Hey everyone, I'm back! Also, I've officially completed my new wordpress site here: laogbib.com where I will be posting more stories plus this story. They'll be on there first, then second on here. Visit, check it out, whatever works for you, not dropping it here.

Link to the chapter on my new site: Ch 16

Without further adieu, here's the chapter!

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— POV Gods —

(Sin) "Deal! Ok, since Karma is better at explaining things to you two, I'll let her do it."

(Karma) "Much obliged, I'll just assume that you're not just trying to be lazy Sin. Okay you two, I'll give you a rundown on what's happening down there right now. Fate, do you understand why things will lead from bad to worse if he attains a humanoid form?"

(Fate) "Well, it seems he goes crazy, and his string of fate frays. It doesn't sever, just splits, and I don't know why. Eventually he starts spawning clones of himself everywhere, leading the world to chaos and death. All of my hard work comes undone."

(Karma) Awww, she's pouting. Stop being so cute! "That's superficially correct, but you're missing something base. How about you Grim, you must've been monitoring him for quite awhile now. What do you think is happening to him?"

(Sin) "Karma, come on. Grim wouldn't know. Stop teasing them and just explain how we're going to do some cool things to fix the situation."

(Grim) "Well, I think his soul is fracturing. It looks wrong compared to the other souls I see."

(Karma) "Ding ding ding! We have a winner! See Sin, they still have potential! You're right Grim, due to him continuously splitting his mind, and the constant stress he's under, his mind is fraying. He's developing a very severe case of multiple personality disorder! So much so, that when he finally gets a mobile form, he spontaneously ejects these shattered personalities in an attempt to fix his own soul. To him, once he manages to see and enter his soul, they appear as protuberances. But they are a core part of who he is, losing them, and at the same time giving them life, turns all of them into aberrations. He needs to stay as one being, and heal himself over hundreds to thousands of years, integrating each piece of his soul back together, or no matter what he will face irreparable harm."

(Sin) "And then he becomes everyone's problem. My and Karma's balance of souls and their karmic balance would disappear, Fate's job would be ruined, and even Grim's river of souls might finally dissipate for this world."

(Grim) "No, it can't! Without anything to do, I would have to go back to living with Mom!"

(Karma) "That would be the least of our problems, but yes, it would be very bad to have to go back to Mom's. Now, Sin and I have basically thought of two ways to potentially fix this. For one, we could go and talk with him in his dreams, explain the situation, and hopefully get him to concede something to us. We would be vulnerable afterwards for the next several years as that much would take a lot of our collective power, even using Sin's cheat."

(Sin) "Or, we can continue trying to influence him step-by-step. For instance, when he goes to sleep next time, instead of talking with him, I could fill his dreams with horrors and dread of becoming a humanoid again. While I do that, each of you would also need to do something in turn. Karma would need to influence some new-born souls. Fate, you would then need to guide those souls with the proper fate, and Grim would need to choose the souls and very carefully push them through the soul-furnace, so that they might retain Karma's influence. Also, since Grim's job will undoubtedly be the hardest, the rest of us will also need to keep an eye on him the future and use our powers solely to guide him to an acceptable path."

(Karma) "The pros and cons, since we don't have a whole lot of time here, are as follows: For speaking with him, we might just solve the whole thing right here and now. We might get scolded by Mother for abusing our powers since we're not supposed to directly reveal ourselves to mortals. The cons would be heavy, since we would lose our powers for years, he might not agree, and Mother will come down fiery mad. For guiding him, properly this time, we have a lot more ways to influence the future of Mom's world. If we succeed, then all might work out. If we fail, we can show Mom we tried our best, and she might see our attempts at getting over our head and treat us softer than if we gambled I t all and lost."

(Fate) "I say we gamble it all."

(Grim) "Me too. I'd much rather just forge our own way forward with a massive gamble! If it succeeds, then we'll look good in front of Mom for our quick thinking!"

(Karma&Sin) "Sigh."

(Sin) "Told ya Karma we shouldn't have given them a choice, of course they would choose the wrong one."

(Karma) "Well, it did help confirm that we had decided on the right choice. Sorry, we forgot to mention you two don't have a choice in the matter. We're going with option 2, so prepare yourself. Sin, I think you're up first."

(Sin) "Ok, it's time to put the fear of God (me) into him. Looks like I'll have some fun tonight!"

-- POV (Mathias) Grass --

Waaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh! What the fuck was that! I felt like I spent 10 years in a dungeon, I can't remember much from the dream though. What the actual fuck! Haaaa, haaaaa, fuuuuuuuuu. At first I was having fun, being an emperor or something, but then it suddenly changed to something much darker. Each time I tried different ways of becoming mobile, I was devoured. I think I was eaten each time in more gruesome and gruesome ways as I tried to leave my precious glade. Dragons, aberrations, undead, giants, elemental, fire, Eldritch Gods, storms, sharks, angels, demons….. Brrrrrrrrr. So much blood and terror in each death. I think my subconscious is trying to say something here, I don't know anything about this world, and I want to go explore it in this state!? No thank you. I think I'll stay here, fortify my base in such a way that nothing could ruin me, and THEN I might go out into the world. I even heard that dumb being who through me out here in the first place laughing each time I was eaten by something. Screw you! Just to spite that fucker I'm not going to die oh so easily! In fact, I think I should be in quite a nice spot right now, I should look at my stats after I finally evolved! I'm not trying to mentally block out those horrific images at all using scientifically proven methods! Not at all!

