The next morning, Chris, Dyrdek, and Sidulpek walked out of the portal Chris had left the night before, followed by a happy little slime. Chris had shifted into his other form, so he couldn't carry the slime, but after yesterday, the slime seemed content to just be around him, rather than needing to be held constantly. Chris turned to the goblins, sending his words directly to their minds. *Today, our goal is to capture a kobold. Any other creature can be killed, or captured as well if it seems useful, but the kobold must live, understand?*

[[Yes, Chief!]] The two goblins answered in unison.

Chris nodded. *Good. Let's move out!* He announced, leading the group off into the tunnels.

About half an hour later, the portal opened again, and Chris stepped out in his human form, followed by Beth, Zack, and the team's veteran observers. "What do you mean the slime is with your 'other self'?" Beth was asking incredulously.

Chris gave her a weird look. "That? I don't know how to say it any clearer."

Beth pinched the bridge of her nose. "That- since when do you have another self?!?"

"Oh, last night. I was trying to feed the slime, but I didn't want to feed it an ability core, you know? So I dissected a creature, trying to-" Chris began to explain.

"You can't find an ability core through dissection." Captain Nefred interjected. "You need a Reader or a scanner to find it. Additionally, taking it out of the body will increase the dissipation rate, weakening the ability core."

Chris raised his eyebrows, then frowned, checking on his pile of ability cores, finding that yes, the energy inside was dissipating. However, the energy was still in the world, so he simply sent the energy back to the cores, wrapped a layer of that strange substance he could make around each one, and the problem was solved. Chris nodded to himself, turning back to Captain Nefred. "All taken care of. Thanks."

Captain Nefred frowned, not sure what to make of that, but before he could say anything, Beth snapped her fingers, bringing Chris's attention back to the matter at hand. "Hey! You still haven't explained this other self thing!"

Chris nodded. "Ah, right, so, I was dissecting, but, as the Captain mentioned, no ability core was found. So, I figured there was some other quality I needed to look for, one I couldn't see, so I needed a way to analyze the body, and when I thought that, boom, the body began to dissolve, getting, well, analyzed. I found the ability core, found out I could reform it, and so I did the same with all of them, getting all the ability cores. Then I had to feed the slime, so I remade a creature, except I made it whole, and alive, and it turns out whole, alive creatures made in the world are, well, me. That was a trip, but eventually I decided to dissolve myself, so I can make a bunch of other me's to run around, and that's why I have another self."

Beth blinked at him a few times, before shaking her head. "Your ability is bullshit."

"Seconded." Zack nodded in agreement.

"Monster!" Sergeant Callista cursed under her breath.

*Immortal. Duplication. Stronger every time he dies. Subdues creatures. Huge spatial storage… I owe David a beer. Shit, I owe him a brewery.* Captain Nefred counted off Chris's attributes internally, hardly believing that this was the kid someone used a favor to make him take. Hell, to get this kid, he'd give up Beth and all his other slots! If this kid's ability was anything less than superior-tier, he'd call bullshit on the entire ranking system! He was going to need to report this.

While the team got lost in their own thoughts, they continued on with their surveying, continuing the pattern they'd been following. Meanwhile, the other Chris was making his way towards the kobold area, in as direct a path as he could find. They'd run into a small pack of scaled wolves in the process, leading to an intense battle. Just like Chris, the wolves were physical-type mid-tiers with low-tier abilities. He could handle two or three at the same time, especially if he disregarded injuries, but he couldn't say the same for the others. Sidulpek could barely distract a few of the wolves, using her ability to cover them in shadow, blinding them. However, her shadows came from her hands, so she could only control one cloud per hand, which meant she could only blind two. Dyrdek, on the other hand, couldn't even do that much, as the low-tier goblin was incapable of even breaking their defenses. Surprisingly, the slime was the most effective one. Once the battle began, it immediately bounded forward, latching itself onto the face of one of the wolves and hardening, slowly suffocating the creature to death. Unfortunately, since the slime couldn't actually see this mostly relied on luck, and the next target it went for, it latched onto its leg, only hampering its movement.

