Chapter 15: Warrior

Leaving the stone-lit path, the Collector found a marked difference in the atmosphere and environment. Its sensitive hairs quivered as they detected heavy motion on the forest floor.

Several dozens of gigantified insect and arthropod specimen writhing about on the forest floor, fighting against each other in a tightly packed, many-legged battle royale of stingers, pincers, and mandibles.

The Collector waded through the writhing mess of fighting creatures below it, occasionally crushing an unlucky specimen under hoof.

Nearly all of them, though massive compared to their counterparts in the light zone, were still tiny in front of the Collector, and their instincts understood not to try and test their luck on a much larger, stronger being.

Still, there were some, those among the largest of the specimen, that sought to test their mettle against the Collector.

A massive scorpion emerged from the ground in a burst of uncovered earth, lashing out against the Collector with its barbed stinger.

The stinger bounced off the Collector's durable hyperalloy carapace, and the Collector dispatched the scorpion with a quick thrust of it tusks, goring the creature from the head clean through its abdomen.

The Collector swiveled its head back, sliding the scorpion corpse into its mouth as its mandibles chopped down, breaking down the creature in moments.

Not a moment later, and the Collector felt strong vibrations mounting behind it. The incoming presence of a heavy, charging specimen.

A beetle, it seemed, surging forwards with its crown-like horns as sturdy and large as the swords the humans wielded.

The Collector swiveled around, pawed the forest floor once, and met the charge with one of its own.

There was no contest.

The beetle's horns broke apart hitting the Collector's carapaced face, and then the Collector's half-ton mass of brutally quick and dense, armor-plated muscle blew apart the beetle in all directions, spilling a rain of crushed shell and gooey innards everywhere.

The Collector consumed the two challengers, respecting if a little their willingness to hunt that which was far beyond them.

>>>

*Biomass gained (+10)*

Biomass Level: 13/100

*New genetic material available*

Stored Genetic Material:

-Black Ant

-Black Goblin

-Human

-*NEW*Giant Scorpion

-*NEW*Stonecrusher Beetle

>>>

The Collector clicked its mandibles in mild disappointment.

Only ten points for two of what should have been among the largest of specimen here. As far as it could sense with its hairs and hearing, there were no other specimen crawling about on the dirt that remotely came close to the size and complexity of the creatures it had just consumed.

Though their biomass was pitiful, at the least these specimen were sufficiently strong and large enough for the Collector to adequately incorporate their genetic material into a potential metamorphosis without having to sacrifice its size and strength to morph any adaptations they could provide.

Analysis of the beetle and scorpion specimen completed. Analysis of the spiders engaged.

On the forest floor, the beetle and scorpion were creatures that might have reigned at the top, but what about above?

The Collector ignored the crawling chaos of insignificant, mindless lessers around it and instead focused on the treetops as it wandered further into the wilds of the dark zone.

It did not take long for the Collector to feel the presence of a spider.

The trees in this dark zone were three to four times larger than those in the light zone, perhaps growing more thoroughly since they were absorbing light and nutrients at far more efficient rates.

This granted the Collector ample space to move around without crashing into anything, but the actual treetops were far less spacious in their orientation. The gigantified and numerous branches of the trees grew at a volume that outpaced what their trunks should support, and they compensated by intertwining together from tree to tree, weaving together to form what was essentially one enormous web.

The gigantified spiders thus did not inhabit webs of silk, but instead a web carved out from the forest itself.

Yet that did not necessitate a complete lack of silk production. The Collector was quick to sense a thread of thick, rope-like silk dangling down from above, drooping down like a lure to the forest floor.

If anything touched the thread, the vibrations would alert the spiders and cause them to drop down from above.

Still, the spiders would pose no threat to the Collector, for it had readily prepared itself for them and this environment. Its newly developed pyrocatalytic glands would make short work of anything native to this darkened environment.

Theoretically, the Collector understood that it could hunt the numerous gigantified spiders in the treetops and any larger insectoid specimen on the forest floor, and with enough time, it could accumulate enough biomass to reach the next metamorphosis level.

The issue was that it could not easily find a place here to metamorphose. The forest floor was far too busy, far too competitive, crawling with hungry creatures.

The Collector would store genetic material samples for now and think about evolving later. Analysis of how it would conduct an extended hunt to accumulate enough biomass indicated a significant probability of drawing the attention of the goblins, not to mention that it would take up several hours.

The goblins might already have begun an advance down to the human settlement by then.

And yet, the Collector would not pass up the opportunity to consume the genetic material of what was considered an apex predator in this environment, and it reached out with its head to tap the hanging thread of web with its tusk, taking care not to use the monomolecular tip to cut the strand.

The Collector wanted the spider manning this thread to sense vibrations and come down from its treetop hiding spot.

As expected, a rustle of movement sounded high up, and the Collector's sensitive hairs stood on their ends as they felt rustling from large leaves, patter of several legs on wood, and the creak of branches moving under weight: the advance of the spider.

The Collector looked up, directly at where the spider would drop, and unleashed a small burst of fire.

A controlled, miniscule burst emitted not to burn but instead to generate light to prevent the entire forest from burning down.

But even that small blaze lit up the entirety of the Collector's surroundings in blue-tinted, blinding bright white light. Though the light-absorbent darkwoods hungrily dimmed the light within a moment, a mere second of exposure to that intense light was enough to generate intense movement across the forest floor.

