Macronomicon
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Chapter 107: Risk Free*
🕑 Added 2020-02-11 02:15:35 +0000 UTCMost of its life had been spent without a body.
A shifting amorphous mass drifting through the ocean of its brethren.
It made itself Predator to avoid becoming Prey. It made itself Prey to fool other Prey. So much of its own thought processes were consumed with what it was, and how that could benefit it, it left little time for other thoughts.
One moment, shifting, reacting, it had followed a prey into this matterspace. A place where things had distance from each other, a concept so foreign to its mind that it sometimes tried to use the old methods of catching prey, which amounted to sitting and watching, its Will reverberating off the Mass like so many nothings.
But it was learning.
The blue creatures that hummed like Chetzela feeding off the Pulse were nowhere near as harmless. And they used Distance and their bodies to their advantage.
They made themselves large and hurt it. Made it diminish. It was painful. When it had made them small with its legs, they had been unable to hurt it any longer, but so too, had it been unable to harm the blue creatures.
Distance. The creatures cunning use of this new realitys laws was admirable.
Taking the form of the creature the wasps were protecting and imitating its call seemed to work for a short time, but the creature seemed to be able to unmask it, somehow. After it had deciphered the change, the assault with the strange goop out of the black shiny point in its back had redoubled, and it had stung horribly.
The attack hadnt been like one of its own. If the blue creatures that broke away from the strange downward pull had been like it, their units would have battled directly with its own, perhaps creating an offspring in the midst of the battle.
Instead it had been a solid something. Nothing there for its units to fight, only a liquid that brought death to those who touched it.
It had been forced to dump the affected units and some of the healthy ones around them.
Requires more study.
After the confrontation, it had looped back, seizing the use of distance, and its new vision to its advantage, following the blue creatures that broke away from the omnipull, until they turned back into a pale creature with four limbs.
Most interesting.
The creature was manyform. Like it.
The pale four-limbed creature went still. Perhaps it was waiting for it to attack again.
It experimentally tried to turn into one of the blue creatures.
Six limbs, good balance It flexed its new midsection, and the units made it happen, bringing the stabby-pointy forward in a way that felt natural to this form, even creating a bit of the goop at the end of the black point.
Pain pain pain pain.
The units at the tip of the stinger died and it was forced to jettison them, losing even more of itself. Perhaps, replace goop with self? Things that took it into themselves became it, after all. It restructured. Similar to the first shape it had found, the eight-legged one, although the placement of the pain-goop glands were different and there was no sticky-goop glands, it was, all in all, very similar.
Can I fight the Omnipull and use it to make other creatures small? It thought to itself. From what it had seen, the blue creatures had been using the clear paddles attached to their backs when they had broken free form the omnipull.
It tried it.
The paddles waggled in place, preforming slow rotations in a pattern that seemed to be built into the blue-creatures body.
However, nothing seemed to change. The omnipull was still affecting it.
Perhaps faster? The paddles had been moving quite fast.
It moved the paddles faster.
The unique hum began to resound through the open space a moment before the units at the tips of the paddles began to tear themselves off, jumping off into the distance on their own.
Pain pain pain pain.
Conclusion: Its units became unruly and decided to create distance when swung at very high speeds.
How then, did the Blue creatures units stay put at the tips of its oars?
It changed into the form of the pale 4-limbed one, watching as the duskier one slumped over the first.
Were they mating? Was the dark one eating the light one? Was it a trap?
It decided it wasnt worth the risk of finding out. Instead it studied the still figures from a distance, waving its foremost appendage, feeling the gentle pull of the disobedient units as they tried to pull away from his body..
Is this me, only? It thought, before it reached down with its front appendage and picked up a piece of this matterspace. It was pulled towards the Omnipull at a decent rate. It waved its arm with the matterspace chunk.
The pull on his units increased tenfold.
Its not my units, its a quirk of this matterspace.
It let go of the matterspace chunk, and the matterspace chunk flew along the last path it had been following before it lost contact with the creature.
Interesting. Objects in Matterspace wish to continue on the path that they have been set upon and will continue moving in that direction unless acted upon by an outside force. So strange!
The creature was agog at the weirdness of it all. Not at all like the place it had come from. Where distance was a state of mind and thought blended seamlessly with action.
And the paddles they must be interacting with more matterspace.
