Warning: The Shrill remains unhealthy!
Warning: The Shrill’s total strength reduction due to infections, injuries, and parasites: 38.5%
Recommended treatment:
Seek out areas of needed healing for specific treatment plans. Vaccines recommended.
With this gland repaired, I’d be able to administer the fourth of the six vaccines. I had to do it right here, and I didn’t waste time. I pulled out the soda bottle-like vaccine cannister.
I turned off my magical cloak. One of the side effects of wearing the thing was that my voice came out raspy, and three weeks later, it still freaked my pet out. “Okay Banksy,” I called. “I’m gonna do it!”
Banksy didn’t quite need healing yet, but I was topped up, so I cast Heal Familiar. My pet glowed.
One of the larger pig spiders hissed at me, having finally noticed me standing there. I yanked the cloak skill back over my body. It melded to my head and the darkness swirled about me. But it was too late. They scrambled up and around Banksy, boiling at me. They were going to be extra pissed when they found their eggs all smashed.
Every time I administered one of these vaccines, something different happened. I’d had to go to the exterior to administer the first two, traveling to one of several nasal passages and climbing out onto the greasy flesh. The first vaccine was to stop some disease the Shrill didn’t have, so nothing happened. For the second, I’d had to kill all the “fleas” crawling about his exterior, which had required a solid week of constant hunting. There weren’t many, and they hardly gave any experience, and they were hard to find. I’d attempted to ask the Shrill directly if he could tell me where the fleas were. The exterior was covered in eyes and mouths. But other than that first time, he didn’t appear to acknowledge my presence at all. I couldn’t get him to say anything to me. This hunt-the-fleas quest was something I’d probably have had to do early in the game before deep dive became available. When I finally injected the vaccine, the flea corpses all rose from the dead and attacked. And just went I thought I had them beat, the elephant-sized botfly pustules all erupted, vomiting out dying and angry, half-completed monsters. Banksy had died protecting my escape. He could regenerate within the Shrill, but I couldn’t yet. I had the brand, but I needed to find a flesh modder before I could add it. He’d died a least a dozen times protecting me, which was seriously hindering his level progression.
My progress was also maddeningly slow. I was now level 23, on the edge of 24. Banksy was level 24, also on the precipice of leveling up. I prayed he didn’t die now because it was becoming a real slog. The pig spiders weren’t hard to kill, but they swarmed and had already killed him once.
I came to realize that every time I happened upon a new type of injury or area that needed healing, in the normal version of the game there was a cutscene that went into detail on how to perform the surgery. Thanks to Anatoly, I didn’t have that. I recognized the moments where the cutscene was triggered and then skipped. The world flickered, like a blip on the screen.
I’d seen it a few times before. The first I noticed it was when I started the amplification ceremony. Then when I gained the controller for Moritasgus. Then again when the cellar hag told us about Baal for the first time. Now it happened every time I came across an injury type I’d never seen. I had to stumble through each new type of healing. Repairing this gland had taken almost a week to figure out the proper sequence. I had a scratchpad in my menu, and I’d filled pages and pages with the formulas and sequences until I finally came to this one.
The previous vaccine had caused stomach acid to start spraying everywhere, and I’d had to waste one of my healing potions after my face almost melted off. I’d been forced to put every attribute point into durability. It was now my highest stat at 23. I wished I had one of those familiars with the “vaccine administration” ability. I had no idea what this particular gland did. I cringed as I popped the top off the bottle, and the needle appeared. I injected it directly into the now-healed gland.
Vaccination Success!
Experience Earned!
You have gained a level!
You are now level 24!
Warning: the Shrill is experiencing a vaccine-induced Karen seizure! It will last for five minutes.
“Oh fuck,” I cried as up suddenly turned sideways. A wall of screaming, attacking pigs with spider legs rained in my direction.
