Chapter 22: HBA – Chapter 21 – Arc 2 – Always be skeptical of Oracles, especially the Old Ones?

“We All seek Change.”

 

“Whether we know it or not, that is what we do.”

 

“We seek it because we thrive in it.”

 

“We thrive in it because we seek Change in ourselves.”

 

“We seek Change in ourselves to break away from the Chains of Stagnancy.”

 

“Life thrives in Chaos, but there is no escaping Order.”

 

“Therefore, we embrace Balance between Chaos and Order.”

Quote #1  of the Shamanistic Rules of Crafts and Rituals

 

*

 

Personal Research Journal of Pa’Li - The Wise of the Twin Suns

Entry #40

 

After a few days of watching and observing the mannerism of this male White Streak Fury, it has come to my attention that it is not much different from the female specimen.

 

Aside from being larger and more aggressive, I, actually, can not distinguish much between them. 

 

They both behaved in similar manners, with the only real difference being their location and nourishment intake.

 

Another similarity with the female was that this male did not use his White Flame on dead bodies. Although, in its defense, the prey it eats here in the Southern Forest tends to be on a smaller scale, and the only large insects that bother it are chased away by its fury.

 

That being the case, I came to question the Head Oracles' decision to send me to the Wild Zone first. 

 

Did he foresee I would be forced to nudge these specimens in the right direction? 

 

Or is there a more lavish plan swirling in his old skull?

 

If there is, I have no choice but to conclude this Mission to know the answer.

 

PS; I still hate the forest. Li’On’s are not made for such densely covered territory. I know why my instincts keep telling me to seek open fields that possess greater views of my surroundings but never have I felt them so strongly before.

 

*

 

Entry #43

 

After some long and satisfactory debates with the guides provided to me by the To’Ad Pantheon, it was decided that we would search for Sapient insectoid creatures. 

 

Luckily for us, there is one that lived relatively nearby to our current location.

 

My guides call it the Thousand Legged Strangler. A weird name, but once I saw it I had to agree with them. 

 

On its back black segmented chitin covered everything. On its belly, thousands of tiny legs helped it travel on the ground, and sometimes above, on the trees. 

 

That some of its decorations were of golden color insulted me. 

 

Truly. It had to the gall to use our color as decoration when it was ugly as the shit we leave behind.

 

The least it could have gained was some fur, but Ascension did not work that way, sadly.

 

So a pleasing pulping on the head was a well-deserved reward for it.

 

PS; I so dearly want to be done with this forest.

 

*

 

Entry #45

 

After leaving the ugly sacrifice near the male White Streak Fury, I employed my past tactic of tricking the creature that a White Flame was burning the dead body.

 

It worked flawlessly. The beast was feasting on the Flames with grunts of happiness to accompany it.

 

That aside, the intensity of the White Flame on the dead bug, whose length was about three meters, was beyond anything I had seen so far. 

 

My theory got proven. Life Energy is the fuel, but the problem remains. 

 

Life Energy is a loose term we use to explain the mystery of the second stage of Ascension, as in that stage, all the Ascension did was increase the size of a creature, aside from gaining a Special Ability, which defied any explanation on how they worked in the first place. 

 

They just worked. Only after achieving the two-armed and two-legged stage does the Life Energy vanish, and one gains the ability to wield Mana instead. 

 

That being the case, we have no idea how Life Energy functions. All our knowledge says that it's there, that it somehow enhances a lifeform, and it helps with achieving the second and third stages of Ascension.

 

PS; Maybe I will finally crack this mystery. It would be one way of achieving Fame for the records.

 

*

 

Entry #50

 

So many things happened. But few needed to be written down.

 

My current observations netted me little in favor of understanding Life Energy. 

 

All I know is that it is there. And the White Flame is somehow the key to it.

 

It mattered not if I brought in more of the Sapient creatures to become ash.

