My dreams are of giants slaughtering lizards en masse. My eyes snap open to the familiar feeling of the lizards pressed against me. The major difference being that four of them are on one side and only one on the other. I look around and confirm that Karack is by himself on one side, the others clearly giving him a wide berth now. The thought makes me sad, but I realize that even without the mutation he was still a fifth wheel in the group. I move my head so that I can see the pond turn my aura sight as high as I can. The fish population seems to have refilled the pond, but I am still wary of how infinite that supply actually is. I can feel the affects of the new WIS helping me put the pieces together.
I watch the fish trying to figure out what is actually going on in the pond as I wait for the lizards to wake. I sit there for what must be an hour before they finally wake, during the time I notice a lot of small details that hadn't stood out to me before. The first is that the fish are slowly moving towards the river, they also seem to be growing in size as they get closer to the surface. They don't move straight to the river, they just leave the center grouping of fish. Some of them come into the grotto before eventually leaving. They appear to be meandering around the pond before eventually finding the river and disappearing down it. Still not sure as to the mechanism that allows for this I am sure that the fish are actually growing as they move from the depths up to the surface. They don't seem to move out of the center of the pond until after they pass a threshold of size.
*Is this some sort of spawn point, like in a video game?*
The thought making me scoff at the outlandish idea of that being true. My gut tells me that it is not a spawn point like I am thinking but that there is something much deeper and more intricate going on than that. Knowing that without diving deep into that massive hole I won't find my answers I file it away as yet another thing I will need to investigate. My curiosity in my surrounding world seeming to have grown with my WIS attribute. That revelation sparking the idea that WIS is not just the ability to put pieces together for decision making but also the desire to learn more.
The four lizards moving off to the far side before dipping their tails into the water and beginning to fish. I can tell that they have all grown greatly in the skill, but still have a significant failure rate. I notice during this that Grek and Clessh seem to be bulkier than before, not like when they gained STR but their bodies seem to be thicker overall.
*Grek, did you increase your attributes?* I question
*Yess, we all get strong!*
*What attributes did you choose?*
The question seems beyond him and he just tilts his head. Realizing that it probably wasn't INT for either of them I move to Mektha and Limaea, knowing that both of them still only have a four in INT.
*You should both focus on INT for attributes.* I send to the two of them.
They just nod as they continue fishing. Hoping that the message was received and they remember to do it I slip into the pond. Leaving Karack laying on the ledge as he watches the others fish. My hope to get him to the next level is the only thing on my mind as I slip below the water. I use my Space bag again to catch six fish and bring them back for Karack.
*You should focus on your low stats, but the fish will give you more AGI and STR than anything else.*
He nods back at me as he gets to work on the fish. Quickly dispatching all of them he turns to me.
*It only took two fish to get me to four STR, and it gave me extra.* He sends to me.
*That makes sense, when I use them for attribute gains they always give significantly more STR and AGI.*
*AGI was the same thing, it got me to four and then some. What should I do with the last two?*
I didn't notice a massive change to his aura for the AGI increase, but the STR increase gave an obvious increase to his muscle mass. Not nearly as much as the fist fish he killed two days ago but easily a quarter increase. I ask him to tell me his new attributes and I tell him to put the last two into WIS, it being one of his stats at two outside of CHA which is one. Hoping that by increasing WIS it will help him make better decisions. The change in Aura is strange, it has the appearance of his Aura flowing better within his body, not faster but smoother.
The attribute increases not giving him another level I decide to slide back into the water and get more fish. I manage to quickly grab another six for him, I pay close attention to the fish as I do. This allows me to confirm some of my suspicions about the difference in size of the fish at the top of the massive column comparatively to the bottom. The process piquing my interested even more as I swim back to the grotto.
*How would I even go about getting down there? My Space bag could hold air but I doubt it would be that much air.*
Dumping the bag in the basin again I watch as Karack repeats the same process. Four of the fish bodies are still sitting there from the previous trip.
*Did they not want to eat these?* I ask Karack.
*They seem to be keeping their distance from me, which I don't blame them for.*
*Are you able to communicate with them telepathically?*
*What is telepathically?* He askes, tilting his head.
*In your head, like we are talking now.* I explain
*No, I try but it doesn't seem to work.*
This answers one of the questions that I had earlier, the lizards are not telepathic. My own telepathy allowing them to communicated with me must be how the process works. I move to the four lizards as I think about that.
