SMACK!

34 prey eliminated.

SMACK!

19 prey eliminated.

“Oh, come on! These aren’t prey!” He glared at the Screen. “They’re plants, you hear me? Plants!”

As always, the Screen ignored his words.

27 prey eliminated.

Lukas sighed. The dichotomy of the Screen was mind-boggling. On one hand, the technology claimed to quantify the soul. On the other hand, he was having a tough time explaining to it the difference between animals and plants. Design flaw or programming error, it seemed like he was stuck with it.

Accurate deduction!

…

At least he wasn’t awarded with something ludicrous like a +1 INT. He wouldn’t know what to do if he suddenly found out that his life had become an actual game.

Not that mine is currently too far off.

From what Lukas had observed, the Screen classified every inch of bryophytic outgrowth as prey. If being alive was criteria enough to be labeled as such, then even things as small as bacteria and other microscopic organisms should fall under the category too. They were also technically alive.

And yet, they weren’t considered prey.

Chalking it all up to the Screen’s idiosyncrasies, he dropped the issue, no longer willing to play twenty thousand questions with a stubborn AI. Besides, he had better things to do, like—

SMACK!

31 prey eliminated.

+1 Experience

Yeah. Not far off at all.

Every time he managed to kill a certain number of mosses—roughly 130 eliminations, if his math was right—he was awarded a single point in Experience. It would keep rising until it reached the threshold of forty, but what about then?

This was his latest distraction. It had been an entire day since he’d found himself in the anomaly, and multiple times, he’d gone crazy. Just an hour ago, purely by accident, he’d sat on a piece of moss and got the strange Experience notification from the screen.

“How many have I eliminated so far?” he asked aloud.

Prey eliminated: 3380

Obtained Experience: 39

Soon, he would reach the threshold and find out. Maybe he’d be able to unlock some more of those omphalos functions? It sounded silly, but there was a dearth of interesting things to do inside this place. Maybe something cool would come out of it.

It did in the games.

Rubbing his palms together, Lukas proceeded to smack the life out of his prey. It only took a few more minutes of smacking before something of note happened.

Accumulated Experience crossed Threshold!

LEVEL UP!

ATTRIBUTE

CHANGE IN PARAMETERS

Level

+1

Soul Capacity

+27

As expected, it was similar to any rudimentary gaming interface: accumulation of Experience led to a Level Up when crossing a certain threshold value. The newly refreshed Soulscape now looked different too.

SOULSCAPE

NAME

Lukas Aguilar

Type

Base Host

Level

2

Experience

0

Current Threshold

160

Utilized Soul Capacity

0/1027

OMPHALOS ATTRIBUTES

Energy Reservoir Capacity

∞

Current Energy Level

722,457,341 units

OMPHALOS FUNCTIONS

Scan

Level 1

Analyze

Level 1

His Experience was back to 0, while his new threshold sat at a significantly higher 160. That meant smacking his way through…how much moss?

20800 prey

Right. No thanks.

Lukas was bored, but not that bored.

He’d need to look for something else to hunt, something that qualified as a better food source than moss. Other than that, his Soul Capacity—whatever that meant—had jumped by twnety seven points, but he felt no real change in himself. What did leveling up mean, anyway?

Reflection of gained attributes on the Host Soul.

Vague, as usual. From what he could understand, Soul Capacity was the intrinsic capacity of the Host Soul to hold information. Information was synonymous with the word skill, which was…

An ability engraved upon the Soul.

It was as if the Screen had a university degree in providing circular answers. But no matter how you sliced it, the very concept was morbid. Souls were esoteric, metaphysical concepts, not pizza. They weren’t supposed to be calculated in mathematical terms.

A blank screen greeted his inner turmoil. Fitting, considering Lukas had no proper question to begin with.

Still, at least he had made some progress. Apparently, he had a soul, skills were engraved on that soul, and he could develop more skills by…doing things. If the concepts were anything like fantasy literature, then maybe he could smash buildings, or shoot fire and lightning from his fingertips. That and more, especially when he got creative about it. But first—

His stomach growled.

With one final smack, Lukas frowned down at his new collection. This…wasn’t food. It wasn’t even a proper substitute for food. No, it was something to keep his stomach filled until he found more appetizing options.

Appetizing options in a cave of moss and bats. Yeah, right.

He shook his head.

Analyze the moss.

MOSS

Bright green plant with deep roots.

