Blue.
I'm floating in a empty blue expanse, a cool and refreshing comfort filling and flowing through me. Where am I? I remember...
What do I remember? I'd gotten home from another boring shift... I wasn't mugged this time, so that's a win... how did I get here? Where is here?
Actually, how long have I been here? There's not much of anything to do... Scratch that, there's nothing to do. I don't even have a body, I'm just drifting in this endless blue.
At least it's cosy, I may not be able to move but it isn't restrictive. It's actually kind of relaxing.
I don't know how long I drift, it could be minutes, it could be days, time just doesn't seem all that relevant. Without a body there's nothing to mark the time, so I just take the oh-so uncommon opportunity to rest. Eventually, though, the expanse around me swirls and thickens, like a current stirring the waters and drawing them deeper. The swirling nothing gets thicker and thicker until it feels like it's running through me. Then the current vibrates and hums, the sound and sensation resolving into words.
[Welcome, Luke. You have died.]
What?! Oh, come on, disembodied voice dude! I finally get enough money together to pay rent for once and I die?! How is that fair?! I worked my ass off for the whole month so my landlord wouldn't have his brother break my fingers again!
[Fret not. You are being reborn into an astounding new world, known as Ontarra.]
Huh? Wait, is this a reincarnation thing? You mean I get to be born again? Maybe I can have a better run of it this time! This out-of-body experience is way too vivid to be anything but what vibrating voice guy says it is, and it's not like I believed in the afterlife or God or anything, so this is a marked improvement to what I expected!
[Luck and tenacity shall forge your path]
This totally sounds like a reincarnation thing! Am I going to a fantasy world? Ontarra sounds much fancier than Earth, am I gonna get to be an adventurer?! That's epic! Maybe I'll even get an animal companion!
[This is your status, the sum of your capabilities upon rebirth:]
Hold up, status?
A screen-yet-not appears in my minds eye, more a concept of a screen filled with the concept of information floating free-form in my head.
[Name: Luke]
[Level: 1]
HOT DAMN!
[Stats]
Hit Points - 15
Mana - 5
Physicality: 8
Fortitude: 8
Thought: 24
Intent: 19
WOAH! I have a whole ass RPG status! These numbers don't look like much but maybe it's a low numbers world? If so, check out those mental stats! Am I gonna be a prodigy?! Mana being so low is a bit of a bummer, but that just reinforces the fantasy vibes! I can learn magic!
[Skills: Pound [Lv.1], Soften [Lv.1], Bounce [Lv.1]]
Oooo, skills! I guess it makes sense that I don't have stuff like swordsmanship or archery, I'm only level one... but these seem super basic. Soften? Bounce?
Oi, I hope I'm not being reborn as a baby, I don't wanna deal with puberty again!
[Species: Baby Blue Slime]
.....I take it all back, puberty wasn't that bad.
Ok, that's a lie, but what the hell?! Why am I a bottom of the barrel slime, and a baby at that?! Sure, they're cute, and I've always had a soft spot for the little dungeon mascots, but why can't I be humanoid, or even a different monster?! This was my chance to be a demon or a demi-human! Is this because I wasn't a good enough person? I was nice to people! Even those super rude Karens that told me their order was wrong to get free food!
Sure, I may have given them the oldest chips, and there was that time I stole that pebble from that pot plant at that garden store when I was nine, but does that really justify being reincarnated as a slime?!
[Current Skill Points: 1]
[Current Impurities: 1]
Well, I guess there's no changing this guy's mind. Looks like I'm a slime now, hopefully I don't get curb stomped by some wet nosed party of three the moment I'm born. Still, there's something soothing about this guys voice... a little throaty, yet the way he speaks is kinda... hypnotic...
Reminds me of David Attenborough.
[Go out into the world and take hold of your destiny.]
Alright Mr. Attenborough, no need to make one more goopy boi being born sound so profound. So I'm a slime now, so what?! I'll 'take hold of my destiny' and place it down like a step ladder so I can dope slap you in the face! Just you watch!
The current surrounding me roils even stronger, pulling at my consciousness and stretching me out as if I'm being sucked down a drain. Contrary to expectation it's actually quite a pleasant sensation, like sore muscles being softly stretched and pulled to work out the kinks after a long, long day working. I can feel my consciousness being wrapped within a blanket of something, the sensation akin to cool water, as it folds through and around me. My consciousness intrinsically woven into my new form, I take stock of my situation.
I try to run a hand over my body to get an idea of my shape, but all that happens is a current of pressurised slime caresses the inside of a slim membrane surrounding the bulk of my squidgy mass, which seems to be maintaining my shape. I'm currently a dome, thanks to the effects of gravity and the ground beneath me, but I can feel my internal slimeness stirring as I try to move.
