Logan liked to think he was an even-tempered man. Yes, the Cursed Rope tended to amplify his emotions, but lately, he could tell when it was influencing him and adjust. Looking into Hawthorne's eyes, Logan pressed his mouth into a thin line and thought of all the unjust accusations the man had subjected him to, and for the very first time, seriously considered murder.

And yet, although Hawthorne had made a snide remark, much of his attention was on the swarm below as he used his rifle to target the rats surging towards the line. There was a pop pop pop next to Logan's ear as Hawthorne discharged his weapon, followed by more shots from the soldiers stationed next to the general on the other side. Although Hawthorne was an asshole, he was contributing to the fight, and if Logan took him out, that would be one less soldier to defend the civilians.

Logan's mouth curdled as he looked away, turning around on top of the wall and facing the direction of the street and towards the parked golf carts.

The man would never know how close he'd come to death.

Logan surveyed the land behind—

"So that's how it is, then? I thought you high rankers were hot stuff, instead, you get your fill of levels and leave the good men to continue the fight." Hawthorne hacked and spat over the wall. "Hey!" he said, jabbing Logan in the side. "I'm talking to…"

Logan turned his head, looking down at Hawthorne's elbow with his teeth bared before pinning him with a look. His facemask was still down, so Hawthorne could see his full expression. Logan didn't know what was in his stare; he only knew what he felt: an absolute disregard for the man as if he were dirt on the bottom of his shoe. Logan had judged him and found him wanting.

Hawthorne cleared his throat. Whatever was in Logan's expression must have gotten through to him, since he swallowed, hard, his throat bobbing, and he inched away from Logan and closer to his own soldiers.

Hawthorne was a bully and a stupid, shortsighted man. If he'd been smart, he would have tried to ingratiate himself with Logan to get on his good side. Instead, he'd been antagonistic. But let it not be said that the man didn't know when he was outclassed.

Problem taken care of, Logan studied the landscape surrounding the wall. He couldn't birth a vine on top of the wall—it was solid stone, so the ground and soil around the perimeter would be the next best thing. Now that he had [Life Fabricator], he no longer needed a seed to create life, only a life source. Best of all, back in Hope's End, he'd created the rat vine accidently. This time, hell, why not go for broke? There was no reason he had to envision a vine. He could envision a monster. A fucked up, freaky offensive juggernaut.

He didn't have a lot of time, a sense of urgency making him feel like everything around him was amplified. Logan took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to envision a still pond. The sounds of slaughter and screaming faded away, making him have tunnel vision as he committed to what was needed. It wouldn't be perfect, but it didn't have to be.

It just needed to work.

Taking another deep breath, Logan deployed [Life Fabricator] and extended his senses. The auras inside the wall were off the charts, so many it was like looking into a galaxy with a thousand stars. That's why he hadn't scanned the area in the first place. And yet, he'd only advanced these last two weeks through trial and error, and what better way to improve his aura sensing skill than in the middle of battle?

Logan focused first on the soldiers and civilians in the cordoned off area, getting a sense for how they pinged on his radar. This was something he was used to; he'd scanned people in the past.

Next, he extended his senses past that concentration of life and into the crowd. Life. So much life it was like walking into a storm of fireflies. Ping after ping, hundreds, thousands. Christ, just how many people were still weaving through the crowd, hiding, or fleeing from the rats?

The people pinged as bright spots, each person's lifeforce radiating a warm, orange glow. And amongst those spots, were tinges of grey, of rot.

Those must be the rats.

But to find each of those tinges of grey within the swarm of bright spots seemed like a monumental task.

It had to be back to visualization.

Logan needed to latch onto the rats' lifeforce without sucking the life from the people around them. That would take delicate work, work that wasn't his strong suit. After all, Logan liked to think he was a lot of things, but a precision expert wasn't one of them. He shone the best by using brute force. But surely, it couldn't be that hard?

Furrowing his brow, Logan envisioned [Life Fabricator] as a tree canopy, its limbs curved and drooping like the limbs of his willow tree. A canopy so immense that it covered the whole area, each limb touching the auras that pinged below. But although they brushed against the lifeforce of the humans, it was a brush only. Like a tree limb rustling in the wind, leaves brushing over the top of someone's head.

