The Unmaker

"... What… What did you say?" Dahlia stammered, lifting her head slowly to stare at the little black bug. "You want me to… what?"

Eria didn't miss a beat.

[Eat the cricket.]

She didn't hear Eria wrong. The words weren't jumbled, her thoughts weren't scrambled, the giant cave cricket was dead before her eyes, and her heart was still… pounding. Beating hard against her ribs. If she thought she'd been calming down after her near-death encounter, she knew she wasn't now.

"What do you mean?" she breathed, eyes twitching as her fingers loosened for a brief moment and blood began trickling down her forearms. She doubled over in pain, teeth gritted, pressing her forehead into the wet ground. "I… I killed it already, didn't I? Why do I have to eat it? What's the point–"

[It is only by eating insects that you can gain points to increase your physical attributes and unlock new mutations. Please observe.]

Eria swiped a leg horizontally, cutting empty air, and there was a small flash of light before something warped into existence—a little black box about the size of her torso, so real and so corporeal-looking she could hardly believe it was just another projection.

[Name: Dahlia Sina]

[Grade: F-Rank Giant-Class]

[Class: ???]

[Swarmblood Art: ???]

[Aura: 500]

[Points: 0]

[Strength: 1, Speed: 1, Toughness: 1, Dexterity: 3, Perception: 1]

[// MUTATION TREE <LOCKED>]

[// EQUIPPED SWARMSTEEL <NONE>]

She leaned away from the suddenly bright light and forced herself into a squint. The written words were very small and difficult to read.

[From top to bottom, we have your name, grade, class, your Swarmblood Art, and your aura. Your grade is your estimated overall strength defined by the highest grade of bug you can kill. You can think of Swarmblood Art as your class' unique blood magic, and you can think of aura as your 'killing pressure' created by your blood passively diffusing out of your skin in imperceivable gaseous form. In that sense, it also serves as an indicator for your 'magic stamina', since all Swarmblood Arts use blood as a resource,] Eria said. [If your enemy has a stronger aura than you, you will feel intense fear from their killing pressure, and the larger the discrepancy, the more paralyzed with fear you will be. This goes both ways, of course. If your aura is overwhelmingly strong, most bugs would not even dare to challenge you.]

[After that, you have your five physical attributes. Strength is all things related to strength. Speed includes movement speed and reaction time. Toughness relates primarily to your skin hardness and bone toughness. Dexterity deals with your balance and motor coordination, and perception generally relates to how far your senses can reach. One 'level' in strength, speed, dexterity, toughness, and perception means you are equivalent to an average human in all those attributes. If you have three levels in dexterity, you are basically as dextrous as three average humans. Understood?]

"... Okay? Confusion. So what does eating—"

[If you want to raise your strength from level one to two, it will cost you one point. If you want to raise it from two to three, it will cost you eight points. To increase any of your attribute levels by one, the point cost will be that attribute's current level cubed—that is, to go from level two to three, it will cost two times two times two, equalling eight points in total,] Eria continued. [Your aura will increase by one for every point you spend. Basically, every time you get stronger, your aura will strengthen, and both your magical stamina and your killing pressure will become even stronger. Understand?]

Then it paused for a second, giving her a second to digest the information. [Now, when you consume the flesh of an insect, you gain points you can use to increase your attribute levels, and the amount of points you get are based on the rank of the flesh. Per my analysis, consuming only the edible portions of the Giant-Class cave cricket in front of you will net you a total of nine points to put into any attribute you want.]

She listened closely, dearly, but the explanation still wasn't making much sense to her.

"But how does that… work?" she asked, as she stared straight at the cricket once again; her gulp was so loud she feared someone from the surface might've heard it. "How does eating the cricket flesh increase my strength? My speed? Don't you need… to specifically train those particular attributes? Issam and Amula and the others, they put months upon years of training on end just to make themselves take one step a little bit faster, and now you're telling me—"

[That if you consume the entirety of this cricket and put all your points into strength, you will have the strength equivalent of three grown men?]

