Incredible... how can plants move at all? They fundamentally lack the proper structures to do so, and despite that, some examples prove me wrong to my face. Theo thought while looking at Sayuri, who was meditating while sitting down. At least, he believed she was meditating. Maybe she's sleeping. Her eyes are just two black spots so there isn't much to understand from those.
Zilch and the others were simply resting on the stone platform, not doing much. There was still some time before the Unsafe Hours arrived, so the monsters were still awake. Theo took that opportunity to observe the other monsters that made the cut, starting with the one nearest to him. It was a primate-like monster, with an insectoid face. There were four of them on the platform, so Prometheus presumed they were a particularly impressive species. Another species appeared to have multiple winners, which was a small frog with a skin that changed color continuously, creating a mesmerizing image. Four of the little tennis ball-sized monsters were present on the platform, leaving three other spots available. Those three were taken by an octopus with a spear on each tentacle, every weapon different from the rest. Some spears were in perfect condition and engraved, while others were old and rusty.
Next to it was a rock construct, humanoid in shape, with two large clubs of stone for hands. Theo thought that it was slightly different than the other constructs he had seen, mostly in behavior. The last monster was a small dragon, pink in scales and shining like a lighthouse. Small electric currents could be seen dancing along its surface and various *pops* emanated from them.
The Major immediately slithered up to him, creating a mental connection, "What did the General tell you, kid? Are we departing?"
Theo thought of the plan the General had told him before replying, "He said that we'll go tomorrow because he has to gather his strength. Also, I am going with him to prove to him I'm worthy of his mentorship!"
The snake's eyes opened wide, jaw dropping to the ground, "This isn't the time to joke around, is that the truth? Do you even know what having a General as your mentor means?!"
"Why would I joke about that, sir?" Asked Theo simply. The shapeshifter couldn't understand why the Major doubted him so easily.
"Never mind, then. You have never been on a mission, so I'll tell you the standard procedure. First of all, after we arrive, we equip Soul-masking and presence-masking items to avoid being detected. Second, we'll probably use a portal from Headquarters, but if that's not available, we'll need to find another way. Lastly, follow the General's orders to the letter. Is that clear?"
Prometheus nodded, having ignored half of what the snake had said. He was looking at the four frogs chasing each other, which was a lot more entertaining. The small creatures would run in circles and often trip on each other, making a low laugh escape Theo's insectoid mouth. The shapeshifter had liked laughing so much that he created small lungs with the sole function of chuckling.
The Major slithered away, moving toward the Examiners, starting another secret discussion. He then moved on the ground, away from the platform, and fell deep in thought, How do I fight against those people? While picturing the two kidnappers. Theo's memories went to Earth, and how military technology evolved, using those as inspiration, Offensive weapons were always much stronger than defensive weapons, after all. He didn't have the manufacturing capacity to create humanity's greatest weapons, nukes, but he could still play 'little chemist' and make something useful.
With a new idea formed in his mind, Prometheus immediately sprinted to the tunnel entrance, preparing large quantities of cells to produce glycerol, the first ingredient he needed. Normally, it would have been slightly out of his chemical synthesis capacity, but his Body Stat and the tiering up helped in making the necessary compounds a bit more stable and made them react with each other more predictably. Before entering, Theo ran around absorbing as much biomass as he could, hurrying up as he was on a tight schedule. After a quarter of an hour, he had amassed around five tonnes of mass from trees and corpses left in the crematorium, which was open.
Entering the tunnels, he focused on making as much Glycerol as he could, storing it safely in sacs on his back, and removing them slowly from his body. In the end, he had lost all the extra biomass and the sacs looked like water balloons with leather instead of rubber. Then, the hard part came. How the fuck do I get sulfuric acid? Or even nitric acid for that matter... The shapeshifter tried synthesizing them, but he found that the compounds degraded too quickly to make them efficiently. He could make them himself, but the cost was too steep for high quantities. He had to find them naturally.
---
"Let me get this clear: You necessitate my assistance to help you find acids?" Asked Examiner Dripsworth, crossing two tentacles like arms, incredulous.
"That's right. I thought that since you could control water, maybe you could do the same for acids."
