Chapter 16: Escape!

  I wasn't an expert in reading reptile body language, but judging how his tail was twitching, I was beginning to think he was getting annoyed with me. Bakanda stared at me for a few seconds before turning his attention to the room around us.

  "This complicates things." He said, running a hand through his head feathers.

  "What's your name, Cousin?" he said, turning his attention back to me.

  "Rakim and your Bakanda, right?" I said, feeling weirded out at the turn of the conversation.

  "Right, Rakim, you're a progenitor, same as Xerapha and me, yes?" He phrased it like a question, but I was certain he knew the truth already. I nodded in response.

  "Good, good, now this is going to be hard, but all of us progenitors have a unique progenitor skill," His eyes bored into me as he spoke. "That's what lets us create our species. Mine lets me swap racial abilities with creatures. Now, I don't know if you're one of those dudes who like to keep their abilities secret, but I have an ability that might help you get out. Consider it my gift to you for letting me out of my pod."

  It didn't take long for me to come to a decision. I needed to get out of here, and I doubted a creature as powerful as Bakanda had an ability I wouldn't want.

  "I got nothing to hide, dude. If you can get us out of here, I'm down!" I said my voice tinged with hope.

  "I'm glad you said that. Things to bear in mind: this ability of mine is going to scale to your rank. It will be at the highest level possible for your rank, and much of its power is going to be reduced. You probably won't be able to use it often either. I don't know how much use you'll get out of it at your current rank." Bakanda said this as he placed a single wicked-looking talon on my forehead.

  "This is only going to hurt for a few seconds."

  A few seconds can feel like an extremely long time. I felt Bakanda force something huge through my mana channels within my body, like trying to fit a grape through a straw. The agony had me screaming as my magic was forced to adapt to the foreign energy threatening to tear me apart. At the same moment, I felt something reach out and snatch at something within me. A cold sensation that was unpleasant in its own way. Not painful but deeply uncomfortable, almost making me thankful for the pain that distracted me from it.

  The sensations left just as quickly as they came, leaving me on my knees, drenched in sweat for the first time since my species change.

  "It's done," Bakanda said, as he turned to leave the room, "Don't waste anymore time get as far from here as you can and get ready Pink's hero projects will be tasked to hunt you down. Become so powerful that they'll think twice. Good luck cousin!" with that Bakanda left down the tunnel towards the carnage.

  I wished I could stay on the ground for a bit, but I knew that wasn't a choice. I forced myself to get to my feet using my tail for support. I was so glad that I had it, never realised how useful a tail could be, especially for balancing. I brought my mind back to the task at hand. My mind was filled with the new information on all the ways I could use this new racial ability, yet it was odd. I had all these different uses, but I knew that the vast majority were unavailable to me. I was too weak to use the ability to its fullest. Still, I pulled it up in front of me to see what the system had to say.

  The system didn't add much, but I knew that skills capped out at level 10 for my rank. It was time to test this thing and pray that my new skill worked. I focused on the new energy that had entered my body. It was coiled in my core, a strange energy that both felt cold and lonely. I didn't want to dwell on the feeling, not sure how it would affect me mentally, as dark memories floated to the surface. I pulled at the strange energy, and it answered far too eagerly, coalescing around my outstretched left arm.

  I swung my hand diagonally at the spot where the door had been. I supercharged the ability as I did so, flaring the energy, causing it to go from a thin black slice into a roaring rift of angry violet energies. On the other side of it, I could see something. After a few seconds, the sight of a pod room came into view. I was wondering if it was one of those that I had been in earlier, but it was a step in the right direction. I stepped through the portal, feeling it sucking out the strange energies from me as the portal closed behind me.

  The pod room I had entered was eerily still; all the machinery had gone inert, and the lights had all dimmed. The pods were still sealed, but none were moving. I guessed The Collector had to divert all the power back to his army and his monstrous form. This turned out to be a blessing for me, as all the doors connecting this room to other rooms were no longer hidden from view. The downside was that I had no idea which door led to the outside. So I put my fate in the hands of luck by using the very scientific Eeny, Meeny, Mo method.

  Having decided on a door, I ran over to it, but before I made it halfway across, I heard a very familiar sound. Coming from behind the door I had been going towards was a buzzing.

