++Most magical creatures Evolve clumsily and poorly, accidentally hitting at least the limits of their own Tier long before they manage to improve it. For this reason, it can be assumed that, for instance, any Tier 3 creature is at least a match for the very limit of Attributes available to one of Tier 2. The natural exception to this is in those rare creatures with especially potent powers, for instance the notorious Varkuun vampires, who might ‘punch above their weight’, so to speak.++
Book 2: Chapter 3
+1 Charisma
+1 Strength
+1 Toughness
+1 Speed
+1 Charisma
+1 Celerity
Name: Reginald Smith
Age: 21
Race: Blood Courtier [Inheritor Race, Tier 2]
Class: None
Attributes:
(S)Strength 39(+12)/49
(P)Speed 39(+12)/52
(P)Celerity 39(+12)/52
(S)Toughness 39(+12)/49
(P)Charisma 15(-12)/52
Abilities:
Blood Magic II
Form of the Beast II
Royal Presence I
Traits:
Enhanced Senses I
Regeneration II
Addictive Ichor
Reggie had sucked down another six soldier ants, and at this point his only concern was that it was getting hard to find more. Hard to find any ants at all, actually.
He kept searching and managed to get his hands on one or two of the smaller drones. The poor things; not too bright, they tried to fight him. At this point he wasn’t even that hurt when their mandibles found purchase on his limbs, and they were really just walking snacks more than anything.
Good for refilling his ichor, which was constantly being burned up by over-indulgence in Shape of The Beast and Blood Magic. Not good for actually strengthening himself. So Reggie kept searching.
His search was going…weirdly. Reggie was finding holes, but none were actually big enough for him. His shoulders weren’t broad the way a really strong man’s were, but they were apparently wider across than the slender bodies of an ant drone.
Not a soldier, though, so what were these passages for?
[I think they’re for larva, that probably leads deeper into the nest. I bet you’ll find tons of powerful soldier ants down there Reggie!]
Dvo hadn’t spoken up for a while before then, and he sounded utterly guileless as usual.
Except, usually, he was saying things so extreme that Reggie would never humour doing them. That he’d bided his time and kept quiet until now, when Reggie was actually pondering an important decision, was…Hm.
Reggie started clawing away at the holes to widen them, finding, fortunately, only a few feet of material between himself and the passage behind them. Dvo remained silent during it, but there was an undeniably sulky air to his presence that made Reggie think he wasn’t just imagining the attempt at reverse-psychology. That wasn’t good, if Dvo was learning new tricks then Reggie would actually have to be careful listening to him from now on. But that was a concern for later, the digging was for now.
Whatever it was these ants made their homes out of, it wasn’t as durable as actual stone. Reggie had tested his claws and his strength on that back at the castle. He’d hurt himself trying to break true granite, in larger chunks at least. He still wouldn’t be punching right through a stone wall any time soon, but he’d found it easy enough to break fragments of the stuff by smashing them into each other at least.
This was easier still, feeling more like he was clawing at wood than rock. Reggie had tried his strength against wood, back at the castle, too, and he’d found it an easily conquered thing. Whole trees had dents left in them where he punched them, and the thinner saplings were fragile enough that he’d been able to slice them down in a single claw-stroke.
So it really didn’t take him long to get past here.
Reggie was pleased to see the tunnel open up once he got through the tighter hole. He was able to stand upright and, though it was darker here than in the other parts, still see a good few dozen paces ahead of him. Vampiric night vision really was one of his handier powers, and the Trait responsible for it was still only at its first Tier.
He pondered that as he went deeper and stretched out his brains trying to compare the sights around him now to the memories lurking in his head from the first nest he’d entered. That one and this one had been pretty similar in layout, almost identical in fact. Was there just some logical way to build such a thing that the ants converged on without communicating between nests?
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
No, that didn’t sound right. The geography of the grimwoods was completely different to back there, they’d have to make different turns to avoid tree roots and stuff. So what was it?
Whatever the cause of the similarities, Reggie wasn’t getting any more use out of them now.
He had to navigate the brute force way, committing every turn he took to memory and comparing it with the others. Fortunately, he had a pretty good sense of direction. Or a good recollection, at least. The mental map forming in his head remained consistent and accurate, he verified as much by deliberately backtracking a few times to test it before daring to go deeper. Better safe than skewered.
Reggie wasn’t encountering any more ants. That was concerning. It was concerning for the obvious reason, his dwindling ichor supplies, but also, more sinisterly, for the simple fact that it was a change to a previously smooth order of events, and therefore an inherent cause to be on guard.
[You’re going to die in here.]
Dvo was trying to drive him into it, or…he’d figured out that reverse psychology wasn’t working, so was trying inverted reverse psychology. Which was just…psychology?
Now Reggie was getting confused. And what did psychology do, anyway? As far as he’d seen, it mostly involved locking crazy people in cages and hitting them with sticks
Don’t get distracted.
Right. Reggie was at the most dangerous point he could be, right now. Heading deeper into unknown territory and glutted on newfound strength. It wasn’t weakness or slowness that’d kill him, in all likelihood, but cockiness. If nothing else, that was far more easily prevented.
He went deeper, and now his ears were starting to pick up sounds. Scraping, claws on the ground. Soldier ants? Yes, by the weight of them. Something else too, though. Reggie had almost worked it out when the sound started drawing closer, too fast for him to react before it reached him. Then he saw the biggest ant yet rearing right up ahead.
