Chapter 22: Nightmare Seed (1)

“It was a goblin unlike any I have seen before. Although its body was green and had all the physical features of a normal goblin, it was special. Its aura, I have only sensed a similar once before. It was from that unique class from Bloodyvores” Logier clenched his fist in anger, then he loosened in helplessness, “In the end… I was no match for it. That goblin, it defeated me in a single move.”

As Logier recounted his encounter with it, my face gradually became solemn with each passing minute. It was a bit unexpected. To be honest, I hadn’t expected the last boss to pop out all of a sudden to mess with its enemies. From Logier’s point of view, this goblin fits all the points of what a unique class should be like. This was something that needed further and in-depth contemplation. However, from the brief encounter he had with that goblin, I managed to form a rough sketch on his prowess. There were a few things I even listed as strengths and weaknesses.

One, though it was extremely intelligent, it lacked scheming ability. Or else, it wouldn’t have shown itself so recklessly.

Second, it was indeed cooking something huge and orcs’ intrusion put a dent on that plan. Now that it had completely messed up his work, he couldn’t sit still and forced to show itself.

Third, it was a chemical weapon user. Physically it was weaker and probably couldn’t last a single blow from Logier. Perhaps, that’s why it kept a ten-meter distance throughout his whole interaction with him.

Finally, the fourth point was thus, the goblin wasn’t aware of my involvement or existence thus far. If it was, it wouldn’t have let go of Logier, it would have used him to bait me for sure. After all, for a goblin who could design potions that could make others lose the feeling of pain, how hard it will be for it to create something that could put the orc tribe against me?

I rejoiced the fact that there was still an element of surprise left in the table. I looked at Logier and then to his severed hand in pity. Patting his chest I said, “You concentrate on your recovery first. I will think of something to deal with that goblin.”

Suddenly another thin orc barged in through the crowd of orcs surrounding Logier and kneeled before us, “Chief, bad news. Lord Gyuk and seventy of our brethren defected us to join the goblins. They left a wounded female orc behind to relay us a message.”

Another unexpected news came in after the last. From the corner of my eye, I saw a horrified look on Logier’s face. He had never expected this betrayal. Glaring angrily at the messenger, he bellowed angrily, “What rubbish are you spouting? Gyuk defected us? Don’t you dare lie to me just because I am in this state!”

“I dare not chief!” The orc planted his head on the floor, splattering blood all over the black tiles. It continued to do so while explaining, “There is indeed a female orc who they have left behind. She used to be Lord Gyuk’s personal property. She has suffered grievously. Even her survival is questionable at this point. If you don’t believe me, I can bring her here and she can verify it.”

While the orc community was panicking at this betrayal, I too was a little worried. After all, if he reveals everything about the orc community, the Goblin Lord would become aware of my existence. However, what made me feel weird was this, if Gyuk intended to betray from start, why didn’t he do so back when they were clashing with the Bloodyvores? Why did he wait and submit to these goblins? What am I missing?

Absentmindedly, I pulled out my system interface and saw a new addition to the very end of data displayed. Below the list of skills, I saw a new addition;

Nightmare seeds planted: 1/3

It was just a line with four words, but it explained a lot of things. My lips inadvertently twitched as I excused myself from the orcs. Finding myself a quiet place, I sat down and started using the Nightmare Seed skill I got after evolving.

As soon as I activated the skill, suddenly I felt a connection with something far from this place. This link was very fragile and weak, yet strong and resilient. This paradoxical nature baffled me to the core. If I could explain it in words, it would be like, I am holing a string, which was connected to something in distance, and the weak pull from it reminds me of the distant object’s connection with me.

I concentrated on this weak pulling force. Gradually, the weak feeling transformed as I continued to concentrate on it. Soon, the thin link that felt like a string to me earlier, started to feel like an appendage on my own body. Like it’s my own appendage and I can control it in any way I want. Since it felt like my own hand and the thing, on the other side felt like something I could pull towards me, I did exactly that.

The inky darkness before my eyes vanished and replaced by a world with purple clouds. As the clouds parted ever so slowly, a blank-faced Gyuk appeared before me, naked as the day he was born. My mind blew away by the miraculousness of this phenomenon. How astonishing, how wonderful.

‘So, this is what they call magic!’ I thought with a wide smile on my face. I felt a certain excitement boiling inside me as a thirst for more born that moment. I started to chant in my heart that I wanted to know more magic, I wanted to see more of this mysteriousness and perform more miracles like this. However, after this brief slip up, I regained control of myself soon after. This was not the right time for having delusions. There will be enough time for that later.

Shifting my eye towards the blank-faced Gyuk, while avoiding his limply hanging grotesque looking junk, I took in a deep breath and asked, “Where are you now?”

“We are in a cave at the center of the Goblin Forest,” Gyuk answered in a monotone voice, sounding lifeless.

I nodded. They have indeed gone to the goblin side. Then I asked my second question, “Why did you betray your own tribe?”

