NBB - A sphere's tale - Chapter 7 Tunnel crawlers

An hour later, they found themselves at another crossroads, and this time the choice was easy. GD18 turned right into a much wider tunnel from which came a thick, pungent smell. Sickly and sweet, he knew what it was, his body instinctively told him as his massive lined stomachs rumbled.

"Are you breaking?" Mutar asked while he held onto the scales with fingers turned to claws.

No. I am hungry, GD18 replied.

Another silence followed.

"What?"

It's complicated, but do you remember that the wyrm kept swallowing things?

"Of course."

The skulls that you absorbed and grew strong with are also something a wyrm needs to. But it also needs metal, and instead of absorbing that, it swallows it.

"Because it has no hands…" Mutar muttered.

A wave of hot, smelly air surged from the far end of the tunnel, surrounding them, and GD18s stomach growled loudly again. Speeding up slightly, he wondered what was going on up ahead. He was feeling slight tremors through his many feet, and they were getting louder.

Do wyrms fight each other? He immediately opened his status and began searching through the information he had on wyrms. The small data storage held nothing about wyrms fighting each other, but with how little data there was, GD18 wasn't completely at ease.

"I hear something," Mutar said when a rumbling sound started accompanying the tremors.

There is something up ahead, GD18 said as he slowed to a stop. Go ahead and see what is there.

Mutar didn't reply or move.

You are much faster than me and can easily flee if there is something there. Besides, if I end up in a dead-end, I'll need to eat my way through the stone, which might not even be possible.

"You aren't going to leave me here, are you?" Mutar said, and GD18 was surprised at the worry the other's voice conveyed. Surprised both by the strength of the emotions and by the fact it was worry.

I won't leave you here, he said, hesitating slightly while wishing he could have run some simulations on what was the best course of action. Is he afraid I'll leave him because he doesn't want to be alone or because he doesn't want to stay below ground? Not sure which made more sense GD18 guessed it was because he didn't want to stay below ground.

You are too useful, and I will need your help for a while to come. I'll definitely bring you above ground.

Mutar was quiet for a while, then slid off his plated body and rushed deeper into the tunnel without a word. His feet made small tremors that disappeared after a few hundred feet.

So, was that the right answer or not? he thought, annoyed that the other hadn't said anything. Besides that, he felt the ability to push his thoughts to Mutar had vanished after only twenty feet. He needed to get a better way of communication.

Wondering what could be there, he imagined it might very well be something dangerous. That meant he would have to fight, something he hadn't planned on doing yet. He felt the mass of short tentacles that sat around the edges of his mouth and began stretching them, swirling forward and around, trying to get a feel for them. At the same time, he moved his three tongues around. Although he had only one thread now, his own, he realized his new body was made to use all of what it had at the same time. The tentacles needed only a little input from him but seemed to do many things automatically, like dragging rocks on the ground into his maw. The long tongues needed even less input and seemed almost semi-conscious. He realized he could almost program them like separate small systems.

His attention was partially focused on the dark tunnel when he felt quick tremors come back. Someone was running his way. Then, moments later, more tremors came from behind the first set.

Mutar came into view, a clean, bony scent amidst the stone surroundings.

"There are sigmitons after me!" he shouted.

GD18 sensed the tremors and compared them to those Mutar made on his own, trying to determine how many sigmitons were after him. The number he came up with was worrying.

Hundreds!

Sensing both his energy and the width of the tunnel around him, the idea of turning and feeling disappeared immediately.

Mutar reached him and climbed up quickly.

Were there only Sigmitons? GD18 asked.

"Yes, they were swarming across another wyrm that was stuck in some pit with gleaming grey bits."

GD18 felt his mind freeze for a moment as the implications of what he heard clicked. They made a wyrm trap? No. Sigmitons would never be smart enough for that. That meant something else made a wyrm trap and was using the Sigmitons to do his dirty work.

A horde of small, weak-scented skeletal shapes entered the range of his smell-o-vision, and more came after it. Trap or no trap, he wasn't going to be able to turn.

We are going to fight them, GD18 stated.

"Alright," Mutar said, his voice louder than before. He rose, and his body began swirling around as his arms elongated and shrunk and different sets of blade shapes appeared.

Use blunt shapes, GD18 said.