 

On another note, the To’Ad guides by my side were quite happy to point me in the direction of more oversized insects. While they could take it down, it seems they need some preparations, and me taking them down was beneficial for them overall.

 

PS; Out of sheer desire to not eat any more insects the way my guides prepared and cooked them, I decided it was time to hone my Flame by cooking them myself. The result was… interesting.

 

*

 

Entry #51

 

I knew it was possible to cook things with the Golden Flame, after all, there is a reason why the Golden Prairie Restaurant was so famous and expensive. 

 

They have the most skilled Cooks of all. However, it's only now, that I understand the genuine difficulty of cooking with the Golden Flame.

 

Flesh is so delicate that it takes a lot of control to get it right. If I were not so close to achieving Creation, I would have probably burned every single insect to ash, and yet what I made was charred without a doubt.

 

PS; When I get back, I will have to pay my respects to every cook that makes meals for me.

 

*

 

Entry #55

 

The more I observe that male White Streak Fury grunt in happiness as he eats the White Flame, the more my curiosity inflates inside me.

 

What does it taste like? What does it do once eaten?

 

Every time I see it, I gain this short urge to try and infuse some of the White Flame inside me, but that would be stupid. 

 

I have no idea how it interacts with someone in the humanoid stage, much less a Li’On and my Golden Flame.

 

I think it's time I step up the experiments.

 

PS; I must admit, my cooking skills are improving. I hate that nobody told me to try this. Maybe it's because it's so simple in terms of execution that people just ignore it on purpose, thinking it matters not. However, my progress begs to differ from that point of view. My skills which had stagnated finally inched a bit forward.

 

*

 

Entry #56

 

Now, this is the most challenging experiment to accomplish. 

 

Not only did I need to find a 3ed stage Ascension lifeform. I, actually, have to capture it alive and somehow have the White Streak Fury spew White Flame on it. 

 

If no harm came upon it, I would force it to swallow some of the White Flame and observe the effects happening. Only then would I be sure enough to try it myself.

 

Luckily, as my To’Ad guides explained, there was one such individual. It even belonged to a species I was familiar with. 

 

The first Sapient bug I killed in the forest, the Thousand Legged Strangler, came from it. In fact, most of those I sacrificed in the name of knowledge came from it. Once a creature ascends to the humanoid stage, its progeny has a much higher chance of doing the same.

 

It was that view, that brought me to a dilemma I had ignored so far.

 

The four White Streak Furies that achieved the second stage had done so relatively close to each other, time-wise. It is obvious they did not stem from the same origin as they were too far apart from each other to count as siblings. 

 

Yet, that fact also reminded me that the locations of their appearance were spread out decently in the Central Continent.

 

It is as if a mastermind stands behind all this. 

 

Maybe there is. And that is the reason the Head Oracle wants all this investigated. Then again, he did request me to kidnap one of them for the Temple. 

 

Meaning, that there is more to this than mere interest in the White Flame and its effects.

 

Whether there is or not matters not to me at this point. I have a humanoid bug to find and capture.

 

PS; I Ate the first fried bug. It tasted very crunchy, however, it was still too charred.

*

 

Entry #57

You are reading story Honey Badger’s Ascension (Species Evolution Progression Story) at novel35.com

 

Finding the humanoid bug was easy. 

 

Capturing it? Definitely not.

 

I got informed its Special Ability was its body, and the moment I saw it for the first time, I knew why that was so. It was female in appearance, but that mattered not when its skin was clad in thin chitin plates that looked almost like scales, resembling the Cro’Cs ruling the rivers.

 

While I wasn't a fighting specialist, having a younger brother as one netted me the benefits of occasionally sparring with him. Still, I couldn't go all out with my Golden Flame for fear of lighting up parts of the forest. 

 

If I had done that, I would have a whole Pantheon after me, and I did not like my chances if it happened. 

