NBB2 - The Chaos Rifts - chapter 14

A soft ping from his status window shook Solus awake. He looked up, realizing he was staring at the ground, feeling light, empty. The emotions had either dispersed or receded to the background, leaving a pleasant empty feeling in his mind, and for the first time in a long time, he had the feeling he could think clearly.

Emotions are dangerous… the thought came unbidden and with it a sense of truth. He had let his curiosity and fear guide him for the last few days. Not the first time either nor the last, he thought as he looked at the room he was in. The fear of what Domain had done had led him to go down here, afraid of being tricked.

Staring at the orbs, he began absorbing them. As the stream of energy poured inside, he savored the feeling. When they crumbled to dust between his fingers, he summoned his status window, ignoring it, and quickly moved to his evolutionary options.

> Calculations restarted

> ...

> Potential evolutions pending…

> Unusual mutation detected in current inscription, calculating possible paths…

> Time remaining: two hours and twenty-eight minutes

Seeing the timer, Solus felt a wave of anticipation drown his tranquil feeling. Instead of pushing it away, he savored it for a moment, enjoying the purity of the emotion. With it came curiosity, and he opened his status-window again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Os Solus

Age: 1

Sex: male

Race: Demi stone elemental

Type: mutation

Class: Stone shaper

Strength: 48/48

Constitution: 39/39

Dexterity: 23/24

Endurance: 90/90

Intelligence: 34/34

Wisdom: 21/23

Charisma: 9/16

Manafield: 14000/14000

Physical density: 19000/19000

Skills: 2

Inscriptions: 3/7

Mana generation: 32

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Staring at it, he felt a sense of accomplishment. Especially the rise in intelligence and wisdom made him happy. Then he spotted the single remaining point in dexterity, and he flinched. A single point? Then he grinned. He had time left. Why not see if he could not raise it?

Getting up and moving away from the bed, he focused on the far end of the wall. With a low rumbling sound, the room extended backward, dust and sand drifting in the air. When the backside of the room was as far as he could throw, he made a hole in it and summoned a few stones beside him.

He threw the stone toward the far end, but it barely got halfway before slamming into a wall. Blinking, he grabbed another, wondering if it was even possible for him to raise his dexterity like this. Then he pushed the thought away. It didn't matter. He had time.

When the loud ping from his status came, the whole room was strewn with rocks. Only twice had he hit the back of the ball, and both hadn't even come close to the hole. His aim was getting better, though, and he found he actually enjoyed the simple act.

He dropped the stone he had just picked up and sat down on the bed. Wondering if the ping was for his dexterity, he summoned his status window and sighed. Dexterity was still a point short. It doesn't matter… he thought. "Evolution!" He bellowed in his mind, anticipation rising.

> Calculations completed

> New evolution paths generated based on previous mutations and mutations

A small list of highlightable options showed, with dozens of greyed out options below.

> Rank B regression class evolution:

> Earth shaper (strength+)

> Rank B+ class evolution:

> Stone golem creator (inteligence+ and wisdom+)

> Rank B+ class evolution:

> Immovable force (strength++ and constitution+)

> Rank A class evolution:

> Mass manipulator (strength++ and inteligence+)

> Rank A class evolution:

> Advanced stone shaper (strength++ and constitution+)

> Rank A+ sub-race evolution:

> Mineral shaper (strength++ and intelligence++)

> Rank A sub-race evolution:

> Mineral elemental (strength++ and constitution+)

Skimming through them while ignoring the detailed explanations below for now, he focussed on the attribute cap they would increase.

Strength… He frowned. Only the B+ one didn't have it. Although strength had always seemed like such a great idea, after his battles, he had found that it was limited in a few crucial ways. It was weak versus ranged, and anything that had flying. Although he liked the idea of some of what he saw, he had hoped to find something to offset his weakness, if only a little.

Focusing on the greyed-out options, he saw the same message on all of them.

> Locked due to missing requirements.

Scrolling down, he realized there must be dozens if not more options that he could not see.