It seems I can change the shape of my body to some extent, though from the way the little nubbin appendage I push out is flopping around, I'm not going to be lifting any boxes. Likely has something to do with that Soften skill. Unfortunately, that discovery is quickly overshadowed by another, far more pressing one.
I'm blind!
I mean, it makes sense, I can't imagine slimes have normal eyes, but I'd have liked to be able to see at the very least, even if the quality is poor! I can feel what seems to be rock beneath me, and there's some vague sense of a glowing blocky something to my left, but there's not even any darkness! All my instincts to look around and figure out where I am are stuttering and stumbling at the dead-end that is my lack of ocular organs. Even that little corner of my mind's-eye that felt something nearby is twitching around wildly-
Hold on a sec. I try looking towards where I remember that sense of a blocky glowy thing being, this time focusing on that little corner in my head- uhh, slime head? I don't really have a head anymore, or much of a body... welp, there goes a whole bunch of sayings and comparisons I'm now unable to make.
I hope I'm not going crazy already...
There! It's that blocky thing again! On closer inspection it's not quite a sensation similar to touch like I thought at first, but it's not sight either. It's like some weird combination of smell and hearing, but also nothing like that at all.
This totally isn't confusing the hell out of me, so I'm definitely not just going to drop the matter and hope the glowing blocky thing is actually there. That would be super irresponsible.
Oh, would you look at that! A convenient distract- I mean, a new discovery! My body seems to know how to crawl forward already, my underside gripping and pulling similar to the foot of a snail. I'd have hated to learn to crawl again, even if I don't need to progress to walking. I did my time!
Guiding my soft bottom... uh, maybe I'll stick to calling it my underside... yeah, gripping the ground with my underside, I make my way towards the first thing I sensed upon waking in this place, its presence filling my new sense with a muted blue glow. Trying to get a better idea of what I'm looking at, I tentatively reach out, only to hesitate. What if this is some kind of sleeping creature? I have no idea where I am and I'm pretty much blind, touching this thing could be a huge mistake!
No, don't let fear rule you Luke! Knowledge is just as important as water for survival, swallow that slime churning terror and just. DO IT!
My whole body shaking like a plate of jelly being carried back to the table by a ninety year old retiree at bridge night, I slowly push out a portion of my mass, making the barest brush of contact.
The lion's share of my anxiety melts away and I sag in relief, crawling forward and pressing up against the rock in front of me. Something solid! It's not much, but between the rocky floor beneath me and the rocky rock beside me I no longer feel like I've been set adrift in space.
Following the edge around, I sense something truly massive come into my perception on the left.
Ah! Mr. Attenborough! Send help, a behemoth has found me! I'm gonna be eaten!
The thing is like a wall to my sight, reaching off into the distance beyond what I can perceive. Luckily, it stopped moving just after I did, so maybe it's looking for something? Oh lord, I hope it isn't me, pass on big thing, nothing to see here!
Trying to get a better idea of its size, I push my senses to their limit while I cower on the floor, going soft and pushing myself as hard as I can into the seam between the rock and the floor. I do seem to have some sense of hearing, though it's rather muted. The only things I'm picking up are muffled, indecipherable, and way off.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
My attention brought back to the only other sense that extends beyond my body, the immense creature rises as high as I can perceive before curving above me, teeth like fangs hanging down over me. How big is this thing! It's a wall, it's a ceiling, it's like a whole ass-!
I freeze, not daring to study the possibility that slowly occurs to me. Please, say it ain't so!
I slowly, oh so slowly, continue around the rock, keeping low to the ground in case I'm wrong.
Unfortunately, I'm not.
More of the cave wall coming into focus as I get closer, I can see the stalactites above me that have formed closest to the wall are large enough to meld into columns of rock with the stalagmites below.
....
Look... I know I'm stressed out by all this new stuff, but keep it together, me. You're just embarrassing yourself.
Squeezing into a little gap between the wall (nope, definitively not a monster) and the big rock I've attached myself to, I quickly learn my body doesn't mind tight spaces. I have no internal organs to be compressed, so pressing myself into the little pigeonhole feels like being sandwiched between two firm weighted blankets. It's actually pretty comfortable!
Alright, now that I'm not in immediate danger, lets see how this works. Stats! Nothing. Uhh, menu! Nada. Status!
Here we go!
[Name: Luke]
Species: Baby Blue Slime
[Level: 1]
Hit Points - 15
Mana - 5
Physicality: 8
Fortitude: 8
Thought: 24
Intent: 19
Skills: Pound [Lv.1], Soften [Lv.1], Bounce [Lv.1]
Skill Points: 1
Impurities: 1
Once again the sorta-screen appears in my mind's-eye. Honestly, there's not much I need to familiarise myself with, I can't see any tabs, and my efforts to open something like an inventory is met with a resolute lack of change.
