230: Cultivator's Grotto

In the side of a gigantic tree, a person-sized divot had been carved out—a little cubby, just big enough for Nicolai to sit within. The trees branches, heavy with leaves, formed a screen around it.

He doubted the tree was happy about this, but it was large enough to not be particularly bothered by the comparatively tiny hole he’d made in it. And anyway, that was the risk of being a tree. Small things might dig their way into you.

Around the outsides of this divot he’d carved runes into the tree. The wood on the inside was carved with similar runes. A very basic and slapshod ritual, designed to absorb and nullify Aura ripples he released. It was only somewhat effective, but breaking in Symbiotes didn’t produce excessively large ripples, anyway. He also had drones posted up to five hundred metres from his position, surrounding him. Currently there was nothing to worry about in the area.

Floating between his palms was a Symbiote he knew as a Black Ink Snake. His Soul surged around it like a sea in storm, chewing mindlessly at its defences.

He’d been here for some time. While much of his focus was on breaking-in this latest Symbiote, his gaze was aimed forward, through a gap in the leaves. A gap he’d made when he first arrived, carefully pruning away. He was watching the cave. Waiting for his prey to emerge.

So far, no sign of it. If it didn’t show soon he would have to go in after it. There was only so long he could wait.

In the past hours he’d broken in several Symbiotes. Amongst them, two of the main rewards for the Inheritance along with the Yin-Yang Rotation Symbiote, were a new Burst Shield and a proper Skin Shield. The Burst Shield was actually slightly worse than the one he’d gained from Kleos’ quest, which, based on his info, was among the better Tier 1 Burst Shields. The Skin Shield was on a similar level but nice to have as he’d lacked one.

There was also a Symbiote he was thinking of as a Brawler. It was able to briefly increase both the strength and resilience of his entire body. Those three, plus the Yin-Yang Rotation Symbiote which he’d also already broken in, constituted the primary rewards for the Inheritance.

Then there were all the basic ones, which weren’t any good in combat but seemed very important for Cultivation, once he was pushing for Tier 2, and finally the various other random Symbiotes, like the Black Ink Snake and the Worm Spitters. He only had one Worm Spitter, which went into his hand Node and allowed him to seize earth from the ground, shape it into a spike, and launch it at high speed. In the game it had been very good—out here, not so much. His M99 performed a similar role except better in every measurable way.

There were quite a few like that. Decent enough, but not of much use to him in particular. He hoped that he would have an opportunity to go through all of his Symbiotes and sell those he didn’t need. Those from the Inheritance had all been fully fed, but hadn’t come with any additional food. They would begin to starve in roughly two weeks, and a number of his other Symbiotes were also beginning to starve. The Phantom City was opening in just a couple of hours. That might be his opportunity to sort out his Symbiote situation.

But before he engaged with that, he hoped to have a new safe place. A base. If the bear didn’t…

His eyes narrowed, as he saw movement. Slowly, his face spread in a smile. Nicolai immediately ceased his attempt to break in the Black Ink Snake. He tucked the confused Symbiote back into its bag, absorbed an Oma crystal, and rose to his feet.

The bear was coming out at last. Going to hunt, or perhaps to get water.

It was a huge, lumbering creatures. Many tonnes of meat covered by thick and bristly brown fur. A Tier 2 Cultivator, or at least the Spirit Beast equivalent, this Narge Cave Bear was a massive and majestic creature, an impressive specimen.

It was a shame it had to die.

The tree shifted, and rustled, and the light—bent around him due to his Shimmer Poncho—flickered and warped as Nicolai slipped out from the shelter of its branches.

He floated soundlessly into the air, following after the cave bear.

It had been nearly a day since he killed the five Cultivators who had emerged with him from the Inheritance. Much of that time had been spent travelling rapidly through the jungle, doing his best to avoid trouble, searching.

He’d been looking for a place to set up the Assembler, a place to create a long term base of operations. After seeing the dangers of this jungle, he had not been willing to take any chances. The location he chose needed to be perfect.

It had to be defensible; ideally underground where he could setup the Assembler and not have to worry about a dinosaur stomping on it one day in the future. There had to be Oma available; perhaps a Spirit Spring, though those were very rare. More likely, a place with a seam of Oma crystals beneath it, like the mine in the castle, though he knew he wouldn’t find anything so large. More crucial than all, it had to be somewhere well hidden. Remaining undetected was by far the best method of protection.

