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Chapter 38 - In nubibus ludo

Should I experiment on myself? I have [Immortality]. Poisons do not kill in seconds like the movie industry wants to tell us. They also leave more of a mess than Hollywood in its mainstream forms likes. I would have time to trigger [Immortality]. I have no big doubts that most antibiotics would work against disease on us, now that I have thought the matter over. You can use them to kill bacteria in a petri dish after all. But that tells us nothing about toxicity to us. I don’t think that I am even a mammal anymore.

But … . There is always a but. I don’t know how healing magic works. Will it remove the actual poison? If not, I’d be in deep shit if the effects become lethal before I am out of the cooldown. Yes, there are a few very brave doctors in the history of medical science. However, I think that these histories are written with survivorship bias. No thank you.

In fact now that I think about it, can a healing power make me grow? I absolutely mean make me taller, you perverts.

Next to my vehicle ants have started chucking seeds. A minority among them is a bit larger and has comically enlarged heads and mandibles they are using to crush seeds into smaller chunks. They are also dumping trash into a small depression in the ground a bit downhill from the entrance to their nest, which they have heightened a bit with excavated soil.

The shade my vehicle generates has changed their behavior. Are they usually doing this at dawn or dusk and I have not noticed so far? I sit down on a reclined chair and decide to pop a can of soda.

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I find myself waking up as a cloud obscures the sun. There is even a bit of wind in small gusts. The water in the lake must come from somewhere. Argus#1has been watching and this is an opportunity I need to use.

Walking on a cloud is even better than stories make you believe. It is not bouncy like an air matress or a trampoline, but soft and yieldy, as if walking on whipped cream. But do not make the mistake a lieing down on a raw cloud. For all I know there are essence abilities for manipulating clouds that remedy these issues, but clouds are made of water droplets. Dew if you will. Dew does not form at decent temperatures. They are cold and moist. I feel like the result of a college party with much too much to drink, which had to go somewhere during the night and enough time to go to room temperature. The room temperature of a room with a window open at night. A room in central Europe, not the tropics. Not to be recommended. Iron rank has clear advantages.

Now when I think about it under that aspect, normal pharmacokinetics cannot apply to us. And would our digestive tracts destroy or adsorb drugs? The usual routes of excretion are not open to us. Nope, I am not going to take conventional drugs unless in a dire emergency.

At least I got a healthy supply of cloud substance in storage now. I’ll keep the salt anyway. You should always have a backup.

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Rod needs a shave. Human psychology being what it is, nobody notices that he does not need a shower. He does not care. The hot beverage he has gotten is delightfully sweet.

RG: You are right. We ran into a prepared trap. The trace was about to vanish. So we made haste. Right into the trap. They sacrificed that scout.

DT: Chodhen … ?

RG: He made a stand and told me to get away.

DT: The priestess told us that he, but only he is dead.

RG: Then the rest of our team has been captured.

DT: Did they surrender?

RG: It is possible. Chodhen told me to go for help. The battle was going badly. I don’t think anybody but a stealth specialist has gotten away.

DT: Rod, I do not want to shirk responsibility here, but you outrank me, even formally. And you are a Geller. What are we to do?

Rod hesitates. His shoulders hunch up. But he is a Geller. A Geller will answer a legitimate question. Even if he has no answer.

RG: I do not know. The trace is cold by now. I don’t like it, but my plan was to ask for a bronze ranker.

Pavol clears his throat.

PN: I could not help but overhear your conversation. But, do you have solid intelligence on strength or location of the enemy?

Rod gulps.

RG: I sensed a bronze rank aura. A pure one, not like yours, Dean. We are definitely weaker. You are right. This needs a decision. We will not attack.

Tension leaves Dean’s shoulders.

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She knows their mission, but she does not know how she got here. She is wearing a suppression collar. And she is covered in substances she does not want to think about. She has been captured, that much is obvious. She can sense no injuries but for a fierce headache. So presumably they have fed her a potion. But what do they want. If only …

She knows their mission, but she does not know how she got here. What is that thing around her neck?

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Nicolas Down is enjoying a last night at a house of suitably ill repute. He will depart at first light, but that is not a reason to not have a little fun first. The walking fish had just handed over a bag without words.

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Derrick Stelline is watching the proceedings with grim determination, as a begging mother falls onto her backside, a door forcibly being closed in front of her.

» He was just visiting a girl! Were you never in love?

DS: Yes, I was. That is why only he is flogged and why I do not string him up.

Aura manipulation is a brilliant tool if you need your threats being taken seriously.

They are letting one of the guards swing the whip. The ritual circle for sound amplification does its job.