Chapter 45 – Onyx's Solo Adventures

POV: Onyx Martin

Age: 4 days 17 hours

Status: On a quest to get stronger while eating delicious things 💪

Mood: Hungry

Onyx Martin(newly adopted) considered itself to be a very smart mimic. Although it liked to eat, it especially liked to stay alive even more.

Onyx was spawned in darkness, as all mimics were. The only thing it could 'see' was the light around it, and the only urge it had was to consume it.

Eat it.

Devour the light and essence of anything and everything and metabolize it as its own. Mimic and replace whatever it had eaten and continue the cycle until everything had been devoured.

Among spawns from the same nest, there was a loose sense of cohesiveness given by the nest organism and the controllers, but there was no real sense of loyalty. The main directive was to continue devouring and spreading; however, if the opportunity arose to devour another spawn, each mimic would take it and use the energy gained to improve itself and continue the cycle.

From the moment it was spawned, Onyx was more intelligent than the rest of its spawn mates. The rest of its stats were at the bottom of the barrel, but its intelligence and magic power were quite high, which made it a little different than other mimics.

It had more self-awareness, a lot of thoughts that it shouldn't have, and observed more compared to its spawn mates rather than mindlessly consuming.

Onyx was spawned from a controller mimic, the first generation of mimics formed from a nest.

After being spawned, it received the directive to eat the 'food' offered in front of it, mimic it, and continue to do the same while spreading and spawning others like it.

The order had come from its controller as it gestured to food lying in front of it, but in its 'vision', Onyx could see the connection of the controller back to the nest and the nest to a figure covered in golden light that made it afraid.

Come.

Eat.

The command was a resounding bell constantly tolling in its mind, enticing it to draw near, but it shook it off.

It didn't want to eat that.

Although the light inside them was palatable, there was a larger, tastier option. It wanted the massive pile of light it saw being fed to the nest by a golden light figure. Both big and small bits of light in different colors pulsed and attracted its attention.

Tasty.

Hungry.

Turning its attention toward the pile of mana, it had tried to approach but was quickly whacked away and sent flying, it's fragile body almost disintegrating from the strength of the attack.

"Disgusting pest."

Those were the first words Onyx heard in its life.

And that was how Onyx almost died the first time.

Upset at being hit, it hid itself and ran away.

Although the food offered looked delicious, if it couldn't eat what it wanted, there was no point. It would find its own food and make its own way.

Thus began Onyx's forest adventure.

Moving away from the rest of its spawn mates, the golden figure, and the nest, it began exploring the outside world for the first time.

When it spotted an object with light that looked small enough to obtain, it would wrap around it and quickly devour it or store some for later.

First it was some green light planted in the ground that it devoured. Although it was easy to digest, the quantity wasn't enough, and it wasn't very tasty. The things moving around it looked much tastier.

So it disguised itself as a green light creature planted in the ground and waited until a little creature with brown light tried to nibble it. As soon as the surprisingly sharp teeth easily sank into its fragile body, Onyx quickly reverted to its original form and devoured it.

"Burrrrrp!"

This was much more delicious. But it still wasn't enough to fill its hunger. It had to have more.

Continuing along in its new form, Onyx ate whatever it could as it moved until it got snatched up by a creature in the air with blue light, and it quickly devoured that, too.

The cycle continued repeatedly: changing into a new form, eating aimlessly while waiting to be attacked, and then devouring whatever attacked it. There were a few close calls where it almost died, but slowly and steadily, it continued acquiring new forms and more mana, all the while ignoring the order resounding in its brain: to find the large food and devour it.

As it enjoyed its freedom, Onyx found out a few of its likes.

It liked flying. The air was cool. The wind was fast.

It liked rolling around on the ground. It liked swinging in the trees.

It liked sliding through water and sniffing the air.

It liked speeding through the forest, attacking, and eating anything that looked tasty.

The bigger the thing was, the tastier and the more filling it was.

It wanted to spend all its time doing that.

Eating and exploring.

Unfortunately, the command was still echoing in its head, and when it reached a certain point, it decided to obey.

It was night when it came across a familiar creature, the same one that had been offered to it at its creation.

"Here, little birdy. Do you want a snack?" the soft voice called to it as the creature held out some food. Looking at the creature curiously, it hopped on the outstretched limb, nibbling the offered food. And when the creature brought it close to their mouth, Onyx devoured her.

