Chapter 13 - Split my Head
You have created: Iron Caterpillar
You have been awarded 35 experience points. [25 base, +10 quality]
The new caterpillar detached itself from where I’d surreptitiously formed it inside the cranium part of my newest helmet, its articulated legs digging into the grooves in the metal to keep it from falling to the floor. One by one, the little metal legs, no bigger than a hair, flexed and gripped with tiny claws as the construct crawled its way over to my fingers. Once there, the caterpillar practically ran up my arm, only having to pause to move the sleeve of my shirt out of the way to crawl inside with the others.
I could handle four at a time now so long as I didn’t have them doing complex tasks, but I was pretty sure I could do five or six if I pushed it.
Split Mind is now level 5.
Upgrade paths available:
Partitioned Mind
Dual Cast
Imbue
The message I’d been waiting for finally came. Split Mind was fast becoming my most used skill, since it was the only way I could snag metal of my own while I worked for the goblins. Unfortunately, it wasn’t always feasible to practice, that is until my control became sophisticated enough to give my stolen iron some legs. Then, I was off to the races. I always had a few of the little bugs running around under my shirt or up and down the legs of my trousers nowadays, and my skill shot up in level as a result.
The System had more to tell me:
Level up!
You are now level 4.
Max HP +5
Max MP +5
+1 attribute point.
Achievements awarded this level:
Big Spender: You have spent 6,070% of your total mana pool this level. [+1% mana regeneration per second.]
Soulful: You have almost exclusively focused on Mind and Spirit centric skills this level. [+1 Mind, +1 Spirit]
Dedicated: You spent most of your time dedicated to your craft this level. [+1 Spirit]
Doing Your Part: Some of your creations have been used against agents of the Scourge. [+200% experience awarded for new designs next level]
More Spirit. It was my highest attribute even though it started out as my lowest at Integration. For some reason, I just kept earning more and more of it with my achievements.
The System’s description was both helpful and infuriatingly mysterious when I asked.
Spirit: Numerical value denoting your presence in the magical world. Affects mana intensity.
As far as I could tell, Spirit affected how ‘thick’ my mana was and where I could move it. When I was level 0 my mana went only as far as my skin and moved in a trickle into what I could touch. Now, my mana was heavier, present in the air around me like a localized fog bank. It didn’t spread out far, no farther than a few inches from my body, but it was there.
Mind gave me the ability to move mana around quickly, or at least that’s how I perceived it. The definition more or less agreed.
Mind: Numerical value denoting your ability to manipulate mana. Affects speed and strength of mind based abilities.
This was the second time I’d earned ‘Doing Your Part.’ The bonus was nice, especially nice when I developed my articulated caterpillar and cashed in. However, it also meant the scourge-touched, or ‘Black Ones,’ were still hunting my goblins out there.
Hunty kept me up to date on how things were going with the war against the Black Ones, the skirmishes they had, how many of them were spotted in the forest, and the like. The little guy desperately wanted to be out there, doing his part, but his requests to join the fight were always denied because of the rapport he’d built up with the ‘hu-man’ over time.
If you asked me, they could have used Hunty out there. Things weren’t looking great. My goblin tribe rarely left their caves now that the other tribes had fallen or were chased away. That couldn’t go on forever.
The air was heavy with anticipation and a good bit of fear. The sentiment among all of the goblins was that the Black Ones would find them soon and come for them, but they would mostly be here for me.
You have created: Small Bucket Helmet
You have been awarded 22 experience points. [20 base, +2 quality]
Apparently, the Black Ones were a feral type of goblin whose ancestors had tainted their own blood making deals with demons. As a result, they lost their sanity, their language, and their ability to reproduce conventionally, but that didn’t reduce their numbers in the slightest. They mostly kept to themselves with only the occasional raid on their neighbors, where they would make off with things and people, all of which would never be seen again.
The other goblins gave the Black Ones their space and never encroached on their territory, and everyone lived their lives without ever seeing a black one. Then, after many, many generations, that changed.
The Black Ones were everywhere now. They killed everything they could, beasts and goblins alike and brought their corpses back to their territory with them. As I’d feared, the Black Ones were tracking me the entire time I made my trek through the forest to find water, and their pursuit of me had them hot on the heels of the hunting party that found my unconscious body and dragged me back to the caves.
At the time, Chief Kuul could only guess at the reason behind Black Ones’ surge in aggression, if they were capable of reason, but then, when he saw me, he knew what they wanted.
Kuul was an avid student of history, the goblin version of it at least. The stories his forebears told went back past the great purge all the way to the Beginning in an unbroken chain of Stone Heart chiefs, and they spoke of humans as the enders of ages, the coveted prize of all races, the corrupted Black Ones included.
After I was dumped on his doorstep, he had a decision to make:
He could kill me and prevent the Black Ones from taking me for whatever dark purpose they had, or he could give me to the Black Ones in hopes they’d eat his tribe last.
