Nexus Alert:
Odo Balancing in progress…43,4%
Waking up to a system notification materializing before him, Dream opened his eyes to be greeted with nothing but darkness. Though groggy, he immediately understood that he had taken the time to finally rest. However, as he tried to come out of his cocoon Odo, he almost instantly realized he was about to make a mistake.
“Ah, right I did that, haven't I?” he mumbled to himself before sighing, “I guess I have to do it again.”
Skill: [ Aspect ]
[Morphogenesis]
Aquamorphism
Activating his newly acquired skill, Dream took a deep breath before withdrawing the Odo he had summoned, cocooning him. Almost instantly, he found himself, very unpleasantly, surrounded by water. After much thrashing around and chaotic paddling, Dream soon found his way to the surface. Panting and soaking with mud, he finally reached the surface and, at that moment, deactivated his lesser-aspect, allowing the ground to return to its initial state: solid.
“Crappy skill!” Dream cursed, coughing while on all fours on the now solid ground. "Screw,---cough cough, blergh! Screw this!"
His optimism at acquiring the skill back then, upon seeing how the Mawcrawler used the "aspect," was one thing; however, him using it himself was something else entirely. The Mawcrawler made the use of the aspect look so convenient that he had forgotten he himself didn't know how to swim.
“Unless a situation like that one arises, or one that is fit for me to cast it, I'd like to avoid relying on this skill as much as possible.”
After gasping for breath and finally managing to stand up, Dream began to dust off the dried mud from himself. The ground had solidified, and the remnants of the murky water clung stubbornly to his clothes and skin. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, trying to forget the uncomfortable drowning experience he had just endured, and as he did, his attention finally went to something that just a few days prior wasn’t there: a right arm, one entirely made of Odo.
“When I saw that notification, I had a feeling that this would happen, but to think I would actually grow a whole new arm.”
Under the veil of a foggy night, Dream's new golden arm shimmered like a beacon, casting a soft, ethereal glow in the darkness. He marveled at the sight, the intricate patterns on the arm now even more mesmerizing in the low light. Flexing his fingers, he noticed little to no difference between how his bone and flesh arm felt compared to this new one, aside from the slightly different visual sight it offered. The fact that he could feel even more extensively, just like it had been with his left forearm, as the Odo coursed through him, was truly remarkable.
Unlike Prana which allowed the wielder to create elementalis out of nothing, and arcane which allowed the users, through aspects, to control surrounding, Odo wielding is a power that relied on something Suraxai called, “Summoning.” Summoning what? Odo obviously. From where exactly? That's a very good question, as Odo isn't materialized from nothing; instead, it is summoned from little particles scattered within parts of the wielder's body. It's said to be found everywhere, in bones, blood, and even skin. However, there's one part where the summoned Odo is said to clot profusely, and that is the extra appendages formed all across the Odo user's body.
It is for this precise reason that most Odoes summon their Odo through extra appendages, be it scales, golden veins, or even extra limbs—not because it is impossible, but rather because it is easier to do so in that manner, especially when one's Odo potential and Odo Manipulation Potential are below the required level to even qualify the wielder as a Winged Odoe.
Up until very recently, Dream, who had his left arm made of Odo, felt more inclined to rely on the left arm when it came to Odo summoning, while entrusting mantra-casting to the right one, as it was easier and faster for him to summon Odo with his left arm. But now, both his arms were more or less made of Odo, and he felt it without summoning anything: his right arm felt as potent as his left one.
“I guess this is one way to look at things positively,” he sighed, summoning a screen from the Nexus.
Name
H.P
P.P
O.P
O.M.P
A.P
Level
Dream
69▲/70▲
997/997
471▲/471▲
47.7▲
164▲
14
“While I can't help but notice how my O.M.P is still low, it's at least reassuring that I've pretty much recovered during…” Trailing mid-sentence, Dream cast his gaze up at the night sky. None of the seven moons were visible, yet the thick fog above provided a desolate and haunting light to the surroundings, casting an eerie glow on everything below. “How long have I slept,” he wondered, lowering his glance back to the ground.
