Year 27, Month 2, Day 19
I’m not exactly sure what happened or what this Preservation State is but I felt something change. My vision became blurred and I could no longer make out the shapes. I could see that my own form seemed to shift as something flashed above me, the tendril I think. Am I safe?
What is going on?
[Warning: Preservation State activated. Soul integrity compromised. Immediate danger averted. Reincarnator's abilities temporarily diminished.]
I think the creature that was chasing is leaving, though I can’t be sure. My head hurts… I think I’m falli…
………….
………….
………….
………….
………….
………….
………….
………….
………….
………..
Year 36, Month 13, Day 27
I survived, but at what cost? My memories feel scattered, and my skills... I can barely sense them. The creature might be gone, but I'm left feeling hollow, like a part of me was stripped away.
It took about 3 days for my mind to clear after waking up this time. It seems that Preservation State used so much of my energy that I was unconscious for almost 10 years. The first thing I did after feeling normal again was check my memories and it seems a lot more were corrupted and forgotten than before. I tried to access my Written in Stone memories but it seems they are sealed while my skills all seem to be locked. The only thing I can clearly remember is my time here. The world among dust, everything else feels distant, dreamlike.
There isn’t much I can do right now. The evolution seems to still be in progress, slowed down I assume.
[At current rate, evolution will complete in 15 years.]
That isn’t too long. I remember feeling panicked before about meditating, but it doesn’t feel as serious now. Is the Preservation State still active?
[Preservation State is still active. Upon deactivation, it will be on cooldown until level 50.]
What does the Preservation State do?
[Preservation State is an overseer skill that when applied, encases the Reincarnator in a protective, energy-absorbing shell that halts all external threats and blends with the environment, rendering the Reincarnator invisible. While active, the Reincarnator is in stasis and unable to move, use skills, or act.]
Perhaps I should just wait it out then, I want to make sure I have everything to my advantage if I meet that thing again. Really, 15 years isn’t that much. Part of me feels like it should feel like a lot but I mean really, so far I’ve lived almost 37 years practically in the blink of an eye. I’m already feeling tired just from being awake the past few days. Yeah that sounds nice. Just let the darkness and sleep overtake me.
………….
………….
………….
………….
………….
………….
………….
………….
………….
………….
………….
………….
………….
………….
………….
…
Year 52, Month 2, Day 4
[Evolution complete.]
[New form: Stone of Adaptation]
[Updating level. Reducing level cost by half. Updating skills.]
I was awakened to a barrage of messages alerting me the evolution was complete. My soul still felt weak and my mind foggy. My past life feels like a dream I imagined despite my firm feeling that it was real. I almost want to believe it was a dream but I know it wasn’t. If I could just access my archived memories.
[Form Stone of Adaptation does not track Composition, removing it from Status Window.]
[Form Stone of Adaptation does not track XP, removing it from Status Window. Future levels will be granted based on Size.]
[Skill Assimilation became Advanced Assimilation. 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 30 minutes. Can store up to 3 different properties or skills at once.]
[Skill Weak Blindsense became Spore Propagation. Active. Release a cloud of spores that can settle on surfaces within 1 meter and grow, creating a network of mold that can serve various purposes such as spreading influence, detecting movements, and reducing the movement speed of creatures that make contact with the spores by 30% for up to 5 minutes.]
[Skill Minor Hardening became Iron Shell. Passive. Gain a hardened exterior similar to iron, increasing physical defense by 50% and boosting physical attack power by 20%.]
[Skill Weight Adjustment became Dust Manipulation. Active. Manipulate dust within a 1-meter radius to form barriers, simple constructs, or directed attacks. Barriers and constructs last up to 10 minutes or until destroyed. Attacks deal minor physical damage.]
[Skill Core Membrane became Regenerative Structure. Passive. Forms a barrier around the core preventing undesired particles from being assimilated. Blocked particles will slowly regenerate 1% of damage every 10 minutes. Bone particles are twice as effective.]
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
[Skill Weak Attractive Force became Magnetic Body. Passive. 50% more likely to attract smaller or equal sized objects within a radius equal to 1/4 size. Attract all magnetic objects within a radius equal to 1/2 size.]
[Combination Skill Static Cling removed due to changes in skill Weak Attractive Force.]
[Skill Meditative Trace became Silt Camouflage. Active. When active, become nearly invisible to the naked eye for 1 minute. Movement reduces the effectiveness, but still provides a 50% increase to stealth.]
[Skill Reincarnator’s Blessing improved. Size gain rate is now increased by 10%. Luck is increased by 2.]
I really lucked out in the evolution department. I can’t quite believe how much stuff I got here. I don’t know if all evolutions give this but meeting that hidden criteria must have made a big difference. I wonder why composition isn’t tracked anymore. I guess that means the requirement for equal ratios isn’t mandatory for the next evolution.
Good things aside, since so many of my skills have been updated, I can no longer see at the moment. It seems the Spore Propagation skill only works when I have laid spores and doesn’t have the continuous passive view like before.
So really I have no idea if the danger is still around, though I have no reason to think it is. I’ve been asleep for so many years, I would have to think that it would’ve left by now. While the Preservation State remains active, I don’t think I can use any of my active skills so there isn’t anything for me to do other than take the risk.
Deactivate Preservation State.
Before I could do anything a yellow message box popped up in my view frame.
[Due to managerial oversight, there was an unfortunate incident which would have ended with the premature destruction of Reincarnator James Halverson.]
[Preservation State was activated as a failsafe to prevent an unfair early death. We apologize for the inconvenience.]
[The overseer would like to note that Preservation State will not be employed again as there has already been too much managerial intervention.]
