They were all on the ground, hiding beneath the surface or clutching trees like the one in front of me. “Nope, nope, nope!” I began using as much energy as I could to crush them one by one. “Take all of my nope!”
Possibly, the only thing more disturbing than knowing that you were surrounded on all side by giant stone spiders, was seeing that you were surrounded on all sides by giant stone spiders scurrying in every direction. “Gah! Nonononononononono!” One of the spiders ran into, and through, Yo as it sought to escape the mass slaughter, neither party seeming to notice the others’ presence.
At some point, I released my wings, and activated my mana leech. My feathers looked like a myriad of colors representing all of my affinities as I sucked in as much mana as I could to fuel my ‘nope’ inspired rampage. Somehow, mass murder of these creatures was therapeutic. I think I even pulled earth mana directly from my grove to launch against the arachnid menace. All I know is that I was crushing every stone I could sense that moved, and pulling mana from everywhere that I could in order to do it.
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
By the time I was done, the area around my looked like a warzone. Craters filled the ground, stone shrapnel or long, spike-like legs stuck out of trees, and I had even managed to knock a few trees over to get at the creatures hiding under them, allowing light to pour into the area. I felt several soft feathers wrap around my head, the lovebirds clinging to me as if they felt my former terror and rage at the spiders. Yo was simply relaxing in one of the craters, his large body enjoying the chance to look like a big puddle.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Celeste appeared in front of me, hands clasped as she apologized profusely. “I didn’t know, I swear!”
It took me several long moments and deep breaths before I was able to calm down. I still felt really twitchy, and when one of the pieces of shrapnel fell from a nearby tree, I lashed out at it with my magic on reflex, causing it to burst open. “Celeste… think very carefully… are there any other creatures here that I need to know about?” I was not feeling in a very good mood at the moment, and she seemed to be able to tell. Immediately, I felt a surge of information as she sent me a list of every creature type in this forest.
Giant centipedes, hornets, beetles, half of which eat rock or use it to attack, and the other half disguises itself as rocks.. I would rather be in the jungle planet again than here. At least when I was there I had a trick to hide from everything! Okay… deep breaths, deep calming breaths and kill anything that twitches wrong.
Since I noticed the level-up messages, I decided to take a look at my status and spent the points. To my surprise, I found that my little rampage actually gave me a full 2% boost to Earth Affinity, likely because I was drawing so much in from both exterior sources and my own grove, which had shrunken slightly. However, if raising Earth Affinity meant throwing myself into a horde of rock spiders, fuck that I’ll abandon the element.
Name
Falenel Hulett
Race
Half-Elf(Woodland)
Titles
Vengeful Heart, Amateur Brain Surgeon
Fame
0
Level 24
28%
Class
Druid
Sub-Class
Wild Shaper
Deity
Malthan
Health
160/160
Health Regen
0.27
Mana
860/860
Mana Regen
1.52
Strength
15
Wisdom
100
Agility
21
Intelligence
86
Dexterity
22
Charisma
10
Vitality
16
Luck
20
Points Remaining
0
Earth 13%
Fire 10%
Wind 10%
Water 10%
Lightning 10%
Light 11%
Dark 11%
Plant 11%
Void 10%
Metal 10%
More deep calming breaths, and I put away my two plasma weapons. Instead, I pulled out my staff of the elements, and got ready to use my magic to murder any creepy thing this jungle had to offer. Scythe arms… are they worth it… Okay… but we have to be quick. Not staying in this place a second longer than I have to.
With my mind made up, I sent Yo into the grove, since he would mostly slow us down, while Yin, Yang and I took off deeper into the forest. I continuously watched for mana signatures with my Aura Sight, and kept my Mana Sense up so that I could crush whatever spiders came between me and getting the hell out of here. Thankfully, they all seemed to have been scared away, or I had already decimated the local population. Either way, I was happy because they were not coming for me.
When one of the mountain hornets flew down at me, I lifted my head up and sent out a blast of fire. Unlike the spiders, these do not have stone body armor. Rather, they make their nests in large hills and mountains. But fire works against them splendidly. Though it didn’t kill it, it scared it off. I also came across a boulder crawler, which is a giant centipede that rolls its body up to look like a big rock. Since I was being especially wary of big rocks, I sensed what it was and immediately crushed it with my magic. Take no chances, take no prisoners!
It was after over half an hour of running that I finally caught site of a pair of scythe mantises. They were engaged in a battle with a giant beetle twice their size, a goliath beetle. From what Celeste told me, these things aren’t actually made of rock, just colored to look like it so that they can attract the other insects that do eat rocks. Although the mantises don’t qualify, it’s just as likely to eat anything else that crosses its path as well.
