After a short clean up and much longer lecture about not destroying guild property, Jicker decided it was time to make his way to the third farm and get the job done. He’d hoped by now that he could leave under his own power, but was once again bagged and carried out, leaving him just outside the cities gates. Checking the time, he saw that it was still only morning, giving him plenty of time to go over and have a look at his target. Stopping first at the college to sit in on a lecture for the week, Jicker had a thought and went to visit Molta.

One of the other workers in the greenhouse tried to turn him away, saying that the professor was busy and not speaking to anyone, but elves apparently had pretty good hearing since Molta called out for him to be let in. The Old elf was currently sitting in her lab, studying notes that had been arranged around several small potted plants.

“Good morning. Are those...?” He asked leaving the question hanging.

“Yes, these are the plant you found. Well, sprouts of it anyway.”

“So you’ve managed to grow them already?”

“I ‘m good at what I do, even if no one has ever heard of the plant in question. But honestly these are surprisingly hardy little seeds. It takes a fair amount of force or heat to actually break open then seeds casing to let them sprout, so they’re fairly hard to kill until they’re already planted. Though it seems only a third of them were actually fertile, while the other seeds lacked certain necessary chemicals. Seems to be a way of ensuring it doesn’t spread out too quickly and run out of nutrients.” Molta said as she made a few final notes to one of the pages.

“Is that normal in plants?” Jicker asked surprised. While he had made the plant, he hadn’t remembered to reinforce the seeds against physical impact, and hadn’t even thought about how they would spread. Apparently the game’s system would fill in any blanks if it thought it necessary.

“I wouldn’t say normal, but also not unheard of. It’s normally a trait found in plant that grows in harsh conditions, which makes sense if it came from a sealed underground cave. Now, enough about that Jicker, what brings you here this morning?”

“Actually that is what brings me here. I was wondering what you’d found out about it so far. To see if it has any special features or weaknesses to watch out for, that sort of thing.”

She gave him a look. “An odd question but I suppose I can humour you. It should be fairly obvious that the most interesting thing about this specimen is its highly flammable nature. Other than that I'm still running tests on its other uses though it looks to be a decent coagulant.”

“A what?”

She sighed. “It helps to stop bleeding. As to weaknesses... plants really don't have them, unlike the animals and monsters running about the place. Well, generally fire is effective, though that wouldn’t help here. There are also a number of herbicides that can eliminate most plant life, and of course a number of animals tend to feed on them. I hope you’re not planning on damaging my specimens here.” She added sharply.

“Just making sure I know what to do if I come across them again.”

“Well if you do, give them to me. I could always use more samples.” She said, waving him away and making it clear their talk was done.

Leaving the greenhouse, Jicker headed straight for the farm, not wanting to waste anymore time. The longer he left things, the more stable the farm would become and the harder it would be to deal with. Looking at the map he’d drawn from the information he’d been given, it would take about two days for him reach the farm, longer if the weather changed on him. Making sure he had enough food to get him there and back he set out for the forest.

While travelling through the woods would normally be a slower and riskier choice, it was necessary. Since the guild had begun preying on caravans headed to the targeted farms, the scouts of the Rising Moon had reported that there had been an increase in security around the farms. After the well had been poisoned and Gabe had shut down the second farm, these security measures had tripled. If he was going to get close enough to have an effect, it wouldn’t be by following the main roads.

