I was about to do it for the first time. I had never done it before, so I was pretty nervous. Maybe it would feel good?
Of course, I was talking about making a psychic force field. The ball of dirt floated in place, and I began to think about how exactly to make said force field. Could I just… imagine an outer shell that repelled force? It was worth a shot.
It took more concentration than I expected, but eventually the air around the ball started becoming wavy. I floated over and tried to touch the ball, but was repelled by some invisible force. Success!
[Tapped Mind:
Current Mind capacity: 93.9875%
Currently Tapped Mind: 11.6%
Tapped Breakdown:
Telekinesis (1.6%) Force Field (10%)]
Failure!
Ten freaking percent?! Why was this force field so fucking expensive?! The protection may be worth it, but that was way more than I wanted to just throw away.
Well, it didn't exactly have many options at the moment. Maybe I could decrease the cost when I turned it into a Lock.
Combining the tasks should be possible with a Lock. Looking at something like {Compartmentalization} or {Kin Link} or even Beatrice’s Locks, the Lock system was pretty flexible. Making a ‘folder’ to contain multiple tasks should be easy.
[Mind Lock: Food Storage created]
It was! It even had a relevant name. How kind of the system. The ball still floated, but I could probably modify the Lock later.
Hm? Something seemed off… The ball was still floating. I never disabled the force field…
Did… did I just create the Lock while also maintaining focus on the task?
Holy hell. Holy shit. This was big. Huge, even. How did I do that?
“Perhaps it is related to the new Lock you made before?”
That’s it! If that was the case, {Compartmentalization} was way more overpowered than I initially thought. Prior, I had to stop focusing on a task to create a Lock, since they both required massive amounts of concentration. Now that my brain could automatically separate tasks and think on multiple levels at once, I could make Locks and Tap Mind at the same time!
I tried to think of the implications. Locks were a fascinating system. Creating them was easier based on feel. It was easier to make the Lock that let me float once I knew what it felt like to make myself float. Now that I could do both at the same time, making Locks would be infinitely easier.
Oh, man. That meant I could manipulate my Locks at will no matter the situation. Disabling and even modifying Locks took similar levels of concentration, so being able to manipulate them at all times was incredibly useful.
As I basked in the new possibilities, Bella popped out of the forest with a mountain of food in tow. She seemed to be struggling under the load, but carrying that much was impressive for someone with a less powerful Mind.
“Sorry, Beatrice, I snagged a few bites for myself even though you said not to. Not to worry! Even after that little snack I still found plenty of-”
“FOOD!”
A foreign voice invaded my head. Before I could react, three dark shapes slammed into the ground in front of us, kicking up dust and ash.
“FOOD…GIVE.”
Vultures. A trio of the eerie scavenger birds that had grown more numerous over the past days stood on the ground between Bella and the rest of us. My mind was racing.
They were huge! They could talk? They were ugly!
The vultures had just been another pest, thieves that decreased the otherwise abundant supply of barbecued meat around the forest. I hadn’t paid them much attention, but this time I studied them more closely.
Pitch-black feathers covered the majority of the creatures’ massive bodies. Like the one I had killed on the way to one of the crystals, each one stood several meters tall, nearly reaching the top of some of the dead trees. Every inch of the birds was covered by feathers except their scaly faces, leathery skin attached to creepy beaks and weird, beady eyes.
The one in the middle was the same size as the other two, but a particularly poofy bunch of feathers near it’s neck gave the impression that it wore some sort of feathery scarf. That one seemed… different from the two by its side.
“GIVE… FOOD!”
I see. The middle one was the source of the screechy voice that echoed around my skull, the other two just making regular bird sounds.
“Begone, pests! That food is to become the nourishment of our young and of the glorious Mother!” Beatrice shouted.
“Yeah! I found this food fair and square! It’s all min- I mean it’s all Mother’s!”
Nice save, Bella. I privately told the both of them to be quiet.
I hadn’t expected this. The vultures themselves weren’t a surprise, but their intelligence was. The middle vulture was smart enough to talk. Even further than that, they were threatening us.