I debated letting the three of them fight it out, then take the winner and steal one of the mantis bodies… but that would take too long, and I really wanted out of this godforsaken forest. “Yin, blast them. Yang, paralysis poisons.” I wasn’t sure if the two birds understood, but they caught that I told them to go fight, and what I said was their usual battle plan anyways, so it all worked out. Meanwhile, I began charging up my mana to do one big blast. Kill without destroying..
My wings turned pitch black as the darkness pooled around me. Although Yin and Yang had decent coordination, they were just too small to do anything to the goliath beetle. At most, Yin had managed to knock over one of the mantises for a moment, but Yang wasn’t having any luck at all. The insects likely had some resistance to poisons or something.
But that was fine, I wasn’t charging forever. Just one minute while they distracted the giant insects. There were a few close calls, as the scythe mantises nearly got them with their blade arms, but the birds were far more agile in the air. As for the beetle, it was too slow to even dream of catching them unless they went under it, but they weren’t doing that.
Out of the way. I transmitted my thoughts to them once my wings had charged up what I felt was enough dark mana, the feathers dripping a stream of inky shadows down to the ground. I didn’t bother charging up half as much as I did when fighting the nature wyrm, because these things were far less powerful. But, as I sent the command to the birds, they looked over to me and flew off to the sides. Flying up has shown to be a terrible idea, since that is where the giant spiderwebs are.
Once they were out of the expected blast zone, I released the hold on the mana I had built up. This was a full minute of charging, so nearly one hundred pure darkness mana. Small amount for sure compared to what I have fired off before, but it is still pure mana. Like the difference between shining a flashlight and a laser beam, this showed me what darkness was like when fully developed, even in a small amount.
The inky black feathers on my wings coalesced into black spikes tha
t shot forward, striking against the three insects, as well as several trees. Naturally, the largest insect took the most attacks, and had the most obvious result. Rather than piercing, the spikes splashed onto its armored hide like raindrops, spreading out to wrap the goliath beetle in a black coat. What I expected to happen next was for it to destroy it from within or something, but instead the beetle began sinking into the ground, as if it were melting. At the same time, the mantises were getting struck by their own shadow spikes, and were being drawn into the ground as well. Perhaps because the trees were too large they didn’t suffer the same effects.
After the insects were fully brought below the ground, there was no longer any trace of them left visible, aside from an especially dark spot where they had stood. Walking over, I could sense that there was a deep darkness energy from the shadows spots, as well as the shifting auras of the insects. They had not melted, but at the same time they hadn’t been killed either. Instead, they were now trapped in the shadow. And I had no idea how long that would last.
Well… I was told that getting good with the Dark Affinity would let me merge with shadows… I guess fully mastering it lets me make other things do so too… Gulping slightly as I realized how strong that power could potentially be, I put a bit of thought into it. I could feel that the ‘shadow prisons’ were drawing mana from all of the nearby shadows to sustain themselves. Logically, once the mana runs out the effect would end, or if the contained creature was too powerful. However, this was the Dark Wood, named for its eternal shadows. The insects would most certainly die before they were freed.
Though, this posed a problem for me as well, because I needed a scythe mantis body to study. Although I could feel the aura within the shadow prison, it was far from enough detail to replicate. As such, I isolated one of the shadow prisons of the mantises, and cut off its connection to the dark mana around it, before using light mana to shine on it. Almost immediately, the mantis lifted up from the ground, and if I had to guess at its facial expression, I would say it was pissed.
“Yeah, yeah. Didn’t go as I planned either. Bye bye now!” I said as I sent an earth spike directly into its abdomen, then summoned my pistol to do a quick head shot. Its head was bigger than mine, so aiming wouldn’t have been an issue even without Celeste’s help.
I smiled slightly as I looked to the dying mantis, and waited for it to finally stop twitching before I stepped forward and did a quick scan of its scythe claws. Once again, I was relying on Celeste’s help to store the information as quickly and efficiently as possible. And just as I finished, I heard an unfamiliar, but distinctly female voice from behind me.
“M… master? I got big…”
Hearing the voice, I immediately understood what had happened when I wasn’t paying attention, and gulped.
Chapter 13: Pill Master?
Congratulations! You have successfully evolved an animal companion!
The lovebird Yang has evolved into a Winged Demi-Elf.
Winged Demi-Elves possess a strong bond with nature, more so than even other demi species. This is due to them not only having been transformed by magic from an animal, but also from the hereditary link to nature that comes with being an elf. Thanks to this bond, any nature related skills will be easier to learn and master for the Winged Demi-Elf.
“Master?”
Don’t turn around, don’t turn around, don’t turn around. I closed my eyes tight and refused to move. One thing that terrified me more than giant stone spiders, a lovebird in human form. Celeste, wanna scout this one out for me?
