I blinked as I returned to the eerily quiet real world then sighed briefly as I realised that I wouldn’t be able to tell Tane what had happened in my internal world until the tree woke back up. It was at this moment that I realised just how lonely I was going to be for the next week now that I had gotten used to being able to talk to Tane. Sure, I had spent most of my time

When I had first arrived on Edra I had been alone but then again, I had also been very busy every day. Now I actually had time now to stop and think about what I was doing so not having someone to talk to now was going to affect me much more now than it had earlier.

With another long-suffering sigh, I turned my attention back to the notification that had appeared in front of me upon my return to the real world. As I read through it my eyes widened and a vicious grin slowly made its way over my face as I realised that I had made the right in choosing to complete the Aspect of the Mutant first as well as what the true implications of what had just happened in my internal world would actually mean for me going forwards.

Aspect of the Mutant has reached 26/50!

Mutants are creatures that have been born different from the rest of their species. While many mutations serve no purpose in helping the creature survive better every so often a mutation pops up that makes a mutant for tougher than other members of their species.

Unassigned Stat Points increased by 3!

Growth Rate increased by 2 Unassigned Stat Points!

Aspect of Evolution (World of the Swarm) has reached Lvl 276!

The first warm-blooded animals have appeared in our internal world. These new creatures can be active even in colder climates unlike their cold-blooded cousins.

Constitution increased by 3!

Growth Rate increased by 1 Constitution!

New powerful predators with faster metabolisms have evolved in your internal world. As with everything else these creatures are faster and stronger than the things that came before and have large jaws that can crush bone with ease.

Strength increased by 2!

Growth Rate increased by 1 Strength!

Due to the latest extinction event your internal world has become the World of the Swarm most of the creatures that will evolve in your internal world will be arthropods. As you know arthropods have tough exoskeletons that protect them from the harsh world that they live in. As with many other creature’s arthropods can live in groups or alone but when they do live in groups, they can live in groups that are tens or even hundreds of times larger than most other types of organism and work together in ways that other organisms do not.

Spine Armour has been Upgraded to Exoskeleton!

Minion Control has been combined with Share Senses to create Swarm Control!

It was at this moment that I realised that I realised that my connection with my minions had increased to the point where if I wanted to, I could feel absolutely everything that they did. The connection that I had with my minions before was actually quite powerful, but it was more like fumbling around in the dark trying to find something as opposed to turning on the light so that I could see what I was doing. It wasn’t the best metaphor of course but I hadn’t experienced anything like this before.

Quickly I brought up the information for my two new Skills. While I was excited about Exoskeleton because having a better way to protect myself was never going to be a bad thing, but the simple fact of the matter was that the changes to the Skill that I had previously known as Minion Control Skill was more important to me.

Spine Armour has been Upgraded to Exoskeleton! (Primordial)

Allows you to form an armoured carapace over your body that protects you from harm. You can shape this carapace slightly to suit your purposes allowing you to form spike or blades that can allow you to deal damage to your opponents.

Cost: Minimum 40 SP/min. Dependent on surface area covered and

Growth Rate increased by 1 Unassigned Stat Point

Minion Control and Share Senses Upgraded to Swarm Control!

Allows you to efficiently control multiple different summoned creatures at the same time via a hivemind.