*You are welcome to the fish that I brought for Karack.*
They all look at me but don't move towards the fish, continuing to try and catch some with their method.
*It was an accident. He is sorry.* The words are clearly understood but they still do not seem interested in being anywhere near him. I realize now that his ostracization my be permanent over a simple accident. I can't help but feel bad for him, he clearly regrets the mistake but has no way of making it right.
I turn back to Karack and notice that his aura is condensing again. Realizing that he must have leveled up again I watch him. He picks one of his front legs up and looks at the toes, seeming to inspect them. After a moment of this he moves to the wall before quickly climbing up it and onto the ceiling.
*Sticky Toes?* I send to him.
His head snaps to me, upside down making it look comical as he stares at me. *Yes, It says MAX now instead of two though.*
*Does it allow for mutation at MAX?* Wondering if it is like my Wings trait.
*No, it just says max. Do you think I should do Mutate again or breath?* He questions back, still hanging from the ceilling.
*That's up to you, but if you do breath you will probably have one trait point left if yours cost the same as mine.*
He climbs down to the ground before laying down, seeming like he has made up his mind. He slips in to unconsciousness as I watch. Clearly having put trait points into Mutate.
*Well this will be interesting.*
I turn back to the others, they still have failed to catch any fish so I move over to the pile behind Karack and grab four of the fish. I drop them by the other lizards and tell them they should eat. They look suspiciously at the fish before Grek moves forwards and takes a small bite. He waits a moment before taking another and then the others dig in as well. Hoping this is a step forwards in trust I move back over to Karack and wait for him to wake.
I watch the fish in the pond as I wait, hoping to find more insight about them. Not wanting the time to go to waste I pull a ribbon of mana and attach it to the sheet, stretching the edges until the head aches come. I don't push myself like previously, planning to continue doing this as the head aches dissipate. The sheet doesn't increase by much but it is definitely larger. My head ache doesn't take too long before it goes away, significantly less time than when I pushed myself to my limits. I repeat the process another four times before Karack wakes up, the overall change seems minimal compared to the size of the sheet but I know by now that even minimal changes make a massive difference in the total capacity.
Karack awakes and seems disappointed. *What's wrong?*
*I chose wings, she laughed when I did and told me that it was a good choice but I would get nothing for it now.*
*What do you mean nothing for it now?*
*It is rank zero. I didn't have extra trait points to bring it automatically to one.*
I chuckle remembering how disappointing rank one of wings was. *Don't worry, rank one did nothing for me, it wasn't until rank three that it actually made a difference. Next level you should get four traits so you'll be able to bring wings to three or wings to two as well as a breath to two.*
He seems to be in higher spirits after that. Having an idea I have him follow me up into the room above the grotto. I open my Space bag and have him stick his head inside and release all of his breath into it. His breath only fills half of the bag before he is out, I pull his head back out of the bag and quickly fold it back up. We go back into the grotto and I let him know of my plan to open it inside the column of fish, hoping that it will speed up the leveling process. I follow this and watch as his breath spread out into the column of fish, nowhere near the efficiency of mine but still managing to get quite a few.
I can see roughly ten fish floating the the surface from his breath. I surface and empty the bag before diving back down and using it to catch another eight fish that I bring back into the grotto. When I get back I can feel the satisfaction rolling off Karack.
*So it worked?*
*Yes! Eleven from that!*
*That's awesome, have you put the attributes in yet?*
*No, I was waiting for you. Should I keep upgrading the lowest?* He questions.
*Yes, but if they are even I would do STR and AGI.*
I watch as he increases his attributes, trying to determine what he increases by the changes I can see. I can tell his STR goes up at least twice, the strange Aura smoothing of WIS happens at least once. Hoping that's not all he got out of them I ask him what he did.
*STR went up by two, AGI by one, WIS by one, and CHA by one.*
I dump the eight fish into the basin, motioning for Karack to kill them as well. I eat the remainder from the last batch. Hoping these eight will be enough to satiate me, still afraid that my continual decimation of the fish population will have a lasting effect. Fortunately the eight fish are enough for Karack to hit level four. He puts two of them into AGI bringing it to six, and three into PER and CON bringing them both to four. This batch causing him to go up another level.
