Vikrum stood, peaceful and satisfied.

  He’d done it, at long last. His Seed was integrated and he was a Cultivator.

  From his form extended a singular Soul Sense tendril. Vikrum had been disappointed to find that he was no stronger than any other new Cultivator, in terms of Soul and Nodes. He had learned of these things from some of his people who had gone through the process before him.

  It seemed that the reason his Seed had required so much Oma, was due to the cost of Infusing his almost-entirely artificial body. It simply required more. He also found that he was little improved, physically. There were some minor increases to his speed and strength and even the working of his synthetic organs and implants, but it was only a difference of a couple percent. Nice to have, but very minor compared to the increase of at least 20-30% that biological matter received.

  Vikrum and Cornwall were unsure why this was. They guessed that it had something to do the manner in which Cultivation changed things. So far as they could tell, it simply made anything and everything “better” by an amount. Vikrum imagined it was harder to make Level 3 augments better compared to simple flesh. There was less room for improvement.

  As to his Soul and Soul Sense, they were, so far as he could tell, at the same level as any other fresh Cultivator. Vikrum was still happy to have one, regardless. He’d learned that not having a Soul made one very vulnerable; his brief encounter with Viper had made that very clear. Now possessing a Soul and true Soul Sense of his own, he would be able to prevent Viper having free reign spiritually.

  Vikrum now knew a decent amount about these matters. He had fully fortified the library—again—and it should be capable now of resisting a repeat assault by Viper. That done, he’d had his people go through the books there. Much had been learned, and efforts were being made to transform all the information into digital, for cataloguing. Cornwall was well suited to such a task.

  There were a few other Cultivators amongst the Chosen, individuals he had financed. They were useful to have, and not just for their abilities in battle.

  Now that he was a Cultivator, he would join their Soul Sense sparring sessions. It was clear that Viper was very experienced when it came to spiritual combat. The next time they clashed, Vikrum intended to be able to match him.

  For now he simply focused on doing what came naturally.

  His mind explored through his body as he travelled mentally via his Soul and Soul Sense. It was interesting, an experience he’d never been privy to before. His mind’s eyes moved through his atmosphere filters and recyclers, and into his fusion-reactor heart.

  This was where his Node had been created, after his Seed had bore into him. Astonishingly, none of the complex machinery was damaged. Somehow the Seed had simply known where to go, and had chosen a spot on the edge of his fusion-reactor where it bordered the atmosphere filters. That was useful, because he understood that it needed some kind of link to the air of the world outside his body in order to generate more Oma. The Seed had sent tiny filaments all through the fusion reactor, which had caused him concern.

  Hardware checks performed by Cornwall had told him that if anything, his fusion reactor had somehow become very slightly stronger. Its material, largely plasteel alongside silicon and copper, had changed very slightly. Cornwall was unable to work out exactly how it had changed, only that it had.

  Vikrum pulled away from the internal process, refocusing on the outside world. He looked to the back of his hand, where his Mark was pulsing. He tapped it.

  Quest Complete: Hero of Humanity

  Reward Available.

  Challenge Complete: Integrate your Seed

  Reward Available.

  He accepted the second, and a statue grew from the ground, a sight he was well used to.

  Three Symbiotes were presented. Vikrum spent quite some time on the choice, engaging in a deep communion with Cornwall, before selecting the best one. It was a powerful “Skin Shield” type Symbiote, which he felt was exactly what he was missing. He didn’t need offensive options, but defensive was always useful. On Earth, shielding technology was a new invention. It was very expensive and required bulky hardware—much larger than would fit in his body. But in this new world, it seemed quite commonplace.

  The next Reward Shrine for his major quest offered only one item, another Symbiote. He took it and Examined it as the statue fell away.

  Symbiote of Change

  Tier: 1

  Type: Any

  Placement: N/A

  A mysterious Symbiote which can fulfil many uses, it acts as a versatile catalyst in spiritual endeavours.

  It is most often used to create a significant addition to ones internal system, or to give great progress to the next stage. It may also be used in Refinement alongside more niche uses.

  Notably, these are typically amongst the most difficult of Symbiotes to break-in. Multiple attempts over a lengthy period of time are often required. But Symbiotes of Change are fickle and unpredictable—one might allow itself to be broken-in instantly, if the circumstances are right.

  The Symbiote of change was a marble of ever-burning white fire. It was cool to the touch but, to Vikrum’s tactile artificial skin, it gave off a faintly tingly, faintly numbing sensatio. It was clearly precious and important. But though the description talked of nothing but its many uses, there was nothing about how he could actually go about doing anything with it.

  He’d have to ask the “Librarians”; as they were becoming known amongst the Chosen.

  Gilvine has returned, Cornwall informed him, sending him a feed from one of the numerous security cameras Vikrum had had installed throughout the compound.

