Chapter Text
"Why does it smell so terrible?"
That's my first thought as I wake up from my sleep. I don't remember going to sleep but that's normal. However, no matter how busy I was or how much I partied, I always kept my room clean.
All thought of the terrible smell leaves me when I try to blink. Because as I just found out, I can't blink my eyes. I keep trying to blink but nothing moves. My brain has at this point booted up enough to recognize more salient points. Points like I am in complete darkness, my body feels strange and I have four arms.
Now, I am sure I didn't take whatever new recreational drug Rajesh bought me last week. The guy has a fascination with ingesting whatever new drug he can find. And the superpower to not ruin his life doing so. Did he get that way because he is in biochemistry or did he choose biochemistry due to his bizarre fascination with obscure recreational drugs?
Is my brain wandering around more than it usually does? I want to blame its trajectories on whatever situation I've found myself in but I have to be honest with myself, this is par for the course.
I have a list of steps to follow in case I find myself waking up in unknown locations. I am proud to admit the list has been stress tested 4 times in just the last year.
Step 1, check my pockets to look for if I still have a wallet or a phone. I pat myself down in the darkness to see if I am wearing any pants. No, I am not. That's not a good sign. Even worse, I just touched some sort of smooth bark-like surface instead of my legs, But my brain received my touch and affirmed that It is indeed my legs.
Rajesh you prick, did you put whatever newest drug you got into my food? No no.. no trajectories. Go with the steps.
Step 2, Am I injured? I don't feel any pain. I try moving and wow, that's trippy. Everything feels off. But I don't think it's an injury that requires medical attention.
Step 3, check my surroundings. Ok, it's complete darkness, great. Wait a minute.. no, there is some light. I can see it in the distance. I stand up.
Or at least I try to. Something doesn't feel right. I have to move in strange patterns to stand up. And I have body parts I never had before. Even after I manage to stand up everything feels wrong. My centre of mass is wrong, my balance is wrong, the gravity feels wrong.
Oh god, I was never this tall.
Somehow I don't fall as I take my first steps. Walking feels wonky. Like worse than the morning after that one time, I actually humoured Rajesh. Man, I am thinking of him way too often today.
The more steps I take the firmer my walk becomes. It feels more and more natural to move like this. One step after another, the distance between each step adjusts itself to fit this new body. Yes, I admit, I am somehow in a new body.
I can finally make out what the light is and I kid you not, it's a giant luminescent mushroom.
I am near the mushrooms and I notice that the longest one reaches near my new waist. In the light emanating from the mushroom, I look down and see my new body.
I am wearing a loincloth.
This body is less sensitive than my human body, otherwise, I would have noticed that by now.
I thought I was naked. My legs are.. chitinous, Longer than my last pair but thinner. Speaking of long appendages, do I have it anymore?
Ugg...It's not there. I feel like I should be more disappointed in the lack of something so.. Important. But I am still in the data gathering stage and none of this has truly sunk in yet.
I hope I don't have any new reproductive organs. If there's anything worse than losing mine, it's getting an entirely alien reproductive organ that I know nothing about. Even worse, the instincts and needs that will come with something new. Ok, that's enough of that disturbing thought, moving on for now.
My upper body, what do I have? I feel myself up to explore my body. Hmm.. no I touch myself. I can make lame sex jokes still, it seems. Unamused by my own crass humour I continue trying to make sense of the new body I find myself in.
Moving closer to the light and looking at myself finally gives me a full picture of what I look like. I have four arms, mandibles, antennae, a body covered in what I think is chitin, an honest to god insectile abdomen and thin legs that shouldn't be able to carry my weight.
I am an ant-person. I look like I walked out of a Xenofiction. Like a faceless enemy in a Hive mind of enemies, the fantasy hero can mow down without feeling the moral quandary of killing someone who matters.
Disposable.
That's what finally knocks the cheer I've been maintaining with the fairly terrible internal humour since I woke up. I sit down for a moment on the cold dirty floor to just…. take it all in. That's when I notice that my hands, all four of them, have been clutched since I woke up. I open my arms one by one to get used to the feeling of having four arms and that's when I see the words that changed it all.
In the dim lights as each of my palms open, I see a paper clutched in each of them.
"Welcome"
"To the"
"Wandering"
"Inn"
---
The first thought that runs through my mind after this discovery is not the 1001 things I should actually care about.
There's no way whoever put me here could have known the order I would open my palms in.
This means they had to use some sort of precognition just to make sure that I would read it in the right order and place it in that order. Nerdy Dramatic Random Omnipotent Beings.
That is if whoever dropped me here are the ever elusive ROBs I've read about. It's most certainly not the original ritual. Neither is it the Gods.
If it was the ritual, I would not be in a different body. The original ritual creates a tear in space-time between universes, it doesn't push souls into bodies.
Now, it could be a separate ritual since I know that dimensional travel via this world's magic system is achievable. But that train of thought takes me nowhere.
