Please select starter skill(s), for Geneticist. Tame: How can one be a tamer without this skill? This skill can tame monsters, based on the monsters level and their Mnt attribute, as well as Int and Wis. Higher levels and more slots, will let tame things you would normally not be able to. Will you devote 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 slots to this skill? Breeder's Garden: Perfect for the breeder on the go. This skill allows a monster breeder to establish a pocket dimension, for breeding monsters and rearing their young. Slows hunger and accelerates growth of monster born in the pocket dimension. All monsters born in this dimension will automatically be imprinted upon the breeder. This dimension grows with slots and level of the skill. Starting size is 50 square meters + 50 meters per slot after 1. Will you devote 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 slots to this skill? Match: Turns finding a needle in a haystack, into finding hay in a haystack. This skill can isolate a monsters genetic code and guide you to it up to 1 km away. Search area grows with level and slots, could eventually pinpoint specific traits not just species. Will you devote 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 slots to this skill? Mutation: Add just a dash of the unknown. This skill has a small chance to bring about a random mutation on a willing subject. This skill can only be used on a subject once every 36 hours. As the skill advances you may be able to mutate more than just creatures. Will you devote 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 slots to this skill?
Please select starter skill(s), for Splicer. Splice: Allow the science of jamming random living things together, to actually feel like a science. This skill randomly combines features of living things, if and only if you can subdue all targets. High chance of failure. Due to your geneticist class you can pick which section of genes to splice in. There is still a high chance of failure, but at least there is some control. Will you Devote 1 slot to this skill or 0 slots? Meld: If you thought splice was rough, yikes. This skill always for you to attach new limbs to either the willing or the subdued. High chance of failure, or recipient rejecting the new limb and dying You could give a war veteran a new limb and a new lease on life. Or decided what the worse abomination is, a horse with human legs or a human with horse legs. You're choice. Due to your geneticist class you can also meld the genes of two separate species together, to create a new genetic chimera. High chance of failure even with closely related species, failure only becomes more likely the more divergent the creatures. Will you Devote 1 slot to this skill or 0 slots? Mad Influence: All the best Splicers have a little voice in their head nudging them along, and six other scream that donkeys and monkeys should be fused into creature called a Keykey. This skill increase the chances that a Splicer skill will succeed by tenfold, at the price of your sanity. This is a bonus skill and can be picked up for no extra cost. Do you want the bonus skill? Yes/No
Stygian pick all four starter skills for geneticist, the only one the bug was weary of picking was Match. It was a lot like parasitical growth and it seemed superfluous, but that is exactly why Stygian chose it. If it could combined defunct ability to create something new, then why couldn't the bug sacrifice a skill to make an ability better? That was all just conjecture though, and even if that wasn't an option Stygian was sure it would be useful for finding monsters the bug could take for its arsenal. So Stygian was more than happy with its decision making, and was looking forward to using mutation daily. Normally on smaller planets with faster rotations thirty six hours would be a day and a half, but on Fracture that was the length of one day.
Splicer on the hand was a mess. It seemed like it was meant to be mad science rather than the art of genetics, and that bonus skill. It was like the class was intended for mad people, and if they weren't before they would be after. Stygian was even half tempted by the free skill, Stygian could always shackle it if the skill was too much. But even a moment of madness could make Stygian lose control of its sins. Besides that it reminded the bug too much of soul corruption. So Stygian chose Meld for the only class skill. Splice had too much overlap with Mutation, and Meld meant that Stygian could create a hybrid beast to fill up say both mammalian and amphibian. Maybe even go so far as to bridge gene pools. Though it seemed like a long, long way off judging by the high chance of failure tagline.
Stygian wanted to try out all the new skills, but the only skill Stygian could really try out was Breeder's Garden. Stygian channeled the skill and sudden was in another place.
Welcome to the Breeder's Garden. You currently have nothing living in your garden, would like to:
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Import material from your world? Yes/No
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Shape your garden for specific animals? Yes/No
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Divide the garden into sections for different creatures? Creatures can not cross assigned sections. Yes/No
Stygian decided to divide the garden into sections first. It would need spaces for host-worms, mudlings, desecrator ants, and hopefully margs as well as space for three new species. Stygian discounted humans and aväks because breeding them would be tedious. After all there were plenty of them on Fracture and nobody would miss a few in the grand scheme of things, right?