He immediately puts two trait points into wings, the change from the outside being instantly obvious. Unlike my wings his sprout from his sides, connecting to his front legs. The first rank makes them look like just a webbing. The second rank makes a hardened protrusion extend from the wrist of his front legs. When his wings are retracted the protrusion is flush with his arm, ending in a small spike that extends slightly beyond his forearm. He can extend them out to almost double the front edge of his wings. The webbing connects from the tip of the extension to where his back legs begin.
We go outside to test them out and find that he can glide well but is unable to take off from the ground on his own. Taking off is made difficult due to him having to stand on his back legs to extend his wings. He tries and fails a few times to move while flapping his arms but each time he is unable to get any lift. The first time ends up with him falling onto his back from the force of his wings. This is improvement enough for me to feel much better about flying with him on my back, if he falls he will at least be able to glide.
*You should put the last two into breath, or save them for another mutation.* I tell him
*If I put them into wings I might be able to fly on my own though! The breath is already strong!* He insists.
Feeling like I am not going to convince him otherwise, I watch as he puts the remaining two points into wings. I watch as the wings' membrane grow in thickness as well as slightly in length. Unfortunately this still does not allow him to take off from the ground on his own but it certainly seems like it will allow him more control and glide time in the air. He seems disappointed by the change from the third rank.
*Don't worry! We will keep making your stronger, you could also try climbing. It might be a limit of your anatomy for ground based take offs.* This seems to give him hope.
I watch as he scampers off to the cliff face, easily scaling the cliff before turning back and launching himself into the open. Realizing his is much more courageous than me, I watch in delight as he snaps his front legs out and the wings catch the air. His first flight is quite tumultuous reminding me heavily of my own. He rocks back and forth trying to figure out the small movements to right himself. He seems to get better at it before he hits the ground and bounces once.
I run over to him, *Are you okay?*
*Yes, but I took blunt damage, what is that?*
I chuckle remembering my own run in with blunt damage. *Blunt is just impacts and stuff like that. How much did you take?*
*Four, I'm only at sixteen health now.*
*Wait what? Your CON is four right??*
*Yes, why?*
*What is your max health?*
*Twenty, Why is something wrong??* I can feel his anxiety through the telepathic link.
*No, yours just functions differently. Each point of CON for me gives ten heath, yours seems to only give five. That is very good to know though, it means we need to get that attribute up even more so now. One of those wolves would easily kill you if they hit you. Do you want to try swimming? I find I can use my wings partially folded to help me swim.*
*Sure!* He sends as he slides into the pond.
He seems to be a proficient swimmer, which surprises me after being told they can not swim well. It makes me question the other things Grek has told me. I don't suspect foul play, just ignorance. We swim around for a bit before diving down and swimming back to the grotto under water. The force of the waterfall makes it much harder for Karack to swim into the grotto but he is able to get inside by attaching himself to the cliff face under water and walking up in.
The others are startled by our sudden appearance but quickly go back to fishing. Behind them I can see eight fish bodies from their endeavors. I am surprised by their quick increase in capability but also excited that they are clearly able to feed themselves.
I try to converse with them and find that it is very difficult after having been with Karack for the past few hours. Their vocabulary and understanding is incredibly limited.
*We need to get one of you to a higher INT and allow them to lead you in my absence.*
The tilted heads in response tell me that was a little too much for them.
Trying a different approach *Who do you want to lead you?*
They all just keep staring at me and I realize I need to be more specific.
*Who should lead?*
They all seem to look towards Limaea, she is still staring at me as she realizes the other four are staring at her.
*Me?* She asks seeming to be very uncomfortable.
*Okay, that works!*
She seems to understand this, bobbing her head up and down. I slip back into the water as Karack moves up the ramp. I assume he is going to practice with his breath and leave him be. I swim out into the fish column. It once again has replenished itself increasing my interest in the origin point even further. I slip the folded Space bag out into the column and unfold it before rapidly refolding it after a bunch of fish get sucked it. Quickly swimming back to the grotto I dump the bag into the basin for Limaea.
*Focus on WIS and INT!* I send to her hoping that the message gets through.
I can see that there are nine fish in the shallow basin flopping around, she quickly works through all nine. I eat them after she is done killing them, continuing to fill what is beginning to feel like a bottomless stomach. After she is done I watch as her Aura begins to flow more smoothly just like when Karack put points into WIS. This transition only happens once before her entire Aura condenses, signaling to me that she just leveled up. She continues allocating the fish before turning to me.