Current Control Points

20 + (Skill Lvl) + 30% of Willpower= 61

Growth Rate increased by 1 Unassigned Stat Point

1 Aspect point awarded for unlocking Fall Resistance

I gaped at the changes that had had been made to my two Skills. At first glance Exoskeleton looked like it was a weaker version of my Earthen Armour spell that used SP instead of MP and to a degree that was correct except for the fact that at the moment the shape of that my Earthen Armour took was largely fixed while Exoskeleton would provide me with a massive amount of utility if I used it right. For example, using my Earthen Armour spell would provide also create an open-faced helm to protect my head but with Exoskeleton I could in theory create a skin-tight covering of chitin that could cover my entire head and face while barely inhibiting my hearing or sight. I could also use Exoskeleton to do things like create claws o the ends of my fingers that I could use as emergency weapons or to help me climb trees. I didn’t expect that Exoskeleton would provide as much protection as Earthen Armour but while I could in theory use Earthen Armour for a relatively useful length of time thanks to my massively increased MP and regen having a defensive ability that didn’t cost MP was a really good idea and gave me an even bigger reason to invest more in my Constitution than I already had. I didn’t even really lose what made Spin Armour useful since the Skill’s description mentioned that I could create spikes to perform the same function that Spine Armour did so this was one hell of an upgrade as far as I was concerned.

However, as I had expected Swarm Control increased my Control Points by a considerable amount but also essentially made my minions an extension of my body in a way that they hadn’t quite been before which was actually a little scary because they still had their own emotions as well. Even now I could feel that the Gel was hungry, and I knew that it was always hungry which I assumed was a consequence of its ability to harvest Essence for me from the things that it ate. However, I also knew that I wasn’t hungry right now which was a very odd sensation. I could also see everything that the Scorpion could see and the best comparison that I could make for how that felt was that it was sort of like there was someone sitting in a room watching feeds from two different cameras. My own vision was a modern camera that could record colour etcetera and the other was one of the first security cameras ever made and not only was it not in colour the image was blurry and more like a slideshow than my vision.

However, despite it being weird it didn’t hurt or anything. It wasn’t difficult either, more like a lucid dream except that I was awake. In other words, the somewhat natural progression of everything else that I had experienced ever since I was hit by that car.

I frowned as I parsed over the unfamiliar sensations before deciding to ignore them for now and brought up my Stat Screen. After a few moments considering what to do with the three Stat Points that I had I decided to put 2 into Endurance and 1 into Constitution since I was planning on using my Exoskeleton Skill quite a bit and that Skill used up quite a lot of SP. Once I was done with that, I looked over my Stats again with a smile on my face.

Status

Level 4

Exp: 11%

HP: 311/393

MP: 411/1001

HP Regen: 30.9 per minute (+1)

MP Regen: 56.9 per minute

SP: 175/302

Essence: 61

SP Regen: 31 per minute

Control Points: 73.7 (43.7)

Str: 45 (+14/Lvl)

Agi: 63 (+15/Lvl)

Con: 58 (+ 7/Lvl)

End: 51 (+10/Lvl)

Tou: 59 (+10/Lvl)

Int: 123 (+42/Lvl)

Coor: 45 (+8/Lvl)

Vit: 45 (+8/Lvl)

Wis: 80 (+27/Lvl)

Will: 91 (+39/Lvl)

Per: 69 (+27/Lvl)

Cha: 38 (+11/Lvl)

Additional Growth Rate: +24 Unassigned Stat Points/Lvl. +40 MP/Lvl. MP regen increased by 1.4/min per Lvl +5 Control Points/Lvl.

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

It wasn’t going to take long for me to reach the point where I could keep Exoskeleton active constantly if my growth continued the same way that it was going right now.

After closing my Stat Screen, I considered what the hell I was going to do now that I had more than enough Control Points to summon a new minion. While summoning a Colossal Beetle would be incredibly useful for the moment my Scorpion was able to act as the ‘tank’ of my little party of minions well enough for now. While there was the option of summoning more Scorpions or Gels and it wasn’t a bad one the idea of having a flying scout that could supposedly also take part in combat was just too enticing.

Holding out my arm like I was expecting a falcon to land on it I activated the Skill and felt the 50 Essence Points that went into creating my newest minion drain away. I watched as the now familiar green tendrils flow out of my body and form some sort of cocoon on my arm. As I watched a shape began to form quickly within this cocoon like it was some sort of 3D printer.

