Timber Tantrum

My literal production skills were what I worked on leveling up next. Growing large blades and spikes of chitin and wood from my body since they were the stronger materials I could produce without an affinity for ice. Using the ice mana materials I had learned to replicate in the Winter Wood would only make it tougher to smack down the trolls.

Clearing the first outpost using these replicated materials took longer than fighting in my hulk form, extending the time it took to clear the fifth outpost to almost four minutes by myself. During this time, though, I learned how to cheat the system a little.

Instead of simply increasing my overall damage with each bodily weapon I produced, each blade or spike had its own attack rating that was added to my overall PATK and did not stack with the other parts of my body. Unless, of course, more than one body weapon actually struck my target. In this way, I quickly learned to stack materials together.

Growing out from my hand was was a long three-layer blade of exoskeleton chitin, rebounding hickory, and ivory. Each blade alone had an attack rating of somewhere above or below forty damage but stacked together the wounds they inflicted caused stacked damage as all three layers tore into the trolls.

The damage output of these blades was fairly close to the damage of Hauntings but was still sadly lacking in comparison to the overwhelming strength and brutality of my hulk form. As well, since I was now smaller than the trolls the effect of a shorter reach was a harsh reality to wake up to. At the very least I was getting better at my defenses, growing stacked scales of non ice related materials all over my body under my armor.

Like this, my defenses were actually higher than in my hulk form but this was understandable because the hulk form was crudely planned out for sheer strength and reach. Even with a higher defense the trolls were able to compensate by getting in more attacks at a time. In this way, the only thing that changed was the amount of time it took to kill in bulk.

My bodily weapons, sadly, did not have a very high durability even when using ivory for the base. After every few kills the blades of my hands and arms would start chipping and cracking, forcing me to detach and throw them for some ranged damage before growing out new ones. Sadly, the trolls were not willing to politely wait for me to rearm myself.

Any time the trolls in this wave had the opportunity and saw a moment of weakness they would start unleashing their skills and I was once forced to curl up in a large ice mana scale ball to protect myself.

From this I gratefully learned that I could make my resistance to ice attacks skyrocket using the defensive skills of the ice birds which helped greatly to offset the damage I would normally receive. Almost as if balancing this ability, the cost of producing these crystallized ice mana defenses was twice that of producing organic matters. After being forced to curl up in a defensive ball, I was soon depleted of my mana and had to rely on Spore Shoal to escape.

I was careful not to let my spores infect and corrupt the trolls, this would not only diminish my training exercise but would also train the skills that I was avoiding. Part of my current theory was that my own body and the corruption based skills were too high compared to the other cordycep abilities which made it easier for the cordyceps to 'act out'.

Right now they were able to overrule my victory cry with a fragmenting roar, proving that they colony I contained had some level of self awareness that I was not aware of. Now that I was aware of it, it was less likely that they could overrule my actions by default but it also meant they were capable of their own growth. Even if any stat bonuses and the like were given to me, the parasites turned symbiont could be said to have become sentient thanks to my transmutation.

Since we shared a body we shared our strengths and weaknesses but that meant we were equals. If I wanted to be the superior then I had to consciously exercise my control over the colony and the abilities it gave me. As well, I personally wanted to minimize the literal plague aspects in the event that they one day decided to act in self-preservation and unleash spores by themselves.

If those skills were weaker than the chance of it happening were lower, meaning their more likely outlets would be the production and transformation abilities. As well, since I was the one training those skills then I was the one with the superior control over them. Even if it wanted to transform my body it would have to be stronger than my control of the skill itself.

Supposedly… hopefully… probably?

There was also the very obvious possibility that by training the cordycep skills I was in fact strengthening the cordyceps but I still needed that level of control just for personal reassurance. When I was roaring and breaking apart it actually took me a moment to realize what I was doing. If I can gain enough control to recognize the actions and reactions at the start and simply stop them from taking place.

After clearing the fifth outpost I was actually feeling pretty confident in my abilities while stacking a few troll titles, further weakening my enemies and making the training easier. The experience paid out per kill went unaffected but the trolls themselves would slow down and become more cautious as they grew closer.

It had actually reached the point where the trolls refused to come within reach without at least ten comrades to group up around each of my sides.

In the beginning of the sixth wave the trolls took more time to encircle me than to actually fight me. After the corral of bodies had been cut down, though, the trolls had no choice but to unleash a barrage of skills before returning to their originally berserker fighting style of rushing in and swinging wildly in the hopes of hitting.

Dealing with the second wave of reinforcements sent out from the fort did not help much, either. It was bad enough that the reinforcements had joined the sixth wave at the start but a new set was inbound before they were even cleared out. However, I finally caved in and drank a cordycep mana potion and started unleashing my combination skills to reach the seventh outpost field before a third wave of reinforcements could come out.

