I trudged along the shaft, passing openings to different passages as I went, some sloping downwards, some turning left or right but so far none leading up. I kept straight on, no real destination in mind, just listening out for my prey.

My plan was simple. Kill rats. If killing one rat got me a skill point, killing more should get me more points. Simple. Straightforward. After I had this idea I almost expected a new text box. Something like New Quest! Kill 5 rats and receive 200xp and a common loot box. Unfortunately no such thing happened. Oh well.

It was something to do. Something I could do.

As I walked I considered my plans for my body. I tried to run through what little I knew about biology, how muscles worked to contract and release pressure. How this translated into strength of arm, the ability to lift heavy things, to strike hard and keep going for extended periods. I didn't know very much, clearly I hadn't been a doctor in my previous life. Or maybe I was and just couldn't remember any of it. Either way, I knew the broad strokes.

The problem was none of the things I did recall of biology fit with my body as it was, how it felt. My wooden arms didn't contract and release like muscles, they were solid wood. They just moved when I tried.

After I'd added the metal sheathing to my form my ability to feel had transferred to that. It had fully become me but it hadn't had any effect on my base strength. What I needed was to figure out my power source, and once I ascertained that the next step would be how to increase that source, how to raise its capacity and output.

Thinking of things in that way felt more right to me, what I needed to do was less like building a living creature then it was building a machine. An automaton. I needed a bigger battery, that was all.

These grand schemes would have to wait however, for now I had rats to kill, points to earn. Integrate might not be able to increase my power but Easel could optimize my output, I could rebuild my ‘machine’ from the ground up, layer by layer. Increasing my body's efficiency should improve my abilities. It would likely be a case of ongoing trial and error to find the optimum build but I was excited to get started.

After I'd been walking for 20 minutes or so I suddenly heard scratching, like nails on metal. I'd found something to kill.

I stopped as soon as I heard the sound, staying perfectly still, listening intently, the sound was coming from ahead. I reached up and unslung my bag, moving to the side of the shaft and laying it down against the wall, freeing up my movement. I'd discarded my makeshift toga after the first fight so I stood naked and junkless. Makeshift armour plating on my hands, forearms and chest glinting slightly in the low light of the tunnel. Occasional vents appeared on the floor of the shaft and let the light in from the corridor I'd viewed below but it wasn't much, luckily my puppet senses seemed to give me good night vision.

I walked carefully forward in a crouch, sword held low and trailing out behind me, ready to slash up at a surprise attacker. I kept to the right side of the shaft, the noise seemed to be coming from the next tunnel, the entrance of which was 20 paces or so ahead of me on this side.

I drew up to the edge of the opening and tucked my body in close to the wall. I peeked my head around, my eyesight restricted to where my eyes would've been. I ducked one eye carving around the edge. There was a clump in the new shaft, a dark uneven pile of something. There was movement in the pile, this branching shaft was even darker and it was hard to make out shapes but something was rustling around in the unknown pile.

Deciding I'd rather fight here where I could kind of see, I quickly came up with a plan. Backing away from the opening I turned and made my way quickly back to my bag, keeping low and quiet. I searched around in the top buttoned pocket on the old sewing bag and found what I was looking for. Buttons.

Fishing a couple out I turned and crept slowly back. Pausing by the opening again I ducked one eye round and checked the scene, making sure everything was as I left it. Same pile of rat treasure. Same shifting, scuffling motions like a rat searching about in its den.

Pulling back I tossed a button out to the side. It landed with a clatter on the metal, right outside the opening. Silence.

Then a hiss and a rustle, the clacking like talons on metal, then a whoosh of dirty fur and glinting fangs tumbled out of the shaft right beside me and pounced on the button with a snarl.

I reacted instantly, dashing straight at the grey figure, raising my sword and pointing it at the beast's back. The rat must have heard my footsteps because it spun, one front paw pressed firmly on the button to protect its prize from this sudden intruder.