Essentially, we were being shaken down by thugs.
It had been my understanding that the forest was full of brainless monsters, and if that were the case, we would be ruthlessly attacked. But these guys were taking the time to intimidate us and force our hands, which I somehow found much scarier than a straight-up divebombing.
I had to act. The one vulture had taken 3% of my Mind to kill, there was no way the worker bees would be powerful enough to take on this trio on their own. Probably.
I reached out with invisible hands.
In the next instant, two vultures fell over, dead, their necks twisted at an unnatural angle.
I got punched in the stomach.
Or, that’s what it felt like. A furious screech penetrated the silence, the middle vulture shooting into the air. 3% was enough to kill the henchmen, but not the boss. Just like the mister squirrel incident, an unbearable sickness overcame me. Goddammit, not again.
A black blur rocketed through the air straight toward me.
“Mother!”
Oof! I nearly threw up as I got punched in the gut again. Oh wait, it was just Beatrice tackling me out of the way of the screeching ballistic missile. How nice.
“All forces, converge!”
I shook my head, trying to clear the fog. The wavy forms of Bella and Bess fearlessly assaulted the vulture, but the massive thing shook them off easily. I had to help!
I threw up.
I didn’t realize there was so much barfing involved with reincarnation.
The tiny shape of Ben shot out of the forest and buzzed around the vulture’s eyes.
“Take that, you beady-eyed feathery bird-brained-”
His bark was apparently worse than his bite because a massive wing slapped Ben hard, knocking him away.
Oh, fuck this.
[Tapped Mind: 80% / 82.3875%]
I was overcome with deja vu as the vulture suddenly paused.
Then it imploded, turning into a fine red mist.
__________
Ow. Double ow. Quintuple ow.
My head still hurt after the battle with the vulture. It wasn’t as bad as the mister squirrel incident, so I never lost consciousness, but it still sucked.
To make matters worse, buzzing filled my brain as a bunch of baby bees bickered.
“If you two had gotten off your asses, Mom wouldn’t have had to strain herself!”
“Bess, use more proper language. Honestly, Mom…”
“I told you, Beck and I had no idea what was going on!”
“Yeah, lay off them. It all happened so fast.”
“Yowchers!”
I don’t know what compelled me to create {Compartmentalization}, but I was thanking them right about now. Without it, my head just wouldn’t be able to handle the soreness and ceaseless arguments all at once.
“Everyone, be quiet. Mother is still not feeling well.”
Beatrice seemed to notice my distress finally. At this point, I was more concerned than in pain, though.
The dark interior of the tree trunk felt much less secure. I was constantly vigilant, waiting to hear the sounds of birds that never came.
“What do I do…?”
“We must prepare. It is clear that we need combatants to share our burden.”
That was exactly the problem. There was too much information at once. Those vulture were strong. Nothing I couldn’t handle on my own, provided no more surprises like the boss vulture showed up.
And if they did?
I looked at the bees. My bees.
Bess and Bella had taken light injuries, nothing major. Belle and Beck were in severe mental distress, that much was clear through the Link. Were they giulty they couldn’t help?
Beatrice’s mind was like a tornado. She was formulating plans and organizing her thoughts at a breakneck pace, as focused as when she had used Mind to evolve herself.
Ben had taken the brunt of the damage.
The little guy was in a pretty sorry state, bruised all over and one wing damaged. The vulture boss hadn’t even attacked him, more swatted him away like a bothersome fly.
This was my fault.
Beatrice had warned me multiple times. More scavengers were appearing. With only worker bees, all the fighting would fall onto me. I even neglected the lesson from mister squirrel.
A change needed to be made.
First, I would have to think of some way to fight. My current methods were crude and ineffective. One wrong assumption would incapacitate me and leave the hive vulnerable, and my only form of ‘combat’ was instant-kills.
Second, I needed an army. Or, at least a few warriors. I just didn’t have the experience or knowledge to cover the defense of the entire hive and its members.
Lastly, I needed to grow up.
