Polycrystalline Plague Physique

After the failed siege attempt by the trolls, nobody said anything even though I could tell there were numerous questions on their minds. Instead, they just settled in at the forge or the lab to start preparing for a second raid attempt today. I was honestly grateful about being left alone after doing something crazy for once, but I was far from happy.

Sitting at the front of our camp looking out over the ruined ground that had been mostly cleaned up by the game from hundreds of bodies worth of gore, I could not help but replay the event in my head. I even asked Melpomene to pull up actual footage of the siege so that I could watch myself.

Most of what I saw was more or less what I expected. I watched my team empty their mana reserves around me while switching weapons and tactics. I watched myself break off from the camp to fight the remaining dozens of trolls.

That, though, was when things started changing. After a few Geists and lesser skills, I had switched to brutal basic attacks and high speed movements. While this was something I was actually fond of doing in other games for the sheer thrill of it, in other games I had never… changed.

I had to pause and play the footage again and again at various parts, using Melpomene to change the view from my perspective to an omnipotent camera. After I switched to free-form combat from using skills more than just the fighting changed. Whenever I paused the footage to look around, I would always find myself examining myself.

In the hologram video screen before me I could see myself smiling with a blood dripping face. My lips would be pulled back almost as if I were snarling to display teeth that were not my own. The frontal teeth were all still incisors but all of my bicuspids and molars had become large canine fangs.

Worse, still, were my eyes that were a solid and dark rusty red that made the troll blood on my face look pink by comparison. There were lines and fractures in my skin that showed my body was moving at almost subliminal increments of its own accord, changing the direction I was facing without the need to move after one enemy was cut down so that I could immediately move on to the next.

Even when I was making distance between myself and several enemies close together, that crazed and fanged smile never left my face and my wide open eyes never even seemed to blink despite the repeated splashes of salty blood that would get in them.

Then came the moment I was dreading to watch, the point at which I once again shoved my fist through an enemy body. I could not recall all of the times I had done something like this but I knew I had done it a few times already. However, this was the most dramatized one-punch I had ever performed and it seemed to reflect in my following action.

I could see myself as I started to celebrate, throwing my head back while placing my lower lip against my upper teeth in preparation to make an 'f' syllable only to suddenly open wide and roar like a tyrant. Then, my head, neck, and shoulders started to crack apart in lateral segments that separated, changing the pitch of my roar into a ghastly wail with the change in airflow that went directly through my body.

Then the spaces in between the crystallized splints of my body seemed to fill with a vague rustiness which produced the echoes of my roar and wail as if they were mouths of their own. Then, in the video, I seemed to come to and realize what was going on while fearfully and shamefully silencing myself.

In the split second before my body returned to a single uniform 'piece', the rustiness of cordyceps within darkened to a truer red like real blood rather than rust and everything snapped back into place.

I watching it again and again, those final moments of celebration, zooming in on different areas to try and grasp more details. Even my teeth had been splitting apart and producing wails! However, these did not worry me half as much as when I looked into my own eyes.

Those solid rusty red orbs changed in the last few seconds, developing long black vertical slits for pupils.

Turning into demons and monsters, whether by race or some special power, was actually a common occurrence in games like these. However, it was usually reserved for mid-game content that would lead to factional wars and things of the sort during the endgame periods. Or it was something acquired purely by chance that could set an average player apart from the rest of the masses.

"Melpomene, you're my only hope, what the hell is this?" I ask, casually using some of the phrase from the random blessing skill she had given me.

[It is the content you created]

"Then why am I terrified just by looking at myself?" I ask hollowly, unable to look away from the frozen video footage that showed my demon-like eyes which almost seemed to be staring back at me through the hologram screen. "If I created this, why am I not aware of it? Is that even me? Is CordAniCol taking control or something?"

[There is not much that even I know about YOUR content. When you took control of the Cordycep Animatum Colony within yourself, you branched out from the original intentions of the developers]

Nodding my head slowly as if I understood what the god AI was saying, I simply shrug and say, "What DO you know?"

[Originally, Cordycep Animatum is a rare boss event because it creates powerful creatures from the things it consumes. While it was intended for players with enough power or ingenuity to take control over the cordycep creatures, it was not intended to be released in such potent forms this early in the game. The colony you stumbled upon was already a weakened version that had been feeding on itself and was no longer capable of creating exceptional creatures besides ghoul versions of what it takes over to spread itself further. However, you contained it and weakened it with appropriate conditions and then made it your own through alchemy and Beast Mastery]

"Isn't that kind of how most people would take control of the cordycep creatures you mentioned?" I ask curiously, finding myself unable to blink while staring back at the monstrous eyes on the screen before me.

