" The antenna, ol' Mitch, would you mind passing it to me?"

" Yes, of course, just a sec... Like hell I will! Dmaned creature, you dare to use his voice!"

" We both know it though, give in, cede him the item, and he'll leave you alone for a good while. We'll relax and enjoy our time here.

We could also get an oath or a contract, so that the little pest won't give us any more trouble, yes? "

This time though, the voice he heard was his own, such exquisite innate control this alien had over his mimicking abilities was truly astonishing. From what he knew, even if gifted, shapeshifters needed at least years of experience to attain such masteries over their abilities.

This 'Ancient' truly defied common sense on this, as he hatched no more than a few hours prior.

"No, and drop this farse, and I don't think like that. I'm much harsher with myself young... whatever you are. Makhar, yes Makhar was your name. Damn, my old age.

I'm just a silly, old elk. Shush! Now go on with your troubles and let this old soul rest."

"C'mon good ol' Mitch, there should be no bad blood between lifetime companions like us. Give him the antenna, it doesn't cost you anything, this last favor of mine, please put this effort for me."

Then Mark's voice changed, seemingly mocking the greenskin.

"Also, young Makhar knows that you're not tired at all. He can also feel your weapon charging up."

"Alright, alright. God, you're so detestable..."

Then was the plain, rough metallic voice he heard the first time it spoke. Half curious, half unconvinced about his sincerity.

"Giving in? You old fool, finally recognized my superiority?"

How could such a monotonous robotic voice infuriate him so much, old Mitch could not tell.

'What are you even so cocky about. What if you have a couple abilities, I loaded my gun so that you could take on the message and scram!

A bug shorter than the average goblin, where do you even get the confidence?

You wanna dance? Let's dance then.'

"Right little bug, you got me. Stop looking at me like that, let's say I'm not particularly fond of you. But as you've said, this scrap of metal sleeping inside ol' Mitch's storage should have been yours."

The little green man stroked his white beard a couple of times, as if in thought. Then he jumped down the hammock, now looking directly at young Makhar.

"You claim strength, then prove. A cheeky phrase you'd say, as if I care. I'll give you about a week, by then I wanna see your core up to tier 1, the energy or reactor type, whatever you have inside... there yes, shell, carapace exoskeleton whatever, you've got it. Now scram."

Seeing the little bastard didn't please him one bit. However, being able to talk freely to someone every once in a while felt quite refreshing. Much better than putting a facade for the more literate fools.

"A challenge, very well, accepted. But old fool, has your brain started to rot already, or has dementia started to pick you up?

You've spoken of a core, presumably residing inside my body, but I do not possess yet the capability to study the innards of my body without damaging it to the point of no return."

"Search it up little bug, it's a system thing. Mark should have already briefed you about it. Mitch out."

Old Mitch then rushed for the intruder to exit his tent, as he left, the PT=1's strange cloth closed the entrance on its own. Now leaving the young Ancient all alone.

'Relevant observation, finding the tonality and choice of words with most affinity to the specific interlocutor, will most likely draw a much better information yield than a plain, formal way of speech.'

Young Makhar then quickly tried to summon said system, intensively thinking about their presence.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

[Connecting user ??? Makhar ??? to the Observer system...]

[Display set to: Identification Data]

[Birth name: ??? Makhar ??? first of his name.]

[Biological age: 3 hours, 40 minutes, 3 seconds.]

[Chronological age: Estimated to be about 643 million years.]

[??? ??? ??? Energy core: tier 0, not yet named ]

[??? ??? ??? Reactor core: tier 0, not yet named ]

[??? ??? Energy source: Uknown to host.]

[??? ??? ??? Transformer: Unknown to host.]

[??? ??? ??? Bio-Encoder: Ancient's primordial stomach, tier 0.

Status: primitive, not yet enhanced, grafted, or stimulated.]

[Registered party: None. ]

[Reign: None.]

[??? name: None. ]

[Title of Renown: None.]

[Dynasty: Decayed, must be re-enacted. ]

[Cursed being: ??? has cursed your species to emanate an aura of repulsion and disgust to all other sentient beings.

" You, that did not know how vast the universe was, now feel our wrath and cower before our power.