I had decided not to do the same evolution process I had done with Beatrice on the five new guys. I was scared to think of how many people I would be around all the time and wanted to keep them toned down for my own selfish reasons. But the vulture attack made one thing clear.
I was being stupid.
I had resolved to take full advantage of everything at my disposal, yet here I was limiting the potential of some of my greatest assets for what? Some alone time? Seeing them argue just now opened my eyes. They were already people. Using Mind to make them evolve wouldn’t make them any more talkative or unqiue or special. They already had that potential, and I held the key to unlocking it. A key I had selfishly kept from them.
“Do not be so hard on yourself, Enno. At the very least, allow me to share a part of the blame. I was blinded by the strangeness of our children and did not account for out situation.”
No. Not this time, Queen. I’m taking responsibility.
“The hive is weak. We need combatants to protect ourselves.”
The bickering quieted as I spoke. Even Ben was silent. Beatrice spoke up.
“I apologize, Mother. I had not anticipated the potential danger our enemies could actually pose.”
“No, if we were stronger then maybe we could have beat that vulture,” Bess chimed in. Didn’t they see what I was trying to say? I wasn’t talking about them.
“They blame themselves. Your comment of weakness makes sense to yourself, but they are not thinking of the future as you are. They are trapped in the present. Explain this to them.”
Really? I guess it made sense. I silently thanked Queen.
“What I meant is that the hive needs to be strengthened for the future. I don’t blame you guys, not at all. You did what you could.”
While the bees perked up at my words, they still seemed grim.
“Queen, what now? I already explained my perspective to them.”
“I am not versed in the care of… unique individuals. However, I do know of our species. Perhaps giving them tasks or work to do would alleviate their sorrows and help them feel useful.”
“Beatrice,” I commanded. If keeping these guys busy would improve their moods, then I’d make them the busiest bees in the world.
“I am going to allocate more Mind to the Link so that the workers may evolve. I want them to work double-time. We need to secure our position in this forest before the scavengers overrun us.”
That would have to do. I’d discuss the matter of strategy with Beatrice later. For now, it was time to create otherworldly horrors beyond comprehension.
I was about to do it for the first time. I had never done it before, so I was pretty nervous. Maybe it would feel good?
Of course, I was talking about making a psychic force field. The ball of dirt floated in place, and I began to think about how exactly to make said force field. Could I just… imagine an outer shell that repelled force? It was worth a shot.
It took more concentration than I expected, but eventually the air around the ball started becoming wavy. I floated over and tried to touch the ball, but was repelled by some invisible force. Success!
[Tapped Mind:
Current Mind capacity: 93.9875%
Currently Tapped Mind: 11.6%
Tapped Breakdown:
Telekinesis (1.6%) Force Field (10%)]
Failure!
Ten freaking percent?! Why was this force field so fucking expensive?! The protection may be worth it, but that was way more than I wanted to just throw away.
Well, it didn't exactly have many options at the moment. Maybe I could decrease the cost when I turned it into a Lock.
Combining the tasks should be possible with a Lock. Looking at something like {Compartmentalization} or {Kin Link} or even Beatrice’s Locks, the Lock system was pretty flexible. Making a ‘folder’ to contain multiple tasks should be easy.
[Mind Lock: Food Storage created]
It was! It even had a relevant name. How kind of the system. The ball still floated, but I could probably modify the Lock later.
Hm? Something seemed off… The ball was still floating. I never disabled the force field…
Did… did I just create the Lock while also maintaining focus on the task?
Holy hell. Holy shit. This was big. Huge, even. How did I do that?
“Perhaps it is related to the new Lock you made before?”
That’s it! If that was the case, {Compartmentalization} was way more overpowered than I initially thought. Prior, I had to stop focusing on a task to create a Lock, since they both required massive amounts of concentration. Now that my brain could automatically separate tasks and think on multiple levels at once, I could make Locks and Tap Mind at the same time!
I tried to think of the implications. Locks were a fascinating system. Creating them was easier based on feel. It was easier to make the Lock that let me float once I knew what it felt like to make myself float. Now that I could do both at the same time, making Locks would be infinitely easier.
