“I think the odour is keeping the other beasts away.” I say, digging around in the large chunk of flesh for what mana is still pooled inside. “Like a beast repellent or something. Maybe we can bottle it up and sell it as a repel spray.”

“No.” Vii says quickly, her words more firm than I’ve ever heard from her before. “This is a chemical weapon; you could use it to empty a busy marketplace, no one but you would ever consider willingly spraying themselves with this.”

“It’s better than getting eaten by beasts,” I say.

“That is open to debate.” Vii says, choking on another wave of bile as if to highlight her point.

I let her suffer on, sympathetic, but not enough to let go of this juicy mana source. I’ve recently found a new purpose for the crystal that I found down here so long ago, the one that’s been decorating my room, slowly gathering mana.

I keep it in my mouth as I draw out the mana from the beast’s flesh and force the excess into it for storage. Keeping mana was probably the crystal’s original purpose, and it’ll certainly keep better in there than in the flesh that I’m dragging about.

Dead flesh doesn’t keep for long, and that goes for it’s mana too.

While a person is still living, I can crack into their mana flow and draw out as much mana as I like regardless of where I’m touching them, but now that I’m dealing with dead flesh, the mana has stilled and is in the process of either slowly leaking into the atmosphere or pooling into the flesh. If left long enough, it would likely change state to fit the mana in it properly.

“I thought you used the cleansing stone.” Vii moans, rubbing at her nose and eyes, reacting to something in the air. “I’d run away like the beasts if I loved you any less. I’m tempted.”

“I did cleanse it.” I say, “It just didn’t get rid of the smell.”

I suppose it can’t clean the insides of the meat, so the effort is a bit like cleaning the outside of a toilet bowl and expecting it to stink any less, when it’s still painted brown inside.

Leai noticing my troubles with the beast’s flesh, uses her hand like a blade to cut right through it, separating it into chunks. I quickly siphon the mana from the good parts while Seia grabs the mana dry chunks and throws them to the side.

“Yes, I too have considered that it might keep other beasts away, which is why I’ve been ensuring to leave behind some of it at each door we pass. Perhaps I should have said something sooner?” Seia asks, “I’m used to working alone with Leai.”

“I think our communication could use some work, but much of that comes with experience.” I say, thinking a little deeper on it “Maybe we can use messages to communicate too? So that we can speak without having to shout in the middle of a fight.”

“Why didn’t we think of that before?!” Vii says, “It’s so obvious, too. I mean… also why didn’t we learn about that in combat class”

“Maybe combat class is just a bit shit?” I suggest with a shrug as I focus on boosting my muscle development. The mana is draining quick and I can only force so much into the crystal which seems to be resisting my mana a little.

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask, if you guys have an answer.” I say, taking this chance while the beasts are away. “How does pressing mana into my body work? Like, why and how does it benefit me? It makes my body work a bit better, but in what ways? How?”

“It depends on your body.” Seia says, while the others are still thinking, “For an example common between all of us, investment into the mind will assist in developing your mana senses. I cannot explain the detailed functions on the cellular level, but it’s essentially the process of the compressed mana detecting the environmental energies and feeding that information into your mind.”

“Okay, so what about muscles and bones?” I ask, “They’re what I’m focusing on right now, and it does feel a little easier to move around, but is that all?”

“Ah, my musculature is of a somewhat different nature to yours, so I can’t really say.” She replies.

“Let me, I can talk all about it!” Vii chirps excitedly, before clearing her throat, “When the active split of a creatures mana pool, often described as the mana flow, is used to support muscles it increases the power behind a muscular contraction. It also supplements the energy supply for continuous, high intensity work. This often works intuitively and is limited by the physical capacity of the muscles themselves. Due to risk of injury, it’s strongly advised to have it tied with bone, and nerve support.”

“Wait, wait. Nerves?” I instantly dig around in my head, looking back at the chart which I use to keep track of my mana form development.

