Cold sweat ran down Quinn's worm body. Quinn could feel the snake doing the same.
Fear.
Fear like nothing else. No creature dared to move.
Quinn managed to pull out a [Pheromone detection]. He noticed the few worms around him in the cave. All drenched in Poison. He smelt the snake for the first time.
But more importantly, he smelt blood.
The ground boomed with vibrations. And shouts.
Quinn could feel the death, the chaos.
[ [Mana Sense] Activated]
Torrents of black, white and red nothingness danced around a sparse sea of brown. Specs of black consumed everything.
The shades of the colors were inconsistent, some simple, and others much more complex.
Quinn was horrified by this blackness. He felt as if one touched him it would all be over. And then
THUD!
The entire ground shook, and the faint penetrate light from above disappeared.
Something was above them.
...
*(During nighttime)*
'Three assassins. How was this enough to slaughter five of our men'
As 19 knights tasked with escorting 'The Item' through the most haunted forest in all the lands, 3 figures ambushed them. Three were dead instantly with two to quickly follow. Swords swung out only to hit nothing as the leaped in the air.
Billy, the ranger knight, instinctively shot a flurry of mana arrows at the airborne assassins. Every single arrow passed right through them.
But the skill was used up. And there was a cooldown. Multiple knights leaped in the air after them slashing and thrusting their swords.
The three were out matched deflecting most of the blows. Trading hits for counters. Three more fell. And as the assassins landed 2 of the 3 disappeared with the other staggering.
His achilleas was severed by a mana arrow.
The injured assassin conjured black knives all around his body. And with a burst, they all flew out grazing most of the knights as they blocked.
But the paladin in the group, chose to thrust instead.
His blade piercing the assassin in the chest.
"Poison, the knives were poisoned" Billy shouted out.
The paladin turned black as he coughed up blood. The assassin fell to the ground.
The first assassin was dead. But the paladin was soon to follow.
The other two appeared in front of them. Blocking their path.
"They're fake" the captain whispered, "bring me Billy"
Billy cautiously approached the captain knight.
He had been training under this captain for years now and never seen the calm captain panic like this.
"Billy I need you to take the item and leave." the captain shoved a chest into Billy's hands.
"I can't" Billy responded pushing the chest back to him, "we can win this, there's a big clearing a hundred meters west of here. If we ..."
"IF" the captain interrupted.
As they were talking one of the knights cast a protection buff.
On everyone except himself.
A knife whirled out of the darkness landed on his head.
'Down to ten, may your storm be calm' the paladin hummed under his breath.
"Fine, FOLLOW ME MEN, And keep your guards up"
As the men ran, the two assassin's threw knives and spells all to get blocked by the shields of spells of the knights.
'30m left'
The protection buff wore off.
One of the assassin's overreached and the paladin parried. His counter attack hit but it was not fatal. The group of knights didn't wait for him, they ran off leaving him behind. The two exchanged blows before the paladin cast a bolt of lighting.
The second assassin fell but he wasn't dead.
The paladin however was out of strength. The poison finally taking effect.
And he fell.
Landing right above a snake's burrow.
'May your storm be calm, Guymar of the Tempest' The captain hummed as they neared the clearing.
But their running came to a sudden halt as their legs stopped working.
No, their legs hit something.
A tripwire, placed in advanced.
"God dammit they knew we'd run here. On your guard" But it was too late. Knives flew out.
'fuck, nooo my friends!!!' Billy panicked as he flipped up onto his feet narrowly dodging a knife aimed right at his head.
But Everyone else wasn't so lucky. 6 more knights died instantly with the rest having knives littered across their arms and legs.
"Billy, I want you to run."
"What?? Whyyy?! we outnumb..."
"RUN, That is an order. RUN and live another day".
Billy turned and ran. As knives flew out a shield bearer blocked for Billy. And the captain held them back. Fire a blazing around him as he summoned his [Factor].
'Billy you hold my torch now'
...
Minutes passed, and Quinn realized whiteness was falling like snow.
Time seemed to freeze.
The white lights began to merge with all of the worms bodies and the snake began to seize. The worms slowly started to move and the snake didn't dare move.
'The fools, do they not feel the silver aura above. They're gonna get us all killed... It's, it's... fading. It's dying. I can get the kill muhhahhahaha.'
