HC:Pacifist | Ch. 152 - Future Lens
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After studying the log, Loki had his elite teams follow up on every lead therein. He also deployed every archaeologist in the guild to uncover more clues about the nature of the meteorites and the observatory incident. If he were to count the gold he'd spent nurturing his team of archaeologists, it would be a scary number, even for him, but it had been worth it.
As the clues came in, he deployed the elite teams of the guild to run every dungeon in the Rock Canyon that had centipede monsters and was located in a limestone outcrop. It was finally in the giant centipede dungeon that they discovered the secret tunnel that led them through the mountains from the Rock Canyon into the Dark Abyss.
Loki had insisted that the team wait until he could make it to the dungeon and be the first player to step through into the Dark Abyss region. While all other guilds were shying away from entirely investing in the dark alignment, Loki was not afraid of taking chances. The game system acknowledged his achievement, and he won the honor of entering the Hall of Fame.
As the guild began exploring the new world region, they uncovered new dungeons, new quests, and information on how to uncover the dark alignment, making all other guilds envious. Finally, after weeks of exploration, one of the guild members discovered the burned-down ruins of the observatory atop a hill. That’s where he found the parasitoid king egg, living off the nutrients harvested from the scientists who had uncovered it.
As he touched the black orb, he was invited to become one with it and become the parasitoid hive king. He’d accepted without thinking twice.
Parasitoid King Egg (Hidden Race)
Race description: When the asteroid hit Earth, it brought passengers—the parasitoids scour the galaxy looking for hosts to use as conduits to their will.
Conditions to unlock [Parasitoid King]:
Find a [Parasitoid King Egg];
You have to give in to the infection.
Racial characteristics:
Egg Stage
All native lifeforms of the planet abhor you;
You gain 1% of your subject's XP in exchange for offering them 1% of your stats.
You can't move while in this form.
Barrier (Racial)
Skill description: Suck the energy of your minions dry and channel it into a powerful force field.
Skill effect:
Passive. Erects a barrier;
Affected by your overall stats and the number of infected minions.
Infestation (Racial)
Skill description: Send your cells into the soil and suck nutrients from all life in your area.
Skill effects:
Active. Create an area of influence;
You can expand your area of influence by 1m+(WIS.DEX.INT) per day;
All minions spawned within your area of influence can receive simple commands from you.
Parasitoid King Hatchling (Racial)
Skill description: From a feeble form, you have managed to secure the strength needed to reveal more of your true strength.
Skill effects:
Active. Hatch from your egg;
You must have 500 infected minions.
Once he’d read the race description, he immediately saw its potential. Other lesser folk would have to level up, step by step until they could thoroughly learn what the race did. But not Loki. Sitting in his guild coffers was an item obtained from hunting a wild boss in the Dark Abyss.
Future Lens (Consumable)
Description: A piece of lost human technology. It’s a miracle that it has survived the hostile environment. The intricate patterns on it indicate that this is no simple contact lens.
Effects:
Allows you to see through a full questline, blurred skill trees, and other such hidden information;
One-time use.
It was a god-tiered piece of equipment. The power of knowledge was much greater than that of the sword, making the price of this item incalculable. Loki had put it on and found out from the beginning where the progress of his race would take him. When he discovered the skills that the last form of the [Parasitoid King] granted and the event that the race triggered, he knew this was the secret to surpassing the other top 10.
Careful not to arouse the other guilds' suspicions, he began the journey to elevate his race. After his achievement had been broadcast to the world, other guilds began noticing the benefits that Loki’s guild had gained from entering a new region and eventually found their way into the Dark Abyss region, too.
Even though they managed to secure a foothold into the forbidden continent, Pegasus had more than enough time to secure a stronghold instead. Loki organized a sizeable guild force to patrol the area around the observatory as he sent his roots and tendrils deep into the soot and ash of the abyss, finding and corrupting mutant coyotes, black bats, and ash buffalos and turning them into his minions.
Once he had infected enough of them, he hatched out from the egg and became a [Hatchling], learning a powerful new skill.
Egg Laying (Racial)
Skill description: You’ve built up your strength and can imbue part of it onto willing individuals.
Skill effects:
Gift an egg to a [Parasitoid Host]. They gift you experience in exchange for access to 1% of your stats;
Egg limit: 100;
Stage limitation for hosts: Egg.
From the moment he became a [Hatchling], the guild's strength skyrocketed. Loki had never stopped leveling up his character. Whenever he had the chance, he was taken on hunts where other players fed him experience. He also had access to the best stat-boosting consumables, the best skills, and information on unlocking the best titles.
Additionally, even without leaving his wheelchair, he was well-connected and completed quest after quest in the capital’s university and libraries, thus unlocking special rewards. The result was that even 1% of his stats was already a massive boost of strength to the guild. He summoned the 100 top Pegasus players with no race and granted them the eggs. A squad of guild medics and other buff-oriented professions also kept him topped up on stat-enhancing buffs to boost the effect even further.
On top of elevating the strength of his guild’s best players, with experimentation, he discovered that the characteristics of a [Parasitoid Host] were significantly different from the ones he had gained by becoming a [Parasitoid King]. The [Future Lens] only gave him the specifics of his variant of the race, not of his subjects.
