Mathew

Territory reinforcement and health were full. Mathew took a calming breath. No more excuses. He thought.

It was time to invent. With Ripper's evolution, Mathew didn't know what to expect. He grew to worry that he'd be without a weapon often. The mental vision of a Carrion Beasts' lifecycle gave him some insight into what may be going on. Ripper may recover from its cocoon as an animal rather than a sword. Even if he recovered Ripper as a sword, Mathew had learned that he needed to have backups. More tools of war would be better. Whether evolving or taken by Clare, Mathew had gone without too often. No, as the linchpin for the other survivors, he needed to always have an option. Better yet, enough options that he could pick what the situation demanded.

Speaking with Clare and reviewing his experience made it clear there would be a period of weakness after the crafting. Less clear was the exact nature of the liability. He lost quite a bit of health with Ripper's transformation into an independent weapon. That was performed at a low skill level. Clare seemed to find the costs higher as her skills progressed.

That was the root of his thoughtful procrastination. Raising his skill level would also increase the percentage of his armaments he could store away. Weight from Clare's demands was tied into it.

Only way to go is through, Mathew thought.

Even before powering up his living skeleton armament, he started planning. Being able to reinforce the same full body armor, again and again, felt like an infinite power opportunity. Becoming more and more unbreakable. The perk was even called infinity bone. As good as being unbreakable could be, this was limiting his options.

Mathew stared at his wrist where he'd grown Carrion Beast flesh to keep Ripper within his grasp. Openings perforated the bone plate connecting his blood to the base of the grey muscle. The quadruple reinforced bone of his arm was broken by his own skill. At first, it would make the two options seem incompatible. Mathew could either keep layering his defenses endlessly or evolve new uses for his body over time. Seeing Ripper extend newly produced muscle and bone made Mathew think they were more compatible ideas than he'd thought so far.

Sinking into the right mentality, Mathew channeled willpower into his skill. He was not proficient with a sword. While he was sure someone would be able to fight monsters with one, maybe it wasn't for Mathew. Different weapon designs flowed from his intelectus to be reviewed. A hammer with trap jaws, a drill, a jackhammer-inspired contraption of bone and muscle. Finally, a simple mace appeared in his mind.

The mace felt right, with an extra large head that would work given his superhuman strength. Confirming that it was a good starting point. Mathew continued working with his intelectus on the weapons design.

First, it became apparent that this was not a simple weapon. The head of the mace had Carrion Beast muscle connecting an outer shell to the real interior head of the mace. This allowed the plates to take on different configurations, including an ax and a spike.

Mathew knew his skill wouldn't be so stubborn about complex designs without a valid reason. Fine, he thought. I still won't need skill to swing a club.

Starting from his palm Mathew began to channel reserves. Going extra slow, he tried to observe how his pool or resources were used. There was something he could feel at the edges. But there wasn't enough fidelity for him to truly learn anything.

Next, he tried reinforcing the handle of the mace as he made it. Spending more power to grow its initial form far more durable than Ripper had started. Slowly it took shape. Mathew remembered when Ripper was damaged and had its heart exposed. The heart was at the center of a collection of blood vessels in the original design.

So Mathew included a spiked counterweight to the bottom of the handle. Ensuring that it had a lot of interconnected blood supplies, he hoped to make it a place for the future living weapon to store vital organs. Having them centered in the head of the mace seemed terrible for its health.

The core of the mace head finished its development and started growing external bone plates held by thin struts. Mathew's skill was doing quite a bit of the work, and he hadn't understood how the separate plates of bone would be generated. The Carrion's muscle was very specialized and behaved oddly. One oddity was that it would not act as a surface to grow bones.

This workaround handled the engineering problem. The outer mace shell grew without difficulty, and then the muscle attached to it by the sticky tendon-like webbing. It was all an extension of his body still, so he pushed, and the mace head broke apart across the fault lines.

As it was, the mace was serviceable. It could even change its configuration to that of an ax or a broad spike. This wasn't the end of Mathew's mission, though. He didn't simply want a new weapon. He desired to tap into the power of new forms without losing his defenses.

From the spike on the pommel, Mathew grew thick strands of muscle. Again he noted how odd the tissue was. It didn't suffer from being exposed to the air and didn't need blood vessels running through it, just feeding the base. These thick muscles continued to grow until they wrapped around Mathew's arm and chest.

