The slow process of grinding the first rat square quickly turned into a much quicker process of grinding all three rat squares he’d already visited. That and in the delay while new rats appeared absorbing the resulting cores into his third eye. The process of improving his vision was slowly giving him a better understanding of what it was he’d been using so far. He was starting to hate using the word tendril and was starting to see that it was essentially just an extension of his domain. In fact he could create new tendrils of his domain. Yeah he definitely didn’t like that word anymore. Extensions. He sent out extensions of his domain to each of the rat squares. He didn’t even need to pull them back anymore. He realized he could simply pull the cores through his domain back to himself, and absorb them into his domain.
His sight was getting better as well with the domain extensions. He could almost see nearly the same as he could with his eyes closed as with them open, and the squares his extensions were sent to were nearly as visible as if he was there himself. Not only that but his understanding of the membranes surrounding the domains were improving as well. A fourth extension protruded out from him and roved along the outer edge of his own square’s domain and membrane. He could see the domain and membrane fine now without even extending a domain protrusion, but it was nice to be able to feel about and touch what he was looking at.
His earlier troubles understanding the membrane and domain were still there but there was now a hazy bit he was grasping. This domain and membrane he was in was not his. It was where he showed up when he arrived here, but he was beginning to suspect he was like the rat to this place. The square that appeared with his recliner was simply what showed up with him. That would mean the square was his but the domain and membrane surrounding it wasn’t. He had absolutely no proof but it almost seemed like this was something like a trap. Just like the rat’s appearing now and again he’d been captured by this larger membrane. Or at least that’s what he thought might be the case.
He wasn’t sure how that tied in with the fact that he’d been able to influence this domain to enshroud the first rat domain. Maybe it was something like the cell analogy he was using. These membranes were feeding off of random… souls they captured? Well not random as the rat domains were always popping up with rats. Though maybe they were just spawning in through some other mechanism. The energies coming from the domains and being exchanged definitely supported his soul trap theory though. Each dead rat gave off a puff of energy, and of course there were the cores. As well as when a new rat arrived the square it brought with it obliterated the existing squares, giving even more energy. Which was a very gloomy outlook. Though it suggested these ‘cells’ had no forethought or cunning in this, they just existed and persisted this way. His influence on them supported this theory quite a bit. But, he didn’t want to get too far into theorizing without something more concrete to go on.
Instead he continued his exploration of the domains and membranes. All the while continuously killing the rats until he could feel that it was becoming rather easy to kill the third rat. At which point he could also bring out another domain protrusion and send it toward the next rat domain. He also found a new way to split off protrusions. There wasn’t a need to peel off a new one right at the edge of where his domain normally ended, he could instead split another off of one of those that was already at the boundary between these tiny worlds. Even as he discovered this he merged the trunks of these protrusions together and could feel the strength of each increase somewhat as he was able to bring more of his domain to bear with each.
Easing back his other tendrils to just the edge of the tiny worlds, still protruding into each world but not overly so. He sent his most recent addition into the fourth rat domain. What he saw just added confirmation to what he had all but verified already. The next rat was even bigger. Looking to be more like the size of his thigh with a head easily the size of a grapefruit. Unsure why he was hesitating, Ozzy drove himself into action. Going for the eye of this rat to preemptively make what came next as easy as possible. There was an increase in resistance compared to the third rat, but it was still just an eye. His spear-like domain spiked through the eye and into the brain. The death throes took longer than he would have liked, but he took his prize and pulled it back to his home base. Again there was a delay and it was definitely getting longer the further down this line of mini rat worlds he spread his domain.
The core brought close to him was again more packed with energy but still only around half again the first rat core’s energy levels. As he examined it he remembered the goal with advancing down this line of ever increasing rats. Checking his squares he was pleased to see a fourth grassy square had appeared, Looks like he didn’t even need to actually travel to the other square to gain a copy of it, just kill the rat. Though oddly this one had appeared to the side of the middle square turning the grassy section into a T square from tetris. He wasn’t sure why this was the order these were appearing in, but there wasn’t much he could do about it so kept at it.
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Ozzy was trying to keep from going numb in the brain with just slaughtering rats with abandon. He’d poured over every inch of his domain and while he had gained some insight into different functions of the pores and the energy exchange much of it was still too complicated to understand. He began to also explore the rat domains from the inside, and was beginning to see interesting things. Firstly in the rat square he’d connected to his own he couldn’t see his square at all. It looked from that extension of himself as it did when he had traveled there. Which likely explained why the rat had never come to his square and attacked him. Despite it being right next to him. But he was distracted from this by the second thing he noticed
The energy density in all the domains was increasing significantly. Likely due to his mass raticide. Which also meant his own square’s energy was increasing. As the first rat square was connected to his initial square and exchanging energy with it. After this revelation he realized he was beginning to feel a tiny constant tingle from that energy entering his body. It seemed as if the cores weren’t the only way he was going to be improving. Though with that realization came another. He needed to connect the other rat squares to his own to improve his squares density of energy. Right now his base, and the first rat square seemed to be at about half what the second, and third were at, while the fourth was at a much lower level.
That was partially due to the fact that he had more recently started killing the rat in that square. The other factor was something he had noticed pretty quickly but hadn’t really paid much attention to. Each successive rat square was slower to capture or spawn a new rat than the last. At first it was a barely noticeable difference but the fourth square was now at slightly more than five times the refresh delay of the first rat domain. Taking about ten seconds to spawn a new one vs the second or two the first took. He didn’t really have much use for that information currently, instead he noted it down for later examination. He also noted the odd view from the currently connected rat square for good measure. Which allowed him to get back to the bombshell.
Stolen novel; please report.
