Chapter 34: Chapter 33: In Need Of A Sitter

“Do you think they’re going to be okay?” Blanc asked Gillian and Alyssa as they made their way to the gate-room. They had returned upstairs for a final farewell, but they could hear Lillim and Kyubi lecturing Carl about something and some mention of Klaire.

“Those two will be fine, it’s us that are the problem. We need to focus up. They don’t need us dragging them down.” Alysse ranted bitterly, an un-aired feeling of inadequacy had been bubbling since Carl seemed to not even consider them acting independently.

“Yeah right, like Lillim would let that happen. Let’s go check out this world, write our report and prove to ourselves we aren’t dead weight.” Gillian declared the words as denial, but he was feeling it to and just trying to motivate everybody.

As they all stood before the portal, Blanc used his authority to remotely input coordinates and activate the portal.

As they stepped through they immediately felt the pressure of the planets thick atmosphere.

[ SYSTEM ALERT ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS DETECTED ]

The notification only showed to Gillian and he was brought to his knees until Alysse put the respirator he had been given on him.

“That’s why I gave you the damn thing!” She shouted. “Carl said it had unknown atmospheric properties”

Gillian wheezed with pain, clutching his chest as he stood up. “Yeah, stupid mistake, I’ll be fine.”

Alysse shook her head with frustration. “Retreat now, have Lydia check you over.”

“Nah I’m go-”

“I wasn’t asking! You messed up, retreat. Have Lydia send a message when you’re ready to return.” The irregular anger in her voice cut through Gillian’s confidence.

“Shit! You’re right, I’m sorry… Alysse, from now on you take point and lead, I get too carried away.” Gillian summised as Blanc reopened the gate.

As the gate closed Blanc sighed regretfully, not only because of Gillian’s exasperating personality, but also because neither him or Alysse were combat specialists.

They then scanned the area with their eyes…

The soil was an orangey-brown colour, loosely packed with sparsely scattered underbrush of a strange and deep blue-green colour. Each individual plant grew out in five directions up to waist height, with a thick spike-like stem in the centre that sat at head height.

The sky was the most alien sight, something in the atmosphere made it seem an almost lavender colour.

“Let’s play it safe. Sample everything for a hundred metres, plant the omni-view recorder and then withdraw and run tests.” He finally said, earning a nod of approval from Alysse.

“Have to say, we made a lot of mistakes… We’re too used to going to places that are already declared safe. We need proper travel procedures.” She said as they started trimming leaves and scooping soil into sample containers.

As if to prove her point, the spike of the plant she was sampling suddenly lashed her, changing from the rigid spike it had been, to a thick and brutal whip. If her stats had been where they were two months prior, the blow would have been enough to break her spine and leave her paralysed.

“Damn it! Pull back Blanc, we’re done. We play it safe; fallback, reevaluate and start on those procedures. This failure can be the one we learn from. Hopefully it will stop the next one killing us.” Alysse barked the order filled with frustration as she dragged Blanc into a clear opening and planted the omni-recorder.

When the portal flared open they crossed together and that was when the panic set in.

The first thing they saw was Gillian covered in blood, Lydia working to keep him his airways clear. “What the hell were you three doing!? Didn’t Carl tell you to be safe, that there were unknown elements and this idiot jumps in with no protection what so ever…”

“We’re so-”

“Will sorry bring the dead back to life? Will it make the living feel any less guilty? At least when Carl and Klaire died it was a damn wyvern popping out of nowhere. Now get behind the curtains and put your clothes and any samples in the decontamination compartments.”

Kyubi appeared at that moment and filled the quarantine zone with a blend of fire, specifically targeting contaminants and demonstrating an unimaginable level of control. The fire even seeped into Gillian’s body and cleansed him from the inside out, then as it faded she clicked her tongue.

“You all disappointed us all. Carl had to come and beg Lillim and I to come and save you when he saw Lydia setting up the quarantine area and realised that you weren’t prepared.

You’re banned from leaving that room for twenty-four hours, I suggest you consider every mistake you made, because Lillim and I expect a detailed report from each of you.

Lydia, I fixed Gillian enough to keep him alive, but he’ll need an oxygen mask for the entire day, he seems to have encountered a lycan specific toxin, he’d already be dead if he was full-blooded.” Despite her reputation, it was rare for them to see any sign of anger in Kyubi, which they were glad for since she was scarier than Lillim in a strange sort of way.

“Kyubi…. Thank you. We know we messed up badly, sorry for acting so stupidly and childishly.” Alysse said before leading a bow of apology that the other two joined.

