With a hundred mana in reserve in his crystal, Tom hurried towards the nearest hive. Wasps swept by and he disregarded them.
Up close, he realised the mound of dirt was not what he had expected. It was not made of earth or rock; instead it was a resin that had been pasted together. Lots of wasps were attacking him, but for now, Tom ignored them as he examined the hive. The resin soaked up light; it was a dark, mostly opaque substance. He was sure if he chipped bits away and held it up to the sun it would act as a heavily stained glass and let light through. What was clear was it was not rock. The mound was also large. Subconsciously, he had been aware of its dimensions, but up close there was no longer any chance to delude himself. It was fifty percent taller than him and almost three metres wide.
If his plan was to bash this into little pieces, it was going to take a bit of effort.
More wasps were spinning around him, stinging him constantly. For this test, he had turned off pain resistors all over his body. It was not traditionally the smartest move to limit his pain, but he was interested in seeing if he could tank the damage with just the healing granted by his new skin.
His mana pool hovered between twenty-three and four, fluctuating down a point occasionally, and that was purely a result of the cost of maintaining his pain resistance and the occasional flash of Touch Heal. The wasps without their poison and with his upgraded skin were not doing sufficient damage to bother his healing abilities.
Zap.
Electricity started on the top of his head and arced down, running over his shoulders, down his arms, and then fizzled down his thighs. Small, dangerous wasps died under the crackling energy, and the tiniest wisp of smoke came from all the fried bodies. The intricate wave of energy reached to just under his knees before it was depleted and could go no further. Five mana failed to kill all the bugs that had been assaulting him.
Fried insects dropped around him, and he coughed as the combined smoke from a hundred dying bugs clogged up his airways.
The acidic smoke in his lungs and the taste of burnt wasps on his tongue were not pleasant.
Even though he had wiped out the layer of bugs on him, more descended. They seemed to be more enraged, and so many swarmed him at once that he needed to shut his eyes.
Despite the assault, his mana ticked up rapidly, and he was fully topped up by the time his count reached a hundred. The entire time, he healed through the minor damage. It was inefficient to heal continuously rather than waiting until a chunk was built up to be dealt with at once. Tom did it anyway; he wanted to get a feel for the interaction of his new skin, combined with a bit of Touch Healing. It only took half of his regeneration.
It was a massive difference from yesterday.
More confident than before, he prepared his next spell. Static electricity reached out and gave him a sense of the hundreds of insects around him. Internally, he assigned a specific amount of energy to each of those wasps.
ZAP!
Twelve mana lashed out, and briefly lightning bubbled out from his head and spread like a cascading waterfall in every direction, spreading an arm’s length away from him and right down to his ankles. This time, he held his breath while the toxic smoke cleared.
Zap.
More bugs fell around him. They landed as good as silently, but the visual effect was spectacular.
Zap.
Tom checked his mana pool. He was down to eight, and his crystal was still untouched.
No other bugs emerged to attack him.
Interesting, he thought it was possible that he had depleted all the reserves of this particular mound.
No bugs were emerging. It appeared dead.
Curiously, he walked around the mound and studied it from different angles. From what he could observe, the hive was symmetrical at a macro level with irregular exit points. Numerous smaller holes combined with less frequent larger ones the size of his fist. Tom grimaced a little at those, especially after he looked at one and confirmed the wider diameter plunged into the hive and did not narrow at any point.
Nature was nothing if not efficient. There was a reason for those larger holes, and it was one he was not looking forward to discovering.
He scuffed at the ground, using his bare toes to scrape away the dirt. The resin descended in a smooth line into the earth, and even when he used his hands to deepen the initially shallow hole he had created, the resin continued unimpeded downwards.
Finally, he returned to his initial spot, standing just to the right of where all the burnt wasp husks laid.
Zap.
Eight more wasps died.
During his detailed examination, his mana had almost ticked up to full once more.
What should he do now?
He approached one of the holes in the structure and extended a finger. Mentally, he focused on directing Spark to travel through the hole without touching the sides.
Zap.
The instant the spark got into the structure he lost domination of the energy, and it shorted out into the crystal lattice.
Curiously, he tried the same at a bigger hole with extra mana. He kept control of the energy for ten centimetres before the same effect happened and the arc of electricity grounded itself on the crystal.
Damn.
The crystal was conductive. He took a thoughtful step back. That was the sort of loss of control that he rarely suffered unless he was trying to electrocute something four metres away, which was currently almost a hard limit on the Spark spell. The restriction was a pity. If he had been able to stand outside the structure and fry everything else within, that would have been ideal.
Things weren’t supposed to be easy in Existentia; DEUS’s trial had hammered that point home.
With an annoyed sigh, he walked forward and started kicking the resin with his feet.
Thump. Thump.
