It gave off a resounding “DING” loud and resonant. It had encountered something! Hard and caked in the mud of the riverbank, it was shiny in the part which Resh had managed to expose while digging. The glint and shiny of a material that Resh had never seen before, grey-silver and with interesting patterns on it. Resh had not seen anything like it. It seemed to have inscriptions on it. Words and letters that Resh felt it should recognise but was off in the fog that still surrounded its mind at the edge of sight. It was infuriating. Then something happened that improved Resh’s mode. As it was staring intently at the intricate carvings and inscriptions of the metal Identify told Resh it was a Steel Coin, valued at five fractals, whatever those were. Resh was intrigued by it at first having never seen anything like it. But it quickly realised that there wasn’t much that was interesting about it and Resh had nowhere to keep such trinkets. Moving on from the Steel Coin which held no value to Resh, ultimately the Water Slime ended up getting excited about nothing of note. Resh also learned that its claws and paws were too weak to get through anything much tougher than soil, even wood would only receive a scratch from Resh currently. That was why more strength was so important.

Having dug in past the coin and further in, Resh found that its whole body would now be able to fit in the newly dug out hole, the only thing remaining was for it to fill in the soil behind it so that it was completely underground so that there was no above-ground space or water in the surrounding area either. But just as Resh was filling the area to enclose itself in the soil, effectively burying itself alive under the soil a rising feeling of panic surged up from the back of its mind. Just like entering the water for the first time had elicited a feeling of deep-seated fear and terror this burying itself alive was doing the same only it felt even worse, the fog in Resh’s mind seemed to fade to black and darkness closed in around Resh’s vision. Instead of the calming whites and greys it was just all dimming and Resh’s mind was trying to shut down. Resh fought the feeling while also trying to stem the madness rushing up from its mind and the cruel clutch of death closing in on it. This was not an ideal situation and Resh needed out!

Gasping and panting for some unknown and reflective reason Resh clawed its way out from the tunnel it had just dug. Resh was panicking and took a little while for it to calm itself down. A few minutes later Resh was wondering what had happened? It was like its instincts were misfiring again. It needed to take it slow and take its time maybe and then as the instincts told it to not bury itself alive it would have to fight them. If it wanted to survive in this world with massive Panthers and Humans of all varieties it would have to get stronger and this was the only way it could think of to get there, at least of now. It could get stronger though Consolidate and becoming a Dense Slime, it rejected the idea straight away, just to get to a density of 2.5g/cm3 had taken this long how much longer would it take to get to 10g/cm3? It was too much to expect right now, getting Underground Living to Level 7 was the only reasonable course of action. Resh calculated that it would need to spend around 15 hrs hiding out underground to get to Level 7 and then it could make the switch, also while it was doing that there was no reason it couldn’t also Consume a bunch of soil and debris to grow again to work towards its next consolidation as well. The big challenge was that Resh couldn’t spend more than a few minutes at a time so it would need a quick path between the water and the underground lair it was digging, that was the reason for doing it on the river’s edge. Fighting its phobia of being underground was also not a small obstacle to surmount.

In the back of its mind, the Water Slime understood that it was an unreasonable fear for a Slime that did not require air to breathe or sunlight to survive however for one of its most powerful healing abilities, light in some form was a must so underground it would be without that strength. Still, it was in no danger of dying from being buried underground even if it was six feet under. That thought again made the madness and darkness close in on its peanut-sized brain and it was not able to get control of its instincts. It was overwhelming its better judgement and Resh was getting nowhere with this line of thought. There was something about being underground that hinted at being very dangerous. As if Resh had been there, strongly linked to the dream it kept having.

Taking a few minutes to calm down Resh decided it would relax and try again in an hour or so while it got the hang of this panicked feeling and tried to get it under control. Resh tried to rationalize the feeling and go over the safety in its head but it seemed that no matter what it did nothing would cam it. These feelings had not struck it while it was digging the initial hole but for some reason assaulted it when it was about to close itself in to gain Underground Living experience. Such a weird feeling whatever this weakness was that Resh had, it was something that needed to be stamped out and urgently. It seemed like the more Intellect and Acuity Resh gained the more crippling these damaging thoughts became. Resh wasn’t even sure if its fear of Water was just weaker or if it was because of its lower Intellect at the time. Resh was also well aware that it had some alignment and affinity with the elements of Water and Earth, surely those should play a role here? It would be too detrimental for Resh to be unable to get underground because of some inherent fear it possessed and did not have any control or understanding of.

It was time to get to the bottom of it. Resh entered the semi-sleep state. It had not used this state for a while since now the skill Meditate did not require it to remain awake anymore. This mid-point between awake and asleep had helped it a lot to enter the dreams that it had been having, like being asleep while also maintaining awareness of its surrounding, this was a state that Resh had learned to help it survive when the predators came out and when a certain creature had almost stomped it to oblivion. Resting once again at the bottom of the river bed, Resh accessed the dream.

This time when Resh opened its eyes it was not on the tarmac road, it had not awakened in the same dream as last time. That in itself was odd, as it had only ever seen one vision in its dreams. This time there was less pain but more of a dull ache in the back of its skull. An unfamiliar feeling, Resh did not possess a skull… did it? Resh was not sure in this dream state, more connected to the figure whose eyes it was seeing through while more distinct at the same time. Was it perhaps a product of its increased Intellect again? Resh was full of a lot of questions, where was it this time? What was happening? It had taken weeks for Resh to get used to the dream scene it kept seeing before. But now, before it had fully understood it, Resh was thrust into a different dream? What was this? As Resh’s brain continued to synchronise with the brain of whatever this creature was that the Water Slime inhabited, Resh began to get sensory signals.

Resh could not see anything, not because its eyes were not working but because it was completely pitch black. There was nothing to see. Reach out with limbs, two on either side of its upper body Resh reached out to the side and immediately felt something it was smooth and hard and within about three or four inches of where Resh lay. Above within three or four inches above Resh was the same smooth hard material and Resh now also felt it was lying on the same material as well, reaching above its head where it lay Resh felt that above its head was the same and scooting down to feel at its feet was the same feeling of smooth hard material below. Resh was in a box, enclosed in and hardly any additional space around it than what it would take to house its current body.

Slowly and with the inevitable nature of a freight train bearing down on its destination, Resh felt those feelings of panic once again envelope its mind and start to cloud and darken its mind and thoughts. It was becoming hard to breathe, and it was becoming harder and harder to think as well. Since when did Resh find it hard to breathe?