The Gods, if they had access to a soul that could believe in them, would never let it go. That is if the Gods are still dead. Or has ever been dead. Ok, so I can't entirely discount them being behind this.
Though I must admit the chance of the Gods using such an elaborate plan is almost non-existent. And the paper said, "Welcome to the Wandering Inn" and not "Pray to me, Mortal", No way is it the Gods.
I should probably stop thinking of them as Gods, Don't want the thought parasites to get stronger. Let's call them dead nothings.
Grand plans for later, let's think about what I will do for the near future. Sucks that I don't have a "What to do when waking up in a new body in a new world" list to follow. But never too late to get started.
Step 1, Where am I? I can assume by the obviously underground location, my new species and the glowing mushroom that I faintly remember reading about that I am in one of the Hives.
Let's confirm that first. The queen I am subordinated to will decide what my immediate future will be. I hope it's not the twisted Hive. Or even worse, one of the Hives in hell, I mean Rhir, that I know next to nothing about.
The best possible location would be the free Hive. Even with all the crazy things happening in Liscor, I think I will be able to cope as long as I have a chance to pass myself off as an Individual.
Now the problem becomes confirming where I am. Were there any distinguishing features about the terrain or the soil in which each Hive was located? I don't remember any so the next best option would be to observe the Antinium and find what this hive specialises in.
I think I know how I can blend in. I remember from one of the Antinum POV chapters that you can pick up orders from the queen when you are inside a Hive. Let's see if I can hear the orders.
I focus on the faint humming I previously thought was coming from around me. But now that I focus I can tell that it's not any form of sound. It's unidirectional telepathic commands from the [Queen]. Right now it's not focused on me or anyone near me so I can only hear it as orders in the distance. I listen to the orders for a bit more time and now I have a plan.
I move on the path illuminated by the mushrooms. I am under no illusions that If the [Queen] of this Hive is focusing on me then I won't immediately be found out. That is, If the [Queens] had the micromanaging skills to individually focus on each member of the Hive, which I don't think is the case.
I am banking on the faint memory that the [Queens] don't immediately take care of aberrations to hide my own aberrant status. To explain my reasoning, when an Antinium is pushed to its limit they break. It breaks and it becomes what the Antinium call an Aberration. It becomes self-destructive and starts killing those around it.
Aberrations are highly unstable and cannot be reasoned with. They will continue killing their kin until the [Prognugator] of the Hive (essentially the second in command of the Hive) learns about them and kills them. If the [Queen] could micromanage the Hive to the individual Antinium, The aberrations would be caught long before they ever reached that stage.
Finally, I hear the sound of footsteps in the distance.
Following the sound of movement, I found the nearest Antinium patrol. They all look like me.
Which means nothing more than that they are a group of Workers. Capital "W", Workers. A subspecies of Antinium.
Moving with inhuman precision and coordination. They make up the well-oiled machine all but directly controlled by the giant telepathic hub I call a [Queen]. Little better than Golems when it comes to individual thought. Slaves to their creator, working for nothing, living for nothing, hoping for nothing. And whether I like it or not, my new brethren.
As I continue staring at the backbone of this world's most coordinated Army I am in awe. I can see why the drakes are so scared of the Antinium. They are a race made for war. The Workers exist for creating and supporting the infrastructure necessary for war. The Soldiers are said to be equal to a level 15 [Warrior] of other races at the time of birth. Mostly unfeeling automatons capable of levelling and becoming stronger. Forged in the hell of Rhir, even the basic design of an Antinium worker is incredibly lethal.
The awe turns to repulsion as I fully digest what I knew when I first read the words left on those notes. We are created for war. But I don't want to be defined by what my creators want me to be. Ironically, this has defined a good part of my life back home and I don't see a reason to change that.
I set a goal for myself as I look at my new species in that claustrophobic dark tunnel.
I will get a new body and It will be mine. It won't just be made for supporting a war. It won't be an echo of someone else's vision. It will be made to live.
Don't get me wrong, I am not planning to become a fluffy rabbit with pink fur and pinchable cheeks. Thank fuck I wasn't transmigrated as a Waisrabbits. Though being born with line of sight teleportation would be cool now that I think about it.
My body will also have to be made to support me in battles. I do not disbelieve it. It's inevitable, whether it's due to my nature or the nature of this world is immaterial. If I have to be built for battles, it will be for the battles I envision.
Getting a goal other than immediate survival has solidified something deep within me. I move with greater purpose. I find a good location to use as a place for my plan and hide.
--
I am hidden behind a rock. As the Workers approach and pass me by I join them at the back of their line. They have no reason to be alert in this part of the Hive. Even more than that, I don't know how aware of their surroundings an average Antinium even is. Antinium are not exactly known for individual thought or situational awareness.
