Chapter 18: Chapter 14: Searching

Searching

I needed to meditate for this…

‘Ia Stop’ but the ground is flat again ‘I had to eat one of the remaining Pests… It’s about midday?’ some of the clouds are gone, with quite a lot remaining in the sky ‘I don’t want to stay here for too long, I’m barely past the… crater shelter? River shelter…? Farm area shelter?’ I shake my head ‘Anyways! It’s boar territory! Need to go’

Grabbing the Pest I bit with my tail, I drag it to the roots of a tree and move backwards looking up at it

…

‘No movement from the branches, there is a little bit of wind, but it just moves some leaves…’ I wave at it… I move southwards… ‘Nothing…? Ok, time to… find another shelter, wasted some time unconscious and needed to meditate…’

She… did magic… but I didn’t saw a focus…

‘Did I…?’ … ‘Was I that distracted by the cute, that I missed that…? Or becoming a legend means, that you get to use spells without a focus?’

-How often did you get distracted by the cute before? I doubt this would be the first time…-

‘Well… uh… I… had some magazines with some cute models in dresses, nothing lewd… I can’t even remember their faces, just some of the designs… I can’t remember getting distracted around other people… no, I couldn’t allow myself to…’ that bastard would… ‘Ugh… ’ oh… the message changed…

-What happened? Your stress level increased, a lot, AND you stopped-

‘…’ I didn’t realized that I had stopped moving… ‘Nothing… just remembering bad stuff… but if those things still affect me… I need to make new memories, I… can’t help my siblings anymore…’

What a great way of-!

‘AH!!!’ I look around! ‘WHAT IS THAT?!’ my body is shivering, even after the temperature stopped bothering me! ‘WHERE?!’ there is nothing around!

…!

The… feeling… goes away…

‘What…? Was that…?’ I cannot think of words good enough to describe… that ‘Did the forest use magic or something?’

-This place hasn’t done anything, yet-

‘That is just vaguely threatening, not useful… Status… nothing…’ I close the window

I hope it means that if the trees do magic, It’s flashy… I force my body to move forwards…

-You are moving south, but the previous time, you did it from further east…-

…

‘But I came out of the forest, by going west and then, up near the river to be less visible… and…’ I didn’t think about finding landmarks, to go back to the flowers…? ‘Ugh…!’ I cover my face with my hands…

-----

Sturdy, Sturdy, Sturdy, rock, Sturdy, Sturdy, rock, Sour…? looking around…

‘Wait! I know this place! Finally…!’ for how long have I been moving?

After finding a small waterfall in the river, less than a meter tall, I went south for a bit until I realized it was a good landmark and moved east. This place is familiar… standing on the rock next to this Sour Monster… nearby I can see three other of its kind surrounded by Sturdy trees further south… none has fruits…

‘Incredible sour fruits… that is all I know… but I am not that lost…! I’m just… a bit more to the north than I wanted… I remember going through this place when I was going to the flowers…’

I still have some light to work with… but…

‘I could smell the Spawner, close to the flowers… and that is where I lost my arm…’ a shiver crosses me at the memory… ‘I should… find shelter here and move slowly forwards…’ I move my left arm for a bit… ‘Up a tree? Or should I meditate again to dig a hole?’

Meditation means not eating… climbing means climbing with something in my stomach…

…?

‘What is that smell?’ it’s fur… not a mice… but I think is small… ‘Nearby?’ not eating is a bad thing… ‘The smells is… northeast?’

Around me, this part of the forest has a lot of rocks between the trees…

‘Not sleeping under them… is that a hole?’

I can see a small opening, under one of the rocks, from up here… moving…

‘Yes… here is where the smell comes from’ I look inside… ‘Right… no infrared vision… Ia! Imbue Eyes!’

Fur!

‘Launch!’

Crunch!

Ding

‘I hate one of those noises…!’ I drag it out of the hole… looks awful after what I… prayer and swallow… ‘Ia Stop… Status?’

‘Oh?! I can get my…! Ugh…’

Do I, wait… for the organ… or get my arms upgraded…?

‘EP Shop’

‘For the next discount I need, four more items… THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE POINTS?!’ Deep… Breaths… ‘One hundred and eight points due to levels… I am not getting the next discount…’

What do I do…?

‘Wait, Toxic?! Not again!’

-Deeds…-

‘Eh? Deeds In Progress…? THREE OUT OF TEN?! HOW IS A MAMMAL VENOMOUS?!’

