The giant spider wove itself a cocoon, and Sage sat motionlessly upon its back. After a few hours, the giant orb of silk was finished with the Swamp Genesis Spider sealed inside. At that point, Sage activated the full and complete Merge technique, combining his mind, body and soul, completely with that of the giant spider. The absolution combination of two entities was no small feat, especially when one of them was the size of a small mountain.

Of course, Sage was not inexperienced with this technique and while they would combine completely, his own will would maintain primacy. He would take on some of the desires and personality traits of the other party, but with the Silver Liberator Butterfly’s power he had a large advantage in maintaining much of his previous traits. He also surmised this was the reason that the Chong Clan were so obsessed with insects. Their simple minds were far easier to combine with. Even if the Insect Immortal Index seemed to work on nearly anything that laid eggs, trying to Merge with even semi-intelligent Demonic Beasts was no easy task. His own experiences with the Twin Ringed Soul Serpent and the Toad with hypnotic eyes had led to his becoming a mindless monster.

A vibrant golden glow emanated from the cocoon for a few hours before growing dim. After that there was not a single sound or even a flicker of motion from the huge sphere of silk. Large as it was, it seemed to have become a part of the scenery, with not a single sign of activity coming from it. A state that it would end up maintaining for a full year.

Inside that cocoon, Sage returned his body to its current true form. The giant cobra was like a little worm in front of the giant spider, but it coiled itself upon the spider’s head. Then he carefully began to slowly merge his new body into that of the giant arachnid. While the metamorphosis started without a hitch, Sage released some of his power and pushed it to the next level. Not just a simple combination, but a complete transformation was initiated. The Silver Liberator Butterfly didn’t just assist him in maintaining his will, but also was the source of an ancestral technique, Chrysalis. It allowed him to force a metamorphosis process at any time, and when combined with the Mutate technique of the Insect Immortal Index he gained even greater control, able to call upon the traits and characteristics of the merged creatures' ancestors.

In his opinion, it allowed him to become something of a genetic engineer. Of course, he couldn’t perceive and operate at such a precise level. He felt like he was in a dreamworld of wisp-like beings, grasping their essence and infusing them into one body. He could use their power to reshape the body, he would feel an impression of their abilities, and could examine the body that formed to try and better understand its function. Even if he were to find a way to enhance his vision to the maximum extent, he didn’t use his physical eyes in this state. He wasn’t even sure if he was using his Spirit Power at this point of the process.

I wonder if a soul power technique to observe the world exists. What wonders might I accomplish if I could truly view a DNA level with it? Maybe I can adapt something from Whitestaff.

Furthering his resolve to tackle the traitor, Sage put his attention back upon the dreamlike place he was in. There was a giant spider and cobra in front of him. Each of the two things were made up of many wisp-like essences with different faces and feels to them. Even as he watched, these two huge beings were slowly merging together into one whole. This was the natural progression of things and soon he found himself looking at a huge snake body with the added limbs of a spider and missing the trademark unhinging jaws and fangs of a snake. Instead it had the mouth of a spider with an extra pair of fanged limbs and crushing mandibles.

A snake liked to swallow things whole, digesting them slowly in their stomach. On the other hand, a spider basically spewed out their own digestive fluids onto their prey and then slowly chewed up and consumed them. From a mechanical standpoint, it meant others could steal away a spider’s prey, but it also meant they could consume much larger food items. As long as they could kill it they could slowly break it down for eating, while a snake was always limited by what it could fit into its mouth. Of course, for a snake, their mouth could stretch out wider than their whole body and their stomach could stretch very far. Both creatures were quite good at consuming things larger than them in some respect, but in Sage’s opinion, both methods were still inferior to a human. The ability to use tools to break down a large beast and then using fire and other cooking methods to make them easier to digest was far superior.

Hmm, very interesting. Greater intellect has led to essentially outsourcing things that other creatures can do innately. I suppose that frees up resources for having an even bigger brain. That seems to coincide with what I discovered last time about cramming in too many physical powers into one set of anatomy. I should definitely include the necessary parts to use the Ancestral Techniques, but otherwise it works far better to focus on enhancing a few features rather than just having everything. Like a snake with their venom and swallowing, rather than a mess like the platypus.

After making fun of the platypus for a moment, he changed his mind. While it was an extremely unusual animal, perhaps he should think of it as an example or a roadmap for his own crazy experiments. The Platypus was a mammal that laid eggs, had venomous spurs, and could even electrolocate like a fish. They even have webbed feet and a bill like a duck. They certainly seemed like a genetic experiment, and their sheer weirdness is what made him remember so much about them.

There are so many strange creatures on this planet. Maybe the Platypus fell out of another world to earth?

Sage laughed off this silly thought and returned his attention to the new body he was building. While the raw combination of his Hypno-cobra and the Swamp Genesis Spider was interesting, he planned to make some alterations. Mainly because the mental combination had already occurred, and it brought him great gains. As soon as he initiated their merge, his mind and that of the Swamp Genesis Spider combined and thankfully it went quite smoothly. Sage was proven correct in that a successful Soul Resonance meant they were quite mentally compatible. It wasn’t two minds sharing a body, but two minds becoming one. Without full trust and intimacy, it was not something anyone would attempt. It was far more intimate than a marriage, and that thought dispelled Sage’s apprehension about his upcoming nuptials. Why should he be worried about being married when he’d already completely merged minds multiple times in the past?

Best not to ever mention that thought in public. Women are far more complicated than animals and insects.

The beating he might receive for comparing a woman to a bug made him a little fearful and he carefully sealed up that thought for good.

Merging with the Swamp Genesis Spider went quite smoothly, and there were some great gains. The Swamp Genesis Spider was not at the same tier as Sage simply because of its size. Just like the Living Disaster, Sage had felt the power of a Law radiating off of it and now that their minds merged, their understanding of Laws had merged as well. Just like that, Sage had gained access to a new Law. He had assumed because of the spider’s huge water blasts that it was using a water law, but amazingly the spider had understood something else entirely.

The Law of Filtration. Or at least that’s how Sage deemed it. From what he knew, there wasn’t really a fully accepted classification system for the names of laws, only their Classes and Degree of mastery. The Law the spider practiced had to do with the way it fed. It controlled a huge area of water and transformed it into a swamp. It fed upon the many things that died and festered in that swamp, a cesspool of death and fertilized life. Yet, rather than a law related to that abundance of life and death, the spider wholeheartedly devoted itself to extracting gains from that cycle. Filtering nutrients from the water like a whale catching plankton in its baleen, the spider used its internal water circulation system to filter and consume the cast offs from fallen bodies of others. A scavenger using the water as a medium to ensure it rarely had to be involved.

To reach such a scale of size and power, the spider had gained understanding of a Law and expanded its domain to cover a truly massive area. Most Swamp Genesis Spiders formed a small pond or lake into a marshy area, but this one had transformed a massive bay and coastline into its domain. It gained understanding of a Law based upon feeding itself, and its immense size was the result.