The end result was that Chris ended up fighting four scaled wolves on his own, while Sidulpek kept two fumbling about blind, the slime killed one and hobbled another, and Dyrdek couldn't even do anything. *Fuck! I can't do this on my- oh, wait.* Chris began, cursing internally as he fought defensively, barely keeping the wolves at bay, when he remembered his new ability. Made himself a new body in the Immortal World, before opening a portal, and a second Chris jumped out! Chris cackled as he swiped at the wolves with his claws and lashed out with his tail, leaving long furrows in their hide, when something… strange began to happen. The two Chris's had split the wolves, taking care of two each, but every now and then, they would lash out at empty space or completely miss an opening one of the wolves had left. It was as if there was some sort of crossover in their minds. In the heat of the moment, it seemed like Chris was mixing up which body should react to what.

Suddenly, both Chris's began to act in unison, both acting as if whatever the other saw was relevant for them as well. They made a lot of unnecessary actions, but they also stopped missing opportunities to injure the wolves, and soon, the wolves began to fall, until they were all lying on the ground, dead or dying. ""Uuuuck."" Both Chris's groaned in unison. The extra Chris quickly returned to the internal world, and the remaining one turned to the incapacitated wolves and quickly took care of them. He then threw all the corpses inside the Immortal World, before collapsing against the wall, rubbing his temples with a groan.

Chris had just found a serious issue with his multiple selves. The way his ability worked, every time something happened in the scope of his awareness, he was instantly aware of it. Therefore, every version of himself was always working from the same knowledge base, which, in most circumstances, was incredibly useful. However, in a situation where he needed to make split second decisions, having two almost identical sets of data coming in at once was incredibly confusing! Both bodies were doing the same thing, in the same place! How was he supposed to tell which was which in the instant he needed to make a decision? Chris had felt like he head would explode by the end of it, and simply gave up, deciding to just react to everything. He'd need to test this more, later. If he had this much trouble reacting to things at the same time, his use for all these bodies would become much more limited.

After taking a break to let his mind cool down, the slime hopping in his lap to vibrate comfortingly as he did, Chris climbed back to his feet and they resumed their journey. He glanced at Sidulpek and Dyrdek as they set off again. *You two need to get stronger.* He commented. *You're getting beat by a slime.*

Dyrdek hung his head in shame, while Sidulpek glared at him fiercely. [Chief, our abilities aren't combat focused! If you wanted to sneak around that pack of creatures, I could have been of use. If you wanted to poison them, you could have used Dyrdek! But fighting? That isn't what we're built for!] Sidulpek retorted heatedly, before seeming to suddenly remember who she was talking to and covering her mouth, her eyes widening in fear.

Chris glanced over at her, raising an eyebrow and smirking lightly. *So, you think my request is unreasonable, huh? You think you can't get any stronger?*

[I-I- no, I just- our abilities only let us go so far-] Sidulpek stammered nervously, her earlier spark dying in the face of Chris's authority and her fear of him.

Chris shook his head. *Look, I'm not being unreasonable here. Did you know, not that long ago, I was barely stronger than Dyrdek? Through dying and a… mutation? I gained strength and a new, stronger form. Since you two are connected to my world, there's no reason you two can't experience the same. You just need to die. A lot.* He glanced down at the slime hoping happily by his feet, kicking it lightly. *The same goes for you too.*

[D-d-die?!?] Sidulpek asked incredulously.

*Yup. Don't worry, you'll come back. As a member of my Immortal Tribe, you never need to worry about dying, at least not permanently.* Chris nodded. *Death is good for us. Do it more often.*

Sidulpek gave him a weird look, but didn't question him. This new chief of hers was full of mystery and strange abilities. She didn't necessarily buy what he was saying, but she couldn't deny it either.

Dyrdek frowned. [Chief, I've died many times, yet I am still weak.] He complained, causing Sidulpek to turn and look at him with wide eyes.

*Well, that's because death is just a part of it. You need experience too. Death merely gives the Immortal World the opportunity to adjust you. Your experiences are what tell it how to go about actually doing so.* Chris explained. He then paused, considering something. *Tonight, we'll see if we can initiate your mutations. With the lives you've lived up to this point, it should give you a bit of a boost at least.*

Dyrdek was excited, looking forward to getting stronger, while Sidulpek still had some doubts about all this. Even if it was true, why would this human care about making them stronger? To use them? For what purpose? If he wanted to, he could capture stronger creatures, such as those scaled wolves from earlier. Why did he want to waste his time on them?

Chris noticed Sidulpek's doubtful expression, and checked in on her thoughts, before chuckling to himself, shaking his head. For Chris, the mindless creatures of the Maze were useless. Why would he want to subdue something he needed to micromanage all the time? In that case, he'd rather do it himself. No, Chris was only interested in intelligent creatures, like goblins, creatures that could act independently, carrying out his orders on their own, without his supervision. Even the slime he'd picked up had been a fluke. He'd merely wanted to test out forming a connection with a creature that hadn't willingly submitted to him. He hadn't expected the slime to happily accept the connection.

