Year 52, Month 11, Day 29
I feel like I’m holding my breath, despite being incapable of doing so. Anxiety seems to be coiling and wrapping itself around my mind, making every tense second feel like an eternity. My thoughts race through the haze of fear that clouds my mind. Are my mold spores visible to other creatures? If they are visible, which I assume they are, then if I’m seen releasing these mold spores I could get placed in an even more secure containment area, tested on, or perhaps even destroyed. I can’t risk it. I can’t risk anything.
I want to try getting some spores on this person but even the thought fills me dread. What if I get caught? Worse yet, I get the feeling it’s only a matter of time. Even if I’m not seen sending out the spores. I can’t imagine it would be that hard to identify the source. What should I do? Should I try attacking if they get too close? My mind is spiraling, each thought crashing into the next. I am left frozen, unsure of what to do. Overwhelmed with the fear of death, or worse, being left trapped in isolation for eternity. My fragile grip on reality is already faltering after a year in this suspension field, with only my thoughts to stave off the ravening madness.
I force myself to just remain still, my thoughts slowly quieting down to a dim murmur. The footprints continue, seeming to be circling in place. Examining the room, maybe. They must be able to see the spores covering every surface of this room. Yet, none of the disturbed spores seem to be able to make contact with this person. How? Why?
Uncertainty gnaws at me, causing the anxious thoughts to begin their rampage yet again. What kind of power does this individual have? Why are they here? My senses strain to find any hint of what I’m dealing with, but all I get is the unsettling realization that I don’t know anything about this person. I hate that I can’t do anything to move. Every fiber of my soul is screaming for me to leave. I can’t stay here. I can’t be destroyed. But no matter what possible course of action I think of, I’m left with the echoing thoughts of fear. What if I’m not strong enough? What if I can’t do anything? What if…
If I don’t get a handle on my fear, it’ll destroy me before anything else can. I force myself to focus, desperately trying to contain the anxiety and fear. Just as I get a handle on my thoughts, my senses alert me of physical contact. Was I really that distracted? I didn’t even notice that this person had approached me and now their hand is placed on my surface.
My mimicry skill starts picking up some sounds. Talking? I wish I could actually hear and understand speech. Then before I can even think of how to react, another notification appears.
[Merged with Inert Sand. Size Increased.]
What is Inert Sand? It doesn’t sound like anything from my stored memory of fantasy games and tropes.
[Unable to acquire a permanent skill. Please choose to receive a temporary property or skill of Inert Sand.]
Huh? I haven’t seen this message before. I think I can leave it be for the time being though. I need to pay attention to this intruder. Why would it give me sand? How did it know that I would absorb it? I can see the footsteps again moving away from me before placing something on the floor. Before my spores have a chance to settle on the new object I see a flash of black mana where the individual was previously standing. The disturbed spores begin to settle, slowly covering up the footprints left by the person. I think they are truly gone.
I feel conflicted. The fear begins to abate and quiet again but the void of being alone returns. No time to wallow in feelings like this, I remind myself. For the first time in ages, I have choices to make. Taking a look at the floor, the object left behind appears to be a crystal of some kind. Just another object to investigate if I ever get out of here. For now, I need to decide what to do with this Inert Sand.
What does inert imply? By definition it means that it’s unmoving, unable to move, or chemically inactive. Does that mean the sand can’t move? Perhaps this world has objects with similar physics to that popular block game where materials could be left suspended in the air. I don’t think so but maybe?
The only thing I can think of is that… maybe the sand is magically inert? Ohhh wait. That would make a lot of sense. I do remember seeing antimagic sand in a few different things listed in my stored memory. So that begs the question, would it be better to have a property or skill from the material?
I guess that breaks down to knowing the difference between a skill and a property. Wouldn’t a property essentially be the same as a passive skill? Or is it different? I don’t understand enough about how this system works to have a good enough grasp on how this works. I just worry that if I pick the wrong one, I won’t be able to make use of what I get.
Wait, should I even be thinking of accepting this? I have no idea who that person was? Why am I thinking of just accepting this “gift?” What if it’s a trap? What if it does have anti-magic properties and I just am destroyed? I could be held together by magic, I honestly have no idea.
Suddenly a bolt of clarity through the fog of doubt and anxiety. Am I going to lose potentially my only chance of escape just because I am afraid? Whose in control, me or the fear? I am in control, or at least I want to be the one in control. I can’t keep letting this uncertainty control how I live this life.
Gain property from Inert Sand.
[The property Anti-mana Field has been temporarily added.]
[Anti-mana Field. Passive. Reduce effects of mana and magic effects on Reincarnator by 100%.]
Nearly immediately, I begin to sink through the suspension field. After only a few seconds, I landed on the suspension plate below. Rolling as fast as possible, I fall off the pedestal onto the floor. It’s already been a minute, so I need to act quick to try and escape. However, I do want to take a look at the other items kept in here. I may be able to benefit from them. Based on the individual who came in, I suspect the only entrance may be some kind of magical teleportation or spell. Unless I can figure that out, I’ll still be trapped.
