Nesha and Elaine appeared just as unsettled as Percy after he filled them in on the strange events that had transpired in the canyon. Unfortunately, they knew even less than him about matters of the Concept realm and the broader universe, so they couldn’t offer any explanation that he hadn’t already considered.
After calming down, the women decided that their time was better spent elsewhere. Nesha resumed overseeing the giant mana-gathering formation being constructed around the hive, while Elaine returned to House Avalon’s small village outside the settlement, leaving Percy and Micky alone on a couch in the former’s residence.
“At least we’re safe now,” Percy said with a sigh.
“Safe-ish,” his friend corrected him. “If that thing is truly a hostile deity, I don’t think that anybody in the Fungal Spire can protect us from it.”
“Fair enough,” Percy conceded. “Though it shouldn’t be able to set foot on the planet if it’s from outside, and I doubt that Phoebe would have allowed her subordinates to act against us directly. The Great Houses are within our ability to handle but gods – or even demigods – would be pushing it.”
Micky shrugged. “Well… the only other explanation I can think of would be a harmless prank from one of the Divine Order’s higherups, but that’s still an odd way to mess with us. I can understand the urge to have some fun while pointing us at the ingredient we needed, yet the appearance of the projection was rather strange.”
Percy nodded, mulling over his friend’s words for a couple of minutes.
“Micky… what do we actually know about demi-humans?” he eventually asked.
The Huehuan raised an eyebrow before replying. “I suppose that they’re more or less the same as true sapients. They’re beasts that have shed their original affinity and superior bodies in favour of intelligence and access to more mana types.”
“If that’s the case, what distinguishes a sapient from a demi-human? Is it just a question of how smart they are?” Percy insisted, not ready to give up on this line of reasoning.
“I don’t know,” Micky admitted. “From what we’ve seen, demi-humans are not only dumber, but less likely to give birth to Yellows and Greens. Their bodies are also not quite as weak as most intelligent races – except perhaps for the goblins.”
“Indeed. I’m thinking that demi-humans might be more of a stepping stone between the two extremes. Perhaps, our ancestors have gone through a similar phase in the past. If humans were to suddenly disappear, trolls and ogres would probably have the chance to expand, grow smarter, and eventually replace us as the dominant species,” Percy said.
They’d learned a lot about the emergence of new races in their travels. It was common knowledge that sapients came from beasts, and that they tended to develop civilizations or even evolve to lesser and greater springs under the right circumstances.
However, there wasn’t as much data about the transition itself.
Percy remembered reading inside Nephthys’ Sanctuary that the earliest tools and structures on Amenthes had predated their recorded history by something like three hundred thousand years. He also wasn’t sure how long Micky’s people had been around before the Dying Hero invented alchemy, nor did he know the details of how the ancient Thess’kalans had gradually lost their superior physiques.
That wasn’t too strange. Demi-humans were rarely smart enough to invent language or writing, and they typically had more important things to worry about than recording their history – namely not getting their faces bitten off by predators.
By the time a civilization advanced enough to start keeping track of their developments, its members could likely be considered true sapients already. Sol’s people were a perfect example of that, as they were still struggling to protect themselves from the local wildlife despite having built several fairly large cities.
“It’s a reasonable hypothesis, though I’m not sure how this relates to our situation,” Micky pointed out.
“If I’m right, there are many implications to consider,” Percy replied. “For example, it might explain why we keep finding magical reagents growing out of the demi-humans’ corpses.”
“I’m not following,” the Huehuan said.
“They’re a manifestation of the discarded traits,” Percy explained. “The demi-humans haven’t completely shed their ancestral physique yet. By burying their dead at the same spots over countless generations, they’re inadvertently leaking mana to their surroundings, giving rise to ingredients that carry similar abilities.”
“But beast mana can’t normally survive outside one’s body, and demi-humans have already changed affinities,” Micky protested.
