Flattened mountains [an unknown location in the new world], local time [1793.10.15 1793.10.06]
Gru is kind of grumpy today, Zeph thought, noticing that Gru was deep in thought, again. Starting with the unexpected cynicism and dejection that were showing more often lately, to this morning’s indifference caused by its lack of perception. Is that the reason? I know I would be like that without sight, but I was born with it… I hope it can get over it soon.
They were standing right before the stairs. Zeph’s big backpack was full, two smaller ones attached to its sides. The overcoat was rolled up and held by straps like a sleeping mat. He could unbuckle the shoulder straps to drop the backpack at the moment’s notice, but it wasn’t something he wanted to try out in combat. It should give him some additional protection from the back, at least.
He was wearing his leather outfit. Thankfully, his boots, gloves, and helmet weren’t glowing. He was sure the first two will start to, at some point, but he could just bandage them. The neon-green light wasn’t strong enough to get through a few layers of cloth.
He had his spear at the ready. Three javelins and an atlatl were attached to his backpack within arms’ reach. In one of his holsters was his pistol and one additional magazine, but the second one he filled with smoke/smell bombs. His combat knife was secured to the belt, too.
He decided against using the crossbow and the hatchet/hammer, so he packed them into the backpack. The crossbow was too slow to reload and even if he packed the autoinjectors with contents of the Prana batteries, which lost a lot of Prana anyway, the poison wouldn’t work fast enough in the enclosed stony space. Each miss would also mean damaging a bolt. The hatchet was too slow and had a small reach, he had the knife for such occasions.
At the camp, the leftover wood and most of his wooden tools he stacked in a pile and covered everything with smaller branches as basic weather protection. Maybe someone would find and use it, there was no reason to burn everything.
I wonder how Alex and Alana made it through the pass. I also couldn’t find any remnants of a camp. Well, years passed, it’s not that strange, he idly thought while checking his gear one last time.
“Let’s go then,” he said quietly and started the descent. Gru was silent.
He was moving cautiously, minimalizing the noise. Along the way, he found another three dead Bearats. According to his notifications, two were missing. They had probably fallen from the cliff when trying to go down the stairs, he deduced.
Finally, he got to the third cave, the first two in the same state as last time.
Zeph was expecting this. After killing at least 11 battle-ready members of the pack, they closed the entrance to the cave. It was only natural.
Why then was he feeling like he missed an opportunity?
Standing before the former entrance to the cave, he was quite confused by his own emotions. Is it Intuition acting again? I don’t believe in this ‘gut feeling’ BS, at least when we are talking about long-term decisions and things way in the past. So why am I feeling like this?
“Hey, partner, are you feeling anything strange right now?” he asked his only advisor.
It didn’t answer immediately. He could feel it concentrating on something.
“Grrrrrr…” Gru vibrated without sending any meaning.
After a minute it was becoming unnerving. “Oi, are you ok?”
The vibrations lasted for a moment longer, before—
“GROO!” it flipped the imaginary table. “Grarar, raaaara~!” it started complaining loudly.
Zeph had to concentrate really hard to keep up with the vibrations and emotions.
He got one thing from his Soul-bond; System’s Soul enhancements, like Passive Enhancements and Class frames, were fucking bizarre. Yes, something was suggesting he lost an opportunity for something. Yet, without resonating with and using Zeph’s Intuition, Gru was almost blind to this Soul phenomenon. It was irritated to the point of starting an imaginary revolution.
Revolution, resonated Mana in his body.
“Hey, hey! Take a few deep breaths!” he said, then understood his mistake. “Or, I don’t know, a few intakes of Mana… Being in this state will only make you unfocused!”
“GRAU!” it answered incredulously. ‘This was unacceptable!’ it sent.
Unacceptable, resonated his Soul.
“Oi! Stop using your Will!” he said, trying to prevent Gru from doing something drastic.