Overwhelmed and at the same time a bit let down, he examined a few of the options that he could choose.

"Rank A+ sub-race evolution: Mineral elemental - required: Demi stone elemental or stone elemental evolution: The physically most sturdy of the stone elementals, mineral elementals can shape not just stone but also metals and crystalline forms. WARNING! Stone elementals are hard to control, but mineral elementals are almost impossible to control. Use with caution. NO REFUNDS! "

"Rank A+ class-evolution: Advanced stone shaper class. Required: stone shaper class: Increases the size and scope of what a stone shaper can do while reducing the mana expenditure. One of the most useful utility classes to have in your arsenal. Can be used to create entire cities on new worlds. Note, this class is not useful as a combat improvement. If combat is required, mineral shaper is recommended. "

Seeing the note at the bottom, he quickly skimmed across the mineral shaper one, but it was as he had guessed. It just reduced the difficulty for him to shape metal, which didn't seem like a great addition if he could choose the sub-racial mineral elemental.

After a deep sigh, he reluctantly closed his status window. Although he very much wanted to increase his strength, none of the options he saw seemed like a good idea. Any increase in strength seemed redundant, and although the idea of increasing his stone shaping ability either in magnitude or by adding metal in the mix seemed good, he wasn't sure how much it would help.

Focusing his stone-sense on the building above, he felt the slight tremors as the others moved around inside the building. What should he do? The idea to evolve right away had left him. He wanted to increase his values as high as he could first. Perhaps that would unlock more and better options. To increase his dexterity and wisdom would be hard, but there might be some way.

Laying back down, he began planning, an idea shaping itself in his mind.

--

"Where did Solus go?" Derin muttered as he stood outside the building. He was cradling one arm, thin and a paler blue than the other one. The orb had barely been enough to get it back, and he wanted to ask Solus for another orb so he could fix it. Besides, and he quickly summoned the small information window he had gotten from Drys.

> Mana-field: 6312/7100

He was so close to another evolution! He didn't really know what to pick yet, or if he even got the chance to pick. Solus had said he would inscribe something on his manafield…

A scraping, creaking noise came from the entrance as Tatjie pushed herself through one arm at a time. When she was out, she stretched herself, her long arms rippling with muscles.

"Didn't you find him yet for another orb, to fix your poor little arm?"

Derin snorted and shook his head. Looking at the other, he saw she had a big smile on her face. "Did you reach the next point?"

"Yes! So I hope the big guy has something cool in store for me!" Grinning, she moved her hands about while pacing the length of the building.

"And Tirela?"

Tatjie picked up a stone and squeezed it. A loud crack echoed through the silent area, and she tossed the handful of grit against the wall with a loud clatter.

"Dunno. She is still inside, but her orb was dust."

A soft rumbling sound came from the area behind them, and they swirled around. Solus climbed up from a hole that closed behind him. He held the container with orbs under one arm.

"There you are! Didn't want to share the building with us?"

Solus looked at Tatjie, scanning her quickly. "So you evolved?" As she nodded, he grabbed an orb from the container and tossed it to Derin. The blue undead grabbed it, nodded his thanks, and sat down on the spot to absorb it.

"Show me your mana-field," Solus said, moving towards her until he towered over her. She barely reached his waist, but her arms still looked menacing.

"Sure thing, big guy!" She laughed, and an odd orange manafield spread out around her. To Solus' surprise, he saw a lot of familiar parts in the densely packed segments of the field. At least part of what she had was based on his old valiant zombie pattern, but some parts were either gone or smaller while others had been increased to incredible magnitude. Drys' machinations were obvious to him.

The base patterns he saw were all based on strength, and he frowned. He had no experience with changing patterns on the fly as Drys had. Looking at it, he wondered if he could remove the previous pattern and replace it with another. Pulling up his status info, he shuffled through the old evolutions that he had been able to choose.

"So stunned by what you see that you don't know what to do?" Tatjie asked.