??? " ]

'Intriguing, truly a magnificent tool that is. I would describe it as a real-time monitor for your rise to power. I see yet many unknowns yet, only time will tell about them.

Also, pathetic, such a curse is a wasted effort. Hopefully, my ancestors thought the same, so what if our race is despised, when they-ll e under my dominion I'd dare them to try me.'

The young Makhar then focused further on three major points in the IDD that he felt were most relevant to complete ol' Mitch's quest to power.

[Reactor core: Special organ particular to every sentient being, only discovered in most advanced species, has now been normalized through the Great Observer.

It is located in a distant, yet close, parallel dimension referred to as the energy stream, since its boundless ever changing energy. The organ is the means for its host to harness great power from the boundless everstream, capable of incurring great development to the host's body and ???.

This type of organ is much more common in beast-like beings rather than those of humanoid form, as to properly function the presence of a bio-encoder together with the appropriate type of ??? are essential.

The role of a bio-encoder is to assimilate and recombine genes and biological material obtained through external means and feed them to the reactor code. Each tier upgrade over the reaction core will entail considerable changes over the host.

Current encoder's statistics:

Extraction affinity ratio: 0%

Extraction quality ratio: 0 %

Extraction bio-mass quantity : 0 %

To initiate the next upgrade procedure of the host's reactor core, each ratio must reach 100%. Due to the host's bio-encoder's primitive nature, the System suggests natural bio/matter consumption and digestion.]

'Very interesting, it seems like the only way to go is push forward, to find prey and see how to bio-encoder, a fancy name for my stomach, actually works.

I wanted to hear something about the energy core as well though...'

[Enegy core: Very similar in concept to the reactor core, yet due host's limited knowledge and life experience is currently underdeveloped.

Cannot be used.]

'Depressing, I'd say.'

The small ancient scurried away from their landing spot, stalking through the vegetation in search of prey. Young Makhar analyzed his situation, many kinds of beings could inhabit this forest, other than the small critters and insects he found along the way, it could be either a wild animal or a sentient being part of a concurring faction in this game of conquest the human Mark told him about.

For now, he had to adjust his targets to less dangerous beings, those further down the food chain, yet not so weak as they would not provide him a good extraction score.

For a moment he glossed over the possibility of aiming for the cubs of the sentient species that nested in the proximity of the forest, he could do it, thanks to his mimicking capabilities. However that would have issued some kind of mass retaliation from the other party, and if not, at least a couple of research teams would have been issued.

To expertly cover his tracks he was not sure, young Makhar decided he needed some more hunting experience before attempting dangerous feats.

Unfortunately, his black chitinous color was not the best of helpers. His first victim was about to be a young fawn that wandered too far from its mother, picking on some blue, spheric berries through the lower bushes of a tree.

Young Makhar had been waiting above the bushes, on a taller tree branch. Perhaps he waited too long, to let the young deer savor their berries, too immersed to pay attention to their surroundings, however, its adult mother, together with a couple of other cubs, had come back for this lost fawn, and was quick to notice the stalking hunter above.

Needless to say, it immediately caused a scene, alarming the unsuspecting fawn which immediately escaped Makhar's grasp.

'My body is indeed agile in its way, these legs did have a good grip over the tree bark, as I did not have any problem getting up here. Yet it cannot run fast at all, once the prey manages to spot me I won't be able to chase after it.

I also ran some tests about the resistance of my chitinous exoskeleton, I must say that it is quite tough and durable. I've seen the adult male version as what the system refers to as a 'deer', and only taking the full charge of their horns would cause me any problems.'

Due to the nature of his poor mimetism, young Makhar decided to wait for the night to come, his advantage as a hunter was that to be able to choose a prey he was sure to take down without receiving any major injuries.

Wandering aimlessly in a place he was not familiar with, was only going to spell trouble for him. Hiding high up through tree branches, Makhar decided it to be a good spot to reside till dusk. Not only from here, he was confident to escape any larger predator, but he could also study the fauna passing below and even attempt a strike on smaller flying creatures.

He could wait, his body was not particularly hungry, and he did not care much about ol' Mitch's quest. As if he put his life at risk for the elk's tomfoolery, once his core will tier up he'll go and ask for the antenna, and in one way or another, he'll definitely get it.