Alllllrighty. First step, the bed. This blanket. Eeeeeh, pretty bland. “Cotton”. It’s just “Cotton”. They have the same exact cotton in this world.
It's all cotton aside from the mattress. I’ll just take a little off this corner here.
Aden’s eyes shot wide open as he felt heat course through him, something he hadn’t felt since he woke up. Like a drop of dye tainting water, the wave of heat spread throughout him along with a hunger for more.
Okay, lost my cool there. I hope long isn’t too upset, maybe I can make him a new one using my own tendons. Guess I’ll need a new bed now too… Lesser Earth Drake… I feel full in a different way but can’t point out what it is. Is it because it is dragon related, just good genes, or this species specifically?
Opening the sack up, Aden pulls out a spacial bag, pulls loose the knot, and dumps the contents straight into his mouth. What did not melt, burned, and what did not burn, melted. Aden swallowed it all, and then felt the change, a different hunger. This isn’t it, this one is disconcerting, like an urge to take and become, while the other was a sense of filling in a missing portion of myself. Hmmmm.
If dragons have types, are they perhaps portions of a more complete design? Perhaps I am just filling in specializations that most dragons struggle to have one or few of, but I can just gather them all to become the best dragon? Is having all related affinities better than having a single stronger one?
There are only two races I can think of for the hunger to become, mimic and doppelganger. Perhaps this is just what one or the other feels, maybe both. Maybe combining them in me is the cause. Either way…
Aden eyes the sack of bags. I’m hungry.
Opening bag after bag, Aden continues to dump them into his mouth until he runs out.
Shit! I can’t open these spacial rings if I can’t use chi! Wait, I can!
Aden begins altering the shape of his finger, rapidly experimenting with untested patterns of everything he had just been learning in order to send his chi into a ring.
Yes! Aden continues his feast, cracking all the rings open until only empty bags and rings remain.
Staring at the leftovers, Aden senses it. Eat. And so he does, swallowing the rings and bags. Take. Accept.
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Opening his eyes to the ceiling, Aden is welcomed by discordant fluctuations in his senses, like drunk goggles in a shifting mirror maze roller disco on a boat. He attempts to stand, pushing through the floor first, then falling sideways through the front wall. Now on hard ground, he just accepts things and stays on the ground, now staring at the sky.
Definitely lost my cool…hard to tell through the waves, but I don't see any dust built up in my room. The sun is still up and it’s not behind where it was, it may still be the same day. If so, then I was out maybe a few hours.
Attempting to stand again, he rights himself on all sixes plus fours, planting his wings to the side. Sense of balance relative, proprioception discordant, vision completely filled with variety of intersecting waves, skin is tasting… looks like the floor went out because I was eating through it with my foot… so many more colors… and closing my eyes does practically nothing. Aden lets himself fall back down and rolls to see the sky again. Ugh, here comes Long.
“How long have I been at it?” Aden attempts to say, but it comes out as mumbling gibberish.
“Three sticks of incense since you began…sampling? Was it?” World Tree’s Blessing wins again! Why do I even bother pronouncing anything? I can just make any sound, right?
Aden releases air quickly, sounding like pure puberty voice, without the words. “My sincerest apologies, but I ate your bed along with all of these spacial bags and rings.”
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Long stares at Aden, unmoving. Was that too far from a language to work?
Just as he is about to speak again, “If that is what was required, then so be it”, speaks long through his most stoic face Aden has seen. Oh ok, so it did work. Not sure I can admit what happened, soooooo…
Aden slaps the ground once like a seal. “It had to be done. Good progress was made. I just need to adjust to my transformation, in the meantime I will practice the mortal magics I learned in your library.”
“You could read those!? Even Elder Ling can barely read a few words from half of the scriptures, and that only helped him organize them better! That explains his intrigue with you.”
Aaaaa, right. How else could I read languages I don't know? Would this also be you, World Tree’s Blessing? Of course it would. I suppose the true capability of this is in the conveyance and understanding of intent, if anything has it at all. I wonder how far that stretches.
Meeting Long with his eyes, “Through intent, all is known.” I wonder how much I can simplify this?
Long stares at Aden…
…and continues to stare
Aden, still meeting his gaze. “You lack intent. You need do more than just look.” Not that I really know what I am doing, but I believe I have a good enough grasp, seeing that I am able to do it with just a look.
“I suppose this is too challenging for me right now. Normally one begins to comprehend intent in the nascent soul stage or perhaps peak core formation, and predominantly of a single variation at that. One example being sword intent.”
Now from within. Just my mind. See nothing of my actions, only that Long knows what I mean. “Practice makes perfect”
Both of their eyes pop open.
That's almost exactly how the gods spoke!
“The words of a god, lessons themselves” As stoic as ever.