Kyubi gave an almost unnoticeable smile, then returned to the house above. Lydia was about to follow, when Alysse stopped her. “Wait. Could you and the other adults please write up the standard operating procedures, sorry for not asking before. We should have realised Lillim was trying to get us to learn from your experience first when she said her and Kyubi were considered off-duty,”

“Well finally, I’m disappointed in you three as well, You should be far smarter than your actions today showed. You rely on Lillim and Kyubi far too much, you have to remember that they are Omina-class in every way and that means they have no experience in how these things need to be done for people as weak as us.

You’re strong for your age, but not invincible and you lack real-world experience, that is why Kon and I and even Noah and Blaine are here. Even Carl forgot that, but at least he realised soon enough and swallowed his pride to ask.”

Lydia was also clearly angry, but she had even more reason to be, since she had the added insult of being ignored.

Alysse, Gillian and Blanc started with letters of apology to all the adults. Then they got to work on their personal lists of mistakes and a group list of mistakes. It was an utterly painful lesson in self-awareness and personal shortcomings, one which was a harsh pill to swallow and especially so for Gillian who nearly died.

They also got to work on a rudimentary operating procedure for such ventures, which they of course intended to have appraised by those with actual experience. They only really done it as a way to evaluate what they had gained from their failure.

“Hey guys, do you think we should apologise to Carl too?” Gillian said, realising a little too late that his mistake would have crippled Carl.

What he didn’t know was that at that moment Carl was above giving his own apologies to everyone.

“I’m sorry, I acted recklessly again and put my friends in danger because I didn’t think to ask any of you. I especially undervalued Noah’s experience since he regularly goes to other worlds and realms to get beasts.”

“Yes, you did. Now go make dinner, then you will be making a pet that I have asked Noah to collect animals for. They are outside when you are ready and don’t forget to make the three idiots downstairs some food.”

While he cooked dinner, Lillim described the pet he would be making. The components were a gluttonous-shifter, like was used with Squidge, an Asklepian snake, like was used to create redeemer, an ambushing seer, a dryad and a vampiric blood-hawk.

The idea was that the beast would be able to eat materials that could then be studied safely, without the need to bring potentially dangerous substances back, a healer for when Gillian was an idiot or the others were in an accident, with the addition of being able to see a brief moment into the future and hopefully avoid any need for healing, able to communicate with plant life and collect blood samples from a beast normal equipment made difficult.

Carl decided to get that sorted whilst dinner was cooking…

He went outside with those not isolated and Noah released the cages one by one, the beasts didn’t try attacking him at all. “I’m starting to think my charisma is high but it only works on beasties.” He laughed, until the others slapped him, not appreciating being called “beasties”.

With his brains rearranged he got to work, but when he activated Neo primordia again, the reward “Hand Of God” was made painfully clear, he now had fully control of every aspect of the creature including what it would look like.

“It’s supposed to be pure utility isn’t it?”

“Yes, but it should have some decent stats as well, we can’t have it being vulnerable in dangerous places.” Lillim replied.

Carl played around a bit, he realised that he could imagine what he wanted the creature to look like and it would change to that, so afterwards he just had to go through, select skills and allocate states.

He did of course try selecting everything but at a certain point it declared the beast would be too powerful and stopped him from completing, so he decided to make it as balanced as possible with intelligence getting a slight bump in the hopes that it would be able to analyse some materials just by eating them.

Appearance wise, it was fundamentally a gluttonous gulper, lizard-like with a long tail, its legs however looked like a tangled mess of roots that would be able to find sure-footing pretty much anywhere, it couldn’t fly, but Carl hoped a mutation would change that one day, it only got on eye from the hawk and from the asklepian snake it got another eye and fangs that could administer healing venom.

From the ambushing seer, it got the signature growths that acted as sensory organs and could be extended and retracted at will, though they were most effective when it was burrowed underground. It didn’t actually use its foresight for hunting, that was a defensive skill that it used to not accidentally attack something that would kill it, or escape if it saw a predator find it.

Carl was quite happy with the creation, though he did change the appearance of the sensory organs at the last minute, usually they were long white filaments but since they were essentially nerves growing externally, Carl changed them to vines instead to make it both visually and physically less distressing.

This time there wasn’t as much drama thanks to the absence of using DIV. It was just as simple as when he made Squidge, which made a nice change.

“Before it asks, I’ll call the species “Shifting-Vinealyser” and your name is “Sitter”. I need you to help my friends out little guy is that all right?”

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