“Gods, but I wish that damn caravan would hurry up.” I groaned as I watched the road leading into the city.
“A hunter and a guard both need to be patient.” Felix said next to me with a slight chuckle. “I guess you aren’t cut out for either, are you?”
“Not at all.” I said. “It’s only been a day and a half, and I’m bored out of my mind.”
“Just relax. They’ll be here either today or tomorrow.” Felix reassured me. “I take it the interviews with the more powerful folk didn’t go so well?”
“That’s an understatement. Unsurprisingly, the longer you are under the influence the more the thing can take control. They both had blank spots in their memory, mostly around caravan arrivals and large meetings.”
“Ah, so we get all the low level information and no chance on getting the more important stuff.” He nodded. “Makes the hunt all the more exciting.”
“Nonsense. Competent enemies are the worst.” I chuckled before settling back in to more waiting. Just after lunch, I noticed our target approaching. “That it?”
“Yeah.” Felix nodded, tossing a small pebble off the wall behind him without turning around. I knew without turning around that a messenger was off to set things in motion. “Black lizard on the side of the wagon. I don’t know how we never noticed it before.”
“Competent enemies, ya?” I chuckled. “It would be too easy if they labeled the wagon as Disciples of the Invading God.”
“Ha! Fair point.” We both chuckled, watching the wagon approaching slowly. It still took the better part of an hour, but when they were within range I tested out my soul sight. Blinking in confusion, I tried again only to see the same thing. These were elves that didn’t have any sort of soul sucking parasite on them.
“Something’s wrong.” I muttered, sensing Felix immediately tense up next to me.
“What?”
“They don’t have parasites.”
“What does that mean?”
“Either you have some traitorous elves, they don’t know anything about what they are delivering, or they aren’t elves.”
“Damn. I don’t have any unmasking skills.” Felix said. “I don’t think anyone does. We don’t have to worry about spies all that much since we don’t have any nobles out here.”
“Fuck.” I groaned, realizing that the larger cities were going to have even more complications. “I’ll bet these things are able to resist skills like that. And the nobles are going to be a pain in my ass, aren’t they?”
“Hah, yeah they are.” He agreed, and by that time the caravan had moved through the gate below us and was on its way into the guard’s courtyard. We ditched the guard gear we were wearing, letting the caravan get far enough away from us that we wouldn’t be noticed. Taking a different route through the side streets, we emerged into the courtyard right as they arrived. They obviously suspected something, as the courtyard was empty once Elendria dropped her illusion. She stood at the entrance they had come through, and I entered from their usual exit, with Felix taking a sniper position on one of the nearby rooftops. Hopefully he wasn’t noticed right away.
“Odd. They don’t have parasites.” Elendria called out to me as I sauntered forward. I was trying to project an air of aloofness, but I was ready to unleash magical devastation at the drop of a hat. Stopping about 20 feet away, I spoke up.
“We know you are in league with those who would overthrow this world. Surrender now, and you can keep your lives while we work to free you from whatever leverage they are using to control you. Fight us, and there is a chance we will be forced to kill you.”
“He. Hehehehehe.” The driver of the first wagon started chuckling. “Ah, I was wondering if a hero would rise up to try and stop us. I told Adder that it would be the small towns giving us trouble, but she didn’t want to believe it. Which of your friends changing tipped you off, hero?” As he spoke, he climbed down from his wagon while his silent partner did the same. My mind was racing furiously, trying to figure out where to go from here. I had to play into his expectations, especially if he was in contact with Adder.
“Just a bunch of small things.” I said with a shrug. “A bit of excess cruelty here, careless reactions there, and never checking up on situations.”
“Ah, small town life. Where everyone is in everyone’s business. So, what did you do to the guards? Detain them somehow?”
“Well, when you are the trusted chef, you can easily slip in a bit of sleeping potion into the stew and make it taste normal.” I said with a shrug. “So, now that we have you two, are you going to tell us how to free our friends?”
“You? Have us? BWAHAHAHAHA!” He laughed, shaking his head. “Ah, the naivety of youth. No, you don’t have us kid. We are just wondering how many we are going to have to kill to instill order again. Since we do still have the guards, it shouldn’t take more than one in ten, maybe one in five.” As he spoke, his form started to bulge. It started with the major muscle groups in the limbs, followed quickly by the stomach. Asymmetric, it was as beautiful as it was grotesque. The elven sneer split, ripped apart by what lied beneath. The one I was talking with took an almost centaur like shape, but every portion of it screamed predator. The lower portion was cat-like, powerful muscles with retractable claws. It had scaled skin that resembled a gar to give it a natural armor. The upper half was an elongated human with four arms, though two were jointed in such a way that they could eviscerate anything jumping onto the back of the creature. The spine was entirely too flexible, giving it an incredible range of motion. The forearms widened giving it pseudo shields on each arm, with a retractable scythe type blade extending from three of the hands. The rainbow sheen from the blades reminded me of oil on water, and was likely some form of poison. Surprisingly, the last hand was almost malformed, much smaller than the rest and possessing an elongated pinky nail. The tail looked both barbed and prehensile, making attacks from the rear an unpleasant prospect.
