On his way out of the hive, Mitch went back to the place he had fought the ant swarm. He picked up as many of them as he could carry, which came out to five, and made his way towards the surface.
Luckily, the path was completely devoid of any ants, meaning Mitch could spare his attention to other things. For example, he found that his status page had changed.
First of all, he had reached 8% completion in Devouring. Secondly, another row of text had been added at the bottom of the window.
[Mutations (body): Extreme Strength]
"What does the system mean with 'body', Katherine?" He already had a guess as to what it was but wanted Katherine to confirm it for him in case he had misunderstood—which he very much hoped he had.
Unfortunately, he was spot on in his assumptions. "The mutations you get while in this body stay in this body. However, the body will still remain even after you return to your personal dimension, so you can jump back into it and regain all the mutations you had."
Those news made Mitch frown. The effort he had to put in into making his body reach the peak of this world was immense, only for it to be useless after he left.
"Then what about power systems? I don't see it saying 'body' anywhere. Does that mean I keep it if I jump to another body?"
If that were the case, then the situation was still fine. As long as he kept his progression, he was okay with transforming every new body he came to use.
"Yes. As a Khad, the power systems you train in are intrinsically connected to your soul. There is a catch, however; you need a body that is able to accommodate your power."
That also explained why his body cost an entire Mynt to manifest, while creating an entire solar system with millions, or perhaps even billions, of creatures roaming it only cost him 75.
"Next time, creating a body that can hold your power at the peak of Devouring might even cost 5 Mynt."
Katherine started laughing at her own teasing, but Mitch noticed something weird with that statement. So odd, in fact, that he almost stopped right in his tracks.
"Katherine, if creating a body costs more the stronger I get, and my strength is connected to my soul, doesn't that mean that I will start draining more and more Mynt the more powers I gain?"
"Haha—eh? Erm… well, maybe? I guess that makes sense…? Wait, if you already require an entire Mynt every half a year, and creating a body takes the same amount… Doesn't that mean you will need ten Mynt every half a year after you're done powering up?"
Mitch's expression fell. How many times would his plans be disrupted because of their lack of information and communication? Forget half a year. At the rate he was progressing, he didn't know if he even had a month before running out of Mynt.
"Katherine, are you able to calculate how fast my power is being drained right now compared to before and how long I can survive if I don't become any stronger?"
He started running, disregarding his injured leg. Even then, he was revising his plan countless times every second, thinking of which mutations he should help Madeline get and which ones were less important.
"On it! Good news, the situation is still pretty okay. Based on my calculations, if you reach full completion in this power system, it will drain 11 Mynt every year. The bad news, however, is that if before you could survive for around nine months with your current amount of energy, now it's five. Sorry…"
Mitch was about to burst a blood vessel. He lost more time than what it would take for Madeline to complete her metamorphosis. In other words, Madeline wouldn't be able to gain any more mutations before it became too late, unless they were similar to his own.
"Hold on, Mitch. I'm not done yet. There are more good news. Two, in fact! The first one is that germline mutations don't require any time in hibernation. The second one is that life forms that are not self-aware also provide faith, just not as much."
The first one obviously brightened Mitch's mood, but he was too focused on navigating to figure out why the second one was of any use to him.
"You could attempt to tame a lot of dogs or something while Madeline is asleep and try surviving off of their unwavering loyalty for a while. After all, I really dislike the thought of someone that has been awake for less than a month being forced into laying eggs, just because it is convenient for you."
He thought about it and had to agree. It didn't sit right with him either. Although his Khad mindset told him that, in the end, Madeline was simply an organism created through his powers, he really couldn't bring himself to do it.
His original plan was for Madeline to experience the world with him until she grew up, after which he would set his plan into action. But that was relying on the fact that she had been awake for several months.
There was no need to question his decision, as he wouldn't budge no matter what. Besides, Katherine went as far as to find and provide all the information she could about the topic. She even formulated a plan for his convenience. Ignoring her wishes now would just make him an asshole.
"Alright, we'll do just that then. Before anything, though, we need to make sure that Madeline can actually start on her transformation."
He kept hurrying on his way while still thinking of ways to salvage the situation. He had an idea, but he was unsure if there was enough time left.
After a few more minutes of running through the tunnels unhindered, he finally found his way to the surface and saw Madeline waiting for him just a bit further away.