Ahh yes, there's my species, Baby Blue Slime. Welp, no point crying about it you baby, hahaha! I'm in this body and I may as well make the best of it. Honestly, I don't mind slimes at all, although the lack of body parts is a little disconcerting.
I can just tell I'm gonna miss having legs, they were one of my best features.
At least that 'Baby' part of my species name means I'll likely grow out of this stage. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and it's possible to power myself up without having to wait years to grow out of puberty again. As unpleasant an experience as puberty was, I can't imagine slime puberty is any better.
Okay! There'll be time for my future in the future. First off, I need to get a handle on what I can do! I'm guessing this Pound skill here is my only attack. I wonder what it does...?
[Pound: Assists with managing momentum and co-ordination when using body as a weapon]
Oh! So I only need to think about a feature to get a description? That's neat, and very convenient, thanks Mr. Attenborough, sir! Seeing what else I can find out, I look through my whole status again.
[Bounce: Co-ordinates the skill-holder's mass and maintains momentum when jumping or impacting surfaces]
[Soften: Co-ordinates movement and manages density when manipulating the skill-holder's malleability. Also reduces damage taken from blunt impacts]
Ah, only the skills get descriptions? Well, the stats themselves seem pretty self explanatory, so that shouldn't be a problem. I was hoping to get an idea of what this sense I'm using is, but no dice.
As for Soften, this sounds like the slime bread and butter. Be as water, young disciple, let the force of your enemies flow through you as the river flows through the reeds!
Now, what are these Skill Points and Impurities all about?
[You have Skill Points and Impurities available. Would you like to spend your resources?]
Sure thing! Show me what you got Mr. Attenborough!
[You may spend Skill Points to purchase new skills or upgrade existing ones]
[You can use Impurities to make alterations and mutations to your body in order to enhance or diversify your traits]
[Available Skills: Stealth - 1 SP: Assists with fine motor control and spatial awareness when attempting to remain undetected
Engulf - 1 SP: Impart instinctive knowledge of how to manipulate density and movements when trying to trap something within your body]
[Mutations Available: Membrane +1: Increase durability of surface membrane, reducing damage taken and increasing force required to destabilise form
Motive Molecules +1: Increase the speed mass can be moved and manipulated
Mana Receptors +1: Improve Mana Sense
Digestive Molecules +1: Improve rate of digestion and damage dealt to matter inside the body]
Oooh, all this blue light must be the Mana inside stuff! So cool! Wow, there's Mana in everything around here, even the floors and walls are stuffed with it. I wonder where I am that's so rich in the magic sauce, or is the whole world just like this? I hope it's the latter, I'd hate to find out my one useful sense is obsolete if I go traveling in the future.
Damn, there's some interesting stuff here! Looks like I can't purchase Death Magic or laser teeth yet, but starting on the path of the ninja sounds fun!
No, control yourself! You have no idea how to even get more of these resources, Luke, step away from the screen! Closing my status with a thought, I attempt to sigh, but just end up wobbling on the spot. Huh, right, I don't have lungs. That might come in handy at some point, though I think I'll practice sighing anyway, it's such a useful, expressive motion.
For now though, I need to explore. I've been familiarising myself with my Mana sense while holed up here, and coupled with my body's natural instincts, I think I've gotten the hang of it. Plopping out of my hiding spot, I roll my way across the floor, treating my membrane like a hamster wheel while the bulk of my body swirls inside. It's less effective than I'd hoped, so I just end up crawling again.
'Looking' around I seem to be in some kind of cave or tunnel. Rough stone walls, stalagmites and 'tites, crystal outcroppings in the walls. Yep. Classic fantasy cave. The only colour I'm really getting is varying shades and intensities of blue, but I blame that on the assumption that Mana is blue. Everything has a vague aura around it, kind of like the hazy halo of light around a street light at night, except the auras shift and eddy, making even the rocks feel alive. It's honestly quite beautiful...
On my walk... crawl... through the tunnel, something catches my attention off to the left between a pair of skinny rock columns. I have no idea if there's any light here, but I've certainly found one advantage to seeing the world through Mana-tinted glasses; I don't have to worry about the dark! No eyes means I don't need light to see, which is one massive tick in the 'slimes-are-better' column!
Now, what is this? I can see something moving over there... what've you got there?
Keeping it right at the edge of my vision, I see a shape hunched over something on the ground. I can't get many details with everything so hazy, but I saw my ex's cat go ham on the biscuits often enough to recognise an animal in the middle of a meal.
In saying that, I wouldn't classify this creature as any type of creature I know. I'm able to make out wide feet, splayed either side of a broad rump and a long, scaled tail with a spiny ridge.
Oh yeah, it's also about four times my size.
