POV: The Clever, after meeting with Dei
He’d just met with his first friend! Well, now he understood that his new friend was only an ally, but he seemed so cool! Despite being cold, his new friend was very strong! He could smell it on him.
The Clever was even allowed to absorb some of his new friend's strength in the form of a pure version of foreign mana, and he quickly retreated into his cave to digest everything he’d eaten. He only had so much room in his body after all.
He sensed his siblings around him, retreating after they realized all their potential prizes were gone, and knew that he would be able to rest in peace.
Lying down, he closed his eyes and sensed all the mana inside of him. The new mana inside of him was foreign to Korgonda’s, and he could not connect to it properly. Instead, he would use it to find a connection he could use. It was a very pure form of mana, so he knew he would be able to learn much about his affinities from it.
The Clever first had to decide which of his affinities to focus his efforts of learning on: Heat or Patience.
When he brought the foreign mana close to Heat, it didn’t react, but when he brought it close to Patience, it quickly latched onto it.
He felt that he would learn faster if he used it on Patience, so he was happy to do so.
Gathering all the pure foreign mana and slowly feeding it to his Patience affinity, the Clever felt the connection begin to change, linking more to his… his something. Patience was being drawn to a deeper part of himself, and he was beginning to gain control over his Patience.
More than his Patience, he was starting to learn about the world's Patience. How the world would always wait, and wait, eternally, never stopping, never slowing down. It was an endless march of waiting, everything was waiting and waiting, always.
Grasping forward at the new connection before him, the Clever felt his Patience affinity finally really changed.
[Affinity Evolved: Patience has evolved into Time]
Time! That's what the world's Patience was called!
He became acutely aware of every passing moment around him, of the endless march of time, and how he might change it.
[Skill: Poised to Strike (12) has transferred into Time affinity]
[Skill Changed: Poised to Strike: (12) -> Past the Strike (1)]
‘Yay! A new Skill!’
[Past the Strike - Level 1 - Time Affinity
The shaded hunter strikes first, critically injuring its prey and winning the fight before it is even started. During combat, an unexpected burst of speed can turn the tables immediately, crippling the opponent. In a fight to the death, only one will truly emerge victorious, while the other is snuffed out. But what if one could avoid the lethal strike before it ever occurred?
Gain an awareness of immediate possibilities, potentially trading places with a self in the splinter timeline]
It squeaked happily, jumping around in its little cave, as it knew this Skill was strong.
Somewhere in the back of its mind, the Clever was suddenly aware of all the moments in every direction, even those it didn’t know about before.
There were so many, but he also saw that they were limited. A lot of the moments were the same, only changing just a little bit.
Deciding to test it out, he decided to trade places with himself where he was just a little bit to his left.
[Skill Leveled Up: Past the Strike (1) -> (2)]
A sense of having always been where he was overcame him, and he was somewhere else. If he hadn’t remembered his other self, the Clever would have thought he really had always been to the left.
The only problem was that it felt very difficult to do the thing that he did: the Clever knew that he would not be able to do that more than once in a while, or he would hurt himself really badly.
Nonetheless! It would help him a lot!
Again he had a fit of squeaking at his new power, and was ready to take on all his siblings!
Not only was there his new Time affinity, but the Clever felt a strong heat within his core from the anchor that he’d eaten. He didn’t know what it would do, but he felt it slowly growing.
* * *
Scurrying back and forth along the cave floors, the Clever peeked out, looking at a big bright crystal that released white light.
He licked it a few times, but it was not very good.
* * *
The Clever saw how one of his siblings struggled to fight a centipede. The Centipede continuously spewed lava over his sibling, but the heat was nothing to a Korgonda!
The rapidly drying nature of it was though, and his sister was quickly trapped. Though they all competed for the same spot, the Clever decided to help her.
Running in, peeking on the other timelines around him, the Clever noticed a future where he, too, was covered in magma. He chose to swap with a version of himself that was further ahead than he actually was, effectively teleporting forwards as the lava landed behind him.
He lunged for the centipedes head, grasping it and whipping it about.
