I cure myself before anything else. I don't have enough mana, so I use [Broken Blood] to refill myself.

I haven't tested the infinite mana glitch since I cracked my lifeforce, prestiging my vigor. I really don't want to overload it again.

Luckily I had enough mana after just one cycle of [Broken Blood]. I don't even heal myself with the incoming mana. I let my regeneration handle it.

It doesn't come back.

"Hey, guys. What kind of beast would I turn into if I actually got Terianthroped? Hypothetical question."

"..."

"Good point, Flash Gordon. Humans do indeed descend from primates. Depending on who you ask."

[A Mola Mola Fish?]

"Quality answer. I'm glad that you've been using the library."

[Saw it on the internet.]

"Okay."

Prometheus, Rob, and Kahn don't have answers for me. Speaking of Rob, I'm going to send Rob on a solo mission. He's practically immortal, agile, and I can summon him whenever I want with one whistle.

Plus, he comes with storage space. Rob can store more than just bones in his [Bone Bag].

I want Rob to go pilfer and plunder some goodies wherever he can find them. I reiterate that "goodies" aren't just bones before sending him on his way.

Rare plants, stones, and perhaps a relic or something could be up for grabs.

First, I should try to find the edge of the fracture, then skirt around the edge to see how big an area we are working with. I hope this fracture isn't a "little planet."

If I use the Zerg tree as a starting point and continue east far enough to loop around and return to the tree, the fracture would be a literal planet.

I put Khan away using [Beastial Storage] and mount Duchess since she's the fastest flyer. I convinced her by telling her it was an opportunity to practice wind magic.

My convincing did nothing, but she did it anyways. I have Flash Gordon in one hand and Prometheus in the other. Together we soar above the treetops.

The light reflects off Duchess' scales and feathers, creating an illusion that a rainbow follows her wherever she flies. I [Martyr] her exhaustion so she can go all out.

~~~

I wonder who was the first person to be afflicted with lycanthropy. More accurately, what was. I want to default the curse to humanity, but that's mindless.

Since humans weren't a thing on the other planet, what species represented these beings as the "first carriers" of this curse?

Thinking of a mole dwarf or a squirrel elf makes me feel something interesting. Vampire bat, goblin rat, orc boar. Is this racist?

I found information about these "were" beings in the same place I found information on vampires. [Sun Sickness].

They were only a footnote in this book about the undead. "These cursed beings [therianthropes] cannot and will not coexist with the undead."

Cursed beings of nature should naturally abhor cursed beings that break away from "nature," no?

Maybe it's more of a political thing. King of the Lycanthropes and Lich King of Whatthefuck have a feud spanning generations or something.

What am I thinking about?

The edge of the fracture is a deep-set ravine with no bottom. On the other side of the ravine is an illusory jungle. Like a memory that was once there but is now forgotten, the fake continuation is inaccessible.

The ravine, at its thinnest, is half a mile across. There's no consistency with its width.

Duchess will not fly over the ravine, for she feels a foreboding sense of doom if she thinks about it.

Since I don't want us to fall out of a fracture, I comply with Duchess' wishes, and we fly along the ravine's edge.

The jungle seemed to be cookie-cut from a larger one. We fly high up, and the illusion continues as far as the eye can see. It's literally a memory, a spirit jungle.

It reminds me of that lonely dwarf stuck in the memory of his god's temple. He seemed content after I got him his booze stash.

Maybe I should visit him after I pick up Beryl. See if he drank himself to death, even though he was already dead.

Time passes, and I notice something in the illusory jungle. What seems to be a ruin cut in half is barely noticeable through the thick vegetation.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Looking at the positioning, most of the ruins must have "fallen" into the ravine.

"Do you see anything?"

[Only you have a perception stat.]

"Khan does."

[Not very talkative that one.]

"I was going to visit my masters for the holidays regardless, but if Master Giles is around, I'll ask him about how to go on unlocking stats for you guys. After learning an efficient way to do it, I can use that opportunity to rank up my leadership skill."

[Thisss one wants dexterity.]

"Why? You don't have fingers?"

[Thisss one wants to see if my telekinesis will be affected by such a stat.]

"Sure, sure."

I stand at the edge of the world and peer off at the structure. The only thing I can make out is a messy work of bricks and a mural depicting some cat thing.

Leopard? Tiger? I don't know, but from context, it seems revered.

I don't feel the same sense of foreboding Duchess does. I feel like I can jump into the ravine and be perfectly content with it. But instead of committing suicide, we continue on with our exploration.

More time passes before we find another ruin. Thankfully, it's on this side of the ravine. Its stone bricks are real, and so is the semi-intact mural.

The first thing I notice is the mural, and the second thing is that this place is looted, ransacked, plundered, and any other synonym. There aren't even bugs for me to take home, not that I would do that.

If anything, I want to take the mural with me. I really do.

A feathered serpent. A snake with wings. The mural has dulled with time, but even the passage of time cannot hide the brilliance of the scales and feathers.

Some sort of holy reverence.

Based on the perspective, it's much bigger than Duchess. Its body can wrap around mountain tops and touch the horizon.

"Hey, Duchess, you're famous."

Duchess doesn't respond. She doesn't even mentally project an ellipsis.

"How are you feeling?"

[It's like a warm sadness.]

[Thisss one's pride is too strong to feel envious of a mural or of the revered creature depicted. Thisss one feels warm for that could be thisss one one day, but thisss one feels sad for this is not thisss one.]

"For some reason, I thought you would feel homesick or some other emotion close to that."

[What reason should thisss one feel homesick for? After leaving that cage, thisss one hasn't left home.]