For the rats, it was a different story. Logan envisioned a mouth at the end of the tree's limbs, a mouth that latched onto the rats' lifeforce and gnawed with its teeth and never let go.

That was step one.

For the next step, Logan turned his attention to the wall. Stepping off the edge, he dropped to the ground and surveyed his surroundings, studying the dirt underneath his feet.

Dark, damp soil.

That could work.

Keeping that image of the tree canopy in his mind was difficult when he needed to visualize two different images at the same time—the tree canopy, but also the creation of a monster. Almost impossible.

Logan ran a thumb over the stubble on his chin as he paced, glancing from the wall to the ground.

Compartmentalization.

That had to be it.

Before the Integration, he'd often wondered how he'd ended up completing a routine task while thinking about a problem. He'd fret over a recent fight with his ex-girlfriend while turning off the stove, rushing out the door, leaving his garage and driving to work, all without being conscious of doing it. Convenient when he was in a rush, but not so convenient when you wondered if you'd come home to a fire in the kitchen. But if Logan could treat the tree canopy image the same, then maybe he could concentrate on two tasks at once.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Now for the monster.

He could create many different monsters, but how could he ensure that they were loyal and attacked the rats? Plus, he needed something that would stick to the wall and cover a massive area. A vine that was alive like the rat vine might be his best bet.

That didn't mean he couldn't mix it up.

Rolling his shoulders, Logan backed away from the wall and surveyed the plants around the area. Underground, he could sense roots—from grass, moss, even the trees. But even better, against the base of the wall, there was a plant that had started to climb up the stone. It was barely anything now, two feet if that, but it was undeniably a vine, just not a vine that he'd envisioned when he thought 'monster.'

This vine had flowers.

The base of the vine looked like the bark of a thin, gnarly tree. It was light brown and smooth. Sprouting from the ends of the wavy vines were blooms of purple and white, bell-like petals, drooping like bunches of grapes.

Huh.

Well, he could take a hint. Logan would be stupid to look a gift horse in the mouth. If a vine was already here, that was one less step.

Biting his lip, Logan closed his eyes and dipped his head as he tuned out the sound of gunfire and screams. In his mind, he kept the image of the tree canopy ever present, but this time, devoted most of his concentration to another image. He pictured the gnarly vine spreading, crawling up the wall like trickling frost, shoot after shoot, spreading and spreading. Next, he pictured the underlying vine thickening, growing fat, until vines that were the size of a kitchen pipe turned into limbs closer in size to his mammoth trees.

Logan clenched his fist, his fingers white knuckled as he willed the vine to keep growing, crawling up the wall until it reached the edge of the top. Up until now, he'd been using his own Karma to grow the plant, and based on the slight tightening in his chest, his airways feeling tight, he was close to Karma deprivation.

Logan brought up his Karma stats:

400/3,600.

250/3,600.

50/3,600.

That wouldn't do.

Urgency eating away at his stomach, Logan focused on that image of the tree canopy, making sure that he'd latched onto the lifeforce of the grey, rotting auras, and then envisioned a straw that funneled life from the canopy to his vine. And just like that, he knew that he'd been successful, since that feeling of draining Karma disappeared.

1000/3,600.

2000/3,600.

3000/3,600.

Hell yes! He felt a surge of energy; there was power in the palm of his hands. All he had to do was command it. For he only had to will it, and he shall have it. Just like that, the vine began to grow exponentially, vines fattening, spreading, crawling around the massive wall. But Logan didn't want a regular vine.

The source of life he was sucking from the rats had already influenced his creation. The brown gnarly vines took on a distinct black appearance, a rough appearance. It was as if moss covered the bark—or fur.

Ding!

[You have defeated a Level 60 Sewage Rat!]

[You have defeated a Level 58 Sewage Rat!]

[You have defeated a Level 71 Sewage Rat!]

[You have defeated a Level 67 Sewage Rat!]