“Banksy! Back to your cave!” I cried. I leaped at the vein, clutching on with my grappling hook. The Shrill screamed with all his mouths, rolling yet again. I dangled off the vein as the falling pig spiders crashed off the wall and then angled toward me again, their fangs gnashing. I selected my home base on the BloodBorne menu. I would ride out the seizure there. It took a maddingly-long time for the cells to coagulate.
“Duke, something is happening!”
Duke? That was the first time Banksy had called me something other than some sort of iteration of father or dad. Banksy had wrapped himself around a tendon to keep from falling. His body glowed.
Banksy, Hook Slayer is now level 25.
“Oof.” A flying pig spider barreled into me. Its legs scrabbled for purchase. I cried out in pain as it tore a deep gash along my leg, ripping open my pants. I cast Scalpel with my right hand and stuck it in its red, compound eye. It spun away, squealing.
Your Hook Slayer is evolving!
You must choose between the following:
Lambton Wyrm
Arrackisian Slayer
The Gurt
Warning: Your choice is final.
Warning: You have 60 seconds to make a decision! If you do not choose, a random selection will be made.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” I said. “Now?” I hadn’t expected the vaccine to give us enough experience.
More pig spiders fell at me like rain. These were mostly the smaller ones. I punted one. The vein opened, and I pulled myself inside.
The ride back to my base took three very bumpy seconds. I spurted out onto the white floor of the much-calmer room. I spun to a stop, streaking red blood across the white tiles.
The level-up notification remained persistent on my screen. I had to hurry. I quickly clicked on the first choice, “Lambton Wyrm,” to read the description.
Descriptions are not available for this evolution until a choice is made! You have forty seconds left to make a choice!
The timer continued counting down, appearing directly below the already-descending “Karen seizure” timer.
Son of a bitch! A couple of days ago Banksy had noted I was swearing a lot more than I used to. I didn’t disagree.
Which choice to make? I looked at the clues. The first one was “Lambton Wyrm” with wyrm spelled with a y instead of an o. That implied a dragon of some sort. The second was “Arrackisian Slayer.” That was most similar to hook slayer. “Arrackisian” sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Especially not now with the timer descending and my leg gushing blood. The third was “The Gurt.” That was an odd name. There were no real clues there other than the “The” part of the name. That implied there was only one. Like there was only one The Shrill. It sounded like a joke. I wouldn’t pick that one.
I was leaning toward the first choice. If it was a dragon, maybe he’d gain the ability to fly. Or at the very least, he’d breathe fire. That’d be pretty cool, too. Then I remembered where I’d heard Arrackisian. It had an extra C, possibly in an ill-attempt to avoid some sort of trademark infringement. Arrakis was the planet from the book Dune. And that implied a Dune-style sandworm. Then again, it might mean “arachnid.” As in a spider. Shit. I didn’t want that. But a giant sandworm? That would be amazing.
That’s when the baby pig spider latched onto the back of my neck and started shaking back and forth in an attempt to decapitate me.
“Not again,” I growled, spinning over and grasping at the little monster. It must have hitched a ride in the BloodBorne cell. That wasn’t the first, or second, time a parasite had wriggled its way into my home. The first was the imp
ossible worm when Clara had died. (I called them impossible worms because they were almost impossible to kill. According to my map they had some long scientific name I couldn’t remember. We avoided those things the best we could.) The second time was when I’d infested my apartment with gore lice, tiny, acid-spraying monsters the size of beetles. It’d taken three days to get them all out. I had wrongly assumed that jumping into a blood portal would get rid of them for me.
A second spider pig latched onto my leg, biting into the already-bleeding slash from earlier.
I pulled the amplification knife and skewered the one on my leg. It squealed and rolled off, its legs curling in on itself. I felt the rush of soul power. The one on my neck was smaller and was doing a poor job of ripping my head off. I grasped with my left pincer and squeezed, popping it like a pimple. I spent a moment sweeping at my clothes, making sure I’d gotten them all.
Okay, now to choose… Fuck!
Time Expired! Rolling for a choice… 1,2,3,1,2,3…
I watched in horror as the numbers spun across my screen, slowing to a stop on number three.
