Li Mei sniffled as fat tears rolled down her bloody cheeks, dragging moist tracks across the tanned flesh. Her hands trembled, an indescribable excitement contained within.

Of all the things she never expected to find while sneaking around a secret otherworldly research facility, an employee break room with vending machines was somewhere near the top. She smashed the glass on all of them so fast she almost created afterimages, pulling all the snacks and treats into her storage without leaving so much as a stick of gum.

The names and packaging and brands were unfamiliar, but junk food was junk food! Li Mei busted open a bag with a faint pop, delighted to discover aromatic spiced vegetable chips inside.

"This is literally the best day of my life."

She barely resisted temptation to sit on the floor and pig out, shoving a handful of chips in her mouth before storing everything away for later with a remorseful sob. "I am infiltrating an enemy base that's already under attack by other unknown but also hostile forces. This is no time to get the munchies! Endure, Li Mei, endure!"

Li Mei licked her fingers clean, then readied her staff and crept back into the hallway.

The facility was full of strange, hostile creatures and the partially eaten bodies of scientists. There were laboratories and shelves of chemicals, cabinets containing various vials and beakers, and all sorts of equipment. Glancing around often produced some instructions or a manual for the machinery or tools. The only unfortunate thing was the state all the labs were in - dead bodies, cracked glass, dented lockers, smashed vials.

After raiding the snacks, she retreated to one such lab and set up barriers in front of the only door and a section of broken viewing window. Li Mei pried open lockers, donning safety gear much too large for her small body - goggles, coat, gloves, and a special enchanted face mask that filtered out most common harmful gases found in laboratory environments.

That last one was the most important, and Li Mei snatched a few spares just in case. Afterward, she pushed aside three ravaged bodies occupying the lab into the furthest corner and got to work.

"Let's see," she muttered to herself, perusing unbroken bottles on the shelves with Scan. "Oh! They have a ton of table salt. Good good, super useful. I kinda regret getting rid of all that spare bleach I stole from the manor now... Yes, they have everything I need! Not in the most convenient forms, but ah well." Li Mei gathered two entire armfuls of ingredients, a magic electric battery from inside a small piece of equipment, and a few conductive wires from under a counter.

Using the battery to run an electric current through homemade brine - made of water and salt, of course - produced chlorine gas. Some of it she mixed with a little water to make concentrated hydrochloric acid. Every so often she glanced up at the window, ducking behind the counter if she saw even a hint of movement.

By the time she was finished, Li Mei's remaining storage was mostly full of snacks and assorted vials of chlorine gas and hydrochloric acid. She enjoyed playing with a sealed vial of chlorine gas for a moment - it was heavier than air, and rolled along the bottom of the vial like odd yellow-green smoke.

"If I could learn a spell to generate an electric current on my own," Li Mei mumbled, tapping the side of the vial. "I could make chlorine gas and hydrochloric acid whenever I need without having to use a battery. Would still need the wires unless I could control the current? Hmm... I'll have to ask Faust about it. I've been lucky finding labs with a few sorts of familiar chemicals and equipment available, but that won't always be the case. Now that I think about it..."

Li Mei paused and scrutinized some of the lab equipment. "This equipment looks all nice and high-end, or probably did before the place got ransacked... There isn't even a fume hood in here though. The chemicals available are all fairly basic and rudimentary. Do they use magic for the more complicated stuff? Are there more specialized labs elsewhere? Or..."

Scan wasn't like Wikipedia where she could keep Scanning specific words to bring up more new information. If that were possible, she'd already have a full archive with all possible information available about the planet and its inhabitants. While it provided basic knowledge on whatever was being Scanned, interest points relevant to any questions she had about it, and sometimes hints or minor conjecture, it didn't produce absolute comprehensive information.

If Li Mei scanned a vegetable she would get information on how to grow more and tend the plant, whether it was edible or not, where it could be found in the wild, if it could be used in potions. Recipes weren't provided even if they were mentioned. Step-by-step instructions on how it could be turned into a poison with the right ingredients were out of the question, even if it was possible!

The exception was if she previously read - and thus archived - such information. Only then would it show up in Scan windows! So while Li Mei picked up a bunch of information on the use and production on the various machines in the lab, she couldn't get direct answers to her questions on why everything available was simple enough to be manipulated by someone with only a basic standardized education like herself.