"Yes—"

[That is exactly what I am saying,] Eria said firmly, and the status screen winked out of existence. [Insect flesh is more protein-dense, folic acid-dense, and vitamin-dense than any other food in the world, and combined with the magic essence that is 'Swarmblood'? Bug meat is such a potent source of nutrients that, if a normal human without a system were to consume bug meat and accumulate Swarmblood, they would begin mutating traits of said insect and gradually lose their humanity. However, systems such as I are capable of controlling that intake of Swarmblood and converting it into points, which you can then use to selectively increase your attributes or evolve mutations.]

She blinked. "I… what? We can?"

[You can. If your 'Issam' consumes this cricket in front of you, he will also gain nine points worth of attributes, though he would not be able to control where the increase in power would go without a system. Now, please, before the flesh spoils and its point value decreases—eat the cricket.]

Eria skittered off the carcass, and then she was left alone in the sewage room.

Foetid waters rushing to her right, cockroaches scurrying between the heaps of trash on her left. She heard everything and smelled everything and saw everything, in brutal clarity—the blotchy black ooze spilling from the cricket's exploded head, the nauseating riot of toxic colours reflecting from its shattered chitin plates, the gut-wrenching spray of strewn organs and entrails dangling from its open thorax—and even just the idea of sticking one of the more appetising strands of meat into her mouth made bile rise up in her throat.

She tried, nevertheless.

Reaching in front of her, she ripped out a single strand of meat from the cricket's exploded head and stuffed it into her mouth, hoping it'd go down smoothly, quickly. She managed to swallow, actually—but then something inside her rejected the flesh, and she couldn't hold the bile back this time.

As Eria tilted its little head, she doubled over and threw up the muddy black meat, clutching her stomach in pain.

[... I understand it will take courage to consume bug meat,] Eria said, in an artificially cool and soothing voice, sauntering under her face to wave up at her. [Statistically, eighteen percent of all Altered Symbiotic System users react with visceral disgust when confronted with the idea of consuming bugs in order to grow stronger. However, of those eighteen percent, ninety-five percent are able to come to terms with the idea within three minutes once they understand there is no other way to survive in this world. There are far stronger bugs up on the surface. Those who do not eat will be eaten.]

"I… know that," she wheezed, voice trembling between words, between breaths. "I know… I'm weak. I know. Agreement. If it were Issam, he would've… he would've already finished eating by now—"

[Wonderful. You understand the gravitas of the situation. That would put you firmly in the ninety-five percentile of people who are able to come to terms with the idea of consuming bugs. To make your first consumption smoother and easier, you can start by squeezing its muscles out of its hindlegs, before working your way forward to its forelegs and then its relatively soft antennae. At the very least, I believe you should be able to chew through the scape of the antennae, which will acclimate you to eventually chewing on the harder chitin plates—]

"But I can't eat it," she finished, as she squeezed her eyes shut and hurled again; a horrid, retched, unseemly sight. Eria stopped talking to stare as she managed to look at the little bug weakly. "I… I can't. I'm sorry, but I... I can't—"

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[Nine points to improve your attribute levels however you wish should not be taken lightly, especially considering the levels of your current attributes. Level three in strength would allow you to carry three grown men on your back. Level three in speed would let you outrun a quarter of all Giant-Class bugs currently swarming Alshifa. Level three in toughness would mean your forearms might not have been slashed by that cricket just now,] Eria said calmly. [Please try again.]

Dahlia gritted her teeth. She tried again, and she really tried—strand after strand, bite-sized chunk after bite-sized chunk, but she could never get the putrid flesh to go down her throat. It was more than just a mental incapability; it was as though she physically couldn't stomach the idea of eating bug meat, and even if she wanted to, she just... couldn't.

After seeing her throw up her fifteenth attempt at devouring the cricket flesh, Eria rubbed its head with a little leg.

[Are you, perhaps, allergic to bug meat?] Eria muttered. [It is rare, but... there have been cases of it on the surface, where the unfortunate user of a Symbiotic System cannot consume bug meat because they have an inborn ailment that prevents them from doing so. You might have that same ailment, but, if that is indeed the case, then why is it that I cannot...]

Eria trailed off.

She stopped forcing cricket flesh down her throat and simply knelt there on all fours, gasping and heaving for breath.

[...Why am I unable to access the full depth of your memories?] Eria asked, almost impassively. [Normally, I should already have assigned you the Swarmblood Class you are best fit for based on your memories and physiological information, which would allow you access to your unique Swarmblood Art and mutation tree. I had assumed my inability to do so earlier was because of the cricket's presence, heightening your internal temperature and making all biological information I receive inaccurate as a result, but your vitals are rather stable now... so why is it that I still cannot assign you a class?]

