The Lone Wanderer

Percy swam to the surface, desperate to take a breath. The moment he broke through, he coughed as much of the murky water out as he could, greedily inhaling air into his lungs.

‘How the hell did you end up here?!’ he asked his host in annoyance, seeing nothing but an endless expanse of greenish blue stretching as far as the horizon.

It looked like some kind of ocean, but this wasn’t saltwater. It was closer to the swampwater they had in the Grisly Bog. At least it didn’t stink as bad. The substance had an oily texture, with chunks of plant matter floating to the surface.

Receiving no reply, Percy swam over to a large piece of debris drifting a few dozen metres away. It was a cylindrical-ish block of wood – probably a broken tree trunk. Though it had clearly been out here for a while, as it was half-rotten. It was covered in an exotic variety of algae and barnacles, but he ignored them as he climbed onto it. Only once his back was resting on the slimy surface did he finally get the chance to examine himself.

His body was vaguely humanoid. For the most part, it had the normal number of limbs and eyes, though he did have a tail. Lacking a mirror, Percy traced the contours of his face with his fingers, deducing that his host was either akin to a goblin or some kind of monkey.

‘I suppose the Status will have the answer.’

___

Percival's clone

Mana cores:

• [Mana core 1 – Orange – Beast]
• [Mana core 2 – Seed – ???]

• [Parting Gift – Crude]
• [Quarterstaff – Crude]
• [Glove – Crude]
• [Crystallization – Crude]
• [Mantle of Deceit – Refined]

Decrees:

• [Phoebe’s Decree] – Grants access to your Status.
• [Moirais’ Decree (Incomplete)] – Grants the seed of a second mana core. Requires potent life mana to germinate.
• [Metatron’s Decree] – Open a one-way portal to the Vault of Magic at will.

___

‘Monkey it is.’ he concluded after seeing his affinity.

Sensing for his core, he eventually managed to take control of his mana after a couple of minutes. Pushing it to flow faster, he felt his heartbeat quicken, his veins bulging as a series of amber lines lit up all over his body. His host protested by instinct as the feeling of their strength getting rapidly consumed wasn’t particularly pleasant.

‘No wonder beasts don’t use Circulation, despite how easy it would be to discover it…’

In the end, he acquiesced, deactivating the spell to conserve their stamina. At least, it was nice knowing he could tap into the technique in a pinch. His Status still hadn’t listed it though, as his main body had already upgraded it to Synchronization.

In any case, this wasn’t the first time he’d used the boosting art with one of his beast clones. He’d been able to do so ever since he and Micky figured out how it worked. Sadly, he’d never had much of an opportunity to get anything valuable out of it. The only time he had come close was back when the Starry Knight attacked them, though the Green bug had decommissioned his wasp clone before he had the chance to activate it.

“Tettig… tettig…” (Testing… Testing…) he tried to speak, the words coming out weird.

“Haow? Ih aewan eer?!” (Hello? Is anyone here?) he asked, switching things up, though it didn’t sound much better.

‘Ok. An Orange beast isn’t ideal, but at least I have opposable thumbs and the ability to vocalize… somewhat.’

It wasn’t perfect, but anything was better than staying in the middle of the sea. Percy hurriedly collected some seaweed from the water next to his make-shift boat, before tying it together into something akin to a skirt. Sadly, his host didn’t have a single patch of fur on his pink skin, so the idea of meeting people while naked was a little embarrassing.

Only after his privates were covered did he focus on his memories of the Vault, trying to tap into a part of himself that he’d never dared to touch before. Ever since Metatron gifted him with his Decree, Percy had felt something lingering at the edge of his thoughts – an invitation he could always choose to accept.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

‘Sorry to keep you waiting, I guess.’ he shrugged, as a faint distortion appeared in front of him.

At first, it was mostly transparent, letting him see the vast expanse of the grimy sea through it. It soon began to expand, however, quickly turning into a circular portal wide enough to fit his whole body, its colour darkening into the familiar grey of the Vault’s walls.

This was already Percy’s third clone since settling in Bogside town. In theory, he could have waited for a sentient host, but he was already running out of patience. Who knew when he’d next possess a humanoid, or if the stars would align at the time?

Having made up his mind, he leapt through the portal, eager to visit his old friend.

***

Travelling through the portal was a weird experience. Percy thought he could just take a step forward and find himself in the Vault, but it appeared crossing vast cosmic distances was a touch more complicated than that. �

The moment he crossed the threshold, it was as if he had frozen in place, the next second stretching into days. Eventually, he plopped down on the cold metal floor, feeling his entire world spin around him, as a wave of nausea assaulted him. He wanted to puke but, luckily, his host hadn’t eaten anything in a while. In the end, Percy just stayed there for a few minutes, waiting for his surroundings to stop spinning.

