Chương 59: The Living Flesh Forge - 2

The portal closed and his son returned to campus. WARHOL didn't understand why, but throughout the whole excursion in the Desert of Screams, he had been irritated. Every little thing Lance did bothered him, from the way he walked to the way he fought the creature, relying on System Items for the finishing blow, which he thought he should forbid on the next excursion since what was he learning if he relied on System Items?

When he returned to The Grotto, he made himself an extra-strong cup of hempen tea to calm himself. He sipped it between meditations and allowed it to do its holy work. The beverage did calm him and he smiled. Another reason he took the time to cultivate his own hempen plants. Thinking of why his son had annoyed him so, the only thing he came back to was that the 1% drop in humanity was to blame. If not that, then he simply woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

It also could have been the fact that, although his artifact, now, was filled up on monstrous energy, it had taken him many more Guardian Constructs than he thought; the first time he filled the artifact with monstrous energy, he had to slay only four Guardians. This time? Nearly twice that number. If each time he used the artifact while it was at a max charge it required nearly twice the previous sum of energy, then he was going to be spending a very long time indeed in the Oldest Complex. It was all a headache.

His son, the complex, the politicking to grow the complex... all just fiddlebuming. He rubbed his temples. What to do? Once again, the answer that came back to him was 'what could he do?' He needed more level ups to purchase Boons to help him safeguard his humanity, but to purchase boons, he had to level up, which was almost impossible for him to do without fighting that creature. No good options.

He did want to fight the Horror again, if that was the only way he was going to level up, then he ought to just rip the bandage off. Simple. Warhol knew that was foolhardy, though. Signet wasn't likely to entrust his crew and war-material in saving his butt again, not as long as he had the artifact with him — which was another source of his frustration! Why did Signet care so much about something he didn't even believe in?! Abstract ownership laws were why, he intellectually understood, but it remained stupid.

Until charging the artifact became so tiresome that the Horror-fighting became the only real way to charge the artifact to full power, he would slob it out in the Oldest Complex, fighting Guardians. Speaking of, he had managed to charge the artifact to full strength. So... he ought as well to use the artifact. Warhol opened his System-Artifact menu. Like before, the many mutation options arrayed before him. Yet like before, the options remained gray.

When he attempted to select something, the System informed him of the same thing as last time: [Negative Reinforcement Needed Before Mutation: Begin Negative Reinforcement?]. He groaned and moaned and... sighed. Just how much 'Negative Reinforcement' was needed before he could shape his body into some badass humanoid-creature? At least one more, seemed to be the answer. Another sigh.

It was for the best; he didn't even know what his bodily end-shape would be and, realistically, until he knew what he was advancing to with every mutation, he shouldn't begin mutation without a plan. Basic, really. Nothing to be done, Warhol confirmed the [Negative Reinforcement] to begin: like the first time, the sphere activated, its many component pieces whirring and twirling in a complex dance as its vents opened and dispensed a fine, purple mist over him.

He breathed deep of the mist and allowed it to permeate his body, inside and out. This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. When the mist faded, Warhol checked his HUD to see his Human percentage meter. It now read [98% Human]. Another one percent? When he checked his stats, he saw all of his stats had increased by another twenty-five percent! He grinned at that, knowing he was now significantly stronger than just a few moments ago.

Thinking on his boosted stats, he thought to himself that 'if he had been able to withstand the Horror's assault with his old stats, what could he do now, now that his stats had increased by fifty percent?' It was tempting enough to go and find out... of course, he reminded himself that he hadn't really 'withstood' the Horror's assault. He had fled from one of its lesser tentacles crushing a moon and then fought some minor Swarm Goblins. That was it. Warhol made himself another cup of extra-strong hempen tea.

He had a small meal of chicken, fresh from the local town's slaughterhouse, and some bread and butter. Despite the added inhuman percentage point, he still felt human. Hid body acted the same, his personality seemed the same. Which meant, there was no reason to not return to the grind. He [Teleported] back to his checkpoint in the Oldest Complex and resumed his crawl. The latest Guardian Construct to fall before him had been significantly stronger than the previous Guardian. [Level 30, 000].

He took it down easily with his enhanced stats. He did worry that Frank would have trouble in fighting these things by himself, but that only meant Frank would need to rely again on having him deal the majority of the damage before delivering the final blow.

A part of him resented Frank for his weakness despite the Modification Tool he now had access to, but he couldn't blame Frank for his limitations, not when Frank was so much younger than he, and lacked the benefit of the many Quests, Accomplishments, and training he had received over the years. All of which came with additional Boon Points which added up.

Despite the relative strength of the Guardian Construct, this time around, for his third artifact charge, he did not fill it until sixteen Guardians had been destroyed. With so many guardians destroyed, he again thought of pulling in Frank, so he could at least benefit from the XP gain. But he didn't -- he wanted to do this alone because he didn't want to babysit. He had too much to do to be watching over Frank. He opened a portal back to his Grotto.

Before he stepped through, he wondered how much further he had to go before he reached the Oldest Complex's core-room. If the passages descended, as they hypothesized, all the way to the planet's core, then it would be an impossible distance yet. If the complex didn't extend to the world's interior, then the core-room could be just around the corner for all he knew. Warhol dismissed the distance question and floated through the portal. Normally, he would have his tea, but he didn't have the patience this time.

He opened his System-Artifact menu. He wanted to see if he could choose a mutation, yet. To his absolute un-surprise, he could not; the System told him only the same dreary thing about needing [Negative Reinforcement]. He groaned and cussed. Sure, getting his stats boosted helped, but come on! Why was this damn thing being such a tease?! Why show him all the incredible things he could transform into but not let him select anything?! It was maddening!

After a little temper-tantrum where he thrashed some trash about his Grotto, he calmed himself, realizing, upon a glance he caught in a mirror, how silly and worked up he had become over nothing.

"I'm being ridiculous," he told himself.

"Having a fit like I'm a toddler refused a sucky." He reminded himself yet again he lacked a plan for evolution. He considered his options after further calming himself; what would he need to fight the Horror? Organs to ensure space-travel without magic, that would be nice. A hard carapace, surely, to withstand the might of its tentacles. And then something to give him devastating offensive power.

Regenerative properties would also be nice, that was he could continue his assault hour-after-day and even support any compatriots who fought alongside him, not that anyone would, save, maybe, Lance. Thinking on his mutation options rationally seemed to calm him down back to his normal state-of-being. Maybe it was the fact that using his logical mind was a human feature? And so, it brought him down to his base majority? It was the best hypothetical he had, so he went with it.

Calmly assure of himself, then, he returned his attention to the grayed-out mutations list. Line-by-line, he sifted through the options deep into the night.