Worm Mage

It took another six days for the entire village to be repaired, but by then, the sullen and downtrodden spirits from experiencing a Swarm infestation first-hand had turned into quiet, teeming anticipation in every child—and for the second time in Sparrow's second month in Immanu, all ninety-nine children were gathered around the bell tower under bright morning light, sitting cross-legged and barefoot in the thin snow.

Some of the children seated around the garden were rubbing their hands, snoring aloud, or playing with their slinky toys. Of the ninety-nine, the youngest were seated closest to the bell tower in accordance with their height, while the elders surrounded everyone else in a dome-like perimeter. The eighteen of them carrying bows and quivers on their backs were the only ones standing, crossing their arms as they nagged at the younger kids to look forward and listen. 'Sparrow is going to tell us all something important, so pay attention,' they seemed to say. He still couldn't completely understand the Immanu tongue after all.

But, seated atop a small crate right before the bell tower and in front of the Worm Mages, he couldn't help but wonder just how, exactly, he was going to teach them anything.

Ninmah was standing next to him, but it wasn't like she could translate anything if he couldn't say anything.

… Hm.

While Utu and Ninmah shouted especially loud at the kids, telling them to pay attention, he lowered his head and made a big show of tapping the small protrusion on his nape. His status interface popped open with a small buzz, and he willed the borders of the black box to glow brighter than they'd ever been, to be more obnoxious than they'd ever been—and that got everyone's attention.

The children quieted as he pulled down his status interface, then pulled it up again with a tap, then pulled it down again, over and over and over. With Ninmah and the eldest children's guidance, it only took another minute before everybody had their status interfaces pulled up next to their heads.

He didn't bother taking a glance at some of the younger children's attribute levels. He felt he'd only feel pity for himself if he saw how strong they were, so before they could all break off into a chorus of disjointed chatter, he expanded his status interface to three times its original size, flattening it against the wall of the bell tower behind him.

Then he raised a finger, pointed at each of the boxes in every single row, and nodded at Ninmah.

Be my interpreter.

Ninmah shot him a thumbs up, grinning proudly.

[// STATUS]

[Name: 'Sparrow']

[Grade: C-Rank Giant-Class]

[Specialized Class: Whiteworm]

The boxes denoting his class was what he really pointed at, and everyone huddled together, whispering amongst themselves. He vaguely heard the word 'worm' being thrown around, so he looked at Ninmah and started miming a whole bunch of other bugs. How well she could interpret his gestures and drawings in the snow, and then translate it to the Worm Mages was completely up to her.

More specifically, it was up to how much she and the other eldest children already knew about the outside world.

"Sixty years ago, the 'Swarm' descended from rifts in the sky and brought bioarcanic essence into the world," she explained to the children first, no doubt just to remind them of the outside world they'd given up on protecting decades ago. "The Swarm is numerous. They reproduce quickly. They're fierce, relentless, and their flesh and blood are powered by bioarcanic essence. Human swords and shields may work against smaller and weaker bugs, but there are stronger, god-like bugs that wield biomagic and are practically untouchable. In order to counter that, humanity started extracting parts from the carcasses of dead bugs and constructed 'Symbiotic Systems', which give people the ability to use the mutations and biomagic based on what their systems are made out of."

The children listened intently, and Sparrow blinked incredulously. Even though they'd secluded themselves from the rest of the world for the better part of four decades, they still seemed to know a fair amount about the outside world. Ninmah stuck a tongue out at him, waving at him as though to say 'go on'.

He obliged, not wanting to make her lose her momentum, and returned to drawing in the snow.

"Sparrow says… he comes from the current ruling faction south of the continent, where most soldiers like him have Ant Classes," she continued. "In the west, though, warriors have… aquatic bug classes. A bit up north, warriors have Fly Classes or some sort of… buzzing around, annoying venomous Mosquito Classes? Then there are other classes like fire… Butterfly Classes, Hornet Classes, Beetle Classes, and all sorts of others one across different battlefronts holding each section of the continent. Basically, each class allows someone to mutate a specific way and use a class-specific biomagic. If Sparrow has an Ant Class, he can never make wormholes like us. Each class has its own set of mutations and biomagic."

He blinked again.

… Is she actually reading my mind?

How terrifying.

But I must keep going.