As soon he passed the tree line he felt eyes on him, watching him closely. He’d expected as much, the wolves still keeping an eye on him for whatever reason they had, and he wasn’t about to complain. Not having to worry about the majority of creatures in the forest meant he could focus on hurrying to his destination. Pulling out his compass he aligned it with the map and headed further in, trying to pace himself as best he could. While he needed to get there as soon as he could, it was still going to be a long trip.

~~~~~~

Not only had it been a long trip, but it had been remarkably dull. In the entire time he had travelled, not a single monster had even approached him, at least none that he could spot before the wolves dealt with it. He’d tried to keep his mind occupied by examining any unusual plants he came across, but all he’d managed to achieve was a slight rash. Except for a single event it had been a completely quiet trip.

He’d just collected up some fire wood and had begun setting up his campsite in a small rocky alcove set above the forest floor, hoping a fire would be enough to discourage any curious animals. The flames were just staring to rise when Penumbra appeared silently. It wouldn’t be accurate to even say he arrived, rather, he simply walked out from a trees shadow cast against the wall, as if he had been standing behind an open door. The large black animal was cut sharply against the fire light as it gave a short huff and began to walk away, pausing and looking behind at him.

Jicker sighed as he got to his feet and began to follow deeper into the trees. He didn’t know what was going on exactly, but he did trust Penumbra. While it may have tricked him into helping change his entire pack, it had also protected him when another wolf had tried to attack him, though how much of that was just asserting dominance he’d never know. Regardless, he had no concerns following the large predator deeper into its territory.

What he did have concerns with, was the pack of forest hounds that they encountered in a clearing. At first he wondered how they’d been ambushed since normally the silhouwolves kept track of everything around them, but as his eyes focused he could see that around the pack, hiding amongst the trees, were members of Penumbras pack. In fact the more he looked at them, the more it seemed that it was these new wolves that didn’t want to be here.

Before Jicker could do or say anything, Penumbra gave a loud series of barks and growls, apparently giving orders. When he was done the clearing was completely silent, until eventually one of the new comers whined and came forwards, its tail between its legs. Look at the larger animal for confirmation, it headed over to Jicker and waited, until something clicked in his head.

“Oh.” He said in realisation. “You want me to...But I can’t anymore.”

He wasn’t sure exactly how much of what he said they understood, but at the word can’t Penumbra let out a low growl, causing many of the hounds to lie down and whine.

“Fine, it won’t work but I’ll try...something I guess.”

Putting his hand out to the hound, it flinched away for a moment then returned under the silhouwolves watchful gaze. Activating adaptation, he wasn’t sure what he could manage, but he hoped that he could get something close enough that the wolves would be happy with it. Selecting the settings he’d used when he created them the first time, he tried it anyway, just to see what would happen. What he didn’t expect was it to go through, and to receive a message from the game.

Mother of Invention! You have created a new ability!

Conversion: By casting Adaptation at triple the mana cost, you can turn a suitable willing creature into a previously created species.

This ability cannot be taught.

Evolution has increased by 1! Total: 6

Mother of invention has increased to Level 2

Jicker looked at his hand, flexing it as the new silhouwolf got to its feet, shaking as it examined its new body.

“Well that’s new.” He said quietly in surprise. Mother of invention had saved him and helped him out in the past, but he’d assumed he’d seen all it could do. Creating an entirely new ability, and a useful one at that was...incredible. The penalties of being a gremlin were harsh, the starting locations seemed to be almost impossible, but surely other people had gotten this far? The limitations of abilities and spells were the main reason people cared so much about getting the right class and stats. If he could get around some of those problems at the cost of stats...

While he’d been thinking, the remaining hounds had been herded into a sort of queue, waiting to be changed. Putting aside his thoughts, Jicker settled in and got comfortable, getting ready to change the entire pack.

It took a few hours thanks to the ability cooldown and mana regeneration, but eventually the entire clearing was filled the shifting black shapes of the silhouwolves. Penumbra gave a few barks and the forest emptied, the pack melting away into the trees, leaving Jicker alone with the alpha. The wolf gave him a respectful nod and started to walk back the way they had entered from, apparently walking him back to his own campsite. The fire had long gone out, but the rest of his things were still untouched, and he still had plenty of wood left to get a new one lit before he went to sleep. Penumbra turned to leave, but Jicker called out to it, causing it to pause.

“Penumbra, I don't know how well you can follow what I'm saying, But I’m going to be making something over to the east.” He said pointing into the trees, causing the wolf to look. “I don't know what it will be yet, but can you leave it alone? At least until it’s done what I need, then do what you want I guess.”

The wolf didn’t move for few moments then bobbed its head slightly before walking back through a shadow on the ground, slipping out of existence. Figuring that was probably the best he could hope for, he got a fire going again, had some dinner and turned in for the night.

Arriving at the edge of the forest after the second day of travel, Jicker was shocked at just how developed the farmland had become. From his estimates, they’d only had the seeds for a little more than a week, but already there were hundreds of rows of fully developed plants. Molta may have only just gotten hers to start sprouting when he saw her, but she was doing things naturally, studying its growth. These people were throwing everything they could behind it, with as much magic being used as they could afford. From his spot crouched in the tree line he could make out a dozen people wandering the fields, casting out green magic that soaked into the ground, causing the plants to grow before his eyes.

Heading deeper into the forest he found a place to sit and rubbed his temples, trying to rethink his plans. He’d come up with a few ideas on his trip here, but they’d all been assuming that they were still in the seeding stage of things. He wouldn’t be able to send in just one big thing to ruin the place now, and even if it could work, they’d ramped up security to the point where they’d be able to defeat it. From what he’d seen of the guards patrolling the grounds, they hadn’t pulled any of the best players around, but they definitely had enough. That part was lucky at least, since if they’d hired a group of top level players, there was no way he’d have gotten close enough to pull anything off. Instead they were all off going through the high tier dungeons that had opened up since the upheaval, something they hadn’t gotten to do for years.

He sat around for a while, scratching notes into the dirt when he decided to go and find something to use as a base, hoping it would give him an idea. He’d been looking around for only a few minutes, wondering whether he should have tried to get the silhouwolves to help him when a bush rustled next to him. Looking at what crawled out from under the leaves; Jicker grinned evilly as an idea took root, and got to work.

