Atlas took a deep breath, nostrils flaring.

It was a surprisingly novel experience.

There was no need to panic. Maybe the process just hadn’t finished yet? Eyes were complicated, right?

Maybe the dead guy was blind. He had apparently got eaten by slimes, after all.

Or maybe his eyes were closed? Atlas stretched his face experimentally. He couldn’t see - heh - much difference no matter what he did. He raised an exploratory finger to check.

Ow.

Well, two discoveries then. His eyes were indeed open, and his new fingernails were surprisingly long. Atlas rubbed at his useless, and now sore, eyeball with his gauntlet.

Well this was just great. He prodded at his wrist monitor. Maybe he’d find an undo button or something he could activate if he poked around long enough?

The monitor turned on. Atlas stared at it. His blue bar was almost recovered, and his red bar seemed unchanged from his recent act of self-harm. The light revealed ghostly white skin either side of his bracer. He groaned. He wasn’t blind at all, just human, with human eyes, stuck in a pitch black cave, and growing increasingly aware of his lack of clothing the longer he stood in the middle of a cold pond surrounded by sharp objects and a bladed implement which was, from memory, somewhere around half a foot from his big toe.

There was indeed a new icon on the screen, this one a cartoonish white face with blue hair. He pressed it to reveal a list with a single entry. “Human”, which, when highlighted, showed a few symbols and the description he’d read before and did exactly nothing else. Atlas sighed.

At least things could be worse.

Prodding his screen one more time to keep it alight he lowered his hand to the surface of the water. The image reflected clearly off the black surface revealing nothing that had been so clear just before. Plunging his arm under the surface wasn’t much better. He barely made out the silhouette of the dagger in the murky water and grabbed it.

TOOL LOGGED

[Rusted Broken Blade]

EQUIP Y/N?

Atlas tapped yes and went back to searching before he lost his spot. A few inches away he found the shirt the skeleton had been wearing, now laid flat and empty against the sand. It vanished as he was pulling it up.

EQUIPMENT LOGGED

[Rotting Ruined Raiment]

EQUIP Y/N?

He tapped yes again, and this time the threadbare shirt was instantly fastened over his shoulders, its sleeves truncated by his bracers. At his waist a rotten leather belt held up a pair of breeches that were more hole than clothing. Even the backpack was strapped to him, though as far as he could tell it didn’t actually have a bottom.

At least it was dry. Or at least had started that way. His breeches had soaked up the water faster than anything with that little material had any right to. Atlas straightened and stretched his back. From the feeling of sand beneath his toes he hadn’t inherited any boots from the acquisition. Now he thought of it, the skeleton had only had the one for some reason, and even that looked like something had chewed on it.

Because he’d thrown the other one.

Atlas gritted his teeth as static split his vision.

His torch fell in the water. Slimes were moving all around him, untold numbers moving together in the dark. He fell, cutting his hand on his own dagger, slick with slime juices. He threw his boot to draw them off so he could get back to the entrance of the cave and-

Atlas’ monitor shut off, dropping him into darkness once more. Atlas heaved a ragged breath, water dripping from his arms the only sound in the dark. Was that… his memory? It was different than before, more… raw? Less a part of him and more of something, or someone, else.

And they’d been heading towards the exit when… Atlas peered around the darkness. There, against one of the walls, was a tiny streak. A sliver of light. He’d never have noticed without the darkness. He might not have noticed if he hadn’t been headed there before. Atlas slapped his forehead to clear his brain of the painful interference. He hadn’t missed this sensation one bit.

But how to get over there? He could try to swim, but the depth of the pool coupled with his increased weight would pretty much mean he was just dragging his stomach over the rocks instead of his feet, and it was clear from his earlier excursion that he wouldn’t be able to see under the water even with his status screen active.

Plus he was exceptionally cold at this point and in no rush to feel colder. Atlas moved gingerly through the water, feeling the sand beneath his numbing toes before taking each step. His steps loud in his ears as he moved.

Splash. Pause. Step. Splash. Pause. Step.

Confronted with a particularly thick cluster of stones or shells, Atlas swept a few aside with his foot, settling on tip toe in the space he’d made.

More rhythmic splashing. Splash and search. Splash and step. Monitor off so he wouldn’t lose that lifeline of light on shadow.

How wide was the pool again? Most of the cavern, right? But the shore was clear of-

Atlas hissed in pain as he put his weight onto a jagged shell that had been buried under the sand. Standing on one leg he raised his status screen to the wound, showing he’d lost a sliver off his HP bar. Not deep, but bleeding all the same, crimson blood a striking contrast to his pale skin as it dripped into the water.

Damnit. He limped onwards, sand irritating his wound as he stepped. Hopefully he wasn’t going to catch an infection. A body had been marinating in the water for who knew how long, after all.

The ground trembled beneath Atlas’ feet, and a wave splashed his legs from behind.

Oh no.

His vision crackled into a sense of horrified deja vu as trickling water accompanied a rattling sigh that echoed through the darkness. Jericho half turned, his still glowing wrist monitor raised. The dim light hinted at writhing worms coiling in the darkness. Unfolding.

The monitor shut off.

Atlas bolted.

Shards tore at his feet unheeded as he ran, picking up speed as he reached the shallows, ankle depth, then just splashing beneath his feet, then sand, clinging to his wounds as he approached the lifeline of light.

And behind him, that rattling sigh, a rhythmic clicking of many sets of teeth snapping together at once. Of something big being dragged through the water. Unhurried. Inexorable.

Atlas skidded to a halt.

It was a dead end. The grey light filtered between a tiny gap between rocks. He flicked on his status window to reveal a massive boulder partially buried into the sandy floor, its sides wedged firmly between a set of stalactites at its base. There was no way he could move it.

The sigh was getting closer. Black tentacles flickered in the edges of Atlas’ light. He raised his other bracer towards the sound and hit the scan button. The green beam licked the edges of something black and oily.

SCAN SUCCESSFUL

SCAN LEVEL UP

SCAN LEVEL UP

SCAN LEVEL UP

LEVEL 5

NEURAL NET UPGRADED: LEVEL 2

NEURAL NET UPGRADED: LEVEL 3

PHYSICAL CHASSIS UPGRADED: LEVEL 2

CORE FUNCTION RESTORED: CODE GRID (MATERIAL, LEAST)

CORE FUNCTION RESTORED: REMOTE ACQUISITION (SMALL)

MATERIAL STORAGE EXPANDED

ESSENTIA POOL UPGRADED

NEW CODE ACQUIRED [Abyss]

Well that was ominous.

SCYLLA

THREAT LEVEL: ???

THE SCOURGE THAT SLEEPS BELOW.

AWAKENED BY BLOOD.

SEVENTH SPAWN OF TYPHON.

Yep. He was going to die. Atlas pressed his back against the wall as more and more of the gargantuan creature dragged itself into sight.

Wait. Remote Acquisition. Atlas blinked at his bracer. Was that what he thought it was?

Trembling with adrenaline, Atlas fumbled for the scan button, flashing it over the boulder blocking his escape. The first of the Scylla’s limbs reached the shore, close enough for the light to hint at something taller than Atlas trailing behind the coiled mass.

ITEM TOO LARGE FOR REMOTE COLLECTION

OPEN CODE GRID Y/N?