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It seems my spores are providing any more detailed information like specified in Dungeon Native so that confirms I am not in a dungeon. I had wondered if the suspension field might have just been preventing it from activating but now I know for sure. I’ll need to find some other way to identify the items.
Maybe I can keep trusting that person and assimilate the crystal they left behind? It may be an artifact that can help me leave here. I think I’ll start by using my anti-mana field and my tendrils to pull the other suspended items down so I can stash them in my void storage.
The green and purple mana items felt particularly sickly to handle but nothing seemed to happen to me as I picked any of the items up. Once all ten were in my storage, I moved to the pedestals and began to store those seven items as well. Surprisingly, everything fit. I was a bit worried about the entire chest but I never was notified the area was full and each item just vanished with a puff of black mana, so I assume it worked.
Would that mean that black mana is some kind of dimensional or void magic? That would make sense based on what I’ve seen so far. The magical teleportation as well as my void storage. I should take a closer look and see if I can identify what that key with black mana can do. I might be able to get a hint on how to get out of here.
Actually, now that I think about it, my mana sight doesn’t make much sense. Not in the fact that I can see mana colors, I can believe that, but it’s strange how I can see black or clear mana. Like it’s not even hard to see but the strange part is that everything else appears black if I don’t have my spore vision. Yet despite that, I can still see black mana on top of the void of vision as clearly as that one famous painting of a black dot on a white canvas. Like the clear mana too, how can I see it? Perhaps this is something not to question but that I just need to accept.
Returning to escaping, I do want to be careful with all of the items I stashed in the void storage so I won’t recklessly assimilate them. This room seems to be designed to keep things away from others and contain their powers. It would be a fairly good guess to assume that each item that was stored here is extremely dangerous. Best to proceed with caution, otherwise I may create a new problem while trying to solve my current one.
That being said, I need to decide what to do with the gift left by the intruder. Before I could think about it anymore, I rolled over and assimilated it. I knew that if I gave enough time I would just talk myself out of it and I might never do it. Best to just bite the bullet and hope for the best.
[Merged with Appraisal Stone. Size Increased.]
[Skill Acquired - Basic Appraisal. Passive. Gain access to basic information from the Database about any item in direct contact with the Reincarnator.]
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Reincarnator: J̶̵̷̶̷̫̍a̶ʍҽʂ Ha̶ʅv̷̗̊ҽʀʂǭ̷ɳ
Form: Stone of Adaptation LVL 8
Size: 2.1 m
Next Level: 3 m
Skills
Reincarnator's Blessing II. Passive. Increase size gain by 10%. Increase luck by 2. Improve relevance of skills upon leveling up.
Advanced Assimilation II. Passive. Upon direct contact with objects of similar or lesser size, the material or biological organism will be assimilated into the main body. Assimilating a material gains its properties or one skill for up to 45 minutes. Can store up to 3 different properties or skills at once.
Particle Manipulation II. Active. Exert a force on and control particles smaller than 2 mm to form barriers, simple constructs, or directed attacks. Damage, durability, and duration are dependent on materials used.
Regenerative Structure II. Passive. Forms a barrier around the core preventing undesired particles from being assimilated. Blocked particles will slowly regenerate 1.5% of damage every 8 minutes. Bone particles are twice as effective.
Death Field II. Active. Release a cloud of necrotic spores that can settle on surfaces within 2.5 meters and grow, creating a network of mold. The spores increase vision of physical objects, detect movement, and accelerate decay. Creatures in direct contact with these spores are slowed by 35%, natural healing is reduced by 11%, and all living creature’s stats are reduced by 1.5%.
Roll II. Active. Movement by rolling at a speed of 1/4th size per second.
Written in Stone II. Active. Store up to 20 memories in the core that are available for access by Reincarnator at any time.
Mithril Shell II. Active. Gain a hardened exterior similar to mithril, increasing physical defense by 110%, boosting physical attack power by 55%, and improving the effectiveness of mana-based abilities and spells by 6%. When stationary, stealth is increased by 55%.
Mana Sight II. Passive. Clearly see mana and mana sources within 3 meters.
Echo Mimicry II. Active. Reproduce sounds or vibrations that have been recorded within 1.5 meters of the Reincarnator. Sound reproductions are centered on the Reincarnator.
Void Storage II. Active. Store up to 1.5 cubic meters of materials or objects in a small, personal extradimensional space.
Dungeon Native. Passive. While in a dungeon environment, mana capacity is increased by 20%, mana regeneration rate is increased by 10%, the effectiveness and speed of Advanced Assimilation is increased by 15%, and Death Field provides more detailed information about affected environments, including hidden threats, resources, and material information.
Dungeon Mastery. Active. Assimilating the core of a dungeon allows for the option of replacing the Dungeon Core, rather than gaining skills and size. While in a controlled dungeon, the Reincarnator can create and manipulate structures such as walls, barriers, and simple traps within 10 meters. The complexity, durability, and types of structures available depends on the Reincarnator’s size and available materials.
Basic Appraisal. Passive. Gain access to basic information from the Database about any item in direct contact with the Reincarnator.