~~~~~~

Three Days Later

~~~~~~

“It’s like pulling teeth.” He muttered to himself. Hardgrave was one of the oldest players in Genesis, a veteran of hundreds of raids and thousands of battles. He’d dedicated his time and had helped forge one of the most powerful merchant guilds in the game, ruling the coastlines from the city of Carthan. But all of that seems like child’s play compared to getting the other local guild heads to come together and listen without trying to start a fight. But after hours of gritted teeth and stressful calls he’d gotten them all into this hall for at least a while. Sighing and promising himself a drink when this was over, he took the stage and stared out at the sitting crowd.

“Thank you all for coming. You all represent the guilds in this part of the world, and as such have a vested interest in the surrounding area. So before I go any further, let me get to the main point of this meeting.”

Moving back, another person wheeled a covered cage in to the centre of the stage, which Hardgrave removed with a flourish. Muttering began from the room.

“Tell me you didn’t have us all gather to see that!” Someone called out from the back.

Sitting in the cage, quietly chewing on some straw was a small rabbit. No more than a foot tall, it was covered in rolls of red and white fur, making it seem like a cross between a rabbit and a shar-pei. Realising that it was being looked at by the surrounding crowd it froze, staring immobile out at the audience.

Hardgrave raised his voice. “I assure this is extremely important to you all. I have personally verified that these creatures have killed over eighty players in the past two days alone.”

The room went quiet as that sunk in. “How did that many people die to a rabbit? I mean, have players standards dropped that much?”

“On the contrary, the reason that this rabbit killed eighty people, and injured hundreds more, myself included,” he raised his hand to stop any interruptions. “Is that this species didn’t exist a week ago.”

Silence fell as they tried to make sense of it.

“Since the upheaval, we’ve seen plenty of critters move from old habitats or dungeons, which has thrown a lot of people off. It’s understandable, and we’ve seen it before on smaller scales when areas underwent change. When the azure roaches began showing up, no one really cared, and when the silhouwolves appeared, no one bothered to look into it. But this time we have and this species hasn’t been seen anywhere, by anyone. We’ve had people looking into it, both in game and out, and even our best hackers and diviners can’t find any trace of them past last Sunday. The developers, it’s safe to say, weren’t the origin, and it’s doubtful the system AI added something like this. Over the next few weeks, our guild will be launching an investigation into the appearance of this species. I’ll now turn you over to our lead hunter Thompson, who will go over the important information about these “poppits”.”

Someone from the back of the room stood up and huffed in disgust. “I’m not gonna waste my time listening how to deal with some fancy rabbit.”

The hunter, who had been about to start, paused before turning to the speaker. “Then how would you deal with this, Mr...”

The speaker stepped forward, a dwarf in thick steel armour. “Krog, leader of the Skull Breakers, and you seriously expect me to need to think about a dinky little rabbit? One kick and the thing will be in pieces.”

Thompson nodded. “You are correct, one hit and it will be in pieces. The part that most people don't realise is that you’ll end up in pieces as well.”

That got the dwarf to hesitate. “How’s that now?”

The hunter made a gesture to a person off stage who began to make gestures. Moments later a faint blue barrier appeared between the stage and the onlookers. Grabbing a long spear, he crouched down behind a crate that had been positioned for this purpose. Once he was in position he addressed the crowd again.

“The poppit, as they’re called, is for the most part a normal herbivore, low level and not really that different than a normal rabbit. When threatened it will resort to an animal’s normal fight or flight response, and almost always attempt to run. The issue comes in when they can’t run, or have a strong reason not to, like protecting their litter or mate.”

