by Simon Archer
That said, it was surprising how well my muscle memory remembered how to use the sling. Without thinking, I swung my arm forward in an underhand arc and released my hold on the knot just as the pouch reached a forty-five-degree angle.
The rock flew off into the distance with a surprising amount of power, pretty much where I wanted it to go. Perfect. I spent the next few minutes using the sling before I was satisfied that I had it down. Then I crept back up to the ridge so I could look at the pair of sentry ants standing guard over their little patch of dirt.
It was strange. After my first couple encounters with the Giant Scout Ants, I’d stopped being anxious, but here I was again, all nerves. I took a deep breath to center myself and then shoved my feelings down and focused on my task. I carefully selected the biggest pebble I’d found, barely the size of a half dollar, and placed it in my sling.
Then I stood and focused on the closer of the two ants. I took a couple quick steps as I readied my throw, focused on using Aura Infusion to add extra oomph to my attack, and let the rock fly. It whistled through the air like a fucking meteor and struck the ant hard on the right eye with a sound like a fucking gunshot. The blow rocked the creature to the side, and as it started to slump, I already had my second rock out. I shifted my hips and let this one fly at its partner.
While the one I’d struck initially was definitely down if not out, the second one was already on the move. My rock caught it between both antennas with enough force to send a spiderweb of cracks out across its hard outer shell. It stumbled as I reloaded another rock and let it fly. This one caught it right above the mandibles, and the sound was like cracking glass. The creature reared back in pain, and as it did, I slung my third rock at it.
This one caught it on the underside of its thorax, and as it slumped to the ground, I grabbed my mandibles and charged do the hill while pumping Aura into my legs.
I drove the weapon right into the creature’s cracked thorax with all the strength my momentum and bodyweight could muster as I came down the hill. The blow sent the creature sliding back across the soft earth as my mandible sank deep into its body.
The creature started to thrash, but I willed another mandible to appear in my hand from my inventory as I struck out in a blow that brought it down on the creature’s already cracked head. As the mandible cut through its cracked chitin shell like a hot knife through butter, I drove the heel of my other hand onto the back of it and hammered it into the soft flesh beneath.
You have killed creature: Giant Sentry Ant.
Satisfied, I pulled another pair of mandibles from my inventory and sprinted toward the first ant I’d hit. The creature was still lying stunned on the ground but was obviously still alive. That said, a quick few cuts to the joints between its head and thorax ended that problem.
You have learned the skill Projectile Weapons (Primitive). Increasing your skill will increase your damage, accuracy, and range.
You have leveled up. You gain three stat points and one skill point to distribute.
You have reached level five. Your Special Skill is now available.
“Sweet,” I said as I opened the flashing prompt in the corner of my vision to see what Special Skill I had been granted.
Archetype - When Auric Extraction is used on a new enemy, its essence will be recorded for later use.
“Interesting,” I said with a nod.
In Terra Forma, most Special Skills that weren’t pre-selected were randomly generated upon creation and could definitely have interesting effects, so it was no surprise that I hadn’t seen this one before. While it wasn’t a super useful skill right now, I knew it would be once I was back in my own realm because with it I could use it to create creatures for my new world. That would save me the trouble of transporting creatures from other worlds and breeding them incessantly… or, at least, I hoped it would.
Satisfied, I used my new skill point on Auric Extraction because Special Skills couldn’t be leveled, and then proceeded to add two of my new skill points to Intelligence and one to Fortitude.
Then I used Auric Extraction on the closest Giant Sentry Ant. Like before, my Aura bar refilled, and I felt my exertion leave me, but unlike every other time I’d done it before, I saw a new message.
Pattern: Giant Sentry Ant has been learned. Would you like to create a Giant Sentry Ant?
11
I’ll be honest, I stared at the blinking message for the better part of a minute. While I’d never used Archetype before, I hadn’t expected it to work quite like this. Still, I was intrigued beyond almost all measure, even if I didn’t normally play summoner type classes.
If I could create some ants, that would make this whole thing a hell of a lot easier.
“Yes,” I said, and as the words left my lips, another menu popped up in front of me displaying the Giant Sentry Ant like a vaguely translucent 3D model that listed its stats in their entirety, as well as the cost to create, which was thankfully well within my ability. Part of me had worried that I wouldn’t have the necessary amount of Aura to create the summon, but that didn’t seem to be a problem thanks to all the points I’d added to Intelligence.
Stranger still though was that there was an empty star shape in the corner of the menu. Then because I had no better course of action, I just asked aloud. While the help menu in Terra Forma was better than most, half the time it still didn’t actually give me useful information, but I was hoping it would help.
“What’s the star mean?” I said, and thankfully, the gods above must have thought my question was valid because a new message filled my vision.
You have not created a Giant Sentry Ant. The first creature you create for any Pattern will be more powerful than subsequent creations.
“Ah,” I said with a nod. That was pretty cool because it meant two things. Not only could I create multiple ants, but the first one would be even stronger. So, if I found new types of ants, I might have a host of firsters.