At first, my movements were clunky. But I watch and follow. I learn with each new step I take and consciously cut down on my previous body's instincts to move like a human. And before I know it I am mostly in sync with the others. Some sort of sense for the others is helping me with it. It's not the [Unitasis Network], I don't think. I should have already died if the Antinium around me had one up and running, so I will assume not.
But even with that, if at this stage an Antinium guard saw me and looked at me for long enough I would have stood out. The orders I am hearing from the [Queen] aren't clear enough. This causes me to sometimes miss turns taken by the others. A very short delay, but would still stand out to my fellow Antinium if they bother to look.
Thinking about how to listen to the [Queens] directions better, I notice something that should have been obvious. The antenna. They are all bent slightly. That's so stupidly obvious. And here I was trying to apply half-remembered lessons from physics classes related to radio waves to telepathy.
I move new muscles that I instinctively know how to control and move my own antenna. Like a radio tuning in, I can hear the [Queen's] Orders better. I say "hear" but it's not entirely words. It's also vague senses and feelings. I wish there were words and I would have more clues to put together, but this would do.
Telepathy is easier than I expected.
Well, It's not true telepathy. I am just receiving orders, not sending anything. But I do have some control over the reception, maybe something I can leverage in future?
We walk through the endless maze of the Hive for a few more minutes before we reach an end. And I finally hear it. Actual words. The [Queen] tells us to "Dig forward" then I can feel the [Queen's] attention move away from us.
That tells me nothing. Why can't she just say something like "In the name of The Flying Hive, dig forward my workers."
Instant answers are a bit too much to hope for, it seems.
I don't want to "dig forward". I don't even have a shovel to dig with. Just as I think that. I see the Antinium, All six of them take positions they seem long familiar with. Some crouch down, some move to the left and the rest to the right. What's confusing is that they seem not alerted at the least by me who is just standing there observing.
Do they even see me? Are they so lost in the crushing monotony of life in the Hive that they are no longer even thinking?
I know that unlike the Hives expect, there is no secret alchemical recipe to becoming an individual. All Antinium are born as individuals. Their brains just need stimulation to get out of the rut the Hive puts them in. And enough reason to live when they accept the role as separate from the hive to not immediately self-destruct as an aberration.
Man, this is depressing.
I just sit down to think. I have run into a literal dead end. I am not cocky enough to think that I will be able to get out of the Hive or survive outside without at least knowing which Hive I am in.
Now that just listening to the words by the queen and an entire walk here hasn't given any important clue. I have to recess my strategy. But for now, I have to wait. Waiting is better than being killed.
---
I am so booored. I don't think it has even been an hour since they started digging but I am already restless. I have been recalling as much as I can about the Antinium as I kept waiting for technically my brothers to finish the work. I want to start talking but I have nothing to protect myself with if one of them turns aberration.
Is it arrogance or self-recrimination to think they will lose their minds and self-destruct if I start speaking?
Thinking about it, don't the Antinium work continuously for almost the entire day? Fuck me, I can't do that.
I walk away without anyone noticing. I will come back later when they are going back so that I can accompany them to the large gatherings of Antinium. For now, I need something to occupy myself with.
I stop when I believe I have made enough distance between myself and the others. I have something in mind that I can do to pass time and get myself used to being an Antinium.
I start moving. Moving in patterns familiar to me. It was never made for his body, I can tell. Too many times I have to stop myself and correct my movements to match my new body.
I am familiar with two forms of fighting. I learned Krav Maga when my parents saw how many fights I got in and that the number wasn't going down as I grew up. It didn't take me long to learn a good chunk of it. Not because I was a prodigy or anything but because it's relatively easy to learn. I won't call myself a master or an expert but I believe I know enough to be dangerous at close quarters.
No, I did. I knew how to defend myself in close quarters in my last world not here.
I have to remind myself to not make the same mistakes Ryoka did. New world, new rules to combat. Martial arts experience in a controlled environment in a different world and few tussles will not make me equal to an experienced combatant from this deathworld.
Thanks, Ryoka, for going through this so that I don't have to. You were always my favourite character.
I have to adjust a lot during this session of self-training. It's just not made for this body. I also have to include my new pair of arms. I can't fight like a double-armed human.
Once I start getting exhausted, I move on to the second exercise I had in mind.
I need to get used to using all my arms all at once. For that, I add an extension to a piece of training I am already used to.
I still don't know if this is actual science or not. I was told this would increase my "mental plasticity" by my Uncle. I don't know if it's a placebo or not but it helped me in College, so where's the fault in trying.
I start writing on the floor. Each hand traced a different letter in the English alphabet. As you would expect, it started clunkily but a desire for survival fuels me so I stuck to it.
I can't say I have perfect hand eye coordination by the time I'm bored with the exercise. But it's definitely better than how I started. So progress… Yay.
If I could find anything even resembling a stick I could have tried the few spear fighting techniques that I remember from the phase of my life I no longer want to remember.
I know I will probably never get as good as Relc or other [spearmasters], but reacquainting myself with the basics of how to swing one would give me something to focus on.
