Hum, and for the last piece…
…Maintaining flexibility also lets me steal a body part from a foe mid-battle. And how poetic is it to be killed by your own talon or claw? Let’s let it go for now.
Especially with the inauspicious healing evolution.
The System limited me to 10 body parts and I wasn’t willing to fill up my last slot to figure out what I could get from a Lvl 8 frog, so I shifted my focus to my new hobby.
I could feel a restlessness growing in me, sown from the seed of my worries in this life and regrets in the last. More than anything, I didn’t want to be still. With my small actions, I would carve my life into the environment.
So for the rest of the day, I sculpted mud bricks, Tallum style. Although somewhat lopsided, I constructed a reed platform easily enough, mostly by relying on my crayfish legs to execute sharp bends (and it definitely proved I should soon revisit our roof, before it rained). But the problem I encountered…
I stood on the muddy beach and looked down at my serrated foreleg. Complex feelings jostled my heart. “Chirp. You… are not a limb for excavation-cheep.”
My tentacles could assist with the very rough weaving of reeds, but I couldn’t do much other than extending them. Fine adjustments like thickening the tentacles or flattening them into shovels… was beyond me.
Meanwhile… I pivoted and did my best jelly scowl down the beach.
A flame of rage in my chest had been born mostly because the answer to my problem was obvious: use one of my body parts on the wide-clawed Crayfish Mucker. The prospect of accepting body parts from these horrid creatures, especially from a Level 4 variant that would provide very little Stats as well-
In the end, I paced up and down the beach, furiously stretching and twisting my body. Stress ball mode, max activation!!! Compression and expansion, brute force the issue! My jello moved tirelessly. I didn’t experience exhaustion, but small cramps developed I continued to push the limits of the form so that my jelly became quivered only with sad tremors.
Your Skill (Earned) Inferior Body Manipulation has grown to Level 11.
Your Skill (Earned) Inferior Body Manipulation has grown to Level 12.
Your Skill (Earned) Basic Wisdom has grown to Level 9.
Haaah… in the end, the Level in Basic Wisdom almost feels like pity from the System… I had stretched and twisted my tentacles for several hours until I admitted defeat. My protrusions remained almost useless as shovels, despite sharpening the finer points of my people’s victory dance (via rage). In the end, the most efficient current method ended up being scooping mud into my beak, but it was a bitter experience to essentially eat dirt in order to make these bricks.
In all my wild and furious marching, I ended up down by the pummeled remnants of the Egg-Defender. I cut up some chitinous remnants with my wickedly sharp serrated foreleg, still annoyed. I did, however, notice that my Mana had refilled. So I activated my Blessing again and spewed tiny globules with Dribble Liquid Blessing.
The lavender liquid trickled down my body and pooled in the mud. Due to my earlier experience, I remained vigilant. I carefully observed with energy sonar, but no spiderlings were close at all. I released a sigh of relief. As much as possible, let’s keep this stuff away from those weirdos. Before they learn any more bad habits-
Due to unique actions, your Blessing Dribble Liquid has earned +5 Proficiency!
Eh? Unique action? Me? Surely not. This is my shameful private time-
Your Kami views your behavior with pride! Your (???) Blessing Dribble Liquid is transforming!
A Mundane Achievement: For improving your Blessing, +1 Mana.
You have gained the Blessing (???) Dribble Invigorating Liquid 0/15!
I looked at the notifications. I sighed. I oozed back toward the stump. … so disgusting. In the end, the reason I was rewarded for ‘unique actions’... Its probably because those idiot spiders coincidentally drank my sweat or something right at that moment? Or perhaps the notification just didn’t appear until I activated the Blessing again?
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Haaah, still, I earned an extra Mana, so its not a complete loss…
S-some day I’ll obtain a useful Blessing… right?
I perhaps would have called it an early night had not Indigo been waiting for me when I returned to the stump. Once I noticed him, I couldn’t believe my senses— energy sonar insisted that he had become much more powerful. And the label floating above his head:
Indigo, Incomplete Chimera Core Lvl 11
Wow, Level 11 already? Wandering is also an efficient hobby.
