Preparation (1)
Figures.
She was always so sweet, and her childlike way of speaking made it easy to forget at times — but No. 26 was a Sea Demon, through and through.
Sea Demons had a strong sense of territory to match their strong sense of kinship. An enemy had set foot in the place she had decided was home, so this outcome was only natural.
She does seem stronger, though?
If she'd killed it with Demon Crash, that would be one thing, but from the look of it she had strangled the thing to death with pure binding force. When I glanced at Mother of the Sky, she gave a small nod of confirmation.
The Green Gallagon she ate yesterday, maybe.
A while back, No. 26 had suddenly grown far stronger after absorbing the psychic power of a dead Sea Demon. Thanks to the Green Gallagon's corpse — or more precisely, the psychic power the Gallagon had carried — she may have gone through another growth spurt.
Would make sense. Gallagons and Sea Demons are both potent psychic creatures.
[Zzzzzz Zzzzz (You've grown. Well done.)]
｢Me did great?｣
[Zzz (Yes.)]
The moment I pulsed the wavelength that meant yes, her whole body lit up with joy — glowing so brightly that the dark cavern itself brightened. Clearly, being praised agreed with her immensely.
"Once I finish repairs, I will be capable of much as well."
[Zzzzzz Zzzzz Zzzzzz (You will. I brought you this too.)]
I set the Snowbanshee down in front of PS-111.
[Zzzzzz Zzz Zzz (Eat it together with the Sharkbear.)]
"Confirmed. The head of the biological you are carrying contains a high concentration of energy."
｢No, friend. No.｣
She was clearly eyeing the head of the Glacier Fiend I was carrying. I was just about to refuse — that much was non-negotiable — when No. 26 cut in ahead of me.
｢Big Baby needs to eat lots and lots to grow big.｣
"If I consume and analyze that organism, I can acquire a new capability."
｢No means no. No.｣
Faced with No. 26's fussing, PS-111 hung her head in a distinctly sullen manner.
[Zzz Zzzz Zzzz Zzzzzz Zzzzzz (After we eat, we'll go out and find fresh prey instead.)]
"Your consideration is appreciated."
Having soothed PS-111, I immediately set about preparing the meal.
Avatar of the Hunt — the transformation mode that raised the odds of triggering a Predation Effect. Its cooldown had just expired.
Which traits will I get this time?
I had a few traits I was hoping for, but who knew how it would actually shake out.
Looking forward to new traits, I activated the Avatar of the Hunt.
Adhai, exiled daughter of Ored Ghad, awoke from sleep with a chill she could not name.
It was not that the place was actually cold.
The spot where she lay ranked among the warmest places on this entire planet.
Gallagons, who sat near the top of nearly every ecosystem they entered, did not build their nests just anywhere. They were drawn instinctively to wherever psychic power gathered.
Psychic power was the force that warped reality and transcended the laws of physics — and the places where it concentrated were almost always abnormal in some way.
Where the land was cold, the nest was warm; where it was scorching, the nest was cool. Such was the Dragon's Nest.
This cavern was no different. Warm geothermal heat rose from the floor, and a spring of fresh water ran nearby.
More than that, sweet fruit grew from vines along the cavern walls — fruit packed with sugary juice, a favorite treat of the young ones.
It was, in truth, an abnormally comfortable place. And yet she was uneasy. Because she knew exactly where she was.
This was the place her kin treasured above all others: the resting place of the Hatchlings.
How they saw her was obvious. They knew her scales had been stained the color of the vine — and still they refused to acknowledge it.
To them, she would always be nothing more than a weakling with a defect.
If they had been her 'true family,' it would never have been this way. They had accepted her as one hunter among their own.
She thought of them.
The ones who had cared for her when she had been abandoned as weak and small, who had raised her into a hunter.
The ungainly but surprisingly tender elder, who was also a friend.
The small elder, kind-hearted, yet capable of showing a frightening face at times.
The frail little one the small elder had brought along.
And the elder she loved best — the strange one who changed his shape constantly.
The pink small elder claimed he was simply growing, but to Adhai the changes went far beyond that. Her 'former' kin had never grown that way. They grew bigger as they matured, certainly, but she had never seen one shrink back down again.
Even so, she had loved the Big Adult. Whatever form he took, the Big Adult was still the Big Adult.
Though his most recent shrunken shape was very much not to her taste.
And yet right now, she longed to see even that ugly face of his.
She rose slowly to her feet and focused her 'power,' the way the small elder had taught her.
The small elder wielded power with astonishing mastery — casually accomplishing things no creature she had ever seen could manage, things even the Big Adult might find impossible.
She spread her power out, wide and thin — so thin that none of the other Gallagons would be able to properly detect it.
The power, thinned into a thread, slipped past the cavern and out into the open. Spreading herself beyond her limits made her legs tremble, but she held on.
They saw her as weak and useless.
