Growing Pains 321 Book 2 Chapter 15

Finding out more about my Dark Elf heritage was interesting, but only academically. Once I was certain that a band of bloodthirsty assassins wouldn’t be attempting to track us down, I filed the information away as irrelevant.

It wasn’t like my Mother was a Dark Elf princess. She had come from a small House, and it was only misfortune and greed that had seen that House fall. I was conflicted with how I should feel about Geon or Syha taking up the reigns of that fallen House and cutting out their own personal small fiefdom.

I wanted and hoped they would remain part of House Myche, but that may have just been selfish. If they could grow stronger and gain advantages by forming House Mytle, they should. I would offer whichever sibling decided to revive that fallen House a place within Clan Frost.

There was no reason they couldn’t be a minor House under the umbrella of House Myche.

Zui pinged me using the offshoot gestalt mind I had managed to form. The bastardized version I had come up with was servicable, but it didn’t have near the functionality of the Hindel Gestalt.

Theirs allowed communication in mind-space. And no matter how distant or powerful an individual was, the mind-scape allowed for an avatar to form. An avatar of mental energy that could traverse the mindscape and travel at the speed of thought to speak with anyone, anywhere, that was part of their gestalt.

Mine was not so advanced. 

Alpha had suggested I make a study of patterns. If I could become a pattern master, I could tweak the links between each mind into a more efficient gestalt. Once enough minds had been added, that pattern would become inviolable. And as a pattern master, I could monitor the health of the gestalt as a whole, identifying and shoring up weaknesses.

For now, it worked more like a Pager than anything else. People could ping you to gain your attention, but for any real communication, the comm devices were better suited. They were simply more efficient than trying to decode a series of pings used to send Morse-code-like messages.

I didn’t bother using my comm to contact Zui. I knew what she needed. I had asked her to send me a ping to remind me that the hunting party was ready. I had a few individuals that were House members to help clear the caves under the Clan Keep being built. I hoped to finish that quickly so I could plant the spirit seed that I had been saving for a few years now.

I left the medical facilities Na had established at the Dojo feeling a small amount of guilt and reservation. If I had known Geon and Syha would form a Spirit Root, I would have scheduled today’s hunt. But I hadn’t, and I was smart enough to recognize that my feelings of guilt were misplaced. 

There was nothing I could do now. Geon and Syha were Cultivators, and that meant that progress would be a grind as they advanced across the realms. I would help them as I could. I would source the gems they needed to form a Crystal matrix, which was the easy part.

I had Aki sorting through the libraries of jade and quartz tokens I had gathered from within the Mystic Realm to find appropriate skills that would synergize well with their Spirit roots. The major holdup at this point was waiting for them to adapt so that we could test for an affinity.

Without knowing what element they aligned with, Aki could only select martial techniques and general skills that worked with most affinities.

“House Leader,” Siam greeted me once I arrived at the cave system we were about to delve into. He, Zui, Mao, and Ming had gathered, each the most powerful House Cultivator within their sphere of expertise.

Siam as a Beast Tamer. Mao was an earth affinity Cultivator. Ming was our array specialist. And Zui was a strategist. Her experience with creating order out of disorder for resources and personnel allowed her to gain insight and formulate responses and strategies as events occurred.

Zui had been the only member I had been hesitant to recruit. I thought her skill set was better suited to deal with whatever resources we plundered after the delve. Siam relieved me of that opinion by informing me that Zui was light-aligned and had learned and mastered martial techniques that allowed her to brandish light as a weapon and shield.

She was able to focus her affinity to release laser beams that seared through her targets with breathtaking efficiency. Even better, the wounds she created on what she killed were made with pinpoint accuracy, allowing more of the beast to be harvested.

“Are we ready?” I asked, certain that Zui wouldn’t have pinged me if we weren’t.

“Yes, House Leader,” Zui said, confirming the group's readiness.

“The last time I entered the cave system, I encountered Compsognathus and Desmodus draculae. I think I managed to wipe out the Compsognathus, and without the tier four Desmodus draculae around to mind control a new herd, I think the upper passages I explored will remain relatively clear.”

“They are,” Siam assured me. “Lee Wu was able to stealth through the upper and middle tunnels to create a map for us. A large colony of Giant Oilbirds has claimed the upper levels. 

“They are fairly harmless, living on a diet of fruit and nuts. They are nocturnal and use echolocation like bats. Lee Wu noticed that the sounds the birds make interfere with the bats' echolocation, and any animal unfortunate enough to encounter an Oilbird becomes disoriented.

“As for the rest, Giant snakes and scorpions have managed to claim sections of the upper tunnels.  As he went deeper, he discovered a maze of Orb Weaver Spiders. They shouldn’t present much of a problem. They are small and easily killed.”

“You might consider leaving them alone if they are out of the way,” Zui suggested. “If their silk can be harvested, it might have properties that can expand the silk and cloth industries you are subsidizing.”

“He came across Giant cockroaches and scarabs at the deepest level he could safely navigate. He might have been able to travel deeper, but there was also a species of Millipede that had a way of detecting him.

“They broadcast his location to the surroundings, and he was forced to employ an escape talisman.”

“Did his perception allow him to register and record the tier of everything he encountered?” I asked.

“It did,” Zui replied, “most species were tier two, but the deeper he traveled, the more powerful the beasts he encountered. Those Millipedes were tier four. That is probably why they were able to ignore his stealth field.”

That could be problematic. I had reached Nascent Soul Realm and would be able to deal with anything up to tier five with a group helping possibly a weak tier six. If there were beasts even more powerful beyond that, I would need to reassess and ask Clement for help or contact the Hindel to see if I could hire them.

I was pretty sure as a [Voice], I had the authority to call upon any nearby pod, but I hadn’t tested that authority yet.

If the deeper levels contained beasts beyond my ability to clear, I decided it was time to test that authority.