Oliver’s vision blurred again, and on clearing, he found himself in yet another unfamiliar place. This time, a small clearing in the middle of a vast forest of towering trees and broad-leaved ferns.

To his surprise, the slime appeared to his left, while Barton was once again on his right. As he flinched and made to step back, he realized that the slime now sat perfectly still, content.

“Alright,” the ring began, “time to start using the system. Think Interface. With purpose.”

“I’m not going to get ganked here out in the open, am I?” Oliver asked.

“Nope, the first room or room-sized area of any new stage is a safe zone, this is where you should always take care of this business, sleep if you can, or just take a breather. So, Interface?

Oliver complied, and a new window appeared, this time with a simple list of commands.

Stats

*Locked*

*Locked*

Bound Entities

“Let’s get you taken care of first. Open stats and slot your new point in Strength,” the ring ordered. Oliver mentally selected Stats like he was directed.

Oliver S. Grant

Level 1

Human Male; Age - 27

Class:

None

Strength:

8

Agility:

6

Dexterity:

6

Constitution:

8

Intelligence:

8

Perception:

7

Available Stat Points:

1

Oliver added his one stat point to Strength as per the ring’s instruction, bringing it to 9. “What do these do, anyway?” he asked.

He got the impression that the ring was taking a deep breath like it was about to launch into a spiel that it had given hundreds of times before. “Strength is how strong you are for like, lifting heavy things, not like living through something difficult. Agility is big body movement, including running speed, dodging, and doing sick flips. Dexterity is small body movements like a sleight-of-hand magician or chef. Constitution is your endurance, resilience to damage, and speed of healing and recovery. Intelligence is mental processing speed and memory. Perception is how strong your senses are along with your ability to notice things that stand out. Whew!”

“Give that speech a few times?”

“You have no idea. To answer your next question, a 10 in any stat is like, world-class. Best on the planet. World Record powerlifter? 10 in Strength. Olympic gold medal runner? 10 in Agility. Uncatchable pickpocket in Paris? 10 in Dexterity. Get the idea?”

“Yeah, I get it.”

“Your starting stats were assigned based on your ranking compared to the other billions of humans. That 8 in strength you started with meant that you were stronger than 8 out of 10 random people on the street. Don’t get a big head, those numbers count folks in nursing homes and toddlers, among others. You’re a college-educated man in his twenties that hits the gym with some regularity, that’s right where you should be.”

Oliver was silent for a moment of contemplation and addition. “So, you are saying that in another sixteen levels, I can be as strong, fast... smart as any human being ever has?”

“Chief, that’s the bare minimum. The new normal is going to crash into your species like a hillbilly tour bus into a buffet.”

“Wait, since I put that point in, I’m stronger now?” Oliver asked. When the ring confirmed it, Oliver immediately dropped into a plank position and did a few pushups. They came significantly easier, with much less effort required. A thought came, unbidden, to his mind, and Oliver dropped to the ground and curled in on himself, wracked with sobs.

The ring let him cry himself out before it asked. “What was it? What was the thought?”

Oliver raised himself to a sitting position. “I thought about showing off to Jamie. She’d tease me, then act like a fawning fangirl. Then, the fact that she’s not here to see.”

“She will be,” the ring assured him. “Do what I say, and we’ll bring her back. Together.”

Oliver gathered himself and hopped back to his feet. “Okay. What’s next?”

“Check the spear and tunic,” the ring ordered.

Really looking at the spear for the first time this stage, Oliver was shocked to find the sharpened wooden point replaced by a stone spearhead tied on with what looked like dried sinew. Checking the tunic, he found the fabric to be a little smoother and woven a little tighter.

“What happened?” he asked.

“You leveled up. So did they. Go back to the Interface menu and pull up Bound Entities. Then, select the spear.”

Oliver did as he was told, and noticed that Barton, who still sat by his side, now looking at him with worry, was on the list as was the pudding-skinned lime slime.

[Simple Spear] has 1 perk available. Please choose 1 perk.

Beneath was a staggering list, ordered alphabetically, and the part of it that filled Oliver’s vision didn’t even get halfway through the A’s.

“Bit overwhelming, I know,” the ring commented. “Let’s start with... Unerring Throw 1 for the spear and Crushing Resistance 1 for the tunic.”

Oliver navigated his way through the thousands of options to the U’s to find Unerring Throw, briefly reading the perk before selecting it, then repeating the task for Crushing Resistance.

[Unerring Throw 1]

Thrown Entity is less impacted by external factors like wind, gravity, and aerodynamics until it travels [Strength] X 1 meters.

[Crushing Resistance 1]

Entity transfers 20% less impact force.

