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44 - Ruby Symbiote
🕑 Added 2024-07-27 20:43:49 +0000 UTCRyan stepped into the car, with Modak and Silvia following behind pretty quickly. Yamada, Runar's demon assistant, was the one driving, while Runar himself was sitting in the passenger seat.
"Eh... is it fine to just leave Liam here?" Ryan asked, not sure if that was a good idea. It was first day here, so already leaving him alone felt sort of bad.
Runar quickly replied, "Yeah, Anders is staying with him. He's pretty good with kids. I mean, he's got a couple on his own, so he better be."
"Huh, well, I guess it's fine then?"
Curiously, Silvia leaned forward, "He's got kids? How old are they?"
"Uh... good question, I keep forgetting," Runar said, looking over at Yamada. He leaned forward and signed to her so she could read his hands without having to look away from the road. She held up her left hand and quickly replied, signing the numbers in sequence.
"Ahh, right, right. They're 27, 24, and 20," Runar translated, and Ryan slightly narrowed his eyes.
"... Anders looked like 30, what the hell?"
"Well, dwarves look 30 from when they're 12, and stay like that until they're 80, so. Yeah," Runar joked, "But yeah, he's... 57? Yeah, 57."
Ryan raised his brow. Something about that felt weird, but he also really didn't care too much. He barely exchanged two sentences with Anders, so it didn't really matter. That being the case, he was also a lot more focused on trying not to let the seatbelt press onto his chest. Even if he couldn't feel it right now, since Runar completely blocked his ability to feel any sort of pain, or even the slightest touch, if the corruption tried to fight back and somehow continued injuring Ryan's body, that wasn't going to turn out all too well for him.
"So, where are we going right now? You said something about a 'symbiote nest'?" Ryan asked, and Runar quickly explained.
"Yes, so, it's exactly that. It's the place where we keep 'symbiotes'. They're a species that require a 'bond', because they can't really survive on their own for too long. Once they're bonded to someone else, they practically fuse into their body. They improve general health, one's immune system, their ability to heal wounds, and all sorts of good stuff. In some cases, they even extend their bond's lifespan a good bit."
"Oh, that... what the hell?" Ryan asked, not sure why he keeps getting surprised, "And let me guess, you're protecting them because rich assholes will try to exploit them?"
"Yup, basically. But the thing is that symbiotes are living, thinking individuals. They're hard to classify exactly, but if we had to, we would put them more into the category of 'people' rather than 'animals', but they're probably a bit too unique to be put into categories like that. Anyway, they choose their bond. If they don't like someone, they will refuse to bond with them. If someone then tries to force that to happen, shit goes really wrong, and both parties sides usually die or get crippled permanently."
"So..." Modak started, trying to collect his thoughts about this a bit, "... you're hoping that one of these symbiotes will like Ryan enough to want to form a bond with him?"
"Mhm, exactly," Runar turned around, smiling at the orc, "The issue is that there really aren't many symbiotes, and they would rather die than form a bond with someone they dislike. So... only about a tenth of all symbiotes form a bond before passing. And there's only about a dozen under our protection."
Silvia nervously looked over at Ryan, "So, there's only a ten percent chance that Ryan can bond with a symbiote and get rid of the corruption?"
Runar scoffed, unable to hold back a laugh "No, not even close. It's a ten percent chance that an individual symbiote will like any of the candidates we present to them over their lifetime. And we present many to them, trust me. The chance of a symbiote finding any individual adequate enough to bond with them is probably less likely than awakening."
"Then what if it doesn't work?"
"Then we'll have to try something else," Runar replied, turning to the elf, "But honestly, there's one weirdo amongst the symbiotes that I think will like Ryan quite a bit. And come on, do you know how lucky Ryan's been since he awakened? Even when he's unlucky, like with the mana poisoning, it all works out because the dungeon mana let him avoid being infected by the corruption."
"What, do you think that's another 'fate' thing?" Ryan asked. He still didn't like the idea of things being controlled by some external force he couldn't even understand, but if it helped him, then he couldn't really complain all too much. Runar seemed to think about it for a moment, but in the end just shrugged.
"Maybe, maybe not. Either way, you're fucking lucky as hell. And I'm confident in betting on that," Runar grinned, turning back around to look away from the back seats.
"So... do I have to do this symbiote thing? It sounds kind of weird," Ryan pointed out, "I mean, it's one thing to take care of, like, spirits and keep in them basically in my body, and it's a whole other thing to let something called 'symbiote' directly fuse with my body."
