YM778.TV Chapter 49 - The Mind, The Egg And The Ants.
"Oh ehhhh nah nothings wrong, but I did just gain a skill that lets me leech the life force and mana all at once from someone, it\'s called Vampirism."
Sondar and Howy both had wide opened jaws after I said that and started looking around for some unknown thing like what I just said was a secret.
"Hey man if you really turned into a vampire I\'ll still follow you but don\'t say that out loud like its no big deal. If the Church of the Sun were to hear you they wouldn\'t think twice before killing you." Sondar said in a hushed tone.
"Yea they are fanatics who don\'t care if your were family or not. If you turned into any kind of undead they would strike you down without a second thought. I don\'t even think those bastards have hearts. One time I heard they destroyed a whole town just because a family had been turned but were being hidden by the Fathers brother in his basement. They heard a rumor and after a small investigation they just wiped the whole town out after saying that it was \'unclean\'." Howy told me and afterwards shivered like what he said was to frightening to think about.
"Hmmm it would seem that I have to be careful of what I gain. But does it matter that I am a dragon? I mean my race is one of the Guardians of the Dark Mountain." I cocked my head and asked.
"Man they don\'t give a shit about that. They have an entire army that is getting stronger everyday and the rumor mill is even saying things like they alone are going to fight against the Shadow Eaters."
I could believe that, even in my old world I never was much of a religious guy after growing up. The wars that were waged or the mega churches that were built and not to mention the televangelists who would actually broadcast themselves like some kind of holier than thou streamer. I couldn\'t stand to go to church and waste my time listening to a boring speech about stuff like that. But seeing as how even in this world there were crazy lunatics that thought themselves a higher presence than others just cemented in my head that no matter where I went religion would always be there and as powerful as ever. I just hope that later on down the line I don\'t have to fight these guys.
But I quickly shook that thought from my head as I turned back to the guys. I looked at each of them and then I remembered. "Hey where is Digger? He has been gone for a very long time right?"
"Oh he\'s fine he checked in while you were evolving and he said he preferred to be a loner and just do regular checkups with us." Sondar was quick to explain to me that Digger had actually become a spy for us when it came to the goblins and had actually started to infiltrate the goblin village to scope it out better.
"Wow that guy is very proactive, and with his... \'unique\' fighting style I think he should be ok. But maybe I should come up with a way to help him out. Maybe some light armor or maybe a silent weapon? What do you guys think?" I asked them because they would know him best or well atleast better than me seeing as how I was out of commission for a few days.
Shorunt raised his arm bringing our attention to him. "Ahem, Master if I may, I think it would be best to hold off on giving him armor just because it might hinder is abilities incase he needed to run away. A weapon would probably benefit him more and I was actually thinking of some kind of handheld ranged weapon?"
I snapped my fingers as a idea popped into my head. "Wow that\'s awesome that sounds like a great idea, I don\'t exactly know how to make stuff but maybe if I tinkered with some things I could come up with a basic design good idea Shorunt thanks." I said then I left and headed over to the pile of drops they had accumulated during my nap.
"Ok so I would need a good solid, yet flexible, working material. Ah this would do nicely." I said as I rummaged around and found a bow that Sondar said a goblin dropped on one of their patrols. I analyzed it just to be sure it was useful as it is or as a component.
[Shoddy wooden bow] - Bow used by low ranking goblins. The wood is from a small shrub that grows near cave springs, and the bow string is made from arachnid silk. Due to the makers low level of crafting the bow is only able to shoot upwards of a 10 meters.
\'FCK me, I was wondering where all the spiders were since it was a damn cave but it looks like the freaking goblins have either tamed them and domesticated them or they have some way to harvest the silk from wild ones. But I was interested at seeing if I could find a goblin craftsmen, maybe if I tamed it I could make it into our teams craftsmen, and along with me we could create monstrous weapons to rule the world AHAHAHAHA... Wait no stop let\'s not get ahead of ourselves, stay in the present Vexsus no chasing the rabbit down its hole.\'
I shook my head and decided to take apart the bow and after seeing how the bow was actually about the size of Howy I decided to cut the wooden part in half and and shape the two halfs as smaller bows. I used my claws that had evolved to become even sharper if I infuse mana into them and shaved off the wood until they came down to rounded off points with a small notch where I could string it at.
