Frozen Planet (2)
The White Gallagon that had appeared without warning held its low altitude and circled round and round overhead, its movements suggesting it was searching for something.
Should I go out and fight it?
The only enemy within my perception was that lone White Gallagon. As a young adult with a Unique Trait gained through the Transcendence System, I could defeat a White Gallagon without much trouble.
And yet I did not move rashly.
...Not yet.
This was Gallagon territory — a planet where countless Gallagons lived together in prides. Killing a single White Gallagon in a place like this wouldn't be the end of it.
Gallagons were extremely belligerent creatures. Adhai was the exception; as a rule, Gallagons were like the dragons of myth — greedy and battle-mad.
Unless you annihilated the entire pride or broke its leader, the fight would never truly be over.
If I fought that White Gallagon, nine times out of ten its kin would come running to its aid. And if even one Black Gallagon happened to be among the reinforcements, my victory would be all but impossible.
It might be different if I could kill the White Gallagon in a single strike.
Gallagons had sharp eyes, but more than anything they were supremely sensitive to psychic power. The moment I began gathering energy to unleash God's Whip or a Psychic Breath, the beast would know at once.
Aside from those two traits, I had no means of dispatching it in one blow.
Which meant I had to prepare thoroughly before fighting them.
So I held my breath and waited, utterly still.
The sound of wingbeats circling around me grew steadily louder. Before long, a faint vibration rippled through the snowy field nearby.
The average White Gallagon measured twenty meters in length, with a pair of wings as massive as its body. Seen from a distance, it would look far larger than me.
Yet the sound of that enormous beast landing was small enough to be almost unbelievable. The psychic power flowing through its whole body had made its weight nearly negligible.
The moment it touched down, the creature began to move.
What is it doing?
My body was buried beneath the snow, so I couldn't see it, but my auxiliary organs let me track its movements.
It had lowered its head and was probing the snow with the long, beard-like bundle of tentacles trailing from its jaws.
Oh no.
If it came just a little closer, it would realize something was hiding beneath the snow. Ambushing it first, before that happened, would be far better.
No. I need to judge this more carefully.
Fighting this White Gallagon would make all-out war with the rest of the Gallagons inevitable. The moment they realized one of their own had vanished, they would begin an immediate search — and with their exceptional perception and memory, they'd find me quickly.
Even as I deliberated, the creature kept drawing closer. Less than ten meters now separated us. It didn't know I was there only because my body was buried deep in the snow — if it stepped on me, it would know instantly.
Damn it!
There was no more time to hesitate.
Kill it in a surprise attack before it found me, then leave this place. Moving through the underground passages would buy me some time.
Having made up my mind, I waited for the creature to take one more step. The instant its foot was about to touch down on the snow, it froze in place.
What's wrong with it?
The beast stood utterly motionless, holding the very posture of a foot about to fall. I kept my tension coiled tight and focused on its every movement.
Huh?
Its tentacles began swaying in a fixed rhythm. At first I thought the bundle was trembling in the wind, but that didn't seem to be it.
It looks like Adhai — is it communicating?
The creature seemed to have halted its search because another Gallagon had called it through the wind. I wanted to eavesdrop on their conversation through my Monster's Tentacles, but it was impossible.
They must have a channel of their own.
After a moment, the creature spread its wings wide and flew up into the sky. Even after it was gone, I stayed perfectly still for a long while.
Gallagons were clever. It could have been feigning departure while preparing an ambush.
Only after waiting roughly thirty minutes did I feel certain the surroundings were safe.
I couldn't understand why it had behaved that way.
Gallagons didn't flap their wings often. Like birds or pterosaurs, they beat their wings only to lift off from the ground, then switched to gliding once they reached a certain altitude.
So what did the sound of wingbeats directly overhead mean?
A warning? Or some other reason?
Gallagons were strongly territorial by nature. It might have searched for me because it judged I had intruded on their domain.
