Ozzy stood partially disbelieving of his success. With all of the current opponents vanquished and a reprieve from immediate danger, his domain upgrade completed, and no all out war in his haven, he really just wanted a break, and a bath. He closed the veil on both sides of the entire connected haven metropolis he’d created. Made a few cursory passes to scoop the worst of the viscera and body parts left over out of his haven. Flipped his house back around the right way. Then surveyed the rest of his haven.
The next several hours felt long and slow. His desire to bathe hadn’t disappeared despite finding that his new armored membrane exoskeleton had kept all the filth off of him. Yet he’d found the two water tiles he had full of blood. The sight of the rest of his haven splotched with random piles of gore wasn’t helping his predicament. Connecting to and killing the denizens of the next few catfish havens helped resolve much of it. Using his domain as a tool to suck up water and spray the rest of the haven helped with the rest. Allowing him to finally bathe, though the whole process had triggered a few insights and kept him from taking the break he had also wanted.
There were several things he’d learned from upgrading his domain and the minimal testing he’d done on it so far. There were also several others that he’d discovered much earlier that he hadn’t really thought of as discoveries at the time. When he’d first been accosted by the thirteenth imp he’d discovered that he was still connected to his spear membrane even though that portion of it was separated from the rest. Granted the connection had failed eventually but it was being consumed by the imp at the time so that made sense. He’d been reminded of this when trying to bathe with his new suit of physically manifested armor. Opening it and stepping out had allowed him to bathe and looking at it as he floated in the murky water with a thin connection of domain reminded him of that frightening experience.
The reminder had him pull back the rest of his domain from the suit to find nothing really changed. The suit stood on its own as if nothing was different than when his domain was touching it. The energy levels in the trips making it up was slowly being consumed but that was the same as when it was connected. He was even able to move the limbs about as if he were still connected or inside. Technically the energy was draining faster than when connected. Yet testing once more when connected just showed it was because it could draw from all his domain while connected. With the amount of energy the trips could hold compared to the base level particles this wasn’t exactly a problem. The suit could power itself for at least a few days of constant motion with their current storage. With inspiration, and possibilities buzzing around in his head he was unable to sleep.
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Some time later, he awoke from his hyper focused state. He wasn’t sure exactly how long, but the several new additions to his haven suggested it was at least another eight hours. Though the way his body was screaming at him suggested he might have been in the fugue state for far longer. Other than disconnecting portions of his domain and imparting intent to them he hadn’t learned anything new. Yet the things that could be accomplished from shuttling energy around in specific ways and storing it was quite impressive. He’d added an attachment to the connections between all the havens to siphon off the energy he could use, while allowing the rest through.
On the trees he’d added a similar mechanism to drain the fruit as they filled. Then connected them all together and ran a tubular membrane back to his shack where he created a new reservoir that was slowly filling even without murdering anything. He still had many ideas of how he could improve on what he’d just made, but with a steady supply of energy welling up in his shack, the ever dwindling supply in his body pulled him toward it. Despite his excitement about everything he could now do he was quickly drawn into a dreamless sleep from the exhaustion.
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Waking up again later on, he was finally able to break down what he’d seen when thirteen had gone ballistic and the events that followed. Murdering the other imps had released very similar clouds of energy. Both when thirteen had killed them and when he had. Even thirteen itself released about the same amount. Something that shouldn’t have happened if their domains were tied to how much energy was released. The implication being that their domain went along with them wherever they went after dying. There was reassurance in that fact, suggesting that death wasn’t the end. Although Ozzy was pretty sure now that whatever happened for him to arrive here also involved his own death. It was still reassuring that there was somewhere else beyond, and that this wasn’t the end. Though It was no guarantee he’d remember anything wherever he ended up like he did here. That also didn’t help him much with the current situation.
The last three days' events also suggested something was off with his haven recently. The boar showing up randomly with no similar connections to suggest how was concerning. Seeing as Benjamin, Vonder, and Cederick had all heavily implied that reducing connections to and from your haven was a good way to reduce those who could access it. The only thing Ozzy had seen before the boar to counter that suggestion was Cedericks method of detecting other havens. While that was a possibility Ozzy doubted it was the method the boar had used. Also when it showed up the lack of an immediate means to escape was concerning. If the boar wasn’t using some specific trick and it was instead something to do with the way his haven was set up he might be expecting an influx of interlopers showing up unannounced and needed a way to deal with it.
