Prometheus felt empty. Why do I feel like this? I am the strongest and best creature in the world, aren't I? His most recent fights flashed in his mind.
He looked back toward Zilch and Buzzelina, who were following and watching him silently. He asked Zilch in the worm's language, "Zilch, do you believe that I am strong or weak?"
The scout seemed to stand still for a second before replying, "I believe you are incredibly strong, Theo, why would you ask that?"
"Well," He replied, "I was just destroyed in my last fights, and I felt so powerless. I literally couldn't do anything except lose and admit inferiority"
Zich recoiled back, "Who did you fight??" The tone seemed worried and shocked, at least to Theo it seemed so.
"First against an ice statue with a spear, and second against Examiner Rocktooth. Both of those treated me like cannon fodder. Like a fucking ant." He hit the ground with his tail to try and feel better. It did not work.
"I am not sure about the ice statue you're referring to, but Examiners are chosen for their prowess and ability to study and teach new monsters, so I believe that it is understandable that they would be extremely strong. I also think that worrying about monsters who have trained a really long time isn't fair to yourself."
Prometheus seemed to reflect on the worm's words and nodded, "Maybe you're right, after all. Now, The Examiner told us to go to the Major. Where would he be?" He looked around and stopped in the direction of a platform made of rock floating more than fifty meters in the air and was one hundred meters wide, removed from the clearing. A set of stairs was the only thing linking the platform to the ground, but it still didn't explain how it didn't fall.
That's massive.
Major Fuoco was proudly sleeping on top of the platform, probably waiting for the monsters to join him. He could already see various monsters look around confusedly before starting to climb the rocky stairs.
He could some avian monsters fly to the top directly rather than climb on foot, naturally. Some brave ones tried escaping by air, only to get shot down by a flaming spear thrown from the flaming guardians at the perimeter.
He started walking toward the platform as well, his two companions following his lead. Maybe I should improve their genetic composition like with the goblins. They don't seem to have suffered major side effects, so it might not be a terrible idea.
The staircase was much bigger up close than from a distance. The floating platform was jarring to the eyes. Granted, he had seen a massive flamethrowing snake and all manners of crazy creatures, but seeing an impossible structure like this felt different. The wind seemed to be cut from the stairs and the platform itself, creating a high-pitched sound in the air. Maybe even the air doesn't believe this craziness.
The climb took less than five minutes, but the fear of the platform suddenly collapsing kept his senses at the ready. I wonder what would happen if I tried to break these stairs.
He stopped, seriously considering the option. He shook his head when he realized the stakes were too big for such an experiment. Reaching the top revealed a bit over a hundred monsters waiting anxiously on the platform, with the Major blissfully snoring coiled around himself. He moved to an empty corner with his companions and looked around.
He settled and asked casual questions to Zilch about its past and family, which revealed that the worm had two loving parents whom it didn't want to disappoint. Talking to Buzzelina through pheromones was quite difficult as the wasp queen didn't seem to understand complex concepts, but after a bit of trial and effort, he managed to get that she apparently missed her family and wondered why they had left her.
Prometheus thought back to when he had captured the wasp, calming down the others with a clever use of pheromones. I should try to get some of them back to her in the future.
Many more monsters walked up the platform in the following hour, including the three hobgoblins. When all of them were present, the flaming snake finally opened his fiery eyes and yawned without a single care in the world. Only the strong could afford such behavior, Prometheus was sure of it.
It then created the usual mental connection spell and started, "Well done on having reached this point. I’ll briefly teach you one of the most optimized Soul techniques in history, the [Mental connection] technique. It is a tier one technique so you all should be able to learn it. It has been modified and simplified through so many generations that now any monster could learn it in just fifteen minutes. First, start by focusing on your Soul. This next step is the hardest, but it should still be manageable. Grab the energy inside your Soul, called ‘Influence’, and use that as a glue between your brain and the other brain you want to communicate with. The important part is that you try to make this shape with your Influence”, The major created a round shape with a line across it,” and create a tunnel with this shape all the way through. Try it out now.” The Major proceeded to inspect every monster while they tried creating the technique. Some of them got it quickly,some took longer, but the simplicity made it so every monster in the end learned it easily, including Prometheus and his companions. Prometheus actually replicated the technique on his first try, which made him wag his dinosaur tail happily. Major Fuoco nodded satisfied and continued,” Now we will start with the final exam, as I've explained previously. To refresh your memory, there are five different trials, and you only need to complete one to qualify. They are Head-on martial prowess, Espionage and Infiltration, Logistics, Restoration and Support, and finally Leadership. Examiner Brown will now arrive and commence the trials for 5 monsters at a time. Remember, the trials aren’t real, they are a simulation. Additionally, dying in the simulation will make you reappear on this platform, so do not worry about that. You will return here if you also spend too much time in there. Any questions?”