Solus laughed at her and looked at the small status imprint Drys had given her. "I am going to try something, don't worry!"

Before she could react, he put a mental hand on the area with the small status imprint and willed it away. A soft groan came from Tatjie, and she rubbed her head.

"What did you just… HEY! I needed that!"

Solus laughed, waving his hands. Finally, something went as he wanted it again.

"No worry, "he said as he effortlessly inscribed the status info back where it had been. "See? I just had to try something."

Tatjie grumbled something before glaring at him with her single good orange eye. "That hurts, you know! What are you even trying to do? Turn me back into an awoken skeleton?"

Solus blinked. Could he do that? He was almost tempted, but when he saw her warning glare, he knew she wouldn't just sit there and let him. Besides, he had better try that with someone who didn't risk losing so much. Perhaps a chaos undead? Grinning at the prospect, he inspected the mixed and matched patterns. After some time, he managed to separate the racial evolution from the class evolution. Her racial was indeed some form of undead, although he didn't recognize it. Due to size constraints, she had somehow scribbled the class one in between, even overlapping some areas that were similar.

After pondering for a second, Solus realized he could try something that would help him too. Scrolling to the list of zombie evolutions, he found the one he wanted. Immovable force, the zombie race version of the one he could choose. It was an A class one, with strength and constitution, and it should match her racial choice. Memorizing it as best he could, he began wiping out the class inscription she had.

"Hey, what… AHHH-" the shout turned into a gasp, and then Tatjie crumbled in a heap.

Derin looked at her, his mouth wide open, and the orb lay almost forgotten in his hand. "Is she…?"

"She is fine. I had to remove her previous inscription to give her a better one." Solus said as he began carefully inscribing the new inscription. Halfway through, the same thing that had made him make modifications to the patterns he had given Sig and Skull popped up again, and without thinking he changed a few areas, mixing it with things he knew.

The process didn't last that long, and when he finished, he saw Tatjie's form change. Her incredibly long and thick arms shrunk until they fit her growing body better. Her chest enlarged, as did her legs until a more normally proportioned, green, and yellow zombie lay on the ground. Her muscles were less big but even more defined than before, and from her lying form, Solus thought she must have doubled in height.

Derin moved closer, and when he saw her, swallowed. "She is going to be upset when she wakes up." Taking one more look, he rushed away and into the building.

Upet? Why? Solus didn't understand as he stared at the quietly lying zombie. How could anybody be upset about waking up more powerful? He sat down and waited patiently for her to wake up. He wanted to find out what the Immovable Force class did.

As the sun crawled up the horizon and into the cloud, Tatjie started moving slightly, mumbling and grunting. Then, with a start, she shot up and looked around.

"Waddapened?" She said, the words garbled and hard to understand.

Solus stared at her and grinned. "You've evolved!"

Tatjie smiled, about to say something when her fists clenched together. She blinked and raised her hand to her eyes, both whole and glimmering with orange light.

"What?" she mumbled as she scrambled up and looked at her body. "What, what, WHAT!"

A look of rage crossed her face as she turned to Solus. "What did you do?" Her voice was a bit higher than before but still sounded like a crumbling building.

Confused, Solus gawked at her, shaking his head in wonder. "You wanted to evolve, and now you have. You are far more powerful than before, and-"

"And I look horrible!"

"You what?" Solus blinked as his confusion turned to annoyance. Her arms were still a bit too long, hands a bit too large, but for the rest, she had a well-balanced body that should be a lot more powerful than before. It even had the same coloring as before!

Tatjie stalked towards him, her fists clenched. The top of her head now came to his chin, and as she stopped in front of him, she angled her head up.

"I liked how I looked, you rotsack!" Spittle flew from her green lips, spattering across his chest.

"You always change if you evolve! How could you expect to stay the same!" His voice was louder this time, and the dust and small rocks around them were bouncing on the ground.

Tatjie seemed to grasp for words, her eyes widening as if she couldn't find what she needed to express her anger. "Now I look like the others!" she managed to croak out.