Runar immediately turned back around, rapidly shaking his head, "Oh, no, no, you don't have to, definitely not. I wanted to explain it a bit more before we head out, but the corruption is a bit worse than I expected, so we have to hurry and figure out a solution. I'll explain it all a bit more now, but seriously, you don't have to if you're not totally comfortable with it. I mean, you can't really undo it, so you do need to be sure."
"...Okay, that doesn't really make feel much better, to be honest. So it's either permanently accepting something into my body, or getting a large chunk of my chest cut out?"
"Yes? Technically?" unable to deny that, the rune mage looked back at him, "But the thing is, symbiotes are a... two-way road. That's kind of their whole thing. It's not really a 'choice' thing. It's like a wavelength. Like when you meet someone and immediately get along. A sort of... connection at first sight. Unless that happens, the bond will not freely form. Even if the symbiote takes a liking to you, and you somehow don't feel truly comfortable accepting them, the bond will not form. It's as simple as that."
"That one does make me feel better, I guess," sighing a breath of relief, Ryan leaned into the seat, still holding the seatbelt away from his chest, "So, what the one you mentioned like? The one you're thinking of."
Runar smirked, "Well, to be blunt... you kind of share a hobby."
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They floated through the water, their body melding into the cool liquid around it. There were pretty lights blinking all around that were quite nice to look at, but otherwise, this place was pretty boring. Compared to this, even that dirty lake they grew up in was better.
The insects, the fish, the... everything. It was beautiful, much better than here. Sure, it was dangerous, and they got injured and sick a lot, so they had little reason to really complain. But still, something was missing from here. Something that they couldn't quite put their finger on.
Hm? What was a 'finger'? It was that thing that those people outside the water had at the ends of those dangly limbs. The people had mentioned that word a few times, and that phrase in particular sounded pretty funny, so it quickly became one of their favourites.
That was the part of their day that they enjoyed the most. Some people or animals would come, and they, as well their siblings, were brought out for a quick introduction. Once or twice before, one of their siblings chose to form a 'bond', but that barely ever happened. They never really never liked any of the people, and the animals were too stupid to seem interesting at all. But there was one thing that they started to like! Using the pebbles and plants at the bottom of the tank, they started to try and make more of those people. Those were the most interesting, so they figured if they could be reproduced, they could have fun all the time!
But the ones that they made never really looked right, and their siblings would always come and break them. Their siblings were all bigger, and just because they were the only one that stuck out in the water, they were always being picked on. They really didn't like that at all. They really wanted to go back to the lake.
Oh, the people were opening that small door at the bottom of the tank. That meant they were supposed to come out to meet someone new. It was kind of annoying. They weren't going to like that person anyway.
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"Woah, look at that one!" Silvia gleefully exclaimed, pointing at one of the fish swimming through the reinforced glass tube above the group. It was a species of fish that none of the three had ever seen before, similar to how there were tons of animals and people that they hadn't seen before in the hideout under the café.
This place specifically wasn't a repurposed ruin, though, and instead a place that seemed to have been specifically constructed for this in the river-lake right next to Lakeview. Plenty of aquatic people lived not only above water, but here in the submerged district of New Riverside. And this place was built in an underwater cave right at the edge of that submerged district where the lake met the central river island that most of New Riverside was built on.
The one that was currently guiding them through this space was a Piscette; specifically, a Goldfish Piscette, whose bright orange scales stuck out very strongly even in here. And even though Piscettes were supposed to be somewhat sluggish out of water, this one's steps were so fast that it was kind of annoying to try and keep up with him.
"And here we go!" he exclaimed, as they all finally reached their destination. Though, it really just looked like some kind of empty tank. It connected through a tube to a slightly larger one that actually had some plants, but there still didn't seem to be anything swimming in there.
"Uh... so... this is where the symbiotes are supposed to be?" Ryan asked, looking at his uncle, who quickly leaned onto the edge of the tank.
"They're not 'supposed to be' here. They are here, look," Runar pointed at the water. Taking a closer look, Ryan narrowed his eyes. And that was when he saw it; there was something wriggling at the surface of the water. He slightly squatted down, trying to look at the water-level, and that's where he saw them. Almost perfectly translucent blobs, like a bunch of near-invisible jellyfish.
Modak and Silvia also soon noticed them, and the orc looked up at Runar, almost disappointed, "These are symbiotes? They look kind of... disappointing."
