Chapter 67: My First Piece of the Impossible

The worker wasn’t enough.

Raven discovered that six minutes after killing it.

He had opened the abdomen carefully over a flat stone, following FORGE’s guidance while Roland kept watch and Valeria stood behind him with her arms crossed.

The organ was easy to recognize once the system highlighted it.

An elongated structure positioned between the thorax and the upper abdomen.

Translucent.

Blue.

Several nerve fibers extended from it toward the muscles, wings, and stinger.

Every few seconds, it still produced a tiny electrical discharge.

Raven brought the knife closer.

FORGE appeared.

«Compatible biological component identified.

Source: Arc Needle Wasp — Mature Worker

Trait Structure: "Impulse Spark"

Organ Integrity: 94%

Prototype Rifle Compatibility: 71%

Component Function Possible: Activation System

WARNING: Output stability below optimal project threshold.

Installation would permanently reduce projected weapon performance.»

Raven stopped moving the knife.

Valeria noticed.

"I don’t like that face."

"It works."

"That would normally be a good thing."

"Not well enough."

Roland looked at the corpse.

"What does that mean?"

Raven read it again.

Seventy-one percent.

The system could use it.

He could finish that part of the rifle with the worker they already had in front of them.

That was the rational choice.

They had found the creature.

Isolated one.

Killed it without provoking the nest.

The organ was intact.

Mission accomplished.

FORGE added another line.

«Higher-density Trait source previously detected.

Estimated Compatibility: 90%+

Location: Local Colony — Higher Caste»

Raven closed his eyes for a second.

Valeria sighed.

"There it is."

"What?"

"The reason we’re about to do something stupid."

"I haven’t said anything yet."

"You don’t need to."

Roland looked between them.

"We have the worker."

"Yes."

"And you said you needed a worker."

"Yes."

"Then we leave."

Raven stared at the blue organ.

He could use it.

A rifle built from materials that did not exist in his world, using biological processes he barely understood and an Authority whose limits he still did not know.

And his first decision would be to deliberately install a component that the system itself classified as inferior.

No.

Raven cleaned the knife.

"We’re going to the nest."

Roland muttered something Raven chose to interpret as disapproval.

Valeria smiled.

"I knew yesterday’s rest was temporary."

"We’re not killing the entire colony."

"Excellent. Just the creature sitting in the middle of several hundred venomous insects."

"When you say it like that, it sounds less reasonable."

"That was the goal."

Raven stored the worker organ anyway.

If they survived, he could still sell it.

If they didn’t, that detail would matter considerably less.

The plan lasted seventeen minutes before it began to fail.

That was better than Raven had expected.

They did not enter through one of the main tunnels.

Roland knew enough about Arc Needle colonies to identify what appeared to be a waste conduit on the southern side of the tree.

The workers used that opening to dispose of shells, plant matter, and pieces of creatures the colony did not consume.

Less traffic.

Fewer Soldiers.

It also smelled like someone had left rotting meat inside a hot swamp.

Valeria partially covered her nose.

"Your rifle is starting to owe me money."

Raven checked the opening.

"You can collect when it exists."

"I’m charging interest."

"That sounds financially responsible."

She looked at him.

"I can’t tell if you’re trying to be funny."

"I don’t know either. At this point, all I know is that if I wasn’t already used to this smell, I would’ve died the moment we came in."

They entered.

Roland did not.

That had been Raven’s decision.

An archer inside tunnels where he could barely extend his arms lost most of his usefulness.

Roland would remain outside, watch the conduit, and keep an escape route prepared.

Raven and Valeria would be enough.

Probably.

The inside of the nest was hot.

Too hot.

The walls looked like a mixture of shredded wood, black resin, and a fibrous substance almost like wet paper.

Lines of blue light ran through some sections, produced by small fungi growing inside the material.

Raven touched one wall with the tip of his knife.

Sticky.

"Don’t touch it," Valeria said.

"I already did."

"I meant with your skin."

"I wasn’t going to."

"After Sablewood, I prefer to specify."

Raven accepted that.

They continued.

The buzzing did not seem to come from any one direction.

It was everywhere.

Walls.

Ceiling.

Below.

Vibrations carried through the entire structure.

Raven could feel them in his teeth.

Predator’s Instinct had remained active since they entered.

It was not a constant warning.

It was worse.

Too much movement.

Too many sources.

Raven had to deliberately ignore part of the information to keep himself from reacting to every vibration.

They reached a fork.

Two workers emerged from the left.

Valeria moved before Raven could draw his knife.

Three crimson droplets slipped from beneath her fingernails.

They stretched.

Threads.

The first wrapped around one wasp’s wings.

The second sliced through a joint.

The creature dropped.

Raven used Burst Step.

He moved beneath the second and drove the knife between its head and thorax.

The wasp convulsed.

Raven twisted.

CRACK.

The first discharged electricity.

Valeria closed her hand.

The crimson thread cut through its neck.

Two bodies hit the floor.

"Quiet," Raven murmured.

Valeria looked at the wasps striking the ground.

"That was quiet."

"One of them just electrocuted a wall."

"Then tell it to have better manners."

Raven crouched beside them.

He could not waste time harvesting organs.

They continued.

Another fifty yards.

Another chamber.

Three workers.

One Soldier.

The Soldier saw them.

There was no opportunity to prevent the alarm.

The insect opened its mandibles.

Its abdomen lit up.

"Valeria."

"I know."

The discharge fired.

Valeria raised both hands.

A plate of compressed blood appeared in front of them.

The blue arc struck.

The barrier exploded into red vapor.

Valeria stepped back.

Raven moved past her.

Kinetic Acceleration.

He touched a loose stone with the tip of his boot.

The Skill responded.

The stone launched forward.

It struck one of the Soldier’s compound eyes.

The shell caved inward.

The wasp veered aside.

Raven jumped onto a structural root crossing the chamber and used Burst Step diagonally.

The knife came down.

The Soldier turned.

Too fast.

The blade scraped across shell instead of finding a joint.

One leg struck Raven in the chest.