[You have leveled up to Level 17]
[Choose an upgrade:
Autonomous Core (Requirement: Cell Storage and Parallel Thoughts)
Water Storage
Nutrients Efficiency Lv. 2]
While Leafa and Rebecca slept soundly on their bed, Hiro pondered his new level-up. He already knew about Nutrients Efficiency and Water Storage. However, he didn't know much about the Autonomous Core yet.
[Autonomous Core:
Your core, born from mitosis, will now act autonomously. Each will have its own cell storage and nutrients. However, you will no longer be able to use the standard Cell Storage skill, which will be deleted.
Cell storage will now depend on how many cores you have. For every core, you will have 100 cell storage. Storage can be transferred between cores by contact.
You may upgrade this skill once you have both Water Storage and Oxygen Storage.]
"This is what I need!" Hiro cheered. With this, he'd be able to serve Leafa—or however many people came to him. However, he held himself back before selecting the skill.
The skill came with a critical demerit at the moment. Currently, he only had 7 cores and 7 hosts: Luna, Marissa, Leafa, Rebecca, Cecile, Nana, and Elysia. That meant he would lose 300 cell storage if he picked the skill now.
There was no rule against placing two cores in the same host, but doing so would double the consumption for that host. Moreover, cell storage wouldn't automatically fill up just because he used mitosis.
To refill his cell storage, he needed nutrients. These could be gathered by parasitizing other animals or taking a portion from his current hosts. On top of that, each core had its own maintenance cost. He needed about 20 nutrients daily just to exist—that was roughly a full meal for each host. His girls would need to eat four times a day instead of three.
So, he would need about two weeks to gain 100 full cell storage for a single core—if his girls ate double the amount every day. If he used Mitosis, that meant his host would need to eat five times a day just to sustain the new core. It might take a full month or two to completely fill that core's cell storage.
"Moreover... they're girls," Hiro muttered. His girls had always watched their diets, trying not to gain weight. Take Rebecca, for example—when Hiro prompted her to eat an additional portion, she often refused. Cecile and Nana had recently opened up to the idea of eating more, since they could justify it by saying Hiro's skill came at a cost. But Rebecca and Marissa didn't have that same justification.
Hiro was troubled. To him, a pretty girl was all about her body shape. Thankfully, thanks to his parasitizing skill, no matter how much his girls ate, he could always sculpt their bodies—either thinner or thicker as he liked.
"Well, I'll have to take this in the end. Sooner or later, the kingdom will ramp up iron production, and they'll need more cores to keep up with demand," Hiro said. He then took the skill.
[Level up achieved!
STR: 44 → 3
DEX: 42 → 2
MAG: 0]
After that, he turned to his second level-up of the day. Hiro wondered what upgrades were in store for him.
[You have leveled up to Level 18]
[Choose an upgrade:
– Water Storage
– Water Magic (Disabled)
– Water Analysis (Disabled)]
Hiro could only sigh as he picked Water Storage. It had never happened before, but he worried: what if he ended up getting three disabled skills at once? Would he stop receiving upgrades entirely upon leveling up?
Hiro had actually been aiming for this exact skill recently. Since he had started focusing on becoming a production-type symbiote, Water Storage would help with potion-making. Moreover, with water storage, he could technically store aphrodisiacs, dilute them, or concentrate them as needed.
Of course, before he could do any of that, he still needed another skill: Water Analysis. That would allow him to separate liquids into different tanks.
[Level up achieved!
STR: 46 → 2
DEX: 45 → 3
MAG: 0]
After he was satisfied with the result, Hiro opened up his status. As expected, his Cell Storage Lv. 3, which could host about 1000 cells, had turned into an Autonomous Core, which could now only store 100 cells.
[Name: Hiro
Race: Parasitic Tentacle⁸
Class: None
Level: 16/20
STR: 46 (↑5)
DEX: 45 (↑5)
MAG: 0
Skills:
Sense Sharing
Parasitism
Nutrients Efficiency Lv. 1
Aphrodisiac Injection
Enhanced Host Growth
Adrenaline Injection
Amphetamine Injection
Anaesthesia Injection
Autonomous Core (New) (100/100)
Organic Synthesis
Potion Synthesis
Oxygen Storage (100/100)
Gas Analysis
Air Compressor
Cell Manipulation
Weakness to Flame
Weakness to Holy Magic
Mitosis
Nutrients Storage (90/100)
Flesh Mending
Metamorphic Tentacle (Bones, Wood)
Material Analysis
Autophagy
Parallel Thought
Water Storage(new)
When morning came, Leafa was still asleep, but Hiro nudged her awake. At first, he wanted to make her train sword techniques with a vibratory tentacle on her crotch, but he held back that idea. Leafa seemed eager to test her new skills, and Hiro wanted to accompany her.
