It’d seemed pointless. Clara had found a ring that allowed her to do the same thing, but she’d hadn’t found much use for it yet. But thinking about it, I realized how I could combine it with my BloodBorne talent to great effect.
While the destinations of BloodBorne were limited, I could use any artery or vein to jump onto the great highway as long as the blood vessel was at least twice my width. That was no problem outside of most of the organs, but when I went into the deeper places, most of the blood vessels were the thinner arterioles and even smaller capillaries. These smaller arteries were everywhere, even along the interior intestinal walls. If I could manage to make myself small enough, I could shrink and use one of these smaller blood vessels to escape once I cast my antiparasitic.
It was a chickenshit way to do, but I didn’t care about that. I needed to cast, retreat while the parasites were in their death throes, and then advance once they were all dead.
The only problem with this was that all three of the required castings: Antiparasitic, Miniaturize, and BloodBorne all took up a lot of soul power. And BloodBorne was inconsistent in how long it would take to open up and let me in. So I’d have to hold them back long enough to kill a few of them to regain my soul power. And if the Miniaturize spell wore off before I could exit the cell pod… I shuddered at the thought.
I sighed. I used six points to buy the first two levels of Miniaturize. This was taking much too long already. I was several weeks late meeting up with Clara. I had to get this done now.
Chapter 40
As I prepared to cut my way into a seemingly unused and empty gland that connected one of two pancreases and the duodenum of the small intestine, I received a surprise.
Level Up!
You are now Level 25.
I threw the point into durability as I tried to figure out why I’d leveled. It was Banksy. Far below the world, hunting and eating other behemoths of the rocky depths. He had leveled himself up to 26 the night before. But I hadn’t realized that he’d been passing so much experience to me, more so than usual. It was likely an upgrade, part of his transformation to the Gurt. I felt a sense of pride for my pet.
I’d already cast my first round of antiparasitic. I brought myself a bit lower than here to maximize the area of effect. I did it while I was on the outside of the intestinal wall, and I cast, quickly fleeing through a normal-sized artery back to my base.
It had killed plenty of the ancylostoma worms, which I still hadn’t actually seen. But doing it while on the outside of the intestine was a mistake. They’d attempted to burrow toward me whilst dying, and I spent the next several hours casting Patch to fix the intestinal wall. Then I had to travel back toward the higher glandular areas to kill some pig spiders to gain my soul points back. I decided to keep the pig spiders alive and would avoid killing them the best I could. They only lowered the Shrill’s strength by less than a quarter of a percent but were a good, easy source of soul power. Not so much in experience. As long as I cut away any infestations that cropped up near the parathyroid gland, it would work out okay.
According to my diagnosis spell, the intestinal worms would regenerate in 24 hours from the moment I killed the first ones unless I eradicated the entire infestation. And I’d already wasted a good five hours repairing the damage done from the first casting.
I squeezed into the tight tube that connected the gland to the small intestine. The Shrill just entered his calm phase for the day. He spent about two hours a day in his potato shape, beating back an advance from King Vinea and his glazers. After, he pulled deeper into Neo-Austin, forming into his egg shape. After several hours of that, he resumed the tall, potato shape and remained still for almost ten hours. That’s where we were now. The shape of the intestines during this time offered the most bang for my Antiparasitic buck.
I dropped to the ribbed floor of the intestine. The hallway was smaller than I thought it would be. About wide enough to drive a car through, but not nearly as enormous as the large intestine of Bast or the esophagus of Moritasgus. As far as I could tell, the Shrill didn’t eat anything despite having hundreds of mouths and stomachs. Still, a knee-deep river of sludge filled the pitch-black chamber. The ribbed interior pulsated lazily, the ribs pushing the effluent in the correct direction. I caught my first glance of the ancylostoma worms, though these were all dead. They were remarkably similar to Banksy when he was about level 10 or so. Their flower-shaped mouths were nothing but triangular, shark-like teeth. Their bodies were everywhere, piled ten high in some places. I had to climb over and around them to proceed.
