Chapter 12: Chapter 12

Silver awoke with a start, scanning his surroundings in a panic. He slowly calmed down, the adrenaline leaving his system as he realized he was in no immediate danger. That gestalt tree monster, the Living Grove, had left him with a fair amount of trauma that he desperately hoped was temporary.

  He'd managed to escape with Tara and gotten her treated by a random Picton. Jimmithy had held the monster off long enough for the survivors to escape, before escaping himself, though ending up greviously wounded for his troubles. The Picton weren't able to help him, the level of magic required to help someone of his Tier solidly out of their scope. Even Mern was left helpless.

  That terrifying little escapade had taught Silver that he wasn't in Kansas anymore. And his 'little dog' was a bipedal wolf person named Uno.

   This was a new world, with new dangers and a completely different set of common sense that he hadn't learned yet. The few days that had passed had seen him putting in time to meditate and solidify his base, as well as planning for the future, once they were away and back in Jimmithy's city. He needed more knowledge. Not just on monsters, but on politics, the different races, economics. He didn't even know what currencies were used. He was nobility now, and he needed connections. He needed people he could trust, a base, land, resources. And at the moment he had nothing.

  He also needed to be personally powerful to control the people who would be under him one day. It was a law of the jungle type world. The person with the biggest fist said what goes, and you either bowed your head and did as you were told, or you got put in the ground and used as a stepping stone for your enemies to advance themselves higher.

  He needed to reach the first evolution threshold and evolve, then advance to Tier 2 as soon as possible. Being weak eventually equated to being dead. Even Jimmithy's protection was temporary. He was only able to give so much help before stepping back. Silver understood that he wasn't being unreasonable, and was even being held back by restrictions set by a god. Too much help would eventually stunt Silver's growth, limiting how far he could make it on his own. It was already helpful enough that Jimmithy would turn a blind eye to Silver building himself up within his own city, within reason.

  He'd be working with Jimmithy. He couldn't afford to damage that relationship. Jimmithy was a valuable asset, and one almost guaranteed not to betray him; He even came with a divine recommendation. From an evil deity, but Silver chose to willfully ignore that part...

  Eventually he'd need to leave and start to gain real power. Establish himself somewhere. He would make enemies, but he'd also be building real power. And eventually, if he could survived that long, he would reach Tier 4 and establish his own city in the frontier. He'd have his own domain, and be a recognized entity under the Empire, with the fame, fortune and status that all of that afforded. But for now, he meditated. Every little bit helps. It was slow, but it'd mean his power was sturdier when he evolved. He'd be more likely to gain beneficial mutation later, or even increase the strength of his current abilities.

  The remains of the group had set up camp days away from the village. They had been on forced march the entire time. Only stopping once a day, briefly, at noon to eat, and then again after it was too dark for most people to safely see where they were going. Silver was one of the few with any sort of night vision. Tara and Savarti could see in the dark as well, and Mern had a spell that allowed him to see in low-light environments, but none of the other Warriors, Mages, or Siphons had anything that could help them.

  Silver had taken every opportunity he had to cultivate his strength. He'd cut back on sleeping for an hour or two every night, just to meditate and reach the threshold faster. He was in a desperate race against time. He knew, that as soon as Jimmithy had recovered, he was still going to be exploring that cave, and he still wanted Silver to be part of the team; There had been meetings. Silver wanted to at least be at the peak of his power before then and be a fully evolved Tier 1, hopefully a few days before. He'd heard it took some adjusting to, as he'd be getting, essentially, a new body. It wouldn't be game changing, but hopefully he'd have a mutation during his evolution that would be helpful to his continued survival. The higher the Tier of the monster siphoned, the more likely you were to have a mutation.

