Chương 24: Trimming Down

Aaron's entire body hurt badly, and he could feel the cooling energy of his Primary coursing through the plants still attached to him. Still, after suffering endlessly at the hands of his Primary, he needed a break, so he took a puff of his joint before facing the people he knew were standing behind him. When he turned around and saw them on the ground, though, he could only mentally shrug. Who sat on the ground while running from monsters? Were they in a horror movie?

"Sup," he said, noting their completely shellshocked faces. The guy in the middle passed out, and the moment his companions realized what'd happened, the woman didn't hesitate to lean over and slap him, "Fred wake up wake up, we're alive" she said, almost joyfully trying to bring him back to consciousness.

'She's definitely hitting him harder than necessary.'

"W-Who are you?" the other guy said, slowly standing to his feet. He had black hair and eyes, with a tanned complexion; all three of them actually looked quite similar, with the same hair, eyes, and general skin tone.

"Aaron," he said, taking another puff then putting it out, storing it.

"You?" The man's nose wrinkled as he smelled the smoke.

"Julio, is that weed?" Aaron rolled his eyes, "We got dragged to hell and weed is what you're worried about?" The man blushed, "Well, no, I guess not. It just took me off guard because I thought it was a cigar." Aaron chuckled, "That'd be something. A cigarette or cigar would be pretty good right now, but I didn't bring any, and that's my only joint." The man looked conflicted. Now that he thought about it, he was obviously mentally debating something.

"No you can't have any, I'm saving it," Aaron cut the internal conversation short, and Julio sighed.

"Anyway, would you mind helping pry me from these plants?" he asked, and felt that he really, really needed to get out asap. Not only did his entire body ache and feel terribly wrong, but he could sense the concentrated energy suffusing every single plant.

When he'd torn them from his face, that energy went into healing and reconstructing his flesh, but he wasn't sure if it'd stay like that forever; if the energy dissipated before he was free, he'd definitely need someone like Nicole before he would be functional again.

"O-Oh yea, for sure! Uh… what… is all that about anyway," he asked nervously, but jumped up to help anyway. Aaron sighed, "Let me process it first, I'll tell you when it's not so fresh." Julio accepted that easily enough, and very soon he was helping Aaron cut through the dense weave of plants over him. Soon enough, Fred woke up, drowsily grabbing the hand that was still slapping him.

"OW you bitch, why are you-" As if remembering where he was, he frantically looked around, finding Aaron standing there with Julio helping him break free from the plants.

"Uh… hey."

"Come on," the woman said helping him to his feet, "Let's get this guy out of the plants, then we can figure out more when he talks about it." * The three occasionally threw nervous glances towards the monsters while prying Aaron from his odd cocoon, and he couldn't blame them. If he didn't have the actual feedback from his newest Secondary, he'd question if they were going to go rogue as well.

Still, they helped him get rid of the plants, giving Aaron a good view of what happened every time another plant was pulled away, and why he still had a body. The truth was that the monstrous energy within each plant rushed deeper to escape being pried from him, and when it did, a burst of healing would surge through that particular spot, rebuilding his previous body.

Now that he was looking at it, he was pretty sure he'd be fine if he waited a super long time to do it, but honestly, he just didn't want to be a plant. Not the least of which were his notifications, which he looked at absently. He hadn't had access to a Status in that strange dark place, but he did now, and he watched the numbers fluctuate. {Resistance: 0. 3} -> {Resistance: 0. 4} {Sensitivity: 1. 8} -> {Sensitivity: 1. 7} {Weight: 1. 8} -> {Weight: 1. 7} As the plants were pulled out and the energy around him was used up, he watched his Resistance grow higher, while his Sensitivity and Weight lowered. It was terrifying to see, but his Resistance was below one, which he attributed to briefly not even having enough control over his Primary to even exist. His Corruption, on the other hand, was firmly stuck at 1. 3. The checkpoints for notable numbers were a bit strange to him, but he did realize that even his Primary couldn't go past 1.

8 when it came to Sensitivity and Weight, so he'd take that as the total maximum a being could have in the Underworld- or, more accurately, on this floor. With everything he knew, he could confidently say that the limit on his stats being "1" was because he was only on Floor 0, and that he was pretty sure they'd go up once he went to the next floor. 1. 1 pushed the bounds thoroughly, but anything past that was the purview of a corrupted being.

So, as he gradually reclaimed his body and stability, his Resistance would inch up while everything past 1. 1 would go down. He really wished that Corruption would abate quicker though. Luckily, his Primary was in no state to try for another attempt at taking over. After its violent collapsed, he felt its energy flickering, unable to refill itself. Now that Aaron was more conscious of the flows within him, he was able to see that its fall from grace had temporarily cut it off from doing anything.

He tried figuring out why, but came up short. As far as he knew, it'd simply been hurt, and needed time to heal; it didn't matter if it looked exactly the same or if its signature was no different, all he knew was that he was being given a period of healing. Which meant he needed to be careful to not take damage, because there was no mystical ability propping him up with his Primary inactive..

