Reward available.

  Claim, thought Nicolai, and a statue rose before him. It was, as he’d half suspected, a statue of an Angel, though at significantly reduced scale. This one very closely resembled the Angel he’d freed.

  Reward Shrine - Tier 2 (Special)

  This Reward Shrine allows one to select. They may either receive a standard Tier 2 Reward Shrine, or a Tier 1 Symbiote Shrine.

  This particular shrine depicts an Upper Denizen, an agent of Heaven. Upper Denizens come about either when a Denizen is raised by Heaven, the result of some great act and loyal comportment, or when an unusually powerful being becomes a Denizen.

  On the statue’s outraised hands floated golden words. Symbiote Shrine on the left, Reward Shrine on the right.

  After a moments deliberation, Nicolai chose the Symbiote Shrine. He wanted more Symbiotes, and so far he hadn’t seen anything particularly groundbreaking from the standard shrines. The one that had given him his poncho had been Tier 2, which suggested it would offer similar things; guns and tools. He’d rather a Symbiote, especially since he hoped this Symbiote Shrine would be tailored to his current situation.

  He currently had no Symbiotes for lungs or windpipe, and he was hopeful that the shrine might offer such. The last one had only given him heart Node Symbiotes, but that then he’d only had a heart Node.

  After he tapped the left hand, the Angel fell away and a new statue rose. This depicted some kind of weird bobbly little man, quite rotund with a round, childlike face that wore an irritatingly smug expression. A Symbiote was in each of its outraised hands and another balanced on its head. Nicolai did his best to ignore that as he looked over the three Symbiotes on offer, a smile working its way onto his face. Here it is. These things always made him happy.

  One of them immediately drew his eye, because it was crackling with little sparks of electricity or perhaps lightning. This one resembled a little blue-white firebug, sparks in its belly, and its wings were vibrating as it hovered quietly over the statues hand.

  The next was a little pale worm which had turned in on itself to form a circle, laying still. The Aura pulsed gently around it, releasing faint Aura ripples.

  The last was just a weird blob with tubes emerging from it. It was… blobbing around on the stone.

  First he tapped on the statue itself, examining it.

  Symbiote Reward Shrine - Tier 1

  This Reward Shrine grants Tier 1 Symbiotes.

  This particular shrine depicts a Lower Denizen of the Merkattel Race. Known for their charm, wit, and deviousness, they are often found working in finance and trade.

  Next he tapped on the Symbiotes, one by one.

  Charging Flashbug Symbiote

  Tier: 1

  Type: Lightning

  Placement: Lung

  This support Symbiote allows the Cultivator to generate lightning energy, which may be used by other Symbiotes. Once activated, simply breathing generates lightning, and this may increase not only the speed but also the total amount of lightning energy generated.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Comes with ten days of food.

  Meditating Paleworm Symbiote

  Tier: 1

  Type: Oma

  Placement: Lung

  This support Symbiote allows the Cultivator to draw in slightly more Aura, increasing their rate of passive Oma regeneration.

  Comes with ten days of food,

  Sweet Taste Tuber Symbiote

  Tier: 1

  Type: Poison

  Placement: Windpipe

  Commonly used by assassins, this Symbiote allows the Cultivator to breathe out poisonous vapours. These vapours slowly diffuse around the Cultivator, and can be directed by the Cultivator’s Soul Sense—though they are difficult for others to detect. Those afflicted by the poison grow increasingly lethargic, until they eventually fall asleep. The vapour is colourless and has only a faintly sweet smell, difficult to notice.

  Comes with ten days of food.

  His smile grew. He’d been right, the rewards were tailored to his situation, and perhaps even him as a person. All of them could be of use. However, he immediately fixated on the Charging Flashbug. The Blue Lightning his Hornet created was very powerful, it had been the deciding factor in a number of fights and helped close the gap against augmented individuals. But it had limitations.

