The Lone Wanderer

Chapter 607 – Intimidation

‘Something’s off,’ Percy said.

‘Well... they aren’t covered in red scales like everything else,’ Micky pointed out. ‘Maybe they don’t bother to dive into the crimson regions because they’re strong enough without ingesting the substance.’

The creatures lurking close to the surface were lizards like the majority of fauna that Percy and Micky had encountered over the past week, though they were definitely of a different species than their host – so they wouldn’t be able to rely on kinship to keep them safe.

Their massive frames were round and bloated like whales, which was admittedly not a shape that one tended to associate with an apex predator. More importantly, their scales sported a dull grey colour. They looked sleek and mostly undamaged, but they lacked the characteristic glow – and probably the hardness – of everything else that Percy had seen.

‘That doesn’t make sense,’ he argued with a shake of his head. ‘These things are obviously born at a lower grade. Don’t they need tougher shells to protect them until they reach maturity? They don’t look like they have ever left the surface.’

‘Maybe their body loses the enhancement provided by the material if they stop ingesting it for a long time. Or maybe the parents just take care of their young so that nothing dares to attack them before they reach Blue,’ Micky offered, though Percy still wasn’t convinced.

‘Their scales aren’t the only thing that doesn’t add up. How can they survive here by themselves? Blue beasts need a ridiculous amount of food per day, but there’s nothing to eat here. They should have starved a long time ago – especially with so many gathered at the same place.’

‘Well… they clearly manage, somehow,’ Micky said.

‘No. I don’t think these things are Blue,’ Percy insisted.

‘What do you mean? Just look at them with your Mana Sense! I agree that it’s strange, but the proof is right in front of us. Besides, their size is also on par with the Starry Commanders on Remior.’

Percy examined the creatures for a little longer without daring to swim closer, verifying once more that everything was exactly as Micky said. Even so, he had a hunch that things weren’t as they seemed, and he trusted his instincts. ‘Do you mind if I approach?’

‘Be my guest.’ Micky shrugged. ‘We’ve already left a mark on this planet, so we should be able to return if we get eaten.’

‘I doubt it’ll come to that,’ Percy reiterated, already swimming towards the nearest creature.

Not just his target, but also a couple of others in its vicinity instantly registered Percy’s approach, regarding him cautiously. Perhaps, the sight of multiple ‘Blue’ beasts staring at him should have given him pause, but Percy only grew bolder the closer he got without the giant beasts attacking.

Based on what he knew about magical beasts, there was no universe where a Blue creature would think twice before pouncing on a Green that was only a few dozen metres away. The gap in their grades and the presence of a domain were more than enough for the colossal animals to eliminate him with ease, yet his host’s Green core should be just about nourishing enough to be worth consuming.

Growing more confident in his guess, Percy sent a trickle of phantom mana into his eyes to activate Soul Vision, instantly noticing that the Blues’ souls were flaring erratically with unease. It was almost like they were more scared of him than the other way around.

More importantly, their souls looked nothing like the souls of true Blues. In fact, they were so pathetically weak that Percy didn’t believe the creatures to be Greens, Yellows, or even Oranges.

‘Wow. These bastards really got me there for a moment,’ Micky admitted, trying and failing to mask his embarrassment.

Oblivious to the Huehuan’s thoughts, the beasts shifted nervously as Percy closed the distance separating them. They looked like they wanted to swim away, but ultimately chose to hold their ground – or rather… their water – to avoid giving away the game. Sadly for them, it was a little too late for that.

Percy saw no reason to harm the fake Blues despite their ruse, though he did find their little trick quite interesting, so he stopped as close as he could to observe them without giving the poor things a heart attack.

‘How do you think they pull this off?’ Micky wondered.

‘Their size is real at least,’ Percy said.

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It was common knowledge that animals could potentially grow as large as Blues even without a high grade. Percy knew that there were whales on Remior that could accomplish that even at Red, though the aquatic mammals typically had no choice but to actively hunt and consume small Orange beasts early on in their life to evolve. If they didn’t, their increased bulk would only turn them into juicier targets as they matured.

Clearly, the giant lizards didn’t bother to do that, however. After observing them carefully for several minutes, Percy concluded that these things survived mostly by filtering lots of tiny crustaceans out of the water. It explained how the reptiles accumulated their mass, though their meals clearly didn’t contain enough mana for them to evolve.

‘I guess this is a good thing for them. If they advanced, they would have no choice but to dive deeper and participate in the fight for mana and the red substance. This way, they can survive near the surface where food is relatively scarce,’ Percy concluded.

