Capítulo 10: Chapter 10: Sleeping, but Not Asleep
Before we set off, Harland decided to set up camp for the night. I had kind of forgotten about sleep in general, and it had never once crossed my mind. I wordlessly agreed though, and sat to the side and watched him pull out a tarp and extend it from the caravan to make a makeshift camp. He seemed like he had done it many times before, so it was set up before I even thought to offer a helping hand.
Though now that I think about it, if he has to do that every night, it makes since that he would be good at it. Sleep seems like such a waste of time. I have been getting tired recently, and the fatigue of maintaining changes to my form was stacking up faster than it was going away, but just the thought of losing 7 or 8 hours every day seemed horrible. I mean I had only been in this body for around a week but still.
I walked back over the the rest of the goblins I had been eating. I still hadn't finished them all, and I wasn't planning on wasting perfectly good XP.
Leaning back against the tree, I enjoyed the taste and the feeling of receiving XP, though I did notice that it was ever so slightly less than before. I guess the bodies lose their life force over time, which makes sense as they are decomposing. I had been half-hoping for a cliche moment where I stumble across the body of a long-dead but super-powerful monster and instantly get a gazillion levels.
Harland, having finished setting up his tent, now seemed to be walking around the campsite and tapping his foot against the ground at regular intervals. Looking closer, he seemed to be releasing a type of aetheric matter out of his feet when he tapped them onto the ground, where it stayed.
After he finished a full circle around the camp, he moved to the center of the camp and sat down, closing his eyes.
The pockets of what I assumed were mana started to move, twisting together and combining. They let out strings that connected them to the rest of the mana pockets, and some strings went to the center where Harland was sitting. They connected to him, no, upon closer inspection, they were connecting to a small stone he had picked up from the ground. As the strings of mana connected to make a ritual circle, they also loosely extended up like a spider web.
As Harland shifted, placing the stone down on the ground. Almost imperceptively, I noticed that the mana strings that connected to the farther side of the circle were pulled tight and stretched, while the ones closer to the pebble were now loose and had slack.
I stood up and walked over to Harland, who turned to look at me as soon as I started moving.
Wordlessly, I pointed to the stone.
Harland looked deeply confused for a second before he began to speak.
"The stone? It's the focus point of the detection array I just made. Aren't you-"
I shook my head, pointing to the stone and then to the spot about a foot to the side of it. He still didn't seem to understand, and I really didn't feel like forming a mouth to explain it to him, so I reached for the stone.
"HEY WHOA slow down man, what do you think you're doing?"
I sighed internally and began forming a mouth. It was taking longer than usual, and once it had formed, it felt like my mouth was made of lead.
"Wrong. Spot. Middle"
Harland had a flash of understanding go through his eyes, and he backed up and let me touch the stone.
I moved it to the side about a foot, then walked back over to the tree and plopped down. It looked like Harland was thinking some weird things while looking at me, but I couldn't be bothered to pay attention to him. I was more concerned with how my mouth wasn't working quite right.
The rest of my body felt just fine, so it had to be because it was something that wasn't my natural state. Was the stress building up too much? And if so, how can I get rid of it? As embarrassing as it might be, sleep might be the answer. I know I just went on a tangent about how it was a waste of time, but maybe I did need to sleep.
"It's because you are weak"
Flinching briefly, I continued my line of thought. The rest of my body wasn't tired, and I could stay perfectly fine for pretty much forever as long as I didn't shift my body too much. Was it because I was growing closer to a human that I was getting human needs like sleep?
I quickly proved that theory wrong. I was still getting that tired and sluggish feeling even when all that I did was something like change the texture of my skin. Maybe its just mental stress from maintaining it for so long. Hmm.
Let me try something. I am confident that in my true form, I don't need sleep, but changing right now makes me tired. If it is mental strain, my actual body should be just fine to keep doing things. Maybe there is a way to put my body on autopilot for a bit and let my mind rest?
[-Due to your ego having a high level of instinct integrated, it should be possible. A new skill can be created using XP as a basis-]
I don't get the first half of that, but you said it was possible. How much XP would it take?
[-Calculating-]
[-The skill can be created at level 1 for 2000 XP-]
Well, there goes those goblins I ate. They had been 200 XP each and combined with the four that I had eaten so far... I would just have to finish eating the rest of the goblins and then I would hopefully have enough.