One of the more significant discoveries was that [Parasitoid Hosts] could choose to give in to their infection, thus becoming full-fledged parasitoids. However, they had a limitation that he didn’t have. They had to sacrifice stats to advance in their racial progression permanently. Additionally, their progress was stifled by Loki’s progress. They could only form their eggs once Loki became a hatchling. They would only be able to hatch from their eggs once Loki moved to the next stage of his race.
Once he had given all 100 eggs to his guild members, a grayed-out skill became available.
King’s Cocoon (Racial)
Skill description: Now that you have an army of subjects, they can guarantee your protection while you finish your transformation.
Skill effects:
You can't move while in this form.
Can enter a cocoon after you’ve laid 100 eggs (100/100).
He only got to experience the true power of this race after entering this stage. The number of eggs he could lay went up from 100 to 500. He summoned another batch of high-level players and gave them the eggs so he could feed off their experience. He was gaining levels every day and, unbeknownst to the other guilds, had become the highest-level player in AstroTerra. But that wasn’t the best part. He was one step away from unlocking the adult form of the parasitoids and gaining access to what he considered to be this game’s best skill. All he needed was ten hatchlings.
Adult Form (Racial)
Skill description: The vitality you’ve absorbed from this pitiful planet and its measly lifeforms allows you to manifest the glory of the hive!
Skill effects:
Become a [Parasitoid King].
Requires ten hatchlings.
After much preparation, he had finally secured the requirements for emerging from his cocoon. Loki studied the small windows floating in front of him. There were ten live feeds from the hatchlings he had scattered and hidden in the mid-grade cities. There were five of them occupying the Northernmost cities of Green Country and another five in the Southernmost cities of Rock Canyon.
Only the egg in Sky Island hadn’t hatched. The cities formed an almost perfect encirclement around Forest Fortress. Loki studied what was going to become the heart of his empire. Unfortunately, Hilsford had been the one city that had escaped his grasp, but that didn’t matter now. Nothing mattered after tonight.
Loki watched as the last patsy managed to gain control of the last nest required, and the number of NPCs under its control steadily grew to the necessary number. The progression bar in his quest to reach the parasitoid adult form was stuck at 99%, and he watched on as, after many days of waiting, it reached 100%.
The grayed-out skill that had been mocking him for weeks finally became available. Before he clicked it, he left his orders.
“Escort the patsy in Nimbus to the local slums. All squads remain vigilant. Don’t let anyone interrupt the channeling of the skill. I need a few moments, and I’ll be back to the call.”
A choir of submissive acknowledgments greeted him, and he put the call on hold. He wanted to savor this moment. Loki opened his race’s description. He clenched his teeth and made his move.
Adult form!
What had been a hard-shelled cocoon burst and deflated like a balloon, revealing Loki’s true form. He looked into a nearby mirror and studied his transformation. His skin had become black, and his fingers had turned to claws. As he opened his mouth, he noticed that it now didn’t open horizontally but vertically. Also, even though he could see, he couldn’t spot any eyes on his face. It was a hideous form. He loved it. If others were terrified of him before, he couldn’t wait to see the reactions he would get from them now.
He studied the system description of the ultimate form of his alien race.
Parasitoid King (Hidden Race)
Race description: You are part of a majestic race that stands above all others in the galaxy. Your ancestors have laid waste to countless planets, and the time has come for this one too to feel the might of the parasitoids.
Racial characteristics:
All native lifeforms of the planet abhor you;
You gain 1% of your subject's XP in exchange for offering them 1% of your stats.
Racial skills:
Miasma Explosion (Racial)
Description: In the ultimate sacrifice, one of your subjects gives all their vitality for the hive, allowing others to enjoy serving it too.
Skill effects:
Active. You can detonate a hatchling and form a cloud of spores that emanates from its corpse (radius and damage influenced by intelligence, charisma, strength, and number of subjects);
Passive. Spores can infect nearby NPCs with parasitoid eggs. NPCs will give in to an infection if their HP is below 10%. They become your minions, and you can issue simple commands to them.
Works better on NPCs with an evil alignment. (Level of NPCs that can be corrupted limited by your own).
Evil Resonance (Racial)
Description: The more sacrifices a subject makes, the more powerful they become.
Skill effects:
Passive. Begins event quest [Rise of the Hive King].
Passive. Whoever supports the hive can feel the evil in others and make them weaker.
He had spent many hours reading through this and thinking of how to make the most of this race. It was time for the show to start. He reconnected to the call. Even though the skittering gross figures of each hatchling patsy were unsightly, they all still shuddered as Loki allowed them to see his new form.
“Is everyone in place?”
Everyone gave a thumbs up.
“You’ve served me well. Your debt to Pegasus is considered paid.”
Loki smiled as he saw each of the patsies sneaking into the bars of the local mafia families. They rushed toward the center of the bar, where they could make the most damage. As soon as they were in place, he activated his skill.
Miasma Explosion!
There was a ball of purple light that exploded out from the hatchlings. His stats had become even higher thanks to his high level. The explosion was so massive that even those powerful high-level NPCs lost half of their hp. Loki watched as the corpses of the hatchlings faded to very thin ash, forming a cloud of dust that quickly filled the whole bar.
“All captains! Storm your assigned locations.”
The weakened NPCs couldn’t stand a chance against the best troops of the Pegasus guild. As they stormed these locations, they made quick work of several powerful NPCs and brought them to 10% of their health. As they did, they became friendly units that, in turn, helped Pegasus players to finish off the other NPCs. The world would now see what Dr. Goodwin had eloquently described in his log.