“Graaaah!” it didn’t care. “Graaau!” it wanted to see. The last and only thing making up its external senses, the Soul perception, was obscured. Denied to him.
It denied the denial. This had to change.
“No, No, NO! It won’t end we—"
Change, resonated his Will.
As much as he was reluctant to go into the new territory again, he really wanted the best for his companion. Thus, there was no way to stop the resonance. Overwhelmed, he fell to his knees.
His resonating Will latched onto something inside Gru…
Warning! Your [Symbiotic Parasite] is growing!
Their Souls started to send information through their Wills…
Warning! Unauthorized [Soul transfer] detected! [Soul-bond] confirmed, counter-measures impossible!
Something started to form. It felt like Mana, but so much different…
[Garuan] transferred 9,54% of [Garuan, type: M1] [Soul contamination] in exchange for 6,68% [Human, type: Earthling] [Soul contamination].
Then everything snapped into place.
For that one moment, when still resonating, Zeph felt as if the world around him bloomed in brightness, colors, and meanings.
The door was opened. The bird started to fly. The human felt the sunlight for the first time. The incapacitating hangover ended. The Garuan saw.
[Garuan] gains new [Natural] [Energy Enhancement].
[Garuan] [Trait] [Lesser sentience] evolved into [Basic sentience].
[Garuan] got access to new [Classes].
[Garuan] got access to [Professions].
[Class] [Garuan - level 8] has been reset!
As fast as the moment came, it disappeared. Zeph was left lying on the ground, mentally spent. But the memory was still fresh in his mind. He doubted he could ever understand what it means to gain sentience, if not for this very experience.
After the change, the world around seemed so much more tangible, so much more… real.
[Tabu] is now [Level 20].
Congratulations! [Will-powered Mana manipulation] [T2][L39] is now [T2][L49]! (+10)
Warning! You have [Diminished Will]! Current state: [Small]!
Processing…
It didn’t matter. Those handicaps paled in comparison to Gru’s growth. To the experience of freeing one’s mind from the steel grip of physical limitations, of no understanding and restricted memory. An experience of gaining a true context to one’s very being, by simply remembering and comprehending more.
Don’t tell me… he started to think after getting himself together. All this, it was just ‘growing pains’ of a Garuan? The mood swings, and then this?
He sat up; his vision was still swimming slightly. Luckily, he didn’t lose consciousness this time. This was Soul transfer, not transplantation, whatever the difference was. Also, he now had experience in using his Will.
“Hey, buddy. Did you just… came of age or something?” he asked his abdomen.
“Graar,” answered an aged and wise vibration.
“Ha. Ha. Ha. But seriously, what happened here?” he asked gravely.
“Grrrum” it smugly answered.
“Brain? You have a brain now?” he asked skeptically with a deadpan face.
“Grre!” it mentally smacked him.
“Haha, sorry, sorry! So, the Mana you ‘crystallized’ was necessary to expand your brain? How does that even work?” he asked, quite flummoxed by all of this.
“Grrrarurarun!” it wisely vibrated.
“No way! If a human's brain was that easy to emulate with some Mana, the System with its Matrices and whatnot would be useless!” he couldn’t understand the concept at all.
“Grrrean, groooo,” it answered.
“Well… Yea, you may be right. The guys who programmed your genes are so old and incomprehensible that even the System has problems with deciphering their creations…” he said, then decided to leave it in the ‘Ancient Civilizations’ mystery box. For now.
As if on cue, a notification showed up.
Calculations completed!
[Ancient Civilizations] [General Skill] updated!
You have earned [Soul fragments]!
You have earned 500 000 [Universal Points]!
“Ha! More Points to spend!” he exclaimed happily.
“Gra!” it imitated, confirming its own rewards.
“Perfect! But anyway, we will have to wait for an hour or two until my Will regenerates. How are you on that front? It’s a good opportunity for you to choose your Class, too,” he declared.
“Gre,” it shrugged.
