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NBB3 - chapter 3: Searching for help
🕑 Added 2021-08-16 18:28:47 +0000 UTCSolus' mind shot up through the dense stone. He was heading towards the surface again, but this time he traveled not nearly as far as the other times. Instead, he exited in a cave still deep below the ground, his small projected form hovering above the head of a six-legged skeletal undead. It reminded him vaguely of the Crablon he had long ago fought, but it had a more humanoid skeleton torso.
Centaur?
The word came from the knowledge the earth elemental had gifted him, and with the concept was an image of horses and a dusty smell that he knew was fur. It was almost a full memory and far more detailed than those he gained from the basic information of the sphere.
The undead didn't notice him, but like the others just crawled forward through the dark. It had glowing red eye sockets that barely illuminated the area, but from the way it looked around, Solus knew it could see in the dark just like he could.
Solus decided to wait for a bit and see who this undead was and what it was up to before he tried to communicate. Curious, he called up his status window. Just like with Laron, he got two screens instead of his normal one. The left was his own, but the right showed what he imagined was the centaur-like undead.
Name: Terizoa
Age: 53
Sex: Female-ERROR
Race: Arachnaun skeleton
Type: basic
Class: Warrior
Strength: 6/10
Constitution: 8/12
Dexterity: 16/20
Endurance: -
Intelligence: 8/12
Wisdom: 6/10
Charisma: 3/7
Mana-field: 912/1000
Physical density: 670/900
Skills: 2
Inscriptions: 1/3
Mana generation: 4
Arachnaun?
Solus waited for some information, but none came, causing him to wonder if it was something new. He inspected the attributes quickly, nodding to himself. This Terizoa had evolved once and was far from her next threshold. Looking around the small cavern, he guessed it made sense. She likely didn't have access to any mana-orbs.
His attention peaked when Terizoa froze, then slowly she looked to the left. Solus tried to find what she was looking for, but before he could locate it, Terizoa sprinted forward. Solus' perception turned and pivoted as Terizoa crawled across the ground the wall and finally hung upside down from the ceiling, her attention on a slight movement at the other side of a corridor that led away from the cave.
Two beings crawled forward, massive three-fingered hands dragging their bulbous, legless bodies across the floor. Dim orange light glowed from slits across the sides of their necklace heads. As they dragged themselves into the cave, Terizoa hung above them, motionless.
Kaots, Solus thought. He could see the dull red mana they emanated that seemed to taint the world around them.
Is she hunting them?
He had barely finished his thought when Terizoa's lower jaw split open, and she squirted out a white fluid. As it fell down, it coalesced into a webbing that spread across the two kaots, pinning them to the ground. Where the webbing touched them, their dark grey flesh sizzled, and they started struggling to get free. One of them managed to rip an arm lose, but by that time, Solus was plummeting down atop his position above Terizoa's head. She slammed into the one flailing about, and the sharp tips of her legs pierced a few inches into the flesh. This time the Kaot screeched, but before it could do much more, Terizoa started stabbing him rapidly.
The second Kaot ripped free behind her and turned to Terizoa.
"Watch out!" Solus shouted instinctively. He hadn't planned to contact her yet, but he couldn't stop himself.
Terizoa didn't react, but the wrist-thick cable began pulsating, drawing him towards it. He forced himself to stay at his current position but felt his mind slowly drawn to the energy cable.
As he fought to stay where he was, he saw the second Kaot jump atop Terizoa and wrap its massive hands around her arms before pulling sideways. Her skeleton face stayed impassive, but Solus felt panic from her.
"Fight back!" Solus shouted, and the attraction got stronger. Inch by inch, he was pulled towards the cable.
Terizoa was now using her feet to spear the Kaot in the head, spewing more of the webbing towards him. Just when Solus touched the energy conduit, a rip echoed through the small cave, and Terizoa howled while one of her arms was torn from her torso.
Solus didn't see what happened after, as his mind was drawn into the conduit and back to the room.