The snake joyfully crawled up it's burrow.
Using this opportunity Quinn started to move. But it barely worked. All the other worms struggled but were mostly fine. But not as much as Quinn. All he could do is vibrate.
And so he sung.
He sung the song that he heard non-stop over the past days. He was asking for help.
"How" vibrated a worm right next to him. Quinn barely understanding the question.
[Appraisal: Deathworm(Lvl:4)
Strength:0.017]
Quinn couldn't remember the word for it. He thought and thought on what it might be. Quinn imagined every time a worm ate fungi. There was no song so he improvised
"Below"
"Fungi?"
"Yes" Quinn vibrated
"Poison?" The worm vibrated back
"Help" Quinn stammered.
The Deathworm then burrowed down and pulled a piece of fungi to him.
Quinn ate it without hesitation.
Quinn's body became a test tube as the two poisons clashed.
They fought.
They mixed around.
Until they fused together.
Only to disassociate from each other a moment later.
But now it was now different.
Some of the paralysis effect still remained.
But most was harmless simple raw affinities and elements accumulated as Quinn exploded.
BANG Whoosh
Everything came out the other end.
Even the rest of the Viper's toxin went out
[
Evolution Quest:
Breakdown complex materials into it's raw parts [2/3]
]
Now that Quinn was cured he was ready to escape but not before the rumblings from his savior.
"You no earthworm. You deathworm?" After a quick back and forth Quinn realized the worm was trying to convince him to become a deathworm. But why?
Following his previous encounter he realized that the deathworm before wasn't trying to eat him. It was trying to kidnap him.
Fearing for his life, Quinn agreed.
"Yes, me up now" He stammered. Luckily the deathworm left it at that and let Quinn leave.
But he was too curious about the white light.
So he dug up.
...
Guymar was waiting for death.
His final moments were spent praying to his goddess. Finally seeing the vision she had for him.
To die deep within these forbidden alpine's with half of The Item at hand.
For a heart had two sides. Beating one after the other. The cultists were useless.
As if to disturb his prayer, a viper from it's burrow surfaced striking at his neck.
Guymar caught the viper mid strike.
"Hmm level 98 on the verge of your first rank. Brings me back... But I, Guymar Le Chacal, Paladin of the 2nd Storm tower, Servant of Tempest, the only Paladin in Stormreach's 3rd Army shall not die for a greedy snake's evolution"
He crushed the snake in his palm killing it instantly.
Guymar went back to his prayers, accepting that death would meet him soon.
...
As Quinn dug up, the soil began to feel warm. But also wet. He didn't know how far the surface was away from him but he knew this definitely wasn't in the top soil. He was somewhere else.
Or someone
[Appraisal:
Name:Guymar, Le Chacal
Species: Human(Rank:???)]
'I'm in a human. Holy shit I'm in a human.'
Thinking to himself Quinn contemplated eating the blood. He was unsure.
'I'm technically not a cannibal if I eat this guy. Right?
Why am I thinking about eating this guy?'
Quinn weighed up the options of morals and rewards. He concluded that morals are obsolete for a worm. And the morality isn't something animals think about. If a tiger wanted to eat humans, it does so without second thought
And so he ate.
It burned. Not just his taste buds but his entire body burned. As if the blood was actively trying to kill him. No, it was trying to kill him. Quinn tried to stop, to flee but there seemed to be a disconnect between Quinn and his body.
Because his body kept going.
'Stop, stop, stop. It hurts ahhh why.'
But it was only a mere sting. After the first few bites, his body stopped.
[ [Tenacious diet] Activated]
[Insatiable]
[ [Tenacious diet] Activated]
[Insatiable]
[ [Tenacious diet] Activated]
It was agonizing. Pain would spike after immediately being released. And finally.
[Trait Upgraded
[Resilient diet] --> [Tenacious diet]
Exp: 5 ]
[Exp:11.1]
The pain on the inside of him began to dissipate and Quinn could feel the blood disassociating.
[
Evolution Quest:
Breakdown complex materials into it's raw parts [3/3]
]
[Evolution Available]
Quinn prepared to leave but something was wrong.
His [Internal Compass] started going haywire. Guymar was picked up. And Quinn was inside.