Earth standardized, though. Perhaps Elysium had different educational standards and requirements?

"Low-end simplistic chemicals and shiny, new, but very basic equipment. Is this place nonessential for actual secret research, or... Is the chemical science in this world really so rudimentary? It looks sleek and fancy enough, but it's like a high school chemistry lab. Bells and whistles, and not much else." Li Mei scratched the back of her neck and sighed. "I guess I'll find out more when I download the base's information. If it turns out the secret research is figuring out how to make something like titanium dioxide..."

A secret research lab investigating the mysteries of sunscreen. Li Mei giggled softly at the absurdity of her own imagination.

She kept the goggles and face mask on, removed her protective barriers, and paused at the door. After nearly walking over a bunch of Rakes while turning a corner, she realized having Bao as an alert system spoiled her rotten. She wasn't used to sensing her surroundings because the Fera always took care of detecting danger.

That was a problem.

If Bao wasn't around, not being on constant alert made her vulnerable to attack. In the manor she had to creep along the hallways, sticking to shadows and staying still for dozens of minutes at a time to ensure she remained unseen. In the forest Bao always alerted her if something dangerous was nearby, either intentionally or through reflexive reactions, and it subsequently decreased her overall vigilance.

'I've really been slacking,' Li Mei sighed, closing her eyes to focus more on using her ears. 'The Training Room dummy emphasized strong foundations and mastering the basics to get stronger, I guess that's true for everything - not just combat! I can't rely purely on Bao to keep us both safe from danger when I'm fully capable of pulling my own weight in that regard, especially since it leaves me more vulnerable in situations where we're separate. It's good to have a friend I can count on to watch my back, but I shouldn't burden him with the full responsibility of my safety. We're partners so I have to do my part! Get stronger, get smarter, so he can count on me too.'

She smiled a little at that thought. Her first friend in a new world, and the first one in either lifetime she could truly depend on. For his sake as well as her own, she had to get stronger! If anything happened to Bao because of her own negligence, she'd never forgive herself.

What a strange feeling. Warm fuzzy affectionate cotton wreathed in prickled concern borne of said affection. She had to make sure Bao was stronger too, so she wouldn't be too worried about him when they were apart. If both of them were strong, wouldn't that be best? And that Otto guy, too. He was really too weak. Being able to count on her companions to take care of themselves was important, too! She resolved to make a strict training regimen for Otto as soon as possible, unaware of a sudden mysterious chill that ran down the young man's back even all the way across the forest.

Li Mei shook herself free of pensive thoughts and refocused her attention on detecting the surroundings.

Humming machinery. A whirring fan in a nearby vent. Sparks crackling on a piece of machinery whose extremities were ripped off during a tussle. Shuffling, halting footsteps down the hall heading further away. A scraping of distant claws on something metal.

And a moist rattling hiss just a few feet behind her.

Li Mei whirled around, stumbling back a step in surprise. The last thing she expected was to hear a noise in what she thought was a room she'd already secured, much less a noise so close it made the hairs on her neck tremble!

One of the three mutilated bodies she'd shoved into a corner was arched and contorted into a strange shape, its chest ripped open by hundreds of long black tendrils weaving into something resembling the upper half of a creature's body. It stretched across the lab without touching the ground, hundreds of undulating tendrils weaving together into a stretched slavering maw dripping with black ooze, moving towards the unsuspecting girl watching the hallway.

A string of colorful and creative swears erupted from Li Mei's lips. She created barriers the instant that creature realized it was discovered and tried to clamp down on her body with its odd mouth, blocking it from closing those terrible makeshift jaws.

-----

[Mature Morteworm Colony (Unstable, Modified)]

Rank 0 (31%)

Parasitic organisms capable of taking root in the digestive system of various species, forming something like a hiveminded colony within the host body. Morteworms are virtually harmless until they reach maturity, at which point they consume their host from the inside out to absorb their strength and abilities. The more worms there are in the colony, the more intelligent and violent the colony becomes.

Mature Morteworm colonies reproduce by attacking potential hosts, injecting the host with hundreds of small larvae that retain some strength of the parent colony. The survival of the host is not essential as Morteworms are fully capable of attaining maturity within a corpse, though this does tend to weaken the future colony and is not preferential.

In an Unstable state, a Mature Morteworm colony has not yet gained control over the powers they absorbed from their host so their Rank is low. This makes them relatively weak and easy to evade.