He chose option three: use me to arm the untainted goblin tribes, making a ridiculous sum of money at the same time. From there the other tribes could fight back the Black Ones, while Kuul kept his tribe safe in their hidden caves.
Kuul was too clever for his own good, though. The other tribes were all but gone now, and he was rich, not that he could spend his new wealth trapped in a cave.
Meanwhile, the Black Ones’ numbers grew and grew. Now they were knocking on our front door, so to speak.
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When Hunty had explained the conflict to me, a lot of things clicked into place, but any questions I had about the last Animator they’d encountered went unanswered. Hunty didn’t know anything about them, and these things happened so long ago, no one knew what was actually true anymore.
As for current day Ralqir, I hadn’t even realized there were other tribes out there, but it made sense. What were the odds of me finding the only tribe of goblins on Ralqir? Small thinking on my part, but in my defense being trapped in a cell and forced to work kind of shrunk your world down to just the day to day.
This ongoing crisis and the new conversations that afforded me, while grim, helped pull me out of my own head and back to seriously planning my escape. For a while, I’d justified my inaction by grinding my skills or experimenting with my designs to try and find the perfect way to survive once I got out of my cell. No more, though. Progress for progress’ sake wasn’t getting me any closer to freedom.
My level of motivation was also affected by the Black Ones, apparently, wanting to kill/eat/enslave me. The System called them scourge-touched, but back in my universe people called things like that rift spawn, and they killed planets if they weren’t purged right away. In fact, one of the prevailing theories about Earth was that they had something like this happen, a tide of infected beings washing over everything until it was all gone.
If Ralqir was about to go through the same thing, it was all the more reason for me to get the hell out of here, not just out of my cell but out of this universe. The tutorial agreed, asking me to “Return to Insertion Point.”
Gladly.
I looked over my options for my Split Mind upgrade paths:
Upgrade paths available:
Partitioned Mind: Subdivide your consciousness to greatly enhance cognition. [Number of partitions = Mind/3]
Dual Cast: Use two abilities simultaneously or use the same ability twice. Effectiveness of abilities used with Dual Cast are enhanced. [Bonus Effectiveness = X(Mind + Spirit)/5]
Imbue: Imprint mana with a fraction of your will, allowing it to perform simple tasks without direct input from you. This requires the expenditure of triple the amount of MP you wish to imbue.
At first, Partitioned Mind called out to me. The amount of effort I was having to expend to keep my little creations going hurt my brain and tired me out quickly. Yes, I was training the skill even now, but at the cost of my damned sanity. It hurt to keep this up all the time. Partitioned Mind was exactly what I was hoping for, something to make doing this easier so I could get more materials for my escape.
Then there was Imbue. The description of the ability didn’t exactly say it, but didn’t it have the potential to help me with my immediate problem too? I was essentially pumping mana into my creations to Shape them. Could I Imbue that mana? Could I make my little caterpillars semi-autonomous? It would cost a ton of mana, but I wasn’t exactly hurting for that was I?
The ability to Consume things was starting to look more and more overpowered, considering how slowly normal mana regenerated. It allowed me to take all sorts of risks and experiment with things others might not be able to. I didn’t know how I would live without it.
With some trepidation, I chose Imbue, waving a tearful goodbye to Partitioned Mind and the much needed help it could have given me.
I tossed the finished helmet into the crate Hunty had set up next to my cell and called for more. The ore was in my hand before I could even finish my sentence. Iger was quick like that. He didn’t talk much, but the goblin knew what was at stake. He needed me working and outfitting his fellow warriors or things were going to get worse fast.
“Thanks,” I said, not expecting a response. Then I got back to work.
—----------------------------
*SNAP* The sound rang in my ears, echoing around the cell painfully. Hunty grunted from his stool, probably wiggling a finger in his ear.
Failure.
I sighed, opening my eyes and unfolding my legs to go retrieve my latest experiment.
It laid there on the stone floor, dead as a doornail, its inch long, segmented body rigid and straight to help with aerodynamics. On the wall, a fresh black mark smoked directly above the construct alongside the myriad others.
Knowing it was safe, I grabbed my experiment with my natural hand. It was warm to the touch but not uncomfortably so, even after a dozen failures in a row. They didn’t melt down as much anymore, not that it was a huge inconvenience if they did. I would just Shape them again once they cooled down.
“I like it better when you practice quietly,” Hunty grumbled. Metal armor rattled and clinked together as the goblin warrior settled into a new position.
All the warriors wore my patent pending plated armor now, which pleased Kuul greatly. Who it did not please, however, were the warriors. Everywhere they went, it was a constant racket as they went about their patrols or trained with their weapons, not to mention how uncomfortable the stuff was. The goblins didn’t have the spare leather or cloth to make a buffer layer underneath the hard stuff to make it truly fit like it needed to, so the warriors had to wear it raw.
