Expand, Slowly

Thwack Thwack Thwack

That was the… fifth undead today?

She’d been killing monsters off over the last few days. Zaya felt it was better to try and and expand her territory first before heading off to see any of the human settlements. Wouldn’t do if a horde of monsters overran her pool or a group of adventurers decided to take it out while she was gone. So her first few days were spent trying to stabilize.

That said, the local monster population didn’t seem smart enough to gather and wipe her out. But they were also too mindless to stop attacking her or her minions if they stumbled across them. Either saw her and her minions as food or intruders; both were technically correct but she wasn’t going to let them just chomp her. That said could you even digest living metal?

She tested a few ways but eventually settled on a pretty safe process, though it was a slow one. First, use a Larva to lure something around a corner either by being chased or making noise, she herself would be around said corner with as many Elemental Lances as she could muster, which was three at this point and mixed up with elements to make sure she hit something's weakness. Then let it loose when whatever turned corner, aiming for vital spots or anything that looked important. If it wasn't dead from that; apply some bombs as needed. And if THAT didn't work, bring in the Larva to distract the monster while she went in with Elemental Bullet or knives.

Thoughtful, effective, and used most the cards she could play in tandem with each other. The problem was how slow it when taking into account other factors. Like size.

There was just too much ground to cover on the campus as she was now calling it, to clear out all the monsters like this. At least not in a short enough time frame; maybe in a year she could do it. Complete domination of the site was outside her reach, so she narrowed her scope to take control over the building she was in. Or at least most of it so that the spawning pool was safer. And to maybe see if there was something to really be worried about.

Her process was paying off though. She controlled about 65% of the building now, but that was pushing it. Her immediate control was maybe 15-20%, and she judged that based of how much the pool had converted into her ‘lair’. Which was dotted with that black metal, which got more common the closer you got to the pool until the core room itself. That metal had taken over the old stone there, cut into square tiles. She wondered if she could change the shape or style of that metal later... possibly to make it look more alluring than 'evil bleak lab'. Maybe a mosaic wave pattern or something.

Beyond where the metal started to mark her territory; that was where she could quickly affect or influence. Such as the killing of other monsters or letting her own patrol without too much danger... or at very least they'd have enough time to do something if something entered the territory.

In fact, that's how she'd found this skeleton; a Larva had come to report how close it was getting and thus she'd gone out to kill it. But while it was the only one to have gotten this close to her area, she had killed a fair number of them thus far today.

“Wonder if they have some sort of spawner too…” she thought as she looted the monsters.

She’d explored the building entirely by now and didn’t see any kind of other spawning pool, or summoning circle or whatever. But given their numbers, they were coming from somewhere. And it wasn't just the undead, she’d killed a few repeats of some sort of jug like flower monster along with a couple bots. There must be something in the other buildings that was either making them or drawing them to the site in general but if that was the case, why come to this building? The robots, sure, maybe their patrol routes took them this far. The others though; were they coming in cause they sensed the Spawning Pool... or her?

Even with the waves of monsters, they weren’t a huge challenge so long as she fought them one at a time and their slow pace combined with the winding hallways made that easy. And if she fought on her 'territory' she got a huge stat boost which made it easier her. Her minions’ attacks being resisted was a bigger problem. Her Larva could take on a skeleton; enough of their tails wrapped around a limb could break it or they could lash in tandem to crush a skull, but some of the meatier enemies it took longer. And the Larva weren’t durable enough to take more than a hit or two, even from these weak enemies.

To make matters worse, the rewards were pretty sparse. It seemed like there was a built in ‘Exp’ penalty for monster vs monster acts. Maybe if she fought a stronger foe or did it as a quest, or even took on another dungeon lord; then she could get a decent amount but she wasn't sure about that. All she knew that she was getting a drip fed, even with her EXP bonuses. Was it maybe because she was classified as a 'stronger' monster or something?

This meant it was unlikely for her to level up just from these kills which in turn meant she couldn’t access stronger Bioferric creatures.

“Which means I need to clear out a larger space to keep them safe, or figure out something else.” Zaya thought as she headed back to the pit with her ‘loot’ gained.

Skeletons didn’t drop much; tattered clothing, ruined armor, and whatever rusty weapon they were using along with their bones. Zombies were a bit better, usually with less busted gear and maybe a coin or two, but the smell they gave off was enough to put her off from fighting them. They also weren't super common so it wasn't easy to 'farm' them. The machine monsters were more common than the rotting corpses, and a bit more profitable too. Most their stuff was broken down or rusted which usually meant it was just junk; but the pool could Synthesize it into recovered components and metals. Though she didn't know how to MAKE anything of it them beyond daggers and swords.

Seemed the pool either needed to process an item first to make it; OR had to unlock the innate knowledge if she passed a threshold or did something unexpected.

Likewise, the Plants and Slimes in the area also were harvested; usually for poisons or other alchemical reagents that were in her head(no doubt put there from her class abilities) but she was missing a few key ingredients for some of them and the Pool wasn't able to make up the difference. But this eventually gave her a steady supply of some basic poisons that weren't tied to her mana supply. She could just summon up a fog of poison but given it drew on the same source as her magic and bombs; it was always good to have the real stuff on hand.