An eel-like monster with limbs raised its pointed hand and asked, “What do we have to do?”
The snake replied promptly,” The objective of the trial will be different for each one of you, and It will be told to you as soon as the trial begins. Good luck soldiers!”
He then grew his iconic flaming wings and flew to another part of the clearing, discussing with Examiner Dripsworth, Rocktooth, and the turtle examiner that Prometheus didn’t know the name of.
The group of monsters waited patiently on the platform for the arrival of Examiner Brown, who Theo assumed was that blank-looking mammal resembling a capybara in design.
Something is changing in the air.
He could feel a vacuum creating in the air at the far end of the platform, with a really slight pull in that direction.
Suddenly, a portal appeared in the air, with a diameter of at least two meters.
These monsters even achieved wormholes?
Examiner Brown stepped out of the portal, looking around before nodding and moving to the front of the platform.
He created a mental connection spell and started, “Um, hello, uh everyone. I am Examiner Brown and, mm, I’ll be conducting the trials. So, like, you will come here five at a time and perform all the trials, and, uh, if you pass at least one you’ll be part of the army! So, uh, who wants to start?”
Multiple monsters started going to the Examiner, who created five portals regulated in size to the various monsters. He seemed to do something to the Souls of the participants but Prometheus couldn’t even begin to guess what that was. Each trial seemed to last approximately ten minutes, and when anyone came out of a portal, any signs of injury or fatigue seemed to disappear in front of their own eyes. All in all, each monster took around an hour to finish the trials, and with 5 at a time, it would take multiple days for all of them to finish, so he went back to the large room where he did the cognitive exam and sat there. His two companions followed him silently. He glanced at the table that the Hacker implanted into his mind because he had nothing else to do:
Name: Prometheus
Stats: Body:11
Mind:11
Soul:10
Skills: Low-rank Enchantment breaking lvl 1
Inventory lvl 1
Low-rank Digging lvl 1
Low-rank Stonemasonry lvl 1
Low-rank Shapeshifting lvl 4
Low-rank Genetic manipulation lvl 1
Low-rank Soul Sense lvl 1
Traits: Tribulation Resistance
Titles: None
Maybe I should train the digging and stonemasonry skills. I don’t see their immediate use, but the fact that they’re so low-level annoys me.
Prometheus went to the edge of the clearing where the fire golems were constantly guarding the perimeter and started digging a massive hole. He did it after shifting to his ant form as it was perfect for digging. The golems initially seemed aggressive towards him, maybe suspecting that he was trying to escape via tunnels. He tried explaining to them his intentions, but obviously, they didn’t speak English. He remembered the mental connection spell he learned just minutes ago and used it.
He could feel that the connection wouldn’t allow more than simple language, so he tried communicating with the simplest terms he could come up with. The Burning golems seemed to accept his reason and moved back, still observing him.
He began by digging a simple circular tunnel, but that didn’t trigger any level-ups. Maybe I should make them better?
He started digging much slower, trying to be as precise as possible. He also made sure the walls were as packed as possible to increase their stability. After a couple of hours of this, he was finally rewarded with a notification:
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Low-rank Digging leveled up to lvl 2!
Interesting.
Zilch came down into the tunnel with him and asked, “Are you making an escape route?”
He replied, “No, I’m just training my Digging skill because it is so low.”
He tried digging again and noticed the same effect as last time: A bit more dirt was being removed than what should be normal. Also, when he put it down to the side it seemed to compact slightly, consuming less space.
Zilch started to burrow as well, probably to train his skills too. Prometheus spent the next four hours digging in the exact same way but with no new notifications.
I guess I can’t grind my way through levels with the same training.