“Good for you. But are you sure? It took me, like, three days to decide,” he asked worriedly.
“Grara,” it consoled him. “Gru grum!”
“Well, if you are sure… I will not stop you,” he conceded.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“Gru!” it confirmed and concentrated. A few moments later, a new notification showed up.
[Garuan] has a new [Mixed] [Class]: [Will-o’-the-Wis’oul]!
[Garuan] has a new [Profession]: [Shepherd]!
It took him a moment to process what he was seeing.
“And why did you choose that Profession, I wonder,” he asked suspiciously.
“Gramm,” it vibrated in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone.
“Who is guiding who?! You ungrateful parasite!”
“Grarara,” it laughed at him.
“I-It’s just a matter of time until I can read those! I am the one you are resonating with! I am”—he stopped himself—“this leads nowhere,” he noticed and sighed.
Having finished with the mad gesturing and speaking to ‘himself’, accompanied by Garuan’s laugh, he decided to be a better man and leave it be.
Definitely not because his ego took a critical hit.
They relaxed on the black stone stairs for the next hour. Zeph took some rations to resupply the energy he spent dealing with the Garuan, still feeling a little sour.
After his Will regenerated, he moved downstairs.
The next three caves were closed, but it was still a long way to the cloud line. I wonder if they would part during the Mana surge, he thought, looking at the ominous storm below. I guess I am just hoping for a lifeboat. Going into the caves is a little frightening, I can at least admit that.
The seventh cave was open. He started his preparations. The backpack was left behind, spear tip Hardened, the AMc—the Ambient Mana channeling—stealth enabled, smell bombs taken out.
It will be the real trial of the Light Spell. I really hope the previous tests weren’t just a dud. Let’s do it one more time, to be sure, he thought, coming closer to the cave.
After setting down the first bomb with Telekinesis and making sure he had a Mana tendril connected to it, he started to slowly manipulate his Mana to form a second one. It was much easier to concentrate on it when he only had to maintain the first, but creating and moving two of those was like trying to move your fingers separately to two different rhythms.
He has sent the second tendril near the ceiling, a little into the entrance. Then, he started constructing Light Spell.
It was almost identical to Flash but kept using ambient Mana, like the original ‘Mana highlight’. He managed to modify ‘Mana highlight’ to only transform selected types of Mana into the light. Flash used, ironically, Mana-Z, the non-elemental type of his Mana. But because it was his Mana, the process was much more efficient. Light Spell could use a few different types, changing color depending on it.
Both of them, though, operated on the same principle. Instead of sending a wave of ‘transforming’ Will-Mana-Z outwards to interact with the E-Mana, the Spells were concentrating the ‘transforming’ Will-Mana-Z in a sphere. Flash was uncontrollable, the ‘transforming’ Will-Mana was consuming all Mana-Z in the sphere immediately, creating a flash, its namesake. Light, on the other hand, slowly consumed E-Mana-O in the Sphere. The intensity could be regulated by the relative density of Mana-Z inside and the color, as stated, by the E-Mana-O type. The Self-Sustaining part was responsible for pumping Mana-Z into the construct to keep it working continuously.
It was, by far, the most difficult Spell he had created. Mostly because he didn’t understand this whole ‘transforming’ property that was added to the Will-Mana by the construct. The ‘transforming’ Will-Mana was represented in the Interface as another E-Mana type, adding to his confusion, as he wasn’t able to feel the difference. It seemed that all Spells from Shaman Profession had similar quirks. He suspected it had something to do with the ‘Soul arts’ the Shaman was known for utilizing.
He set the Light to consume Heat-Mana-O, thus creating a deep red light. From his knowledge about the light sensitivity of animals, confirmed by meditating a little with the ‘Memories of the Earth’ and by his previous live tests, the low-intensity red light should be ignored by the animals. They could still see it, but it was neutral enough color to rather confuse them than make them agitated.