…

[Question, Dahlia Sina.]

[When I first delved into your shallow pool of memories in order to pick a voice you would find most comfortable listening to, the voice belonging to 'Eria' was the first one that came up.]

[Who is this 'Eria'—]

"There's… there's another way I can increase my attributes and grow stronger, isn't there?"

She asked, though she felt she already knew the answer, and she started crawling towards the cricket with her right hand clamped over her left forearm. She was left-handed, so, if nothing else, she needed her left hand to be in good condition in order to do what she was really good at.

While she sat up straight and rolled her sleeves up to her shoulders, Eria stood atop the cricket's antennae, staring down at her.

[There is,] Eria said hesitantly, [However, I must warn you that without having a class, equipping Swarmsteel will massively pain you—]

"That's okay. I can deal with… that," she mumbled, as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, rusted chisel, biting the handle between her teeth. "Ah'll do thish my oan waye."

[...]

Eria stepped back, sensing she had no need for interference at this point, so she raised her head to let out a soft exhale before turning the dial on her pocket watch.

One minute was all she'd give herself before her forearm wounds needed to be sealed.

Ignore the bulk of its body. Ignore its entrails. A cave cricket's best and most useful parts come from its legs.

Her eyes snapped wide awake as she focused, glaring down at its forelegs with a burning intensity.

She grabbed the cricket's left foreleg without hesitation. In general, an insect's legs were six-segmented, going from the 'pretarsus' at the tip of the leg to the 'coxa' connecting the leg to the body. The pretarsus 'claw' parts were usually most valuable, considering their application in blades and weapons, while the 'femur' parts were usually second most valuable, considering their high muscle density for armour and padding. Under normal circumstances she'd be aiming to dismantle those parts for herself first, but a cave cricket was a little different.

The cylindrical 'tibia' parts, located directly beneath the femur, were what she really wanted from the cricket.

'Cave crickets are typically nocturnal, enclosed-space insects,' she recalled from an old textbook, biting her lips as she did. 'Their eyes are not very good, so in return they have evolved tiny bristles on their tibia to serve as contact sensors. Their bristles are so sensitive they probably would not be able to control their own traction without them.'

Tick, tock. If the cave cricket were any bigger, she'd probably have a tough time dismantling its legs, but it didn't take her long at all to locate the joints she needed to cut with her chisel, or the muscles that needed to go if she wanted to remove its chitin. Her blade struggled a bit for a completely clean cuts, but after twenty seconds of heaving and groaning, she managed to separate the entire leg, blood oozing from the stumps.

Somehow, she was able to ignore the putrid scents and went straight to carving the tibia's lower joint, isolating the cylindrical chitin before shaking it up and down to make the flesh inside slide out.

That was the first part done.

O… kay.

Now, wash the tibia and make sure only the cylindrical chitin remains. I don't need any of the leg flesh.

With the heavy tibia in hand, she fell to her right and dipped it in the sewage water, letting the violent flow clean it thoroughly on the inside. 'Clean' was an incredible overstatement, of course—it was still sewage water at the end of the day—but at least the blood and flanges wouldn't stick. She let it soak for about twenty seconds before pulling it out, slamming the whole thing down on the ground in front of it.

And finally, to split the hard chitin in half.

She drove her chisel down and hit it right down the middle, thumb on the back of her blade. It wasn't meant to 'cut'. Her blade was too small for something like that, so instead she recalled her father's teachings and 'splintered' it with impact force. The cylindrical chitin split into two uneven halves with a resounding crack, and she didn't waste anymore time.

The sixty second mark came to a pass with a sharp ding as she slipped her forearms into the hollow cylindrical chitin, equipping them like bracers, and they immediately tightened around her forearms to stop her wounds from bleeding.

Done.

Her eyes softened for a moment when she felt a strange sense of tranquillity washing over her no longer throbbing arms.

Then, she started itching and scratching at the spiky bristles on her bracers as the air seemed to chafe at them.