“Well, let’s do this,” I said and smacked my palms together. “Create Ant!” Yeah, I know I didn’t have to say anything, but it felt a lot cooler to shout out a command.
There was a flash of light as green smoke poured out of me and filled in the pattern in front of me. It was kind of crazy, like watching someone build a complicated structure out of Play-Doh, only in super fast forward.
An eye blink later, a green-hued Giant Sentry Ant was standing before me. I could clearly see all its stats and its level, which was one, but strangely enough, it didn’t seem to have health of its own. Whenever I had used summons in the past, they’d always had their own health, but this one definitely didn’t. Crazier still was that its Aura was approximately ten percent less than what I had used to summon the creature.
And as I stared at it, I realized it wasn’t taking any Aura to maintain it. Was it really just the cast of costing? If so, how many could I create?
I went to try again since it had only taken about a quarter of my Aura, and this time, when I opened the pattern, I saw the star was filled in, indicating I had now created my first creature.
“Well, well,” I said as I created another ant, and unsurprisingly, this one’s stats were a lot weaker than the first one. Like before, it had no health, and unlike the first, its total Aura was about twenty percent less than the amount I’d used to create it.
I consulted the help menu once more and tried to find out how the whole health thing worked, but this time, there was no information about it or really anything else.
“Well, that’s lame.” I stared at the ants. “Guess we’ll have to learn as we go.”
They, unsurprisingly, didn’t respond.
Resolving not to summon more ants until I knew how it worked when they took damage, I used Auric Extraction on the other ant which regenerated most of the Aura I’d consumed, then I set to dismembering the corpses. I got the first one halfway done when I had a thought.
I had summons.
“First and Second, can you two help me harvest the corp
ses?” They didn’t respond in words as such. Instead, the two ants moved forward and began to cut apart the corpses… in exactly the way I’d have done it. Only I didn’t have to do it.
“Man, I could get used to this,” I said as I began to gather up the harvested ant pieces.
A few minutes later, we were done, and I put my hands on my hips as I stared at the two ants.
“Well, you two are awesome.” It was true. It would have taken me a good twenty minutes to harvest the two ant corpses, but my ants and I had field dressed both in less than five. Crazier still was that my skill seemed to go up exactly as much as it would have if I’d done it myself. Did that mean that we shared experience as well?
I wasn’t quite sure, especially since I didn’t know quite how they worked, but I would soon enough because the next set of ants wasn’t that far away.
I picked up the rocks I’d used to fell the ants and tucked them into my pocket. Then I checked my sling before heading in the direction of the next cluster of ants. My plan was simple. Wipe out every cluster I could to maximize my experience before moving toward the denser spots.
As I walked along, the ants followed me at a modest pace, staying just far enough behind me to be close, but not annoyingly so. Almost like they knew what I wanted them to do. Admittedly, part of me wanted to try riding one so that I wouldn’t have to walk, but they weren’t quite big enough for that. Maybe I could find a Giant Quarterhorse Ant though?
The rest of the journey was filled with me recalling all the monsters I’d ever faced in the game and wishing I had their patterns at my disposal, which was also when it really hit me that this was real.
In all my previous exploits, Terra Forma had been a game. This time? It wasn’t. I’d get to keep everything I’d ever earned, at least until Zaxcs came to devour my world, anyway, only I was determined to grow strong enough to stop him. And to do that, I needed to level up as quickly as possible, forge my planet into a juggernaut of strength, and form alliances with every world I could find.
It was do or die.
I felt my hands clench into fists as I came upon the next cluster of Giant Sentry Ants. As if they knew what was going on, First and Second seemed to grow both agitated and excited.
That said, I knew rushing into battle with untested summons was silly, especially since there were three ants at this spot and I didn’t have an uphill advantage like I had last time.
“Okay,” I said as I glanced back at First and Second. “We’re going to play this smart.” I pointed to the enemy ants. “I’m going to hit the center one. If it goes down, I’ll move left, either way, I’ll plan on dealing with both of them. While that happens, I want you to focus down the right one. After that, come help me if I’m actively fighting, and if not, get any that are down but not dead.”
They didn’t nod or anything, but I got the impression they understood, so I readied my sling and did a slow count in my head.
As I launched the first rock through the air, First and Second took off toward our adversaries with a burst of speed that was a lot less than they’d had in life. The rock cracked the second one in the side of the head, and as it wobbled sideways, I was already hurling my next rock. That one put it down, but I knew I wouldn’t even have time to try a third time.
My ants were just about at the enemies now, and as they launched themselves at the right one, the left ant broke off to attack them instead of me.
“Perfect,” I mumbled as I used the distraction to fling another stone at it. This one caught the left ant in the side with an earsplitting crack. As it turned back toward me, it caught another rock right in its left mandible. The creature squealed in pain, giving me time to hit it again. Unfortunately, because of the way it was thrashing in pain, my rock only glanced off its shoulder.
That was okay, though, because I was already tearing forward. I called my mandibles into my hands and leapt onto the creature’s back while using all my eight to drive the weapons into the softer spot between its head and thorax. There was a loud snap as my weight drove the creature to the ground, letting me know I’d probably broken its legs.
