17-24
Chapter 17 - A Social Experiment
Trudging up the long cavern path, we finally reach the main room. Heading down one of the many branching paths, we quickly arrive at another large room. In the center of the room is a table… made of webs.
Man, what can't she make out of webs?
Standing at the table with a book, is Ai.
Beside her, Lin is pacing back and forth, demonstrating that she is the hyperactive person of the group. Looking up at us entering, Ai gets up and grabs Lin. With them both facing Gong directly and they give her a deep bow. Lin seems to have a proper one this time.
Though, I don't have any room to speak on that.
Ai takes a breath. "Thank you for allowing us to stay in such a spacious place, at such a low cost."
With a smile, Gong replies, "You're welcome, I'm happy to have you two here with me."
They then hand over a pile of coins, which is quickly grabbed by Gong. Oh! I totally forgot we were supposed to pay. As I fumble for the coins, Gong gives me a funny look.
"You don't need to pay, you healed me…"
Ah, right. Well, better safe than sorry.
"Well, thank you for the thought."
Gong then looks at Ai and Lin, who have not returned to the table. "So, I'm sure everyone here understands that we all are connected and it would be beneficial for us to work closely together. This meeting is to give us some focus areas, before we come up with a plan to earn money and improve our situation."
A glance towards Ai leads her to speak. "My and Lin's plan for the next few days is to come up with scenarios on how we can earn money with our different abilities and networks. James' abilities open up a lot of avenues, I think we can all admit, were almost inaccessible prior to meeting him. This will take some dedicated planning, before we can use this safely, effectively, and secretly."
Lin cuts in snarkily, "Cause we already know he can't keep a secret to save his life."
Hey, that's only partially true!
Continuing without a pause or any denial by anyone, "I will also go over this with Lin, since she's pretty good at reading people and situations. I will teach her more about what I know about navigating business, politics, and cultivator society. Not only that, but out of all of us, I believe she has a best idea of your personality and can help me plan around your quirks, for where we can implement strategies."
Lin speaks up, saying, "We may have only known each other for a day or so, but I think I've really been able to get closer to you. Once again, thank you for all you've done. Even if you cause us a lot more stress."
Totally didn't need that last comment.
I can't help but smile at her, though. She seems confident, strong, and crafty. When I first met her, she seemed to be desperate. Doing anything she could to help her and her sister survive.
If I think about it, I think she was always this way. I just couldn't see it. Only after I got to know her a bit, it was easy to see her confident and crafty side.
Now, though?
I finally get to see her determined side, as someone who has a clear goal and the ability to reach it.
God…
It feels like I've known her much longer than I actually have. It's only actually been a day or so. Maybe this is what people meant when they say that shared troubles bring people together.
Not only that though, but I think that while I was able to help them in that situation and heal Ai, I feel that these women would have been able to figure it out in time.
Ai's condition was tough… but not something a cultivator couldn't work up the funds to treat and eventually cure. Neither of them seems like the type of women to just give up, since it is clear that Ai had a backup plan and Lin was fighting every day to make money. Eventually, they would have caught a break or found what they needed to succeed. Just looking at their initial spirit roots shows that it would have only taken Lin getting picked up as a normal cultivator, to have access to better materials to help Ai. From there, Ai could then join her on the path to cultivation.
As I tune back into the conversation, Lin ends with "… and that's what I'm planning on doing. I'm looking forward to us working together on this later, James" she says with a strangely nefarious smile.
Ah. I feel like I've missed something important.
As our eyes turn to back to Ai, she is looking between me and Lin, with squinted eyes and pursed lips.
After a beat, she says, "My suggestion to you, James, is to work on your abilities and figure out different ways you can use them. Since many of our strategies might leverage them in different ways, we need to know their limits and what's possible."
Gong and I exchange a look.
She gives a sigh, "I agree with Ai, actually. Ignore what I said earlier, about me being there for your… experiments. Just, please don't break my home."
"I understand… and for what it's worth, sorry about earlier." She waves it off. "Small price to pay for all you've done for me." She holds her arm against her body, her head turned to the side.
With an awkward cough, Gong looks out at the group. "I will check out the local and surrounding area, to make sure we didn't cause to many waves with this move. I'll also be checking with some of my contacts, to see if there's anything we can leverage… as a team."
That last portion of her sentence, she gives a pretty big smile.
Huh. Looks like she's really been wanting to work with Lin and Ai for a while now… maybe even just others in general. She's clearly competent and apparently was one of the information brokers for the area.
However, no matter who you are… I guess you can get lonely. Maybe this helps with that a bit. "Are you listening?" Gong asks me. "What?! Oh. Yes, definitely!"
She squints her eyes at me. "Hmm… Okay then. Alright, I think we should all be good then. Let's meet back up after a few days once we get things figured out. Sound good?"
Taking a breath and turning directly to me, she continues, with her cheeks the slightest bit flushed, "You can continue to use my room, especially since it seems comfortable for you. I'll also work on making you a private space in one of the nearby rooms, over the next couple of days."
Being a natural introvert, I am truly grateful that she is allowing me to use her solitary space. I also understand, as an introvert, what effect that giving up your space can do to you. "Thanks Gong, that would be much appreciated. Though I don't mind moving into anot…"
"NO!… I mean no. It's for the best that you have somewhere comfortable to sleep. I have plenty of places myself, so I'll be fine."
She seems to not be able to keep her eyes on mine, which is a bit suspicious. However, I have my hands full with concepting my powers in different ways… so honestly, I don't want to mull on the connotations of this conversation. At least just yet.
With each of us having a plan in mind, we separate and head to the respective rooms to begin our planning.
As we head out of the room, I notice something that I've seen Gong do a few times by now. Rubbing her hands on her hips.
Specifically, the areas that were healed. It seems like an unconscious action, though every time she does it, she looks down at it… almost in surprise.
A strangely sad smile seems to float on her lips, as she does.
I don't know what to think of it.
I have a job to do now, though. Hopefully, I'll be able to make this work.
I want to explore my personal healing, scanning intuition, and fighting style. It's time to see how I can do that.
Here's to hoping I come up with something decent.
And the story continues…
Chapter 18 - Hidden Goals
As I head back to the room, Gong moves in behind me.
Leaning in, with a conspiratorial whisper, "Hey… hey you."
Pausing for a moment, I look back at her. What I see is a spider-lady, with an unreadable smile, but her slight fidgeting demonstrate that she is excited about something.
Seeing no response, she slowly raises a finger up to my eye level. Like a comically slow torpedo, she circles it toward my face, ultimately landing on my cheek.
"Hey."
I stare at her in slight disapproval. This seems to change nothing for her, as she just pokes my cheek again. Audibly sighing, I humor her.
"What's on your mind, Gong?"
Continuing with the sly atmosphere, she moves her mouth right next to my ear.
"You want to see my secret dungeon?" My heart jumps.
O-oh…
I see her nose tilt a bit and a gesugao (evil) smile crosses her lips. "Mmmm… I know you're going to looove it." Heading out ahead of me, she takes a path to a deeper area.
Well.
This is suspicious as fuck. To be frank, though, I really want to know what this is going to be. That was just ambiguous enough to not know if that's sarcasm or if it was an innuendo. That doesn't give me any actual choice, but to go check it out.
For added effect, she doesn't look back as we travel.
As we head deeper and deeper into the caverns, there are noticeably fewer lights. So much so, that I can barely see my dark colored shirt. However, what I can see is the light glistening off of Gong's ample human butt.
It takes quite a bit of effort to not pay attention to it, as it is surprisingly the shiniest thing around.
After a few minutes of walking down this downward sloping tunnel, she finally begins speaking. "I've been doing this for a while, but I'm still building it out further. As you can see, there are still a lot of areas I need to work on."
I can see the shadow of her arm wave towards the walls.
I can't see anything. It just looks like dark, lumpy walls.