"That's not how it works, Prometheus. My affinity lets me control liquids, correct, but the more different they are from water the harder it is to control them, do you understand? Or is that too complex for your intellectual capacity?"
"You just need to help me find some, that's all I need. Can you help me do that?"
"I must apologize, but my presence here is t-" The Major contacted the Examiner, briefly talking to the jellyfish. The marine monster froze multiple times in the conversation, seemingly protesting against the flaming snake. After a couple of minutes of unrelenting barrages from the Major, Dripsworth turned around and said, "It seems higher powers force me to accompany you, little insect. What are you seeking?"
"I simply want to go to a volcano, I need to harvest something there."
The jellyfish sighed loudly and nodded, moving to a building and taking out a large parchment of paper, which was a map when unrolled. Theo complimented the map-maker in his head as it was extremely accurate and precise, down to the meters. Dripsworth explained that the closest volcano was a couple dozen kilometers south of their current position, so that meant that they would have to hurry up.
Dripsworth couldn't fly, but Theo could. Speed was of the essence, so a modified falcon was perfect for the situation. Theo had managed to convince the Examiner to grab onto Theo's back and hold tight, which the jellyfish found 'annoying and embarrassing', apparently.
Starting to flap his wings, the massive falcon easily soared through the sky in a fraction of a second. The Examiner stumbled in some high-acceleration moments but seemed fine otherwise. Following the direction the jellyfish had told him, Theo accelerated as much as possible, reaching almost three hundred kilometers per hour, around a quarter of a commercial plane's speed.
"CAN I ASK YOU TO SLOW DOWN A BIT?" Screamed the Examiner in the mental connection, barely able to form the words in the spell.
"We cannot, Examiner. We have to arrive there and make it back before the Unsafe Hours arrive. We should be there in around five minutes. Hold on tight."
The forest below thrived as usual, trees growing tall and proud unobstructed. One day, he would have to study how they were so green with such weird light radiating from the Black Hole overhead. Continuing on, Theo could finally spot a small mountainous peak in the distance, which released large amounts of smoke from the top. A volcano.
Perfect.
The Examiner had created a bubble of water around himself, probably to protect against the smoke and other nasty substances. Theo dropped the jellyfish on the base of the volcano, away from any lava sources.
"Perfect, now that you have brought me to such a pleasant location that only the Major would like, how can I assist you?"
"Can you tell me if there is any liquid around here apart from water?"
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The jellyfish sighed loudly, falling deep in thought. The shapeshifter could see the Examiner's Soul began to move, using many thin tendrils that expanded for hundreds of meters, scouting the area around and inside the volcano. After a minute, Dripsworth told Prometheus of a pocket of liquid near the top of the volcano, on its side. Theo immediately flew there, unperturbed by the smoke, finding a small puddle of a transparent liquid. Gas would rise from an entrance on the side of the volcano, and upon touching some crystals near it, that liquid formed, dropping inside the puddle.
Theo moved closer, putting a wing inside to study its composition. It was indeed sulfuric acid, what he needed. The shapeshifter released a victory roar in the air, at the success.
Perfect. Now, the Examiner should be able to get this back.
Suddenly, a memory from days ago surfaced in his mind. The inventory skill! Can I use it for liquids? He immediately tried putting the sulfuric acid in the inventory without touching it. As that didn't work, Theo immersed his wing into it, noticing his feathers slowly dissolve. This time, the acid went into the inventory without any problems. All in all, Theo gathered five hundred liters of sulfuric acid, which occupied half of his inventory space.
One meter cubed of storage.
He could sense whatever was inside his inventory, such as the weapons he had gathered from the melee trial from that patrol group. Prometheus noticed how they didn't dissolve or get damaged in the inventory, regardless if they were 'in contact' with the acid or not. When he pictured the items getting damaged, the skill flexed and the weapons started getting affected by the acid, slowly deteriorating.
Interesting. I can change how objects inside my inventory react with each other. I can abuse that in so many ways!
Prometheus removed everything from his inventory except the acid, to avoid contaminating his precious liquid. Throwing all those weapons into the volcano, which he slightly regretted but had to accept, Theo went back to the jellyfish. Dripsworth was resting inside a large bubble of water he had made, resting on a water mattress.