Ninmah watched his gestures carefully, tilting her head. "Now, he wants to show us how humans with classes get stronger. He's…"

She trailed off as he pulled out a square chunk of raw bug meat from his cloak—he'd asked to borrow it from her just before they gathered everyone around the bell tower, and thankfully, she still hadn't eaten her entire share of Boreus meat. It might be a bit of a waste using it for demonstration, but if it'd help them understand the most vital part of what made their classes powerful, he'd gladly sacrifice a dozen points or so.

"... So this is bug meat," she started, sounding just as confused as he raised the chunk of bug meat above his head, waving it around so everyone could see it. Then he pointed up at his status interface again, making Ninmah repeat the words out loud for everyone to hear.

[Grade: C-Rank Giant-Class]

[Specialized Class: Whiteworm]

[Passive Mutation: Immortal Heart]

[Essence Art: Worm Maw]

[Aura: 1,153 BeS]

[Points: 18 vBe]

[Strength: 3, Speed: 4, Toughness: 3, Dexterity: 3, Perception: 3]

[// MUTATION TREE]

[T1 Mutation | Winterborn Lvl.1]

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

[T2 Mutations | Vibrational Senses Lvl.1 | Wormic Bones Lvl.1]

[T3 Mutations | Segmented Setae | Rigid Annuli | Sclerite Jaw] 150P

"He says… gathering 'points' is how humans with systems grow stronger," she said, pausing for a moment. "If we look at the words in descending order… your grade is your estimated overall strength defined by the highest grade of bug you can kill, 'passive mutation' is the ability most important to your class, 'Essence Art' is basically your class' unique biomagic, and 'aura' is basically your killing pressure created by your bioarcanic essence leaking out of your skin. All bugs have their own aura as well, and if theirs is much higher than yours, you'll be afraid of them. Your body will instinctively freeze and you won't be able to move, but the opposite is also true. As all Arts use bioarcanic essence as a resource as well, your aura is also the indicator for your 'magic stamina', so the higher the number, the more magic stamina you have.

"Then there's also… um, strength, speed, toughness, dexterity, and perception. Five broad categories of physical attributes. The number you see next to each of those words is equal to how… umm…. Oh! If you have a 'one' next to strength, you're as strong as one person! So since Sparrow has 'three' next to strength, he's as strong as three people!"

The background noise was starting to pick up as he went through the rest of the five basic attributes, making Ninmah translate the same—five levels in speed meant he had the reaction time and the raw agility of five people, and three levels in toughness meant his skin could probably make icicles bounce off, so on and so forth.

He also gestured several times at Ninmah until she got the message: every point they obtained would increase their aura by one. To level up any of their attributes, it'd cost points equal to that attribute's current level cubed. So, to increase his strength from three to four, it'd cost three times three times three amount of points, which was twenty-seven. Furthermore, to increase the level of a mutation to make it stronger, it'd cost the mutation's current level cubed multiplied by its tier.

The calculations were a bit difficult to get through to all the Worm Mages, but basically, the higher level their attributes and mutations—

"The more points we'd need to increase them any further," Ninmah finished, and by the end of it she was slightly out of breath, too. The children laughed and clapped their hands, looking as though they were watching a puppet show. For all intents and purposes, it kind of was one. "So Sparrow is saying… that since most of us already have several of those attributes in the double digits, it'll take us hundreds of points just to increase each one by a single level. I'm pretty sure he doesn't think that's worth it with the amount of points we currently have, and the reason for that is because we don't have… an easy way to get points?"

A more than satisfactory interpretation. With that, he split the chunk of meat unevenly in half, popping the larger chunk into his mouth. The youngest of the young immediately squealed and squirmed and reeled away at the sight of him chewing on raw bug meat—he wasn't really sure what they were so disgusted about, considering most soldiers ate them raw anyways—but very quickly they were distracted by the numbers changing on his status interface, their eyes utterly enthralled at the spinning lights.

[Points: 18 vBe → 21 vBe]

[Aura: 1,203 BeS → 1,206 BeS]

"... Oh! So if we eat bug meat, we get points to make ourselves stronger! But if you-–"

He didn't let her finish. For the remaining smaller chunk, he took out a flat piece of crystal he'd picked up from the mouth of the Barrows just ten minutes ago, hovered it over the chunk in his hand, and adjusted the angle until sunlight started sizzling the meat through the crystal.

Ninmah waited.

The children waited.

He waited.

In hindsight, he should've just set up a campfire to make the process quicker.

But eventually the meat was darker, crustier, and steaming hot when he chucked it into his mouth, working his jaw as he struggled to chew through the whole thing.