"Hm? What is it? Huh? The sun's already that high?" Leafa groaned. But when she looked over at the window, she jumped up, realizing she had overslept. After a light breakfast, she grabbed her sword, determined to continue her training with Hiro.
"Thank you for waking me up, Hiro. Now, let's get back to training. I have to return to my territory tomorrow. Before that, I want to master your technique!" Leafa said.
"Alright! Activate!" she added with energy. Hiro couldn't talk, but she knew he was sentient. So, instead of awkwardly syncing with him like yesterday, she thought it'd be better to give a verbal command. Hiro indulged her.
After about thirty minutes of swinging her sword at almost double the speed—while still keeping her elegance—Hiro tapped her shoulder with his tentacle and deactivated the skill.
"Huh? What's wrong? Is this the time limit?" Leafa asked.
Hiro wanted to shake his tentacle in denial, but he nodded instead. This was just training—it was better for her not to overstrain herself. Besides, it got boring after a few slashes. Sure, her moves were elegant, but Hiro doubted she'd ever used them in real battle.
"I see. So, about 30 minutes... this is hardly usable in war. A monster stampede could last from dawn to dusk…" Leafa frowned. She then felt her stomach rumble and her knees shake. "Eh? Why am I feeling so weak…"
Hiro couldn't talk, so it was hard to tell her that the skill's limitation came from her nutrient consumption, not from any inherent time limit on his part.
Leafa felt her arms weakening and nearly collapsed. Cecile and Nana had only used his skill for ten minutes at most, but Leafa had pushed it to thirty. As she had already analyzed, this skill should be treated as a final trump card.
"Why am I so invested in this? Luna was good too, but she never went into battle. No noble fights on their own—that's why they have knights," Hiro muttered.
After having a second breakfast, coupled with sweet tea, Leafa sat beside Marissa's table. Hiro had been poking their cheeks with cookies, trying to get them to eat as much as possible. However, he'd only managed to get them to eat one or two in the past hour.
"Damn. This confirms it. We're going to war," Leafa said, and Marissa nodded while nursing her head. The message from the scouts reported a skirmish at the border—some had died. The scouts had been using the old Marissa Village as a base.
"Jonathan was on the front line." Marissa pointed toward another report detailing how a group of scouts had been mysteriously killed.
"I have to make a report to the king."
"You need to say they've taken Marissa Village. Otherwise, some peace-loving idiots in the Senate might think we're just being paranoid," Leafa said.
"Huh? Isn't that falsifying the report?" Marissa asked.
"It's not. They'll definitely march toward our territory, right? If not, just say they mysteriously pulled back after the news was confirmed," Leafa said.
"Well, it's true that we need reinforcements immediately." Marissa nodded.
Hiro smiled. He was glad he had picked the Autonomous Core upgrade. Now, Marissa could raise an army full of symbiote holders—and each of them would have their own cell storage.
"Ugh… there's that monster area I wanted to clear, and that hill might hold some mining opportunities… Now all my soldiers will die in this war," Leafa sighed.
"My village will face a full assault twice in less than two months since I started ruling here. I think some of the villagers already see me as cursed," Marissa answered. Leafa widened her eyes and suddenly felt pity for her.
"I think you used up all your luck getting Hiro," Leafa said. Again, her words didn't quite match her intention. Nevertheless, as long as no one badmouthed Hiro, Marissa didn't feel offended.
"And we shall use him to our advantage. With Hiro, everything is possible." Marissa began writing her report. As Leafa had advised, she wrote that the enemy had occupied the abandoned Marissa Village on the border. She also mentioned Jonathan, who might be present.
Lying in the report was harder than it sounded. Marissa didn't know how many enemy troops there were—but she couldn't admit that, because in her report, the enemy was already at her border. So she had to make a rough guess. If she reported too small a number, the Senate might not take it seriously. But if she exaggerated, they might accuse her of fabrication.
In the end, her report stated that 500 soldiers had taken over Marissa Village, potentially under the command of Jonathan—the stealth symbiote assassin. If this army went unchallenged, they could wreak havoc on Quantora, the Duchy of Daneswald, and possibly even the capital.
"Rick, please send this to the capital. And also, send this other letter to Duke Daneswald as well." After sealing the letters, Marissa handed them to her official.
War was coming, and they needed to be ready. Besides the report, she also wrote a letter to her brother, Seraphine. If Jonathan was truly involved, she would need her brother's power. But would he survive the ambush?
Marissa stared out at her village as the shadow of war crept closer. Many people would die. She had to do her best—if she wanted her small village to survive.