“Active split focus on the nervous system allows for more accurate and faster nerve responses. The mana concentration allows for this by acting on every level, but only ever supporting the organic functions even where it might be more efficient to instead replace them. It’s also important to note that this does not assist in the processing of complex thoughts. Mana concentration in a conscious mind will almost exclusively act in the form of a mana sense instead. You can find further reading on the topic of… ah.”

“So which Skill is that info dump listed under?” I ask her.

“Mana form development theory.” She replies, smiling happily now that I’ve figured out how she suddenly became a lecturer, “It’s a bit thick. I lost interest halfway through reading it to you.”

“There are just too many things to study,” I say, digging into the settings again.

While my mana form is something that exists separate from Chip, it is still bound to it the same as my flesh is. So even by adding my nervous system into the same category as with my muscles and bones, it changes nothing in itself. I need to focus my mind and spirit to the point where I can develop that particular flow into a Skill like with mana skin, or just in such a way that it’s familiar enough to replicate consciously, as I’ve done most of the time before.

There are a few new Skills that I’ve stolen which work through this for me, but my attempts to practice them have resulted in my mana flow fucking up so bad that I lose a large chunk of mana to the air around me.

With everything ready as it can be, I focus on controlling the flow running through me and send thin veins of mana through my nerves. I get a strangely clear mental image during the process, as if I can ‘see’ my body through my mana as I’m directing it.

Once done, the process taking only few moments, I start walking again.

“Are you done cuddling that disgusting meat yet?” Vii asks, standing a little distant from me as she looks down the dark halls. “You’re training your mana flow?”

“Yeah, I’m putting that advice of yours to the test.” I say, stumbling as my feet move faster than I was expecting. I try to catch myself on the wall and move my hand up just as quickly jarring my arm against the hard stone.

Blinking away my surprise I carefully take another step. The difference from before is subtle, and I can only really notice it when paying close attention, but when I try to move normally everything feels just slightly out of whack.

It’s a little like drinking a bottle of straight vodka before jumping on the dance floor, which is something I’m quite well prepared for, actually. I move with slow careful steps while running a hand against the wall to help with my balance.

“Every time I learn something new, I feel like a dumbass for not realizing it sooner.” I say marching on.

“We all start out as dumbasses.” Leai says. Patting me on the back.

“You’re still a baby compared to the rest of us.” Vii says, “For someone who’s as new to mana as you are, you’re doing really, really well. It’s crazy how powerful you are, especially that mana drain thing, and how quickly you spend and consume mana. A whole bunch of things.”

“I guess.” I say, wincing as I nearly roll my ankle from an awkward step.

“Oh, yeah.” I say, remembering something and turning to the twins. “What magic do you two use? It’s the same between you, no?”

“Pressure.” Seia says from beside me, “We both have a talent for it; most of our species do. It allows us to apply concentrated pressure, but only in close range. Neither of us have learned how to extend our use of it yet.”

“I’m getting there.” Leai says from ahead of us. “I can already spit violently enough to kill weak beasts.”

“With useless accuracy.” Her sister replies, as I try to imagine this high-pressure spitting attack.

We continue along the same route, encountering no new monsters no matter how far we walk. Finally, we make it to the last of the doors that we’re responsible for checking on.

“This one’s abandoned too.” Vii says, looking over the door that seems undamaged. It’s looking more and more like we never needed this trip to begin with.

“Well, it gives us plenty of options.” I say, looking over the stone door but finding nothing strange to it.

“I guess I was just expecting something more difficult.” Vii says, “Like maybe some surprise defences used to keep us away. Or to kill us the moment we touch the door. Or some cool, red lasers sweeping across to kill us all.”

“Red lasers? Okay, seriously, what the hell have you been watching that you got that idea?” I ask, “And why were you so incautious if you thought that was going to happen?”

“You’d save me.” She says, full of faith, “Our story can’t end just yet.”

“Well, if you say so.”

“See, they are as crazy as me.” Leai says to her sister, “I knew we could trust them.”

“Madness is not generally considered a positive measure of trustworthiness.” Seia replies, somehow keeping a straight face, “But I will concede that they seem trustworthy.”