So Stygian decided to divide the garden into eight sections seven for each of its gene pools and an extra for anything the bug might tame. As the bug thought it the area shape itself into two rows and four columns. The garden itself was just a barren sheet of stone or something that looked like stone, but now there were grid lines marking each section.
Next Stygian decided to shape the garden, and thinking of the mudlings tried to make a pond. As Stygian thought it the sheet of stone contorted like a blanket. A dip was created, but the sheet retained the same surface area. So Stygian made the mudlings section a bit more narrow than the others so the pond could be deeper and an actual pond instead of a puddle.
The deväk wasn't sure what the other species would need so the bug left the sections be. So Stygian chose the final option to import materials. The bug was given a view of everything that was around the bug when it activated the skill and the world seemed to have been slowed. Looking around Stygian noticed that Vaelin looked panicked, probably wondering where the bug had gone. That made the bug feel a bit guilty, it should have told her what it was doing.
Too late now, and Stygian didn't want to stop so the bug would just apologize later. Stygian selected the section of the back wall where the eggs were and enough water to fill its pond. Then Stygian sunk down and imported the mudking corpse. Along with all the larvae it held. About to return to the garden a window asking if Stygian would like import some dirt and a few plants. The psyling didn't see why not and selected yes.
Upon Stygian's return to the garden, it noticed that a few was a lot more than the bug was expecting. Every section of the stone sheet, that probably wasn't actually stone, had a thin layer of dirt and a few bits of grass and other assorted plants. Thankful Stygian was able to choose where it wanted its personal imports to go. Placing the mudlings and mudking corpse in different sections Stygian watched expecting both sections to start hatching. When neither did hatch, Stygian just sighed figuring that they would hatch faster if the bug wasn't there.
Leaving the garden required nothing more than a thought, starter skills were just that intuitive. Feeling like you were born to use them. Stygian was returned to a fuming Vaelin. After much hitting and some name calling Vae settled down. The bug thought it was odd how upset she got, it was normal to be upset when someone was in mortal danger, but this seemed like something else. Like something bad had happened in her past, and despite some gentle prompting she refused to say anything on the subject. After much apologizing and promising that the bug would disappear like that again, Stygian contacted the Woods.
"Mudlings and woorms all dead, disposed of their egggs. Shoouldn't be any of them leeft."
"So I observed, I was surprised that you destroyed all the eggs, but you have done well. I shall guide you towards your reward."
"Okay."
The psyling wasn't going to correct the Woods on her assumption that Stygian destroyed the eggs, and it seemed better that Stygian didn't let her know about its full strength. The Lost Woods seemed shifty, and not just in a literal reality bending way.
Stygian and Vaelin set off for a cave cytonic spiders. Curious things cytonics, they have insane regenerative capabilities. Able to regrow full limbs in a few weeks time without having a high vitality score. They also are constantly cold, chilling everything around themselves. This ability makes them rather lazy hunters they don't even need to make webs flying insects will literally fall out of the air if they get too close. These spiders draw in insects with hypnotic displays of their chameleon skin. They can live for immensely long periods of time, longer than the average human, and if they find an area with dense enough mana they can grow quite large. About the size of a pony. These spiders were only a month old, which doesn't seem like much time, but its almost long enough for them to sexually mature. Once mature or pregnant, a spider will leave the birthplace to establish a new nest. While rare for them to get pregnant that early, many still venture out, meaning that Stygian was lucky enough to have access to the whole clutch. The spiders were about six centimeters long and two centimeters high. Easy pickings for Stygian.
Cytonic added to the Arthropod gene pool. 1/500
Albeit quite a few pickings. Stygian manage to fill the pool all up to two hundred thirty two, before use tame for the first time in rapid succession. It succeed every time, thanks to the bug above average mentality score it snatched up twenty Cytonics for its garden. Stygian even made a cave for them to live in. After every successful tame Stygian could view their entire status page, each had a handful of attributes unlocked, and none had a combat levels above five. Apparently that meant that they weren't technically monsters yet, level five would grant them their first monster skill. Usually something like bite or scratch, and it wasn't until level ten that they were actually considered a threat by adventures. You see monsters could specialization in class too, it was just that they usually gain a racial job. Only really special monster would gain anything like rogue or warrior. Stygian wasn't really that special since the bug was only very technical two third monster.