  The main limitation was its slow rate of generation. Even moving as rapidly as possible, it still took up to a minute. With this… he wasn’t sure if the problem would be solved, exactly. The descriptions never went into the kind of exhaustive detail he would have preferred. But it should certainly generate at least a bit faster—hopefully significantly faster—and it looked like he would be able to generate the lightning simply by breathing, which would be useful if he was unable to move. If he was right, it could be very useful.

  The Meditating Paleworm was, he felt, of less immediate use. Currently he wasn’t suffering from any particular issues when it came to Oma, sending people into the mines to gather them for him had paid significant dividends.

  The Sweet Taste Tuber was, perhaps surprisingly, not particularly appealing to him. Heaven—or whoever chose the rewards—had misstepped with that one. Poison had never been a method of choice for him. He had made use of it, here and there, but generally only because the client had requested it as the target’s manner of death. He had always preferred to simply shoot people. It was much faster and held minimal risk of killing the wrong person; which, to his mind, was the sort of thing only amateurs and terrorists did. He was a professional.

  The Charging Flashbug it was. He simply reached out and seized it, his Soul Sense flaring, ready to take the lightning hit and making sure he held it in a way where any spasming of his fingers wouldn’t crush it.

  To his surprise it didn’t strike him, instead it just tried to escape in the moment it had. This was in vain as he simply held it in his hands, and in short order it grew still as his Soul Sense squeezed it.

  Nicolai was better at this sort of thing, now. He worked on keeping it under pressure it as he moved across the towertop and retrieved the M99, removing it from where he’d affixed it, retrieving the grips, then slinging it over his back.

  He took the time to move rapidly through the area, using the Grasping Finger and Pegasi ring, until he’d found a nicely secluded tower nestled amidst taller ones. He’d wanted to move away from where he’d fired the anti-material rifle, as there was a chance the noise of its firing might lead someone or something to come and investigate.

  There he settled down, bade Threat Analysis to keep an eye on the surroundings, and started work breaking in the Symbiote.

  After only a bit over thirty minutes—which was a personal record, if he discounted that time one of them had simply given up—he successfully broke the Symbiote in. It dissolved into motes of light that sank into him, and went, as all of them did, to his heart Node.

  Nicolai directed it from there to his lung Node, then rose from where he’d sat while activating both the Charging Flashbug and Blue Hornet.

  The following moments saw Nicolai moving in a blur across the rooftops as he boxed with the shadows, and he took quick, short breaths, taking in as much fresh oxygen as possible.

  He learned that he had to direct the new Symbiote. Lightning energy began to gather around it, within his lung Node, and he sent that energy out. It moved more through his Soul than his body, and emerged on his skin, merging easily with the Blue Lightning crackling over him.

  Nicolai timed how long it took until the Blue Lightning reached its peak where it was ready to be launched. It took roughly half as long. But the Blue Lightning didn’t stop there, where it had always ceased gathering before. It continued to accrue until he was practically wreathed in it. After the same time as it would normally take to charge, he found a new peak had been reached.

  He kept moving a little longer, because he found his movements slightly sped up from the norm. Being wreathed in the Blue Lightning always made him slightly faster, and now that had been pushed a little further. Not so much, he felt. If previously he had been 10% faster, now he was 15% faster. Still, nice to have.

  He took aim at a handy outcrop of stone with Soul Sense and the lightning crackled over his arm. Nicolai attempted to squeeze all of what covered him into the forming Art, but found himself, or perhaps more accurately, the Blue Hornet, unable. He could feel the Symbiote under sudden strain, unable to go any further, and he fired the Art.

  The same thumb-thick bolt as always burst from his outstretched hand, connecting him to the outcrop of stone for a frozen moment.

  Nicolai stared thoughtfully at that outcrop, and considered the lightning still covering him. It felt about enough.

  A moment later a second bolt struck out, and he grinned, suddenly very, very pleased by the new Symbiote.

  Two bolts instead of one, slightly increased speed, and half the charge time. All taken together it was a significant improvement.

  Back to base.