I felt inadequate, watching my companion change, followed by a horrible shiver of loneliness. For a flash, I was back in front of my computer, dying and wondering who would find me and how long it would take.
Obviously, I knew that the instant, instinctual companionship I felt in this life was shared by Indigo and Green. They demonstrated in their own… peculiar… ways of checking in on me. Yet it was one thing to feel a benign fondness for these two helpless rascals and know they would have a much harder time without me.
Even as Green transformed, I tried to reassure myself. They might not need me… but they definitely want me in their lives. That is enough.
I distracted myself from these feelings by focusing on the process of the evolution. Green grew a little bit larger, but my energy sonar provided a bit more information as I witnessed the process. Essentially, her feel shifted. The wavelength of her energy pulses lengthened. From just a look I understood that the specialization or Skill she had access to at Level 10 was different than Indigo’s.
Just like him, however, the floating label above Green’s head shifted.
Green, Incomplete Chimera Core Lvl 10
If I had to guess, whereas Indigo could empower and inflate his body parts, Green had instead chosen to be able to heal and restore them. It seemed that while Indigo was simply a head-accumulating nut, Green had a greater fondness for the tails she obtained and wished to maintain them.
All those feelings of inadequacy I channeled toward a glittering distraction: what could obtain when I grew to Level 10?
After her shift, Green began pulverizing the bodies of her victims. Shivering at her brutal methods, I approached my own bird and considered what body parts to harvest. In the end, I decided to experiment a little.
Would you like to integrate the beak of Cheerful Bluebird Chirper Lvl 9?
Integration requires 14 Anima. Continue?
You have integrated the beak of Cheerful Bluebird Chirper Lvl 9! Beak of Cheerful Bluebird Chirper Lvl 9 provides Attack +1, Perception +1, Poise +1, and Agility +1.
Oh? Actually, this general effect is quite good. I nodded. Then I opened my beak. “Chirp!”
“Ohchirp. Speechchirp!”
Hummuf. Not an ideal medium. But… one step closer to vocalization.
At my noises, Green wandered closer. She had obliterated a body of the Chirper to obtain the wing, which she had positioned at her back, like a feathered tail. But what made it more ridiculous was that obviously, birds have tail feathers. But those had been completely passed over. I wonder if she liked the relatively larger wings.
With her new grey-green flesh, Green was essentially a rock with frog legs and then a bunch of strange tails.
“Silly-chi.” Ah, I produced a much more satisfactory noise. However, I felt a prickling sensation as suddenly Green rushed over. She extended a tentacle and knocked against my beak. Then, her body quivering with excitement, she rushed back to her corpses. She plucked up a cracked beak and integrated it. And then-
“KEHK! KEHK! KEHK!”
Green began to squall out a noise that sounded like she had captured a real bird and aggressively squeezed the air out of its lungs whenever she wanted a noise. However, Green seemed incredibly proud of this noise and continued to trumpet out the Chirper death throes for the surrounding wetlands.
I left her there. I just couldn’t be involved any longer. My Perception was far too high.
A depressing realization filled me as I fled: I would be able to hear her on the other side of the marsh.
On the far side of the hex spider webs, on dry land, I paused and activated my Blessing again. Huge drops of sweat formed on my ooze form. To my annoyance, it took all of my Mana. At least the output changed, but honestly, I wished it would not. Because instead of working up a light sweat that added a sheen to my jelly, I instead sweated huge bullets of vaguely lavender liquid. These drops rolled down my body and fell to the ground, glittering in the sun.
For a full three seconds, it felt like strange ghosts were splashing me down with buckets of sweat for me to leak out onto the ground. For my troubles, I did earn 2 more Proficiency, making me at 3/10.
Ah… Stay calm. After all, the previous capability will return when I reach ten proficiency… probably.
With great concentration, I was able to restore my peace of mind… unfortunately, I was surrounded by only weirdos. I felt the spiderlings coming, but didn’t think anything of it. I was busy sitting in the sun, allowing the strange liquid to dribble the rest of my way off of my body. I had a zen mindset. Perhaps, this is even the rumored mindfulness meditation that my judgey human therapist stressed was so important?
The warm sensation of the sun… makes it much easier…
The spiderlings came up to me, probably drawn by my generous aura-
They used their small forelegs to pluck up beads of the liquid I secreted. A horrible fear began in my heart as I watched them. They began to troop back toward their webbed area, carrying the small sweat globules like they were sacred treasures. As I watched, a spiderling slipped in the mud and dropped the sweat. It splattered everywhere. Several more spiderlings hurried over and began using their forelegs to whip the spiderling for its transgression of dropping my sweat. I could feel their genuine rage through the connection.
It felt like ‘holy sweat must not be profaned’, or something like that.