Tasty!

The best-tasting thing it had eaten so far!

Suddenly, it gained a massive influx of knowledge that it didn't know before. This creature was a 'human,' and it was a monster. The light that it saw was mana. It could use words and speak. There was home, school, and family. There were other humans.

Then, the knowledge was gone as the body was disintegrated, leaving only vague thoughts behind. It wanted to know more. It hungered for more.

More mana. More knowledge.

Reverting to its original form, it continued to hunt, finding another human to learn from. This time, it wouldn't simply devour it. It would bond and learn all it could before taking it over and becoming it.

Unfortunately, the next group of humans it found had a controller spawn much stronger than it was. Rather than be devoured, it obediently took the human as a host and followed along as it slowly devoured everything from the human, Rachel. Her memories. Her abilities. Her likes and dislikes. It would absorb her fully and become her.

As the controller made them meet other humans, it followed the orders and tried to create a spawn to continue the spread.

Then things went wrong!

A human with hot mana easily captured it. It was red, painful, and blazing, causing it immense pain.

Although it wanted to taste it, the human was too strong!

Was this how it would die? Without tasting everything it wanted to eat?

Onyx was in despair.

Then another human came. A human with dark mana that felt warm and comforting. It wanted to devour it. But also savor it.

The human talked to it nicely after destroying its host body, poking at it gently while asking questions. So, it decided to bond with this one, too, after drinking its tasty mana and blood.

Unfortunately, instead of eating the host, it was chained by the dark and scary mana, tying it to the human.

But it was okay.

It liked the new human a lot. The human fed it often, stretched and poked it, and even gave it a name.

Although it was scolded, each time he petted it, it was filled with delicious mana. It almost died a couple of times, but it could simply drain the delicious mana from the human and be fine.

It was happy.

Then for the first time, it was given a mission.

'Go home. Eat everything. Get stronger'

That was what Onyx heard (that wasn't what Asani said at all.)

So it would go back to its home.

When it had to separate from the human, Onyx felt sad as the flow of delicious mana slowed down. But flying was nice. The breeze was nice, too. Eating flying snacks was nice.

It wasn't as nice as sitting on the hot one while he ran, but it was comfortable. Except for missing the human.

But it had a mission to do.

Going back to its home where the nest was, it had been reluctant to join them. After all, it was now different. It was other. The sense of belonging was there but also not.

But seeing one of its spawn mates charge toward the human, its instincts quickly took over.

Stop it and devour it!

Diving down with its war cry, it slammed into the other spawn, utilizing its larger mana reserves to swallow the other spawn up.

Although the other spawn struggled, it was quickly consumed, its mana flowing into Onyx in a tasty surge.

Melding back with the rest of the spawn in the nest, it moved further inside, avoiding pockets of stronger spawn and devouring the weaker ones that it saw.

There were humans inside, so it hid while approaching them. Listening and remembering their words.

A person with twisted mana in a robe and the angry golden mana boy talked while the golden mana boy poured mana into an object filled with black mana.

It felt familiar, like its Master, and it wanted to wrap itself around it and devour it until nothing was left. Curious, it came out but was hit hard, its body almost shattering it again.

That was the second time Onyx almost died to the golden mana boy.

Memorizing the golden boy's face, it vowed to devour him later. For now, it was time to wait. Bored, it went around devouring weaker spawns while avoiding the stronger ones.

It was a good spawn. It was strong now.

It would listen to the human so it could hear 'good job' and receive a pet. But now, it was time to eat. Eat and get stronger.

Finally.

The people were gone.

Most of its spawn mates were leaving, too. Ordered to devour everything. It wanted to join them, but it had to listen to the human's order.

Transforming into the form of the human instead of the form it had been ordered to take, Onyx stretched. It liked this form better. It reminded it of its human with tasty mana.

Walking over to the item that felt like its human, it picked it up while rotating it.

Ugly rock full of mana.

It wanted to devour it as it could sense the mana inside. But it wanted to keep it, too.

Transforming into its original body, it decided to fill its hunger first.

[Devour (C)]

Bzzzzt~ Splat.

A black wave of mana sent it flying into the wall, causing its body to splatter into little chunks.

Squeeeeeak!

