Cliff walls dominated the edges of the sky. In a craggy overhang, small brown and purple pods that looked like stretched skin connected by veins pulsed ominously. One of these pods began to beat quicker. Each second increased the pulsing until it became a desperate struggle against the membrane. As it stretched to its highest point, tiny claws pierced the membrane and tore a large gash down it.
Now free, a long, furry mass crawled out of the pod onto the rocky ground underneath the overhang. Chest heaving like a cat hurking out a hairball, the creature heaved until a brown and purple liquid erupted like a fountain out of his mouth. Rolling away from the disgusting display, the creature landed on his back and sucked in a deep life-giving breath.
Gi had been reborn.
As he lay there catching his breath, the system popped up new information.
Successfully spawned in Playground (Instance F for D-AZ53, U-S222, G-TR56,SS-LP98, Planet - Pangaea, Region - Kingdom of Shadow and Flames)
Child stage begun. Stage 2 of 9.
Goal: Complete the base tasks of Symbolism, Ego, and Power.
Tasks:
Symbolism - Accept a Focus for your species.
Ego - Capture three Body Orbs from Elites; Optional: Capture a Heart Orb from a Leader
Power - Complete a Dungeon run.
Gi let out a long breath. "I don't have any clue what those mean." After he said that, the first thing he noticed was that his mind felt quieter. The instincts of his body were still there, but less all consuming than when he was a slime. Perhaps because of that, his thoughts felt clearer which made him wonder about this place he found himself in and his purpose.
The second thing he noticed was the exoskeleton spike launching towards his face. In a panic, Gi rolled to the side just as the spike rammed into the ground where he'd been before. His E ranked agility had been the only thing that saved him there. As he got to his feet and turned to his assailant, a giant scorpion was slowly rotating on its many legs to face him. Its body was a camouflage of dark browns that fit in well with the craggy area that he'd found himself in.
As they stared each other down, Gi searched his thoughts to see if he had any compulsion about killing this other creature now that the slime's instincts were diminished. He did not. "No holding back then," Gi muttered. He rushed forward. Without the element of surprise, the stinger was simple to dodge. As he closed in on the scorpion however, it brought its claws out to play. One slashed towards him and Gi ducked to run on all fours. The other came low and he spun over the top of it as it tried to close around him.
Finding himself on the beast's side, he rammed it. The scorpion flailed as it tipped upward, but it didn't quite shift so Gi took his little paws and shoved on its soft underbelly until it plopped onto its back. It continued to flail wildly now that it was prostrated, but its wild attacks were easy to dodge. He threw a flurry of punches, but even against its soft underside, it didn't seem to do much. The scorpion was tough.
With a thought that felt both strange and yet natural, he extended the claws on his little front paws and dragged them down its belly before hopping back from another attack from the wild swinging stinger. His claws left a jagged wound on its belly that dripped blue blood. Gi shivered. Something about using his claws like that rubbed him the wrong way. It made him feel... uncivilized.
He needed a weapon.
"Pooooooeeee fighting!" The yell echoed in his mind as a dragonfly zoomed towards the down scorpion. The swinging claws swiped at it, but the dragonfly opened its jaw like a hinge releasing a sticky tongue that shot forward towards its underbelly. It locked in and yanked the dragonfly in towards its belly where the hinged jaw closed, taking a bite out of the scorpion. The dragonfly zipped back towards Gi who studied its iridescent wings and long body that compared to him was about the size of a Boston terrier.
"Poe?" Gi asked.
"Yes, I'm Poe." The familiar voice echoed in his mind and Gi grinned.
"Nice upgrade, pal."
The scorpion released a piercing hiss after being bit and its violent reaction was just enough to flop it back onto its feet. Its claws clacked as it charged back at the two of them. "Split!" Gi yelled and dove away from the charging scorpion as Poe took to the air. He slid past a fist sized rock and snatched it up as he did. The scorpion took a second to stop its charge and Gi sprinted towards it. Reaching his hand over its claw, he bashed his rock down on its face. The monster twitched in pain and a gust of wind at Gi's back told him another sting was coming. He leaned back against the scorpion's side and the stinger tickled the fur on his chest as it pierced into the ground.
Spinning again, he mounted the back of the scorpion and started bashing the rock into its face. Expecting another sting, Gi glanced back to see Poe somehow holding the stinger with his tiny insect legs. Confused by his underling's strength, he still didn't hesitate and bashed the scorpion in the face until it finally stopped moving. Poe let go of the stinger and it collapsed backwards onto the ground.
Hunter Scorpion defeated!
1 Soul Orb received. Current Soul Orbs 1 of 30.
Gi tossed his rock away. His paw bled slightly from the sharp corners of the rock he'd selected and he licked his paw to try and clean it. Poe hovered around his face.
"Hey Boss. What's the plan?"
Gi paused from licking his wound. What was the plan? From Danna's inspiration, he'd been all in on trying to progress as a slime. Without the slime instincts, was that still his goal? He waited to see if he'd get a vision from Danna, but other than her face framed by dark hair, nothing presented itself. He sighed.
"We need more info. Let's get out of here."
Poe agreed and the two of them exited the craggy overhang to see something impossible. Grass extended out from the overhang, spreading to hills that blocked much of the view. Off in the distance instead of a horizon, they could only see a cliff that towered up to cover much of the sky. Where the cliff broke, the blue sky seemed to shimmer unnaturally. There was no sun and beams of light seemed to pierce it at random. What made the impossibility click was Gi's gaze following the cliff face closest to them and seeing a waterfall.
A waterfall that fell directly from the sky. There was no sky. They were under a tremendous body of water.
Gi shuddered, unknowingly stepping closer to the cliff until its solid wall lent him some stability. If that giant mass of water was going to fall, it would have already. Surely. But if it was perfectly suspended, how was the waterfall made? Eyes still mostly locked on the sky-ocean, he continued along the cliff towards the waterfall.
As he walked, something on the distant cliff wall caught his eye as his perspective shifted. Smoke or perhaps ash floated up from somewhere far in the distance and those particles framed a large mountain near that cliff. From how tall the cliff near him was, it had to be fairly large. Was there a city of some kind over there? Or was there some kind of wildfire going on? For him to be able to even see the smoke at this distance made him assume it was from a very big fire.
Several minutes later, Gi and Poe made it to the end of the water fall. It fell into a frothy mist that formed a river leading away from the spawning pit and the hills. His eyes followed the river as it disappeared into a deep wood. Something about the darkness there called to him like a tiny whisper in his mind, but he shook himself and averted his gaze. With a sigh, Gi collapsed into the river a little ways away from the waterfall and propped his side up against a rock.
"Poe, keep an eye out. I need to think."
"Yessir, boss!" Poe started flitting back and forth across the water, turning his whole body to look in every direction including the one that deadended into the cliff face. As Gi leaned back, he used his paws to rub circles into his cheeks that felt very soothing.
"Okay, so I'm an otter now. That feels natural though. Much more than being a slime." He continued to knead his cheeks and let out a soft groan as one of the sunbeams from the sky-ocean drifted right onto his belly. "I've got three tasks to complete - A Focus, some Orbs, and a Dungeon." He supposed he had to go clear a Dungeon or something for the last one. The Orbs were probably from taking down other monsters like the Soul Orb he'd gotten, but what were the Soul Orbs even for? He'd gotten one of them from the Scorpion, but they weren't listed in his tasks at all. The Focus task completely stumped him.
As he tried to figure out his new life, Poe swooped in just above him.
"Hey Boss, monster incoming!"