He moved toward a rocky wall he had found while digging and used his mandibles to dig into it as much as possible, which wasn’t that fast. Another three monotone hours passed like this until the familiar notification sounded in his mind.
Low-rank Digging leveled up to lvl 3!
The supernatural effect of the skill increased again, making him dig much more efficiently.
Another eight hours of grinding his mandibles on the rock produced no results, making him think that he had to diversify his digging methods. Zilch had stopped to sleep hours ago, but the scout shouldn’t have gotten any new levels.
He climbed out of the tunnels he had made, looking for the platform. Many monsters had decided to fall asleep in various places around the clearing. Food and water were stored in barrels in the warehouse where they did the first exam.
He noticed that despite the lack of a day/night cycle on the world he was on as it was in a constant state of twilight, all creatures seemed to follow a very consistent sleeping pattern, consisting of 20 hours of activity and around 10 of sleep.
He went up to the platform, finding it full of sleeping monsters, including the Examiner. The latter seemed to have procured a cloth bed to sleep on. It looked extremely soft and expensive, with a soft fragrance of flowers coming from it.
I wish I had that bed too. I’ll make one as soon as I have the materials.
A mental connection spell-no, technique, snapped into his mind.
“Are you, uh, ready to take the test?”
He turned around to find the creature looking at him from behind, having appeared out of nowhere. He turned to look at the bed, which rested empty.
He thought about the question the Examiner had asked him and replied, “Can I change form first?”
“Yes, of course, and also umm you can use this biomass if you want. It is useless to us as I will need to get rid of it. Is any body part fine for you?”
“Yes, of course, anything organic is fine.”
Wow, this Examiner is the nicest one yet.
“Sure thing!”
A portal opened in front of the two and a mass of guts, blood, and bone rained down from within it.
He didn’t waste a second and absorbed it all, reaching fifteen tons of weight. He wanted to make use of one of the forms he kept in storage, so he started shifting into his Goliath shape, the Gorilla-jellyfish-Titanoboa hybrid. He looked like a humanoid monster with bulging muscles, hard dark-green scales covering most of his body, and a serpentine head with pointed fangs. Thanks to his levels and tier, it only took him an hour, when it should have taken at least three.
FUCK YES!
He nodded toward the Examiner, who created a massive portal for him.
“You’ll start with the melee prowess trial. First, I’ll install a soul receiver in you for various purposes. Good luck!”
He felt a cold touch on his soul, which disappeared quickly. He then stepped through the portal with newfound confidence in his steps.
I will not lose anymore.
Then, the world disappeared.
Prometheus found himself in the middle of plains made of red grass, as opposed to the golden one of his base.
My base…
He had almost forgotten about it after being kidnapped and captured by the army. The vast bunker with all his treasures was probably crying, hoping for him to return!
I’ll find a way to get back home. Both in the bunker and to Earth with my owners.
First, I should expertly complete these trials to become stronger. Becoming stronger sounds like a decision with no backsides. Actually, is there any backside to tiering up or improving through the Hacker? I doubt there are NO disadvantages.
He decided to look around and get familiar with the surroundings. Cliffs grasped for the sky in the distance, all of them with rounded peaks. Behind him, at around a kilometer of distance, a forest with trees grew bold. The trees seemed to have rocks as leaves.
What the hell?
He decided that he couldn’t afford any detour seeing that there might be a secret time limit, so he continued scanning around him. A large river cut through the ground around hundreds of meters from his position.
Just then, a decent-sized mental packet reached him from the soul receiver with instructions:
“Eliminate the patrol group heading for you. Capture them alive for bonus points.”
The instructions didn’t give him any additional information, so he proceeded toward the river, following its side.
He glanced towards the sky, the ominous celestial object continuously observing him.
It’s incredible how a planet tidally locked to a black hole has temperatures this mild. How is it on the opposite side? Would it be close to absolute zero? There are so many questions that I want the answer to, which I won’t get.
He continued walking forward, each of his steps creating a rumble that made small pebbles and the water near the shore ripple. He absorbed the grass and the water under his feet, simply to create a reserve of biomass in the form of densely concentrated energy cells, similar to fat.
Wait a second. I had a skill about conserving things in a separate space, didn’t I?