“Leave, I need to sort some matters.”
Long nearly kowtows with his deep bow and leaves. “As you say.”
He’s forgetting what I said about pleasantries. I guess speaking in a way that seems like I injected thoughts into his mind shook him again.
Alright, Status.
image [https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1z6OL8BSvx106Ng2NzFjfgYz81WB3KVVB]
Fantastic, looks like I might finally get a functioning system. In the meantime, fuck! That is so much shit I can’t see!
Alright, manual it is. See within, see within, within.
I feel like within the space I take up, I am denser, but as I feel within myself, I am less dense due to being bigger.
I didn’t just digest that floor, I took it in. I broke it down, made it a part of me. Golem? Golemimic? It’s just a normal wood floor…digesting it doesn’t make a change, looks like I already grabbed the race. Either I got it from the resources, or I got it from the golem-like assimilation.
The waveflow within myself is different from outside. Hmm, yeah, that’s different. If I look at myself from outside, The waveflow is really thick and full of intersections, like I am pressing down on everything. If I look from the inside, it’s like I’m the only point on a pillow not weighed down by something. Is this spatial perception?
Opening his eyes again, despite the pointlessness of the action, Aden takes a good look around.
I get it now. My eyes are interpreting spatial distortions and waves in various energies…I must have gotten this from assimilating the bags and rings. The bigger on the inside body too, throwing my balance off in multiple ways.
This can be another hidden weapon. Who would expect for me, being of the same material, to be denser than a material that is not a part of me. If I assimilate a bunch of steel, mine will automatically be denser if they appear the same on the inside as they did before assimilation on the outside, although this would take more resources. My weight might come as a surprise, but I think only newbs wouldn’t be able to spot how the ground shifts under me.
I’m not truly more dense though, its only relative to the world outside my body. Once you get in, its just bigger. Oh, maybe I was thinking stupidly. Would a sword striking my skin get bigger as it goes in? Is this like a magnifying glass?
Aden grabs a nearby stick and tries to impale himself, breaking it up into unusable splinters.
Need something stronger to test with…I already sent Long away…
Attempting once more, Aden gets on all six and four, then stands while keeping his wing tips on the ground.
Who knew this was how I would end up using my wing walking trick? I can’t really go anywhere though, can I? What would people think seeing me in such a disoriented state? Maybe my pseudo-telepathy and explaining that I made adjustments to my vessel that need getting used to will be good enough?
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Fuck. How long did getting to the door take me? Too long. Let’s see if there is anyone nearby.
Through his overly enhanced vision, Aden spots, through many walls and buildings, several guards at the entrance of the neighboring larger pavilion.
Making his way over, in his own way, he opens up. “Hand me your sword, I made adjustments to my vessel and need to test something. The sword may not last.”
“Who goes there!? Reveal yourself!” The chosen guard shouts, looking all around.
“What is it!? You see something!?” His nearest coworker asks, blade drawn and ready.
Now, to all of the guards. “It’s me, in front of you, walking with my wings. Hand me a sword so I can test a change I made to my vessel. The sword may not survive.”
The three guards and now a few more from around the gate get in a defensive formation against Aden, shouting at each other.
“Abomination spotted! Careful! It can corrupt the mind!”
“Take your mind fortress pills! It’s a high class demon!”
“It's clearly a summon! it must be an outer being from that damned Zhu family!”
“Nonsense, it's clearly a-!”
“Descended god.” Ugh, gotta adjust manually. Forgot my appearance would change. “It's me, Aden. You imbeciles.” It's not quite the same as before, I'll push more dragon in. Manually hold back the horns and press down the scutes. Whiten up the scales…looks about right.” “I change my form a little and you forget me so quickly?”
“The pills aren’t working! It’s beyond high class! What do we do!?”
“Shit! Ancestor is in seclusion, he’s the only one! We’ll have to delay until the Elders can get here and help us ward it off!”
Infuriating. I just want to kill these idiots now…Lucky them, Long’s medallion got absorbed since it was tied to me.
Aden shows the medallion, makes an underhanded tossing motion, and then lightly throws it to the guards.
“Look out!” One of the guards moves to cut the medallion from the air.
“CEASE!”
The guards freeze, and the medallion lands before one of them.
“It is the medallion Long gave me, you idiots. Just use your brain for once and take a look.” Aden spits on the ground, creating a squelching sound and instantly turning it into a puddle of earth. Oh shit, that's a lot more cleanly done. Like acetone to paint, it's just liquid now. “None of you could even manage to hold me anyway. Your decision, if I really was some hostile monster, was stupid.”
The group glance down at the medallion, then back to Aden, then give the medallion a good stare, then to Aden's spit puddle, then back to Aden.
“Oh." Whisper the guards in unison.
“Who dares interrupt my seclusion!” Fuck me.