Chapter 14: Chapter 11: Solitude

Solitude

The school bathroom is surprisingly clean… well, after what happened last time, the principal got really angry at everyone…

‘Cleaning after someone else made… was annoying…’ if we find out who did… that… we are killing them…

I am leaning with my back to the faucets in front of the mirrors, my tail is coiled below me… there are plenty stalls and a few urinals by the wall… I don’t use those…

“So what?” I ask, my voice sounds annoyed… the white tiled room looks empty… no sound except for the dripping of water coming from one of the faucets to my right

…

“They are faster than they look, some can jump very far, they have a venom that digest their food until it looks like soup and they use their fangs to suck their food after is done… additionally we are told today that they regrow their limbs? How I am wrong by calling them the ultimate lifeform…?”

No one answers me… why I’m acting as if someone is with me…?

“Of course I was scared! That idiot of ____ threw a deathly one to my face!” instead of a name a weird emptiness came out of my mouth… weird…

…

“I don’t care it was a plastic toy! That particular species is a local one! And it kills people every year!” I start to turn around “I am justified-!” I slide backwards

The face in the mirror is… was… the one of my prison… I look down… but my reflection is the one that is wrong… still no thumbs… and for some reason I still have the shirt of the male uniform…

I look up… there is a crack… not in the mirror… but on the face that is reflected… what is behind that crack…? If I move my claws to the mirror the prison “mirrors” the gesture…

Moving my claw towards my face I hear them make a clicking sound against my scales… the fingers in the mirror hooks in the crevice… and pull it open to mimic my arm as I move it…

There is a green, snake shaped crystal… inside… the-

-----

‘…?! What…?’ I shiver awake… the crevice is… barely illuminated by the exterior… I can only feel the vibrations from the river ‘Weird… dream…?’

Is cold… getting warmer… I move to the entrance… boar in the other side, again… its not drinking, is looking around… I move my head back and rest it in the ground

‘Status… EP Shop…’ looking at my options… it was a good idea to wait until now to decide what to buy… but I don’t feel like I would have choose differently yesterday… what can I do to get more points…? ‘Buy Weak Venom for 35 EP’ the warmth in my mouth comes and goes… in the shop the item is replaced with Average Venom… ‘Seventy five EP…? I’m still weak… buy Stronger Jaw for 40 EP-! AAAHHH!!!’

The heat strikes my head like a hammer… must resist the urge… to hiss…!

‘Why must it hurt this bad?!’ the heat starts to go down my neck ‘Never buying from Absorb when there is something near! Never again!’

…!

The heat goes away after a while…

‘Ugh… now-’

‘… or… I could just wait until I eat something else with a Crushing Jaw and hope that Absorb gives it to me?’ the last time this happened… why didn’t I realize of how many “free” things I got when I brought Absorb? My mouth feels tender, but I open and close it a few times ‘There must be some kind of catch, the last time this happened I became an Anomaly, this-’

‘There you are… Traits…’ the Trait window shows two Strain Resistances… ‘This one appeared… way faster than the previous one…’ my State says None… ‘I do feel better in comparison to yesterday… there must be a period of time after evolving were… the body is still adjusting… and weaker to the Strain… or I’m like a broken glass that got glued together… and the first time I got this Trait meant new cracks…’

Both feel possible… and the Helper is silent…

‘Shit…’ I lift my head… no horned boar in sight… moving ‘Water for now… I could eat, but is not urgent, surprisingly enough’ I don’t see shadows in the water that are close to… me… ‘Hello…?’ my face is… a bit different? My mouth looks sharper and… well… stronger ‘It doesn't feel stiffer, I was just opening and closing it after all… I might be doing more damage per bite now, not just because the fangs…’ anyways there is no time for vanity ‘Fishing round two?’ I drink some water- ‘Hey!’

