Chương 28: Chapter 26: Jumping About

The newfound surge of power was almost immediately siphoned away stabilizing the creatures nearby, and Aaron now felt a low, persistent draw on his Primary; now that he felt it though, he realized it really wasn't sustainable, so he queried with the Secondary to see if there was something he could do to save on costs. After all, his Primary had grown the army to be like this, why would it do that if it couldn't actually support them?

His Secondary tried to convey something, but before it could, his Primary quickly interfered, scrambling whatever Mycelaric was trying to tell him. He blinked.

'Okay. Fair, but fuck you.' It seemed that messing with the host through Secondaries was a two way street, and now that he'd done it to his Primary, said Primary was not opposed to doing it to him. But he wouldn't go down easily. Remembering how Mycelaric Expanse thought, he knew that if he could get convince it that he was the real user, that it would help him anyway. So he cast himself forward, wrestling with his Primary to press towards the Secondary.

It seemed that a small portion of his Primary's energy was, innately, his. He suspected this was what Resistance dictated, how much energy he could take before his Primary was allowed to complain; this gave him some real meat to work with, and he fought hard to suppress his Primary's control. His energy and his Primary's clashed hard, and his Secondary didn't immediately acquiesce.

From what he felt about his Primary's argument, it claimed to have more right to the Secondary, because it'd been the one to upgrade it to Expanse, so it was no longer the previous ability Aaron had earned. Mycelaric Expanse was on the fence, seeing them both as its users… but ultimately sided with his Primary, just barely. Their equal energy still confused it, but it'd listened to the Primary before, so it'd side with the Primary. His Primary smugly declared its triumph.

Aaron completely ignored it, throwing himself back into the exact same fight again. His Primary met his charge, but there was a subtle confusion in it. After all, the result would be the same- and it was. So he contested it again, and his Primary finally realized what he was doing, a mild despondent feeling suddenly appearing; and indeed, he'd started producing his own energy. Because he and his Primary both gained the same amount of energy from its production but he'd also started making his own energy as well.

Together, that meant he had just a little bit more; the Secondary saw this, and slowly began edging towards him. It took several more attempts but, eventually, he managed to pry free from his Primary that the monsters were able to do two things to save energy: "Plant" themselves in the ground to draw from the Underworld, and eat- not something weird like eating human flesh or whatever either, he could like… feed them soup, or something.

The reason they cost so much right now was because not only were they starving, but they were exhausted, and he was paying so much to keep them alive because they were dying. He sent out a pulse towards them to attach themselves to the underglass to feed, and take a nap or something. They visibly hunkered down, drawing the others' eyes, so he said "I figured it out. No risk of them going rogue anymore."

"Anymore?" Freddy asked warily.

"Don't worry about it," he said, not elaborating that there was a very short window where his Primary was awake and had the energy required to make the monsters attack them. Even if they had a deal, he wouldn't bank on it keeping the pact because he didn't know if it was able to lie. Next, he used the new wellspring of energy to look through the nodes again. Despite already having a right to use the ability, his Primary still fought him tooth and nail, attacking him for every inch.

When he was actually in the vision, though, its attempts rolled off, not allowed to interfere any longer. In his mind's eye, he saw himself and the three others sitting around his pile of discarded plant mass, from a low perspective that he'd expect from something lying on the floor. Looking around, he spotted the point where he saw himself in third person, now seeing what'd made the other person stare at him in confusion when he was looking through the ability last time.

He couldn't see any seed at all, which surprised him; the underglass backdrop simply didn't allow for any sort of feature, no matter how small, to go unnoticed. A white dandelion seed would be obvious. Instead, looking into his own eyes, he saw a strange bendy warping in the air that emitted a low glow, like staring at the light shimmering down under the surface of the water, but only a little. It wasn't super visible, but it was obvious considering the environment.

Walking over to it, he felt around it to see if he could feel the seed, and found it almost immediately. Pinching it in his fingers, he lifted it up and watched it suddenly become "Visible," a dark layer that was previously shrouding it falling away. Since he was specifically looking for it, it was unmistakable to his eyes that the underglass was shielding it in some way, up to the exact moment it was touched physically.