Swinging the mace with his own strength, he struck the 'mining wall.' Its surface, once smoothed from his sessions spent eating away at it with rock slime digestion, was marred. A chunk of rock was ripped out of the wall with a puff of dust.

Trying to hold onto that memory, Mathew swung the hammer with all his force plus that of the overgrown muscles contorting their way across his frame. The motion was so strong that he tightened muscles in his core and legs to keep standing. Even going so far as to activate sure foot.

WHAM

The sound slapped Mathew in his grinning face. He didn't need to carefully compare or guess. This was a lot stronger, and exactly how much didn't matter. This was half his proof of concept. The other half he wasn't quite ready for. Refining and reinforcing the mace for another hour and five thousand reserves he earned the next step.

[New skill awarded: Living Skeleton Armament 30. Living Skeleton Armament 30 overrides Living Skeleton Armament 29]

Opening his perk menu, he realized his failures could sometimes have benefits. His bad habit of leaving unspent perk points around paid off this time. His evolved skill of living skeleton armament gave better perks than the living skeleton weapon.

[Prime Living Skeleton Armament ~ perk tier two

Magic bone - Craft skeleton armaments with magical effects

Ability channel - Craft skeleton armaments to conduct abilities

perk tier three

Intent - Seed intent into a crafting]

Inspecting the details of intent, Mathew gained insight into how all crafting worked. Creating an item by a crafting skill converted it. The blue system energy would act on. Each effect and benefit the item provided was grown from a seed inherent to what it was before being crafted. This skill would give Mathew some control over this foundation. Enlarging or reducing seeds to direct the final product.

Learning that crafting was random, at least to some extent, probably shouldn't have surprised Mathew as much as it did. The whole world was based on accelerated evolution. Having a more varied process wasn't too weird for the world. But it did seem unusual for the system.

Blue energy from the system produced growth in stats through controlled, mathematically precise steps. Skills gained straightforward extension through the perk system. The system seemed like a force of order. It felt wrong for it to create a chaotic output.

Mathew didn't mind at this point. He didn't have so much experience that some experimenting was out of order.

Selecting magic bone, Mathew watched the new tier three option appear.

[Magic resonance - Boost the armament with any magic it conducts]

Boost, that was the first time Mathew had seen that word. The information behind the system message informed him that this would make it cause more damage or protect against damage better.

Selecting magic resonance, Mathew moved to finish the crafting as best he could. Flashbacks of his final moments of the transition sprang to mind. With greater willpower and strength, Mathew hoped to make the process less traumatic. His concern was that his durability had also grown by leaps and bounds, further reinforced by his living skeleton armament skill.

No use stalling. Reforming the bone connecting his palm to the mace, it thinned and weakened. More of the original structure of Mathew's gauntlet took shape. With a much higher skill level than with Ripper's crafting, the mace was made ready to disconnect faster and more thoroughly.

Torquing the mace against the remaining connections of his palm, the familiar heat of broken bone repairing no longer felt like an ember.

Damn!

There had to be a good way. Drawing out the event would quite literally only make it harder. Uncoiling all the extra Carrion Beast muscle, Mathew had it rewrap his arm. It was helping before, but this way, there should be a lot more power.

With a muffled cracking, the mace was free. Through the window in the Alpha spectrum, Mathew could feel human system energy invading his crafting. There was a moment when the blue power paused so he could reach out and influence the process.

Magic bone gave him some choice. Not having to spew up his digestion magic was almost as nice as having it focused. Mathew hesitated at adding pooling. He really didn't know enough about it. Maybe this was an opportunity. Along with the known digestion magic channeling similar to Ripper, Mathew also pushed pooling magic into it.

Blue system energy continued its work. In a few moments, the mace was finished. Pain tore through Mathew. The full wellness that he'd grown familiar with was broken, and health rippled like snowflakes in an avalanche away from him.

[Mathew Gains Starling ~ Fate Breaker

Otherworld Human/Carrion Beast Hybrid

Carrion Knight 1% to level 10

Health 1453/4310

(2857 crafting damage)

Reserves 9,677]

I hope it's worth it. Mathew thought. Even now, he could feel how his weight diminished. The prodding of poachers, particularly in the new territory, would grow under his weakness. Scan.

[Latch

Crafted from and by The Carrion Knight, this mace works to aid its allies and hinder its enemies.

