***Tirnanog, The Old Camp***
***Astra Frost***
I groggily opened one eye, still feeling a little spent after yesterday. Braving the forest alone wasn't sothing that should be taken lightly, even for people who had lived in this world for most of their lives.
Sadly, spending the night in supposed safety hadn't been exactly restful. Alarms had gone off four or five tis throughout the night as so very stubborn critter tried to force its way into the bunker. But the combined forces of several strong warriors repelled the creature each ti.
The safety of the bunker was a matter that all the clans were interested in, and so there was always at least one capable person on watch. Though, that didn't an I hadn't woken up each ti they activated that damned siren. Full of adrenaline, I rushed out of my room, again and again, to check whether my help was needed.
Moaning, I rolled out of bed and flopped onto the floor of my little, spartan room. It offered barely any comfort aside from the bed itself, but that was more than most exiles would ever get.
The cold concrete greeted on the ground. It was always a good way to get going in the early morning hours.
Grumbling, I stayed down until I couldn't stand the cold any longer.
So I got to my feet and untangled my filants. They had the uncanny tendency to move on their own when I slept, and co morning, I had to suffer the joy of untangling them. They were attached to the back of my neck and ran all the way down my spine which could get problematic at tis.
Normally, sorting them out took just a few seconds. But today, I had sohow gotten a nasty knot right between my shoulder blades. Groggy as I was, I spent at least five minutes getting that taken care of, one filant after the other because my brain simply couldn't handle more. And I had over a hundred of them, each between ten and thirty tres long.
Once I had taken care of the worst of it, I slowly intertwined them over my body to create the illusion of clothing.
Today, I created a skin-tight suit that covered from the shoulders down to my toes. To add a little variety, I touched myself up with a split skirt and a double-layered cloak which took care of all the excess filants still left over.
I placed my hands on my hips and studied myself proudly in the mirror. If I went out like this, nobody would even think about calling a monster. This getup had the style of a queen!
My feelings promptly shone through which involuntarily had my filants glow a little brighter, making shine like so deep-sea jellyfish. The luminescent markings on my skin flared, adding to the ambience. I rubbed at the ones underlining my eyes like makeup gone overboard.
That brought back to reality.
I sighed and forcefully controlled my emotions. Once my colourful outburst was under control, I allowed my clothes to sag a little in all the wrong places, making my figure look ungainly and malford. This may seem strange to soone who hadn't lived in my shoes, but there was a thod to the madness.
Once I was sure I would no longer attract certain n like shit does flies, I left my room to look for breakfast.
There were three ways people would react to soone like a person who had a little more radical mutation than was normal.
First, and most common, were those who went apeshit once they saw the 'tentacles'. They would think of as yet another monster, followed by them doing sothing stupid. This was why I avoided using my filants full capabilities while I was among people.
Then there were those who ignored my uniqueness and tried to woo , mainly because they wanted a ticket out of the Old Camp. They nonetheless thought of as a monster.
And finally, there were the creeps. Those who were genuinely attracted to , for whatever reason. Or those who simply wanted for my power and nothing else. Sadly, I had noticed the hard way during my early adulthood that ninety-nine per cent of those types had a few screws loose.
Hence my decision to give up on sothing like love and to choose my partner purely with rationality and survival in mind. The gods knew I would need every scrap of power once I officially ascended the clans ranks further and got to my parents' level.
I reached the common room and helped myself to so broth that one of my peers had left steaming in a pot. It was a common ritual for most of the people who belonged to our clan to eat together in the morning before they went out to do whatever they had planned for the day.
Since I had slept in, I had missed the others.
I have to get going, or will be late, I mumbled to myself and spooned the food into my mouth as fast as I could.
Once I was done, I deposited my plate with the used dishes and headed out. On the way, I greeted the lone guard who kept watch on the entrance to our section of the bunker.
Outside, I walked directly to the arena where people without affiliations could demonstrate their rits. On my way there, I noticed the camp had already been reclaid by the common people. The guards likely had already driven out the last of the creatures which had made their way over the walls during the night.
I returned my attention to my goal and headed to the table where the arena organizer had made himself comfortable.
Gurney, how is it going? I said and raised a hand in greeting.
Well enough, he harrumphed. The thing that bothered the bunker last night broke into one of the common shelters and took all of its inhabitants. Ten people, and four of them owed goods. Couldnt you guys have just killed the beast so that it wouldnt search for easier prey?
I smiled and decided saying nothing was the best course of action. Defending the bunker was one thing. Running out into the night after so alpha predator to fight it on its own terms, that was an entirely different pair of shoes.
Safety was relative in this world.
Pointing that out to Gurney wouldnt tell him anything new, so I kept silent.
