I get up after what felt like a good hour of rest. Happy that I haven’t had to face any dangers from the world unknown.

I get up to finally size up my surroundings when suddenly.

Status

-Jupiter

-Human

Abilities:

Keen senses ( Slime symbiosis effect ) Mental Breakdown

Physical:

Strength – 3 (Previously, 2.5)

Stamina – 1

Agility – 3

Vitality – 4

Energy – 1

A Soft blue text of a series of numbers and words pop in front of my vision.

My eyes widen as I look on at what is indicated. “Phoenix can you see this?” I ask flustered at what seems to be every gamers dream.

“Of course. I made it! I told you I would be able to show you after I had enough of a good connection with you.” It replied.

“Uhm… did you have to write ‘mental breakdown’ as an ability?”

“Well no but it seemed to be fairly accurate as that is the only thing I have seen you do so far.” A nonchalant explanation ensues.

“… Phoenix… please remove that! It was a one-time thing as people on Earth aren’t used to having slime in their BRAIN!”

“Okak , okay! Relax, don’t have to get so agitated. Can’t even appreciate my efforts at recognizing your ability.”

“It’s. Not. An. Ability! It was a perfectly normal reaction to the situation considering the sheer absurdity of it. K?”

“ Whatever you say Jupiter. I removed it in any case. Don’t want you showing me another display of your ‘normal reaction’. Hehe.”

‘Great! Slime god can joke around now. Just great!’ I thought as I take a deep breath to assess my situation and ignore the sarcasm from Phoenix.

“Sigh, anyways Phoenix can you explain how you quantified my status? I don’t remember you having access to other human statistics for this to even be possible in the first place.” My gamer mind takes over and asks staring at the screen.

“Obviously not. I wouldn’t even take it anyways as I have the galactic standards used by my people. Though to be a rank 4 civilization has certain base requirements, I came from a place that controlled several galaxies and the variety of people were simply immense so we had a natural grading system to help with differentiation based on power that gave you higher positions in society. It’s one of the more technological sides of my biological existence though this is a simplified version I am showing you.”

“Oh wow.” I didn’t really know much about this civilization but damn, was it extravagantly huge. Earth was simply a backwater place in backwater system in comparison. “ Wait what’s with this energy value? Is it like my stamina or something?” I ask curiously at the extra value I didn’t recognize.

“No, this would be the level of energy you have stored within you from natural absorption of energy in the surroundings. It has many uses for those naturally gifted in its absorption.”

‘… is that mana?’ Gamer Jupiter alter-ego drooling at the idea.

“What kind of uses?” I almost stutter as I ask with my anticipation building up.

“Manipulation of the energy within you in the environment with your body as the medium would be the simplest explanation. It’s an amazing ability for those that have less physical strength than others.”

‘I knew it! All hail the slime god Phoenix! Dreams CAN come true hahaha!’ Excitement runs through my body as the news hits me in the face. At this pace, I would love to be smacked silly with this kind of information!

“hehe…hehehe….HEHEHEHE!” I laugh out loud with slight hysteria.

“Jupiter, are you alright?” Phoenix asked me worried but I couldn’t help it. I continue to laugh for a good while at the idea of getting magical abilities. I mean who wouldn’t when you’re born on the most backwater planet with none of that fancy super race benefits. I felt like a man finding water in the desert or a 40 year old virgin discovering sex. It was euphoric even though the value was at an all-time low stat of 1. It could be worked on!

“Ahem…cough cough, sorry about that. I just never thought magic…uhm energy manipulation was something I could have access to in my lifetime so I got a little excited there.” I explained a little embarrassed at my bumpkin behavior.

“Haha, okay. Well you don’t have to worry too much, I can understand considering your origins. Though I guess that is the direction you wish to focus on during your advancements?” Phoenix asked a little amused at my embarrassing act.