Ah, ignorance is bliss… let’s not dig uselessly into the actions of others. Better to reflect on myself. You know… I have said many times that my goal in this life is to be a bit more relaxed… but aren’t I just working all the time? Managing these-
“KEHK! KEHK! KEHK!” Green hurtled past, perhaps on her way to demonstrate her horrible new ability to Indigo. I offered up an inward apology about the monster I had created.
My thoughts briefly hitched but quickly returned to the point. Well, with so many monsters around, and the constant threat of them attacking and killing us… setting aside Leveling entirely is impossible. Also, I really want to reach Level 10 and grow. However… should I at least develop a hobby? Farming and ranching have proven a bit…
I wandered back toward our stump home. When my eyes settled on the ugly reeds laid across the top, I felt a sad but quiet pride at the domicile I had built. And when that feeling filled me, I knew what I had to do. I would work more on constructing a home for us a few hours a day, which filled me with cheer.
Might not be pretty, but it will be mine.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
When I was young, my family took us to a nearby lake with a sand beach. More than swimming in the chilly water or chasing my various cousins up and down the beach, my time was spent hunched over on the shore, building sand castles. I would stay there for hours, my shoulders and the back of my arms becoming sunburned while my caved-in chest remained pale, digging trenches to slow the constant assault of the sea while building up the sandy buttresses.
Always, the sea would eventually win. Or Mimi would coincidentally dash around me and stomp across everything I had built. But regardless of the ending, I would come home from the beach exhausted and satisfied. My parents would have nagging things to say about ignoring my cousins— but such information is now irrelevant.
Sadness filled me, thinking of all the things I had left behind. Because with a little more time and perspective, I began to see the opportunities I had, and missed, to invest in that life. The relationships with my college roommates and the cubicle neighbor at my data entry job. The cute barista who I had finally worked up the nerve to smile at, yet I could never quite ask out.
The anonymous people who encouraged me, when I stared at the screen until my eyes were bloodshot, constructing my story with the meticulous details my clockwork could produce.
An older sister who always had time to take my calls and laugh at my bad jokes.
These regrets… those times I said no to chances, waiting and being nervous, I can now live differently. I’ll Level, gain strength, evolve, and live a life of leisure. Friendship with Green and Indigo is more than enough.
But considering their relative power, and natural talent for being a monster, I really need to find my own niche to contribute. And that starts with building a new home.
Your Skill (Earned) Basic Wisdom has grown to Level 8.
System, don’t be creepy. Stop peaking at my inner thoughts.
So, a better home. Some low-key construction work, to destress after a long day of slaughtering monsters. Unfortunately, the materials available to me were a bit limiting. After some consideration, I decided I would try to create mud bricks, mixed with dead reeds in order to add some internal structure. I turned and looked across the surrounding marshy land. When I squinted, I could just see the familiar wiggle along the horizon that indicated heat distortions.
As a Chimera Core, I didn’t feel much in terms of temperature. My body… as much as it could be called one, appeared to be mostly comprised of jelly and energy. The integrated limbs might begin to melt or freeze if exposed to extreme temperatures, but we weren’t there quite yet. But If I had to guess, we were closer to the ‘hot’ side of the spectrum in the wetlands. If I could construct a platform out of reeds, I could probably bake some mud bricks.
That would be my activity for tomorrow morning. For now, I currently sat at 9 out of 10 integrated body parts. One of those was the damaged cochlea I had possessed for a long time, but it would suffice for now. But I wanted to get a last body part, just for my peace of mind. And I had already decided on my target: one of the frog tongues.
I headed toward the North portion of the mud beach and spied out the lazy toads sitting there. I spotted one hopping off behind one of the low mud mounds and moved to intercept, but paused as I looked at the monster sitting in the center.
Five Horned Bloat Toad Broodmother Lvl 20
The creature as large as a boar remained in the same position as it had been. Occasionally it would throw out a tongue and gobble up a dragonfly, but otherwise it remained inert. Yet… hasn’t it gained a Level?
Will that become a problem?
Still, I left the scary Toad leader and followed a much more reasonable foe behind the mud dunes.
Three-Horned Swamp Frog Lvl 8
Compared to the average Level of such toads, the toad was quite strong. But despite that, I still chose to attack this one: the higher Level would grant more experience. It still felt quite embarrassing that I, as a reincarnated human, was beaten out in Leveling by both Green and Indigo.
Even if they were natural-born monsters, hadn’t I read hundreds of litrpg stories?
The toad croaked and turned around as I hurried after it, but it didn’t have much response until I used my shiny new beak to peck out its fat eye. It response it half-hopped sideways and twisted. It blasted out its tongue, which punched a hole directly through my jelly body to hit-
Warning! Your Hybrid Monster Core has been damaged!
