“And you are really sure, I will not be corrupted by it?”
“Honestly? No… But the truth is, by my method you have a way better chance to become a true Witch without side effects.”
“To be honest, I am not sure I want to become a Witch, but you do not let me choose anyway, right?”
“Well… This time you have the right to choose, but this will mean I will try other things on you.”
“And those things are…?”
“Let me see… We have a Girl connected with a Flower already and another one growing up in a cocoon… The fusion with different animals was a rather sad setback, as you can see on Loopy… It might be a good Idea to let one of my Homunculus grow in a real uterus or maybe I can transplant your Spirit into an improved Body while you are still aliv…”
“I am gladly accepting the chance for me to become a true Witch!”
I knew Elane would come to her senses. The transformation into a Witch is rather simple and with my help about a hundred times safer than in the open.
The only half Witch I ever met was Beryl and she was a failure. Her Body was cursed in the wrong way, probably by a true Witch or maybe by practising in a wrong way. The difference between Mages and Witches are: Witches use Miasma as a secondary power source.
Human Bodies are not made to hold Miasma, but like always Humans try to find some kind of way anyway. The Archmage knew about those ways as hidden knowledge. He never would have used it, as Warlocks and Witches have a rather unstable mood range.
The Danger to become a Witch is between benign and outright death a full plethora of things. A successful true Witch might have warts, skin rashes and deformities, as those hamper them not much, and can be hidden by transformation anyway. I hypothesize with my own Miasma, it will not even have an inkling of a deformity, but better try it on a less needed Person first.
“Okay, we can start right away. You just have to use the basic Mantras and create a natural second flow of the Miasma in your body.”
“You sound like it is so easy, the first thing would be finding a way to get Miasma in my body through my already thick Ma… AHH!”
“Oh that? Not a problem, I just slowly infuse the connection between us with Miasma. It manifests right inside of you without you needing to work on it.”
“Could you not just let Miasma flow into me like that?! The shock nearly made me lose consciousness!”
“To be fully honest I just let go a little bit. Since a part of your spirit is with me you were shielded by myself from any Miasma, I just lessened the guard a fraction.”
“THIS is a fraction!?”
“Yes. And you might find the Miasma to be the only flavour you at the moment could stomach the most. Protection and warding miasmic consistencies.”
“Hah… hah… It is true, but hard to control. The Mantra… Mana is the River, Miasma is the Root. While the Mana flows, let the Miasma grow. Become the Tree of Might, while hardening your Soul. Nourished by both become the Witch of Old…”
“It should work. Willard learned it out of an old Tome he deemed useless. His House has so much Wisdom they can not use…”
“Shut… up! I need to concentrate!”
Okay, I stay silent. The whole thing is rather perplexing, as the way they found to make a Witch or a Warlock is letting it not touch the Mana but let it rip a whole new flow inside the body. Must hurt like hell! Especially as Witches go through so many cleansing rituals before they try… Those were not in the Tome the Archmage read. Lost Knowledge maybe?
It could be in the hands of some Wizards of Ulk or in a Library in Ilstin. Sadly I am not able to go there… yet… I COULD, but why should I multiply my problems?
By the way ‘multiply’ is the right definition about the power increase becoming a Witch or Warlock. A quick way to become a powerhouse in the shortest time frame! Risk? Death more often or becoming crippled like Beryl was. Every one in a thousand might become a true Witch, others are only failed Witches… If we take body mutations into the category of failure then maybe more like one in a hundred thousand become a true Witch.
The reason was the volatile Miasma and I think the intent inside. To prove my speculation Elane is right now in the middle of her transformation. She will need at least a Month for the initial stabilization. Good luck!
…
Halk is on lockdown. This time in an instant, as Edgar is putting his foot down right away. The search for William Willard is at the high, the whole Blue Ice got incarcerated and is in interrogation right now.
Luckily we took most of the documents, but even then, the higher ups would never let any Information be written down about anything dangerous. Still I have a fear someone of the higher ups that died before the takeover had a Diary hidden somewhere.
Wanted posters are already put up for the higher ups of Blue Ice. Their crime is plotting against a Baron of Telk. With this all ways to blame me or the Crater is thrown out.
