My smile froze a bit but I decided to go with fate, the unique option really enticed me but the Godly Drone was really something I could use to expand my army rather quickly. This would provide a good foundation for the army, and in the end, might provide him me with a great bonus should I evolve him into a proper structure.
I rationalized my rather hasty choice to rely on fate to guide my choices, though I worried that this was still a wasted choice. Only time would tell if this was worth it, and even then I could only regret my own indecision. Whichever path I went down, I'm sure I would be filled with regrets as I could only go down one path.
In video games, I usually used the save function before I made an important choice. Some of those games gave the illusion of choice, should you save her, should you watch her get ambushed? You still end up at the mansion in the end. Ones, where your actions mattered, were even rarer some of my choices I deeply regretted not moments later.
My choices for vault 34 still haunt, making me wonder if I made the right choice. I had forgotten to save before that, did I do right by those people?
"Okay, evolve into a Godly Drone." I set it on the ground and did a half-hearted salute to it. The creature immediately exploded into a large golden crystal, an almost holy light coming from deep within it.
Nodding I decided to check the time left until my complete recovery. 25 days 12 hours left? That didn't seem right, I didn't feel as if that much time had passed during my time in my mind. Minus the two times, I passed out here I hadn't even been tired enough to sleep.
'Time is accelerated here, just like a dream can feel like merely minutes when you're asleep for hours, your coma treats this place like a dream.'
"Good I don't have to spend much more time inside of this world, I should explore further. It will probably take some time for the babies to hatch and the larva to evolve, I really want to see how far I can go for now." I was happy to get out of here and explore the world outside, even though Nikolai had been in this world since birth when we mixed there is still our innocent wonder filling us with exploring the world.
It was also time to make powerful equipment that would test the upper limits of what I was able to do since I couldn't show everything when I was around other humans since I am not powerful enough yet. Some figures would be out of my grasp for quite some time no matter how fast I developed myself.
Scaled chain mail was pulled upon my body created from the best steel I could create, this would provide the best protection without limiting my movement much. It wasn't quiet though, but neither was I with my air pistol. As I didn't have access to flak I couldn't create any good armor for my legs, instead, I opted for a light yet durable fiber created with wood. This also replaced my pants and shirt that I currently had, the boots were the hardest to create though from the wood though I did create a latex material from the plants around and created soles for the boots.
Enchanting was simple when fused with my wind affinity as I wanted to be swift, each piece of armor and the boots could create various effects with enough mana. The shirt, scale chainmail, and the pants could give off a repulsive force of wind to stop a fall or push back enemies, but at low mana output, it could gather the wind around me making wind spells easier.
The boots were made in such a way that I could adjust the mana finely, allowing me more speed while running, more distance while jumping or while draining my mana rapidly it could provide me with limited hovering allowing me to skate above ground. Mobility and speed were my highest priorities, as surviving was the most important thing to getting stronger.
My fighting style also revolved around high bursts of speed to eliminate a target quickly. The karambit was one of the most lethal weapons when mixed with both accuracy and speed. It's hooking talon form could control an enemy's actions, or repositioning my own body.
When I push forward I let out a jet of air using it to propel myself forward into quick dashes. After the carnage of my last visit almost nothing came out, or would just run away as soon as I was there. I guess I had done too much hunting in this area, now the creatures feared me. I'd have to send the stranglers out here for a bit of stealth gathering.
The further I went into the forest the darker the surroundings were getting so I steadily wrapped some of the darkness around myself. As it wasn't magic it didn't drain any of my mana just put a small amount of stress on my mind. I felt that after a few hours of this I might have a minor headache if I kept it going.
Stronger things started appearing, the first predators were a pack of four wolves, testing my skills I took out all of them before they could even howl for reinforcements. Quick slices along their necks took down the first two, as the third and fourth growled a popping sound was heard that hit both of their necks in rapid succession. The pain of the handgun momentarily stunned them long enough for me to pierce both of their necks quickly.
They, of course, didn't die from the punctures in their necks but all of them stopped moving before the blood went into their lungs and they died like that. It was cruel, but both quick and efficient which suited me quite well. Stringing their bodies up to keep them away from other predators was easy, patching up the holes so the smell of blood didn't attack anything else was quickly done as well. There could be some things that could take my kills, but I couldn't carry them right now so I had to take that risk.
More than twenty wolves were tied up before I made my way back, depositing several back at camp. Something had eaten about five of them in between my trips, but fifteen were good enough for now. It also allowed me to take a break as I was returning, the stress of the shadows going away by the time I got back to hunting for stronger prey.