The four of them continued their search for the kobolds, thankfully not running into anymore packs as they did. Even so, Chris quickly realized how lucky he was to have Beth on his team. She was an absolute monster on this level. As both groups encountered danger in their travels, Chris learned that the main issue for his other selves was proximity. As much as he'd tried to avoid it, there were points where both groups got into a fight at the same time, and he didn't have nearly as many issues. He seemed to be able to partition the two areas away, letting both bodies focus on their individual battles. Since being in similar situations didn't affect him much, then it had to be the fact that they were in the same area, literally right next to each other. Thinking about it, it made sense. When you fight, you pay attention to everything around you. Since both bodies were in the same area, he couldn't just ignore the extra information. Add that to the fact that even differentiating between the two was difficult, and it was no wonder he got confused. From now on, it was probably best to keep his other selves separate from each other.

Finally, towards the end of the day, they began to see signs of kobold activity. An occasional footprint, a few loose scales, a broken weapon, all pointing towards a low level of activity in the area. Chris immediately became more cautious, signaling Sidulpek to have her ability at the ready as they slowed down to a crawl, carefully moving forward, watching for signs of an incoming party. It took them another hour before they finally happened to stumble upon a small hunting party of three.

Chris hissed as he caught sight of the incoming kobolds, Sidulpek instantly activating her ability, creating a cloud of shadow around them as they pressed into a crevice of the tunnel. Two small tunnels opened up in front of Chris's eyes, letting him see through the shadow and watch as the kobolds approached. He carefully picked up the slime, narrowing his eyes as he tried to decide who to catch. He was looking for a second in command type, not one with too much arrogance or willpower, but still fairly strong. He was mainly looking for information at this point, so he didn't want to spend too much time trying to break the one he caught, but he'd prefer it if his next subordinate had at least a decent starting point.

Finally, he locked on to the kobold on the left. The one in the middle was obviously the leader, so it was out, while the one on the right seemed to be nervous, which probably meant it wasn't very strong. The one on the left seemed to be calm, but still cautious, which looked perfect to Chris. He waited until the one on the left looked away, before lifting the slime and chucking it at the kobold! The slime hit the kobold straight in the chest, knocking it down with an 'oof!' as the slime wrapped around it, trapping its arms and torso before hardening. Before the other two kobolds could react, Sidulpek immediately threw shadows at their heads, attempting to blind them. The kobold on the right was caught immediately, shrieking in panic as it lost its sight, but the middle kobold simply snorted, before blinking out of existence! Instantly, it appeared next to Sidulpek, swinging a club towards her head! Before the club could hit, Chris's tail struck, the spike on the tip piercing towards the kobolds eye, forcing it to teleport away! The kobold reappeared a few meters away, glaring towards Chris with a dirty look.

Chris chuckled as he stepped forward, staring at the kobold with an interested gaze. *Teleportation, huh? I may have to actually catch this one. But how?* Chris pondered thoughtfully as the two groups fell into a stalemate.

Chris glanced between the teleporter and the two kobolds that had already been pinned down. He carefully stepped towards the other kobolds, keeping an eye on the other as he did, waiting to see how it reacted. The kobold let out a low growl, before barking out in warning. Chris chuckled, waggling his finger at the kobold as he opened a portal, reaching out with his leg, grabbing the bound kobold with his foot. The other kobold roared, teleporting right behind Chris, going for his throat. The moment the kobolds claws hit Chris's neck, he reacted instantly, his elbow shooting backwards, slamming into the kobolds side. The kobold was thrown backwards, slamming into the wall of the tunnel with a thump, causing it to yelp before it disappeared, teleporting down the tunnel, away from Chris.

Chris frowned as he watched the kobold go, cursing slightly. The kobold wasn't stopping, obviously abandoning the other two after losing two clashes with Chris. Chris watched it go with a grimace, before sighing and turning to the remaining kobolds. One was completely bound by the slime, while the other was lashing out randomly as it stumbled around blind, clawing at the air. Chris wondered what its ability was, considering it didn't seem to be combat or scouting focused. Chris shrugged, before picking up the bound up kobold and tossing it through the portal. He then lashed out with his tail, stabbing the blind, thrashing kobold in the gut, causing it to scream in pain, falling to the ground in shock. Once it stopped thrashing, Chris tossed it into the Immortal World as well, before heading in himself, followed by Dyrdek and Sidulpek.

