Janus and Oblivion

by Noam Oswin

  “Revising. I gave you an instruction, Cynthia.”

  She remembered, and cleared her throat, turning her attention to the Princess. “The Alhamis Empire is collectively ruled by the Ten High Eminents, each of them presiding over an aspect of the empire.” She explained. “They have absolute unrivaled control over their aspect, and are free to utilize resources and manpower in the pursuit of projects within their aspect.”

  She gestured to her master. “High Eminent Sophos is the Eminent of Progress. He is in charge of handling the development of mystic devices, inventions, innovations, and has absolute control over the scholars, specialists, annals, and colleges in the Empire. He has patented numerous new mystic devices and elixirs that has made the lives of the people of Alhamis easier, notable amongst which is the Slate, the Ambrosia-IX, and –”

  “Excuse me,” Princess Kwana interrupted. “You expect me to believe that this Empire is run by ten individuals?”

  Cynthia forced herself to maintain her smile. “Yes, it is.”

  “How do ten people come to a single decision? How do they agree? To have ten captains on a single ship –”

  “They vote.”

  “What is a vote?” Princess Kwana asked. “I do not understand many of the terms that you speak of. I cannot tell if it is because my understanding of your language is incomplete, or if there is something I am missing.”

  Cynthia pressed her lips together. She hoped for the best. “What terms exactly?”

  “What is a patent, a scientist and... a technology?”

  Cynthia opened her mouth, uncertain as to where to begin, she closed it.

  “Reiterating. As I said,” Sophos droned. “Like barbarians discovering pottery.”

  Chapter 6

  Domain

  It was admittedly both fascinating and disgusting to know that I ate my way outside of a snake’s body. Consuming it from the inside out, working my way through meaty flesh and tissue before piercing the tough, keratin-like material that encompassed its outer skin was an endeavor that took me almost six full days. Of course, considering I was a creature with a mouth capable of actually eating now, it made things considerably easier.

  Status

  Name: [Unnamed]

  Race: [Mutated Annelid]

  Specie(s): [Small Toxic Leech]

  Level: 4

  HP: 45/30 (15 Reserve)

  MP: N/A

  HP Regen: 15/Day

  MP Regen: N/A

  Negative Effects: [N/A]

  Positive Effects: [N/A]

  Title(s): [Reincarnated] [User] [Gorger] [Larvae Slayer] [Jonah] [Parasite] [David] [Agkistrodon Slayer]

  I was no longer a worm. Gone was the existence of weakness, and instead, I found myself now possessing the body of a leech. Creatures, if my memory served correctly, that were synonymous with ‘bloodsucker,’ and ‘parasite.’ Considering the manner in which I conquered that snake, it was not entirely surprising that my evolutionary path would follow a creature known for leeching off the life of others.

  A leech was faster than a worm. I now possessed a definite ‘mouth’ and a row of small, sharply curved teeth which I could use to ‘hook’ unto objects and proceed to drain out their blood, courtesy of the new skill [Lesser Blood Sucking]. However, the major benefits I possessed was not from my evolution into a leech, rather, it was the [User] benefits I attained from defeating Agkistrodon.

  [Evolution Completed.]

  [Installing {User} skills...]

  [Skills Installed]

  [You have attained the skill {Water Striding Lv. 1}]

  [You have attained the skill [Strong Venom Secretion Lv. 1}]

  [You have attained the skill [Thermal Sensing Lv. 1}]

  [You have attained the skill [Body Temperature Regulation Lv. 1}]

  [You have attained the skill [Serpent Skin Lv. 1}]

  [You have attained the skill [Serpent Olfactory Sensing Lv. 1}]

  Six skills in total were attained from my defeat of Agkistrodon. All of them possessed great value to me because they were skills vastly superior to what anyone expected a worm, or rather, a leech to be capable of doing.