But if that were the case, it would have flown silently. Strange.
Any mature individual above a Green Gallagon could lift its body with psychic power. The creature prowling near me was a White Gallagon — if it had intended to attack an intruder, it would have moved far more quietly than it did.
It doesn't seem like it was deliberately announcing its presence, either.
I turned the problem over for a while, but no clear answer came.
Well, as long as I didn't run into it, there's no need to keep wracking my brain over it.
It was safe for now, so I should head down. Raising myself up, I scratched at the ice beside the hole with my claws. It only needed to be large enough to cover the opening; thickness didn't matter.
Once I'd carved out a slab of the right size, I laid it over the hole as I descended.
This should keep me hidden.
Those flying creatures weren't going to dig through every patch of snow one by one. With the cleanup thoroughly finished, I crawled down through the icy passage.
Back underground, I sensed the movements of three presences. The largest of them — No. 26 — sent out a psychic ripple to greet me.
｢Big Baby, why did it take so long?｣
[Zzzz Zzzz Zzzzz (There was a lot left to do.)]
｢I saved some food for you. You must be hungry, so eat it soon.｣
[Zzz (Thank you.)]
The creature plucked up a piece of Cavegoyle meat with her tentacles and offered it to me. Four of the original ten remained — no doubt her way of considering how much energy I'd burned moving around so much.
I accepted it gratefully and took the meat into my mouth. As they say, hunger is the best seasoning — the cold Cavegoyle meat wasn't half bad.
It tastes like cold soy-glazed chicken, only the meat is chewier.
The texture was closer to pork rind, but the flavor was soy chicken. A strange combination, admittedly — yet not a bad one, so I ate with genuine enjoyment.
I had just stuffed the entire lower half of a Cavegoyle into my mouth and was crunching away when the Mother of the Sky called out to me.
｢What about the White Gallagon?｣
[Zzzz Zzz Zzzzz Zzzzz (Another one called it away mid-search, so it left.)]
｢That's a relief. You're not ready yet — fighting now would be rough.｣
The Mother of the Sky murmured this with utter seriousness. She had fought Gallagons before, and she knew exactly how to take them down.
｢For the pride's traits and culture, we can just ask Adhai. The problem is the leader.｣
[Zzz (Right.)]
Her sharp eyes flashed as she spoke.
She looked exactly as she always did — aside from the fact that she was nestled against No. 26 with only her head poking out.
This underground space was relatively warm compared to the surface, but it was still a brutal environment. Anything that hadn't undergone a special evolution would have a hard time adapting.
Adhai did say her pride monopolized the areas where geothermal heat rises.
Any Gallagon at White rank or above was immune to the cold thanks to its thick hide, but Blue Gallagon hatchlings and immature Greens were not. With scales and hide not yet fully developed, even mild cold could injure their bodies.
Adhai herself proved the point. She'd tossed her backpack onto the ground and burrowed deep into No. 26's embrace, sunk into sleep as if her tension had finally melted away. Of course, the cold was beyond even No. 26's protection — every so often the little Gallagon's body shivered.
According to Adhai, the Gallagon nest lay inside a certain ice valley where geothermal heat rose from below. Judging by her description, it was one of the few survivable places on this harsh planet.
That's exactly why I landed somewhere far from the nest — and now this problem comes up.
Before I could even think about hunting the Gallagons, I'd have to deal with the cold somehow.
｢The nest is quite a distance from here, so...｣
[Zzzz Zzz (You must be cold.)]
｢Huh? Ah, well, a little.｣
[Zzzz Zzzzz Zzzzz Zzzz Zzz (You look like a baby chick, talking with just your head poking out.)]
｢A baby chick?!｣
Apparently my choice of words struck her as insulting, because the Mother of the Sky's fur bristled straight up.
She glared at me with her amber eyes wide open, but hugging a pink balloon like it was a stuffed toy, her glare posed no threat whatsoever.