“Let’s get a move on,” I call back to them, “And I’m not crazy. I just have a weirdly good pain tolerance, a willingness to kill anything that overly bothers me, and a plan to become one of the most powerful people in the universe.”

“See?” Leai waves joyously toward me, Seia just nods with an amused smile.

“She’s not really crazy, you know.” Vii says, “You guys should remember this moment in a few centuries time.”

“Aww, you’re that confident in me?” I say, stepping closer to her. “Thanks for the support Vii.”

“No! Leave that thing behind and clean yourself up if you ever want to touch me again!” She squeals, hopping energetically away from me as her face pales. “Just, no! Stay away!”

The banter at least flows smoother than my mana form, which is still splitting and fraying all over as I gradually consume all that’s left in the mass of flesh behind me. By the time we reach the room where we’re meant to meet with the other team, I’m left with only a small chunk of stinky flesh which I drop.

The crystal in my mouth is conversely packed dense with mana to the point where it actually stings and hurts to hold it.

From the other side of the door ahead, we can hear the sound of metal scraping violently against stone, alongside loud shouting. It doesn’t take a genius like me to figure out that our friends are stuck in a fight.

Leai, who has taken on the role of our vanguard, quickly opens the door, which is thankfully still powered. The room is at first consumed by shadows, split by the shining white light of light wands that are rapidly waving back and forth around the room as if this were a rave. Or at least I think this would be like what a rave is like, I’ve never been to one.

The moment we race inside, the green and purple glow from the twins fills out the room and dispels thousands of shadows.

Large factory machines of some nature line the sides of the wide room, disguising the movements of the furred figures that gather around our friends. Korgan is currently slamming his shield down onto the body of a struggling, hairy creature no bigger than a child.

It stops moving as it’s small head is severed under the weight of the shield, splattering the stone around with black blood.

“What the hell is that smell?!” Shouts Eshya, stumbling back from the fight a moment before she convulses, splattering the ground with her sick. She struggles to keep her sword up and ready while the others cope no better.

“Quick!” I encourage everyone onwards. I refuse to let anyone here die because of my bad body odour and life choices.

Leai and Seia are quick to leap into the conflict, stepping between our friends and the beasts that they fight. As I follow behind, I quickly notice that the furred creatures aren’t immune to the monstrous scent either.

They retreat away from us, struggling to stay standing as they start wheezing. One that was walking on the ceiling falls to the ground and writhes about in apparent suffering.

A quick, and strangely organic beating sound comes from within one of the machines near to us, somewhere between the sound of a tiny gorilla beating its chest and someone pounding on a wooden door. Yet, nothing seems to be crawling out of the machine, and it’s not lifting itself up and turning into an evil, giant robot, so I instead turn to the beasts that are clearly a threat.

The creatures are about as tall as a young child, but with dirty, brown fur longer and thicker than any ape that I’ve ever known. Their feet are made up of three large flat toes, shaped like flower petals, the undersides covered in strangely thick white fibres.

In place of hands, they are equipped with pairs of viciously hooked blades, arranged as if a pair of scissors. I can easily imagine the result, if something is caught between those blades when they snap closed.

When one of the beasts is unable to hold back the urge to vomit, I get the chance to see its mouth, and… well damn.

The whole front of the creature, from the rib cage down to the pelvis, opens up impossibly wide into a gaping maw filled with sharp, yellowed teeth. Through this ‘mouth’ it spits orange bile that forms a puddle beneath it. With a mouth like that, it’d be a bane to any all-you-can-eat restaurants.

As it heaves the last of its stomach contents to the ground, it starts to make a loud beating sound like that of a large bass drum, though it’s no musician and the beat is off.

Its small head has three, watering eyes arranged in a triangle, looking down into the puddle of its own sick as it slowly tries to recover.

It’s too slow, obviously.

A bullet flies into the creatures gaping maw and explodes after hitting the back of its throat. A flash of light, and the beasts back now has a hole as wide as it’s mouth, charred chunks of flesh and a few splatters of blood now paint the creature’s brothers and sisters beside it.