*What did you get from them?*
Her speech has gotten notably smoother, *WIS is four and INT is six, and a level?* The last part comes with the feeling of confusion.
*That is awesome, Do you have the mutate trait?*
*Yes, should I choose it?*
*That is what Karack chose, he then chose breath.* I send to her hoping that the six in INT is enough for her to understand.
She slowly drops to the ground in an unconscious state.
*Mutating seems like it could be a death sentence if you just suddenly drop unconscious...* The thought coming to me as I think of getting a level up after killing something in the wild. I watch as the purple swirling patterns begin to show on her body. They start at her neck and slowly grow down her back, the swirls much smaller than Karack's. I can't take my eyes off them as they slowly expand into much more complicated swirls. Eventually her whole body is covered in hundreds of thin dark purple swirls. Her eyes snap open as she wakes up, suddenly going from unconscious to fully awake.
*Did it work?*
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
*Yes, I can feel it. It's... strange.* She seems to contemplate something before letting out a small puff of dark purple smoke.
*Be careful!! The others are not immune. Only Karack and I are.*
I try to position myself between her and the others so they do not get injured. They seem to understand my intent and stay back. She seems to understand the gravity of this having been on the receiving end already.
*If you are comfortable swimming you can let the breath out underwater, it is very effective like that.*
She immediately dives into the pool of water and swims towards one of the fish. She grabs it with her front left leg and breathes a small amount of breath directly onto it. It takes a moment with her low rank breath but the fish's Aura eventually dissipates. The body floating to the surface, slowly dragging her with it. Her aptitude for swimming astounds me, Karack seemed to be a capable swimmer after his wings mutation. Limaea seems to be a natural in the water though. Some of the fish take notice of her in the pool and try to stay away but she continually catches one after the other.
She quickly finds the right amount of breath to use on the fish, she used too little on one of them and it ends up taking her for a ride around the small pool. The comedy of a small lizard being whipped around by a fish three quarters their size is too much and I start chuckling. The low rumbling sound coming out of me startles the other three before they realize what it is.
Having success with both Karack and Limaea makes me think that I can get the other three to level two quickly as well. I slip into the water to go collect more fish from the pond, I stay underwater the whole time trying to work on my swimming skill as well as stay concealed. This trip I only manage to catch seven more fish before I turn back to the grotto. I can see Limaea pulling herself out of the water as I surface inside the grotto.
*You seemed to enjoy that* I project to her.
*Yes, swimming is fun, I feel free.*
I can't help but wonder how much she will enjoy flying if she ends up going down that road. I dump the seven fish into the basin before signaling Grek to come over. He seems to understand what to do and gets to work without any prompting.
*WIS and INT, this time Grek.* I send as he is flipping the third fish over his head and smashing it into the ground.
I watch as all seven are quickly dealt with, snapping each one up as he kills it and swallowing it in one bite. His Aura goes through two drastic changes in the smoothness of its flow before his entire Aura condenses. I am caught by surprise at how close to level two he was but I reiterate to him what to do. His brain density didn't seem to increase but I hope it was enough for him to understand.
Not waiting for him to finish the process I make another trip to the middle. I once again stay underwater the whole time, the idea of surfacing outside strikes me as a very bad idea. Not sure where that comes from I decide to follow the feeling, assuming it comes from the WIS threshold. I manage to catch eight fish this time and bring them back dropping them in the basin again, repeating the same steps I did with Grek and Limaea but with Clessh this time.
His aura flows much worse than the other two leading me to believe his WIS score is naturally lower. Hoping that doesn't negatively impact this I watch as his brain density goes up first, alarmed that he isn't putting anything into WIS I almost interrupt him. Before I can his Aura begins to flow much more smoothly. The change is massive compared to the others making me feel that he just went from one to two in WIS. His Aura smooths once more before the entirety of it condenses. The progress of the lizards today blowing me away after such slow progress on the days before. The realization dawns on me that they must have all been so close from the fishing as well as the initial INT progression from a few days ago.
I inform Clessh of what to do and watch him fall unconscious next to Grek before swimming out for what I hope is my last trip. I only manage to grab six fish this time before heading back to get Mektha to level two. When I get back into the grotto I notice both Limaea and Mektha standing by Grek and Clessh, watching intently as the dark purple swirls grow on their bodies as well. Both of them have much thicker swirls than Limaea but not as thick as Karack's. Mektha begins killing the fish as they pour into the basin, not even waiting for me to say anything.
