Chapter 18
Alric was hugging a boulder. It was more of a rocky outcrop, but Alric didn't care much about its geological nomenclature. The exquisite object was solidly entrenched on the ground. He felt a little bad about having thrown up on his new friends' metaphorical feet, but 'Rocky' didn't hold it against him. It lent its reassuring shoulder to the airsick Troll
The group could faintly hear dark mutterings of curses and bloody vengeance coming from the slumped Troll. If Alric had proficiency-based cheat he would have doubtlessly earned 'Black Speech' as a skill, or perhaps a cursed aura.
Normal Trolls were aligned with darkness and stone; this alignment had shifted in Alric he was still aligned with stone but had traded his dark alignment for nature. This shift had occurred in two steps. First was his existence, as a soul from a different existence his mind was not born of dark magic. The second step that had only been possible with the help of his cheat and the first condition was modifying the body he was in. As a being aligned with stone and nature, he was closer on a magical spectrum to the beings Trolls aped: Ents.
Neither of the two characteristics were known for air compatibility. Now while the affinities of Middle Earth were far less dramatic than a setting like Pokémon, it could affect preferences and comfort. Alric had gotten a direct, hands-on lesson in what this meant in practical terms. To sum it up, he had gotten airsick.
The Eagles had left the group here without a single backward glance. Touching down for only long enough to disembark their passengers. The two carrying Alric had thankfully dropped low enough to not drop Alric before releasing him.
"Look! The Lonely Mountain!" The Dwarves all strained to see the first sight of their ancient home. The peak stood tall and imposing in the distance.
As the day passed the group made its way down a slope and into a valley before a dark sea of trees. The party had reached Mirkwood. The forest stood eerily quiet, light seemed to be dim and bleached as it filtered through shadowed branches. As they neared, the cheer from sighting the goal slowly drained from the company. Alric on the other hand was quickly recovering from his nausea. He did glance at the stereotypical "evil woods". The intimidation effect was greatly reduced knowing exactly what scuttled in its dark. He had little to fear here. Well…little to fear from the spiders, the other residents were far more complex.
The group kept a wary eye on the tree line as they set up a camp for the evening. Alric felt no need to go hunting for food after gorging himself twice so recently. More than anything Alric was excited to see his gains. He had high expectations for tonight's use of his ability. He quickly made himself comfortable. In this case he prepared by dragging a medium-sized boulder with a nice slope closer to camp so he could lean on its cool surface as he rested.
Sleep came surprisingly quickly. Despite his endurance, Alric had been through two large battles and fleeing from stone giants. He had gotten very little true rest since leaving Rivendell. The strain had been piling up and now quickly whisked Alric off to sleep as soon as he relaxed.
In an infinite expanse of velvety nothing Alric's drifting mind manifested its avatar. The Tithe system went to work spamming his attention with notifications of his growing power.
"You have slain three hundred and twenty-eight Goblins. Your speed is enhanced. Your vitality is moderately enhanced."
Alric was disappointed with the mediocre rewards but felt it was rather reasonable after a second of thought. A Goblin was barely better than a random man in most aspects. So, a tenth of even such a large number of Goblins only added up to the strength of roughly thirty-three men. A respectable increase but a smaller relative jump than his initial rapid increases.
"You have slain a Goblin Elite. Your strength is barely increased. Your speed is slightly increased."
Wow, the Goblin king was even more trashy than I was expecting. I hadn't even seen a "barely" modifier before.
"You have slain three Orc Scouts. Your perception is slightly increased. Your strength is barely increased."
Hmm, even the Orc tithe is odd. Are the descriptors relative to my own values. It would make sense. I'm not actually getting less it is just less impactful the higher my own strength.
"You have slain an Orc Elite. Your speed is slightly increased, Your dexterity is moderately increased."
"You have slain eight Wargs. Your endurance is slightly enhanced. Your senses are barely enhanced. Your speed is barely enhanced."
I wonder what the difference between perception and senses is. Smell vs sight maybe. Or is it how much I can sense verses understanding what it means?
"You have slain Warg Elite. Your endurance is slightly enhanced. Your senses are barely enhanced. Your speed is slightly enhanced."
After dismissing the last blue box with a flick of intent, Alric sought out his essences. He was met with two large vortexes of energy and a smaller orb. The first large essence swirled a fatty yellow and dull grey. The Goblin energy was abundant but held little interesting information upon inspection. Alric thought hard about anything useful he could find.
