As it turns out, I think that I’ve been attacked one too many times because the source of the drops turns out to be something a lot more benign than I’d immediately feared: rain.
It seems that the clouds which had been blocking my view of the sky, and thereby my knowledge of how late in the night it is, have now decided to release their contents. The intermittent drops quickly multiply. I grab the corpse of the paranax and hotfoot it back into the cave. I think River will be glad that he decided to stick inside anyway, despite the risk of fire.
Sneaking back into the alcove, I sit by the fire near Bastet. Fenrir shifts a little as I go past him, but I send a quick reassurance down our Bond and he settles back down. Focussing on the body of the paranax, I continue feeding it with mana, my new mana pool helping, though also taking longer to regenerate each time.
By the time I’ve finally managed to fully saturate the corpse of the paranax with mana, I’m shaking my head in shock. I’ve tried to keep track of how many times I’ve emptied my mana pool to give me an estimate of how much mana it’s taken, and the total is frankly frightening. And that’s not including what my regeneration would have given me during the channelling. Perhaps even as much as ten thousand units of mana have disappeared into the corpse of the monkey-reptile cross.
If the amount increases along with size, I shudder to think how much mana the salamander would have required. At least it seems like once I’ve put mana into the body, it doesn’t leak out or anything. And channelling all the mana has actually earned me a couple of things.
Unfortunately, no stat points, though I suspect that if I’d done this before reaching twenty points in my Wisdom stat, I’d have increased that. Or my Intelligence. Then again, I’m not sure whether I’d have been capable of doing this with any fewer stat points in those than I currently have: controlling as much mana as I have been is a bit of a strain at the best of times.
Still, it’s got easier thanks to my Energy Manipulation advancing another level. My Flesh-Shaping has also increased by one level. Not a huge amount, perhaps, but I sense that my actual control has improved more than either of those would indicate.
By the end of it, I was capable of channelling mana directly from my Core to the body, even without being ‘present’ in the body. When my mind was in the body, I was not only able to channel the mana, but also direct the mana in where to go in the body, ensuring that everything was evenly saturated. Interestingly enough, I had some sort of instinct that this was the way to go.
Bastet is awake, made obvious when she shifts closer to me. Now, my side is pressed up against her soft feather-fur, warmth coming both through her body and across the Bond. Closing my eyes, I send my mind into the creature’s body. My mind is able to move around the whole corpse with no hesitation, moving as easily there as it can in my own body. It’s easier by far than when I tried to move around the dead bisonisan’s body; easier even than moving in my Bound’s bodies.
Pulling out from the body, I open my eyes, curious about something. I cast Inspect Fauna, wondering if the description might have changed now that the creature is so saturated with my own magic.
Paranax?
Tier 1 Beast (unevolved, saturated)
Dead?
Mana: 856u (2u per minute loss)
The body of a paranax which has been saturated with foreign energy for some unknown purpose. An inefficient mana battery: 10u of mana will be required for every 1u of mana stored.
Close message? Y/N
I often find my notifications interesting, and this is no exception. I’m glad that I used Inspect on the body again, especially when it gives me another level in the Skill. Whether that was because I was already close to levelling or because different actions offer different progress to levelling and this happened to offer a lot, I don’t know.
Anyway, I consider the questions raised by the new information. The question-marks themselves are particularly interesting. Do they mean that I could change the species of something, since it’s now in question? Or by adding mana, have I meant that the creature is not quite a paranax anymore?
And what’s up with ‘dead’ being questionable all of a sudden? Could I actually bring a creature back to life through this? Or is flooding a corpse with mana what a necromancer needs to do before he can raise the corpse and make it undead? I mean, I’m assuming necromancy is a thing now that magic has been added to the mix, but I don’t see why not. Especially if death can be ‘questionable’ long after the fact.
That ‘saturated’ is now being considered on par with the creature being unevolved probably means something, but I’m not sure what. Then there’s something I find the most interesting: the body has become a mana battery. Clearly not a good one: it’s both highly inefficient in terms of what went in there, and also leaks so that I would lose the whole store in a few hours. However, it does raise the possibility that I could find something better for the purpose. I hadn’t even considered mana batteries before. Though there was that thought I had earlier….
“Bastet,” I say quietly, not wanting to disrupt the raptorcat cubs who I can tell are fast asleep. Bastet herself is just staring at the fire, calm thoughtfulness coming over the link from her direction.
Yes? she responds after a moment, turning to face me with curiosity in her eyes.
“Do you mind if I test something?”
What? she asks again immediately, a hint of wariness coming across the link. Not wariness because she thinks I’ll hurt her intentionally, but caution caused by having lived through a number of my poor decisions. Not to mention the recent fire episode. Honestly, her attitude is actually refreshing.
River is great and I know that I’ll miss him terribly if he decides to have nothing to do with me after I’ve released him from the Bond, but I’m realising how exhausting it is doing anything with him at the moment. The problem is that I suspect he won’t say ‘no’ to me out of his own feelings of owing me obedience. So I have to consider whether he actually wants to say no, but isn’t doing so out of a desire to please me. I know I’ve made my own bed here by the way I started our relationship, but it does make me crave something simpler sometimes.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Now that Bastet’s capable of more understandable communication, I see myself turning to her more and more, honestly. Well, we’ll see if things get better with River first. At least Persephone and Hades appear likely to be more towards Bastet’s way of approaching life than River’s; maybe it’s a difference of culture when growing up? A question for another time.
“It should be fine,” I try to reassure her. “I just want to feed a load of my mana into you and see what happens.” The feeling of scepticism increases despite my attempt at soothing her worries. “Look, I’m not going to ask the mana to do anything. I just want to…” I trail off, figuring that ‘see if you can become a magical battery for me’ wouldn’t sound great. There’s silence between us for a few seconds.