“Well, I haven’t really thought about it but I wouldn’t completely forsake my physical abilities but I would definitely want to have more energy related abilities as from what I know that sort of stuff can be pretty useful in its diversity.”

“Understood, if we find anything useful for your energy absorption I will try and help you out on that front. Anyways, what do we do now?” Phoenix asked me with a reassuring magic upgrade guarantee which left me grinning from ear to ear.

Just when I was going reply: ‘Wait… did slime god just ask me for my opinion?’ I suddenly felt a bubbling feeling of pride wash over me at the thought…no, fact that it just happened. ‘ Right, we are both on an unknown planet and considering I’m the one moving it makes sense but still, it feels good to know my opinion matters to Phoenix.’ I smile at the thought.

“We should probably get something to defend ourselves with since we don’t really know anything and might face something unexpected.” I declared as this planet may not have the friendly cuddle type animals I am used to.

So we set off in the forest. I had gone camping a few times in my life and learned a few things from some of my more “outdoorsy” friends at the time. Though it was a couple of years ago but I could remember a bit more considering my hermit life of reading, videogames and manga.

I started with finding one of those purple rocks that was about the size of a basketball which were considerably heavier than I expected which left me to have to find a small size one which I then smashed onto another rock a few times until it broke into several pieces. I managed to get what I want from the rocky injustice I performed and had me a slightly sharp but thick piece of rock that looked like a spearhead. I started grinding the sides down against another rock until it was sharp enough for my taste and went off to get me a branch.

First thing to do in unknown high level planet: Weapon of potential destruction!

With that in mind I cut off a piece of wood that was the size and thickness of a bat and continued to look for some plants that I could maybe get some rope from. Now this part was confusing and hard as I didn’t know what plants were safe to fiddle with or that had the appropriate texture for rope so I had to carefully test each plant but with Phoenix the process went a lot smoother as it didn’t detect any danger from a good half of the plants. Right, half the plants could probably kill me on this planet so that was a sobering experience though Phoenix managed to find one that could help boost us a little in terms of stamina which I still didn’t really understand, especially how the whole evolutionary bit worked. I just mentally noted to take some time when we were safe to ask.

Which led me to another even more sobering moment which was my first time meeting an inhabitant of the planet.

I was sitting down near my withered tree trying to play with about 10 plants we had managed acquire when this weird little creature popped out staring at me from about 10 feet away. It freaked me the hell out as well with its sudden appearance which was a bonus to its already creepy face.

It had dark green skin that looked leathery with large hind legs and two skinnier front longs all of which had pretty little dark and dirty claws. The whole thing was about two feet long and about three feet in height. Its face was what freaked me the most as it had large eyes; a couple of horns growing on it, a nose and mouth with some fangs but the face looked like some tiny lizard goblin that could talk if it tried. It also looks like it was able to walk on its back legs alone but crawled around on all fours with its little tail sweeping the ground behind it.

It just stood there and stared at me for a moment.

My whole body was tensed and frozen and just sat there staring back at the thing. Usually an encounter with a lizard is simple. Get up and scare it off yet I had a feeling of fear coming off me from staring at this mutated goblin looking lizard that just stared back with almost calm eyes.

‘Fuck, what do I do? What if this thing has some insane move like poison darts coming out of its mouth or some absurd speed?’ I go into panic for a moment as the suddenness caught me off guard.

Phoenix noticing my panic said “Jupiter! Looking at this thing, it doesn’t seem to be too intelligent from what I can see. It’s probably just a lizard that’s common in the area. Relax. We have a stick and a sharp rock. If it attacks just whack it, maybe we can get something good off the body!”

Getting more goodies seemed to be slime gods only intention in riling me up which I was too panicked to notice but it had indeed worked as I remembered I still got a decent strength upgrade recently which was about 20% increase to my original strength. Some confidence returned.

Grabbing my stick and sharp rock, I slowly get up and stare back at the thing with a bit more calmness than previously.