Heteromorph in Worm [Overlord{Maruyama)/Worm] by Akallas von Aerok

Words: 19k+

Link: -https//forums.spacebattles.com/threads/heteromorph-in-worm-overlord-maruyama-worm.793891/

( Maruyama-Overlord Style Power for a Cauldron Agent )

1.0

I stared at the contract in front of me and the person who offered it to me.

It was … incredulous. Fantastical. Unrealistic.

Yet I desired it.

"And what is the cost of accepting this exchange?" I asked, gesturing with my weak left arm at the contract.

My name was David, and I am a cancer patient. I wasn't a normal cancer patient, though; I was a terminal cancer patient. By a fault not of my own but rather an uncaring people who didn't even realize that they were dumping mutagens into the river, I have acquired three different types of cancers by eating plants grown that were watered from the same river, even after filtration and treatment. As great as modern innovations like filtration and water treatments were, they weren't perfect and things slipped through. I, out of a million people, was the victim.

I hadn't even realized that I had cancer until I just collapsed one day. According to the doctors, my balanced and healthy diet was the only reason why I hadn't collapsed earlier because I started not with three cancers but five cancer sites.

Miraculous, I know. My own diet was good enough to kill two sites but there was only so much diet could do against a host of problems.

So when I collapsed and they admitted me to the hospital, they scanned me and found where the cancers were and how far they were along.

Lung.

Heart.

Guts.

All terminal.

All widespread.

Upon hearing all of that, I grieved. Rather, I allowed myself to grieve for a single day. I spent the last month tying up loose ends.

Businesses, houses, lands, stocks. Nothing mattered when I was next in line to die.

But here this person was, offering me a deal.

I have been offered a deal, and the statement was thus.

'In exchange for curing you and giving you a supernatural ability, you will work for us.'

What a farce.

But … But it was a ray of hope for someone who'd been prepared to die.

I stared at the contract.

It was a simple thing. It was just a bunch of things that they were expected to give me, what they expected from me, and what the duration of my services would be. This was not something someone made to give false hope to a terminal cancer patient.

No, this was a deal with the devil.

There was not a single mention of what my services would be, what the side effect of this deal would be, what kind of cure would be used, or if I would be allowed to stay here in California with my family.

Death or Uncertainty. That's what this was to me.

I picked up a pen with my weak and trembling left hand and added a new statement.

[No memory alteration.]

The woman in front of me stared at it, seemed to calculate the impact of the statement, and then nodded.

I signed the contract.

I set the pen down as the woman walked to my side and pulled out a syringe. "Sedative."

"Does it matter?" I asked.

"... A little."

"Do it then," I said as I laid down.

She injected it into my trembling arm, and I felt the drug take effect rather fast.

'Hopefully, when I wake up next time, it'll be -'

"- FUCKING HELL!" I roared as the drug they injected into me for the "cure" coursed through my body.

Tied down to an operating table inside an unknown sterile white lab room, I screamed as I felt my body rip and tear itself apart. My heart pounded inside my chest but my chest was swelling and the bones were breaking and reforming -!

"GAAAAHHHH!!!!"

My head felt like someone poured white hot lead into it!

My legs!

My arm!

MY MINI-ME! HOLY SHIT APPARENTLY I CAN FUCKING JOKE WHILE IN PAIN!

I spat out blood and even with blood staining my mouth and lips, I screamed.

Sitting in a cell, I grumbled before the same woman who offered me this deal walked up to the bars.

"Are you calm?"

I rotated my floating head.

"Kind of," I spoke through grinding my rocks from within my head.

"Are you ready to talk?"

"... Sorry, I went crazy at the end," I grumbled out.

The fedora wearing woman simply nodded. "We do not fault you," she said as she pulled out a key chain, picked out a key, and used it to open my ridiculously high strength and tensile bars. She slid the bar gates open, and I stood up. When she nodded, I walked out and followed her to one of the exits in this giant complex.

I ignored the other hideously morphed creatures around me. They, like me, chose to take the chance to be cured. Like they, I had gone a little berserk after the end of the procedure. I'd gone a little insane after going through all of the pain I had to endure, and had lashed out.

The fedora woman here had been there to stop me, though I'm not sure how my new changed self had been stopped by a fork.

