Mash had left his world after resting a little. The others had found him at one end of the city. They had teased him about the parade. Although they were nowhere near as bad as his brother. His brother had been waiting for them, and he was rather angry to find out that he hadn’t returned immediately. Thankfully, he had learned of the group from the general and knew that they would probably be fine. The fact that the general knew about them was a little surprising, but it shouldn’t have been. She was high-level, and he figured that most high-leveled individuals knew one another. He still had a lot of explanations he needed to give, but his brother was mollified fairly easily. If anything, he was just mad that Mash hadn’t returned to give him some reassurance.
After dealing with his siblings, Mash left the city as well. It felt like he had been there too long. While he had been traveling a little, the stuff with Igan had made him think that his fate had caught up to him. The time to go had arrived and the group decided to go visit Timor. They had only caught a glimpse of Timor’s home, but Mash remembered the small horde of monsters assailing his home. The cold didn’t bother them much, and the monsters were tempting. Plus, it would be another continent. A kingdom that they hadn’t explored.
Jill had teleported them as far north as she could. Which was the snow plains they were at earlier. They could’ve looked around for more monsters, but they wanted to go somewhere else. Mash considered looking for those monsters which could heal themselves. They were supposed to be somewhere underground, but the others weren’t as interested. In the end, they agreed to look for two hours. If they couldn’t find the monsters, they would just need to return later. That was fine considering that it would only ever require a second to get back. Sometimes he just forgot how convenient travel had become because of Jill.
Mash flew over the snow plains. The others were doing the same but in different places. They were trying to find a way underground. A tunnel, cave, or crevice. The monsters were supposed to be fairly large, so he thought they would be easy to find. What he hadn’t accounted for was the snow. The snow was thick and hid any blemish that would normally be visible. Holes or the like would probably be filled with snow. Flying was actually making it harder to find the monsters but going on foot would probably mean fighting more wolves. Mash didn’t hesitate any longer and flew toward the ground.
Snow buffeted his face. It had been the entire time, but he felt it more when diving. Most of the snow in the area came from the surrounding mountains. It didn’t simply fall from the sky but swirled about as the wind kicked it around. He barely noticed it when flying in the sky, but it was thicker near the ground. His landing sent up another cloud of snow. The top of the snow was light, but the ground was packed tightly. He hoped that walking would be more productive. His domain should help at the very least. Another idea came to mind.
His arm went up, and he made a living wood imitation of Priscilla. The wooden creation seemed to come from his skin. It almost looked like it would tear off a chunk of flesh, but it didn’t blemish his skin in the slightest. The imitation slumped out and fell into the snow below. Mash looked at it carefully. He hadn’t tested what abilities his imitations would have, but he assumed it would be all of them. He knew they had some access to his skills but not all of his bodily functions. Skills like making wood and his domain were replicated, but they didn’t have his mimic’s avarice or most of his chimeric skills. The knowledge made him pause.
He knew a lot about his creations. Normally skills would take a decent amount of testing to fully understand, but he felt like he knew the limitations of his imitations. It was like they were just another part of him. Just as he knew the limits of his own eyes, he knew what the imitations could do. The drain on his health was noticeable but it was something he couldn’t measure exactly. He checked his status quickly.
Name: Mash Stellumbra Class: Chimeric Vagabond
Level: 112
Health: 3124 / 3300
Energy: 4400/ 4400
It wasn’t a nice even number. Plus, it was completely different from his earlier use of the skill. That meant that there was a range for the drain. The skill was quickly becoming riskier, although the advantage was huge. His creations generated their own energy and had access to almost all of his magic. And they could react to situations. They could do things like dodge and maneuver. He hoped that would make it good at finding some tunnels. It had some of Priscilla’s abilities mixed with his own. He wasn’t sure if it could make true imitations of itself, but he figured it was worth the test.
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[Take control of it.]
Priscilla would be better at controlling an imitation of herself. Not needing to confirm anything, she immediately got to work. Mash paid careful attention to what Priscilla tried. His domain let him keep track of her energy and the magic within the imitation. The imitation started the process, and he saw it recreate his skill. But it wasn’t the new version. When it made an imitation, it didn’t give up its health. Nor did it creations breathe or act alive.
[Strange. I recreated the energy flow perfectly.]
[The skill uses something other than energy?]