~~~

I may or may not have a mural in my mansion now.

From my travels, I have noticed that this fracture is circular. Assuming the Zerg tree is in the center, based on observations, I can determine the radius.

It's rough and unnecessary, but I do so anyways.

I travel roughly the distance between the two ruins along the ravine's edge and find another one. Hmm. If the fracture keeps its consistency, there should be three more ruins, excluding this new one.

Inside is a mostly destroyed mural of a monkey.

I want to rest for a little bit. It's been a while... let's see how Rob's doing.

With one whistle, Rob is sitting in front of my badly battered. His bones bruised, his body broken. I fear that only his head would arrive if I summoned him just a moment earlier.

Rob "catches his breath" before reassembling any loose parts. He doesn't have all his pieces, so his mana has to make up for the slack.

He doesn't lose parts of his chimerism doing this, thankfully.

"What happened, buddy?"

Rob mimes him climbing up something, then he mimes a bird. He runs around the room and jumps before faceplanting into the dirt.

"So, you were climbing a tree and got attacked by birds?"

He nods. What a cutie.

Tree with birds. Hmm.

"Were you climbing the massive tree that we visited?"

He nods again. He then starts waving his hands. He grabs mine and pulls me along. He's leading me in the direction of the tree.

Instead of walking in the forest, we hitch a ride on Duchess and fly back to the Zerg tree.

With all this traveling, we haven't seen another meteor shower, and I only have a day to burn before my time is up in this fracture.

[Empower C Lv4 > Lv5

You can empower a single-tamed beast for 1 minute.

Cooldown: 10 minutes.

Mana cost: 50

Buff: 30% to all stats. ⬆]

Oh, it leveled. During this trip, I've been spamming this skill off cooldown on Duchess to make our trip even faster. It's been a while since that still got upgraded.

Duchess flies up as high as she can and guns for the top of the tree. I can see many birds hovering around the fruits of the Zerg tree. They aren't eating but seem to be waiting for something.

Then I saw one of the bulbs hatch.

A jaguar with antelope horns plops out of the fruit. It hits the ground unharmed. Before it can shake off the excess goop, the birds are ripping into the creature. It dies before it can fight back.

The birds fly back up to continue their spawn camping.

So those bulbs were incubation chambers? Damn, just imagining thousands of mosquitoes crammed into one of those membranous sacks makes my skin itch.

[Resistance: Curse 105 > 106]

My resistance seems to be progressing faster. I [Bolster Resistance] and ignore any following messages.

We got close enough to use [Scientific Insight+] on one of these birds.

[Verdant Harriers C Lv200]x3

Finally! Some experience for my tamed beasts!

I summon Khan and command him to fight. He doesn't need to be told twice to murder something.

The poor birds didn't expect a sharknado to appear and kill them in a flurry of blood.

This fracture is so empty except when the beast's waves hit because most of the creatures are getting spawned camped by these goons.

Might as well cull the population to let this environment prosper. Maybe I'll get a bonus.

If the FIB finds any faults with this, they shouldn't have sent me.

We leave Khan to his hunting since Rob keeps pointing for us to go higher. So, we do.

The birds have shark problems and are distracted, so we get to the top without hassle. It's flat. It looks like an entire city can fit up here.

With my boots, traveling here wouldn't be an issue, but I still ride Duchess. Rob seems to be looking for something.

Then I see something.

Now that I think about it, even though those birds are double my level, that doesn't mean they would be able to give Rob such a hard time.

With Rob's stealth and the birds constantly preoccupied with waiting for their next meal to plop to the ground, Rob should've snuck past them.

[Verdant Dragon A ???]

The verdant dragon is a magnificent sight to behold. Its scales shimmer with an iridescent green hue. Reminding me of lush foliage or vibrant mosses. It's an imposing size, its muscular body rippling with power and strength. Its wings are expansive and veined like leaves.

It's in a sleep posture, but it's awake. It's staring right at us. It stands upright and spreads its wings. Its toothy maw opens, and its teeth are reminiscent of bark.

It speaks in a language that echoes in my ears.

I can't understand anything.

"Rob. What the fuck?"

He tilts his head and looks at me innocently. He points at the dragon.

"I'm not fighting a dragon."

He looks at me like he's saying, "Why not?"

"Could be bad karma or something. Plus, we don't know how strong it is. You might be able to reassemble, but that doesn't mean the others can."

Rob flexes his imaginary muscles and grabs his shovel.

"That was permission."

Rob rushes at the dragon. It takes quite a long time since he's far away. Eventually, Rob gets tangled up in some moving branches. It holds him in place and forcefully disassembles him before he can even reach the damn thing.

After putting himself back together, he chucks the shovel like a javelin. It gets smacked away by a particularly thick branch.

Rob gets disassembled again.