We exited the prison, because that's what it was, and entered the sterile white portions of the compound. We walked for some time before coming to a stop in front of a door. She opened it, and we stepped through together.

Waiting inside was a lab coat wearing person. He looked frazzled?

He looked up from whatever his work with crystalline glowing within the liquid was, and saw me.

"Ah, you brought him, Contessa."

"Yes," the fedora wearing woman replied. "He's the willing participant."

The researcher looked me over before huffing. "Well, bring him over here, then. None of us have time to spare."

The woman moved only a second after the researcher finished talking, and led me towards an empty armchair in the office. She gestured for me to sit down and when I did, she turned and left.

I took a moment to stare after her and her shapely ass, I turned to look at the researcher, who was still focused on whatever he was working on.

Then he abruptly stopped.

"Alright. You're name?"

"David."

"Hmm… give me a different name. Different form, different name."

A curt kind of man, I assume?

I looked over myself. I wasn't exactly human anymore. My "head" was a spherical construct floating with a hollow cavity filled with rough crystals. They ground for me to make the human sounds but they didn't suffer wear and tear so far. My body was of similar material.

"Augur."

"... warning of an outcome, good or bad," the researcher hummed. "Good name. Have you worked on figuring out what your power may be?"

I nodded my head.

When I woke up in this compound, another researcher, a dark skinned lady who was definitely less familiar with modern equipment, explained to me that I would be swallowing the contents of a vial that they chose for me. From this vial, I had the chance of being cured of everything that had gone wrong for me and also obtaining a superpower.

On the other hand, if I was incompatible with the power within even after the preparations they have gone through to ensure compatibility, then I would die from complications during the transition phase. I accepted regardless of the possibility of death because I was already a dead man walking. I just hadn't expected that level of pain.

During the time of my imprisonment, I took a lot of time to discover everything that had changed about myself. I immediately found that I had no neck, my head floated on its own, and all of my body was made out of barn red crystalline stuff. I absorbed iron to "heal" myself by touching but I could also abstain from doing so.

"Alright, then what is it?" He paused. "Actually, before we go through with that, why don't we establish some facts. What year was it, wherever you come from?"

"2015." I was in college a year before I found that I was a terminal cancer patient. My parents got a lot of money from the company that was responsible for my state, so that was good.

"It's 1986 in the Earth that we are going to send you to."

I felt the world sway for a second before everything snapped.

They can change bodies and give people powers. What's a parallel Earth to that?

"Okay."

"Great. We've established that, so let's talk about your power."

I scratched the "cheek" of my orb-head. "It's … game-like?"

"'Game-like'?" the researcher repeated.

"I tried a lot of things to call up my powers, and it took me a long time."

"Yes, you were in your cell for an entire day. You also didn't sleep."

I paused. "I don't think I need to."

He noted that down.

"What else?"

Well, when I was thinking about my status," I began. "It popped up."

"It?"

"A game screen."

"A game screen… What is a game screen?"

"You haven't played any video games?"

The researcher shrugged. "Remember that I am from the same Earth you are being sent to. It's the 1980's for me but 2010's for you. Things are different between our two Earths."

"Ah. Okay. A game screen is part of a GUI, or Game User Interface, that allows a player to interact with the game in a manner that is not realistically possible."

"Such as?"

"Well, just like most roleplaying games that I know, my power seems to give me a status page and inventory."

"Can you explain both of those to me?"

"Status page shows me my status. Everything from any debuffs, like diseases, or just overall numerical, if arbitrary, clarification of my status. Inventory allows me to store things."

"Do you know the limits?"

"No."

"Very well. We can end the discussion for now. You'll be sent to my Earth, which is being called Earth Bet, as one of our agents."

"What am I to do?"

The researcher finally smiled. "Whatever is required of you."

Augur Status said:

Name:

Augur

Race:

Golem (Crystaline) LvL. 1

Gender:

Male (Sex: Asexual)

Affiliation:

The Cauldron

Residence:

Undecided / Earth Bet

Karma:

Neutral (0)

Jobs:

N/A

HP: 5

MP: 5

Phy. Atk: 10

Phy. Def: 10

Agility: 5

Mag. Atk: 5

Mag. Def: 10

Resistance: 5

Special Ability: 3