I have one more exercise in mind. I sit down in a classic Yoga pose and tune my telepathic senses to the [Queen]. I listen to the telepathic noise, work on trying to isolate one channel from another, turn the "volume" up and down, and mask feedback from my end.
To my continued surprise, I am making progress in most of what I am trying to do with telepathy.
Does my previous life give me some sort of an edge? Or is it something else?
I work on it a bit more till some sort of telepathic strain builds up. I don't let it build up and cripple me, I end my telepathic exercises.
I rest for a few minutes, clear my mind and go back to play around with Krav Maga.
Then I sit down and think about everything that I can do to improve my performance in everything I am trying to accomplish. How to change and adapt this martial art for my new body? How do I get the maximum out of the new muscle groups? How to change my posture to hide my new weaknesses? Where are my body's weaknesses? What other tricks can I do with my narrow telepathy? Etc…
Faints against two-handed opponents when I have four hands are going to be useful as soon as I can get my instincts to remember that I indeed have four hands.
Then I go back to my hand eye coordination exercise, once bored of it I exercise my limited telepathy. afterwards, I restart Krav Maga training and once bored of it, I think about how I can do better. I continue this cycle and get lost in it.
Boredom is kept at Bay with the knowledge that I am getting better at everything I am practising. I feel myself growing tired but I am too lost in the process to care. And before I know it, the Antinium I arrived here with are done with their job.
The rhythmic background noise of them digging up tunnels has gone silent. I couldn't tell how much time had passed. I too got myself lost in the repetitive work I was doing and lost track of time. And that scares me like nothing else has scared me so far.
Surely I am not becoming one of them in mind as well? It's just me getting lost in work. Losing time while working is nothing new. I console myself.
Finally, I can stop training and head back to try and find answers.
---
I'm tired of all the work that I had intentionally subjected myself to. I can see it in the eyes of others that they are also tired. Good to know I am not the only Antinium that can get tired.
At Least the walk back is a bit more interesting than the walk to the worksite. This time I can see other Antinium moving back with us. I believe it's time for the communal "food". I almost forgot about it. I don't want to subject myself to the same paste that everyone's going to eat.
Beyond the ever-increasing number of Workers, I can also see the Soldiers moving. This is the first time I laid my eyes upon a Soldier and they are as war-like as I imagined them to be. Large, bulky and menacing. I look around and take everything in. I look for any Antinium different from the two templates I am seeing. I found none.
I've seen approximately around 400 antinium. A large enough sample size to make some hasty deductions.
I haven't seen any armoured Soldiers. So this is probably not the Armoured Hive.
No abominations screaming in pain. So probably not the Twisted Hive.
No obvious results of tests for creating flying Antinium. So not the Flying Hive.
The Antinium doesn't seem to have any obvious specialization toward stealth either. So it's not the Silent Hive.
And finally, I only saw Workers and Soldiers. One would expect a hive in Rhir to have a lot more diversity.
This leads me to a single conclusion. I am in the Free hive. The one under Liscor, where all the plot happens. Friendliest and the closest hive to a civilization.
That is if the guess that I made while hoping for this particular result is true, then I can rest easy knowing that my chances of surviving the week have gone up from something like 2% to 10%. As if.
I mentally mark step one as finished.
--
Step 2. Now that I know that I know where I am, I have to figure out when I am.
I'm standing in line for my food paste. I still haven't decided whether or not I will eat it. On one hand, I'm hungry, on the other, that's the most disgusting food I have ever laid my eyes on. And believe me, I've seen some disgusting food.
The Antinium grind their dead and turn them to paste don't they? or was it just the goblins that ate their own kind?
What'll happen if I reject eating it? Would the entire room turn on me or would the same thing that's been happening the entire day happen and no one would notice?
It's when I'm thinking back on the problem of figuring out when I am that there is a disturbance in the crowd. I look for what's causing the disturbance and see… a regular Antinium. No, that Antinium is anything but regular, it doesn't move like one of us. I initially think it's an aberration but immediately stop my flight response as I recognize who it actually is.
It's Klbkch. The [Progugator] of this hive. He looks like just another worker but he moves like anything but one. If I remember correctly, his last body, the one that he bought across the sea, was lost in one of the Antinium Wars. I can't remember if it was the first or the second.
Klbkch, the slayer. One of the strongest individuals of this race. An original Centenium. But with all the grace and strength that he moves, he looks defeated. No doubt he has seen hundreds of Battlefields. But something other than raw physical strength or might of an approaching Army has turned him into a dried husk.
It is only now that I notice he's walking toward me. He will be right in front of me in a few more steps. Before I can freak out and blow my cover I noticed something important. He's not looking at me.
Thank fuck he's looking at the counter. He's here to eat this gruel. I forgot that at this point even with his status in the hive he still eats the same paste as the rest of us. So does the [Queen] if I'm not wrong. We truly are the most miserable species on this planet.
