I took a confident step away from my cage, with all the swagger a grasshopper could muster. I took a second step, then a third, and then… stopped, feeling tension on my read. I looked back at my scorpion tail, which was stuck, the stinger too large to squeeze between the bars.
I was afraid of that.
The scorpion that supplied my tail and stinger was some kind of giant variety, and it had a tail that was reasonably proportional to my rat body. I hadn’t initially been sure it was a giant scorpion until I got a better look at the remains right after my second-round creation ritual. It was possible the tail had simply scaled to my rat body as part of my chimaera powers.
No such luck; despite being a small grasshopper, I still had a humongous scorpion tail on my rear end. Furthermore, as I had discovered playing around with my [Amalgamation], I couldn’t set my tail to the grasshopper profile. It simply wasn’t listed. The abdomen and thorax were both a part of the “body” part of the Loadout, just like I didn’t have separate options for forelimbs and hindlimbs.
It was actually weirder that the scorpion “tail” was an option, since a scorpion’s metasoma was no more a tail than a grasshopper’s extended abdomen. Without a spine, an insect couldn’t really have a tail. [Amalgamation], you fool, go back to biology class. In a similar fashion to the grasshopper profile not being an option for the tail, the scorpion profile wasn’t an option for my head, presumably because a scorpion’s head was fused to its thorax. The cephalothorax was probably part of the body in my Loadout, though I imagined that would include eyes.
I paused, wondering why I even knew all that. I must have been very interested in biology in my human life. The thought made me a bit sad that my memories of my original life were so jumbled, but I shook it off.
Fortunately, the reduction in mass from rat to grasshopper had filled my mass storage with tons to spare. I opened up my Loadout, and switched my Tail from scorpion to rat. My new tail slid out easily from between the bars.
Of course, it was more than a little awkward dragging the rat tail with my grasshopper frame. I tried to switch it right back to a scorpion tail, but didn’t have enough mass. As I had sort of expected, I only got back some of the mass during a switch. I guessed it was around half, same as what I got from eating. Perhaps the remainder was metabolized as energy for the transformation, or perhaps I could improve the return by upgrading one of my attributes.
Slowly but surely, I dragged myself away from the cage and towards the next step of my plan.
My goal was the pile of meat that was the failed rabbit-crab chimaera. Standing next it as a grasshopper, it seemed massive. My grasshopper vision was incredibly different than what I was used to—it was peculiar that I had adapted so well in the first place—and focusing on an unmoving target was difficult. These eyes were built to watch for predators with a wide field of vision, not focus on what was in front of me. Nonetheless, I hauled my tail behind me until I was right next to the pile of meat.
You will be my mass, rabbit-crab.
I took a tentative bite with my weird grasshopper mouth and struggled to swallow. My concerns that I wouldn’t be able to eat the meat at all faded when I managed to swallow some and got a notification.
profile 0.001% complete.
I had an uphill battle before me.
That said, my goal wasn’t to get the rabbit’s profile. It was to reclaim the mass I had lost switching to the rat’s tail. So I ate, and I ate, and I ate.
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It didn’t take long before I felt like I was bursting. After all, only around half of what I ate went into my storage; the rest went into my actual belly, as sustenance. Fortunately, I didn’t need sustenance, and grasshoppers, like a number of insects, could vomit on command. I wretched off to the side and got back to work.
Once I got enough mass, I switched the rat tail for a scorpion tail. That was important, as it was my only real weapon. Checking my mass storage, I confirmed that I had only got back about half of what I had spent at the end of my first loop when I first acquired a rat tail with my 10g of mass.
That’s fine. I can do this.
That much mass was enough for my to immediately buy scorpion limbs, and my balance shifted as my grasshopper body acclimated to the arachnid legs. I probably looked ridiculous: a small, standard grasshopper with comically over-sized scorpion limbs and tail.
The best part about getting scorpion limbs is that I now had pincers—technically pedipalps—which I could use to manipulate my meal. I ate through the night. It was slow-going, painful, and disgusting. I lost track of time, and started to worry about the wizard returning, but I managed to fully fill my mass storage.
profile 0.007% complete.
Oof. I need to get a bigger stomach.
Unfortunately, my biggest worry appeared immediately when I tried to switch my grasshopper body to a scorpion body.
ERROR! Insufficient mass.
Fuck! I swore internally, slamming the dead chimaera with my pincers. That was a huge obstacle. I had worried that would be the case. Given the size of my limbs and tail, I guessed that I would need anywhere from 20-40g to swap bodies.
Well, it doesn’t change anything. Whether or not I was able to swap bodies, step three of my plan was the same.
I needed to kill something.
Walking with my scorpion limbs on my grasshopper body, particularly while carrying a scorpion tail behind me, felt pretty terrible. At times, it felt like it might tear my grasshopper body apart. This exoskeleton wasn’t meant to carry this much weight.
I had no other option though. I made my way over to the wall of cages I had studied from my rat cage, and got eyes on my target: a mid-sized gecko.
This gecko was a bit larger than my kind of scorpion, and in fact, geckos were known to eat scorpions. In a straight battle, this was a horrible match-up. Fortunately, this wouldn’t be a straight battle. The gecko was in a small stasis cage, easy prey.
I couldn’t just go into the cage, though, or I would end up in stasis as well. What happens if I only stick my tail in?
Worst case, it freezes entirely from the stasis and I have to tear my tail off to get free. In that case, could I grow a new tail with [Amalgamation]? I hope so. Still, what choice do I have?
The stasis was a spell, and knowing that the wizard had some expertise with time magic, it stood to reason it was a time-based stasis rather than some kind of biological function. So long as my brain was outside of the cage and the field of the spell, I assumed I wouldn’t totally freeze up. I turned around and prepared myself to stick my tail through the gaps in the bars of the cage, noting that, thankfully, they were spaced far enough apart for that. This cage wouldn’t hold the gecko if not for being in stasis. Okay, I’m procrastinating. Here goes nothing.
Extending my tail backwards, I pushed it into the cage. I paused, gauging how I felt. I was still awake and unfrozen, which was a good start. As I pushed my tail in farther, I started to feel weird. Like my tail was moving too slowly. The feeling of my body being torn apart by differing forces, which I felt before due to my [Amalgamation], was quickly returning. Time was slowing down for my tail, but not my body. I quickly pulled my tail back out before the pain grew unmanageable and examined myself.
So. It seemed like the stasis was ramping up on my tail the longer it was in the cage. The feeling wore off once I got my tail out, but I would have to strike quick. I think this can work.
I positioned myself again, glancing back at the gecko to make sure I was in line with it, and this time, I shoved my tail backwards and rammed my stinger down, then pulled towards me while stepping away from the cage.
Once I felt my tail clear the bars, I turned to examine the gecko. I had managed to pierce its tail and pulled it through the bars of the cage, but it’s head was still inside the cage. However, it was now within striking range of my tail. I turned around, lined myself up, and slammed the stinger down.
(Level 2) defeated. Experience gained.
Level up! You have reached Level 3.
You have earned an attribute upgrade and a skill point.
Choose an attribute to upgrade:
[Amalgamation]
[Bound Soul]
[Chimaeric Core]
[Time Loop]
Hell yeah.