Hunty, most of all, let me have an earful about it. How it pinched when he sat, how it got in the way of eating, how heavy it was. I told him I could Shape it to fit him perfectly if he let me work on him for a while, but he waved me off, telling me if he was given special treatment he wouldn’t be able to look the other warriors in the eye. He would just have to suffer with the others until everyone had a good fit.
I sat down again, holding my construct in my hand to give it another try, but I spared a breath for a barb. Honestly, I didn’t see this experiment going much differently, and my frustration was getting to me.
“I like it better when I’m not enslaved, Hunty,” I said with a little more venom than I wanted.
Hunty didn’t reply, but I could feel him watching me with that worried frown on his face. He didn’t deserve my anger. Well, maybe he did since he was complicit in my imprisonment, but Kuul was the one behind it all. Even if Hunty wanted to get me out he couldn’t, not without breaking Kuul’s spell which Hunty couldn’t do.
I shook my head and took in a breath, an apology on my lips, but nothing came out. I liked Hunty, but I was close to done being nice.
Closing my eyes once more, I dove into the iron worm, pouring my mana into it, which it accepted gratefully. It bent and flexed its ribbed skin in smooth, controlled waves, crawling up my arm, under my shirt then out onto my shoulder. It seemed undamaged and functional, which was no surprise, but I always checked. The segmented form of my new worm constructs was there for ease of movement, allowing it all to wriggle around like its insect namesake. However, if I were to stop Shaping it, the whole thing would go stiff, solid as… well, iron.
I had it work its way back down to my hand, using the sharp lipped ribs to hang onto the skin of my palm.
Now for the fun part.
My head felt like it was going to split in two as I reached for my next ability while holding onto Shape. It helped that the hard part of Shaping was already done, but this still taxed my mind heavily, making me wish I’d taken Dual Cast.
Volatility [1 MP/sec]
The wild mana rushed inside. I didn’t give it much juice. It shouldn’t need very much.
The molecules in the construct quivered, barely able to contain the purple energy zipping around inside its matter. I held incredibly still, not even flexing my will with Shape, just allowing the iron to be still for a moment as I observed this state.
Now it was time to Imbue it.
The problem with using Imbue overlapping Shape wasn’t that it didn’t work. Imbue worked beautifully on my little worms. I could get them to wiggle or crawl or do little dances on my palm as long as I had the mana. The problem was that Shape was a touch based ability. Once my metal creatures lost contact with my skin, all that mana just evaporated into the wind.
I only had one ability that let me put mana into something and have it persist. The only problem was that the mana it used wasn’t “mine” or more precisely: “me.” Still, I was convinced I could use this somehow, if I could tame the beast, so to speak.
I let out a long, tired breath, allowing my frustrations and anger to drain from my mind.
Here we go.
I released the mana I was using to Shape, allowing it to dissipate little by little, and my sense of the metal worm waned until it was gone, the only indication that it was still on my hand being the tingling warmth given off by Volatility.
Shape [4 MP/sec]
I resaturated the construct again, this time sliding my consciousness between the wild mana, mixing in amongst it, drowning the fiery potential with a metaphorical ocean of my own power. I isolated the Volatility spell, one piece at a time, attaching to the pieces of it like a virus attached to a cell.
Imbue [12 MP/sec]
Imbue is now level 2.
More mana rushed out of me in a torrent, soaking into the parts of “me” I needed. My mana levels dropped precipitously, bottoming out in a handful of heartbeats. I gasped, feeling like someone reached into me and pulled out an organ, but I kept my will focused.
Move.
Just a simple command is all I wanted. Every time I’d hit this point in the past, my construct had detonated. The wild mana was just too energetic to contain, too much chaos to direct. My face twitched, thinking back to how painful it was to reattach my pinky finger.
Finally ready, my eyes shot open, and I hurled the iron worm at the wall as fast as I could.
*POP*
A muted flash dazzled my eyes, leaving little blinking tracers in my vision as I peered into the darkness of my cell to look for my experiment.
I got up and crawled over to the far wall, feeling around with my hands to…
My hand landed on something warm. Using two fingers, I brought it up to my face, squinting at it to check for damage. There was none.
Then, the worm twitched. Just a little. It slowly flexed, curling up around my finger before it ceased and went dead.
My heart thumped in my chest as I brought up my log.
Main class ability: Shape is now level 5!
Based on current skills and affinities, you have four upgrade paths available.
Transmute
Remote Shaping
Duplicate
Enchant
Yes!
Ability synthesis discovered: Shape + Volatility + Imbue
Synthesize? Y/N
New ability: Automate
Automate: Program your creations with simple instructions and empower them to carry out your orders independently. Strength, amount, and complexity of instructions are dependent on your Spirit.
Oh, hell yes.