Faking their grade was obviously a biological adaptation to prevent other creatures from realizing how easily they could overpower the giant reptiles.

‘But how is that even possible?’ Micky asked.

‘Maybe the principle behind it isn’t that different from our concealment runes,’ Percy suggested. ‘They don’t change their actual grade – only how an outsider perceives it. I suppose that this is done passively by their bodies.’

A regular concealment enchantment could hide one’s mana signature entirely, but it was possible to only partially filter it through a concealment rune with multiple controls. That was similar to the bandage that Deimos had used to appear as a Blue while being a Violet, or the enchantments that Percy had carved onto his cauldron to obscure the walls of the construct without completely hiding the ingredients inside it from his Mana Sense.

‘Makes sense, I guess,’ Micky said. ‘But how do you go the opposite way?’

‘Hmmm… I don’t think I ever saw a single rune that did that in the Vault, but we’ve never tried combining concealment and reversal runes before,’ Percy said.

‘That’s a good shout, actually,’ Micky conceded.

Not wasting any time, the Huehuan seized control of the beast mana inside their host’s core, using Internal Magiscript to form a small unit cell that consisted of a handful of runes – a reversal rune, a concealment rune and a bunch of controls on both of them.

It barely took a second, since Percy and Micky had poured countless hours into this particular spell over the past half-decade or so. By now, they could easily draw enchantments with over sixty runes inside their cores. It was still less than half than the maximum complexity they were capable of on the outside, yet it was getting pretty close to what they would need for their artificial advancement.

In fact, their main bodies had shifted their attention to seal-crafting, learning how to make the enchantments permanent and much smaller, and designing the enchantment that they were planning to introduce inside their cores.

Either way, none of that mattered right now.

Micky activated just the concealment rune at first as Percy scanned the gentle giants with Soul Vision. Their souls flared with surprise and curiosity as Micky lowered their host’s grade to Yellow, Orange and then Red, before hiding it entirely.

Giving his friend a mental nod, Percy watched the Blue-sized reptiles with bated breath as Micky finally activated the reversal rune as well. The moment the second part of the enchantment went live, the creatures’ souls exploded with terror as – from their perspective – a real Blue beast suddenly appeared amidst their ranks.

Unable to remain calm any longer, the poor beasts started swimming away in panic, the colossal pod scattering in less than a minute. The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on Percy. The creatures had managed to resist the urge to flee before, despite the fact that Percy could have butchered them just as easily at Green, only to finally lose their minds the moment he used their own trick against them.

‘I guess it worked,’ Percy said, suppressing the urge to chuckle as his Status surprised him with a notification.

[Congratulations! Your spell has evolved: Spectral Art: Internal Magiscript – Masterful -> Spectral Art: Intimidation – Masterful!]

‘Wow. We finally found an application for Internal Magiscript!’ Micky exclaimed.

The spell had reached Masterful through nothing but sheer complexity. Percy and Micky had kept working on it without getting much for their efforts, only because they knew that it was going to eventually form the foundation of their artificial advancement. They saw everything up to that point as a necessary, intermediate step. Even so, being able to actually do something interesting with it for a change certainly felt good.

‘Guess who managed to upgrade Internal Magiscript first!’ Percy gleefully sent through the ethereal cord, making fun of his main body who was most certainly working on combining the spell with seal-crafting this very moment.

‘You’re kidding, right?’ the original asked back, sounding more curious than annoyed.

‘Nope. It’s not the most impressive thing, but it might be good to include in the eventual unit cell,’ the clone said before bringing the main body up to speed.

While the main goal of their artificial advancement was obviously to truly raise their actual grade, Percy and Micky were already planning to add several utility features to their cores – including concealment runes.

Adding Intimidation into the mix would only require a couple of extra runes, and Percy could definitely see this ability saving their skin one day. Admittedly, everyone on Remior already knew their real grade, but it was possible that they might eventually travel to distant places while still in the Colour realm, so being able to inflate their grade to avoid a fight wouldn’t be a bad option to have.

‘At least we won’t leave this place entirely empty-handed, even if the red substance proves useless,’ Micky said as soon as Percy was done briefing the main body on their discoveries so far.

‘Agreed, but I see this more like an appetizer,’ Percy replied, his host’s lips parting into a toothy grin.

After so many years of wasting their time without finding any interesting planets, he had every intention of making the most out of this place, and he was sure that his friend felt the same way. With one more mystery settled, Percy finally crossed the remaining distance to the surface, peeking his head out of the water for the first time since their arrival.