Regardless Stygian could also give the not-quite-monsters orders and the only orders he gave were 'live, don't attack me or anyone I tell you not too' which were probably the best order to give simple creatures.
Stygian also found and imported as many small insects as it could and didn't limited them to any one environment. The goal was to create a somewhat self contained ecosystem. It would take a lot more space and time to have something truly self sustaining. But our bug was determined, dear friends. After all those imports and modification to the space Breeder's Garden had gone up one level increasing the area by five square meters.
Vaelin said that Breeder's Garden must have been an ultra rare skill, because otherwise everyone would want to be a breeder. Stygian wholeheartedly agreed.
Stygian and Vaelin now had quite a few building blocks, to create a solid base of power, and that is exactly what they began to do. The only reason why they were able to gain power so quickly is because they had spent time, Vaelin more so than Stygian, to understand the tools at their disposal. It was like everyone started off upon a great snow covered hill, and the goal was to roll up the biggest snow ball. While most would start with a small snowball to get started faster, our odd duo created heft compact large rock sized snowballs. They would have larger bases to work with when they hit the first plateau, and would be able to push past it easier than those going for speed.
In between mission for the Woods Stygian practiced with the sword more getting to the same level as its spear skill. Also Taking turns shackling different attributes and modifiers to increase both. The host-worm larvae hatched shortly after the cytonic were harvested. A total of one hundred and sixty eight hatched, but they had a bad habit of cannibalism. Which Stygian tried desperately to curtail, but no such luck. Leaving the psyling with an even hundred. These worms were the perfect practice for its Mutation skill. It got no successes, but mutation went up five levels in a day from all the uses. Gaining the psyling a bonus five intelligence and wisdom.
While Vaelin practiced pulling the energy out of things with her invented spell and her starter spell from her Siphon class. She also began to practice sneaking and using small arms. It was a fatal mistake to rely completely on magic. After a discussion between Rhind, Stygian, and Vaelin they decided that the best enchantments to put on Stygian newly disenchanted spear, were buildup and release. The spear would build up wasted motion, and blocked attacks as energy within the spear. While release would allow it to be unleashed in one devastating strike. Unfortunately the blade would constantly lose some of the buildup so it was best to use it frequently.
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The next day the forest had Stygian and Vaelin eliminated a fungus that was killing the trees and plants. Diminishing the Woods total energy draw. This mostly involved Vae pulling the life and magic from the fungus while Stygian stood ready to defend her. Stygian was rewarded with one hundred desecrator ant larvae. Unhatched and ready to start a colony, it was a small number of the thousands the Woods had, but it was enough for Stygian. Our psyling also grab up some of the plants that gave the desecrators their venom. The bug made the argument that Vae having done most of the work should also be rewarded.
Vae was giving a book of rare spellbook bigger than her. Which was extremely useful, because pixies had almost nothing on other magics and little Vae knew was from a friend she had known a long time ago. Being an Advanced Mage as well as a Siphon Vaelin could easily mimic other spells if she knew the theory.
Once back Stygian once again used mutation on all the host worms reckless yes, but it payed off.
Congratulations, your imprinted host-worm has developed the mutation plant-like. This host-worm can now disguise itself as a plant.
Now that Stygian had access to a specific mutation that wasn't bad. Stygian tried to instill it in all the other host-worms, having two more success and gaining two more levels at the end. It would seem that knowing a mutation actually made it easier to instill in ours. Stygian spent a lot of time molding the garden to the individual inhabitants. This was enough to raise its geneticist class to level two. Give the bug four new skill slots to play with. Stygian immediately used one new skill slot on the garden increasing its size by fifty square meters. Keeping the eight sections the psyling just making them bigger. Then used another on Tame, and finally two slots on Mutation. The bug was planning to get rid Match so why increase the strength.
