Chương 75: Ant Farm

Day 9 With both of us focused on the environment, there wasn't much talking as we made our way out of the jungle. Which gave me time to check out the actual reward for getting burned thrice. [Heith's Awakening - Ability Duration: 60 Seconds Cooldown: 48 Hours Effect: 50% increased Mental Attributes Enhanced Resistance to Fire Damage 100% increased effective level of perception-related Skills 100% increased effective level of Spells] And of course the first use hadn't been free.

The two-day cooldown was merrily ticking away. But the important part was that this was now a thing I didn't need the cat shape for. Though its own traits meant that I was effectively immune to fire damage when I combined the effects. Which I could also achieve in the half-dragon shape. Sadly, the increased spell levels were pretty useless in my current state. It prompted me to check, and only one spell had gone up a level so far—Spectral Tackle. Because, of course.

We made it out of the jungle without further incident. If that was because Nemesis hadn't noticed our presence or encouraged our activity—I had no idea. I let Helene off my back before I canceled out of the chimera shape.

"That's the longest time I've spent without them by my side. Since all of this started," Helene said.

"Miss 'em?"

"Yes. Mostly I worry about them. I know Jamie is taking good care of them, but…" Her voice trailed off. I looked over, but she turned her face away. Up until now I hadn't realized how similar we two were in the way we dealt with our emotions. We didn't. Until they snuck up on us and ambushed us. Which I still needed to talk to her about. I awkwardly patted her on the arm.

"They'll be okay. And soon you will be even better equipped at keeping them safe."

"Will I? Or will I make a mistake and one of them will pay the price? I just wanted something that'd allow them to fight back, and now I'm ordering them into combat."

"You can hardly leave them behind. You know what happened to the fire station. The more we become a threat, the smarter our foes will get about fighting back. You have to keep them at your side. And once you are with Anthony's team? There'll be a protector who holds the line, a healer who can intervene if something should go wrong, and Constance with her buffs to prevent that from happening in the first place." Helene gathered herself. I had never seen her this shaken before.

"You are right. I just wish for a world in which all of this wasn't necessary."

"Yeah. Me, too, Helene. Me, too." The others wanted to meet us around noon, by the medical building where we had met up earlier. We still had some time, and I was itching to keep going. To do anything productive. But I was also up since around 5 a. m. Maybe some time off wasn't too bad.

"Let's find our meeting spot again and relax a bit?"

"Sounds good." We started on the way along the jungle's edge to our meeting spot.

"I got two hearts to eat, and I need to talk with you about something to deal with Nemesis."

"Two?"

"Yeah, I realized I might be close to a milestone, and I still carry a couple of gnoll hearts. Along with the elf, I might get a goodie."

"What changed? I heard a bit about the gnolls and the hyenas. It sounded like you devised a plan to kill them very efficiently. And now I've seen you spare the Created multiple times." I had been avoiding that question myself.

"There are a couple of factors," I said.

"The gnolls were not as stationary. They were an active threat. The elves seem to be content with protecting their jungle—""Which we didn't know before you spared them and learned this."

"—which I didn't know at that time. But the kobolds are similar. They only turned outward when directed by Mammon. And then there was that time I tortured one. A bit." Helene waited for me to elaborate, but I needed time to gather my thoughts.

"It was too real. The fear, the way his heartbeat changed, the sweat on his scales. Which I realize might be evolutionary nonsense. But I digress. I know they aren't really real, but they act too real. At some point I can't trust the rational argument to beat the emotional moral one. We are meant to hold on to what makes us human, the Fallen are the biggest threat. I can't become someone who ignores empathy because it grants experience without losing something." You could be reading stolen content.

Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Makes you wonder how real we are in their eyes, doesn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Our world was attacked by extradimensional invaders who we, as a species, had zero defenses against. We needed the help of another extradimensional faction to save us. Are we suddenly equals, now worthy of being recognized? Or are we an ant farm that's getting treated for a mold infection?"

"Hadn't thought about it like that. Makes not-real a bit less impactful." Nearby parts of a burned-down building crashed down, which startled a small swarm of birds.

"I am not talking about our Guides, for what it's worth," Helene said.

"I think they are honest when they say they care about us. But I wouldn't ask if they care like I do for my boys, or like I did for my husband. Both I cared for with all my heart, but only one was between equals." Back at the meeting spot, Helene sat on a bench while I began extracting the elf's heart. I had offered to move to somewhere out of sight, but Helene asked me to stay. She expected that one day seeing those transformations would grant her some kind of epiphany.

