Chapter 206: Loop 2, Day 5 (2)

Chapter 206: Loop 2, Day 5 (2)

Looking down on where the river met the lake, the rushing water dropping the length of a great many not-Needles and finding its home below, I felt a surge of excitement. Finally, after the last few days of gathering my forces, I was nearly ready to face the leviathans of the depths again.

Already, I could see one of them far out in the distance; it broke the surface of the lake, mouth yawning wide to display its many jagged teeth, the many tendrils that spread from its lower jaw forcing the water to violently churn. Its form was highlighted by the sheer brightness of the surrounding mana-water, a brilliant blue expanse that stretched thousands of slithers in every direction. I could even make out the appearance of a few of the bad-things that I had captured on my way. A Blueswift here, a Tanglesting there. Even a Razorfin or two, a type of swimming bad-thing that I had only found a few of so far, their far-smaller forms fleeing from the giant bad-things gaping maw.

Before it could get away, one of the Razorfins was caught within the wake of the leviathans tendrils, pulled back by the violently churning waters. A mouth snapped shut, and the Razorfin vanished.

I hissed in distress. I wanted that Razorfin for myself; I still didnt know what Trait they would give.

While I was interested in finding out, that would have to wait. The bad-things wouldnt be so easy to catch in the lake. I couldnt stretch threads all the way across, and there was little in the way of currents to force them against it anyway.

Not to mention the threat that the leviathans posed.

Id have to convert them, first. Then, when the lake was claimed by the Great Core, I would feast. Then, I would discover what the bad-things held for me.

I twined my way up a nearby spore-puppet, beating back my instinctive revulsion at the touch of its leg against my scale-flesh. Reminding myself that, as ill it might have made me to be so near the many legs of a many-legged bad-thing, you couldnt just catch legs. They werent a disease, even if they were the designs of a diseased mind. It didnt work like that. Hopefully.

If it did, Id have to kill myself. The Great Core would surely understand. Some things just had to be done.

Wrapping myself around my spore-puppets underbelly and clinging tight, I began the descent. A vast number of my spore-puppets, the one that I had wrapped myself around included, started to scale down; long threads and grasping legs let them almost float down to the lake below, forming deep lines of black that outlined the falling river. Those that remained above immediately set to creating new thread-traps, stretching the tangling fibers across the raging water. The traps might not have been useful down in the lake, but they would still work above, gathering more bad-things for me to consume while I accomplished what needed to be done below.

We reached the bottom. Many, many legs stretched down. They found purchase on the narrow stretch of stone that spanned the lakes shore. A thought-hiss forced my puppets to turn, attempting to snip through their threads now that they were no longer needed.

Blinded by the lakes light, many of them missed.

I hissed in agitation, focusing enough to send thought-hiss after thought-hiss to each of the blinded spore-puppets, adjusting their movements myself. Just as I feared, the Darkweavers were weakened by the nearby light; even as spore-puppets, the blinding light was enough to disorient them. Weakened as they were, fighting the leviathans was a lost cause.

It was a good thing that I had so many, and that I never planned on a fair fight in the first place.

Because, with their help, I eventually managed what I set out to do. Something that, hopefully, I would manage to repeat in any future lives.

I made a thread-trap fit for a leviathan.

Lesser Core Skill: [Life - Vitality XI] Increased.

[Life - Vitality XII] Acquired.

Lesser Core Skill: [Life - Vitality XII] Increased.

[Life - Vitality XIII] Acquired.

Lesser Core Skill: [Life Essence Manipulation VI] Increased.

[Life Essence Manipulation VII] Acquired.

Lesser Core Skill: [Life - Vigorous Spores IV] Increased.

[Life - Vigorous Spores V] Acquired.

Lesser Core Skill: [Life - Vigorous Spores V] Increased.

[Life - Vigorous Spores VI] Acquired.

Lesser Core Skill: [Life - Vigorous Spores VI] Increased.

[Life - Vigorous Spores VII] Acquired.