My Frame Vision made it difficult to discern the texture of the walls, but they seemed scarred and raw and covered in welts. I put my hand against the flexible, plastic-like skin and it came away covered in the Shrill’s blood, which had a distinctive smoky stench. The walls were covered with small mouth-like holes, and they sucked gently at my hand, as if trying to pull me in.
If the small intestine of the Shrill was stretched out end to end, I’d guess it to be about four or five miles long, and I was starting at the entrance. I cautiously moved forward, stepping through the river and over the corpses. It was slow going. I had to use my grappling hook several times to lower myself around a curve.
I could hear them before I saw them. A crunching, throbbing mess of the wriggling worms just around the next bend. I had to do this in the correct order. Antiparasitic, then Miniaturize, and then BloodBorne. I found a suitable capillary, low on the curved floor of the intestine, but above the line of sludge. I didn’t have enough soul power to cast all three, so I had to rely on killing some of the worms before I left. I had potions and my Invulnerable ready in case of an emergency, but if I did this right, I wouldn’t have to use any of those.
I crept forward and peeked around the corner, praying my cloak would help keep me unnoticed.
All the worms were attached directly to the intestinal wall with their mouths, waving back and forth, entranced. It reminded me of the worms within the oblation chamber. They all pulsated red, enough that my Frame Vision deactivated. They were feeding on blood. Their normally pale-white bodies glowed as the red blood of the Shrill filled them.
Jesus, I thought. No wonder these things weakened the guardian so much. They were probably making the damn monster anemic. I thought I remembered what type of parasite these were. I could picture that gross poster I’d once seen at a vet’s office. The one that showed all the different types of parasites that liked to feast on dogs and cats. Hookworms. That’s what these were. They seemed so intent on their task, of sucking blood from the intestinal wall. Would I be able to just walk right past them?
A low growl answered for me. Despite my shadow cloak, the closest worm dropped off the wall and faced me, rearing up. Then another. And another.
Shit! I retreated back up the corner, waiting to see if they’d follow. A couple minutes passed. Nothing. I relaxed and prepared my spells.
I cast Antiparasitic. My map flared red. I’d done this enough to know how it worked. I counted to ten, and then I cast Miniaturize, which drained my soul power almost all the way. The world around me got even bigger, and I struggled to remain on the high rib. If I fell in the river, I’d be screwed. I would get hopelessly mired. The sludge was a soupy mud that kind of slurped in a specific direction whenever the intestine decided to contract and push, which it did sporadically. At 1/10th the size of before, I was now about seven and a half inches tall.
I stood by the capillary, waiting for that first jolt of soul power. It should’ve come a second after I cast Miniaturize. Come on, come on. Ahead, the worms surged up the tube, searching for me. Their entire bodies blinked red. They would be dead soon.
So would I if I didn’t get a refill. Come on!
Whoosh. The first few worms died, and I immediately cast BloodBorne. During my trial run, the transport cell formed faster when it didn’t need to be so big. But the trip through the veins took much longer. As a result, I had my destination pre-planned to an area between
here and the closest heart, giving me the shortest travel time possible.
The worms howled, catching sight of my tiny form. I pulled my rifle and fired at the lead attacker. To my utter astonishment, the blast killed the parasite. It hit him straight on, and his entire body peeled back, opening like a flower.
“Huh,” I said. I fired again, and again. The range was lower, and the pulse was much smaller, but the power behind each blue pulse wasn’t affected at all by my size. Good to know. Dying worms started piling up.
A hiss and scream echoed behind me. I looked up in time to see some sort of roly-poly type demon I’d never seen before barreling down the tube at me from the direction I’d just come. It was upside down, attached to the ceiling like a spider. I spent a precious second gaping at the thing. I’d never seen anything like it. A bug centaur. It had the body of a pill bug but the torso, arms, and head of a very angry human. It gibbered at me in a language I didn’t understand. It held an angry-looking club made of polished bone.