It's eyes opened wide as it saw me charging, but the rodent had no time to react before my lunging sword met its face, the tip of my blade lanced in between it's eyes and burst out the back of the creatures skull as my body collided with the rat and sent us both tumbling to the floor. I rolled away quickly, my sword tugging out of the rat's head with a meaty squelch and sprung to my feet, jogging on my toes and looking around wildly for threats, the battle thrill pumping through me making it almost impossible to stay still. But the rat was silent and lifeless, slumped on the floor, a gruesome broken hole of bone and blood where its head used to be.

I breathed out a sigh, but just in my head as my body didn't do that anymore. I stood and tried to calm myself. Since I couldn't breathe I decided just to count slowly.

1, 2, 3. I waited in the hall, my body tingling. 4, 5, 6. My mind started to drift back to thinking about myself. 7, 8, 9. This was all pretty crazy, waking up in a strange world with skill trees and living puppets and no real memories of who I was and where I came from. 10, 11, 12. Totally crazy but one thing I'd just realised and hadn't really thought of before. It was also amazing!

The jitters were going away now and I got myself together. No notification had popped up but I hadn't really expected it to. It seemed unlikely I could get 1 skill point pre rat killed, that would make progression much too easy and that just felt wrong. I collected my bag, ignoring the rat and deciding to forgo any exploration of the rats den, presuming it wouldn't be anything I wanted to poke around in, I decided to just keep walking the same way I'd been going.

This time I'd only been walking a minute or so when I heard something. Tapping and clinking, off rhythm and dull. As I stood and listened the sound got louder, fast. Before I could take my bag off or get ready or do anything much more than stop and gawk another rat came barreling down the tunnel and hit me, muzzle first in the chest.

We collided with a thunk, my weight enough to partially stop the rat as it hit me and I folded up, slamming into the floor back first, the rat flying over me in a screeching flash of grey fur. I rolled to the left, completely unaffected by the collision and as soon as I had one knee under me I took off, like a runner from a starting line. Dashing at the rat with my sword dragging behind me, sparking.

The rat was quick to get back on target. Turning it saw me coming in fast and it leapt to meet me. I threw myself into a jump, reversing the grip on my blade as I flew and grabbing the hilt with my other hand. Jumping at least my own height high, I collided with the beast midair, my sword point slamming into its left shoulder and driving in up to the hilt as the rat smashed me to the ground.

I landed on my back, Losing my grip on my sword, the rat on top of me. It pulled its head back and I brought my right forearm up, just in time to get it in the way of the rats lunging teeth. It clamped them around the metal and wrenched, trying to tear the limb off as it held my body down with its front paws. I started punching it with my free left hand, slamming my metal fist into its neck and chest as it yanked and tore at the arm in its mouth.

Changing tactics I punched it in the left shoulder then slammed my elbow into its left knee. The beast yowled as its leg collapsed, dropping my arm and rearing back, stepping off me.

I rolled away quickly, tucking right and flipping myself into an awkward standing position but too slow as the rat bashed into me again, sending me flying.

For a breathless moment I flew through the air. I had that feeling of utter shock at the start of a free fall. Like that moment when you're leaning back on your chair and you feel you've leant to far, your stomach lifts and you hang motionless for a moment that feels like it lasts longer than it should. Then you fall.

I slammed into the metal back first and dropped to the floor on my side. The rat was up and to my left, looking around for me but wheezing and screeching. It turned towards me as I pulled myself to my knees, then to my feet, eyeing me and giving a growl that ended in a yowl as it drooped visibly where it stood, gnashing at its right shoulder and the dark leather grip protruding there. My blade.

I stepped forward, calm, and began to walk towards the wounded animal. I checked my forearm and saw the scratches and dents from the rats teeth but no punctures, the armour had held. The rat jittered as if to dash towards me then sprung back, confused with my calm demeanor. Its animal instincts warred with each other as to what action to take.

I continued walking and the wounded rat, mad with pain, made another dash towards me. Fight winning out against flight. Its charge was feeble and limping, as it got close I fainted to the left, then spun to the right, my right hand leapt out and seized the leather hilt as the rat tripped past, tearing my sword from its body and nearly severing the beast's leg at the shoulder.

The rat fell in a spray of blood, rolling and screeching, trying to turn and continue the fight. I stood and watched as the rat struggled, stepping back as the pool of blood spread.