Every crawling creature in the vicinity of the flash halted their hunting and fighting and fled, digging underground or skittering away to thicker undergrowths.

And in the midst of the clearing their retreat carved out, a giant spider writhed and rattled in pain, its eight legs seized up, paralyzing it and putting it on its back.

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The Collector ended the giant spider's life in an instant by stomping down right below its head, where its ganglia nerve center would be located. Its hoof crushed through the carapace with a crunch before punching through softer, fleshier meat with a squelch.

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From memories extracted through the goblins and the presence of the glowing stones, the Collector accurately hypothesized that all the life forms in this forest had an intense aversion to light.

This was the primary reason why the Collector had evolved its pyrocatalytic glands, as in the unlikely advent that there were creatures here that could overwhelm the Collector, likely through numbers, it could ward them off by simply generating light.

The Collector reached down and flicked the spider corpse in the air its teeth, unhinging its jaw wide with a crack and pop as it swallowed the creature down as a quick snack.

>>>

*Biomass gained (+6)*

Biomass Level: 19/100

*New genetic material available*

Stored Genetic Material:

-Black Ant

-Black Goblin

-Human

-Giant Scorpion

-Stonecrusher Beetle

-*NEW* Jumping Arakka

>>>

The Collector clicked its mandibles in understanding.

The gigantified spider, the Jumping Arakka as it was noted in this world, was indeed the apex predator in this biome.

The arakka could not produce too much webbing, but in exchange, the material was extremely durable, created in an efficiently chained weave that made it several times stronger than the webbing the Collector currently had access to.

The arakka's limbs were also far more efficient and powerful than those of the jungle spider's that the Collector utilized now, capable of building up great hydraulic pressure in their joints which could rapidly accelerate their movements in short bursts.

In all ways, the jumping arakka's genes would be an upgrade.

The jumping arakka were not the apex predators of this biome, however, simply on merit of their size and strength. Those traits, some of the larger insectoids on the forest floor could match such as the stonecrusher beetle.

No, it was the arakka's social behavior that set them apart.

The arakka observed some level of communal behavior, nesting together in a massive, interconnected community in the treetops, making them a small army of sorts.

Their neural systems were also surprisingly complex, incapable of higher order thinking but still possessing enough instinctual programming to employ basic tactics.

At the least, it was probable that the arakka had developed some level of tribe mentality, meaning they would cooperate and gather to face larger threats such as the Collector.

The Collector realized then that the jumping arakka would make any ambush against the goblins impossible.

In the brief flash of light the Collector manifested with its fire, it had seen countless other web strands dangling down, spanning throughout the whole length of the forest.

There was a veritable sea of arakka lying in wait above.

It was only because the Collector had been so precise in executing this jumping araka that none of the others were alerted.

If the Collector wanted to stray from the stone-lit path, it would have to wade through countless jumping araka ambushing it, and one stray movement might mean setting off a chain reaction of raining spiders.

Though the Collector did not mind dealing with the arakka, knowing that they relied on powerful venom administered through jaws that could not breach the Collector's carapace, a mass swarm of them could potentially find a chink in the Collector's armor.

For now, though the Collector was resistant to the vast majority of minor poisons, sufficiently strong ones could affect it for it had yet to evolve the necessary adaptation to grant it true immunity.

Beyond the basic risk of bodily harm as well, the noise of the altercation would very likely alert the goblin encampment, especially if the Collector had to generate constant, intense light with its pyrocatalytic glands.

Though the darkwoods quickly snuffed out light, it was paradoxically this trait that made the presence of any light that much more noticeable.

This meant that attempting to circumvent the path dotted with glowing stones would be difficult.

The Collector calculated that its chances to create a successful ambush dwindled drastically.

No, the Collector realized as it headed back to the lit path, it looked increasingly likely that it would have to attack the goblins head on. It would have to face every single defense the goblins had erected, every single one of their fighters, their warriors, and their tricks without the cover of an ambush.

So be it, then.

The Collector bared its fangs as it stared ahead to the rest of the path, spittle dripping from its carapace covered lips in anticipatory hunger.

The Collector would not be hiding, waiting, stalking. All of those, it knew, utilizing when necessary for survival, but those traits were not what it was primarily bred for in the first place.

The Collector's true form towered over the mightiest of Dreadnought-class ships, casting shadows over planets visible from orbit. It was not like the Infector-strains that burrowed into worlds, birthing parasites and drones from seclusion. Nor was it a Dominator-strain that hid from afar, utilizing strong psionics to drive deep madness into tinkerers.

The Collector did not hide at all, for though it was in tune with its primal instincts, it still was no mere animal. It was better than the countless, brutish fauna that comprised its genetic code.

The sum of the many parts sourced over a thousand worlds that built up the Collector did not produce yet another simple creature, another thing that hid in the dark and ate and lived and died solely for survival- it produced a warrior, and warriors lived for battle.

The Collector clashed with the tinkerers head on without fear, without hesitation, without care to their numbers or their trinkets. It brought them devastation and destruction and misery not through the impersonal means of disease and parasites, but with its own claws, its own fangs, its own muscles.

It brought them battle. It brought them war.

For the past few days, the Collector had been weak, hiding, scurrying about on the dirt indistinguishable from the unevolved weakness at the bottom of this backwater planet's food chain, but no more.

For the first time since it reached this world, the Collector came to realize with hunger burning in its being that it would not engage in a hunt.

This would be a battle.

THIS was what it was born for, what it lived for.

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