I reached over and grabbed the second to last goblin, and began scarfing it down. I didn't stop to taste it and just tried to get it converted to XP as fast as possible. My mouth wasn't working the best right now, and it was straining to keep it active.
Eventually, after a few weird looks from Harland, I relaxed against the tree and told the system to make the skill.
[Skill Created: Trance]
[You lose control of your body for a predetermined amount of time or until conditions are met. During this time, your body will be controlled by instinct and will complete the predetermined commands. This skill is tied to the Instinct stat]
[Stat Recognized: Instinct]
[Due to being merged with a significant amount of instinct during your creation process, your instinct is unnaturally high. Instinct is usually somewhat suppressed by conscious thought, though some reactions and skills can be controlled by Instinct if upgraded to be allowed to do so]
Whoa whoa whoa, what? System, why am I getting a whole new stat? I thought I was just making a skill?
[-The System only displays your own capabilities. Your instinct always existed, though it was mostly dormant. By creating a skill that relies on it, it was recognized as a Stat-]
So I can get more stats if the conditions are right?
[-Correct-]
Awesome. I can't wait to see how this skill works too. Let me take care of something first actually.
I stood up and made my way over to Harland who had sat down in his sleeping bag and was eating some beef jerky.
"Harland"
He looked up at me, questioning me with his eyes as his mouth was full.
"I will be keeping watch all night. For your safety, do not interact with me until I speak to you in the morning."
He frowned, showing clear confusion and concern. I understood why, but I didn't want to elaborate. I don't know if he has hidden intentions or not, so I don't plan on just letting him know that I will be in a trance until morning time.
Before he could finish his bite or ask anything, I quickly clambered on top of the caravan, pulling myself up into a cross-legged sitting position where I had a vantage point. Sensing him beginning to open his mouth below me, I reiterated my point.
"That starts now by the way."
His mouth hung open for a few seconds before it closed as he went back to eating. Satisfied that I wouldn't be interrupted, I began setting the instructions for my dormancy.
System, can I save a preset of these? I don't feel like redoing them every time I want to do this.
[-Affirmative-]
Alright. Call this preset Night Guard. End the trance when the sun rises or after 8 hours have passed, whichever comes first. End the trance if someone says my name. Instructions are to remain in the location I entered a trance in, and the trance will end if I am removed from the location.
Monitor the area at a range of 100 meters, while extending the range every 10 seconds to detect enemies outside the range. Return lethal force with lethal force, and nonlethal force with nonlethal force. Maintain the form that was entered at the start of the trance until the trance is over. If I detect that I am in actual danger despite my regeneration, all restrictions do not apply. If possible, make it to a safe location then deactivate the trance.
Okay, that should be enough for now. I might have missed something obvious, but there isn't much else I could think of. Maybe I should have my body just wake up as soon as it detects danger, but I think this should be fine.
Now that I think about it, can't I use this for combat? I don't know if I like the idea of not being awake during a fight, but isn't it pretty cool? I would probably fight better moving only on instinct, and if I can evolve the skill I could make it even more combat-specialized!
I could even have it be like a berserker type of thing. Honestly, I could make a panic button preset that is just something like 'If I detect something alive, kill it. When I can no longer detect anything alive, end trance' although that could be risky because there are a lot of living things. I might never end the trance in that case. Maybe if I put a condition to end the trance after a certain amount of time? I could also-
I am getting so sidetracked, aren't I? I should make sure it works like I think it does first. Let this be a test run, and worry about the more complicated things later. I still don't even know if my form change skill will be back to normal after this.
There is a lot that could go wrong. I could wake up and Harland would be dead because I mistook him for a threat, or he might actually threaten me, I dunno. I doubt I'll be attacked anyway though.
Eh, whatever. I don't think I can die anyway, so what's the worst that could happen? Ahh, shit. That is a death flag. I need to just stop thinking and get it over with.
Activate trance skill, Night Guard preset.
[-Affirmative-]
The world faded into black as I lost consciousness.
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
MyghtXD
MyghtXD I'm getting burnt out a little, and I don't want to beg for power stones or comments or anything, but they really do help keep me motivated to continue writing this story.
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