The elf's soft features reminded me of Jamie. Which didn't help with the guilt I already felt over the elf's death. But there was a line I had to draw. Real or not, when they threatened mine, I had to stop them. Another unpleasant realization. I would do the same if it were a human. If another Blessed attacked any of my friends? I wouldn't take chances. And I had no idea when that shift had happened. The first night I wasn't there yet. Was it only after the tunnels? Only after Jason? I couldn't tell.

But that was still different from killing a teenager who was only planning violence. Teenagers thought of doing stupid shit all the time. Eventually I held the heart. I didn't bother wasting ATP to shift into something that'd make this easier. It was as chewy as the first one.

"Bon appétit," Helene said, just as I was chewing on my first bite.

"Not helping," I mumbled over a mouthful of elven heart. Eventually I got the notification and accepted the transformation. I disliked this shape less than most of the other humanoid shapes so far. Not least because it didn't feel as sexualized as the others. The androgyny went both ways for them. And the clothing was mostly leather armor, well-fitting leather armor, but armor nevertheless. It came with decent baseline stats and senses that could nearly compete with the best of my animal shapes.

"What's going through your head at this point?" Helene asked.

"What?" I replied.

"This experience is routine for you now and utterly alien for just about everyone else. What's it like to become so different?"

"It's still a bit baffling. Especially with the humanoid shapes. And I'm kicking myself for not having gone with the gnoll first. If the reward I get allows me to keep more shapes, this would be one I'd like to keep. Definitely the best combo of opposable thumbs and sharp senses so far."

"I'm afraid we will fight more of them eventually." I sighed.

"So am I. But I hope not. And if we don't, I have some other ways to fix this."

"How?" I realized that basically only Jamie knew most of the mechanics I was working with. Daily Shape Echo, the exact mechanics of the collar, Embodiment. Most of those tools I usually didn't talk about. I took my time to explain all the tools at my shape-gathering disposal. In the meantime, I discussed my dilemma with my Guides. ["Thoughts on using Embodiment for this shape?"] I asked. ["No. You are right to suspect that you might get another way to store shapes. You are halfway to the next perk already. Prioritize that. Any day you don't use Shape Echo, you can bring this back to slot it into the collar,"] Gabriel replied. I had suspected as much. But I might still get that first kill task. There was no reason to eat the gnoll heart now, not if I didn't have access to a sanctified space anyway. I finished my explanation to Helene.

"... and yeah, I might keep this until I can get a kill in it. It's only slightly weaker than the demon scout, but a lot more agile."

"The classes really are not created equally. That's a lot of tools, but ultimately weirdly restrictive. Not too dissimilar to mine."

"At least my subclass didn't complicate it. I suspect you won't be as lucky."

"I fear as much." I pulled out the Elven Bow I had looted along with the elf. Which reminded me of something.

"Shit. Give me your cloak. Roslyn should not see you in it." Helene immediately removed the cloak and handed it back over.

"Why?" I took it and put it into my inventory.

"It used to belong to Jason. I gifted it to him when I got it, figured it'd help him more than me." Helene lifted an eyebrow.

"That would have been good to know."

"I know. I know. I just… never got around to bringing it up." I returned to examining the bow.

"Which brings me to something else I'm forgetting to bring up. See if you can brew something that helps us against Nemesis. Something that removes emotions from the equation. I suspect she'll be extremely well equipped for weaponizing them—mine in particular."

"Mh. I had a similar thought. I will see what I can do." [Elven Bow (Uncommon Ranged Projectile Weapon) Adjusts itself to the wielder.] That was both a very understated and very interesting line. I pulled out an arrow. To my dismay, it was entirely mundane. [War Arrow] With all my buffs, I was at nearly twice the strength my elven victim had been. I was stronger than any human in history had been. Even if the bow could handle that strength. If I shot at full draw?

The arrow would literally explode the second I released the string. I aimed at a nearby tree and pulled the arrow back, just enough to feel the strain, but not as far as I could. My shot went wide. Didn't even get close to the tree.

"Cool. I could have hit Mammon. Maybe. Not going to hunt a tiger with this."

"But it might be worth practicing?"

"Yes, it might. No, not even might. My only ranged answer so far was either 'stop being ranged' or 'become a kobold'. What are the odds some rich asshole had an archery range in Mammon Tower?"

"I'd say roughly one in six."

"Yeah. Sounds about right." I heard a group approaching. Three voices. Team Zoo. I gave Helene a heads up and we both stood to greet them. Team Zoo looked a bit more relaxed than they had been when they departed earlier. Which I assumed meant Anthony made good on his promise to find them a place to stay. Alex and Inaaya were even holding hands as they walked up to us.

"Hey, dog lady! No dogs?" Sarah asked, in lieu of a greeting. Then she looked at me.

"And who the heck are you?" I pointed up at my devil eye.