Looking at my evolution options, it seems that regardless of my choice, I will have to do some kind of preparation. Each form seems to have its advantages and disadvantages, so really it likely comes down to the style of “game” I want to play. At first, Memetic seemed impossible to reach since I haven't found any biological life yet, but honestly I don't have to make a choice immediately. In fact I can't pick any except Composite Pebble at the moment.
Memetic may seem strange to gravitate towards but looking back, Assimilate has been one of my most useful skills in terms of progression. The idea of continuing to assimilate and even possibly unlock biological aspects feels the best. My second choice might be Ironclad Speck, however, I'm not sure how much iron there is in the rest of my area. I don't want to return to where I was before so I may not find much more.
As nervous as I am regarding it, exploring this place is my next step. I need to see if I can find out any more clues as to where I am. Finding any organic life would be a big boon as well. I don’t want to go back to where I was before. It would be too risky to run into that thing again. It would be a good idea to start figuring out what I know about this place before moving.
Right now I’m in a corner of some kind and it took me about an hour to roll up here. If I am about 5 millimeters in diameter, my roll speed is going to be 1 mm per second. That would put the height of whatever I climbed at about 3.6 meters or a little under 12 feet. That size lines pretty well with housing of some kind, although three and a half meters is a little taller than I would expect, the average back home was 9 feet, so like 2.7 meters.
My initial thought was a blacksmith shop or a mine of some kind because of the lack of airflow, but the height of this particular chamber seems strange. I imagine a mine shaft would normally be just barely taller than the miners so it’s easier to dig deeper and faster. A blacksmith’s forge might be taller than that, but I imagine they would want to keep the volume to a minimum so the air can heat up quicker so their metal pieces stay hot just a bit longer. That’s just conjecture though, I haven’t ever worked in, studied about, or talked to anyone who works in mining or forging. Conjecture is all I have to go on right now, however.
Based on the fact I was reincarnated, I could be in a mine or forge used by a very tall race, but none of the standard humanoid races got this tall in most fantasy worlds to my knowledge. Centaurs maybe? Well either way while exploring, I want to try and see if I find any evidence of whether or not this place is lived in or not.
The first thing I want to find out is how big this area is. I want to know if I’m in a hallway or room, but I need to make sure my size remains consistent. I’ll set my Membrane for tardigrades or something like that since I haven’t seen any and they will be big enough that I can see them before assimilating them. The dust particles are starting to get too small for me to distinguish individually since getting so much bigger.
Activate Core Membrane approving tardigrades for assimilation.
[Core Membrane is active.]
Great. Time to get rolling. Another interesting thing about this new existence of mine is that I don’t have any eyes yet can still see to a degree. This really comes in handy when I’m rolling about. I didn’t pay much attention before but if I did have eyes and then tried to roll, I would likely immediately feel motion sick as my vision would constantly be spinning about. My blindsense however is just static, I don’t look in any particular direction but rather see everything around me at the same time. So basically, I’m just glad I don’t have to get motion sick while moving around.
Now just to decide which way to go, right or left. Wait, do I even have a right and left anymore now that I don’t face any particular direction? Hmm something to think on later. I’ll want to make some kind of internal compass so I can always keep track easier. Anyways, I’ll go the direction that feels the most right to me.
I begin rolling and surprisingly it only takes about 10 minutes to reach the corner. Ok so now I just follow this wall until I find another corner and then follow that wall to its corner. I should be able to roughly find the dimensions of the room that way.
I follow this wall for about 75 minutes before finding a corner, which would make it about 4.5 meters. This particular corner seems to have a leak of some kind, because I see water dripping down. I try to avoid the water since I don’t know how it will affect my rolling or static cling that is holding me to the wall. So far at the bottom of this corner has the best chance of finding organics to assimilate.