Indigo rolled up to me, looking at me with its heads. It had replaced one of the wounded snakehead arms and also had gained an obvious fishhead that worked its mouth soundlessly at me. We exchanged our usual pokes, to make sure we were both fine. Then Indigo launched into a series of very direct gesticulations with his tentacles.
In the end, I could vaguely understand what he was saying. Or rather, asking. He indicated the area North of the stump, to the strip of the land west of where the spiderlings had settled. Brushing up against the mud mounds that the Toads sometimes used to laze and roll in mud. The exact purpose wasn’t clear to me… but Indigo wanted to use that area for a private project.
I made a thumbs up with my tentacles, happy someone had joined me in the construction field. Green- well, I suppose if we ever needed a wrecking ball-
Ahem, I amended my ‘thumb’s’ up to a vigorous nod and gave Indigo several reassuring pats, when it was clear he didn’t understand. Sure, friend, whatever you need, we are companions for life. Take the land and do what you will.
Oh? If construction goes the way of farming and ranching… perhaps real estate development will be my pastime?
Afterward, Indigo hurried off, very clearly pleased. His spirit was infectious. I shelved the idea of heading to bed early and instead oozed over to the South portion of the mud beach. Indigo had already reached Level 11 and I remained at 9. The possibility to move from a Nascent form of the Chimera Core to an Incomplete one- well, it wasn’t exactly exciting, but it definitely indicated progress.
I had completely unrelated-to-crayfish plans and when I strolled past, they began snapping at me. So I swept through the South mud beach like the wind of death. All the remaining crayfish fell before me.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +4.
Your Skill (Temp) Feed has triggered! Restoring 3 Health over the next 30 seconds.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +5.
You have slain a Crayfish Mucker Lvl 3.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +6.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +7.
Your Skill (Temp) Feed has triggered! Restoring 3 Health over the next 30 seconds.
Your Skill (Temp) Feed has grown to Level 4.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +2.
You have slain a Crayfish Snapper Lvl 5.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +7.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +8.
Your Skill (Species) Absorb Anima has grown to Level 14.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +7.
Your Skill (Temp) Feed has triggered! Restoring 4 Health over the next 30 seconds.
You have slain a Crayfish Snapper Lvl 7.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +3.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +5.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +6.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +4.
You have slain a Crayfish Snapper Lvl 6.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +4.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +3.
Your Skill (Temp) Feed has triggered! Restoring 4 Health over the next 30 seconds.
You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +5.
Your Skill (Species) Absorb Anima has grown to Level 15.
Your Skill (Earned) Inferior Body Manipulation has grown to Level 13
You have slain a Crayfish Mucker Lvl 5.
Would you like to integrate the digging claws of Crayfish Mucker Lvl 5?
Integration requires 10 Anima. Continue?
Your Skill (Species) Integrate Body Part has grown to Level 17.
You have integrated the digging claws of the Buff Crayfish Mucker Lvl 5! You have unlocked Skill (Temp) Dig Lvl 1. Digging Claws of the Buff Crayfish Mucker Lvl 5 provides Defense +1 and Strength +2.
Honestly, the body part provided more value than I had expected. I waved my heavy and flat claws around in the light of the setting sun. Not only did I obtain a pair of limbs with a single body part slot and reacquire both Defense and Strength, but I also obtained the Skill Dig. My mud mining operation would launch tomorrow with a surge of optimism.
Wait a second, I paused as I headed back toward the stump. This activity… was supposed to be my way of blowing off steam. Yet somehow… did I sign up for hard labor at a construction company? Will I soon come home a-coughing, complaining about long days in the mines and catching ‘the brown lung’?
…thinking too deeply about problems just makes them appear worse. Live leisurely, think less…
My vigorous training/extermination took so long that I regained three Mana in the process. So I snuck to the reed area to the South and activated my new Dribble Invigorating Liquid. Perhaps because I spent less mana, I only received a single proficiency in the Blessing. In addition… well, it was difficult to tell in the half-light of dusk, but didn’t it seem like the sweat globules were vaguely luminescent?
In the end, I hurried back to bed.
…thinking too deeply about problems just makes them appear worse. Live leisurely, think less…