Mutar's arms froze, and GD18 feared he would need to explain what a blunt shape was. Then Mutars arms shrunk and thickened, and moments later, his arms were only twice as long as initially, with two thick round cudgels on each end.

A shrieking mass of things was now rushing towards them, barely fifty feet away. GD18 quickly determined the best path of action using the battle tactics information he had absorbed into his core working memory. Although the sigmitons were small, they could swarm him and cause harm.

I will take care of the bulk of them. Anything that climbs up is yours. Throw them in front of my maw so I can eat them.

"Alright, but leave me some of those skulls," Mutar said.

The first row of Sigmitons came in reach of his tongues that began rushing forward out of their own accord. He forced them to wait, impressing them with the need to grab the skeletons that fell towards his maw. When the sigmitons reached closer, the swirling mass of tentacles reached forward, grabbing the first of the skeletons. GD18 kept a lookout for anything that wasn't a normal sigmiton. He didn't expect that whoever had made the trip would be with the raging horde, but he wasn't going to be caught by surprise.

Tens of skeletons were tossed into his throat, and he felt them struggle as they moved down, eventually falling into the first of his stomachs, where he lost 'sight' of them. For every ten he swallowed, a few managed to dodge around his tentacles to start climbing up the edged plates of his own armor.

As the first to reach the more horizontal flat area of his back, it was struck by Mutar, causing its small skull to splinter into pieces. Two more climbed up, but Mutar easily knocked them off. He was slapping them on the left side of their skull, causing them to careen tens of feet through the air and smack on the ground in front of GD18's tentacled maw.

This is going much easier than I'd thought, GD thought as he kept forcing his tongues to wait. He was expecting something more dangerous to show up, and when a low keening sound came from the back of the tunnel, he wasn't surprised one bit.

Half of the roughly four hundred Sigmitons were still in one piece, and they backed up.

Get ready. We've got trouble incoming.

"I thought we already had trouble?" Mutar said, sounding confused.

I think the boss is coming.

A sound like an electric train speeding up came from the entrance, and a moment later, a large form shimmered into GD18's smell perception. It was three times as tall and far longer and wider than the Sigmitons, and it smelled like food.

Metal! GD18 thought as a massive undead shot towards him. Gleaming metal plates covered its lower body, and it moved like a wyrm, with thousands of small legs tapping on the ground. The front of the wyrm-like body angled up into an undead torso with two long, spindly arms. An angular, eyeless head with a wyrm-like maw sat atop it, two long tongues slashing around.

"He is like you. Are you going to change into that?" Mutar said, moving to stand atop GD18's head.

No. It's a horribly ugly, asymmetrical thing, GD18 replied. Get ready to attack it if it starts throwing things. I don't have any ranged capabilities yet.

His words just finished when the wyrm-centaur stopped, and the mouths on the wide ends of its tongues began glowing. The teeth shone as a red light burst from the mouths and shot towards him. Unable to dodge, he tried to lower his body. Something slammed into his head, shaking him before penetrating right through his entire body and shooting at the back end.

Shocked, GD18 forced his legs into action, rushing forward to close the gap. He ignored the Sigmitons that rushed to the sides and out of his path. Get ready to jump that thing when we get close!

"Ready!" Mutar said, sounding hungry as he moved as far to the front of GD18's head plates as he could.

Wyrms took a while to speed up, and the wyrm-centaur didn't wait. It began moving backward and to the side, the tongues slowly glowing again. A moment later, another two bursts shot out, piercing through GD18 and getting dangerously close to the place that held his mana-core.

At full speed, he was still slower than the backpedaling wyrm-centaur, who was preparing another attack while the hundreds of sigmitons were running after him. Attack before it shoots again!

Mutar's legs elongated rapidly, two hooks on the feet, and then he shot forward, flying forward. GD18 cursed as he saw the tongues of the wyrm-centaur changed target. Using the ceiling to change course, it's shooting you! He messaged a moment before Mutar exited the range of his communication. Mutar's left arm elongated, turning into a thin whiplike thing that shot at the left wall and drew himself towards it. Two red beams sliced through the air where the Bonemorpher had just been.