'That's probably because it's a Sensitivity-based Secondary, it can interact with the visible Underworld a bit.' Even in his hands, the seed released a very faint sparkle, which was good to know; he couldn't secretly spy on someone, it'd actually be super obvious unless he hid it next to some kind of light. Backing out of the vision, he checked over his map of nodes, seeing that the three groups of people were somewhat spread out- and actually, a little bit off.

It was surprising they even found his direction at all, but perhaps they were just going the same way they'd seen him go, hoping for the best. This was the real reason he was playing around with Mycelaric Expanse, because he was trying to figure out if there was a way he could make the seeds bring them to him, or if he'd have to end up intercepting the convoy; they had vehicles, he didn't, so he considered it fair to make them go the distance.

Now that he knew each of them shimmered while in use, he had a proper way to guide them. At the same time, he decided to test if he could make them brighter as, even if they were visible right now, they weren't excessively so, and he'd have to make them visible from the tall vehicles. So he jumped back into the same seed, the one in his hand- fighting with his Primary for several seconds first, of course- and started messing around with it.

The first thing he did was the most obvious: just push more energy through the connection.

'Well that was easy,' he thought as it immediately started glowing with a warped light for three feet in all directions.

'I suppose the most obvious answer really is the correct one sometimes.' The cost of the plant monsters had dropped significantly from unsustainable to almost negligible, so he felt better to push more into the visions without overdrawing from the well of energy within him. Bringing up the map again, he saw where the groups were, and how they were soon to stray off the path; he knew which direction to lead them because of the line of nodes, like breadcrumbs.

At one of the intersections ahead of the central party, he forced his way into one of the seeds placed right in the middle of the path and waited for them to come into view. Seeing them round the corner, he pressed as much energy through the link that he could and almost instantly saw the head driver- Gary, actually- snap to attention, spotting the disturbance. Strangely, he couldn't see any other cars behind Gary's at all. Now that he was paying attention to it, he couldn't sense any nodes behind the car either.

'I'll have to check on the others to be sure, but they are all clustered together as well, as if they're all on the same car. I guess it would make sense if they didn't bring out every vehicle for this.' His plants could only see, so when Gary said something to the others and brought the car to a stop, he was left clueless; in response, though, someone disembarked and approached the seed Aaron was looking through. Unexpectedly, it was a stranger, not someone part of his previous group.

A bald, older man with wrinkled skin walked closer. Tan skin, a stern expression, and a confident posture gave him an absolutely domineering presence. He wore what was clearly a uniform, though not of any group Aaron had ever heard of.

The overshirt and pants were a dark blue, though closer to a royal blue than navy, and both garments were decorated with beige lines positioned in sharp, angular patterns, complimented by the beige undershirt and red tie; topping it all off, black boots and leather gloves made the entire thing appear more sterile than it otherwise would've. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

With measured steps, Aaron was given all the time in the world to not only study the man, then immediately panic once he saw a steel-gray aura radiate from his body menacingly. As rare as natural Primaries were, this man absolutely had one.

'Oh shit! He thinks I'm here to attack!' Aaron realized, and quickly began pulsing the light erratically. Admittedly, he'd panicked, because he assumed the man might be able to attack him through the camera. The man immediately flung his hand in a horizontal motion, and Aaron lost sight of him as the world went dark. His brow scrunched, as he hadn't lost his link to the seed, but even as he panned his vision around, he could see nothing.

Suddenly, light came back into view and Aaron found himself in a wire-mesh cage, floating in the center of a perfect sphere. Somewhere below him, the stern-looking man glared at him intensely. Thinking quickly, he chose not to pulse like he was about to blow up, but instead do so in the only morse code he knew: S. O. S. Three short blinks, three long blinks, three short blinks. Recognition flashed over the man's face, softening marginally, but still not letting the strange seed down.

He glanced behind him to the car Gary drove, calling out to another. A second man appeared, wearing a similar uniform though less fancy and he had a beige helmet.