Did she get ended? he thought as he flew out of the conduit. Without waiting, he focused on the same cable, trying to go back. There was no response, and as he watched, the conduit suddenly began to fade, changing translucent until it finally disappeared entirely.
Solus stared in dismay at the spot the energy conduit that led to Terizoa had been only moments before. Had it vanished because of him speaking or….
She got ended, he thought as he let himself hover back above his body. He hadn't seen Terizoa before, or at least couldn't recall, but he knew that if she was connected to him, that could probably mean only one thing. She had been one of the sigmitons or skeletons he had awoken. Somehow it hurt him more than he thought it should.
After a while, he sighed and focused on the other problems. She hadn't heard him. He had hoped to communicate with her and find a way to get someone to help him with Sig. Had she not heard him because their connection was too weak or because of another reason? There was only one way to find out.
Turning back to the web of energy conduits, he focused on another one.
--
A long time later, Solus shot back out of a wrist-thick cable and gazed down at his body. He felt slightly hopeless. He had traveled to a few dozen undead, watched them sleep, fight, sneak around, and one even got ambushed and killed, but none of them could hear him. Most of the undead had been those he had long ago left below Skulltown, and the only good thing he had found was that they had created their own town.
He stared at Sig's energy conduit, feeling annoyed. If only he could use his own body or speak to Skull! His gaze flitted to the finger-thick conduits, one of which led to Laron, and he frowned. He hadn't really tried to speak to Laron, had he? Well, he had, but it had resulted in his dream memories drowning out any possible response. Had the low-level undead heard him?
Without another thought, he focused on the thin conduit.
--
"Laron. You are not to leave the guard post again!"
Ourlin, his two skull-shaped pauldrons bobbing as he repeatedly pointed at Laron, began pacing again. He grunted, thumping the ground with his enormous bone club. Eventually, he glared at the small skeleton again, not able to see the small transparent figure hovering above its head. With another snort, he walked back to the gate in the wall.
Two brawny skeletal warriors stood there, staring at him.
"You are not allowed to let him out again!" Ourlin snapped.
One of the skeletons nodded shortly. "Yes, Ourlin, but-"
"No excuses! If he gets himself ended, it will be your fault," Ourlin snapped.
The skeleton nodded again. "I know, but-"
"What?" Ourlin snapped again, interrupting the skeleton.
"It happened again," the skeleton quietly said.
Ourlin stopped pacing and fidgeting and turned his attention to the guard. "How many?" he asked.
"Three. One of the mages and two of the warriors," the guard said. He pointed towards the furthest building that had another guard in front of it.
"We placed them in the holy pattern building. Nobody really goes there, so they won't see…"
"Quick thinking," Ourlin said. He looked at the building for a while, then pinned the guard with a look from his burning blue eye sockets. "Another reason to keep Laron here."
Getting another nod, Ourlin moved through the gate. "The scouts found another Wyrm that is heading close to the center. I'll guide it away so it won't antagonize the Giant One."
Solus watched the odd skeletal warrior move away. He recognized its pattern as an older one that Drys had made. How had the skeleton gotten it? He clearly remembered the four patterns he had left here, which was definitely not one of them. Had they gone to Skulltown at some point?
"Ourlin boss, yes, yes. He is the boss," Laron muttered as he turned and walked away.
Solus focused on the small skeleton and pulled up his status window.
Name: Laron
Age: 52
Sex: Male-ERROR
Race: Skeleton
Type: basic
Class: Warrior
Strength: 2/6
Constitution: 8/12
Dexterity: 4/12
Endurance: -
Intelligence: 1/ERROR
Wisdom: 1/4
Charisma: 7/7
Mana-field: 289/300
Physical density: 370/400
Skills: 0
Inscriptions: 1/3
Mana generation: 2
How is he not stronger than this, Solus thought. Then his gaze was attracted to Laron's intelligence. Well, that explains something.
He had never seen an error in the attribute section yet, but it made sense. Something was obviously wrong about Laron. He wondered if he could pinpoint it if he could see the skeleton's mana field. But that would have to wait. For now, he needed to see if he could speak with Laron.