After a few minutes with each piece I measured the string and after making sure I had enough extra in case I messed up I cut the string into proper sizes for the smaller bows. I had Shorunt come over and help me because my hands weren\'t really made for dexterous movements but more used for combat. But after he finished I had two small bows that were semi capable of shooting out bolts that I had Sondar make using his Earth manipulation.
I had him make a batch 10 and set them aside for the testing phase. Then I had to figure out a way to attach this to the wrist of Digger who even though he was an actual mole he was way bigger than the moles of Earth. I didn\'t want to impede on his digging ability but at the same time maybe increase it if I could. I again went down a rabbit hole and thought of making him carapace clawed gloves that could help him dig through the earth like a bullet.
\'Man my mind is really scatter brained. Is it because I gained a new mind and the other \'me\' is thinking of other things at the same time? Or is the ADHD of my past life reemerging in my new one?\' Those thoughts started popping up which distracted me even more.
\'Hey having trouble thinking?\'
\'Oh man you again? What do you want? Can\'t you see I\'m trying to make something for \'Our\' companion. If your going to just Pop in like that atleast give me a warning next time.\'
\'Nah I\'m good you can just deal with it bud. But listen that\'s not why I intruded on your little crafting session. I came because I noticed that our mind is starting to get a little haywire and different thought were starting to distract us. Me from resting, and you from doing... whatever it is that your doing. By the way I know your trying to make a handheld crossbow but how are you going to make it so that he can reload it or even fire? I went through your whole Mental Fortress and I saw no memories of you making such a thing in your last life.\'
\'Man will you shut up, this is a fantasy world filled with magic and skills. Plus I have the system to help me so why shouldn\'t I take this time to try and learn something new?\' But what do you mean our mind is going haywire? I know that I had a slight disorder back on Earth but not here.\'
I heard nothing else for a while as I sat in silence. Thankfully the others thought I was just thinking of what to do with the materials I had in front of me and didn\'t say anything. Then my dual mind came back.
\'I saw that you did have something like what we are experiencing but it\'s almost like something outside of our minds are what is actually effecting us right now.\'
\'Shit, OK we have the Mental Fortress that should help block mental attacks or atleast lessen the effects like its doing now. I want you to go and see if you can maybe find out which direction the influence is coming from. If it\'s within the cave with us or if it\'s some other outside force at play.\'
The other mind was pretty cooperative seeing as how I got the feeling he was a bit of a bastard but I got the feeling that If used right I could definitely use this ability to grow even stronger.
While the other me was off doing that I got back to the task at hand. And unfortunately the other me was right. I didn\'t have a single idea about how to make the crossbow. So I just asked Sondar who I had guessed was a veteran of some kind.
"Hey Sondar, do you know anything about crossbows?" I asked while showing him the basic design I had made with the smaller bows.
"Ah well to be honest I\'m not much of a ranged fighter. But luckily for you I did have a good friend who loved to use crossbows... Sadly he died when the slavers ambushed us." Sondar said with a look of remembrance and sadness in his eyes. I could see the hurt shown in his face as he remembered his dear friend dying from those bastard slavers.
I walked up to him and patted him on the shoulder. "Hey we will get revenge for your friend. It may not be today, or tomorrow, but someday when we are strong enough, we will destroy this whole organization..... Plus they dared to capture a dragon, So they gotta pay for that." I said with a chuckle at the end trying to lighten the mood. I never was good at sad moments.
He chuckled with me and nodded. "Yea sounds good." He shook his head real quick and slapped his cheeks. "Ah anyways back to the crossbows. He had showed me how he maintained his and after the many years we worked together I even helped him a time or two so I have a good grasp on enough of the basics to help wing it." He said while walking up and grabbing one of the bows.
"We need to make a attachment sleeve that we place this onto that a person can slide over their wrist. Then we need to make a catch that will hold the string, then a trigger that will release the catch. The bolts will have to be remade to allow a notch that can fit the string while also holding in place so as not to fall off in case of an emergency dodge or something."