With the energy increase in the air it was hard to tell exactly how much had been let out or how long it would last. From what he was absorbing alone it was pretty likely it was approximately equal to what he’d already absorbed from the cores. Well with a rough calculation. However he was pretty sure both the first rat domain and his ‘cell’ were both absorbing energy. In fact there was no reason to just go off of assumptions there. He blocked the energy off from himself with a barrier like he did before while absorbing the cores. After the constant improvement to his control of domains he was able to effectively restrict all energy from passing the barrier. Which showed him two things. One the energy density in the air outside his barrier was decreasing still, although much slower than he was absorbing it. The second thing was that a different type of energy was building up under the barrier. Well several different types is the impression he got. With every single type under the barrier he couldn’t seem to utilize it in any way. The impression he got from it was, put politely, waste. Though one creature's waste was almost always another creature's resource.
That last piece of information suggested these soul traps, as he was heavily leaning toward them being exactly that, could survive just fine without their occupants dying at all. Not only that but they may have evolved to support and keep their occupants alive. Which might explain some of the things that had happened so far, such as allowing him to interact with the membrane. It might also explain the additional squares spawning. Although that could easily be some other mechanism he didn’t understand. Such as an interaction between the two different soul traps. Or even some interaction between the soul of the rat and his own. Either way it was just another mystery to add to the pile of things he needed to figure out about this new place.
Instead of giving more time contemplating things that might eventually be useful to know he got back to what he knew would be immediately helpful. With a single rat square connected to his it was already filling up with a decent amount of ambient energy. Enough to be somewhat comparable to what he’d collected from the cores. Connecting the others would only improve this. Reaching out again he touched the membrane to the second rat square. With the help of having watched this process once before his visualization of the process was much greatly refined. The image of swallowing another cell was gone and instead he visualized a connection or pairing to exchange energy and resources. Almost accidentally he impressed that vision into the two domains as he tried to pull them together. The resulting connection was even smoother than the first and seemed to take nearly no energy at all. It was as if the two domains, once given the vision of such a connection and its possibilities, carried it out themselves.
As the connection completed a small wave of energy washed past and rebounded back and forth between all three domains that were now connected to one another. With the increase the buzzy feeling of energy altering his body increased. Now opposite the first rat was another little rat square abutted to his initial square meter. Turning to the final empty side of his square he started the process again with the third little worldlet. ‘Oh that’s a nice one’ he thought, realizing the new word fit so much better. With this next worldlet he started the process by connecting to the two and showing them his vision. As the two embraced he felt as if essentially nothing came from him this time other than the effort to communicate.
Another wave of energy washed over him, although smaller than before as the two pressures were much closer. The buzzing was almost audible now. There was no pain though. With no more open sides Ozzy turned to the right hand corner between the rat worldlets one and two and started the process again. He was annoyed with himself as he now had these out of order and he should have tried to do this before, but of course he hadn’t really thought of this as an option and still didn’t know if it was possible. Who knew the dynamics of connecting little soul trap worldlets together wherever this was?
As the last rat worldlet he’d started farming settled into place he felt the wave go by again. Though as it did he realized it was in the opposite direction from before. Which made sense as the fourth rat worldlet didn’t have as much energy stockpiled. That made him realize he was being silly. There was no reason for him to let the energy just float around in the air and be taken by the worldlets and rats. Well he knew rats for sure, as he could see the energy dissipating into them, but he hadn’t yet identified where or how the worldlets were absorbing energy. He just suspected it.
With that thought he formed another protrusion and shaped it into a rather large net of sorts. The net was made up of a barrier, though this one was more a porous surface like the membranes the worldlets had. He formed intent on that surface and began to swirl it about. As energy hit the membrane it would be allowed into his domain but would then not be allowed back out. Pretty quickly the energy level around him began to drop all while the buzzing increased. To the point that it was becoming rather annoying. Adjusting the membrane he added a second later that kept the energy from reaching his skin. Pausing he realized he was going about this all the wrong way. He let the protrusion rejoin the rest of his domain but kept the double layered membrane he’d formed on it. Though he allowed that membrane to cover the entirety of his domain. With more effort than he thought it should take he let his domain expand outward. The further it got the more difficult it became. It wasn’t anywhere near the strain he’d faced when trying to pull back some curtains way back in the bygone times of approximately a day ago. So he continued and eventually he felt is domain press up against the membrane of the worldlet he resided in. Releasing his exertion the domain snapped back and with it came a dense sphere of energy.
Realizing his mistake he pressed his will into the domain again but apparently that much energy had quite the weight to it and slowing it was quickly straining his energy past any effort he’d made so far. Switching to a different tactic he applied his will to the domain around the energy and began to absorb it into the domain in which it sat. As he’d estimated this was significantly more energy than had absorbed through the cores over the last several hours. The process thankfully wasn’t as painful as it had been with absorbing the first core as it was no longer entirely restructuring something. And the membrane it was trapped inside seemed to be helping. The stinging wasn’t pleasant though. He still didn’t understand how his body felt great when absorbing the energy and his domain felt pain. When the process was over he was surprised to find he was actually tired. Well not physically. His mind and he guessed his domain were tired. Which was a nice distraction. He deserved a nap after all this craziness.
Though as he laid down he felt weird having four rats sitting around him. As his last act of spring cleaning he decided to do something about that. It took far less time than he assumed it might to find the right way to fix the issue. Apparently in that bygone era he hadn’t completely failed. Communicating with his own personal worldlet he asked it to close the curtains and the rat worlds disappeared. He could still see their membranes and domains and everything inside with his new senses but to his eyes they appeared completely gone. Now if only he could convince it to dim the lights for him. The sky flicked instantly from a bright blue to a starry night. Throwing up his hands he flopped down into his recliner for some well deserved rest.