But how to prevent the paddles from flying apart according to this matterspaces quirky rules? The blue creatures paddles were far more resistant to the strange force than its own.
Perhaps it was the paddles differentiated, specialized units.
What a novel concept! Specialized body parts. The creatures pale, eyeless head cocked to the side in wonderment. It could solve the problem by locking the units into a rigid structure, but those units would then be immobile and dependant on the main body to provide nutrients and protect them.
They might not even be able to think anymore.
It wasnt particularly appealing, but it could see the benefit of having paddles that didnt fall apart when in use, or goop tubes that werent destroyed by their own goop.
Requires more study. But first, need to make more units. For that, need Prey.
The creature used its limbs to make the pale creature and the dusky creature small, while making other parts of the strange world bigger.
It didnt quiet understand why the light and dark brown creatures used only their back appendages for creating distance, but it faithfully tottered on, confident that the reason would reveal itself if it was faithful enough in its copying.
It needed to find something, make it big, then make it into more units. Then it could return and study the dangerous predators some more.
***Calvin***
I cant believe you wasted a whole six gallons of water on this. Kala said, wrinkling her nose as Calvin stirred the Toad hide in the murky mixture, looking for all the world like the mythical witch.
I didnt, Calvin said, sloshing a glass bottle of water around for her benefit.
Its duplicated. Im trying to separate out whatever causes the Toad hide to be extra tough. Calvin said, his voice nasal through the bone pin he was using to seal his nostrils. this time, Im going to render the hide down into glue and see if thats got the properties in it still. If it does, I can try mixing it with the Crystal Lattices catalyst and see what happens, maybe make an armor or something out of it.
Like Elliot had said, half of all chemistry was boiling things and stirring stuff. Not exactly grand magic, but one did what one had to.
Can I watch you experiment? Kala asked, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.
Sure, but it wont be for another hour or-
The princess was already gone, presumably to go take a few puffs of a sleep aid and lay down so she could connect her dream to his.
Shadowboxing was close enough to a dream for her to intrude on it, apparently, although she didnt quite reap as many benefits from his skill, practice was practice, even if it was imaginary.
Just make sure not to tell her about her copys tendency to jump me.
Calvin shrugged and poked the floating hide back into the pot. When the water came close to expiring, Calvin carefully duplicated the simmering water and added it back in, keeping the temperature the same.
You think the Knick-knacks could pull enough iron out of these nightmare creatures to make a proper spoon? Calvin thought, casually tapping his bone spoon on the side of the loaner cookpot.
Probably. Wouldnt be too hard for them to wire up an electromagnet out of an arm or something.
Might be more effort than its worth, though. I dont plan on being down here forever, and I can just buy a better spoon on the surface.
Calvin idled the time away, thinking about other things as he rendered the hide.
Eventually the hide was all but gone, and Calvin was left with a pale slurry.
Filtering, another 25% of chemistry.
Calvin poured the slurry through several stages of different duplicated cloth, borrowed from clothing scraps the other villagers had lent.
The water sloshed through the first filter, leaving behind the thickest chunks of hide and fat, then proceeded to drip through each successive filter, leaving behind increasingly fine goop in each one.
He took the finished product, along with each seperate filter and put them each into bottles filled with duplicated air.
Calvin screwed the Knick-knack created lids on and canceled his spells.
Hope they dont implode like last time.
The filters disappeared, along with the water and the air in the bottles, leaving only the product of the boiling, a thick paste in each of the four airtight bottles.
All the chemists of the world are gnashing their teeth in jealousy right now.
What, why?
Your Dupdomancy just let you skip a bunch of steps, along with all the cleaning you would normally have to do.
Oh. Cool.
Goddamnit, show more respect to all the work I had to do as an undergrad! Scrubbing bottles every day builds character.
Calvin inspected the contents of the four bottles for any sign that a substance was magically inclined, but none of them looked shimmery or otherworldly, and without any space, they werent inclined to evaporate rapidly, either.
Well start with the mush and work our way down, Calvin thought, closing his eyes.
Shadowboxing.
The village of Deinos appeared around him, his favorite place to practice.
What took so long? Kala asked, kicking her heels against the log spectator bench as she took a long drag off her pipe.
Whats with the pipe? Calvin shot back.
I got Smoking accidentally. Kala admitted, her cheeks flushing. Uncle Bekvah says theres no such thing as a bad Skill, only bad Users. In here I can smoke until I get sick and raise the Skill with no risk.