Unfortunately this doesn't get her to level two, her WIS going up by only one from outward appearance. I look to the pool and only see a handful of fish left from Limaea's hunting. I partially unfold the Space bag under one of them and watch it get sucked in before folding it back up and dumping the fish into the basin. I repeat this process four more times before there are no fish left in the pool. The first fish was enough to increase the density of her brain, telling me that she had only been one away. This doesn't increase her over all Aura though which surprises me. Fortunately the other four are enough to increase her WIS causing the now familiar Aura condensation.
She immediately falls unconscious, giving me hope that she already knew what to do. A moment later my hope is reinforced when thin swirls of dark purple begin to appear on her skin. Relief floods over me as I realize that all of my friends are now immune to my breath. Hoping that this allows Karack to be more welcome within the group I go to find him. As I walk back through the main tunnel I begin getting anxious as I realize his ostracization may only be party due to the breath incident. Realizing that him being alone when the others are all paired off may be a larger portion of that.
I find him in the main cave where I expected, but doing something I did not expect. He is launching himself from the main room of the cave and gliding down the slope towards the entrance. I don't interrupt as I watch him do this the first time, I can feel the elation rolling off of him in waves as I watch. He lands almost at the cave entrance before turning and running back to the top. He doesn't even notice me until he is almost all the way to the top of the cave's internal slope. He slides to a stop, startled at my 'sudden' appearance. He stands still for a moment before what I can only describe as a smile cuts his face in two.
*Don't let me interrupt you!* I send to him.
Immediately he finishes the trip to the top before launching down the cave again. I watch him do this over and over before he starts to get visibly tired. When he reaches the top again, I explain stamina as I understand it and how I have mine always visible. He is confused at first by this but quickly seems to figure it out as he starts telling me that the number is slowly ticking up.
A sudden thought comes to me, *Did you have access to this information before meeting me?*
*I don't think so, but I also never had any notifications before. The first one I got was when you had me kill the first fish.*
*Was that the first thing you have killed?* I ask him.
*Yes, we mainly only ate berries before.*
*What about when you lived in the colony, did you only eat berries then?*
*No, we had meat, but I never went and got it, others always did.*
The idea of that intriguing me greatly, *Did they look different, like they had mutated?*
*Some did, but not like we do now. We had a lot of different lizards in our home at the time, sometimes it seemed like we were completely different types. Looking back now it seems like they just had different mutations.*
The line of thought bringing up an image of this massive lizard colony with a ton of differently mutated lizards within. *How did you all communicate with each other?*
*We didn't, or at least I didn't. Others probably did some how but I wasn't that old when the giants found the colony and started killing everyone.* His thoughts seeming to grow dark as we talked about the destruction of his colony.
*We don't have to talk about that, I was just curious as to how you didn't interact with this system before. We should go back to the others, they should be close to done their mutations by now.*
Karack crawls up my front leg, the motion becoming much quicker now, and we make our way back to the grotto. As we come down the ramp I can see Limaea standing guard over the others. Grek's new pattern seems to cover almost his whole body, Clessh's and Mektha's seem to be getting close as well. It is only a moment before Grek's eyes snap open, he stands up and looks around before approaching the water and diving in. His swimming is nowhere near as graceful as Limaea's and it takes him a significant amount of time before he latches onto a fish.
Clessh and Mektha both wake up during this time and we all watch as Grek struggles. After latching onto the fish he can't seem to get his breath to work. He ends up riding the fish around the pool as the fish tries to buck him off, making it look like an underwater bull riding ring. We all find it hilarious to watch and lose ourselves in it for a bit. He eventually surfaces and askes me how it works. I give him the same run down I gave Karack, he immediately lets out a large belch of purple smoke. Just by the size of it I can tell that he has probably expended his entire organ. My assumption is proven correct when he sullenly pulls himself out before laying down.
We all find amusement in this, well almost all of us. Clessh jumps into the pool next, his swimming is much better than Grek's but nowhere near as graceful as Limaea. It doesn't take him long before he latches onto a fish and exhales onto it. The fish being bathed in a large cloud of purple smoke that it quickly succumbs to. Clessh swims out of the pool, the self satisfaction rolling off of him.