I felt oddly calm. No battle jitters this time, just a dull feeling of… loss. This fight had been dirty and primal, just two creatures gnashing at each other, hoping to kill the other and live. And it had been much closer than the others. No planning or strategy, no neat sword strikes or well planned ambushes, I just threw myself forward and hoped to survive.

I shook my head firmly. You did what you had to do. You have to keep doing what you need to and you need to do it now, there'll be time for soul searching later. Maybe. For now you've got to stay frosty.

I chuckled a little at the bad 90s movie dialog, my bassy voice thrumming out louder than I expected and echoing down the tunnel, startling me.

It was then that I realised I hadn’t spoken a word since I woke up here. I didn't even know if I could.

“Hello.”I piped out weakly, my voice high and brittle. I made a coughing sound, strange without the accompanying throat to clear but it just came out, and tried again. “Hello, hello, testing one, two, three?” not sure why I'd said that, I couldn't remember what that phrase was for, I'd just said it on instinct. Damn my dumb broken memories. But my voice had been clear and bright that time, though it still sounded artificial somehow, like a recording. Still, one mystery solved, I could speak if I needed to, not that the rats seemed like they'd be great conversationalists.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The rat was still now, cold and dead in its red puddle. I turned from the grisly sight and headed onwards, down my lonely tunnel to search for more enemies to meet and slay. For now not reveling in the new adventure and instead wondering at this new world economy, where killing literally meant power. I knew games worked like this, killing mobs for level ups and increased stats and the like but actually being here and doing it, it felt wrong. Like I'd dirtied myself by killing something for strength.

I trudged along the dark tunnel, my thoughts fitting the atmosphere, swirling in a gloomy miasma.

A while later I was still walking. It had been an hour, maybe less, maybe more. Time was hard to tell in this tunnel, though it was perhaps a little darker. No biological signs of course, I didn't need to piss or eat or…

I stopped, realizing that though I didn't need to eat in a conventional sense I was feeling something like hunger, what… then it clicked, Integrate. The ‘pit’ I'd thought about before, it was opening up. Just a tiny niggle for the moment, the teeniest gap to fill.

For some reason when the information had said the ability would get 10% a day I'd thought it would be instant, like 24 hours after you used it the space would open up again, completely and all at once. Instead it seemed like I'd get a total of 10% a day with it refilling constantly. I wonder if it will overfill? When I got to 10% open would it stop or just keep filling. That would be good to know, down the line I might want to absorb something bigger than 10% of my body. There's another question that needs answering though.

I raised my hand in front of my face once more. All the changes I'd made so far had started with my hands, it just felt right. Though actually for this I should probably use something else. I decided on a spot on my left upper arm, on where the bicep would be on a human, for me it was just bare wood. I focused on my integrate power, narrowing my attention to a tiny spot, there on my arm. But instead of pulling, I tried to push. After a frozen moment a tiny little spot on my arm turned to dust, and a pimple of wood crumbled and fell out with a puff.

Ha, it works! I'd thought of this before, when I was considering the strength problem. Absorbing mass and building a new body was great but what about expelling mass, swapping materials out.

I mean this metal on my forearms, the stuff siphoned from the shaft. It had worked fine against the rats but it likely wasn't a particularly strong metal. From my tiny perspective it seemed thick and strong but I knew ventilation like this usually wasn't like that, it was thin and weak, it was just supposed to hold air after all. I'd want to swap it out for something else down the line, the wood too likely, though I was wary of completely replacing my wooden body with something else just yet, not until I understood a bit more what was happening, how I worked. I still didn't have another point though so for now I just needed to keep going, keep fighting.

The gloomy feeling from earlier had mostly faded. Sure this was some pretty fucked up shit I was involved in, but when you really broke it down it was also pretty natural. Creatures kill other creatures to get strong and survive, it was all that circle of life lion king stuff.

Besides, right now I couldn't see that I had a choice. I was in a very precarious position, easy pickings for most anything out there. And that was in my world against regular animals and the like, I had an idea things weren't regular in this world. I'd started to think it was unlikely the magic that made me was the only magic in this whole world. Very unlikely.