'What are they? The military? Actually, yea, I could see that. They might be a collection of people who were once in the military.' The second man stared intensely at Aaron, glowing lime-green, though he didn't feel anything.

The new person said something to the general-looking one, and they started to converse, occasionally glowing, and at other times ignoring him Aaron waited a while for something to happen, but five, ten, fifteen minutes went by as a few other people spilled out of the car, each taking their turns to look at him, though only the first two released a glow. Frustration overtook Aaron's mind as he watched them stand around talking.

'It might've been faster to just not say anything,' he realized. Contemplating what to do next, he decided to shut the vision down and let them discuss. He was wasting energy, and it just wasn't worth it if he was just going to stand there being studied. Taking a break to be sure he didn't overdraw from his Primary, he talked briefly with the others about how their usage of the "Spark of Warping" went.

"Hows it going for all of you? Any progress on how to use your ability?" He got a round of headshakes, Freddy saying "Nah man, haven't felt anything yet. I don't get any of the instincts you're talking about with your Secondaries, and I can't hear anything about the underworld- I don't even know what I'm looking for when it comes to the energy you're talking about.

It's like I'm trying to flex a muscle, but I don't know which muscle to flex, so now I have to go through them one by one until I get to whichever I need. Maybe if I felt it even a single time, I could repeat the results, but as I am? Nothing." Aaron hummed thoughtfully. How had he gained his first point in Sensitivity?

'Back when I pit myself against the cannibal's ability. Could I make them aware of their sparks by showing them some of my energy?'

"How about this?" he said, and held his hand out, a flash of gold and green swirl appearing above it for just a second before his body reabsorbed the light.

"Did you guys feel that?" A general shake of their heads brought him back inwards'Is it because they don't actually have Primaries to communicate with my own?' he thought, and sighed inwardly. Maybe if he pressed his energy into their body to help fuel the spark, but there was too much of a risk of that. It'd be best to wait for the rest of the convoy and see if anyone in the new militaristic group had some idea of how it worked.

"Welp, I'm out of ideas." Julio shrugged, "Happens, not much else we can do but keep trying." Feeling a bit more rested, Aaron brought the map up to his eyes again, and saw that the original node he was using to talk to them still hadn't moved. While he could've gone to another one that was near them, that might've scared them even more.

'Might as well go see what the others are doing.' All three clusters had come to a stop, communicating with each other somehow despite being separated by walls. The leftmost one was actually huddled quite close together, giving him an idea of who those were. Considering he hadn't seen squeaky on Gary's car, he had to assume she'd decided to group up with the other Vineyard residents.

'I hope human-nosferian relations haven't broken down in my absence.' Choosing a node far enough away to give him a solid view of the entire group, a clear image soon formed in his mind- and he was immediately surprised by what he found. In the center of them all, a pale nosferian towered over all the others, by almost an entire foot. In general, every nosferian was within the same height-range, making this outlier particularly notable to Aaron, especially considering their already impressive height.

Strangely, there was no vehicle in sight for them to drive, nor were there any humans in this particular group. Only seconds after the image cleared though, and before he could even broadcast his presence, the gaze of the extra-tall nosferian snapped to him, and they hopped over their brethren, landing directly in front of where he looked from and quickly snatching up the "Camera."

Unlike the professional man, this large bat quickly brought it to their face, and he saw their nostrils flare as they sniffed the camera several times. Finally, pinched between their fingers, the bat person held his view away from them, giving him a clear enough visual to look at their ears. He didn't know a lot about natural nosferian body language. He could piece together that drooping ears meant sad, stiff meant angry, and wiggling meant happy.

This nosferian's ears were going crazy, practically vibrating on the sides of their head. They sniffed the camera several more times, and Aaron was confused as to why they were so happy, when he got a better look at their clothing. Every nosferian wore something of a leather tunic with a belt-like strap at the waist, only going three-quarters of the way down their thighs in order to leave their knees free, likely for jumping. This nosferian's tunic was strangely ill-fitted, being shorter than usual.