Fortunately, he’d had an easy way to find the perfect location. He had plugged all of these needs into the TreasureFinder, and it had done the rest. The activation had been a little problematic, as it released powerful ripples that had drawn creatures towards him. Much more than the last time. He supposed the Inheritance had been very close and easy to find, in comparison. He’d had a few tense moments, but had ultimately gotten away with it without too much trouble, and once the TreasureFinder located his destination the ripples had faded.

Since then, he had been following the TreasureFinder’s directions, which had led him here, to a cave in a hillside.

Unfortunately, the cave was occupied.

Nicolai did not want to cause a disturbance within the cave. Thus, he could not make the hit there. He had to wait until the bear left. Now, at last, it had.

The reason he was unwilling to attack it while it was in the cave was due to the Rules of the Jungle. He and Threat Analysis had generated these rules over the past few days. They were;

- Stay silent, stay Shelled, make no smell.

- If you make a disturbance, get moving quickly before something arrives.

- It is better to stay high than low.

- Watch out for birds in open areas.

He ghosted through the trees after the bear. He had also come to view Spirit Beasts like this differently. His experience playing the board game had changed him.

In that game, no one had a body. They were simply collections of Symbiotes. Thinking of a Spirit Beast or a Cultivator not as their form, but as their Symbiotes, was in some ways quite useful.

The body was powerful, yes, but it was immediately obvious how it would effect any attempt to kill an individual. Less obvious, and therefore of more import, was their Symbiotes. Such as with the Bird in the castle; its Symbiotes had allowed it to both resist damage, and rapidly heal. As a result it became far harder to kill than one would expect. Depending on the Symbiotes an enemy possessed, you had to completely shift how you approached them.

He had been working to analyse this bear’s Symbiotes. He did this by carefully listening to the Aura ripples it emitted over a period of time. He had been keeping watch for over a day now. It was a tricky business to guess a being’s exact Symbiotes, but with the help of Simulations and Threat Analysis, alongside his experience as a Killbot, he found it easier than one would expect.

The process involved taking note of the exact ripples given off, and comparing them to the data in his head. This data was simply his memories of times he had felt ripples from Symbiote, when he had known which Symbiote it was that was being used. For example, he could remember the ripples that had been given off by the Red Face Symbiote Hao had used on him. If he felt similar ripples in the future, he would know they came from the same Symbiote.

Mostly, he compared what he felt to the great list of Symbiotes he had learned of from the Memory Tome. The Tome had been very detailed, it had shown him the Symbiotes, given a list of features, suitable foods, and placed impressions of the ripples these Symbiotes gave off directly into his Soul and mind. With that, he had a big list which he could compare the ripples he felt to.

With the help of the Modules, and his own nature, he found it quite easy to make these comparisons. The main difficulty was in the fact that the ripples were not simple and clear—they tended to combine, and they changed as they travelled.

If someone had five Symbiotes, then the ripples they gave off could be compared to five separate sounds, combining into one din. The reason it took him some time to be sure on the Symbiotes the bear had was that he had to monitor the ripples carefully and tease them apart, working out the combinations of Symbiotes that created the ultimate “sound” of the ripple.

Fortunately, in this case it hadn’t been too challenging. He believed that the bear had only two Tier 2 Symbiotes: one that performed a stunning sonic attack and another which was defensive in nature, designed to harden a being’s outer layer. He suspected in this case, it would make the bear’s fur extremely tough and dense when activated.

Nicolai had thus worked out its weakness. It had no Burst Shield and until it knew it was under attack, it wouldn’t activate the defensive Symbiote. It was vulnerable to a surprise attack that was instantly lethal.

He floated around the outskirts of the water, silent and invisible. The Lurker Symbiote was very useful, allowing him to remain Shelled even while using a small amount of Oma. In this case, he was activating a singular Pegasi ring.

The bear occasionally raised its head from drinking the water. It cast a cautious gaze about. Though very large and Tier 2, it remained wary. It was not the most dangerous creature in this jungle.

Nicolai waited, careful and patient. He held the anti-material rifle pointing down, to keep it concealed beneath his poncho. His attention was focused on the bear.

The bear paused, and performed a slow sweep of the environment. That sweep was coming toward him.