Solus waited as Laron meandered through the small walled encampment. He moved from building to building, staring inside, muttering to himself, until he moved around the main building. A large stack of massive skulls lay hidden behind it and sprawled across the ground all the way to the other side of the wall.
Are those Wyrm skulls…? Solus inspected them, surprised at the quantity. After a moment, he saw there were other skulls too, narrow and long. He recognized them. These were Ygdra, and after a while, he realized many small, Kaot skulls lay stashed between the larger ones.
Laron was moving towards one of the larger Wyrm skulls, and as he climbed inside the maw, Solus felt slightly awed. He had seen the Wyrms with flesh, but never one without, and the vast smooth bone gleamed a dull red in the light of the setting sun. Laron moved further into the head, climbing up ridges and across vertebrae until he reached a platform at the top end of the head.
The mana-orb room, Solus decided, and he looked at the stuff littering the platform. Ranging from metallic objects from the ancient world to oddly shaped Kaot skulls, Laron seemed to have hoarded anything he deemed interesting, which seemed anything different from the rest.
"Stay inside the walls, Laron. Don't do anything dangerous Laron… Laron… Laron is bored!'
Listening to the skeleton talking to himself for a while, he realized whatever was wrong with Laron wasn't like what Skull had. Skull also had low intelligence, but he at least made sense. Laron, however, was very different, and Solus had the idea it was probably due to some mistake with his pattern.
Now, let's see if this guy can understand me, Solus thought.
"Laron… do you hear me?" he asked, resisting the slight pull towards the ever-present energy conduit that came immediately as he spoke.
Laron sighed and sat down on an upturned Ygdra skull that looked meant as a bed.
Solus waited for a second, feeling his hope fade again. "Again, nothing," he muttered.
"Nothing…" Laron agreed as he sighed.
Solus snapped to attention, staring at the skeleton.
"Laron, if you can hear me, raise your hand."
After a moment, the skeleton raised his hand.
"Raising my hand is boring, boring it is," Laron said before putting it down again.
He can hear me!
Before Solus could react, Laron looked up, straight into Solus' eyes.
"Hovering, flying... How do you fly? Fly, fly, small green undead…." his eyes traced over Solus' shape.
Laron could see him? It took a few moments for Solus' to get to grips with what was going on. Then he pointed at the undead, slightly annoyed.
"If you can see me, why didn't you say something before!"
Laron waved his hands around. "You see me, and don't speak, I see you and don't speak... speak, speak."
Is he stupid or just acts like it, Solus thought. Then he thought back to the status screen and shook his head. It was impossible to fake that intelligence stat.
For a bit, he and Laron gazed at each other, then he sighed. Why couldn't it have been one of the normal undead that could see him? Perhaps because of how he is? he thought.
"Laron, do you know why you are different?" Solus asked, deciding before he could have the undead help him with Sig, he needed to see if he could fix him.
The skeleton's head turned away from Solus, and he gazed at a rusted piece of metal that lay beside him.
"Questions, questions. Why always questions? Why do you fly? Flying you do?" Laron muttered.
Solus felt his annoyance rise again, and it took him some effort to restrain it. It wouldn't help if he started shouting at the skeleton.
"Laron, can you show me your mana-field?" Solus tried.
This time the skeleton looked back up and shook his head.
"No. Why?"
It was probably the simplest, clearest thing he had said so far.
"Because I'm curious," Solus said. Couldn't this broken skeleton just do as he asked?
"Show me, show," Laron sang, waving a hand around.
"Yes," Solus said, exasperated. "Can you show me?"
Laron ignored him and continued waving his hand around. "Show me, show me," he sang again.
Wait, does he want to see mine? Solus pondered it for a moment, then looked around. There wasn't anything here, and he wasn't even sure if he could. His mana-field was connected to his body, or at least it had been.
"If I show you my mana-field, will you show me yours?" he asked.
Laron jumped up and hopped about on the spot. "Yes, yes. Show, for show, for show is show!"
