Floof
Floof had seen the trap as it activated, the strange magic that had caught the King in its epicenter. And while the ground had vanished below him, the King had taken the mage who had done it down into the depths below, alongside himself. Initially, Floof had been content to leave that fight to his lord, as the princess would need him soon.
The sun was already rising in the distance, and that meant she would need to return to the neighborhood. Floof was incredibly apprehensive at the idea of her making that trip alone. But when the other magic user appeared and saved his comrade, Floof had little choice but to intervene.
The smell of the disease within the princess had grown much weaker as of late. And while he would prefer not to leave her, she would have to make this journey alone. Floof had watched her grow so much in such a short time. She was stronger than he had ever seen her. Still, though, he would have preferred that he be there to guard her.
His duty disagreed; another course of action called.
Ignoring the other smells from deep in the forest, problems that would hold for a future day, Floof charged from the cover of the trees. He leaped into the air, his teeth biting deep into hard bone. Gravity did the rest.
That was how the loyal knight had found himself trapped deep in these caverns alongside his King. And at his King's command, he had already handled the problem of this skeletal mage. He trusted that, having relieved his head from his body, he would be of little threat to either of them.
The new problem, though, was how badly the King was hurt. Floof could easily tell just how many bones he had broken in the fall, and he knew that would take time to heal. And while that was time they didn't have, there was nothing Floof could do to speed that up. The Princess would have to handle much in their absence.
To make matters worse, the scents that permeated this cavern were all new to the dog. He had no idea where it connected to the network they had already started to explore. And that meant that even once the king was able to easily move again, it may be a long time before they found their way back to the surface.
Until that time came, though, Floof would guard and protect his lord with his life. Nothing less was expected of a knight of his station. He would not fall short of his duty.
Adam
I needed to keep me back on my feet, exploring where we had found ourselves trapped. But that also meant I needed to heal. I wasn't an idiot, and I knew what pushing myself in the shape I was in could do to my body. And that could easily leave me as no help to anyone, which meant I had to take the time to heal, whether I wanted to or not.
There was a possible way to speed up my healing. When I had fused my adaptations earlier, it increased their effectiveness. That meant it was entirely possible I could increase the speed of my Lesser Accelerated Healing adaptation. And considering I was sitting at one hundred and twenty-five Adaptation Points, it seemed like a good thing to try.
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Combine Lesser Accelerated Healing and Lesser Robust Skeleton.
Combination of Adaptations will create a synergistic bonus.
Adaptation Points remaining after combination (105).
Proceed?
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That was new. While the previously fused adaptation had noted a synergistic effect after it was created, it hadn't said anything about one in the creation menu beforehand. That made me suspect this was a much more powerful effect. It likely meant it was something I needed to look for while further fusing adaptations. Had I wasted an opportunity with my first two? I hoped not.
Selecting Proceed, I was also glad to see that it cost fewer points to fuse lower-ranked adaptations. That would make it easier to power up some of my weaker ones in the future. One of these days I was going to have to spend time just hunting through this entire forest to push myself as far as I could. And I needed to do that before something like this happened again.
A new system message revealed just what I had created.
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Fused Adaptation
Fused Synergistic Chain
Lesser Accelerated Healing/Lesser Robust Skeleton α
Type
Reactive
Lesser Accelerated Healing and Lesser Robust Skeleton have been fused into a synergistic chain, increasing both of their abilities by 1%. Lesser Accelerated Healing has increased to 6%, and Lesser Robust Skeleton has increased bone density to 11%. Furthermore, the fused adaptation has been typed as synergistic and therefore has gained an enhanced synergistic effect. Your broken bones will heal at double the rate of the rest of your body.
21/50 Recaptures Unlocked for Lost Hero Progression.
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I didn't fully understand the difference between something that was typed synergistic versus just gaining the effect, as I had seen with the other fused adaptation. In fact, I couldn't really say for sure that the typed one was more powerful than the untyped one. It was possible that it would just grow stronger the further I pushed it. And especially when I considered that the other fused adaptation was a higher rank than this new one, that possibility seemed likely.
The pain of having my bones knitted back together was enough to keep me focused on the chamber we found ourselves in. The increased healing speed from the fused adaptation had also drastically increased the pain of my nerves, as different bone splinters slid past each other, trying to find the spots they fit in. It was a special sort of agony. After the first ten minutes of it, it came as little surprise when another system message popped up.
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Adaptation
Lesser Pain Tolerance
Type
Reactive
Your nerves have experienced a level of pain most people only face in their nightmares. Your body has learned to adapt itself to help ignore some of these signals as their use has begun to outweigh the negatives that come with it. Lesser Pain Tolerance has reduced the pain you feel by 10%.
