PART I - PUT THE WHAT WHERE?
The laughter inside roared on for a good, hard minute before everyone finally had to catch their breath. Tazrok had fallen prone on his bed and was pounding his pillow, while Xin and Lena leaned on each other for support before finally slumping on to Xin’s bunk. Vanis did his damndest to remain stoic, but eventually succumbed himself. Callie glared daggers all around, but eventually turned the scowl into something resembling a smile. A smile with a lot of confusion woven into it.
“I’m so sorry,” Lena finally said. “That was just too much.”
“I hate you all,” Callie grumbled.
“We all assumed you were going to come storming in here after hearing about the worms from your trainer,” Lena said, “but when you said he didn’t get a chance to tell you, I think somehow we all saw the same opportunity to just drag it out.”
“I will get all of you back,” Callie growled. “Each and every one of you. I know where you sleep, and my revenge will be slow and cold and merciless. Now, can someone explain what the hell is going on?”
“Who here can explain Symbiotes well?” Vanis asked. “Anyone?”
“I only know what they are and the general process for using them,” Xin said. “I never thought I’d have a chance to get one, so I never gave it much thought.”
“Same,” Tazrok said. “Ogres not use sluggos much.”
“I might know more than these two,” Lena said. “I used to be close to some … associates … that had Symbiotes. But I also never thought I would get one, so I didn't really care that much.”
“I guess it may fall to me, then,” Vanis said, “I studied them informally when I was a young boy; found them fascinating. This would have been long before I received my Warlock class.”
“Okay, but what are they?” Callie implored. “And why do I have to put them in my ear? And how do they work? And why are they so valuable? And I really don’t want to put any living thing in my ear!”
Vanis sat on his bed and leaned back against the wall, encouraging everyone to do the same. He took a sip from his waterflask and put his hands behind his head. “Where to begin...” he said.
“How about by telling me what the hell a Symbiote is!” Callie grunted.
“Stop interrupting,” Vanis chided.
“You’d have to actually start to be interrupted!”
“Hush,” Lena said.
“Alright, fine,” Vanis started. “It’s called a Symbiote, but everyone just calls them a worm.”
“Or a slug,” Xin said, trying to be helpful.
Vanis chuckled. “Yes, or a slug. They generally refer to the same thing, although ‘worm' actually refers to the armored form and ‘slug’ to the unarmored creature.
“We call them sluggos,” Tazrok said.
“It doesn’t really matter what you call them, in the end. These are incredibly fascinating and rare creatures found in the wild throughout the land. They can be found anywhere, in seemingly random places. You could walk out the door tomorrow and find one just sitting on the front steps, or you could go a lifetime and never see one in the wild.”
Lena interrupted. “I’ve even heard reports of people finding a worm in deep dungeons, just hanging out on a wall doing whatever it is worms do. There’s a whole profession of people who spend their time trying to find wild worms, with several skills to help track them down. These little critters can change their color to match their surroundings, a little like Xin can do, so they would be really hard to spot if you don’t have those skills.”
“Right,” Vanis continued. “And if you find the right Symbiote, for an advanced class for example, you can sell them for a small fortune. Manage to find three or four, and you’d be able to retire.”
“So each of these … Symbiotes are for a specific class?” Callie asked, before muttering, “Symbiote is such a mouthful, I can see why people just call them worms.”
Vanis gave Callie a hard stop-interrupting-me stare.
“Ooops, sorry, I’ll be quiet,” Callie said sheepishly.
“Yes. About thirty-five percent are for the Scholar class, and around fifteen percent are for each of the other four classes. That remaining will be for one of the advanced classes. With more than forty advanced classes, the chance of finding one for a specific class is very low. Tazrok’s Druid class, which is a Hybrid of three classes rather than two, is likely the rarest of all.”
“So the distribution among the advanced classes isn’t even?” Callie interrupted. She was seeing the numbers in her head and was curious.
Vanis gave up trying to stop the interruptions, realizing this was likely going to be a pattern. “They are skewed towards Scholar-based advanced classes like the non-advanced Symbiotes. So, for example; your Ranger worm? Probably a one in five-thousand chance of a random wild worm being that class. Maybe even higher odds.”
“So that rarity is why they are worth so much.”
“Exactly,” Vanis confirmed. “When Commandant Xera says the Free Folk have invested heavily in us, they are not kidding.”
“Okay,” Callie said, “What do they do that is so important? They give us our skills?”
“Remember when we talked earlier today about how you acquire new skills and perks,” Vanis said.
Callie thought back to that conversation. “Either with lots of study, or if you are lucky, you might randomly get one related to your class in your sleep.”
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“Right,” Vanis said. “However, one of these Symbiotes will teach you all of the skills and perks for your class within about one day. And more importantly, when you level to the next tier, you will learn the upgraded versions of those skills and perks and any new ones that may come with it.”
“Whoa. No studying?”
“Exactly. No studying and no need for lucky dreams. Of course, this is just the knowledge. You still have to practice, but you will at least know how to do it. But, that’s not all. Your Symbiote may also teach you strange skills related to your race, or race-class combination, or even new perks. Things no one has ever seen before that are unique just to you.”
“So, with this thing in my ear, I’ll wake up tomorrow knowing all my Ranger skills? Or even some strange, never seen before, skill?” Callie asked, wide-eyed. “No need to study anything?”
Vanis nodded. “Exactly. Or at least by the end of the day tomorrow; it’s supposed to take about eighteen hours to complete. You can see, with the amount of time saved, how they are so valuable. Especially if you are trying to field military troops.”
“Whoa, instant training. No need for boot camp,” Callie said.
“I don’t know what this ‘boot camp’ is,” Vanis said, “But you’re right, you are able to condense many many months of training down to just a few weeks.”