"Examiner? I am done here, we can look for the next place. We need a place to find this substance," He exerted his body to produce a single drop of nitric acid as the chemical processes needed to make it were still beyond his capabilities. The Examiner walked up to the shapeshifter, moving his head close to the drop of nitric acid melting the tip of a feather on which it was produced.
"I might have an idea. Your Soul affinity is perfect for replicating things, so we called it Replication Affinity. We have never encountered it before, so we don't have any known techniques for it. But, you could use your Influence to try and make more of that acid. It's worth trying out, at least. Since you still lack [Introspection], which is a spell anyone needs to learn to create Soul abilities, it won't be easy." In reality, the Examiner had proposed the idea to avoid flying again, but Prometheus did not know that.
He tilted his head, confused. Another nitric acid drop fell to the ground, which got absorbed by the dirt. Pretending that he hadn't just made a mistake, Prometheus went to a chemically resistant stone and created a single drop of nitric acid, which took him five thousand calories.
So inefficient.
Afterward, he tried moving as much Influence as he could over the nitric acid, which initially did nothing. As Theo persisted, waiting multiple minutes for the Influence to do anything, it finally spurred into action. After around five minutes of his Influence staying inside the acid, it began to form droplets of the same substance, slowly adding up.
Yes!
Keeping this process up for another hour, he had managed to create a small puddle, equal in size to the sulfuric acid one. Another five minutes passed and his inventory was almost full of the two acids. The two monsters returned to the base, with around an hour remaining before the Unsafe Hours.
The shapeshifter immediately ran to his Glycerol sacs, which were patiently waiting for him inside the tunnels. Okay, time to do this...
---
In the tunnels under the Monster Army camp, a gelatinous form rested on the wall, tired from working a lot. It was none other than Prometheus in his Alchemist form, which was a form that he conceptualized from slimes, and it helped a lot with chemical synthesis. Various bowling-ball-sized spherical objects rested near him, full of liquid.
I made some stabilizing containers for it, hopefully, they won't fail me.
Prometheus very slowly moved the balls into his inventory, finding that the pocket dimension kept the object inside stable, calming the shapeshifter down a bit. His manufacturing process had just finished by the start of the Unsafe Hours, so he was safe. Turning his mental processes off one by one, the shapeshifter fell asleep.
Ten hours later, the shapeshifter woke up refreshed and well-rested, taking the form of the Antis. Having a backup weapon in his inventory helped a lot. Exiting the tunnel, he found his friends sleeping next to each other, as usual, but this time they had made a bed of leaves and dirt, to sleep a bit more comfortably. Deciding not to wake them up, he asked Examiner Dripsworth to take care of them, which the jellyfish reluctantly agreed to.
Walking past the stone stairs leading up the platform, he found the General in the same seated position he had last seen the tree monster in, so Theo simply waited by his side. The throne stood tall and large, much bigger than was necessary to seat the General. Roots moved up to form the armrests and a single, wide, and flat log acted as the backrest. Thinking that the General had created that piece of furniture in seconds boggled his mind.
It's been some time since I made progress on my System, so let's check it out. Status.
Name: Prometheus
Stats: Body:11
Mind:12
Soul:10
Skills: Low-rank Enchantment breaking lvl 3
Inventory lvl 1
Medium-rank Shapeshifting 2
Medium-rank Genetic manipulation lvl 1
Low-rank Supernality sense lvl 1
Traits: Tribulation Immunity
Titles: None
I wonder, how do I level up my inventory? It's a skill with levels so it must be able to be improved. The fact it doesn't have a rank is weird, though. First, what do I know about improving skills? When I leveled up my Digging skill, it happened because I used a new method to do it. Let's see, how can I use my inventory in new ways? Wait a second,
A thought exploded in his mind.
Can I put gasses in it? trying to put air in his inventory resulted in success, which surprised him. He could clearly feel the gas moving around the pocket dimension, which was currently empty except for his secret weapons. He knew chemical reactions were possible in the inventory, as that was what he did last night. What about breaking molecules? Theo tried to squeeze his grasp on the air, aiming specifically for the water molecules. His inventory made him able to move everything inside of it with a new sense, but the atoms in a molecule did not budge, even slightly. Straining his Inventory sense to its limit, the Hydrogen and Oxygen atoms budged very slightly, definitely not enough to cause the molecule to break.