  The Level 2 Cyborg was in a state. She was missing an arm, the dark metal of her form was battered and torn. She also appeared to have lost the anti-material rifle he’d given her.

  It looked like her encounter with Viper had not been easy. Vikrum hoped that she’d at least killed the man, though seeing her state… he wasn’t hopeful. Viper was simply too fucking slippery!

  Regardless Vikrum was actually quite happy to see her so damaged, though irritated by the loss of the rifle. It had cost a significant amount of points.

  He left his room and headed towards Gilvine. He was looking forward to interrogating her about what had happened and showing disdain over her failure. He’d put her under some significant pressure for this.

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  ###

  Some time later Vikrum strode back to his room, fuming. Not only had she lost the rifle—Viper had taken it!

  He’d sent her out with the express purpose of killing him, and instead he’d only grown stronger! With an anti-material rifle in his hands the man was significantly more dangerous than before. Such a weapon was of much more threat to Vikrum than the shotgun Viper had used previously.

  Why had he sent her with that weapon?! Why didn’t you warn me of this possibility, Cornwall? He asked, his ire focusing on his assistant.

  I thought the risk that she might lose it to Viper was implicit with her taking it.

  He scoffed. Evidently not! He never would have let her take such a weapon if he’d realised Viper might seize it from her. He’d thought her more capable, or Viper less capable.

  But in fact, she’d told him that she’d barely even damaged the man. He’d dealt with the rifle via Symbiotes, and none of her other weapons had gotten past his shields. These shields are simply too strong… at least he finally had one of his own.

  Beyond that, all the Chosen he had sent had abandoned his cause. This particular element, he couldn’t blame her for. Those he’d sent had all been Disloyal. He simply hadn’t been able to afford sending any Loyal, because he had been on the cusp. Losing just three Loyal would have seen him unable to complete the quest.

  He’d suspected they might opt to abandon him, though only if the battle had gone poorly, which it clearly had. Fortunately the gear he’d sent with her had been amongst the crappiest available, and ultimately they were no big loss.

  Now at long last, his quest was complete. He no longer had to be so careful about keeping his Loyal number above the quest’s cutoff. Now, he could act freely.

  ###

  Nicolai crept through the jungle. His Soul Sense was tightly shelled, and thus making use of Symbiotes or Imbued was not an option.

  But, with the shimmer poncho, skin suit, and his experience in moving through environments like this, he was able to creep through the brush without issue. He took care to watch out for parasites, and a few large leech-like worms found their way onto him here and there, but they simply crawled over him, bit experimentally at his skin suit to no effect, then dropped off.

  That was the first danger of this place confirmed as no longer a problem. The other danger was a multitude, the large and vicious creatures which made this place their home.

  He was hunting for resources, but this led to a small issue. In order to check whether something was suitable for his Symbiotes, he needed to unShell and spread his Soul Sense.

  He did so by taking his time and making use of drones which flitted through the trees to check his surroundings. There were some casualties to this strategy, as a few were picked out of the air by bloodthirsty beings, but this only served to warn him of their location. He’d been accruing drones simply by killing Chosen.

  When he found something that looked interesting—a clump of odd mushrooms, a plant with shimmering leaves, strange yellow vines—he made sure there was nothing near to him then checked them over.

  So far, no luck. Many of the things he found did seem interesting, and Examining them revealed they were of some value. The kind of things that could be used to feed Symbiotes, but not his Symbiotes, and which could be used to refine Symbiotes, but not via the recipes he knew.

  The care with which he moved was proved entirely necessary by his numerous encounters.

  A moment of utter silence, the jungle seeming to hold its breath around him, as he remained perfectly still halfway in a bush. Something huge moving with similar slow and care as Nicolai employed, creeping between the trees. He heard the heavy huff of its breathing, saw the movement of its head as it slung it side to side, smelling the air.

  It came close but the skin suit worked very well. He released no smells of his own, and had taken care to roll around quite thoroughly in the dirt of this place in order to replace the new-suit smell with that of the jungle. He’d then brushed the dirt off, rolled in it again, and done this a few times.

  He didn’t wear the poncho because it limited his movement a little too much for his tastes in this environment, and because he didn’t think it was necessary. The skin suit’s reactive camouflage did a very good job. It looked over what he was near to, then shifted its pattern to match. This broke up his shape and allowed him to blend into the scenery. Only if he opted to fly in the air would he equip the poncho.

  Some time later he froze again as a spade-like head poked out from the brush. Winding and slithering, a snake thicker than a man and which simply went on, and on, and on, emerged and crawled on past him.

  He saw a gigantic bird, similar to the Bird the centipedes had killed if a little smaller, gripping tight to the branches of one of the many oversized trees in this place, well above of him, digging its beak into its feathers. Stripping away parasites, Nicolai imagined.

