It looked like Lina had tried on her mostly uncured gopherkini. I felt kind of guilty about the quality of clothing she had to wear and made a mental promise to seek out better options in the future.
I used Stalk and stopped to listen.
I heard Leera mid-sentence. "Yeah, I know, but we need at least one, maybe two more — I couldn't move at all after we were done last night."
"Me either! There's just so much that comes out, too; it's like he has a never-ending supply." Lina responded while tenderly placing a hand on her stomach.
Leera's expression turned sad for a moment before she spoke. "Do you think he's avoiding telling us about his past?"
Lina responded, "I don't think so. He was probably just trying to make us happy after what happened. He probably thought we would be sad after we saw our son from before he remade us."
"It was strange, wasn't it? Knowing that you and I were once mates in a previous life?" Leera said, sounding contemplative.
"I have never told the boss, er, John, but I remember a little bit of it. Not anything solid, but the feelings stayed with me. They were sad. I felt so unhappy, insecure and incomplete. I think I lived that entire life in fear." Lina replied while looking downward.
"And I lived more than sixty years alone, while my other half was also unsatisfied... No offense." Leera tried to chuckle that last part away.
"None taken; I wasn't meant to be male. Only he saw that. Not only did he give me the body, but he made me feel desired. He made me his, all the way to my soul. I know I can never belong to anyone else no matter how many lifetimes I live through." Lina replied in a self-assured voice.
"I know what you mean. It was like all that time I spent was just in waiting for him. Then he just swoops in and gives us everything we always wanted. Even though we are mates, he doesn't just use us. He still makes me feel loved. Did you know I have teeth?" She pointed her finger between her legs before continuing. "Down there."
Lina looked at her with an inquisitive expression. "You have what? Down where?"
Leera leaned back and slowly spread her legs as Lina dropped her food and moved closer. Leera flexed her body and winced in pain, letting out a small yelp.
Lina jumped back in surprise while Leera relaxed and healed herself.
"I think it was his way of telling me that I have a choice, that I'm not just for mating. His way of showing absolute trust in me. I don't think he would ever hold anything back from us unless it was to protect us. But I sometimes worry he takes on too much alone." Leera said, still breathing heavily.
Lina ran her hands along her face and head. "I could have died yesterday."
They both began laughing.
I pondered what they were saying. Sometimes I forgot just how smart they were. It was true, I had been putting off telling them about who I was in my life before. I wanted them to keep their high opinion of me, not to think of me as some self-destructive loser. I knew I would have to have that conversation at some point, but I wanted to wait as long as I could.
I chose my moment, walked over, and sat down next to them. Lina sat in my lap and Leera took her usual spot at my side. As I cuddled them both I realized just how badly things could have gone if I were even a little later in returning. They almost certainly would have ended up in a confrontation with the necromancers, and I could have lost them both permanently — body and soul.
Restoring Bob has just risen up my list of stuff to do. Then we need a new place. The cave has seen too many visitors over the past few days, and I couldn’t feel safe leaving them here.
I summarized the events of the night and pointed out the Sha'Dwarg corpse. I felt no reason to give them all the gory details about just how close it had come to killing me.
They walked over to it and marveled. In many ways it was even more impressive than the wendigo. It wasn't as wide as it was long, but its shoulders filled two-thirds of the cave entrance.
"All right." I told them. "It's time to bring Bob back!"
Lina clapped her hands and Leera just smiled.
I decided to try and be thorough here.
I closed my eyes.
“Mors, bring up a list of transferable skills, abilities, and magic that I could give to Bob.”
Skills:
Sit: When a Sha'Dwarg is young its parents often teach it this skill to help in the distribution of food. If offered a treat, the Sha'Dwarg may sit and wait patiently to receive it.
Parts and Abilities:
Hybrid Eyes: Your eyes grant the abilities of Life Sense, Night Sight and Coerce Lesser Lifeform.
Hybrid Nose: Your nose has a profound sense of smell. It is extra-sensitive to the smell of death.
Lungs of the Wendigo: Enables continuous breathing, mana infusion, and fog generation.
Heart of Mana Regeneration: You will now regenerate mana at a rate proportional to your heart size per hour.
Hybrid Stomach: Your stomach is automatically used as storage to passively heal any injuries. It can also convert what it contains, including soul fragments, into mana, thereby creating a waste-free system.
Mana Gathering:
Your hair passively gathers mana from the world around you.
Loins of a Satyr: Grants ability Perversion.
Magic: N/A
Damn, I don't have any spells to give Bob.
"Mors, I know I can copy languages. Is there a reason why I can't copy spells?" I asked.
"Languages are an algorithm. All that is needed is a conversion of intentions from the native language to the intended language. If something does not have a language of its own, it cannot be taught. Spells are also an algorithm, but there is another aspect to them, which is soul affinity. Without extensive practice or an inborn talent, the soul cannot be taught. When transferring from a soul, all relevant parts are transferred. However, an error occurs when attempting to copy a spell, as it has nothing to anchor it to the soul without practical knowledge."
