The experiments run smoothly. Not every blood can be used by every Miasma it seems, but otherwise there are limitless possibilities to create Monsters.
Grasswalker transformed into a crystal being and grown wings. Well ‘wings’ is the wrong word. They are sharp crystalline blades. By charging their Miasma inside of them they can propel themselves close to the speed of sound.
The Miasma itself has a strange intention. Kinetic and light, might be some kind of homing magic or maybe some archer skill for sure hit? Hard to read the remnants if you do not know the original spell.
While building my fort some more specimen got slowly bled to create synthetic Cores. The hard part is the small insects and spiders, as their body is rather small and they do not have much of blood.
The most interesting Monster right now is the Earthworms. They got bigger and can devour rock and stone as if it is clay. The earth shaping Miasma seems to be similar as that Eldar Mage from before, so it is now a rock burrowing kind of Worm with the length of one meter.
Interestingly all the Monsters do not need much to eat. They get their nutrition from Miasma and the created Mana. Those Monsters are kind of different than natural born ones. Especially the extreme need for sustenance in their transformation.
Luckily I found out how to slow the transformation down, with just keeping the core smaller. The time is longer, but the stress on the creatures is lesser. And I do not need too much Blood for the core, so win/win.
In different vats lie different kind of animals slowly transforming into monsters. Some need more Biomass, some more Miasma. There is rarely a correlation between different species, so I have to write down every single experiment and their creations.
By the way I named the Grasswalker Monster now Bladehopper and the Earthworms just Burrowers, as I have no way to know if some similar creatures even exist.
…
The Building of the fort is progressing well. While I was at it I create a Moat in front of it. As I already dig deep into the Earth I can just make a crevice deep into it. Right now it is not deeper than fifty meters, as the presence is extremely hard to work against for now. The crevice is filled with some water and deadly Miasma of the crater. If someone falls in, he is dead in seconds.
As the newly forming Portal is right in the middle of the moat I decided to create a bridge over it in form of a Ring. Two bending bridges on each side and a hole in the middle. As it is invisible for the naked eye (for now) it should just look like a strange quirk. But it has a reason. The Portal pulls Miasma in from below and above. Why not from all sides, I can not tell, but it helps me to keep it contained and able to feed its creation I watch eagerly.
The walls behind the moat grow steadily and keep eyes away as well the screams of the Monster mostly contained. I can tell them what to do, but they are… dumb as a bag of rocks and sometimes even forget their orders. Some Bladehopper were eaten by the Cockatrice, I named the chicken after, albeit forbidding it. Well they have retaliated for they are not as tame as their non monster brethren, and had shed an abundance of feathers, scales and purplish red blood.
The Cockatrice will need a garden, as it eats plants and insects the same. Bladehopper and Burrower need the same. They already breed and seem to create monster I can also feel, which is a good sign.
The Spiders have not taken to the change and the Birds are right now in the bath slowly transforming. I hope to see what they become as they used some curious Miasma to create their cores with.
…
“And the bread is still fresh?”
“Yes, Lord. It is as if it does not want to go bad. It is most curious.”
The Farmer had started their own testing with the land and crops. The wheat like crop was after only a Month ready for harvest and the next one is already growing. Milling with the hand is horribly tedious, but they do not care for now and tried their own bread. Normally the Bread goes bad after three days, but it has been a week and it is still soft.
“This is good, but still be careful with it. If you see some small places, where felt grows and has a different color, do not eat it. Bring it to me so I can see how dangerous those might be.”
Still it is pretty nice to see, they can make bread with just those few ingredients. Well true, it is a flatbread, but still it is impressive for me to make it soft with their techniques.
The Wheat has much Mana in it, the water too as well as the wood they use to bake, so it might be that. But if a Mana eating Mold starts to come by, it might become dangerous.
This reminds me, single cell organisms can not hold Mana… Dead creatures have living cells but no spiritual body anymore, can it be a connection of some sort, where only organisms of a particular size can be magical…
…
OK, fusion of my synthetic Monsters is a disaster. The first try was promising as the spirit and the body both were under my control, but the result was a bomb.
The Monster pulled Miasma and Biomass in, until critical mass was reached and… boom! The whole body just burst into every direction. The vat was broken and much of the liquid biomass was flowing around. The other Monster just hid out of fear, but when it was all over they came and licked the floor for more biomass.
Strangely they can sustain themselves for long with Miasma but need food for reproduction. Seems like there needs to be at least some Matter to create a fertile egg.
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I need more specimen to experiment with. Maybe some humans, but I do not want to take them from my workforce.
…
The greenhouse is coming along. It is on the west side right behind the wall. What I created is a glass wall with many different plants growing in the perimeter. It has no ceiling, and I do not know if I should seal it up, but right now everything inside grows wild and is seeded randomly. I even induced a bit of growth Miasma, which changes the plants eerily.
The rest of the Miasma I put inside is the one which the Monster I created need. For now it should be a great place for nesting and breeding. With this they should keep their population stable, hopefully. I need to remind them to not kill each other into genocide, am I?