Weak, yes — that much was true. Useless, no. So she had decided to turn their arrogance against them.
When you are weak, victory lies in striking the moment your enemy lets their guard down. It was the tactic the Big Adult favored whenever he fought stronger foes.
Through her power, spread so painstakingly wide, she confirmed that the watchers had dozed off.
She had the information she wanted. Now it was time to act. Carefully, she crept out of the cavern.
Outside, Gallagons with vine-colored scales like her own were dozing, heads nodding.
She had noticed it when she first arrived, too: her kin here were in poor condition. Most looked gaunt, and the Hatchlings were dangerously thin, unable to get enough prey.
But she had neither the reason nor the time to worry about that. While the guards were dead to the world, she had to flee — quickly.
｢Where｣｢going?｣
A psychic burst struck her just as she spread her wings to take flight.
From the forest before the cavern emerged a Gallagon of breathtaking beauty, white as a jewel or fresh snow.
Pure white scales marked with flecks of black — so beautiful that even Adhai could not help but be awed.
The fact that Adhai herself possessed striking beauty despite being born a mutant surely owed no small debt to her mother.
But this female's true strength was not her beauty.
Not only had she raised a rebellion on this very planet, ruled by Ored Ghad himself — she was strong enough to have built her own new flock.
In truth, there were several other white Gallagons in this flock besides her. And even so, Ham Ort held the position of leader.
That alone proved her power had surpassed the white caste entirely. Perhaps she stood somewhere between white and black.
In other words — the one being in this world Adhai least wanted to encounter, right at this moment. At the sight of the pure-white female, every nerve in her body went taut.
｢Interesting｣｢this usage｣
Ham Ort prodded the thread of Adhai's spread power with one forepaw. The wide net vanished in an instant — snatched from her control and dissolved in a heartbeat.
The overwhelming pressure of the other's power frightened her, but she did not retreat. Watching her hold her ground, Ham Ort gave a slight tilt of her head.
｢Pointless resistance｣｢means nothing｣｢gap in power｣｢do you not know?｣
｢Know.｣
｢Then submit.｣
｢Refuse!｣
Violet fire flickered in Ham Ort's eyes, and Adhai felt her whole body begin to shudder. A crushing presence bore down on her, just as it had when she had faced Ored Ghad.
Still, she did not give up. The Big Adult she respected never gave up, no matter how dire the situation.
Adhai braced all four legs and glared at Ham Ort. The tentacles lining her jaw were drawn taut, ready to loose violet lightning at any moment.
How long did it last?
The one who backed down first was, unexpectedly, Ham Ort. Taking a single step back, she sent a short psychic burst.
｢Daughter of the Shooting Star｣｢spirit｣｢pleases Ham Ort｣
The crescent curve of the other's mouth might have been mockery, or admiration. But it lasted only a heartbeat; then she raised a forepaw and pinned Adhai down.
｢Daughter of the Shooting Star｣｢weak｣｢Ham Ort｣｢needs strong daughter｣
In sheer size alone, Adhai and Ham Ort differed by more than tenfold. The gap in raw strength was a chasm beyond comparing.
She knew all of this, and still Adhai did not give up. She raked with her claws and hurled arcs of violet lightning.
Everything was futile, but she kept resisting.
No matter how comfortable it was in there, she did not want to go back in. If she simply obeyed whatever the strong commanded, she would be no different from the day she'd been cast out of her old flock.
As she thrashed and struggled, Ham Ort said something entirely unexpected.
｢Ham Ort｣｢prepared｣｢weak daughter｣｢power that makes strong｣
｢Power?｣｢understand｣｢impossible!｣
｢Resist｣｢stop, then explain.｣
The moment she heard those words, Adhai went still. Come to think of it — Ham Ort could have shattered her wing bones at any time, and had not.
Clearly, the other wanted something from her.
The Big Adult had once said: when you fight a strong enemy, use everything you can use — even the enemy's own strength.
｢Explanation｣｢request.｣
｢Good｣｢enter the nest｣｢will explain.｣
What Ham Ort wanted, what she was thinking — Adhai did not yet know.
For now, finding that out came first.
This should do for now.
Deep in the night, while everyone slept, I was fine-tuning our new nest. Fueled by the energy I'd taken in during the day, the old subterranean burrow had long since become Amorph's Nest.
A regenerative marsh now covered the floor, and black mucus ran down the walls and ceiling.
The heat rising from the nest was being drawn in by the Smog Towers and vented underground instead of at the surface — to keep steam from leaking out through the cave entrance.
Granted, the surrounding ground would be sucked bone-dry in time, but I had no intention of staying here that long, so it didn't matter.
The symbiotes are working well, too.
No. 26, badly wounded, and Mother of the Sky, with her cracked beak, both carried the symbiotic spores I had planted in them. With healing fluid and energy being continuously supplied through spores linked to the nest, their wounds should be dramatically improved by morning.
