Ok being a ball in a frozen coffin for over 8 hours is not cool!

I thought I could do it…but I can’t. I spent the first fifteen minutes thinking….then I spent another fifteen minutes thinking…if I had a doubt I could always ask the Abbe…but wait…I am curled up like a ball here so if I open my mouth my ass gets in the way…(I mean that literally).

So I gagged on my own body for the next seven and half hours till the sunlight set, which is when my great guardians thought they should check on me…

“I WAS STARVING IN THERE!” I scolded them.

The three of them were kneeling with their heads bowed down. It’s not like they didn’t eat but they simply “forgot” to check with me.

I quickly wolfed down a desert rat that was being grilled.

I would have died if they had waited any longer to check on me. Though, I think I know why they checked. I think there is a mental link between us of some sort. If I am ever on the verge of death; they know that death approaches them as well.

I am still struggling to maintain a humanoid body form. I wonder if it works both ways? If they are about to die, would I know it? It is a useful ability to have....especially during quests.

After taking two bites of the rat, I had an interesting idea. I stuck the grilled rat into my slime body…voila! I just realized there was no need for a mouth after all (unless I needed to speak). This way of eating filled my satiation faster. I didn’t have to wait like others who needed to sit down and eat the proper way. The food would slowly be digested. Although eating like this deprives me of the fine dining taste (I do have some sort of taste buds in these weird teeth)…it’s not something I want to indulge in right now…

Time to take stock of our situation. After talking to the Abbe, I realize we haven’t progressed much in terms of distance. Neither he or the Garzala know where we are or which way would be the nearest village. Asking Maylon is somewhat pointless; she is seriously useless when you need something relevant. I am not saying Maylon is useless; she does fit the group for my perverted needs but when it comes to actual helpful things like fighting, magic or geography…she looks like a completely a newbie.

The Abbe drew a bit of the continent and pointed to where I threw the dart.

“We should be somewhere there…” He said while pointing with a stick in the sand. “I think if we go here…we might find something…”

His map didn’t even make sense to me…and I am someone who is terrible at drawing.

I just nod for the moment; it’s not like I can contribute here. I know absolutely nothing about this world other than the rules of gaming.

At least with Royal Road, we had the history laid out in front of us, we knew the civilizations etc before we joined the game….here…I have no idea what to expect next.

“Can’t you read the stars or something?” I ask.

The Abbe looks at me as if I have spoken alien language.

“You know following the constellations?” I ask while pointing to the stars in the sky.

“I am afraid, I do not know of such a way…” The Abbe confessed.

Interesting…

“Alright, then let us go south.” I declare; just going with the flow here.

This was one of my most stupid-endous decisions that I made.

A decision I would regret.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Night 1

Maylon is still terrified of me but I think she has come to terms with the fact that I am a monster that she must serve. Unlike the young brat who still oozes of blood thirst…the blood being my blood that he wants.

From what I understand the Abbe has told me that the Garzal Tribe in general are born with an innate thirst for blood; the blood of monsters that is. Now this would have been fine as long as the monsters in me were within reasonable levels…however with 99% of me being evil his instincts cannot help but crave for my death.

The Abbe told me somewhat sympathetic towards him and not too angry since his position is not something within his control. The Garzal children are unable to control their blood lust unlike adults. Furthermore, as the child is a Guardian he has conflicting interests which are continuously at odds with each other. As the Abbe described it, “for him it must be like having dagger stabbed into his mind to fight his instincts.”

Somehow it pleased me knowing he is in as much pain as he caused me. I am not a vengeful person I am just not forgiving enough for someone who nearly stabbed me to death.

I want to ask the Abbe more questions about this world. However, the old man appears to be very tired. Since they were looking for shade initially, they couldn’t cover much ground. Furthermore they had to roll me (that isn’t fun when it happens for 8 hours non stop….welcome to barf express…where you digest your own barf….) so everyone was tired and sleepy unlike me who was completely rested.

“Sigh, what should I do with you lot. How can you be tired from such little work?” I complain needlessly. I believe making them feel incompetent is a good way of hiding my own incompetence and weakness. They hung their heads low.

“Well rest for now. I am going hunting for a bit.” I told them seeing their dead tired expressions.

I gave them my curtain garb as cover from the desert cold winds. It was fairly chilly. However, I didn’t mind it so much. I kind of liked this chilly weather.

Time to hunt.