It had to be almost twice the size of a soldier ant, probably eight feet high, except it was different too. Moving on its hind legs, with four limbs held out ahead of it rather than only two. Its jaw was wider and mandibles sharper, armour thicker, body faster despite the added weight. Reggie considered that he was in trouble.
Fortunately, Reginald Smith had a tactical mind like no other. Utilising the full potency of his thick, meaty intellect he turned around and started running away as fast as his legs could carry him. He was just barely back before the ant’s forelimbs could close down around him, feeling them snag his clothes. Then it was just a race.
This time, though, there were two running legs on each side, at least at first.
It took long moments for the ant to start running properly, by then Reggie had already closed almost to the opening he’d been venturing through. He threw blood back behind him in brittle pellets that, by the sounds he heard, hit home but did little to hurt his enemy. Then he was in the hole, and scrambling through it.
Another stroke of luck, this time found when his pursuer’s size turned from advantage to disadvantage.
Reggie could fit through, and the much larger ant couldn’t. What it could do, though, was smash at the surrounding wall, which Reggie was now much less pleased to remember had a strength more akin to wood than stone, and start making its way for him. Just a few feet of material between them, and it was eroding fast.
Not fast enough though, Reggie was miles away before he heard the sound of crumbling matter and a screaming ant. He’d had more than enough time to find and widen another hole, wasting no time in crawling through it to continue deeper himself.
Okay. New threat then, a big one.
“Sycily, what was that?”
That was a praetorian ant.
“It was big.”
It is a Tier 3 creature, I would have warned you to flee from it if you hadn’t already.
“Stronger than me then?”
Yes, by far.
Figured, the gap between a drone and a soldier ant was big enough. Not that Reggie had run because of some deep calculation, himself. It’d just been big and fast, and apparently undeath hadn’t quite killed the deeper, animal parts of his brain that felt panic.
Reggie’s more deliberative response was not to keep running, but to proceed cautiously. He took the time to clear out a few more holes for himself so he’d not be wanting for exits, then, using his already mapped-out area as a reference, explored deeper. Again, a stroke of luck.
There weren’t that many praetorians. Easily avoided.
There weren’t that many other kinds of ants either, but Reggie was getting better at picking them out through the tunnels by hearing and scent.
+1 Charisma
+1 Speed
+1 Toughness
Name: Reginald Smith
Age: 21
Race: Blood Courtier [Inheritor Race, Tier 2]
Class: None
Attributes:
(S)Strength 39(+12)/49
(P)Speed 40(+12)/52
(P)Celerity 39(+12)/52
(S)Toughness 40(+12)/49
(P)Charisma 16(-12)/52
Abilities:
Blood Magic II
Form of the Beast II
Royal Presence I
Traits:
Enhanced Senses I
Regeneration II
Addictive Ichor
It was getting hard to remain enthusiastic. His progress was so slow. Reggie did a quick mental tally, then checked his maths. 56 more kills before he achieved his goal of hitting the absolute limits of what a Tier 2 Blood Courtier could achieve, Attributes-wise at least.
He really wanted that strength before he went up a Tier, but was forced to consider now.
“Sycily, how strong am I for a Tier 2?”
Extraordinarily so. Your Shape of The Beast appears more powerful than the variant known to other vampires, and that is already among the most innately combat-capable Abilities within the System.
He got thinking about that, and he kept thinking through another soldier ant.
Celerity +1
Reggie didn’t want to worsen his weaknesses, or feeding restrictions. But at this rate he looked to be soon running low on tier 2s anyway. He’d already depopulated a lot of the woodlice from the region, and if he got into the habit of travelling far for more, sooner or later, he’d run into a wolf spider or something similar.
That got him thinking more. Wolf spiders seemed to be looming ahead in Reggie’s imminent future, no matter what. He kept searching for a soldier ant, found none, then stumbled onto a praetorian instead. It hadn’t seen him, head turned the other way down the tunnel.
It certainly saw him after Reggie jumped it, though. He lunged into the air and skewered both sets of outstretched talons right into the crease where armour plating met the carapace of its head, driving them…about an inch deep. Blood spurted out, but not much. Then it was turning.
Reggie’s legs locked around its waist and he turned one hand into a grip, sliding talons under the armour plating while the others dug deeper into the crevice they were already stabbing. It was actually hard, doing so much at once, to focus on drawing out the ant’s blood simultaneously. He just about managed.
Tier 3, which meant stronger than him, which meant he was probably speeding up its blood loss by about a tenth. Maybe it’d be unconscious if he somehow kept fighting it for an hour, in the meantime it’d figured out he wasn’t coming free of its back and started rushing for a wall fast. Reggie braced himself.
Compared to the impacts he’d felt fighting that cockroach, it wasn’t much. Reggie actually thanked the praetorian for the first one, because it ended up driving his talons deeper and letting another burst of vitae bubble out from where they bit in. The second slam was less productive, and more destructive. The third was still more so.
Reggie came loose on the fourth, falling away and feeling his body wetted as blood spilled atop it. He scrambled from the ant, felt a limb clip his back and went flying across the tunnel to land, roll, spring back up.
Then watch it charging for him again.