-How many snakes have arms? Or a VOLATILE VENOM?! Idiot…-

…

‘Ok, you got me there… any suggestions? I really could use the help…’

-Upgrade required for that, sorry Miriam-

‘…’ that’s… ‘Ok, you DO get better…’ I move to the Sour tree by the rock… ‘Lets go up… try to sleep… I’ll buy stuff after eating something tomorrow…’ I cover my face with my hands again ‘I need to go all the way to the river, to drink water…’

I go up, thankfully is easier this time, because the buttress roots of this one, are more pronounced that the one I tried this before…

‘Having the name of this structure suddenly appear in my mind is weird…’ I get to the branches… ‘No creature up here… I guest I’m vulnerable to fliers here, but…’

I look around, to the trees getting dyed red by the sunset, the moving leaves and branches… everything else is quiet…

‘Meditate until I fall sleep…’ that is going to be my routine for now… ‘Good night’

-----

‘Up there, the cold is worse…’

I get to the ground… look down and open my mouth… two fangs, one broken and the other a bit dull… I open my mouth to see the shadow… all good…

‘Thankfully I didn’t fell last night’ I look up, from what I can see of the sky, is a clear day for now… the daily roar woke me up at sunrise, but I only started to move a while ago due to the cold… and hunger ‘Void… almost full. Thirsty too… west to the river, perhaps fishing… and I’ll try to get a “map” of this area’ I start to move ‘Good morning’

-What are you going to buy? You broke out of meditation, a lot, thinking about that-

‘Ugh, I don’t want to think about that… if I get my arms upgraded then I might try to truly use them as weapons, I want to try “Magic Slash” after I have them imbued… they also feel a bit short, they got longer with the evolution, but… perhaps with an upgrade they’ll look better?’

-Looks? Do you have the time for VANITY?!-

‘I already lived with the wrong body. For. Eighteen. Years. If I can do something to improve how I feel about my body I WILL do it!’

-YOU WERE AWARE THAT YOUR ARMS DON’T FIT WITH YOUR BODY?! ALL THIS TIME?!-

‘Yes’

-IMBECILE!!! WHY YOU DIDN’T DO ANYTHING BEFORE?!-

Why is the helper so worked up by this?

‘Eighteen years of practice bottling my emotions, directed to just a part of my body, instead of my whole body. For just a feeling of discomfort? I can keep going’

-Are you shitting me…?-

‘I had no problem with my arms when I got them’ I stop to smell the air… ‘Except for the thumbs. They were more or less fitting for my size. After evolving, is that I felt that they were just a bit short, but I can manage this feeling…’ there is a bug nearby… but I can’t tell the direction… ‘I’m honestly more surprised to feel happy with being a snake’

-You… can deal with this?-

‘What is so hard to understand…? I’m not completely happy about them, but yes’ I start moving again, the wind comes from the south, but I don’t think the bug is there ‘Why are you interested in my feelings-! WE ARE LINKED LIKE THAT?!’

The windows closes…

‘YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME THAT SOONER!’ ok, my decision is made ‘Let me get food and I’ll upgrade my arms! Hang in there!’ faster!

-----

‘How…?’ I aimed west… but…

I’m north of the small waterfall…

‘My sense of direction is getting worse?! This is…! I… no, I missed the red flowers too…’

Is my mind the one getting worse…?

‘Later… if I try to fish on the lower part, I think is going to be harder, since the water is a bit disturbed’ I don’t see any shadow on that side of the river from here ‘I’ll go upstream for a bit, drink, then fish… this is more of a slide, than a waterfall…’ I turn north and start moving up ‘I wonder how this place looks when the river is full’

No shadows near me… moving…

‘I should have paid more attention to her map…’ I still don’t see a fish in the water… ‘But her map also should have been from memory, right?’

-It was definitively better than your mental map…-

‘I know… there is one. Ia! Imbue Arms’ I get closer and drink water… it moves to me ‘Current!’

Splash!

/////

The prey she pulled out of the water was a small, green, tadpole-shaped fish, with a long transparent tail, flopping in the ground trying to get back to the river

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‘Ia!’ Miriam moved closer, raised and aimed her right claw to the “neck” of the creature, where its gills tried to breath ‘Magic Slash!’ and moved it down ‘AH!’

Her spell caused a glowing trail to appear and solidify, as her claws got closer to the fish, this trail prolonged her attack separating the head and scoring a mark in the ground at the same time

‘What?!’ she moved away from her prey shivering, trying to ignore the insides that spilled from the fish… her tail started to move like an “S” again ‘Ia… Stop…’

Ding

/////

‘Really want to sigh…’ pray and swallow… first the… head, then… the rest ‘Status’

‘Eh…? The Deed is… because I, technically, did a spell with just the name?’ sounds possible to me… void… ‘That was a good spell, at least by energy consumption… I don’t know how strong it is, but it should be useful… wait… I did that in a “chop” motion… Ia! Imbue Arms, a slashing motion now, Magic Slash! Oh!’