  Leeches were often used in ancient times as medicinal creatures to suck out the blood of human beings. Something about ancient doctors believing that possessing an excess amount of blood in the human body was a major cause of illness. I knew not what era I was reborn into, however, if I was lucky, I would be picked up by a passing human with that same belief, clearly unaware of what they were getting themselves into.

  Alas, that was just one fanciful whim out of dozens. For now, I crawled out of the perfectly round shaped hole I had eaten my way through, and emerged, for the first time in five and a half days, outside of the snake’s body.

  The thunderstorm had long stopped. The pond was still, and seemingly motionless. The vibrations in the air resounded softly, telling me of the wind that blew from east to west, the buzz of flies and the flapping of butterfly wings that were like heavy claps in the atmosphere.

  Agkistrodon’s corpse, unsurprisingly, was pestered by numerous guests come to feed on the meal. Maggots, by the multitudes. Flies, perching and landing with reckless abandon. Nature cared little for the mighty serpent, its remains rapidly being consumed.

  I’d already had my fill, so I did not bother chasing them away. The mighty rock upon the pond on which the snake once stood was now mine. The throes of victory had not yet worn off, but I knew I could not allow myself to get needlessly overconfident. Defeating Agkistrodon was a feat I could only have accomplished from inside of the creature’s stomach – and I would prefer if I did not have to be swallowed time and time again just to take down difficult predators.

  Regardless, my new goal was to grasp and understanding of just where truly, I was. My skill [Vibration Sensing] was currently at Level 8. I knew that two more levels were required before I could evolve it into something stronger, something which would help me navigate and discover where I was and how best to proceed. The skill [Sixth Sense] was apparently a precognitive ability that forewarned me of immediate danger before it activated, but it did not have any immediate use in mapping out the topography of the land.

  Hence, the skills I attained from Agkistrodon came into play.

  [Thermal Sensing]

  The ‘color’ of the world changed. The vibrations I could sense had always been grey and colorless, but upon activating my ability, the world was transformed into a sharp hue of reds, blues and yellows. Agkistrodon’s corpse and the pond below were both a steady blue, the maggots were blues with slight shades of yellows, and I could make out small, red spots far off in the distance.

  [You have activated a new method of sensory input.]

  [You can simultaneously activate methods of sensory input for a larger comprehension of the world.]

  [Would you like to activate {Thermal Sensing} and {Vibration Sensing} together?]

  [Yes]

  [No]

  I failed to see any true disadvantage, and hence, I accepted the option.

  [Sensory Input Systems Upgraded]

  [Skill {Vibration Sensing} has gained a Level.]

  [Skill {Vibration Sensing} has gained a Level.]

  [Skill {Vibration Sensing} has evolved into {Motion Sensing}]

  [Skill {Motion Sensing} has been combined with {Thermal Sensing}]

  [Sense has risen by 2.5]

  The age old adage of attempting to describe color to a blind man was rather fittingly apt in my current situation. I was blind. Now, I could see. Albeit, “see” was something of a misnomer. Most humans relied heavily on the ability of sight to navigate the world, and yet, ironically, they did not even possess the most acute and powerful vision of all living creatures. I did not rely on my eyes anymore, but somehow, I felt as though I could “see” more than I would have been capable of doing if I did.

  The world was filled with dozens of tiny, indescribable motions so infinitesimal that one could argue for their nonexistence. Scurrying of insecto
id legs, the wind against tree branches and leaves, specks of dust floating and landing gently upon the surface of water. Movements profound and tiny, all of them were acute when you were the size of a human pinky.

  The blues and reds and yellows informed me of the relative temperature of living beings and objects. Reds were body temperatures and the brighter the red, the higher the temperature. Yellows were fairly tame and blues were the tamest. I could sense more than just the temperatures of creatures, but their effects on the environment as well.

  It would take some time, getting accustomed to the new sensory input, although at the very least, I was glad that organisms were constantly red, as it would help me in identifying prey and evading predators. For instance, that rapidly moving mass of red that soared above the heavens above was one enemy I did not wish to anger.

  [Special Notice]

  The words appeared without warning.