More importantly it was cut in a specific way that rang bells in his mind…

'Squeaky?!' he realized,'When did you hit a growth spurt?' Indeed, now that he had it in his head, he could tell her facial bone structure was, at the very least, vaguely familiar. She continued to happily hold the seed, and he realized that, somehow, she was able to sense it was him looking through, making his heart ache as she studied it from all angles, holding him gently, as if…

'As if I were actually IN the seed, she's trying to figure out a way to get me out! Aww that's cute.' Many other nosferians congregated around her now, looking over each other to get a better glimpse of the seed. He felt terrible to withdraw, but it'd be better if she could see him herself rather than leave her in confusion.

It took a few seconds before he was able to inhabit another node closer to him, but when he did come to, he found the nosferians quickly spreading out, looking every which way and hopping about to find him. Squeaky locked onto his signature again- faster this time. When she was closer, he left, and came back deeper in the tunnel, slowly but surely leading her his way.

Every single time, without fail, she would pick up the seed, and while he at first expected her to drop them, he quickly saw that she was carefully keeping every single one in her left hand. He chuckled warmly, standing up and saying "We should have some friends arriving soon, I think we should be on the other side of the plant army though, so they don't have to go through them to get to us."

"How many?" Celina asked.

"I think about twenty five, if my last count of this particular group is still accurate."

"That many?! How many did you come with?" Celina asked, obviously jealous.

"Oh yea, I didn't tell you guys, but I actually arrived alone," he said, getting winces from all three.

"Yea… No, I met these ones later. Squeaky was actually the first person I met."

"Squeaky?" Celina asked incredulously. Aaron chuckled, "Not her actual name. I had to give her one because her language isn't anywhere close to human-like, so I couldn't pronounce it."

"Human-like? You mean Squeaky's…?"

"Yep! Welcome to first contact, Squeaky's the extraterrestrial giant bat woman I met after arriving."

"Woman, you say," Julio asked, intrigued, and Freddy perked up as well. Aaron laughed, "Yep, has breasts and all."

"You're joking," Celina deadpanned.

"No, but I should also warn you, try not to flinch, they are ugly as sin." Julio deflated… but Freddy smirked knowingly.

"I really do not like that look," he said, but Freddy ignored him. During the entire time they were moving around his plant army, he continued to lead Squeaky their way, and now that he was paying attention he noticed some other odd peculiarities. Apparently, he hadn't seen a vehicle because they didn't have one to travel on. Nor did they need one. Managing to glide through the tight tunnels, squeaky led the pack, moving just as quickly as the vehicles could, but on her own wings.

The others, as well, rode on her coattails, moving when she did, stopping alongside her, and the entire time, each with unnatural precision.

'Did Squeaky perhaps… figure out whatever gift she'd come with? Actually, now that I think about it, wasn't Squeaky separated from the other nosferians like I was from the other humans? Does that mean the System believed she had the best chances of surviving on her own? If so… did she get a Primary like me?' But he second-guessed himself. His Primary hadn't made him grow a foot and coordinate other humans with almost telepathic grace. It was like Squeaky had been transformed into an alpha version of a nosferian.

'Which, looking at their intensely communal nature… might not be far off from the truth.' If human Primaries were in line with human personalities, wouldn't nosferian Primaries go by the same ruleset? So, what would a nosferian cranked up to eleven look like? Apparently, Squeaky. He couldn't even remember VoN's exact wording when it came to Primaries and how he and his group were the only ones with them, but it was probably some kind of underhanded false-assumption thing.

'Swear to God, the longer I go, the more it feels like talking to VoN is like talking to a fae.' Soon enough, Squeaky caught scent of something else as well, skipping over the designated seed and flying through the caves, completely ignoring all incorrect paths. She rounded the corner at super-nosferian speeds, eyes locking onto his face, then his feather, then his face again.

Skidding to a stop right in front of him, she almost slapped the sword from his hand, wrapping him in a hug and hoisting him up with significantly more strength than he'd ever felt from her before. Squeaking wildly, she hopped about with him, making him feel like a child in her arms, but he let her, tearing up as he hugged her back.