Once he gets the food paste he keeps him staring at it. He doesn't move from his position and just keeps staring.
Was he always this far gone?
Not that I blame him. I can see how failure after failure has led him to this position. From the loss against the other dead thing in Rhir. To the disastrous sea travel that killed a good 70% of the entire Antinium race. To the losses of all but two of his true comrades at the Antinum wars. To the failed experiments to gain individuality. To his lost body and levels. To the double life, he has to live.
Looking at him, I can tell that he's going to commit suicide soon. And the strangest part, it's going to be good for him. I Might have a day or two to prepare for it but I believe his suicide by Goblin is going to happen soon.
He leaves with his paste after a minute. He doesn't notice me. I am next in line. I get the paste but having made sure that Klbkch is no longer in the room, I walk out and throw it away. I can go hungry for a few more days.
---
I expected 2 days and I got 2 hours. The Slayer is dead. The queen has sent out a priority message to go and retrieve his body. She has also sent a message out to bring the Innkeeper who was responsible for this back to the hive.
I was in the middle of practising my, ahem.. spear dancing, with a tree root that I saw dangling out of a tunnel. But, there was no way I was going to miss this chance to go outside. The queen only asked the Soldiers, but who cares? it's not like they are going to notice.
I "hack" into the connection between the queen and the Soldiers. The connection is unidirectional so the [Queen] does not notice. I ran towards their location. I fall in line with the Soldiers and join their group at the end.
Once at the entrance and we've passed all the guards, I tuned out of the "frequency" the queen was using to organize the Soldiers. I never fully committed to the frequency so the Queen doesn't know what I just did. Just a neat trick I picked up.
My heart beats faster and faster as we approach the surface. I can almost see sunshine peeking through.
The first rays of sunshine under a foreign sun hit me as I walked outside of the hive. the Soldiers are also awestruck, for a second, Probably their first time seeing the sky. They look up but don't linger.
I will follow along for now. I take in the alien city as I move. The architecture is interesting, The terrain is interesting, The city walls are interesting, and the few people I see on the mostly abandoned path we follow are interesting, but I have no time to contemplate any of it. I have to get somewhere more important.
We walked toward the watch barracks near the wall.
We walk towards where I will find the prot
agonist of the story and my dead leader.
---
I can hear people speaking loudly as we approach. I believe it's the [Watch Captain] and other [Guardsmen] grilling Erin for details on what happened.
"Klbkch? Summon the Captain! Get a [Healer], now!"
"—Not breathing. Contact his hive! Get the Human out of the way!"
"Klb? Buddy? Speak to me."
"—Human. What have you done?"
Erin is insensate.
If I remember correctly, She barely registered anything that happened between the death of Klbkch, her taking him to get the [Healer's] attention and Antinium "escorting" her to the [Queen].
I notice everyone in the room, other than Erin, tense as we enter. I take a second to look around.
I let the Soldiers collect every piece of Klbkch they can find. I am surprised that the [Queen] doesn't order the Soldiers to collect his blood by the amount of detail she is asking from the Soldiers. I take this moment to look around.
There are Drakes and Gnolls from the watch looking at the Soldier Antinium. I wonder what they think I am doing? Supervising? Heh. I recognize two Drake present. A blue scaled female drake and a big green scaled male drake.
The female Drake, whose features are twisted in rage, is Zevera. She looks like she is about to breathe fire, which she can. She is the [Watch Captain] of the city. She commands the proto-militia city guards called the Watch. She has some aura skill, [dangersense] and a few other tricks up her sleeve. Fairly high level for her age. A prodigy. I wonder if her [dangersense] is going off right now.
The big drake's Relc. He has a lot of scars. He is not ugly to my eyes, unlike his species that finds him hideous. I don't remember any of his big skills other than [Dangersense], [Triple Thrust] and some others that he gets later in the series. His main classes should be [Spearmaster], [Guardsman] and [Sergeant]. He is probably the strongest person in the city right now.
More importantly, He considered Klbkch his best friend. He looks grief stricken. But he also looks like he has seen this too many times. He's a soldier that lost a new best friend but has already lost too many others before to properly grieve.
I don't recognize the rest of them. That Drake could be Senior [Guardsman] Jeiss and that Gnoll could be Senior [Guardsman] Beilmark, but I can't tell for certain for either of them. I don't remember any of their features well enough to tell.
The Drakes as a whole look mostly like how I expected them to look. Like dragons crossed with humans. None of them has wings. But I expected the gnolls to look a lot more... Dog like. Instead, they look like overgrown hyenas. Is it racist that I almost expect them to start drooling?
Both races look so menacing. Erin has the balls of steel to have made friends with them so fast. Speaking of our main character. She is hunched over Klb's body, she is balling her eyes out and not taking in anything anyone's saying.