  The only time he encountered true issue, however, it was not an animal. It was a plant.

  He was creeping through the jungle, as usual, passing by an odd looking, very large plant. It was as he drew close to it that it struck. The flower suddenly unfurled to reveal teeth and lunged at him.

  Nicolai, utterly focused and primed for anything, reacted instantly. He ducked forwards so it hit the ground behind him and he was in close by its stalk, then shot it with the AA-12, which was silenced. The plant fell quickly and he made an equally quick check for anything valuable with his Soul Sense and by Examining the dead thing. He ended up seizing the petals of its flowers, as to his surprise they transpired to be exactly what he needed; acceptable food for the Grasping and Repulsive Fingers both, which were the two Symbiotes that needed sustainment the most.

  He got moving straight away, as the cracks of the shotgun pellets surpassing the sound barrier were extremely noisy and the silencer only reduced the gunshot itself. Unfortunately, he didn’t go fast enough.

  As he pressed through the trees, something sliced at him.

  Nicolai, ready for anything, had his shield ready and raised it, blocking something that went tumbling away. He unShelled his Soul Sense and immediately found himself in Soul Sense combat as an enemy attacked him, and by tracking its Soul Sense tendril he found it.

  The turtle-like creature was hunkering beside a tree. It was the size of a car and its back was covered in sharp spines. Its Soul Sense was stronger than his but not insurmountably so.

  Nicolai fired on it, aiming for the head, but this seemed a blocky and well defended thing, the bullets glancing off shell-like outcrops on its forehead and cheeks. He aimed for its underbelly which seemed more vulnerable and it let out a low roar of pain before hunching its body protectively.

  The spines floated out of its shell and into the air and they came for Nicolai, directed by Soul Sense. To his surprise, this creature had multiple Soul Sense tendrils. They circled him, and showed him another trick when the creature flicked those tendrils and launched the spines at him, rather than sending the tendrils with the spines which would have allowed him to deflect them with his own Soul Sense.

  He ducked and dodged, avoiding the spines.

  He felt a strange and sudden twisting in the Aura, a ripple from nearby which pulled his gaze. He had begun to turn when something caught him in the back. He gasped with pain as it sunk in, piercing deep into his midsection.

  More spines came in a hail, from every direction, but Nicolai ignored the pain of his insides tearing around the spine as he ducked and weaved, gained a moment to draw on his Rejuvenating Orb and pull the spine out of his back. As the perforation knit back together he activated the Skin Suits self-sealing function, and the area of the tear bubbled as it released sealant material. This was meant to be combined with a function that would inject healing stuff into his wound but he didn’t enable that. The Rejuvenating Orb did a better job.

  Some of the spines now came unpredictably, but he was ready for them. He’d pieced together what had happened when that one caught him from the back. It had been launched by a tendril behind him, one he’d dismissed as it had carried no spine. That had been a trick. Somehow this creature was capable of teleporting spines directly to its Soul Sense tendrils, one at a time. This was the ripple he’d felt, which also told him what to watch for.

  He pulled a grenade while blocking and weaving through the spines, closing ground on the turtle which was hunched up, presenting only its solid shell to him. He tossed the grenade toward it and with the Repulsive Finger pressed on that grenade, cutting its arc as it abruptly zipped straight through the air, passing into the thin gap the turtle had foolishly left between its shell and the ground.

  The thump of the grenades explosion flipped the creature in the air, guts trailing in a tangle, and it crashed onto its back. It had time to flail its legs weakly for a moment before Nicolai arrived to pump lead into every part of its upturned body that looked vulnerable, putting it down for good.

  There wasn’t much time—something would have heard their fight—so Nicolai searched quickly. After investigating its corpse with his Soul Sense, hunting for Symbiotes, he didn’t find one. But he did find that it had a few organs inside of it that shone to his Soul Sense, that seemed like a kind of Natural Resource. He’d learned this was a unique trait of some Spirit Beasts. They didn’t need Symbiotes, because they had sort-of Symbiotic components inside of them that allowed for similar abilities.

  Some quick butchery with one of his knives later, he was shoving a few slick, bloody organs into a bag, then he fled. He could hear the ground thumping and knew that something was coming.

  Fortunately, whatever it was found the corpse and dug in. He could hear the crunching as he slipped away.

  Over the next hour he returned to the elevator, where he took the organs up top to stash them nearby. That done he returned to the jungle and resumed his hunt. He collected anything that looked like Symbiote food, including some that looked as though it might be of use for some of the others, but struggled to find what he actually wanted. Fortunately, in due time his luck changed, and he found the food he was looking for in the form of a beehive. Enough spiritual honey to keep his Blue Hornet healthy for a good while longer.