“Sure, but beast mana still has to go somewhere when it dissipates after a creature’s death, and we know that it’s basically a chaotic mixture of other affinities. Beasts can’t just stand on two legs, grow opposable thumbs and start writing poems from one generation to the next – it’s clearly a gradual process that lasts hundreds of thousands of years, at the earliest.”
“Makes sense,” Micky admitted. “This would explain why the reagents are compatible with the demi-humans. Enough so that the creatures can absorb them raw, to temporarily recover their lost traits. But I still don’t see how this helps us.”
Percy scratched the back of his head. “Well… let me ask you this: what are the odds that multiple beasts have just happened to develop intelligence around the same time and on the same planet?”
The Huehuan fell silent for a couple of seconds, seemingly pondering over the question. “Pretty low, I guess. Mrs. Lia mentioned that sapience was rare. I’m sure that a couple of neighbouring species might evolve concurrently every now and then but… four of them…?”
“Exactly!” Percy exclaimed, feeling the urge to slap his thigh. “So, the only logical explanation is that the three tribes of demi-humans we have on Remior share a common ancestor with my people. They must have splintered from us at some point in the distant past, and my forefathers just happened to complete the transition faster. The others probably got hunted down until their population dwindled, leaving them stuck in the demi-human stage for far longer. There might even be more species out there – I’ll have to ask Grandpa about it later.”
Micky’s eyes widened in realization.
It was admittedly a bit of a leap, yet, if Percy was right, the strange ingredients that he’d been gathering from across the planet contained not only the discarded physical traits of the demi-humans’ ancestors, but even the common ancestors that the creatures shared with humanity.
They were the very keys that could unlock the lineage dormant in Percy’s blood – and he already had some ideas on how to use them!
“It sounds plausible, though there’s still a big problem with your hypothesis,” Micky replied. “This supposed common ancestor of yours should have gone extinct millions of years ago. We couldn’t have possibly met a survivor at the canyon. Besides, based on everything we know, those creatures should have been even dumber than today’s demi-humans. The projection we saw was clearly intelligent, and capable of things that we can hardly fathom.”
Percy sighed, knowing that his friend was right.
If it hadn’t been for the creature’s appearance being a mixture of various lineages, he wouldn’t have even considered such a wild explanation, but he still wasn’t sure how to solve the issues that Micky had raised. The strange projection was simultaneously the strongest piece of evidence for and against his theory.
“Let’s set that aside for now,” he said. “We can share our thoughts with Zoris when the clone is back from Melodia and see what he has to say. In the meantime, I’ll figure out how to grow more roots and brew them into something useful, while also discreetly reading up on other tribes of demi-humans.”
Percy wasn’t going to attempt anything risky before clearing his remaining doubts, but he had a good feeling that these ingredients were the answer to strengthening his mutation. Besides ensuring that the reagents shared a common origin with him, he would also have to plan out the best way to harness them.
The only method he currently had access to was the Thess’kalan ritual, which unfortunately worked a little differently from what he was hoping to do. The magical bath was meant to pass down a Thess’kalan’s enhanced physique to an inheritor. It hadn’t been designed with humans in mind, nor was there anyone alive who could pass Percy the mutation he wanted. Even if he could find and capture the mysterious creature, somehow, it didn’t seem to have a physical body to harvest ingredients out of.
That said, Percy knew that the recipient of the ritual mattered as much as its source. This was why he had needed to undergo two baths to acquire the same benefits that Kassorith had absorbed from just the first. With any luck, it would be possible to swap out the secondary ingredients for the potions that Percy brewed out of the demi-humans’ traits, essentially hijacking the ritual to stir his own dormant lineage awake.
If he succeeded, he might give himself a body strong enough to wield his familiar’s acid mana, which was the most demanding requirement to eventually mastering the storm affinity. He even had a karmic compass pointing to a lesser spring with a rich heritage in sound magic, as well as a fragment of Ishkuria’s internal world inside his spatial seal to help him.
A/N: Chapter 762 – Common ancestor