Grows on moist, porous rocks. Brown pigmentation indicates rot.

For a change, the Screen’s information was very useful. The moss in front of him was entirely bright green in pigmentation rather than brown, which meant fresh.

But still… Moss?

His stomach—the traitorous thing—chose that moment to grumble again.

Lukas sighed.

Might as well.

Picking up the cleanest of the moss, he separated it into its composite parts: the roots and the leaves. Then he brought it to his nose and took a whiff. It wasn’t unpleasant or overtly pungent, which meant there probably wasn’t any bacterial growth.

Tearing off a piece of the moss leaf, he crushed it and rubbed it on his wrist. A few minutes later, there were still no bumps or rashes forming. Another point in its favor.

Very carefully, Lukas rolled the same leaf piece into a tiny cylinder and rubbed it over the edge of his lips. With several more minutes yielding no reaction, he sharply inhaled and plopped the piece in his mouth, chewing more and more rapidly as his confidence rose.

It was sweet, which meant sugar. A lack of bitterness and soapiness hopefully meant it wasn’t poisonous, either. Still, Lukas held the food in his mouth for a full fifteen minutes before finally deciding it was safe enough to swallow.

Eyeing the rest of the moss, he decided he could manage his hunger. For now. Somewhat.

But what about thirst?

He took another cursory look around him. The walls were damp with moss growing off of them in various places, both signs of a nearby source of water. As long as he found it quickly, he wouldn’t need to worry about succumbing to his own thirst. Maybe there was a running stream or lake nearby? He wasn’t having any breathing issues, so he couldn’t be too deep underground. Or maybe he was in a mountain.

“…”

Well, he’d figure a way out. But first, he sat down to chow on some lunch. He picked up another fresh piece of moss and stared at it with distaste. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, sure, but he really hoped this was a one-time thing. He spent the next few minutes demolishing his green pile of food.

Prey found you.

Frowning, he looked around, but there was nothing. The Screen had already registered the moss on the wall behind him earlier, so it couldn’t be that. And he’d smacked all the rest. Maybe some fly flew into his Scan Radius and sparked a reaction?

His stomach growled again.

Whatever it was, he’d deal with it later.

Prey found you.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Instinctively, Lukas’s hand reached into his pocket and gripped the rock he was using to cut down moss. It was a jagged little thing, with a sharp edge on one end, perfect for slashing flora, but also for defending against enemies. He wasn’t excited about having to revert to the Stone Age, but it was better than being empty-handed.

After a few more seconds of looking around, his eyes began to droop. His stomach was full, so he supposed a quick nap wouldn’t hurt.

“Screen,” he murmured, “if you find anything worthwhile, let me know.”

Acknowledged.

And like that, he was out like a light once again.

…

…

…

Prey found you.

This was starting to get old. How would he get more than a few minutes of shut-eye if the damn thing kept beeping at him? Keeping his eyes closed didn’t help either, since he could still see the Screen in his mind like it was floating right in front of him.

Blinking his eyes open, he wiped them clear. Feeling something strange on his body, he looked down at himself and—

Froze.

There was moss on his body.

Lots and lots of moss.

It was crawling all over him, interspersed over his knees and legs, forming a floral cover on his lower body. There were entire bryophytic outgrowths, pale, spongy fern-like structures secreting something wet and colorless onto his trousers. And then there was something different, thicker and more gelatinous, entwined around his waist like a thick belt, trapping him to the wall behind him.

What the fuck was this?

Lukas tried extracting himself from the mess, but the thing around his waist only grew tighter. The vines pulled him back against the wall until he was practically cemented against it, while the gel continued to be secreted onto him. How he hadn’t woken up immediately, he had no idea.

A dull throbbing sound attracted his attention. He craned his head to the left and stared at the wall.

It was like looking into another world. Green and blue light slithered up the walls, eerie and subtly unsettling, each color moving in waves of differing widths and speeds. The strange scent of water and dead fish assaulted his olfactory senses. There were growths lining the walls, ugly patches of some lumpy, rough substance he could not recognize. Neon-green gel-like things too lively to be plant sap crawled up his shoulders, rolled off his shirt, and seeped down to his abdomen.

Lukas yawned, feeling an urge to close his eyes.

Prey found you.

No. No no nonono—

He had to stay awake! He had to stay awake! Focus!

FORMLESS GHOL

Amorphous living units formed out of malleable protoplasm.

The presence of Formless Ghol indicates Ghol Monsters within the vicinity.