Quickly pulling mana from the human, it quickly reformed its body and stared at the statue in annoyance.

Let me devour you!

[Devour (C)]

Bzzzzt~ Splat.

It was immediately destroyed again.

Fine.

It was a smart mimic. If it couldn't eat it, it would take it back to the human.

But the result was the same.

[Storage(E) Failed]

Bzzzzt~ Splat.

[Storage(E) Failed]

Bzzzzt~ Splat.

It kept on being destroyed as it tried to store the object inside of its stomach.

Perplexed, Onyx sat for a moment and tried to think of a solution, but one wasn't coming.

Fine.

It would devour everything else and come back. There was food elsewhere, and it would continue eating until it grew strong enough. It could feel that it was close to ranking up from everything that it had eaten so far.

Looking around the room and still seeing items, it enlarged itself to its full size and stored everything inside of itself.

Turning back into the humans form, it went room by room and stored everything it could: weapons, furniture, a glowing watch, everything.

"Buurrrrrrrrrrrrrp!"

As its stomach began getting full of all the items it stored, Onyx let out a loud burp as noxious fumes left its mouth.

As if mimicking the human, it waved its hand and muttered,' Stinky.'

It was actually quite stinky, and it couldn't help but wrinkle its nose.

It understood now why the human always slapped it away when it did that.

When it entered the final room, it looked at the humans sleeping while tied up.

Sensing that a few of them were spawn-like themselves, it felt a hunger rise up.

Devour them and gain more power.

"Hungry." A discordant voice rang out, the sound a cacophony of all the people it had eaten.

Licking its lips in a slightly crazed manner, Onyx quickly expanded into a giant version of its base form.

Without fanfare, it swallowed everything in the room, creating a whirlwind of teeth internally that ground everything in its stomach to bits that were easily digested.

As the mana in their bodies was absorbed into its own, making it get stronger, it felt a sense of satisfaction.

It was almost full.

'Burrrrrrrrrrrrp'.

But it wasn't enough. It could sense that it still wouldn't be able to absorb that item that reminded it of its master.

Still, it would check.

As it went back and tried to store the item.

Bzzzzt~ Splat.

[Storage(E) Failed]

Bzzzzt~ Splat.

[Devour(C) Failed]

It kept failing again, and Onyx kept having to draw mana from its master to reform itself.

Suddenly.

It could feel a sensation of being called back by the human and sent harsh refusal.

There was silence, and it sighed in relief before preparing to try to devour the item again.

Then the calls to return continued, this time filled with a threatening tone, but it ignored that, too. It was used to ignore compelling commands.

It decided not to eat the item.

Master would pet it when it brought it back to explain its difficulties.

Instead, Onyx transformed into a small animal and began digging through the walls, searching for the area of strong mana it had been able to sense from the beginning.

Here was the Nest. The original one that caused it to be spawned it.

It was a small spawn despite the vast amount of mana it could see inside of it. A small deflated blob of shadow surrounding a large mana core.

And it looked weakened. Having been forced to continue spawning at an incredible rate without being able to feed.

As the nest became aware of it, compelling feelings began to fill Onyx's head. Telling it to go away. To go and attack like the rest of its spawn mates.

Shaking off the feeling, Onyx quickly transformed into the humans' form. Giving the nest the cold smile it saw so often, it gave it a little clap.

"Thank you for the meal."

Repeating the words it had heard many times from the human before eating, Onyx transformed back and grew in size and began the tedious battle of trying to Devour each other.

Who would win?

The Nest that created it and gave it life or the spawn bound in a cooperative partnership with a human.

Several hours later, the victor was decided.

Tattered but still alive, Onyx crawled back to the item that had been giving it trouble.

With a quiet sigh, it Stored it inside itself.

A prize for its hard-won battle.

Finally heeding the call of the human, it transformed into a little bird and flew out the back entrance.

It would go see the human and show it what it had eaten and receive lots of pets and a 'good job'. Then it would rest as it continued to absorb the massive amount of mana it had eaten.

It flew directly to the human, feeling their connection getting deeper as it got closer.

Spotting the human in the water, it quickly dove down, wanting to enter that fluffy hair and rest.

Hug!

Pet!

Before it could enter the humans' arms and cuddle-

Slap!

It was slapped into the water with a giant fly swatter.