“So I’ll be throwing the spear,” Oliver stated more than asked.

“You’ll be throwing the spear.”

“I thought throwing your only weapon away was a bad idea?”

“I thought you were following my guidance without question?”

“Fine. What’s the next step?”

“The dog and the slime both get a perk. Give the dog [Deepened Bond 1]. It’ll let him better understand your instructions. It’s almost a requirement for Bonds with pre-system creatures.”

Oliver found the perk and selected it for Barton. He immediately gave it a test. “Barton, back up two steps, buddy.”

Barton quirked his head at Oliver, floppy ears slightly raised, then backed up two steps and sat down.

“That’s awesome,” Oliver murmured.

“Okay, now for the slime-” the ring started, but Oliver cut him off.

“Why a slime, though? This thing is-”

“The perfect base? Capable of evolving into any other creature, given the right perk path?” snapped the ring.

“Any? Jell-O here could evolve into a dragon?”

The ring sent Oliver a long, drawn-out sigh filled with long-suffering frustration. “Yes, but why, though? Dragons aren’t all that great, pal. Always with the dragons. Every time. Let me be honest for once: they’re huge, so there’s countless places they don’t fit; they eat literal tons; and every single benefit they give, can be had with something smaller. I usually recommend something closer to human-size, like a-”

“If size is the issue, what’s the smallest thing with similar benefits?”

Oliver’s interruption seemed to stun the ring.

“The... smallest? We-I’ve never... Hang on, let me think.” The ring was silent for several minutes before it spoke again. “Flight... firepower... brawn... I think... yeah, got it. I usually go for something roughly man-sized, but dragon-powered. There’s no reason we couldn’t do that with something even smaller. At worst, it would be an interesting experiment. Yeah, let’s do it!”

Oliver waited a few seconds, then a few more before he got impatient. “Ring? You still there?”

“Oh! Yeah, sorry. Lost in thought. Uh, I know your brain is on information overload, but stick with me. In addition to perks, companion entities can evolve, changing them into another creature type. Now, Barton, starting as a dog, is only going to have canine options. There are some very doggy-ish legendary creatures if you follow a path far enough, but Barton won’t ever have a turtle-based evolution, savvy?”

“Yeah, I think I got it.”

“Good. Now the slime is square one, every path is open to it. Most people pick a direction and go, but there’s always this option to reset back to square one, a slime. We’re going to exploit the heck out of that business. See, once an evolution is taken, all the perks available to that creature type remain available.”

The ring gave Oliver some time to process until he put the plan together on his own. “So, if we want it to breath fire, we find something with that option, reset to slime, then move on to the next creature?”

“Ding, ding!” the ring announced. “I’ve worked through a mental perk wishlist and cross-referenced it with the creature perk’s that I’ve got memorized. I think I’ve got it as streamlined as I can. Let’s go ahead and pick Evolution: Lesser Earth Elemental as step one. Never tried that one before, but it checks all the boxes.”

Oliver found the option, which took a while, given that there were thousands of Evolution: Something options. The same reality-distortion effect swept over the slime and the booger was gone. In its place stood a tiny, roughly human-shaped pile of stones.

The elemental only came part of the way up to Oliver’s knees, so it tipped back the single rock that made up its head to look at its boss. The rock wasn’t exactly head-shaped. It had a flat ‘face’, but the top had a protrusion that made the whole thing look vaguely like the state of New Hampshire. There weren’t any facial features, either, just a blank, smooth face of stone. Somehow, that didn’t diminish the thing’s cuteness.

The rest of its body was made up of ten-ish rocks, two for each limb and two for the torso. It walked up to Oliver, the rocks hinging and rotating where they joined together, and the little elemental reached its arms up like a toddler wanting to be picked up.

The image of a pile of rocks looking up at him like it was saying, “Up!” cracked half of a smile on Oliver’s face. Still not sure how the elemental worked, he opted to kneel down to its level instead of trying to pick up the probably heavy stones. The elemental seemed happy with this outcome and gave Oliver its best approximation of a hug around the neck.

“Another one?” Oliver chuckled.

Jamie adopted a very effective pout as she held her hand out to her husband. “It’s a pretty shiny. This is a good one!”

Oliver relented and held out his open hand. Jamie held hers over his but kept it shut tight. “You put it in the bag! No sneaky dropping it, I’ll know!”

Oliver held his hands up in a two-finger salute. “Scout’s honor.”

Smiling in victory, his wife let the shiny rock fall into his hand. “A trinket. One to remember this hike by." She darted in to peck him on the cheek, then smiled at him as she walked ahead on the trail.

Oliver hugged the toddler-sized earth elemental back. “A Trinket,” he murmured.