After putting some distance between himself and the precipice he jumped from, Dream realized the kind of monstrosity that roamed the place and decided it was best to find a safe place to rest. By "safe place," he meant a cave or something similar. However, even after traveling for another half a day, he found no such thing in the gray hellscape he had landed in.
For a moment, he considered cocooning himself inside one of the many dead trunks scattered intermittently throughout the area. However, he soon realized it was a bad idea, as his Odo cocoon's golden hue would surely stand out and attract the attention of any nearby monsters. It was then that the idea of using his skill [Aquamorphism] to bury himself inside the cocoon came to him.
Considering that he was still alive and not inside the stomach of a wandering monster, Dream concluded that his idea was at least a decently good one.
“I guess it was worth the trou—Nah, actually, I think I'll still try my best to avoid doing that as much as I can,” he mumbled, then looked southward, beginning to thread in that direction. “But for now, since I've more or less recovered from that, it's time to get back on the grind.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“I've got monsters to defeat, Lords of Old to overthrow, stars to conquer, and a cosmic Dragon to wake up. I've got no time to waste laying around.”
***
While the shattered moon, which served Dream as a compass, indicating the south, wasn't visible, he was confidently able to tell where the south and the north were. All thanks to the threads, north thanks to the tree peculiar threads that he instinctively knew connected him to the Lord of Old and south thanks to the rope-like thread that connected him to the Odo Tree.
Speaking of the Odo tree, while Dream couldn’t particularly make out the golden threads amidst the billions of others, he had no doubt that even though he managed to lose them, they would relentlessly come after him, one after another. There were two approaches he could take toward that unavoidable fact. One was to take preventive measures to avoid confrontation with them, mainly focusing on fleeing from them. The other approach was to get himself ready for their arrival, meaning he needed to get stronger so that the same thing that happened that day would never happen again.
While having a new arm made entirely of Odo wasn’t all that bad, Dream personally didn’t want to go through another ordeal where he would have to lose any of his limbs. Since his severed left forearm was replaced with a new one made of Odo, he always had the feeling that if he were to lose another limb, it would be replaced just like he had witnessed it happening earlier. And yet, in spite of that, Dream didn’t want to lose any more of what currently made him, "him," as he himself came to understand that if his [Odo Balancing] were to reach 100%, there was a strong likelihood he would turn out like the first two Odoes: Fan and Any. That was a fate Dream denied by both refusing their offer and battling against the valkyrie that wanted him dead. He was determined to grow stronger and protect himself from any future dangers.
To do so, he opted for a hybrid approach, merging both the preventive and reactive methods, much like before when he would press on southward. However, this time, he would actively defeat any reasonable opponent standing in his path, more actively than he had ever been. Dream understood that he had to make up his mind that, from here on out, he would have to accept the fact that he would eventually be caught by the valkyrie, and he had to be ready to welcome them warmly. But to be able to do so, what he first needed was strong monsters to defeat. He was in luck; as foggy and lifeless-looking as the place was, there were threads expanding in all directions. So, it wasn't that monsters were missing from this place; it was just a matter of finding the right one.
Dream wandered around the gray landscape for yet another while, paying close to both the sky and the ground, after that scene where he beheld the fiend-ranked awakened beast being so easily slaughtered by the Skyshrieker, he was very wary of the sky. It was then as his attention cast back and forth from the sky to the that suddenly, the ground beneath him rumbled violently, causing him to almost lose his footing.
It felt like an earthquake, but then he noticed something strange – the earthquake came to a sudden halt. He furrowed his brow, perplexed by the abrupt stop. Having dealt with quite many monsters, it felt too sudden and brief to really be an earthquake, which left him with just one theory – it was the doing of a monster. Once the ground rumbled beneath him again, Dream became convinced that what he was facing wasn't a mere earthquake but rather the rumbling caused by something up ahead – a monster, whose thread Dream had already identified.
