Mae assimilated the pile of corpses in front of her, mentally going over the list of acquisitions as she did. Her mother had been gathering them up for her, and she was pretty sure this marked enough for her to truly begin what she had been planning.

But that would come later, for now she had to finish what she was doing. So, she turned back to the desk, and began working her way through the math problems on the computer in front of her.

After all, the workings of the world could mostly be boiled down to math, and what was math but a way of communicating those concepts clearly? And, of course, from there her biggest asset showed itself; her Omniglot ability. It was being incredibly underutilized as it was, and she intended to remedy that.

She had done some quick testing and found that the ability caught a frankly absurd number of things under its umbrella; the meanings of slang, technical jargon, musical notes, cyphers, and yes, even mathematical formulas were all instantly transmitted to her by the ability. If it was used by people to communicate a concept, emotion, or anything else to other people, it was fair game.

The ability went both ways, too. If she tried to find, say, a formula describing the velocity of an object she was looking at, Omniglot would dutifully give it to her. And…well, the ability was being used as nothing more than an automatic translator at the moment. It was technically a perfectly valid use, but…it was like using a supercomputer to perform the duties of a regular calculator, a huge waste.

So, she was working her way through the various mathematician Classes, aiming to, eventually, max out the various Skills that let her intuit properties of the world around her just by sight. Things like how fast an object was moving, the force that was being applied, angles between it and other surfaces, and the like were all covered by these, and, once she had all of those, she would be able to fuse them into Eye of Laplace, a Skill that let her do all of that as fast as her brain was capable of processing it.

Which wasn’t fast enough. It was fast, yes, but not nearly to the point where it could be of any use in a combat situation, she just didn’t have the hardware for it. Which was where the bodies came in. She was going to figure out a way to modify her body to force it to have more processing power, and she was going to need to be more experienced in biology before she felt comfortable attempting that.

And that was where the bodies she had assimilated came into play. She was going to transform the spare avatar into the forms she gained from the assimilation process, and then repeatedly dissect it to rapidly gain experience in biology Skills.

She took the spare avatar and brought it into the room, transforming it into a rabbit and laying it on the table. She then used Eldritch Abomination to transform her fingers into facsimiles of surgeon’s tools, and began her work.

A few hours later, she stepped away from the table, eying the corpse in front of her frustratedly. She had worked her way through most of the relevant Classes already, and she wasn’t anywhere close to where she would need to be if she wanted to make this work.

She had taken a short break to try and figure out if there wasn’t some way she could make it so sharing senses between Parallels didn’t cause any strain, but that hadn’t led anywhere either. She had been trying to reverse engineer the way Eldritch Abomination integrated things like extra eyes without causing stress, but when she looked at the clusters of nerves and brain tissue it made, she just couldn’t figure out what exactly they did, even with the help of the Skills she had received.

And if she couldn’t figure out something like that, there was no way she’d be able to mod her body in the way she was hoping she could. So, she sat down on a chair nearby, closed her eyes, and began to think, going through all of her options one by one.

“Yo, you seem to be having a bit of trouble, can I help?” Kali asked.

Mae snapped out of her trance. She wasn’t sure how long she had been sitting there and thinking, but however long it had been, it hadn’t brought her any closer to an answer. I cannot figure out how to rewire nerves and brain matter. Mae said. I’ve tried, but just poking at it isn’t getting me anywhere.

“Ah, yeah, that’s not exactly something you can easily learn by doing.” Kali said, nodding. “Fortunately for you, I happen to be an expert in this field. I’m assuming you’re trying to figure out a way to make sharing your senses at all times viable?”

Yes. Once I have that working, I have a few more…extreme things I want to try.

“Well, instead of just poking around by yourself, why don’t I just give you a copy of all my notes? I had to make a bunch of stuff that interacted with the brain, so I know how it works inside and out. If you use my stuff as a reference, you should be able to pull off everything you’re thinking of.”

Really?! Mae asked, barely able to keep the excitement out of her tone. That would be extremely helpful, thank you!

Kali laughed. “Yes, really. Give me a couple minutes, I’ll bring it in a form that should be easy for you to reference on the fly.” She left the room and returned a few minutes later, holding a small white orb. “Just put your hand on it and you should be able to mentally browse the contents. If you have any questions, just hit me up and I’ll answer, so go wild, alright?”