His sister heated her body, glowing brightly under the stone as it started to loosen and melt off.
While he wrestled with the centipede, careful to bite it by the neck to keep its mouth away from him, she finally freed herself and helped him kill it, breaking its legs off while the Clever held it down.
In no time, they were victorious.
His sister chirped a thank you, they shared the dinner, and went their separate ways.
* * *
The Clever was charging up for something big now. The glowing within him slowly grew at all times, but it was boosted by eating other hot creatures.
He felt it, and knew something was coming.
* * *
The Clever ran, ducking through cracks and dodging under falling stones. Behind him, a wave of magma approached, slowly gaining on him. He’d first thought it was a harmless pool of molten rock, and took a sip. His sense for Time warned him though, a splinter timeline seconds into the future having been snatched up.
He transported himself backwards at the same time as he lunged backwards, narrowly dodging the grasping liquid.
The glow within him shone brighter than ever before, but he didn’t know what to do.
Nothing stopped the wave, always closing in. His body ached from using his [Past the Strike] two times since the fight started, and it was all he could do to stop from collapsing under the weight of his own body.
A humming was released from him, his body heating from the exertion as he pushed it. The cracks along his skin glowed brighter and brighter, becoming a blinding sun from how hot he was becoming.
He noticed quickly that something else added heat to him, and the humming near the base of his neck grew louder. Understanding that the glow within him was finally ready to be used, he whipped around, opening his mouth.
A beam, bright and hot, shot forward in a cone. The creature chasing him was made of thick magma, which was then superheated into the consistency of water.
The beam lasted for only two seconds, but by the end of it, the entire tunnel was melting, the ceiling dripping to the ground.
[Skill Gained: Blazing Breath]
[Title Gained: Molten Core]
[EXP gained for killing the Greater Magma Slime (Level 128). EXP gain raised due to level disparity]
The Clever dropped to the ground, panting and cold. The stone was hot, helping him, but the glow within him had died completely, and he no longer felt that inner heat he had before.
He sensed something approaching him in his vulnerable state, but was unable to move, unable to defend himself.
Instead of attacking him though, he heard sad squeaks, and felt a nudging of his body.
‘My sister. The one I helped’ he realized, chirping weakly back
“Cold” he signaled to her, and felt her press her head into his belly, lifting him onto her back. He realized she was nearly triple his size ‘when did she grow so much?’
She carried him a long distance, eventually pushing him into a very hot hole in the wall before it closed behind them. She curled around him, and he felt pulses of heat enter him, helping him recover.
Every few minutes, she would squeak at him, and he would respond that he was okay.
They communicated about their struggles with living, and he realized that his sister focused much on survivability with her powers. She’d gained an Earth affinity to match her heat, and was almost impossible to pin down. Despite the fact that she had little attack options, she’d never lost, as she would harry her opponents.
After talking for a while, the Clever realized that it was likely this sister that was going to win the top spot in this cave system, not him. Despite all his bonuses, his powers were simply too exotic, not stable enough to be an independent strength.
He thought back to the cold friend he’d made so long ago, who talked about a “community.” The clever knew what this thing was, as his cold friend’s way of messaging explained it to him. The Clever’s abilities were more suited for this “community” thing, needing others, like his sister, to cover for his weaknesses.
He expressed these thoughts to her, telling her about the idea of many Korgonda coming together to help each other. He told her that he knew she would win the top spot, and would concede from the race entirely if it meant ever facing her.
Proud of herself, she still promised him that she would never attack him, so he would win against her in combat, but he promised the same to her, so they would never fight at all.
He told her that she should get the weaker Korgonda to help her, commanding them to concede to her so they could all help each other survive.
They talked about it over the course of several days, slowly coming to understand each other using their very simple language.
Once this was achieved, she said she would think about it, but was more eager to help him train, as she realized he was woefully underprepared for surviving the world, and she was still grateful of the time when he’d saved her.
