Eliza's report on the disposition of the enemy is extremely concerning. There's way too many of them. The tunnels go on in all directions, and it's like a maze. A maze full of ugly mole things with armor plates. There's no way Mr. Axe and I can take em all out, I lost count there's so many, and there's lots of babies. I think they could out reproduce me, given how many of them there are. I need a new plan.
I was so baffled, I had to ask Eliza to get a look at what they're eating. This population density shouldn't be possible. They're eating the rock! How the heck? I guess it explains the lack of tailings from the digging. But there's sand everywhere and I now know where it came from. Grosssssssss!!!!!
New plan though, I need a better weapon, and I need it asap. I'll start work on it after I get lodged in my new body. I need to kill 17 rodents to get myself lodged in my new body, I think. Less if I can merge more Soul Orbs
Eliza is a bit bored and upset, I promised a fight and then I sat here watching vines grow. I decide I'm ready so I ask her to find a lone critter, sting it on the rump, and get it to chase her back to me. If a single bee can rouse the whole room to action, I'm doomed anyway, to die under a horde of beasts. They're busily chewing through the walls so they'll break in to my little room eventually and I'll never escape if that happens. My demise is at hand unless I can get some upgrades.
I get the delinquency trio to get some good angles so I can get a good view on the enemy when it arrives. There's Eliza, buzzing her little heart out, and there's a moleratmadillo on her tail, snapping its jaws, but getting nowhere close. I'm waiting at the next bend in the hall, axe in my single hand, and as it reaches the corner, I link with it and cast psionic scream. I take advantage of its discomfort and disorientation, and after three solid blows, it falls down. After 12, its head is an unrecognizable bloody mass, and I'm pretty sure it's dead. Huh, that was easier than last time. I guess magic and surprise are overpowered. Eliza goes to gorge herself on a prodigious amount of honey and take a rest, and I begin a bloody dissection.
While pulling apart the skull, it occurs to me, plants don't have eyes. If I want some eyes, I'm going to have to graft them off a living creature. This is going to mess with my plant only plan. Eyeballs on a plant are going to look pretty scary, but I really would like to see. Hmm. This will require work. I don't have any good ideas, but I have lots of time to think.
The mole things don't have a brain core, I guess, which is kind of lame, and they have a soul core that's tiny in comparison to the ones from the zombies. It integrates very easily though, and it holds a third of a Lifeforce. I'm going to waste a lot of Lifeforce on merges... And this is going to take a lot more than I thought. I guess I need at most 51 cores, but the good news is that this core is full. When I link with it my life force increases by a third of a point. Yes!
The tiny mana crystal by its heart is almost cute. I remember how mana circuits were etched in to the brain crystals, this looks like an unetched brain crystal almost. I wonder if I could etch a spell into it...
Since Eliza needs a rest I manage to convince the delinquents to each bring me another moleratmaddillo as I drag the corpse around the corner so it can't be seen. There's blood, but I hope it won't be noticed. Between murders I study the brain crystals and attempt to figure out how to replicate their etching while the bees and I rest and recharge. The adults still are mostly working on collecting nectar, they seem to have decided to pretend I'm not here for now. I don't blame them, this whole situation is crazy for me, but it's a huge departure from normal bee life. I bet I seem like a loon. They just want to hang out in the flower room and build more hive. Gossip their bee gossip, and live their bee lives. The fact they are living on borrowed time is difficult to convey.
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The fact that I'm taking them in to danger upsets them, and I don't blame them. But the moleratmadillows will chew their way into the room at some point, and I'd rather be ready. I take a cutting of the vine I liked, drag the corpses back into the sun room, and pile em up with the zombie bodies. The light here is dimmer, but if these bodies keep piling up I won't be able to fit through the hall. I grow a cutting of the vine on the pile, it's important to test whether or not this plan will work before I commit too much. The plant grows, and it turns a rusty red. I think it might be stronger too.
I learn I have to merge cores with cores that are the same size. I learn not to get complacent, and lose even more of my stump arm. I lose count of the kills, but I end up with 84 small mana crystals when I finally have enough Lifeforce to graft a limb. The hall is so spattered with blood I've had to move up to the next corner several times to maintain the element of surprise. I'm out of corners. After merging repeatedly, I have 36 small cores, 20 zombie sized cores, and 6 of the larger merged cores.
It's time. I'm ready. I head in and stand next to my vine body, taking a moment to work up my nerve.
Carefully removing some lower ribs, I gently take my body out of the chest of the zombie and place it in the cradling branches of the tree. Deprived of the connection to any soul cores, the zombie falls over lifeless as soon as I leave its hands. I take a mental breath in preparation.
I graft the plants. It's like reawakening from a long sleep. Suddenly I can feel. The feelings are pretty alien, but I'll take what I can get. The light on my leaves feels so nice, and the drafts in the tunnel push around my leaves in a gentle, pleasant way. Once I get my bearings, it's time to give myself the ability to move. Flesh Remodel burns up the remainder of my life force, but I manage to make the vines able to expand and contract on command without spellwork, and the heavy bundles of vines that I tried to make approximate muscle fibers soon have my arms flailing about wildly.
As soon as I move my new legs I end up butt over beehive and take a tumble, jostling and irritating all the bees. I project soothing thoughts for quite a while, as I slowly attempt to get back up. The design of these legs sucks though. There's no real knee joint. Despite my attempts to add one, the bend in the leg isn't very flexible. After a while I gave up on the knees and practiced a new design while sitting in the sun.
My life force and mana were regenerating in the light. I'm not sure if it was because I was rooted, or just the sun orb, but I liked it. My life force and mana were both drained by movement, however. The drain was far more affordable than my previous mana drain, but having a drain on my life force when I was low was pretty unaffordable. I ended up standing rooted a long time while I used grow on nearby vines while testing knees. I ended up just making an extra joint, since the vines didn't appreciate tight pinch points and sharp bends.
Soon I was prancing about like a young pony in the snow for the first time.
Having a body was nice. Not burning as much mana to move around was nice. Not trying to awkwardly mind control your own body into moving was even better. Feeling exhausted after about ten minutes? Not quite as good. My body still needed lots of work, it seemed. My lifeforce was still low so I decided to go rest and test my evil master plan while basking in the light of the orb.
With the aid of grow, I put down roots into the pile of corpses. After a few moments, my lifeforce and mana started to climb. Finally something was starting to go right.
Power Systems --- Online
Weapons Systems --- Offline
Sensors --- Offline
Engines --- Online
Recycling System --- Online
With this step forward, I would be soon be ready to annihilate these vermin. I was bigger, stronger, faster, I could repair injuries, and now I could eat monsters for lifeforce. The thousands of giant rodents were doomed. I hope.