Y-you! After all the work I poured into this!
The tongue seemed to head straight for the floating core inside of my lavender ooze. The impact shook me, even knocking off a few points of Health. Then my Health began to visibly tick down, as the frog tongue also seemed to secrete venom into my body.
Rage and fear became a sharp need to act, so I lashed out blindly with my serrated foreleg. I missed the body, but cut deeply into one of the toad’s legs. It pivoted and shot out another tongue blast, but I dodged sideways to avoid it. When I tried to close the distance distance, it leaped farther away. Luckily for me, on its landing that wounded leg ruptured, blood and muscle spilling onto the muddy ground.
I closed the distance and unleashed a wave of greedy tentacles. Each stabbed into its dripping blood and started devouring. Being a Chimera Core demonstrated its advantages.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +8.
Your Skill (Temp) Feed has triggered! Restoring 2 Health over the next 30 seconds.
Your Skill (Temp) Feed has grown to Level 3
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +10.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +11.
Your Skill (Species) Absorb Anima has grown to Level 13.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +15.
You have slain a Three-Horned Swamp Frog Level 8.
Warning, you have absorbed over 100 Anima! You are unable to handle the excess energy. 11 Anima dissipates. Current Health +2.
Soon, I stood over the corpse. I checked the surroundings. No frogs to notice their companion’s death, no Green to pulp the remains. Raising my serrated foreleg, I felt a rush of pleasure. Let’s take you apart, shall we?
Would you like to integrate the oozing tongue of Three-Horned Swamp Frog Lvl 8?
Integration requires 15 Anima. Continue?
Your Skill (Species) Integrate Body Part has grown to Level 16.
Due to the high Level of the Integrate Body Part Skill, the performance of the body part will increase!
You have integrated the slimy yet generous tongue of Three-Horned Swamp Frog Lvl 8! You have unlocked Stat (Temp) Accuracy. You have unlocked Skill (Temp) Healing Tongue Lvl 1. Slimy Yet Generous Tongue of the Three-Horned Swamp Frog Lvl 8 provides Accuracy +2 and Attack +2.
(Temp) Accuracy: Increases the likelihood that attacks will land.
(Temp) Healing Tongue: A skill made as the venom of the Swamp Frog’s tongue was purified and improved. Those hit with your tongue will be slightly healed over the next thirty seconds. Effect increases with Skill Level.
I almost staggered. What the hell? If the performance of the Skill was going to be improved, wouldn’t it make more sense to just have a stronger venom? How did it suddenly become a healing tongue?
Does that mean… all of my tongue attacks…
If I think about it, I could become a cruel vampire that sucks Anima out of beings and then heals them back, breaking their spirit…
O-okay look on the bright side. Who needs to be the strongest of the trio, when I am the healer. It’s just… I need to t-t-t-tongue my siblings to activate it-
Haaaah…
Feeling quite disgusted with this System, I just looked at my Status Screen.
Name: Tallum Frost (Awakened)
Species: (Nascent) Chimera Core
Level: 9
Health: 23/29
Anima: 85
Kami Allegiance: (III) To and Fro the River Wanders [(???)Dribble Liquid 3/10]
(Temp) Mana: 10/10
Integrated Body Parts(9/10):
[Hybrid Monster Core- Mana +5]
[Slightly Mushed Left Eye of the Vindictive Static Mongoose- Perception +5]
[Serrated Foreleg of the Patient Venom Mantis- Poise +4 and Attack +3]
[Sour and Malnourished Stomach of Lonely Crayfish Egg-Defender- Recovery +4 and Constitution +1]
[Beak of Cheerful Bluebird Chirper- Attack +1, Perception +1, Poise +1, and Agility +1]
[Slimy Yet Generous Tongue of the Three-Horned Swamp Frog- Accuracy +2 and Attack +2]
[Antenna of Prideful Crayfish- Poise +1 and Perception +2]
[Four Back Legs of the Prideful Crayfish Snapper- Agility +2]
[Slightly Damaged Cochlea of the Chubby Rat- Perception +1]
Stats:
(Temp) Perception: 10 (Temp) Poise: 6 (Temp) Recovery: 4
(Temp) Attack: 6 (Temp) Agility: 3 (Temp) Constitution: 1
(Temp) Accuracy: 2
Skills:
(Species) Absorb Anima Lvl 13, (Species) Integrate Body Part Lvl 16
(Earned) Inferior Body Manipulation Lvl 10, (Earned) Basic Wisdom Lvl 8
(Temp) Lesser Mana Detection Lvl 10 (+13), (Temp) Detect Danger Lvl 10(+3), (Temp) Feed Lvl 3, (Temp) Healing Tongue Lvl 1