I move back fast… one of the shadows moved towards me in the water… now that I am further away it goes back behind the rock were it was before in the middle of the stream

‘Are you… the jerk as been annoying me since I found the river?’ water magic time…? ‘Do I only see them as shadows because my eyes are…?’ looking up I can identify individual leaves in the branches… ‘No, my eyes aren’t weak… wait…’

I look around… the trees in this zone are the same height… their diameter varies by a few meters, but the ones of the same species are about the same, yet, I can tell some differences between individuals… trees like the Sour Monster that made my current shelter are the thinnest kind, but they still have a few meters to go around them… the forest ground… dirt, some grass, stones, moss… bushes…

‘There is no… saplings… nor a single leaf in the ground…’ the only leaves I have seen were in the river… coming from outside the forest, or were leaves that I cut from a bush… ‘There is no way that the trees don’t need saplings in case something happens to the trees… right?’ the other day one of them got destroyed by the… a Ruler of Death…? ‘Ok… maybe the forest is magical too…? I’m going to pay more attention to that tree in a bit, the forest might have some kind of… magical system that… regrows trees…? Not starting fires anytime soon, just in case “Nature’s Wrath” is a normal phenomena in this world… is that why my Instinct screams when I think about making fire?’

I look around again…

‘What I am going to do in winter… ugh…’ I focus in the river ‘Later… I’ll need food soon. The void… almost full… I should be able to use the natural direction of the water to “fish” them out, the water is moving to my left… lets do this’ I get closer to the water… ‘Tail or head… Ia! Imbue Arms!’ my claws emit a faint glow… ‘Tail this time…’

I move the tip of my tail into the water… time to wait…

/////

The nameless snake held still next to the water, waiting as she moved just the tip of her tail inside the liquid as a lure, her skill doing that was poor, but with her traits, her sole existence was more than enough to act as bait

Enough for the fish that lurked behind a rock in the current of the river at least, having tasted the blood of the snake, as she had cleaned a wound in the water previously, this fish had acquired the means to track her

Its previous attempts failed, but the creature lacked the ability to learn

So it swam towards her

The snake, aware that the near invisible fish was coming closer, slowly prepared her magic with a crude spell, neither of them could feel how her energy leaked from her “Arms” nor how it mixed with the liquid, waiting for the word that would trigger the effect that she wanted

‘Current!’

When the fish got close enough she finished her spell and moved her extremities towards her side, causing the water around her prey to rush out of the stream above the snake pulling the fish with it, crashing behind and on her, leaving the water dweller choking on air as the snake ended her spell making all the water flow back to the river

She at that moment launched herself towards the creature, unaware of how easily her fangs sunk against the armored scales of her prey thanks to her upgraded jaw, proceeding to coil her body around it and crush it as she filled it with some of her venom

The fish tried to fight back by moving its body in an attempt to go back to the water, but couldn’t overpower the snake quickly enough and she broke its spine

/////

Ding

‘I got soaked but I don’t care!’ the scales of this fish are greenish and it more or less looks like the one that almost got me before… I think ‘Is… big… good thing I waited or I wouldn't have been able to eat it. Status!’

‘Eleven?! What…?’ my total of EP says sixteen… ‘Knowledge…? The thing I got yesterday, that got combined with something else…? Uh…’ prayer and swallow… ok my jaw has no problems opening after buying that item ‘Not going to complain… fifteen more points by the end… I need to get more of those… Now that I think about it, none of my magic boosts has combined yet…’

…

‘Nothing to say…?’ I get the last of the fish inside, but the helper is silent ‘Anyways, lets go to that tree and see-’

‘What…?! When…? Nevermind… seeing that I got something out of this… failure…? Maybe I should experiment for a bit and try more things…? Not everything I’ll try is going to give me something, but as long I am careful, the only thing I can lose is time…’

But that, is also something precious…

‘Later…’ I move away from the river, into the trees with food in my stomach… ‘But… yeah, good thing I waited until now to fish… I would have wasted a lot of food…’

There is no saplings here, nor to the north as I move to the broken tree, there is also not a single leaf in the ground…

‘Wish I knew when she is going to get here… “Last she can be place…” one month? One season? One decade? Ugh…’

No idea… and since the helper is muted about the gods it probably can’t tell me when either…

‘Is Mordauntless going to send me a message when she does…? Unlikely… is that…’ I pass next to a Soft Bite bush with ripe berries… I cover my face with my claw and tail ‘I am an idiot… not all the fruits or vegetables come in the same season… how did I forgot that?! What else did I forgot?!’

A shivers goes through my body… no way to know…

‘How can I…? No… by myself I’ll never be able to figure it out’ I look at the bush again… ‘My best opportunity to figure it out is… Crow, or become humanoid enough to be able to talk with people… can I call her Crow? Or is that… insensitive from my part?’ the wind rustles the branches of the trees-!