A red-light sphere was created and, as previously, it was ignored. This time, though, he started to increase the intensity of the light by decreasing the density of Mana-Z inside of the sphere.
After a minute, he could hear the Bearat slowly stepping closer. It wasn’t attacking, so he guessed it was just curious. The Mana-X density was rising, though. He had to make a move before the animal detected his Mana tendrils.
He abandoned the Light Spell and concentrated on creating the Mana-Z lure above the bomb. The light flickered for a moment before disappearing. The Bearat grunted, but didn’t attack. Zeph was clinging to the wall outside, so he still couldn’t see what it was doing.
The lure wasn’t working, the Bearat was too close and couldn’t see any physical target. It was sniffing the air, though. Suddenly suspicious? I can as well test the direct confrontation before it notices me. I just hope it won’t run off, he thought, preparing to move.
He formed a thin tendril and quickly moved it into the entrance, at the height Bearat’s head should be. In quick succession he fired two Matrix Spells, ‘Lesser Ignite’ and half a second later, Flash. Because it took time for the bomb to fully ignite, they exploded almost at the same time.
Sprinting to the opening, he could hear alarmed roars of the Bearat. In the next moment, he could see it, backing away and blindly swiping its paws up front. The bomb was too far away to make it run away. Before it could concentrate on the information from its Mana bubble and decide to fight or flight, Zeph thrust his spear into its neck, avoiding the flailing limbs, and executed a short, cutting move before backing up.
The beast answered immediately and charged ahead, but before it could get close to Zeph, Gru Soul-whacked it. Zeph quickly dodged to the side, narrowly evading its body. It landed face-first into the remnants of the bomb, immediately breaking from the stunned state. Panicking, it tried to stand up, but it was too late.
Zeph was already cutting its tendons, and it buckled. The finishing stab to its neck ended the fight.
He stopped and listened for a moment. The pack was coming, but also, it was far. He didn’t waste any more time and sprinted into the cave, preparing two bombs. He placed them a few meters into the cave, near both walls. After making sure they stayed upright, he backed to the entrance, leaving thin Mana tendrils connected to the bombs. He took two more and prepared himself.
The cave was wide enough to allow three Bearats to walk side by side, though, they would impede each other. The sentry was dead, its Mana-X saturating the cave was now of no consequence, it would only impede their perception. His enchantment on the spear tip was fading, he had maybe ten more swings with it.
When the sounds of steps were close, before even seeing anything, Zeph Ignited the two bombs in his hand with one Spell and threw them ahead, preparing a strong Flash not half a second later.
The pack didn’t come en masse. They were sprinting but came in single file. As always, they were fast.
Good, was all that Zeph managed to think, closing his eyes.
Everything happened all at once.
The bombs were a little too late in exploding, but the Spell worked as intended, blinding the leading Talpa. While opening his eyes, Zeph was already dodging to the side, moving his spear in a cutting motion. At the same time, he sent another Ignite to the bomb inside the cave. The leading Talpa lost its orientation and attempted to stop itself, the ones behind crashing into it. The spear hit it as it was falling to the ground, cutting a long line on his head, neck, and shoulder.
It didn’t matter, it was pushed down the cliff.
He Flashed again, the Spell came out weaker but was enough, and an ugly melee has started. The three leading Talpa were blinded and retching. The ones behind, still in the cave, were lost as the smell coming from both sides overloaded their brains.
Zeph was frantically stabbing in the necks and slashing at the knees. When one of the Beasts oriented itself, Gru Soul-whacked it, and Zeph slashed it through the eyes. He had no time for planning or even positioning, the enemy couldn’t recover, or he would suffer.
When the enchantment fizzled away, two of the beasts were incapacitated, their tendons sufficiently damaged. Only the one with eyes cut through was still standing, evidently trying to perceive through Mana. Zeph immediately prepared his spear and increased the radius of the AMc vortex to the utmost maximum, directing the stream of Mana to the side, into the abyss, in hopes of misleading it. He could feel the majority of Mana-O in the vicinity being ruptured and flowing with the stream. Then, to his surprise, the Talpa charged in the direction of the disappearing jet of Mana. Its wails echoed for a good ten seconds as it plunged down the mountainside.