What are they gonna do? Frame me for killing a Baron who was seen three Weeks after he was supposedly been in the Crater for an attack and ignore Blue Ice fleeing suddenly?
Nah, they only can try to make it look like I colluded with Blue Ice, but every single Apprentice and Guard knows about our relationship, as they were warned to not poke this shaky non aggression pact we had any further to not lose their golden Goose.
Angie was interrogated too, as all Citizen were combed over at least twice. The Peddler King was throwing a fit with all the questions, as they are directly connected with the Crater and with a rather non courteous apology they were left alone afterwards. Celia herself is rather silent and Rendlar is right now the most sought after person.
Food prices at least doubled again and Angie was already asked about taking another side job for income as the whole City is stressed to the limit. She declined the offer of the night district and even accepted the salary cut in the Bar with grace and no complaints.
…
“It’s alive! It’s ALIVE! HAHAHAHA!”
“Null, are you now finally crazy? What is going on?”
“Huh? Oh hi Snow! Sorry, I always wanted to shout that and it is finished! My new Body! This one will work great!”
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“That huge… Ah, no you said you wanted to use transformation, right?”
“Yes! And this Body not only can use it, it has many features, I normally could not use with my other bodies! This one will be able to fight and even support my abilities greatly!”
“Nice to know. Did you name it yet?”
“Oh, yes. Nemo. He is Nemo, as it means Nobody in some language in my original World I think.”
“And you used all this time for this Body?”
“No, it just needed to grow. I used it to finally made the Transfer Chamber ready. The runes are working, but have no coordinates. Also the transport will be tricky, as the Void will destroy anything inside. Therefore I increased the digging for the thing under the Castle to be able…”
“Okay, okay! I do not understand any of it! Jeez!”
“Ah, no worries. How about we go a bit out, after I have the knack about the transformation Magic working?”
“And where to?”
“Dunno… The Steppe or better Telk? Wait, I really need to go to the nearest Empire outpost behind the Steppe. I think I know about a rather stretched out camp next to the Death Peaks… Yeah, there is Information about them.”
“Empire? Would there be more Toys?”
“As I know, the Empire is rather technological advanced in their manufacturing, they should have Toys you have never seen before.”
“Okay! Empire it is!”
Such a simple mind, but otherwise grows up much more elegant. She still loves to play but has a more mature demeanour as of recently. Subconsciously I pet her again, and am happy for her to be at my side. Now for the work I have to do in making that huge thing into a human form…
…
“Countryspeak, eh? What are you bumpkins doing here in Trashtown?”
A rather dirty Military person asks us that. So this is Trashtown? What a great name… Not!
“We search for an Inn and a place to wash our clothes. We got ambushed by some wild natives in the Steppe.”
“Yeah, they do that often. Something seems to make them wary of us. Maybe our Empire finally will turn that place into new fields. Would be nice to see our Town being more than just a Garbage site.”
With that we were let in. No pay, no deeper interrogation, no security. I would have thought more about the Empire. Are they not scared about spies? ...wait, to go through the Steppe they would need to encounter Beast men. I am an Idiot, as long as they just not let anything in with sharp ears or animal traits…
By the way Snow is right now in full human form. She can hold it for a few days if not weeks, but needs to rest in her simpler form afterwards, as it pushes her ability too much. How is Doppel able to… never mind, I am rambling again.
I myself am in human form, so I know how hard it is to hold it. The fact, that I have made the body to be easily transformable into this form makes it way easier, but still is needing a sliver of my attention.
Now to Trashtown… Yep, it is a Town made out of trash, but what wondrous trash it is. Rusted metal everywhere, gears, pneumatics and hydraulics are reworked into what was needed. I see even a Power hammer in one of the Smithies. That whole place is made out of recycled parts.
Perfect! I should be able to find more knowledge about Robots here. Tinhead is theoretically working, but to be honest he falls over more times than I am able to keep balance. I need those mechanics for his internals as the Robot I stole out of the Facility is way too complex to even fathom how those gears work.
Not only I am fascinated by the things here. Snow is too, but I need to find someone who I can sell some herbs to. My Produce would be too suspicious right now, so better not using them, but herbs should be a pretty penny, especially the one Dream Flower I have with me.
