Writing Soundtrack: A Purpose for new London by The Stipendium, Get Up by All Good Things, The Search by NF

When I came to once more, a strange experience considering I no longer reconnected to the Hive while I was out, I felt famished.

I quickly checked myself over to make sure everything was alright, but what I saw made me pause. Of course I knew there would be changes, that was how evolution worked, but the changes I saw baffled me.

In the fight against the beast I had to cut my own arm off to survive, a small price to pay for survival. Bodies were at a premium with our limited biomass and it was much better for the Hive to lose an arm over an entire body that we might not be able to recover for the biomass.

When I evolved I expected to see my arm regrown, and while that was indeed the case, it was different than what I had imagined. My right arm was now a set of three, all connected at the shoulder, and slightly weaker than my normal left arm. I had lost my manipulator arm on my right side, presumably to make room for the three bigger and stronger arms replacing it.

On the left I still had my normal and my manipulator arm, but the manipulator was now different, capable of delivering small amounts of highly toxic substances. My normal arm on the left side was still as it was before, no changes there.

After inspecting my right arms in more detail, they also each had a different main function. While still capable of manipulating things, each of them was slightly different. The main arm, the one at the top as they were arrayed in a roughly triangular pattern, was slightly stronger than the other two and more dexterous than my left arm. It had the normal claws and no capability to produce any poisonous substances.

The second arm, the one frontmost, was slightly shorter than the main arm and the weakest of the three, with long claws that could deliver debilitating poisons into my enemies.

The last one, the rearmost, was the longest of them all and replaced my right claw-arm, which I had lost during my evolution. Its main function was now no longer to provide a strong but limited grip, instead it seemed to be there for gripping onto my prey and holding it. Its claws, while also slightly poisonous, were shaped in such a way to have an easy time holding things, with barbs on the sides and underside of the claws. Much weaker than my old claw-arm, but much more useful for hunts than it had been before.

My second claw-arm remained as it was before, which was good. It wasn’t much use on a hunt, but it was nice to have the familiar functionality of high strength lifting capabilities.

Unlike my left claw-arm, my tail did change. It was now much thicker and stronger, still just as long as before, but now it had a pincer at the end, which could both grab onto prey and inject a very potent poison, tailored to be the finishing attack.

In addition my senses had improved, although the biggest improvement came from my olfactory senses and my hearing, as well as sharper vision. Touch and taste didn’t seem to have improved, not that I really cared that much about it. They weren’t directly useful during a hunt.

The last thing I noticed was that my feet had been exchanged for digitigrade limbs with four sharp claws on each, three in the front and one in the back. The back claw was heavily curled, probably to hook into things.

Inventory of my current body complete I looked over to Omega and the Prime, who still hadn’t awakened, although from the report the Hive sent me the moment I woke his condition had stabilised. On the one hand it was good news, he wouldn’t perish in the short term, but on the other hand it was also bad news, as his recovery had entirely halted.

The new connection to the Hive felt weird. Before it had been something intimate, like an extension of my own thoughts, now it felt as if I was talking to someone nearly entirely disconnected. It was… disturbing. But I forced those feelings down, I had set foot down upon my own path, I will make sure both the Hive and the Prime will thrive, and if that means I need to disconnect myself from the Hive then so be it. If I was to fulfil the task the Prime set out for me I needed this new perspective.

With my new body now fully functional I made my way back to the place where I had found the animals turned biomass to see if I could hunt more. When I had just left the room that served as our lair text popped into my vision.

Alpha

Tier: 2

Species: Hexclaw Swarm Intelligence

Evolution Path: Hexclaw Hunter

Cybernetic Enhancements: Connector: [ERROR]

A combat focused Evolution Path for the Hexclaw Swarm Intelligence. It excels in covert actions and ambush attacks, but is capable of normal melee combat. It boasts high physical strength and is capable of producing a number of paralysing poisons.

Alpha diagnosis:

Level: 7

Physical Adaptation: 74.2%

Mental Adaptation: 100.0%

Cybernetic Adaptation: 12.3%

Skills:

[The Path of Loneliness]: To understand your Prime and to learn the best way to follow your orders you have cut yourself off from the Hive you have been a part of all your life. Through this you have gained Individuality, but lost your ability to rejoin the Hive. Grants partial Interface functions of [ERROR].

[Nightcrawler]: You hunt in the night, unseen by your prey. Greatly boosts stealthy actions and enables you to blend into your surroundings at the cost of mana. Effectiveness depends on actions taken while stealthed.

[Poison Touch]: A successful hunt takes only a single hit. You are able to create poison in your own body at the cost of biomass and possibly materials. The more exotic the poison, the higher the cost. You can substitute mana for biomass, but at a much more inefficient rate.

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[Resilient Body]: To aid in your hunts your body adapts. Your natural armour is more effective. You are immune to any poison and toxin you create in your own body. Slightly raises resilience against foreign poisons and toxins.

[Enhanced Senses]: The key to a successful hunt is to sense your prey before it senses you. Enhances vision, olfactory sense, and hearing. Enables the use of Heat vision at the cost of mana.

[Combat Reflexes]: Through overcoming a challenging adversary you have started to hone your combat sense. Slightly enhances reflexes while in direct combat with a being stronger than you.

Alert: Finish the adaptation process to finalise Skill formation.

I was starting to get irritated by the suddenly appearing text, it was distracting, the last thing I wanted in a hostile environment. Perhaps I should ask the Prime about it once he wakes up to see if I can disable it somehow…

With a mental command I made the text disappear once I read through it and continued on my way, trying to get a feel of my newfound abilities. Slipping into the shadows was surprisingly easy, although I could feel something inside me slowly diminishing while I did so. From the text I derived it to be this mana that was mentioned, but I wasn’t entirely sure what to make with that information. My instinctive knowledge told me that it was just another resource, but the exact way it functioned was unknown to me.