Oh, man. That meant I could manipulate my Locks at will no matter the situation. Disabling and even modifying Locks took similar levels of concentration, so being able to manipulate them at all times was incredibly useful.
As I basked in the new possibilities, Bella popped out of the forest with a mountain of food in tow. She seemed to be struggling under the load, but carrying that much was impressive for someone with a less powerful Mind.
“Sorry, Beatrice, I snagged a few bites for myself even though you said not to. Not to worry! Even after that little snack I still found plenty of-”
“FOOD!”
A foreign voice invaded my head. Before I could react, three dark shapes slammed into the ground in front of us, kicking up dust and ash.
“FOOD…GIVE.”
Vultures. A trio of the eerie scavenger birds that had grown more numerous over the past days stood on the ground between Bella and the rest of us. My mind was racing.
They were huge! They could talk? They were ugly!
The vultures had just been another pest, thieves that decreased the otherwise abundant supply of barbecued meat around the forest. I hadn’t paid them much attention, but this time I studied them more closely.
Pitch-black feathers covered the majority of the creatures’ massive bodies. Like the one I had killed on the way to one of the crystals, each one stood several meters tall, nearly reaching the top of some of the dead trees. Every inch of the birds was covered by feathers except their scaly faces, leathery skin attached to creepy beaks and weird, beady eyes.
The one in the middle was the same size as the other two, but a particularly poofy bunch of feathers near it’s neck gave the impression that it wore some sort of feathery scarf. That one seemed… different from the two by its side.
“GIVE… FOOD!”
I see. The middle one was the source of the screechy voice that echoed around my skull, the other two just making regular bird sounds.
“Begone, pests! That food is to become the nourishment of our young and of the glorious Mother!” Beatrice shouted.
“Yeah! I found this food fair and square! It’s all min- I mean it’s all Mother’s!”
Nice save, Bella. I privately told the both of them to be quiet.
I hadn’t expected this. The vultures themselves weren’t a surprise, but their intelligence was. The middle vulture was smart enough to talk. Even further than that, they were threatening us.
Essentially, we were being shaken down by thugs.
It had been my understanding that the forest was full of brainless monsters, and if that were the case, we would be ruthlessly attacked. But these guys were taking the time to intimidate us and force our hands, which I somehow found much scarier than a straight-up divebombing.
I had to act. The one vulture had taken 3% of my Mind to kill, there was no way the worker bees would be powerful enough to take on this trio on their own. Probably.
I reached out with invisible hands.
In the next instant, two vultures fell over, dead, their necks twisted at an unnatural angle.
I got punched in the stomach.
Or, that’s what it felt like. A furious screech penetrated the silence, the middle vulture shooting into the air. 3% was enough to kill the henchmen, but not the boss. Just like the mister squirrel incident, an unbearable sickness overcame me. Goddammit, not again.
A black blur rocketed through the air straight toward me.
“Mother!”
Oof! I nearly threw up as I got punched in the gut again. Oh wait, it was just Beatrice tackling me out of the way of the screeching ballistic missile. How nice.
“All forces, converge!”
I shook my head, trying to clear the fog. The wavy forms of Bella and Bess fearlessly assaulted the vulture, but the massive thing shook them off easily. I had to help!
I threw up.
I didn’t realize there was so much barfing involved with reincarnation.
The tiny shape of Ben shot out of the forest and buzzed around the vulture’s eyes.
“Take that, you beady-eyed feathery bird-brained-”
His bark was apparently worse than his bite because a massive wing slapped Ben hard, knocking him away.
Oh, fuck this.
[Tapped Mind: 80% / 82.3875%]
I was overcome with deja vu as the vulture suddenly paused.
Then it imploded, turning into a fine red mist.
__________
Ow. Double ow. Quintuple ow.
My head still hurt after the battle with the vulture. It wasn’t as bad as the mister squirrel incident, so I never lost consciousness, but it still sucked.
To make matters worse, buzzing filled my brain as a bunch of baby bees bickered.
“If you two had gotten off your asses, Mom wouldn’t have had to strain herself!”
