Basic Information

Name

Eric Henson

Species

Human(Variant)

Age

23

Stats

Strength

47

Speed

15

Dexterity

6

Abilities

Strength

Grants the user elevated physical abilities

Basic Information

Name

Ted Lutz

Species

Human

Age

32

Stats

Strength

9

Speed

9

Dexterity

10

After another week of waiting around passively, the two new vessels had been brought into the Hivemind’s control. It had taken an extra day for the powered vessel to complete the transformation, increased endurance likely being the cause of it. While the Parasite had been able to use the blades that it naturally generated to cut through the man’s internal structure, it had taken considerably more effort than what was normally required.

Though such an extra effort truly did pay off in the end, the physical abilities that the vessel showed off were more than enough to allow for the extra expenses. With the two new vessels, the maximum capacity of nine vessels had been filled out yet the Hivemind was more than happy with what it had to use.

With the security guard, worries about the Hivemind activities being noticed were almost entirely without worry. While there were still guards of higher rank around, none of them were focused on daily activities and instead looked through administrative duties during their working hours, granting the Hivemind near-full control of the building’s overwatch system. There was another guard that came during the nights, as the Parasite was dismayed to find, but they showed their gross incompetence by not looking at the cameras at all, letting the Hivemind proceed as already planned.

When the new powered vessel had been accessed, the Hivemind did start looking into the body’s chemistry instantly. As the [Basic Information] about the vessel showed, the abilities gained from the power were entirely passive, the materials working to increase the strength and overall durability of the body always being present. The Hivemind had originally thought this a challenging aspect to work with, not being able to cross-reference the active and inactive states of the power.

Such an assumption turned out to be utterly wrong, in the end, the Hivemind instead being shown the difference between Manipulation Users, of which the Biomancer was described, and Augmentations Users which the new vessel was. While the outside of the vessel looked entirely human, with no changes that would be deemed abnormal or uncanny to the ordinary humans around, the internal structure was radically different from how normal humans worked. The only discernible organ around was the brain and even that had been changed considerably. Thoughts had been put into how the Parasite had been able to work through such conditions but that was disregarded, for now, the focus being on the body composition of the vessel.

Once the Hivemind looked further than the skin layer and the initial assembly of blood vessels, it was greeted with an overwhelming amount of circulating fluids. While the entire body was separated into many separate chambers with clear entry and exit points, there was no heart, lungs, or stomach to take note of. Ignoring the likely chance of being crushed to death due to pressure, the Kara vessel would have been able to stand inside the powered being without issues, the chambers being so abnormally large.

Was this how all Augmentation Users operated or were it more of an umbrella term for the kind of power that showed off such major changes to the body. The Hivemind was more than just confused about how such powers even manifested themselves without killing the host. They were meant to be somewhat genetic, slowly showing themselves at around the age of five, with a few unique cases having a larger spread.

How had the internal organs been removed from the body or otherwise dissolved without causing the death of the user in the process? There were no sources about the phenomenon online, the main parts of the population fine with being left in the dark. If forums were to be trusted, such times were very private matters that the families in question needed to work around without the eyes of the public on them. The Hivemind was very much against such thinking, wanting to know about every single second of those transformations. How did young children turn into lizard-people over only a week? It was one of life’s great mysteries waiting to be solved.

Moving back to the actual goals of studying the powered vessel, the Hivemind had been able to find a few parts where improvement was possible. The actual liquid itself was incomplete at some points, the entirety of it not being properly formed. The Parasite had a few ideas on how to fix it, some of them being the more sheltered approach of making chambers inside the body, letting the liquid perhaps change the composition over time, and even perhaps making the viscosity of the liquid change. There was also the idea of making the process circulate faster for shorter durations, letting the effectivity increase while worsening the productivity at other points. While some of the ideas were still out of the Hivemind’s possible methods, it was enough for the [System] to jump in with suggestions of its own making.

Power Manipulation Screen

Power:

Strength

Possible Upgrades/Cost:

[Power/250E]

[Activation/275E]

[???/??E]

Two upgrades were being showcased. One was clear enough to understand, [Power] likely to increase the overall strength and physical ability of the vessel. It was a very simple similarity, a clear variation of the current power, having more than enough promise to prove itself worthwhile to have. Through context, [Activation] likely meant the idea of making the power be based on triggers instead. While the body would likely never be able to degrade itself to a point where it was seen as human, letting it become based on active use instead did seem rather worthwhile. From a mere guess, it would allow for more energy to be channelled outwards, bringing along greater feats of strength than what the simpler [Power] upgrade would show off. Granted, this also required further changes to the body which would cost extensive amounts of [Ether]. It seemed that it could use the Ether contained in the [Evolution] container, making it possible to choose an upgrade at the current moment.

Between the two available, the Hivemind had no real need to think before choosing [Activation]. The vessel itself had shown off extensive levels of clumsiness while not being directly controlled by the Parasite. This was partly due to the body’s composition, the limbs constantly wanting to rest in a specific form that allowed optimised liquid movement. The vessel itself described it as ‘sausage fingers’ but the Hivemind saw it more as a side-effect of extreme physical ability and a lack of proper coordination. The extremely low [Dexterity] of the vessel said as much, being the lowest of any vessel currently being controlled. From that alone, [Activation] was the best of the two.

