*(mood song: "Fall out boy - Centuries")

Waking up on his avatar body took a toll on him, as his entire body felt sore, his bandages a bit soaked in old blood, the wounds under them already scarred as the shell slowly grew over them again.

Erik: [going for the library, you coming?]

Rose: [alright, I'm with the others, we will meet you there]

He then put on new clean bandages, and found the library after asking some of the remaining civilians, the guards still guarding the big metal doors entrance to the library as they had been ordered, by the side Rose's puppets and the four elders waiting.

They went through the carved metal doors and observed the interior, volcanic stone walls along metal shelves, illuminated by fire mushrooms set on metallic plates, their dim lights illuminating the interior, his mind wandering 'I wonder how they keep records with this heat...' his questions soon answered as he came close to one of the shelves and found lots of thin metal tablets with texts carved on them 'well, that's one way to do it...'.

Shana: "so... what are we looking for?"

Erik: "well, I'm looking for something about some abandoned installations or weird things on the caves, like the crab men could defeat the octopeople in the past but... aren't they way weaker now? where are the other tribes? as for what we gathered at the rebel village from those old crabs, something hunted them and forced them to move..."

Megan grabbed a slab and frowned "well... I can't read this..."

Erik: "yeah, those I and Rose's puppets will read, you just search for any documents you can read as there might be documents salvaged from the octopeople empire, the library might not be as big as the one in the shadow claw tribe, but it still might take us all day"

Jennifer: "before we start..." she looked at one of Rose's puppets, a small metal antenna sticking out of the head "are you sure they are dead?"

The puppet itself turned and answered *yeah, all their cognitive capabilities have been replaced, there's nothing to worry about*

Jennifer wasn't completely convinced but nodded, starting to search a shelf, everyone dispersing through the library.

Hours later, Erik came across something promissing "hey gather around, I think I have something" they all gathered in some metal tables by the side as Erik started reading "Sage records, the missing heroes, by draktar the great sage: It first started after the great war, civilization was blooming with the spoils from the demons, crab men and women all grew bigger and stronger by consuming them, all the tribes were connected and civilization bloomed, but we couldn't keep the outer cities, we were still weaker than the demons, and so we went back to the caves, exploring deeper and deeper, killing or taming one species after another, things were great but... then the villages at the bottom started migrating or just dissapearing, stories of monsters circulated everywhere as the space become more and more cramped as war's erupted all around with casualties on all sides, but the great families, heroes of the war against the demons gathered an army, an army of big veteran warriors were sent down to reclaim the lost space from Morkal the sharp pincers, with thin pincers that cut through anything, to Barkul the great, just by closing his pincers he could make rocks far away explode, but... month's passed and no one heard of them again, six more groups were sent one after the other, but they all dissapeared, until we just couldn't afford to send anyone else, so we just sealed most tunnels, since now there was enough space for everyone anyway, but... the fruit of complacency is bitter sweet, without their leaders or warriors... the great families and villages were raided by other's, enslaved... or worst of all, eaten alive, so let this be recorded in history so we can get back to our past glory one day, once we have enough strength we shall open those tunnels again and give peace to the descendants of those great heroes"

Shana: "so... what is there in the lower caves?..."

Erik: "that... is something I'm not completely sure, but there's a place down there I need to fix, once I do that we will be able to do many new things..."

Timberly: "so there's something dangerous down there but we need to go anyways?"

Erik: "well... we aren't using our real bodies or our forces so... isn't it fine?"

Megan: "well, I know what they did and will never forgive them but... I would prefer a battle, leading them to their deaths after knowing them... feels wrong?"

Erik sighed "it's fine, we are just wiser, and we will also save all the still useful crab people, and also animals, like these fire mushrooms and armour mussels and clams could be raised in heated pools on the surface too, we just need to give them enough plankton and minerals to eat"

Shana: "...plankton?"

Rose: *hem, let me explain, these waters contain high amounts of iron and other metals creating a bloom in bacterial and plankton growth, which are small animals that live on the water, like the larvae of other animals or small baby fish, so even if it would be hard it's still doable to replicate the same conditions on the surface, even easier if we repair the forge, we just need to prepare adequate countermeasures*

The elders looked at each other and nodded, by now their focus was with their people, and they still depended on Erik, they also trusted him, so Shana came forward and put a hand on his shoulder "we will trust you and do as you said"

--- 1 week later ---

They took all the documents, specimens and artisans, recruits, and slaves back to the shadow claw tribe using big chariots they found in the royal stables near the royal palace, pulled by four big tunnelers also found chained on the royal stables.

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The artisans and their families were then taken to the hybrid crab city that was barely populated for its size by the elders and Rose puppets while Erik stayed behind, side rooms set with big Olympic size pools to grow the plankton, clams, mussels, and fire mushrooms for the artisans, and electrically generated plasma as a heat source were all dug alongside big workshops at the sides of the city for the 23 artisans and their families that decided to join.

The elders then came back with loads of slavery collars for all the captives, alongside Inky that came back on a new body.

They went to a closed stone room where Kraktar was chained to a wall, his expression haggard and tired.

Inky coming closer and told him "remember me? you split me with a sword... but now I will have my revenge~"

Kraktar's eyes dilated as he said "that... that can't be..." he then looked closer and his eyes dilated even further, getting angry "Krada!? what are you doing?! you are one of my elite royal guards! don't let them brainwash you!"

Inky started laughing though "kekeke~ she isn't here anymore" she took down the leather skirt revealing a dick "see?" then showing off her chainsaw pincers "I modified her body the way I wanted... who knows, we might inhabit your body too~"

Kraktar gnashed his sharp teeth as he replied "she fought for that position and trained one of the hardest... you have no right to use her body you demons!"