*How much breath do you have left?*
*None* He sends back, the feeling of a beaming smile coming through.
Limaea shakes her head from next to me, seeming both amused and disappointed at the showing. Mektha wastes no time jumping into the water. Her swimming is much closer to Limaea's but still not as good. Unlike Grek and Clessh she seems to have a good amount of restraint like Limaea did with the quantity of her breath that she uses. She manages to catch two fish before she has to surface and then swims back to the edge. Only catching two fish seems to be more limited by the amount of fish in the pool and not her capability. Grek's fish riding scared a lot of them out and Clessh did the same.
I decide a little more excavation is in order and I spend the next hour expanding the pool. I make the pool into a big 'U' shape around the ledge. The ledge now protruding out into the pool like a peninsula and the pool surrounding it. I easily move the large roughly cube shaped blocks out of the grotto and dump them into the pond, the pile of blocks at the base of the entrance still out of sight in the depths of the pond. I dive down to make sure that they are not piling up too high and find that the pile isn't even a tenth of the way up to the entrance.
This gives me confidence that the pile will not alert anyone as to the presence of the grotto from the outside. I swim back in and begin making the entrance a little deeper, hoping to allow the lizards to easily swim in as I remember Karack's difficulty with the waterfall pounding down on him. I then move deeper into the pool towards the North Eastern corner and being making the pool deeper. My hope is that the pooling be U shaped and deeper on the Eastern and Southern portions will make it harder for fish to easily escape. By the time I am done the Southern portion of the U is easily double the depth of the Northern section. My head is barely above the water when I am on all fours with my neck extended all the way up.
I crawl out of the water and lay down on the peninsula, all five of the lizards having fell asleep as they watched me work. To my delight I see that they are all in one big group, Karack having finally been welcomed back into the group after the breath incident. My thoughts turn to what my next moves should be.
*If Karack is still welcome here I shouldn't take him from them, but that is assuming he is still welcome. I need to check with Limaea to make sure I have covered all their basic needs before leaving them alone. I also should figure out what is going on with the fish, that is something I could probably work towards right now.*
Darkness is beginning to fall outside of the grotto as I settle on trying to find a way to make it down to the bottom of the column of fish. I slip into the water and begin swimming, I dive down into the hole in the bottom of the pond, swimming until I feel that my lungs will start burning. I turn to the walls of the shaft and begin digging into the wall at an upwards angle. I don't make much progress before I find my lungs starting to burn. I make my way up to the surface, taking a couple of breaths and then diving back beneath the water. It takes me a moment to find the spot I was digging in but when I do I continue digging into the wall at an upward angle. After digging far enough that the front half of my body is inside the area I put my space bag facing up into the pocket.
The water floods in as air explodes outwards the water being displaced in the small tunnel as the air fills the space. I pull back and make my way back to the surface, above me I see large bubbles of air that escaped the small enclosed space. I empty the bag of water above the surface before swimming back down to my small air pocket. Now that I have a spot with some air I spend more time digging, the water level rising in the tunnel as I excavate more stone from above me. I enlarge the tunnel so that my body can fit within before I unfold the bag under water again. The air goes from being a thin layer at the top to filling most of this area.
The water is still higher than the entrance to the area making me believe I managed to capture all of the air this time. Not wanting to waste the air I have I swim back to the surface and refill the space bag with air. I repeat this process two more times, the final size of the tunnel allowing me to spread a wing out to one side, my head touching the ceiling when I am on all fours. Realizing I may have gone a little over board I begin diving deeper. I make another tunnel much deeper into the shaft having to leap frog from the first as I repeat this process of surfacing for fresh air and then using my space bag to fill the tunnel with air.
After completing this second air stop I begin swimming deeper. The Auras of the fish becoming smaller as I go deeper. I continue swimming down and see a massive Aura come into the edge of my vision. My lungs begin to burn slightly as I swim towards it, not wanting to make another space just yet I decide to flip my sheet of Space mana over so it is facing down and unfold it. I blow most of the air out of my lungs to the side before sticking my head inside and taking a deep breath.
