Chapter 5 – Practice and Planning
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Having fed the slaves Farkas leaves me in my nest with strict orders to perform a series of exercises. I am to focus my hearing on quiet sounds, study distant items, practice moving my tendrils into various shapes, and attempt to mimic the shape of various items. I do each exercise one time to meet the bare minimums to my orders before moving on to more important matters.

 

First I attempt to relax and spread out my tendrils to reveal the Black Core again. It's difficult to do, all my instincts tell me to stay in a tight ball and working against them is difficult. Eventually I manage to move them enough to see the Black Core, and with more time to study it I see that my tendrils extend from it. As before, my eye moves into my body as my tendrils spread out, coming to rest beside the Black Core and- wait, if that's my eye why can I see it? If it's an "eye" I should be seeing out of it, which would make it impossible for me to see it directly. If it isn't an eye, what is it?

 

<White Core>

Unknown

 

Well, I should've seen that coming. However, this White Core seems a bit different. No tendrils extend from it and it doesn't seem directly connected to my body, yet I can't remove it. It's as if my tendrils refuse to lose contact with it, even if just for a moment. It's strange, but after a few minutes of playing with it I come to the conclusion that there's nothing more to learn from it at the moment. I also can't quite tell where my ability to see is coming from, it seems like I'm able to see through any point on my body by focusing on it. I'd never given sight much thought as there wasn't anything to see in the Void so this is new to me. I'll have to practice using that.

 

Next I sort through the bones that I've collected. I have a few ideas on how to use them, but first I lay out the bones and begin checking what they can actually be used for. The rib cage of one skeleton has been broken and fractured in dozens of places and a few minor fractures exist around the wrists and ankles, while the other has a shattered bone in the left arm and a large hole in the skull. I remove the damaged bones and combine the rest into a complete set. It isn't perfect, but it will serve my purposes.

 

Storing the mismatched skeleton I turn my attention to the leftovers. The rib cage won't be much use as damaged as it is, so I begin absentmindedly gnawing on it while deciding what to do with the rest. It's a bit dry and lacking in taste, but not bad. The broken arm bone can be sharpened a bit further by grinding it against the stone walls to make a serviceable weapon, and the other leftover bones from limbs can be sharpened in a similar manner. The pelvis, spine, and skull don't seem to have much use as weapons, but they might be useful for practicing my Form Shifting skill. I haven't used it yet, but having a good understanding of the form I'm trying to take sounds like it would make the process easier.

 

<Form Shifting>

A skill that allows for the shifting of the user's form. Certain traits cannot be changed.

User Nameless Voidspawn is capable of dexterous control of its tendrils to assume new forms with this skill. Form of tendrils cannot be changed.

 

So I can move my tendrils around to change the form of my body overall, but can't change the shape of my tendrils themselves. Is that possible? Changing my tendrils themselves? It wouldn't be specified that I can't do it if it weren't at least possible, right? That just seems... wrong. I don't like the idea of changing my tendrils at all. I do suppose that it would be useful if I could do it... But I can't, so there's no point wasting more time thinking about it. I'll do what I can right now, and consider it further if I ever find a way to do it.

 

My first attempts at using Form Shifting are less than impressive. I try copying the shape of the bones, but my tendrils aren't very rigid so it's difficult to do. I manage to make a round, vaguely skull-like shape, but I can't keep it together for long. That's not unexpected, but it would have been a nice surprise if I could do it perfectly. After that failure I pull the skull, spine, and pelvis into my mass and begin shaping myself around them, using them as a solid core to build my tendrils around. I place the White Core in one of the eye sockets, the center of my mass and Black Core goes where the chest should be, and I wind my tendrils around everything. After some trial and error I have something approaching a human torso and head made of black tendrils, though I did accidentally break the spine in a few places. Well, that's why I'm using spares. It's not going to trick anyone into thinking I'm human, but it's good practice and maybe the slaves will be more comfortable around me if I'm in a humanoid form?

 

Speaking of the slaves, the note I left with the elf. It's about time that I check on that. The elf seemed to have read my note when I left it, so if all goes well there should be a response waiting for me.

 

Once again I cast Shadow Cloak as I approach the slaves' room, carefully peaking in through the bars. The humans are huddled in one corner again, the Elf sits in the same spot as before, its eyes half closed. Beside it, on the side away from the humans, are a few words scrawled in the dirt in the elvish language. Understanding decodes the words for me, much faster and with fewer blanks than the elvish tome I had it decode a few days prior. It seems it doesn't take much for it to learn a language.

 

I'm in, but the humans can't be trusted with this. Just tell me when the time comes.

 

So I've got one out of three on my side, that's not bad. All I really need the slaves for is to finish Farkas off since I can't directly harm it, so the lack of numbers won't be a problem. It may be troublesome if I need to get the elf out of the room without the humans noticing... A problem for another time. I wipe away the elf's note and write my response in its place before leaving the room and beginning to make my way back to my nest.

 

I pause once again in front of the room with the dead bodies. I could... No. No, I have enough mass as it is and don't want to call Farkas's attention. Technically, it expects me to still be doing those exercises it ordered me to preform earlier. It would be bad if it thought I was subverting its orders, it seems to think I'm completely under its control right now. I reluctantly continue past the room without going in, returning to my nest to continue practicing my form shifting.

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