Well for now they will be my Mana filter for those kind of Miasma. Right now I create a kind of Castle. Not a big one right now, but as I knit the space to make the rock stay where they are, it will be able to become some ridiculous structures, if I want to.
…
I knew this day would come, but hoped it would be way further in the future. Ava got Mana burn. The blood starts to go black and Mana presses through the pores to reduce the over saturation.
First I disassembled him right away. The Spirit holds way more Mana than before. The direct problem seems to be, it is stagnant. Nothing moves and with this the Body fights against that much Mana and just removes the overflow.
How to fix this… ejecting it into runic circles halts only the symptoms, but not the spread. It seems not a real sickness, just a reaction to an overstimulation of the spiritual body. The Mana gets ejected and at the same time used up to keep the body in mostly ideal shape.
I already tried my best to create a human core with blood, but nothing. Humans can not create cores. At least not in that way. Giving Ava a core would be a bad Idea, as it could kill him if the core and the blood not match. Dang it!
…
The experiment I right now work on is extremely dangerous. It could destroy Ava, but that is a needed sacrifice. Worst comes to worse I need to take a Farmer and create a new liking from him. It would need a few Months until size and facial bones are set right, but should easily be done.
What I am doing right now is what I did not want to try in the first place. I start to move the strings holding Avas Spirit together. To stabilize it Ava is in physical form. On the table, he is held with clamps and chains to not accidentally move, as I have no idea what I am really doing.
Slowly I move some strings in ways how Reds Spirit moves, and I get resistance against it. Slowly heightening the strength of will, the channel slowly moves and Ava is convulsing. I just move a small portion in his left Arm and the whole body is thrashing without me even in it.
While watching the Mana move a bit, his muscles rip and the skin blisters. This can not go on like that. I put him in cold biomass. In that soup he should have the possibility to regenerate easier with my help.
…
The process is slow and I need to reassemble some parts of him over and over. It is like I need to remake him again and again. All his nerves get burned repeatedly, this would be a horrible pain and I need to go slow for his heart to not stop accidentally.
At least I start to understand what I am doing wrong. The strings are connected to each other and need to flow at the same time. The problem is, if I start all of them he would just break apart without any way to rescue him.
Slowly the threads get easier to move and the body reacts less bad to it. But for all them to get loose enough to be moved at the same time, it would take some time.
This could only be described as torture, if Ava would have still some consciousness left. Definitely impossible to use on normal humans. The flesh melting and regenerating has a reasonable background. The whole body rewires itself to be able to let Mana flow directly through the body not only storing it.
If the human body is not made for working Mana, then why are there Mages? It is like the Human is totally cut off from Magic. Then why was I as a Hero be able to use it and why can so many people still use it? Something is not right with all this.
…
One Week. I pulled on all the strings one week for it to finally work. The flow is still worked by me, but starts to find its own rhythm. The worst thing right now is the state of the living body. I even inserted the fake core Artifact of Beryl to hold him together. Some parts melt while others get regrown. If I would not focus on holding the body in one piece he would be Ava soup right now.
The good thing is, the body stabilizes slowly and holds form longer over time. I hope it is ready in the next week as then I have to deliver more produce, and I do not want to go with Red.
By the way, Petal came Yesterday. Right now the two Friends were talking, and Petal was in awe seeing Red for the first time. I have no other choice. I could not go there with a barely holding together body which is always melting and reforming.
I would not even move an inch, as he needs to be in the liquid to have enough materials for repair while I recycle his discarded parts for the next ingestion.
…
Finally Ava is back! Snow was grumpy all week for me to be so focused on holding him together, but now he can walk again. His nerves are too oversensitive right now and his skin needs to harden back to be in a better state, but right now I can walk again in a human Body.
“Lord Null, this body seems to be somehow different than before. What happened?”
Leafy is inquisitive as always. Maybe a bit nosy, but that is how she is. At least she does not hide in her gazebo anymore.
“Ava was having Mana burn. I had to do drastic measures, so he does not go into advanced stages of it.”
She looks surprised. Well it was a new Information she did not know before.
“You have found a cure for Mana burn? This would be great for the ailing Farmers.”
“Sadly no. To make him resistant to Mana burn I had to work on his body in a way I can not do to other humans. I had to reassemble Ava over and ov…”
“Ah! That is a shame. Better not talking about it near the Farmers. Let us change the topic, you need to go again to the town in three days, no?”
Leafy got a bit clammy. Don’t know what in her head is going on, but if she wants to change the topic, then we change it.
“Yes, I will go with the same Team. Do you need something from the Town?”
“Um… Not really, but it would be a good Idea to not hoard too much Money, would you not think Lord?”
Well, money that is not flowing makes the whole commerce bad. She has a point, but I do not need anything right now. I just hold the possibility open for later as I do not know if I need some kind of artifact or material… wait, materials would be a good Idea.
“Yeah, you are right Leafy. I just got a great Idea of what I need. Maybe I can purchase some of it.”
“That is nice, Lord.”
Leafy smiles and goes right to making me a tea. Well I had not eaten for a long time with Ava. Would be nice to have something warm in the stomach. I hope the tongue is not atrophied.