Our bug then checked on the other inhabitants, the Cytonics were getting bigger, just a few more days and they would probably be fully mature. The desecrator ants were still growing, and there area was full of the special plant they needed. The mudlings looked almost ready to hatch. A few of the large ones looked like they were going to break out any second, but everything was calm for the moment. Right now they were nothing more that spade shaped heads and tails. There was at least several hundred eggs, and when Stygian checked on the ones that looked to be mudkings the bug was quite concerned. They looked even smaller than they were before. It seemed likely that the teeth they grew in this young state took most of the nutrients provided to them. Worried about the biggest and best dying off before they had a chance to thrive Stygian created a separate smaller pool for the mudkings to hatch into and then moved the fifteen of them over.
The bug had filled the pond with microbial life, algae and other aquatic life of a small size. That's when Stygian had a dangerously brilliant idea. Stygian could practice meld with insects, they would be more likely to meld since they closely related and Stygian could gain experience and possibly a strong tamed monster on the other side. The best or the worst part was there no limit to how many times Stygian could use meld on one creature. There was a limit on Stygian, using either Meld, Mutation, or Tame would physically and mentally exhausted the bug. The bigger the target of the skill, the worse the effects would become, but for such small insects compared to the bugs large endurance and mentality stats the drain was nothing.
Besides being drained only helped the bug sleep better, and Vaelin could help recover the bug with magic if needs be. Vaelin trained more of the same. She even created a new spell Monitor, it allowed her to see an outline of those she marked with it, and it gave her a constant update on whether or not they still in fighting shape. In essence making her a better healer.
The next day the forest had the dynamic duo stop a swarm of fyreflies that would actually set fire to things. During the fight Stygian's spear gained fire affinity being able to ignite at will. Stygian captured one hundred for itself, offering them up as bodies for the host-worms. It gained each worm a few combat level as well as unlocking mentality for all of them, since they subdued an opponent. Normally this was be something a monster tamer would be weary of, if a beast gained too much Mnt then the could slip your control. This wasn't a problem since all of Stygian's host-worms imprinted on the bug, making loyal and obedient for life.
This time the forest rewarded Vae with a stasis dagger, which would slow down anything stabbed by it. Something Vae studied with ernst, coming up with a stasis field that slowed everything going through it. She said it would be useful for stopping projectiles, and cheaper than blocking them outright.
Soon enough a month had passed and both Stygian and Vaelin were decked out in goodies. Well it was mostly Vae, Stygian didn't care much for shiny stuff, and with Knight's Fork Stygian didn't need anymore weapons. Vae studied the objects increasing her research level a good deal.
The rewards Stygian did care about however were those for its gene pools. Unfortunately the Woods had supplied any new candidates after the Cytonics, but she tried. She hasn't quite grasped the concept of animals being classified. Other times she was just trying to clear her forest of annoyances, by calling them rewards. She tried to give Stygian a snawkit, a snake, hawk, rabbit, but the genes were too scattered and the pool rejected it. Another time she just wanted all the trash gryphons eliminated. Stygian had to abandon that pool because the genes varied drastically from one gryphon to the next.
Morbidly the Woods did offer up her collection of human bones for Stygian to sample. There were thousands of them. The Woods said they are memorabilia, the same as the other trinkets she had been giving out, but the bones were her favorites. And just like that its human gene pool was completely full.
It also had the strange effect of unlocking Stygian's magic level. The bug did specific go for the most magical potent bones, but it didn't see why that should let it sense threads now. So Stygian meditated on the threads trying to establish a connection with one. Psyling was not so lucky though, seeing nowhere near as much progress as it did when leveling research.
The mudlings had finally hatched as well as the mudkings, and the desecrator ants. Cytonic spiders had mated and Stygian culled their population, reaching a thousand easily and filling up that pool, and killing the tamed extras. Which also grant the deväk's spear with the cold affinity. Now when split up one spear could freeze while the other burned, but only when apart, the affinities balanced out when combined. Teaching the bug that it should be careful what it killed otherwise its spear may end up useless.
Stygian conquer another level of gluttony as was as a level of lust.
