Chapter 19 - Calm

After the big revelations of the last day, we finally started to reach a somewhat stable state. We were still attacked by bears at least once a day, but at this point, they didn’t really pose a threat. They kept us on our toes, but we weren’t seriously hurt in any of the altercations.

To be fair, with [The Flesh obeys] and all the stored up biomass, I would have to have my head smashed, or be in battle for hours on end to really get hurt.

Speaking of that Perk, we did some more experimenting with it. For one it seriously increased my biomass upkeep, since it would always adjust some minor thing. Originally I had thought it Interacted with [Prepared Form], but that wasn’t quite right. It was more like subconscious shapeshifting. I would think about how Val’s nose looked a little sharper than mine, then my nose would hurt, and then I would have a nose just like hers. It was actually really annoying.

For two it also reacted to my emotions. Val cast some manipulation spells, to induce emotions in me. Anger made me bigger, sadness made me smaller, fear wasn’t actually what made my bits shrink yesterday. It was terror. Fear made my muscles grow in my legs.

All of these effects were somewhat containable, but they were noticeable ‘mood-indicators’ when you knew what to look for.

The really freaky thing was when I became hungry though. Not in the empty stomach way. The ‘Oh that looks delicious’ way. I once didn’t immediately start to eat a dead bear, because Val wanted to talk about something - the bear had rudely interrupted us - but she didn’t get to finish a single sentence, because she noticed my Flesh was reaching for the carcass. Literally. Patches of my skin would form a mini-limb, stretching in the direction of the feast. Again, I could contain this, if I made a conscious effort, but it was weird.

That brings me to the next point we discussed. That whole eldritch thing, which apparently was the same as an ‘elder god’, the administrator and Val used both terms for the tentacle thing. The Administrator seemed incredibly annoyed with them, Val however was much more relaxed: “They are incomprehensible beings from beyond time and space. Worrying about them is like worrying about a meteor hitting your head. Granted in your case you should watch out about interacting with them, since you seem to have their interest. They could break your mind out of boredom, or because they overestimate how much you can handle, or just by accident. You never know how much they are involved with anything. It could be one of them is invested in you specifically and has carefully crafted a story you should play through. Or maybe some of them thought it would be funny to give you a perk, that messes with the system and watch what happens next, or maybe someone is just using you to mess with the administrator. I really don’t know. No one CAN know, really. Maybe some Perks you get ‘changed’ in the future have a clue in their description? Although even that could be misdirection. In truth it is just impossible to know. For now I would suggest you don’t think about it. You can’t possibly know what the ‘Entertainment’ in your Perk is supposed to refer to, so don’t try to fulfil it. You are either entertaining or you are not. You can’t know or influence which one.”

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Not really a satisfying answer, but I understood that Val couldn’t know everything. At least she wasn’t mad at me for consorting with elder gods, or anything similar.

All in all I enjoyed the time being. We fought, but it wasn’t really life and death, I mean it was, a few missed steps and we would end up dead, I didn’t want to test my Perk against a bear’s digestion, but it was a relaxing kind of life and death fight. Am I making sense? No? Anyway that’s how I felt at the time. I knew I was in mortal danger, but I never felt in mortal danger.

Also Skadi and I got into a rhythm when fighting together. I devoured several metric tonnes of delicious meat. It was fun. In a weird way, but I had given up on normalcy when I cut off my own face. At the very latest.

Things started to change, when we reached the ‘True North’, as Val called it. The border was marked by snow. It started to snow when Valeria said we were in the north. It should only be early Autumn, so the weather had to be connected to the location.

The other change was when the secondary effect of my [Hunger of the Apex] Perk finally triggered on bear 25.

[Infectious Mana Manipulation]+3=>

28

[Internal Mana Manipulation]+1=>

62

[Perception]+3=>

28

[Shapeshifting]+2=>

38

[Natural Weapons]+2=>

42

[Ursine Anatomy]+14=>

36

[Hunger of the Apex] has absorbed a racial Perk from this creature. You are granted the personal Perk [Berserk Rage]

[Berserk Rage]

You may go into a berserk Rage. In this state you are filled with anger and your Strength Stat is doubled. In return all your other Stats are reduced by half. This Perk may be turned on and off at will. Going into or out of a berserk Rage takes five seconds. The bonuses and maluses linearly grow/diminish over those five seconds.

I was very excited for this Perk, but after a few fights I realised that having all your Stats halved wasn’t really a thing you wanted in a fight. On the other hand, the Perk was free and I was sure I was going to get some use out of it.

Once we were deep enough in the north to actually have a snow covering on the floor I spied another interesting thing. Human footprints. We had found some form of Civilization.