 

So, I had to stick mostly with physical combat enhanced by the Golden Flame. Occasionally, I punched it with the Golden Fist, which embodied the heat of the Flame without the spark. 

 

All in all, it was a tough little fight as the two-armed and two-legged humanoid bug was fast in the forest, no matter if it was on the ground or the trees.

 

Luckily my guides agreed to help me herd it back into me. 

 

Once I had it knocked out, it was easy to brand it with my Flame.

 

PS; Still, had to gain some medical assistance as it turned out its chitin-plated armor was poisonous to touch. 

 

*

 

Entry #60

 

Repeating the same scenario as before, I placed this humanoid bug close to the White Streak Fury. 

 

A Flame resembling its own burned on my sacrifice, only I toned down the intensity of its heat. It looked more like light playing tricks.

 

The male specimen came and started spewing the White Flame upon its body. As was previously observed, there was no destruction upon my sacrificial pawn.

 

Still, I did notice that the White Flame strongly lingered upon its body. 

 

The White Streak Fury noticed that the Flame had not increased in intensity, so it began to spew more and more upon my sacrifice. 

 

As more and more White Flame engulfed my sacrifice a peculiar thing occurred.

 

I felt my control of the sacrifice wane. Probing the effect, I closed the distance to observe in greater detail when I understood what was going on. 

 

The White Flame was tracing the Golden Branding all over its body. Every moment that parted, the Brand began to weaken more and more as the White Flame ate it all away. 

 

Being an experiment, I let it go on. I realized that as the White Flame ate away the Brand, the Brand, in return tried to fight back, but every time it tried, it just became fuel for the White Flame. 

 

As I watched everything happening, I had a frown on my face, I believe. 

 

The humanoid bug should have been screaming on the ground in pain as the Brand enforced upon it. The sheer amount of pain forced upon it should have killed it, even without snapping the brand in question, yet it did not happen.

 

No, what happened was, after the Brand snapped back into a Golden Flame inside it, it just got eaten away like the rest of the Brand.

 

PS; My sacrificial pawn remained my sacrificial pawn as I rebranded it again.

*

 

Entry #65

 

Once again, I re-branded the humanoid bug and had it exposed to the White Flame. 

 

This time conscious and with explicit orders to infuse the flame into itself. It had taken me a while to teach it how to do it, but the results had repeated themselves.

 

The repercussions upon Li’On society were large, but not that large in my opinion, even if it was uncovered. 

 

There simply was no way to spread it as it was a Special Ability and not something as simple as a Spell. 

 

At least to my current knowledge, there is no way to fully replicate a Special Ability.

 

However, I was far more curious if this dispelling effect was because the Brand was formed out of my Golden Flame or if there was something more to it. 

 

But that brought me to a conundrum. Any tool I make, no matter how simple, is through the Golden Flame, making it more susceptible to the White Flame, in theory. I needed something more neutral for this little experiment.

 

The solution was simple. My guides, from the To’Ad Pantheon, provided me with a blowpipe that was bound to be anointed trash back home. I knew they had better stuff, but my curiosity won me over by promising to make them one blowpipe in return.

 

The material they brought me was copper. It was easy to mold with the Golden Flame, so it took minutes to make it, but it did take a few hours to give it the proper enchanting. 

 

Once they had it, they gave me the inherently bad but magical blowpipe for my experiment.

 

*

 

Entry #67

 

Turns out, I knew far less about the White Flame than I imagined.

 

The White Flame ate away at the magical blowpipe. Slower than the Brand but it would do the job if given enough time and Flame intensity.

 

It made me rethink everything I had observed so far and come to a staggering conclusion. 

 

The White Flame, most likely, feeds on anything not produced by the Natural World and radiates the energy that had sustained it so far back into the Natural World. 

 

A second experiment confirmed it for me. When I killed the humanoid bug and had the White Streak Fury spew White Flame upon its body, it began to blaze into a mighty fire hazard.