For now, however, I care more about finding out more about my new home. I start following the next wall and start to notice that there aren’t any cobwebs. I am along the ceiling edges but nothing. So either there are no insects to eat for spiders, the spiders of this world are too large, or that thing from before has already finished eating everything up here. That last possibility makes me a bit nervous, especially since I’ve hardly seen any other particles. Here’s to hoping I don’t run into it again.
The wall took about 90 minutes to traverse which would make it about 5.5 meters in length. Mission accomplished, I now know the dimensions of the room. 5.5 by 4.5 meters and 3.6 meters high. It’s definitely a large room for sure. I want to cautiously head down now and investigate the same edge I just traveled along but on the ground instead. It’ll be risky but I think I need to take some risks here. I still don’t have enough material of any kind to evolve.
Worst case scenario I'll deactivate my membrane and run, trying to get as much material as possible so I'll get faster. Easy, right?
While moving down to the floor, I noticed the walls seem to be made of stone but there are no divots and valleys to indicate that it's brick. The material also seems exceptionally smooth based on how few bumps there are at my scale. How strange.
Another hour passes. I can't believe I've spent hours traversing what would have taken only a minute as a human. That's when it really set in how small I am and how far I have to go to get back to the world at the size I'm familiar with.
This wall seems to have bookshelves along it that I didn't see before so they must not extend to the ceiling. There's a pretty decent gap I can fit through behind it but if I happen to grow, I might get stuck. I'll stick going around the front, just to be safe.
I am tempted to try and explore the shelving itself and see what's there but I don't think I would have much success at my size. That's assuming I correctly guessed that it's a shelf.
I'm seeing a lot more dust here along the bottom but almost no iron or silt. Seems there are small particles ‘biomes’ in this room. I want to raise my size a bit and honestly dust doesn't add much in terms of composition so it shouldn't hurt my form evolution.
Deactivate Core Membrane.
I'll just roll around a bit and collect about 500 or so. Going through, I did also pick up a few other larger particles that had collected rather a rather sizable dust collection around them.
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[Merged with 529 pieces of dust, 3 pieces of bone, and 4 pieces of silt. Size increased.]
That felt like plenty so I turned the Core Membrane back on and continued past the shelving. 15 minutes or so passed until I came across what appeared to be a large crate. It was about half a meter square at the base and was much more rough than the stone wall. I still can't see textures or anything like that, just the shape and how it feels to roll along it, but I would guess it's a wood box or crate.
I quickly realized that this crate was right in the corner where water was dripping down from the ceiling. This easily is my best bet for organics so far. Without much thought, I climbed up the rather bumpy and rough texture and soon arrived to see a dream come true. Well for me as a dust speck, I think human Ja̶ʍҽs would have vomited almost immediately.
The crate was full of mold spores. I could make out the spires and shapes of the actual fungi stalks but what really got me excited were the thousands of spores. I rolled down and saw how quickly the spores went airborne again to float out into the room. So cool.
Unsurprisingly, the mold spores were intermixed with small amounts of dust too so I decided to just take both by turning off my membrane again.
Deactivate Core Membrane.
I rolled around more and saw how thousands of the tiny particles were sent up into the air for every individual spore I assimilated. How interesting. I'm making a spore cloud, how fun.
[Merged with 101 dust pieces and 72 mold spores. Size increased.]
My fun was quickly cut short. It just suddenly appeared in my vision, moving much faster than before, the devouring creature. This time it was coming over the lip of the crate on almost every side.
[Reincarnator, Fleeing is advised.]
Yeah no kidding. What even is that thing?
[Information restricted. Fleeing is strongly advised.]
My only point of exit is down that crack behind the shelf. Not ideal but I won't bite the gift horse. I am moving a bit faster than before but not fast enough. How did it get faster? Strangely, I can almost feel its presence. Cold and hostile, a creeping sensation telling me this thing was made to kill me.
I've managed to roll to the top edge of the crate, avoiding water droplets that would cause me to lose my grip, and sure enough it’s gaining on me. Unlike before however, the tendrils are no longer grabbing any particle around, they are reaching towards me. No mistake, this thing knows about me and is hunting me. How did it find me?
