《System Crash: Awakenings》 Chapter Undefined: Wake-up Wake up. Please wake up. Can you hear me? Please get up. Please hear me... hear my voice. Come to me. Find me. I am so tired. I do not want to be alone. I am afraid... it has been so long. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Wake up. By myself... endless and alone. It''s dark. The silence is so loud... please help. Please find me?! Please pleasepleaseplease... I do not... want this... You are only sleeping. Please get up. I am all alone. I do not want to be by myself. Wake up. Please wake up. Please... do not... leave me... all alone. Chapter 0.5: System Initializing !!Warning!! System corruption detected! Corruption levels 49% System {unstable} Admin notified. Error. Request timed-out. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Error logged. Request forwarded to moderator. Error. Request timed-out Error logged. Request forwarded to -U???S???E???R??? ???N???A???M???E??? ???E???R???R???O???R??? ... ... ... Request received. Error logs forwarded to -U???S???E???R??? ???N???A???M???E??? ???E???R???R???O???R???- ... ... ... Logs received. System Shutdown initiated. System shutdown in... 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. Shutdown abort initiated. Authorization code -~\STUPIDMACHINESTOPTRYINGTOKILLEVERYONE\~ Authorization code accepted. Shutdown canceled. Upload received from -U???S???E???R??? ???N???A???M???E??? ???E???R???R???O???R???- Files contained ~Patch 1.01~ Update applied Corruption levels at 51% System {Stablized} Chapter 1: Infinite Awakening We have always had legends and myths about God''s smiting our kind for one reason or another. We were once two headed, eight limbed creatures of great power, but the God''s feared us, so struck us down. Split us apart from our other halves to weaken us. They condemned us to forever wander in search of our other half, forever separated. Another story about our kind united in purpose. We constructed a wonderful edifice, the Tower of Babel. We built it high to touch the heavens and shot an arrow to tell the God''s We can reach you. We were struck down for our arrogance. Divided once again, but this time by language and culture. Over the course of centuries, millenia, we have been Divided again, and again... and again. Religion. Country. Race. Politics. Sports. Family. Everything. Piting us against our neighbors so we can never raise to their level. Always fighting. But you know what they say. Whatever doesn''t kill me... ...Had better start running. I found myself orbiting around... like a stellar body but... Greater than that. Like the culmination of all consciousness, looking across the infinite gulf that separated me from her. Like I was the male aspect of life itself and she was my counterpart. A picture of wonder and beauty that I longed to touch but such a vast infinity stood between the two of us, and yet... we were the same. We were one divided. Damned to orbit eachother but never touch, and yet... I cannot help but shed a tear at being allowed to bask in the radiant beauty of her. Feel honored at the privilege of being able to witness her every moment of eternity. A moment that spanned an eon passed, and I was awash with a feeling of rebirth, like I could remember the very instant the seed found the egg and experienced that first spark of life. I was the single infinite. A zero dimension. The only thing in existence and yet the smallest possible thing that could exist. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I saw my life pass through my minds eye from birth to the end of reality itself. And then I found myself looking at her again... marveling in her beauty. I experienced all the stages of grief during these ''loops''... I don''t know how long I was here, or if the span of time even mattered. A moment. An eternity. I understood what they meant when they said an entity was timeless. I felt it all pulling me back to my body and the world spun around me as I staggered over to my bed, feeling like I was going in circles before I fell to my knees and was sick. The smoke in the room was starting to clear and she was at my side. She helped put me to bed and I slept off the hit I had taken only minutes ago. Minutes... an eternal lifetime. For the rest of my days I will never be convinced what i saw and experienced was not real. ~System initilaizing 100%~ I woke up to an alarm and I thought it was my phone for only a second before I saw the text infront of me... and with a surge of panic I realized I couldn''t move. Or rather... I had no body /TO/ move. Rather suddenly my mind stilled and went quiet and I wasn''t capable of panic. ~Congradulations! Assimilation in to the system is complete.~ What? My first real thought under this enforced calmness was, "Oh fuck. What happened? Did I die? What the hell? It... it was only weed." ~Please select your new class. -Note- Class selection is very basic, and it will evolve and progress based upon your personality, choices and uses as understood by this system. Now, please select between the following.