I did not even have to check to know that my level continued to rise with every outpost and wave of reinforcements, but the increase of a single point in every stat was downright negligible in the middle of a fight. With a minimum of one hundred trolls per wave and one hundred experience, I was easily getting ten thousand experience per wave. Then add on the addition of ten trolls per outpost and the reinforcements.

Until, of course, Melpomene informed me that I reached level seventy-five. Reaching level seventy-five required more than twenty-two thousand experience but the experience requirement jumped right up to twenty-five thousand to reach seventy-six. She even broke the rules a little and informed me the requirement growth had been amped from five hundred more per level to a thousand more per level.

Reaching level seventy-seven from seventy-six would require twenty-six thousand experience, more than what a wave of two hundred trolls could bring in for me.

I could already imagine that reaching level one hundred from ninety-nine would take fifty thousand experience but to reach level one-o'-one would probably be a growth of several thousand experience. The growth per level alone could not be any less than two thousand experience considering the five hundred experience had already doubled to a thousand.

Punching the two-foot long stack of blade protruding from the top of my wrist into a troll's throat and detaching them, I cast Air Cannon right behind the jaggedly broken base of the blades. I was pleased to note that the troll's head was directly blown off from the explosion of compressed air and shattering bodily weapons. Sadly, I did not get to take the time to enjoy such a show.

Casting out a Spirit Wave with an 'unarmed' 360 Edge, I take the opportunity to chug another cordycep mana potion before growing out dozens of stacked blades from my arms and refreshing my current coating of ice mana scales.

Continuing to play with my abilities, I punch out at one of the nearest trolls that had somehow managed to stay on its feet and forcible extend my arm, spending a hundred mana to increase my reach by five feet and impale the staggered troll through the chest and out of its back. Then I snapped my arm back to its proper proportions before using Quick Step.

Ending the blurred rush amid the only remaining cluster of bodies that had been waiting for the chance to push forward, I once again stretch my arms out to more than my own body length and use 360 Edge the slash and shatter my arm blades into and against the trolls who still had fight left in them. By now, though, the next wave of reinforcements were inbound.

Refilling my health and mana using Devour on a nearby pile of bodies, I use Flash Step to enter the eighth outpost field well beyond the halfway point and simply wait while regenerating mana. By the time the first trolls came within reach, both the eighth outpost trolls and the fort's newest reinforcements came at me in combined numbers that well exceeded three hundred trolls.

Knowing that even I would be hard pressed to survive numbers like this despite my abilities, I use Overeating and Devour at the same time to simply consume a two-part mana regen potion bottle and all before returning to my Hulk Scissor-hands form. Once I was super-sized again, I decided to use one of my newer skills and triggered Timber Tantrum.

My entire field of view became somewhat hazed as if looking through a veil of crimson and I could feel the strength in my body rising while my thoughts became less coherent. I could still think and plan and move at will, but in the middle of my conscious thoughts there would be these overwhelming urges and impulses that throbbed like the beating of my heart.

If these impulses were to be translated into something sentient, it would probably have come out as a single word. The word might have been different with each berserk beat, but the meaning would have never changed. Crush, tear, rend, impale, shred, smash, destroy, devour… they all had the same result. KILL.

At first I tried to fight in my own way but it felt like I was fighting myself more than the trolls, exerting my control over my movements seemed to make my body sluggish and heavy. So, after sustaining numerous attacks, I did the one thing I should have probably avoided. I let go.

The moment I stopped fighting myself and just let my mind and body run free, the berserk beat of my heart suddenly started running a mile a minute and the red haze thickened. However, I was still perfectly aware even as I suspected my cordyceps were taking over. This, though, could be counted as Melpomene's offered alternative.

If I had trouble controlling the cordyceps I should offer them a therapy of sorts, allowing them to roam free when it was safe in exchange for control with it was not. Honestly, it felt like Timber Tantrum was doing just that. Giving up control to the colony I was trying to increase my control over.

My body suddenly emptied it mana supply in the form of production skills, growing out massive blades and spiraling skewers from almost every inch of myself. There was even one awkwardly placed skewer below the waist that I hoped nobody would ever know existed. At least, with a body like this, the trolls would have to mutilate themselves just to get within reach of attacking me.

Once the eighth outpost field was finally cleared of both troll groups my health bar was only down to seventy percent and I could finally take the time to remove my below-the-belt skewer while making Melpomene swear to secrecy and censorship in the future.

However, there was less than a minute before the next set of reinforcements were released so I had no choice but to once again run forward and set off the ninth outpost. For a brief moment I could not help but wonder how long it took for my team to get to the tenth outpost from the first without me there.

I knew they had already gotten there from the fifth outpost after our first run together but I had never thought to ask how long it took to do so without me. For just me alone, it had taken less than twenty minutes just to reach this point. My team were all fairly powerful in their own rights so I could imagine that with the entire group and their familiars that it would only take around half an hour.

If they actively used my Cweeper and Hermes for more than just giving themselves a chance to rest, they could probably do it even faster than I had done so far.

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