There was a slight echo within it, but he did not hear cracking or splintering.
Thump.
Zap.
The five wasps that had boiled out of the hive to fight his presence died instantly.
Thump.
He was not doing any damage. There was an abrupt thrumming, and four wasps that were at least five times larger than the regular ones burst out. Their stingers were over two centimetres long, rather than the barely perceivable ones on the normal wasps. Long enough to easily have gone through any of the thick clothes and armour they had been using to ward off the smaller insects.
Stolen story; please report.
Battle instincts kicked in.
His right and left hands came up, each targeting different wasps.
Zap. Zap.
Two insects died in a blaze of electricity. Then Tom remembered why he was doing this, and he pulled back his hand before he blasted the last couple to oblivion. They both plunged towards him.
Flinching, he used the palm of his hands to block them both..
His skin stretched and briefly resisted, and then their stingers sank in. Poison pumped into his hands safely quarantined in an extremity, just in case it was a new type.
There was a stinging pain that exceeded what could have been inflicted by the physical wounds.
Healing Tranquillity triggered, but even as he rushed to assess and purge the poison with Touch Heal, his body countered the poisons automatically. The poison was neutralised, and all that was left for his healing to soothe were the punctures. Both wasps pulled out and retreated, preparing for another strike. Tom was not sure what he had gleaned from the encounter. More venom than the normal wasps because he had felt the stinging pain briefly. How much poison had been injected?
A lot was his non-scientific answer. When a hundred smaller wasps had assaulted him, there had been almost no pain, at least from the venom, but a single large wasp had created a reaction. His immune system had countered it, so it wasn’t more potent. The problem is, it was injected in larger volumes. Ten, twenty, thirty times more? He couldn’t tell, but just comparing the mass of the large wasp to the smaller ones, the estimate was in the right range.
He had been right to keep the others away. If that much more venom was being injected, a single sting would kill anyone not immune to their venom. He suspected even Michael or Everlyn might struggle.
Zap.
Both bugs died as lightning crackled out and he snatched up the bodies and retreated to their built-up area.
Everlyn was waving her little netting around. ”Big ones now?” She asked. Her face was covered, but her tone was pouting. “Not sure this little thing will work anymore.”
Tom held up a single insect. “I think if you struck it dead centre….”
Lightly, Everlyn swung her net and brought it to a halt over the top of the insect. It was larger than the insect. Barely.
“See,” Tom said with a grin. Everlyn laughed and Tom handed over the insects to her. “I think they’ll one-sting-kill everyone else. Do we have anyone who can check?
Zap.
The increased cloud of wasps around Tom was burnt to a crisp.
Everlyn nodded and accepted all four of the larger wasps and disappeared back to the shelter.
Michael moved up next to him. “My god! Jeffrey’s a tool.”
Tom laughed. “What’s he done now?”
“Nothing too bad. He’s doing a good job keeping everyone’s spirit up, but his decision-making remains poor. I can’t believe he called you Useless.”
“You did that too.”
“I was only ever doing in jest.”
“I know.” Tom lowered his voice. “But in Jeffrey’s defence, if you don’t understand the system, it’s an easy mistake to make.”
Michael patted Tom on the shoulder. “Mate, you’ve spent too long alone. You don’t have to accommodate idiots, at least when they’re not around.”
“You’re right,” Tom agreed. “But I’m going to do my best to support any human and create unity. I’ve chosen my path, and that’s to ensure that my family and friends have a future.”
“It’s never that simple, and you definitely need to be more political.”
Tom chuckled again. “Not my skill set. Don’t get me wrong. I could do it, but it isn’t the best use of my time.”
“On my count, I’m eighty-three. How old are you?”
“Younger. Maybe sixty, possibly seventy.”
Michael nodded at that response. “As your elder, I’m going to give you some advice. Don’t distance yourself.”
“You’re barely my elder.”
“There might be ten years difference; and in terms of this,” Michael waved at the hard packed dirt and then at that wider world. “You have me beaten. I can see that. But in actual life experience. Living and interacting with real humans, I have sixty years. What do you have: twenty-five, thirty, forty?”
“Twenty,” Tom admitted quietly.
He almost jumped as Michael threw an arm over his back and gave him a one-handed hug. “You poor man.” There were a couple of firm slaps before Michael dropped his arm to his side. “Forty, fifty fucking years. How the fuck are you sane?”
“I had a companion for a while.” Tom shrugged. “And maybe I’m not sane.”
“You do a good act, Useless.”
He glanced sideways and was sure Michael was smiling, but behind the clothes tied over the other man’s face he couldn’t tell. “Is that really going to be my nick-name?”
“Amongst your friends, maybe. If Jeffrey says it again, there are a dozen of us who will jump him.”
“Thank you.”