"Now, which one of you do I take first?" Chris muttered to himself as he looked over the two captured kobolds, changing back into his human form. "Hm, let's go with gut wound over here." He turned to the dying kobold, focusing on it. Since he didn't know the kobold language yet, he couldn't use words to convince the creature to submit, so he needed to use force. He concentrated, exerting pressure on the kobold as he attempted to connect it to the Immortal World. The moment he began, the kobold panicked, resisting Chris's invasion with every fiber of its being! Chris frowned, before doubling down, bringing all his will to bear as he forced the connection. The kobold's will couldn't hold up under Chris's full force, and it collapsed, the connection forming as the kobold was bound to the Immortal World.

Chris rubbed his temple as his head began to ache slightly. This forceful connection took a lot more out of him than he'd thought it would. Shaking his head, he regrew his tail and pierced it through the newly conquered kobold, letting it die so it could heal. The kobold sat up with a gasp as it was revived, looking at Chris in horror. [Wh-what did you do to me?!?]

"I connected you to my world." Chris replied, before delving into the kobold's memories. Kobolds were a lot like goblins, except they were hatched from eggs instead of a live birth. They were still viscous, cruel little shits though. It seemed to be a pattern for these creatures who lived in the Maze. Other than learning about kobold culture and the area around the nearby tribe, Chris also figured out the kobold's ability. The kobold could hypnotize other creatures with its stare, stunning them and placing them in a suggestive state. It was a fairly powerful ability, but it required direct eye contact, so its use was minimal. "Huh. No wonder you couldn't do anything after Siddy blinded you." Chris commented. He also learned the other kobold's ability, which was to create sticky threads that could bind and restrict others. Oh, and this kobold was male, while the other was female.

After going through the kobold's memory, Chris frowned as he turned to the remaining kobold. The kobold language wasn't like human or goblin languages. It was more like a series of barks, clicks, growls, and other sounds that the human throat wasn't built to make. Even though he knew the language, and could understand it, he wasn't sure if he could actually speak it. If he couldn't get his point across, he was going to have to attempt to forcefully connect the kobold to the Immortal World, just like the other one, and he honestly wasn't sure he had it in him. This kobold obviously had a much stronger will than the other one, and that one had already taken a lot out of him.

Chris walked over to the still slime bound kobold, crouching next to it. The kobold looked up at him with a defiant glare, growling slightly, as if all it wanted to do was take a bite out of him. "Yes, yes, you're very vicious. I get it." Chris sighed, rolling his eyes. Chris stared at her, pondering his options. Suddenly, he had an idea. Why not mix the two? Chris slowly began to exert pressure on the kobold, nothing too strong so he could keep it up pretty much indefinitely, but enough to clearly make his intentions known. The kobold, obviously, stubbornly resisted, clearly unwilling to submit to him. Chris then created a knife, waving it in front of the kobolds face as he continued to exert that tiny bit of pressure. Unfortunately, his threat seemed to have the opposite effect, increasing the kobold's determination to resist.

Chris frowned at the kobold's stubbornness, before sighing and shaking his head. He took the knife and used it to pry up one of the scales on the kobolds shoulder, before gripping it and ripping it off! The kobold yelped in pain, its determination wavering slightly, before firming up again. It glared at Chris defiantly again, as if daring him to do his worst. Chris frowned at it again, continuing to sigh and shake his head, before he moved on, prying up another scale and ripping it out. He continued, tearing out scale after scale, one by one, until the kobold's entire shoulder was bare and bloody. The kobold had tears streaming down its face, but its resistance didn't falter. Through this process, Chris had gotten better at reading the resistance of the kobold, and he could tell it was just waiting for death at this point. Even if Chris caused it more pain, it wouldn't give in.

"Do you really need to be this stubborn?" Chris asked exasperated. "I'm not offering you a bad thing here!" Chris glared at the kobold, before clicking his tongue, ironically managing to accurately imitate the kobold word for excrement. "Well, if you want death, then let's give you death." He muttered, covering the kobold's mouth and nose with the substance his Immortal World made, completely blocking her airways. The kobold's eyes widened as she suffocated, thrashing about as she fought for air, before passing out. The kobold lay there, twitching as she slowly died, before suddenly her arm healed, and her eyes shot open again! Since her airways were still blocked, she immediately began suffocating again, thrashing about desperately! Chris exerted a bit more pressure on her. "Well? Going to give in yet? This doesn't stop, you know. It'll keep going and going, until you give in." Chris explained, not that the kobold understood.