He tried putting some cells of his body in his Inventory, but it didn’t work. He did the same with some dead leaves, and it worked.
What’s the discriminating factor here?
He tried putting some dead cells from his body, and that seemed to work well enough. Since his inventory was around 1 cubic meter big, he could put around three tonnes of his highly condensed dead cells. He would have to first convert normal organic biomass into this material before putting it in the Inventory, but he couldn’t do that now when time was of the essence.
The river continued on on the horizon without any sign of it stopping, which he didn’t mind as the river was pleasant to look at.
There was no sign of the supposed ‘patrol’, so he wasn’t really sure what to do.
That was until he noticed movement in the distance with his thermal vision. He also saw something fly directly towards his head. He accelerated his mental processes to the maximum for good measure and noticed the metal bolt flying toward the middle of his forehead.
Interesting. This is much faster than the arrows from the bandits, but still much slower than the ice golem.
He came up with a plan. He shapeshifted the cells in his head to look like a brain internally and filled it with blood. He let the arrow perforate his head, which it did effortlessly, and he dropped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. His weight made the fall much louder than what would be a good idea. He continuously released blood from the wound, imitating a real head injury.
Wait, can they sense my Soul? I can sense my own and other people’s Souls, so surely they should be able to.
He focused on his own soul, noticing many small tendrils of ‘energy’, which he learned was called Influence, escape into the outside world.
Is this how people perceive Souls?
He focused deeply on the tendrils and used his own Influence to ‘hold them in’ as much as possible.
Wait a second, I have a genius plan in mind.
He let the tendrils escape freely until he could finally sense the patrol approaching.
I can count five of them, they all seem in their twenties, two male ones with… a giant crossbow? A hand-held ballista? One with a massive backpack and pockets everywhere on his body, and two female ones with blue loose robes with five-pointed stars decorating them.
That’s funny, isn’t that robe something a wizard in a children’s cartoon would wear? The one with the backpack is wearing simple travel clothes…
The other two have simple…leather armor? I guess it’s good for mobility.
Suddenly, a fireball flew in his direction, hitting his large frame easily.
Ow. This was stronger than that other fireball.
First, he regenerated the burnt tissues and then made his scales as fireproof as possible without decreasing their durability. He also disabled the release of the neurotoxin for the moment.
As the group inched closer, he could sense them much better. He couldn’t estimate their tier, they were all higher than his. He started his plan.
It’s showtime.
He started slowly keeping his Soul tendrils inside, effectively simulating his Soul death from the outside, or at least that is what he hoped.
The two ballista men were walking confidently forward, their weapons slung on their shoulders. He could hear them talk, but their language was unknown to him, as it was different from the bandits’.
The man with the backpack was the tallest and most muscular, keeping a stern face and looking around attentively. The two women in the back were chatting with each other, giggling at every instance possible
When they got close, one of the ballista men exclaimed surprised, probably due to Theo’s size. He put a foot on the body’s head and pushed it a bit.
These people are strong, unfairly strong.
Theo was pushed a couple of meters and continued to pretend he was dead.
One of the women ran up to his body excitedly and threw a kick at his head, which wasn’t strong at all. She laughed and ran back to her friend. One of them had long, blonde hair and the other had cropped red hair.
The stern-looking man with a backpack kneeling near his body and shook his head. The other members bore annoyed faces and then moved up to each one of his limbs. The two ballista men went to the front and picked him up, lifting the upper part of Theo’s body from the ground. The backpack one went to the waist and lifted him from under there and the two women used their Influence to lift his legs, and in doing so they started carrying his body.
Interesting. This simulation is very advanced to replicate details such as heartbeats and blood pressure.
And so, Prometheus waited for his chance.
The man with the ballista was tired of carrying this heavy monster. He had worked a fourteen-hour shift the last week every day! Why couldn’t he get some rest once in a while? His short brown hair fluttered in the gentle wind.
They reached some small clearing in a forest, so they dropped the monster there. Apparently, none of them had ever seen something like this. It was incredibly weak for its size, with a single bolt killing it immediately.
He turned toward the other ballista man, who had a bald head, and stated, “This green fuck was absolute bullshit for its size, don't ya think?”