She pulled out some grey plant matter from a sack over her shoulder and started stuffing it in her pipe.
You got smoking as a skill? Calvin asked incredulously. Smoking?
I forgot about the Break.
You knew a Break was coming. You predicted those people dying. How could you not predict a stray Skill?
Sometimes these things happen, guy with a princess kidnapping Skill Kala said, puffing perfect smoke circles. Royals get a three-Skill leeway in their designed plan to account for accidents.
How many do you have left? Calvin asked.
One. Im saving that skill slot for a special occasion. Kala winked. Calvin was 99% sure it was something inappropriate.
What are you smoking, anyway? Calvin didnt recognize it.
Corpse vine. It makes everything stressful in small amounts, and in larger amounts it will send you on a terror-driven nightmare bender that will scar you for life.
Why on Marconen would you ever want to smoke something like that? Calvin asked.
Stress improves the speed of Skill improvement, She said with a shrug. And smoking by itself isnt very stressful. Therefore corpse vine.
How does a smoked drug make everything stressful? Calvin wondered to himself.
It overclocks your Amygdala by forcing the neuroreceptors to stay flipped on much longer than they should. Tell her not to abuse that.
Huh, Calvin thought, not understanding a word of it.
Elliot says you shouldnt abuse that.
I dont plan on it. Believe me, the ill effects of overuse are well documented in the Royal Skill Thesaurus.
Where did you kids come from? Karen asked, coming out of her house, scowling at them.
Matter of fact Calvin? Kala? Youre looking older. And dressed in rags.
Calvin glanced down at his rough leather clothes.
This is an imaginary space, Im a wizard now, youre a construct of my imagination and a Skill, no I dont want to spar, I just like visiting my hometown.
Karen processed that for a moment, blinking.
Well, if none of this is real and you dont need me for anything, Im gonna go fuck the shit out of Ghol and his wife. Later.
Karen waved a meaty hand as she tromped off, heading for the center of town, where the smiths home was.
That woman has seen some shit, Calvin muttered to himself, watching Karen leave.
Normally hed attribute that casual attitude to extremely high Stability, but with Karens low mental Attributes, it was probably good old life experience.
Calvin created a desk in front of him and dropped each of his seven bottles of monster extract on top.
Lets see
He glanced over at Kala, whose eyes were following Karen, jaw dropped. Calvin saw the instant the thought occurred to her, as she glanced back at him, her eyes shining with mischief.
So, this is an imaginary space, and there are no consequences or observers
End of the day, Calvin said, holding up a hand. I promise. I cant trust myself not to get carried away.
You better get carried away. Kala muttered with a scowl.
Calvin duplicated the hide and fat hed skimmed off the top, putting a needle through them. The hide gave way like soft butter, falling apart at the needles touch. Excellent.
The next bottle had a thick, tacky substance that provided some resistance to Calvins pin, but not much.
I think its just glue. But it might not be normal glue.
Calvin smeared some of the paste on the table and set a block of wood on top of it, then move on to the next.
The materials got successively harder to push a pin through, even as they turned more and more liquid, until Calvin got to the last one, which reversed, becoming very easy to push through, as it was a slightly gritty dust.
Calvin turned to the material in the last filter, which had the most concentrated effect and started experimenting with it.
The Toad essence evaporated quickly outside the bottle, but Calvin was able to smear some on his arm.
It felt cold as it evaporated quickly, leaving his arm a little chilly and tingly.
He tried pushing a pin into his arm.
Calvin couldnt feel any kind of difference, the pain wasnt lessened, and his skin didnt show any kind of enhanced effect. The pin slid in without too much effort.
I didnt expect it to be easy.
He conjured a large bottle full of the substance and began mixing it with different amounts of the crystal Lattice juices. The effect wanted to evaporate, so he needed some kind of binder to make it retain its physical shape.
Time to start alchemizing.
***2 hours later***
This is a lot more boring than I thought itd be. Kala said, head resting on her palm.
Science is boring, but effective.
Trying combination 12/2/16.
Calvin flicked a ball of scintillating blue paste onto the table. The solid blue material exploded with energy, sheathing the entire table in transparent force in the blink of an eye. It was a nearly invisible coating, but it was now nearly impossible to poke a tack into the wood.=, the outer layer seemingly repealing the tack more than actually being hard.