[Points: 21 vBe → 27 vBe]

[Aura: 1,206 BeS → 1,212 BeS]

"... But if you cook it, you get more points even if the chunk of meat is smaller!" Ninmah finished, and everyone started cheering and clapping. It really was like a show to them. "The points can be used to increase our attributes, but if we look a little further down, it shows… his 'mutation tree'! Mutations in bold means they're already unlocked, and there are 't'.. tiers? Mutations cost more points to unlock the higher tier they are, and as it says on the right of Sparrow's interface, the amount of points required to unlock a single tier three mutation is a hundred and fifty!"

The eldest children murmured around the edges of the crowd as they studied their own status interfaces, taking note of their attribute levels and unlocked mutations. Sparrow stole a glance at Ninmah's interface from the side as well, and once again came face to face with it—a mutation tree so far unlocked he still couldn't quite believe his eyes.

[T1 Mutation | Winterborn Lvl.1]

[T2 Mutations | Vibrational Senses Lvl.3 | Wormic Bones Lvl. 5]

[T3 Mutations | Segmented Setae Lvl. 2 | Rigid Annuli Lvl.2 | Sclerite Jaw Lvl. 2]

[T4 Mutations | Proliferating Septa Lvl.1 | Salt Epidermis Lvl.1 | Permeating Mantle Lvl.1 | Omnidirectional Ocelli Lvl. 2]

[T5 Mutations | Peristaltic Vibration Lvl. 1 | Rapid Reconstruction | Cryogenic Release | Hammerhead Replication | Biomineralisation] 1000P

He worried they wouldn't be able to understand how the mutation tree worked, but thankfully, Ninmah herself already seemed to realise that since she'd already unlocked all of her tier four mutations, each tier five mutation was going to cost her a thousand points. Combined with the fact that their attribute levels were already plenty high… in simpler terms, they were going to need a lot of points just to make themselves stronger.

Slowly but surely, he saw the looks of understanding and knowing in everyone's eyes; the 'path' to growing stronger with their Whiteworm Class had become all but apparent to them. He could go into more detail about grades, the reason why points could be obtained via eating bug meat, and the cooking optimization of making bug meat yield more points per pound of meat consumed, but frankly, he didn't think they were all too important.

At the end of the day, the 'path' to strength was simple: they'd have to obtain a large amount of points from consuming bug meat, distribute them across their physical attributes and mutation levels, and once increasing levels become inefficient due to how little points they were getting, they'd have to unlock a mutation to obtain a massive 'jump' in their overall power. With said jump in power, they could start hunting stronger and higher-rank bugs whose meat would yield more points.

While there were also such things as 'Class Mutation Selections'—allowing the user to upgrade their class and evolve their passive mutation and Essence Art after unlocking all of their tier three and five mutations respectively—the extra prefix in front of the 'Class: Whiteworm' box seemed to be the word 'Specialized'. He recognised the shape of the word. Before unlocking all of their tier three mutations, a person would have a 'Standard Class', which were classes like Ant Class, Beetle Class, and Moth Class. After unlocking all of their tier threes, they'd get to pick between three 'Advanced Classes', like 'Bullet Ant Class', 'Fire Ant Class', and 'Mortar Ant Class'. Finally, after unlocking all of their tier fives, they'd get to pick between three 'Specialized Classes', like 'Black Bullet Ant Class', 'Crossed Bullet Ant Class', or 'Frenzied Bullet Ant Class'. The three offered classes would always be based on their personality, preferences, biological compatibility, and other internal information the system could read.

However, it seemed the Whiteworm Class was already a Specialized Class, so there'd be no Class Mutation Selections even for him. His passive mutation and his Art was already the strongest they'd ever be.

Utu—standing at the very far back of the crowd—raised his hand and shouted a question in his warping voice, and just this once, Sparrow felt as though he understood what the Worm Mage was saying perfectly.

"Basically, if we want to get stronger and make all our numbers go up, we have to kill, cook, and eat lots of giant bugs?" Utu asked.

Sparrow nodded firmly, pulling his bayonet rifle forward and gripping it tight in his hands.

Even though they were already far stronger than him in terms of raw attributes and unlocked mutations, he was going to pull all of them onto higher levels alongside him.

"... Alright, then," Ninmah whispered, clapping her hands as she smiled at him. "If it's hunting for a steady source of points that we need to do, then we know a spot where we can find lots of them."