“You said only about three percent of the population can get one of these? Are they that rare?”
“Yes. A very low number for sure. And thus Symbiotes are very expensive. Even a single class Scholar Symbiote, the most common and least expensive one, could run your average person what they may earn in a year. Maybe more. The rarer ones tend to only go to the rich and powerful, or to the military for soldiers.”
“But Master Trainer Thorn said my Symbiote might not work. What happens to it and me in that case?”
“He’s guessing you’re a Ranger based on the perk you have. If you host a Symbiote of the wrong class, it will reject you, create a new armored shell, and crawl back out. After a few months, the worm is rested enough to try on another person. The person that was rejected, however, will need at least eighteen months before they will be able to try again. It’s even safer to wait two years. This is why everyone is scryed, because we would not want to waste that opportunity by guessing.”
“The worm just lives on in you forever?” Callie asked.
“Generally. There are ways to forcibly remove it, but it nearly always kills the creature in the process. It can kill the host as well, if care is not taken. If an implanted Symbiote is mishandled, it may release a toxin in response. This isn’t good for the person hosting it, obviously. And you should note, purposefully killing a worm can come with some very serious legal penalties. To some, a Symbiote is considered a precious gift that must not be wasted.”
“So what happens if a host dies?”
“Assuming their head wasn’t damaged? The Symbiote will simply rebuild the armored shell around itself and crawl back out. If collected, it can be used in another host after a few months. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the Symbiotes being given to recruits tonight have been hosted by other people in the past. Worms have no known natural lifespan, so you could get one that is hundreds of years old. They are rare enough that most Symbiotes have been hosted previously. As a result, as more wild worms are found, in addition to those already hosted, the percentage of the population that will receive one increases slowly; still very rare though.”
Callie saw a danger in this. “So if a Hybrid or Specialist worm is worth so much, what would stop a person from, say, killing someone to make their worm come out?”
“It is a risk, and thus it becomes very important to not ever talk about having a Symbiote, especially as an advanced class. Tell as few people as possible or you can make yourself a target. Surround yourself with people you trust, other hosts if you can.”
Callie took a minute to digest all of the information that was just dumped on her. On one hand, the idea of a way to almost instantly learn all of your skills, and even getting some special unique ones, was really appealing. On the other hand, they wanted her to PUT A SLUG IN HER EAR! Who does something like that? And then she remembered. It was a magic world. A world of Elves and Ogres and Lizardkin and Cheetakins and apparently even Dragons. Was some magic skill-giving slug you shoved in your head really that far out of line at this point?
“These things are safe, right?” she asked hesitantly.
“Yes, or at least as far as I know,” Vanis said. “I’ve never heard of anyone having issues. The name Symbiote is well-chosen, because it truly is a symbiotic relationship. You give them a safe home in your head, and they provide you with all your skills.”
“What about Pixies and Sprites? They are pretty small. Are their heads too small for one of these things?”
“A Pixie can be a host, but a Sprite wouldn’t be able to. They are just too tiny. The Symbiote is almost the size of their head.”
Callie nodded, not really to anyone, and mulled over all of this, trying to make sense. Then the most-obvious question occurred to her and she meekly asked, “Does it hurt?”
“I’ve been told it doesn’t,” Vanis said. “I’m sure the process is uncomfortable, and there will be a little blood, too, I was warned, but no pain. And for the first day or so, you will feel dizzy or like you are drunk, as I’ve mentioned. That’s why we’re confined here tonight, and are just resting tomorrow. By the time the evening comes, though, everyone should be fine and we can begin formal training the next day.”
“Do I have a choice in this?” Callie asked.
“Why would you not want your worm, Miss Callie?” Xin asked. “It is a great honor. It is why I have volunteered. To get such a rare Symbiote for free? Who would not want that?”
“Besides of the fact I have to put a slug into my ear? Isn’t that enough?”
“A day of being uncomfortable in exchange for having all of your skills for all your days? It is a very fair trade,” Xin said. “While it was not my choice to learn to be a Shaman, with a Symbiote, I will be able to use my Shaman class as a profession and live a very comfortable life.”
“He’s right,” Lena said. “I didn’t have a choice about joining the Army because I was Conscripted and other reasons. But considering my past, when offered the opportunity to get advanced training and receive a rare Symbiote, I couldn’t pass that up.”
“That’s right,” Callie said, narrowing her eyes at Lena, “You have a mysterious past.”
“When I’m drunk,” Lena said, wagging her finger. “And no changing the subject.”
“I guess I have no choice, do I?” Callie said, crestfallen.
“You may,” Vanis said, “Your circumstances are different than ours, and if you refuse, they may allow it. But you are also Conscripted, which means you’re going to be in the Army for the foreseeable future in some form. I would hope you see the value of having the skills.”
“What about you guys? You don’t have a choice?”
“We all already made it,” Vanis said with a shrug. “We had an option to come here, or go to a non-Symbiote training location. Honestly, our chances of survival are much, much higher by coming here. You heard Commandant Xera earlier, zero deaths of graduates. That speaks for itself to the value of this training.”
“What if I freak out?” Callie said, realizing that the one-time process was her greatest concern. “What if I panic?”
“We can hold you down,” Xin said.
“Or,” Lena snapped, realizing that Xin’s idea was a little aggressive, “The camp healers can use a sleep spell on you. But I have heard that if you are conscious, that your link to the Symbiote is better.”
“We were told the same,” Xin said.
“So, to do this right, I need to be fully awake while a slimy, icky, super gross, caterpillar slug thing slithers its way into my head and makes a home in my brain.”
“You got it,” Tazrok said.
Callie groaned as she flumphed her pillow into her face.