Co…
Not now! he thought while looking at the cave entrance. Did the rest run away? The sounds of fighting could have scared them after the bombs exploded, a fleeting thought came, but he was already concentrating on the two Talpa on the stairs.
He finished them without much problem.
“Good fight, Gru,” he commented, going back for his backpack in preparation to delve into the cave. He would not allow them the time to recover.
“Greeah,” it commented, unsure.
“That is not true. If not for your stun, we would have a problem. Probably in the shape of broken bones. Keep it up, buddy!” he explained.
“GRU!”
He refilled his holster with new bombs and stalked into the cave. He retrieved the one unused bomb along the way. The smell of burned eggs, old carrion, and sulfur filled his nostrils, making his eyes water a little. He had to breathe through his mouth, but otherwise, it didn’t impede him that much.
He started using Will-powered Soul perception. When the cave started to plunge into darkness, he stopped and constructed the red version of Light Spell as far ahead as he could. Not hearing any noises, he constructed the ‘Lesser Life detect’, while still keeping the tendril to the Light.
He detected nothing.
It was really hard to tell how deep the den was. Instead of using the two Spells interchangeably, he took out one of his javelins and enchanted its surface with the modified ‘Mana Highlight’. Or rather, with the reversed Light Spell. It was constantly ejecting ‘transforming’ Will-Mana around, making the air glitter with red light. Enchanting the surface created a very fragile construct, but he wasn’t going to move the javelin much. It would spare him time in the long run.
It would be easier if I could move the Light… fucking mystical physics, he complained internally, trying to hear anything.
After walking for a good minute, firing ‘Lesser Life detect’ from time to time, he heard a loud scratching. He stopped and listened. It was more of a grating, lower in tone and longer in duration.
Oh no, motherfuckers, he thought while speeding up. Not this time!
The light from his javelin started fading from the jerking movements. He didn’t care. He was sending Mana feelers up ahead, strengthening them with Soul perception, until he felt a drastic increase in Mana-O. He stopped, strengthened the last feeler, and threw the javelin in the general direction of the Mana source. The light coming from the javelin was enough to illuminate four Talpa working on the walls and ceiling. It didn’t hit anything, but the animals reacted to the light, pausing their work and looking away at the flying item.
He used the time to take out two bombs, Igniting them, and then throwing them at the Talpa. They didn’t make it all the way, combusting midair, but that was enough to cause chaos.
Unsure how close they were to collapsing the tunnel, he panicked a little.
He sprinted ahead, squinting his eyes, and used the strengthened feeler to cast Flash. Surely, they could hear him coming and were looking his way, now that they stopped their work.
It wasn’t as good as he hoped. Only the two Talpa at the walls were blinded, evidently sensing the tremors he caused and looking in his direction. But that was enough for him, he wanted to get into the nest, the beasts at the ceiling weren’t able to react in time and jump off of it.
Along the way, he took out two more bombs from the holster and almost tripped on the rubble under the entrance. He stopped after a few steps. He was surrounded by impenetrable darkness, his javelin lost the enchantment the moment it flew away from the Mana-Z tendril.
Shit, he thought, nudging Gru, Igniting the bombs, and preparing a manual Flash all at the same time. For the Garuan the dark cave was as bright as always. After all, it just ‘saw’ Souls.
Everything exploded at once.
The second round of chaos started. This time, Zeph wasn’t that lucky. He managed to unbuckle his backpack but didn’t dodge in time and one of the blinded Talpa ran him over. Gru wasn’t able to react in time, there were too many enemies to whack. He instinctively used his new AMc trick again to hide himself, directing the stream to the far side of the cave.
