It didn’t take him long to return to his lair. He entered the diner through the hole in the roof, landing in the middle of a pile of debris. Walking along a short corridor, he entered the storage room. There, he dropped the ensnared walker to the floor before lifting the hatch door.
He kicked the mutant, sending it rolling into the opening, where it fell into the basement. Jumping down into the blue abyss himself, he took a glance at his prey. The ex-human snarled and writhed on the ground, but he was powerless to get free.
Leaning over, he grabbed the mutant by its ankles and dragged it across the floor to the center of the basement, where the Mana Core was located. He pulled the mutant onto the black splotch of Corruption surrounding the Mana Core and let go of its legs.
For a second, he studied his quarry. The cinch net enveloping its body was surprisingly strong, wrapping around so tightly that its threads cut deeply enough into the mutant’s flesh to draw blood.
He wondered if he needed to cut the cinch net before instructing his larva to process the walker. He hoped he wouldn’t have to do that, because if freed, the walker surely wouldn’t sit still while his larva consumed it.
The walker managed to roll from its back to one side, prompting Jake to kick it back onto its back. He pressed one foot onto its chest to pin it down and scanned the area for its larva.
The little creature crawled aimlessly along the far edge of the pitch-black substance known as Corruption. If his larva noticed the walker he had brought, it gave no indication. He sent a telepathic command for his larva to process the walker. As soon as he did so, the creature began to crawl toward him.
Its movement speed was very slow, and even though the walker was just a few paces away, it took the little creature almost a full minute to reach it. It moved toward where the walker’s feet rested. They didn’t exactly lie motionlessly on the Corruption. Instead, the walker was restlessly writhing beneath his foot, snarling and kicking its legs.
The larva opened its mouth—one of the two, as it had one at each end—surprisingly wide, and a fleshy tongue-tube slithered out. Its slender and agile form easily slid through one of the gaps in the cinch net. At the end of the tongue-tube was a sucker, which the larva proceeded to latch onto the center of one of the walker’s feet.
It looked like the little creature was going to draw blood. Instead, something else happened. The end of its tongue widened greatly, enveloping nearly the entire surface of the walker’s foot. It then repositioned its tongue, sucking the toes and part of the walker’s foot into the tube.
Whatever was happening had to be quite painful because the walker was now resisting with even greater strength than before, and its snarls now carried a plaintive tone. As the larva consumed the walker’s flesh, it was processed within its body, and then pitch-black goo erupted from the mouth at the opposite end.
Unlike the Corruption covering the floor, which had solidified to be as hard as concrete, the goo seemed soft and dough-like, as if waiting to be molded into whatever form its creator desired.
The larva paid the goo coming out of its other end no mind, though. The little creature continued to consume the walker. At some point, the entire foot of the ex-human was gone, and the little creature’s tongue-tube proceeded to suck in its lower leg.
When the tongue was extended to its full length, the larva inched closer to its prey. Jake thought he would have to cut some threads of the cinch net to let the chubby creature through, but it turned out to be unnecessary.
The larva contracted and relaxed its body, allowing it to squeeze through the gap in the cinch net, which seemed too small for the chubby creature. Yet by coiling and twisting its body, the larva managed to navigate through the tight space with surprising ease.
Once inside the cinch net, it continued to consume its prey. After one leg was fully processed, the larva turned its attention to the other one. The process was painfully slow, though. Over two hours had passed since he returned to his lair. When both legs of the walker were gone, the larva proceeded to consume the lower half of its body.
At some point, the walker suddenly died. Jake wasn’t sure why, though. Half of its body was missing, reduced to a pile of black goo. Still, ex-humans could survive even when missing lower parts. They had always been resilient to damage, and after the city upgrade, they became even tougher. The walker should have lasted longer.
Anyway, it was definitely dead now, and the larva lost interest in it. For some reason, it could only convert living organisms into black goo. Jake glanced at the Mana Core and summoned its stats. He was interested only in one line.
He had 20 GP before bringing the walker to his lair, meaning half a walker was worth about 50 GP. That was useful information.
From below, a glimpse of movement caught his attention. He lowered his gaze and saw that the larva was now doing something different. The little creature was spreading the goo around the solidified splotch of Corruption, making the whole area wider. The goo also gradually began to solidify.
Jake turned his attention to what was left of the walker. He needed to bring another ex-human to his lair, and after his larva processed it, he would have over 100 GP. With that amount amassed, he would finally be able to upgrade the Mana Core to the next rank, unlocking some structures to build.
He also hoped that after upgrading the Mana Core, the process of turning living organisms into building materials would become easier and faster. Bringing ex-humans to his lair one by one for his larvae to transform was quite slow and troublesome.
With one more glance at his larva continuing to expand the Corruption, he lifted the remains of the walker and exited through the hatch in the ceiling.