Normally holding my arm out like this would be difficult but my massively increased Stats allowed me to do so with relative ease. Previously when I had used one of my summoning Skills I hadn’t really bothered to take as close a look as I was right now. It was one of the odder things that I had ever witnessed, which considering everything that had happened to me lately was saying quite a lot.

About a minute later the cocoon collapsed and fused with the massive dragonfly that was sitting on my arm. I blinked as a massive new amount of visual data from my new minion’s compound eyes flooded my brain. I actually ended up shutting down completely for a few minutes from the sheer amount of data that I just wasn’t used to dealing with.

I have no idea how long I stood there trying to adapt to the sudden increase of information thanks to my Swarm Control Skill but eventually I came around. With a sigh I looked over my new summon properly for the first time. The dragonfly was an impressive looking creature with a reddish body that was slightly longer than my forearm and wings that stuck out several times the length of its body. This was a little worrying to me since its size would limit its mobility slightly, but then again modern dragonflies could perform all sorts of acrobatic feats that looked impossible at first glance.

In the end the only way to find out for certain either way would be to witness it in action, so I shook my head and returned to examining my newest minion. One of its most noticeable features were the massive eyes that had been the source of the trouble that I had been having earlier. The eyes seemed to be a mostly greyish colour except in certain light where I could see my own face reflected back at me in multiple different colours which was trippy. Just below these were the dragonfly’s pincer-like jaws that were large enough in this case to chop off one or even several fingers with ease. I wasn’t sure how useful these jaws would be against larger creatures, but I already knew that Giant Dragonflies were one of the apex predators of their time, so I wasn’t too worried.

“Alright then,” I said as I raised my arm even further so that I wouldn’t be accidentally hit by one of the Dragonfly’s wings as it took off. “Let’s see what you can do.”

As I had expected as its wings started flapping, powerful gusts of wind started to pick up followed by a low thrumming sound and the dragonfly’s clawed legs slowly let go of my arm as it rose into the air. I ordered it to fly around for a bit so that I could figure out just how agile the thing was.

I watched in amazement as it roared through the air performing feats of acrobatics that were made all the more incredible by its size to the point where even an expert using a remote-control helicopter wouldn’t be able to keep up despite its massive wingspan which would seem to make most of these things unlikely.

“Well that’s good then,” I chuckled as the Dragonfly landed on a small branch and stared down at me. “Looks like you will be just as useful to me as I’d hoped you would be.”

Just then I heard a surprised chirping sound and turned to see the Black Darter staring at the Dragonfly with one of its beady little eyes. When it saw that the Dragonfly hadn’t reacted to its sudden appearance it started to puff up like an irritated cat and even started to release a sound like a boiling teapot making me burst out laughing.

The darter turned its attention to me as I raised my hand just in time for the Dragonfly to land on it. Its eyes widened comically as it stared at me and it started puffing up once more making it look like a pouting anime girl. It was truly an odd look for the funny little creature and tears started running down my face as it stared back at me reproachfully.

Eventually it started to deflate but it kept glaring at the Dragonfly and I for several moments after this before making a surprisingly human sounding huff of irritation and flying off. I rubbed my head slightly in embarrassment before turning my attention back to my newest minion and gave it its orders. I decided to have it fly up above the canopy and have a proper look around since I really didn’t know all that much about my surroundings other than this forest was absolutely massive, there were vast plains of something that resembled grass surrounding it and large mountains in the distance. I wasn’t expecting to find any sort of civilisation or anything but finding some signs of one of the other humans that the System had recruited would be nice.

As it flew off, I turned my attention to my other two minions who had just finished devouring the repulsive remains of the Crawlers and ordered them to continue their hunting. As I did this, I marvelled at the odd sensation of being in multiple places at once. My minions could technically still think for themselves, but their IQ was about as high as the average brick and it was more like controlling multiple units in an RTS game, but I could see and feel everything that they did. Thankfully, the sensation was slightly dulled now that I had gotten used to it, but I was very worried about what would happen if any of my minions got injured. Even before I had learnt my Swarm Control Skill, they were able to let me know what was going on but now I would feel the pain that they did, and I really wasn’t looking forward to that.

