body pile in apparent joy. Or maybe it was just happy to murder things, watching as it stopped periodically to kick some still-twitching bugs.

My own instincts started to pull me towards the pile hungrily, eager to replenish my diminished reserves. I'd almost enveloped it entirely when I felt a very slight twinge from my link to the [Blightling]. It was all I could to keep from laughing as I found the creature gazing soulfully at some of the roaches about to be eaten.

Chuckling internally I separated out a few of the more 'lively' ones with my tendrils and pushed them towards the [Blightling]. It squeaked happily and dug in with gusto, flinging bug bits everywhere. Turning back to my own meal filled the cavern with the (admittedly gross) sound of a whole bunch of bugs in a meat grinder.

A few minutes of digestion later saw my size was replenished and then some topping out at around 70cm if I spread out. I decided to simplify my growth mentally by referring to the biomass needed for one centimeter of growth at this stage as one biomass. Ah, sweet numbers. How I missed you!

This simple change let me work out a couple of things about myself with some testing over the next few hours, though it pained me a little to sacrifice biomass for the tests. Holding relatively still in puddle form used almost no biomass, slithering at a steady pace burned about one per hour, and strenuous activity (which I simulated by pretending to fight a rock, much to the [Blightling]'s alarm) used a full unit every five minutes.

The tests brought me down to 65 biomass. I grumbled a bit at the loss, but ultimately I knew the knowledge of my limitations would help me more in the long run than 5 biomass. Which brought me to my last and greatest form of expenditure-- the [Blightling].

The one I had now was probably my single most useful survival asset, but also cost me about 25 biomass- enough to travel for over a day straight- just to summon. Speaking of the little devil…

I turned my attention on it to find the [Blightling] completely focused on smooshing bug legs together in a macabre parody of macaroni art. Sensing my attention, it presented the misshapen 'sculpture' with an air of solemn gravitas. This was adorable, so I decided right there that my first [Blightling] needed a name.

Mentally adopting a faux imperial tone I beckoned it towards me before reaching out with one of my tendrils and touching it on the shoulder. In honor of your valorous service in the Great Roach Slaying, henceforth you shall be known as… Skritter, Firstborn of the Blight! May roaches everywhere hear it and tremble.

The newly minted Skritter stared at me uncomprehendingly before I sent it more 'positive' thoughts and it celebrated with a few excited laps around me. After a few minutes, it noticed I was still holding onto the… Collage. Through a series of frantic (and vague) gestures and emotional impressions through the link, it managed to convey I was supposed to eat the 'art' project.

Well, if Skritter wants to be my personal chef then who am I to argue?

After my snack (didn't have the heart to tell Skritter it didn't even count for one biomass) I had a choice to make between summoning another [Blightling] or wait.

Screw it. More minions!

With the one I had now being so useful, my mind was rapidly filling with visions of swarming [Blightlings] tearing through the caves at my command.

The process of summoning repeated almost identically but with one crucial difference. It was a lot harder to actually initiate the ability, though it completed without a hitch once it got going. A sinking feeling had me risk trying to activate [Spawn] again despite my low biomass, with no success.

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So much for a swarm… sighing internally as my nascent dreams of conquest evaporated, I looked to the two [Blightlings] that were apparently my limit. They were sniffing and licking each other over with their weirdly long tongues when they noticed my gaze and quickly presented themselves.

The new guy was pretty much identical to the first, although I did notice that Skritter seemed to have grown a little bit after our meal. I wonder if that's the trait they get from me. Will they just keep growing? Will I unlock more eventually? The vagueness of my ability descriptions continued to frustrate me.

Giving up on that line of thought, I sent Skritter and #2 (they can't all have nice names) out to scout the nearby tunnels. Returning to puddle form to save energy, the information I got from my minions’ eyes was very discouraging. Caves and tunnels, followed by more caves and tunnels. The sizes ranged from almost too small for them to squeeze through to several times larger than my current cavern.

Lifeforms weren't too varied either from what I could tell. Roaches were everywhere along with a number of bugs too small for me to feel much interest in. This didn't dissuade my minions, who killed anything slow enough for them to catch and eat, but even I could tell the gain was minuscule.

Flora was even more sparse, with scattered mushrooms a bit bigger than earth standard and small patches of moss being the only things found so far. Is this… all? It seems so barren down here. Where do I need to go? My puddle started to writhe and gurgle as my agitation rose.

Never thought of myself as a whiner but I was a freaking puddle, lost underground and almost entirely helpless with nothing but a pair of mutant rats as backup. It was so overwhelming and my attempts to calm down were totally useless. Funny thing about deep breathing exercises? You need lungs.

Chuckling a little at the absurdity of that statement actually helped, but what helped more was finding my minions standing protectively to either side of me. Puffed up as threateningly as possible they were hissing at all corners of the cave against whatever made me upset. Thanks guys, I'm ok. I sent them both as much positive feelings as I could to calm them down.

Enough pity-party. I have goals, the only way out of this is to stick with them. One step at a time and it takes as long as it takes. Firming my resolve, I sent the [Blightlings] out to gather more food.

This began a slow process for us of the two killing roaches and dragging them over to toss them into my puddle. My original cave was already empty from Skritter's first rampage, so they started by clearing the closest connected caverns and moving in a gradually widening circle through the nearby tunnels. The 'hunt' times grew longer as the [Blightlings] were forced to range farther and farther for more food, so I was eventually forced to choose a direction to follow.

There was nothing particularly special about my current cave other than my presence in it, and the [Blightling]'s scouting hadn't turned up anything really remarkable nearby so I picked one of the larger tunnels at random and set off with my minions in tow. Time was a little tough to get an exact estimate but I think it had been almost a full day and my growth had reached 98 biomass. My hope was that reaching 100 would unlock something new, so I was somewhat anxiously on the lookout for that last bit of food as I slithered my way forward.

My prayers were answered a few tunnels (and two used biomass) later when Skritter sniffed out the first something living that wasn't a bug. Rat poo. Fresh, steamy rat poo. Yay? Qualms about the direction of my life aside, the [Blightlings] were immediately on the trail.

Rushing into a much larger cavern, we found our quarry nibbling away at one of the bigger mushrooms I'd seen. It was pretty big for a rat too- almost a third larger than the [Blightlings]- but was otherwise normal, so I wasn't too concerned.

Skritter quickly outpaced us and dashed into the big rat's side, clawing and biting viciously. The rat squealed and fought, and he would probably have still won if #2 hadn't joined the fight. My own combat options were limited to 'attack blender' so I was forced to stay out of the almost comically twisting ball of fur and fury.

The two [Blightlings] had the rat pinned down about to finish it when a hideously loud screech brought everything to a halt. Pain wracked my puddle as it felt like every atom in me vibrated. Stunned, I immediately reverted to my liquid form and couldn't pull myself back together at all.

From the darkness above us a massive bat-creature slammed down into the now limp fur pile. Barely even catching a glimpse of it before it lifted off again, I felt the link to one of my [Blightlings] snap. NO!!

The bat monster vanished into the darkness of the cave in seconds, taking both the rat and my minions- one of which was now dead. Rage and shame at my earlier overconfidence filled me as the creature's shrieking faded, lifting the pain holding me in place.

The moment I could move I took off after it. One of my minions was still alive and like hell was I gonna just leave it to die. I'd find a way to kill that damn bat and rescue my friend no matter what.

Hang on little guy, I'm coming!