Much later, the Clever had a new nifty Skill under his belt that his sister helped him get
[Skill Gained: Heat Scan]
It helped him assess how strong enemies were by how efficiently the heat traveled through their bodies, telling him when to pick a fight and when to run away.
Not only this, but she helped him train up his [Channel Heat] Skill, teaching him about the different ways it flowed. The mana around them was Convection, so it was not truly how heat functioned, but only a single part of it.
She also helped with his [Flesh to Rock] Skill, one he’d developed to suppress his heat in order to hide from the anchor Guardian. She showed that it could instead seal in the heat, not suppress it, which would help warm him up in cold environments. At the end of her lessons, his Interface looked much different.
[Nickname: The Clever
Race: Molten Korgonda (Level 79)
Titles: Molten Core
HP: 74/74
MP: 74/74
SP: 74/74
Stats:
Physical: 37
Mental:36
Spiritual: 20
Magical: 26
Affinities:
Heat: Low-Treasured: 63%
Time: Mid-Uncommon: 92%
Inner Skills:
Heat: Channel Heat (52), Flesh to Rock (20), Blazing Breath (5)
Time: Past the Strike (29)
Outer Skills:
None]
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
[Title: Molten Core
Within you is a flame that never dies, only growing hotter with each breath you focus through it. The longer it stays hidden, the hotter it grows.
* Heat affinity is 75% easier to learn and advance
* Gain the adjective: “Molten”
* Continuously produce a stored well of inner heat]
Ready to take on the world, he stepped out of his sister's den with his head held high.
* * *
POV: Dei Grrata
The first thing he had to decide before going out would be how much Soul mana to charge his Projection with. While it might seem like “just pour all of it” would be a good idea, he found that there were times when he needed to use his body too, then immediately start a projection again.
Instead of spending all of his Soul mana, Dei decided to have a reserve of five hundred, in case of an emergency.
The next change he decided on was to leave an entire mind in his main body, just staying in communication with it. This mind, which only required 40% of his available processing power to be fully conscious, would work towards training physically and creating more Null mana. Dei was incredibly excited at the prospect of having something that could so thoroughly cancel out spells, and he needed to get on that immediately.
The cost of this was that he could not safely keep his cloaking up, but that was a cost he was willing to pay. Dei was starting to learn more about the world, and he was confident in his survivability in his Projection form. So far, almost nothing could have either touched him or kept up with his speed if he ran. The only issues he’d had so far were when he intentionally didn’t run, or involved himself in something that wasn’t his problem.
Decision made, Dei decided to use his new Sectioning upgrade for this [Astral Projection] to test it.
Closing his eyes, he focused on pulling eleven hundred Soul mana into its own box. The mana slowly congregated into its own section, squishing together as a wall formed around it.
Thirty minutes later, a door appeared on the side of his [Pandora’s Box (Contained)], and the process of sectioning his mana was finished.
Now, he tried to cast [Astral Projection] while flipping the latch to open the door, releasing the Soul mana.
Quickly, the Skill pulled all the Soul mana out, feeding it into his Identity and empowering it.
Sixty percent of his Identity split off from the main portion of the soul, and Dei was ejected forward in his glowing white body.
[Skill Leveled Up: Astral Projection (8) -> (9)]
[Skill Leveled Up: Astral Projection (9) -> (10)]
Quickly balancing himself to stand on his feet, Spiritual Dei turned to look at Physical Dei, who waved him away, telling him to shoo.
Making his way through the crack in the wall to let Physical Dei begin producing Null Mana, Dei checked his Interface.
