Douglas is once again halfway down the long row of ships when another thought strikes him. The workshop he just left has a lot of interesting items and things inside. Instead of just walking on until something stops him - his sole strategy so far - it might be a good idea to check the side rooms for interesting stuff. He turns right and walks into the first door he sees.
Douglas finds another workshop. This one lacks a printer, is even dirtier, and is half filled with scrap metal. Walking outside, he finds the next door locked. He slams his fists against the bare metal for a bit and contemplates using a spell to blast through. Douglas then decides to look at the other doors first. Lobbing some fireballs or throwing some ice spears can always be done later, after all.
Three workshops, one room filled with locked closets, and a space filled with empty beds later, Douglas walks into a rather odd space. A desk is faced towards him upon entering, shadowed alcoves in the back separating the space into many small cubicles. Bright lights blind the skeleton the moment he steps inside, startling him. He immediately holds up his hand, shoving mana into a random spell shape with abandon. Metal tears, glass shatters, and compounds bend as the solid materials around him tear themselves loose. Each fragment disintegrates into compressed air, the sphere forming above his hand acting like a turbulent lens.
Less than a second later, Douglas’ vision adjusts and he finds himself looking at a rather drably decorated office whose lights have just turned on. The front desk is missing a large chunk and the flooring directly in front of him has partially disappeared. His momentum combined with his hastily outstretched arm tips him forwards, and he tumbles through the floor. His foot snags on a ripped up piece of metal, causing him to tumble as he keels over.
The bright light flooding through the ragged opening shows him a glimpse of thick cable bundles, heavy duty supporting structures, and chaotic piping. Then the hastily cast air spell goes out of control. His twisting fall has caused his head to be positioned directly below his outstretched, spell casting arm. The shockwave thus piledrives Douglas directly through the thin, metal flooring at the bottom of the maintenance crawl space. The suddenly released wind howls through each nook and cranny as Douglas crashes to a sudden halt, his spinning fall suddenly stopped with a cacophony of loud crashing sounds.
Douglas sits up, finding it oddly difficult to do so. He frowns at his pulverized right arm, glaring at the misshapen sleeve of his spacesuit. At some time in the past, he had promised himself to no longer lock up in the face of crisis situations and odd things. He did not quite expect to put this resolution into action by panic casting a random spell. He experimentally picks up his shard filled right sleeve, dropping the misshapen glove with a wet sound.
Douglas looks at the fallen glove one more time. He did not expect it - essentially a bag filled with gravel - to make a wet, smacking sound upon landing. Looking around some more, Douglas finds himself in the middle of endless rows of narrow shelving units. He landed right in a walkway, the door up above somehow aligning with this path perfectly.
And everything is covered in red slime.
Douglas is covered in red slime.
The shelves are covered in red slime.
The many, many beasts are covered in red slime.
The many, many red slimes are red slime themselves.
The many, many white bone monsters are covered in red slime.
The many signs that say ‘aquaphonics’ are all covered in red slime.
The beasts and amalgamations he landed on and crushed are covered in slime.
[ Complete Histaff amalgamation lvl 21 slain; 45000 xp earned ]
[ Advanced Histaff talpidea lvl 2 slain; 8 xp earned ]
[ Arcane skeleton lvl 1 100/100 xp reached ]
[ Arcane skeleton lvl 2 200/200 xp reached ]
[ Arcane skeleton lvl 3 400/400 xp reached ]
[ Arcane skeleton lvl 4 800/800 xp reached ]
[ Arcane skeleton lvl 5 1600/1600 xp reached ]
[ Arcane skeleton lvl 6 3200/3200 xp reached ]
[ Arcane skeleton lvl 7 6400/6400 xp reached ]
[ Arcane skeleton lvl 8 12800/12800 xp reached ]
Chapter Sixteen – Determination and Trepidation
Douglas steps away from the nearest reworked bone beast. The skeleton had decided to try leaving past the most unassuming looking biological horror seconds after regaining his bony bearings. The round, white beast he had tried sneaking past had unfolded into a fan-shaped array of wickedly curved blades. Douglas then rethought that strategy, which is why he is now trying to find the best path out of here.