[You have defeated a Level 61 Sewage Rat!]

Logan held back a savage grin as Ding! after Ding! ran through his ears. He was sucking the life from these fuckers, all without using his sword or his talons. Truly, it was skills in this new world that made you a powerhouse; physical strength was all well and good, but he was betting that the people on the Leaderboard didn't get there through the strength of their fists alone.

Bouncing on the balls of his feet, his excitement surging, Logan raised his hands and stared up at the top of the wall at the same time as continuingly pushing the vines to spread, far, far across the wall, covering every inch of stone, leaving nothing untouched.

Ding!

[You have defeated a Level 75 Sewage Rat!]

[You have defeated a Level 78 Sewage Rat!]

[You have defeated a Level 80 Sewage Rat!]

[You have defeated a Level 81 Sewage Rat!]

[You have defeated a Level 84 Sewage Rat!]

[…]

[You have leveled up!]

Logan's eyes bulged in shock. Twenty kills at once! And now he wasn't just taking care of the low leveled rats; he'd reached the higher levels. Holy shit, he couldn't stop now!

He'd drain the fuckers dry, every one of them.

Logan envisioned those purple flower bunches transforming into sharp, rotting fangs, fangs so large they were the length of his forearm. Best of all, the flowers already had an ingrained offensive capability—they were poisonous, which meant that he could give his monster venom and have it go to town. To top it off, he gave the fur-covered vines sharp spikes, spikes so large they were spears, and so sharp at the ends that they were like knives.

Faraway, as if he was hearing it through a tunnel, Hawthorne and the other soldiers standing on top of the wall shouted in panic. "Motherfucker! Move, men, move!"

Followed by the sound of the soldiers scrambling off the top of the wall and back into the courtyard.

Logan disregarded them, his entire attention on the vine. And then he weaponized every inch of the vine that covered a wall. A wall that was half a mile long. Inch after inch, he grew the thing until he felt a sharp pressure behind his eye followed by blood gushing from his nose.

Ding!

[You have defeated a Level 84 Sewage Rat!]

[You have defeated a Level 84 Sewage Rat!]

[You have defeated a Level 85 Sewage Rat!]

[You have defeated a Level 86 Sewage Rat!]

[You have defeated a Level 86 Sewage Rat!]

[…]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

Fifty kills at once!

Logan gasped, his hearing sharpening as if he'd just stepped into a busy street, the sounds of struggle assaulting his senses once again.

But although the soldiers were still firing onto the rats, there was less gunfire and less screams from the crowd.

In front of him, he was met with the sight of a massive vine covered in fur and spines, the vines so numerous that you couldn't see the wall behind it. Vines detached from the main structure like snapping turtles, hissing at the air, the ends covered in purple, fanged mouths. The whole plant was littered with sharp spikes that were as long as he was tall. When he stepped to the side—oh shit!

It flung a spike directly over his shoulder and into the bushes like a javelin. There was a screech, like a dying cat, and then a rat the size of a bear stumbled out with blood gushing out of its chest, the spike clanging against the ground. Maggots fell from its mouth, its tongue hanging out, its eyes flashing red. With a last whimper, the rat fell to the ground, dead.

His heart in his throat, Logan scanned the monster with [Idiot's Inspect]:

[Wisteria Spike Vine: Level 58. A living vine bred for offensive capabilities. The Wisteria Spike Vine will defend its home against all invaders, its venomous wisteria fangs acting as paralytics with hallucinatory effects.]

[Highest Stat: Dexterity. Characteristics: A strong dislike of rodents. Hidden name: N/A.]

It must have leveled up as Logan had funneled the rats' life force into its growth. Unlike the last rat vine, this one didn't have a fondness for humanity. That meant that if the people within the wall survived, it might be… dicey exiting the wall, but that was a problem for another day. For now, Logan was too excited to hold back. Although he'd grown a monster that should keep the charging rats out, he wasn't done.

Oh no.

That image of the tree canopy was active in the back of his mind, and there were way too many rotting, dark spots left amongst the crowd.

With a shit-eating grin, Logan activated [Liche Devourer].

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