"I've really been considering your ability, the taming one, I mean." Her voice sounds simultaneously studious and excited. "If you want to have an insect army… why not use spiders? Many spiders have… what is it called…? Venomous properties. It also wouldn't be strange for a spider to be in an area. Great spies or information transportation. They can also carry quite a lot of weight and move quickly."
She pauses and looks back at me. "When I was younger, I imagined myself like the mythical spider demi-human queens. Being able to control large amounts of spiders and influencing spider spirit beasts… I've always wanted to have the same ability." She looks back and forwards, down into the tunnels.
"I've been making a lot of progress, as you can probably see. With your help, I can probably take it to another level."
Wait a second. Why does she keep saying, 'as you can see'?
"You know, I actually can't see much down here. It's pretty dark for me."
She stops moving and turns back to me, she seemingly hesitating to speak. The little light I can see is casting a dark shadow on her face.
"Ah. So, that means… you have seen nothing at all in this cave? Wait… why did you have a pleased scent… no, that probably explains the lack of change in your scent. Oh, no. OH NO."
She stops completely.
"Okay James, just to check… you aren't scared of spiders, right?" I can feel my heart jump again, for a different reason.
Well, that's an ominous question if I've ever heard any. That also raises way too many flags. Time to subscan and tame everything around. Fuck that.
As she continues, I extend out my range from myself and discover how bad it really is. Her voice gets very desperate and higher pitched. My breath gets heavier.
"We've been traveling through the spider tunnels for quite a while now and I thought you saw them and were okay?! We can turn back now, let's turn back!"
At the end of her first sentence, I had finally consciously recognized that my back had a few small spiders on it. At the beginning of her second sentence, I found that there was a large spider chilling on my pant leg. At the end of her second sentence, I discovered… they were everywhere.
When I say everywhere… I mean it. The walls are lined with spiders. All watching. The air covered in spiders. Hanging, but moving to the ceiling as we pass by. Since they weren't moving fast and the tunnel was so dark, I had no idea they were there. The webs are focused along the walls like drapes, so I felt nothing on my face.
The further I extend my scan, I can see some tunnels we passed, had spiders resting in burrows in the wall, that is the size Gong's spider body. Apparently, all the spiders on the ground cleared a path for Gong and I to walk.
Ahem. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKKK
Without further question or thought, I tame them.
All of them.
If my taming of the insects in my initial test was like a glass of water that I poured into a plant, this wave of taming was like a dam bursting, overwhelming any potential resistance.
Nothing would be free of my influence. I let it wash into every cavern, down into the insanely deep depths of her caverns. All until I reach the end of the line. I have tamed every single one. The large, the small, and the babies. Everything goes still.
Well, except for the spiders on me. I tell them to get off.
Now connected to them, I can feel that they had another connection to Gong. If I had to describe it, it feels like a strong boss-employee relationship; willing to follow orders, but not jump into lava.
This only makes me feel a deep shiver, though. As I realize, just dangerous this could have been. If Gong wasn't there or if she hadn't had that strong of a relationship with them… I could have been attacked. There are spiders who are just as large, if not larger than Gong, in this cavern. All it would have taken is a single swipe from those monsters, and I could die instantly.
That's it. From this point on, I will always have my low-powered scan on. I can't always just rely on my eyes or being in a safe area anymore. When I get back to the room, I'll look into how to do that completely unconsciously. For now, I need to see my stats:
James Delinion
5 Rose Man–Spiritual Root
Mana: 141658/141658 (163840)
Taming Maintenance
1 mana/ 1 human biomass – insects, no cultivation
1 mana/ 1 human biomass – arachnids, no cultivation
50 mana/1 human biomass – bacterium, no cultivation
Transferred Gifts:
Passive Scan: Max
Active Scan: Max (Increased Strain)
Healing Aura: Level 3 Exp: 159/160
Beneficial Taming: Level 12 – Exp: 1712/20480 rounded down
1 xp per 1 human sized biomass – no cultivation, tamed
Current Direct Tames
No cultivation/no contract
Cockroach – 1 – under 1 human biomass
Insect Horde – 88 human biomasses worth (212 cubic meters)
Spider Horde - 22,094 human biomasses worth (53,027 cubic meters)
Bacterium – 11586 – under 1 human biomass
Healing Constitution
Proficient Languages: Common Speech (English)
Literate Languages: Common Speech
Wow… okay, that's a lot to parse. Overall, it looks like I've grown a lot from that. I'll figure out more of what this means when I get back.
With a red face and apologetic tone, Gong quickly bows, "I'm so sorry for putting you in this situation… I got way too excited about what could be done with these children and didn't consider what would happen if they were hostile to you."
She continues, "Since they've never caused any problems for me, I forgot that I might have to think about that with others."
Man, I'm still not accustomed to people bowing to me. Honestly, I will have to get used to doing that myself, since I'm sure I'm going to make plenty of mistakes myself.
"It's okay, Gong. You can get up. I can understand not thinking of that, since it has always just been you in this large space." I wave behind us, referencing this immense cavern system.
"Still, I was the one telling you to be more aware and cautious, but I'm the one who put you in danger. Sorry about that…"
After a second more of the bow, she lifts her head. "So, did you do something to the chil-spiders? I noticed something changed. Wait."
Her eyes widen in realization. "No way. You didn't tame all of them at once, right?!"
I quickly nod, affirming her thoughts. She seems to process this slightly in shock.
With a shake of the head, "Well, at least this proves I had a connection with them. I could feel when their allegiance switched to you. Though it feels like I still have a connection to them."
Her words give me pause, as I wonder if I can make their connection stronger. "Hey Gong, I'm going to try something… let me know how this feels to you."
Time to see if I can make this dream of hers a reality…
Chapter 19 - A Lot to Process
Focusing on the tamed spiders, I direct all of them to follow her orders as if they were mine own and to have at least the same level of dedication to her.
Automatically, I feel a shift in the relationship. While they still are completely under my control, I can feel their previous connection to Gong, turn rock solid. Instead of a boss-employee relationship with her, their allegiance feels like a fanatic army for her use at this point.
Gong also feels the shift as she gasps. "Did you…? No, that can't be… You made them completely loyal to me!" She seems a bit too excited.
She pants.
Can spiders even pant?! Also, is that drool?
Licking her lips thirstily, she gulps and follows up with a question, "S-so, does this mean I have sole control of them?"
I immediately retort against that, "Definitely, no."
She immediately pouts, but then regains her happiness soon after, while a mysterious smirk and upturned eyes shine at me. "Well… that's not bad in its own way…"
Ignoring that previous comment, I think this will be a big value add for our little group. Well, I guess a sizeable group now. God, I hope this was the right idea to give the crazy spider lady a spider army.
As I internally ponder whether this was actually a good idea, Gong turns somewhat serious.
"Hey. I know you wanted time to work on figuring out your abilities. I'm pretty set over here. When we meet back up as a group, I'll let you know how we can use this to our advantage. I've been thinking of something like this for a long time, but I never imagined having this much control."
Before I can say anything in response, she lowers her hand to my chin, in a quick, but soft move. She tilts my chin up to look at her, as she moves her face closer to mine.
o-oh.
"My, my. You just keep helping me with things, don't you? I'll repay you for this someday… good luck on your side, I'll make sure it was more than worth it to do this for me!"
My mouth hangs open as she releases my chin with a sly grin. Turning away to the opposite direction. I can see the hint of reddened ears, as she turns (with my scan).
With that parting statement, she rushes down into the tunnels. I can practically feel the air shift, as the many… many spiders flood down behind her. Even the big ones squeeze past me to follow.
That's not the scariest part though… The scariest thing about these tunnels is the fact that even with all these spiders, there are still deeper tunnels below, that they weren't living in. What lurks in those dark places…?
Moving on from that disturbing thought, I head back to the room.