  From slaying the previous owner of a Domain within their Domain, you may now claim the Domain as yours.

  Would you like to lay claim to the [Refuge Creek Rock] Domain?

  [Yes]

  [No]

  What was a domain?

  There was no particular forthcoming information about it. Information in general was the scarcest resource I possessed, and merely attaining knowledge that the name of this pond I found myself in was apparently “Refuge Creek” was the most information I attained since being reborn.

  I selected the [Yes] option because there was no benefit to refusing.

  You are now the possessor of the Domain [Refuge Creek Rock].

  Information about your Domain(s) can be accessed through the [Domain] Page.

  There was a Domain page?

  Domains

  You currently have (1) Domain:

  [Refuge Creek Rock Lv. 1]

  I possessed an inkling of an idea as to what I was getting myself into. I selected the option for Refuge Creek Rock.

  [Refuge Creek Rock Lv. 1]

  A Domain previously belonging to Agkistrodon, the lovelorn pet serpent of the First Druid Sage of Final Sanctuary Woods and one of the Three Keys. It is located within Refuge Creek, forty gallops north-east within Final Sanctuary Woods, three hundred stretches East of the Alhamis Empire and five stretches West of the Kataramenos Forest. The current range of the domain is 60 inches. The Domain’s size and bonuses can be increased by increasing the level of the domain. The Domain’s level can be increased through various methods such as fortifying its defenses, increasing its aesthetics and/or successfully repelling intruders and challengers.

  Core Domain Bonuses:

  +15% HP Regen while within the Domain.

  +3% EXP Gain while within the Domain.

  Bonuses from Domain Defenses:

  N/A

  Bonuses from Domain Aesthetics:

  N/A

  Lovelorn pet serpent? Final Sanctuary Woods? Alhamis Empire? Druid Sage?

  I knew what Druids were. Creatures often portrayed as women created or born from trees and possessing an innate, inimitable connection with nature. “Druid” was a word that belonged in the realm of fantasy, and seeing that word here...

  What sort of world did Oblivion send me into? Druids? Empires? This was beginning to sound like the set-up of some type of medieval fantasy. A world where I have to gain everything and where even the worst of my fantasies are allowed... That was the terms he put in place.

  I pushed whatever grander realizations about the nature of the world I was in aside. It was pointless to agonize over it when I was a leech and was limited to small, insignificant portion of the world in question. I focused instead, on that bonus. +3% EXP Gain. While within this tiny sixty-inches of rock in the middle of this pond, I gained an additional three percent gain to experience? Not to mention the extra fifteen percent HP Regeneration?

  And this is only at level one, a voice whispered. At higher levels, how much of an increase would I attain? Could I, theoretically speaking, gain a 100% HP regeneration within my own Domain, and become invincible?

  Well, true invincibility was unattainable, but I would, at the very least, be tremendously hard to kill. The harder I was to kill, the easier it was for me to kill other things, and ergo, the easier it was for me to gain experience and levels, and abandon the form of a creature that crawled and return once more to something resembling human.

  One step at a time, I told myself. One step at a time. For now, I needed to see about increasing the Domain’s level, and the methods to accomplish that gave me pause.

  Fortifying defenses? Increasing aesthetics?

  I was on a rock. A rock in the middle of a pond... creek... whatever. How did one go about fortifying a rock? How did I make a rock look beautiful?

  I sincerely hoped ‘aesthetics’ merely translated to any form of decoration, and not actual aesthetics. The only thing on this jagged, uneven rock with me was Agkistrodon’s rapidly decaying corpse being feasted upon by maggots – and unless I wanted to somehow use it –

  Could I?

  Indeed the serpent’s skin and fangs would be tremendously useful, however, I was a leech. I did not possess the means or the ability to skin and defang a dead snake. The only means by which I could perhaps do something of the sort, was to use my [Insectoid Metamorphosis] skill repeatedly to grant be the abilities of insects that could perform the task. However, that skill came with a 72-hour restriction, which meant, I could not use it again for another seventy-two hours, at which point any work I did would be decayed to the point of uselessness.

