SLIME (COMMON - WATER)

THREAT LEVEL: 0

WEAK MONSTER TYPICALLY FOUND UNDERGROUND.

MORE DANGEROUS IN GROUPS.

ATTACKS BY TACKLING WITH ITS ENTIRE BODY.

HARD TO DAMAGE WITH BLUNT TRAUMA.

MOVES FASTER IN WATER.

The last slime, still quivering where its giant cousin had smeared across the rough stone wall, collapsed entirely as Atlas plucked out its cracked eye, logging it into non-existence.

That had brought his Exp bar - Atlas winced preemptively for pain that never came - up to half a bar’s worth. He tapped the scan button again, sweeping the puddle with the beam, but just like his earlier experiment on the giant slime, it gave no experience.

NEW CODE ACQUIRED: [Rock]

What? Atlas rubbed the back of his head and peered closer. His beam had apparently picked up one of the sharp bits of rock that had been embedded into ithe slime's undercarriage.

Oh. So they could scan a rock, but - Atlas zapped an experimental beam at the wall of the cave. "Scanning level too low." Yep, it couldn’t scan a wall made of rock. Perfectly sensible.

And it still didn’t earn any Exp. Atlas ran his scanner over some of the shells that drifted at the bottom of the slime with little success until it passed over a fragment of the shattered slime core.

CORE [SLIME] ACCESSED

OPEN CODE GRID Y/N?

Science! The buttons on his wrist changed colour, the scan button green for a presumably positive response. Atlas prodded it impatiently. The green beam shot out of his wrist. The blue bar on his status window vanished in an instant, and the beam followed suit.

THIS DEVICE HAS POWERED DOWN UNEXPECTEDLY

CODE GRID ACCESS ABORTED

Damnit. Atlas sagged. At least his MP recharged pretty quickly when he wasn’t injured, but that was one experiment he wouldn’t be able to try. At least not unless he could find a way to drastically raise his MP in short order. Oh well. He picked up the rock. The new “bag” icon flashed on his status monitor as it was logged, adding to an unhelpful list of his previously collected rocks, sand, pebbles, and dead slime parts which appeared to do nothing but supply equally unhelpful descriptions of those items.

Well, there was one more thing he could try at least. Atlas turned towards the water once more, casting a careful gaze around the cavern for any fresh slimes. Or did they just respawn?

He flinched, but once again there was no pain at the outside thought. Had something changed? Atlas shrugged. Were there really people in life who investigated things when they had stopped being problems? Picking his way between the carpet of sharp objects was more than enough to keep him occupied until his MP recovered as it was. It had been a deeply unpleasant experience to pull one out of his body, even if it hadn’t left a wound.

Come to think of it, he’d managed to pull it out and drop it without logging it, hadn’t he? Atlas scooped a passing seashell. A moment later it disappeared with the usual message.

Experimenting with this particular phenomenon was clearly going to be annoying. Atlas was scanning around for another shell among the jagged rocks when his bracer flicked on. MP bar full again, time to stop standing around with his thumb up his- well he didn’t have one of those either.

The skeleton grinned up at him from the centre of the pool, largely unchanged by his maritime encounter. Atlas wasted no time in raising his bracer, sweeping the green beam across the skeleton’s skull.

SCAN SUCCESSFUL

Yes!

SCAN LEVEL UP

LEVEL 2

PHYSICAL CHASSIS UPGRADED: LEVEL 1

CORE FUNCTION RESTORED: CODE GRID (PERSONAL, LEAST)

MATERIAL STORAGE EXPANDED

Well that was worthwhile. Atlas blinked, trying to keep up with the text scrolling past his eyes. Finally a single blinking line remained.

NEW FORM LOGGED

[Human]

EQUIP FORM Y/N?

Well that was interesting. Atlas tapped a finger where his lips would have been. If he said no, there was no guarantee that he could find the option again, but equally no guarantee he could undo the change if it turned out bad even if it did say “equip”. And what “form” was he “equipping”, exactly? A human, or at least something broadly similar? As far as he could tell his current body probably had more in common with the skeleton itself than a living, breathing person.

But he could charitably be compared to a toddler right now. Boundless energy capped by strictly limited strength. If he ever ran into anything tougher than a slime, which the other thoughts in his head were screaming was inevitable, dealing actual damage would be a problem.

Well, he couldn’t scan anything else until he chose one way or another, so…

Atlas pressed the scan button to confirm. The last thing he saw before his vision faded was the skeleton burning into nothing, engulfed in a blazing white flame that ignored both the water and the objects touching it before everything faded to black. Text took its place, scrolling up across his vision.

HUMAN

THRALL OF PROMETHEUS.

THIRD MOST POPULOUS SPECIES OF H’MAN ON TARTARUS.

HIGH LEVEL OF PHYSICAL STAMINA.

ABLE TO SURVIVE SIGNIFICANT PHYSICAL AND MENTAL TRAUMA.

FORM UPGRADED

PHYSICAL ABILITIES EXPANDED

CODE GRID (PERSONAL) EXPANDED

TOOL ARRAY EXPANDED - MAY NOW EQUIP [1] TOOLS

AEGIS UPGRADED

ESSENTIA POOL UPGRADED

REGENERATION RATE INCREASED.

All across his body things grew, separated, expanded and split. Atlas felt bones agonisingly pop and expand to accommodate widening shoulders, felt the tickle of the pool’s surface creeping down his leg, at least proportionally, as he grew taller. His scalp itched like fire as hair cascaded down his neck.

As the discomfort began to ease, a new pain settled and amplified in his chest, growing in intensity until he could focus on nothing else. He pressed a cold hand against his ribs to try and reach the source of his burning need inside.

Atlas’ face split open, and air passed into virgin lungs for the first time. And he grinned. With his mouth. With his teeth!

He could feel the strength in his arms. He could taste the brackish atmosphere of the cave. Even the chill of the water had an intoxicating depth of sensation that he had lacked before.

But… Why couldn't he see anything still?