Gong must have forgotten in her excitement, but there are ton of passageways I could get lost in. If I didn't have my scanning ability, there's a chance I could have gotten lost in here. Especially, since there isn't that much lighting this deep in the ground.
Note to self: Be careful when Gong gets excited about her favorite things. She forgets about other important aspects for surrounding people.
Though honestly, who doesn't go through the same thing?
After my journey with Gong and my return to her room, I pace around the edges of the giant webbed bed for a bit.
First things first, what the hell is going on with my large mana count? It feels like it has ballooned up so quickly!
After pacing around the room and running numbers, it becomes apparent. Every time one of my skills levels up, my mana amount doubles. When I query for a formula, to make it easier it is: [10 x 2x], where x = (Combined Skill Levels – 2). In this case, 14.
That's absurd. I run the numbers again. And again, and again.
Isn't this too crazy? This is more than enough for what I need it for. Honestly, with this kind of growth, do I even need to train it?
Adding to that, further scanning reveals that my mana regeneration is percentage/time based. It also seems to run off a formula connected to my skill levels: Mana Regeneration to 100% from 0% = (300 seconds [5 mins] x (Combined Skill Level -2))
… it seems to be (300 x 14) = 4200seconds [70mins].
That means every 42 seconds, I've recovered 1% of my mana… which is almost 34 mana per second. Based on what I've seen… I could passively heal a ton of people, without putting a dent in my regeneration.
The taming maintenance fee seems to be a bit of a counterweight to that, though. It permanently takes away mana from my 'pool' of sorts.
Even with that, I could have a vast army of creatures and also still be able to have a ton of mana left to use!
It's probably best I focus on the here and now, and how I can improve what is available to me. I've never been a theory crafter, but I can at least come up with some ideas.
With that in mind, I turn to my other abilities.
I need to get my low concentration/effort scanning to always be on. Using it as a pulse isn't enough. Unless I recognize I'm in danger, it will be useless.
So, even if I can't maintain the 10m radius pulse version, I need to have something there that is always on. In a sense, I need it to automated.
To help test this, I call out a few flying insects from ones I tamed earlier.
Big, shiny green beetles, each the size of my fist fly around the corner and head on a beeline for me.
In their little eyes, I can see what feels like joy and excitement.
Unluckily for them, I've never been a big fan of bugs.
With the speed they approach with, I barely stop myself from swatting it away.
To be specific, I took a swing but moved my hand out of the way. I can feel a twinge of dismay and betrayal from it, from my almost lethal action.
After some heartfelt apologies, since I'm the one that actually called them out here, I attempt to use them to test something.
I try using them to see the strength of the scan, focusing on distance, efficacy, range, and detail of the field. With them flying in and out of it, I have pretty good parameters to test.
What I find out?
…it's great.
I can get it a quarter of a meter away from my body. At this distance, I can tell that I could maintain this with no strain on any of my other abilities. If I want to put more energy to it, but still maintain it all day, I feel I can push it to 3m. Which honestly isn't too bad.
What I notice, though, is that this requires some version of constant attention or awareness.
I need to make this a natural reaction for my body, like hearing or smelling something. From what I've seen of the scanning ability, I can use this to help determine what would work best for me. This could be a good time to practice the "genius" level intuition idea I thought of earlier…
Using this chance, I activate my scanning ability at its intuitive level and avoid getting detailed information.
Then, I point to the flying bug and if I accurately can get its position, it will stop and hover in place. I make sure to block and reduce the power of the scan, so it is as close to the 'raw' data form that it originally came in, while still allowing me to interpret it.
It feels as though there was a concept on the tip of my tongue that I can quickly figure out to assist me.
Along the way, I get hints that jog my memory along and cause me to jump to a conclusion. Strangely enough, these hints and concepts seem to make a weird kind of sense, by using contextual aspects that I might reasonably know.
Things like how I feel my body react or how I perceive things. For things I couldn't possibly know, it is more a feeling than anything.
This is exactly what I was hoping for.
If someone was to watch me practice this, they would see flying bugs swarming around and as I point to it, the bug makes a fake death animation while hovering in place. Its little arms gesticulate widely, before it does a little spin and makes it tiny arms limp.
I find it hilarious.
… don't judge me.
I don't leave my permanent scan abilities to chance and pull up a full list to determine best methods to have a permanent scan. I put parameters in place, involving my current knowledge and something I could reasonably know.
It seems the 'farther out there' an idea is, the tougher and more damage it does to me. What actually makes something far out, I'm not able to pin down.
What I find (with a bit of a headache), is what can be considered an awareness technique. This technique is all about maintaining awareness at all times. Since it is a mortal technique, it isn't something as amazing as having perfect 360 spatial awareness. I've actually heard of something similar in my world. Which is why it was likely not that painful.
I immediately try to test the ability.
The bugs continue to float lazily around as I close my eyes.
Leaving my scan on, but putting the awareness technique into practice reveals a lot.
Each beat of the wings, movement of the bugs is caught by both my scan and the technique.
It appears allows my body to pick up signs that something has changed nearby, even if the person is asleep. I think it normally uses a combination of all the senses to achieve this, and a certain state of mind. While sleeping, it should be like always being on the cusp of reacting.
This would be extremely difficult to practice, without extensive time and training. Luckily for me, I have the scanning technique, which is even more amazing than I thought. I can go through each part of the technique and my body's reactions to refine it.
As I continue to use it, I feel my concentration fail and myself distracted. The scanning ability takes over and still keeps the information.
I don't want to fully rely on these abilities. While I don't think they'll be taken away, I want to make sure that I cover as many bases as possible. I think one of my college friends had mentioned something he learned in his classes… n+1 redundancy. Which is to have what you need, plus one more. If something happens to the first one, no matter how improbable, you will still be okay.
I turn my focus back to my bodies state. I didn't notice it, but I am exhausted. Mentally and physically. The healing constitution helps me to recover, but this seems to be a different form of training. I think I need to learn this, rather than 'exercise' it.
It definitely will still take some time to train my body in, based on what I've seen, but this awareness ability will definitely be a cheat in its own right.
I'll use my scanning ability to support my learning of it, more than support the ability itself. That way it will be like having a teacher that can see every muscle, thought process, and even cell. If I'm able to master the awareness ability, I'll be able to autopilot the passive scanning radius. Combined with my scanning ability, it actually will give me a true 360 spatial awareness, even while sleeping. The while sleeping part, is the most important aspect.
My ultimate goal for this scanning ability was to make it as intuitive as possible.
If I continue to use it in this manner, I believe that might not be a pipe dream. Considering how it works, I could even imagine my shadow ability turning into something that could allow me to dodge arrows or attacks without seeing them. I don't even want to imagine what will happen when I get access to an actual spiritual sense.
Quite exciting.
While I think of all this, though, one of the beetles had landed on my shoulder to rest for a bit.
I totally didn't notice it. Totally cute. Frightening how open I was.
I definitely need some work.
Moving on to my personal healing, I need to figure out the extent to which my abilities can heal.
Since I'm not one for hurting myself, this is one that I must use my detailed scanning ability to determine the information. I can't risk working off of guestimates when I'm bleeding on the ground, dying.
This is a desperately important question. With my beetle buddy on my shoulder, I look down at a scanning sheet for the specifics. I unconsciously ask it to move a bit.
It basically lists that I can instantly heal one-hit KO, fatal obliteration wounds.
As my jaw drops open, I then see the mana cost, which actually causes me to fall to the ground.
Beetle buddy leaves me. Traitor. I believed in you.
Oh wait, I had sent him away.
As I look into the ability a little further, by tying this healing to my healing constitution, I can make it an instant heal for myself. It is still a high cost, far beyond my current mana count. In the millions of mana. What is interesting is that I can do lesser versions of it. It appears the closer to death I am, the higher the cost is. Spread out the time to heal, lessens the cost significantly.