This time my claws made four trails… it consumed more magic too…

‘But the trails… moved a shorter distance from my claws… perhaps weaker? How can I test that…? Is magic resistance a thing?’ I lie under the shade of a tree

-Striking yourself is NOT! Going to give you that! MASOCHIST!-

‘Don’t call me that! I haven’t bitten myself, do I…?! Ia Stop… EP Shop’ I need two more levels to get the organ… ‘I don’t know how long will take me to get those levels… and no one should have to feel uncomfortable about their body. Buy three upgrades for the bones of my arms-! OW!’ forgot to buy then separately! ‘Aaahhh!’

Crack!

‘OW! Not looking!’

…!

‘Finally!’ the burning feeling stopped ‘Buy an upgrade for the muscles of my arms… Buy another… Buy one more…’ I feel drained… and hungry? ‘What the…? Ugh, remind me of not doing bulk purchases, please-!’

‘ARMS! Just call them arms!’ do I need thumbs for the status to call them that…? ‘Wait… Strong? Did I skip a step? Ow…’ I need to rest for a moment… don’t feel like moving ‘Or… by evolving they got to a half-step state between the two?’ no answers…

…

‘Wait… Strong… like, Stronger Jaw…? Does that means that, I either get the Crushing Jaws to appear in Absorb, or, I just make my head bones and muscles stronger to get it…?’

-“Item Crushing Jaw Locked until you Acquire the requirements from the specific List. Or their equivalent from the General Option” Idiot…-

‘So, “Strong body part” is never a normal Item of the shop? Is the result of my actions? Then why does Crushing Jaw appears with a price in the shop? Or… that is just the price it’ll have in case I get it from a creature?’ sounds possible… ‘I… do I want to, or, don’t want to know about how Absorb works…? Ugh…’

…

‘How do you feel?’ I raise my head and look at my… arms… ‘They are longer… and I have proper-looking shoulders…?’ what… ‘Do I have clavicles now?!’

-By the shape, a more accurate way to call it would be: a heavily modified, compound furcula-

‘A what?!’

-The bird bone that looks like a Y-

‘HOW DO I EAT NOW?!’

-Like usual, you have those bones since you got that Item. It’s not a singular bone, they have that Y shape, but act like the ones in your mouth when you eat-

‘Oh… that is a relief… if a bit of a weird mental image…’ I move my arms to the sides… up and down… I can do a windmill ‘Not bad…’ punch, punch, punch, slash, slash, launch! Bite!

My last attack at the air, moves me forward, but I land on my hands without a problem even with the longer claws, my arms scales look like the ones from the rest of my body, they just have a slightly different shape and density around my articulations and joints… still not thumbs but:

‘Not bad at all! How do you feel?’

-The lack of thumbs still bothers you, but I feel better-

‘Good!’ I’ll try to fish again… ‘Uh… Why the sales of my “chest” look like… a breastplate?’ they are still the same kind as my other belly scales, but…

-Probably due to the extra bones, but only an AUTOPSY! Would give us more answers!-

…

‘That is an interesting way of saying “stop wasting time” but: thanks for the information… in here, there is no one else interested in sharing that kind of thing… except for that girl we meet yesterday, but…’ I close the windows and look to the water… ‘Another fish, Ia!’ drinking some more water… get closer… ‘Current!’

Splash!

‘Uh… attack! Magic Slash…!’ forgot… to think about how to kill it… now It’s another beheaded fish… ‘This is another Raider, right? Status’

Pray and swallow

‘Feeling full’ I move back a bit and rest to feel the sun… ‘South of the farm, along the river, there is a small waterfall. To the east of it, there is a spot with four Sour Monsters… south of that, somewhere, is the tree with the… white flowers… the tree was a Sturdy Wisdom… right?’

-You’ll figure it out eventually-

‘Bleh… there is really something wrong with my memory?’ the message remains the same… ‘Six more fishes… different ones…’ I look down at my chest and how it expanded… ‘Odd… but not disgusting’

-Improvement from your previous body?-

‘Fuck yes it is!’

I look to the river and relax… not much, the vibrations of the water hide things, so I need to look around and up… but this spot just smells like the fishes I killed… still, the heat is good… heat…

‘A way to define heat is: the vibration of exited particles… right?’ something about heat is related to that… I think ‘Can I take that excitement as heat for myself? Or I can make the air vibrate using magic, and that makes heat?’ I look to the water… ‘How a spell like that would work…?’ my… instinct, tells me… that there is something interesting about that idea… ‘You are not freaking out, so…’

The helper really is not doing anything…

‘Then… maybe not Transfer, heat goes from hot to cold and I don’t want to get cold…’ it needs to work in winter too… ‘Solar energy? How much heat reaches the ground… from this sun?’ I look to the sky… ‘It must be similar to… to… my previous world… did I forgot that name too…?’