Inventory leveled up to lvl 2!
I knew it, smiled the shapeshifter at his own massive intellect. His ability to influence substances inside the inventory was slightly stronger, and the space increased to two meters cubed. Trying something else, he decided to purify the air getting rid of every water molecule, which needed him to be slow and precise. After that, he got rid of the nitrogen and oxygen in his inventory, releasing them outside. Theo wanted to isolate a random gas, Argon in this case, to test the inventory's usefulness. Removing the rarer gasses was incredibly difficult, which took him multiple hours and attempts. After finally removing the last fragments of non-argon gasses, he received another notification,
Inventory leveled up to lvl 3!
Nodding at his successful experiment, he purified his secret weapons, getting rid of impurities in the liquid. That would make them much more stable. Another experiment came to his mind, this time being temperature and pressure. Normally, the inventory was at ambient temperature and sea level pressure, but he wanted to change those.
Okay, what is temperature? It is the kinetic energy of single particles in a substance, so how can I increase it?
Theo tried grabbing single atoms and shaking them around, but that did nothing. Hitting them against each other also did not work, so he tried doing the opposite; Grabbing hold of an atom and keeping it completely immobile was the plan, which completely failed. The inventory wasn't strong enough to manipulate particles that much. Pressure wasn't even feasible as it was the byproduct of a fluid. Compressing some air was possible, but nowhere near enough to have fun experiments.
Just then, the General moved. Theo rapidly walked to the tree monster's side, waiting for him to fully get up. Espanto sat up, slowly looking around. When his multiple eye stalks settled on the shapeshifter, the General said with a mental connection, "Good morning, little guy. Are you ready to move? Go and call Fuoco, I'll prepare the launch pods in the meantime."
Theo nodded and walked up the stone platform, expecting to find the Major there. He wasn't there. A bit of searching revealed the flaming snake was sleeping peacefully in a decorated burrow in the ground. A simple mental connection woke the snake up, although groggily.
"Let me sleep another... five minutes... you ungrateful brat" Said the major while half-asleep. Prometheus persisted until the snake got out and followed him to the General, who was holding his hands on a large pod on the ground, similar to the one he had arrived with.
"Good morning, Major, slept well?" asked the General.
"Ah, very well, sir, excellent, even. What about yourself? Are you sure you don't want any furniture to sleep on? We can provide you with almost anything!" Beamed the snake loudly.
"It's fine, no need to worry about me, Major. We must discuss our plan of action, now. Our enemies are a group inside the Iulan Kingdom, and the main base is in a small city called Golden Lake. I was able to come because some pressure was lifted from us thanks to the creation of the Sapphire Republic, and they're fighting the Kingdom. We probably won't get a better chance, so we must hurry. We will arrive there, I'll scout out the place with my Soul ability, and we'll go inside. We kill any enemy we meet, no matter what. Major, you're strong enough to handle yourself. Prometheus, stay behind me and act as another set of eyes. They are too strong to capture alive, is that clear?"
Theo and the Major both nodded.
"And remember, this is a hostage rescue, so they come before anything else. Now, both of you, get inside these pods" The general pointed to two pods in front of them, "As soon as we are all inside, they'll launch. I've set them up to arrive at our destination. Let's go, gentlemen."
Theo walked inside the wooden pod, which closed as soon as he was fully inside. It was weirdly comfortable, with green soft leaves lining the entirety of the interiors. A small wooden doll was inside, moving its head to look at Theo. It had a soul, so he started a mental connection, "Hello little doll, how are you doing?"
The small humanoid toy jumped on Theo's face and lightly smacked his antenna, making it swing side to side. He calmly grasped the doll in one foreleg and put it in front of his face, "Calm down tiny man, you are much weaker than me. You can't do anything to me, and you shouldn't even try, lest you tempt my rage!" He laughed internally at the doll's change of demeanor at the threat.
Just then, strong tremors took Theo out of his villain delusions. "Preparing to launch in three, two one..." The pod accelerated in the air at insane speeds, squishing the shapeshifter on the back of the pod, becoming less comfortable than earlier.
Theo could have sworn that the doll was laughing at his discomfort, ruining his entire trip.