Because it wasn’t a directed attack, his armor held. But he was now on the floor, surrounded by an unknown number of enemies. Even concentrated as they were on the AMc output, he still was in trouble.
Oh, no, he thought flatly. What should I do?
He took out the gun.
He left the spear on the ground and started shooting while lying on the floor.
The chamber was spacious enough for the sound to not deafen him. He concentrated on his Will-powered Soul perception, that now resonated with Gru’s, to take aim. The echoes just hurt the Talpa, making it impossible to find the threat by sound, his AMc working overtime to hide him.
He was aiming for the torso first, then for the head, shot after shot, until he exhausted all 20 rounds.
Thus, anticlimactically, the fight ended. The few Talpa that were still moving, he started killing with his blunted spear, still doing it in the dark. The weapon was much less effective now.
I really don’t want to see what the cubs look like before killing everything, was his thought process. I will just deal with the guilt after finishing…
“Grrraaa,” noticed Gru.
“Yea, I know, but do you have a better idea? Do you want to rise them?” he countered.
“Graaarrru,” it whined in denial over the situation.
“Yes, I know, but what can we do,” he said, continuing. “It’s not like we can help them. They will be, most probably, eaten by the other groups. But that is not even the point. As soon as they mature, they will try to hunt us. Or rather, humanoids in general. Do you remember the “Corora lifeforms” entry I explained to you?” he asked, finishing the last one and constructing a Light Spell without E-Mana restrictions to produce white light in the nest.
“Grararu?” it asked.
“Not really. From what I understand, it normally takes generations to create a sentient individual. You are quite different in that regard,” he explained patiently while the light illuminated the nest. The cave was carved in hard, black stone. It was circular but quite irregular, at least 4 meters in height and 5 meters in radius. Something resembling carved stone columns decorated the rough walls. Everything was wet, water dribbling down the vertical surfaces. Some violet lichen and small dark-blue fern colonies were growing on the walls and ceiling. Everything else was black. Ugh, how depressive. Where are multicolored glowing mushrooms, like in any good fantasy? he thought absentmindedly.
“Gre?” it asked, after mulling for a moment on his explanation.
“Yes. They are just animals. Far away from sentience. We may be composed of the same meat, but that”—he sent a vision of Earth, showing the knowledge, the achievements of society—“is the source of a real change, a true result of sentience. I am not sure how much we should allow it to escalate, but it’s not important right now. Those animals cannot be reasoned with, they will endanger lives. Our lives even. Do not feel sorry for something that should be our sustenance according to the laws of nature,” he explained, looking around. Five more tunnels were dug out of the cave, he started checking them one by one, reloaded pistol in hand.
“Grauragra!” it argued.
“Well, you are right in this, buddy. If I could, I would use every scrap of their body, alas, we don’t have the means. Or a choice, for that matter,” he answered somberly. Only one tunnel was going down, the rest was at the level of the chamber.
“Grrruuu…” it confessed.
“Yea, I suppose sentience can do that to you. But remember, as long as they are in our way, especially because we don’t have any knowledge of the ecosystem, it’s a fair game. We didn’t do anything wrong. We are fighting for life, just as they were. At least take that from your senpai in sentience.”
“Grrrrmmm… Gra,” it agreed in the end.
He was surprised to not see any mushrooms here, but decided it didn’t really matter right now. It wasn’t the right place to craft anything, anyway.
“Are you ready to descent, my fella?” he rhetorically asked, retrieving his javelin.
“Grau!” it confirmed.
“Let’s check the notifications first, though,” he reflected.
Congratulations! You have gained new [General Skill], [Mana rupture] from the [Knowledge Base]!
Congratulations! Your [Profession] [Shaman] leveled up!
New [Soul contamination] of [Garuan] exceeded the threshold! [Space, type: B5001] is at 5,01%!
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Interface:
[https://i.imgur.com/qp6QVii.jpg]
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[https://i.imgur.com/bpPHnKj.jpg]
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