"Doesn't Bob have the dark affinity? I learned some of my spells from his soul, didn't I?" I asked.
"Yes, he does, but his chances of relearning it are not high without tutelage."
"If we try, what will happen?" I asked.
"There stands a high chance that he will lose his affinity and that you will lose the spell. It would be better to try to reteach him rather than trying to copy over a spell."
"Why are the chances so low? More details, please, I'm not quite understanding."
"When attempting to copy magic, I must reestablish the bonds between the spell and the soul, meaning that I would have to split the bonds between you and him. That weakens your bonds to the spell while trying to create the bonds for him. The spell must then be split in half and the remaining parts recreated using souls. During that time it may be rejected as incomplete before the new parts are created, leaving you without a spell and him with a damaged bond to that magic type. It gets easier if they have already established their own bonds to a spell, as it takes less time to adhere and the chance of rejection is lower."
That was a lot to take in.
"What about fully transferring a spell from me to him rather than copying?" I asked.
"You may do that, but transferring from yourself can still be riskier than simply transferring from another soul. It's like trying to perform your own root canal. I don't advise it, but it can be done. Basically, you may forget parts of the spell during transfer and impart an incomplete spell, which is then subject to rejection."
Huh, I guess it's like walking to the fridge, opening the door, and then forgetting what you went there for.
"Thank you for the explanation, Mors. You did great!" I said.
I figured she could use a compliment after all that. She always fulfills all my requests to a T.
Mors beamed at me. "Did you have anything else, Master?"
"Sure do, bring up a complete list of what Bob currently has." I replied.
Skills:
Stalking
Hunting level 2
>
Hide
Fishing
Foraging
Perversion
Woah, wait a minute, why does Bob have perversion as a skill? I thought that was an ability?
"Mors, any Ideas as to how perversion is one of Bob's skills?" I asked Mors.
She appeared and began explaining while looking uncomfortable. "Skills are learned. Bob must have done some questionable things fairly frequently to have gained it as a skill."
I know he never touched Lina... Oh god, the rodents. This is why you shouldn't go snooping around someone's soul, I suppose. Aw, he and Lina ate them afterwards. Until this point I hadn’t thought it was possible to mentally dry-heave.
"Mors, lets see the rest, including his affinities." I commanded.
Soul Affinities:
Dark: Complete
Primal: Innate
Infernal: Innate
Magic: Undetermined
Wow, his dark affinity is at complete; Bob must have been one bad dude. Odd, Bob seems to have some magic, or at least the start of some. I wonder what this will become — with his personality there's no telling. He has two Innates; I need more clarification.
"Mors, why does he have innate affinities, and what does that mean?" I asked.
"These are magics that are still tied to his soul, however he hasn't met the criteria for their activations yet. Primal is ancient and naturally occurring, like the wendigo. It doesn't require gestures or chants to activate. Infernal is linked to the infernal plane; you would consider it demonic. It often involves self scarification and long summoning rituals that include sacrifices and sex."
The more I find out about Bob, the more I worry about him, and I'm about to make him a body that is basically a killing machine. So far he hasn't been anything but loyal to me. Even after I first spoke to him, he told me to convert him to mana. If nothing else can be said for him, it is that he is not selfish. I trust the crazy bastard and I don't know why, it's only a feeling on my part, but I think that Bob would have my back even if it cost him everything. I will do all that I can to foster his growth and make him stronger and happier.
I brought up Bob's soul and selected talk.
Bob's small, winged figure showed up before me, glowing a spectral green.
"Hey, Bob!" I said.
Despite everything I had found out about him, I really missed him.
"Hey there, Boss!" he said as he smiled his sharp-toothed grin.
"All right, I've got one wendigo, one and a quarter monstrous bears, and one Sha'Dwarg corpse waiting for you, any preferences?" I asked.
"I've had some time to think on it and..." Bob stared at Mors for a moment before continuing. "That fairy you made really gets to me." Bob's spectral crotch seemed to grow.
"Damnit Bob, this isn't the time or place for that. I have no idea how I would even clean spectral jizz from my mind." I said in a serious tone.
“Okay, okay, Boss. I've thought about it, and I've decided. I want two penises and one vagina," he said while sucking on a finger and thrusting his butt out at me in a girly pose.
Leave it to Bob to render me speechless.
"You son of a bitch, I'm being serious here. What do you want?" I asked.
"I trust your creativity, Boss. I just want to rend your enemies and rape their corpses while their families watch," he said while his eyes glazed over as if imagining it. He spoke again while exhaling slowly. "Yeah, that would be hot."
Have I neglected Bob? Has his dementia grown in this solitude, or am I just seeing more of my friend than I want to?
"The wendigo has killed me once, and the Sha'Dwarg basically handed me my ass. You'll be able to kill pretty much whoever you want to, and I'll even give you alone time with the corpses if you need it." I said while looking at him knowingly.
"Aww, Boss, I just might fall for you yet,” he said, striking another entirely inappropriate pose. I'd now seen more than I cared to of Bob's private parts.
