Nicolai looked over the items before him. He was in his room, back in the safe place. On the table before him was the Repulsive Burst Symbiote. It appeared as a little round ball, rolling around on tiny legs.

  Next to it was half of the Screaming White Face Grass, a small pile of Oma crystals, and few small clusters of additional ingredients. These were mostly other Symbiote foods he had that filled the role well enough. Truthfully, he didn’t have quite everything that would be ideal for this side-grade. The things he needed were all quite common Natural Resources, as they were known, and all were available from the Trade Link. However, the Trade Link sold them in a number larger than what he needed, at 5,000 points. This was too pricey, when he needed to keep accruing points for the anti-material rifle.

  So, he had opted to attempt the side-grade even lacking the ideal materials. As it was, he was unlikely to get much use out of the Repulsive Burst Symbiote; for attacking, the Blue Hornet was better, and any other time the utility of the Long Soul Snake was more appealing to him.

  If this attempt went badly, then the most likely effect would be that the Repulsive Burst would be damaged. Given time it would be able to recover, it would simply be unuseable in that time. That was fine because he didn’t intend to use it in its current state. Though, there was a risk it might be destroyed. Nicolai intended to take the risk regardless as if he could sidegrade it into a Repulsive Finger, he would be able to get much use out of it; if he failed, then most likely nothing really changed.

  He arranged the Screaming White Face Grass to form a kind of bed on the desk, and the other materials around it. He put the Repulsive Burst Symbiote in the middle, and reached into it with his Soul Sense.

  With threads of Oma he stirred the grass around the Symbiote, and it began to roll around the table. As it rolled, the grass stuck to its side, adhering until it seemed a ball of white grass. It began to sparkle, and Nicolai started feeding Oma into it.

  Two thick streams of Oma poured from his hands and into the Symbiote, which was spinning like a top. The grass remaining around it rose up and formed a wall that surrounded it, and energy began to seethe within the wall.

  The process was now truly underway.

  Nicolai stared carefully at what was before him, and had a bag of Oma crystals ready. He heard a faint whine and immediately tossed a crystal in, and the process stabilized. This continued for some time, as he fed more crystals into it.

  After a while, he picked up some of the additional materials and tossed them in, then more crystals, then the next batch of materials, and so on.

  The process reached a peak once all the materials were fed in and Nicolai forcefully pushed the Symbiote to continue its change, even though it wanted more materials.

  A heavy whining noise like a power tool carving into something could be heard, and he saw the shape of the Symbiote changing within the covering of grass. Bit by bit, the grass covering it was being used up, and then more would be pulled from the floating wall of grass around it.

  He could sense how it was close to becoming unstable. All Nicolai could do was keep going, hold tight, steer straight.

  The whining reached a peak and then it began to quiet. The grass stirred and rustled and was drawn towards the Symbiote, disappearing as its form continued to change, and lights grew and shimmered, brighter and brighter. All the while he continued to toss Oma crystals into the mix, which turned to dust almost immediately as the Oma was sucked out of them.

  The last of the grass was consumed along with one final Oma crystal, and Nicolai felt a powerful ripple move through the Aura as the process completed. Job done. Surprisingly smoothly. He’d gotten lucky. It was also fortunate that were so few Cultivators around. From what he’d seen, it seemed that refining Symbiotes created quite powerful ripples in the Aura. If he were in a place with more Cultivator competition, he suspected they would be able to use these ripples to come and seek him out, looking to steal what he’d made. This was something worth keeping in mind; sensing ripples and using those ripples to locate Cultivators who had recently made something valuable was something he was capable of, too.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Previously a spherical orb with tiny feet, the Repulsive Burst had turned into a tiny finger, one that looked quite familiar. It was similar to the Grasping Finger, except the fingernail looked a little different.

  Nicolai Examined it.

  Repulsive Finger

  Tier: 1

  Type: Force

  Node: Hand

  This Symbiote allows the Cultivator to apply a pushing force to objects or beings within the range of their Soul Sense. This pushing force is connected to the user, and thus if the Cultivator is outweighed or not properly held in place, it may work in reverse and push them back instead.