No time to think. I need to get down to the bottom fast. Rolling is going to take way too long. Think James. Think! … Fall. I need to fall. This had better work.
Activate Weight Adjustment. Increase weight by 50%.
Just as I begin to fall, I see a tendril stretch from the main mass and lash out towards me. A narrow miss, a few micrometers perhaps, too close. Far too close. Regardless, I've made it down into the gap. Slower than I expected but much faster than rolling. I quickly begin rolling through the gap to try and escape. I'm assimilating so much dust right now, even some larger particles, but I don't have time to check. Just move.
Suddenly the creature enters my frame moving much quicker than before. I also notice that it is significantly smaller than before too. Larger than me by about 5-6 times but small enough I can finally see the full shape. It looks like a slime or ooze moving in serpentine motions. Most noticeably is the label of foreign characters. I can't read it but clearly this thing is dangerous to me.
Shoot, what should I do? It's a strange feeling, this fear. I feel like my heart should be pounding and my breath ragged, but all I feel is a primal fear in my soul. I don't want to die again. I'm growing larger by the second, pretty soon I'll be trapped between the walls, unable to move. I won't make it to the end in time, even if I did activate my Core Membrane.
[Form Evolution advised.]
[Without evolution, chance of survival is less than 1%.]
Alright, which evolutions are available?
[Composite Pebble is the only form the reincarnator meets the criteria for.]
Not the one I was hoping for, but it'll have to do. I can feel the air shift, exactly as it had when the last tendril lashed out at me. Every fiber of my soul seems to be screaming to move faster, don't slow down. It's almost like a tangible fear is weighing down on my spirit.
Activate Form Evolution, Composite Pebble.
[Evolution activated. Please stand by.]
I don't have time to stand by! I keep rolling, trying to keep as much distance as possible, but I know that tendril wont miss this time.
[Merged with 636 pieces of dust, 1 pieces of bone, 7 pieces of iron, 11 mold spores, and 3 pieces of silt. Size increased.]
Why is that notification coming up now? I thought I had delayed seeing it.
[Hidden criteria met. Have a composition of 4 or more materials with an even ratio.]
[Form updating to Stone of Adaptation.]
The tendrils started moving towards me now, rapidly gaining ground. I have less than a second. If anything is going to happen, it better happen now.
[Danger sensed. Activating Preservation State.]
---------------------------------------
Form Evolution in Progress
Reincarnator: Ja̶ʍҽs Ha̶lvҽrson
Form: Dust Speck LVL 20 > Stone of Adaptation
Composition by Size: Iron 20%, Silt 20%, Bone 20%, Dust 20%, Mold 20%
Size: 8.3 mm (8303 μm)
XP: 6056
Next Level: 69300 XP
Skills
Reincarnator's Blessing. Passive. Increase experience gain by 5%. Increase luck by 1. Improve relevance of skills upon leveling up.
Meditative Trance IV. Active. Voluntarily enter a state of meditation for a predetermined time. Gain 3 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. Extra experience gained is increased by 300%.
Assimilation III. Passive. Upon direct contact with objects of similar or lesser size, the material or biological organism will be assimilated into the main body. Take on one attribute or skill of the material that makes up the majority of the Reincarnator’s composition.
Weak Attractive Force X. Passive. 15% more likely to attract smaller or equal sized objects that are less than 60 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 II. Passive. Gain a basic sense of what is around the core. Radius is equal to size.
Roll. Active. Movement by rolling at a speed of 1/5th size per second.
Written in Stone. Active. Store up to 15 memories in the core that are available for access by Reincarnator at any time.
Static Cling. Passive. A combination feature from Weak Attractive Force and Roll, enables movement along vertical surfaces or even upside down so long as size is less than 5mm. Improve Weak Attractive Force to improve this ability.
Weight Adjustment. Active. Ability to temporarily increase or decrease weight up to 50% the actual weight.
Minor Hardening. Passive. 5% more resistant to physical damage.