“I am going to enjoy eating you boy.” He said, showing me a smile full of sharp fangs. I took a look at Elendria’s opponent, surprised that it was completely different. Six heavily armored crab legs speared into the ground, rotating freely beneath what looked like two humans back to back on top. One had the same malformed hand as mine, but that’s the only similarity. Hers was covered in armor, carrying two shields, one mace, and one sword.
“Firebolt!” I called out in desperation, backpedaling and sending a small burst of flame at my opponent, who had lunged toward me in my apparent moment of distraction.
“Barrier.” It calmly said, generating a small blue shield in front of it that easily thwarted my attack. “Ah, a mage. Devouring your brains and memories will be exquisite!” He squealed in glee as he slowly started circling me. I backed off, reacting to every one of his feints as though I was a low leveled mage. I swear I heard him purring just a bit as he played with his food. I could hear ice being smashed repeatedly as Elendria battled, but I wasn’t about to turn around. She could handle her opponent.
“Ice spike! Ice spike!” I frantically cast low level spells, watching as he didn’t even bother blocking with magic anymore. He simply batted them away with his paws, smiling the entire time.
“Ah, I love feisty food! Show me what else you can do boy!” He snarled, leaping over me and swiping at my head as he passed.
“Earth spikes!” I said, panting as I ducked under his attack. I wasn’t that surprised when he bounced off the sides of the spikes, landing gently out of the danger zone.
“Impressive. Turning the only area I could land into a danger zone. However, if that is the extent of your power, then you are in trouble little mage.” He said, rubbing against one of the spikes and chuckling when it crumbled against his skin. “Not even enough to give me a good scratching. Pity.” He shook his head, stalking forward. His blades slowly extended, pointed directly at me. “I do believe it is time to end this. Well, the battle at least. Your pain is just beginning.” With that, he lunged at me, expecting to pierce my stomach with his blade.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Gravity well.” I calmly spoke, creating one and dragging down his attack so that it would miss. I shot several bullets at him, all of them stopped by his quickly conjured barrier.
“Cracks? But how?” He asked, stunned at the display of power. He would never find out though, as the claymore he was standing over detonated, perforating his underside with unexpected shrapnel. His legs gave out, and his upper half was rapidly paling from massive blood loss. As he fell, I leaped forward and decapitated him with a mana blade. Though I could smell his ruptured bowels, that could take a while to kill him and I wasn’t taking any chances. I turned to hear clapping.
“Nicely done, nicely done.” Elendria said, dropping down from her seated position on the corpse of her foe. All the legs had been frozen and broken, and one head was impaled from the side by an arrow, likely Felix’s doing. The other had its arms frozen at the joints and an ice lance through the chest. “You laid the mine down as it jumped over you, fooling it into thinking you were a low level mage. While it saves on the mana, you take a while longer for it to fall into your trap.”
“Yeah? I didn’t realize it was a speed competition.” I said, walking up to her. “Any troubles or injuries?”
“Nah. Once I made the ice strong enough his legs couldn’t pierce it, he was no threat.” She shrugged off my concern. “Though, I wonder what exactly these are.” At that moment, a blue notification popped up.
New species discovered!
Skinwalker Mind-drinker
These creatures are horrors that have managed to be summoned from the world of Apophis. Masters of magic, they have no true form. Instead they become an amalgamation of the most powerful parts of monsters they have consumed. Their most potent abilities lie in infiltration, however. Using the elongated pinky nail, they are able to consume and integrate the memories of their victims. Using dark blood magic rituals, they then skin and devour the victim. Upon wearing the skin, they are able to assume the form of the person or animal. With perfect memory recall, detecting the spy is an incredibly difficult feat.
Knowledge is power
Ongoing quest
There are multiple systems throughout the multiverse. Very rarely is knowledge shared between them. The only way for a system A to learn of system B is as follows:
Creatures from System B must be slain on ground controlled by System A by creatures or sentients of System A
The majority of the body must remain intact for maximum information. Heavily damaged corpses will yield small bits of information, depending on what was damaged. Enough damaged corpses may eventually result in a new system entry.
For expanding system knowledge, you gain +5% experience for this kill.
Level up!
“Well, that answers that.” I said, having read the notifications. The two kills managed to take me from level 21 and 96% experience to level 22 and 4% experience. Not bad for just two creatures. “Though I would think the rewards are a little slim. Only 5% increases experience?”
“There are probably limitations imposed.” Elendria said. “Just be glad that we got a good bit of experience from it. We still have a long way to go before we reach our level caps.”
“Point.” I nodded as Felix managed to join us.
“Gods above but those things are ugly. What are they?” He asked, holding a rag over his nose.
“Skinwalker Mind-drinkers.” I said. “They can steal your memories and assume your form. Perfect spies. Which leads us to a problem. Do we assume all the drivers that don’t have a soul are these creatures?”
“I think we are going to have to.” Elendria said. “These are dangerous creatures, especially if they know a lot of magic. We got lucky they underestimated us, but we can’t rely on that forever. If they transform at the first sign of trouble, we will have a tough fight on our hands. And I shudder to think what would happen if they did it in a city with guard reinforcements.”