I realized after a moment that the creature was probably only two feet tall, but he seemed huge while I was in this state. It had a yellow tag over its head that blazed between the red, I’ve-been-poisoned pulses. I suspected the little guy was going to die at any moment, but probably not before he got here.
A whole herd of those things trailed behind the lead centaur bug.
The Shrill rumbled, shifting position as the creatures within stampeded toward me.
The transport cell slurped open, and I jumped into it just as the centaur bugs and the hookworms converged. More soul power sluiced into me as I was whisked away.
I was unceremoniously ejected onto a curved wall of tendon just outside the area of effect with less than four seconds left on my Miniaturize spell. I sat, breathing heavily as my body resumed its normal size.
It had worked! Barely. But it had worked. I looked down. If I squeezed my way through a couple areas, I could return back to where I started before without having to spend soul points on BloodBorne to get back.
Two castings down.
***
The final casting of Antiparasitic ended up being anticlimactic. I expected some sort of boss battle with the head hookworm. I thought perhaps Bernadette would be in the middle of the mess, and she’d be attached to one of the worms, shouting threats or quests at me like Madame Throb. But instead, I cast that fourth time, and I turned and ran back the way I had come. The hookworms gave chase, but they did not catch me. They died, clearing the area around the missing quantum mechanic. There were still a few hookworms at the far end of the intestine that I hadn’t quite reached.
Bernadette’s home was an empty gland sac that could be entered through a small orifice in the wall of the small intestine. If I didn’t have the marker on my map, I’d never have noticed it.
I decided to take care of the remaining parasites before I approached Bernadette. I traveled further down the path toward something called the ileocecal valve, which was apparently the junction between the small and large intestines.
Several of the giant, level 10 train worms lived in there. I made sure I didn’t get too close to the large intestine when I cast this last time.
I cast, and the last of the hookworms died. I didn’t even have to run. Nothing attacked. I cast Cleanse while the soul power still flowed into me. Anticlimactic.
Ancylostomiasis infestation has been eradicated!
The Small Intestine area has been healed!
Experienced earned!
Scanning…
Congratulations! The Shrill’s strength is greater than 80%, thus it is no longer in poor health. However, healing is still recommended in several areas.
The Shrill’s total strength reduction due to infections, injuries, and parasites: 18.5%
Recommended treatment:
Seek out areas of needed healing for specific treatment plans. Vaccines recommended.
“Oh hell yeah,” I said. I trudged back toward Bernadette’s secret hideout. I was already 2/3’s the way to level 26. I paused at the entrance to her gland.
I tried knocking before I entered, but it was like trying to knock on a slab of raw meat.
“Hello,” I called. Nobody answered. I sighed and squeezed my way in through the fleshy orifice, getting myself drenched in blood and kaiju poop.
A quick pop, and I entered the bright room.
“Oh my god, I hate this fucking game,” I muttered as I took in the scene around me.
Chapter 41
Bernadette was dead. Recently dead.
Son of a bitch. I stared at the lifeless, open eyes of the worm surgeon. Now what was I going to do?
I had to make a search of the place. It was a small, round apartment. There was a couch, a shelf with dozens of books, multiple potions scattered about, a chest, and a brass lantern. The walls were covered in notes and photographs and diagrams. In the lantern was a glowing caterpillar. The lantern was the size of a coffee can, and the light filled the chamber with a blazing, yellow luminescence. The green and gold caterpillar appeared to be wearing a bowler hat. It gave off so much light it was hard to look at.
“You killed her, lad,” the caterpillar said. I yelped with surprise.
I examined the bug more closely. Holy cow. This was a demon. He had a flaming name over his head. You could only see it on close inspection because the light from his body burned the same color as the tag.
Count Fronz.
He had a small, three-point crown after his name.
“Hello Count Fronz,” I said, turning back to examine my dead aunt. “How did I kill her?”