Erik chuckled to that then "yeah, you called them demons right?" pointing at one of the carvings on one of his new swords "these right here" a big octo person carved in the guard.

Kraktar: "that! that can't be... the war... our ancestors killed all of them!"

One of Rose's puppets stood forward then, and Kraktar shuddered, instantly shutting up and looking at the floor.

The puppet grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her, a bone mace on her shoulder *seems like you still remember me~ well you just need to know that you will now fight for us or I will find the way to fit 10 maces up your ass next, do you understand?*

Kraktar visibly trembled and dreadfully nodded.

Rose's puppet then patted his cheek and said *that's a good boy* turning then to Erik and the Elder's *he's cannon fodder, no need to explain things to him*

They all looked at them and nodded.

Erik: "guess you are right" Erik looked at Kraktar one last time and left him with some words as he was exiting "What heroes of your people like Morkal and Barkul couldn't accomplish... we will make it happen"

Kraktar wanted to ask more as his eyes dilated, but the door was closed, and he was left muttering to himself "the deep tunnels... they plan to open the deep tunnels... hehe... Huahahaha.... HAHAHA... THEY MUST BE MAD! WE WILL ALL DIE! CAN YOU HEAR ME?! IF YOU OPEN THOSE TUNNELS WE WILL ALL DIE!!!!"

It would take a few more weeks to assemble both armies, thankfully it wasn't general knowledge what was down there or that they had closed those tunnels, so the soldiers weren't scared even when they were given heavy poison and acid thrower weapons, along with mask breathers and training in rifles and grenades.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Antonio, Mónico, and Elena were sitting on a couch while talking.

Antonio sighed as he looked at the ceiling "our turn to board the third spaceship will come soon, have you all got your things in order?"

Mónico: "well... more or less, I wasn't sure what body to bring there... but in the end, I'm not as brave as you... so I will go with my original body I guess, if there's any danger I'm sure Erik would have dealt with it by now.... or died already..."

Elena punched him in the shoulder "dude! don't say such ominous things! he will be fine, he's always fine... remember the VR training? even against all those monsters he never freaked out and was always so disturbingly calm... if anyone can survive that's him!"

*cough* Antonio coughed, making Elena roll her eyes "Yeah, and you too... what upgrades did you add to your body by now anyway? haven't you spent all your money on that body? what did your wife say?"

Antonio: "well, I'm not coming back so it was the logical thing to do, and my wife will come in some years too, once she gets tired of her new body, she's really hung you know?, anyways..." he pointed at his head "I have more than 20 brain implant upgrades, state of the art military grade technology, thanks to my colonist permit they allowed me to buy them, from signal processors that increase my reflexes making them faster to my favorite of all, the combination of six devices in my body can slow down time..."

Elena and Mónico looked at each other and she said "stop bullshitting man..."

Antonio put a hand to his heart and said "I promise alright? just hear me out, it uses the so called "zeitraffer" phenomenon, where lot's of humans have perceived the reality as if everything was in slow motion, but with chips in my brain processing information faster it can give the already processed data to my brain, so that's why the world looks slowed down, then two artificial organs in my chest release adrenaline, sugars, and oxygen, to make my body move as fast as it can to be able to barely keep up with my sped up senses, I can even see the rain fall... droplet by droplet... it's awesome, seconds feel like hours if I tune it up to the max... though it gives me horrible headaches if i do that so I can only do so for a minute or so at that speed"

Elena: "... so you can avoid bullets and things like that?"

Antonio: "well, I can see them coming but if there's a lot then probably not as even this super body ain't faster than a machinegun, but... I'm also bulletproof! there are spider silk protein fibers under my skin so the bullet wouldn't pierce through, also my bones have mineralized iron on them the same way than in limpet teeth, so they are harder than steel, so in the case that bullets do reach me I can take it, then there's also extra regenerative organs and I even have two hearts! if one fails the other starts pumping" he then pointed at his right bionic eye "and you see this? it's a targeting system, let's me see targets far away and in all known light spectrums, calculating the coordinates and everything by itself and adjusting my arms accordingly, I can snipe anything, so along with my time stopper it will be amazing..."

Mónico: "hmm... that's impressive but... how do you... you know... now that they removed some parts... can you even eat?"

Antonio: "oh that? there was an option to remove the digestive system too... but I would need to be connected to machines for one hour every day... it just seemed excessive in the end, I wanna try new foods if we find some in that new world, so yeah I can eat, poop and I pee normally through my dick, but now it's just for peeing and nothing else, the vesicles, balls, and prostate were removed"

Elena: "ugh... I tried wearing a male body once, peeing like that felt weird, and just holding it I got an erection, it was a bit weird"

Antonio: "Nah, we men can get erect out of nowhere sometimes, I also changed bodies with my wife once in the past, she tricked me though as it was her period, so as my revenge, I toughed it out and walked around with bloody pants pretending not to notice to embarrass her jaja~... she stopped talking to me for a year..., but anyway, at least with a dick you can pee standing"

Elena touched her chin "well... that's true, but there's big clit dicks for that already and its a one hour surgery in an AI surgeon cabin, can't fuck much but it's enough to pee"

Mónico: "well, that's just weird, if you go for it go for the full package you know? what if you then feel like fucking someone with it to try it? it's better to go big and get the full thing"

Elena: "well, I guess you are right... sigh... hope we had Erik or Sara to give their opinions, they always liked talking about body modification..." she looked at Antonio "I'm sure they will love your new body when they see it, you look like a movie cyborg now"

Antonio: "haha~ yeah, they probably would... sigh... I just hope they are alright and we can all meet again..."