Year 4, Day 4
I feel a bit tired this time as I 'wake' from the meditation. Instinctively I try to rub my eyes but realize, no hands. That's right, I died and was reborn as a sentient piece of dust. It seems my mind still has almost a phantom sense of my previous body because the feeling of my eyes being droopy remains. I don't have eyes so there isn't much I can do about the sensation. I hope it goes away soon.
As my train of thought slows, the blue screens pop up again with all the updates over the past two years. The last two times, it was immediate but there seems to have been a few second delay. Maybe my mind doesn't respond well to meditating longer than a year? I don't really recognize the time passing, to me it just feels like falling asleep but perhaps there is some effect on my soul.
[Meditative Trance ended. Calculating experience.]
[2226 experience points gained. Reincarnator has leveled up.]
[Weak Attractive Force has improved by 1%. Range improved by 2 μm.]
[Merged with 16 pieces of dust, size increased. Now large enough to assimilate iron dust, pollen grains, and mold spores.]
Seems I grew quite a bit this time. A lot of new options for assimilation but since I still have only gained dust so far, it would be safe to assume that I am indoors. I wonder what kind of world I am in? Would it be normal like Earth or is there magic? ... Okay I guess it's safe to think magic exists because I definitely didn't have a blue game screen showing my stats while I worked at my desk job.
[Reincarnator: James Halverson
Form: Dust Speck LVL 3
Size: 23 μm
XP: 722
Next Level: 3000 XP]
No skill this time. Perhaps a skill comes every 2 levels? Maybe there's a set schedule. I really would like to get a skill that gives me some sense of what is around me. I also would really appreciate if my meditation upgraded, so I can progress a bit faster. I'll have meditate for a little over 2 years more to reach the next level, and while I don't really notice the time, I worry about being unaware for that long. I don't think I have an option though.
Activate Meditative Trance for 3 years
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Year 7, Day 11
Ugh. What? Why is it so dark? Oh ... right. I remember now.
It took me a bit to gather my senses. I don't know why but my mind is starting to feel really foggy after waking up. Let's see what we got here.
[Meditative Trance ended. Calculating experience.]
[4434 experience points gained. Reincarnator has leveled up.]
[Skill Acquired - Weak Blind Sense. Passive. Gain a basic sense of what materials are around the core. Range is equal to 1/2 the size.]
[Weak Attractive Force has improved by 1%. Range improved by 3 μm.]
[Meditative Trance has improved and will generate 100% more experience upon successful trance completion.]
[Merged with 25 pieces of dust, 4 pieces of iron dust. Size increased. Now large enough to assimilate silt dust and salt grains.]
Interesting. A lot to unpack here. The first thing that is apparent is that I can see now! Well, 'seeing' is not really an apt description of what it's like. My view is still mostly black but I am able to see outlines and shapes of the various particles around me. I can tell that I am on a flat surface at the moment, but my vision doesn't extend far enough to tell whether it's a floor or a cupboard. I don't recognize any other massive things around me to give clues to my surroundings but I can see dozens of particles around me. The skill is particularly handy as well because I'm also able to see a label of the material in the center of each particle.
Looking around, I see a majority of dust particles which makes sense but also quite a few iron dust particles too. I recognize a few pieces of silt also but they aren't very close to me. The surface I'm on isn't labeled, I wonder if I'm only able to see the label's of identified materials or maybe only materials that I can assimilate? Something to investigate.
I also want to know more about my form. There is a new little info button next to my level.
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[Reincarnator: Ja̶mes Ha̶lverson
Form: Dust Speck LVL 4 ⓘ
Size: 96 μm
XP: 2156
Next Level: 4500 XP]
I don't have hands to click it... what am I supposed to do?
[Express desire to open Form Info screen to view]
Oh thanks. Are you some kind of AI? ... No response. Hmmm
Alright let's open the Form info screen.
