Benjamin Vryce

The pair had talked about Benjamin’s idea. Grace was hesitant at first, but in the end decided to trust his judgment. Now she was gathering up acorns and drying some boar meat for the trip. She had tried to cut some of the boars hide to use as a carrier, but it was too thick. As she made her preparations, Benjamin experimented with his new body.

He looked mostly the same. He had gained a few inches of height and his muscles felt denser with more power. His feet had widened a little more and the soles had toughened again. His finger claws had grown again as well.

They grew a little in proportion to his body’s overall growth, but they had lengthened too. Now they were around an inch and a quarter in length. Again, he worried about fine motor skills, but after giving it a little more thought it really didn’t matter anymore.

He was beyond his human limits now. He didn’t need to eat, he didn’t need to use the bathroom, there were no keyboards in this forest and even the Shipwright’s computers had been A.I. controlled. He didn’t even wear shoes anymore. What he did do now, was kill things. Having longer claws would only help him do that better.

Thankfully his fangs hadn’t grown anymore. His mouth was mostly human and as such, wasn’t designed to open wide enough for fangs to be useful. He really didn’t want to change that much, even now. He curled his fingers again, feeling the power in his limbs.

Picking up a fist sized acorn he squeezed it with all his might. It shattered in his grasp. Sending shards of broken shell everywhere, and imbedding a few into his palm. He grimaced, it hurt but not as badly as he thought it might. He dug the shrapnel out with a claw and watched the wound in fascinated shock.

It was closing before his eyes. Not super hero fast maybe, but the blood had started to coagulate and the bleeding had stopped. He closed his eyes and felt his wounded palm. He could almost see the essence being slowly drawn from his core to repair the damage.

That was interesting. It looked like when he reactivated the channels used to heal himself, he had made them permanent. The rapid healing was going to be helpful if he was to get into any more fights like with the dire squirrels. He could see a few downsides however.

First how slow it was, for combat, by normal human standards it was downright magical. He could change that by removing the seal, he was sure. Next though, it was draining his core of essence passively. That was good to a point but he could end up draining his essence pool to nothing if he was injured while incapacitated.

Again, staying alive sounded great but it might actually save him essence if he was just killed and reborn. He would have to experiment with this more. He had made these changes after all; it was entirely possible that he could make changes to them or undo them entirely once he learned how.

Next, Benjamin did a few laps around the giant trees. Leaping up and clinging to the trunks, before launching himself off again to continue his run. He was fast, again not superhero fast, but fast enough. His body had used the essence he forced into it to make itself more resilient to damage he was likely to face in this new world.

He put his hand over the pocket Silver had been in. It was empty when Benjamin left his void space. He couldn’t even remember if the little guy had been there when he woke up from his new transformation.

He had tried to summon Silver back, regardless of the Arbiter telling him it wasn’t possible. Sure enough, he wasn’t able to do it. The seal prevented that much power draw. He was able to get a feel for how much it would cost him to summon the little spider though.

It wasn’t an unreasonable amount, but would be felt with his core as small as it was. Very reasonable when compared to the dire boar. He had tried to summon it after Silver, just to get an idea of the price. It was just an estimate but he thought he could drain his current core three times over and still not have enough essence to summon that monster.

He looked over to Grace, still preserving food for the trip. He would have to protect her carefully during the journey. If she died and went to his void space, he wouldn’t be able to call her back out again until he removed the seal. So, he resolved not to let that happen.

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He watched her in silence for a time, he could feel her sadness over their connection. It was slowly lessening in intensity though. He watched her move, no wonder she had been named grace. She moved like a dancer, each step flowing perfectly into the next.

After their bond she had been transformed too, her movements now held barely restrained power. She was in complete control of herself, unlike Benjamin, she took to her changes naturally. She wasn’t anywhere near as strong as he was, he had two and a half feet on her, but for her size she was a powerhouse.

He looked to the sewn-up stitches in her soft hides. She had been fully healed when they bonded, and had removed the bandages while he was still sleeping. Before his face could heat again at the memory, he shook his head and shifted his gaze.