Before I knew it, the Soldiers were done with the work and they had his body stored in what I assume is a bag of holding the [Queen] let them take for this mission. Next, they move to flank my fellow Earther. They pick her up and move her. I don't hear anyone protesting. Not even Relc or Erin herself say a word as she is picked and moved towards the publically known Antinium tunnel entrance.
---
Since I know how this is going to end, I am not very concerned. Erin just looks funny dangling from the arms of one of the big Soldiers.
She is still crying. She might be pretty good looking underneath all the tears, snot, mud and blood. Shut up, I can still appreciate humans in this body.
Did I mention she was caked with blood? Fun fact, both Antinium blood(green) and goblin blood(red) look similar to human blood when they dry. Who would have thought?
Man, what I wouldn't give to have some samples from all the species in this world and go over them in a Modern Laboratory. Picture A'ctelios Salash cells. Would studying it drive me insane? How about Drake cells, would looking at them break the microscope due to pettiness?
I split up from the group before they can go into the hive. Yeah no, I am not going with this group to meet the [Queen]. I will stick out like a sore thumb.
I know what is going to happen next. Erin gets chewed out by the [Queen] for getting Klb killed. The [Queen] who is internally freaking out will tell Erin that she is only disappointed by Klb's death, that his death was nothing in the grand scheme of things. She will add to Erin's misery plate by telling her that she was the reason that Klb died and that the small changes Erin has bought to the hive have been negative.
In reality, Klb is one of the most important members of my species on this continent. One of the First [Queen]'s original 100 Centenium. Oh, he lost his body which cost him some levels, but I will eat my non-existent hat if he isn't in the first or second highest levelled Antitinium on this continent. And the [Queen] is only venting while projecting strength in case, the drakes attack in this moment of weakness.
---
I am sitting on a tree near the entrance. The [Queen's] distressed mood has made the guards sloppy. I can now pick up the [Queen's] passive commands to get a picture of the hive's movements. So I get altered beforehand a Soldier moves to look in my direction.
There's something other than just a transmigrated soul going on here. There's no way I am better at telepathy than a race born to it.
It's been 15 minutes and I see two Soldiers escorting Erin out. They leave her out of the hive and take a U-turn and go back in. While she was being guilt tripped, a [Guardsman] was already waiting at the hive entrance for her. I don't know if he actually expected her to come back out of the hive alive or not.
Ok, everything is going as I remember it. Now Erin will go meet the [Watch Captain] and get chewed out. Churning her guilt even more. The gears of fate are leading her towards two of the most important moments in her life. Both will happen today and I can't wait.
I have plans for both.
---
I don't move from my spot as I wait for the final group of Antinium that I hope I will have to join covertly. A group of Antinium walk outside of the hive. It's a group of almost 100 Antinium. Leading them is Pawn. Though if I call him that now, he will probably turn aberration or just turn me into one or try to kill me, you get the picture.
My amateur stealth skills didn't fail me as I joined them. I walk with them towards the Liscor central market. Towards a particular shop run by a Gnoll. I can see Krishia, the shopkeeper, with Erin and Selys.
Selys is a drake, One of Erin's first friends. She works at the local adventuring guild as a [Receptionist]. She has light green scales and while she is described as good looking to other drakes I can't really see it. Wohoo… I am not scaly. How about Krishia? Yeah no. So I'm not inexplicably attracted to fur either.
Krishia, the shopkeeper, is one of the leaders of the minority Gnoll population living in Liscor. She has brown eyes and dark brown fur. Her eyes are especially noticeable, as they don't have a sclera; each one consists solely of one pupil surrounded by a brown cornea.
They are consoling and talking to Erin about Klbkch's death.
The large group of Antinium with me reach them and I ready myself for the play ahead.
---
The "play" starts too soon and I almost miss my cue.
Every single one of the Antinium bow at once. But I lag behind a bit. Thank fuck, I was at the back and no other Antinium saw me. This is what I get for not tuning in to what I will call the "proto-[Unitasis Network]". Almost lost at step 1.
"These ones offer condolences to the Innkeeper Solstice." probably future Pawn spoke.
Selys whispered in a panicked voice to Krshia and Erin.
"What are they doing? They shouldn't be here! Someone should call the Watch!"
She is scared. To be honest, I would be too if I was facing this.
Krshia nudges Selys hard.
"Silence. Listen."
Definitely, future Pawn continues.
"These ones wish for the Innkeeper Solstice to heal from wounds received. These ones express their regret for her suffering."
"Why?" asks Erin.
"The Prognugator carried out his duties. The Worker died carrying out his duties. No mourning is necessary for broken shells and dead individuals. These ones merely express regret of individual Klbkch's failure to protect."
Erin stared at him.
"So you're saying you're sorry I got hurt?"
"These ones express regret for the failure of the Prognugator to protect the Innkeeper Solstice."
"It wasn't failure. Don't—don't say that."
The conversation develops from there. Pawn tells Klb's death wasn't her fault and that the only thing to be sorry about is that She was injured. Erin insists that's not right. Terribly boring stuff If you already know what's going to happen.