Still, she couldn’t really test them on anything nearby just yet. From some of the windows she had seen a few beast monsters and maybe a giant bug of some kind; maybe she could test her toxins on them if she could lure them to a spot. But her usual fare of enemies had limited her to her more up front combat abilities. Yet another thing to test for later.

Right now her first concern was making her base just a bit safer. If only she could make some sort of guard for her base. Was skipping on Priest a bad move…

“Hmm…, there’s an idea.”

When she finally got to the pool, she sent out a mental nudge. One Larva crawled up her leg and onto her arm. She gave it a little reassurance and a pet on its head, before firmly grasping it and forcing it to attach itself to the spine of the skeleton she had been dragging behind her, before tossing the pair into the pool.

The pool rumbled as it started to seemingly boil, bubbles surfacing and popping as it tried to process the request commanded of it. Eventually it calmed down and something crawled its way out of the pool.

A skeleton stood at half attention before Zaya only quite different. Its bones had been turned black by the pool and were heavily cracked, leaking out more of the dark ichor that made up the pool. The most drastic change was its spine though. It seemed to be a fusion of both a normal spine and a Larva; its tail had become thoracic while its head had become the cervical. Its golden eye was staring out from under the skull, but the two empty eye sockets did glow out a faint yellow.

Something ‘pinged’ in the back of her head. Probably something to do with the machine side of her brain, info was suddenly unlocked in her mind.

What was standing before her was a creature known as a ‘Repurpose’’ or Repour as they came to be known as. Rather than allowing a Larva to evolve and grow, in times of dire threat or low resources in the colony, a Bioferric could attempt to fuse a Larva to a target. This left the Larva as the control node of the being, with Bio-Ferric Fluid pumped into the body to act as both control unit and energy source. The Larva would then move the body like a puppet.

This allowed a Larva to quickly become a stronger combatant for the Colony. But it did have down sides.

First, it was less converting a creature and more putting a ‘template’ on it. This meant whatever weakness the base target had carried over. Second while the Larva was in control, the creature lost a lot of their dexterity and higher functions, making it hard to emulate powers or abilities the target had. It was just going to be some brute ****, slam the target hard fighter.

Finally, while the creature would be infused with some of the same Fuerric Fluid that made up the pool; it’s body usually couldn’t handle it, thus the leaking or the ‘pour’ part of the name. This left the creature in a consistent state of losing energy. While the Qilope could help refill it or even a visit to the pool could top it off; this left the creature unable to go far from the pool that spawned it least they 'ran dry' and perished or at the very least went into a withdraw/coma state.

So it was a stronger creature but far more ‘basic’ than even Larva and couldn’t go very far. The only real upside was that she could ‘undo’ the fusion. She’d get a Larva back, if dazed for a day or two, but lose whatever ‘host’ it was attached to. It would be broken down and only a small amount of materials/resources would be saved, as most the energy was spent in safely removing the Larva. Well better to keep them than get back nothing but bones or a bloated husk.

That’s how she spent the next day or so; testing different types of Repours. Skeletons seemed to be the best out of the options she had. Slimes just didn’t have anything to really ‘take over’ and zombies ended up becoming bloated piles of flesh. Plants weren’t much better, but the thin ‘tree’ like ones that threw thorns seemed promising as a ‘turret’.

As for the few machines, they didn’t seem compatible. Trying to convert one ended with a **** shut down or some sort of feed back that harmed the Larva. Even the pool seemed affected as it spat out the offending machine and refused to take it back in even for parts. So that idea was right out unless she found a more intact one.

In the end she was left with 18 Quilopes, Eight Larva, and Four Repours.

There seemed to be a limit to how many minions she could have out with each one having a certain 'value' to it, and she was starting to brush against that cap. She would either need to expand the pool, grow her own power or something else.

Yet another thing to add to the list, that she pulled up in her head. Being half machine or something made it rather easy to keep track of things(was she liquid metal, a living machine, some sort of nanite swarm... wait this is fantasy not scifi... WHATEVER).

Current Tasks

1. Expand Power (Self or Territory)
2. Test Poisons
3. Explore
4. Test Pool's abilities more
5. Get more supplies
6. ......EAAAAAAAT

It had crossed her mind as she looked down her check list, a spark of memory from her old life. Something about a 'grocery check list' made her realize she hadn't... eatten anything. Her stomach had only grumbled a few times though but it didn't feel like she was starving either. Given that the Pool seemed to feed and empower everything; it was a good guess that it was keeping her alive and 'fed' but that wasn't... eating.

So toss finding 'food' on the list. A quick check of her consumed memories; she knew how to cook a bit but lacked the devices from her previous world and the other two could only do basic things..., granted she would need something edible. And thus far nothing was safe enough to eat...., could she be poisoned? Like Food poisoning? It was an honest question, Zaya wasn't sure if she'd be protected....

"Though while I'm a monster... I kinda don't want to eat like human zombies or disgusting plants that want to eat me..." she muttered to herself.

Her mind recoiled at that thought..., honestly she just wanted like a sandwich or a nice stew..., stew might be easier to make up.

It was decided now. With the Repours acting as decent enough guards and the building largely in her control; it was time to explore. Doing so would let her do the most things on her list. It was just a question of where to explore. One of those settlements, more of the complex, or just the surrounding woods.