The Eternal Winter - Book 1 - Chapter 38 - Symbiont Storage (Patreon)

                                                                                           Alexander North

I lie on the ground for what must be three whole minutes before sitting up. And feeling my helmet begin to shatter in the process, leaving my head bare.

Great. Just great.

I rub my eyes for a few seconds as I imagine the looks on the civilians and even the soldiers’ faces whenever I regroup with them and Cynthia.

This’ll be a pain.

How did my helmet end up shattering anyways? Didn’t it just get slammed against the wall along with me? How did that lead to it shattering?

Oh, whatever. I guess it doesn’t really matter.

I feel the back of my head before removing my hand after not feeling any pain, just for my gloved hand to come back sticky with my pale, bluish-red blood.

Yuck. I wipe the blood on the dead wolf’s white fur before getting up again and turning to the wolf.

Time to absorb their energy.

I flip the creature over to expose its chest, where the energy is circulating, before placing my hand there and feeling a massive flood of energy enter my body, followed shortly by a surge of power. This ends up taking much longer than any other energy absorption has so far, and by the end of it, I find that I’d fallen to my knees without even realizing it.

/ Notice \

The following user statistics have updated:

Strength: 1.71 -> 1.80
Speed: 2.00 -> 2.10
Energy: 1.80 -> 1.84

\End of Notice/

After reading through the changes, I mutter, “Body Analysis,” to pull up my current body’s status.

/ Current Analysis of user Alexander North \

Strength: 1.80
Speed: 2.10
Reflexes: 1.83
Constitution: 2.09
Immunity: ???
Senses: 1.94
Energy: 1.84

Body Malfunctions: ???
Error: Cannot determine Immunity or Body Malfunctions of user’s current species.
The average of a human being without a symbiont is a 1 across all stats.

\End of Analysis/

That’s good. My strength was beginning to lag behind a bit behind the others.

I clench my fist for a second before glancing at the other two wolves – ignoring the third considering its current form as a paste on the ground, completely lacking any energy to speak of.

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After absorbing the energy from the rest of the wolves, it doesn’t take me long to get back to the storage unit, where Cynthia quickly unlocks the door and pulls me inside before locking it again and looking out. But after a few seconds pass, she looks confused and turns to me without her helmet on for some reason.

Understanding the meaning of the look, I just shrug and state, “I killed the thing,” before turning around to look at the storage unit. Which is rather large despite the fact that this storage room is only used for symbionts.

“You killed it?! How!” I hear her practically shout as I’m looking around the room. The room has about twenty five large, metal containers spread throughout the room facing each other leaned up against opposite walls. They each have a small, likely bulletproof glass square at the center of the cube-shaped containers with a red glow shining through them from the symbionts. Meanwhile the symbionts themselves shine an eerie red, with them appearing to be nothing more than an amorphous glowing blob of blood.

“I led it to the training room and took advantage of the obstacle course,” I give her a quick explanation while looking through the room for the others, just to notice one of the civilians poking their head out from behind a container closer to the back of the room. They then quickly retreat with a squeal the moment they meet my monstrous eyes.

Guess that’s to be expected.

A few seconds later, the two soldiers walk out, with the private having his sword unsheathed and the sergeant tightly gripping his own sword’s hilt. Both of them have their eyes trained on my own and are practically dripping with fear.

“If you couldn’t tell, I’m one of those frost infused that were mentioned in the emergency announcement,” I tell them before starting forwards.

Surprisingly, neither of the two soldiers look openly hostile, but they do tighten their grips on their weapons as I approach, only to look vaguely surprised when I ignore them to focus on the container directly in the center left of the room.

This should be it…

On the way back here from the training room, I forgot that dad never told me how to reveal the executive stairs. So I called him and asked.

I put my finger on the center of the glass before trailing it along to the right edge of the center and then counting the stripes running across the cube until I reach eight where I push on a hidden button that has an unlatching noise sound from beneath the container.

“There we go,” I mutter, only to glance at Cynthia and wave her over.

Not sure if I have enough strength to move this. Although just in case I do…

I grab both edges of the container before lifting it up with the muscles in my arms, legs, and back, and surprisingly it actually does lift. So I move it slightly to the side and place it down again with a grunt.

Guess I’m stronger than I thought.

I really should go ahead and find a good way to test my strength and other physical capabilities every time I absorb energy. Because it’ll be a pain if I can’t gauge my own abilities.

Once Cynthia gets here, I just wave her off and mutter, “Never mind. Don’t need help after all,” before moving to the side of the container and pushing it to eventually reveal a trapdoor beneath it.

“There we go!” I exclaim with a huff while instinctively raising my arm to wipe off sweat, only to realize that I’m not sweating.

Huh. Not sure if I’ll ever get used to that.

I look up to see the two soldiers staring at the trapdoor, meanwhile Cynthia is just giving me a funny look with her helmet held underneath her arm.

“Here’s the stairs,” I tell them the obvious to snap them out of their stupors. “Shall we head up?”