Solus snorted, wondering what was wrong with her. He barely saw the punch coming when her fist slammed into his chest. It stung, and his feet were pushed a little bit back. Stunned, he glared at her, just in time to see her step forward, a look of rage on her face and her fists shooting towards him.

"Turn me back!" She roared as she struck him.

Solus managed to swat one of the punches away, but the other struck his abdomen, and he shoved back a bit again. Anger surging, he automatically retaliated, ramming his fist forward. It connected solidly, but as soon as it did, he knew something was off. It felt as if he had hit a mountain, and Tatjie didn't even have to step back. Instead, she roared again, her fists shooting forward and striking him anywhere she could.

Feeling his own rage rear its head, Solus growled deep in his throat. The last bit of self-control he had, kept him from roaring at the top of his voice.

Dull, heavy thuds echoed throughout the empty streets, sometimes interrupted by cursing and roaring. It lasted for a long time, the sun no longer a red rising ball, when a loud shout interrupted them.

"Solus!"

Solus stopped mid punch, breathing raggedly as he glared at the zombie in front of him. Her face and upper body were battered beyond recognition, bruises, and green liquid on every inch of it. Still, she wasn't unconscious. Two sharp orange eyes stared at him from inside the ruined mess, her arms shaking as she tried to lift one.

Shit… what happened?  Solus recoiled and looked around. Sig stood beside the building, looking at him with a curious gaze, while Derin and Tirela stood in the door opening. Both seemed a bit afraid, but at the same time, he saw a bit of wonder as their eyes drifted to Tatjie.

Everybody stared quietly at the others until a ragged voice behind him broke the silence.

"Next time, don't change the way I look without asking…" Tatjie mumbled between puffy lips before she crumbled in a heap to the ground.

Solus jumped forward, staring down at her and sighing in relief when he saw she was still breathing. Angry at himself, he turned to the stone container with manaorbs and grabbed one. He stuffed it in Tatjie's hands and waited until it glowed. Then he cracked his neck, looking at Sig.

"She wasn't happy with her new form, and I lost control..." he said, still uncertain why.

"We noticed," Sig said before turning to the city. "Are we going back out again?"

Solus looked at the orbs and grabbed a handful that he stuffed inside his pocket. Turning to the door, he saw Tirela drool as she stared at the stone container. "Are you two ready to evolve?"

Derin looked at Tatjie and swallowed. "I am…"

Tirela didn't respond right away, and Solus looked at her. She was still staring at the orbs and only reacted when he stepped towards her. Then she looked up, confused.

"Can you evolve?"

She nodded but pointed at the orbs. "Give?"

Solus laughed and shook his head. "First, evolve!"

Pointing at the softly moaning shape of Tatjie, she frowned. "Evolve, then beating?"

A surprised laugh came from the side, and Solus frowned at Sig, who was grinning widely.

"No beating," Solus said, feeling a sense of shame that he had not felt before. Annoyed at the uncomfortable feeling, he stared at her. "Unless you want a beating?"

She shook her head, and Solus ignored Sig's grin as he sat down. Summoning his status, he began looking through the old evolution patterns. He could hear Derin mutter something to Sig but ignored it. Did this mean he had to think about those two's current shape?

--

Solus looked at the silent, unmoving shapes on the ground. Derin's pattern had been harder than he expected, and in the end, he had picked one he had never seen before, Energy binder.

Tirela's, however, had been far more interesting. Instead of an entire pattern, she had only bits and pieces of what looked like an incomplete pattern. A highly intricate one that currently filled only a single section of her very large, yellow mana-field. It branched out partially into the others as if ready to be added upon. It also seemed to have grown instead of being drawn. The root pattern in the middle was so intricate, Solus wasn't sure even his status-window pattern could compete with it in complexity.