While the Parasite would have normally waited for the third option to be shown, the choice to upgrade at that moment was meant for more than just the potential upgrade in power. As had been warned about during the initial hire, damages due to lacking safety had been noted. The Hivemind was fine with the vessel damaging some mechanical structures through its work life but the amount destroyed in recent times was too high. While degradation of the current strength would perhaps increase the number of energy bars meant to go to the vessel, it was a worthwhile trade. Letting the needed [Ether] pass to the powered vessel through direct contact with the [Main-Host], the upgrade commenced.

[Activation] has been chosen

Upgrade will start. Time until completion: 3:59:59

Truth be told, the Hivemind was surprised it would take such little time. Leaving the vessel in the state that was normally reserved for [Evolutions], the Parasite observed the process. No other vessels were out and about with the time for upgrades being during the night hours. The Hivemind had learned from its previous mistakes, after all, and there was little chance it would allow anybody to walk in on the changes.

The idea around the Augmented users was quite something. Even if the passive effects allowed for disastrous consequences during momentary clumsiness, the ability to just ignore common dangers was something that spoke to the Hivemind on a deep level. It wanted passive immunity to attacks, it wanted the safety of power, and it already had ideas on how to do it.

There were pop-ups from the [System] as the Hivemind began to detail to itself how small changes to the regular vessels could perhaps imitate the effects of the Augmentation User that it had control of. The Parasite was decently sure it was possible to do but the current capabilities meant that it was out of range at the moment. Not that such a cognitive wall was enough to make the Hivemind falter in its goal, the Parasite still seeking the upgrades of all its vessels as a standard. An army of humans was great but to make them impervious to regular means would be even greater. It would be able to fight many through sheer quantity. Even the Heroes would have to bring out their best.

Hours passed in silent contemplation of the future as the wait for the upgrade to be finalised continued. The Hivemind idly wondered what it would be able to do once it had taken over the farm completely. With a perfect ground for upgrading its abilities, that being an area contained from the public eye while having both economical capital and legal grounds to make people stay away, there was nothing that could truly stop it once such a step was reached. Sure, there were still some steps needed to be taken before it reached that point, the Kara vessel needing to be promoted once more.

It had already taken over the duties of the now-deceased Markus and was rapidly gaining favour through the use of promoting further growth in the company. Having the ability to listen through the cameras, the other managers were showing off a positive attitude towards the vessel, though some had quite peculiar opinions as well. The Kara vessel had no use or current skill in the culinary arts and Hivemind was still unsure why so many believed she did.

No matter what, however, large showcases of ability needed to be made before the next promotion had a chance of occurring. The Hivemind was still not settled on what such an action could be. It needed to be something able to gain public favour, making the company have the near-requirement of letting the vessel become the new public figure. Time would allow for more brainstorming and that was exactly what was planned.

Upgrade complete

The [Activation] upgrade has been assimilated into current power-base

The Hivemind looked through the changes in the Augmentation User, noting the much more controlled exit and entry points for each area of the body. It seemed that they could be forced into a rotational form of some sort, able to force more circulation in a short while.

The amount of time such an action could be done wasn’t explicitly said, though it was clear that the effects of such an action would tire the vessel out considerably. Looking at the status screen for the vessel as well, the Parasite was not surprised to see that the stats had dropped lower.

Basic Information

Name

Eric Henson

Species

Human(Variant)

Age

23

Stats

Strength

38

Speed

13

Dexterity

7

Abilities

Strength

Grants the user elevated physical abilities

It wasn’t the biggest loss, the strength still being noted down at inhuman levels. The [Dexterity] had been increased as well, showing the upgrade to be a boon in that regard. Looking at the [Power Manipulation Screen], however, the Hivemind was finally able to confirm its theories about how the mechanic worked.

Power Manipulation Screen

Power:

Strength

Possible Upgrades/Cost:

[???/??E]

[???/??E]

[???/??E]

The upper two possible had been replaced by blank question marks, the system seeing the new iteration of the power as entirely new. It was much like a tree, each upgrade allowing for more advanced ones while stopping previous paths from being chosen. The Hivemind was more than happy that it hadn’t made any choices for the Biomancer just yet, the chance of destroying any future optimization having been avoided.

For now, the goals ahead were clear. More [Ether] was needed both to [Evolve] the Main-Host, [Upgrade] all powered vessels, and give all regular vessels a thorough examination to exterminate any imperfections that could cause future disability in efficiency. To do such things at a quick pace, more energy bars were needed. The funds for such things weren’t truly possible to bring at the current moment, the budget not reaching far enough for what the Hivemind sought. It needed to make the farm more profitable while somehow making sure it could buy each month. The crops that were going to be sold off in the next week would bring along a hefty bonus but even that might not be enough.

Perhaps some wages could be cut. The Hivemind was sure that it personally wouldn’t complain, after all.