[Form Info
Composition by Size: Dust 50%, Iron 50%
Further info can be obtained with new or upgraded skills.]
So those 4 iron pieces made up half of my size, wow. Since iron looks to be the primary resource around here besides dust, I guess that means I'll be following some kind of metallic upgrade cycle if that continues. Do I have info about how my skills, abilities, or stats are affected by my composition?
[No information at this time. Further info can be obtained with new or upgraded skills.]
Awesome. How very helpful you are. Now that I think about it, I'm not actually sure what dust is. What is the primary makeup of the dust around my core?
[The Database has the following information about dust: Dust is made of fine particles of solid matter such as soil lifted by the wind, volcanic eruptions, and pollution. Dust in dwellings or inhabited areas can be up to 50% dead skin cells. Currently the makeup of the dust surrounding the Reincarnator's core is primarily made of fine particles of soil and volcanic material.]
This is has been surprisingly informative. Do I have access to the Database?
[Database access is restricted.]
Naturally, I should've expected that. I'm getting a bit exasperated but honestly I have learned a lot so far. My best guesses so far is that I am either in an abandoned mine or some kind of unused metal manufacturing plant? The iron dust is what really makes me think this, but I don't know much about the technology of this world. It could be as advanced as Earth's factories or perhaps as primitive as the hunter gathering era.
One of the reasons I expect I am indoors or at least in an enclosed space is that there seems to be very little air movement disturbing myself and the dust around me. After what I think was a few hours of watching, I only saw what I think were one or two small gust of winds. That also explains why I haven't been assimilating material faster, since a lived in space would almost certainly have a higher concentration of dead skin in my dust composition. Low air circulation would also reduce my contact with the other particles nearby.
I need to find a way to move. Perhaps I would need to assimilate a living creature. The only living creatures this small I can remember studying about were Dust Mites and Tardigrades. They are still quite a bit larger than me so I would need to grow to keep expanding in order to even try assimilating them. Can I even do that? So far it has only been more mundane materials. Another thing to watch for.
I don't have anything else to do really. I could activate the membrane and focus on iron particles but I think I just want to keep growing through any means necessary. The gusts don't move me or the iron dust as much as the other dust particles so I don't want to exclude those just yet.
I'm going to try meditating for 2 years this time, I want to compare and see how effective the upgrade is.
Activate Meditative Trance for 2 years
[Warning. Soul tethering weak. Consecutive uses of Meditative Trance may result in soul degradation. Are you sure you would like to activate Meditative Trance?]
uhhh... what?
[Soul tethering is weak. Further use of Meditative Trance is not advised.]
You said that already! What does it mean?? Soul tethering? Are you saying that my soul can be cast adrift? Shouldn't this have been listed in the skill description? My mind is reeling as I try to take this new warning in. Had I been warned about this by the manager? I can't remember. Ugh... This reincarnation was hard enough already but now I'm being warned about my soul being untethered?
[Soul tethering refers to the soul's connection to the memories of previous lives. It is common for most souls to be untethered before rebirth.]
So you are saying I might forget who I am? ... I mean, was? Does it give any serious side effects other than memory loss?
[Soul tethering is irreversible. After death, the soul will take in the experiences of its most recent life, writing the life lessons into its identity. Memories forgotten cannot be retrieved.]
But that's it, right? My personality may change some and I'll forget about my terrible life before this, but nothing else will happen to me?
[Further information about soul tethering is unavailable to the Reincarnator.]
I would sigh if I could. Right. Why do you keep calling me Reincarnator, anyway? I have a name. It's Ja̶mes. Is that part of the soul tethering, trying to get me to forget my identity?
[The Reincarnator's identity is their own to discover.]
What does that even mean?!?
...
The system didn't respond to any of my questions after that for quite some time. Finally I asked about the risk, because honestly, when stuck between possibly losing a few memories or being forced to spend a year or more in real time, I would probably choose to risk forgetting my little sister's birthday or some other useless memory. I can almost guarantee that if I was stuck with nothing to do for years on end, I would certainly go insane. Honestly, that sounds worse, at least for the moment.