There was a good chance I'd find some weird shit in this fairy tale palace and there was a decent shot some of it would be dangerous. As I was right now I couldn't take anything much more dangerous than a rat. So I still had some killing to do.

Over the next few hours I killed another half dozen rats. None had gotten as close as the ambushing rat had to actually causing me harm. I'd mostly managed to set up simple ambushes of my own, like with the button, and take them out easily and with little danger.

After my last kill I'd walked for a ways but then stopped at another vent. There was a blue glow blasting up through the square holes of the grate, and I felt like sitting in the light, getting away from the damp pervasive dark of the tunnels for a bit and revitalizing.

And it would give me a chance to use my new skill. I'd finally gotten another point after I'd killed the last enemy and when I'd opened my tree I'd gotten a surprise. I had the same grey branch labeled Easel, and the same black branch labeled Integrate with the trunk still labeled Carver but now there was a new choice, leading on from Integrate was a further grey line with a new label.

Total absorb - Integrate an item or piece of equipment completely and without breaking it down. Requires enough space in the Integrate meter.

Interesting. That fit with the plans I'd been making already, the hope of finding some kind of ‘battery’ to increase my power. Not to mention I'd already been imagining finding something classically magical like a flaming sword or an invisibility cloak, some kind of standard fantasy trope to geek out over. Which I totally would. And making something like that part of me, an invisibility cloak becoming invisible skin for instance, that would be incredible.

But for now, rat hunting in the ventilation, I figured this wasn't a priority skill. So instead I moved over and spent my skill on Easel.

As soon as I had I tried to feel for the new ability, an innate sense like I'd had with Carver, or a feeling inside like Integrate. Nothing.

So how do I use it? With no better plan I tried just thinking the word. Easel.

Just like that a box appeared in front of me. Just like the skill tree diagram but this one had the outline of a man.

No, not a man. A puppet.

I could see the slight thickening at the arms and chest where the metal plates were but it was just a simple outline. I focused on the right arm and the image zoomed in, filling the arm in with more detail, like a 3d blueprint. I could see that the top part was a hollow cylinder, a label attached that said wood. The wrist was a wooden cylinder coated in metal, both layers labeled with their components though they simply said ‘wood’ and ‘metal’. I wasn't sure if the lack of detail was a function of the skill or just a representation of my knowledge, I didn't know what kind of wood or metal so maybe that's why Easel didn't know?

I thought about seeing the body as a whole again and the image widened back out to a simple outline. Cool. It seemed Easel functioned via mental commands. Next I focused on the chest and a 3d image of my hollow wooden chest with the metal breast plate appeared, but this time the wooden cavity wasn't empty.

In the center of my chest was a shard of crystal, like a broken piece of a gem. The label simply said ‘shard’.

I examined the rest of my body in detail but I didn't find anything else. Just hollow tubes of wood attached with metal socket joints, like two balls of metal with a little connection between. One at the shoulder, elbow and wrist, one at the hip, knee and ankle and one thick connection between my body and head to serve as a neck. No more shards of crystal or anything except metal and wood. I figured that must be where my soul was, in that little crystal. That must be what gave this body of mine its animating force.

Setting aside thoughts of a mystical nature for the moment I decided to start, as always, with my right hand. I brought the 3d model up with a thought and then set it to spin slowly as I took a moment to think. The carving I'd done to my hand so far really wasn't great, no real joints at the fingers, just flexible wood. The whole hand was rather shoddy honestly. Better to start from scratch.

So I tried just that, mentally commanding the wood and metal to separate into two square blocks, one big wooden one and a little metal one, about a third the size of the wood. I started with the metal, I created 14 socket pieces, smaller copies of my other joints. Then I used the wood to make a palm piece, two small thick chunks for thumb joints and 12 longer, thinner blocks for fingers. All of this was accomplished with a thought, I just pictured the items appearing on the screen and they did, instantly. It was amazing.

I spent some time putting the pieces together and then I spent more time shaping and molding the hand into something more natural. I put metal plating around the outside of the fingers and hand again, carefully molding the shape for optimum movement.