Solus grinned and focused on his manafield. For a moment, nothing happened, then a grey and green field enveloped both him and Laron. Solus looked at the small field, his mouth falling open. It was smaller than what he had after his first evolution into a basic skeleton.
"Small…" Laron said as he raised a finger and prodded through the grey and purple area.
Yeah, Solus thought, agreeing with the skeleton's assessment. It must be because of his body being below ground because he didn't feel weaker. At least, his body didn't. Wait… could he even feel that? Slightly confused, Solus was about to focus on himself when a second mana-field appeared. It was overlapping his, and Solus just stared at it in complete bafflement.
Of all of the mana fields he'd seen, those of the undead that absorbed Kaot orbs had been the weirdest. Those had black goo spread across it and usually odd, unreadable markings instead of the well-ordered patterns he knew. Not so Laron's.
A deeply purple mana-filed, dense but small, pulsated as it hovered in the air. Two pink patterns sat in the middle, the basic skeleton one that he had given all of the sigmitons he awoke, and a butchered version of the skeletal mage pattern. He remembered clearly having put it on one of the stone tablets in the small building, but this one had changed.
I wonder if I can still change his patterns, Solus thought. He focused on the mana-field of Laron, and he instantly felt a connection to it. Laron stopped hopping around, freezing with one foot in the air before slowly toppling over and smacking into the ground.
"Laron?"
The skeleton didn't respond, but Solus saw the dark blue blazing eye sockets dull slightly. At the same time, he felt the skeleton fall into a sort of slumber. He tried to focus on the sensation and noticed he could feel a lot about Laron. The skeleton had a slightly fractured leg bone, a low amount of energy, and he was confused. Solus tried to sense more of what the skeleton thought, but all he got was confusion. Still, he'd never been able to feel this much of other undead's thoughts. Only with Tirella, and that was because of their connection. The memory of the powerful yellow-haired undead made him smile, and he suddenly knew why. The knowledge came with a flash, and he had to resist rushing back to see if he could wake her, to see if she felt- no knew what he did!
One thing at a time, he thought, forcing his attention back to the oddly colored mana-field.
The skeletal-mage pattern wasn't even half done, and from what he could make out, it was both to blame for Laron's odd state of mind and for his almost non-existent growth. The part that was there had errors, and half-finished lines, almost as if it was cut short mid inscribing. Solus had never seen anything like it.
So, either I finish this, or I add something else, he thought. He didn't think the broken inscription was the reason Laron could see him. That seemed to be due to his odd purple mana-field. After a moment, Solus focused on the mana streams that permeated the air.
Thin lines and streams of energy flashed into existence around him, and images of alabaster seas and muddled streams came from Viridi's memories. A salty, fresh scent accompanied them, and a moment later, additional memories came from the sphere's gift. These were stale though and paled compared to those of Viridi, and he ignored them.
Taking a deep breath, he wondered if he would ever see the sea. He knew there were none left on this planet, but that didn't mean there weren't any elsewhere.
The mana waves and streams all around him were mostly variants of green, some pale, some dark. Mixed within were traces of red, orange, and blue, which were the undead types of mana, the only ones left in this galaxy after whatever had happened, had drained life and the previously predominant types of mana away. In the midst of these colors sat two areas of a different, bright color, like gems in the dirt. One was a deep gold mixed with leaf-green streaks that permeated from him like the light from the sun. The other was a deep, intense purple that nestled inside Laron's bones. It didn't glow like his did but seemed almost to devour the other colors that dared come too close.
This one is very different from the others, Solus thought. It was good because it probably meant he could become fairly powerful. This, however, also posed a problem.
If I help him become too strong, I won't be able to speak with him…
Staring at the small, simple skeleton, Solus felt the dilemma of what to do. Eventually, he opened his list of patterns and slowly read through them, looking for something that might help with his current situation.
Something with potential that's not too weak but won't grow too strong too fast, he mused as he scrolled further down.