If this causes a problem for me, I expect you to correct it, Bastet tells me finally.
“I promise,” I say, meaning it. After all, if Bastet had any sort of problem, caused by me or not, I’d do my best to sort it anyway.
Then I’ll allow it, she consents, turning her head back to the fire and leaning into my knee more heavily.
I feed mana through my hand and into her. With all the practice I had with the corpse, I find that I’m actually able to do it without even fully entering my Core space. That will certainly make healing her easier, though I may still need to go into Meditation to actually do the healing bit.
After channelling most of my mana pool into Bastet, I cast an Inspect Fauna on her.
Raptorcat: Bastet
Tier 2 Beast (Evolved (rare) – Fire)
Special abilities: Fire-breath.
Health: 1300u
Mana:150u
Minimum Willpower recommended to Dominate without other impacting factors: 35
Bound (Companion) of Markus Luke Wolfe. Most commonly used weapons are its natural features of teeth and claws, though this Beast may use the wind generated by its wings and its magical ability of Fire-breath to gain an advantage. Social Beast with strong capacity to form bonds. Will not quickly or willingly give up previously-formed Bonds.
Close message? Y/N
This is the first time I’ve used Inspect Fauna on Bastet since her evolution. Maybe I should have used it before, but I didn’t think of it. It’s interesting seeing the changes. Nothing I didn’t know, much like River’s, though.
I do find it interesting that I’d have needed fewer points in Willpower to Dominate her than I would have needed for the kiinas, even post-evolution. I’m not sure why that is – is it due to species or personality? Or are there other factors I’m not aware about? And what does that (rare) tag mean? Nothing like that appeared in the kiinas’ descriptions.
That tickles, Bastet tells me a moment after I use the Inspect Skill on her.
“You felt it?” I ask, my eyebrows rising up my forehead.
It ran through my Energy channels and poked at my Core, she added. Huh. So that’s why it could potentially enrage Tier two creatures, I guess. Since the kiinas had already been intending on attacking us when I used it on one of them, I don’t know if my Skill had any impact. Besides, the one I used it on is now dead. Actually, considering he came straight for me, maybe that’s an indication that he was irritated by the Skill….
“Did you feel anything from my mana? Or now?” I get the impression of a shrug from her.
Warmth. Nothing more. Well, at least it doesn’t hurt her. I shrug too. I didn’t see anything about Bastet becoming a mana battery or anything like that. Maybe it only happens if I saturate the target with my mana. Considering Bastet’s size, bigger even than she was before her evolution and already bigger then than the paranaxes, it’ll probably take another several hours to do that. I don’t feel like dedicating that much time for now. Maybe later.
I do leave the mana I already transferred, though: even if she isn’t identified as a ‘mana-battery’, if I can withdraw the mana I put in her later, she could act as one in a pinch.
“Alright, thanks,” I say to Bastet. “Let me know if you feel anything odd or uncomfortable at any point, OK?”
Yes, she assents easily, then lays her head down on her taloned paws. I turn my attention back to the corpse next to me. Despite having been around for hours, it doesn’t smell worse than it did when I first got it out. Maybe even better. Nor has it become bloated or stiff – I’d put it in my Inventory too soon after killing it for rigor mortis to set in or for any other effects of decomposition to begin showing. None of those are showing now either.
Touching it, I send my mind into it quickly. Once more moving around its body mentally, I marvel at both the ease and the amount of information that’s at my fingertips. Figuratively speaking, if not literally.
With my own magic suffusing its organs, I can tell instinctively what each of them are for and how they should work if the creature were alive. I gain information about how its slightly-scaled, tough skin works, and how so many things interact which I’d never even considered before.
I marvel at the information that I sense is being imprinted on my Skill. Where Lay-on-hands seemed to contain all the information needed to heal, Flesh-Shaping seems to be more an open book waiting to have knowledge recorded in its pages. I reckon that, having done this, I’ll have a much easier job healing paranaxes in the future – if I so wish. And even if I don’t end up healing any more paranaxes, any other creatures with similar physiologies are likely to be easier for me to deal with.
If that was the only benefit, it would still be good; more knowledge is always useful. However, there’s an even more important benefit of which I soon learn: shaping flesh which my mana saturates ends up being a doddle.
With the amount of knowledge I have about the body of the paranax, changing small elements of its body is child’s play. I extend its claws, change the shape of its teeth. I thicken its skin and then change the shape of the scales into spikes that emerge from its body.
Emboldened, I try to do some more ambitious actions. Reshaping its legs to ones similar to me takes some more mana out of me, as I find I have to resaturate the parts of flesh which are created as well as the actual growth taking mana. Pausing for a moment, I consider what to do next.
I’m tempted to try something more difficult like enhance its heart or brain or something, but I decide not to in the end: with it being dead, it would be hard to discern if my changes were actually an improvement or would have killed it if it hadn’t already been knocked off its mortal coil.
In the end, I just go with something that would be immensely practical if possible: removing its hide from its body without leaving any scraps of fat or flesh attached. A few minutes and a bit of mana later, I’m holding the paranax’s bloodless hide in one hand. Its skinned corpse isn’t even leaking any blood on the floor either, since I managed to close every blood vessel that would otherwise have leaked while I was removing the hide itself.
Even though I have no intention of using the paranax’s hide for anything – too rough for clothes, not tough enough for armour – I still practically glow with satisfaction. This will save so much time. Now I just need to test if I can do the same thing with a section of flesh already detached from the body: the salamander’s skin.