This wasn't the first thing that had drawn his attention, though. A dark, almost palpable area was in one part of her mana-field. It seemed to pulsate, and it gave him the same feeling as the chaos-undead's mana-orbs did. Feeling an instinctive revulsion for it, his mana-field had appeared of itself, wrapping the area inside. An enormous drain of energy had followed, after which the black-area began shrinking. When it finally left, an odd sheen had come to Tirela's mana-field. He had felt an odd familiarity and kinship as he touched it. It reminded him of his own, although he didn't understand why.

Instead of adding an entire pattern, he felt a creative urge and took just bits and patterns, adding them where he saw fit. In the end, he fleshed out almost an entire section before he stopped. Most of what he added was based on classes that increased intelligence, and he hoped it would work out so that she could actually answer some questions.

Both shapes had changed, but not as much as Tatjie, who sat at the door, absorbing two orbs, while occasionally glancing at the other two.

"Ready?" Sig asked. He had waited, quietly and without complaining for half a day now.

"Almost."

Solus moved towards Tatjie until she looked up at him. Her eyes narrowed, but she didn't say anything yet.

"Look after these two while we are hunting."

Tatjie nodded, but she didn't say anything, and Solus sighed as he turned away. Things had been so much easier on his own.

Moving down the street with Sig, the city loomed ahead of them. The towering grey buildings cast part of the city in a perpetual shadow, while occasional dust columns shot in the air. Only the center of the city was quiet, a ruin of crashed and crumbled concrete. Dust swirled in the air, obscuring any details.

As they reached the edge of the city, Solus jumped on the side of a building that had toppled over, crushing the smaller ones in its path. Sig floated up and turned in his solid form.

"Do you want to end the giant wyrm in the middle?"

Solus nodded. He hadn't seen the giant wyrm yet, only Sig's story, but he wondered how big it would be. Sig had said it made the normal wyrms look like wyrmlings.

"Alright, follow me!" Sig turned into his cloud form and floated away, towards the depths of the city.

A loud explosion resounded throughout the area as Solus jumped after him, shooting into the air. He crashed into the ruins of a building that crumbled below him and barely managed to jump back up before he was buried. Leaping from building to building, Solus left a trail of destroyed buildings in his wake as he followed the silently floating cloud.

Far into the city, when most of the towering buildings were gone, and only large piles of rubble and ruins stretched out as far as he could see, Solus stopped beside Sig. They stood on what must have once been a wide, two-story building. Now all that was left was a single wall, the tallest point in the area. Standing atop the edge, Solus looked at the immense shape ahead of him. It glowed faintly, and not just from the thin layer of fine mica dust that covered it.

"Can we even end that?" He muttered, gouging the height of the wyrm head that lay dormant on the ground. It was as high as the walls surrounding Skulltown, and staring at the glossy grey plates that shone in the sun, he swallowed. Even from this distance, he could feel traces of stone and metal in them. It was so densely entwined that the prospect of shaping it made even the gold he had practiced with seem easy by comparison.

That's why they eat the metal, he thought, feeling a new emotion drowned out all the annoyance, fear, and anger from before. It took him a moment to find what it was: Awe. He had never seen anything this big, and as he tried to imagine how long it must have been eating the scraps, the ancients left to get this big, he frowned. How long had the wyrms been digging around the wasteland before he awoke?

"Do you think you can punch through his armor?" Sig's voice sounded uncertain.

"No." Solus shook his head, wondering how they were ever going to end it. A second thought came, and he sighed. "Let's go back. We are going to hunt a few more small wyrms and then head out towards Scathia."

Sig looked at him, his mouth falling open and his face slack. "But…?"

"Even if we could end it… should we?" Solus asked, taking a last look at the massive grey creature.

Sig didn't respond, and they turned away, moving towards the edges of the city. As he climbed and leaped across the ruins, a trace of familiar energy surged up from deep under the ground. Standing still and wondering what would happen, Solus felt the presence of the enormous being far below the surface. It didn't say anything and disappeared after a few moments. A lingering sensation of approval remained, and Solus wondered why the being would care for the giant wyrm. Seeing Sig disappear between the remaining buildings that towered in front of him, he jumped forward, quickly disappearing into the city.