My twin mandibles tore through the soft joint with ease, spilling warm goo across the dirt, and as I tore them out savagely, I was greeted with a message.
You have killed creature: Giant Sentry Ant.
Satisfied, I leapt to my feet and turned to help my ants, only as I did, I got another message.
Your summoned creatures have killed creature: Giant Sentry Ant.
I barely had time to think before the two ants tore off to get the center ant which was just starting to recover. They leapt on it with furious abandon, and since it was mostly down, it was quite soon out.
Then, First and Second turned to look at me, and as their blinking multifaceted eyes fixed on me, I got the impression they were wondering if I was pleased with them.
“Good fucking job!” I cried, and as I did, I opened their respective menus to see what had happened. That’s when my eyes widened in shock. First appeared to be totally fine… and while both seemed completely uninjured, Second had no Aura in his bar.
That’s when I realized my own Aura had decreased by nearly half, which was way more than I’d used for Aura Infusion. And that’s when it hit me. The ants used Aura as health, and when it dropped to zero, they started to consume my Aura, which could drain me in a flash.
Thankfully, Second was already starting to regenerate his Aura, so I knew I wouldn’t have to heal the creature per se, but it definitely made me a bit more wary of what would happen if, say, ten summons got knocked out from an area-of-effect attack. My entire Aura bar might vanish along with them.
I quickly cast Auric Extraction on the first corpse and set my ants to begin harvesting it before I moved to the next two corpses. Right now, I had about two-thirds of my Aura, and it would remain there if I created two more ants and then used Auric Extraction to regenerate Aura.
So, I did just that, and in no time, I had four ants. I was going to build an army to overrun my enemies and worry about the consequences later since I hadn’t even seen any monsters with Area of Effect attacks yet.
12
A few hours later, I’d cleaned out the last of the small pockets of Giant Sentry Ants and was planning my next phase. There were three larger pockets of ants spread out in a triangular formation around the central body. I had yet to get close enough to actually see what that mass of ants looked like, and while I was hoping it was just a bunch of ants chilling on the dirt, I was worried it was just the entrance to the colony, and I’d have to go deep within it to find the boss.
Still, that was a ways away anyway, so I turned my attention to what I had going for me. I’d managed to reach level eight, and I’d learned that I had a hard and fast limit to how many ants I could create. That limit was double my current level, so I had sixteen ants with me. I’d also learned that I could store ants for later in something called Auric Limbo, but since they were all the same kind, I hadn’t bothered to create more.
I had named my ants according to how I’d created them, so they were One through Sixteen respectively, though I still had a soft spot for One and Two, both of whom had made it to level three. Unfortunately, while Three through Twelve were all level two, Thirteen through Sixteen were all level one, and barely at that, since I’d summoned them as I’d leveled up.
Auric Extraction was now level five, and I’d used the remaining skill points to increase Aura Infusion to level three. Most of my points were still in Intelligence, so I had quite a bit of Aura at my disposal, though I had put quite a few points into Fortitude as well, which was probably why I no longer felt hungry or thirsty at all.
I’d also managed to increase my proficiency with my primitive sling to two, and though I’d only done one battle with it at that level, I was pleased to find that I could nearly one shot a Giant Sentry Ant now as long as I hit it in the head. A critical shot to the eye would kill it outright.
My Hand Weapons skill had also increas
ed to two and was very nearly three, but the limiting factor there was definitely the weapon. While I felt a bit better with the mandibles, they weren’t the best daggers in the world.
Still, they would have to do.
As I crept forward toward the first of the three sides of the ant-angle, I realized I was staring at a group of six ants. There were four Giant Sentry Ants and two more ants I’d never seen before, identified as Giant Soldier Ants. At the size of a small pony, they were quite a bit bigger than the sentries who were about Doberman-size. Worse, their mandibles were significantly longer and more jagged looking. Something told me that if one of them got those mandibles around me, I’d be in a world of pain.
The two Giant Soldier Ants stood in the center with the four Sentries arrayed around them. Their antennae twitched as they surveyed the area, and I wondered if these would actually be able to see me before I attacked them. The others hadn’t been able to spot me until I was right on top of them (I’d tested it), but from the way the Sentries scanned the area, I was betting they had a much bigger cone of vision.
Thankfully, it wasn’t enough to see me or my army from where I lay behind a tiny outcropping of earth. I took a deep breath as I glanced back at my ants and tried to decide what to do.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to outrun the Sentries at my current level, so I doubted I’d be able to kite the Soldiers around either. That meant I had two options. Try to dispose of the Sentries first and then deal with the Soldiers or go the other way. Ignore the Sentries and take on the Soldiers.
But then again, I had sixteen ants, and I was pretty sure that both One and Two could probably take on a Sentry Ant themselves. That left two more to deal with. If I paired Three and Four with Nine and Ten respectively, they could probably deal with the rest of the Sentries no problem. I’d keep Five and Six to help One and Two with that sortie and assist where needed.