Now that I had seen what was in Bob's soul, I realized he was like your creepy uncle's creepy uncle. He had an overbearing honesty that was like the voice we suppress in the backs of our minds. He was Bob, unapologetically so. I briefly thought about making Bob's new body a giant honey badger.
"All right, Bob, I won't judge you. I'll make sure you like what I create for you." I said with a hint of concern in my voice.
Bob nodded.
I worried that he might end up traumatizing everyone. I definitely should have checked in with him every now and then. He seems overly cognitive of the passage of time in soul form. I wondered if that was a side effect of his leftover memories from being a torch or just his normal personality.
"I'll see you on the other side, Bob." I said.
Bob did an uncharacteristically refined bow as if he were a proper gentleman.
I opened my eyes.
In my peripheral vision Leera was holding Lina in her lap and stroking her hair softly as they watched me.
I had to drag the parts outside the cave, as I was sure he would get too big to get out comfortably by the time I was done.
I initiated Fleshcrafting.
I used the wendigo as a core. I added the rear legs of the monstrous bear. I shaped the back paws into hooves like a mountain goat would have. I Blended in the Sha'Dwarg, giving it the overall shape of a giant wolf. I shaped the horns into something more usable, curving them back to protect the sides of his skull and placing the point forward, still enabling him to gore enemies.
I placed six openings on his chest and connected them to the lungs. I knew it would be inconvenient if they were open at all times, so I gave them skin and muscle allowing Bob to open and close them as he pleased. He now had both the lungs from the wendigo and the Sha'Dwarg. He should be able to produce an astonishing amount of fog.
I added the mouth and nose of the Sha'Dwarg over the face of the wendigo and Blended both heads together, giving him a slightly shorter muzzle. To compensate for that, I lengthened the teeth and added an additional row.
I converted the front paws into more of a hand shape, giving each finger full flexibility while keeping the pads to cushion impact. I added a thumb and made certain that it did not get in the way when he ran. He would never type above ten words per minute now, but in this world he wouldn't have to.
Bob's chest was huge after merging the wendigo and Sha'Dwarg, so I was able to make him a large heart with a huge amount of mana regen. I went to work layering on the additional muscle of the monstrous bear. I reinforced the tendons in his hind legs and made them as strong as I could.
I added Bob's requested parts. Before I examined his soul, I would have thought he was kidding, but now I wasn't so sure. You would have to be pretty messed up to gain perversion as a skill. Just what Bob was going to use these on I had no clue. Oh, gross; I just realized why he wanted one of each. But why the extra one?
I decided to stop thinking about that... Actually that's not a bad idea. I took some time to fleshcraft myself, making Pervy Guy a twin right above the original. I would surprise Leera and Lina later with this addition.
I slapped my face. Okay, time to finish up Bob.
I gave Bob the long fur of the Sha'Dwarg, making it all black. I gave it the mana-gathering capabilities of the paradise falcon. I decided to give him a grey streak from the top of his head down to his tail as a nod to the honey badger which I was now convinced was his spirit animal, though I didn't make it as wide as what a honey badger has because I still wanted Bob to look menacing.
I attached my finger and added all abilities and hybrid parts. I made Bob's eyes a deep crimson. I made his horns black. I used Blend to finalize everything. Huh? I got an ability. Oh yeah, I forgot that I recently leveled up Fleshcrafting.
Let's see what this ability is.
Increased Perception of Time (IPT): When the Sha'Dwarg attacks or runs, its brain perceives time differently, allowing it to make fluid and complicated movements at lightning speed.
Yep, I definitely need that. S
o far my best attack strategy had been playing dead. I Fleshcrafted myself to add that ability before I detached my finger.
I took a step back to look at my work.
Bob's body was huge. He would be taller than me when standing on all fours, and twice my height when standing on his hind legs, though I don't think he could do that for long. His weight if I had to guess would put him at over two tons. I had layered the muscle on thickly, making him appear like a crossbreed of an American bulldog and a hellish wolf. This look should definitely compliment his infernal affinity.
I stopped Fleshcrafting.
I opened the soul screen.
I gave Bob the sit skill. I laughed to myself, but it may serve a practical purpose as well. Bob might need to be controlled a little at some point.
I dragged Bob's soul onto his new body and waited to see my friend again.
Chapter 22: As Planned — Thads
I sat in the leader's tent — my tent now — laughing to myself. That old fool may have been a general with a vast knowledge of military strategy, but he knew nothing of subterfuge and politics.
I was one of the Duke's inner circle; did he think I didn't know how to make a few conspirators disappear?
Lenny was my inside man. In fact, he had been so from the first girl. He was a virgin before coming here; did Bartas really think Lenny would give up an endless stream of new girls? He had also shown himself to be a sadistic bastard. Most of the resurrections I had to do were because of him. Once we were without a girl for a few days as he had literally torn off her head bare-handed. By the time I had found out she had been dead for a few hours, there was nothing I could do. Lenny just walked back into the tent as I left to do goddess knows what.
A Flesh Golem's Ascension Page 16