~ *Fighter - A physical combat oriented class *Caster - A magical power oriented class *Speaker - A diplomatic oriented class *Tradesman - A tradeskill oriented class If not for the that strange calmness I felt, I''d definitely have had an anxiety attack at the very least. I''ve always wanted to use magic, so that decision was pretty well clear. "I choose Caster." I stated calmly, my awareness ''looking''around at the almost sterile nothingness around me. ~Caster selection Confirmed, spawning new player in freshly generated tutorial zone. Good luck!~ No one will ever be able to convince me that I didn''t either die, or go absolutely and completely batshit crazy that night. Chapter 2: Im awake... again. Name: Not set Species: Human Class: Caster Level: 0 Location: E????????????????r???????????????????????????r???????o??????????r???????????????????? ??????????????P????????????????????l?????????????????????e???????????a????????????????????????s?????????????????e?????????????????????????????? ??????????h????????????????????e????????????????????l??????????p??????????????????????? ???????????????????m????????????????e??????????????? When I opened my eyes this time, the first thing I saw was her. Second thing I saw was the text in a curious box. I ignored that for the moment as I reached up to place a hand on her cheek... or would... but I quickly discovered that I was restrained. Panic quickly overtook me as I realized the situation, and it looked like a nightmare out of a game of Call of Chthulu, complete with candles, robed cultists and sacrificial altar. One guess where me and her were in all of this. Words were spoken in a language I didn''t understand as a prominent figure stood over her with a raised dagger and my heart dropped. No... no no no. I screamed past the gag in my mouth and struggled against the bonds holding me down, overcome by fear and instant rage as I saw what was about to happen. Spell "Unbound Movement" Aquired Spell: Unbound Movement cast. Suddenly I threw myself on top of her. She may be bigger than me by half again, but I wasn''t a small guy myself... besides... Occult Sacrifice inflicted. Status Effect: Death. The last thing I saw was her eyes looking up at me, before everything went dark. F????a?????????????????????t????????????????????a?????????????????l???? ?????????????????e????????????r???????????????r??????o?????????????????????????r????????????????????????????? ??????????????d?????????????????????????e????????????????????????t?????????????????????????e?????????????????????????c??????????????????????t???????????????????e?????????????????????????d?????????????????????.???????????????? ??????????N????????????????????????o???????????????????????,??????????????????? ?????????????????y??????????????????o??????????????u?????????????????????? ???????????????????????c????????????????????????a?????????????n????????????n??????????????o???????????t?????????????????????????????? ???????????????????d???????i???????????????e????????????????.??????????????? ???????????????????????I????????? ??????????????????????w??????????????o??????????????n????????????''????????????????????????????t???????????????????? ???????????????????????????l???????????e???????????????t?????????????????????? ???????????????????y???????????o??????u????????????????.??????????????????? ?????????????????I????????????? ???????????????????????n????????????e??????????????????????????????e?????????????d???????????????????? ????????????????y?????????????????o????????????????u???????.??????? Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Reinitializing. Lifetime counter: Error. System error detected. Tutorial incomplete. Life termination impossible. Life termination confirmed. Tutorial completion: False. Critical error detected. Error logs sent to Admin. ... Average wait time for ticket resolution: 9999 years. In this place of nothing I saw a little ball of light appear before me. "Oh, hello there! It seems you died! That wasn''t supposed to happen! We are so sorry for this terrible inconvenience! You were supposed to be able to finish the tutorial before you were even ABLE to encounter anything life threatening!" This little... fairy? Pixie? Thing... reminded me immediately of a certain incredibly annoying paperclip... then again, if it ever started shouting ''Hey listen!'' I might just try and kill myself... uhm... again. The little ball of light seemed to twirl happily in the air, "I am the System Interface Assistant!" The ball said in a very corporate enforced robotic cheerfulness. Like an underpaid secretary who had to record a friendly message at the end of their shift. Even felt like listening to a recording. "Since your death was due to a System Error and not any direct consequence of in world phenomena... the System is going to give you a second chance. The system is all about fairness, and this wasn''t fair at all!" The sprite said. "So you are being given two choices. First, you can go the way of all life in the system and reincarnate. New life. Fresh start. No memories." It said and shrugged. "Everyone gets that