PS-111, for the record, couldn't receive them. Being a Mutant Screamer — a hybrid of machine and organism — the symbiote effect simply didn't take on her.
A machine, and the one who has to take the worst care of her body. What irony.
I supposed I could take comfort in the fact that she had the most efficient recovery method of any of us.
I turned my gaze to PS-111, resting in dormancy. She lay prone in the warm marsh, and beside her drifted the remnants of the day's meal.
Bones half-dissolved into the nest — the skull of the Glacier Fiend.
Ugh. Looking at that thing is putting me in a bad mood all over again.
Avatar of the Hunt, the evolution mode of the Perfect Organism, massively raised the probability of acquiring Genetic Essence.
An Amorph's base predation success rate was abysmally low. Normally you'd have to devour dozens of a species just to barely land the Genetic Essence you wanted.
But with the Avatar of the Hunt active, a single kill was enough to trigger a Predation Effect. And the probability boost even applied to genetic samples and creatures I hadn't killed myself.
The catch was that in those cases the trait came in as an incomplete trait rather than a proper one. Even so, incomplete traits weren't useless — they could serve as materials for the Transcendence System, and acquiring the same trait twice restored it to full integrity.
For all these reasons, I made a habit of using the Avatar of the Hunt whenever I ate prey of real strategic value.
The problem was that it raised the predation probability — it didn't make it one hundred percent.
That ugly stag-beetle of a skull had given me absolutely nothing in return.
I knew the Avatar of the Hunt wasn't a guaranteed trigger... but of all things, the Glacier Fiend.
I only realized after I'd finished eating, when no message appeared at all — I actually thought I'd left something out. It wasn't until I'd licked up every last drop of blood from the floor that it clicked: the Predation Effect had never fired to begin with.
Tch.
Among the traits obtainable from a Glacier Fiend was one that generated narcotic compounds. Fused with my existing Smog Tower trait, it would make for something truly terrifying.
Had the Predation Effect triggered, I could have used it as fusion material. All I could do was lament the waste.
...What's done is done.
I put the Glacier Fiend out of my mind and checked my text boxes.
Unluckily, I'd come away empty-handed from that one — but from my other prey, the Snowbanshee and the Sharkbear, I had managed to trigger Predation Effects.
From the Snowbanshee's Genetic Essence came Stealth Maneuver: a special-defense trait that drastically reduced the sound and traces I left while moving.
Frankly, compared to Fur of the Unknown Creature — the perk of Clever Underdog mode — it was nearly a downgrade. But it wasn't without its merits.
It slashes my body weight as a side effect, for one.
When Stealth Maneuver applied, my skeletal structure was replaced with a synthetic material — extremely rigid, yet remarkably light. In fact, when the trait took hold earlier that day, I'd felt a tingling itch in every bone in my body, like going through a second adolescence.
Either way, having this trait meant that even after dismissing Clever Underdog, evading pursuit or going into hiding would be far easier. Back in the game, I'd leaned on Stealth Maneuver constantly whenever I was baiting enemies or digging traps.
Next up...
From the Sharkbear — the one I hadn't killed myself — I'd gained Enhanced Endocrine Gland as an incomplete trait. Fusing it with Muscle Augmentation, an internal-organ trait, would yield Berserk Synapse.
Berserk Synapse was a fusion trait that dramatically reinforced physical capability by secreting specialized chemicals. With it, I would move faster, hit harder, and gain greater vitality and energy reserves.
Even in the game it had been rated a highly versatile trait — nothing flashy, but useful everywhere.
One of the traits I need most right now.
Berserk Synapse helped the body operate its stored energy with far greater efficiency. With it, I could cut the energy cost of the Avatar of the Hunt and God's Whip.
I'll have to hunt down more Sharkbears later.
Using an incomplete trait as fusion material required two copies of the same trait. To fuse Berserk Synapse, I'd need to acquire Enhanced Endocrine Gland one more time.
With that, I dismissed the text boxes.
Nest tuning complete, I quietly sank my body into the marsh. Wrapped in the heat that embraced me, I began mentally cataloguing everything that still needed doing.
From here on out, it's a long game.
Testing my new traits was done; the new nest was secured. The kids were recovering fast. Which meant it was nearly time to start preparing to bring Adhai home.
The White Gallagon who had taken her looked to be a clever one — this would be no easy fight.
I need to prepare as much as I possibly can.
To exercise good strategy and real skill to their fullest, you had to build the foundation properly. And for an Amorph, that foundation was nothing other than traits.
Only by holding a wide variety of traits in numbers could I respond proactively to whatever enemy crossed my path.
Glacier Fiends, Ice Horrors, Gallagons... there'll be plenty more where those came from.
I already knew, down to the finest detail, which creatures made their home around the Dragon's Nest.
Until sleep took me, I kept planning what to hunt first.