[ Advanced Histaff talpidae lvl 1 slain; 5 xp earned ]
[ New skill learned; Stomping lvl 1 ]
The shrill shriek of another small beast dying under his feet causes him to stop backing up. More bone beasts, slimes, and hulking infected animals stand up from their slumber, shuffling towards the source of the noise. The small area around the spacesuited skeleton shrinks. Left and right are blocked by skeletal shelves while the clear space to his front and back is shrinking rapidly.
Suddenly, the skeleton sees that none of the red slimes contain any bones. The endless rows of shelves all seem to hold a suspended, thin mesh or some form of black substrate. The meaning accompanying reading the words hydroponics is enough for him to glean the real purpose of the odd scaffolding. Half the shelves are already knocked over, and the Histaff beings avoid going near any of the still standing ones. Those small, black things Douglas keeps stepping on all seem to come from the large piles of black matter.
Random observations and thoughts flit through the skeleton’s mind. The light coming in from the hole in the roof casts colour onto what would otherwise have been a monochrome picture. That should be his darkvision skill, Douglas suddenly understands. There is even slime on the ceiling. How did so much slime get on the ceiling?
[ Advanced Histaff talpidae lvl 3 slain; 25 xp earned ]
This time, the little critter wails its heart out - undoubtedly unhappy at the fact Douglas just stood on its lower half - before it dies instead of a short shriek. Every single Histaff beast in a large area around Douglas stands up and looks towards the frozen skeleton. He isn’t sure, but he feels like he should sweat and shiver. He can’t sweat, and he refuses to tremble; his bones would rattle and make more noise.
Even though he immediately freezes again, a reworked bone beast approaches slowly. Douglas studies the smoothly interwoven bone plates with a dreadful fascination. Can he engrave that, he wonders? His finger twitches. Douglas can’t quite help it; the ages he has spent engraving the ship has ingrained an engraving reflex in his hands.
The reworked reaction at his small movement is swift and terrible. A telescoping limb smashes into Douglas’ side, turning half of his right ribs to splinters. Another bone limb shoots from its back, the blade not cutting but crushing his leg. His boot gets stuck on the blade’s point, and Douglas is thrown to the side.
The sight of a red glow showing through the thin parts of sliding bone is all he notices before he feels a few vertebrae crack. Crashing into the remaining growth beds breaks both the metal shelving and Douglas’ bones. Coming to a rest on a bed of crumbled metal and slime, Douglas thinks for a bit.
Firstly, he limits the flow of mana to only start healing the crucial bones. Ribs and his right arm are left for later, breaking his spine would be a much larger problem. Meanwhile, his empty skull acts as a centrifuge for thoughts, all kinds of ideas and concepts churning randomly.
Since the level up notices, not even a minute ago, Douglas has felt his mind and mana expand. He felt this exact feeling a few times before, each was preceded by a large increase in level. A random thought later, he realizes that each time he evolved his race, his mind and mana was much reduced after being reset to level 1.
Thankful for the sudden clarity yet unhappy at his current distracted mood, he shoves these thoughts aside. Douglas instead guides his mental faculties to figuring out his current situation. He
’s pretty sure his suit is still covered in red slime, but he can't deny the fact that it has all dried. Only a part of his suit is covered in fresh slime at this point, which is probably why he is being attacked. He stands up slowly, immediately dropping back down the moment one of the nearby, overly muscled beasts jumps at him.
[ Dodging lvl 2 ]
Guided by some vague instinct, Douglas throws out his fist, hitting the large animal directly in its side as it flies past.