If the instant heal is the heal back to perfection instantly from death, with optimization, the lesser version is an instant version of coming back from a lethal wound.
I do find out that I can have this automatically paired with my healing constitution, as a reactive ability. Obviously, only once I can actually come close to actually paying the cost. From what I can tell, the healing constitution plays a huge part to making this work. However, there appears to be a large maintenance cost to keep the reactive healing active, even for normal injuries. Overall, I'm not able to afford the cost at this time.
However, a thought sobers me. No matter how high my mana is, whether I can heal instantly, or even how fast my regeneration is, if I can't use it right… I'll die like anyone else.
I can feel it. Even at my strongest with this ability, I might survive a lethal blow, but there will be a time when I can no longer come back if I rely on it too much.
Not only that, but as I query the ability further using my scan, I can see that the ability still has limitations… though I can't see them.
Literally.
It won't let me view it, even with my high-powered version. Almost as if it isn't allowed. Not yet.
It's easy to forget, but these powers didn't come from me. I was given them. Something is telling me to not probe any deeper. I'm not one to test those kinds of limits.
This is pretty exciting, though!
With this, I could take an assassin's blade to the neck and still survive. Considering how my healing works, I might also have to train regularly. Honestly, this ability is absolutely absurd, though.
Not even thinking about the full heal, since the healing optimizes the body after injuries or conditions, each muscle tear in a workout will build it stronger immediately. I'll try every exercise I know!
Feeling pretty proud of myself, I lay back in the webbed bed. Before I feel myself drift off to sleep, I work on my awareness technique and activate my autoscan ability.
I lie awake, unable to sleep.
Don't think about those limitations. Don't think about those limitations. Don… Dang it!
Chapter 20 - A Sweaty Situation
My eyes open to the light of the room.
Ah, shoot.
I wasn't able to keep my autoscan active through my sleep tonight.
Getting up quickly, I try to remind myself of my plan. Back in my old world, I had a lot of trouble remembering things and needed a planner to keep track of things. Strangely enough, since I've been here, I could only feel myself thinking clearer.
Could it be the healing constitution? I should probably do some testing to see how much I've improved.
Still, I only feel comfortable with my schedule when I have a planner of sorts. Though I may not need it, I'd still like to have one… but back to what I planned.
Today I will work on my workouts, the wall running/shadow boxing testing, pushing my scanning limits, and awareness training. I must make my workouts, scanning workouts, and awareness training something that I complete daily. I've never been one for working out and always have been a late sleeper, but recently I've been able to get up early, with no issues.
Getting on with my day, I use my scan to practice my awareness technique and also activate the half a meter autoscan. Once I have those up and feel comfortable enough to concentrate on other things, I head out of the bedroom to check out some small rooms near to this one. In the room three down from this one, I can see quite the interesting sight.
Laid out in front of me, in the room's corner is Gong, with her spider legs curled in, but her human side resting with arms sprawled out and softly snoring, on a sloped web wall.
Ah.
Since I took her room, she probably slept in here instead. When she wakes up, I'll see if I can take another room. It wouldn't be right to take over her room like this, especially for the long term.
Trying not to wake her up, I quietly head back to her bedroom. Arriving back with no issues, I begin my workout. Keeping up the awareness and autoscan for training. Starting with pushups, I try to remember the correct technique, as I try to complete. Starting with one, I complete it easily. Once I get to 50 pushups is when I felt the burn. I don't think I ever have completed this many pushups in my life at one time. I 'push' myself and keep going. Even as I continue, I can feel my body recovering and allowing me to go further and further. And so I push. And push. And push.
Three thousand pushups later, I feel tired from the exertion and collapse on the ground, snot running down my face and heavy breathing. I can't even twitch my arms; I feel so tired. Even as I lay here for a single minute, somehow, I can feel my energy and body recovering, to where I felt like I only took a light jog. Not only that, but I felt my control over my awareness improve, as I strained to manage both my workouts and the technique.
What the heck is going on?! I haven't even turned on the healing aura yet and I'm already feeling like I can do three thousand more! If this is how the healing constitution is… what will it be like if I use the healing aura?
Somehow, the thought of that scares me a little.
Nonetheless, I continue on with my workout.
Cheering me on in one corner, are the flying insects from last night. I have them doing weird arm waves in time with my movements. Funniest part about it, though? I'm starting to not have to focus on them doing the movements, since they are getting used to it.
When I catch my groove of pushups, exhaustion, and then continue, it feels like I am managing around 35 pushups a minute. When I reach around 6000 total pushups, I change to another workout. Moving from pushups to sit-ups, I similarly manage to get above 6000, before moving on to squats. From that point, I try out other exercises I vaguely remembered (and refined using scanning), but not in the same quantities. During these exercises, my shoes and socks felt pretty uncomfortable, so I took them off. As I was in the middle of a rep, I placed them to the side quickly.
In the corner of my eye, I could have sworn I saw Lin and Ai watching. However, just as I was going to turn my body to talk to them, I could see them already heading out. I could just overhear Ai, "He must be practicing some type of technique. We should leave him to it." "W-wait, I want to…"
Eh, they are sort of right. I guess I don't have to correct this misunderstanding. Plus, I need to finish this up. It feels like I've been doing this for days.
After collapsing in exhaustion, I rest for what feels like a good half hour. Once I feel completely recovered, I finish up by testing the shadow running and fighting technique.
Pretty straightforward. I got my butt kicked by my own shadow.
When I finally had enough fun through punches in the air at nothing and experiencing repeated headaches, I sat down for a rest.
Taking a look around the room, I realized something. It's actually quite difficult to figure out how much time has passed.
With all of these lights in the cave, it constantly feels like it's daytime. My biological clock is definitely saying otherwise, though. Because of my healing constitution, I barely feel any genuine need to sleep or even eat. Mentally, though? I'm so ready for sleep.
I'm curious. Maybe I should check outside to see what time it is…
With this in mind, without putting my socks on, I grab my shoes and head up to the entrance to take a peek outside. As I head upstairs, I can see a river of spiders moving beneath the layer of webs. It reminds me of the animal shows from back home, about ants. Where you could see lines of ants flowing over and around different areas.
Maybe Gong was onto something with these spiders. If they can act like ants and are actually stronger in this world, then it might be scary to see what they could accomplish.
One the more interesting things that happen as I stare out at this river, is that I see a spider pop out, look right at me, wave, and pop back into the stream. It happens so quickly, that I blinked… and it was gone.
Did I really just see that…? Was that a hallucination?
I use my intuitive scan to see if I can find the spider, but I end up discovering something else. All along the walls, there are slight holes that reveal small, child sized tunnels. What is disturbing is that all of these tunnels have the bigger spiders traveling through them, with various things attached. Items ranging from cups of water, to eggs, are all moving within this area.
This is their 'supply chain'.
While all of them are still tamed by me, it brings me a slight shiver to feel via the intuitive scan, the large spiders moving over and around each other.
I'm pretty sure that most spiders from my world were not social creatures. Seeing something like this makes me wonder, were they always like this or did Gong influence them? Obviously, the transportation part is Gong's idea.
Or… was it?
Maybe, she just adapted it to her own purpose. What if these spiders were always social creatures, even if they came from different species. The signals I get from them make it feel like they never had issues between them.
I may be looking too deep into this.
With that thought in mind and a shiver in my bones, I move on from the search and discovery.
Finally reaching the main room, I pass by the room that Ai and Lin were staying in.
At a glance, it looks like they were just here. I can see in the corner, a spider places some cups of water. Without looking up at me, it heads back between the webs, into the wall.
The rest of the room appears to have blankets, cushions, and a variety of items from the shack. In separate corners are Ai's and Lin's stuff. The blankets on one side are laying sprawled out, like they were recently left like that. The other looks like it is well put together. I normally would think the mess side would be Lin's, but hers is actually the neat side.