[Name: Dei Grrata
Race: Human (Spiritual)
Class: Prodigal Detector (Level 71)
Profession: Pondering Sage (Level 5)
Achievements: Void Walker, Soulspeak, Beyond Understanding, No Rulers Above All, Bearing the Burden, Slayer of Mountains, Cruelty of the Slaughter (II)
Contracts: Soul of the (IIIIIIII)
Soul Strength: 1100/1100
MP: 106/106
SP: 106/106
Stats:
Physical: 53
Mental: 45
Spiritual: 39
Magical: 46
Affinities:
Kindness: Mid-Rare: 73%
Wrath: Mid-Uncommon: 67%
Soul: Low-Uncommon: 58%
Fortitude: Low-Common: 0%
Inner Skills:
Kindness: Pandora’s Box (Contained) (100) (2210/4000), Call for Help (24), Good Samaritan (1), Meaningful (33)
Wrath: Pandora’s Box (Unleashed) (2), Growing Pains (109)
Soul: Astral Projection (10), Connection (1)
Health: Homeostasis: (26)
Mana: Meditation (65)
Confluence: Identify of the Stout Protector (56)
Outer Skills:
How About a Demonstration?, Fine-Tooth Comb (47), Vigilance (63), In Tune (1), Commune with the Universe (2), High Mind (55)]
[Pandora’s Box:
1669/4000 Wrath
628/4000 Kindness
536/4000 Soul
4/4000 Fortitude
1/4000 [NULL] ]
As ready as he was going to get, he finally got to begin his Journey to check on his Korgonda friend.
* * *
Traveling quickly through the Spirit World, he didn’t take any detours like he had last time, instead shooting straight for checkpoint one. When he passed by bugs or small vermin, he would quickly kill them for experience, but there were no levels yet.
Reaching the rubble he had before, he wasted no time in jumping through to checkpoint one.
Quickly, he moved through the systems to the point where he’d last seen the Korgonda.
Dei didn’t really have a plan for how he was going to find the little guy, but saw that he did spend much of his time in the home cavern Dei first talked to him in front of. For a while, he rested in another den with another Korgonda, but he’d returned to his own several days ago.
Now, Dei sat in front of his Korgonda friends little hole in the wall, and couldn’t sense him inside.
‘Well what now?’ he asked himself, scratching his head.
He really didn’t have a plan for whether it would be in its cave or not. It left frequently, fighting and surviving, then would come back to rest for a few hours, before repeating the process.
Settling down to wait for the Korgonda to get back, he was surprised to find that it returned only minutes later. ‘Huh, that was lucky’ he thought to himself.
Instead of luck though, the Korgonda went straight towards him, ignoring the cave completely. He wasn’t manifested in the physical world, how could it see him? Or was it a coincidence?
When it started running circles around him and yipping, Dei knew it wasn’t a coincidence, and phased back into the physical world.
Bending down and holding his hand out, the Korgonda scurried up his arm, to his shoulders, and sat down on him. Turning his head to the side, Dei smiled brightly at the antics.
He felt such… relief. Relief to have something in this world that liked him. He slowly brought his hand up to it, petting it gently.
His friend was a bit bigger than a finger now, about as large as his full hand, but still quite small.
Dei also noticed that the glowing red cracks in its skin dimmed greatly before it climbed onto him, most likely to stop itself from burning him.
He again used [Identify] on his friend, looking to see what sort of changes took place .
[Molten Infant Korgonda - Level 83
These clever little amphibians live their lives half on land, half in molten rock. Born with a natural wit and boldness, only the smartest and strongest survive. Mother Korgonda will host hundreds of eggs in their sac’s, moving between various heated areas and releasing swarms of their young to fight their way to the top of the food chain they find themselves in. Korgonda’s endlessly grow in relation to the environment they find themselves in. When they outgrow the food web that sustains them, Korgonda will move downwards into the earth using a natural born Heat Sense (Greater) to seek out the next habitat to conquer. This particular Korgonda has developed its Heat affinity further, managing to gain a core that continuously produces heat for it, removing its dependence on the environment to keep it alive.
Physical: 39
Mental:36
Spiritual: 22
Magical: 26]
His eyebrows raised in surprise, not only at the new “Molten” in its name, but also the fact that it was higher level than him. Dei had tried for months, and struggled to level up at all, yet his new friend was having no issues in doing so.
Thinking about it though, this Korgonda was likely to gain much more EXP from killing insects, as it was almost equal to them with its physical body, giving it more of a challenge. Dei was railroaded into either killing insects, which gave almost no EXP, or killing higher level creatures, which was a potential death sentence.