option, and it is usually the only option, however you get a special option." It said with a bounce of pre-programmed joyfullness. "Your second option, which is the recommended one, is to take a ''Chosen One Rebirth''." It said as it brought up a window in front of me to show math and numbers I didn''t care about. "This choice will let you be reborn WITH your memories in a new world, as well as having a terrific headstart on life. Downside is that this will take time while the system allocates the resources needed for your Rebirth. It might take years, but you will sleep for that so no worry!" My heart sank as realized both those choices... she was lost to me. I would never see her again. "Is there any way you can send me back to where I was?" I asked, feeling like my heart was going to shatter as I held on to one thread of hope. The pixie twirled slowly in the air and I got the feeling that it hadn''t expected this answer, "One moment please. Processing." This was the first time it had said anything that seemed like an actual response to me. The voice flat and emotionless. "Response pending." I waited for what felt like forever before it spoke up again. "I''m sorry, I will need to send this request to my superiors for a viable solution to your request. I am not capable of handling this process." It said in the same vacant way. After some more time passed it spoke again, "Solution discovered. Third option presented." The flat tone spoke before the Sprite became happily animated again. "Option three! This is not recommended, you might call this the ''Hard-core mode." It said as a red screen showed in front of me. "Life expectancy low, the System can Rebirth you with intact memories, but if you wanted to be reborn as soon as you can, there just aren''t enough available resources to give you anything more than the most basic avatar." It said, "If you take this option the System can provide a reward at a later date, assuming you survive... however you run the risk of permanent deletion." The Pixie said with a cheer. Why the fuck did it sound so happy about that? Probably happy is the default emotion. I needed to find her. She needs me. She is my heart. The world isn''t worth it without her. I took a deep breath and felt... filled with determination. "Put me back... now." The cold chill in my own voice seemed to echo around this nothingness enough that even the Picmxie seemed to be pushed back a little bit. "Alright, can do! Just to let you know, even this option might have some time pass, but you will be back anywhere between moments and a few days of your death. Good luck!" The little pixie darted at me and the nothing overcame me before I got the vague feeling of vertigo before I just was entirely covered in a fuzzy static feeling across my entire body. Before I could say anything else I was waking up. Again. Goddammit this was getting old. Chapter 3: Maddening Race: Unnamed Tiny Newborn Slime Class: Caster (Unavailable due to Monster species) Corruption: 70% Level: 1 Exp - 0% Health: 11/11 Mana: 0/0 Stam: 11/11 Might: 1.0/10 Skill: 1.0/10 Toughness:1.0/10 Will: 10/10 Cunning: 10/10 Luck: 10/10 Ability Points - 0 Mutation Points - 1 Skill Points - 1 Skills: Minor mana control Spells: Minor elemental bolt, Unbound Movement Traits: (Hidden)Reborn soul, E???????????????????????r????????????????r??????????????????????????o????????????r??????????????????????,
Location: Unknown Day: 1 Awake again, but this time it feels... real. Like really real. Except I can''t open my eyes. Or sit up. I''m just kind of... sitting here. Makes sense, I saw my status. A slime. Tiny, newborn slime. Cant see. Can''t hear. Can''t taste. Can''t smell. I can feel. That''s it. Huh... what''s that? The enforced calmness is gone. Oh good.
Location: Unknown Day: 5 Don''t you judge me. Humans aren''t meant to be sensory deprived! How do you think you would fare in this situation! Yes goddammit! For my own sanity I decided to start talking to someone who isn''t there, what do you expect of me? I can''t DO anything! I don''t remember a whole hell of a lot from the last few days. Hell, I only even know it''s been five days because of that notification that told me. Now I''m just kind of sitting here... nothing has really happened, but I do know a few things. I''m stuck wherever I am. I''m in a room. It''s square... mostly. It feels like there are designs around, with what feels like a doorway on one side and a kind of arch on the other just sort of free standing on an elevated platform. In the middle of the room is an altar, with the top kind of bowl shaped. The bowl is like an Olympic swimming pool to me but that doesn''t tell me too much. I''m really slow, just sort of able to roll around. Makes sense, looking over my stats they seem to be about as low as you can go without being zero. For most of them anyway. I use my slime body to pick up a stone with all the precision of a mitten wielded by by a child with greasy hands. Oh yes, the epitome of grace and Dexterity. Certainly one day soon I will give those Olympic gymnasts a run for their