That's a bit of a surprise. Maybe it's because she had to help Ai around in different aspects…
Regarding Ai… Well, it looks like our worlds aren't that different. I used to forget to fix my blankets before starting my day, as well. Though, it's strange that Lin wouldn't have helped Ai with hers…
Pushing that from my mind, I head to the entrance, extending out my awareness to around 10 meters, to be sure there are no dangers.
Feeling nothing, I head out to the opening of the cavern. Taking a quick glance out, I can feel my brow minutely furrow.
Oh my God, it really is nighttime. Have I been down here all day…?
Just working out and practicing things? Well, at least I feel I can go quicker with this, as I get better at working out.
Guess I should head back to the room to grab some sleep.
As I head back inside, I reduce my autoscan back to the sustainable distance.
When I do so, I notice something that had caught my interest earlier.
Looking closely at the ground, I can see the transparent lines of web I had noticed on the way in. Utilizing my new and improved scanning, I map out where they are in the room.
This could be useful in practicing to avoid walking into traps.
Using this as a goal, I try to avoid as many of the transparent lines as I can.
Somehow, I successfully avoid them all until I get to Gong's room. As I get closer and closer to the room, I'm able to smell the thick musk of sweat emanate from that direction. It's pretty clear what it was from.
Oh no.
I totally didn't consider how bad it would smell when I work out in a room, especially with the intensity of the workouts I did!
God, I'll need to figure out how to air out this room.
Double timing it to the entrance of the room, I hear strange sounds coming from the room and am shocked by a disturbing sight.
Rolling around in the portion of her room that I was working out in is Gong.
When I say rolling around, I mean literally. She seems to be in a revolving pattern of rubbing her legs on the ground and then bringing her face to the floor… Which she then rubs her face into, with loud sniffs.
I can just barely hear her whispering to herself.
*SNNNNNIIIFFFF*
"Ohmigod, it smells so good. What the heck is this?! And why does the whole room smell like this?" *Snnnniiiifff* "Seriously, what is this?!"
…
I am so shocked by this sight that I just stand there without moving. As this continues, without her noticing me, I finally decide to head over to the room she slept in previously.
I… think I'll just sleep here for the night.
As I walk over to the room, as I get to the entranceway of that enclave, I realize I just stepped on one of the transparent lines. Almost immediately, I hear the noises from Gong's room stop.
Ah.
So, it is what I thought. This must be an alert system for Gong. It's a good thing I didn't trip any while I was in that room…
Heading into the room, I can feel myself burning up a bit.
Making sure to go through the nightly ritual of maintaining my awareness and the autoscan, I nod off to sleep in a position not unsimilar to Gong the night before.
Chapter 21 - Weight of the Scales
As I wake up, once again I realize my awareness didn't stay on throughout the night. Dang it, well this will just be something I continue to practice on. From what I can tell with the scanning, this will take some time to get used to.
Getting up to start my day, I realize I haven't washed in a long while. I might have to check with Gon… Okay, maybe not Gong. I'll have to check with Lin and Ai on how people wash around here.
Since I'm planning on washing up or the equivalent eventually, I might as well work out a bit. Starting things up, I perform a small amount of exercises, just enough to push my limits. From what I can tell, I might have to move to weighted exercises.
As I walk out of the room, I can see Gong down the way coming towards me. Ah, I forgot about the transparent lines. I'll make sure to keep practicing, to not touch them.
"Good morning James, how ar…" As she got closer, her eyes squints and her nose twitches. I can see her staring at my chest in confusion and then realization. She gulps thirstily. Okay. While this is weird, I think I'm going to let this one play out for a bit. After experiencing her staring for what feels like a few minutes, she seems to snap out of it.
"S-so… you, haven't washed up recently?" I shake my head. "Okay. I have a bath downstairs, that you can use. A-and if you want, I could wash your clothes for you, while you do so." The expectancy in her eyes is palpable.
Yep, totally sounds like she doesn't have an ulterior motive here. Could this be a pheromones thing? She said she was sensitive to smell.
Though, I'm really not sure how to feel about this.
Nonetheless, I need to take a bath.
"Yeaahh… that sounds okay. Though, I'll hold on to my clothes until we get down there, if you don't mind."
I sense a flicker of disappointment, "Okay, that's fine. Ai and Lin just finished theirs, so we'll probably see them on the way down." Taking a cavern branch that slopes down from the main hallway, we head somewhat quickly to the bathing area. Just like Gong had mentioned, Ai and Lin appear to be heading up towards us. A quick look to the ground reveals the same transparent lines that occasionally cross the ground. I wonder how she keeps track of where the vibrations are coming from.
As they come up to meet us, they appear to be discussing something. "Yeah, it's actually quite nice." "Yeah."
Lin looks toward Gong, "Thanks for letting us use the bathing area, Gong!" She is practically skipping about. "That was great, I've never actually been this clean in my life," Ai follows up. Ai looks grateful, but much more mellow. Still moving down, Gong responds that she is happy to have helped. As we pass them, the two women suddenly stop after scrunching up their faces. Oh no. It really does smell that bad. I know that face anywhere. So, it's just Gong being the weird one that likes the smell.
Without stopping, we continued down the sloping tunnel. With those last reactions, I definitely moved a bit quicker.
Finally reaching the bathing area, we reach a giant cavern, dwarfing the main area near the surface. There appear to be several pools of water with a tiny river running along the edge of the cave. All along the sides, ceiling and floor are the glowing stones that light up the entire cavern system. I really need to ask her about these stones, eventually. However, this underground river is insane. There's so much water everywhere! I think this is worth scanning.
Doing a quick scan, I come to the discovery that this is only the surface of a massive underground lake. This area is only the surface, though there is quite a bit of rock separating the two. It goes so deep that I actually stop the scan, because of the sheer depth. The water, clear and sparking, is also drinkable. Really, it appears to be similar to mineral water. Considering all of this, this is almost a perfect water source. In the river portion, there are even some fish with glowing red portions ear their gills.
Gong heads over to one of the water pools nearest to the entrance. "This is typically where I wash up. I also wash clothes in that river over there." There are also some fish in the river, over there, but they always made me feel sick if I ate one.
I wonder why a carnivore like her would get sick? Let me look at these.
Flow-Following Scalefish
Scalefish – Fry (Juvenile)
Fish that is formed from the scales of an ancient fish lineage spirit beast. This fish innately has rampant qi flowing through its body. Dangerous for non-cultivators to eat. Can be beneficial for cultivators, but difficult to process safely.
Hmm… it was likely difficult for Gong's body to process this, since she had no way to process qi. However, for cultivators, this is a goldmine. I want her to try one of these fish again, though it might still not be the best idea. She doesn't seem to have a cultivation method, so she won't be able to circulate any qi. Also, if this fish is a juvenile… why is it the size of my torso?
I guess I should just go with the flow for now.
"Okay, thanks for letting me know. I'd like to check out those fish later, if you don't mind."
With a serious look, "Sure. Though, make sure to keep all of this a complete secret. The caverns, this river… everything. It's taken a lot of work and caution to make sure this hasn't been discovered by others. Please, take that into account."
Responding in kind, "I understand, I'll make sure to not let out a word about this." She gives me a dubious look, which makes me feel uncomfortable.
I continue, "Uh… I know I don't have the best track record, but I'll definitely keep this one quiet. For sure this time."
She gives me another long look and then moves on. She heads to one of the pools edges and I can practically see the increasing excitement roll off of her.
Another gulp before she opens her mouth. "So. Are you, uh, going to give me the clothes?" Squinting my eyes at her, I ask her to turn around, which she obliges.