  No, Agkistrodon’s corpse was not the answer to my problem.

  A secondary option was to gather sticks and twines and build something of a barricade. Perhaps with some stones, I could also create a miniature fence. However, the problem, again, was that I was a leech. Moving up and about was problematic because I did not have the liberty of fast speed nor did I have the liberty of ease of movement. It certainly would have been terrifying if creatures capable of sucking blood could swim in the water with the same speed as a –

  Did... did I not recently acquire...?

  [Water Striding]

  I did not hesitate before moving off the rock and landing on top of the water. My body, as if on its own accord, began to slide and skid across the surface of the pond as though it were an ice-rink and I were skater.

  There was an exhilarating joy to it that I could not truly convey as I moved across the surface, lacking in grace what I made up in sheer speed, evading and darting past the occasional lily pad, my movements took me around the pond, once, twice, three times for good measure, again and again and again I circled, always aware of the little blimps of red and yellow that told me of the creatures below and above the waters watching me, but I could care less as I felt, truly, the bliss of speed again.

  [Skill {Water Striding} has gained a Level.]

  Control came, as did the increase in speed, and righteously did I hate my inability to convey glee as I dashed across the surface of the pond faster than I could have ever done before. If anything, I was glad for the reminder that even the ability to express delight was deprived from me as this sort of lifeform. Yes, it was good that I was reminded, so I would not forget, so I would not become complacent, so I would strive harder and harder to become stronger. Harder and harder, I would strive to evolve into something more.

  At the very least, I wanted to become something that could laugh.

  The initial exhilaration from testing out [Water Striding] died bitterly, and I re-oriented myself on focusing back on my goal. Strength, power – evolution. Increasing my level, increasing the level of my domain, and rising. Now that movement on water was not an issue... there was a significant amount of work to be done.

  Chapter 7

  Colony

  I never truly realized how cold nights could get.

  My first ever night as a worm was spent at the bottom of a lake, and it did not bother me. The next six nights were spent eating my way out of a snake, so, again, I was not faced wit
h a particularly challenging problem of the elements. However, alone, on a rock in the middle of a pond, I was suddenly deeply aware of how cold it was.

  Perhaps leeches could not handle cold weather better than worms? I was not sure. I found myself rolling every now and then to generate warmth, and upon failing to successfully do so, I resorted to using one of the skills I acquired from Agkistrodon, [Body Temperature Regulation] in order to keep myself warm.

  Nights were unique, at a miniature scale. The decrease in temperature was noticeable when you crawled everywhere, and so the difference in sounds was unique as well. Hoots, screeches, and howls informed me, dangerously, that the forest was filled with owls and bats and wolves at night, and I made the decision that I would not be venturing out to meet them. Crickets also played their tunes, their legs rubbing against each other in search of potential mates, and there were the toads as well, croaking, sometimes in rhythm.

  Nature was not beautiful, however. No – not at all. Several of the sounds of nature were nothing more than the attempts of animals to attain sex and mate, to varying levels of success and failure. My position on the rock granted me access to know who succeeded and who failed, which was information I would have rather not possessed.

  A rather notorious chill blew, and I could tell that the temperature reduced significantly. Adjusting my own temperature to be even hotter was my answer, but I knew it could only be a short term solution. If it were to rain again, I did not want to be caught under the elements, nor did I wish to dive into the pond to avoid the rain.

  I needed to build something. A small roof, perhaps made of interspersed or woven leaves and held up by branches; it would improve my living conditions. Some additional sharpened twigs here and there could also serve as a barricade or a form of defense against potential intruders. At the very least, it would protect the Domain while I was not present, and there was the possibility that it could offer additional benefits.

  The wind blew once more, and I found myself feeling restless.

  I could not ‘sleep.’ Not truly. Not in the manner of a human. Sleep was a waste of potential time that I could be utilizing to become stronger, to evolve into a creature capable of at least giving a middle-finger.