 

However, despite being a mighty hazard, my calculations show that it was not as potent as it could have been. 

 

That probably had to do with the fact that the dead body was full of Mana and not Life Energy, but being full of mana netted me far more information during the process.

 

Weird how it worked, but it is what it is.

 

With my Mana perception flaring at what was happening, I understood that the White Flame was burning the personal touch of the humanoid bug upon its Mana. 

 

This neutral Mana produced, as a result, then radiated into the local ecology, and the effects were quite strong. The greenery around the burning white pyre began to bloom like nothing before I had observed.

 

PS; It appears, that Mana infused with negative principles is a better kindling for burning than anything else if my observation is correct.

 

*

 

Entry #70

 

I… am so glad my visit to the Southern Forest will soon end.

 

After two more searches and hunts, my previous statements are concluded, and the truth was undeniably for now.

 

With that conclusion, I have concluded three terms for the White Flame;

 

- Neutral Flame

- Flames of Origin

- Flame of the Beginning.

 

Which of the three names will become the primary name, I care not, for I am the originator of all three names. Therefore I gain recognition for all three. 

 

Ha. As an added bonus, I will use all three names in the different locations so my renown will be known everywhere.

 

The To’Ad were the first ones, as I gave them the Flame of Origin as the title for the Flame.

 

Part of me hoped they would pay more attention to the White Streak Fury as a species instead of hating it. That way, the White Streak Fury would have higher chances of reaching the 3ed stage of Ascension and entering the Forging phase of the Neutral Flame.

 

I wonder what the effects will be.

 

PS; I feel closer and closer to the Creation phase of the Golden Flame thanks to cooking a lot of these insects, although I can't wait to try the same on true meat, Buffalo meat, in this case.

 

***

 

In a land far, far into the Future.

 

“During this Journey of Discover, The Wise of the Twin Suns saw and understood many things.” An older Li’On explained. 

 

“At the same time, he Ascended to the 4th Stage upon entering the Creation Phase of the Golden Flame.“ The Li’On continued his lecture. ”The rumored callsigns for Pa’Li lost the rumored part and became the True Title, as it is written in the Books of the Titled Heroes.”

 

“With his return from the decade-long Journey, he brought many discoveries. ” He explained to his students. ”The most important one was the Neutral Flame that rendered anything not natural into natural.”

 

“Teacher!” A young Li’On called out. 

 

Not minding the interruption that much as he was used to it. “Yes, Mi’Li, what is it?”

 

“Is this not, the part where The Wise of the Twin Suns enters into true conflict with the Temple of the Oracles?” The young Li’On’es wondered. 

 

“It is, but I will not be covering that part even if I could.” The teacher replied.

 

“Is it because of the controversies behind the incident?” The young Li’On’es asked once more.

 

Nodding, the old teacher explained. “Yes. Much of the incident got covered up. From that sprung forth many rumors, that by now, it is very hard to distinguish truth from fiction. However.”

 

Stopping for a moment, the old teacher considered his next words carefully. After all, he did not want to get into trouble.

 

“There are a few facts that one could glean from that incident.” He said.

 

“Which are?” Asked the young Li’On’es with curiosity. 

 

“Always be skeptical of Oracles, especially the Old Ones, who are reaching the ends of their life span.” The old teacher repeated for the Nth time, as this topic was the most common result when one concluded the Tales of the Wise Twins and their regard for the Temple of the Oracles.

You can find story with these keywords: Honey Badger’s Ascension (Species Evolution Progression Story), Read Honey Badger’s Ascension (Species Evolution Progression Story), Honey Badger’s Ascension (Species Evolution Progression Story) novel, Honey Badger’s Ascension (Species Evolution Progression Story) book, Honey Badger’s Ascension (Species Evolution Progression Story) story, Honey Badger’s Ascension (Species Evolution Progression Story) full, Honey Badger’s Ascension (Species Evolution Progression Story) Latest Chapter