｢Big Baby, what's a baby chick?｣
[Zzzzz Zzzz (It means a baby bird.)]
｢I don't know what a bird is, but I know what a baby is! Tiny little ones are babies!｣
[Zzz (Right.)]
｢So it's because Middle Baby is a baby. Am I right?｣
[Zzzzz (Very clever.)]
Listening to my exchange with No. 26, the Mother of the Sky shuddered — then let out a long sigh.
｢Whew. I thought being a griffin would be enough, but I had no idea it'd be this cold.｣
[Zzz Zzz Zzzzz Zzzzz Zzzzz Zzz Zzzz Zzzzz Zzz (Fighting a Gallagon pride alone is beyond me. You have to help.)]
｢...Fair enough.｣
[Zzz Zzzz Zzzz Zzz Zzzz (You know better than anyone that there's a way.)]
At my words, the Mother of the Sky gave a nod.
Every player who visited this world had been granted a special perk — something that didn't exist in the game. Just as Muriel could transform into other races despite being a cyborg, the Mother of the Sky possessed a perk that let her transcend the limits of her species.
She can transform into other mythical beasts, was it?
Under normal rules, a Wolf's post-deification transformations were locked to a single fixed animal. Learning traits in that form and stacking deification stages was the standard Wolf playstyle.
But the Mother of the Sky's perk let her break past that limit. If she met certain conditions, she could transform into different animals.
Unlocking a new ability each time she fulfills a condition... she's a lot like me.
Just as I consumed traits as ingredients to forge new Unique Traits, she unlocked a new transformation every time she hunted and devoured the target her textbox demanded.
Moreover, even without transforming, she could apply some of that animal's traits and passive effects to her griffin body.
At present, she could transform into one mythical creature besides the griffin. Her formidable close-combat prowess came from the power granted by that form.
She said she used it when she fought Muriel, before she met me.
She'd already told me what animal it was. A powerful transformation mode, but with a fatal drawback: the cooldown was long for its short duration.
Fitting for a phantom beast like that.
In any case, this seemed like the right opportunity to unlock a new animal for her — one that wouldn't be hampered by the brutal cold.
[Zzzz Zzzzz Zzzzz Zzz Zzzzz (What animal would grant me a cold-immunity effect?)]
｢The Wendigo. Unlocking it gets you frostbite attacks and a cold-resistance trait as the reward.｣
[Zzz Zzzz Zzzz Zzz Zzzzz (Good. Unlock it here. I'll help you.)]
｢Are you sure about that?｣
[Zzz Zzz Zzzz Zzz Zzzz (What I need most right now is allies.)]
Even if my contract with the Mother of the Sky was insurance for my eventual Ascension, it would be worthless if I never made it to the adult stage.
And if I truly intended to use her as a sacrificial offering, my deification stage would have to climb far higher than it was now. Which meant raising her odds of survival.
Simpl ily put: her growing stronger was, in turn, my gain.
｢You've changed a lot too, you know.｣
[Zzzz (Have I?)]
She said nothing more, but judging from the look in her eyes, there was no hostility behind the remark.
So we have two goals before we go after the Gallagons.
First and foremost was gathering the traits and information needed for dragon hunting.
I had to survey the terrain for spots suited to luring enemies into an ambush, and map out the local ecosystem. Since I'd never played on this planet in the game, information was in desperately short supply. Adhai had briefed me before we came, but seeing and verifying things firsthand was still essential.
Second: unlocking the Mother of the Sky's transformation.
I had never played a Wolf myself, but I'd fought plenty of them. I knew exactly what materials the Wendigo transformation required.
I couldn't say whether reality matched the game — but given my own track record, I was fairly confident the conditions for becoming a Wendigo would be nearly identical.
That's enough planning for now...
I took one slow look around the pitch-dark chamber.
Before going back out, I was going to renovate this underground space.
It would become the Amorph's Nest.