I leave the group to their boring natural needs and head off on my own. I left a bit of me with them. It’s something like a radar? Even if I go away very far, I can feel a portion of me missing. The interesting bit is that I can naturally sense in which direct is my missing piece. It isn’t something that works forever and ever…example: if an enemy were to chop me up and ship my parts to different bits of the continent, I am 100% sure that each of those individual parts would rot and die for the lack of nutrition.

I digress, no matter how long I walked I couldn’t see anything. Yes, I am walking and not crawling like a snail. I decided to undergo so serious training to keep humanoid shape. My time spent looking for a hunt wasn’t a complete waste. Although, I didn’t find anything to kill, I did find cactus. Juicy cactus. By the time I was done with the cactus it resembled something more like a shriveled raisin.

Tomora's Water absorbed!

New Stat Acidity acquired!

Acidity Increased! +1.

Woah! Not only is this cactus beneficial! It was so delicious; more delicious than desert rat.

Beside the delicious cactus juice, I also gained something else:

Memory Blob – New Skill unlocked!

I checked the skills menu…

Memory blob (Lvl. 1) – The slime body is learning to the shapes you make. The more often you maintain a shape with your slime body the more faster your body will learn that form.

This wasn’t some holy grail skill but you could say I was very happy. I could relax my mind slightly but my body would suddenly go out of structure.

I didn’t have to maintain the image of human body now constantly in my mind (just for an example’s sake…)

It meant out of 60 minutes now there were 2 minutes where I didn’t have that nagging feeling my butt’s not falling off me.

I am satisfied. It took a long time but there it was.

I returned to the camp site; more like three idiots sleeping together and lay down beside them. Surprisingly today was an eventful day and did wear me out.

Day 2

The day began as any other…mostly I mean yesterday.

A whole bunch of shrieking….it was initially me who began shrieking as I was being fried by the morning sun rays and then Maylon decided it was a good idea if she joined along. You see no one likes to wake up to jelly blanket which is screaming into your ears.

So the two of us undertook some rigorous lung exercising in the morning together.

It ended with her fist in my chest (Cyclops) eye. Sadly, she just missed touching my last remaining human remnant.

As I began wrapping myself in the curtain to prevent further sun tanning, I underwent the stabbing to death ritual. Thankfully, the Abbe was quick in plucking the brat and casting him aside.

We took cover behind a dune’s shadow as the Abbe cast ice like armour over my body (including goggles – a non-existent concept in this world – till I explained it).

Once we were done with my ice armour, I wrapped the curtain nicely around me. Awesome, I look like a purple leaking penguin wearing shades. FYI, I shortened my height to make sure the armour surface requirements were reduced.

With everyone ready (mostly I was the one who had to get ready), we were on our way!

During my ice coffin session yesterday, I thought of several things we could do in the desert to bide my time. My time; I restate.

I have a three pointer agenda. Master Power, Master Body, Master Rules. If you add Gain Knowledge and Find Enma to that list it becomes a five pointer agenda. The sequence is related to importance I attach to these agenda's.

Let me begin with the last two; gain knowledge and finding Enma. I need to find Enma...thats why I am really here. Although, I am also here out of my own curiosity, I am also here to look for Enma....assuming Enma is alive. This bothers me....why didn't I consider the possibility before that Enma may have died? I feel like I am forgetting something crucial. Thats right....the high score was set by Enma so he must be alive....was that it or something else?

Anyways, gaining knowledge about this world and game take more importance than finding Enma. I mean these are some essential things one requires to survive before searching for Enma. This isn't Royal Road, I can't log out from the game, visit forums for information and return back to the check point. This is Ruler of Rules....and honestly there seems to be no menu options window...let alone a log out button. Information is power as quoted by someone famous. I need information about this world...and right now my only source of knowledge is the Abbe; who by the way doesn't share much and if he does he begins and ends with a simile. I know nothing about the politics of this world, the people, the monsters, or even more basic stuff what are good items and bad items. Are there things like fixed profession? So many questions and no one to answer them.

Moving on, Rules are somethings that also intrigue me. A rule a level sounds too easy....and too good to be true and usually when it is too good to be true it isn't. I am certain making rules comes with some penalties. Also can rules be conditional? Like I could make a rule stating that only beings with 80% slime can attack with +100% power....or something....Or is that considered a power? I don't know. However, Rules is something I will think about it when I get there. I need to level up after which I can create rules. So why fret about something I can't even create.