A long time later, he had found two patterns that might work. Neither was perfect, but both would allow Laron to grow strong enough to travel the wasteland while hopefully staying weak enough for Solus to remain to watch and help.
> Rank A+ race evolution:
> Fadebone (Dexterity++, Intelligence+)
> Requires: Any skeletal pre-evolution
> Fadebone's were mainly used during the AI uprising of 4121 to counter the agents of the AI that tried to infiltrate the still free human worlds. Capable of changing their body into a cloud of bone particles, they can move almost unnoticed for short bursts. Even outside of this state, Fadebone's are lit and dexterous enough to sneak past almost every defense. Warning! Although fairly powerful, Fadebones are notoriously slow at increasing to the next tier.
> Rank A+ race evolution:
> Maderion (Intelligence++, Dexterity++)
> Requires: Any skeletal pre-evolution
> A deceptively simple undead, created for use on the gaseous world of Preliniron Epsilon, these undead are able to create simple energy constructs. The energy constructs can range from simple mana-blades to things with up to a dozen moving parts.
After thinking about it for a bit, Solus picked the Fadebone. It would make it easier for Laron to sneak away and get out of dodge. As he focused on the mana field, a gong sounded as he tried to inscribe the start of the pattern. Nothing happened, and he felt something force him away. A new line appeared below Laron's status window.
> Incompatible pattern rejected by mana-field
"What..?" Solus muttered. The pattern he had picked should be compatible! He read through it again, and he was sure of it. The pattern showed as selectable to him, and-
These are the patterns I can take, Solus realized with a start, interrupting his own train of thought.
He scanned through Laron's status window, trying to figure out how he could find out which patterns the undead could take. A few minutes later, he finally figured it out. If he focused on Laron's manafield while summoning the list of patterns, he got another list than he did if he did it the normal way.
So few… he thought as he looked at the handful of patterns not greyed out.
Each only had the basic amount of information, and it took him only a short while to read through them. All but one were basic patterns, similar to the skeletal-mage pattern. To his surprise, the skeletal mage was one of the options, meaning something else had happened that had fumbled the inscription. He read through the only odd one in the batch and blinked in surprise.
> Rank A+ race evolution:
> Asimalarin
> Requirements: Unknown
> One of the rarest undead evolutions, these beings are capable of absorbing any form of ambient mana to get a massive temporary boost in power. Later evolutions will allow the Asimalarin to permanently gain certain characteristics based on the way they have used the absorbed energy.
> Attention! The company is willing to pay an exorbitant price if you are willing to part with this undead. Please find the nearest office and contact one of our main office's representatives!
There were a few simple examples of what the Asimalarin was capable of, and Solus whistled. Besides rapid movement, massive short-range bursts of energy, and eventually flight, they could use the power another undead used to attack them, absorb it, and retaliate with a greater force.
Glad I never came across one of these, Solus thought. He wasn't afraid of them now, though, as he looked at the statistics the undead would gain. They were so far below what he had, even during his previous evolution, that he could easily overpower the Asimalarin. That was if he had his body. This also got him thinking. Why had he been so much more powerful than most of the others? Why was Skull, for that matter, or Tirella? After a moment, he shoved the desire for knowledge away and focused on the pattern again.
This should be interesting! he decided, and without thinking about it, he began the inscription process.
A bright pink dot appeared in the middle of the purple mana field, and it expanded outwards, quickly engulfing the incomplete and broken skeletal-mage pattern. Moments later, the pink area disappeared, leaving a pristine mana-field on which bright pink lines began appearing.
Solus gazed in wonder at the oddly beautiful pattern that formed.
Comments
Carrarn
So, a quick bit of info. I'm not yet sure how to name the connections between Solus and the Sigmitons he awoke/evolved. You will find different terms for it, and it would help me out if you let me know which one you prefer. Besides this, the speech pattern of Laron will change over time. Some of it is meant that way, while some might be me trying to get a better feel on it. Any feedback on it is welcome! Hope you guys are enjoying it so far. The first draft has reached 60k words, which is close to half.