The piscette that had been guiding them let out an awkward laugh, "Please do not say things like that right in front of them. They can understand Riverian perfectly fine."
"O-Oh, that... I'm sorry... I didn't mean it like that! I'm called disappointing a lot too!" Modak nervously tried to make up for accidentally insulting the symbiotes, but it only resulted in a laugh from Ryan.
"Dude, come on. Seriously?"
"I didn't mean to insult them!" Modak whispered nervously, but Runar quickly calmed him down.
"It's fine, they usually don't really care about that kind of thing. They're probably thinking much worse about all of us, anyway," he pointed out, searching through the tank with his gaze, "I can't find the red one. Did something happen to them?"
The piscette glanced around the tank, "No, they should be okay. I just saw them this morning! They're usually one of the first ones out... Oh! There they are!"
Just as the piscette said this, Ryan spotted something come out from the tube that connected to the other, larger tank. It seemed to be the symbiote that Runar mentioned; the only red symbiote. While the others were fully translucent, this one had a deep, red colour that looked like someone had mixed blood and water together. This symbiote looked almost shy, the way they were moving along at the bottom of the tank. Also, though he couldn't see the size of the other symbiotes perfectly, the red one seemed to be a lot smaller than the others too, almost half the size.
"That's weird, I've never seen them act like that..." the piscette pointed out, and Ryan carefully glanced over at Runar, who had a massive grin on his face.
Nervous, Ryan did as his uncle had said earlier. He placed his hand into the water. It was a bit weird, though. Since he still couldn't feel anything, the disconnect from seeing the water swallow his hand and not being able to feel it happen was quite jarring. But either way, Ryan just held his hand in the water for a while. The other symbiotes seemed to quickly move out of the way, but the red one was the only one that didn't react too much. Instead, they were moving a bit closer, though very slowly. But it wasn't just the symbiote either. Ryan weirdly hated admitting that his uncle was right, something he might have to try and evaluate sooner or later, but he weirdly did feel a kind of connection with that red symbiote, even if they didn't form a bond yet.
It wasn't the exact same, of course, but it was kind of similar to how when he first met Modak and Silvia. That immediate sensation of closeness that was hard to truly define. Slowly, the symbiote touched Ryan's finger. Even though his body was still supposed to be numbed, Ryan actually felt it.
Carefully, the red symbiote climbed up his finger and onto the back of his hand. That living mass of goo wriggled once out of the water, as if trying to shake the wetness away as a dog would.
Once they calmed down, the symbiote pressed themself flat onto his skin. They slowly shrank down, being absorbed into Ryan's skin. But they never seemed to fully disappear, as a red swirl was left on the back of Ryan's hand. That swirl continued to move, flowing over Ryan's skin. He could feel the symbiote move up his arm, and soon reached his chest.
Ryan could tell what was about to happen, but he was quickly distracted by the system message that appeared before him
[You have formed a bond with a -Ruby Symbiote-]
[The Ruby Symbiote is expelling the Corruption from your body]
All at once, a wave of shock flowed through Ryan's body. As if all the pain that he was supposed to feel over the past one and a half hours returned to hit him all at once with some bonus interest. Ryan's eyes rolled into his head as he almost fell over backward, but he was able to catch himself in the last moment, forcing himself to stay upright. Grinding his teeth, Ryan grabbed his shirt. He wanted to just take it off normally, but he couldn't really control himself well enough for that. So, instead, as his fingers dug into the fabric, Ryan just completely tore his shirt off his upper body. As he did, he could see the black mass latched onto his chest pulsating to Ryan's heartbeat.
Bit by bit, with every beat, it seemed to protrude more and more. The tendrils digging into his skin were starting to loosen. There were marks left behind, but Ryan didn't really care too much about that. He just wanted this thing out of there. He tried to grab at the corruption, but Runar held back his nephew's arm.
"No, don't! Just let the symbiote do their thing!" Runar's voice somehow managed to pierce through Ryan's current state of mind as he slowly nodded. But of course, it was easier said than done. Despite what his uncle was saying, he couldn't help himself but want to tear it away, like some kind of instinct. However, Runar simply grabbed both of Ryan's wrists, holding them in place without struggling whatsoever. It was like Ryan was locked to a brick wall, though it was probably easier to resist that wall compared to Runar at this point.
And then, after what seemed like far too long, the black, corrupted mass fell of Ryan's chest. A burning sensation was left behind in its stead, but that paralyzing pain was gone, all at once. The last thing that Ryan could see before everything went dark was that thing crumbling away into dust.
