Trial Results – Individual

Failed seeds banished

1

Competitor seeds banished

364

Survived to end

Yes

Overall control of start location

1st (56%)

Congratulations you have gained the reward Right to Life.

The void had cracked. And I was now being forced out. Pressure causing me to be deformed and pushed out through it. The energy behind me seemed to swell and pulse until in the final moment I was out.

At first, it was dark then it was so bright. I was for a moment blinded by the change then intellectually panicked. Until this point the only thing this bright had been the fatal energy. But I felt no pressure, no overwhelming fear. Tentatively I started to stretch-out my perception. I was next to a single solid object within which was a slight glimmer that I recognised. It had my energy down deep at the centre of it. The object was resting against an irregular plane. Looking kind of fuzzy. No longer was I within an empty void. Stuff occupied the space between me and what I was observing. Obscuring things at greater distances into a greenish mist or fog where nothing was clear.

Something fell from above it was slightly smaller than the object next to me. But as it hit its surface. I felt it. My being shook with the collision. It wasn’t painful I was just completely unable to ignore it. As I focused I could feel smaller constant collisions against the object as I focused towards its edges. Things barely visible slowly come into focus.

It was a veritable zoo. I was surrounded by tiny living things of different sizes. Some were clear bags of jelly others had hardened shells, others had speckled green spots. They had tails, spikes, mouths, tentacles, some were thousands of times smaller than others. But through all it was life and it was fighting for survival. Larger creatures could grab hold and engulf smaller creatures somehow absorbing and consuming them. Even larger creatures with more moving parts would then leap at and consume those creatures.

I watched amazement as I watched creatures grow, then divide into more of the same creatures. It was a teaming soup of death, life and survival of the fittest. Those that were faster captured more prey. Those that grouped together could produce chemicals to repel attackers. Those that reproduced most quickly, died often but still, their numbers remained high. I don’t know how long I was fixated on this. It was endlessly fascinating and I started to find I was routing on certain blobs or puzzled by the green ones that just reproduced and tried to avoid the others.

However, I was pulled away from the creatures. I was feeling a pressure inside of me a familiar feeling much the same as when I had been within the void. By reflex, I started to move to release the pressure as I had before. But it didn’t work. I wasn’t producing an energy trail behind me and the pressure was building. Slowly. But continuously. I was moving rather frenziedly now my movements having no effect on my surroundings and no energy was released. There was a strong glow now from the object around which I was panicking. It was filled, to capacity with energy. And I had an epiphany. That is me, my body. I had felt collisions against it and now I was feeling the pressure of the energy it contained.

Something needed to be done. My body needed to move to somehow release some of this energy. I moved towards my physical body until I was touching it. With a sudden lurch, my perception moved and I was now looking out. My point of view now connected to my body and I started to strain to push my body into moving. But every time I tried I found my point of view outside my body again. It was now becoming painful I needed to get rid of the energy. My attention moved to the tiny creatures around me and in a hysterical thought, I wondered if I get them to push me. In desperation, I was trying to push the energy out away from me.

At first, I thought it wasn’t working but gradually some of the pressure on me was lessened. I was distinctly puzzled. The energy was seaming to disappear once it left me. Resulting in a bit of a mystery. As the pressure dropped and I was more capable of examining what was happening to me. I realised the loss of energy was not constant, it happened randomly. Small local spots on my body would be drained of energy. Before the rest of my energy would fill in the drained space reducing its overall concentration. It was the creatures.

Whenever a creature collided with the surface of my body it would take a small packet of the energy with it as it bounced off. This was helpful but what was interesting was what was happening to those green blobs that had been living loosely attached to the surface of my body. They were absorbing the energy continuously. Growing slightly larger but more amazingly the rate at which they grew and divided increased dramatically. Making colonies of twenty to thirty creatures. Only those in contact with me got a boost. So, the individuals rotated, taking turns being in contact. With each new generation every couple of minutes I started to see further changes.

Originally, they were a bright shade of green but now they were turning purple. Those that had changed completely grew and divided faster and faster until only they remained. Other larger creatures were attracted to what appeared an abundant feeding ground. These attacking creatures had a long ellipsoid like main body within which a basic digestive system was squeezed. Visible due to the creatures transparent skin. Its rear section was extendable. It moved forward either by swaying this from side to side or by retracting it and pushing off from something. Causing it to rocket forward crossing large distances. But most intimidating of all was the forward section initially retracted into its main body at first but as they sprang forward they extended them out. Unfurling four pads each coated with writhing tentacles. They used them to latch on to the purple creatures on my surface before using them to drag them into a cavernous mouth almost the entire width of its body.

At first these attackers were unopposed and I felt a drop in the amount of energy I could release. As large areas of my surface were cleared of the sedate purple creatures even with their rapid reproduction. The success of the attackers became even clearer as I watched. Each time a purple creature was consumed some small part of my absorbed energy was gained by the attackers. This was causing them to grow larger, the effect on them much greater than it had been on the green creatures initially. Though I didn’t see any increase in their reproduction.

I was starting to worry. Even though the attacker took some small portion of my energy when they collided with my body. I found it was barely a tenth what was being accepted by the purple ones. And they were being decimated. However, I couldn’t think of a way to affect the outcome. A full half of my surface had been cleared before something changed. Different colonies of purple creatures on my surface were consuming my energy much faster. Instead of using this energy to grow or reproduce they used it to fight back against the attackers. Each colony using a different method.

The first couple of colonies didn’t appear any different when I looked at them. Until they were attacked. As one purple creature was caught and the attacker tried to pull it away. Others in the colony started passing energy to it. What had been a small kernel of my energy in each creature put a strain on the form of the victim and as they were torn away from the colony. They exploded. The energy within rupturing its physical form and damaging the attacker. The attacker wasn’t killed by this, the difference in relative size making that impossible. But it did damage the attacker's sensitive mouth parts leaving it unable to continue feeding. Saving the rest of the colony.

Others had started to change their physical forms. Some had developed spikes that were longer than the mouthparts of the attackers. Another started releasing a cloud of poisonous chemicals that deterred the attackers' approach. A whole series of defences against the attackers were developed right in front of me. I was fascinated and I realised enjoying myself. Watching these fights back and forth as one adaption was used to defend. The attackers would use that tiny bit of my stored energy to change themselves, to get armoured mouth parts, to get tentacles with hardened edges to shear of spikes or to develop poison resistance.

It was a constant free for all. And best of all it was all fuelled with my energy using it up just a little bit faster than it was produced. I could after a time stop focusing on pushing my energy out as my Id took the task over and I could again explore through this sea of violent survival. All the while my energy building up in the surrounding creatures. Until…

System notice: New dungeon creatures acquired.

Species

Various

Species

Various

Phylum

Cyanobacteria (adapted)

Phylum

Rotifera (adapted)

Mana consumption

1x10-10 resting/ 1x10-9 stressed

Mana consumption

1x10-8 resting/ 1x10-7 stressed