The Goblins most notable evolutionary advantages were a robust digestive system and an even more prolific reproductive system. He didn't need any help in the digestive department. As for greater sexual stamina and fertility…
"…"
"…"
A small portion of the energy streamed below the Avatars waist. Alric poured the remaining energy straight into size. The essence was not very aligned with such a goal and only added a few inches before being exhausted. Alric gave a brief look through the smallest orb. The small amount of Orc flesh he had devoured mostly came from Azog. And while the Orc was an impressive specimen, anything he had Alric already had better.
Straight into size that went as well. With Alric's newest ability to shrink, he felt no need to refrain from pushing his size to new heights. That left the last large orb, Wargs. Alric had intentionally eaten as much as he could of the Wargs. He didn't hesitate as he split the energy into three streams, one reinforced his joints, one reinforced his tendons, and the last further refined his bones. He put special care into his claws. With the new density and strength of them he slimmed their profile. He compressed the bone as densely as he could. The resulting claws were still relatively wide but would have far less trouble slashing. With Alric's power his claws had torn through flesh and bone. Now the serrated bone gleamed with a polished sheen that promised far greater ease carving through his enemies.
Finished with that Alric looked closer at the essence storage. There a tiny wisp remained. Hardly noticeable it seemed rather mundane with a soft amber glow. Alric willed this energy into the many distributed Apocrine glands beneath his thick skin. The Glands were concentrated around the groin and armpits. Yep, this was a pure luxury change. The energy from the pine sap he had consumed was spent in a very specific way. Alric would still sweat, removing that ability while possible would be dangerous. While Trolls produced far less heat during exertion than humans, they still produced some.
Now however, his sweat would come out scented with Pine terpenes witch would kill off any possible bacteria as they not only smelled great but also worked together with some kind of organic acid as an antimicrobial for trees. Alric made sure not to include any of the sugars or other thickening stuff to his built-in deodorant. He wanted a manly musk not a sticky mess gumming up his body. If the changes worked as expected he would smell like he rubbed against ponderosa all the time and come out of any activity smelling like fresh cut timber.
After this change Alric expected it to be done. However, an even smaller pale wisp of energy caught his attention. The essence was so thin and small it was nearly nonexistent. Alric confused probed it for information. This was the tiny trace of essence he got from stone eating. Alric had forgotten about this experiment.
He felt bare whispers in the tiny fragment. It felt of fortitude, a stubborn grit and endless mineral based patience. He sent the blip of existence into his rough hide. It seemed to have nearly no effect. Oh, well it might add up eventually if I ate enough.
(POV Gandalf)
The mystery of Alric continued to grow stranger. He grew far to fast for one thing. One second, he was shooting up, growing at absurd speeds, the next he learned to shrink himself. The Troll felt like a massive knot of impossibility and strangeness. Gandalf didn't even want to start on the massive retractable, and venomous, claws that he had spontaneously grew. Gandalf had no doubt that the Troll had no such weapons before. The development was not only insanely fast but also far to convenient to be coincidence.
Gandalf had not pressed the young man for answers. He could tell Alric didn't feel any need to share. Despite his restraint the old wizard couldn't help but wonder what strange power shaped these changes. He had some guesses, a strange form of magic reliant on similar principals to the Skin changers. Alric had seemed to be able to make far more permanent but less complete transformations. Gandalf mused to himself as he observed the sleeping Troll.
As Gandalf watched the inert form over the fire his eyes suddenly sharpened. The harmony was moving. Alric was in some kind of magical trance state. The harmony rose around his form. It sang of strength and something else…Pine?
Gandalf wasn't sure why the Trolls harmony of nature affinity now sung with a distinct new note of pine. Gandalf set the strange note aside for the most glaring change. Right before his eyes Gandalf watched as the harmony spun and sung the Troll as he slowly changed. The Troll grew at a speed that Gandalf could see if he watched carefully enough. When the music of existence finally returned to its normal notes Alric was left at a new and impressive height. The Troll would stand among the tallest of his kind at an immense twenty feet.
Gandalf had not seen the harmony act so directly and strangely in a long time. It reminded him much of that ancient spirit of the lands. Tom Bombidil was eldest, ancient, wise, and illogical. He had mystery even he could make very little sense of. Could Alric be a spirit like Tom Bombidil? No, he clearly wasn't although his existence seemed oddly similar in some regards. Gandalf kept watching the sleeping Troll with delighted eyes long into the night as he smoked his pipe.
"Fascinating, how wonderfully peculiar."