Once stabilized, the Morteworm colony consumes everything in their path in an attempt to absorb mana to extend their own rapidly dwindling lifespan. They find prey by sensing undulations of mana in their vicinity, and colonies have been known to consume each other to form a larger supercolony with increased ability.

These Morteworms have been modified to increase their growth speed and reproductive rate. It is extremely difficult to get rid of a Morteworm infection; it's recommended to avoid contact and not become a host in the first place.

-----

Li Mei only glanced at the Scanned info for a moment before she saw the other two bodies convulsing in the corner, black tendrils erupting from their orifices and open wounds.

"Nope! Nope nope no thank you no!"

She rolled out from between the two barriers, dispelling them so the creature's makeshift jaws snapped shut with sudden force. Li Mei scrambled away and out the lab door with all the grace and charm of a newborn giraffe, a tangle of desperate limbs slipping and sliding on the polished floor.

As a child, she once watched a beautiful animated movie about a human girl raised by a forest wolf spirit, and a human boy banished from his clan. In that movie, a giant boar had worm-like things emerging from its body in grotesque ways until its original form could no longer be discerned, and it went mad trying to kill the humans who shot it.

Young Li Mei had many nightmares after that regarding worms emerging from her body and eating her up! Only constant reassurance from teachers and books that such things didn't really happen helped her attain peaceful sleep again.

Go figure her childhood nightmare became a reality! What a horrible world she found herself in! Her fear and loathing regarding worms and things emerging from bodies came back at full force, making her legs tremble as she ran.

Hugging the wall closely enough to almost get friction burn on her side, Li Mei rounded a corner at top speed without a care as to whether or not the Morteworms were in pursuit. She summoned her staff, dispatching a prowling Rake she startled in the next hallway with a single strike to the face empowered by her momentum.

-----

[Quest Progress - Skillset]

Ambush Kills +1

-----

'Awful lenient on what counts as an ambush, eh?' Li Mei thought with a wry laugh, glancing from one side of the hallway to the other as she ran. Finally she spotted an open door to an empty room, a mere supply closet lacking anything of interest to the marauding monsters. She dashed inside, closing the door and sealing it with a barrier for good measure.

Inside was dark but she didn't try to find the lightswitch. Li Mei sat on the ground and caught her breath, patting her chest with one hand.

Confined spaces made her feel safe. Enveloping walls promised security - there was nowhere for enemies to lie in wait.

'Unsettled by a few Morteworms, what happened to getting stronger to protect yourself and Bao? Pull yourself together, Li Mei!' She slapped her cheeks, shaking her head vigorously.

Elysium was a dangerous world. It had magic and enemies around every corner. She'd resolved to get stronger, smarter, faster. To do whatever it took in order to survive!

She was already a killer. Once in her past life, and countless times in the new one. Dozens had already fallen beneath her hands, and who knew how many bodies would pile up in her wake in the unknown future?

Good fortune ensured those slain so far were bad people, at least from her perspective, making it easier to live with herself afterwards. There was no pleasure in killing, it was just a fact of her new life.

But death was death and killing was killing no matter what kind of pretty words were used to dress it up. She was a hardened and experienced killer, and shouldn't be freaked out by parasitic corpse worms no matter how horrible and gross they were!

'Pull yourself together!' Li Mei repeated in her head until her hands stopped shaking.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

...

Exhale.

Li Mei dispelled the barrier, listening for a few long moments. She cracked the door open, listened again, but could neither hear nor Sense anything in the hall.

She slipped out of the supply closet and approached the corpse of the Rake she killed earlier to remove the Core from its body. A small Core, just a pitiful crystallized sliver barely worth 30 mana. Thankfully the Quest didn't require Cores of specific quality or size.

-----

[Quest Progress - Escape]

Core +1

-----

It also didn't mind if she absorbed them, so Li Mei guided her mana to break down the Core and replenish some of what had been lost using her barriers willy-nilly.

BANG!

Ka-ta-ta-dan!

She nearly jumped out of her skin as a metal grate over a nearby vent launched across the hallway and fell to the floor with a clatter. Hundreds of long, black, oozing tendrils surged out of the vent and fell to the floor with a symphony of repulsive wet slaps.

Morteworms.

Wiggling, writhing, wet.

"This place is horrible!" Li Mei screeched and took off running once more, all color drained from her face.