Hefting the spear, the hunter began to bang on the sides of the cage, rattling it around. The poppit panicked at first, scrambling around as it looked for an exit, but then it stopped and began to emit a high pitched whine. As it did so, the loose rolls of skin began to quickly tighten as it swelled and inflated, stopping after a few seconds as its body became almost spherical.

“When they choose to stay they produce a kind of gas that we’re still trying to identify, and trap it in a pocket layer under their skin. And if anything causes that skin to be breached...”

Without warning Thomson jabbed between the bars of the cage, pricking the poppit. Before anyone could react the animal exploded, a small burst of heat and light followed by a massive wave of pressure. Even behind the shield that had been put up, the audience found themselves rattled by the explosion. Thomson, having braced himself for the blast as best he could, was still thrown across the stage and was now picking himself off the ground.

“And that people, is why we don't just kick them. If it helps, don't even consider them as a monster, and instead as a mobile landmine. If you are going to go after some of these things, then you need to either take them out before they notice you and inflate or do it at a safe distance, or both if you can.”

“What if we don't break the skin?” One woman asked curiously, gesturing with a mace. Thomson nodded.

“While that does work, and they’ll deflate naturally after a while, you’d need to be very precise since they are particularly thin skinned once they prime themselves. Also, we’ve had reports of the larger males charging at people threatening their mates and purposefully biting themselves to detonate, so approach with extreme caution.”

“Anything else we need to care about here or is this it? Some of us have important things to do.” Someone said in the audience, getting a few people to agree.

Hardgrave took control again. “No, this was the only issue. As I said before my people will be launching a full investigation into this, so I'm only asking for any assistance your guilds share to get to the bottom of this.”

A woman laughed from the back of the room, catching people attention. “Hardgrave, you’re a smart guy, no one is going to argue that. But if you think you’re the only smart person around, then we are going to have problems. If there really is a way of creating new mobs in Genesis, that people can actually claim as their own? Then whoever finds it first is sitting on a damn fortune. So yeah, information on any new monster we come across? That’s fine, we will give you a full report and make it open to everyone, but the source? If I find that out, you can hear it on the news when they interview me from inside my solid gold house.”

People started to talk amongst themselves, some of whom still weren’t following. Hardgrave cracked a smile. “Well put as always Nirva. In that case, I suppose it’s a race to see who can track down the source first. May the best player win.”

~~~~~~

Jicker sat in the crook of a tree, relaxing as he toyed with a piece of string from his pack. He’d been doing nothing but wait around for the past two days, though he’d earned two levels doing so. The poppits had done the job and done it brilliantly, far better than he’d expected. While rabbits aren’t normally known for their violent nature, they are a common threat to farmers and that was all he needed. Having them explode was a strong choice he knew, but at least this would control their population to some degree and after all, rabbits tended to breed like, well, rabbits.

After he’d gathered and produced enough to have them become a full species, he’d set one loose on to the farm to see what would happen. At first it had just hopped around aimlessly, wandering around investigating the farm. It had just started to nibble on the leaves of one of the plants when one of the mages spotted it. Hurrying over the caster in question proved to not be a fan of rabbits, and decided to attempt to deliver a solid kick to the poppit.