Passive: holds a magical pool of 300 points

Active: Bone plates may be grown across the mace head to increase weight and damage. When broken free of the mace, they move freely for some time to block attacks or reduce movement speed and mobility. Consumes willpower and reserves

Active: +4 skill bone regeneration, living skeleton armaments]

Permanent:

50% affinity +.3 strength, +.3 durability

90% affinity +3 strength, +3 durability]

Some changes were readily apparent. The carefully constructed bone plates. Designed to fit together like puzzle pieces in three distinct forms were entirely remade. It seemed more like petals growing from a stem or a bushy scaled tail. The edges were sharp, not that Mathew would try stabbing with the mace.

A familiar request appeared.

[Equip Latch Yes/No

Item slots 1/4]

Before he selected yes, Mathew looked over what slots meant. A new intelectus drained his willpower to give him an answer. The drain felt more than he thought it would be. This process must have cost more than health. Regardless he got the answer he paid for. People were limited on how many items they could gain affinity with a single time and how many they could use all the abilities of.

[Latch equipped

+5% affinity Alpha dominance

+10% starting affinity racial

+15% starting affinity aligned magic

+20% affinity growth

Racial cost: Daily reserves cost of 200 reserves will be drawn from your pool to maintain Latch. Additional reserves may be drawn from your pool to repair damages

Magical cost: Daily cost of 10 digestion magic points will be drawn from your pool to grow corruption alignment. Additionally, a daily cost of 5 pooling points will be drawn from your pool to deepen Latches well of power]

Empowering a mental attack, Mathew tried to connect to the new weapon. There was a mind. It was thinking simple thoughts. Hive, hive, hive...

Latch seemed happy. Sending his intentions over, the mace grappled its way into Mathew's hand. It let off a happy grinding of bone plates at being helpful. Working in unison, Mathew swung at the wall with Latch again. The strike was marginally better. Likely attributed to Mathew bracing better.

A crawling sensation transferred through the Alpha spectrum. Already intruders were challenging his authority. Beyond the discomfort, Mathew felt how the red power didn't accumulate as it did before. Their presence was stealing small bites of Alpha spectrum energy, transferred to their Alpha.

Is this why people have been dying? The survivors who defaulted to being under the rule of the Easter Kingdoms would gain enough power to change the distribution of essence. Sending essence to a distant land and painting a death sentence across their back.

Rejecting his instinct to rampage against the intruders, Mathew looked to the second part of his mission. He still had many thousands of reserves. Not enough for a second armament, but it would work get this job started.

[Consumed designs - monsters

Bramble Weaver 100%]

This would take considerable willpower, Mathew could tell. He could rest after this was done.

"Hint, can you make a cell attached to my closet?" Mathew asked.

"Yes, Co-owner... um... you don't... what plans do you have for it?" Hint sounded apprehensive for the first time he'd heard.

"To contain an experiment temporarily. Hopefully, an ally," Mathew replied.

"It'll be done by the time you get there," Hint cheerfully reported.

"Thanks,"

Mathew contemplated how easily he'd adjusted to making life. Ripper being alive was an accident. Latch was entirely on purpose, but he trusted it because he trusted Ripper. This new monster he'd make, he couldn't be sure of its allegiance. If it turned out to be as much a monster as the Bramble Weavers it was designed from... would he kill it?

He knew he would; there really wasn't a question. Would he be immoral to make life just to kill it? As much as he knew it wasn't wrong, he couldn't shake the feeling it was.

Stepping through a closet lined with thin tiles, Mathew found a ten-by-ten cell on the other side of vertical stone bars.

One more push, then I can rest. Mathew told himself.

Mathew had hardly noticed before, but his intelectus for digestion was more hands off than the rest he created. Still, funneling willpower into the skill let it access an understanding that Mathew hadn't discovered himself.

The mental model for a Bone Weaver filled Mathew's mind, and he breathed out a vivid purple plume of hunger- no corruption magic. Tension formed as the casting demanded more. As the fog grew in density, blobs of liquid digestion magic formed.

A surge of willpower was ripped from Mathew to finish the work. It stole his breath and made his thoughts fuzzy. Clenching his jaw, Mathew tried to ensure he didn't miss any details.

Magic full of potential, fueled by his willpower and reserves, performed a negative application of digestion. From his stored mass and fuel, a new beast appeared. Created entirely in a moment and given a spark of life, this fully grown beast drew its first breath.