22/50 Recaptures Unlocked for Lost Hero Progression.
Adaptation Points (115)
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That was another adaptation that I knew would eventually come, and it was an incredibly welcome one at the moment. I no longer felt like daggers were constantly stabbing into my flesh as my healing continued. This finally let me actually look around at what little I could make out of our landing spot.
There were four openings in the chamber's walls that I could fit through, and at least another dozen, big enough for a rat. We were certainly sitting ducks for any prowling monsters. And then again, I'm not sure I would ever call Floof a sitting duck; more like a guardian beast waiting for the opportunity to strike.
He'd made surprisingly quick work of the skeletal remains that had previously belonged to Gren. Floof had moved on to pacing about the chamber, stopping in front of each opening and taking several deep sniffs before moving on to the next, already hard at work finding whatever new threats awaited us.
“Gren, just what kind of senses do you have?” I asked, breaking the silence of the last several minutes.
“What do you mean? I got all kinds of senses. Sight, hearing, vibrational, magic, that annoying one where you see weird rabbits everywhere you look. I forget the name of it, but you know what I'm talking about, right?”
I honestly couldn't tell if he was joking or not, and if he wasn't, I had no idea what that sense was or how it could possibly be useful. “How's your dark vision?” That had been the actual, only real question I had wanted answered. I just didn't have the supplies to make any sort of long-lasting torch, and the idea of running around these caverns in pitch blackness didn't seem like a good one.
“Eh, could be better. But I think I see where you're going with this. And I'm pretty willing to make a deal, as long as it keeps me at least as alive as I already am. We're all stuck down here together. Why don't you let me be your eyes and ears? And you know, don't give me to the dog, please,” he begged, his voice still sounding like everything he said was half a joke.
I'd already decided to keep him functional as long as it wasn't a detriment to do so. Even if he wasn't willing to share yet, there was plenty of information in that skull that I wanted. I just needed to be somewhere safe for a good interrogation.
Lifting the skull up and staring at him directly in the eye sockets again, I answered. “I can make that work, but even the hint of betrayal, and you'll be joining what used to be the rest of your body.”
“Hey, hey, hey, hey, no one said anything about betrayal. Look at this point, I'm just a skull. I would like to keep as much of my bone that I have left as possible. So you're the boss now, buddy. What you say goes, and if you say, ‘Guide me through this Cavern full of horrible monsters and dangers until we all die,’ well, that's what we'll do. You can keep us alive through this, right?”
“That's a good question. Right now, thanks to your people, I'm pretty broken up inside. Which means I'm gonna need some time to heal before I can do anything about keeping us all alive, let alone finding our way back to the surface,” I replied.
Gren quickly added, “Former people, Ryzel was kind enough to betray me too. Man, I planned his bachelor party and everything; what a dick.”
He was rambling again, and somehow it had nearly infected me. I almost asked just what an undead bachelor party was like, but managed to catch myself on the much more important topics of not dying down here. We needed to understand what was in the tunnels around us, and I couldn't do it myself. But there was another answer.
“Floof, I want you to take Gren's skull here and start exploring some of these passages. Gren, you're going to report back to me exactly what the two of you find. And if anything happens to Floof, I promise there are worse things than having your skull crushed.”
The dog gave me one of his signature odd looks, but walked closer nonetheless. Leaning over my hand that held Gren, he bent down and grasped the back of the skull firmly in his teeth. His tail was wagging furiously the entire time.
“Can you try to keep the slobber out of my eye sockets, big guy? Gonna make it a lot harder to see what’s coming if they are full of dog spit,” Gren said as Floof turned toward one of the passages.
“Floof, as long as Gren doesn't ask you to do anything that you think I wouldn't feel free to listen to him, but otherwise stay safe. If he creates a problem, you know what to do,” I said, looking hard at the skull.
“Hey, I promised. I won't do anything dumb. Let's just go find the monsters and try not to die,” Gren replied loudly, and then continued muttering, his words trailing off as Floof marched down a corridor. “How in the hell do I keep finding the worst factions to hook up with? First, the Necro-Stars, and then the Undead Octopi, and now this. I swear my life is a damn joke.”
I had never heard of either of those factions, but System-Space was a very large place, and I hadn't been there in a long time. Whether or not Gren was actually trustworthy didn't really matter in the long run. I didn't trust him in the slightest at the moment, and it was unlikely I ever would, but right now he was incredibly useful. And while he helped Floof figure out our escape, I could finally get a little rest.Forward to Chapter 89