“Bess, use more proper language. Honestly, Mom…”
“I told you, Beck and I had no idea what was going on!”
“Yeah, lay off them. It all happened so fast.”
“Yowchers!”
I don’t know what compelled me to create {Compartmentalization}, but I was thanking them right about now. Without it, my head just wouldn’t be able to handle the soreness and ceaseless arguments all at once.
“Everyone, be quiet. Mother is still not feeling well.”
Beatrice seemed to notice my distress finally. At this point, I was more concerned than in pain, though.
The dark interior of the tree trunk felt much less secure. I was constantly vigilant, waiting to hear the sounds of birds that never came.
“What do I do…?”
“We must prepare. It is clear that we need combatants to share our burden.”
That was exactly the problem. There was too much information at once. Those vulture were strong. Nothing I couldn’t handle on my own, provided no more surprises like the boss vulture showed up.
And if they did?
I looked at the bees. My bees.
Bess and Bella had taken light injuries, nothing major. Belle and Beck were in severe mental distress, that much was clear through the Link. Were they giulty they couldn’t help?
Beatrice’s mind was like a tornado. She was formulating plans and organizing her thoughts at a breakneck pace, as focused as when she had used Mind to evolve herself.
Ben had taken the brunt of the damage.
The little guy was in a pretty sorry state, bruised all over and one wing damaged. The vulture boss hadn’t even attacked him, more swatted him away like a bothersome fly.
This was my fault.
Beatrice had warned me multiple times. More scavengers were appearing. With only worker bees, all the fighting would fall onto me. I even neglected the lesson from mister squirrel.
A change needed to be made.
First, I would have to think of some way to fight. My current methods were crude and ineffective. One wrong assumption would incapacitate me and leave the hive vulnerable, and my only form of ‘combat’ was instant-kills.
Second, I needed an army. Or, at least a few warriors. I just didn’t have the experience or knowledge to cover the defense of the entire hive and its members.
Lastly, I needed to grow up.
I had decided not to do the same evolution process I had done with Beatrice on the five new guys. I was scared to think of how many people I would be around all the time and wanted to keep them toned down for my own selfish reasons. But the vulture attack made one thing clear.
I was being stupid.
I had resolved to take full advantage of everything at my disposal, yet here I was limiting the potential of some of my greatest assets for what? Some alone time? Seeing them argue just now opened my eyes. They were already people. Using Mind to make them evolve wouldn’t make them any more talkative or unqiue or special. They already had that potential, and I held the key to unlocking it. A key I had selfishly kept from them.
“Do not be so hard on yourself, Enno. At the very least, allow me to share a part of the blame. I was blinded by the strangeness of our children and did not account for out situation.”
No. Not this time, Queen. I’m taking responsibility.
“The hive is weak. We need combatants to protect ourselves.”
The bickering quieted as I spoke. Even Ben was silent. Beatrice spoke up.
“I apologize, Mother. I had not anticipated the potential danger our enemies could actually pose.”
“No, if we were stronger then maybe we could have beat that vulture,” Bess chimed in. Didn’t they see what I was trying to say? I wasn’t talking about them.
“They blame themselves. Your comment of weakness makes sense to yourself, but they are not thinking of the future as you are. They are trapped in the present. Explain this to them.”
Really? I guess it made sense. I silently thanked Queen.
“What I meant is that the hive needs to be strengthened for the future. I don’t blame you guys, not at all. You did what you could.”
While the bees perked up at my words, they still seemed grim.
“Queen, what now? I already explained my perspective to them.”
“I am not versed in the care of… unique individuals. However, I do know of our species. Perhaps giving them tasks or work to do would alleviate their sorrows and help them feel useful.”
“Beatrice,” I commanded. If keeping these guys busy would improve their moods, then I’d make them the busiest bees in the world.
“I am going to allocate more Mind to the Link so that the workers may evolve. I want them to work double-time. We need to secure our position in this forest before the scavengers overrun us.”
That would have to do. I’d discuss the matter of strategy with Beatrice later. For now, it was time to create otherworldly horrors beyond comprehension.