“I don’t want to be under that fool’s leadership anymore. The goblin lord is too strong, I believe he will lead us to victory against the Bloodyvores, and with his help one day our tribe will remerge under my leadership.”

Well, a cliché and overused but one that makes the most sensible reason! To be frank, even I had not thought this would be his reasoning. I expected it to be something like ‘he was afraid of me, and Logier’s defeat gave him a big mental impact. Ultimately, he joined the enemy to take revenge against me.’

“Did the goblin lord accepted your betrayal?” I asked again, squinting my eyes while looking at the emotionless face of the orc.

“He said it was unexpected but happened at a great time. After that, he promised us to give us something that would increase our strength and make us more powerful than the group we fought not long ago.”

“Is that so?” I was surprised. Gyuk and his group are already strong enough, with the potion that could make them unfeeling to pain, their fighting prowess will double or probably triple. The goblin lord really played a great game.

“And did you reveal about my existence to him?” I asked the question that was more important than some scheme as it was deeply connected to my wellbeing. Gyuk shook his head negatively and said the Goblin Lord didn’t ask in detail about orc’s standing in this war. The Goblin Lord wasn’t good at scheming, I firmly concluded after hearing everything from Gyuk’s mouth.

Even before confirming if Gyuk really betrayed the orc tribe, he allowed them to the central part of their camp. Either he was confident that orcs weren’t intelligent enough to plan such an elaborate plan, or, he himself had no idea such a thing is also possible. Either way, it was a good thing for me.

Just then I decided to plant ideas inside his head, which was the true ability of Nightmare Seed.

You cannot plant memories and suggestions into the target, as the Nightmare Seed has yet to bloom.

Time remaining for the seed to bloom: 4:14:54

But I had to stop because of this message. I couldn’t help but gawk for a second. Since I already felt the connection with him, I thought the tree bloomed already, but that wasn’t the case. Now that I think about it, not even an hour passed since I awoke. Thus, I postponed planting ideas until the Nightmare Seed to bloom completely and become the Nightmare Tree.

After returning to the real world, I was in for another surprise. When I looked at the system data, my MP had decreased by 20 points. This only meant one thing. To pull a target’s consciousness into that purple cloudy space, it costs me some MP. However, since the cost wasn’t that high compared to the effect of the skill, I didn’t think much about it.

After a casual glance around me, I found the state of morale of the orcs, which probably at its all-time low. Due to Gyuk’s betrayal, they looked defeated. A few even looked like they lost all hopes in the world. As expected, morale is the most important thing in the war. Be it against an inferior race or a superior race, if morale wasn’t maintained, eventually the army would collapse.

While waiting for the four hours to pass up, I went towards the battlefield. The orc-controlled area was yet to be reclaimed by goblins, yet, not a single orc could be found in their occupied space. Everyone retreated to the corridor and waited there for Logier’s next orders. Finding myself a secluded area, I squatted down on the ground and concentrated on the skill Metamorph.

The proper way to use the skill, it was already there in my head the moment I completed the evolution. Nodding to myself, I started performing the steps as it was planted in my memory from a mysterious source, at the same time I recalled my appearance as a human. This was necessary for the skill to work.

Soon, the leathery skin started to ripple as if it was the surface of a water pool and started to change. The black hands transformed into white skin and so on. The whole process reminded me of that blue mutant who could change her body to anything in one of my favorite superhero movies. After fifteen seconds, I stood up to my full height, not as Dream Weaver but as Alex, the human.

I was more amazed at my ability to talk the human tongue again. Aside from that, however, there were no other changes. Even my vision stayed the same as if I was looking through a red-tinted glass which was an effect of Infrared vision. The first thing I did after transforming was to jump up and down to show my happiness. Now, I would no longer have to feel depressed about my inability to converse with another human.

After my initial excitement died down, I smiled and reverted to my original appearance. Metamorph isn’t limited to this only as many more things are also possible with it. So, with assumptions in my head, I started to practice various forms I have seen throughout my life and observe the changes it brought to my body. I did so until I was only left with 2 MP. Then I staggered back to my hole, paying no heed to the gloomy atmosphere hanging around the orcs. It will take some time for them to recover from their slump so I decided to use this time to increase my MP and WIS as much as possible.

After this evolution, I understood certain things about my attributes. WIS is a very important attribute to anyone who used magic as their main form of combat. Not only it reduce the MP cost to cast a skill, but it also increases the max MP. Even, the regain rate is affected by this stat. But that’s not everything WIS is capable of.

Magic is a very mysterious form of energy. From my crude understanding of it, skills were nothing but the crystallization of our ‘thoughts’ shaped into reality with magic as a medium. However, it was actually the WIS stat that determines how much of our ‘thoughts’ that get to crystalize into reality. The higher the WIS stat, the more attainment one could have in the field of magic arts. Perhaps this is what people consider talent.

In my hole, I lied on the ground flat, looked at the ceiling and mumbled, “Metamorph”

And then I lost consciousness due to fatigue caused by overexertion of my MP.