[ Punching lvl 2 ]
A nearby reworked - a rather long, worm-like being with thin legs - whips its segmented tail at the skeleton, causing him to go flying again. Douglas smacks into a red slime, and things calm down for a bit as he is trapped inside a large mass of red goop. Looking at the dimly lit space through the distortion of the red amalgamation surrounding him, he once again ponders what to do.
The phlogistonate spell worked rather well on slimes, so the submerged skeleton decides to try the freezing spell shape. He feels the air wanting to reach his arm the moment he trickles mana into the formation he holds in his mind, but nothing happens. The air needed for the spell remains out of his reach while he’s completely submerged inside the viscous red liquid.
In a rare moment of brilliance, Douglas wonders why he can’t just order the spell to form a bit away from himself. This idea in mind, it takes a bit of time and extra added mana before the air above him starts to twist itself into a slender lance of ice. Then his brilliance shifts into moronic stupidity once again, as he commands the spell to free him. He does this by telling the spell to shoot towards his own face. The ice lance pierces through the red fluid and smashes against his visor, covering it in opaque crystals of frost.
[ Mana Control 2 lvl 12 ]
[ Mana Sense 2 lvl 11 ]
[ Spell Shape 2 lvl 13 ]
Some thrashing later, Douglas finds that he can move his limbs freely once again.
[ Complete Histaff amalgamation lvl 13 slain; 19250 xp earned ]
[ Arcane skeleton lvl 9 25600/25600 xp reached]
The rush of clarity grows larger for a little bit, immediately making him realise that he shouldn’t have shot the magic at his own skull. The fact that ice does not like heat is logical, even to him, so he pours magic into the dephlogistonate spell shape with abandon. The slime covering Douglas vanishes as its water content is sucked into the forming fireball, leaving him covered in red flakes.
Douglas is about to send the fireball smashing into his face when he remembers the state of his previous glove. A few moments of not moving later solves his problem anyway, the magical ice melting under the heat radiating from the mana powered flames. The fact that his problem went away without any action needed on his part causes the skeleton to take a mental step back. Instead of jumping into action once again, he slowly looks around and takes inventory.
[ Mana Control 2 lvl 13 ]
The warm light coming from the suspended fireball shines light upon a menagerie of horrors. Small rodents scurry back and forth, digging through the piles of synthetic soil heaped to the sides. Larger beasts are seen in relatively lesser numbers. The slimes are also underrepresented, the few transparent amalgamations present conspicuously lacking any bones in their innards. Bone beasts are present in a wide variety, however.
One looks like a bumpy sphere, but Douglas knows it can unfold into a dazzling fan of articulating blades. Another looks similar to the beast that hounded Katare and him in the mall, if not even spikier. The one getting awfully close looks like an insect while the one sniffing at his feet seems to be a glued together collection of needles.
Slender, white antennas touch his helmet and Douglas freaks. The fireball hanging a few metres above him slams into the white bug’s face, who recoils as fire covers its multitude of red eye sockets. A high pitched screeching sound, similar to a kettle being crushed while overheating with boiling water still inside, explodes from the flaming reworked. It scampers back, crashing into other beasts and toppling rows of growing cabinets.
Douglas stands up, his diminutive form ignored by the large monsters that start rousing all around him. He carefully stuffs mana into another fireball, holding it at the ready. Water around him is sucked into a hovering ball, but before the orb can ignite, he is flung to the side. He sees a flash of sharp, white spines as he flies off, and Douglas shoves mana in the crumbling spell shape in reflex.
The globe of gathered water has splashed across the spine covered reworked at this point, the last surge of added power causing it to ignite. Another high pitched scream is added to the growing cacophony as another bone beast starts cooking from the inside.
Blue screens pop up, but Douglas orders them to go away and stay away. Slamming into the wall again, the skeleton feels more bones break. He immediately starts piecing his legs back together using his mana hand while trying to shape another fireball. The effort of imagining two spell shapes is more than the skeleton can bear for a few moments until it becomes easier. The dot in his lower vision starts blinking faster.
