BornAndTorn 41 What lies beyond?

But my body still felt a bit weird after being constructed over and over again. If my previous body was really muscular and looked really bloated, then right now It felt like my whole body had been compressed into a very small body. To be exact It was a shame I was too accustomed to by now. Growing up so fast and then getting pressed into the previous form cannot be healthy.

But at least this shape is much better suited for digging compared to the steroid version. Though I do not want to repeat this process again, otherwise I might end up exploding in the future, because of all the tension that my body has to endure. With the kind of horror that my body is currently able to unleash, I do not want to know what level it will next. The current strength of my body can hardly be called human anymore. The body of a human baby, with the strength of a fully trained athlete. I mean wielding rocks with a weight of 90 Kilograms is not something that everyone can do with ease.

Oh no, I forgot about the rocks, what happened to the rocks under this kind of pressure. I risked a short glance at my hands to discover that the thread that used to connect my hands with the rocks was no more. A chain of swearwords escaped my lips as my eyes were flying over my surroundings trying to find rocks. If they still had the same size it would have been quite easy, but my educated guess is that they have been compressed by a lot.

I did not find them on the surface, so I decided to dig around search whether I find something small, that yet really heavy. I did not notice that my digging motions became swifter and more efficient, then they have ever been. After digging till exhaustion, I noticed my muscles aching under the unusual strain. As the bugs that kept on following me, once again started to clear the surroundings. I finally saw my lost rocks. Rather than calling them rocks, I should refer to them as pebbles now. They transformed from the size of a soccer ball to a marble. The only reason, I was able to find them, was because the ant was trying to lift it up and failed miserably. After more and more ants surrounded it, it became quite easy to spot it.

But right now I have absolutely no idea, how to use them. The threads I used before were not strong enough to hold those pebbles with the weight they currently have. Just using them as weapons to throw, is begging for them to get lost and holding them in my hand while I punch with it, seems kind of cumbersome. But what if I were to attach those stones on top of my fist, that could work. Put them on top of fingerless gloves and you have yourself quite a weapon.

Without any break, I began the preparation to build this kind of clothing for me. I hit my right leg several times and ordered the queen ant to appear in front of me. The ant queen came quite leisurely in my direction and kept on looking at me quite curiously why the hell I would call for her right now. I just pointed at my whole lower body and she understood my demand right there. But before the queen and could start to list her demands, I threw the rocks in front of her pointed at them and lifted both hands indicating the number 10. Since she was already accustomed to my antics, she just nodded and began to ponder on what to demand to realize that ludicrous wish of mine.

While she was busy I pointed at my lower half and then pointed the area on my hand that I wanted to be covered in the fingerless gloves. The only problem was that the ant queen was staring at me unable to grasp what I was asking her for. I tried to repeat the motion several times. Yet she just kept her questioning eyes on me. Seeing that this way of communication did not work I decided to grab the queen ant directly and put her on my hand. The ant queen was dodging my hand at first but after I held the hand in front of her, she climbed on it.

As she was on my right hand I let my finger slide on my right hand. I tried to convey which area I wanted to be covered by the fingerless glove. It took multiple attempts but the queen finally nodded. At last, I picked up one of those pebbles and put in on the glove. I tried to indicate that I wanted to have one pebble on each finger. But luckily the queen understood my intention in that instance.

But her gaze had changed, she looked at me as if she could not fathom who would consider using such a tool in combat. That is quite silly, of course, I will.

I spectated the queen with curiosity guessing with what kind of demand she would come up with. I was expecting an exorbitant demand because the amount of work and energy that would be required to accomplish those creations was quite enormous.

But she did not demand full control over my brain, nor did she ask for more space for her nest in my body. She just positioned the 3 ants in front of me. The first of the three ants was the typical warrior ant, it got a bit bigger since the last time I saw one, but the rest of it stayed the same. The second was a worker ant, I just noticed exactly how small it is after seeing a warrior ant for the first time in forever. What happened to the others I wonder? Looking at the third ant I noticed that the ant was still in its development stage, it had no characteristics yet. My assumption that she asks me for input on how to develop it.

If she puts that much trust into me I have to do my best and create something really good for her. With much pointing and gesticulating I showed her my plan. I wanted to create an ant that was capable of flight, had poisonous little fangs. But the queen was not content with that and just stared at me demanding more. So I showed her that she could put little worker ants underneath it, to let them drop out of the air. After pondering for a moment, she nodded towards me in acceptance.

I have no clue, how much I will have to add in the future if I still want her to create something for me. Still, I think both sides are getting something good out of this trade. The queen returned back into my body with the 2 pebbles that were transported by multiple ants.

So now that the future of my weaponry is saved. I need to find a way to spend my time. A first step would be to train my digging skills and my body in a whole needs to be strengthened as well. If I want to be able to wield nearly 500 kilos per hand I need to step over my limit. Right now I can handle around 100 kilograms without any problem. But in order to be able to lift the 5x, I need to work out a lot. To prevent me from turning into a monstrosity, I am forced to compress my muscles from time to time under pressure.

Of course, I will improve the rest of my body mutations in the meantime. I do not want to leave every tool my body offers in the dust. I just hope that It does not take too much time until I am able to transverse this lands safely. I want to see what mysteries are in this world. Magic is such an enticing concept that I can hardly wait getting to know more about it. Though I would still prefer not to die too soon. Even after such a short time, I was already as proficient as a mole, but I want to know what the limit of my ability is and what lies beyond that point.

I once again sunk my fingernails deep into the Earth and began digging once more.

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" How is he doing, is there any kind of change?"

* No, there is still no sign of activity.*

" He remains useless even in the end, how disappointing. To think I had high hopes in him a long time ago. Yet he turned out to be such a failure."

* His future does not look very promising if there is no sign of improvement soon then I have to ask you for a final decision.*

" It is not like he can just stand up and run away. So no need to jump to conclusions. We will wait how his situation will develop in the near future."

* Excuse me, but the odds of him improving and overcoming his current situation are next to impossible.*

" Indeed it is a predicament, but it is not like we lack the necessary resources. So there is no problem with giving him so time."

*But we have yet to find an explanation how he could end up the way he currently is. We are thoroughly investigating his case.*

" There is no need to put so much effort into this, the explanation is very simple. He was and still is a fool. And like a fool he always thought about whether he could not if he should."

" His mere presence has caused so much trouble, that we were hardly able to contain it. I can not understand what she likes so much about him, that she let him have that much freedom. All that freedom brought us to the mess we are currently in. I just wish he would have never been born in this world"

Chapter end