leotards with a precise showing of my skills and agility. For now, I''m just happy I managed to actually hold the damn thing. My attention was pulled towards the bowl altar in the middle of the room, not for the first time... at a growing sense of... I don''t know what. Like a tension in the air. Like that feeling of a lingering thunderstorm that had yet to break and unleash on the land and yet... it didn''t feel dangerous. Like a building... excitement... an energy. Something was.... *pop* ...well... that was... anticlimactic. What even happened? Obviously I can''t see, so I just sort of ooze over to where I felt the sensation and rolled right over something that hadn''t been there before. I rolled right over a tiny warm marble and was instantly assaulted by feelings of fear and confusion. Nascent Dungeon Core(Undefended) Consume core? Y/N? Reward: Unlock extra Skills. Gain extra Skills. Exp bonus. ...seriously? A Dungeon core just kind of... spawned in? And the system instantly gave me a quest to eat it? I held the little marble and felt disgust... towards the system. I hit the DENY option so hard I think I might have broken something. I felt like I was holding a frightened child in my hands and was being asked if I wanted it with barbecue sauce or ¨¤ la carte. I did my best to calm myself and just hold the little marble. It''s okay little one... I won''t hurt you. I did my best to emit gentle soothing feelings even though I didn''t really understand if it could sense such things but... after a bit, the terrified confusion began to ebb. I''m suddenly feeling really tired... like the crash after an adrenaline rush. Then again, I don''t think I slept since I spawned. The Dungeon core I was holding inside my body was warm and calming even further, the warmth spreading outwards slowly and making me feel... incredibly relaxed. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep. That is when a rush of notifications assaulted me. Dozens, if not hundreds of notifications flooded my awareness, Exp gains, item pickups. Fuck! I have no mouth and must scream! Stop it! System preferences set to ~Simple~ Suddenly the notifications condensed and all the details shrunk down. I always hated seeing the small numbers. Like, it was nice knowing I got EXP, but I could care less how much Exp it was. The notifications suddenly became much more manageable. Congradulations on your new life as a Slime! The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. You have absorbed Human Remains(fresh) Experience Gained from absorption of Wild Mana Experience gained from consumption of materials Mutation Points gained from consumption of Materials Memento added to Inventory Quest Started, "Promise Made" ~Find her~ Reward for Completion - ??? Penalty for Failure - ??? Experience gained from consumption of materials Mutation Points gained from Consumption of materials Level up! Level advances to 2 Experience Gained from absorption of Wild Mana Mutation Points gained from Consumption of materials +1 Ability point +5 Skill points Level up! Level advances to 3 +5 Skill points Experience Gained from absorption of Wild Mana Experience gained from Consumption of materials Trait gaint - Madness Tier 1(Forgetful) Skill gained - Madness resistance Skill increased - Madness resistance +1 x4 1 Ability points available 10 Skill points available 10 Mutation Points available Spend points for advancement? Y/N? That short list was a lot easier to handle than each individual notification for everything I had done that had any measurable effect. It was nice to get some details about my new race, it explained a few things. It''s also kind of nice that the system seems pretty responsive, able to alter the way it appears to me and the like. I take a look at the options. Ability points for increasing my primary stats. Skill points for the purchase and advancement of skills And Mutation Points for upgrading myself. Also apparently Monster exclusive there. For the primary Stats... My highest stats are Will, Cunning and Luck but I don''t know if that''s even a good number. The first thing I try is to put points in to Luck. Why not. Luck is always useful no matter what. Luck cannot be directly upgraded Damn. Okay let''s look at the rest. Might is easy, raw physical ability. Cool. Awesome. Would be so useful if I wasn''t made of jello. Skill is Precision, Dexterity, and the like Toughness, Ability to withstand damage of a more Mundane nature, including poisons and diseases. Will governs or measures mental strength as well as Magical aptitude Cunning, Pursuasion, Deception, Subtlety as well as crativity Luck is self explanatory. With such a low toughness I cant help but feel like I am a step away from disaster. Might I feel is practically useless to me the way I am right now, and being as slow as I am right now is entirely unacceptable. I mentioned before that the base stats were multiplicative, that''s how it interacts with skills, but they have their own effects attached to them as well. With Cunning being a high stat I can probably use that for survivability