The daily roar happens again… counting… done

‘Arrogant prick…’ I look at the berries again… ‘I’ll eat one… and I’ll ask her her name when we met in this world… nickname…? Singer?’ that will work for now

I pluck a berry off the bush, crush it a bit with my jaw and swallow it… I don’t really feel the flavor

‘Maybe Absorb can make me omnivorous? I don’t think that eating the occasional fruit will hurt me’ I resume moving to the tree ‘After all, the mice that I have been eating must have plants in them, right-?!’

‘…!’

HISS!!!

‘AAAHHH!!!’

…

‘Ow…’

Ding

‘I can still feel the nail… Status…’

‘Oh… I don’t know them… right? The Triad? Local gods…? Or I forgot about them too?’ the pain in my head is not going away… ‘Well… at least they don’t seem too angry…? Ow…’ are they calling her by title, because I never knew her name? ‘No one knows her name in my previous world… we only know about “Mordauntless” because… someone found a broken… ow… stone, centuries ago… ow… and popular culture mixed what little we could read… ow… into that name’

Lifting my head from the ground is painful, but should be able to move without too much problems… I still have a nasty headache though

‘Ugh… what place? The flowers…? She needs more?’ can I find that area again…? ‘Ow… ugh, let me see the broken tree first, then I…’ the wind moves the branches again… ‘Right! The bush with the red flowers! Ow… I wanted to see around that place after evolving…’ is that the place instead?

They are sending me there because their request overlap…? Doesn’t matter, is not an order…

‘But what I can do, that four gods get a benefit… At the same time…?’ no idea comes to mind… I look to the bush again… ‘Can I make a ball made of water, float it all they way from here to the crater to plant a berry…?’ if this crater is going to be like the one I saw before, then nothing is going to grow on it but grass and weeds… ‘I’m going to plant a Soft Bite first, then I’ll see how I can get some water to it…’ I pluck one of the berries with my claws… ‘Wait…’

This bush is a Soft Bite, that one is a Kind Herb, the light colored tree is a Sour Monster, the most common tree around me is the Sturdy Wisdom… I need to see the flowers again, but I have their name in the tip of my tongue… the name of the taller trees is… I think that is different from the others, but there is none nearby

‘When did I learned their names? Status, Traits… Nature Care (Plants)… it actually gives me knowledge of them… but right now… I need to see the plants again to tell what they are, I doesn’t works with memories’

I remember the purple crop that they were planting in the fields, but to be sure of the name I need to get closer again… if I stop seeing them, I shouldn’t forget that the Sour Monster gets its name from its fruits, or that the Soft Bite is… poisonous…

‘Ugh… I am going to regret that… Helper? You have been quiet today…’ no answer… ‘Well… is called Soft… maybe is not that bad…?’ I look backwards and my tail is moving like an “S” ‘Eh?’ I focus and it stops ‘Weird… anyways, I’m planting this berry, try to water it, then I’ll go to that… red flower bush… now that I have a lot of names in my mind, might as well try to identify what is around me’ I move to the crater holding the berry

…

‘Except for the yellow flowers, those can stay the hell away from me!’

-----

Back in the river…

‘The Boar smell in the area is getting stronger… and I am sure that the one this morning stayed for a longer time…’

My Instinct still worries me about the raw bacon, but since it also tells me: Don’t, about fire in a forest of maybe magical trees, I feel like I need to pay attention to it… so:

‘I need to leave this shelter… but when…?’ things around me evolve faster… ‘Is that what happened to the spider…? Ugh…! Need a new place either today or tomorrow’

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Is that what The Triad meant…? Be nomadic…?

‘Later… I already planted the seed, now I need to water it, if I can’t maintain the water floating in the air then I’ll just carry the water in my mouth… tomorrow lets try to make a backpack or a purse…’ I look to my hands… ‘No, is better to do that with thumbs…’ I look to the water… no shadows close by…

Is not that far away… void is nearly full…

‘I hope this is not a Magic Drain death, waiting to happened…’ deep breaths… ‘Ia Imbue Arms!’ I move my arms in a circle ‘Come with me, you are needed! Bubble!’ lift my arms-! ‘It works!’ floating in front of me is a ball of spinning water about the size of my head-! ‘Ugh! Focus or it falls! Focus or it falls! Move! Move! Move!’

-----

Splash!