Mae nodded, taking the orb. Thank you. She said, and, not waiting for a reply, began to pour through the orb.

Mae stifled a yawn as she finished her work. She had worked through the night, but it had been entirely worth it; using her new abilities and Kali’s notes, which were more like…an instruction manual than actual notes, she had been able to finish her modifications.

She flexed an arm experimentally, then began a series of stretches. Once she was convinced that everything was working as intended, she opened the door and made her way to where Lilith had slept.

That turned out to be Kali’s room. It seems that, after…whatever she had been doing, she had fallen asleep on Kali’s bed. And, oddly enough, Kali had fallen asleep next to her, and at some point in the night had begun to cling tightly to Lilith, an extraordinarily contented look on her face.

Well, she could wait. Rest was important too, so she wasn’t about to interrupt that rest for the sake of speeding things up by an hour or two. So, she closed her eyes and prepared to –

“Oh, Mae, you’re, um…here.” Kali said.

Mae opened her eyes again and looked back at the bed. Kali had separated from Lilith, and was blushing furiously.

“Look, I…sorry, I get a bit touchy in my sleep. It’s um…instincts, you know? As a succubus. We tend to get rather…touchy, and I’ve been kind of affection starved for a while so…yeah.” She said.

Mae frowned. I do not believe I know. My succubus side came out particularly strongly, and I never had any instincts like that.

“Yeah, but you’re a Perfect Chimera.” Kali replied. “You don’t really have the instincts of every single thing in existence, that would be a gigantic mess. So, seriously, don’t worry about it too much, it’s harmless, but a bit embarrassing on my side.”

Mae thought about that for a moment. I suppose. I must thank you for the notes, thanks to them I was able to complete my modification. Once mistress gets up, I’m planning to ask her to let me implement them on her body.

“What’s going on?” Lilith groaned, sitting up. “I was watching some TV and then…” She trailed off, looking around her. “Oh crap, I fell asleep in your bed. Um…sorry about that, Kali, it didn’t cause any trouble, did it?”

“Not at all!” Kali said quickly. “I can sleep in just about any situation so…”

“Wait, did you sleep here too?” Lilith asked, looking at Kali. “Just get me up next time, I’ll head back to my own room, uh…assuming I have one, anyway.”

“Yeah, um, I can whip that up for you.” Kali replied, though Mae couldn’t help but notice a slight look of disappointment on her face. “Um, Mae has just finished a project and wanted to run the results by you. Why don’t you two talk, and I’ll go get breakfast started?” She hurriedly got out of the bed and left the room, leaving Lilith and Mae alone.

“O…kay then.” Lilith said, turning to Mae. “What’s this project?”

I was looking for a way to increase my processing power, as well as to allow us to share our senses all the time. I have succeeded, but I will need permission to alter your body.

Lilith frowned, thinking about that for a moment. “What kind of alterations?” She asked. “And what do you mean ‘increasing processing power’?”

I have obtained several Skills that will let us rapidly ascertain conditions of any battlefield, but a human brain is simply too inefficient to perform at full capacity. Mae explained. So, I’ve used Eldritch Abomination to transform this body in such a way that I can take advantage of that. It’s perfectly safe, and should increase our efficiency exponentially.

Lilith paused. “Fine, then. What do I need to do?”

Mae laid the avatar down on the floor and retreated to the main body. May I pilot this for a moment? I’d like to move us into a better position for this.

“Yeah, go ahead.”

Mae stood the body up and moved it next to the avatar before switching off the pain receptors and lying down. I’ve gone ahead and turned off your sense of pain. While what I’m doing should theoretically be painless, I found it best not to risk it. Just lie there and don’t resist and I’ll have this done in a short time.

She then retreated to her own body, which she disengaged from the spare avatar. The avatar’s chest opened, and Mae carefully extracted her body, which had taken the place of most of the avatar’s innards, from within, eventually ending up with it being a sort of…pile of flesh on the floor. She quickly hopped from her own body into the avatar and regrew the organs and other miscellaneous tissue she had replaced, then returned to her body, which she moved over to Lilith.

Apologies about the messy transition, mistress. Mae said, noting Lilith’s horrified expression. I’ve modified my body into one that replaces unnecessary parts of an avatar with something useful. That something useful being mostly brain matter to expand my processing power, but also a couple of other functions that should generally improve the efficiency of the body. It’s perfectly harmless for us, so don’t panic.

