1.5

The rock had never felt this before. More than that, it had never felt… anything before. The air itself was an electrifying, new experience to its untrained senses.

It could see. Well, not so much as see, as feel. The gem embedded within it shone brightly, the stone’s equivalent of eyesight. The rock now had the means, and use them it did.

Lights glimmered all around. To a creature, or rather, a thing that had lived its life in abject darkness for countless millennia, with no grasp of time, to have taken in a surrounding as expansive as the cavern felt like grasping the very nature of the universe as a mere mortal: Impossible, yet, it was doing it.

It panned its view upwards, getting its first glimpse at the being cradling it in its arms. It felt the being’s arms, and heard a voice. How did it hear with naught but a gem? The rock could not tell you, even if you asked for a thousand lifetimes.

But the gem might.

It served as the source of every audio, visual, and sensory input on the rock’s body, taking in the outside world it would never be able to see, at least, not before it had fused with the rock.

And yet, the rock’s thoughts were its own, not a result of its sudden symbiosis with the gem.

But it heard nonetheless, craning and struggling to make sense of the string of sounds that constituted some form of abstract concept. The being was trying to convey something, the rock was sure. But what? It could only guess.

“What the FUCK?” Harold jumped, fumbling the stone. He could swear that the rock had moved while in his arms. The stone-gem fell to the ground with a series of ‘clinks’, tumbling towards Amber.

[Nobilis Skill: Stone Manipulation]

It came to a stop at her feet, and she bent, moving to pick it up. “Why’d you drop it? It seems perfectly fine- AHH!” Out of surprise more than fear, she too dropped the rock, which had begun sprouting limbs. The rock had not taken its eyes off of Harold, and finally seeing something more than just his face, moved to mimic his arms and legs.

[Original Action: You are the first of your species to craft something, + ERROR to Intelligence]

Of course, it understood a grand total of none of those words, but it could feel its new body parts. At the moment, they were but stubby imitations, growing from where a human’s arms and legs would be attached to their torso. But this form lacked dexterity, having none of the fingers or toes that had made humans such a versatile species.

It sprang up from the cold stone floor, and tried to waddle its way towards Amber, only to fall flat on its ‘face’ as it tried. Trying again, it made it several steps before falling over again.

“Awwww, wait, it’s so cute!” Amber gushed. Looking on as if the little rock was some sort of baby, learning how to take its first few steps.

The rock had learned its lessons. It would not be bounding towards the other being with the speed of… something fast, but it could try to get used to its new appendages.

It stood, bracing itself for another fall. When the ground did not meet its face, nor did its face meet the cold hard ground, the stone looked to take one step. In this it succeeded, but the diagonal formation that its ‘legs’ now found themselves in were not conducive to staying upright, and it fell over.

“Can we keep it? Please?” Amber was giving Harold her best iteration of puppy dog eyes, before turning her attention back to the adorable little gem, still trying to take its first steps without falling flat.

The gem had never seen such bullshit before. How was he meant to walk around if stepping forward meant falling?

Ah! An idea! The stone concentrated, far more than it ever had in its admittedly short life. Turning the base of its ‘legs’ from rounded stone surfaces, to flat squares. The stone tentatively stepped, forward, and when it didn’t topple, it happily waddled its way towards Amber.

[Original Action: You are the first of your species to successfully move of your own volition, + ERROR to intelligence]

“Oh Jesus Christ,” Harold muttered, Amber had done this exact thing when they had found an abandoned puppy on the side of the road. He had made the mistake of letting her bond with it, and they had taken it home. And guess who now had a dog named Cerberus?

He frowned. “What happened to Cerberus by the way? If we’re not there to feed him?”

Amber looked away from the rock, her expression horrified. “Oh shit, I hope he’s okay. I think our friends should be able to feed him?” She looked down at the rock once more.

Perceiving her shift in expression, the rock tilted itself slightly to the left, as if mimicking the expression of confusion that a human might present.

“It’s nothing,” she began, shaking her head, tears had begun to well up in her eyes. “I just hope he’s alright. Just thinking about how he might be locked inside with nothing to eat…” She nearly began sobbing, and only seemed to calm down as Harold moved across the cavern to hug her.

“Shhh, it’s alright. Our friends know we have a dog, they’ll take care of him until we get back, you’ll see.” Harold whispered to her, but with his own face marred by the possibility of coming home to a dead dog, starved to death while waiting for them, he was about as convincing as a Pirate telling a victim’s crew not to worry about their treasure.

Still, Amber’s sobs became more muffled, and gradually died away.

The gem watched all of this in abject confusion. It tried touching its newly fashioned arms to its gem. Perhaps some liquid would come out if it did? It tried moving its torso, trying to imitate Amber’s grief. ‘What’s the purpose?’ it wondered, perhaps if… when it learned to communicate with these beings, they could explain it to the rock.

In the meantime, he slowly walked up to the pair, intent not to turn whatever ire they might have upon him. With both hands firmly grasped, he lightly tugged on Harold’s pant leg.

The movement seemed to shake Harold from his grief, if momentarily. “Oh yeah, you had a person’s status screen, even before you did the fusing thing. I wonder if you can understand your status? Here, ready? Let’s try saying status. Ready? Staaaaatus.” Harold spoke as if to a baby, enunciating each syllable as much as he could.

