BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

"Beautiful," Erik said, taking in the alien landscape. The morning dew that clung to the leaves and branches made the vegetation shimmer under the few sun rays that got through the thick and giant canopy above, and the bark of the massive trees sparkled with crystalline water formations that formed during the night's cold. There was a lot to see.

The beauty made his time on Mur more bearable.

"It is different from Mannard. The colors, the shapes of the vegetation... The scale of it. Even the way light filters through these leaves is unlike anything back home."

This was because the trees on Mur were all colossal, towering hundreds of meters into the sky. Their massive trunks and dense canopies created patterns of light and shadow that Erik had never seen in the relatively smaller forests of Mannard.

The sunlight had to travel through multiple layers of enormous leaves, creating a filtered glow that painted everything below in soft hues, in a way that the trees on Mannard could hardly do.

[Indeed,] the biological computer said. [This place has an amazing variety of life. If it weren't for the dangers here, humans could have made this continent their home.]

"Yeah… Damn, thaids," Erik said. The computer's silence was agreement enough. Yet not even the otherworldly beauty of the Mur continent was enough to keep Erik from thinking about the others.

"Do you think we'll find them?"

Frankly speaking, too much time passed, and Erik started thinking there weren't many chances.

[Looking at the evidence,] the biological supercomputer said. [Since no one has spotted the tree yet, we have to consider two main possibilities. The first is that they didn't make it...]

The system paused, knowing the weight of those words. [Or they're in a location that prevents visual contact—perhaps a cave. There are ancient human settlements in the region as well, but from most of those, the tree should still be visible.]

The cave was the likely reason. Erik sighed. He didn't want to think about the first scenario, albeit he knew it was a possibility.

Every day, sometimes more than once, he asked the computer the same question about finding his friends.

The computer never got tired of answering, always carefully thinking through all the possibilities. Yet it didn't mean he would sugarcoat things too much.

On Mur, the most likely scenario was that Amber and the others had died—if they had even reached the continent.

Erik knew he kept asking the same thing over and over, but talking about it helped him deal with his worries.

He didn't really need new answers from the computer—he already knew all the possibilities; he wasn't stupid.

What he wanted was reassurance, someone telling him there was still hope. Each time they discussed it, Erik hoped to hear a new theory about how his friends might have found shelter in a hidden valley or perhaps found an abandoned settlement with workable defenses.

These daily talks gave him the focus he needed to keep searching, despite having no leads after several days.

Deep down, he understood this compulsive questioning was born from anxiety, from the gnawing fear of being truly alone on this hostile continent, and that his lovers were dead.

Then his mind wandered to the events that brought him here. The separation from his companions during the battle against the three-headed void ravagers.

Their attribute-draining powers had nearly spelled doom for his entire group. If not for his quick thinking, they might have all died that day.

[We should think about searching for them again,] the biological supercomputer said.

<What? Are you crazy?>

[Not crazy, just far-sighted. If we had that power, and we gave it to the clones, we would get the same ability as those monsters to decrease other creatures' attributes. That would mean that nothing will be able to defeat us.]

The system's reasoning made sense, but there was just one problem.

<Even if I found one, I wouldn't be able to kill it alone,> Erik said. <Without an army keeping the rest of its flock at bay, a single three-headed void ravager would tear me apart before I could do any real damage.>

[Actually, your chances of survival would be much higher now,] the system said. [Your mana has increased significantly since our previous encounters with them. The attribute drain would be less effective against you, and you'd be able to maintain your combat abilities for much longer.]

That was due to the fact that humans were able to fight foreign mana with their own. It was something Erik frequently had to deal with when he fought against humans in New Alexandria. One example was the venomous mana dart he got from Logan.

Whenever he hit something, the venomous mana could be fought. While Thaids had a natural mana barrier that also made physical attacks less damaging, humans could at least fight foreign mana when invaded by it.

[That is, without considering that your attacks would deal a lot more damage now.]

<I haven't seen Three headed void ravagers around, though.>

[I think they live in the sea,] the system said.

<Why do you think so?>

[Well, think about it,] the system said. [The flocks of void ravagers are too large to sustain themselves on land. They would devastate entire regions if they lived here permanently. In my analysis, the only environment with prey large enough to feed such massive groups would be the ocean. The sea creatures are generally much larger than their land counterparts, making them suitable prey for void ravager flocks.]

<It makes sense,> Erik said. But the thought of fighting those things again scared him. The last time he had to give his clones the order to separate, and that decision only ended up with his army scattered across Mur's vast wilderness. Erik landed near the coast, while the others... he could only guess where they ended up, if they ended up somewhere.

The forest bore clear marks of his presence: countless thaid corpses reduced to bones picked clean by scavengers.

The local creatures had grown wary, learning to avoid his territory. Even the more aggressive ones—like the wolf-like thaids he had hunted the previous day—now skirted around his patrol routes.

Yet there was no trace of the clones, despite all his efforts to make the journey to the tree possible.

Erik stopped at the top of a hill to look around. To the west, he saw the forest becoming much thicker, with bigger and older trees.

The computer stayed quiet, but Erik could tell it was carefully watching everything around them. They were reaching the edge of their safe zone—the area Erik had cleared of thaids. Beyond this point, things would get much more dangerous.

<Where should we start looking, in your opinion?>

[If they landed on Mur like we did,] the system said. [The beach would be our best starting point. But we need to stay within the forest's edge—close enough to keep an eye on the coastline, yet hidden enough to avoid flying thaids.]

Erik frowned. The problem was the size of these beaches. Some stretched for kilometers, and the distance between the shoreline and forest could be vast.

[You also have to consider that to search for clues, we might be forced to leave the forest, and crossing those open spaces would leave us exposed.]

Erik pondered for a moment. <What if I shapeshifted into something small? A bug, perhaps? Nothing would notice me.>

[That would be risky. Even the smallest predators on this continent are much stronger than the ones on Mannard. If you turned into a bug, they could easily catch and eat you if you weren't extremely careful. It is already hard to spot them as a human; imagine as a bug.]

<It's not like my strength diminishes when I shapeshift. On the contrary, it might increase depending on the situation.>

[That's true,] the system said, [but that is not the point. Surprise attacks are. Even if you were the strongest being in the world, a surprise attack would still kill you. The only way to avoid this would be to constantly channel your defensive powers, but that would drain mana, which you might need in more serious situations.]

<I wouldn't have this problem if I had more clones.>With the ability to increase mana and stamina regen, he would basically be godlike.

[Indeed,] the system said. [But this is not the only problem. Some creatures might be able to see through your shape-changing and know what you really are. Flocks of thaids like the Three-headed Void Ravagers might spot you. You basically have your plate full.]

This was something Erik hadn't thought about before. Back on Mannard, turning into a small bug was usually safe since the monsters there were not a threat to Erik.

But here on the Mur continent, things were different.

[But there's still a way shapeshifting can help us,] the system said. [You could transform into something that's good at seeing far away. It should be small enough to hide in the plants, but not so small that a thaid could eat you whole, at least not the smaller ones. That way, you could look for signs of your companions while staying safe. Hopefully, there will be no need for this.]

<That's a a fantastic idea,> Erik said. <Let's just hope things will be simpler.>