Nicolai whipped the anti-material rifle up and pulled the trigger, almost in the same movement. The bear had no time to react, probably didn’t even see.

Then the .50 cal bullet pierced through the centre of its nose. With its head angled directly toward Nicolai, the bullet did not encounter any of its very tough and thick skull, which was reinforced by its state as a Tier 2; only cartilage. There was a cavity in the centre of its nose that ran straight through its skull, a pathway to its brain.

The bullet followed this pathway exactingly. It tore through the flesh and cartilage inside the bear’s nose then carved through its brain and made a great dent in the back of its head.

The bear stood stunned for a moment then toppled slowly sideways, blood leaking from its mouth and nose.

As it body thumped to the ground there was a powerful Aura ripple and flare of pale energy, Soul dispersing.

Nicolai had watched this carefully, and he nodded thoughtfully. As he’d expected. A definite difference between this Tier 2 bear’s reaction, and the Cultivators he’d fought.

Unlike Cultivators, it seemed Spirit Beasts did not tend to linger and attempt possession. They simply accepted death and faded away, their spirits dissipating into the Aura.

This was very good for Nicolai, because it meant their Symbiotes would remain. However, it did mean there was another immediate sign of the kill, beyond just the gunshot. The Aura ripple might be even more of a lure to nearby Spirit Beasts than the sound.

He activated his other Pegasi rings alongside the Grasping Finger and sped over to the bear.

After quickly carving it open he dragged out its Symbiotes. One of them was a black-and-gold cicada, which let out an endless, faint drone from its vibrating abdomen. As Nicolai grabbed for it, he felt it focus then a sudden explosion of sound erupted out of it, slamming into him.

He paused, briefly stymied, but his helmet went a long way to dampening the sonic attack, and with only its own will and personal Oma it was much weaker than if a Cultivator or Spirit Beast had utilised it. Nicolai seized it and his Soul fell upon it, holding it tight and restricting it from using its Art as he Examined it then shoved into one of the bags from the Inheritance.

That done he grabbed for the next, a little beetle with a shell like forged steel, glistening with dark spots. This one, defensive in nature, only hunched up as he grabbed at it and shoved it too into a bag.

They were designed for Tier 1 Symbiotes, not 2, and thus he was forced to use three of the bags to contain the three Symbiotes, as one bag could not handle more than one Tier 2 Symbiote. Fortunately the bags possessed their own ways of calming and restricting Symbiotes, sparing his Soul from the effort.

The remaining bags held the other Tier 1 Symbiotes from the Inheritance. Most of them could be contained in the same bags, as they were quite weak and not overly numerous. He had already broken in many of them, including the most troublesome and valuable; the rewards themselves, such as the Yin-Yang Rotation Symbiote, which was now floating happily in his heart Node.

Well aware that this action would draw Spirit Beasts and other beings here, Nicolai was quick to leave, darting off toward the bear’s cave.

As he moved, he looked over the Examine texts. Cyberwarfare had worked out how to view Examine history, and thus he’d been able to close the notifications and now re-open them.

Resonant Cry Cicada

Type: Sonic

Tier: 2

Placement: Mouth/Windpipe/Lungs

This Symbiote empowers the user’s throat and lungs with resonant force. It allows the Cultivator to release a concussive blast of sound, staggering foes in a wide cone.
In living beasts, it serves both to intimidate rivals and disorient prey before the kill.
For Cultivators, it is a crowd control weapon and disruption tool, able to shatter concentration, knock others back, and momentarily crack weak spiritual shields. Care is needed: the user’s own ears and balance may suffer backlash if improperly shielded.

IronSkin Beetle

Type: Hardness

Tier: 2

Placement: Heart

This Symbiote courses through the user’s skin and outer layers, rapidly weaving a lattice of hardened Oma fibres.
While active, it significantly increases physical durability—fur, skin, or armour toughen into an almost ironlike shell. Unfortunately, this causes the user to become slightly slower than they would otherwise be, as the tightness and solidness of their skin restricts their movement.
This Symbiote is typically utilised by close-combat Cultivators and frontline fighters who favour endurance over evasion.