You have chosen The Gurt.
Duke. My cave…
The world shook.
Your healing efforts have failed. The Shrill has succumbed to his wounds. Regeneration in twenty minutes.
I fell to my knees as the soul power overwhelmed me.
Chapter 39
Warning! Your familiar’s current regeneration spot is no longer available. A new one must be chosen. Please review your available familiar regeneration options:
Current regeneration spot: Frontal Sinus Chamber 3 of Guardian the Shrill. (No longer available)
The digestive tract of Player Duke. (Not recommended)
Mirror your own regeneration: Village of Charnel (Not recommended)
Choose a branded location.
Choose a regeneration spot using the map. (recommended)
Like with the death of Bast, it took several minutes for the soul power to finish pouring into me. The power bar turned yellow, meaning my soul power was temporarily unlimited.
I expected to be ejected from the kaiju like I had with Moritasgus, but nothing happened. I guessed that only occurred if it died while you were in direct control. I knew we’d move to the Shrill’s regen spot, but it was only a couple miles or so from where we were if the guardian had been following his normal daily schedule.
The Shrill would regenerate in 20 minutes, and he’d be in just about the same condition he was before Banksy had blown a hole in the side of him. Killing guardians was no big deal as long as they were near their regen spots. I was pretty sure you couldn’t change their spots, though, so it would be a big deal—a very, very big deal—during the end game scenario. But that wasn’t something I needed to worry about just yet.
I saw exactly what happened on my Gross Anatomy map before it turned itself off with the guardian’s death. The moment Banksy had upgraded to “The Gurt,” he’d grown exponentially. He’d literally shot out of the side of the Shrill as if he was a cannonball.
I only saw Banksy’s outline on the map for a quick second. It was difficult to tell his new exact size, but if I had to guess, I’d hazard he was just about half the length of Bast, though not nearly as high. So about 500 feet long and about 25 feet tall.
I shuddered, remembering when he was the size of my fingernail. I clicked on my familiar menu and examined his new properties.
Banksy the Gurt. Level 25 Minor Guardian. Young Adult Stage.
This is a unique familiar.
Chosen by the celestials, the Gurt is the final, most powerful, and ultimate form of the gut hook evolution path. The Gurt will become more formidable with each level-up, culminating at the top possible level of 50, where he will cease to be your familiar and will become your associated guardian. The Gurt retains most of his previous abilities and will learn new special attacks at levels 30, 35, and 40. He ceases his sustenance requirements and receives his immortality at level 50. In addition, upon reaching level 50 he will no longer be permitted to approach large population centers such as Medina, Necroshire, and Little Cibola.
For one time only, the Gurt may freely choose an external location as his regeneration spot.
Note: minor guardians may not use deep dive locations as their regeneration spots, even if they are branded. Once the minor guardian hits level 50, his currently selected regeneration spot will become his permanent revival location.
“Holy crap,” I muttered. I didn’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that.
I pulled open the regeneration menu. I chuckled at the “digestive tract of player Duke” option. I clicked on Select Exterior Regeneration Spot, and a not-very-detailed map of the realm popped up. Twenty-two small circles populated the chart. These were the existing guardian regeneration spots, and Banksy’s new spot couldn’t overlap. They were not labeled, but I could tell my earlier guess about the location of some of the other guardians such as the Opera and the guardian of the sundered was likely correct.
There were multiple, small islands floating to the side of the diagram. These were hidden locations. The map gave no indication of where they actually were. Just their shape.
At the very south end of the map was a twisting map bisected by a river that ended at a large, castle-like structure that rivaled the size of Medina. I suspected that was the world of hell.
Damn, I wish this game had a screenshot option.