Calvins heart leapt in his chest at the first major breakthrough after the crystal spears.
Abyssal Alchemy has reached level 2! 10% Correction.
Spell formula created. Would you like to name it?
Ooh, ooh, call it Mage Armor.
Not until we test it.
Calvin took out a ball of the thick blue paste and lowered his body mass as much as he could, slowing perceived time. He smacked it with a hammer.
The blue ball turned into a liquid as it was catalyzed by the shock of impact, then wrapped itself around the closest whole object, creating a difficult to penetrate field of repelling energy, stretched so thin it turned transparent.
neat. Calvin said, then tore off another little ball, smashing it against his chest.
His skin turned cold for an instant, his eyeballs turning bleary for a moment as something irritated them.
Now the biggest test. Can I still breathe?
Calvin opened his mouth and inhaled.
No problems here.
He poked his own eyeball.
I feel nothing.
AWESOME.
Calvin repeated the process with duplicated paste, and it was still effective.
He had successfully created a spell component.
Label it Mage Armor. Calvin thought, a manic smile bubbling out of him.
Spell formula recorded. System recommends physical backups in case of file corruption or memory loss.
Wizard king, here we come.
Next step, I want one of those Diffraction spinners. And a Lure. And a Husker. I cant WAIT to see how the Huskers abilities interact with the other components. Maybe I can make guided spells! or telekinesis without having the spell for it!
***
Oh, no.
Kala watched Calvin dancing in front of his little alchemy station. His energy and passion were part of what made him cute, but the boy had just been offered S-E-X, albeit wordlessly, and Kala was absolutely sure he had just forgotten all about it.
I suppose its for the best. If he got that single-minded about me, he probably wouldnt get any work done.
It still rankled, though.
Kala! Calvin said, snapping his fingers and whirling to point at her. The room around them changed to The Filter. Were going to go scout out the abilities of the Warp monsters with Shadowboxing so we can safely bag a few of them!
And then? she asked expectantly.
More spells. Calvin said, dramatically clenching his fist.
Kala sighed inwardly. He was still cute, though.
Maybe I should drug him with Wet Dream, she thought, clearing out her pipe and bringing out the purplish bud. Nah, thats bad form.
***
Calvin was walking through one of the tunnels southeast of the Crack, keeping his head on a swivel for attackers, but not overly anxious. He was shadowboxing to learn the layout of the tunnels and what kind of predators to expect before he went through in person to hunt some powerful compon monsters .
There was no inherent risk.
Ive got to show Kala a good time after this, Calvin thought to himself, hands in his pockets as he glanced around. He hadnt forgot about her, he was just nervous. Cant put it off any longer, no matter my bravado. When I come back from this, Im gonna march right up to her, kneel down and say, princess Kala, will you have hardcore imaginary sex with me?
Probably have a bit of that terror induced out of body experience, but Ill get over it.
Something slammed into Calvins back, throwing him to the ground, and a hot pain shot through the back of his neck, burrowing into his brain.
Gah! Calvin shouted, trying to push himself up, his limbs turning weak as the pain began to turn ice cold.
Calvin was walking through the tunnel, hands in his pockets
But Ill get over it Wait a sec.
Calvin glanced over his shoulder and saw a bizarre creature phase through the wall. Its body looked like a pale worm, its head looked like a butterflys proboscis and all.
As Calvin was throwing his hands up, Something struck him in the back, knocking him to the ground, a searing pain travelling through his spine.
Calvin desperately tried to put his hands under him and push away.
Calvin glanced over his shoulder, flinching as he saw the oncoming worm-thing.
Its looping somehow, MOVE!
Calvin dropped and rolled, but something caught him in the back, sending pain through his entire body as it began to burrow into his brain.
It got further this time.
The next time it looped, the drill was already in Calvins head, and his consciousness was beginning to scatter.
Stop the Shadowbo----
It looped.
Its looping, Stop the Sha
Stop the
Stop
Sto-
Ss
Ssssssss
Ssssssss
Calvin sank into a endlessly looping mirage of pain and brain drills, his point of view slowly altering as he became the monster that was eating him, feeling everything it felt, wanting what it wanted, his mind scattered to the winds, individuality lost as he floated in a sea of pain and primal hunger, rapidly changing into something not entirely human.
After what felt like an eternity of being endlessly consumed by the abomination, something changed.
Calvin, wake up!