The three creatures Chris had already subdued watched in horror as he tortured the kobold. Chris glanced over at them, and they shivered in fright, unable to even meet his eyes, worried he might turn his cruelty on them next. Chris frowned as he caught their reactions. *Am I really that scary?* He thought to himself, turning back to the kobold that had suffocated to death yet again. The moment she revived, her will finally broke, and she accepted the connection, binding to the Immortal World. Chris removed the substance covering her face and let the slime release her. The kobold huddled on the ground, curling into the fetal position as she gasped and cried in pain and shame. Chris frowned as he watched her. *I- I'm not a good person, am I?*

Chris sat back, considering his actions. Could he have done something differently? He could have at least tried to force the connection. It would have just given him a headache, right? That wouldn't be so bad. Maybe he could have had the other kobold attempt to negotiate as well. It may not have worked, but who knows? Even if he did eventually have to resort to torture, he should have exhausted all the other options first, shouldn't he? Why did he just go straight for torture? Chris thought about it, frowning as he realized the answer. He'd done it because it was convenient. Forcing the connection was hard, and coaching the other kobold as it tried to convince her would have been a pain, as well as most likely pointless. He just didn't want the hassle of it all and… he didn't care. He still didn't particularly care. But… that was wrong, wasn't it? Even if he eventually needed to do horrible things, there was an… order that needed to be followed. He couldn't ignore it just because he was lazy.

Chris glanced at the still sobbing kobold, before sighing. He picked her up, and cradled her in his arms, petting her back. "There, there, it'll be okay." Chris muttered, doing his best to comfort her. The kobold froze at the sudden shift, not sure what to make of this strange, awkward behavior. The being that had just caused her the most suffering she'd ever experienced was now… holding her? Petting her? Why? What was its reason? Why- why did it feel so nice? She stiffened up at first, nervous but too scared to resist, until slowly, she began to relax under Chris's petting and his low, soothing voice. Tension drained out of her body and exhaustion took over, until she passed out, falling asleep curled into Chris's chest. Chris continued for a bit, before creating a bed and carefully laying her on it.

Chris then turned to the others, shifting them to a different area. "Alright, now that that's over, I believe it's time to see if you guys can mutate." He announced with a clap.

The first kobold raised his hand tentatively. [Wh-what is 'mutate'?]

"Well…" Chris trailed off as he tried to figure out how to pronounce the kobolds name. "Oughtkoo? Ugh, no, your name is Carl from now on. Anyways, it's turning you from you, to something else, like this." Chris explained, shifting back and forth between his two forms. "It should make you stronger."

The kobold's, or Carl's, eyes widened. "K-Kaah?" He attempted.

Chris paused. "Ka could work too. Sure, you'll be Ka, then."

[Y-yes, Chief.] Ka nodded.

"Right then, let's get y'all some new forms." Chris clapped again, turning to Dyrdek. He began to consider how to go about this, but the moment he decided he wanted to make Dyrdek mutate, the cocoon formed and the process began. Chris blinked. "Well… that was easy." He muttered, before turning to Sidulpek and the same thing happened. He glanced at Ka, and boom, cocoon. "Well… I honestly thought there'd be more of a process for this. Why didn't I do this earlier?" Chris frowned, before nodding in understanding. "Right, because I'm lazy." He then turned to the slime, and… nothing. "Eh?" He frowned, concentrating on the slime and trying again. It was almost like the slime was… rejecting him? Why would the slime reject mutation? How did the slime reject mutation!?! "What the… hey- uh, huh… I should name you too, huh?" Chris got sidetracked momentarily as he realized he'd never given the slime a name, before he shook his head. "Okay, uh… Jello, why aren't you mutating?"

The newly dubbed Jello vibrated slightly, sending Chris emotions of confidence and assurance. It was almost like Jello was telling him, 'don't worry, I got this.'

Chris frowned at the slime. "What do you mean 'your got this'?!? What, do you think you can mutate on your own?"

Jello vibrated and sent back an emotion of affirmation.

Chris blinked. "Wait, really? You can?"

Jello vibrated and assured him again.

"Huh. Well, I'll leave you to it then." Chris shrugged, not knowing what else to say. He supposed he could force Jello to mutate, but… he kinda wanted to see where the slime was going with this. Besides, if he mutated Jello, what would he use as a pillow tonight?