I heard a tired sigh from the AI. “You know that I can’t see anything unless you see it. Sorry, but you’ve gotta bite the bullet on this one. It’ll be like ripping off a bandaid, just have to get it over with quickly.”
Fine.. fine.. traitor. I heard a slight giggle as I thought that, but slowly opened my eyes and turned around. I’ll admit, Yang looked far more attractive than I had initially imagined. A nearly perfect hourglass figure, ample bosom(which it didn’t help that she was curiously lifting up and playing with as she tried to figure out what it was), and long golden hair that went down to the middle of her back.
Similar to my own set of wings when I first transform, hers were a set of four white angel wings, which would each be longer than her body if she spread them out fully. When she noticed I was looking her way, she smiled happily and dropped her twin peaks to put her hands clasped in front of her. “I’m like Master now, yay~!”
I gulped slightly, and after a thought Celeste thankfully began censoring what I was seeing. Thank you, oh glorious AI. Even if she was now a beautiful woman, she was a bird two minutes ago. You don’t have thoughts like that about someone who was a bird two minutes ago.
“Well, you do.” Celeste snickered slightly, standing in my view next to Yang. I was immensely thankful that I was the only one that could see or hear this.
“Master? Is something wrong?” Yang looked at me in concern, tilting her head cutely.
“Uhm… no, nothing’s wrong. Sorry, just caught me by surprise. Anyways, I need to send you and Yin back into the grove for now. I’ve got some stuff to take care of and then I’ll call you back out once we get back to town.” I said as I looked over to Yin, who was glaring jealously at Yang. After a moment, she swooped down and landed on Yang’s head, pecking her beak against the demi. Of course, a lovebird’s beak is blunt, so it didn’t do any real damage, but still.
“Owies!” Yang brought her hands up quickly to cover the pecked spot, before running over and hiding behind me. With a sigh, I sent her into the grove, and then did the same for Yin. I was sure that Yin was going to continue tormenting her for a while even in there, so I could only helplessly shake my head.
“Okay… now, I still need those herbs…” Thankfully, none of them were fruits found on trees, so I wouldn’t need to climb up and get attacked by spiders. I still had to worry about the ones on the ground, but I quickly ran through the forest, running at my top speed while Celeste watched for signs of any of the herbs.
In under five minutes, I had killed another six giant insects, but had gathered one of each herb that Celeste had listed. In total, there were six. Two weeds, two flowers, and two berries. Each one had their own distinct patterns, and with the knowledge Celeste gave me there was no chance of me mistaking them for anything other than what they were.
With that out of the way, I turned towards the direction of the town and ran at my fastest possible speed out of the forest. This time, I didn’t care whether anything got in my way, I would just run right by it even if it meant I’d only get out one or two seconds sooner. Never coming back, never coming back, never EVER coming back to this forest.
I kept running, and running until well after I had left the forest. I ran until my legs felt like they couldn’t go any further, then finally allowed myself to rest, roughly ten minutes out from the city. I was breathing heavily, my legs feeling like they were about to explode, but I was out of that fucking forest, and I was never EVER going back!
Laying back, I cancelled all of my Aspect transformations, and began letting my stamina recover. One of the new recipes that Celeste had given me for my herbs was a stamina potion, but there was a warning with it that overuse could create an addiction. Because of that, I had never bothered to make it. I did not want to get myself hooked on some strange potion.
“So… ready to make pills?” Celeste sat on the blue grass beside me, showing none of the exhaustion that I felt.
“Gimme… a few…. minutes.” I groaned out each word, taking the herbs I had gathered out of my inventory and planting them all in my grove. None of these were poisonous, so I planted them on the larger primary ‘planet’. Though no, it was still nowhere near large enough to consider as a proper planet. Planets are more than a few dozen meters thick, even Pluto. And people STILL aren’t sure if they can really consider Pluto as a planet.
Well, since I had only taken one of each herb, I began actively gathering plant mana around
me and feeding it into my grove to rapidly grow and spread them. About ten minutes, and nine hundred plant mana later, I had managed to get patches of each herb growing, with berry bushes popping up near my trees, and the weeds growing together with the flowers. “Okay… now I’m ready.”
“Cool! Well, let’s start with something basic, a beginner health pill. Same ingredients as the potion.”
“Yeah, yeah, I remember.” She had only recently put the pill creation method in my head, so it wasn’t like I had forgotten. “Just make sure to track my magic usage. I’ll need to know how I messed up when I’m done.”
With a resigned groan, I sat up on the ground, and pulled out some blood weed, and a few fireflower petals. Then, I got to work on the process of refining the pill. First, the fireflower petals were lifted up with my Plant Manipulation, then surrounded by flames that reduced them to ash. Next, I sent a bit of water in to mix with the ash while maintaining the flames, making sure to hold the medicinal properties of the petals and not let them be damaged.
World Seed Page 10
