Thanks to the yet unnamed treant's new skill the traveling pace of our party significantly increased. Well, not just because of the treant, Leon helped out greatly as well as Stygian and Vaelin. By itself the treant could use Distortion maybe twice a day. Maybe, and only teleport about 10 feet every time. Since it had no properly bonded threads its power generation was quite low. But it just so happened that the treant was bonded to a nymph with two treads. So Leon would share his Mana with the treant while Stygian and Vaelin rode atop. This allowed them one Distortion teleport roughly every hour. Which was good, but Vaelin wasn't satisfied.

Using her powers as a Siphon, Vae pulled Mana from Stygian and herself and poured it into Leon. If there was enough ambient energy Stygian could use Whirlpool and speed things up even further, but as they were playing it safe our party stayed out of Mana dense areas. All told they could teleport roughly 500 feet in any direction, every 20 minutes. Granted they wouldn't do one big teleport since if they couldn't see where they were going they might end up inside something else. So it was more like 5 teleports in a row followed by twenty minutes of walking.

They kept this pace for the next month over this period the whole party trained a lot, but none more diligently than Stygian. The bug wanted to do two things. One be in tip top shape for its next metamorphosis, and two live up to its newly acquired virtue. First and foremost through a course of rigorous breeding and constant mutant Stygian was able to level up Geneticist. Not just once, but twice raising it to Level 4. It had unfortunately remained stagnant for a long time, Stygian assumed it was because its gene pools had also remained stagnant. Now that the pools were filling up so was Geneticist.

That was part of the reason, but there was more to it. Stygian has experienced a period of rapid and expansive growth, and the more you grow outward the harder it becomes to grow upwards. Or in other words the more versatile you are the harder it becomes to level. Fortunately for our insect, Diligence helps counteract that.

The first level saw two more slots devoted to tame, one slot to Breeder's Garden, and one slot to Mutation. The next level saw all three skills raised to five slots. Which is when something unexpected happened. While Tame doubled in effectiveness, Mutation grew much less mentally draining, both were expected outcomes, however Breeder's Garden was wholly unexpected.

Congratulations Breeder's Garden has reached its fifth slot. As a rare skill, it has multiple options for growth. Please select a path for this skill to follow. The Breeder's Garden (Accelerated Growth): This path forces everything within the garden to mature, breed, and reproduce much faster than the normal garden. It also makes the inhabitants bigger and stronger than they ought to be. Next path advancement, Temporal Distortion or Accelerated Leveling. The Breeder's Garden (Self Sustaining): This path balances the ecosystem of the garden allowing for designated creatures to become the apex predator in their section. Gathers required life automatically, or for a Mana cost will be automatically generated. Next path advancement, Endless Expanse or Proving Grounds.

As always both were viable path options, what really swung the decision were the options for the next advancement. Endless Expanse or Proving Grounds were both more in line with what our shelled friend had in mind. Drown the enemy in legions of monsters or have elite monsters that trained themselves. That is if that's what the advancement options meant, Stygian wouldn't really know until it got there.

Besides leveling Geneticist Stygian messed around with Splicer and Mutation. As it turned out, if Stygian ate a piece of a monster and then used Mutation on said monster, the bug would gain an extra point if the mutation was successful. Splicer's skill Meld also functioned similarly. Apparently things didn't need to be alive to be Melded, just needed to be alive at some point. So if Stygian grabbed two pieces of flesh, took a bite of each, Melded them together, took another bite, then split them and Mutated both, the bug would end up with 5 points in a gene pool. And this process could be continued until there was no flesh left.

This was how Stygian also filled out all of its gene pools to double during their long journey. Leaving the elusive Aväk as the last big hurdle. Well that and Stygian still had more to grow before metamorphosis, but that was a much smaller hurdle. During the month the Garden's inhabitants grew explosively.

The Host-worms and Fyreflies began to grow dependent upon each other. The Host-worms supplied ample oxygen to the Fyreflies causing them to grow bigger and their fire to grow hotter. The Host-worms gained an additional ability called Symbiosis allowing the two separate entities to act as one. The Vusk population grew explosively, thanks to their rabbit gene's. Cytonic Spiders laid thousands of eggs, and received a new Mutation called Thick Hide. Increase their durability an incredible amount. The Mudlings were all replaced with Mudkings, and their pond was widened. The Desecrator ants consisted of only about ten mature Queens, but about a thousand potential Queens. The Margs reproduce by hijacking their host's reproductive systems and spawn their young in the belly of their host's species. So the leftover Vorli were used as fodder for the new Margs. And the Mez-mur's interbred with nearly all the other plant life of the garden.

Stygian ravenous appetite definitely put a strain on the group since they nearly always had to be hunting. That is at least until Stygian began to consume souls as well as flesh. Though the bug was hesitant to meddle with souls until it learned about what was going on with its own. Stygian also figured that as long as it didn't enlarge its own soul anymore and just ate it, things would be fine. Turns out that souls were quite filling and they offered plenty of rewards. Most of which were attribute points. Unfortunately no charisma points. But everything reached the cap, except a few stats. Stygian didn't always collect from Plentiful Harvest, since it didn't always trigger, but also because Stygian didn't want to get tied down with junk skills. Though there were a few exceptions.

