Truck-chan vs stealth.

System Memo

From: The Goddess System a priori alpha version.00257643

To: Mr. Spickles, low level managerial department of reincarnation.

Sudject: Daily report, reincarnations are down /

Average volume of souls today!

130,402 souls reincarnated. 130,402 infatuations. I’m working beautifully. ^_^

Every twig cracked, every bush moved, and her steps were loud and unwieldy. Trucks were definitely not born to stealth. They really weren’t born for anything, being non living non humanoid vehicles. So this was definitely a new experience for this wondrously clumsy truck-ulent girl.

She wanted to scream. She wanted to yell. She wanted to run free in the forest. To roll down the highway, king of the road. Instead, she was walking slowly, trying not to make too much noise, it was agonizing. Why should she pander to these peculiar fantasy creatures. Remembering her instant death, by rolling giant paws, she continued to slowly creep through the forest, as silently as her awful creeping skills would allow.

After hours of agonizing walking. A hulking form emerged from the forest. It was the same dire bear, big as a small house, that had summarily squashed her a few hours earlier. But, it was snoring softly in the fading sunbeams.

Rage filled Truck-chan’s head, and she huffed in irritation. Did it think that it was king of the forest, top of the food chain. Did it think it could just sleep, wherever it wanted, because it was the alpha. She carefully stalked up to its rear end. If she could kill this motherload of a giant, it would surely empower her ghost truck to new and greater heights. Her rage cooled to a simmering hatred that allowed her to plot more carefully.

It didn’t look as if she could just take it head on, in fact she knew she couldn’t, look what happened the last time she was that foolish. Humans and their stupid foolish sneaking and plotting she thought. Now I’m one of them, grrrrr it galled her. But no worries, she would regain her truck-ulent nature soon enough. She just needed power. And to get it, this massive beast must die. But, how?

She walked around it slowly. Its massive body was covered in thick dark hair. Its eyes were closed, and it snored somewhat peacefully. Blood from a fresh kill dripped down its massive jaws, as it snorted in its sleep.

She reviewed her memories, or all the human memories that she’d put away in the back of her mind. Not one of the isekai’d humans knew anything about hunting. Her old driver Ralph knew next to nothing as well. Destroy its brain somehow? She thought.

Maybe she could manifest her ghost truck, inside its head. She tried, but the mist she used for summoning was 95% blocked at its skin. She could feel its mana, surrounding and permeating its body, strengthening it and allowing it to grow strong, and blocking her power from entering its body. She had an idea.

Waiting for the bear to exhale, she pushed her mist into its nostrils as it inhaled. Her spiritual grip on the mist grew tenous, but a tendril was still connected to her on the outside. As the mist entered its body, she felt its mental will like a barrier. Her mist seeped through it slowly, and she could see its dreams. It dreamt of pinning down its prey, before taking a bite. It was even a practicing predator while asleep. More of her mist was inhaled, and its dreams became clearer and clearer. She noticed the edges of its small mind, as she fed more mist into its sleeping head. Its dreams were surrounded by a dreamlike fog, but her mist was beginning to supplant its own fog. Mixing in, and taking over its attention. As her truck-ulent mist invaded its mind, she felt she could direct its attention wherever she wanted. Manipulate it in whatever way she wished. As she gained control, she felt its mind mirrord in a small part of her own. She let the mist tendril dissipate, but still felt the bear in her mind.

The primordial void opened up around its mind. It felt like she could now push it over the edge, into chaos and nothing. Separating its mind and body, killing it instantly, and taking its soul for herself. But, now that she had control, she wanted to test it. She’d invested a lot of her power into this project, and her reserves had shrunk enormously. She needed a protector and guide, just like her old driver Ralph, always knew where to go. Maybe this bear could be her ride out of here. With great anxiety, she proceeded to wake it up.

It snuffled and snorted, its eyes flickering open. Blinking in the recent twilight of the forest. She was really very hungry, and incredibly thirsty, but she had to focus.

The bear blinked its little eyes, alright they were the size of cantaloupes, but compared to its enormous bulk, they looked small. She focused on it seeing her as the alpha, as if she’d always been the alpha, and it was always subordinate to her.

As it awoke its mind started to rebel, its muscles surged and flexed, but its mana only made its body stronger, not its mind. She guided its attention to her as the alpha, as if she’d always been the alpha. It looked down at her miniscule self, wondering how such a small tiny thing, could be the alpha of anything. She turned the mist around its mind, turning its thoughts around so it thought smaller meant more powerful, and it breathed in her scent. It accepted her as the alpha, cowering in fear, in front of her.

Suddenly a tiny squirrel darted behind her, and the epic sized bear squeaked in sudden fear. Snorting, she changed its focus so that it saw humans as the perfect size, for an alpha. It returned its focus to her, cowering in fear.

She was hungry, so climbing up its enormous back, and resting behind its head, she directed it to the nearest water source.

The small stream was about 2 miles away, but her mount made good time. She climbed down awkwardly, falling the last few feet, stumbling to the ground.

The water tasted amazing. Cool and comforting on her parched throat.

There were berries by the stream, which she tried, and they tasted sweet. But the bear's thoughts felt danger from these particular berries. Quickly she spat them back out, hoping to avoid any more stomach aches. She washed her mouth out in the stream, gargling like her old driver Ralph used to do.

What did humans eat? She asked herself. The bear snorted, thinking of raw flesh. She felt sick, and her stomach rose in protest.

Her old driver Ralph ate nothing but cheeseburgers. Which he bought from various fast food joints. The forest had a dearth of fast food joints. The bear growled, thinking of gnawing on the joints of various creatures. Yuck, she thought.

None of her various human contributors, had any skill in cooking. But she needed to at least attempt it. She needed to start a fire.

She sent the bear off to kill a small animal. While it lumbered away, she imagined the spark plug from an engine. Successfully creating sparks with a little mana, was no trouble. So she put some logs and sticks together, and showered them in sparks, until they caught fire. There were dead leaves all over the ground, and the fire soon spread beyond her control licking at nearby trees in apparent hunger.

Now what? She thought. She only had a vague idea of what a forest fire was. It was bad, sure, but how bad could it be. She ineffectually threw some water on it, from the stream. It did nothing, the fire still spreading. She tried to stamp it out, but still naked, it just painfully burned her foot. She tried to throw dirt on the burning leaves, but it was spreading too quickly, and she couldn’t keep up. Two trees that had piles of dead leaves around them, creating an inferno, burst into flame.

Just then, the dire bear returned with a deer in its mouth, but immediately roared at the fiery furnace she had made of its former territory. The bear dropped the dear, and swung an enormous paw toppling one of the flaming trees. This just spread the fire around more. Catching more dead leaves on fire, and spreading it further.. She directed the bear to Knock down both flaming trees, and roll them towards the stream, but the fire had spread beyond the two trees at this point. The bear knocked the other tree down, and tentatively pawed it toward the stream. When it exploded in a huge gout of steam, that shot into the air quenching it.

By this time, three other trees had burst into flames, and Truck-chan wasn’t sure if even the bear could keep up. The bear continued its work, but it was a losing battle. The forest had a fever, and it was catching. No matter what she tried, the bear was too slow, to prevent disaster spreading. So she gave up, how bad could it be anyways.