“Good, I was hoping you would say that.” I said, exhaling in relief. “Felix, why don’t you go and get Edwards and his nephew. Meet us at the front gate, I have to deal with some things and then we will head out towards the swamp.” Plan in place, I headed toward the gate to spend my points. First, the easy part. All 20 of my attribute points went into constitution, boosting me up to 431 without any additions from mutations. “Oh damnit all, this is annoying.”
“Pardon?” Elendria asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
“I am one point away from reaching 500 in my three main stats, but even worse is I am 1 point in constitution away from another mutation.” I grumbled. “Oh well, at least I have enough for the next level of chimeric body.” Shaking off her confused look, I went ahead and upgraded from chimeric body II to chimeric body III.
Chimeric Body III
Your body grows ever more adaptable. You can now survive twice as many adaptations as before. Lesser shapeshifting has upgraded to Midling Shapeshifting. You can now carry one more preset identity. Up to 50% of your mass can be drastically altered.
Instinctual adaptation unlocked!
Your body is now able to automatically adjust to changes in the environment without altering your appearance. Drastic changes in temperature, pressure, and light will no longer cause any issues.
“Huh, well that was nice. I don’t have to worry about temperature anymore.” I said.
“Lucky.” Elendria mumbled.
“Hey!” We both looked up to see Felix approaching with Edwards and his nephew. “I know you guys have some sort of movement skill, but how are we bringing these two along?” I looked around for a moment before smiling as I saw a small hand cart. With a quick bit of earth magic, I made a version for our friends.
“Hop on in.” I said, pulling a bit of rope out of my inventory. “Might want to tie yourselves to the walls as well, we wouldn’t want any accidents, would we?” Faces pale, they loaded up as Elendria and I spread our wings and took to the skies. I kept them fairly close with a gravity well, and we took off towards the south. We only managed an hour of travel before having to drop down for the night.
The next day we took off before the sun was fully up, and I thought it a good idea that Edwards and his nephew had eaten a light breakfast. Flying made amazing time, but we couldn’t really talk that well. It was only a few hours later that we came across our first set of travelers on the road, though we stayed aloft and passed them before dropping down to plan some things.
“Why did you let them pass?” Edwards asked, practically shouting as we landed.
“Two reasons.” I said, staring at him. “First, we don’t know if that is our target. And if it is, then we don’t want them to suspect anything. I was too far out for my soul sight, what about you Elendria?”
“Way too far.” She agreed. “So we will be flying back to check, You three will stay here out of sight, just in case someone else comes along.” She glared until she got nods from the others, and we took off following our back trail.
“You verify the souls, you have the better sight.” I said. “I’ll have a bullet ready for each of them. Give me the signal, and I’ll take them out.”
“Sounds good.” She said. It wasn’t but ten minutes before we caught back up to the wagons, and Elendria veered off to one side to verify the wagon symbols. Coming closer, she gave me a sad nod. Not wanting to get into another drawn out fight, I blasted both of their heads before they even knew they were being targeted. I went back to get the rest of our group while Elendria went through and caught the wagons and went over the items.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
“You sure you don’t need us to go with you?” Felix asked the next morning. “I don’t have a lot of experience hunting in the bogs, but a little is still better than none.”
“It’ll be fine.” I reassured him one more time. I think he was enjoying the break from routine and wasn’t willing to go back to daily life.
“Fine.” He grumped.
“Besides, you need to guard Edwards and his nephew. They don’t have the skills to defend themselves like the previous owners of the wagons did.” I pointed out, getting him to head over.
“Well, it was pleasant working with you.” Edwards said while we approached. “But I do believe it is high time we end the partnership. My heart just can’t take flying, you see.”
“No worries Edwards.” I chuckled, shaking his hand. “Working through the information we find is just as important as the frontline battle, and you are magnificent in that aspect. You can rest easy knowing that you helped blow up the supply chain for a third of the empire, and helped save us a lot of time and effort. Now, you head back to your daily life. Elendria and I will take it from here.”
“I thank you for that, but what do we do with these corrupted weapons and armor?”
“Dunno.” I said with a shrug. “See if the Oracle and her seers can purify them, or if melting them down and recasting them gets rid of it? If nothing else, seal it in a chest with a warning, and hopefully someone will be along eventually to take care of it.”
“Right. Seal it away with a warning. I’m thinking, ‘Soul leech inside. Open at your peril.’” He chuckled.
“Honestly? That’s great. No need to go into some sort of fancy spoken riddle that people are going to forget in a few decades.” I nodded.
“Uncle!” We heard a whine from the second wagon.
“Ah, I suppose that’s my cue. Gotta get going while the sun’s still rising. Still, you and Miss Elendria, you take care.” He said, suddenly serious.
“Don’t worry, we will.” I agreed patting him on the back once again. With a flick of the reigns, he started off, followed closely by his nephew. Elendria and I watched them roll away for a while, before taking to the skies once again. While it felt good to reconnect with a few people, I was glad it was just us heading back into danger.