…

‘I…’ looking down again… ‘Great… now I…’

HISS!!!

‘HOW FRUSTRATING!’ I… I…! ‘WHY DO I CARE SO MUCH ABOUT SUCH A SIMPLE THING?!’ must resist… urge to hiss more… ‘IA! IMBUE…! Stop…! Ia! Stop…! Calm down…! Don’t do magic while angry…! Don’t do magic while angry…! Don’t do magic while angry…’

Ding

‘Fuck…’ starting to hate that sound too… ‘Status’

‘I knew it was this…’ deep breaths… there is a dull pain in my head… ‘Then… let’s not mess with thermodynamics, for now. In… Fall if temperature is still a problem, I’ll try to think about a… heat gathering spell for winter. If It’s colder, then it should… stop me from starting a forest fire… or immolating myself…’

-You don’t have the magic for either-

‘I can tell there is a “But” in that message… if I Magic Drain myself, then it can happen?’ the windows closes… ‘So… why you didn’t tried to stop me? You… did it before with… when I was thinking about lightning magic…’ that was hard to remember, the headache is not helping either

-This time, you were trying to get a reaction from me-

‘Stopping me from making stupid mistakes… but not telling me beforehand, what counts as a stupid mistake?’

-Letting you DO! Some, stupid mistakes. Not telling you what is a mistake, for now-

‘I don’t know if you can lie… but alright, I’ll trust you…’ I start to feel regret again ‘Sorry for trying to manipulate you… I’m a hypocrite, I hate the idea of that happening to me… and yet I tried it…’ the windows closes… and I feel like shit…

Looking around… I see a shadow in the river, but I’m full…

‘Moving south… then east, need to make sure that I know where the flowers are… and kill the Spawner… there is something wrong with me…’

That was hard to admit…

…

‘Moving is… different, now…’ I look at my body… ‘Now I can’t just stick my arms to my body… now I need to use them to walk…’ moving to the waterfall-slide… ‘Not walking, I just have to alternate while leaning on them for a bit, while my body catches up… lets see…’

I lift my head and arms

‘Now as fast as I can!’ move! Move! Move-! ‘Ah!’

Thud

‘Need… to practice that’ my balance is a bit off right now… that is why I fell ‘This second life It’s not easy…’

-----

I get the smell of the bug again… this time there is also a weird blood and a monster smell…

‘It’s… to the south from here… monster’s blood too…’ I look to the trees around me, but there is only Sturdy ones-!

Rustling!

‘Ia! Imbue arms!’ I move back still aiming to the south! ‘Whatever you are, I am ready!’ I didn’t feel any vibration…

…

‘Tell me It’s not a-!’ I look up… ‘Nothing-?!’

Rustling!

‘Eh…?’ a tree in that direction is moving its branches… tongue out… ‘There is no wind…’ I move slowly to it… passing a bush ‘Oh… Ia stop…’

On this side of the bush, I can see some blood near the tree that is… calling…? Me…

‘Well…’ I move closer and the Sturdy stops moving… ‘Just some monster blood and… oh! This is insect blood, just from an insect that hasn’t tried to kill me, yet… so, what do you need?’ I look up to the branches… I just see leaves, not nests, nor anything like it-! ‘What?! Did… that root just… move?’ it was more like a twitch… getting closer… ‘Ew…’

There is a… chunk of insect body, on the other side of the tree… yellow carapace attached to yellow bits of… something… there is more monster blood on this side…

‘Is… that the smell of a Jumper…?’ the more prevalent one is the Pest smell… but that one also exist… ‘Good to see that you made it hard for them…’ I move above the root towards… it… ‘You want me to eat this?’ I look to the tree… ‘Ugh… I mean, I can, because my digestion is ridiculous, but… ew…’ the tree does the rustling again… ‘It’s official. Seeing a tree move without wind is: Weird…’

I… look to the… thing…

‘Do I really-’

-Nothing gets wasted in this place…-

‘Ugh… not fair…’ pray and swallow… ‘Gah! Sticky!’ ignore it, ignore it, ignore it, ignore it, ignore it ‘Status… nothing?’ I look to the tree… ‘Happy…? Ia Imbue Arms’ I place the tip of my right claws in the dirt… ‘Um… Imbue? Oh!’ some of my magic moves along my arm… I suppose to the earth… ‘Ia Stop’

Nothing in my Status…

‘Oh well, now I have the knowledge of how to do that!’ I move away of the tree, to the east ‘And I knew that, not everything that I try, will give me something back’