‘Ugh~!’ that was… ‘Dumb…’ somehow I still have around half my magic in the tank… ‘But without the boost that I got today that would have been impossible…’ the seed is watered at least… ‘I cut it open and made sure there was one, but I buried it with the fruit… is that ok…? Should I… eh… pour some magic into the dirt?’ I look back to the broken tree behind me

Its a Study Wisdom, what made this crater nearly destroyed it… the few low branches that survived are stubbornly hanging there… I still don’t see any leaf in the ground… just some splinters left

‘What is the deal with the leafs? Did all got evaporated? No, the remaining branches still have some…’ I only know that this tree has some good wood… nothing about the foliage… ‘Anyways… pour magic in the dirt to help the bush grow…? Can I do that with the tree…?’ no idea… ‘Ok, when do I get the magic version of Instinct? This is getting annoying! Helper!’

…

‘…’ I really want to sign… ‘Tomorrow, before looking for a new place… a new temporal place… I don’t want to be with the tank on empty while investigating the… “Red Flower Zone” time to… hope I don’t get lost in the way…’

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I have no idea of where the flowers are… but I am nearby the subtle smell from before… so…

‘Task failed… successfully…?’ I look around, but is only familiar in the sense of: I am inside the forest… there is one of the taller trees in front of me… ‘I don’t have the name of this kind in my mind… do I have to repeat the trait to get it-? Jumper?!’

The smell is nearby… is about noon, I could eat one… just not thrilled about it… looking around again… nothing orange…

‘I’m still surprised of how much light reaches the ground-!’ Jump!

Slam!

/////

It was the sound of the air getting trapped in the wide parachute like mouth, what alerted the snake, but unlike the previous time, she couldn’t jump to attack while the monster was recovering

‘Fuck you! Weird sick shit!’ because she was cursing it on her mind due to the fear instead

As she moved away from it, the monster used the time to lift its body and close the mouth, this Jumper Net was green and had fallen from a branch above the snake

She hissed but in response the monster jumped twice, one time away from her and the other back to the branches, where she lost sight of it after another leap

Both smells together, unnerved her and she could heard the branches move because of the monster, but was unable to feel the vibrations made by the enemy again

‘Instead of a purse I should made a spear or-! That’s it!’ she moved her body making a circle in the ground as she Imbued her limbs and waited

Inadvertently to her, the magic that leaked from her was appetizing for monsters, it marked her as highly nutritious food and despite the fact that she was aware of it, the monster refused to flee and instead tried to attack again…

She did felt the vibrations of something bigger, nearby…

‘Ia! Ground! Crack! Mold! Form! Sharpen!’ bur choose to ignore it for now, as she did with the fish, she avoided to say the name of her improvised spell, still unaware of the leaking magic from her arms waiting for the monster to jump again

Two eternal minutes for the snake passed, as the monster moved slowly into position and it dropped again

‘Earth Shape!’

She moved her arms up and inside the circle made by her body, the ground twisted and raised turning into a pointy spiral of compacted dirt. Tall enough to make the monster partially impale itself, unable to touch the ground as blood quickly covered the spike and both of them got face to face, an opportunity that she used to bite the triangular head of the monster and bracing against the pike, spin her body, separating the head from the rest of the monster with a loud cracking sound

Ding

Shivering she moved backwards observing what she had done… while blood was dripping from the head still held on her mouth… blood that she was using everything in her power to ignore… the tip of her tail started to move in an S pattern, showing that she was nervous… something she was unaware that her body did

/////

‘Ugh… why this one is green?!’ it makes more sense than orange at least… ‘The pests also work best in teams… one is the “Hey! Look at me!” while the other is the actual killer? Are monsters that smart?’ I swallow the head… ‘Ah! Ia Stop…’ I’ll deal with the body later… right now… ‘What made those vibration before?’

It felt way bigger than a boar… I look at the direction were I felt the thing…

‘Both smells… come from the same place?’ slowly… ‘I’ll check the notification later…’

Behind the big tree… is a small clearing with a hole in the ground?

‘A monster nest?’ the hole is smaller than a boar, so whatever made the vibrations is either stuck inside, or around the clearing… placing my head in the ground-! ‘WHAT?!’

Back! Back! Back! Hide behind the tree!

‘WHY?!’

…

…

‘Not moving?’ hearing the ground again… ‘Still hearing you… that is not a hole… the whole thing is underground!’