[Good day.]
I’m not sure how much more of this I can take. I feel like the past little bit has been non-stop surprises and I’m just trying to fly by the seat of my pants.
First thing’s first, let’s check out my memories again. I need to see what I’ve forgotten.
…
A lot more of my memories were affected than I expected, about 40% of the memories stored were hazy or completely forgotten. It seems the forced sleep during the Preservation State had a far more serious effect on my soul tethering that Meditation does. It seems that reviewing the stored memories helps me regain a lot of it though, which is a relief. It did feel weird in some ways, as if I was looking through someone else’s memories despite knowing that they were once mine.
Next, let’s get some vision.
Activate Spore Propagation.
My dark world suddenly lights up with tiny tan particles filling the air, slowly floating outwards and falling down. After a few minutes, they had all made contact with the surfaces within a meter of me giving a completely different view than before. My blind sense gave me indications of a general shape and direction, this new vision method was incredibly detailed. I couldn’t see color, but I could make out textures and shapes with much greater accuracy. It’s hard to describe, but the closest thing I remember from earth that it looks like would be a LIDAR image. Basically it looks like one of those dot images they had in Furious 7.
Not only am I getting visuals, I also get information from each spore about movements in the air or surface which gives a really nice early warning system. Right now there is a slight breeze moving through pushing some of the spores beyond my radius.
Surprisingly, I can still see them and receive data outside the meter radius. I suppose that means there is the listed distance that the spores travel when released and a second distance that dictates how far I can be before losing connection. Though it might also be that each spore acts as a relay to connect me to those outside of my range, each having their own individual radius of connectivity. I should be able to test that out pretty easily when I have time.
The next thing I want to try is my Dust Manipulation skill. I don’t have my Weak Attractive Force to pull in dust, silt, and other materials anymore, so I want to see if I can use this as a manual method of bringing things to me.
It only took about 30 minutes for me to get the hang of it to the point where I could summon all the dust around me and pull it into my core so it gets assimilated. Next, I practiced condensing the dust so I could form it into a shield. I can’t be sure it’ll be strong enough to protect myself but I at least got the motions down. Another hour was spent trying to get the dust to form a spear that I could shoot. Almost every time, I would get the density, spin, or velocity slightly wrong causing it to spin out and disintegrate. Eventually, I found something that worked but it wasn’t very strong. Something to keep working at.
Looking at my stats now, I must have taken in over 2000 dust particles while experimenting over the last few hours. I’m almost half an inch round by now. Part of me feels celebratory that I’ve grown so much, while the rest is shocked I could be celebrating over so little.
I experimented a little bit with Silt Camouflage but honestly I can’t tell. Something to test later, likely in the heat of danger if my luck continues.
Over the next few hours, I carefully placed a layer of spores across the whole room. I need to understand what I’m working with. I’m able to see the entire room now, despite my small size, so I think the range of communication for these spores is a lot farther than I thought.
I found a stove or furnace of some kind, an anvil, as well as lot’s of odds and ends, books, and strange looking objects on the shelves. I figured it would be best to steer clear.
After getting the floor covered, I rolled up to the top of the avail so I could see what other areas I needed to cover, but even before my spores could land, I felt it. There was something pulsating with energy. Slowly the spores fell and outlined a crystalline shape about 50% bigger than me. A gem of some kind? Something about it felt… electric almost.
Something inside of me knew that I needed to assimilate this object and so I got to work. Over the next few hours, I covered the entire room, floor to ceiling, with spores, assimilating every particle I could find.
[Merged with 2613 pieces of dust, 65 pieces of bone, 532 pieces of iron, 91 pieces of silt, and 112 mold spores. Size increased.]
Bit bigger than necessary but let’s check it out.
[Assimilating Mana Stone.]
[Merged with 1 Mana Stone. Size Increased.]
[Skill Acquired - Mana Sense. Passive. Detect nearby mana sources.]
---------------------------------------
Reincarnator: Ja̶ʍҽʂ Ha̶ʅvҽʀʂoɳ
Form: Stone of Adaptation LVL 1
Size: 49.6 mm (49643 μm)
Next Level: 50 mm
Skills
Reincarnator's Blessing II. Passive. Increase size gain by 10%. Increase luck by 2. Improve relevance of skills upon leveling up.
Advanced Assimilation. 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 30 minutes. Can store up to 3 different properties or skills at once.
Magnetic Body. Passive. 50% more likely to attract smaller or equal sized objects within a radius equal to 1/4 size. Attract all magnetic objects within a radius equal to 1/2 size.
Regenerative Structure. Passive. Forms a barrier around the core preventing undesired particles from being assimilated. Blocked particles will slowly regenerate 1% of damage every 10 minutes. Bone particles are twice as effective.
Spore Propagation. Active. Release a cloud of spores that can settle on surfaces within 1 meter and grow, creating a network of mold that can serve various purposes such as spreading influence, detecting movements, and reducing the movement speed of creatures that make contact with the spores by 30% for up to 5 minutes.
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.
Dust Manipulation. Active. Manipulate dust within a 1-meter radius to form barriers, simple constructs, or directed attacks. Barriers and constructs last up to 10 minutes or until destroyed. Attacks deal minor physical damage.
Iron Shell. Passive. Gain a hardened exterior similar to iron, increasing physical defense by 50% and boosting physical attack power by 20%.
Silt Camouflage. Active. When active, become nearly invisible to the naked eye for 1 minute. Movement reduces the effectiveness, but still provides a 50% increase to stealth.
Mana Sense. Passive. Detect nearby mana sources.