“She was infested,” the small demon said. “When you killed the parasites out there, you also killed the creatures infesting her. Blast grubs. A couple dozen of them. Nasty buggers, that lot. They get into you and make themselves a part of you. Now be a good lad and let me out of here.”
I turned back to the caterpillar. I noticed an emblem painted on the base of the lantern. A triangle within a circle with several arcane-looking symbols surrounding it. As I examined the symbol, an unexpected notification appeared.
Seal of Fronz added to library.
A new menu is available: Demonic Seals.
“Maybe I will let you out,” I said. “Maybe not. But I need some information first.”
The demon reared up. His tiny feet wriggled. “Look, mate,” he said. “It’s clear you recognize me for what I am, so I won’t beat around the bush. Your worm surgeon friend was trapped in here. She had the grub infection and didn’t want to spread it around. She evoked me and trapped me in this lantern because she was lonely and needed a night light. It’s not the first time it’s happened, and it won’t be the last. Everyone knows poor Count Fronz is good for nothing but as a lantern. Never mind Baal himself trusts him to track down the crown’s greatest enemies. Never mind he led six legions in the first war. Boo fucking hoo.”
“Do you know why she was here?” I asked.
The caterpillar waved about angrily. “She was studying something. I don’t know what. Something to do with Zagan the traitor. I think maybe she was trying to track the treacherous demon down. All she would do is write and write and write on that magic piece of paper. She was going to claim the bounty for herself. That’s what I think.”
“What?” I asked, confused. “Trying to track down what demon?”
“Zagan, of course. Oh yes, you call him the Shrill. He betrayed our lord. I have been tasked with hunting the demon and reporting his location back to King Vinea. Once I find him, I’ll make my report to the general, and I will join him and his legions into battle against the treacherous demon.”
I leaned in close. “Where do you think you are right now?”
The caterpillar paused, looking at me like I was the stupidest creature he’d ever met. “I am in a lantern.”
“I know you’re in a lantern. Where do you think this room is?”
“Well I don’t know, mate. How would I know? The worm surgeon lady is dead, isn’t she? Sh
e wasn’t the most talkative summoner, you know. All I know is that I got evoked, and I can’t get out.”
I turned my attention back to the notes on the walls. They were all in a language I did not understand. So were all the books. I couldn’t take all the books with me, but I did grab a couple of the older-looking ones and tossed them in my pack.
I examined the piles of potions on her table. There were eleven healing potions, a pair of the soul power ones with the tiny demon inside, and several other odds and ends.
Next, I pulled open the chest. Inside was almost 2,000 teeth, an amulet that glowed with an enchantment, and a scroll. I examined the amulet.
The Evoker’s Eye
+10 to Acumen
+1 level to Evoke
“Oh wow,” I said. I immediately put on the amulet. My soul points bar stretched, giving the impression I’d just lost a ton of soul power. But in reality, my soul power storage had increased by almost 50%. Just like that.
I next examined the scroll.
Quest Item.
Reading this scroll will transport the holder and party to the hidden city of Necroshire. One use only. This item cannot be sold or discarded.
The corpse of my aunt clutched onto a pen and a sheet of yellowed paper. I gently pulled the paper from her fingers. Written on it was a note:
Friend:
I have sensed you out there for some time now, working your way through the Shrill and healing our guardian. I suspect and trust you are a fellow worm surgeon. I also suspect that in your attempts to heal, you will slay me. I am infested with a particularly insidious form of grub, one that ties their survival into mine.
There is a demon trapped in my lantern. His name is Count Fronz. He has a good heart. But he is also a liar, and you must not trust anything he says. Keep him within his seal, and he will be of great use to you.
This demon will pretend to be an imbecile, but he is in fact one of the greatest minds of demon kind. He is a brilliant quantum mechanic in his own right. It is he who broke our transport gazebos during the initial invasion into this world. He did so by capturing a gazebo and infecting the system with a virus.
Kaiju- Battlefield Surgeon Page 34