Mash felt Priscilla arrive at the same conclusion. His living wood creations couldn’t make more. It might be intelligence or something inherent to his strange body, but the imitations wouldn’t be able to replicate themselves. A disappointment for sure, but they could at least make something. The wooden versions of Priscilla scattered about. Spreading from him in a circle. They would scour the grounds. Mash started walking in his own direction. Senses spread as far as he could with his domain. He didn’t need to find these monsters, but he wanted to. A healing ability on monsters was rare. Rare enough that one of the closest monsters with it was at the very edge of the continent.
Mash walked and tried to feel into the ground. For a while, he found nothing but snow and dirt. However, he was lucky. Luck might not be the right word. Things tended to happen around him. Closer to the end of the hour, he found a tunnel. It was smaller than he expected, though it was enough. Mash felt it with his domain, and almost missed it too. The snow had packed tightly into the tunnel, and he only sensed a small bit of the tunnel. At first, he thought that it was just a loose packet of dirt or something, but he noticed the ground move. It was a small motion, but it wasn’t one that he caused.
[Found it!]
The message wasn’t for Priscilla. She sent it to her friends. They could communicate remotely now. Priscilla’s imitations were quickly proving themselves the most useful in the group.
[It is a matter of individual abilities. My superior control and intelligence extend to the imitations that we create.]
Regardless of the informative tone that Priscilla tried to project, Mash picked up on her smugness. She was enjoying the praise even if it went unsaid. His thoughts and emotions were open to her. He let her bask in the genuine praise. Her reasoning didn’t really matter. Priscilla had been irreplaceable. And she had helped him through some surprisingly human problems.
The snow beside jumped from the ground, as Jill dropped into it. She appeared there suddenly. He hadn’t thought about how her teleports would work something easily movable like snow, but he saw it now. The snow shot outward from where she teleported too. The space had emptied itself to fit Jill. The snow slowly fell back onto her, and she shivered. Her words came out quickly though.
“Where are they?”
She was shouting and had her needle in one of her arms. The space around the tip was slightly warped. He stared at the tip for a second, before holding his hand out. His thumb pointed down, and her eyes dropped to the ground.
“How far?”
She hesitated a little as she lowered her weapon. It had been poised to stab something. Had she really expected to teleport into their den or something? He wouldn’t do that. Ignoring her action, he just responded.
“It's at the edge of my domain. So around fifty feet. Straight down too.”
She stared down. Then she raised one hand and moved her fingers like she was estimating some distance.
“You want me to clear it?”
“No!”
Mash didn’t shout, but his reply was made louder as Red joined him. She landed beside Jill. A frown was on her face as she touched the ground.
“You are going to destroy this whole place if you do that.”
Red’s words matched his own thoughts.
“I was just going to try teleporting the snow and ground. I should be able to do it. I mean I wasn’t going to make as big an explosion.”
Jill’s reply had phases. It started with a genuinely good idea, but it broke under Red’s persistent glare. Jill’s own eyes slowly drifted downward as she kept going. By the end, she admitted to wanting to use her explosion. Her forehead was firmly pointed toward the ground now.
“Just try and move the snow.”
To Mash’s surprise, Red relented if only a little. She encouraged Jill to try what she had said at first. Jill was obviously surprised too, as her head snapped up in one quick motion. To her credit, she replied quickly with only a slight amount of hesitation in her voice.
“Yeah, I should be able to do that.”
“Sounds good, I will be over there.”
Mash schooled his face into a serious expression. He spoke and pointed toward a mountain in the distance. The snow wasn’t the only thing that made it hard to see. It was far. Jill grinned, and Mash let himself do the same. Red rolled her eyes a little, and Luke stepped around a tree and all heads turned toward him. His sleeves were stained with blood. Soaked in it really. The red ran all the way up to his shoulders although he looked otherwise uninjured. Luke looked around for a second.
“I guess I was the only one to run into the wolves. Well, where are these insect things?”
“Below us, how many levels?”
Mash was jealous, and he had to know. Luke smiled and held up three fingers proudly. Jill groaned loudly, and Mash did the same. Red shook her head and stomped a foot. The snow parted as her foot dug into the densely packed ice.
“We will get our chance as soon as Jill moves this snow.”
“Got it!”
Jill jumped at Red’s words and rubbed her hands together. She didn’t immediately start though. They all moved away from the ground. Jill probably wouldn’t fail or destroy everything, but they had all seen what her magic could do. As durable as their group was, none of them wanted to test themselves against Jill’s attack. There weren’t many things that could harm legendary beings, but he couldn’t help but think that she could.