As soon as he could stand again, he found himself surrounded by all sorts of creatures. Some of them he’d seen before – the jellyfish like humanoids with the transparent skin that Gabe was a part of, the hulking people with two horns sticking out of their temples, the shorter green-skinned folks with pointy ears…

But there were a couple species he didn’t recognize. Two people looked a bit like humanoid bats, though they didn’t have any eyes, instead having an oversized pair of ears, each as large as their face. There was also what Percy could only describe as an octopus – or perhaps a pentapus, as it only had five tentacles.

That said, all these people had one thing in common. They were staring at him intently, shock and curiosity evident in their expressions.

‘Why are they so large though?’

All of them towered over him, even the relatively shorter green people being about half a head taller than he was. As for the horned ones, they were as tall as buildings. Apparently, his host was on the shorter side this time.

‘I suppose it makes sense. After all, I’m just an Orange beast…’

Shrugging, he stood up before speaking.

“Hai. Am Pessy. Naou beik it ap. Natig to si hia.” (Hi. I’m Percy. Now break it up. Nothing to see here.)

The giants didn’t seem to understand a word he’d spoken, however. They turned to each other, talking in a language he didn’t understand either, occasionally pointing at him as if he was some exhibit.

‘Ok. Maybe I didn’t think this through. Without my connection to Gabe I can’t even communicate with these people.’

Just when he was considering his best course of action, he noticed the pentapus say something, before a hole opened on the ground, spitting out a strange device. Picking it up with its tentacle, the pentapus then reached for Percy’s ear, hooking it around it, one side sticking to his head. Percy didn’t stop him, not sensing any malicious intent.

“Try that again.” the pentapus spoke in the same language as before, though Percy somehow understood it this time.

“Neat, how does this work?” Percy asked. His words came out broken again, but the locals looked like they had understood them.

“It just uses some runes and some mind mana to translate your thoughts.” the creature explained.

“Geez, really generous of you, wasting 5000 credits on this… beast.” one of the hulking humanoids said, his voice booming.

The pentapus didn’t say anything, only shrugging or something.

‘5000 credits?!’ the amount shocked Percy.

He wasn’t exactly an expert on the Vault’s economy, but from the time he’d spent with Gabe he could tell this wasn’t a trivial sum.

“So, what’s up with this thing?” one of the jellyfish people asked. “Did the gods bring a new race into the Vault?”

“No way. Why would they bring beasts to live with us?” one of the bat-people chipped in.

“Well, how else do you explain this?” the jellyfish person didn’t let up.

“Probably some weird experiment or something. Just look at it! It’s smart enough to talk!”

The arguments continued for some time, these people talking about Percy as if he wasn’t even there. Eventually, the pentapus approached Percy again, placing a tentacle on his shoulder before speaking.

“Why don’t you guys just ask him what he’s here for?” he said, putting the debate to rest. “You’re a ‘he’, aren’t you?” he asked Percy, glancing down at his skirt that had ended up uplifted at some point.

Percy hurriedly covered up again, some heat gathering in his cheeks before nodding.

“I’ve no idea how I ended up here.” he lied through his teeth. While he appreciated the pentapus’s help, he didn’t need to explain himself to them.

“I’m looking for a friend. He’s one of these guys.” he added, pointing to one of the jellyfish people.

“Well, whoever it is, there’s a good chance you’ll find him in the living quarters.” the pentapus said, seemingly buying his story.

Next, he slithered towards a certain direction, gesturing at Percy to follow.

“Hey, thanks for the translation device.” the latter said once they were alone.

“Don’t worry about it.” the pentapus waved it off. “I’ve got more credits than I know what to do with.”

‘He must be quite powerful.’ Percy speculated. ‘Even with a blessing and a bloodline, Gabe was struggling to get by…’

“Thanks anyway.” was what he said out loud. “Trying to communicate via gestures would have been a pain in the ass. Name’s Percy, by the way.”

The pentapus didn’t say anything, silently guiding Percy through the Vault. Eventually, they came across a massive cube that looked familiar. It was just like the building Gabe lived in, though he wasn’t sure if this was the one.

“There are sixteen living cubes in the area. The rest are lined up behind this one. I’m not sure which one your friend lives in, but just tap their walls and say you’re here as a guest. The system will take care of the rest.”

Percy nodded, though the pentapus was already slithering away.

“I’m Ronnie.” he said before he was gone entirely.