I didn’t hesitate at all. Phoenix was just as motivated after it scanned the crystal, which I was still a little awed at due to my previous little experience with it.

I sat down right away and got into a meditation pose and started simple breathing exercises. Phoenix got the clue and was just as quick to shove out four tentacles from my head to hold the crystal which if seen by anyone else would just shock and induce fear probably.

With that a very long session of absorption started. It was one that I wished I had gotten a disclaimer for as it was not at all pleasant like the previous times.

As Phoenix was absorbing the crystal I right away started feeling Phoenix wiggle and send out waves of energy into my body. To my surprise, just like waves they hit hard. I felt like my insides were getting hammered with hammers surrounding me from all sides and covering every tiny minuscule nanometer. With every wave I felt a hit to my entire body after the first wave had spread over my entire body and every wave following it was just a reinforced hit of pain.

I started losing concentration but Phoenix got me back into the zone with some scary threats of possible “unfortunate consequences” should I stop meditating so I try to just allow the energy to mingle with my skin, muscle, bone and cells. It was quite the motivational speech, really.

‘Deep breaths, Jupiter. Deep breaths, it’s just a little pain. We got slime god watching over us. What’s there to worry about?’ I started reciting these words like they were my dying will. I did not want to face any so called consequences for fucking this up especially considering it was a big deal to both of us. Having Phoenix steadily sequence the amount and timing of each repeated wave was super beneficial as I noticed my body and mind getting used to each new wave of energy that flowed into me.

So the ever desired evolution progressed minute by minute, with each passing second being easier than the last.

A whole six hours later, I found myself breathing calmly with a strong steady breath. I felt amazing to be honest. My whole body felt like I had unlimited stamina and that I could run a couple marathons back to back. This was probably the best I ever felt in my own body since…ever! I was reveling in the awesome feeling but soon got nudged out of it by Phoenix.

“I need some rest Jupiter. That thing is going to take me a bit to digest and honestly, it was tiring. I’m going to take a nap.” A very tired voice spoke.

“Oh, yeah of course Phoenix! You rest up. You did great!” A compliment or two never hurt anybody.

Phoenix was more than happy as it wiggled a little and went quiet.

I kind of wanted to just go hunting for something as I was certain I could take on two or even three goblizards at once or maybe even solo against a foxhorn. Phoenix, however, really seemed to have taken a big hit on its stamina from the long time it took to finish off that crystal so I just continued to meditate a while to enjoy the feeling I got from it.

My mind felt clearer and my whole body felt like it would respond to everything I dictated which I would have to seriously test out in the morning but the coolest part would probably be that I could get a faint sense of something extra in my core.

I didn’t get as excited as I thought I would but it may have been an influence of the meditation keeping me somewhat calm though I was very happy I could finally even feel the damn thing. It was most likely the energy from my core. I decided since it was still only a bit later in the afternoon that I should just stay in and try and focus on the sensation of having energy. So another slice of goblizard meat later, I was entranced by the feeling of energy that was focused around my stomach. I kept trying to feel it more and more clearly which made me feel closer to this strange energy a bit more.

It started out hazy at first as if the energy was just a few centimeters away from me yet not within my grasp but the more I focused on it the more I managed to sense it. It felt as if I had something which was like mist and just made my core feel heavier. I eventually tried playing with it a bit more without a care in the world as the energy made me feel joy.

I tried moving it which didn’t really work, then I tried grabbing just a little and separating it from the zone it gathered in which, was hard at first but with me trying repeatedly with different ideas, I eventually managed to get a small tiny bit to follow my will. I started moving it around my body and it was amazing. I felt it going through my legs and reaching my toes and then going to my other legs or arm. It wasn’t like I saw what was happening but I just knew it was following my direction as a small tingle would appear along the path I made it flow and eventually I returned it to the center.

I was even a little tired when I opened my eyes as I used a lot of mental focus to play with that energy but it was still worth it as I was ecstatic at the results.

‘Ha! Phoenix can’t mock me anymore.’ I proudly thought.

I look around me and notice it’s completely dark. I was a little shocked I spent the rest of the day without realizing it just playing with the energy but since Phoenix still seemed out of it I figured I might as well go to sleep.

I lay back down on my rugs and went to bed but I had the biggest smile on my face and so I rested peacefully in my little bliss.

…..

Morning arrived with a glaring shine in my eyes as I open them and see the funniest thing.

Phoenix had two tentacles holding the little notebook on each side and one tentacle sitting in the middle thoughtfully reading over the contents which is all happening on my stomach which explained why it felt a little breezy when I woke up as It probably moved my shirt and didn’t want to bother my face.