Gluttony
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You have endured a horrid agony. You feel, ravenous agony...100%
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Energy Dense has reached level 4. You feel, full... 0%
Lust
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You have muddled through your muddled state You feel, muddled... 100%
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Dumbstruck has reached level 2. You feel, uncomfortable... 0%
Gluttony seemed to want the bug to always be full, not letting its capacity drop below full otherwise it would lose progress. Lust on the other hand just made the bug uncomfortable in any all social situations, and the only way to progress through it was to sit there and take it.
Meld had several successes and Stygian created a mosquito wasp hybrid, and not just once either. Oh no, the bug created two and they began to populate. Stygian moved them to the eighth square in the garden, keeping nature's perfect asshole separate from everything else. Mutation had also successful turned all the host worms plant-like and then some. Turns out mutation can further mutate an already know mutation. The host-worms could now feed off of sunlight and grow bark like armor on their puppets as well as themselves. They were now part-plant, as the mutation called it.
Stygian also worked to mutate the fyreflies they controlled. After a string of poor or less than favorable mutations Stygian got a good one for the flyers.
Congratulations, the untamed fyrefly has developed the mutation oxygen efficient. They can now grow larger with less oxygen.
Bigger soldiers, the better. If the fyreflies could keep getting bigger they might actually become dangerous. Imagining huge swarms of insects bathing the land in hellfire Stygian couldn't wait for the day that it and all its monsters became powerful.
The desecrator ants were beginning to diverge into new roles, of queen, scout, hunters, and tanks. Stygian imported anything and everything it could and gained the garden another level as well five more square meters. The deväk would have tried mutation on more things, but doing all the host-worms and their hosts was taxing enough. So taxing that it actually earning the bug some endurance.
During the month of adventure Stygian and Vae had only gotten closer. They were thick as thieves and pretty strong, by pixie standards they were unimaginably powerful. Some pixies spent their entire lives dreaming of the strength like what Stygian and Vaelin possessed. This rate of growth was pretty common amongst ambitious new adventurers, especially if they just got their first class.
Stygian wasn't expecting the Woods to need so much, but it she was also preparing them for quite the extreme fight. Apparently she had lost an entire section of her forrest because of one little ghost tree, and tomorrow was the day that Stygian and Vae would have to fight it. Well they didn't have to, but Stygy was confident in their abilities and wanted those damn margs. And Vaelin would see it through with the psyling come hell or high water. Vaelin knew that Stygian was quite curious about her past, but she didn't want the bug to look at any different. After adventuring with the stubborn and silly bug, Vae new that Stygy wouldn't view her any differently. So like a cheesy death flag right before a big fight Vaelin Koroth began to tell her story.
Name Physical Modifiers Attributes Unique Statuses Stygian Half-light Str: +23.7% Str: 24 Oath Age Agi: +20.1% Agi: 25 At Death's Door 3 months Dex: +19.5% Dex: 30 Monsters Vitality Species Acr: +16.0% Acr: 20 Thick Plating Deväk (Psyling) Mnt: +0.2% Mnt: 31 Int: +9.1% Int: 23 Wis: +8.9% Wis: 23 Per: +13.7% Per:19 End: +14.7% End: 29 Con: +10.0% Con: 22 Vit: +10% Vit: 21 Cha: -15% Cha: 7
Abilities Skills Job Skills Sins Parasitical Growth Unrelenting Tame: Level 6 Gluttony Lurk Energy Dense: Level 4 Breeder's Garden: Level 3 Lust Psychic Aptitude Dodge: Level 8 Match: Level 1 Writhing Flesh Path of the Spear: Level 10 Mutation: Level 13 Shackles Shapeshift: Level 12 Meld: Level 6 Dumbstruck: Level 2 Path of the Sword: Level 10 Fast Learner 2
Combat Level 14 Research Level 16 Magic Level 3
Geneticist Level 2
Splicer Level 1
Gene pools Parasitical Growth Progress Arthropod Aväk 0/10, Des. Ant 0/500, Cytonic 1000/500 Mammalian/Amphibian Human 200/100, Mudling 180/90 Morphis/Annelid Marg 0/200, Host-worm 300/150