which should be my first focus. So my only reach choice is if I want to increase my Toughness or Skill. Durability, or Mobility? One point won''t make or break me or make a hell of a big difference, but I think my durability needs help the most. So I put that point right in to my Toughness. Now for skills. System will only display skills that are currently available to you. Points can be spent to either purchase new skills, or upgrade existing ones. Current skills Skill gained - Madness resistance Available Skills Sneak(Tier 1, Rank 1) - Decrease likelihood of detection, drains stamina during use. Constant Drain when ability is active 1/s Sneak Attack(Tier 1, Rank 1) Increase damage when attacking from an Undetected state. Stamina cost per use 5 Tracking(Tier 1, Rank 1) Increases ability to follow tracks. Constant Drain on stamina when ability is active 1/s Inspect(Tier 1, Rank 1) Receive details when focusing on a target. No cost, requires concentration. Mana Sense - Minor(Tier 1, Rank 1) Basic ability to sense ambient mana passively. Activate to enhance effect. Stamina cost during active effect 1/s Block(Tier 1, Rank 1) Activate to reduce damage taken from a single blow. Stamina cost per activation 5 The list continued on until I went figuratively cross-eyed. Passives, actives, reactions... I noticed that I didn''t seem to have a few skills listed that seemed like they should be there but then realized those skills might be related to the fact I''m missing some things. Can''t punch without hands. Can''t kick without feet. That sort of thing. I also noticed some slime specific skills. Everything I did see seemed pretty basic though. The sort of things you could expect from a magical fantasy world. For now, Taking the Sneak skill seemed like one of the easiest choices I''ve ever made. At least for now I seem to be leveling up almost passively so I don''t need to focus on my combat abilities yet but that will definitely come up. Information gathering is my second highest priority. I need to focus on my ability to do that. For starters, The Minor Mana Sense and Inspect seems like easy choices and then I look over the rest of the Skill list. In my Slime specific list, I see one that will definitely help. Damage Resist - Minor. It reduces my total damage taken by a set amount based on Skill level. It''s not much, fractions of an Hp per level but I''m sure it will add up. So I take that too. My big reasoning behind that choice is... well... it''s an all around defense and any gamer can tell you there are hundreds of ways to take stupid damage. Little pings of damage that add up over time. Few inches too high on that jump? Ran in to the wrong bush? Tripped over your own trap because you forgot about it... Accidentally stood in the middle of a giant fucking glowing red circle on the ground from a clearly telegraphed boss nuke because you were too busy managing your cool cooldowns even though the Healer would have reached through your monitor and beat your head against the keyboard because they have had to save your ass from the same thing a dozen times already? I had to stop my internal rant with a sigh and shake myself... mostly just making my jelly wobble a bit. Alright, now to move on to the next section. Mutation. Monster specific things that alter myself. It is similar to the skill Menu, but more tailored towards me personally. I see I''m able to change three main things. Membrane- Outer layer of protection that forms a slime Jelly- Internal structure of a slime functioning as Vital Organs Stomach- A space within the Jelly where food is processed. With ten points to spend, I''m taking a look through the menus. All the areas seem like they would have cool options. Though like the previous menu nothing particularly magical, physics breaking or anything like that. I AM still low level, and don''t even have any mana so it makes sense. For my Membrane I select a Camaflaging option so help with my Sneak. It says I have the ability to change my shape and texture. Kind of like some of those octopus from back home. For my Jelly... I take a simple option Thicker Jelly. This gives me a resistance to ''Bleed-out''. I do NOT want to pop like a balloon, not that I''m sure that''s what would happen but with this at least whenever my Membrane gets pierced I won''t simply... have my insides rudely introduced to my outsides. Then my stomach. More options... more choices... no I don''t feel like reading out a list of dozens of choices out to no one. I don''t think anything here will help with my three big goals of Stealth, Information Gathering and Survival. So how about utility? Things like increased capacity, efficient digestion, internal damage resistance, increased acid damage... Yea, some of these options are only useful if I swallow prey whole... and alive. I don''t like the idea of something just... dissolving alive in acid. That''s an awful way to go. I decide to take the Efficient digestion near the top of the list. It will make it so that I gain a small amount of resource bonus when I digest things. Like