The search hadn’t been easy, with Hambara and Somani having to search the entirety of the slave plaza. But finally, at the last merchant, they found her, and just before the market closed for the day.
“Mom!”
Somani’s mother looked shocked for a second before she returned her son’s hug.
The humans around them seemed to get emotional, with the slaves clapping and Hambara shedding a tear; he tried to hide it. Even the slavers had a more neutral expression, but I… I was furious.
‘Grandpa, I found her!’
‘As I’ve always said, son, justice will prevail. Congratulations.’ I continued the act, although I was really tempted to kill his mother on the spot.
Maybe if I have another host. From now on, I have to tread more carefully.
***
After buying her from the merchant, they visited the baths, then a clothing shop, before returning home with food.
Somani’s mother, Laressa, looked younger after all the grim and dirt had been cleaned off her. Throughout the journey, she had held Somani’s hand, not leaving his side for a moment—except when she had to enter the woman’s bath.
Laressa asked Somani lots of questions, most of them about Hambara: who was this man? What did he want? Why was he helping us? She seemed distrustful of Hambara, although the man didn’t seem to mind, and he kept his distance from them.
Today, Somani slept on the ground while his mother got the couch. Hambara stayed up for longer, reading his dating book, but after a while, he too joined the slumbering humans.
As they slept, I contemplated my actions. I was still furious, but my anger had lessened a bit as I pushed it aside to look at stuff with a more focused and clearer mind.
I was greedy.
Was my conclusion, and it was true.
If I hadn’t tried to drill through the falcon’s soul and instead tried to find a host earlier, I could’ve saved my soul.
No, if I hadn’t prolonged that cat’s hopeless life, then I could’ve gotten an ant as a host. Greed… I need to be more cautious of it, or it might spell my doom.
In the end, I made two promises to myself.
Humans put a lot of value into their promises, and I shall do so. I won’t ever break these promises, except if they pose a direct threat to my life.
The first promise was to kill the falcon and the magus. As I came to understand life more, I began to realise I was a spiteful creature. The rabbit had caused me pain; I killed it. The hyena had stolen from me; I killed it. Finally, the falcon and the magus had caused me lots of suffering, and for that, they’d be killed.
The second promise was to keep growing my all, no matter the setbacks.
I won’t stop until all creatures are under my control.
I didn’t know why, but ever since I realised I was alive, I wanted to grow. It was the thing that gave me the most happiness, and it was the thing that gave me purpose.
Now, it’s time to hear my prize…
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Would you like to evolve your skill [Soul Mind]? (Take into account that the evolution might cause loss of consciousness, body changes, and other symptoms.)
Yes!
Upgrade options:
-Advanced Animus: The Manima Monoform has shown fine mind capacity, dexterity, and strength, unlocking the general upgrade. This skill will enhance the user’s mental capabilities significantly. (Warning! This is the direct upgrade of Soul Mind, so there will be no further upgrades.)
Oh, this option is similar to the [Advanced Biomancy] one. It’s saying that I unlocked it; doesn’t that mean that even if I reached the level needed for skill evolution, I might not be able to go with it if I haven’t achieved the right conditions?
From last time, I knew that there were certain conditions to unlock certain evolutions, but it seemed that even the most basic evolution required meeting some conditions.
I think humans might know some of the conditions for unlocking better skills. I should look into that more.
-Emotionless Animus: The Manima Monoform has shown great emotional discipline. This skill will allow the user to gain more control over their emotions, directing them to become an aid, not a hindrance—Few upgrades available.
-Indomitable Animus: The Manima Monoform has shown strong will and high pain tolerance, pushing through any obstacles to reach their goals. This skill will allow the user to turn physical pain off while helping in enduring soul and mind pain—Few upgrades available.
Not that useful.
I was sticking to my old philosophy: If I could do it on my own, then there was no need to waste a skill slot or upgrade on it.
-Sensebearing Animus: The Manima Monoform has endured great strain from sensory overload and has come atop. This skill will enhance the user's sensory brain functions greatly—Moderate Upgrades available.