And then it happens. Erin asks the Antinium its name. Now if this Antinium was near his breaking point then this would be when he turns Aberration and kills Erin, but thankfully this is Pawn. His brain has been getting simulated by the chess games Erin has been teaching him as part of the chess club. Erin doesn't know how lucky she was just now.
The back and forth between the Antinium and the Human continues.
"This one has no name. This one is not important. This one is not an individual."
"You could be."
"Erin!"
Selys tries to grab Erin and drag her away. Erin fought her hands off.
"Why? What's wrong?"
She poked the Worker in the chest.
"You're an individual. You're you. And the Worker who died? He was someone. Klbkch was someone. You're all important, and that means when one of you dies it's a bad thing."
The Worker shook his head as the other Workers around him backed away.
"This one is not an individual. This one cannot be."
"You are. Can't you understand? You're all special."
The Worker froze, and then looked at Erin. Something changed in his eyes.
"This one—I understand. This one has become I."
Selys gasped in horror. The Worker stared down at his hands and then looked up.
"I understand sorrow. I understand regret for the death of individual Klbkch and Worker."
"Good."
All other Antinium near me walk backwards. They think Pawn has become Aberrant. I walk back with them too, the time isn't here yet.
"I. I am. I have become I. I do not understand."
He looked around, up at the sky, at Erin. He shook like a leaf.
"If this one—is not—how are the many one? An individual cannot exist—the many are—how am I?"
Erin's answer to my new brother asking for an answer to life is just to tell him that she doesn't know.
"I don't know. I try not to think about it. Come on. Let's play a game of chess."
She then tells him to follow her and moves towards the Inn. He does and so does the other Antinium.
---
Pawn is leading at the front. He exhibits all signs of teetering at the edge of becoming an Aberration.
"I. I am. But it is wrong. All is wrong. When the many become one, it is Aberration. I am Aberration."
"Why? What's wrong?"
"I cannot be individual. I cannot have names. I cannot choose my own actions. It is wrong."
"Klbkch did it."
"He is Prognugator. I am—was Worker. I should not be."
Erin turned her head.
"You're fine. You should be. It's fine to be a person and not a thing."
"I cannot understand. I am Aberration. All is Aberration. This Experiment—I cannot accept it."
"…I'm sorry. But I wanted you to feel something."
"I feel. I feel all."
"Good."
"I don't even know what it means to be human. All I know is that there's a big hole in my heart. Because Klbkch and the Worker died. I don't know who I am or what I'm doing. I'm just—sad."
"Why?"
"I just am. That's how it works. You don't get to choose to be someone. You just are. Even if you're not special. Even if you don't want to be. You just are."
He looks like he has come to the revelation this has been building up to. He has stopped shaking.
"I am no longer a Worker. I am an individual. I would like a name."
I move forward. I know it's my time.
"I can't help you. I'm not—I can't give you one. Couldn't you ask your Queen?" Erin responds, suddenly feeling heavy with the weight of responsibility.
Pawn shakes his head.
"I—do not wish to. I must have a name. Where may I find one?"
"I don't know. Can't you choose one for yourself?"
The Worker paused. He turned his head to Erin and hesitated before nodding.
"I will do so."
"I would like to be known as 'Pawn'. It is a fitting name for this individual."
"And I would like to be known as "Thomas"."
Man, the sound I make is so strange. I can hear the remnants of my previous voice in there somehow. How does transmigration even function?
Both Pawn and Erin stare at me.
"I've decided I will also be an Individual. Overhearing your conversation changed my mind. There is nothing stating that I can't be an Individual as well is there?"
"Umm.. no."
Erin looks a bit lost. But she manages to pick the conversation back up.
"Hi, Pawn, Hi... Thomas."
"Hello. Erin Solstice."
"Hey, Erin."
I let out an internal breath of relief that I am now recognized as an "Individual". At least I am not immediately disposable to the Antinium anymore. Erin knows me in case I need her help. But most importantly I can stop hiding around.
I am under no false Impression that my existence would automatically make the hive a less depressing place. I still haven't decided if I should tell Erin about who I am.
So much to still do before I can be truly free. I have some barebones plans to get my independence. The only thing left to do right now is to stay and witness the birth of the [Immortal Moment]. That's also the only reason I haven't tried lightening the mood.
I school my non-existent features and follow Pawn's lead. My introduction hasn't created a big ripple. She is still going to play a game of chess against Pawn as the original plan was when she dragged everyone over here. The Workers have started cleaning out her Inn and dragging out the corpses inside. I half-heartedly join them.
My first look at The Wandering Inn and it's littered with bodies of Goblins and Antinium. Sounds par for the course. I remind myself that I have no desire to spend my life acting as a shield for Erin.
Blood. Blood splatters everywhere. It's sweeping into the floor, the tables and chairs. There's blood dripping from the body parts of goblins, green bodies oozing red blood and then there's the second kind of blood, green blood, which is flowing from the Other worker's dead body.