For the moment I decided to ignore it, but made a mental note to leave enough of this mana available for emergency situations.

With my body half shrouded in the darkness surrounding me it took me a while to return to the site of the previous hunt. I could have been faster, now that my body was fully healed, but I knew instinctively that I couldn’t move too much while hidden away, otherwise the Skill would not function correctly.

Eventually I arrived at the room I had found the forbidden biomass in before and made my way through it, following the route I had taken from there to the place where I had found my prey previously. Of course, I had hunted all of them, their population too small to be of any sustainable use, and we needed the short term biomass more in that moment.

With my new enhanced senses I began the hunt, trying to find any clue of anything that could serve as biomass while stalking through the hallways.

Suddenly, as I had arrived at another crossroads, text once more appeared in front of me.

Warning: Distance to the Prime has reached its maximum threshold! Continuing past this point will disable communication between [Hexclaw Hunter] Alpha and [Antimatter Hexclaw] NULL.

Warning: Distance to the Hive-Mind has reached its maximum threshold! Continuing past this point will disable communication between [Hexclaw Hunter] Alpha and the Hive-Mind!

Alert: Connection to the Prime will be reinstated once you enter the communication range once more.

Alert: Connection to the Hive-Mind will be reinstated once you enter the communication range once more.

I stopped immediately. Should I venture out further? I had to, there wasn’t any new biomass to be had anywhere up to this point. And if I can reconnect to them later on it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

However, venturing further alone was a risk. While I could no longer fully rejoin the Hive I could still communicate with them. In an emergency I could still inform them of everything before I perished.

That thought quickly derailed my thoughts. I could no longer rejoin the Hive. I would not be able to leave this body should it perish. I would… die. The thought terrified me to my core.

As part of the Hive we never had to think about it, if the body you inhabited at that moment died you would simply return to the Hive. There were no risks, unless the Hive was entirely destroyed. But now?

I stood there for a long time, how long I didn’t know, paralysed with indecision. I needed to continue forward. We needed biomass.

But the danger of potentially dying?

My entire body shivered at the mere thought of it.

Technically it didn’t make a difference if I was connected to them or not. I could no longer rejoin, I had the danger of dying either way. But I knew that everything up until here was safe. The chances of survival were higher.

Was my survival important enough to delay helping the Prime and Hive?

Definitely not. I might be cut off from them now, but I was still part of them, to a degree. They were my top priority. Nothing was as important as they were.

I steeled myself, knowing what I had to do. Dread once more gripping my entire being, I forced myself to continue onwards with all my willpower.

Alert: Connection to the Prime has been lost. Return to communication range to reestablish connection.

Alert: Connection to the Hive-Mind has been lost. Return to communication range to reestablish connection.

I continued even more cautiously, my body shrouded in the darkness, paying extra attention to my surroundings to the point it exhausted me. I would only do a quick scan of the surroundings before I returned.

Stepping through another door, this one functional enough to be usable should the Prime get to it, I walked deeper into the unknown. The hallways continued to split up more and more but I was in no danger of getting lost, my memory almost perfect.

Every few hallways I had to take a small break to calm myself down and to not overstrain myself and my mana too much. The area I was in was in slightly better condition, there were a lot more materials to be had, even if it looked just as bad as it had up to now.

Eventually my senses picked something up, a slight rise in temperature as well as minute sounds in the distance. Deciding to follow it I made my way towards the sounds, the temperature rising steadily. It wasn't getting hot enough to threaten me, but it did become uncomfortable by the time I arrived at a small door that led to an overhang around halfway up a massive room.

It wasn’t as big as the room the Prime had labelled the ‘Hangar’, but it was bigger than any other room outside of that. And on the ground opposite the wall I was on was the entrance to what I could only assume was the nest of the big beast the Prime had killed.

Dozens of those beasts were behind the massive opening in the wall, guarded by four even bigger beasts, mingling, while others came and went.

So much biomass at once and I couldn’t get any of it. Attacking them would be suicide and I didn’t want to potentially lead them back to the Prime and the Hive.

After observing them for a while I realised that those entering the nest had smaller beasts and animals with them, obviously prey from a successful hunt. Apparently there was more biomass to be had elsewhere, I just didn’t know where that would be, nor was I inclined to hunt there if these beasts would be there too. But maybe I didn’t have to. If there was more biomass to be had elsewhere maybe I could hunt someplace these beasts weren’t present?

That way I could collect enough for the Prime and the Hive without endangering myself and them.

Just as I was about to leave one of the prey animals another beast brought in caught my attention. It looked unlike the rest, much bigger, and had a similar physique as my previous body, just minus the claw arms and manipulator arms. It was also more bulky, although still skinny enough to be fast and dexterous. Its tail was different, covered in fur instead of armour plating, and its body was much softer, which was also the reason I guess why it had died.

Its head was similar to the animals I had killed to unlock the [Hexclaw Hunter] Evolution Path, although with sharper teeth and a more ferocious expression.

The Prime had said we were forbidden from eating sentient races, and had explained that the humanoid bodies counted towards that. I had broken that taboo out of necessity, but those corpses had been long dead. This one here was fresh.

Something told me I should inform the Prime about it, while another part of me said I should be careful. Sentient beings were much more dangerous than animals, and if these humanoids were indeed sentient as the Prime had implied then they could be a danger to the Hive.

For the moment I decided to leave, I could think about it later. Right now I had to find prey to hunt, so I began to walk back the way I had come, until eventually I arrived at the first split after the connection to the Prime and the Hive had been lost.

Taking the second path I continued on, always on the lookout for something to hunt.