'Or is there?' he thought curiously, going back to his own experience with creating the energy. His had also been green-yellow, but that made sense if Onward Evermore was supposed to be a facsimile of his natural power. {Resistance: 0. 4} -> {Resistance: 0. 5} {Sensitivity: 1. 7} -> {Sensitivity: 1. 6} {Weight: 1. 7} -> {Weight: 1. 6} Continuing to pull off more of the plants, he considered whether he even should.

If he left them on, he'd gain some pretty significant power, but he'd have to continuously fight with his Primary. Even thinking about the pain made him want to shiver, so decided that he'd purge himself of the corruption now, and if he ever needed it again, he'd do as he did before and pull out a large chunk from his Primary. Despite his rapid thoughts, it's barely been a few minutes since they started pulling him free from the cocoon.

They'd only just freed all the area above his shoulders, moving down to his chest, so Aaron knew it would be a while before he was fully… The woman helping him seemed to take just a moment too long putting her hand on his chest, pulling off the stems around it slowly while looking him in the eyes. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. He paused, but mentally waved it off.

They'd only just been saved from an army of monsters, nobody would be thinking about romance at a time like this, and he was half plants. No way would she find him attractive either. He didn't even know her name. Seeming to grow bored of the silence, she launched into small talk while she helped him clear off the front of his body, while Fred and Julio cleared his back and the places he couldn't reach.

"So, where did you get pulled into the Underworld? Julio, Freddy and I were at a gas station when everything went terribly. You know, that floor warping thing?" Aaron nodded, "Yea, I got pulled in with like seven others. We were in the lobby of my apartment building when it happened."

"Your apartment? Do you live alone, or with roommates?" she prodded innocently, and his face twitched slightly.

"I, ah, live alone, I suppose."

"In today's economy? You must have a pretty good job!" she said jokingly, and this time, he apparently wasn't fully able to keep his face straight, as she pursed her lips.

"I feel like I've overstepped somehow."

"Well… I just graduated high-school. I live alone because my family passed away two years ago." The entire time they were speaking, Aaron was playing around with Mycelaric Expanse, figuring out how the difference between it and Tuning. Through one of the seeds scattered about, he watched Freddy silently facepalm and Julio put his hands on the sides of his head, cringing severely. Celina went completely silent, biting her bottom lip and slowly turning a rosey red.

'Ah, rats. I ruined the mood again by saying something out of place. Maybe I should've dodged the question, or lied? Just said something like, I don't know "Ohh I'm going to college now on a loan" but then she might ask what I'm going for, and I don't even know…' his thoughts continued to swirl, even as his hands never stopped moving to pull away more corrupted material.

They worked to separate him from his plants in silence for nearly ten seconds, and he watched Julio open and shut his mouth several times, seemingly contemplating on whether he should say what he was thinking. The tension must've gotten to him, because he abruptly said "Damn Celina, a pervert and insensitive?" Freddy roared with laughter as Celina took a step back, face falling into her hands.

"I didn't know! I'm sorry!" Aaron couldn't stop himself from chuckling awkwardly as well, "Uh, no you're good, I was dancing around the question a bit anyway. Sorry for ruining the mood."

"That's the saddest thing I've ever heard! Don't say that!" she cried, and Freddy continued laughing, thankfully cutting through the tension. Aaron smiled, shaking his head as Celina had to walk away, even as her friends continued making jabs at her expense.

"It's not your fault Aaron, Celina jumped the gun too quickly and didn't think her questions through, that's on her," Julio said. Aaron sighed in relief, "I don't know man, I think it's partially my fault. It's been a couple years since I've really talked to someone, and I've been making some crazy awkward statements since I came to the Underworld and have been forced to interact with people. I think the best friend I've made so far was an extraterrestrial bat person, because we can't even understand each other!"

"Now that sounds like a good story to tell," Julio said, "Much better than some old hag's attempt at flirting with you."

"I am not a hag!" Celina shouted from down the hall. There weren't exactly many places to storm off to.

"I'm twenty five!"

"Trying to date an eighteen year old. Pervert," Freddy said, and Celina made a choking sound.

"I didn't know! And that's not even that big of an age gap!" Aaron could feel his face heating up again as he realized she had been flirting with him, but their bickering continued on, heedless of his thoughts.

"Don't try to justify it!" Julio said "He's fresh out of high-school, eighteen years old! Aaron, when was your birthday?" Still slightly embarrassed, he muttered "Next month,""You hear that? It was last month!" Julio lied, and Celina dropped to her knees crying out.

"Nooo!!" Eventually, she sighed, trudging her way back over and simply enduring the combination ragging as Freddy and Julio laid into her while she helped Aaron. She refused to look him in the eye, but he really wasn't mad at all.

As a matter of fact, now that he was looking closer at her, he realized she had very smooth skin, a rounded face, and a cute button nose; honestly, he held firm on the idea that right now, here, in hell, was not a place to start a relationship, but the fact that a pretty woman had decided to flirt with him made him smile.