For a moment, he hesitated. Was this a sign to turn back? But before he could contemplate further, the ground was shaken once again, accompanied by an explosive sound that seemed to resonate from the thread he had identified earlier.
Dream's curiosity got the better of him, and he decided to investigate. He moved cautiously, taking cover behind a large rock to peer over the top and catch a glimpse of the source of the explosion.
There it was.
“Oh.”
Name
H.P
A.P
W.P
Aspect
Lesser Aspect
Mawcrawler
19/23
249▼/375
0.4
Morphogenesis
Aquamorphism
Cryomorphism
As Dream peered over the rock, he saw another Mawcrawler, just as large as the one he encountered in the forest but possessing almost twice the stats. It had the same size and appearance, with its body half submerged in mud, but this one had one more aspect than the previous Mawcrawler he faced.
The creature screeched and growled angrily at wing-flapping termite-like creatures in the air. There were at least two dozen of them. Dream squinted his eyes to get a better look at what the creature looked like. For some reason, their stats weren’t available to check, and their threads were nowhere to be seen. Despite the distance between them, he could tell that these creatures were much too big to be mere flies.
Curiosity mingled with caution, Dream remained hidden behind the rock, observing the standoff between the Mawcrawler and the winged creature. He couldn't determine whether they were fighting or merely facing off against each other, but the intense energy in the air suggested a potential clash.
Dream thought that the battle, if it were a battle, favored the Mawcrawler from the look of it. It felt like the Mawcrawler had the upper hand. But then, at the next instant, Dream was baffled to see what happened next.
The Mawcrawler, through a misty breath, unleashed a cryogenic attack at the flying creatures. As he released his mist, a series of initially small but bursty chain reactions expanded and reached the Mawcrawler. Dream wasn't sure of what he had just witnessed, but he saw the large Mawcrawler being knocked out.
"What the hell," Dream exclaimed.
Observing from a distance, Dream watched as the Mawcrawler recovered from the blow, looking even more furious. However, it no longer had anything to direct its anger toward, as the creatures were gone.
Only when the smoke disappeared did Dream get confirmation—they were gone for a reason, they had exploded, causing the chain reactions that knocked the Mawcrawler to stumble backward.
“From the moment I saw these things, I had this feeling that there was something off with these creatures. To think that they would literally explode themselves…”
Having killed themselves, the termite-like creatures were gone, leaving behind a weakened Mawcrawler. Dream checked the Mawcrawler's status and muttered, “This should be winnable,” as he stood up.
Name
H.P
A.P
W.P
Aspect
Lesser Aspect
Mawcrawler
16▼/23
211▼/375
0.4
Morphogenesis
Aquamorphism
Cryomorphism
However, as he prepared to charge at the creature, memories of his two previous battles—a Mawcrawler and the Valkyries—flooded back, causing him to freeze. He realized he was once again being overly bold and acting rather foolishly.
“Remember what the system is made for,” he mumbled to himself. “To make up for that tendency of mine.”
"Let's open up with something potent. That’s right, there is no need for me to get close. A high-tiered acolyte-ranked skill should get—"
He was cut off midsentence by another earthquake, followed by dozens of fires and smoke shooting from the ground here and there, surrounding the Mawcrawler. “What the hell is that again?” he wondered aloud, his confusion and surprise evident.
The ground trembled beneath his feet, and the explosions began to erupt around the Mawcrawler. Dream watched in awe and bewilderment, trying to comprehend what was happening. Columns of fire erupted all over the place, some even close to Dream. It was at that moment that Dream came to notice something unusual.
Thin, almost imperceptible threads were emerging from the holes through which the columns of fire erupted. These threads connected to something from within these holes, and soon "they" emerged—the creatures to which the threads were attached.
Name
H.P
A.P
W.P
Aspect
Lesser Aspect
Boomwingers
[Simpleton]
⥈
10
0.05
Morphogenesis
Photomorphism