When I came out of the portal I crashed the saucer into a tree as I was nauseous. Noctaru quickly flew off the disk before it hit the tree, but I wasn't so lucky and clattered into a bush along with it. I regained my senses after a couple of seconds. I unfurled the cocoon the nanites had covered me in and recreated the spider legs to move around.

I found that I was in some kind of berry bush with blue roundish leaves and glowing pink berries. I quickly went to the disk and got out of the bush I didn't know if it was poisonous or not. I stabilized the disk and rose to about Emir's neck level. Noctaru had chosen to land on one of the branches of the surrounding trees. In front of us was a wide clearing with a ring made of colourful flowers.

"This is the fairy gate you came through. The Guardian will hear shortly so let's wait. And you should also see about eating some of the bugs and critters around here to gain their blueprint and materials." Emir said as he sat down on the blueish-green grass of the clearing. I looked up to see a gloomy cloud-filled sky above us. It seemed that it might rain today.

I lowered the disk and skittered off of it to the forest floor. I looked around the edge of the clearing for some bug that might interest me but just found some bigger-than-normal black ants with big sharp mandibles. A group of workers were carrying what looked like an orange watermelon that was even bigger than Noctaru. Their bodies were glowing with a bit of mana that gave the feeling of strong stone, so I thought that they were likely to have some kind of magical ability to boost their strength. I didn't mess with them cause I knew that you didn't want to piss off magic ants, as one of my accomplish's arm had literally been ripped apart for taking a potato chip from a wood chipper ant hive in Neuveta. I shuddered at that thought.

When I didn't find anything I remembered that I could boost my new Ability with max mana capacity I gave it 5% of my max. Immediately I felt as if some part of me was just put aside but didn't dwell on it much as my mind picked up on a small magic being applied to an area around one of the bushes. When I focused my senses on it I picked up the impression of unimpressive shadow. I knew that was mostly to be some kind of ambush predator in stealth.

I made a small spell structure with the runes Reveal, Imaging and Unnoticeable with the intent of capturing an image of the creature through its stealth while not alerting it. When I activated the spell a pulse went out in its direction and I got a very low-resolution picture of a small greyish bug with huge folding mandibles lying in wait. I scuttled towards the right back side of it slowly but it didn't show any reaction to my presence. I climbed into the bush above it and waited to see if it was going to move.

When it didn't move I told a third of my nanites to drop on it and kill it. As the nanites started to drip around it I channelled an orb of mana with the runes of Paralysis, Bug, and Touch. Then I slowly whispered "Empower my Swarm" The spell activated and the nanites I sent to kill the bug started to slightly glow a sickly green. I also felt my adaption Skill activate and the empowered nanites changed to have hook-like protrusions on their body.

When the nanites finally got on top it did the bug move. It rolled on the ground with more agility than something like this shouldn't have. It crushed a few of the nanites but most just scattered. Some got into the cracks of its carapace and started stinging. I got a feeling that even its skin beneath the carapace was tougher than it looked.

I told the rest of the scattered nanites to kite the bug while keeping its attention. I created another spell orb with runes of Spectral, Chill, and Vengeance and chanted "Remanets of Prey return thy Vengeance". As the spell activated I saw several ghostly mutilated bugs crawl out of the ground near where the bug was sitting, I noticed that most of those were the worker ants I had seen previously. The ghosts dived straight at the bug and entered its body. When about half of them entered its body the bug started to shiver and spasm. By the time all of the ghosts had entered its body, it had come out of a hole I didn't know it was sitting in. Now I saw that it looked as if a hybrid between a centipede and a mutated bobbit worm.

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I told the nanites to not eat it yet as I wanted to try something first. When it fully got out of its hole it looked about a foot long. After about a minute I saw that the ghosts were starting to dissipate, I made another spell orb with runes of Vengeance, Purge and Sacrifice and chanted, "With your Dying breath, Purge the Source of thy Death." The spell activated and I felt a pulse of cold death energy emanate from somewhere in the worm. The nanites on the worm died easily and grass near it also withered slightly. Then the worm went still.

After waiting for a minute for it to move I dropped down from the bush and sent the nanites to eat all of the crushed nanites to reclaim the materials. I also stopped the empowerment spell on the nanites. Then I told the nanites to move the curled-up bug into the clearing. Then I used elementalism to create a shallow bowl in the ground around the bug's body.

I tried to use elementalism to carve the runes required but my control wasn't precise enough for that. Instead, I had to recall all of the nanites to me and take the spider form again. With a bit of elementalism to soften the place where I was carving, I could finish the ritual setup. The Ritual mainly had four runes Focus, Knowledge, Gather and Transfer, though I also used the runes of Structure, Scan, Information and some others for contextual depth. Before enacting the ritual I told the nanites to fill in all of the grooves of the Ritual circle. Then I started chanting,

"I, Lost child of the Unknown,

Call to The Watcher, from realms not beknown.

Grant us vision beyond what's shown,

With Chimeric core, we seek insight,

Into the corpse's secrets, veiled from sight.

Guide us through the darkness of night,

Illuminate the structure, unravel the design,

Reveal the biology, mysteries benign.

Watcher, bestow knowledge upon our mind."

As the Ritual began I saw the energies around us dance to the tune of the chant. The swarm started writhing as more mana and natura got pushed into them. Suddenly I feel something far beyond a mortal look at Me. Just as suddenly the gaze moves onto the Ritual circle and the excess swarm lurches onto the corpse, starts to eat certain points of the corpse. I look on in amazement as the swarm guided by the entity delicately yet quickly dissects the bug. When a part of the creature falls off it starts to fade from reality. And suddenly I got a migraine as a lot of knowledge got crammed into my head.

The surroundings started to blur as I got to see how its circulatory system was more developed than bugs in our world, its carapace made from the chitin of its prey. Its mandibles connected by spring-like muscles enhanced by its dark magic snapped shut almost immediately. While its eyesight was horrible at range it was very motion-sensitive at close range. I felt my trait work in overdrive as it quickly put the knowledge into a corner of my mind in the catalogue.

After about a minute the veritable flood of information stopped. I searched around my mind and found I had a solid grasp of its body structure just from one specimen. I looked in my storage and found that I had gained about enough material to fill 3/4th of my stomach. It was even more energized than the baby spider's so it must be a tier-2 specimen.

I quickly used it to produce as many nanites as it could and produce it did, almost 4 litres of nanites were made from it. After recycling the dead nanites I had a total of a little over 7 litres of nanites. I tried to take the shape of the centipede-like part of the bug that I dubbed 'Bobbipede'. The nanites easily made the shape around, placing me at the spot of the head. At its full length, the centipede came out to about a foot and about 3 inches in radius.

I then noticed that Emir was standing just to the side of the ritual circle. I jump a little at him just appearing there. I tried to ask him how long he was standing there, but just unintelligible muttering came out of my mouth. Then a link just opened up in my mind I used that to ask him. He just smiled at me, "That was the first tier-1 Ritual of Knowledge Gathering invoking a greater entity that went so smoothly, at least to my knowledge. 'The Watcher' must be pleased with you! You should definitely try to get him as your Patron Deity. And the Guardian is also about to enter the clearing so let's clean this up." He waved his hand the ground reverted back to its natural state before I had tampered with it.

Just after that, a towering form entered the clearing. It was a treant made of some kind of dark brown wood and light green leaves. It stopped about 2 meters away from us. I then felt another link form in my mind and a motherly voice, "So little one, I see that you have evolved and the Mother of Monsters has taken notice of you. This can be both a blessing and a curse as I feel three distinct touches upon you. So tread carefully around the Gods youngling, for they are not mortal nor is their mind."