Under the teasing of her friends, they slowly worked to clean him of all the external corruption; despite the grim situation he'd found himself in and the dark surroundings, he'd found himself a little pocket of warmth. * {Resistance: 0. 8} -> {Resistance: 1} {Sensitivity: 1. 4} -> {Sensitivity: 1. 3} {Weight: 1. 4} -> {Weight: 1. 3} {Corruption: 1. 3} -> {Corruption: 1. 2} It was at Resistance 0.

8 that the switch finally happened, and his Resistance was knocked back up to one- even if he still wasn't entirely out of the weeds because his Corruption was still over 1. 1, meaning past critical instability, he let himself relax marginally. With the air much lighter, Julio asked "So Aaron, what is your story?"

"From the beginning with my family, or just starting at the Underworld?" Behind Aaron, Julio ruffled his hair, eyes softening even as Aaron slapped his hand away.

"Whichever you want to talk about kiddo. You mentioned that you haven't spoken to someone in two years, and that your family passed two years ago as well. It doesn't take a genius to know it was rough on you, but if it's still too heavy a topic to talk about, just start at the Underworld." Aaron swallowed the lump in his throat. Wasn't that exactly what he'd hoped for originally? Someone to just talk to him?

He showed no outward signs of his grief, but he did let it roll over him for a moment, collecting himself and waiting for the wave of emotion to pass, before dodging the question.

"How old are you to call me kiddo? I'm turning nineteen next month, old man."

"I thought it was last month," Celina grumbled, but they ignored her.

"Twenty four, but the difference between sixteen and eighteen is about the same maturity difference between eighteen and twenty four, so you're still a kid to me." Aaron conceded the point, "Fair enough, but you're still not old enough to ruffle my hair at the least. Maybe if you were just one year older, such as, say, twenty five…?" he said, giving Celina a look. She released a genuine laugh and only the faintest blush on her face. Both Julio and Freddy said "Ooooh."

It helped kill the last of the tension Celina felt, knowing he could joke with her about it too. Julio thankfully didn't bring up that he'd sidestepped the original question, saying "You know this isn't the first time she's made some terribly awkward romantic decisions? You see, Freddy, Celina, and I go way back to middle-school. Freddy's about two years older, and- oh! By the way, Freddy and Celina are siblings," Julio said, and Aaron looked between the two.

Celina rolled her eyes, but was already smiling, likely knowing the story Julio was going to tell.

"Really? Actually, yea, I can see it now."

"Exactly, so, back in middle-school, Freddy had this little friend named Julio …" * {Resistance: 1} -> {Resistance: 1. 1} {Sensitivity: 1. 3} -> {Sensitivity: 1. 2} {Weight: 1. 3} -> {Weight: 1. 2} {Corruption: 1. 2} -> {Corruption: 1. 1}"Alright let's pause here," Aaron said, much to their confusion.

"What, like, leave these plants on you?" Freddy asked, and Aaron nodded. Currently, he was covered in thin splotches of plant matter that the others had missed- like a bad hair cut. They were going back over to get the last of it, but he wanted to pause for now. They'd been standing here for half an hour by now, and there were some things he desperately wanted to look into first before he ran out of time and his Primary woke back up.

"Yea, my Corruption just dropped down to 1. 1, so I'm not at risk of getting taken over again, but my Weight and Sensitivity are still higher than they would normally be. If we clear out all the plants, I'll lose the chance to take advantage of the little bit of extra energy I currently have. We can clean them off later, but there are some things I need to check with my abilities, and having some extra stats should help a lot." Julio shrugged, "I only understood some of what you're talking about.

You definitely need to explain the stat things to us, because those are all the words we see on our Interface too, but we don't really know what it is."

"I will," he assured them, "I just want to check out my new ability to control all those monsters, and maybe learn how to see further with it." Julio's eyebrows rose, "You don't know how to control thee army of monsters standing thirty feet away from us?" Aaron gave him an incredulous look of his own, "You think I chose the ability to turn people into plants? That was the other guy, the evil one."

"So… they are people?" Julio asked, and all four looked at the sitting horde.

"Aliens, specifically, though I don't know if it's better that my Primary never got its hands on any humans. It's still a cruel fate to subject another thinking being to. But, look, we can talk more about it after, for now, I really gotta dive into this ability. I've been able to scratch the surface of it, but I can tell it'll require more focus for anything else."

"No complaints from us. By all means, ensure it's safe to use" Julio said, and the others nodded along. Aaron sat in front of the pile of plant mass that'd been pulled off of him, crossing his legs and closing his eyes. Without his Primary to contend against him, he was finally able to fully look into Mycelaric Expanse. As he did, he felt the burning stars representing every possible place he could see, some much further than he'd expected.

As a matter of fact, there was a distant cluster moving rapidly now, a few dozen glowing specks that were getting closer.