Chapter 1313: The Vermillion Lake (3)
Erik woke up at dawn. Most of the group was still sleeping, exhausted from their journey, but Mickey and Aaron had already left to start their search of the lab.
“June,” Erik called his clone. “Get five Chimaeric Demons ready. We are going to search for the Mirror Centipede.”
The clone did as he was asked and ca back to the ground floor, followed by his much more powerful brothers.
“Did you rest well?”
“Yes, master.”
Erik nodded. “Good. I called you here because I need your help to search for a Mirror Centipede.”
Erik didn’t tell them about his plans the previous day, given how tired they were. I knew that if he told the clones what he was planning, they would have offered themselves to go search in the middle of the night, which wasn’t what Erik needed.
“According to the Blackguards data we got at the Law Gate, there should be so mirror centipedes nearby. I want to make a new power out of it, one that would allow to scout without you having to rely on you guys.”
The clones nodded.
“What should we do if we find one?”
“Kill it imdiately and collect both the blood and brain crystal,” Erik said.
“The original will be nearby its clones. Be thorough but discreet and avoid fighting other thaids. They might scare the Mirror Centipede. They are not strong; they just have a good brain crystal power. ”
The clones nodded. However, since it was critical for Erik to get this power, they were not going to imdiately attack.
The clones would do everything they could to stop the thaid from fleeing, especially since thaids, including the Mirror Centipedes, on the Mur continent, were far stronger than their Mannard counterparts.
“Tell the others we’ll be back tonight, or earlier, if we find the creature,” Erik told one of the clones staying behind.
“Be careful, master. The thaids near water are strong.”
Erik nodded and led his group into the forest. They traveled northeast along the lakeshore, keeping the water visible through the trees on their right.
Morning mist clung to the tall vegetation, which made the group a soaked ss.
June telepathically said, after an hour of searching.
Erik told the group to stop and hide.
He sighed.
June asked.
Erik said.
The clones obeyed, altering their path to keep a safe distance from the beast. Despite the detour having cost them ti, it was still less than them having to wait for the monster to get out of the area.
The sun kept climbing the sky. The humidity thickened while they neared a marshy area, where the lake’s edge dissolved into a maze of reeds and shallow pools.
a clone said.
the clone said.
The group followed the tracks deeper into the marsh. The uneven terrain slowed their progress, but the trees and bushes grew in number, thickness, and size, which was consistent with the area the Mirror Centipede usually lived in.
One of the clones said. Erik quickly went there to check what the clone had found.
There was a creature about two ters long, with a segnted green body, coiling around a Florathyst Vine.
“Let see if it’s an original or a clone.”
Erik used Instability to check its thoughts. Erik only saw one thought: Search for food.
“This is a clone. Don’t kill it, or its creator might run away.”
[The original must be in the area.]
Erik nodded.
The clones nodded, scattering to search the area. Erik kept in contact with all of them, coordinating their movents to narrow the search area.
The tracks here were far more nurous, but were also much more confusing. The Mirror Centipede must have made a lot of clones. Besides, it was twice as long as the Mirror Centipede on Mannard, which could an several problematic things.
The Mirror Centipede didn’t have eyes and was weaker than most other thaids, but its ability to make clones ant it was a one-monster army. It wouldn’t behave like the queen’s bugs or the Xeridon Anteris. The Mirror Centipede wouldn’t swarm its prey, regardless of how many there were.
It was a cautious hunter, one that would silently ambush its target as if it were a wolf. When there were enough of its clones, they would attack in unison.
The creature had a retractable mandible in its lower anterior section, and it also produced a powerful biological neurotoxin, which it secreted through its skin.
All of that made up for its lack of speed and strength.
The reason Erik took the creature’s power back then was that it could create permanent copies of itself. There weren’t many cloning abilities to begin with, but the ability to make permanent copies was held only by this particular species. All other kinds of clones were all dependent on mana; they weren’t permanent.
They just needed to use so of their mana at so point, and then they would make a clone. It was exactly how Erik’s Chimaeric Demons brain crystal power worked.
Erik wanted to create a similar ability. He didn’t know if he could make sothing as powerful as the Chimaeric Demons, but for sure, he needed sothing that would be useful from the get-go.
What Erik needed was to scout around, not fight, so even if they were weak, he would make sure they had powers suitable for that kind of task.
In truth, he had an idea in mind that, if it worked, would make even those things, if they were weak, able to fight, but before he could do that, he needed to know if he could make the power to begin with.
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