A few seconds after he had entered his dreamland, a housefly landed a metre away from his sleeping body and dissolved its transformation to reveal a beautiful woman from within. She looked at the figure that slept comfortably above a prehistoric-looking beast as if it were the most comfortable bed.
Vidya tried to walk forward but felt her legs shivered at the sight of the hulking mass of the Gharial that looked like a long mountain range in comparison to her tiny self. She also saw the figure of the mini Victoris that hovered beside Prakash and warily gazed in her direction. The feeling of intimidation the Gharial exuded was enough to make her mind go blank.
Vidya gave a resigned sigh and retreated until she stood at the edge of a step high above the Gharial. Only now could she breathe properly; the aura of intimidation released by the Gharial impacted her physical cognition so she maintained a distance of 6 feet from the Gharial. Beyond this distance, she would no longer be able to see him, so she had no other choice in the matter.
She was dispatched here by Vikram to guard Prakash since she seemed to be the only one among his capable warriors who had been interested in the task.
Vidya wanted to make use of this chance to get closer to the youth but her hopes were dashed as the youth slumbered comfortably atop the creature that she didn't dare to get near.
"One day, I'll make you mine," Vidya thought as she admired the dreamy face of the sleeping youth and fantasized about riding on the pigeon alongside him as they stomped their enemies.
"Kyaaa," The more she indulged in her romantic fantasies, the more her cheeks reddened while a trace of desire manifested in her eyes.
The mini Victoris shook in wariness as it gazed at the trembling human woman who sat far away but for some reason looked like a predator that was eyeing and collecting data on its to-be prey. If not for the presence of the Gharial, it seemed like she would have long pounced at the opportunity.
------------------------------------
A tiny chick head peeked out from a shell and gazed at the surrounding straw nest and at a huge bird creature that kept pecking at the eggshell in response to its movement.
'Ceee'
'Ceee'
The baby pigeon cooed in a high pitched tune as the mother pigeon broke away all the surrounding eggshell.
An irresistibly cute furball was displayed in full glory after half of the eggshell had been removed. The mother pigeon then proceeded to remove the small bits and pieces of the eggshell that were still attached to the baby pigeon.
'Ceee'
The baby pigeon then let out another high pitched cry as the mother pigeon rubbed its wings over the delicate body of the baby pigeon. It then bent its beak until it touched the top of its head and nustled its soft and delicate fur.
The baby pigeon opened its tiny beak and began to drink the crop milk that the mother pigeon fed it. After it had drunk its fill, the baby pigeon began to rest. Its frail body required a lot of rest and nutrition to grow big and strong.
The mother pigeon noticed its slumber and began to poke at another egg that too showed signs of hatching.
The dream ended at this point and Prakash opened his eyes. He gazed at his 'Record' and found out that all of the rows pertaining to Fish Karma had disappeared from it once again while he had reaped quite a harvest of Dog Karma.
Dog-8811 (11.48%) Gharial-3 (0.00%) Pigeon-2600 (2.10%)> It wasn't much but he had been able to raise his comprehension of Pigeon Karma by '0.26%' which was attributed to his short nap. Had he slept longer, he could have increased it by almost one-percent, but this would have to do for now. The bloated feeling had long since disappeared as Prakash stretched his limbs and exercised to gain further understanding of his body strength. He still hadn't gained a complete grasp of his increased physical abilities after one-percent of the stats of the Dog and the Pigeon were added to him. Thankfully, his previous conjecture had been proven right. Stats were gained only when comprehension of a creature's Karma reached one-percent. He had only gained stats from his Dog Karma when his comprehension of it reached one-percent and hadn't gained anything after that. He now had a bit above eleven-percent comprehension of it. "Well, shall we begin round two?" Prakash jumped onto a nearby step as Ugly Shaggy entered the body of the Gharial once again. The scaly eyes of the Gharial shot open as Ugly Shaggy began to control it according to its wishes. The Gharial wriggled its heavy body and slid into the reddish waters. Another round of massacre began as the fishes that had arrived by now were shredded apart by the vicious jaws of the Gharial. It seemed like its stomach had been filled to the brim as the Gharial solely focused on killing the fishes and not eating them. The reddish waters began to darken to a shade of reddish-brown due to all the blood that was spilled into it. Purple snakes emerged out of the bodies of the dead fishes and rushed towards Prakash who absorbed them with relish. His 'Purple Transformation' activated the moment the first purple snake entered his body. "Sir Prakash," Vidya was just about to call out to the awake Prakash when she saw his 'Purple Transformation' activate that sent him into a daze. "This sucks," Vidya cursed in response as she transformed into a housefly and landed a few centimetres away from Prakash. After dissolving her transformation, Vidya maintained her distance from him and didn't dare to approach further. She had seen plenty of examples in the base when concerned people rushed to their friends/loved ones who had their 'Purple Transformation' activate mid-battle only to end up pausing like a doll when they had approached within an arm's distance. After that, they couldn't move until the 'Purple Transformation' of their friends/loved ones wore off. It was a tricky situation where they were rendered helpless and required careful protection. Some of the unfortunate ones who couldn't protect themselves lost their lives in battle when one of the members amidst them had his 'Purple Transformation' activate that rendered him along with