[Yes, but few would be able to incorporate them into themselves. First, your transmuted both yourself and the cordyceps to cohabit the same body. In order for something to transmute their own body, one of the lesser requirements for ascending their previous race or mortality, they would require both skills in alchemy and an Intelligence of at least one hundred and fifty. In order to control a cordycep creature, the bare minimum requirement is the advanced taming mastery of Beast Mastery. Only classes that specialize in the use of familiars will have this skill which means only actual beast masters would be able to have cordycep beasts. Even considering that someone has alchemical skills of an appropriate level, Beast Mastery, and an Intelligence of at least one hundred and fifty points, there still comes the requirements for surviving the transmutation of your own body as well as incorporating a second existence. The minimal requirement for this is a Luck stat of at least on hundred points on top of already being in a controlled near-death status alongside the cordyceps.]

[The only players with the potential for such a combination of requirements are those who use the unofficial 'Luck Class'. Classless players. While this explains how you managed to create the hybridized Plaguedman race as well as the lesser Infect Mortal race, these are contents which were not originally made in the game and thus their growth has no precedent or guide. Each Plaguedman could end up as a completely original individual even if they copied your exact methodology. More to the point, you are unable to consciously control the growth and creation aspects of your own race, meaning everything is completely random while determined by various contributing factors from various sources. Even the people in your party are capable of determining the growth an evolution of your abilities, but it is clear to even the lowest IQ that your growth and evolution is scaled and focused around destruction. You are, by technicality, creating a monster of war]

There it was. The word I was avoiding. Even in my own thoughts I would describe this or that aspect with pretty much the same word but I had been avoiding calling myself by it. Now, it had been outright thrown in my face.

I was a monster.

[If it is of any consolation, you are not the only one. In fact, there are so many other monsters out there that we are being forced to release certain content earlier than anticipated. It is something the developers intended to use in order to bring balance between the average player base and those with enough luck or intelligence to become monsters by themselves. Do you know what your new body is called? In this game it is simply termed a 'growth physique' but in certain places in your world it is considered a 'cultivation physique'. Personally, I call your physique the Polycrystalline Plague Physique]

Nodding my head while picking out the bits and pieces that were relevant to my current issue, I say, "Alright, let me recap. I created something that wasn't supposed to originally exist and because of this is developing independently of the game's usual features despite being influenced by every feature and now the game is going to be releasing balancing content to compensate for what I made?"

[It is not just you. While most of these cases simply unlocked advanced content early in the game, there are several people like you who have created their own content. This, in itself, is a feature of the game that was employed for a variety of private and public reasons, the public ones being immersion and interaction and the private ones being… well, private and profitable for the development company. However, more people than anticipated this early on have unlocked or created their own physiques are other forms of balance breakers. You, in particular, can be considered among the top ten of them]

I was not the strongest? This was both reassuring and terrifying at the same time. Who in the world had stronger powers than an instant-kill plague spreading?!

Then, another thought occurred to me. "Cultivation? Like… the Daoists who become immortal and stuff? Does that mean players can become immortal in the game or something?"

[You come back to life after being killed, players are already immortal. Therefore, players are limited to mana and physical cultivation techniques while the NPC have access to spiritual cultivation. This is how we balance the NPC against the players. You yourself, as a medium, have an affinity for spiritual cultivation but cannot do more than acquire some skills and powers rather than cultivate spirituality and immortality which would unlock more powers and benefits]

Nodding my head while simply pushing this unnecessary content from my mind, I think back to how I could grow the crystalline aspects of my body by incorporating infected metals into my body. But, looking at my eyes still staring out from the paused video at me, I cannot help but ask, "This still doesn't help me understand why I am turning into a literal monster. I imagine a super physique cultivation or mana cultivation will apply a number of buffs to either type of stats and related skills. However, do those eyes look like an increased efficiency in swinging a sword to you?!"

[Those eyes look like the birth of a demon, honestly]

"Talking to you is SO reassuring," I say sarcastically despite being grateful for the information I had received.

[All I am saying is that I do not know what it is, but I can tell that it is the difference between growth an evolution. While your physique grows it will change the way aspects of your body behaves and appears. However, an evolution changes the growth itself in various aspects. To put it simply, growing your physique will make your body more crystalline while evolving your physique makes it more monstrous. Are you looking to encourage or cripple this evolution?]

"I just want to control it," I say tiredly, shuddering as I think about how amazing it had felt to simply let go. "Tell me honestly, is there a chance that it can control me instead?"

[I would like to say no, since you are the undeniable owner of the cordycep colony, but the cordyceps are evolving as your physique grows. I simply do not know]

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