Again, he was reminded of how “playing the part” in an ecosystem would grant EXP, and how this Korgonda was likely going to quickly hit the correct range of levels for the area, which was around one hundred and fifty.
Not only was it a part of the ecosystem though, but it was in a constant battle for life and death. This Korgonda didn’t have a guaranteed safe place to go back to, everyday being a challenge. While Dei would go into battle maybe once a month, this little critter battled every single day.
Despite it surpassing him in level, Dei felt no jealousy for it, only happiness that it continued to survive in his absence.
“Are you doing okay? I’m sorry I was gone so long, I needed a while to get better” he sent to it using [Meaningful]. The Korgonda nodded its head, a signal he’d taught it last time they’d met, and Dei was surprised to get emotional feedback straight from the creature.
He realized that his Kindness [Identify] was still running, still reading its soul, and the creature offered up meaning through the connection.
While it couldn’t think in words, the Korgonda felt much, and it sent an ‘affirmative’ to him.
He hadn’t even thought to try and give it a path to communication through [Identify]! That would make things so much easier!
“I can understand you through the connection, that was very smart of you!” he sent it, and it puffed out its chest in response, causing him to laugh.
“Okay, is there anything you need from me? I still have a lot of journeying to do, but I’ll need to leave the cave to do it.” While he would like to sit around with his little friend and play, he did need to reach that trapped spirit, as his most recent encounter with the Wraith cemented that he had no idea how long the spirit would last before something less friendly got to it.
The Korgonda sent back a negative, that it didn’t need anything, but also that it wanted to come with him.
He was going to protest, saying that it couldn’t survive outside of the heat, then remembered the new clause to its name that let it produce its own heat. Had it chosen such a thing so it could follow him out? He asked, and it said no, it was just a coincidence.
“What about reaching the top of the food chain? I thought Korgonda’s did that?” he asked, referring to a part of its description.
It sent back feelings of exasperation, of how its sister was much stronger than he was, and that she was going to be the winner of this food chain.
Dei was shocked that another powerful Korgonda, one stronger than his friend, emerged from this brood. He was so sure that the rare opportunities afforded to it would make it much stronger, but perhaps the opposing sister had run into rare opportunities as well? There was so much about the world he didn’t know, so it was possible.
“Are you sure? I might not come back to this cave again. If you can thrive outside of it though, I would love to have you along.”
Again, it sent affirmatives, and a thought about how it wanted to be a part of his “community,” its understanding of the word shallow.
A new companion to take along with him, Dei asked if it needed anything before they left, or if they could set out right away.
It said it wanted to say goodbye to its sister, and scurried back down his body before running off down the caves. Dei was tempted to follow it, but chose to give it some privacy in the affair.
Ten minutes later, it returned with a big Korgonda in tow. While his friend was about the size of his hand, this new Korgonda was as long as his full forearm.
He wasn’t sure what this was about, so he remained still, watching them approach ‘I really need to name the little guy, I can’t keep calling him “my friend” or “little guy.”’
Once they got closer, the smaller Korgonda started nodding at him then nodding at the bigger Korgonda, motioning for him to do something. Following what he wanted, Dei cast a Kindness [Identify] on the larger Korgonda, and it accepted the identify, but only for communication. It did not allow him to see anything else about it.
The new Korgonda him meanings of “friendly towards brother?”
To which he sent back an affirmative.
“Protect little brother?” it asked, getting another affirmative from him.
“Good. If you hurt brother, I will grow and find you.” The message was less meant as a threat, and more as a guarantee. Dei didn’t think it had a way to track him, but he wasn’t going to risk it, as he realized this was the “more powerful sister” his Korgonda friend was telling him about, the one likely to win the arms race against all the other Korgonda’s in the cave.
He wasn’t worried though, as he genuinely had no ill intentions for his new friend.
Her message made clear, the sister turned and walked back the way she’d come. Dei looked to his new friend, opening a path of communication to him, the Korgonda climbed to his shoulder yet again, telling Dei to carry them both.