As I prepare to remove my clothes, I see my phone, wallet, and keys are still intact. I put those off to the side, since she likely won't know the difference. Just as I get to my buckle, I see the stains of blood on my pants. My eyes traveling down to my shoes, I see the hint of something that looks like pink meat on them. My hand practically vibrates, as I slowly pluck that thing off of them.
With a gulp, I close my eyes and attempt to disassociate what I just saw.
I'll have to get used to things like this. I'm okay. We're okay. This is okay.
With a deep breath, I manage to get my emotions under control.
Gong peeks a look back, in what appears to be concern. She probably smelled my anxiety. I smile at her and nod. I think back to her silly actions with my clothes, that makes me feel a small chuckle come on.
Yeah. We're okay.
She takes another sniff and smiles back. Her eyes still squinted in concern, but recognizing my apparent change in emotions.
As I hand over the clothes, her smile grows larger and larger. She doesn't even notice the blood, as I see her sneakily take a whiff.
From there she takes the clothes happily away, as I step into in the cold water. I try my best not to yelp. Being a soft modern man.
As I wash myself, I didn't realize the number of layers of sweat, dirt, and grime on my skin from my workout. In fact, I peel a thick layer off of my skin, like a second skin. Is this all really from my workout? This amount seems kind of absurd. Maybe I should check into this.
James Delinion
6 Rose Man–Spiritual Root
Mana: 138985/138985 (163840)
Taming Maintenance
1 mana/ 1 human biomass – insects, no cultivation
1 mana/ 1 human biomass – arachnids, no cultivation
50 mana/1 human biomass – bacterium, no cultivation
Transferred Gifts:
Passive Scan: Max
Active Scan: Max (Increased Strain)
Healing Aura: Level 3 Exp: 159/160
Beneficial Taming: Level 12 – Exp: 4385/20480 rounded down
1 xp per 1 human sized biomass – no cultivation, tamed
Current Direct Tames
No cultivation/no contract
Cockroach – 1 – under 1 human biomass
Insect Horde – 97 human biomasses worth (232.8 cubic meters)
Spider Horde - 24757 human biomasses worth (59416.8 cubic meters)
Bacterium – 1 human biomass
Healing Constitution
Proficient Languages: Common Speech (English)
Literate Languages: Common Speech
I can't believe it. It looks like my spirit root has increased. Is this due to just my healing constitution? Or is it because of the combination of that and my workout?
A quick review of the deeper information reveals that the spiritual root is the foundations of the body and soul, culminating into a person's innate talent. From what I can tell, the healing constitution automatically improves this aspect of myself. It seems every aspect of my body and soul are being refined. Eventually, my spiritual root will reach the peak of what is possible for myself.
Please nerf.
This means some layers on my body are actually impurities of some sort, confirmed by some streaks of black ooze within the layers.
With this discovery made, I lay back against the side of the pool to relax in the cold water.
Hmm… maybe I'll be able to mimic this process with my healing aura, as I see what it improves. A quick check into my healing aura reveals I need to reach a certain proficiency/level until I can "optimize" other people in that way. From what I can tell, that will be level 10 for Healing Aura. However, once I reach that level, I can do it near instantaneously. Lucky them.
Not only that, but I think I've realized how bonkers my mana regeneration is… It might even get higher with more levels.
I hope the numbers for my levels don't continue like this. It will get truly insane, if they increase exponentially like this. As they say, tall trees attract the wind.
I'll leave that for another day, though.
With this in mind, I relax in the pool of water, in an underground cavern made by a giant spider. All while I can softly sense in the distance, SNNIIIIFFFF.
What a world this is.
Chapter 22 - Iridescent Worms
Getting out of the pool, I look out for any replacement clothes. There are none. I probably should have asked about that, before giving her my clothes. Didn't she say she washes clothes here? Why did she leave then?
…
Sigh.
I'm just going to call out for her. I could scan for her, but I'm honestly scared of what I might see. I can only take so much at this point. This is both highly erotic and really weird for me. Once everything is in a better position… I'll deconstruct my feelings on this more.
"Hey Gong? Can you hear me?" I can still hear the slight echo of continued sniffing in the distance. Okay, she's obviously busy. I also feel like my hearing has gotten a ton better due to the healing constitution.
Seeing via the autoscan, that there are an insane number of transparent lines all along the floor of this area, probably to make sure I don't surprise her.
I purposely step on a couple, in the assumed direction of the sniffing.
As expected, the noises stop almost immediately. I step back into the water, to cover my dangly bits.
"Hey Gong! Can you hear me?"
"YES! I mean yes, I can hear you." She rushes into the area, with my clothes in hand. Her eyes flicker to the transparent lines in confusion. I try to redirect her attention back to me.
"Ah, so that's where they were. Were you able to wash them? I could have sworn that you mentioned they could be washed here." Her eyes go wide for a moment.
"um… yes. Though, I was just… preparing them. Yes. Preparing them for wash. Since I really li… want them to be clean. So clean."
She stares at me, clearly nervous and hoping that I'll buy this bullshit. I don't buy it, but I roll with it.
"Thanks for the help, then! I'll take those and wash them myself from this point. I insist." She appears to want to decline, but a look into my eyes and what I believe to be the most subtle sniff from her yet, leads her to hand them helplessly to me.
She then sits there quietly as I wash them in the water. While I work on this, I take the opportunity to deep scan Gong:
Gong
Female, 32
5 Rose Man Spiritual Root
Proficient Languages: Common Speech (English)
Literate Languages: Common Speech, Street Signs (Demi-Human)
Exceptional Regeneration
Body heals quickly and can endure large amounts of wounds. Pressurization doesn't decrease even when ruptured.
Demi-Human – Spider Traits
Okay, that's pretty great! Looks like she'll be a lot sturdier from now on. Considering her speed and power, I bet she's heads and tails above anyone else who isn't a cultivator in the area. No wonder the ancient groups placed a curse on her race. I can only imagine her with cultivator abilities. Makes me shiver a bit.
Which reminds me, I need to know how powerful cultivators are in this world, and the tiers.
Interrupting my thoughts, Gong speaks somewhat seriously, catching my attention. "I've been considering your taming ability. Have you gotten more insight into how far you can go with it?"
I think I can trust Gong. Especially after what we discussed earlier. I think Lin and Ai are safe, but I'll run this by Gong first.
"I believe I can tame even spirit beasts with this… eventually. I'll need much more time for that though." She gives a sharp intake of breath and a swallow.
"You really know how to topple mountains and overturn seas, huh?"
"Uh… I'm not sure that's what I said. At the most, I could tame an enormous creature and try… ah. I get what you mean now." Midway into my response, I realized it was likely a common phrase to denote a lot of strength.
A little confused, but focused, she continues on. "If that's the case, then there are some creatures in these parts of the cities that we might want to keep an eye out for. I think you are uniquely gifted to deal with them. These monsters are called iridescent worms." Her face looks extremely grave.
------
"These creatures are, like their name suggests, pretty to look at, but horrifying in practice. They use human and demi-human women as their breeders. They capture and drag women while they sleep into their breeding pits." Oh no, don't tell me this is what I think it is.
What follows unfortunately confirms my suspicions.
She continues to speak about them and I find out the following information:
The biggest issue is that the parasites mess with the meridians, dantians of the person, besides other body functions. It is near impossible getting the parasites out of them, without it killing the host. They are sensitive to qi fluctuations and cause strange reactions to victims' qi circulation. A skilled cultivator once ripped a woman open in the span of a second and instantly completely healed her, but the woman went into a coma, because her mind believed it had suffered irreparable damage. It wasn't even because of the ripping open part…
When infested, the woman's brain and qi circulation was altered as well, with the parasite taking over the victims' brain chemistry. They only think of breeding more parasites and obeying the spawn. If forced out, the parasite wrecks the woman's body, shutting down their life functions. Even if the women are removed from the pits and "saved," they go crazy from not being able to continue. She wonders if taming the worms, while still in the body, could cause them to leave without killing the women. If possible, she hopes they could 'reset' the women. If not, potentially the healing could heal the women's minds, since I mentioned it works by conditions, removing the compulsion.