He went on and on about what we should do while I got to work on finding suitable material. We found some shoddy goblin leather that we could use to make the sleeve but when I picked it up a stench so horrible and foul invaded my nostrils that I instantly dropped it and gagged. I analyzed the horrendous piece of material to find out just what the hell it was.
[Goblin Loincloth] - A low level goblin\'s only form of clothing. As they gain a higher ranking within the hierarchy they are given better and better clothing. Caution is advised as the goblins usually did not wash such clothing.
Ugh ofcourse. But I had an idea so I just put that aside until the ladies got back. I then looked through again and found some more wooden bows and what looked like small clubs. I took those and with Sondar\'s direction I carved a small base and a catch that would hold the bow and also be able to slide the string back and be held by the mechanism. It took some work to make a trigger system that was usable with a wrist motion but using string from one of the used bows we were able to make a basic pulley system that Digger could wrap around one of his fingers and then with a slight pull he would be able to shoot the stone bolts.
I felt so proud of myself and so so thankful to Sondar for helping me. With his help I gained the skill [Crafting] and he told me he had gained a skill called [Teaching]. We both were happy after that so we called it from there and decided to relax until the others got back.
We had finally completed the crossbow about a few hours ago and we had just finished with our break when we heard the ladies coming back. They entered and I saw Konna was dragging a huge ant corpse while Tinoa was holding onto the Queen egg that I got shortly before I evolved.
"Oh hey guys, Umm Konna why do you have that and also Thank you Tinoa for looking after the egg. So many things happened that I had completely forgotten about it." I said as I walked up to them. I saw that Kitsoma had started blushing again when she saw me and looked away.
"Hey Kitsoma, I want to apologize again for what I did to you. I\'m sorry I did something that was inappropriate." I apologized again, I didn\'t want to lose a friend over my stupid actions.
She nodded and said that she was ok and that she accepted my apology but she still needed some time to think things through. I didn\'t exactly know what she had to think about but I just let her be. Tinoa on the other hand was excited and came up to me and showed me the egg.
"Look master, the egg has gotten bigger. By accident we had a splash of ant blood get on the egg and it actually absorbed it. It got bigger and I could tell that the shell itself got stronger aswell." She said like a schoolgirl with a new doll. I could see that she was really happy with it so I decided to let her have it from now on. Yea I wanted a queen ant for a pet but after seeing how happy she was just talking about it. I couldn\'t bring myself to take it back.
I kneeled down to her level which I felt odd doing seeing as how about a week ago we were eye level with eachother. "Hey Tinoa, I have a new job for you. I want you to take care of this egg for me, can you do that please?"
Her eyes got real big and wide and a huge smile appeared on her face. "OH really really master? You mean it? YAY I get to be momma and hatch an egg."
\'Eh? this isn\'t what I had in mind when I wanted her to take care of it.\' I just smiled and nodded my head. "Yes honey you can hatch the egg. Now I want you and your sister to take good care of this egg. She can be a huge help to us when she hatches so do all you can to make sure she can grow big and strong, ok?"
"Oh master thank you, thank you, thank you." The two sisters gave me a huge hug after giving the egg to Liosa to hold that is. They actually had enough strength to make me choke a little. I was surprised.
"Master, we brought back this ant because it showed signs of mutation that wasn\'t apparent with the ones we fought before. This one seems to have a smaller mandible section but at the same time it shown higher mental functions by leading a group of warrior and worker ants alike in a coordinated fight with us. If it wasn\'t for Liosa\'s idea of killing it first we might not have come back."
Konna said while the sisters were still hugging me and thanking me over and over.
Great a new threat and again it\'s those damn ants.
--------Vexsus\' Skills-----------------
[Analyze] 6 -> 8
[Crafting] lvl 0 0/10 - The user can now craft with basic materials. Higher materials may result in failure.
-------Sondar\'s Skills------------
[Earth Manipulation] 0 -> 10
[Teaching] lvl 0 0/10 - User can provide a slight proficiency bonus when teaching others on a subject the user has personal experience with.