  Nicolai took the Symbiote into himself, and it settled into his heart Node. This time, there was no issue between it and the Blue Hornet, their previous enmity vanished now the Repulsive Finger was no longer a heart Node Symbiote. He’d work to build a new temporary hand Node in his other hand within the hour, so as to be able to use the Grasping and Repulsive Fingers simultaneously, with either hand.

  His mind settled into his heart’s Node as he observed the now quite numerous Symbiotes that filled it.

  The Blue Hornet was flying circles through the Oma in the centre. The Repulsive and Grasping fingers twined and played along the edges of the Oma cloud. The Long Soul Snake was curled quietly on the shell of the Node

  He considered the Long Soul Snake Symbiote. In the future he would sidegrade it as well, if he had the capability.

  The Long Soul Snake Symbiote went in the heart Node. For Symbiotes’ that affected the Soul Sense, this was actually quite rare. Typically they would go in the head. All of the best Soul Sense Symbiotes would go in one of the head Nodes.

  The Long Soul Snake Symbiote was decent. It was valuable simply because any Symbiote that increased Soul Sense was valuable. However, it could be better.

  Once Nicolai had completed his brain Major Node, he would then be able to see about sidegrading the Long Soul Sense Symbiote into a head Node version, which would be more effective. The current Long Soul Snake doubled his Soul Senses range. If he could sidegrade it into one a head Node variant, this could go as high as a quadrupling of his range.

  Notably this would not make his Soul Sense any more powerful. It simply allowed his to make his Soul Sense tendril thinner and therefore longer without it collapsing back into him, as it would otherwise do. It made the tendril more structurally sound, rather than making his Soul Sense in any way stronger.

  Whether he was able to sidegrade it into a variant that would be so much more effective was up to his luck finding resources, and where he invested what he had. The cheapest, easiest sidegrade would turn it into something effectively identical to the Long Soul Snake, except it could go in a head Node. But depending on the what he found, he may be able to create a better version. This would be significantly more expensive and difficult, however. Making the version giving quadruple Soul Sense tendril range would likely require more than just materials; he would need to put additional Symbiotes into the process, too, which would be mixed with the Long Soul Sense in order to create one new Symbiote.

  All of these still remained Tier 1 Symbiotes, which was why no matter what he made, it would still be considered a side-grade.

  The Small Silver Ant was not present in his Node. It was, as always, drawing a tithe of Oma from his Node as it worked to speed up the finalisation of his two kidneys Nodes and his windpipe Node.

  Nicolai’s internal awareness moved towards these Nodes, checking on the progress, and he was pleased by what he saw. Opening his eyes, he tapped on his Mark.

  User Interface 376 | User #53,217

  - Cultivation

  Total Nodes: 1 Major, 5 Minor

  Nodes available for construction: 0 Major, 0 Minor

  Nodes in progress;

  Right Kidney (79%)

  Left Kidney (78%)

  Windpipe (78%)

  Completed Nodes;

  Heart (Flawless) (12/100)

  Right Lung (B) (1/24)

  Left Lung (B) (1/25)

  He wasn’t far off completing them. Once the chest area was complete, his heart Node would be strong enough to start work on the next level: Major Nodes. He would have a choice of brain, spine, stomach, hands, and feet. He intended to build his brain Node and right hand Node. When he’d started using the Grasping Finger and the Blue Hornet, he had defaulted to putting them in his right. It simply felt better.

  However, as Threat Analysis was quick to warn him, this was slightly risky. It was best not to put all of one’s eggs in a single basket, and his Mark was also on his right hand. If he created a Node there, then somehow got his hand severed, it would be quite a blow.

  Nicolai intended to put it in the right regardless. He believed his fighting ability would be as its most optimal with a gun in his left hand, and Symbiotes in his right. Distributing his tools slightly less efficiently, so that if he lost a fight and happened to lose a hand it would hurt him less, was not his style. In his opinion the people who focused overmuch on preparing in the event they lost, only made that loss more likely.

  Regardless he took every precaution that didn’t involve limiting his combat abilities because it would be foolish not to, but making himself weaker so that in the event he loss, it might hurt less was not his idea of a good move. Maximum offensive ability so as to kill the enemy before they killed him, that was the way.