The other man turned to him and replied, “Yeah, but it has been like that for the last trial monsters. This one’s no different.” Then he kicked the monster in the head. “It actually is different. It is even uglier than the others.” The two men laughed in high spirits.
Meanwhile, the blonde woman moved toward the empty head of the monster and spoke, “Hey, freak, can you stop being so ugly? You’re ruining my day!” Both the women giggled and kicked Prometheus’ head.
The man with a backpack kneeled over with squinted eyes, his gaze fixed on Prometheus’ Core. He put two fingers over the monster’s neck and hummed quietly.
He moved toward the nearest tree, pulled a massive axe out of his tool belt, which was much smaller than the axe and chopped the tress with one hand. The motion looked effortless. The trees seemed to be made of paper because of how easy the man made it look. He chopped the log into small, stool-sized pieces and put them in a circle, and then he prepared a campfire with smaller wooden pieces. A flick of his finger created a small spark of fire that ignited the campfire. He then said to his companions, “Everyone, gather around the fire. Time to eat.”
“About fucking time!” said the two ballista men in sync. They all sat on the stools and waited patiently by the campfire. The corpse of the monster was behind the two women. The man with the backpack, the leader, gently set his backpack on the ground and opened it up. They all started yawning one after the other.
He put his hand inside, grasping for something, and pulled out a big cage with movement inside it. The cage, like the axe, was much bigger than the container it was in just seconds ago. He dropped it on the ground and did the same for another cage. The first one seemed to contain a monster the size of a pony, which also looked like a feathered lobster with a massive claw the size of half its body. The other claw was much smaller than the big one.
The second cage seemed to contain a spider-like creature, with its middle body being a large, transparent bubble full of water. It had a small head on the front with many tiny eyes. Eight thin one-jointed legs kept the creature standing. Both of the monsters were shaking heavily and moved to the opposite corner from where the man was.
“I swear, I was gonna starve here!” Said one of the men. “After all, I need fuel to feed these bad boys.” He flexed his biceps, looking toward the two girls. “The two young women giggled and covered their mouths, whispering to each other, “He’s such an idiot”
The other man with a bald head took off his shirt entirely and showed his toned torso to the two girls. Both of them made fun of the men, calling them idiots and whatnot. They yawned again. “I’ll take a quick nap, call me when it’s ready.” Said the bald man. He lay down on the ground and started snoring. “It won’t take that long, dumbass.” The other man complained and yawned again, soon after joining his companion in sleep.
Meanwhile, the leader opened the door to the first cage with the crustacean and stepped inside with his back hunched. He took a cleaver from his left pocket and stepped closer to the creature.
The girls yawned as well, “I’ve never felt this sleepy in a long time, maybe I’ll take a nap as well.” Told one to the other.
“We need at least three people awake. We are in the wilderness, don’t forget that.” Said the leader.
The two girls huffed and crossed their arms, annoyed.
They still leaned on each other, dosing off now and then.
The leader approached the crustacean warily with the cleaver in hand. The monster raised its big claw weakly in defense, but the man moved swiftly to the side of it, and with a downward chop, cut it off. The cleaved claw fell to the ground with a wet splash. Blue blood gushed from the stump, and the monster recoiled and hissed. It retreated weakly from the man.
The leader grabbed the claw and got out of the cage with it. He carefully removed the shell and other useless parts, leaving a big, juicy bowl of meat. He threw the scraps into the crustacean’s cage, which the monster ate slowly.
He put the meat into a metal pot he had in his pockets and then moved to the other cage. The water-spider reacted similarly to the other caged creature, retreating to the back of the cage. The man was much faster, so he grabbed the spider by the middle section full of water. With one hand he held the trashing spider, with the other he grabbed a needle and poked the bubble, filling a handful of bottles that he had prepared beforehand. He threw the thin and dry spider on the ground and walked out, closing the cage on his way out. The monster was barely able to stand, shaking weakly and retreating to the opposite corner, once again.
The man used the excess water to fill the big pot of water with the lobster-monster meat. That particular monster was bred to grow nutritionally complete meat, including essential vitamins, proteins, etc.
He gave a bottle to each of his companions, as well as a serving of the steaming lobster meat. The man found himself really sleepy, so he yawned heavily, closing his eyes during it.
Then, the monster's corpse moved.