She wore the quiver on her back again, but it only held two arrows now. They had spoken briefly about it; she had the same problem now he had when he transformed. She was too strong for her bow. Thankfully her arms hadn’t grown and she was an expert at its use. She wouldn’t be breaking it by mistake.

He had offered her his long belt knife but she had refused. Taking up Stomper’s axe and shield. He didn’t think she really wanted to use them, but was instead holding onto them in safe keeping for her clan brother.

Looking up, their eyes met. It was clear she had seen him watching her but hadn’t commented. He just gave her a weak smile and moved to join her. They were almost ready to begin.

* * *

Erlking

The Erlking watched Benjamin, watching the goblin girl, with Morrigan. It was clear the human soul was ‘humanizing’ the creation. He would learn in time. Erlking shook the thoughts aside and refocused on his current dilemma. He was thinking through his options, looking at the assets he had on hand and how much he was willing to risk. There was a balance he wanted to maintain.

“What will you do?” The Morrigan asked, watching him think. She knew he was not used to being thwarted. the Arbiter was a wild card in all his plans.

“Honestly Morrigan, it isn’t the end of the world. It took me years to create all the patterns I have used in these trials, but they can be replaced. What worries me more is the timing involved. Vryce it still too young.” He sighed watching Benjamin pack up and head back the way he had come.

“Mr. Vryce has the potential to rocket passed the others if he succeeds in his plans. I was hoping to keep them all more or less on the same level though. There is also the question of what creatures to throw against him. Assuming he plans to absorb their patterns. What beasts would be a good fit for him to absorb.” He said.

“You could end it now, there is the squirrel beast in that tree directly above him. Didn’t you also say that you had a small handful of such sized beasts in this trial? Why not gather them up and smash him before he can do anything?” The Morrigan asked.

“Partly because the Arbiter wants him to at least be given a fighting chance. My reason though, he really is attempting this for noble reasons. I want him to feel like he has succeeded, at least in part, without giving him the proverbial keys to the castle.”

They sat quietly for a time, each caught up in their own thoughts. Eventually the Erlking spoke again.

“I will make him work for every step. If he fails, he fails. If he succeeds however, he will have earned whatever power he ends up taking.” Decision made, he set about making it happen.

* * *

Benjamin Vryce

They moved faster on the way back along the dire boar’s trail then when they had followed the beast. Without the beast’s slow speed and the fear of being discovered they could move faster. Coupled with their new body transformations they practically flew down the path.

Benjamin was in a hurry; time was a factor in his plans and he was pushing Grace as fast as she could move. She hadn’t complained, her strong legs pushed her forward with seemingly endless endurance.

It only took a few hours for them to reach Benjamin’s initial goal. It was the ambush location where he had been attacked by the dire squirrels. He was hoping to harvest them before any scavengers had the chance. They had been left alone for long hours however and it was likely that he was too late.

He had almost made it. When they arrived, there was a number of shiny black cat-sized ants crawling on the bodies. Slowing ripping chunks away and eating them. They stopped to observe for a moment before proceeding.

“It looks to me like there are eight cat sized ants and two that are perhaps the size of a raccoon or small dog.” He said at last, trying to get the sizes to make sense in his mind.

“Grace cannot say to their size, but she counts eight worker ants and two fighter ants. This is a typical foraging group in Grace’s experience.” She said tactfully.

Benjamin looked at her with a crooked smile. Knowing that size and scale from his home were nothing like what she was used to here.

“Alright then, you seem familiar with them. What is the best way to fight these guys?” he asked, glad that she knew something about them. He would have been forced to just go in swinging and see what happened.

“The workers have strong jaws and thick shells. The fighter ants have stronger jaws and thicker shells, when Grace’s people hunted them, they used hammers.” She answered.

Well, there went his idea of tactics. Go in swinging and see what happens it is.

“Ok, I will go in first. If you see an opening take it but don’t risk yourself, you don’t heal as fast as I do.” With that Benjamin leapt forward. Into the pile of partially decayed and eaten dire squirrel bodies, to attack the ants picking them clean.