“Oh well,” I sighed. “That Skill still gives me more advantages than disadvantages, so I have no reason to complain.”

As I said this the Dragonfly broke through the canopy and I subconsciously took complete control over it so that I could take my time to admire the view for a few seconds before I even realised what I was doing. When I did realise what I was doing I released my full control over the dragonfly and let it follow the orders that I had given it previously.

I was being constantly blown away by the sensation of being in 4 places at once that I was currently experiencing, even as dulled as these sensations were when I wasn’t paying attention. But I did decide to pay attention to the exhilarating sensation of flying over the forest for a bit. The feeling of the wind on the dragonfly’s wings as it swooped over the massive trees underneath it. I sent it flying towards the opposite side of the forest that I had entered from to see what we could find on the other side and then ordered it to come straight back if I didn’t have any other orders for it.

“Right, what the hell should I do now?” I asked myself. This new Skill had essentially massively increased my ability to multitask dramatically and made it so I could rely on my minions even more for a lot of things while I spent my time training or making things that would be useful when the Yajashians got here.

After a few moments of thought I decided to start setting up some areas where I could build some more basic shelters and work areas. After all there wasn’t a lot of point having a Skill that improved the buildings that I made if I didn’t use it and it would also allow me to power level my Nature Shaping and similar Skills.

As I had learned earlier what, I could do alone was limited but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t clear some areas and at least work out a floorplan worked out for some new buildings. I knew that there wasn’t really any need for a workshop since I didn’t even really need tools to do a lot of crafting, but it would be nice to have a place specifically for that sort of thing. I even planned on having a hinged roof so that I could get some natural light in there. Basically, I just wanted a man cave where I would be able to work on my own projects in private even after the Yajashians arrived.

Once I had finished setting out the floor plan for my workshop and a large building that could be used for a temporary shelter when the Yajashians arrived and as a storage area later. Once I’d done that, I started building the frames with my Stone Spike spell. I simply mad the spikes long enough that I could bend them over and join them up on the shorter side. Once I’d done that, I made more spikes and cut them off at ground level so that I could use them to join the frames up into a series of strong box shapes that should be able to take a lot of punishment before breaking. Because I wasn’t really sure what the average height of the average Yajashian was I made sure to make the building more than two and a half metres tall even before adding the frame for the roof which would have to wait until my minions got back since the piece of wood that I had been standing on wasn’t quite large enough for me to be able to do that which meant I would have to use the ladder.

By the time I had done that it was starting to get dark, so I ordered all my minions to return. Unfortunately, the dragonfly hadn’t even made it close to getting to the other edge of the forest which was surprising since I estimated that it had been flying at about 50 kilometres per hour for the past couple of hours now. However, what it did tell me was that this forest was as massive as I had expected it would be. What’s more it hadn’t noticed any signs of people which was slightly less surprising but still quite disappointing.

Still things were looking up for me now that I had upgraded my Minion Control Skill to Swarm Control. I would still go hunting with my minions as much as possible, but I hoped that I wouldn’t feel the need to go out with them every single time since there was a lot of preparation that I wanted to get done before the Yajashians got here. After all I knew all too well how hard it was to adapt to a new world and I didn’t want to think about what it would be like for a group with a bunch of kids and older people which were what I was fully expecting to make up the bulk of the Yajashian refugees.

I was quite looking forward to spending some time making things instead of just struggling to survive like I had been up until a couple of days ago. By the time the Scorpion and Gel returned I had already cooked and eaten dinner, so we moved onto the next part of the frame for the two buildings that I had started work done. It was kind of horrifying how quickly I could get this part of the work done with my Skills and Stats but that was just how things worked outside of Earth, I guess.

I decided to ignore the flashing symbol telling me that I had Skill Increases waiting for me and went to bed not long after that. It had been a long day and I could deal with that in the morning.