It wouldn’t let me choose any of the hidden locations as Banksy’s regeneration spot. I thought about it a moment. I was tempted to choose the plains outside of Charnel, but I changed my mind. Instead, I picked a location much closer to the rift. A clear spot to the east of the crack in the world, on the outskirts of the town of Little Cibola. It was smack between two other regeneration spots. One was likely the sundered’s invisible kaiju and the other was the swamps just north of there, home to Colo Colo, the slug kaiju of the shade gremlins.
The game asked me if I was sure, and I clicked Yes. I then had to go back into the menu and manually select this new spot. I wanted to be sure I’d read the description properly, so I changed his spot to see if I still could. To my relief, it allowed me to choose the city of Charnel—with a warning. It would devastate the town. It still let me do it. That was good to know. I could still move his respawn around until he hit level 50, but I had to be careful. Whatever was selected when he leveled up that last time would become his permanent spot. I moved his respawn back to the field outside of Little Cibola.
As if on cue, Banksy spoke in my mind.
Duke, I have outgrown my cave. This saddens me, but I am thankful for the story you told me of your daughter and of you gazing upon the stars. That is the vision I will have when I think back on that warm, cozy refuge. I am going to ground, hunting the great burrowers that live below this world. They beckon me. While you can not talk to me, you now have the ability to summon me to your location. Call, and I will come. I can not teleport like Winky can, but I will come as quickly as possible.
I sat there for a long moment after his message, wishing I had the ability to talk back to him. Jesus, he’s all grown up. I felt oddly empty. Alone.
With Banksy away, a major conduit of soul power was also gone. I would have to be more proactive about killing things. I was slowly working my way through the Shrill, killing everything I could. Soon all that would be left would be parasites I couldn’t handle. And when that happened, I would be in trouble.
I finally remembered I’d gone up a level, too. I tossed my point into strength. I took a look at my surgery talents. Finally. Several of my healing abilities had leveled, including antiparasitic, which was now level 7. I could finally make a move into the small intestine and attempt to rescue Bernadette. My earlier experiments with the Antiparasitic talent had been less than successful. I could cast a level 6 spell at a level 7 parasite a hundred times in a row, and it wouldn’t kill it. It would make it weak, though. But two castings didn’t stack.
The dino worm right outside my door was level 8. His official name was a “toxocarasaurus.” I called him Yoshi. Banksy and I had attempted several combinations of healing and attacks to try to kill him, but all we could manage to do was get him really, really mad. He’d bitten Banksy right in half once.
The worms that lived within the intestine were level 7. According to my diagnosis, they were responsible for 20% of the Shrill’s strength reduction. The intestinal system was built like a giant knot, with Bernadette in the middle. I couldn’t cut my way straight in without having to cut through several layers of the worms and causing all sorts of unnecessary damage to the Shrill. It was designed so I’d have to enter at either end and power my way through, casting as I went. Looking at my area of effect, I’d have to cast at least three, possibly four times before I covered the entire center. And I knew from experience I was going to stir up a whole lot of trouble before I got there.
Even with my skill high enough, going into a tube with no escape veins and casting a spell that attracted every nearby monster was pure suicide. I could cast Invulnerable for almost 19 seconds. That wasn’t enough. Even if the antiparasitic managed to kill everything, it took as long as ninety seconds to finally work.
Damnit. I could really use Banksy for this. Or even Clara.
I had 22 skill points hoarded up. I looked over some of my newly available skills and spells to see if any of them would be helpful. Nothing jumped out at me. I needed to keep at least seven points available to level my Teleport up to level 3 so I could complete the Charnel quest. I really wanted to level my Teleport up to level 4, which cost an additional ten points. If I could manage that, I’d be able to zap around the map almost at will. If I wanted to keep that option open, it meant I could only spend up to eight skill points. I needed to be level 25 for that final Teleport upgrade, and I received three on level-up.
My eyes caught a spell I’d had access to for a while. Miniaturize. It cost three skill points for the first level and three for level two. Upon level two I’d be able to temporarily shrink myself and all my gear to 1/10th my normal size for two seconds of every level of my acumen skill. So 34 seconds.
Kaiju- Battlefield Surgeon Page 33
