Nightmare Beyond the Horizon (2)

Time to use the Transcendence System.

Securing a brand-new Unique Trait.

That was the choice I had finally settled on after all my deliberation.

But before I could invoke the system, there was something I had to do first.

I need to prepare for whatever new risks this creates.

As I fired up the faster-than-light drive, I pulled up a fresh translucent text box in my mind.

With far more traits than I'd started out with, the structure of the text box had changed as well. The growing number of fusion traits had spawned new subcategories under each classification.

If one of these got locked away, which one would hurt the most?

At this point, the answer went without saying: Monster's Tentacles.

Monster's Tentacles was a fusion trait I'd created using the psionic organ I'd harvested from Yu Seong's research vessel as its base material.

If it became unusable, I would lose the ability to talk with No. 26 and Adhai entirely.

Of course, it could end up in limbo like the Morphing Organ did.

The Morphing Organ worked by using pheromones to scramble the nerves of anyone nearby, making them perceive me as a human. On top of that, it had inherited the vocal mimicry effect of the trait used in its creation, letting me copy human voices.

The trait itself had been locked away as unusable thanks to Perfect Organism, but the voice-mimicking ability alone remained available in a limited form.

When Perfect Organism took effect, it had sealed off the pore organs that released pheromones — but the organs responsible for producing sound were still intact.

Even if the new Unique Trait takes hold, as long as the tentacles on my head survive, we can still communicate.

The bundle of tentacles near the back of my head were organs tuned to resonate with creatures that conversed through energy wavelengths.

Thanks to them, I had been able to reach past the limits of my Amorph species and speak with No. 26 and Adhai.

Not that I'd be able to use Psychic Breath anymore, even if the tentacles do survive.

There was no guarantee Monster's Tentacles wouldn't get locked away.

But I had to be ready for it regardless.

Until the kids woke up, I kept running through contingency plans — what I would do if each individual trait got locked away.

A few hours passed like that, and No. 26 and Adhai slowly stirred awake.

I paused the ship for a moment, called them over, and explained the situation — that I wouldn't be able to speak with them anymore, but that I'd prepared a different way to communicate.

My plan was to send signals with a small hand held against my chest. Since neither of them understood human language, it was the only real option I had.

Letters and numbers were obviously out of the question.

I'd also considered sound-based signals, but that was near-impossible mid-combat, so I'd ruled it out.

But once I actually started teaching them, it didn't look like this method would be very effective either.

"Lift the little appendage up, that means hit?"

[Zz zzzz zz zz (No. First finger of the right hand.)]

"Finger?"

[ZZ ZZ (little tentacle)]

"Ah-ha."

No. 26 had no concept of fingers — she saw arm, hand, and finger as one seamless whole — so she struggled with my explanations.

[ZZ Z ZZZZ (Second finger of the left hand)]

"Retreat."

[ZZZ ZZZZ (Retreat is the third)]

"?" "Not-possible-to-understand"

[Z ZZZ (This part right here)]

"Me" "Tickles!"

When I poked the third toe of Adhai's left forelimb, she shuddered — apparently it tickled.

Since Adhai actually had feet and toes, she seemed to be catching on to what I was trying to do.

Still, given the structure of her body, they were closer to forepaws than hands, which put a hard limit on how much I could get through to her.

This is a real problem.

After all, I was an alien existence myself — a human mind housed in an Amorph body.

Even with my intelligence, I was fundamentally different from these two, whose minds still leaned so much closer to animal.

"Don't worry, Big Baby!"

"Me" "Trying-hard"

They were comforting me, having apparently decided I was disappointed.

Right. No point being discouraged already.

No. 26 and Adhai were both clever. No. 26 in particular had, more than once, read my intentions before I said a word and acted on her own.

So I just need to teach them the essentials.

After that, I spent a full hour drilling my signals into them, over and over. Boring as it must have been, they listened attentively and followed along the whole time.

This should be enough.

Getting them to understand every single signal I'd planned was, predictably, impossible. But they had grasped all of the basics.

"So Big Baby is going to grow again?"

[Zz (Yes)]

"Adult" "Grow" "Me" "Welcome"

They'd seen me seal myself inside a cocoon before thanks to the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Transcendence System, so neither of them showed the slightest surprise.

With their odd little send-off behind me, I called up the translucent text box.

Accept.

Having accepted, I waited for the slime to start pouring out of my body, as it had before. But no matter how long I waited, nothing happened on the surface of my carapace.

Huh?

As I tilted my head at the difference, a sound suddenly came from my back. With a cracking like a glacier calving, my back split open.

And from the split burst something half-dissolved into liquid.

It looked something like the rootstock of a tree centuries old — or perhaps like a web a spider had spun over a very long time.

Whatever it was, the strands emerging from my body began to erode the space around me.

[ZZZ ZZZZ (Everyone, get back!)]

Judging it anything but normal, I shouted to the kids while Monster's Tentacles was still alive.

As they retreated, the strands pouring out of me spread over my body and swallowed the passenger seats whole.

"Big Baby!"

[ZZZZ ZZZZZ ZZZ (Don't worry. Wait like always.)]

There was no pain at all — which confirmed, beyond a doubt, that this was the procedure for applying the new Unique Trait.

The strands covered roughly a third of the passenger cabin before stopping their expansion. From that point on, they hardened into a massive cocoon, just like every time before.

What on earth is it planning to show me, going this far?

My best guess was that it had something to do with a change in my body's size. I was either about to grow far larger than before, or the transformation would be drastic in some other way.

Tch. I'll have to tell the kids not to worry next time.

I'd told them to relax before the cocoon formed, but they were probably worrying anyway.

I should get them a present once I hijack the new ship.

With that thought, I closed my eyes.