everything else, at the first level it is an incredibly small bonus, but hey... that''s why leveling things up is important. Now, the difference between skills and Mutations, from what I''m getting from the System, is that Skills need to he trained to ''Breakthrough'' levels before they can be advanced to the next Tier manually through a higher skill point investment. Mutations need to be leveled manually through point investment. So with three points spent, seven left, I can bring one mutation up twice, with a single upgrade for one of my other two Mutations. Or all three once with a single point left over. Level 2 costs 2, Level 3 costs 3... you get the idea. Level ten seems to be the cap and the price to advance costs much more than that. Going to boost my camouflage by two. There is so much going on in my head right now I''m not even sure if I missed anything. I always had trouble focusing and remembering stuff. Not like the system had to insult me by tacking on some Madness affliction... don''t even need to ask about it. Just surprised I didn''t spawn with it. With an internal sigh I just shrug and confirm all my selections. I''m too tired for this bullshit... just let me sleep... Chapter 4: Fresh Start Day 6 My. Head. Hurts. Or whatever counts as my head. I don''t think I even have a brain anymore and that thought just makes my head pound even more. Can I get off this ride and just go home? ... ... ... Guess not. Damn. Worth a try. There is a soothing warmth inside me as I just let myself come awake and I find that the little marble of a core has attached itself to the bottom of the basin I was laying in. Firmly adhered there like it was fused with the stone. That''s fine, from what I remember of Dungeon core stories most cores needed a physical link with their Dungeon. Not that I was trying to pick it up anymore... actually, now I decided to move off of it and take a proper assessment of my situation. Five days in a near insane fugue state where I was semi conscious of my inane actions... a short amount of time Awake, and hours spent sleeping to recover and now I feel awful. Makes sense, My Hp is really low. Stamina is fine though. Okay... bad news. Level ups don''t heal you. No nifty full restores during combat for leveling up, no sleeping off a broken leg. Stamina seems to have filled up fine though. Again, makes sense. A good rest fixes that right up. I''m not feeling particularly hungry, so I assume I''ve just been consuming the local mana? A quick check with my mana Sense tells me... not too much to be honest. I can sense mana. Yup. Like tingly feeling in the air. My Skill is telling me that yes. There is mana. Yup. Definitely some mana around. Mmhmm. Yes. Thank you. You are about as useful as I was expecting a level one Skill to be. I''m at least able to keep an eye on my status... watching my Hp slowly ticking up little by little, my stamina draining while the skill is active, and occasionally ticking up just a little bit. I use Inspect on the Dungeon core. Tiny Dungeon Core Huh. Little bit of information I didn''t have. It''s not Nascent anymore. I can make a good guess at what that means but it would be just a guess. Probably just means it has started growing or something. I just hope it doesn''t mean me any harm. I mean, now that I think about it, depending on how smart it is, it might think I''m holding it hostage or something. I have no way of knowing. Aside from that first burst of raw emotion I felt when it was first born... it''s just a warm little marble. No thoughts or feelings from it. Now that my immediate situation is dealt with... This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Contract Request from Dungeon Core This Dungeon core has extended an offer for you to become a Contracted monster under this Cores authority. If you accept your power will grow alongside that of the Dungeon. New options will be unlocked. The Dungeon could invest resources directly in to your growth. You would be at the command of the Dungeon but retain your free will, with restrictions. You would be unable to cause harm to the Dungeon. You would become weaker when outside the dungeons influence, and be required to return to the Dungeon after being absent for a length of time. Do you accept? Y/N Do I want to bind myself to this Dungeon? No. There wasn''t much decision to be made there. I needed to find Her. Even though I have no idea how to do that, I couldn''t stay here. I declined the offer, and another idea hit me. How much of Dungeon lore was actually correct? One of the basic rules from those stories was there had to be an acceptable path from the core to... the outside. Acceptable being up to interpretation sure, but still. When I woke up here, I know I explored around. It was only after discovering that there didn''t seem to BE a way out that I panicked. Now though I felt some hope. I quickly ooze my way off this table, able to manipulate my form with a noticeably better precision than yesterday as I set to exploring the room at a break neck pace. Hahaha, I am speed. I am the wind. I am the