Mutar's right arm elongated just as long, and before the undead's tongues could ready, another attack shot forward and wrapped around the wyrm-centaurs torso. The arm shorted, pulling Mutar forward like a flash as his other arm changed into a short, thick ax. The wyrm-centaur tried to dodge, but there was nowhere to go as Mutar slammed into him, ax-arm forward slicing half of the wyrm-centaurs upper body off. The undead writhed on the ground, its tongues slashing around while thick white fluid oozed from both ends of the massive wound.

End it! GD18 shouted as he closed in as fast as he could.

Mutar sliced the ugly head off, grabbing it and turning around. GD18 was almost at them, and the nimble undead's arm elongated again, and he pulled himself up and out of the way. Dangling from the ceiling as GD18 crashed below it, he dropped on the wyrm back.

GD18 wasn't paying attention. Instead, he opened his maw as wide as it could, scooping up the body and swallowing it whole. It slid down his throat that widened to accommodate the large meal, and dropped into his stomach. Before, he had not felt it when something reached his stomach, but now a warm sensation spread, and notification alerted him to changes to his body.

Summoning his status, he noticed that his mana-field was increasing by tens of points per second, and his energy reserves were filling up rapidly.

Behind him, the Sigmitons had stopped following them. They stood there, silently gazing at him before turning around and running away through the tunnel GD18 and Mutar had come from.

A warm, sweet scent spread from above his head, and GD18 saw Mutar absorbing the mana-orb in the oddly wyrm-like head.

Wait. GD18 said, but Mutar just continued.

You need to open that skull and take something out before you continue, GD18 said, annoyed that the undead kept ignoring his orders. He would need to inscribe the remote connection pattern in case Mutar began rebelling fully.

"Why? I like the energy that comes from this one. It's thick and strong!"

You can absorb it later, but do as I say! It will benefit you! GD18 said.

Mutar seemed to ignore him again as he continued to absorb the mana from the mana-orb. Then it slowed, and the undead looked at the orb. His hands changed into massive claws, and he effortlessly cut the skull in two. A clang came from his left claw, and his right hand changed back to a hand as he snatched something shiny out of the air.

Holding it up, it was a round, shiny object. "Is this what gives the energy?"

Yes. It's a mana-orb, and they give you the mana you need to fill up your mana-field before each evolution.

There was no reaction from Mutar, but the orb began glowing a dim blue, showing he had started absorbing it again.

You should keep a few instead of absorbing them all. If you get injured, they can repair the damage you sustain.

"No. I want to absorb this one. Maybe the next one… Do you think there are more of these things?"

GD18 didn't immediately respond. He had wondered about it and hoped there were. Even without propped planning, Mutar had easily ended the thing, and he could still feel the body slowly dissolving in his stomach. If he could find a few more, he might be able to evolve before reaching the surface. Before that, he needed to do a few other things first. Searching through his list of inscriptions that would provide communication, he searched for a better one than short-range mental communication. Most of them would take a longer time to inscribe, but his energy was filling up nicely, so there was little reason to rush. Slowing down, he looked at the opening ahead of him. The tunnel widened and seemed to end in a sizable cavern. A waft of hot air wooshed out again, as it had done a few times before. There didn't seem to be a set time for it, however.

After you are done absorbing that, search ahead and see if there are more of those things. I need more of their bodies, and you need their mana-orbs.

"Alright," Mutar said, and GD18 could hear the hunger in his voice again. He would need to pay attention to the undead. Although it seemed willing to follow him around, it might prove a danger later.

He found an interesting pattern and pulled up its details.

> Reverberating mana ripple [Military grade skill]

> Grants the ability to vibrate the soldiers mana-field, causing both directional and area sonic attacks. Although the attacks are short-ranged, this attack damages internal organs and is lethal.

> With proper training, soldiers can use this skill to project their voices across large distances. Useful for controlling civilians during emergencies.

> Warning! This skill was forcefully unlocked by an AI. Every usage instance will be scrutinized after the emergency situation has ended. Use at your own risk.

Dream on, GD18 thought as he looked at the warning. Although the label was still there, he had removed every outside connection before creating this data package. Even if there were still humans somewhere, they wouldn't be able to connect to him, not without force.

Inscribing took a long time, and halfway through, Mutar finished absorbing the mana-orb. He slid down and moved away through the cavern and towards the light. "Get ready. I might find more of the small ones."

Okay.