[A/N: Just noticed that the last two or three chapters have been nothing but foot notes of what was going on, will be getting the story back on track next chapter]
Time continued to march on as yet another week passed in the blink of an eye. The Cavern was expanded, the Fungi Forest was expanded, and everything was expanding.
However, after a successful hunt for a Gecko in Zion, I received a notification from the system.
[100/100 EXP]
[Congratulations! You have leveled up! You are now Level 2!]
[You have Gained: 1x Item Wheel Spin, 1x Summon Wheel Spin, Sunflower Seed Creation, and Peashooter Seed Creation]
[Sunflower - A flower with a green erect stem covered in tiny coarse hairs. The plant grows anywhere from 1-2 (3.2-6.5 Feet) Meters in height. The flowerhead is circular in shape with broad leaves, and serrated edges pointing out from the head of the flower. Sitting at the center of its head, are two large white orbs, giving the plant a vision of its surroundings. This flower will absorb solar energy, providing a passive energy regeneration during the day, but will not be able to absorb any energy at night.
With time, a Sunflower can grow to become a Giant Sunflower, its size, and roots growing with age, allowing for it to collect more nutrients, water, and energy from the sun
Cost: 5,000 Energy]
[Peashooter - A plant with an erect green stem of 0.5-0.75 (1.6-2.4 Feet) Meters in height. Hanging at the end of the stem are bulbous green pods with an opening at the 'mouth' of the plant. On both sides of the pod are large black dots that act as the 'eyes' of the plant. Inside the stem of the plant, a Peashooter grows special Peas which it launches out from the hole of its pod to deliver devastating damage to predators that wish to consume the plant. It can grow a single pea a day but can only contain 25 at any point in time
With time, a Peashooter can grow into a Gattling Peashooter. Its roots burrow deep into the ground, allowing for it to store more peas as ammunition to use in defense as well as giving the plant more reach to absorb nutrients and water, hastening the speed of growth of the peas. Some Ancient Peashooters are said to be capable of firing hundreds of Peas a minute without ever seeming to run out
Cost: 2,500 Energy]
[Sunflowers and Peashooters are known to form symbiotic relationships with plants in their surrounding area, connecting roots. The plants in this root network share energy, water, and if capable, protection for all plants connected]
That's...more than I was expecting, a lot more.
And I knew exactly where they were from.
Plants Vs Zombies.
A game from my old world that was quite popular for some years, and to this day, it's at least still somewhat known and remembered.
The only thing different that I could see was the descriptions of how they could grow, enticing me to keep the plants alive as long-term investments, if what the descriptions were saying were true, then they'd be invaluable for both defense and energy generation.
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With the Peashooter, I now had three ways I could defend myself. My Spore Carriers, Spore Plants, and now the Peashooter, and while the Peashooter would probably be a better form of defense than the Spore Plants, the Peashooters were limited in ammo until they could grow and contain more ammo. My Spore Plants on the other hand could keep spitting out spore-infested balls of acid for a while before feeling tired or running out of acid, even then they had sharp 'teeth' that could rip and tear through flesh. However, they couldn't spit acid forever, at most they would last a couple of minutes compared to the Peashooters.
Even then, at least Peashoters had the advantage of power and range compared to the Spore Plants.
I then focused back on the other two rewards I got for leveling up.
An item draw and a summon draw.
With no hesitation, I drew both.
[Item Draw: Tuxedo]
[Summon Draw: Juvenile Rachni Queen (Mass Effect)]
Well...shit.
What is it with the system in trying me to summon incredibly dangerous things?
Every single one of my 'summons' has had the potential to be extremely dangerous!
The Myonoids could have started some kind of biological apocalypse, the Elf could have been a Nazi at the level of an Archmage, a living natural disaster.
Then there were the Weeping Angels, I have not even summoned them and yet they could be unstoppable! Their abilities made them too strong, and I did not like that.
However, there were only three of them.
The Rachni Queen? From what I knew, a Mature Queen could spawn hundreds, thousands, countless Rachni Drones and Warriors like an Ant Queen, and in Mass Effect, they took over entire worlds, even becoming Space faring, which ended up with them going to war with the Citadel Races and getting wiped out by the Krogan, a race of warriors.
But, I did have one assurance, unlike the Weeping Angels, I believe I would be able to actually kill it if it was hostile to me.
First, I would like to fortify the Cavern with more Spore Plants and Peashooters before I summon it.
With its summoning, I should also finally be able to tell if the creatures and entities I summon have any loyalty to me or not.
Why was I willing to take such as risk, you may ask? Simple, the Rachni Queen would be too much of an asset to not take the risk.
Even then, if anything does go wrong, I'll be able to kill it, and I was not going to skimp on the defenses. If a galactic civilization was having trouble with them, I certainly did not want to underestimate the Rachni Queen, especially since it would be the strongest and most intelligent of their species.
As for other news, the Yao Gui that I infected a while ago has finally been completely infected and...changed by my spores.
Its mind was...intact, but it was completely separated from its kin now, it was confused, angry, sad, and feeling all other sorts of emotions. It was weird, feeling connected to its mind.
It's completely isolated itself and has gone almost feral, I don't think it could handle my spores altering its body and parts of its mind.
I'm afraid I had to put it out of misery, completely taking over its mind, killing it in the process as painlessly as possible.
As for my other activities, expanding the Cavern continued, as boring as ever, while I made some progress with excavating Y-0.
I've reached its doors, but I am hesitant to enter. If it is anything like the other facilities in the game, it's more than likely infested or guarded by something I don't have the power to deal with.
So, I have kind of just ignored the building, and planted some spore plants around it, both on the ground and up on the cliffs, in case something came out or something wanted to attack me from that direction.
As for the pitfall traps, I was making some decent progress with them, having dug out a pit that went 10 feet deep, and was smooth enough to where those who fell in would have a harder time getting out.
My plan was to lure Labatomites to my colony, trap them, and then convert them into Spore Carriers.
Due to the lack of brains, I did not feel any hesitation with what I planned to do to them, if anything I considered it mercy, mercy from the suffering they had to endure in this hellhole of a place of research.
I have also begun planting Peashooters and Sunflowers around my Big MT colony, knowing it could use the added defense the most.
Finally, I was preparing to send Ailwin to Freeside, the slums outside of New Vegas that made up a majority of the city to meet with the Kings.
I had a deal set with the Followers of the Apocalypse, and now I wanted to make one with the Kings. The Kings were a major power in the Freesides, they acted as guards, mediators, and good guys, and they all acted as Elvis Presley, accent and all.