It appears that the parasites vastly prefer human/demi-human women, but go for any mammal that can give birth. Animal victims seemingly have no change to their qi circulation, potentially. No spirit beast has been documented getting infested by the parasites.
Even for the most advanced healers, healing a person from the body trauma and mental issues takes an absurd amount of treatment.
She gives me the most successful story, a Nascent Soul cultivator who specialized in body manipulation performed the only successful operation. They succeeded by resetting the person's mind and body back to before it captured them. This only worked, because the cultivator was their father and knew their daughter inside and out.
He poured all of his fortune into healing her. Even with that, the daughter still has issues. It is said the father has an enormous amount of resources, coin, and support out for any healer that can help his daughter. The cultivator was going to wipe the area that this happened in off the map, but was stopped by the sect and compensated.
These aren't even spirit beasts and don't provide any useful cultivation resources, so it isn't even worth hunting for major sects. A demonic sect once used them as a way to strike out against other sects. They were quickly wiped out. However, the creatures already spread beyond the search capability of the sects and became a permanent fixture of this region. Particularly near the slums of cities. Many demi-humans believe they were kept as a way to keep the demi-human and poor human populations down.
Okay. This is messed up. Really… really… messed up. However, why is she telling me to use my abilities to take these things down and heal people? Not only that, but wasn't Gong the one who told me to keep my abilities hidden? There must be a deeper reason for this.
------
"Gong, why are you suggesting I look out for these creatures in particular? I remember you saying I need to use my abilities more carefully, but this seems to go slightly against that. If I save those women, especially if no one else can, then it will be even more revealing of my abilities."
As I say that, she becomes visibly uncomfortable.
"I… had a friend. She was the only one who defended me when I was young. Before I could defend myself. She was the one who made most of these tunnels."
Gong looks off to the side, her eyes watering. Ah. This is a landmine.
"Those monsters took her, one day and… I never saw her again." I can see her lip bunch up. It looks like she's biting her lips pretty hard.
"I couldn't do anything to help her. I just want to make sure that no one else goes through that. When I searched for her, I saw what people turn into. No one. No one deserves that."
She continues after a pause and staring at the ground, "Especially not her."
Still looking down, she continues, "Ju… just consider saving them. If you see anyone in that position. Please?"
There's no way I could say no in this situation. To hell with the hiding, if I saw something like that.
"Yeah. I can do that."
I pause.
Should I go further? Yeah.
"Let me know if you hear anything, I'll check it out.
Her lips quiver, as she mumbles "I've already been helped by you so much and I…"
I cut her right off at that, "Stop. You don't have to worry about things like that between us. Especially for things like this. Just let me know if you see something. I'll see what I can do. That's what friends are for."
At that she takes a moment, but looks up at me with watery eyes. She nods with what seems to be mixed feelings. With a swallow, she seems to collect herself again.
"Okay. Okay." She breathes in and out slowly before continuing.
Chapter 23 - In Depth Planning
After a pause, she continues, "There is something else that we should probably discuss. It's time for everyone to reconvene in the main room. There are a few things we can bring to the table… Are you ready to go?"
At that statement, for some reason, it reminds me of the prompts you would get in a video game. 'Are you sure you are ready to head out? After this point, you cannot turn back…'
Nonetheless, I don't really have any other choice. I'm as prepared as I can think of right now. I know there are things I'm missing, but I think with time and caution… I can go from here.
Plus, there are some things I have to know, like about cultivators and how we can get this started for our group.
Taking this seriously, I nod slowly and stand up. She nods back. She does pause, though.
With a sly smile, she adds, "You should probably wait for your clothes to dry first, before heading upstairs though. I really don't mind if you're naked, though. Really."
Ah. Right. Clothes.
Looking down, I slowly dip back into the water. "I… I'll meet you up there later, then."
"If you want to dry it quicker, there are warm vents and towel wrappers near the walls. I like to dry my clothes at that spot." After that aside, she heads back into the tunnel to the surface.
Well. That was embarrassing.
Looking down at my clothes, my stomach jumps, as I can no longer see even a hint of blood on them. Carried away by the stream.
Like it never happened…
I pause. Emptying my mind. Focusing on what needs to be done. Moving forward.
I have to keep moving. Life doesn't wait for anyone.
After I've fully dried my clothes, I quickly head up to the main room.
As usual, I practice not stepping on the threads. At a glance as I enter, I can see that a large, table-like rock with chairs around it has been setup in the center of the room. I thought this was just a web table before, but from this angle, it's clearly a carved rock. Still covered in webs, though.
Seated in two of the chairs are Lin and Ai. Because of her body's size, Gong is obviously not in a chair, though her legs are folded in closely. They seem to be discussing something intently, which quickly stops as I enter the room.
In particular, Gong seems surprised and is staring at the floor, likely at the transparent threads.
I can only imagine the thoughts she's having on why I seem to miss most of them. I can probably expect her to lay down a few more of them. More practice for me.
Ai turns to me, "Good afternoon James, it's good to see you again." She seems to be in her element, running the discussion.
"Same here. I hear it's time to reveal what we've come up with thus far?"
She nods and continues, "Yeah, though the key question for this discussion will be on what we should do as a group starting from here. Each of us made it through, using unique skills, but some of those may not be as pertinent anymore, now that we have each other."
Gesturing to her sister, who is silent, "Using my sister as an example, she is used to pickpocketing and stealing to help us survive."
It is at this point; I notice the bags under Ai's eyes. "It has taken quite a bit to disabuse her of the notion, that she needs to continue doing that." While Lin seems to be frowning, she isn't disagreeing, so they must have made some progress on that front.
I agree with Ai, though. Stealing and pickpocketing is a slippery slope and not only regarding the crime aspect. It's too risky to do, especially in a cultivation world. From what Lin herself told me about life in this city, it isn't uncommon to find yourself dead from messing with the wrong person. Lin just has more experience in reading people, but even that could fail, eventually. Not only that, it could bring only the wrong kind of attention on everyone.
I feel like I may be slightly hypocritical here.
Huh. Must be my imagination.
I tune back in, "… we believe that Lin's skills are better used in that respect. Reading people is exceptionally good for negotiations. We'll be needing protection though, to show that we can't be pushed around. Gong mentioned she may be able to help on that side."
Gong speaks up, "Yeah, I believe we may have a much easier time of things, thanks to James over here," casually waves toward me. "You may remember he mentioned before we left for here, that he has the ability to tame creatures. In particular, he mentioned insects." Seeing nods in confirmation, she continues, "Well. He was right when he said millions of insects."
Ai and Lin take a deep breath, but seem only a little surprised. Gong doesn't stop though. "In fact, he's already tamed a small army of spiders I was already raising." She gets a little more excited at this point. "And listen to this. He can grant control to specific people. Which, and I know you are already thinking of this Ai, means that we can have patrols and guards setup."
Ai taps the table, "So, does this mean you have full control of the spider army at the moment?"
Not even hesitating, Gong responds, "Yes, though this will be one of the few things that we can allow to be in the open. As you two might know, there were demi-humans in the past that were able to control creatures similar to their spirit-beast side.
"Before James was here, I was able to get some measure of control over my spider bab… army. Since I was an information broker, but needed some measure of protection, I always hinted that I had the ability to overwhelm someone with spiders, if crossed.
"With some creative work, I was able to fool most of them into believing that. Which kept any prying eyes out of my territory."
She takes a breath before continuing.
"With James help, I now have complete control over them. If I pass this along to my contacts, I can exert control over this area… making it a safe place to do business, whatever type of business that is."
Lin speaks up, "Gong, you mentioned before this conversation, that the gangs of this area are territorial. So, they won't take offense to you staking out this area?"