Lukas pushed his knees against the vines, but they constricted further. More and more gathered around his legs, thorns digging into his trousers and making him grunt in pain. He gathered the jagged rock and severed through several vines in a straight blow.

1 prey eliminated.

That was a mistake. The vines furiously hissed and struck back at him, constricting his shoulders and scraping against his chin. Panic rising within him, he tore at his neck and chest, ripping the tendrils off of him with as much strength as he could muster. He struck and struck, but more vines replaced what he tore off.

No, not vines, his delirious mind pointed out. They look like vines, but they’re all this formless crap.

Lukas slashed the rock against the gelatinous thing covering his chest. Hard. The shredded tubules hissed and twisted around each other, contorting into weird shapes. The growths reforged into something thicker, with a mouthlike opening on one end and the rest tapering into a tail. A cold pit began to form in his stomach as fangs protruded out of the membranous thing, forming something—

Ugly.

Horrible.

Wrong.

FANG-WORM

Chimeric spawn of formless ghol. Always found in clusters.

Lukas didn’t wait. He thrust the rock straight into the worm’s mouth, pushing it through the creature’s tubular body. He felt its tendrils grab his neck and squeeze, but he kept on pushing, vainly trying to drive the rock in farther. The worm hissed, vicious drops of colorless liquid dripping from its fangs onto the rock, corroding its surface. Time seemed to slow down as it did.

That could have been my hand.

The tendrils tightened, galvanizing him further. He was not going to become food for this beast. He was going to survive. He grabbed the tendrils closest to his fingers and twisted his waist, using them to anchor his own movement. But before he could get enough moving space, more green goo grabbed him by the neck and pulled him back against the rock wall.

Lukas froze for a half second as the tendril pulled against his neck harder, shutting off his air. Then the fear took over. He struggled, but his arms and legs felt as if they’d been coated in lead.

Meanwhile, the worm slowly crawled toward him, as if drawing sick amusement from watching him try to escape its murderous clutches. Using the floor as support, he pushed his body up against the wall in one last-ditch effort of blinding panic.

Something shifted within him, pulsing with his valiant heart. Maybe it was the panic, or perhaps the sheer defiance of wanting to survive this creature, or even actual body heat. Whatever it was, it made him feel hotter, like a smoldering ball of fire hovered in the pit of his stomach. It grew hotter and hotter and hotter—

Before exploding.

The tendrils couldn’t hold him. With a strength he did not possess, Lukas tore through his bindings. The fang-worm fell down, still hanging onto the rest of the gelatinous goo from its tapering tip. He scraped another off of his shoes and pushed himself forward, tearing through the ones around his waist as he did. As he fell forward, he squashed the fang-worm with his knee.

Any feelings of satisfaction he had felt from the subsequent squelching sound were lost in the feeling of precious, blessed oxygen rushing into his lungs once more.

You have used lifeforce for the first time!

And it didn’t end there.

Adding Essence attributes to Soulscape…

Modifying Host stats to enable configuration by lifeforce skills…

Body alteration delayed until Level Up.

New SKILL Created!

SKILL

LEVEL

SOUL CAPACITY CONSUMED

Raw Lifeforce Manipulation

1

50

DESCRIPTION

Allows for modulating the amount, motion, and application of lifeforce within the host’s skeletomuscular system.

He could feel it, this energy, pulsing within him. Like warm coffee trickling down his throat on a cold evening or drinking water after a long marathon on the beach. His blood brimmed, the energy within him yearning to be released.

Lukas gave it a much-needed exit. Clenching his fist, he gathered every bit of the warmth and pummeled it into the worm. The ground cracked as the worm was pushed into it, now shredded and torn, with colorless goo oozing out of it.

1 prey eliminated.

+1 Experience

And wasn’t that interesting… He’d killed that tendril earlier, and now with this, it was enough to score an Experience point. With this, leveling up a second time wouldn’t take as long as it did with smacking moss. Lukas took a step forward.

Snap!

A thick tendril shot out of the wall and grabbed his right leg, throwing him off-balance. He fell face-first onto the ground, his nose flattening painfully. Before he knew it, more of them enveloped his feet and dragged him across the rocky terrain to the wall, where the rest of the monsters awaited him.

There was no time for forethought. Instinctively, Lukas twisted his body around and yanked the tendrils off with his left hand. His right hand slashed through the air, coming down upon the gelatinous thing with extreme prejudice. They snapped in two.