Lilith hesitantly nodded, eyeing Mae warily as Mae inched her way onto Lilith’s chest. Then, Mae hopped back into the main body and began integrating it and her own. She opened up the chest cavity, began the process of eliminating the useless material, and then moved back to her body once again and started the work from that side.

I’m replacing most of our digestive system and reproductive system. She explained. I’ve found that we can easily get our nutrients by just consuming mass we’ve assimilated, and it’s more efficient than normal digestion to boot. I’ve set up two sort of pseudo-organs that will automatically assimilate anything we eat, as well as keep the body well stocked with the results of assimilation.

You’ll still feel a sort of analogue of hungriness when the body starts consuming mass that’s older than your last meal, but we can turn that off if you like. Oh, and, as a bonus, you won’t have to use the bathroom anymore, so that’s nice. I tried to do something similar for breathing, but alas, getting oxygen from assimilated mass is far less efficient than just getting it from the air, so I’ve left it be.

As for the reproductive system, since it’s not…doing anything right now, I’ve gone ahead and converted it almost wholesale. I’ve left you still able to…receive pleasure, if that’s something you want, and cosmetically it should all look and feel the same, but if you want the other functions, I can put them back when you want to use them.

Mae finished working with the organs, and began working on replacing the other useless tissue that was in the body. I’ve also gone ahead and replaced some other things that don’t really serve a function to us anymore and packed in more brain matter for me. The larger deposits of fat are the big one, since they serve little function now that we can subsist on assimilated mass, and brain matter has enough fat in it to fulfill its other functions. And…aside from that, I’ve increased our height by a few inches, so we’re about five-eight, as well as increased the size of our chest and rear. By doing so I’ve created more room to pack in some additional mass without making us look weird.

She finished her ministrations, and sealed Lilith’s chest cavity back up and reactivated her pain receptors. I can move this body too, if I wish, but I’ve made it so that anything you do would take priority, and I would get locked out if we try to do different things. I don’t plan to move us around much, only if it is a matter of our safety, so it’s an emergency feature more than anything. I’m done now, so you’re free to move around now.

Lilith stood up, and began testing her body in much the same way as Mae had moments earlier. “This is…well, honestly I feel the same, which seems a little weird, but it’s nice, I guess.”

Yes, I worked to make sure you would notice no difference. When you have time, may I talk about Skill Points and Racial Classes? I have some ideas, but I would like to pass them off with you first.

“Um, sure? I wasn’t sure what to use them on, so if you’ve got an idea then please, tell me.”

As things are now, I am technically a parasite. So, I wish to unlock a bunch of abilities related to symbiosis. With what we have now, I’ll be able to make it so when either of us gains experience, the other will gain that much, as well as allow me to add twenty-five percent of my stats to yours and boost your HP and Stamina restoration by an amount equal to mine. As we share roughly the same stats, just think of it like a flat increase to your stats instead. Do I have permission to do this? It should just about double our Racial Class growth rate, so we should see dividends soon.

“Yeah, that sounds great.” Lilith said. “Like I said, I wasn’t sure what to use them on, so I was waiting to see if Kali had some input.”

Excellent, I’ll do that in a moment. I have some other ideas as well, but I’d like to hold off on those until we have a bit more of a buffer. And, as the last item on my agenda, I don’t have any particular need for Classes anymore, since we share Skills and my stats will only really apply as buffs to you, so is there anything in particular you would like me to work on, or should I continue as I have been?

“Not for now.” Lilith replied. “Just keep doing what you’re doing.”

Understood. Until we are done training here, I will be piloting the spare avatar for the purpose of gaining levels, but once we are finished, I will reside within you at all times. In the meantime, if you ever need me, give me a call and I will come to help. That is all I have for you, so I will take my leave now, thank you.

Mae took over the spare avatar, stood up, gave a small bow, and left for the room she had been doing her experimentation in. She’d work until Lilith went to bed again, and only then would she let this body rest. There was just so much to do, and so little time to do it all in. But she was confident she would manage. So, it was with a smile that she got back to work, trying to better herself however she could.

Fighterman481

This chapter hasn't really changed too much from the original, aside from general streamlining (removing a lot of, frankly, unnecessary windows) and some reorganization of events, so...I don't have too much to say about it.

 Next time we'll be checking back in with Carmen, so look forward to that, I guess.

And, as always, thanks for reading!