“We’ve got your back, Tom. But what are you thinking?” Michael nodded towards the hive.
“I’m thinking tomorrow I’ll start destroying hives.”
Michael pointedly looked at the sky. There were clearly hours of sunlight yet. “Why tomorrow?”
“I told you yesterday I got some titles, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did.”
“One of them was Vitality Font. I got it for raising my vitality by twenty-five percent in a single day by natural needs.”
“Very impressive.”
“I want to try a similar thing with strength.”
Michael studied him. “Touch Heal?”
Tom nodded.
The other man snorted. “Do you think biology here will actually work like that? The same way as back on Earth.”
“It seemed to in the trial.”
Another snort. “Of course, it did for you. What was it? Bench pressing rocks till your arms gave way? Heal, then rinse and repeat?”
“And squats, chin-ups with rocks strapped to my feet. Basically, anything I could think of.”
“What did Vitality Font grant?”
“A point of vitality, every level.”
A stillness entered the man next to him that told Tom that he had retreated to the system room.
A moment later, he moved again. “Sorry, Useless. Just checking my attributes. My vitality is forty-eight. That’s twelve points. In the trial, once I got a natural mana point and vitality on the same day. I was ecstatic. To get twelve points in a single attribute in one day.” Michael shook his head.
“I only needed nine. But for strength, if I slip up and get a point today, then I require ten tomorrow to get the title. So, no exertion today.”
“And you figure a day swinging a hammer too heavy for you might get you there?”
Tom nodded. “But if we can get a small hammer, it’ll probably be worthwhile for me to work out how the hive is structured tonight.”
“We’ll support you.”
“Don’t you need to run that by Jeffrey?”
Michael doubled over, laughing. “That idiot has a posse of eight lackeys, but everyone else merely tolerates him like the politician he is.”
“Talking about Jeffrey, I see,” Everlyn piped in, coming up and catching only the last bit of Michael’s comment. “About?”
“Wait,” Michael ordered. “I’ll get you a hammer.”
He left, leaving him alone with Everlyn. Insects continued to sweep him towards him and got zapped.
“I don’t need this crap, do I?” With a relieved sigh Everlyn pulled off her covering and headgear. She had beautiful, flowing auburn hair. It only dropped to her shoulder, but it almost glowed. Pretty, smart, and with great hair.
Well, out of your league mate, he thought to himself before turning away embarrassed at having stared for as long as he had.
Zap.
He felt the girl jump as the arc of electricity zapped a wasp just on the other side of her.
“Sorry, it was getting too close.”
Everlyn laughed. “Listen, if something deadly is about to kill me, you’re more than welcome to scare me to save me. Do you want the bad news?”
“Or good first?” he asked, turning to look at her.
She shook her head a small smile on her lips and blue eyes. “Nope. No good, just bad.”
“Sure.”
“You were right.”
“That doesn’t sound that bad to me,” he responded before he could help himself.
She struck him lightly on his shoulder. “Confident much?”
Idiot, he thought to himself, that was both arrogant and insensitive. Tom shook his head in denial.
“Don’t look so down,” she said, squeezing his arm. “I appreciate the effort to make me laugh.”
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. She did not appear pleased and was instead just trying to make him feel better. Probably a ‘Don’t piss off the person you need to keep everyone alive,’ survival instinct response.
“Anyway. As I said, you were right. You, Mr Useless, are the only one who can fight the soldier wasps. They deliver seventeen times the normal dose of poison per strike, and those stingers will go through anything that’s not steel.”
“Or leather that is over two centimetres thick.”
“That’ll work too, but just like full metal setups, we don’t have any of that lying around either.”
“What does that mean?”
“Jeffrey,” her nose turned up as she said that name, “is busy trying to make the decision.”
Tom couldn’t help himself. He chuckled. The disdain in her tone was legendary. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a small smile. “Anyway, after he has had his fifteen minutes of acting the clown, the decision will be made to head that way.” She pointed toward the hive he had walked up to. “Because that’s the shortest way out of these grasslands.”
“How far?”
“A day.”
He looked at her abruptly to see if he was being mocked.
She was grinning. “The better part of twenty K’s.”
Tom did the mathematics. “There is a mound every hundred metres, and I’ll have to clear a couple across to let anyone walk up the middle. What’s that, six hundred hives that’ll need to be destroyed?”
“Yep, you’re going to be busy, but Tiny is agitating to get a team out fighting so you might not be alone for long.”
“Good.”
“Yeah, he almost hit Jeffrey when Jeffrey rightly told him they didn’t have the resources to support it. Tiny’s a little too passionate.”
A hand landed on one shoulder. and another on Everlyn’s. Michael pulled them both in, which forced their shoulders into each other as he hugged them together. “Kids. I have a small hammer, and from the boss himself, Tom’s new orders.”