As if it was happening in slow motion, Jicker saw the poppit notice the mages approach and inflate in response, something its attacker failed to spot. When the foot connected with the animal, both were engulfed in a blast wave, covering them both in a cloud of dirt and debris. When the dust settled, both Jicker and the onlookers that rushed over at the sound of the explosion saw the mage lying in the bottom of a shallow crater, seemingly dead and missing a limb.

While it had proved effective, he wondered if it would take too long for the poppits to do enough damage to stop the farms production. His second test run however proved that it would be even easier than he’d thought originally.

Another poppit had been loosed on the farmland, and again it was spotted, by one of the guards who apparently had orders to deal with any pest eating the crops. The difference this time was that this section of plants had already fruited. When the poppit detonated, it took out the rows of incendiberries in a lengthy and fiery chain reaction, leaving almost a fifth of the entire farm as a smoking wreck. From there it had taken only a dozen more tries to seal the farms fate, despite the best efforts of the guards and workers, who found their instincts to go for a lethal response too strong to overcome. The final straw had been when one of the poppits had gotten away from a guard that had been trying to scare it away, and had run into one of the storage sheds. He hadn’t seen what happened inside, but from the size of the explosion Jicker saw, it had been where they had been storing the harvested Incendiberries.

After that none of the guards, farmers or mages thought they were being paid enough to deal with the situation and left, leaving the place abandoned. Since then Jicker had let the remaining poppits he’d held on to loose, and just kept an eye on the farm, making sure they didn’t send anyone else to try again. He’d already searched the place and recovered all the surviving seeds and berries he could find, but he didn’t want to assume they hadn’t held a few in reserve to try again.

But after two days he decided to call it, not having seen anyone but a few scavengers, looking to claim some of the farm equipment for themselves. Not having any way to carry it around himself, Jicker let them have it and left, heading back into the forest. Finding a good spot to camp for the night, he figured it was time to take a break.

~~~~~~

Taking off the headset, Matt stretched his arms, blinking blearily in the dark. Grabbing his phone to see what the time was, he saw he had a couple of missed calls, followed by a text message from Sarah, simply saying ‘call me’. Wondering what he’d done wrong this time he groaned as he grabbed a glass of water before making the call.

“Hey Sarah, what’s up?” he asked, taking a sip.

“Ah Mr. Harper, about time you back to us.” August said on the other end, causing Matt to spray water all over his couch.

“Hurk! Mr. Fronz! Sir, I-” He said, half choking as he tried to clear his throat.

“Please Matthew, you finally came clean about your opinions of me when we last spoke, don’t back peddle now. There’s no point bothering when niceties like sir when we both know you mean bastard.” He said jovially.

“...What do you want August.”

“Much better. I’ve always preferred honest hatred over false pleasantry. But don't fret about the call, I simply wanted to let you know that Bech has officially defaulted on his promises and deals. He still had a few days before any of the deadlines, but apparently it became impossible to complete them, so well done there. He declared this early to try and minimise his losses, but fortunately I had my lawyers draft things up so that regardless of when things happened, I’d be able to claim for damages.

Since he’d done a lot of this under the table and used funds from his business he shouldn’t have, we’ll have to spend a few weeks faking a few business deals. But I thought you would like to know that I, along with Masquerade Entertainment now have a controlling share of two of the major news networks. So I can promise you that none of your information will be accidently leaked through them.”

“I'm sure you're right.” Matt said through his teeth.

August laughed. “I knew you’d understand. Oh and before I go, the poppits? I don't know what on earth possessed you to unleash exploding rabbits on the world, but personally I think they’re hilarious. Some landowners might not share my view, but if they didn’t build fences then that’s their problem. Besides, they’re testing well with kids so who knows? Maybe we’ll put together some merchandise, a plushee or something. Anything I should know on your end Mr. Harper?”

“Nothing I need to tell you.”

“I thought as much. Good evening to you then.” He said as he hung up.

Matt put down his phone and went to grab another drink. On the one hand, a weight had been lifted off his shoulders now that this was dealt with. But on the other he’d earned the arrogant prick even more money and power. The feelings of wanting to celebrate and wanting to punch something chased each other around his head for a while, until eventually he gave up and went to get some proper sleep.