He was a rotund man, but that didn't make him less dangerous than the average exile. He had gained a very powerful strength evolution. That alone would probably allow him to join a clan if he ever wished to, but he happened to have another high-quality sensory ability on top. So won would take him for his abilities alone. Hell, so of the lesser clans might take him for his abilities' sake.
But for so reason, he preferred to stay in the Old Camp, dood to never achieve more strength while playing the arena organizer.
It wasn't as if the job didn't co without benefits, like the backing of all the clans who wished him to stay neutral. He could probably live a better life than the average person who got exiled to this nightmare of a planet.
Once he was over his misgivings, he looked up at with a more business-oriented expression. Astra, sa old question?
I nodded. Anyone new?
Gurney sighed and shook his head, but he searched through a stack of handwritten papers only he knew the order to. You have to lower your requirents, girl. There just isn't sothing like a perfect match when it cos to things like these. Ever thought of taking soone just because you like them?
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I wrinkled my nose. Haven't I explained myself often enough? I don't want to just survive in this world. I want to thrive-
And for that, you need a partner who complents your evolution, Gurney quoted .
We had this discussion so many tis and it felt like a tradition by now.
If you ask , by limiting our nanotech, those fucked up scientists just made it all the more impossible to survive in this world. Why put a hard limiter on the number of evolutions we can get? And then they go and make the only way to unlock your full potential to get it on with soone of the other gender. It makes no sense.
He was ranting, but that was normal for him.
Gurney pulled four sheets of paper from the stack. There we have them. Already copied and marked with their fighting tis. One new exile made it through the woods. One guy who lived through the last season in the Old Camp, but didn't apply for a spot in the clans. And two youngsters from Clan Hochberg and Thich who wish to try their luck sowhere else.
I took the papers. I suppose the scientists limited our evolutions because the further we deviate from each other, the less likely it is for us to be able to have children. If they allow each of us to gain so power on our own, and then blend the genes of two partners, it's much more likely that... it works... out between... Don't look at like that.
He shook his head once I had realized he wasnt interested in holding a sermon.
I quickly excused myself and headed into the arena, practically fleeing the scene. It was uncanny, but Gurney was one of the very few residents of the Old Camp who could actually intimidate .
Yeah, well, there was that, and he was the arena organizer, soone whose good side I wanted to stay on at all costs. I just wanted to know why he always got so angry when soone talked about the nanotechs partnering system. Normally, I was good with people, but Gurneys misgivings eluded .
It wasnt like we could escape the hard facts.
I reached the natural grove around the central battleground and used the filants that made up my cloak to latch onto one of the trees. Then I boosted myself up towards the observation lounges that were reserved for the Aerie clan. They were twenty tres above the ground, but my filants made the climb easy.
I also had ensured years ago that one of the best ones was always booked under my na.
The lounge was personalized to my likings with its own furniture, another sign that my willingness to pilgrimage year after year to the Old Camp had long ago turned into an obsession.
Thankfully, my lounge hadnt been defiled by one of the beasts overnight. I took a peek up at the canopy. The trees were massive, rivalling redwoods according to one of the books I had read about Earth.
Satisfied, I drew up the lounges shades and sat down in the woven chair that I had bought on the market. It was just at the right height to allow a perfect view of the pit which served as the arenas battleground.
So people had made their way to the lower viewing ranks. Their bad equipnt marked them as inhabitants of the Old Camp. As far as I knew, their only purpose for being here was to get a kick out of watching the fights and I assud there was so betting going on even though the clans forbade it.
Knowing about it, I probably should have put an end to the practice, but I didnt see the point. If I investigated and punished the organizers, it wouldnt even take a single season for soone else to pick up the job.
It was one of those things where the clans officially took the stance of being against it, but didnt actively enforce their own law. So people did it anyway, following the motto: Where there is no prosecutor, there is no judge.
There was still a little ti until the petitioners would demonstrate their skills.
I settled in and took a good look at the first sheet of paper. It held a small biography of the candidate, combined with a summary of his abilities and mutations.
Mark Whetherton was a forr bank employee and had been exiled for taking part in a money sche that cost his entrusted custors millions. I was never sure whether these little background stories could be trusted since they relied on the exiles testimony.
It wasnt like Earth would give us a neat database with nas and a fitting reason for soone being exiled.
Still, it said sothing about a person when they decided to share one story or another with Gurney when he took their information.
Mark had arrived in this world one year ago but hadnt applied to the arena during the first season. It wasnt too surprising. Many exiles thought they could make it on their own until they learned the Old Camp was a dead end.
By not demonstrating his skills in the arena, Mark was forced to hold out for one winter before he got another chance with the clans. It said sothing about his abilities, since surviving the winter in the Old Camp was harsh.