The drumming grows more intense as the remaining beasts see what I’ve done. Vii squeals and dips low to the ground as a reaching hook nearly catches her by the wing. A beast that we failed to spot earlier, now hanging from the roof as it chases her.

Nel is quick to land a shot from her pistol, followed soon after by a throwing knife that lands in one of its legs. The beast tries to escape but it’s a moment too slow as Leai leaps up and slams her fist into its body, sending the crumpled form crashing into the wall opposite. While the wall is completely undamaged, the beast is twisted into something even uglier than it was before.

Eshya takes this chance to take back the offensive and leaps out and towards the pair that watch us cautiously by one corner of the room. I watch over her carefully with my reloaded pistol at the ready, in case she needs the support.

“That stench.” The dwarf gags, “You fought that monstrosity?”

“You’ve met Stew?” I say, randomly naming the dead beast.

“Smelt it more like.” He replies, “You killed it?”

“Slaughtered it and ate it.” I say.

He can no longer hold back his rebellious stomach as he bends over, using his shield for support and struggling not to lose sight of the battle around us.

Eshya works quick with her blade, dividing the first of the beasts easily while the second watches in increasing horror. Magic stirs around Adler by my side, who’s readying to kill the beast the same as I am.

“You’re not killing it?” I ask.

“Conserving my mana.” She replies, “Mines not as easy to replace as yours.”

“Oh, I can share,” I say, pulling some of the meat from my pouch.

“Ah, no thanks.” She replies, refusing to even look at what I’m offering.

As expected, Eshya makes short work of her foe, severing the arms before cleaving it down from the head to the bottom of its tall mouth. It doesn’t make a sound as it falls to the ground.

It’s the last of the beasts as far as I can see, but the machinery is still echoing with that strange drumming, and there’s plenty of hiding spots all around the room where others might remain. We cautiously gather together and start sweeping through the room.

“What is making that noise?” I ask, as we head cautiously over to the large machine, that’s still producing some sort of high-pitched drumming. The sound is almost haunting, but I don’t let it get to me.

“Let me.” Korgan says, stepping ahead of me with his tall shield ready in hand.

“Shout if it’s particularly ugly.” I say, following with my pistol ready.

The machine is all tubes, large, thick, and entwined in complex shapes and patterns. The slight golden sheen of it, makes me think that it’s made of copper or brass, but it’s likely instead some magical sibling of one of the two.

The dwarf slowly circles the machine as I watch closely from two steps behind him. The others have split up to search the rest of the room and guard the open doors. We mightn’t be the best formed team, but we’re not completely incompetent.

Eventually the stout dwarf locates a loose door on the side of the machine, something like an access panel to a crawlspace. The latch is long since broken, and the door swings easily as he shoves his shield into its place, blocking anything inside from escaping. A light enchantment of some kind on the front of the shield brightens the inside of the machine as he glares inside through a small gap above the shield.

“What’s in there?” I ask, as he continues to stare inside without moving, and without being attacked.

“Nothing dangerous.” He mutters, “Just a nest.”

I peak over his shoulder as he takes a step back to see what he means.

Inside, there’s a collection of skins, bark, and fur tightly bundled into something akin to bedding. Crawling over this mess of parts, are a dozen little creatures, each only as large as my hand.

They move with the slow uncertainty of sloths and are blind and furless like baby mice. Their hideous little mouths are more easily visible than those of their parents and could already easily take a finger or two.

Their little blades yet seem dull, used more to grip at things than to actually cause any harm. Their clinging feet, they seem to have no control over as they drag around small chunks of debris that are stuck to their toes.

“Huh.” I say, unable to think of any smart lines, “Well, this is going to get a bit fucky.”

“What is it?” Adler asks walking over. The others have closed all the other doors giving us some privacy and security. I trust that they’ve dealt with any monsters remaining, leaving us alone with the nest filled with younglings.