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Ozzy was standing in the offspring haven again. This time he was breathing normally and didn’t feel any pressure difference. He’d reached into it and initiated some changes that he could see on his own and the other havens. The response was non-existent with this one. Like it was more an extension of his own domain than its own entity. He couldn’t simply reach out to the haven at any point inside it and request a general change. He actually had to interact with the membrane, domain, and particles themselves to accomplish things. Likely whatever intelligence orchestrated those changes in the other havens hadn’t developed fully, or maybe at all, with this one. Which made some things easier, and others more difficult.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The process to connect it to his own haven was significantly more costly with this one. He couldn’t simply inspire the two to connect as this haven didn’t respond to such prompting, or any prompting for that matter. Not only did the actual connection cost him, but the air began to bleed out into the void when they did. Only for a few seconds though as his own haven closed its pores in response to protect its inhabitants. He’d quickly began altering the membrane to keep in air not just energy. The energy in the haven was definitely higher than it had been before. Apparently there was energy in the void it could absorb to slowly grow over however long its pupal phase took.
The membrane surrounding its square was barely enough to stand in and was snuggly plastered to the sides and underside of the square. Even those squares in his haven which were younger than this one had more relaxed membranes that he could comfortably stand in on either side. indicating just giving it a steady flow of the waste energy would improve its state. So he’d impressed upon his haven a desire to open the pores to this haven again and watched as air and energy both rushed in. After which he’d jumped over and found the place devoid of any light of its own. He was standing in the semi dark and as he hadn’t figured out how to create light on his own he couldn’t manually make the haven do that. It wasn’t fully dark as the connection to his own haven allowed light in, just not very much. Apparently the veil between havens was something that developed over time, just like the intelligence, so he could see right through from this end. The energy streaming through into the haven quickly leveled off. After which he could slowly see it absorb into the fledgling construct. The confirmation that this wasn’t some broken thing was nice to see. He returned to his haven leaving the baby haven in peace to grow into something functional.
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Ozzy could now easily handle the small fries. He also had methods to automatically consolidate the energy they released. There was even a separate place to escape to when something invaded that didn’t hold a rat or something else that could bite his face if he wasn’t careful. Despite all that he still had things to worry about. Most notably the boar who was sitting there in its own haven. The way it sulked implied there was a grudge being nursed over being forced to flee. Regardless of if it decided to act on it, there was also the high likelihood that he’d have other unwelcome visitors dropping in. Which he needed to learn to handle.
He contemplated just sending his suit of armor into the haven to handle the boar, and while he suspected it would work he also wondered if that would be the most elegant way of handling the situation. A suit of armor with attached weaponry made perfect sense surrounding him. Having it walk around on its own was a bit silly and cumbersome. The translucent membrane was clearly not him and he had no reason to make it more visible and give some indication of who was controlling the thing. He would do much better making something specially designed for this function.
Starting out he kept envisioning drones as they were the most common independent and automated modern day equivalent that he could think of. Despite the fixation, he knew his constructs had no need to be lofted by air. After releasing himself from the shackle of preconceived notions he found the options branching out of his control. The form his automatons could take were endless and he found himself lost for a bit thinking of the most interesting possibilities. What brought him back to earth, or whatever equivalent there was available to him, was remembering he could make all the other variations at some other time. What he needed right now was one for a single purpose. The purpose being death.
The narrowing down of function also helped limit the form. Though he still had to alter and adjust numerous times over the next few hours before the result sat before him. Thick membranous tentacles flexed as he examined them. It was reminiscent of a starfish, although with only four arms. At the junction of its arms was also a departure from the norm. There was a beak or pincer like a starfish although this was inverted. The thought being the arms could grapple a target's head and the pincers would open instead of close, cracking a hole in the skull. He felt particularly impressed with himself at the design of that part. The muscles which moved the arms also attached to the pincers as well. The very act of tightening down on the arms would also bring out the pincers. Behind them was a small tentacle that could then spike in and end whatever being was unfortunate enough to be hugged by this monstrosity.
The last word sat with him ominously while he contemplated what it was he’d created. It was absolutely the thing he had set out to make. A creation with the sole purpose of death. There was a large part of him that felt this was a step in the wrong direction. The side of himself that resisted at such a blatant and overwhelming show of force hadn’t been silent this whole time. There were many painful moments as he slaughtered rats and imps endlessly. The appeasement he’d told himself was that it was necessary for numerous reasons. Initially because he needed food, and energy to even survive. Later because he had to grow strong enough to face the external forces that were clearly so much stronger than him.
As his domain, his haven, and his capabilities surrounding both continued to rise those excuses were feeling more hollow. The struggle between the need to survive and the morality he’d grown accustomed to on earth was not one he’d liked to bring to the forefront. That thought itself reminded him that he wasn’t back on earth. He didn’t live in a place where his safety wasn’t even a thought he had on any kind of regular basis. Arriving here had immediately shown him how pampered he’d been. Just finding himself sitting above an endless expanse of sky had nearly made him shit himself. Seeing a rat had made him freeze up. There was literal magic here, and users thereof that were more capable, violent, and unhinged than he was. Not to mention beasts and entities unknown that he hadn’t even begun to scratch the surface of. As much as he wanted to be passive, generous, and forgiving here he didn’t suspect that was a winning long term strategy.