Focussing on piecing himself back together while forming another fireball gets easier each second he does so. Douglas stands moments later, his legs held together with a blue glow while a fireball hovers in front of his chest. He flings it at the nearest moving shape, only for it to fizzle and die as it lands on a red slime. The light in the hydroponics area is reduced to a mere three sources once again, two flaming reworked and the single gaping hole in the ceiling.
Douglas realizes that he has had enough. His entire purpose in coming here was to find information about flying the ship. Information Katare undoubtedly has, he belatedly realises. Then he is ploughed into the wall once more as a bone beast runs him over.
His face pressed into a heap of dirt, Douglas finally has some time to think things over properly. The lack of distracting and life-threatening horrors in his direct view do wonders for his state of mind, allowing him to reason some things out.
Ice did nothing against the bone beast back in the mall, but fire seems to make them go wild. Fire did nothing against the slime just now, but they are frozen rather easily. Wind caused the slime to explode magnificently, and the earth spike worked great against the very first Histaff beast dog he killed.
Now that Douglas thinks about it, the air spell made him go flying each time he used it. First, it caused him to fall off the balcony and slam into the mall’s wall when it exploded. Just now, it caused him to fall through the floor and slam through the floor below, which is now the hole in the ceiling, the only way he is aware of which he can use to return to the familiar ground.
Instead of connecting the dots and trying to launch himself through the gaping tear, Douglas decides to cast an earth lance at a reworked beast.
Air swirls above his still form, turning into sand and stone. He climbs out of the dirt pile with effort, aims the stone spell, and fires it. It shatters harmlessly against one of the nervously milling bone beasts.
Douglas decides to cast another and aim it at a slime.
Halfway through the casting procedure, the reworked beast he just hit strikes back. Douglas goes flying, both legs and pelvis shattered into gravel by the angered Histaff monster. He lands on another reworked, who kicks him into one of the remaining rows of standing shelves. His spine broken in multiple places, the battered skeleton feebly slaps at another bone beast who sniffs him inquisitively. Sharp teeth chew on the spacesuit-clad skeleton for a bit, grinding even more bones into dust. The reworked must have lost interest, as Douglas is thrown away again.
Then he sees his chance. By some freak coincidence, he lands right beneath the hole in the ceiling, his broken bones inside his dirty spacesuit illuminated by the bright light flooding from above. He grasps the lowest level of the growing racks with his single remaining, intact arm, trying to drag himself upwards. The sight of that arm being crushed by a large, white limb causes a smidgen of despair to appear inside his empty heart.
Now nothing but an armoured skull inside a spacesuit filled with white
shards - his forehead horn has caused his skull to be stuck fast inside his helmet - he wonders what to do. Then he remembers that he has another hand. Pouring mana into the mana hand spell, the faint, blue limb reappears.
He first grasps the lowest level of the rack again but then remembers that he can cast spells away from himself. The rush of smarts and mana does not seem to abate just yet, letting his mind operate at peak efficiency. He stretches the ethereal limb towards the ceiling, grasping one of the protruding shards with transparent fingers. He then pulls. To his slight amazement, the spacesuited skull actually shoots upwards.
Agitated by the noise and movement, the furious swipe of another bone beast misses Douglas by a hair. In another flash of brilliant mental clarity, Douglas lets go of the ragged edge and grabs one of the light fixtures that decorate the ceiling above the cavity as his upwards momentum launches him further up.
Douglas nearly gives up as he feels himself being pulled backwards, only to see his spacesuit boot snagging on the hole when he looks down. Wiggling himself around a bit allows him to ascend further, and he drops into a shapeless heap the moment his feet clear the crater.
He then redirects the glowing hand to inside his suit and starts puzzling his arm back together. Douglas might have a rather decent memory and a lot of patience, but even he dreads having to re-assemble his entire skeletal frame. There are quite a few large shards inside his suit, but the amount of fine powder and sand-sized shards outnumber them by a significant amount.
Histaff Page 21