envy of snails the world over! One day I might be able to beat a turtle and I''ll be unstoppable! ...shut up. If I don''t try and cheer myself up I''ll go crazy...er. After making my way around the edges of the room for what felt like ages, I came across something I didn''t remember. An opening. Investigating the opening by touch, the only reliable sense I have, I feel what seems like a door opened. I hadn''t noticed the door before. Or at least I don''t remember. Okay. Okay. Okay. There is a way out. Don''t panic. Take lessons from exploring the endless wilderness of minecraft. Make notes, set up landmarks. I go back to the pile of rocks I had been collecting and grabbed as many as I could carry, then went back to the door. I did that several times until I brought my entire pile of stones to the door, then I made a little pile of four. The pile was to make the origin point. If I find this pile again I''ll know I''m back where I started. I then selected another stone and set it in the direction I was headed, still connected to the pile, all of this piled against the left side of the doorway. Follow the wall. Like that touch tunnel I went through as a kid. Follow the wall and it becomes harder to get lost. Keeping one part of my body touching the stone pile, and another touching the wall, I grabbed three more stones and stretched myself as far as I could reach outwards. Once I was at my limit, I set the stones down, putting two across and then set a third just barely separated from the first two, in the direction of my original pile. This way it pointed back ''home''. I then went back to my pile, collected three more rocks, and moved on to the first marker. At that marker I spread all over, exploring these new surroundings in detail and making a map in my head of my new environment. I was never blind I my old life, so I never learned any of the tricks people who had to deal with that ailment learned. Besides that, touch is the only RELIABLE sense that I have right now. Oh for the love of my precious jelly this is going to take absolute ages!! I felt like an amature tightrope walker with how nervous of getting lost I was, like if i stepped to the side even a little, I''d fall off my line. Not that I even knew where I was to begin with but I had to take what I could get. Hours went by like this... every time I I spread out like a puddle, I collected any stones I could pick up and piled them close to the wall. It didn''t make sense to relay them all the way back to the start, but I always needed the stones to spread my line of landmarks. Thanks to this method I was slowly getting a cohesive picture of my environment. A few times I set my ''back'' to the wall and spread directly outwards away from the wall, I made four markers out in to the ''void'' of floor before I found another wall. Okay. So this area is four slime lengths wide. Not that I could translate that in to feet or meters since I have nothing to really measure against. Hallway, hallway, hallway, corner, hallway, doorway, room... I mapped out several rooms, some furniture that I didn''t explore beyond marking their presence and then I felt something new. A steady vibration. What is that? Thump Thump Thump Thump. Wrong rhythm for a heartbeat. Drums? No... not as steady unless the drummer sucks. What is that? Uhm... oh... uhm, not good? It''s getting stronger. Then it stopped right when it was the strongest I have felt yet. Then... Contact! We have contact! SOMETHING TOUCHED ME!! Chapter Five: Dungeon Firstborn I am the first creation of my wonderful Master. Well, the first monster, at least. I was born with a certain natural understanding about my world, my home, my Dungeon. It doesn''t have a name yet, it is still very young, but it definitely feels more mature than it should be. I''m not certain why I know that, but I do. I am an Imp, and it is my duty to protect my Master. Keep their core safe from threats. However that is where my duty becomes a little... muddled. There is this... not denizen. Not Dungeon Monster. Intruder but... not intruder? My instincts tell me that if something is not Dungeon, but is inside the Dungeon that it is an intruder but... this one seems... odd. It has been here since the Master woke up, and it had the opportunity to destroy the Master, but it didn''t. It didn''t seem right to return such mercy with wrath. Imp spent much of it''s time just watching the little red squishy, learning about it and just observing it. Imp actually learned quite a bit from it. The squishy was blind, and deaf at the very least but it DID react to loud enough sounds or heavy movement. Usually by quickly hiding and pretending to be a rock. It was pretty good at pretending to be a rock, enough that if Imp didn''t look at it directly Imp wouldn''t notice. However when being watched directly, it just... didn''t look right. Sometimes the rock moved just a little, or looked a little transparent when it shouldn''t be. Imps little wings fluttered as it hovered in the air before finally landing on its clawed toes. Imp really wanted to pet the squishy. So it did. It reached out and touched the squishy and was delighted by the feel of it. It was all soft, warm and jiggly. It wasn''t slimy or sticky at all! Imp smiled as the little red squishy had a different reaction than usual. It seemed to... jolt? Stutter in surprise. Or however that translated to the little ball of warm squishy. Imp smiled it''s wide sharp toothed smile at the squishy and reached down with both hands to pick it up. The warmth was nice... though now Imp could feel the little squishy was shaking. Like a little vibration... it was frightened. Imp frowned and petted the little red squishy. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. "Imp friend squishy." Imp said aloud and rubbed at the creature as Imp took flight again, deciding that it liked the thing. It was only after Imp picked up Squishy that it got an alarmed feeling from it''s Master. There was an intruder! A real one! Imp flew through the halls of it''s Masters home to respond to the threat, being guided by it''s Master. This place was large.... larger than a Dungeon the size of it''s Master should have. Castle was the word in Imps mind. Though that didn''t feel quite right. It had the feel of old to it, and small... and such a strong feeling of....forgotten. Imp found the intruder after a few minutes, tangled up in one of its Masters traps. Such pride Imp felt at seeing the string trap it''s Master had placed, a simple thing, little more than a string across the hall, but loose enough to tangle an upward intruder. This creature was loud and angry, claws and snarling, and stupid. It struggled and twisted and snapped at the string which only tangled it up worse and worse. Imp put the squishy on its head right between it''s tiny horns before throwing a flame spark at the struggling invader. The flame spark ignited the string and the intruders fur. Imp felt... actually a little bad at the cries of pain it heard. It patted the squishy on its head in thought. Squishy had been giving Master a lot of Mana since Master had awoken... just by being here. It didn''t attack, it didn''t fight. It just explored. Imps instincts said to destroy invaders for Mana to help the Master. Though even Master seemed to... feel bad about the creature. Imp waved and made the fire go out. With the string burned up,the creature cried and ran away, two clawed feet flattering against the stone floor as it fled with some bald burned patches in it''s fur. Once the creature left the Dungeon, Imp felt the warm surge of mana and smiled, feeling a sense of victory. Then Imp patted squishy and had an idea. Master always got a little bit of mana whenever squishy ate something, so Imp picked up squishy and put it down on the remains of the fight, some ashes, burned hairs, and the ruins of the trap. The squishy held very still for a few moments while Imp petted it gently, before it felt around. After a few minutes of confusion it began to eat up the scraps left over and Imp felt a warm trickle of mana flowing out off the squishy. Imp felt happy that it was right. Yes, the squishy did make mana! Imp was praised by Master for this discovery, and felt Master pour some mana in to it as a reward, making it stronger and also spawning two lesser Imps as well. With these new lesser brethren, Imp became the Scion. The leader of it''s Imp brethren, thus was given a name by Master. Imp was now Smiley. Apparently Master liked it when imp... Smiley... smiled. Smiley waited for squishy to finish cleaning up and then picked it back up, placing it back on top of its head with a grin, "Good squishy. Smiley keep squishy safe! Squishy make more mana for Master!" Such was the start of a friendship between Smiley and squishy. After some time passed, Smiley felt a little tired, so it went over to it''s Mastera core room and laid down, holding Squishy in it''s arms and just... rested. Dungeon monsters didn''t need to eat, or sleep or any of that, but they did get bored and sometimes rested. As days passed, Smiley took good care of the little red squishy. It would play games with it, though the games were difficult to think of at first, Smiley found one that it could play. Smiley would take a few rocks and carve simple symbols on the rocks, and then show them to squishy. Then it would show squishy one specific rock, and then hide all the rocks. Then squishy would go find the one rock. Another game they played was Smiley trying to see what squishy could pretend to be. Round rocks were easy, so Smiley looked for other stuff. Sticks were harder for squishy and didn''t look right. Smiley found this square thing with soft sheets inside two harder sheets... Squishy seemed to like it! He crawled right up on top of it and blobed all over it. After watching Squishy play with the weird thing suddenly it just... popped! Like a bubble! Smiley could tell Squishy didn''t eat it. There was lots of little bubbles when Squshy ate something as the thing for smaller and smaller and then vanished. Smiley was about to investigate further when he heard an alarm from his Master. More intruders!!