I chuckled and greet Phoenix with a smile to which I got an excited little voice talking about how it found more stuff on the notes about the language and the pictures helped so much.

It was cute as I hadn’t known this side to Phoenix but eventually a larger concern affected me.

I felt unbelievably dehydrated. It was only then that I noticed I hadn’t drunk any water at all since coming here which is a good two days already. Goblizard meat was dry as hell so that wasn’t an option either. I was starting to feel stupid as I didn’t even search for any water yesterday when I went “touring” my little land.

‘Shit.’ Is all my head could say.

“What’s wrong Jupiter? Thought you would be happier since our power up yesterday?” Phoenix asked.

“Water…” I didn’t even have spit to salivate. I was completely out of any water and the euphoria from absorbing the crystal completely made me ignore this issue.

A light bulb seemed to flash in Phoenix’s mind as I get an “Oh!”

I see Phoenix put away the book and point all three tentacles on my stomach towards the ceiling and a green blue glow pulsed out of the slime tentacle. It slowly went up to the tips.

My eyes were wide open as I saw little water drops start to condense in the middle and it slowly just kept getting bigger and bigger. Insane was what it was.

“Here you go Jupiter!” A happy sounding Phoenix offered.

“Sniffles, god slime…I… I… love you.” I blurted, with a coarse and dry voice, as I started slurping the water and it felt nothing but heavenly.

“God slime?” Phoenix questioned at the new name.

“Uhh…” I realized I never said those words out loud but didn’t really know how to explain how I’ve been giving random nicknames to it in my head this entire time.

I just played it off as I really didn’t want to go into it as Phoenix had started developing an ego that people may blame my influence upon so “ God slime? Huh, I guess I was too dehydrated so I accidentally called you that.”

‘Totally played it cool’ I thought.

“That’s not a bad name, actually… God slime Phoenix! Has a nice level of grandness to it.”

I mentally face palm as I realize I might end up creating a cocky and possibly arrogant as all hell god slime.

“Haha. Well, let’s change the subject, how did you manage to gather water? I might need to know that one for myself.” I asked trying to ignore what I just did.

“Oh! Simple, I just gathered the energy from my core into my appendages while I focused on it spreading out and creating an attraction towards a specific point. I then focused on that specific point gathering water until I had enough.”

‘Everything is always simple with you!’ I sigh.

Nonetheless, I was still excited to give it a try but was a little curious to how that energy even works in the first place, as in how does it even differentiate different particles in air and such because I was born with 21st century knowledge, this sort of manipulation just boggled my mind so I asked.

Phoenix just explained in a simple fashion that the energy absorbed was actually natural ever-present energy in the surrounding atmosphere but due to its special quality it was capable of interacting with basically all different elements such as water, fire and so on. Most interesting part was that there was actually a whole science behind it as lots of people researched the scientific reasoning behind this whole process but it didn’t really affect combat ability but more so just assisted with genius combinations of chemical creations through using that stored energy to manipulate different particles into forming a cohesion which transformed into certain chemicals like poison for example. Phoenix didn’t really want to explain all the theory and technical as I was advised going to an institute and learning for a couple of years would be the only real way of knowing all the details on how core energy affects the environment and the unique ways to use it.

I was just told to focus on the image of what I want and will my core energy to do it as such as things like water, fire, earth are foundational particles so they are more easily manipulated and are what is usually used in combat as they can be gathered faster and more easily.

Made sense so I let it go as I didn’t think I would need to really know all that extra info when I can hardly control a small rice grain of energy.

I did briefly tell Phoenix about my new ability to feel and slightly control my core energy which I simply got a “ About time.” comment.

I figured it would end up like that so I wasn’t so butthurt.

“Anything new about you Phoenix?”

“Oho. I got some pretty cool stuff. My surrounding awareness shot up to 4m all around and I managed to take a portion of the crystal and actually store it in me after being processed as an extra energy reserve that should help me improve all my current abilities at a faster rate!” Phoenix was really excited when mentioning this as it seems it got a really nice boost and even copped a piece of the crystal for storage purposes which is always good as I’d be scared to imagine what would happen if we were in danger and Phoenix had to take a “nap”.

We chatted a bit more and I eventually checked my stats screen as I wanted to see my improvements and got really happy at the results from one crystal.

Status

-Jupiter

-Human

Abilities:

- Keen senses ( Slime symbiosis effect )

- Minor Energy Manipulation

- Enhanced Mental Cognition

Physical:

Strength – 4

Stamina – 2

Agility – 4

Vitality – 4

Energy – 3.5