The gem looked up at him quizzically, as quizzically as a rock with no facial expressions, anyway. From the gem however, a sound was heard, rasping, like a voice that hadn’t been raised to speak in years.

“Ststttus”

“Holy shit,” Harold whispered. “It can talk? It can TALK! Holy crap that’s terrifying”

The voice that Harold heard was disconcerting, a terrifying, guttural noise which froze him in place.

Of course, the rock had no idea, and had stopped moving as it observed the floating screen in its direct line of sight. It was a status page, along with a smattering of different notes from the system. Symbols that it could not understand.

[Original Action: You are the first of your species to communicate with a different species, + ERROR to Intelligence]

#####

[Rock]

Age: ???

Race: Rock

Class: Please Select a class:

[Proximity to earth mana source: Common Class Option, Earth Mage]

[Soul affinity processed: Rare Class Option: Rock Vanguard]

[Nobilis spirit recognized: Mythic Class Option: Noble of Stone]

Constitution: Rock

Achievements: [First Light]

Titles: N/A

#####

In response, Harold pulled up his own Status Screen, the same underwhelming page that he had seen prior, and willed for the rock to be able to see it. As Amber questioned him, he shrugged. “Maybe he’ll see me sharing and share his?

The rock certainly did see the page, looking on in confusion as a whole new set of symbols appeared before him. This time, however, it was clear the page was attached to the strange being, and so the rock moved to imitate.

With no knowledge of language, with neither the ability to ask questions nor speak his thoughts, the rock instead pushed all of his willpower into allowing the being to see the screen he was staring at.

His actions elicited a small jump from Harold, as well as a muttering of the phrase ‘didn’t expect that to work,’ as the man bent down to get a closer look at the page.

Harold eyed the status, trying his best to discern just what this little rock was. And though much of the status was still obscured by those infuriating question marks, he nearly started gaping when his eyes drifted to the ‘class’ section of the screen.

There were options here, only three, but as the man’s eyes landed there, they looked as if they were ready to pop out of his head.

The rock continued to stare, confused, until Harold pointed at the screen, gesturing at the mythic class offered to the rock. A gesture that the stone copied.

Though the rock moved its upper right limb to the location, it found that its appendage would faze straight through the screen. Instead, it concentrated, in the same way that it had when it showed Harold its status, focusing any and all willpower that it could muster into this one act, and…

[Congratulations! Mythic Class obtained: Noble of Stone]

[Title Obtained: Progenitor - Be the first of your species to obtain a class]

[Original Action: First of your species to obtain a class, + ERROR to all stats]

[Skill Obtained: ERROR, no skill available for your species]

...

[Progenitor title found, generating a default skill]

...

[Skill obtained: Summon stone - Command stone, living and nonliving, to fight for you]

Against this deluge of notifications, the rock could only look on in perplexed silence. And as more and more strange symbols popped up, filling his periphery the rock did the only thing it knew how to do.

In its rasping, nigh-unintelligible voice, it repeated its first word.

“Sttusttsu.”

#####

[Rock]

Age: ???

Race: Rock

Class: [Noble of Stone, Level 1]

Constitution: Rock

Achievements: [First Light]

Titles: [Progenitor]

#####

When even that failed, the rock acted with its own initiative. Recalling the tremendous force of will (for a rock) that it had mustered before, it all but forced the symbols away with its rapidly expanding intelligence and will.

[Original Action: You are the first of your species to take original action through your own initiative, + ERROR to intelligence]

The rock felt as though it had crossed a threshold of intelligence. No longer was it shackled by the bonds of a lesser mind, with its new and superior intelligence, it would rule the WORLD!

Then the rock tried to jump for joy, and fell on its face again.

#####

“Hey, speaking of, do you have a name, little guy?” Amber had joined Harold and the small stone on the ground, and entertained herself by helping the fledgling rock learn how to run and jump.

The rock turned as if prompted, and just stared at the two humans.

Harold took the initiative. Pointing to himself with both thumbs, he spoke. “I’m Harold, okay? Me, Haaa-rooool-duh”

The rock mimicked. With no thumbs to speak of, it gestured to its core with both stumps. “Mm Hrrrrrld”

“Nono, me Harold”

The rock tried several times in succession. “Me Harrld. Me Harld. Me Hard!” Settling on that, it repeated the phrase, certain that it had mastered it. “Me Hard.”

Amber broke out laughing, but Harold remained as stoic as he could, trying to keep a straight face. He shared his status, pointing to his name. “Me Harold. You’re Rock”

The rock nodded in agreement, moving to share its status page with the both of them. “Me Rock.”

Then a lightbulb went off in its head. Of course! This being was trying to get him to combine the two greatest pieces of learning he had ever achieved!

“Me Rock Hard!”

#####

[Rock Hard]

Age: ???

Race: Rock

Class: [Noble of Stone, Level 1]

Constitution: Rock

Achievements: [First Light]

Titles: [Progenitor]

#####

[Original Action: First member of your species to choose a name. Name selected - Rock Hard]