“It’s a nest.” I reply. “A dozen or so baby beasts. They’re a bit ugly but not really dangerous.”

“Can you get rid of that horrid stench before we do anything else?” Eshya says, running over to me, “Even I have certain standards, and that’s clearly too much.”

“I’ve already cleaned up a few times.” I say, using the cleansing stone again, letting everything slide down and puddle at my feet again. I can’t smell anything, but from Eshya’s expression I have to guess that I don’t smell any better yet.

“Anyway, before I kill these things, does anyone have anything they want to say?”

“Kill them?” Vii asks, peaking into the machine, “But they’re not dangerous, why do we have to kill them? Also, they’re not ugly, they’re ugly-cute.”

“Ugly is a subjective term,” I say. “But your opinion is still objectively wrong. That aside, if we leave them here, they’re going to die. They’re parents are dead, and I’m not exactly ready to adopt kids.”

“I have to agree.” Nel says, “Sympathy has its place, but it’s often best to see pest species eliminated.”

“Adler?” I ask the opinion of the one person who worries me most.

“Ideally we would have the resources to spare for raising them and helping develop them beyond their natural instincts. We are not in such an ideal situation. Leaving them to starve after having killed their parents would be far crueller.

“All I can say is that I’d rather be the one to commit the deed. It can be quite damaging to a person’s spiritual health to kill innocent children.” She says, sounding awfully serious.

“I can handle it.” Eshya says taking a step towards the task without even waiting.

I quickly catch up to her and stop her, taking her shoulder and pulling her back.

“I’ll take care of this.” I say, “The only reason I brought it up was to ensure that we were all on the same page before I do torch them.”

“I’ll commit the evil that you need done.” She whispers for my ears alone, “That’s what I’m good for. Things like this.”

“The fact you see this as evil is enough reason for me to do it instead.” I say, “I’ll trust you to watch my back instead. As an Empress I’m quite sure that I’m going to have to do far worse than this to establish my empire.”

Eshya slowly nods after a moment’s hesitation, stepping back to leave me with the small nest of rodents.

While I haven’t any desire to kill them, I also don’t feel anything holding me back. The ugly, little things don’t inspire the least bit of sympathy from me, even as they call desperately to their dead parents.

I can see them as pitiful, but I feel no pity.

I do realise quickly though, that I should press a little extra mana into the gun to ensure they die immediately. I think Vii, Adler, and perhaps Nel too would be affected by their strange screams if I should leave them burning alive.

I’m not cruel, merely frightfully indifferent.

Perhaps I should take a moment to take better care of my mental health after this. It doesn’t take a university degree in psychology to realize that these thoughts are dangerously apathetic, considering the task I’m about.

I place the shot right into the middle of their nest and the deed is done before I can even close the door. Thankfully, their screams quiet to nothing in an instant.

Vii looks unsettled, and Adler a little sad, but beyond that, I see Nel’s impartial expression as she messes with something on her invisible screens. Leai is joking around with the dwarf and Seia is just observing with an unconcerned air about her.

Eshya relaxes a little by my side now that the deed is done.

“If we’re all ready, we can now look for an entry point into the depths.” Nel explains, quickly pulling us back to task. “The map I have hasn’t marked any entrance clearly, but I do believe that there is one here.”

“No one is hurt, tired, or needs a toilet break?” I ask the team as they gather around.

“A cleansing break!” Vii shouts, “So you finally stop stinking!”

“Rude.” I say, running the cleansing stone again, starting to get nervous about it. If I’m not clean by the time we return to the surface, I can see myself getting thrown out of my dorm room by my loving roommates.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 790 units

~Mana distribution:

Catagory Current Max. Skin 0% 28% Muscle 32% 32% Mind 0% 65% Cardiovascular 0% 11% Misc. 0% 10% Efficiency 32% 79%

~Favourited Skills:

-Chip Shredder

-Multi-mind

-Tag

-Mana surge movement

-Mana surge punch

-Reactive mana skin

-Infused delayed Casting

-Fire burst punch