"Adult" "Strange"

"Yeah."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

She and the small child gazed at the cocoon together.

Cloaked in pitch-black mucus, it pulsed with a slow, unhurried rhythm.

She hesitated for a moment, then drew a single thin tentacle from her body.

It was not the kind of tentacle she used to bring down prey with four appendages.

None of her kin had ever taught her that fact, yet at some point she had simply come to know it, naturally.

That this thin, slender tentacle of hers was used only for a very special ritual.

"Me" "Curious"

"Be quiet."

Silencing the pestering little one, she pressed the slender tentacle against the cocoon.

The first sensation to reach her was dampness and warmth.

But that was merely the surface. She sank deeper.

The thin tentacle glowed faintly. And with it, sensations too tangled for her to comprehend began flowing out of the cocoon and into her.

They were woven together in dizzying complexity. Some of them she had never felt once in her life.

And yet, within that unfamiliar whirlpool of confusion, there was something familiar. It was exactly the feeling she had known back in her homeland, drifting to sleep among her kin.

Comfort.

The big child was at ease right now.

She had been ready to help if the big child was suffering again, but this time there was no need.

She counted it a relief — and yet, in another way, it left her feeling vaguely unfulfilled.

Why would she feel that way when she wasn't even hungry?

She wouldn't have known before, but after several rounds of growth, she now understood where this hunger-like feeling came from.

Last time, when the big child was suffering.

She had used this slender tentacle to calm him.

It had the effect of reading another being's sensations, and of carrying her own thoughts across.

Of course, the transfer of sensation was only one small part of what this tentacle could do.

It was meant for communion of a far denser kind.

What dense communion meant, she did not yet know.

Her intellect had not reached the level required to explain it clearly.

But every time she used this tentacle, she felt strangely elated, with an itchiness deep inside her body.

It was something like the excitement before a meal, and yet a little different.

She wanted to keep feeling that somehow addictive sensation — but she forced herself to give it up.

This cocoon was something precious to the big child.

If she kept touching it, it might harm his growth.

When she withdrew the tentacle, the small child behind her sent out a ripple.

"Adult" "Growing" "More" "Cool-looking?"

"Yes. When Big Baby grows, he turns even cooler."

"Me" "Satisfied" "Satisfied"

Apparently pleased with her answer, the small child swished her tail back and forth.

"Me" "Small-adult" "Curious"

"About what?"

"Adult" "Growth" "Finished" "Me" "Adult" "Know" "Possible?"

"…Not yet, Little Baby."

"Not-possible-to-understand" "Me" "Growth" "Finished"

She had said no, but the small child refused to accept it. Sulking, the little one thumped the floor with her hind legs.

"Me" "Adult" "Know" "Possible" "Know" "Possible!"

"……."

When the small child wouldn't listen, she drew out one of her thick tentacles and slammed it down against the floor.

The cold metal crumpled, and the small child went quiet at once.

"Noisy."

"Understood"

To the small child, now perfectly silent, she sent out a faint ripple.

"…Later. When you're bigger."

"Me" "Promise" "Remember"

And so, talking with the small child, she waited.

Until the big child ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠awoke in an even more magnificent form.

There we go.

Nearly two hours had passed when I felt sensation slowly seeping back into my body.

It started with my head and torso, then my arms and legs, my hands and feet, my tail — and finally, the very tips of my fingers and toes, down to the end of my tail.

With every sense restored, I rose to my feet. As I moved, the half-withered cocoon peeled away without resistance.

Hmm.

I'd assumed the size of the cocoon meant I'd grown larger, and I'd only been half right.

Ever since my Hatchling days, I had walked on digitigrade legs, back held upright like a human's, my tail balancing my frame. Standing that way, I measured roughly three meters tall. When I invoked the Hunter's Avatar on top of that, my height stretched to five.

But my body now sat somewhere between the eight-legged stance of my Hatchling days and the bipedal posture I'd adopted since.

I still walked on two legs, but my torso was hunched halfway forward, which brought my lower combat ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠arms within reach of the ground.

The change came from how drastically my carapace and back had transformed.

The carapace covering my head, along with my horns, had grown vastly larger than before.

The eye-shaped patterns etched into my skull had deepened in color as well, until my head now looked as though a dozen extra eyes had truly grown from it.

Eight large new holes had opened across the carapace of my back, each crowned with a whorl-patterned cortex covering.

The outer shell that had once wrapped my back had spread wide and flattened, like a turtle's carapace draped over me. With the enlarged back plate meeting the armor behind my head, the overall silhouette now resembled an alligator snapping turtle.

In step with my altered body, the Monster's Tentacles — which had once stood up like a mane along the back of my skull — now cascaded down over both of my shoulders.

My arms and legs had thickened and lengthened to match the expanded carapace, and my tail had taken on a new shape as well — segmented plates of armor overlapping like a scaled cuirass, a weapon that would serve beautifully for mid-range strikes.

To sum up my new appearance in a word: a heavily armored tank.

Where I'd once been closer to a sleek bipedal predator, I was now, by comparison, bloated and massive.

My body itself has gotten incomparably heavier.

I'd have to run tests to know for certain, but on the face of it, my mobility had definitely taken a hit.

On the other hand, I'm bigger and tougher than before.

Thanks to the carapace and my overall growth, even in my half-crouched stance I stood nearly five meters tall. Measured from nose to tail, I'd guess somewhere between ten and twelve meters.

And if I invoked the Hunter's Avatar on top of that, I'd grow far larger still.

Now then — let's see what the new trait actually is.

Having finished my inspection of my body, I brought up the translucent text window containing the details of the new trait.

The Unique Trait Nightmare Horizon was something I had never seen before — an entirely new category of trait altogether.