“We need to sell first, Snow. Right now we need a Potion maker or maybe a Herbalist? Um, excuse me, do you know where I can sell some of our magical herbs we found?”
“A new forager? Better be careful out there, we lost many of you to those Ferrals. The best place to sell them is over there. Billy is the most known Biologist in town. He might take your stuff at a good price.”
“Thanks!”
“No need to thank me, we Countryfolk need to stick together.”
Countryfolk… Well the whole Country speaks the same Language, that is true. Something with the Ruins down here. The Empire on the other hand speaks their Empire Language on their Continent and both Languages on this part of the Continent. The Continent of the Empire is connected with a Land Bridge to the other Continent. The difference is the accent and some facial traits.
I would say it is like in my original World North and South America had a small part connecting both Land Masses. More I do not know, but it seems they use this Continent as their Garbage heap?
I bet the Kingdoms and the Empire knows more about each other than what is known by a lowly Baron, but I have no access to such secrets between Continents… yet.
…
“And you are sure, you do not know, where you got this Flower? It is really precious.”
“I am sorry, but after finding it we were somehow even thinking of not getting even one of them. With all my will I got one and then we just went away. Afterwards we did not remember to write down the way to them.”
“...sadly understandable. Those Flowers have a strong suggestive drive. One is already good enough for now. If you find them again, you need to try to harvest more. I will pay handsomely.”
Great. A nice way to get those Empire Coins. The Flower alone brought two thousand creds. A cred is about the worth of a copper. There are half and quarter creds, but nothing below. Better than all the different Coins of the Kingdoms.
“So much! We will try our best to find those Flowers again, but it will take some time to retrace our steps.”
“No worries. The flower is already a great boon. When you find more, do not destroy the whole patch out of greed… I suspect you will not even be able to, as the Flowers have a strong survival instinct, so be careful, please.”
As we nod and went out of the Bio lab, how the inhabitants call this Pharmacy, I appreciate the nice take of the People here around us. Well the blatant racism against others and even each other is a demerit, but as long as you are in the right place, the people are nice. To be honest, I have an Idea…
…
“Be good little piggies and give us your creds Countryfolk. Be thankful, I do not touch lower goods and not dabble with your girl there.”
Yup, protruding chin, heavy cheekbones and that large Nose. Empire traits and a bandit. Nice catch!
“Of course. Here take it.”
“Good, you are rather sensible, do not make a mistake, a small scratch of my dagger could kill…”
… And he his devoured. Well the Poison on the dagger tingles a bit, but is not that problematic.
“Ew, that was a bit creepy!” giggle
“Come on Snow, Nemo is at least not that bad. Do you know how hard it is to make him? Aesthetics are secondary.”
giggle “Do not sulk Null. I did not mean it in that way, but you could make someone die out of fear if you do that so suddenly.”
“Yeah, yeah… But I needed to get him, before someone else noticed us. He was at least so dumb to work alone.”
“There are three on Outlook on the ends of this small passage. So he was not alone.”
“They will not mention anything after we got out.”
Walking out we saw someone looking in our direction confused. I just made the finger motions to be silent and the cut-throat signal and he ran fast in the opposite direction. What will he do, alert the Guards to say we killed someone while they wanted to rob us?
Finally we have the time to walk around and appreciate the market. It was so much, I had no idea where to start. The first is, the technology is rather high. Electricity, Steam, Gears… you would think this is the Industrial Revolution painted in new Colours. The new Colours are the need for magical infusion into the parts. Magi-tech! Fuel Cells work with some kind of liquid, that has a rainbow hue like some kind of Gasoline or Oil mixed with water. Looks rather dangerous, and by the kind of deformities some people seem to have, it is.
Asking around, the bumps, skin issues and growths come from using bad Fuel. The Name of the Fuel is ‘Source’ but I just translate it right into my mind into Fuel. Better to use. So Fuel gets used, it becomes worse with time and needs to be taken out and renewed. Pure Fuel is even safe to touch, but the more it deteriorates the more dangerous it gets.
Not to be unfair, but pure Fuel is not to be found in this Town called Trashtown. Machines with samples are somewhat expensive but we have the creds.
What we need now is a place to rest. Right now I am waiting for the conversion of that thief.