[... The Swarmsteel melded with your forearms so easily?] Eria muttered as she hissed and breathed heavily, trying to get used to the constant itching on her bracers. [I see. You cannot consume bug meat to gain points because of your allergy, but if your body is capable of melding abnormally well with Swarmsteel, then it might not be immediately necessary for you to consume bug meat. As long as you can continue making more Swarmsteel and equip them—]

"Show me… my status screen again."

Eria obliged without another word.

[Strength: 1, Speed: 1, Toughness: 1, Dexterity: 3, Perception: 1 (+1)]

[// EQUIPPED Swarmsteel]

[Cave Cricket Bracers (Grade: F-Rank)(Per: +1/2)(Tou: +0/1)(Aura: +5/20)]

Her lips curled into a small smile. There was an additional 'plus one' next to her perception level, meaning she was slightly stronger just by equipping the Swarmsteel bracers… but then her eyes wandered a little further up the screen and she noticed something peculiar.

She pointed at the Swarmsteel description with a shaky finger. "It says… up here, though, that I'm only getting one out of three levels for perception, and five out of twenty for aura," she said. "Why?"

[Because Swarmsteel is magical, parasitic equipment, and whenever you equip one, it begins to 'meld' with your body and enhances your attributes,] Eria answered quickly. [Currently, your cricket bracers are giving you one level in perception and... and five in aura, but the longer you have them equipped, the more attribute levels they will be able to offer as a result of them acclimating with your body.]

"Ah. So… if I just keep wearing the bracers and get used to them—"

[You will eventually be able to get all its offered levels, yes.]

Dahlia looked down glumly. "Oh. I see. I'm just… not that compatible with my own Swarmsteel, then."

[Do not beat yourself up over it. Even most experienced bug-slayers are not able to draw out their Swarmsteel's full potential on their first equip. The fact that you are already gaining attributes from the bracers is nothing short of incredible. It usually takes weeks, if not months and years for people to even gain a single attribute level from their F-Rank Swarmsteel,] Eria countered. [I did not suggest you strengthen yourself via the Swarmsteel route because… well, because it is not supposed to be sustainable in the long term. Do you not feel itchy on your forearms? Like there is a slightly stinging pain that just will not go away?

She glanced up at the status screen. "No?"

[Strange,] Eria murmured. [Reminder: Swarmsteel are parasitic equipment. The bug parts used to make Swarmsteel are still infused with bioarcanic essence, so whenever you equip one, it is supposed to drain aura from you due to biological incompatibility, not give you aura.]

It's not supposed to give me aura?

[No. Never. Equipping Swarmsteel is supposed to have a downside via the cost on your aura, but... regardless of why Swarmsteel gives you aura instead of draining aura, at least you have carved out your own path of progression for now. It is not the end… of the world…]

…

Eria trailed off, and Dahlia knew exactly why.

Her bracers' hypersensitive bristles were quivering slightly.

[... Dahlia. While I would like us to take our time thoroughly unmaking the rest of the cricket for its parts, I fear—]

"It's faint, but I think… there are more giant bugs behind me," she finished with a whisper, standing onto two wobbly feet before stumbling right into a wall. She'd stayed kneeling for too long again. "I have to go, right? I can't beat all of them… right?"

[Correct. It is regrettable, but you will have to leave the rest of the cricket parts behind. The ladder to the surface is right in front of you—]

"The bug trader."

She cast a long, hard look at the man lying still behind her, half his body still submerged in the rushing sewage waters. Further behind him, in the dark sewage tunnel, shadows moved and screeched and lumbered forward with ground-shaking tremors—and though she wanted nothing more than to take the good man with her, she didn't have nearly enough strength to carry him up the ladder right now.

Guilt flared up inside her, alongside a fierce protectiveness to not leave the man who'd saved her life behind… but she supposed, at the end of the day, that she was still a coward after all.

She slapped her shaky hands on the first rung of the ladder and tore her eyes away from the bug trader.

"... Eria."

[Yes?]

The little black bug appeared on her shoulder, and this time she managed to keep her disgust to a simple flinch.

"Thank you for putting up with me," she whispered. "But I'll be coming back for him once I get a little bit braver."

There was a brief pause before Eria responded with a small nod of its head.

[I would like nothing more than that, Dahlia Sina.]

[Now return to the surface and show me—what has happened to Alshifa while you were down here?]