Then I completed the action with a thought, looking down from Easel to my right hand as it fuzzed and shifted. In a second it was finished and there was my new hand. I turned it back and forth, rolling my wrist as I flicked my fingers, clenching and releasing to check the freedom of movement.

That's more like it. I grinned triumphantly at the transformation, the proper joints making my hands movement free and easy, upping my dexterity massively.

Next I did the same thing again. Using my new Easel skill to quickly recreate what I'd done for my left hand. Running through the process much quicker this time since all I had to do was think and the Easel made it happen. I slowed down again to mold and shape the hand and metal plating. Then it was done and I applied it to my body.

My hand fuzzed and then it was there, a new left hand. The whole thing took like 8 seconds. Incredible.

I cancelled the Easel with a thought and the screen disappeared. I sat with my feet dangling through the grate, kicking my legs as I admired my new hands, twisting with glee.

I spent the next hour upgrading. First I created new feet with proper joints for the toes, regular human shape this time. I even siphoned a bit of leather, absorbing a small corner of the fabric from my bag, and using it to create gripped soles for the bottom of my feet. Coating the rest in metal. It had been a few hours and I had a decent amount of Integrate to fill so I filled the rest with metal and used it here, saving a portion of leather so I could use the same trick as the soles of my feet to cover the pads of my hand and give them grip.

Then I spent a while with the 3d model of my head spinning on the screen. I considered making an articulated jaw but decided not to for the moment. There was no real reason for it but I wanted to eventually. But then, I already had a vision of somehow creating a simulation of a real person. Creating a body that looked normal, with hair and warm skin and the other, you know, ‘parts’ that would make me a real boy.

But it was a big idea and I had no clue how to start. For now I just sculpted the shape, making my features sharp and fierce. I ended up with the image of a boy, maybe 10, short spiky hair and features sculpted into the wood, sharp cheekbones and a pointed jaw, mouth set in a feral grin, the sharp point of his left canine visible.

This look just felt right. I figured I was a kid here, in my little body. I had to use Integrate to ‘grow up’. As I got bigger I decided I'd age my features. And eventually I'd add a jaw and a throat and all the physical accouterments. But one thing at a time. Piece by piece I'd build myself up.

Next I added a thin layer of metal over my whole head. I was pretty sure all I really needed to protect was my chest, and the shard inside. But I figured safe was best. Besides my eyesight, hearing and sense of smell seemed to be emanating from my head, perhaps that was just how I expected it to work.

But speaking of that shard, I moved onto that next. I brought the 3d model up, my metal coated chest spinning on the floating screen. I spent another while carving out a proper torso and coating it in metal. I added shoulder plates with the excess metal.

Then I spent half an hour or so making general tweaks to my body, along the arms and the legs, the waist and hips. Generally shaping, making myself more human.

Then I just sat, Easel put away, and examined my new body in all its glory.

I felt… more. It was like improving the artistry of my body had improved my senses somehow, I felt lighter and more alive. But it was subtle. Maybe I was just imagining the whole thing.

For the first time I looked down at the room below. I sat above the hallway still, large and ornate with a thick maroon carpet and carved wooden walls. Below me to my left was a large window, my view from this angle showing a nightscape of more red tiled rooftops.

I guessed a whole day had passed, it was night once more in this strange new world.

This palace was enormous, I'd seen that from the outside. There could be anything here. Now that I could absorb stuff and use Easel to adapt my body it was time to start thinking about getting out of these damn shafts and taking a look around this place.

I decided to start scouting for likely rooms to loot from above.

With a sigh I stood from the vent and stretched, bouncing on my new feet and clenching my hands to fists, shadow boxing in the gloom, getting a feel for my new range of movement. Honestly I felt great. Proper hands. Proper feet. Somehow even the more natural shape of my limbs and body felt like they'd made it easier to move and react. Like my body listened to me better now.

Maybe it's just this is how I feel my body should be, so it feels right. That's what the whole Easel process had been like, crafting my body into what I ‘felt’ it should be. Whatever the reason, I was feeling good and ready to kick some fantasy world arse.