He didn’t bother to wait, pushing himself away and rolling on the ground in the opposite direction until he was far away. He then stood and hacked into the gel coating his legs. Maybe cutting them off from the root was enough to disable them, if not outright kill—

The gelatinous growths morphed, turning inside out, and became two fang-worms, spitting more of that acidic secretion at him. As Lukas hastily backed away, more worms fell off from the wall and ceiling, joining the ones on the ground. All of them hissed in a frenzy as they crawled toward his person.

Always found in clusters. Clearly, the Screen wasn’t joking around.

Pummeling them was not an option—he would be drenched with acid before he was even halfway done. He searched the tunnel for anything that could help but found nothing. He considered running, but he had lifeforce surging flooding through his system. He was strong. He didn’t need to run away in fear of a few worms.

A savage grin tore at his lips as Lukas grabbed the tendrils he’d hacked into earlier. As expected, the gel-like things cloaked his entire fist, but that was just what he wanted. Pushing a leg backward, he wrung the gooey appendages around his arms and yanked—

Power surged through him. Something shifted within the walls. A single pebble fell to the floor.

The tendrils stretched.

Lukas pulled even harder, pouring forth all of his might.

It began as a murmur. Next came a slow snap. Finally, a large chunk of green exploded out of the wall, shattering past the layers of stone. Cracks spread across the hole in all directions. And then, everything began to fall.

23 prey eliminated.

3,127 prey eliminated.

+47 Experience

3,127?

Fallen on the floor amidst the debris were giant chunks of moss. The wall crashing down had effectively killed them, but then why did he get that experience? Did the Screen comprehend the intent and circumstances of something being killed?

It was something to keep in mind for the future, but for now, he was safe.

Safe.

Then why was his heart throbbing madly like it was about to beat out of his chest?

“That was lovely!”

Lukas spun around but found no one. He had definitely heard it. It hadn’t been an illusion. That voice—feminine, no doubt—had felt like a rumble of heavy rocks scraping together. Like someone crafting a melodious song out of thunder. Loud did not do it justice. It came from everywhere, all at once, and was all-encompassing.

The same voice let out a silvery laugh. “Brutal. Vicious. But…lovely.”

“Glad I could entertain you,” Lukas replied, peering at the upper corners of the cavern. Had he been right all along? Was he still on Earth, playing the sadistic game of someone with too much power at their fingertips? Was this all one giant illusion, with him a lab rat running the gauntlet?

Whoever it was, the player was finally out in the open.

“One can only wonder how it is possible to be so right, yet so wrong at the same time.”

“So this is a test.” Lukas gritted his teeth. The utterly casual tone of the speaker was getting on his nerves. “Who the hell are you? What do you want?”

“Do not bother yourself with questions beyond your comprehension, mortal.”

Mortal? Lukas narrowed his eyes. Was he dealing with someone with a massive god complex? Or was it a reference to his own chances of success in this…game? He was still unable to figure out where the voice was coming from. The sound was everywhere, and covering his ears did nothing. If he didn’t know better, he’d think she was speaking directly into his ears.

“Yeah, you’re right,” he said, toning down the venom in his tone. “I don’t really care who you are. Just get me out of this damn place, and we can go our separate ways.”

“After all the effort I put into bringing you here?”

“Oh yeah? And why did you do that?”

“What would you like to hear?” The sheer indifference in her tone made him want to tear his hair out. “I could say I did it on a whim. Or that I planned it. Or that it is for war. Or perhaps for peace.”

Whoever this woman was, she was not ordinary. She possessed technologies like this Screen, as well as the resources and money to create things as sinister as the slime-worm creatures. But why? Was he a part of some godforsaken reality show where people were murdered? Some program that let psychos on the Dark Web get themselves off?

“Alright,” he replied, calming himself with a few deep breaths. If this was a game, he could play along. “Tell me this, at least. What do I need to do to get out of here?”

“Out of here…”

“Home. My city.”

She laughed. The sound made the lifeforce inside him squirm uneasily. Weird. How is she influencing it? Drugs? Nanotech? With the world getting smaller and technology evolving faster, it was difficult to say what was possible and what wasn’t.

“Finding your way back to your world is an exercise in futility. At the moment, you have far more worrisome matters at hand.”

Lukas frowned. “Like what?”

As if on cue, the stones littering the ground trembled in place, and a furious hissing sound filled the cavern.

“That.”