He didn’t mind, so he just set out towards the opposite side of the hot caves, in the direction of checkpoint two.
* * *
Once they reached a wall of rubble, Dei was able to phase through and his new companion slipped through the cracks in the rock. When he was out, Dei let him back onto his shoulder and took off in a jog down the tunnels.
First he asked his friend “how did you know where I was?” because he’d immediately been spotted, and if there was a way to track him, Dei wanted to know.
The Korgonda sent back feelings of heat, and how Dei was the only cold spot in the entire cave system, so it was easy to see him.
‘Huh’ he thought to himself. ‘When I’m in the first layer of the spirit realm, I release a presence of cold in the physical world. That would explain why people get shivers when ghosts walk through them in stories, and something else to watch out for. How many ways are there to detect things that I just don't know about?’
Next, he asked whether it had anything it thought he should know, to which he was bombarded with various images. The first involved dozens of the same Korgonda, the one right on his shoulder, that were outside of reality. Dei couldn’t make heads or tails about it, but the next image involved his new friend absolutely blasting a big lava slime, then falling over afterwards. From the sensations, Dei guessed that it expended all of his inner heat, and the Korgonda needed a long time to rest after that. The last thing to come through was a feeling of “wittiness,” directed at the Korgonda.
The first memory felt like a long conversation to try and figure out its meaning, so he started with memory number three, asking what it meant.
Dei quickly figured out that the Korgonda was trying to tell Dei its name, but its name was a feeling of outsmarting its opponents. Dei focused on the feeling, trying to more thoroughly identify what meaning was imbued in it, allowing his Skill to translate it into more human thoughts.
After a few seconds, he received feedback that, in human language, the Korgonda would be called “Clever” or “The Clever.”
“Clever, huh?” he said aloud, thinking about the Korgonda’s name. “Well, at least I have a way to refer to you.”
Next, he got to work trying to understand the first memory of several more Clevers, all around the original
* * *
Hours later, Dei finally understood the meaning of everything Clever was trying to tell him. Firstly, it was confirmed that Clever was a male. Second, he realized that Clever had gained Time abilities.
Dei initially thought it was overpowered, but found that Clever struggled against most direct combat. While his ability was quite handy, and he was getting better at using it, manipulating time was very taxing on the soul.
This also informed him of why many creatures tried desperately to eat his concentrated mana. With the small amount Clever had been gifted, he was able to upgrade his Patience affinity to a Time affinity. While it was exotic, though, Dei saw how taxing it was, and knew that Clever would be strong against powerful enemies, but weak to armies of weaker targets.
With everything Clever told Dei, Dei suggested a new tactic: what if Clever blasted enemies with his heat beam, then swapped places with a Clever several seconds earlier, allowing for him to undo the beam, gaining the heat back.
Clever was so excited at the prospect of doing so that he nearly blasted the wall just to test it, but Dei insisted that he wait, as Dei had no way to warm Clever back up afterwards. Dei’s projection was quite cold, according to Clever, so he insisted that Clever wait for Dei’s real body to come out, that way he could both protect him and warm him up afterwards.
Clever was shocked at the revelation that Dei was not actually a cold white ghost, but accepted it readily enough. He was also content to wait, as that meant the beam would be hotter when he used it.
Dei smiled, a real, happy smile, for the first time in months. Already he felt hundreds of times better with a companion that not only liked him, but could communicate back.
‘It will only get better. I’ve been to my lowest, I will claw my way back up, even if I have to fight for every step I take.’
* * *
Seventeen hours later, Dei was finally approaching the new checkpoint. Clever went to sleep long ago, and Dei was gently holding him as he ran. Now that they closed in on it though, Dei carefully began to wake him up.
Groggily, Clever asked if they were close to where Dei wanted to go, and Dei gave him an affirmative. After a yawn and a stretch, Clever perked up and was ready to take on their next challenge.
This new area would be a bit more dangerous than Dei initially expected, as he now had Clever with him, and it was not a place friendly to such a heat-based monster.
They’d arrived at the second step of the journey, a massive intersection between the wet and dry cave systems.