Chapter 50: Chapter 48: Flash Sale?

“So…remind me again why exactly you need all this stuff?” Robin asked, dumping two sets of boots on the ground. “Like, I get it’s for conversion, but why so much?”

“It’s a quirk of the system.” Lia explained. “If we give it too many options, it sort of…overloads and randomly selects bits and pieces to make something new. As far as I can tell it has the potential to make something a lot stronger than it otherwise would, but, well, it’s random so we could get a total dud. Exciting, right?”

Robin groaned. “We’re never letting you into a gambling parlor.” She said. “You’d spend all your money there.”

“Will we even have gambling parlors?” Olivia asked. “They’re going to be kind of pointless without money.”

“Who said we weren’t going to have money?” Lia asked, tilting her head to the side.

Olivia blinked. “I just assumed everyone was gonna…you know, share everything like we do now.”

“I figured we’d keep society as similar as possible to how things are now. Or, well, as similar as possible to how they were when Rose was in charge. Obviously, I’m going to force large strides in equality and basic rights and welfare and all that, but people are going to want leisure items and entertainment, and there might as well be some standardized currency for people to use for those.”

“I guess that works?” Olivia said. “Seems like there are going to be problems with it, but…there are problems with everything, so we can deal with it later, I guess?”

“Yeah, it’s not worth thinking about right now.” Lia confirmed. “That’s a problem for future us.”

“I’ve brought the cocoons.” Rose announced, walking up to Lia. There was a flower behind her that was trailing her movements while holding two large cocoons. “Two of each thing we’ve encountered. Uh, of each common thing we’ve encountered, anyway. And no rats, since I figured we can’t spare them at the moment.”

“Yeah, good call.” Lia replied. “There’s no guarantee they become rat-related anyway, so this is definitely a low-priority use.”

“Um, is there something special about rats that I don’t know about?” Robin asked. “Seems like kind of a random thing to want.”

“I have an ability that makes swarm creatures that are ratlike more powerful.” Lia explained. “It’s a holdover from when I was a rat for a while.”

“You…were a rat.” Robin said flatly. “Why? How?”

“The race was more powerful, and it was better than being a gross bug thing.” Lia replied. “You can change really dramatically once you evolve.”

“I was a rat too.” Rose volunteered. “And now I’m a plant, kinda. It seems that the sorta things you do before evolving have an effect on what you can evolve into.” She paused, frowning. “Or…a joke or pun, in my case?”

“Oh.” Robin said. “Um…is there a reason you didn’t add rats to us, make us more powerful?”

“That’s not the sort of thing I was comfortable with.” Lia said. “Not with my family. I wanted you guys to be as close to your normal selves as possible, at least at first. If you want to branch off into something else, then be my guest, but…well, it’s honestly not that big a deal. It gives you like…a free evolution’s worth of strength max, and you can pretty easily make up the difference.”

“Well, whatever.” Robin said. “I’m happy with how I am now, so I’m fine with not having that extra stuff if it means I get to stay…me.”

“Thought so.” Lia said. “Now, did you find any other objects you think would be useful for a scout?”

“Not really?” Robin said. “But how do you guys put it into a cocoon like that? I couldn’t figure it out.”

“It’s a little different every evolution.” Rose said. “When I was a rat, the modeling wax came out through my teeth. Now it comes out through my thorns. Perhaps it might come out through your claws or something?”

You are reading story Swarming Sovereignty at novel35.com

“Mine comes out through these little glands on my wrist.” Lia volunteered. “Just sorta like…will it to happen while grabbing something and it should. Almost like using a Skill except…not?”

Robin grabbed one of the sets of boots she had dropped. “So, if I – woah!” She jumped slightly as modeling wax began to flow out from her wrists to cover the boots. “Cooool. I can just…do this now?”

“Yup.” Lia said. “Just have to keep your stores of modeling wax up, which shouldn’t be a problem if you’re eating regularly.”

“Nice.” Robin said appreciatively. “That’s cool. So, with that and those bodies Rose just brought, is that the last of it?”

“I think so.” Lia said. “We just gotta mash the cocoons together and we’ll be off to the races.”

“Can I do the honors?” Robin asked. “For one of them, anyway.”

“It’s probably best if Lia does it.” Rose said, unloading one of the cocoons from her flower. “The available conversion options are influenced by what the person doing the conversion is capable of, and Lia just has more options available to her. She was, formerly, part of a race that specialized in conversion, so she’s rather uniquely suited for the job.”

“Can I do one, then?” Olivia asked. “My race mentions converting stuff in it.”

Rose thought about that for a moment. “Maybe when you’re stronger and have evolved a couple more times.” She said. “Just to be safe.”

“Eh, there’s no harm in seeing the differences between us and deciding based on that.” Lia said. “If it’s not a significant difference, I don’t see why they can’t do the converting. It doesn’t really make a difference who does the actual converting, you know?”

“I…suppose. I’m just worried about wasting materials, you know?” Rose said. “With us beginning expeditions to the Spine soon…”

“A small difference in power between monsters that are already likely much, much weaker than what they’ll be facing isn’t going to make a huge difference.” Lia said. “This is really just for fun, with the possibility of getting something nice out of it, so being optimal isn’t hugely important.”

“If you say so.” Rose said reluctantly.

“I’ve consolidated the cocoons!” Chrys said. “Let’s get started!”

“Alright, I’m going to look at this and read off everything I see.” Lia said. “Olivia, you open up the other one for conversion too, but don’t do anything yet, just see what’s different from mine. When you’re done, we’ll have Robin do the same.”

“Got it!” Olivia said cheerfully, placing a hand on one of the cocoons. “Alright, the menu’s up, ready when you are!”

Lia nodded, and began to look through the options available to her.

had almost certainly received the same window that Lia was currently looking at.

---