I also need to master my own body. Although, I created this body, I have no clue to what its own limits are. For example: I had no idea maintaining a humanoid form required effort. I thought it would be natural as breathing. Turns out that is not the case.

Similarly, I had no idea there is a memory ability as well. So there is plenty for me to do when it comes to learning more about own body. However, I can only openly experiment on my body at night; for now focus on maintaining shape and increasing memory blob’s level.

The second thing on my agenda was to learn more about my power “Wave controller” however before I could learn more about this I needed to learn more about the underlying mechanics of this game. When I say mechanics I mean magic mechanics. So far crying out “wave control” has not done anything.

This isn’t Royal Road.

Just because I shout out my powers name doesn’t mean it will work.

I seem to be missing an important key here….time to ask the Abbe.

“Abbe Faria…how do you use magic?”

“I do not know how to answer that…it is like asking me how to breathe or asking a fish how it swims or asking a bird…”

“Ok I get it, I get it….”

God forbid, I never want to be in the vicinity when this old man tells bed time stories. He might murder with a simile.

“When you cast this ice magic…did you chant anything?”

“Nothing.”

“Is all magic chantless?”

“It depends on the user. Some use spells, some think and therefore it is. It varies person to person.”

“Is there a difference between the two users?”

“Not a difference in user but the spell in itself. Spells which take life are usually said out in words.”

I am not surprised hearing that. Imagine wishing someone ill and then they actually die. No sir, keep murderous spells to the mouth.

“Then is there a book from which one can learn more about magic?”

“Yes, there are many books. However, it is unlikely we would find any in the middle of a desert.”

So if worst comes to worst, I can always learn magic via books.

“What about teachers and schools?”

The Abbe stops in his tracks bringing everyone in the procession to a standstill. “Why are you so curious to learn magic?”

“Because I am a being which can use magic?”

“…”

“And wouldn’t it be better for me to learn magic since I am an adventurer?”

“Sometimes I forget you are an adventurer whom we are accompanying.”

“Then what do you think of me?”

“A monster who is trailing us…”

I think it’s best to say I didn’t want to pursue this topic any further. I am not sure what his problems were but I certainly am not going to be the one who is going to help him with therapy.

I also didn’t brood too long on what he had said. For one, it wasn’t a lie. Secondly….

Resistance to heat increased by 1%!

You can now withstand hotter temperatures!

I am not evaporation proof but I am 1% more resistant to it.

This is another step forward for me.

I also think my silence bought me unexpected rewards, the Abbe soon spoke up afterwards.

“There are people who can teach and there are places where you can learn. Both exist but chances of finding either one in a desert are unlikely. I would suggest that if you have any ideas of learning magic please drop them till we reach some sort of habitable area.”

I can only agree.

The poor Abbe must be thinking drained out from just maintaining my ice armour.

I can only say nothing exciting happened at the end of our second day. We found nothing to hunt so we were stuck with leftover desert rats. Thankfully, with the Abbe’s magic, we did not have any water issues.

Night 2

With the Abbe completely drained out. He crashed for the night immediately. Our shelter: a piece of rock jutting from the earth. It was surprisingly geometrically carved in nature. I later asked the Abbe about it but he mumbled something about battles and ruins? Not sure but I didn’t smell any adventure in investigating this further.

Maylon seemed to be ignoring my existence and went about gathering dried bushes. I think she intends to start a fire…that…or she intends to make a blanket.

Gustav has gone off hunting. I don’t think he and I have ever spoken. Ah…who cares.

Off hunting I go! Night 2!

…

Needless to say…I found nothing.

Hey! Its a vast desert! Trying to find food or something to hunt is the same as declaring I will find an invisible imaginary needle in the desert!

Surprisingly, Gustav returned back with a few rats and a large chunk of cylindrical meat; as big as him in diameter. Where the heck did he find that?? I suspect Gustav is good at finding imaginary invisible needles.

He kept rolling the meat in the sand like a tyre, till he brought it to the campsite.

If I asked him about the meat he refused to answer. If I asked him anything, he refused to answer.

Oh well, nothing can be done about it. Tonight was a feast.

Though it did bother me that there was something that large out there in the desert…I mean whatever Gustav cut appears to be a fraction of the real creature.

But heck, if a six year old can cut it, it can’t possibly be a big deal? Right?

And technically speaking…how big could the creature be?

I wish someone had told me that hundred feet long worms reside in the desert…and also they happen to be carnivorous.

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