everyone within an arm's distance of him immobile. They were then besieged by insects and devoured in a matter of seconds. After such incidents repeated themselves a few more times, Vikram cautioned everyone in their base to not approach anyone who had activated their 'Purple Transformation'. If it got activated during a battle, then the surrounding warriors were trained to form an encirclement around the person and fight until the 'Purple transformation' wore off. As she was waiting in frustration, a wasp landed beside her and dissolved to reveal the figure of Vikram. Vikram gazed at the figure of Prakash who lay slumped on the floor and followed after the thin purple cord that began from his chest and travelled all the way till the head of the rampaging Gharial. The cord looked intangible as some of the stray cans that floated in the way just passed through its body as if it were a mere illusion. This cord was actually the body of Ugly Shaggy that had stretched itself to its limits to maneuver the Gharial farther in the water. "Take care of him," Vikram left a word for Vidya as he transformed into a wasp and took off towards one of the shelves that peaked above the reddish-brown waters. "Humph," Vidya snorted in response but the volume was so low that hardly anyone other than herself could have heard it. She didn't want to show attitude towards Vikram, the person who had saved her life many times but that didn't mean that her ego wouldn't flare up every once in a while. "I should be patient," Vidya reminded herself and transformed her eyes to gaze at the way the Gharial fought in the waters. Even though it was a complete massacre, she could still glean important information about its fighting prowess which might prove useful to her in the future. A wasp landed within an enclosed space in one of the shelves and dissolved its transformation. Looking at all directions, Vikram judged that this spot was safe for the time being as he materialised both Victoris and mini Shaggy beside him. The hulking body of Victoris turned transparent and shot towards the reddish-brown waters and began to consume the flesh of the numerous dead fish carcasses that were mixed in it. On noticing that a steady stream of purple smoke gushed into his body through the tail of Victoris that was attached to his chest, Vikram materialised his 'Record' and inspected his gains. For every 4-5 seconds, he gained a unit of Fish Karma. "Good, this should replenish my expenditure for a long while," Vikram thought as the mini Shaggy that hovered beside him turn transparent and entered his body. Immediately, the Fish Karma that he had just gained began to get consumed by the mini Shaggy and seemed to be getting converted into something else, just that the conversion efficiency was abysmal. "We need to prepare sufficiently for our attack," Vikram thought as he laid his body to rest and immediately entered his land of dreams. Using this time period, he wanted to raise the base strength of his body by increasing his Karma comprehension of the karma of all the creatures he possessed to one-percent. Back at the base, hundreds of people had a mini Victoris materialise beside them as they entered a huge room. There were carcasses of various insects lined up inside that probably numbered in the thousands. Upon their command, hundreds of mini Victoris rushed towards their respective insect carcasses and began to devour them like crazy. The warriors who had unleashed their mini Victoris began to huddle together in small groups and began to exchange knowledge. Battle tactics, advantages of each insect according to various situations, how to transform faster, increasing the attainment of their Supplement Skill, increasing their comprehension, etc. they engaged in all sorts of conversation. After Vikram had briefed about their next course of action, most of the people in the base got excited about the prospect of saving hundreds of people. Because they knew, the more the people they had on their side, the less the casualties they would have to face each time their base was raided. Some of the people directly laid their bodies on the floor and entered their dreamlands. They were in a rush to increase their Karma comprehension to as high as they could before the decisive battle. There were three main advantages that increasing Karma comprehension for a creature would result in: gaining one-percent of the creature's strength when their Karma comprehension hits one-percent, increasing the ease at which they could transform, maintain and use their transformations, and decrease the Karma expenditure during transformation. At zero-percent Karma comprehension, just a partial transformation alone consumed about 10 units of Karma per second while at one-percent Karma comprehension, even a complete transformation consumed only about 10 units of karma per second. This saved them a lot because karma was an exhaustible commodity they obtained at the cost of risking their lives battling numerous creatures. The smaller and younger the creature, the lower the Karma it released upon death. Conversely, the bigger and older the creature, the greater the amount of Karma it released after death. People who didn't possess a mini Victoris helped out by transporting the insect carcasses that were trapped in the spider web net Vikram had laid all around their base. They steadily brought the carcasses to this room without complain so that their comrades who possessed a mini Victoris could increase their strength. Some were also envious of the fact that they still didn't possess a mini Victoris, but none of them acted out of place. They knew that it was only a matter of time before their leader presented them a mini Victoris too. They only had to rake sufficient contributions to their base for him to notice them sooner. In a secluded place with a shelf that peaked out of the reddish-brown waters, deafening laughter could be heard reverberating through the entire surroundings. "I have finally evolved this damn skill; now it is no longer a black hole that devours Karma," Vikram gazed at his 'Record' with elation at the new row that had appeared on it.