Calvins eyes didnt move. He saw her, but he couldnt recognize her. He couldnt recognize anything, because he wasnt anything right now. Just a piece of meat rapidly morphing into an abomination, and yet going nowhere.
The blurry brown difference in the orange-white ocean of his fluttering eyelids pulled a glowing hand back.
A second or maybe an hour later, a concussive blast rocked his head to the side.
-1 Stability
Error detected.
-1 Stability
Malignant logic loop detected.
User protection subroutines activated.
Compartmentalizing Malignancy .
Dumping .
Dumping complete. 2 Stability lost in the process.
Calvin gasped, his eyes shooting open. Kala wasnt above him, rather she was laying beside him, her eyes slowly blinking open before fixing on him.
The slap was inside of Shadowboxing?
Are you okay? She asked, her voice soft.
I think so. Calvin said, blinking the sand out of his eyes. I just lost four Stability, and I cant remember much of what just happened, except that it sucked.
Your brain got eaten and added to a Brain leech. She said with a wince. You spent two hours simulating what that would be like in Shadowboxing.
After I got Kala to wake you up, I bound the memory to a couple points of Stability and booted it from the System. Better than you getting crippling super PTSD.
Thanks, Calvin said, sitting up with a groan, holding his aching head. Not looking forward to raising my Stability again to make up for it.
Not with my Warp, youre not. Not until we get the rest of your Skills.
First things first, Calvin groaned, picking himself up, until he was on one knee, looking the slender girl in the eyes as she sat up in bed, watching him with a delicate frown.
Princess, will you have hardcore, sweaty, ball-slapping imaginary sex with me?
I dont really feel like it at the moment, She said airily.
Yeah I guess I understand that, Calvin said, a little needle poking his heart. A guy nearly dying and turning into a drooling mess is probably not much of a turn-on.
Maybe some other time, then.
But Kala said with pursed lips, and a thoughtful look, Since you need to recover your Stability, I suppose I could be charitable and help out In your dreams.
Sex raises Stability?
Dude, sex is like, the easiest way to raise Stability. Where have you been?
Constantly under threat of death, thats where Ive been, you asshole! Calvin shouted out loud.
Touchy. You need to get laid more often.
Comments
Artman
No sexy scenes until 18. How old are they now?
Findell
I guess Calvin should either learn a few more defensive skills and then level them to 10 and then make them into a Discipline. Otherwise he should really pickup that mutation in Chained Spirit called Voodoo U.
Macronomicon
yeah, i was thinking of doing a 107.5
Pastor Joubert
We going to get a nice long NSFW chapter now? Like in the TOS cushy jail scene?
Macronomicon
Yep.
Macronomicon
what do you expect from teens? The weird stuff is for your late twenties.
Deinos
I love how he likes practicing in me. No homo!
0xFFF1
Poor boy can never catch a break
Rino Gini
I was wondering what happens when he cancels his dupdomancy spell, does it cause a vacuum?
foldedcorners
I’m going to laugh if sex with Kala is vanilla af
Prinny Knight
10 steps back, 2 steps forward with a btter line of sight and then 4 steps back again....gaining no ground my dude
Macronomicon
Overconfidence? He thought the Shadowboxing was the perfect defense, so he was gonna try to get some experience fighting the monsters with only what he had.
Chris
He has used his wasps for scouting before so why did he go in person and wy not conjure some armor if he was going in person. It is his meditation world.
Nimps
oh god, is it royalty for its kind? is it considered royalty if it morphs itself into Kala completely? Kidnap that princess dammit!! (then consume it :P )
loimprevisto
I loved the fractal mimic perspective. Now I'm kind of hoping it somehow joins Calvin's harem... Also, there's an extra quotation mark at the end here: “I didn’t,” Calvin said, sloshing a glass bottle of water around for her benefit.”
ZaA
Label the first part as the fractal mimic. Also. That was cancer to read at first lmao. Good chap tho
Macronomicon
He was scouting out the Filter with shadowboxing. No physical damage was dealt. But he spent a few hours as an abomination.
Dionisio Trigo
So... i need an explanation. Why isn’t his head hollowed out by a brain leech?
Signspace
Ha, the fact that sex raises stability isn't actually all that surprising. What about the Sex skill? That absolutely has to exist, since Kala is apparently saving for it.
Findell
Huh i though they were doing skills first or even just spending the warp.