My lungs now feeling refilled I continue swimming down. As I am swimming the sides of the shaft cut away suddenly as I enter what feels like a large void. The Aura below me growing and now appearing massive in size. I can tell now that the Aura is spherical and incredibly large. As I swim to it I an see that small fish appear at its edges before moving away and then slowly up towards the surface. I get a little bit closer before I see that it is not a single Aura that I am seeing but thousands upon thousands of strands of mana woven together.
The strands are many different colors, some the purple of Raw and others the black of Space. Most I don't recognize but it is a rainbow of different colors some appearing to be more than just colors. I watch this mesmerized for a long time before my lungs begin burning again. I repeat the same process as before and notice that my Space bag is still easily ninety percent full after two breaths.
*I probably should have tested the bag before wasting all that time digging*
Not wanting to test the limits I begin swimming back up. I get notification roughly half way up the shaft as my lungs begin to burn.
System Message: Skill Swimming Rank 1 -> 2
The sensation of burning in my lungs massively reduces as I find myself swimming even faster.
*Well I guess that answers my previous thought on if it allows me to hold my breath longer.*
The surprise of this making me happy that there wasn't another skill called 'breath holding' or something like that. I hadn't put it past this system to have some foolish skill like that. I only need to use the bag twice more before I reach the surface. Having seen the magical construct at the bottom of the long shaft I begin to think of how to take advantage of it. The fish seeming to be created by magical means leads me to believe that I don't have to worry about them not coming back. I can feel the effects of my new WIS threshold as the depths of my mind shout "You don't know that" back at me.
*That was a strange one. It's weird having these new reactions but its weirder knowing why I have them. I don't know why it works but I do know that the fish come from that massive sphere of magic. For now I can at least assume it will continue doing what it has been doing for the days I have been here though.*
My certainty in the fish being a fairly renewable food source cemented I decide to start ramping up my progression as well as the lizards progression. My gains after hitting ten in the attributes seems to be greatly diminished but the lizards still have quite a few attributes that are low. Knowing that going overboard will draw more giants to investigate on top of those already investigating I decide to continue taking it slow.
*If I do one or two full bags of liquid breath into the column a day I will get massive gains. I can use most of that for feeding myself and the grotto's pool seems to fill with fish enough for the lizards to survive. I could get a few bags worth of fish from the column to help their progression as well. I wonder if I could make friends with those owls? They seemed friendly enough... well except that first time.*
Deciding to act on making progression I empty the water that is left in my Space bag and begin filling it with liquid breath. I find that I can float on the water with the sheet of Space mana facing up and allow my breath to just roll into it. I stop filling it when the liquid begins to over flow and I fold it back up. I see a few fish bodies bob to the surface from the overflow of the bag so I snap them up to help combat my ever growing hunger. I smoothly dive back under the surface, finding the swimming rank increase to have made a massive all around difference in my capabilities under the water.
*I wonder what the lizards' skills are, Limaea must have a high swimming skill compared to the others.*
I perch on the edge of the shaft and move my folded Space bag out into the center of the column. Remembering that the liquid breath sank in water I flip it over so that it is facing down and unfold it. The breath begins cascading out, a few fish caught in the liquid breath as it drops out. I can see from this distance that the normal veins don't appear in their aura, instead it is like their aura is replaced with a dark cloud starting at the contact point. This dark cloud rapidly fills their aura was before blinking out.
I snap fish off the surface filling my stomach before swimming back to the grotto. Thinking about my next steps as I pull myself into the grotto I realize I could leave the lizards in relative safety now.
*They have access to a seemingly limitless food source and the safety of the grotto and cave. Their access to my breath allows them to defend themselves even if only against smaller predators. Their progression will definitely slow but it will be continuous now.*
The brainstorming ends when I realize I haven't been practicing with my mana much today. I immediately begin pulling threads of Raw mana, instead of producing missiles I focus my effort on pulling a sixth thread. My attempts grow slightly better as my head begins to pound. At first I can barely pinch the ball of mana in my core before it slips away. After what feels like hours I can start to form the thread before it slips from my grasp. When I stop I realize that it was nowhere near hours of practice, the pain of my throbbing head just made the process feel overly long.
Knowing from experience that if I keep pushing I will have a catastrophic failure I decide to lay down keeping my eyes on the waterfall and watching for any activity. I notice that the lizards are all in the water darting after fish trying to hit them with their breath. Limaea is still far more proficient in the water than the others but they are all improving. This goes on for awhile before they have scared most of the fish out of the pool. The new shape of the pool seems to help keep the fish from easily darting out but they still find their way out eventually.