The dead worker's body is taken outside and buried. Sure Antinium can't turn undead to burying us is pointless. However, burying a body isn't hard to do for a sub-species specializing in underground tunnelling.
The Workers all then crowd inside the room. Pawn sits down for the game with Erin and I stand hovering over Pawn.
I hear Krishia say "So, this is your inn, yes? It looks better than I had thought. Worth defending."
It does look clean. Needs more tables and chairs. We just dragged all the broken ones outside. Which were most of them.
Erin picks up a chessboard and walks outside.
She lays it on the grass outside, looks at Pawn and me and tells us that she wants to play a game of chess.
I want to make a snarky remark but I keep my mouth shut. I can't ruin the moment. Oh look, the weird antinium isn't responding to a call to play chess, let's go with the other one who's interested in the game.
___
The game starts and all the Antinium around me are focused on the game that's happening. I feel something strange as I am watching it. I feel like I am forgetting something. Something very important.
"I still don't get it. Where do levels come from? Why do people have them? Why do people only level up when they sleep?"
"I do not know Erin Solstice. These are mysteries of the world. They are that they are, yes?"
As Erin talks about levels and classes with Krishia I find it harder and harder to focus. I find it harder to think about anything other than chess.
Erin asks about the basics of levelling up. Krishia gives answers some right, some wrong due to ignorance. I know a magnitude more about this world than its inhabitants. But I can't focus on any of it.
The first game ends as Erin gives up. I get some of my brain's processing power back.
Oh, I remember now. This is the proto-[Unistatis Network] being pushed to its limits. Fuck, I think My brain power is being used to calculate strategies for the chess match.
I have to get out of here. But I want to see the birth of Erin's Cheat Skill. I want to see how Erin accidentally tricks the world into creating [Immortal Moment].
A [skill] so powerful that It can stop time for the ancient eldritch inter-dimensional time monster that ate the God of Time.
I decided that I will give up my new brain's processing power to explore more about this proto-[Unistasis Network]. I look into myself and get lost in sensations.
Erin asks questions about levels and classes anyone who lives in this world should know the answers to. Olsem, Rags and Pisces join around the table. Erin all but spills that she is from another world but none of that matters to me.
The proto network starts back up with the new game and demands more of my mental resources. I take a metaphorical deep dive into the network. The processing power isn't just going one way, that's not how a true [Unistasis Network] functions and this false network still has some remnants of it. I have a theory that I can actually turn this into the real thing.
If I was thinking straight I might have thought more about what I was going to do. That playing around with the brains of 100s is not the safest thing to do. But I am too drunk on processing power to recognize my hubris.
The Antinium around me are barely kids. Even though they've lived as Antinium far more than me, I've played around with the psychic powers inherent to our species way more than them. Their minds are easily overwhelmed when I start sending sensations and hogging processing power. I am using the processing power of the network to study the network. At least, that was the plan.
We start sending them parts of my life. They are mine and I have to be theirs. Our memories leak into the network, did we plan to do that? We think we were trying to share knowledge. We are not sure if we know anymore.
The network shudders and changes. It reverses, centralizes and oscillates. The Antinium crowded around me sees me for what I am. We see each other for what we are.
No sign of the telepathic chaos is revealed to the outside world. We are still and our eyes are focused on the chess board. Some portion of our brain is still processing the best way to move the pieces.
We evolve. We grow more in seconds than we have in years. 127 Workers are no longer just Workers.
Erin plays the game of Immortal chess and overwhelms the collective that's no longer calculating the best route on a chessboard. She plays and cries and wins. She opens her heart to the world and shows it something has never seen before. A game that captured immortality and a moment that stretched to one. The Grand Design will only announce this when she sleeps today. But the [Immortal Moment] has already been completed.
We spread ourselves within the network. We are the network. We process everything faster now. Faster than the whole. We are no longer limited to a single body. An imposter has hijacked the remains of a broken civilisation's greatest achievement. Something has awakened within the Workers who joined me.
We never expected this. But the grand design is always watching and judging. It judges our, no my, soul and accomplishments on millions of unseen scales. The ever-evolving game of the dead God's name that which I unknowingly made real.
I know now that something deep within myself has changed. And for the first time, I heard the grand design whisper to me.
[Class learned - Hivelord]
[Hivelord Level 7!]
[Skill – Salire Network Learned]
[Skill - A Thousand for One Learned]
[Skill - Unistasis Network learned]
[Skill - Psychic Fortress learned]
[Skill - Psychic Sensing learned]
[Skill - Telekinetic Aura obtained]
[Skill - Telepathy(Weak) obtained]
[Skill - Army: Longstriders]
[Conditions Met: Fighter Class obtained]
[Fighter Level 2!]
[Skill - Lesser Endurance Obtained]
[Skill - Lesser Strength Obtained]
Then We--I fell unconscious.