  Silver looked out of his tent and noticed that the sky was still dark. Hopefully he had a few hour before the sun came up. He had had a feeling recently that he was getting closer to his evolution. An instinct. He was trying to learn to trust his instincts more, and he had done well so far, but sometimes he trusted his brain too much and overthought an issue his instincts had warned him against. Like two days ago, he'd poisoned himself by accident and ended up bedridden, having to be carried on a stretcher for a day and slowing the march. Jim hadn't been happy about that. He'd found a fruit that looked a lot like a pear. His monster instincts had told him no, but his brain had said 'eat the pear.' Rewriting the ol' monkey brain was hard. He wasn't old, but 23, almost 24, years of doing things the Earth way was hard to overcome in just a few weeks.

  He sat and crossed his legs, relaxing his body and regulating his breathing according to the technique that he and Mern had worked out. Alternating long and short breaths, he allowed his mind to sink into what he had started called his spiritual center. It was the same as when he had siphoned the eye, but inside of himself. He was inside of himself. The golden core of his eye's abilities shining brightly in the center of this space. Focusing in on that, he concentrated, feeling it. It was a part of him, and he had learned to manipulate it. Slowly, he was able to release an aurora from the core, sending the energy out into his body, saturating his cells, stabilizing his genetics. Perfecting him.

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  The feeling was a little euphoric, giving Silver a small cerebral high the first time he had successfully managed to do this under Mern's watchful eye. The feeling had diminished the more he meditated, his body adapting, but it never disappeared. If he went too long without meditating it would hit him hard again, effectively fucking him up.

  It was an odd feeling to get high off of what was essential your own DNA restructuring itself and evolving. Power was a drug, but in a literal sense. Mern had told him it would stop after he evolved, as the power would finally be completely his own, but a part of Silver was slightly sad about that. It felt nice to get high on the primordial essence of a monster.

  He sat like that for what felt like an eternity before he finally felt full. His eyes opened, shining a bright gold, as an easy smile played across his lips. He felt good. Like he was whole for the first time.

  He basked in the light feeling, just enjoying being in his own body. Aches that he never noticed disappeared, his muscles relaxed, knots relaxed.

  He continued to enjoy the feeling until he slowly felt it change. The feeling bubbled up to the surface of his skin. His eyes opened in shock, as he looked at himself. "Oh shit."

  His skin roiling and bubbling. It was a disgusting, trypophobia-inducing sight that reminded him of the flesh of his first siphon. He could briefly see his bones occassionally, as the flesh writhed and bubbled, popped and reformed. He could feel his flesh becoming stronger, but it was still an unpleasant experience.

  He couldn't move. He looked down to see that his legs had melded together like wet clay, his bones felt like jelly. He wanted to scream, but the muscles in his throat no longer obeyed his commands. His eyes burned like fire, his flesh was melting, his bones were putty, and his mind was shutting down. Everything was just a blurry mental haze. He tried to fight it with sheer willpower, but it was a lesson in futility for him. His instinct were telling him not to fight it, but his human brain told him this was highly unnatural and to fight like hell. Eventually he calmed and tried to allow it to pass. By this point his body was little more than a pile of flesh on his tent floor, pulsing as it continued to roil, small golden lights flashing and travelling throughout. Silver fell into a state of hibernation.

  Mern came to visit, and after getting no reply poked his head inside. He was alarmed at the sight within, but felt the familiar magical signature coming off of it and realized it was Silver having reached his first evolution. He left and informed Jimmithy, who called a halt for the day. Those who knew the reason were grateful to Silver for having reached his first evolution so quickly. It gave them a much needed break.

  After about a day and a half, the abominable flesh began to solidify and pull itself back together, slowly forming a blank human body. His bones regrew, his features filled out. Two small golden orbs floated out from his core and settled into his eye sockets, shooting open as Silver suddenly regained consciousness.

  "What the fuck!" He screamed. "That was the single most unpleasant thing to ever happen to me, ever." Even without being conscious of the process as he was forced into unconsciousness as his Id supressed his ego and superego, protecting his mind from the trauma it would have accrued from the experience, it had still been unpleasant.

  "Now then, let's figure out what has changed!"

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