  "Oh! Hell no!" I screamed as I ran in the opposite direction. That was until an idea hit me. Was it my best idea? No. Was it probably the dumbest thing I would ever do again, yes. I ran to the nearest pod to me and channelled my mana through it, causing it to pop open. I didn't wait to see what would appear from it. Instead, I pushed my serpentine agility to the limit, opening as many pods as I could. By the time the mechanical bugs burst into the room, they were immediately attacked by a variety of monsters, from a fifteen-foot, overweight humanoid covered in warts that spewed a sticky mucus that hardened on contact with other creatures, to a small pixie-like thing that turned into a flying sword that slashed through anything in her path.

  The creatures I had unleashed weren't an organised force, but they were all here for a reason, and once a few had seen me unlock some more pods, the information spread, and they took it on themselves to unlock as many pods as they could. The bugs didn't stand a chance; even the beetles were overwhelmed. I suspected that these were reinforcements that the Collector was summoning to himself.

  I didn't stay for long. I wanted to get the hell out of this place. A thought which was reinforced as the entire building began to shake with pods falling from the high ceiling. I ran to the nearest door and forced it open. It led into another room full of pods. I scanned the room for more doors, not bothering to close the other door behind me. I spotted another cluster of doors and ran towards them, opening even more pods as I did. I had to give up, though, as the room began to collapse, forcing me to pick up the pace.

  I burst through the other door, expecting to see another pod room, but I found myself somewhere familiar. I was in that golden room with the lava statues that I had first entered. I was so happy to have made it here; the only problem was that the door on the other side, the one I was certain led to my freedom, was still locked, and my new ability was not ready to use again. I was not going to be trapped here! I started blasting the door with Earthen Spikes and using a combination of Soil Manipulation and Dust Cloud to try and manipulate earth into the door's seams. I drained my mana several times until, thankfully, I heard the satisfying click as the door swung open, and I leapt through, not even contemplating the fact that I had no idea if the door would let me out.

  I found myself back in the corridor with the cube lights, taking a deep breath. A moment later, the door that had started my whole little adventure began to glow with deep orange and began to melt away before it simply vanished. I guessed that the powers that be had finally taken action.

  I collapsed onto the now cold floor, watching up at the cube-shaped lights. I was so frustrated. Everything in this bloody new world was passing me so quickly. I hated being forced into a passive role. No, from now on, I was going to do everything to make sure I was the top predator. First thing was to get away from this temple, just in case the gods of the system or whatever decided it needed to go. I pulled myself up to my feet and made my way up the stairs. I'd forgotten how long the trip down had been and was so grateful when I saw the familiar wooden door I'd entered through.

  I was planning to leave the way I came in, but it would take too long. Instead, I would try my luck descending out of the window in the store room. I made my way over to the room, which had been mine for a night. My heart was hurt as I thought about not being able to sleep there. Just as I was about to start the climb, I felt a warm pull from my trouser pocket. I stopped and pulled out the object that Xerapha had thrown at me. I put my hand into my pocket and pulled out the warm object. It was a key, and it glowed with an ember glow. As it sat in my palm, the key lifted from my palm and started to float out of the room. I followed it, wondering where this was going.

  The key flew towards the room with the well. I made sure to follow my curiosity and disregard my need for caution. The key floated above the well. It stayed there for a few minutes before it fell into the caustic liquid. I dove for it as it took me by surprise. I reached the lip of the well and was confused by what I saw. The golden box was no longer floating in the liquid; in fact, the liquid was nowhere to be seen, and the box appeared slightly opened.

  Now I know I should have been more cautious, but at this point, I was done. I snatched up the box and ran from the room. I didn't think the room was trapped, but I just wanted to get out. As I grabbed the box, something strange happened. The box turned into golden sand that seemed to meld with my scales. I wasn't sure what was happening, but the system saw fit to give me a message.

  Congratulations! You have obtained Wazeet's Golden Box! Once belonging to the Serpent Prince Wazeet, this box is a dimensional storage space that once held his treasure room. Over the centuries, the lack of ownership has led the space to shrink; it now has a 225Sq ft area. Many of the treasures were stolen over the centuries, but some remain.

  I almost fell out of the window as I saw what the prompt said. I was so tempted to see what treasures were left. Hopefully, some good ones, but first, I had to make it down to the jungle floor. I was so thankful for the sun as it helped heal my injuries as I started my way down.