We all lay there for a long time eating the fish they managed to catch and just enjoying the grottos ambiance. The night sky illuminates the pond on the far side of the water fall and the waterfall distorts the image further. The end result is a cascade of different lights and shapes creating a continually changing pattern on the water fall. The progress we made as a whole today making me feel over all content but there is still a deep pit of anxiety.
*Something made that magical construct, but what?*
I notice the slowly flashing notification of my fish kills from earlier, fifty two attribute distributions await my decision. Pulling my character sheet up briefly to check what my lowest stats are I settle on increasing AGI, CON, DEX, and CHA. Starting with AGI it only takes three of the fish to bring it up to eight and another four to bring it to nine. Moving to CON it takes eight fish to bring it to nine, the massive increase in the amount required reminding me of the fishes efficiency in STR and AGI. Moving on to DEX it takes nine of the remaining thirty five fish to bring it to nine as well. CHA only takes seven of the fish bringing my remaining fish down to nineteen.
AGI 7.21 -> 9.15 CON 8.16 -> 9.06 DEX 8.05 -> 9.07 CHA 8.23 -> 9.01
With my four lowest stats being at nine I realize that I now have the opportunity to decide which of the stats to reach the threshold of ten.
*CON seems like an interesting choice to bring to ten, the threshold for that could be very good. AGI is just my movement speed so that is probably not that big of a threshold. DEX is how dexterous my movements are so that could be worth it but I don't really use that much. CHA doesn't seem to have affected me much up to this point either. I might be able to get AGI and one other to ten as well based on how quickly that was brought from seven to nine. CON seems like the choice.*
My decision made up I begin allocating the fish to CON. It takes ten fish before my CON hits ten. I try to watch my body to see if any physical changes happen.
CON 9.06 -> 10.07 System Message: Level 9 - 9 Trait points gained
The second message takes me by surprise causing me to briefly lose my focus. I quickly minimize it before looking back at my body. I notice for the first time while leveling that my aura grows in density just like the lizards have been. This seems to overshadow any changes that the CON threshold made, disappointing me slightly from the loss of that information. Pulling up my character sheet I can see the major difference though.
Health 150/150
*Wow, so the threshold made my health massively increase per point of CON. That single point in CON gave me what amounts to sixty more health.*
I then begin putting fish into AGI, hoping to get that to ten as well and find that it only takes five of my remaining nine fish.
AGI 9.15 -> 10.17
The ten point threshold doesn't seem to have any effect other than things moving slightly slower. Realizing that they are not moving slower and that I am actually just moving faster in all aspects makes me think that I have been missing out by not raising this stat sooner. With one more regret now I put the last four fish into CHA on what feels like a whim.
CHA 9.01 -> 9.42
*Now after just making those decisions I get to make another big decision... nine trait points and that wing mutation hanging over my head. If it takes five like I expect it to that would allow me to mutate that as well as do a rank up of Scales or Mental. It seems like all of these traits are massively important, even claws that I have mostly ignored has been amazingly improved each rank up. Five being the max rank for Wings is interesting as well, do the others have different rank maximums? Breath is five and still hasn't maxed out implying that it either doesn't have one or is at a different rank. I'm definitely doing wings though, that is far to intriguing not to go forward with, the question is do I want to do Mental or Scales on top of that?*
I sit there for a long time tossing the two options back and forth in my mind before the squirrel pancake comes to mind again. The image happens as I am thinking about doing Scales so I go forward with that as my decision and put four of the trait points into that trait.
System Message: Trait Scales rank 4 -> MAX, mutation available
*Fuck...* I think as I realize I just made another decision for myself. I begin watching my scales improve, enjoying the show of the small whirlpools forming over each, sucking aura down into the scales. The density of each scale now shows against my Aura making me look like a dragon even more from my Aura's shape. In the visible spectrum I begin to look more like a hole in the world. My individual scales looking like they are small voids each with it's own nebula floating around. The effect is jarring when I move, making it seem like I am not as close as I actually am.
After the whirlpools dissipate I decide to find a comfortable spot, expecting to go unconscious when I choose to mutate my wings. I don't allow myself to second guess this knowing that I will just spiral again into analysis paralysis. My spot found I put the points into Wings mutation and watch as my vision shrinks to black.
Click Click Click