After several hours of hunting, I found another creature that lived in my current world. A ten-foot-tall monkey with brown fur, a large black mane, and a smashed in face with the nose of a bat. It's giant hands looked like two sledgehammers as they smashed into a lion, making short work of it.
It's lover, a lioness didn't take kindly to her partner dying and quickly bit into the flesh of the monkey. With a swing of its arm it tossed it into a tree but it sprung to its feet starting to bite it and run away. Dirt flew everywhere as the two of them fought, each slam of those giant fists causing the ground to shake.
Information slowly filled a blue screen in front of me...
Bat Faced Orc Monkey:
Known for their tough hides and their vicious personalities these monkeys are not to be taken lightly. Their legs are weak to slashing weapons, and if a cut digs deep enough into their armpits it can cause the beast to bleed out.
If cooked with basil and wishroot over a hot flame for five to six hours, the tough meat becomes very tender making it well-liked by nobles. When paired with a nice white wine the flavor can be very satisfying after which a nice fruit dessert should be added the a nice flavorful combination.
Armor made from the hide can provide a decent boost to ones defensive abilities, and the mane can be used to make various decorations to make the look fashionable. When made into an overcoat the dark browns fit well with a fire leopard's deep red fur underneath in both pants, and shirts.
Their heart can be used to make a strengthening liquid when mixed with rockberries, a mild venom, and a mild relaxant. This will provide maximum synergy between the body and the heart of the monkey. Provide this mixture into a syringe and inject near the heart for the fastest release.
"Half of that was unneeded." I needed to find a way to limit the amount of information that was on these screens. The main things to take away from this is that I need to aim for under the armpit, and its heart should prove useful.
Crouching among the leaves where the two were fighting each other, I slowly made my way closer to them. Shadows swarmed around me to make the surrounding area just a bit dimmer so they wouldn't notice my movements.
As the battle reached its peak the lioness made a single wrong move and both its back legs were crippled in one strike. The monkey in its glee raised up its arms to smash into the strange creature before it. Suddenly a piercing feeling of weakness filled its body, instinctually it touched at its armpit it's hand coming back bloody.
As it turned its head it noticed a shadow standing at half its height, with an angry shout it swung its bloody hand down as if to swat a fly. I let out two shots at its hand as I backed away quickly, though they snapped back the hand for a moment they seemed to do no harm to it.
Ignoring its wounds it grabbed the lioness and used her limp body as a weapon throwing it at me. Ducking down I saw the lioness hit the tree before the tree itself exploded in half. One hit from this monkey's hand would kill me, that was certain after that display of power.
I wasn't sure how long it would take for the money to die of blood loss but escaping seemed the best option currently. Sadly escaping now would ruin the reason why I was here, so I pulled something from my back letting both my other weapons fall to the ground.
The sound of thunder cracked as an immediate burst of air shot out and a pellet slammed into the arm of the beast ripping off a chunk of skin. Before it could figure out what just hit him, two more cracks of air being forcefully shot out filled the air sending the monkey reeling as it was now missing an eye.
It threw the other lion at me, trying to back away and I had to dodge quickly to the side. Two more shots slammed against the beast's legs, tearing chunks of skin with it. Blood slowly dripped down from its knees as it stumbled a bit its face coming forward as it kneeled down. Grabbing two spare karambits from my hips, I forced a large amount of wind under my feet.
A look of fear filled its face, before a bright light burst forward, two shiny pieces of metal slamming hard into the empty eye socket. The force of the blow forced the beast off of its feet before it slammed to the ground making the small pieces of metal gouge further into its skull. Bits of grass and dirt hit the trees behind it as the wind slowly died down.
With a kick I landed beside the monkey, looking at it with a bit of pity. It was clearly dead as now half of the thing's face was missing and two karambits were firmly lodged in its brain. The karambit were lost though as there would be no way to extract it from the skull unless I used creation magic. I needed to leave this area quickly though before more powerful beasts were attached to the loud noise and blood.
Looking at the two lions, I shook my head only able to bring back one for my friends to devour. I was skeptical I could even get back this huge monkey, but I had to try as its body was huge and would provide a lot of biomass.
A curious thought came to my mind as I went over to the lioness taking a knife to take out its tongue. Lioness tongue would be easy to cook, and easy to test if I could give my creatures traits. Pocketing the tongue into my pocket, I grabbed the giant monkey and started dragging it behind me.
Using the wind to make his body less heavy I dashed into the forest with it crashing into the ground a few times. Most animals dashed out of the way, very few curious ones stuck their heads out of different holes to see what the ruckus was. Luckily the journey back was peaceful either way and when I got the beast back I was exhausted.
Using too much mana, I had to resort to my psionic abilities to lift up the weight halfway through. When I got back to the camp I had a rolling headache that made my vision black at the edges.