38 Morteworms

Li Mei whirled around, stumbling back a step in surprise. The last thing she expected was to hear a noise in what she thought was a room she'd already secured, much less a noise so close it made the hairs on her neck tremble!

One of the three mutilated bodies she'd shoved into a corner was arched and contorted into a strange shape, its chest ripped open by hundreds of long black tendrils weaving into something resembling the upper half of a creature's body. It stretched across the lab without touching the ground, hundreds of undulating tendrils weaving together into a stretched slavering maw dripping with black ooze, moving towards the unsuspecting girl watching the hallway.

A string of colorful and creative swears erupted from Li Mei's lips. She created barriers the instant that creature realized it was discovered and tried to clamp down on her body with its odd mouth, blocking it from closing those terrible makeshift jaws.

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[Mature Morteworm Colony (Unstable, Modified)]

Rank 0 (31%)

Parasitic organisms capable of taking root in the digestive system of various species, forming something like a hiveminded colony within the host body. Morteworms are virtually harmless until they reach maturity, at which point they consume their host from the inside out to absorb their strength and abilities. The more worms there are in the colony, the more intelligent and violent the colony becomes.

Mature Morteworm colonies reproduce by attacking potential hosts, injecting the host with hundreds of small larvae that retain some strength of the parent colony. The survival of the host is not essential as Morteworms are fully capable of attaining maturity within a corpse, though this does tend to weaken the future colony and is not preferential.

In an Unstable state, a Mature Morteworm colony has not yet gained control over the powers they absorbed from their host so their Rank is low. This makes them relatively weak and easy to evade.

Once stabilized, the Morteworm colony consumes everything in their path in an attempt to absorb mana to extend their own rapidly dwindling lifespan. They find prey by sensing undulations of mana in their vicinity, and colonies have been known to consume each other to form a larger supercolony with increased ability.

These Morteworms have been modified to increase their growth speed and reproductive rate. It is extremely difficult to get rid of a Morteworm infection; it's recommended to avoid contact and not become a host in the first place.

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Li Mei only glanced at the Scanned info for a moment before she saw the other two bodies convulsing in the corner, black tendrils erupting from their orifices and open wounds.

"Nope! Nope nope no thank you no!"

She rolled out from between the two barriers, dispelling them so the creature's makeshift jaws snapped shut with sudden force. Li Mei scrambled away and out the lab door with all the grace and charm of a newborn giraffe, a tangle of desperate limbs slipping and sliding on the polished floor.

As a child, she once watched a beautiful animated movie about a human girl raised by a forest wolf spirit, and a human boy banished from his clan. In that movie, a giant boar had worm-like things emerging from its body in grotesque ways until its original form could no longer be discerned, and it went mad trying to kill the humans who shot it.

Young Li Mei had many nightmares after that regarding worms emerging from her body and eating her up! Only constant reassurance from teachers and books that such things didn't really happen helped her attain peaceful sleep again.

Go figure her childhood nightmare became a reality! What a horrible world she found herself in! Her fear and loathing regarding worms and things emerging from bodies came back at full force, making her legs tremble as she ran.

Hugging the wall closely enough to almost get friction burn on her side, Li Mei rounded a corner at top speed without a care as to whether or not the Morteworms were in pursuit. She summoned her staff, dispatching a prowling Rake she startled in the next hallway with a single strike to the face empowered by her momentum.

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[Quest Progress - Skillset]

Ambush Kills +1

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'Awful lenient on what counts as an ambush, eh?' Li Mei thought with a wry laugh, glancing from one side of the hallway to the other as she ran. Finally she spotted an open door to an empty room, a mere supply closet lacking anything of interest to the marauding monsters. She dashed inside, closing the door and sealing it with a barrier for good measure.

Inside was dark but she didn't try to find the lightswitch. Li Mei sat on the ground and caught her breath, patting her chest with one hand.

Confined spaces made her feel safe. Enveloping walls promised security - there was nowhere for enemies to lie in wait.

'Unsettled by a few Morteworms, what happened to getting stronger to protect yourself and Bao? Pull yourself together, Li Mei!' She slapped her cheeks, shaking her head vigorously.

Elysium was a dangerous world. It had magic and enemies around every corner. She'd resolved to get stronger, smarter, faster. To do whatever it took in order to survive!

She was already a killer. Once in her past life, and countless times in the new one. Dozens had already fallen beneath her hands, and who knew how many bodies would pile up in her wake in the unknown future?

Good fortune ensured those slain so far were bad people, at least from her perspective, making it easier to live with herself afterwards. There was no pleasure in killing, it was just a fact of her new life.

But death was death and killing was killing no matter what kind of pretty words were used to dress it up. She was a hardened and experienced killer, and shouldn't be freaked out by parasitic corpse worms no matter how horrible and gross they were!

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'Pull yourself together!' Li Mei repeated in her head until her hands stopped shaking.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

...

Exhale.

Li Mei dispelled the barrier, listening for a few long moments. She cracked the door open, listened again, but could neither hear nor Sense anything in the hall.

She slipped out of the supply closet and approached the corpse of the Rake she killed earlier to remove the Core from its body. A small Core, just a pitiful crystallized sliver barely worth 30 mana. Thankfully the Quest didn't require Cores of specific quality or size.

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[Quest Progress - Escape]

Core +1

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It also didn't mind if she absorbed them, so Li Mei guided her mana to break down the Core and replenish some of what had been lost using her barriers willy-nilly.

BANG!

Ka-ta-ta-dan!

She nearly jumped out of her skin as a metal grate over a nearby vent launched across the hallway and fell to the floor with a clatter. Hundreds of long, black, oozing tendrils surged out of the vent and fell to the floor with a symphony of repulsive wet slaps.

Morteworms.

Wiggling, writhing, wet.

"This place is horrible!" Li Mei screeched and took off running once more, all color drained from her face.