Name:--- (Mathias)Age:1 MonthGender:♂/♀Level:1Class:Plant Sage+Race:Bermuda Grass Unique Variant: PotatoHP:15/15Mana:2/2 (+2 pt/hour)Growth Points:2160Growth Rate:35 (25) pts/hour day (night)Strength:2Vitality:15Agility:1Intelligence:125Tamed Species1Tamed Total13Titles:[td colspan="3"] [Destined to Die], [Reincarnator], [Martyr], [Boundless], [Late Bloomer], [One of Many], [Eaten Alive+], [Kin-Slayer], [Bug Tamer], [Unnatural Predator] [/td]

Abilities:[td colspan="3"], , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , [/td]

Drug Compounding: Caffeine, Cyanide, Simple Sugar

Ha! The [Cannibal] title is gone! Finally, that gruesome title is gone, and since I'm my own unique species, I can't get it again! (I hope!). Ha, that's right. I was gonna take over this whole glade, and make it wholly mine alone. I still like that idea, and in-fact that should probably be my next steps for increasing my growth and power base. Actually, how are my Slaughter Guards doing? Ah, I see. They've laid eggs! And a prodigious amount of them too! How wonderful! There should be hundreds of them come another week, I should hold off on taking over the glade for now and instead focus on raising my defense first, mainly these little guys, and THEN become Sovereign of this glade. The rabbit will be troublesome, but I think he should be fine. I can take the hit, his presence soothes me. I'll just keep a well-tended grassy area near his burrow, make it tall and tasty at night, and cut it off in the morning. That way I won't feel him eating me, and instead, by having it far away from me, I should minimize the pain and damage. I'll dissuade it from eating the rest of me once I have spines on each and every other blade of grass.

Hmm, seems June hasn't laid any eggs, peculiar. It must be her intelligence, it's so much higher than any of the other bugs'. It doesn't hold a candle to mine of course, but still, she must not view her fellow Guards in the best of light as potential mates. Sigh, the troublesome one has appeared. But it looks like they all are drinking the mana sap thoroughly, but it doesn't seem like they are fighting over it. That's good. I can see a tiny speck of mana in each of them, and a little bit more in June than the others. Each have grown by about 20%, I should increase the size of their burrow…. Good, that's much better. 0 Mana, but worth it.

What to do about my soon-to-be guards? I guess I can experiment a little bit. Let's see, first I should give some of them exclusively a small soaking of mana, some of them extra caffeine and….. Maybe add some adrenaline? I can make that, right?

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Drug Compounding: Adrenaline*

Molecule released when an animal is stressed. Ineffective in most plants.

Cost: 800

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Ha, I think it's mocking me. Of course I fucking know it won't help me specifically. What's with that cost!? The animal vs plant argument again? It would cost me 8000 GP normally!? Sigh, I have 2160 GP right now, so I think I should go for it. Besides, adrenaline when combined with certain toxins can greatly increase the effects by pumping the blood quickly through their victims. I already have spines, and cyanide-infused sap, so basically poisoned spines. Maybe I can add some propane alkaloids from belladonna to my arsenal. That would be a deadly combination for most animals large animals, but I know it probably won't affect the rabbit, and other herbivores can gain resistances to it. Cyanide is just soooo good, literally nothing (besides magic I guess) can stop it, you can never gain a tolerance for it. But, I guess it might be good for my roots instead of cyanide. Maybe later I guess, enough side-tracking!

What will each action I attempt do? If I give the eggs mana, then they might be able to use mana in the future. If I give them adrenaline, I hope that they will have heightened aggression and quick reflexes. What else can I give them? Ah, ahahahaha, I get it now why I thought of getting deadly nightshade poisons. I can give it to my eggs and make them poison-resistant! But really though, I should go with the toxins milkweed generate, cardiac glucose's, to actually make them toxic to their predators. Perfect, why not both? So not only will they come toxin-resistant, they will kill anything that tries to eat them! So I will have toxic magic beetles, and toxic berserkers. What am I missing…… Stealth and defense. For defense, I'm thinking stuff like the termite defenders, huge, stalwart guys. Giving them something other than adrenaline, maybe just more nutrient-dense food is all I can think of. I'll just have to train them correctly. For stealth, June is a perfect example, I need to somehow raise their intelligence and agility. Fumu, I don't really know how to do that. I guess I'll just have to devote more processing power to my training thought process and single out ones that show promise in that arena.

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Drug Compounding: Milkweed Toxin*

Toxic compound. Attacks neurological functions.

Cost: 50

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Drug Compounding: Nightshade Toxin*

Toxic Compound. Attacks neurological functions.

Cost: 50

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Nice, they are both cheap too! Oh, wait, adrenaline probably won't do much for insects, they use octopamine. How much would that cost me?

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Drug Compounding: Octopamine

Molecule released when an insect is stressed. Ineffective in most plants.

Cost: 200

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Oh, thought I didn't study this chemical much, it doesn't appear to be very expensive! It must be in the plant chemical-creation list somewhere too! Or it's just cheaper because insects vs vertebrates. OK, let's make a good spread of each combination and see how it works out. For the future, I should keep about 1/2 of them without the variables, so that I can have just a worker force if need be. But right now, I think just keeping about 1/20 of them normal, since I need results right now.

Constant: Nightshade+Milkweed toxins (extremely low dose)

Variables: Octopamine, extra sugar nutrition, mana

Sigh, this whole process would be easier if there were ants here. They naturally obey a hive mind, have attackers, defenders, workers, spit poison, and can fly and multiply quickly. Beggars can't be choosers though, and I kinda like these guys now. Except that one beetle from the other day that refused my precious sap. I still don't know which one it was though. Maybe I should let it go, for meritious deeds? Maybe after 10 of them, no less. If I catch them before they finish their deeds, then sorry, I'd have to say goodbye to them.

— POV June (bug) —

Cold sweat, shivers, tries to go even more into stealth mode. Feels an ominous presence.