I can hear its… heartbeat? Like this… I don’t know how accurate I am, but I think this… monster? Has a starfish shape and is buried in the ground ahead… it should be

‘That, is a mouth…?’ the smell of monster comes out of it, mixed with whatever the other one is… ‘Can I kill this thing?’ now that I know this thing is here I can’t leave it be… ‘Irritate it, make it chase me north to the humans…? No, farms to the north… south? And hope that whatever is making me wary of that direction, hates it more than it hates me…? Make it fight the spider…?’

…

‘Lets see what I’m dealing with… you really aren’t going to say anything today…?’ the nail isn’t helping either… I move closer to the beast…

The clearing is covered in grass… short, dry, unhealthy looking grass, the Sturdy trees around it look normal, but in this place I probably shouldn’t trust them too much… there is some dirt around the edge of the hole, but the walls of it look like stiff leather

It isn’t a vertical drop, but an incline to pure darkness… no teeth… I get in… not deep, I can’t see ahead, the smells here are… just monsters… the more recent is the Jumper from before… nothing comes to greet me…

‘Ok… I am inside it and still alive, good… um?’ now I am feeling vibrations even without my head in the ground? ‘What are…?’ the walls start to show vein like protrusions ‘Scared? Well you should be! Thanks for showing me your weak point idiot!’

Bite! Inject all the venom!

‘Tough hide I give you that!’ I hope it didn’t dull my fangs with that ‘If I’m interpreting the vibrations correctly this things are veins! I don’t know how my kill venom works, but getting directly in the blood stream should really hurt-! AH!’

/////

The monster around her shock and trembled, making her separate from the wall, fangs full of blood. She managed to deliver the entirety of her stored toxins before the monster reacted at least

She retreated outside and away from the thing, as it shock lifting the dirt around it while it was raising, she counted five gigantic tendrils curling up towards the mouth, twitching and shaking in the air making a cloud of dirt as it fell in the ground

A sixth tendril was stuck bellow the larger tree for a moment, until with a snapping sound it broke one of the roots of the tree, releasing the last limb and making the enormous tree unstable

‘No!’ she moved towards the tree, ignoring the fact that, to her, it seemed about to fall, imbuing her limbs with magic again, she reached the opening below the tree as she prepared her spell ‘Earth Shape!’

She used her magic to move and compact the loose dirt in the open space below, the tendril occupied more than half the size of the tree, she lacked the magic to fully cover the opening, so she did the first thing she thought

She made a “bridge”

An arc made of dirt under the tree along the biggest unbroken root on that side of the plant, the snake used all the magic she felt comfortable using, nearly all. Starting to move away while looking at both the tree and the now still monster

The tree leaned against the structure and surprising her, the bridge resisted. She wasn’t sure if the thing she did actually helped, or it was just the other roots doing their job, but she was glad either way, even if her tail was still wavering

And the monster…

/////

‘Uh… what?’

…

‘I really want to blink… there must be something wrong with my eyes…’ how… ‘It turned into stone?’ that is not something that my venom should do…

…

‘Status…?’ a different screen appeared ‘What do you mean by calculating?!’ the Helper is still silent ‘I can’t believe you aren’t angry-’

‘Oh… um… what?’ I look to the monster again… there is no other screen in front of me… is it death? ‘It should be… why…? Didn’t that Deed asked for thirty…?’

The smell is going away… well… the thing now is made of stone… so…

‘I’ll… have to say, no. I have no idea what an “Average” monster is supposed to look like, so I’m not ready for… uh… whatever the next Deed is called’

The window closes… calculating again?

‘Please don’t give me a heart attack with something weird…’

The monster managed to cover the… mouth? With a pair of its tendrils, not that I was going to go inside it again, but is kinda weird that, that is the only thing it did-!

‘I’m already in the hard path… and a shortcut sounds like a bad idea too, for some reason… Spawner…? Well… good thing I’m not eating it! It probably is completely focused in that area so I wouldn’t get anything useful from… it…’ wait… ‘Ew!’ I need to take a bath… ‘Ugh!’

Hiss!

‘Ok… might as well test my last venom, right side make the sleep venom, left stays in killing venom… EW! What?!’ it feels like the right side of my face is bloating! ‘Argh! This is also making me hungry faster! I’m going to eat the rest of the Jumper then-’ the Nail goes away ‘Finally! What was-?! Ugh! AAAHHH!’

I can’t move

My body can’t move!

‘WHY?!’

-Calm down! You IMBECILE!-

‘Eh?!’

‘How is this “Soft”?! I am in the ground unable to move! How-?!’

‘Eh…?’