There was a good reason why I travelled each year back and forth between the clan-grounds and the Old Camp.
Sadly, his evolutions didnt seem to match with mine at all. He had the minor healing that most new exiles got once they ate a starfish. The critters were pests and infested the lake at the ns arrival point. But the regenerative ability they granted could fix most things in ti. So it wasnt the worst thing to have.
Another evolution allowed him to spit poison and had his blood turn to acid.
I considered the benefits of joining with him.
Best case, I got the ability to deliver poisonous attacks with my filants.
Worst case, I would simply get his abilities added to mine, affecting just my main body without the filants. And since my filants couldn't bleed, it would likely be the latter. Anyway, relying on anything which forced to lose or damage so of my filants was bad, given their slow growth.
My fighting style relied strongly on stealth. While hiding my main body, I often relied on my filants strangling the enemy. So having poisonous spit and acidic blood wouldnt help in most cases. Many predators were so powerful that when it ca to the point of being discovered, I would likely die before poison or acid could take effect against my enemy. It really depended on whether I could deliver the poison with my filants.
Whether or not that was possible was a gamble. One I wasnt willing to take.
My filants were strong enough to contest with a strength-based mutation like Gurneys, but the rest of my body was fairly weak. Even soone like Roderick could easily snap my neck if he got a hold of my main body.
Ideally, I would want a partner who provided with a strong defensive mutation that would guarantee protection for my main body while I used my filants offensively. Then maybe sothing that provided utility or more offensive capabilities.
As good as acidic blood sounded, I found it to be kind of a waste of potential.
Even with improved healing, shedding your own blood ant that sothing had injured you. And on Tirnanog, the things that managed to injure an evolved human more often than not could also kill them in one hit.
And now that I thought about it, shedding my own blood intentionally was an absolute no-go. I couldn't even count the number of predators that were magically drawn to the scent of blood.
Lurkers would be drawn from kilotres away if they scented sothing that slled like wounded prey. Getting a scratch in their territory ant you had to prepare for waves of attackers until either they expended their last hive-mber or you were dead.
On top, I didnt care whether my attacker died to poison and acid after eating .
Dead was dead.
I put the first sheet aside for now and turned my attention to the next.
The first clanner was a similar case to Mark. He provided a pure strength evolution, but his other skills were diocre at best. Minor healing, sa Spiel as before.
Though, he had a sensory ability that increased his hearing dramatically. Kind of like echolocation. The issue was that my filants already provided with sothing similar. Not so sophisticated, but I would yet again waste so of my potential.
The second clanner also fell through. He was a pure evasion type with no offence to speak of. He had the ability to camouflage himself by changing the colour of his skin. According to the file, the effect was so sophisticated that he could turn almost invisible.
Again, I didnt think I needed to improve on my ability to hide, sothing that was easy enough in this worlds flora. It would be nice if I got better at it, but it felt like doubling up on a skill I already possessed. Once I found a partner to unlock further evolutions, I could improve that aspect naturally. There was also the downside that this guy offered no offence to speak of.
Not to ntion that joining up with a Thich would result in a political disaster at ho.
I gave the invisibility a few more monts of thought, but the longer I did, the less interesting it appeared. This type of invisibility was purely visual. With the number of sensory abilities, re camouflage wasnt going to cut it. Things like thermal vision or even my own diocre echolocation could defeat such a skill easily enough. And I couldnt even count the number of exiles whose improved sll would probably allow them to point out an individuals exact position.
Both papers went to the side.
The last one was the newcor who had survived the trek through the forest. It was imdiately clear that he had eaten from the omnieye I had killed to save the group.
Surprisingly enough, he was one of the few who hadnt gone insane.
For so reason, gaining an evolution from an omnieye could have one of two outcos.
The most common result was that you mutated into sothing utterly inhuman and went batshit crazy. I assud there was sothing about the omnieyes DNA which made it incompatible with humans.
The other possibility was you ca out relatively sane at the end, but were turned into a monster. Often enough people ended up with so form of ntal malfunction, like heightened aggressiveness, or the inability to cope with the social aspects of human life.
The clans had researched the problem out of necessity, and it was common knowledge that an evolution should always be started with a lifeform that was preferably not sothing completely unrelated to human biology. A second criterium was that the lifeform needed to possess so social aspect. So herd or pack animal was preferable to sothing that lived most of its life in solitude.
Many evolutions brought instincts with them that made it easier for the evolved human to use his or her new abilities. This could be a boon or a bane, depending on what you got.
I sighed dejectedly when I noticed Gurney waddling into the arena, leading two blokes who I assud to be the two clanners.
Well, if they werent partner material, then they may as well be entertaining.
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