Soon, he pressed within the cave. It was a dark and fetid place, full of mouldering bones from old kills. But the Aura within was thick and strong, breathing it in caused his Nodes to regenerate unusually fast. He paused to utilise his Skin Suit’s sonar echolocation, which after a moment provided him a map of the cave system. He smiled at what he saw.

He followed the thickening Aura, heading further into the cave. Minutes passed as he pressed deeper into the ground, lighting his way with the powerful torches on his Skin Suit helmet. It was a twisty journey, as the cave had frequent sharp turns.

When the tunnel finally ended, he found a crack. It was the height of his body, but too thin for him to pass through. This problem was swiftly solved via a small amount of explosives. He wasn’t worried about the noise, as he was now deep in the ground and the many turns would ensure the sound was well dampened by the time it issued from the distant exit.

Once the dust settled he squeezed into the enlarged crack. With Soul Sense he found his way easily through. The crack thinned, until he struggled to pass and had to strip some equipment from himself, tossing it ahead, and then was able to barely squeeze through. It began to widen, and there was natural light.

He came into a small underground grotto.

It was lit by blue-glowing fungus which coated the ground. The far wall shimmered with lights as that blue glow was caught and reflected by the lines of Oma crystal running through the cave wall. Water trickled out of that wall, running down the Oma crystals and into a pool, from which rich Aura rose like steam.

It was… idyllic. The kind of place a weary Cultivator might rest, soak in the calming, natural vista, and drink deep of the natural energies before moving on.

But that wasn’t quite Nicolai’s style.

As his gaze panned over it, taking the forty-odd square metres in, the other Modules helped him generate an AR simulation.

The Assembler was a great blocky mass of machine-metal smack-bang in the middle. He wanted easy access to all sides of it. A pipe ran up to the ceiling, to where he spied some natural cracks. Bulky filtration systems appeared over the cracks, to reduce the steam and smoke produced as much as possible before sending it off to crawl through the hillside, emerging here and there.

A metal security door appeared over the crack he’d gained entry through. The wall running with Oma crystals was eaten away by automated mining bots. The floor was turned to smooth, flat concrete. In place of the dim blue light generated by the glowing moss came a stark white illumination from powered strips above. A workstation over there, large and expansive, covering one entire side of the room; for maintenance on guns, bots, drones, and any other tools and tech of Earth. The pool of water would be drained into vats; Oma infused water was useful for refining Symbiotes, he wouldn’t throw it away. But the pool itself would be the start of his mine, where bots would be set to work drilling into the walls, harvesting the thick veins of crystals visible within them.

Peering around the dim grotto, he no longer saw a beautiful natural haven.

He saw the secure, clean, and above all efficient little bolthole he’d turn it into.

His first step was thoroughly investigating the cave and surroundings. His Skin Suit had a ground penetrating radar scanner, which he utilised to scan the underground around him, working to ensure there was no undiscovered caves close to his own. He used Soul Sense for a closer and more thorough investigation, making sure the cave floor and ceiling was stable.

Drones were sent over the hillside and into the nearby jungle, creating a detailed 3d map of the entire area. Nicolai himself roved through the available cave and out and onto the hillside, seeing what he could feel in terms of Aura ripples, giving himself time to see if he could sense anything off. All he saw was a small group of raptor-looking Toothbearer’s consuming the bear’s corpse, where he’d left it. None of them even glanced at the drones moving a few hundred feet above them.

After a few hours spent exploring and investigating, after which he was confident the place was as lacking in neighbours as it had first appeared, he got properly to work.

Nicolai activated the Assembler Permit, which transformed into a silver rod with a button midway down it. From the rod extended a line of light, and where it touched, the light sprung from the ground to form the shape of the Assembler. With an effort of mental will, Nicolai had the shape rotate and twist.

He aimed at the centre of the grotto, turned it until he was satisfied with the position, then pressed the button.

The blue light settled, turning more solid and flickering oddly. A faint outline, blue light glinting off the suggestion of metal.

His Mark pulsed, asking him if this was the chosen location. He tapped affirmative and silver energy flared, running in thick loops over the surface of the phantom Assembler. The light roved in snakes from top to bottom, faded away, and it was there.

The Assembler should have looked entirely out of place. But somehow, looming in the faint blue glow of the moss, it seemed fitting that it was here. A monster in a cave, a queen in a hive. Nicolai ran his hand lovingly over the smooth metal, the pipes and struts.

This queen would make him an army.