-Consuming Animus: The Manima Monoform has absorbed the memories of many creatures without losing itself in the process. This skill will allow the user to lessen the time needed to absorb memories while diminishing the side effects—Moderate upgrades are available.
Not bad.
Both of these skills sounded useful, plus they had the same number of upgrades available as the tissue biomancy upgrades.
Sensebearing Animus might allow me to use both of my host’s vision and my normal vision without pushing my limits, and Consuming Animus will likely lessen the time needed to integrate a host’s memories.
Still, these skills didn’t sound that useful. They weren’t something I needed that much.
-Multitasking Animus: The Manima Monoform has shown great multitasking capabilities, from using two skills at the same time to focusing on two sight perspectives, and many more. This skill will help the user in doing different strenuous jobs all at once—Numerous upgrades available.
Nice.
This skill seemed useful—extremely so. In the ant fight, I hadn’t managed to make more than two bone spears; it was too much multitasking to handle.
It would also allow me to train multiple skills at the same time, and its upgrade options seem like a lot.
This skill had the same number of upgrade options as [Rudis Versatile Biomancy], the second-best upgrade option after the upgrade I chose.
Still, I want something better.
-Magus Animus: The Manima Monoform has achieved dual casting without relying on a specific skill—pure talent. Plus, they have shown excellent control of intricate Mana creations, taking control of even the fine strings that form the base of every spell. This skill will aid the Manima Monoform in its Mana path, the path of everything—Abundant upgrades available.
Good.
I didn’t know which was more, abundant or numerous, but from the way the skills were organised up until now, abundant seemed the better one. Plus, this upgrade would synergise with my [Mana Manipulation] skill, but… do I really want that?
I mean, [Mana Manipulation] uses have been very limited.
Although I used Mana in biomancy, I didn’t know if that was just my biomancy skill’s work, or if mana manipulation had any aid in the matter. So, until I found other uses for Mana, I didn’t really know if this upgrade was useful.
But it’s saying that Mana is the path of everything… Argh, this is hard.
-Prodigous Animus: The Manima Monoform has managed to create a unique skill within a short while of its existence, a first in the history of this planet. This skill will nudge the Manima Monoform in the right direction when trying to create a new skill. It will also enhance their natural senses when it comes to upgrading skills, furthering their endeavour in finding unprecedented skills and allowing them to become one of the System's pioneers—Maximum upgrades available.
Excellent!
This skill sounded way better than the one before, plus, it said it had maximum upgrades, which was better than abundant, right?
[Forced Mana Regeneration] has been very useful; if I can create similar unique skills…
I tried to imagine the possibilities of owning a full deck of unique skills; I’d truly become a unique existence.
I wanted to choose this ability on the spot, but I waited until I heard what the last skill offered.
-Hive Mind: Through excellent soul control and an undeniable will, the Manima Monoform managed to cut its soul in half—an act that led to the demise of endless beings before. But the Manima Monoform didn’t stop there. Using their new twin soul, they created an unheard-of proliferation technique. They also have managed to control two beings at the same time while using mind-intensive skills, showing enormous multitasking capabilities. This skill will allow the Manima Monoform to utilise its hosts’ brainpower and synchronise them together, significantly enhancing the brain capabilities at their disposal—Maximum upgrades available.
Perfect!
I really liked this skill. From what I understood of its capabilities, it’d allow me to use the minds of my hosts, which had been useless to me, and merge them, creating a single strong mind.
If I have tons of hosts and merge their brains… could I become the smartest being of all?
A lot of my limitations up until now had been due to brain power. I wasn’t able to: Control two hosts functionally, use many skills at the same time and to their limits, train at my full capability. This skill could solve all of those problems.
But what made me really like this skill was that it would help in growing my all.
It made me see myself in the future, where I was just like the ants. A single being, but with many hosts, that could dominate anything with sheer numbers, coordination, and endless will. It would consume everything in its never-ending pursuit of growing the All, of growing… me.
I didn’t hesitate. Prodigous Animus was good, as good as it gets, but it wasn’t what I needed; it wasn’t what I wanted.
I wanted to grow my All, just like the old days with Kamos, and to achieve that…
I choose Hive Mind!