What's the chance of being untethered?
[The soul tether is severed when all the previous memories are forgotten. Currently, you have spent 7 years in Meditative Trance, thus the chance of losing a particular memory is 0.07%]
Are you kidding me? You made me freak out over less than half a percent chance of losing my memories? Ridiculous.
[The 0.07% chance does not refer to the chance that all memories are forgotten, instead that is the chance for each individual memory to be forgotten.]
[The Database indicates that the human brain from your previous universe contains 1 quadrillion pieces of information. That would mean, at your current untethering risk of 0.07%, you would lose 70 trillion pieces of information.]
[You may notice the loss. However, due to the sheer amount of memories in the brain, it is guaranteed you will lose memories each time Meditative Trance is used for longer than 1 year]
Ok I understand better now. Kind of. So basically it's random what would be forgotten, as a piece of information is lost the memories would just become more fuzzy until I don't remember anything anymore. Right?
[Correct.]
Do you have a name?
...
Fine, don't answer. It's not like I expected a response anyways. I need to digest this before deciding what to do. I don't want to risk going insane but I don't want to forget everything from my previous life either. I have a feeling it will come in handy if I ever am able to start making real choices.
...
Math seems to be easier here. I couldn't say why. I have nothing to write with, but I'm able to do rather complicated calculations in mind without forgetting where I was. I can visualize the equation almost. Not really, but almost.
How's that relevant? Oh, yeah. I decided to do some math. The system confirmed that my choice to use the meditation skill will use my current value of soul untethering risk only at the end of the trance. So that means the longer I meditate, the more I get in terms of the risk. However that means that future attempts will have a greater risk of causing memory loss.
Knowing my next evolution was at level 20, I decided to figure out how long it would take with my current bonuses to XP to reach level 20. That's my best chance for reaching a point where I don't need to rely on Meditative Trance anymore. It's possible that I could simply evolve into a pebble instead of dust speck and gain no other abilities to act, but I think I can't avoid that risk.
I simply just don't think I have the ability to keep moving casually one level at a time anymore. It's too much of a risk. So the math seemed to work out where I would need around 450,000 more experience points to reach level 20 and if I assumed the values of XP given by Meditative Trance, it would take 20 years of meditation. By that point, I'll have lived in this world about the same time as I lived on earth in my last life.
Do you think it's worth it?
[The risk of Soul Untethering compared to experience points gained seems to be favorable in the mind of the Reincarnator.]
It's Ja̶mes, remember?
[However, meditating for such a long time increases the risk of being disrupted and not receiving the benefits of completing the full trance.]
Do you know the chances of being disturbed?
[Information unclear or prohibited.]
Got it. Well no other choice right?
Activate Meditation Trance for 20 years
[Please be careful,]
[James]
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[Reincarnator: Ja̶mes Ha̶lverson
Form: Dust Speck LVL 4
Composition by Size: Dust 50%, Iron 50%
Size: 96 μm
XP: 2156
Next Level: 4500 XP]
Skills
Reincarnator's Blessing. Passive. Increase experience gain by 5%. Increase luck by 1. Improve relevance of skills upon leveling up.
Meditative Trance II. Active. Voluntarily enter a state of meditation for a predetermined time. Gain 1 experience points for every day spent in meditation. If the trance is not ended early, experience points gained will be multiplied in proportion to time spent in meditation.
Assimilation. Passive. Upon direct contact with objects of similar or lesser size, the object will be assimilated into the main body.
Weak Attractive Force IV. Passive. 8% more likely to attract smaller or equal sized objects that are less than 16 μm away when active.
Core Membrane. Passive. Prevents unspecified materials from coming into contact with the core. Only one type of material may be chosen.
Weak Blindsense. Passive. Gain a basic sense of what is around the core. Range is equal to 1/2 the size.