"Not really. This area is outside of the major roads and has been considered mine for a long time… Really, I have my friends both on the inside of one of the bigger gangs and outside of them to thank for that. This area isn't protected by a gang or the city, per se, but is watched over by me. And I had just enough influence to claim it. Now? I have the power to back it up."
Ai interjects, "What about the caverns underground? From what I've seen, many of them extend far deep underground, but also across. Farther than what I guess your 'borders' are."
Rubbing her head, she responds, "Ah, I forgot you wouldn't know, since you are human. You may have noticed on your side of the city, that no one lives in the sewers or digs underground areas, right?"
Ai and Lin look at each other and nod. They also glance at me, but I shrug.
How am I supposed to know?
They make the 'oh right,' face and look back.
"That's because there are a variety of creatures who live underground, with a small number being deadly. Even in these caves, the only reason we can walk around without worrying, is because of the spider army constantly hunting. Most demi-humans don't dig around because eventually a creature will dig up into their underground area… and sometimes that won't turn out well for the demi-human and their family.
"Most times, either in your old section or this one, they won't come even close to the surface. It's a near negligible concern. However, there is always the risk, in this area, of it happening.
"That's also why others avoid this area, since it is covered in these caverns. They believe anyone who could live underground, in the part of the city where most of the monsters live, is dangerous and shouldn't be tested. For the one fool who openly tested that assumption, I had to make an example of them.
After that, I found out they gave me this area because it is dangerous and not worth them clearing out."
At that statement, Ai, Lin, and I look at each other… nonverbally reaffirming to not mess with Gong.
Chapter 24 - Spider Hunks
Gong continues speaking about the underground caves and the creatures within.
"What you all may not know, but have guessed, is that there are openings to the surface in other parts of the city. To my knowledge, while some people know of them, most avoid them. The reason is because of the variety of creatures that live underground.
"To repeat. For those who can't defend themselves, it can eventually be a death sentence. That includes you guys, if you leave this area without support."
She gestures downward, toward the spider den area, "You don't need to worry about this area though. These children here, now fully under my control, can expand even further."
At those words, a thought comes to mind.
Doesn't my ability allow creatures to not have to feed? I better check on that really quick.
A quick scan of the spiders shows that they continue eating as normal, though it appears they only do so as an instinct, so it is less. However, they make sure the area is clear, in accordance with Gong's orders. They are also choosing to breed less, for some reason.
Ooo, they are getting bigger though. That ought to be interesting over time.
Okay, James. Time to tune back in.
"… Sometimes, it's quicker to travel underground, since there aren't as many obstacles. This is especially true, if you don't have to worry about hostile people or creatures."
She pauses.
"So, what does having this large spider army and area to move around in, mean for us? It means that we can transport items from one place to another securely and safely. Not only that, it is in area we can naturally make difficult for anyone else other than us four (and the spiders), to travel through. If we don't look at that aspect, we could also use this even further for information networks."
Lin raises the first question to this, "Are you sure the spiders could carry the items? Even if there are a lot of them, wouldn't it be difficult?"
With a radiant smile, seemingly at being able to show-off, Gong raises her arm.
Out of two tunnels appear two different types of spiders. One is simply a large spider, about half the size of Gong's body. Which is still the size of a car. The other is an extensive collection of spiders. Gong then motions us to step away from the table.
The large spider easily picks up the table. It then weaves a web around it, lugging it on its back. Just as easily, it unweaves the web and places the table back down, web-less. For Ai and Lin, the large number of small spiders does the same thing, lifting it up and covering it in the web by swarming over it. They then move it around, relatively easily in its webbed form.
They are like a wave, working together and lifting it around like a toy, in some ways easier than the big spider.
I'm not surprised, mostly because of all the fictional stories from my world, which take the strength of spiders into account.
Placing the table back down in its original spot, they then surge back down into the tunnels below.
Ai is the first to speak again, "Ah… That was pretty intense. So, I assume we can leave that as an option then. Though this brings something back to the forefront again. Do we really want to transport items using these tunnels as a business? This could be easily interpreted as smuggling or used as such."
Gong seems to be uncomfortable with the idea, as am I. It appears she may have overlooked the optics on that.
I think she's more worried about what could happen to her spiders in that line of work though, rather than the act of smuggling. Guess I should put in my two cents.
"I agree about being concerned about being perceived as smugglers. I'm not sure about you guys, but I want to try to keep things as legal as possible, except in one area. Healing items."
Taking a pause, I consider my words carefully.
"As we know, demi-humans don't have ready access to healing items.
"And while my healing ability could do a lot of good, it isn't a permanent solution. Especially, since I will eventually leave…"
Gong looks a little worried at that notion.
"Oh, don't worry too much about me leaving. I'll always come back when I can and you'll always keep control over the spiders, even when I'm gone."
Continuing on, "From what you all have told me, there is a genuine need for such items and services in this community. I know the first thing that comes to mind, is how do we pay for such things? My answer, is if we can grow and make it ourselves, there will be no need to buy it from others."
Ai and Gong both interrupt at this point, with Ai shaking her head, "James, you may not know this, but there is a hold on the market for seeds and the like to start your own healing gardens. It's basically a closely guarded item. Most of the healing plants with seeds in them have been treated to have their seeds not be able to be planted. This doesn't even include alchemy or cultivation ingredients. Those aren't even close to an option."
Gong follows up, "Not only that, but even if a farm was up and running, there is no way that the city or gangs would allow undefended resources like that to be in the hands of individual demi-hu… wait a second."
She seems to come to an understanding.
"Are you saying that we use the spiders to defend the farms? But what about getting the seeds to start with? Even if we can protect them, they never sell seeds that can actually sprout, unless it's to their own members."
And here is where I can help. "That's where my ability will hopefully come in. This is only a guess, but I believe I might be able to fix the seeds, so they can actually sprout."
They take the time to consider the implications of this. I let them mull over it and continue with some additional thoughts.
"In terms of staying hidden, this could also make those looking to attack the farms cautious. If we only bought a few healing plants and said that there were actually good seeds within it, no one will believe us. They will believe that there is someone backing us. This will be doubly reinforced, when suddenly people with knowledge of using those ingredients emerge."
I think it's a good idea.
Gong then responds, crushing my hopes.
"I really like the thought behind this, but I don't believe it will work. If someone with knowledge comes out and gives away healing items to demi-humans practically for free… they will either be recruited or 'removed'. We want to stay hidden for as long as possible. The only other option, is if you are part of gang yourself and have the approval of the other groups. Even then, you would need to sell the item for demi-humans to believe it wasn't a trap."
She takes a breath.
"I'm not saying it's all bad though, we just need to pick and choose who and what we bring into the fold. Any demi-human that accepts that type of healing needs to disappear and live in these caves. We can then train them and help them live a better life, but become stronger. However, tall trees attract the wind. We should wait until we are strong enough to actively resist gangs and the city to do open actions like that. Or all of this…"
She motions all around,
"Can be taken away in an instant."
Ah, she's right.
This isn't some power fantasy where I can come in and make enormous changes. There are things in this cavern that could cause some major waves.
We don't need to attract that kind of attention. Not until we get powerful enough to stop them, at least. Which also kicks out my idea of using my healing powers for money… Sigh.
"I can understand that, thank you for clearing that up for me."
She nods.
"We are getting close to that level of strength, at least for one group. With the support of others, we could come out into the open. Not yet, but very soon.
"We'll still look into that other stuff though, but just on a much smaller scale and not in terms of profit." She then looks back towards Ai, who then looks back at me.
"Since you mentioned it, what have you been able to come up with, James?" she asks, as the spiders shuffle into a corner of the room.
Ah, it's my turn. I guess I should also mention a thought that came to mind… Remote tracking and healing. Might have to open and honest. Just with these three, though.
Time to fill them in… Mostly.