Coordination Level 1

Stop being a gangly mess and move your body like you mean to.

Toxic Touch

Some things just can't stand to touch you, understandable and now they have a second reason. Excrete a toxin that induces a sense of mild vertigo.

Stygian devoted a Soul Slot to Coordination, just to see what it would do, and the skill was vastly improved.

Multi-Limb Coordination Level 1

Stop being a gangly mess and move your body like you mean to. Move multiple parts of your body at once with grace, and ease.

It was pretty much tailor made for Stygian. Toxic touch was a bit of a gamble for Stygian; the ability didn't function without a poison gland. Thanks to a careful dissection of Hopping Dart Snake, Stygian was able to mimic the gland within. The toxin that the gland excreted was oily and caused our shelled friend to shine and look rather dashing, in its own humble opinion.

Vaelin spent her entire month meditating and filling her flower storage with as much extra Mana as she could. She was now just a hair's breadth away from mastering her sin. Unfortunately for her with how much of her life she spent in sin that hair's breadth was still quite the distance. She also developed a few new tricks that should come in handy.

Leon spent his time growing more attuned with the treant. At times they could function almost as one, and slowly Leon began breaking down the barrier to the treant's past life. The only thing they had gotten so far was a name. Pen. Well really just a part of a name, but hey progress. Gaining the Awakened status that Leon has will grant growth more explosive than our dear bugs'. Leon mostly worked on his mental prowess in hopes to free himself from Stygian's control. Though our party wasn't the other thing that changed along the way.

Over the course of the month the landscape went from fields and forests to gently sloping hills. On the last day of the month things drastically changed. With every mile that past, the day grew darker and darker. Then as the party crested a particularly large hill they saw it. A shining and shimmering of sand so dark it looked like the night sky, and the longer they looked the more fantastic it seemed. Not only was there a deep black, but also vibrant purples and brilliant red. Subtle greens and calming blues all interlaced with sparks of white. As the wind blew the pattern shifted, but it didn't ruin the view. It would just reveal more wonders.

It was like a living mosaic of ethereal beauty, something the true sky might even be envious of. Whereas the actual sky over the desert was plagued by an ever present thunderhead so massive that there was little difference between night and day in the desert. It truly was a desert of midnight and eternal beauty.

Name Physical Modifiers Attributes Unique Statuses Stygian Half-light Str: +23.7% Str: 44 Oath Age Agi: +20.1% Agi: 50 At Death's Door 5 months Dex: +19.5% Dex: 47 Monsters Vitality Species Acr: +16.0% Acr: 42 Thick Plating Deväk (Psyling) Mnt: +0.2% Mnt: 50 Int: +9.1% Int: 50 Wis: +8.9% Wis: 50 Per: +13.7% Per:50 End: +39.7% End: 50 Con: +35% Con: 50 Vit: +35% Vit: 48 Cha: +10% Cha: 7 Abilities Unique Skills Skills/Spells Sins/Virtues Parasitical Growth Unrelenting Physique Dodge: Level 8 Gluttony Lurk Fast Learner 2 Path of the Spear: Level 11 Lust Psychic Aptitude Compact Bonds Path of the Sword: Level 11 Wrath Writhing Flesh Energy Dense: Level 5 Shapeshift: Level 20 Diligence Shackles Dumbstruck: Level 2 Condense Tissue: Level 10 Disguise Ancestral Memory: Level 1 Meditate: Level 7 Toxic Touch Mixing Passions Combat Level 19 Research Level 16 Magic Level 14 Artisan Level 12 Geneticist Level 4 Splicer Level 3 Valus Level 3 Soul Eater Level 1 Shaper Level 1 Gene pools Parasitical Growth Progress Arthropod Aväk 0/10, Des. Ant 1000/500, Cytonic 1000/500 Mammalian/Amphibian Human 200/100, Mudling 180/90, Vusk 300/150 Morphis/Annelid Marg 400/200, Host-worm 300/150, Mez-mur-der 500/250 Job Skills/Spells/Abilities Level Slots Geneticist Tame 4 5 Geneticist Breeder's Garden 4 5 Geneticist Match 1 1 Geneticist Mutation 12 5 Splicer Meld 9 3 Valus Repulse 2 2 Valus Telekinesis 3 2 Valus Physical Conversion 2 3 Valus Whirlpool 3 2 Soul Eater Soul Slots 1 1 Soul Eater Versatile 1 1 Soul Eater Soul Manipulation 2 1 Soul Eater Soul Construct 1 1 Soul Eater Plentiful Harvest Ability 0 Soul Eater Multi-Limb Coordination 1 1 Shaper Merge 1 1