It’s like… I’m not even sure I can describe it. I can feel the pull of gravity not just through my body but to an incredibly fine extent through my antennae. And not just the gravity personally affecting me, my physical body, but in an area around me. Naturally, that pull is downward, toward the centre of the planet, but there are vibrations and fluctuations that perhaps someone with greater understanding over how these things work could explain.
On top of that, the two mutations are functioning together, so not only am I detecting the gravitational waves as they are, but also as they will be a few moments in the future! Gah! As I twitch my antennae, its startling to realise I can actually sense the very tiny fields being emanated by my companions. Tiny’s is stronger than the others, and even Invidia’s is large enough for me to detect. Perhaps I’m also sensing the mass he has stuffed away in his pocket dimension?
It’s bizarre and a little nauseating, but I’m hoping that’s a temporary side effect, otherwise I’ve just mutated my way into trouble once again. No worries, I’ll get used to it.
There are other differences besides that as well. It’s easy to forget that upgrading an organ does produce a small overall performance increase. In this case, taking my Vestibule and Nave from +15 to +30 at once, apart from the changes brought on by mutation, has produced a noticeable and startling effect. The amount of energy pouring in through the Vestibule has increased significantly, beyond what the range increase alone should account for. The Nave is flooded with that Will and is condensing and purifying it to the point it feels like liquid gold as it eventually floods into my system. The feeling is incredible, to be honest. I feel refreshed, energised, and uplifted as the Will of thousands upon thousands of my siblings flows into me.
With a start, I jerk my mind away from that path. I know from experience that sinking down into the thoughts and desires of my siblings that flow through me is a trap that’s hard to get away from. I’ve been disciplined about it lately, but it’ll take some time to adjust to this new level of intrusion. Still, it’s nice to see the improvements have been worth the rather massive investment I made.
My mandibles and carapace have also benefited from the process, of course. The pure diamond coating that encases me has grown that little bit thicker, adding to my lustre and shine. My jaws are a little larger, a little more dense, and even more responsive to my mana than they were before. I’m going to have to test them with every type of mana I have at my disposal to really see what they can do, something I’ve been far too lazy about and avoided doing. I mean, what happens when I bite something with Mind Mana infused into my mandibles? Goodness knows!
[Alright then, squad. It’s time to get back out on the road. We need to keep grinding Skills, Levels, and Biomass. I’ve got a long way to go to maxing out for tier six, and I’m sure all of you are the same!]
My pets each acknowledge my words in their own way, for they are true for all of us, even Invidia.
“Brilliant, are you able to move around much yet?”
“I-I think so…”
She doesn’t sound all that sure, but looking at her, I can already tell that a lot of the raw Biomass has been digested.
“Tiny can carry you if we need him to. I hope you’re ready to reach tier four, because we aren’t stopping until you get there!”
“Tier four? Already?!”
“Yes, already. The Colony doesn’t have time to wait around; you need to get cracking, and you can’t exactly do much as you are…”
“I can too!”
“Sure, sure. Come on then, let’s get going.”
It takes concentration, but as we roam through the tunnels with Brilliant loaded into Tiny’s arms like an ant-missile, I find that my sensitivity to gravitational waves is even more extreme than I thought. I can actually sense monsters through it so long as they are within a certain range, which is just ridiculous. The amount of gravitational force a monster gives off might be many times larger than a human would, but it’s still pathetically weak! The fact I can find them, even through walls in some instances, just blows my mind. This is nuts!
At least it makes for extremely efficient hunting! As soon as we find a monster, we knock it down and pummel it to the brink of extinction before Tiny rams Brilliant into it and she manages to chomp it to the point of giving her a notification. Then we hoover up the Biomass and move on to the next target. We only slow down when it becomes clear we’re roaming deeper and deeper only to find fewer and fewer prey.
[I believe if we were to go much deeper, we would break through to the next layer,] Al observes after a while.
I raise my head, letting my antennae swirl through the air as I attempt to detect anything that would indicate he was correct. The heat has only risen as we descend, the open pools of lava becoming more frequent as they drip down from above. If I were to crack an egg on a rock, it would be charcoal in a minute, that’s how hot it feels.
[By any chance, does it get a little cooler as we get lower?]
The giant eye of literal flame looks at me steadily for a long moment.
[I’ll take that as a no,] I sigh.
“How far off evolving are you?” I ask Brilliant.
“I’m Level nineteen!” she informs me from her position as a harpoon in Tiny’s grip.
One more monster and we can retreat back to the city.
11. Two New Toys
Barrier Magic is another defensive tool in the box and I’m quite keen to train it up. With my reaction speed and increasing magical prowess, I bet I can throw down shields in the blink of an eye, putting them where and when I need them before my opponents can even react. I don’t think it would be much of a stretch to say I’m attached to my life in this world, a heck of a lot more than I was to the one before, so I’m invested in being not dead. The more methods I can deploy to ensure I remain in a living state, the better, in my opinion.
But then, defence alone won’t actually end any fights, so I also want to work on my new Force Magic. It sounds way too useful to ignore. I mean, kinetic energy on tap? The only limiting factor is mana and my ability to wield it!
Add on the chance that it could lead to Gravity, and Force has to be my next focus. While silently promising myself I won’t neglect the life-saving shields of my other new toy for long, I put half of my mind constructs to work practicing the construct that will produce the much more exciting new form of mana. And, as is tradition, the construct is a pain within a pain wrapped in an ache and garnished with a kick to the noggin. None of these damn things are easy, but then again, I suppose converting mystical energy from one form into another isn’t exactly an easy task. Despite the complexity, compared to the Omni-Elemental Construct, it’s basically a walk in the park. I have every confidence I’ll be able to put it together in a few hours, and then I can start playing with it.
As we make our way back to the city of Roklu, having completed our immediate tasks, I take some time to experiment with something else I’ve not investigated as deeply as I should. My mandibles are specifically mutated to accept mana and produce effects based on the type I use. I had a lot of fun infusing them with Gravity Mana back in the day, but more often than not, my opponents these days have too much mass for me to properly yank them. I think I phrased that correctly…