I double check to make sure the buckets I'm sweating aren't leaving an easy to follow trail as I back up, my senses glued to the newly revealed blue stain on the ground. It looks like someone carelessly spilled watercolour paints all over the floor. Unless I miss my guess, going by the mess on both the ground and the face of this creature- it looks like some kind of mole? -as well as the fact it's chewing on what looks like a deflated balloon, it seems one of my elder siblings came out on the wrong side of an unfortunate encounter with this giant.
Of course, the only reason I'm able to see the bodily fluid of my deceased relative painting the mug of this scaly Pokemon rip-off is that the sadistic bastard is looking right at me with its beady little eyes!
A hazy blob of something twitches at the end of its snout, while an uncomfortably long tongue slides out of the mouth to lick its face clean.
I apologise! I-I meant to say your eyes are effervescent black pearls, and your tongue is totally sick, not sickening! Ah, you're still gonna come over? Understandable, I'm sure we can talk this over like reasonable monst-
HA, sike! Eat my vapor you tunnelling mammal... lizard... thing! Keeping low to the ground, I crawl my way forward as fast as I can, reaching out as I go to pull myself along whenever I come to an uneven section of floor. Hahahaha! My movements may resemble the slowest of the slow, but alas, I am the wind! I am speed! There's no way you can catch-!
GAH! Why'd I open my metaphorical mouth! I mean, it's kinda cool that I don't need to worry about turning or anything to sense what's behind, though I am starting to get a bit dizzy trying to stay focused on both directions at the same time, and I'd much rather that my rear-view wasn't filled with a predator the size of a small monster truck galloping after me!
Moving my little body as fast as I possibly can, I manage to keep ahead of it, if only just. Despite the mole-thing having the advantage of legs as long as I am tall, I'm a zippy little guy, my small mass practically throwing itself across the floor as it takes pot shots at me, just managing to stay outside the range of its claws.
I need an escape route! Looking this way and that, I search desperately for another tunnel, a crack in the wall, I'll take anything!
The path just ahead curving gently to the right, I leap over a fallen stalagmite. Why is everything around here is so damn big! Jumping without legs is hard, and the sensation of my insides swirling together to push off the ground is indescribable, but I focus up and tense my whole being as I impact the ground. There's a feeling like being pressed back into the seat of a race car, my body flattening out, before I sproing! forward like a soccer ball, gaining just a touch more distance from the monster behind me trying for dessert.
I know, I'm sweet, it's a curse! Oh, woe be upon me for my flawless personality!
I narrowly dodge a swipe from the clawed paw that descends down on me like a neatly arranged line of four guillotines, intent on partitioning me into slices.
Hey! I'm not ready to test if slimes can split yet dude, ask permission first!
Yanking my rear end in, I'm sprayed by a few stone chips as the mole's claws dig into solid rock. Holy jeebus! That thing got the reinforced shellac mani-pedi, if I had nails they'd be aching just watching that!
Picking up speed again I slalom around the corner... and come face to face with something just as big that looks like the result of a hyena and a piranha having relations. Unable to stop at my current speed, I instead throw myself forward so I'm barely skimming the ground, softening and stretching my body lengthways like a javelin in an effort to make myself a smaller target.
I don't have a heart, but I'm pretty sure my consciousness does still, 'cos I swear it stops when I pass directly beneath the startlingly vivid forest of needle-like teeth filling the slavering hyena monster's saliva laden jaws. In fact, looks like there might be some shark or woodchipper in there somewhere if the multiple rows of teeth descending deep into its throat are anything to go by.
[Soften has reached level 2]
Not right now David! I'm busy!
Lucky for me, my pursuit isn't quite as small or flexible as I am. The mole-lizard chasing me slams into the new nightmare fuel mid turn, bowling the both of them over in a tangle of muscle and pointy bits, while I land on the other side with a plop, free and clear. I know for certain that I can hear now, the weird clicking hiss of the mole grating against the yippy bark of the hyena-ranha sending a shiver through my body.
If I had to describe the sensation, it sounds like there's a blanket between my ears and a pair of headphones, while simultaneously having the sound run through a tuning fork lodged in my stomach. It must be the vibrations, yeah, that must be what's making my non-existent spine tingle.
Oi, enough conveniently distracting discoveries! Pack your coping strategies in the back and book it!
I crawl for my life, leaping over low ridges of stone too high to roll over, until I realise I can use them like stepping stones, bouncing from one to the next. Hell yeah! Parkour!
Leaving the sounds of combat behind me, I nonetheless keep crawling until I come across a dense thicket of stalagmites, clustered together against a wall. It looks too crowded for anything much bigger than myself to squeeze through, and I can't sense anything else inside, so after a moments hesitation, I dive in, pushing deep into the cracks and crevices.
Popping out from between two tree-like spars of rock quite close to the base of the wall, I find myself in a clear space big enough to fit three of me, a little crack two body lengths wide and half my height running along said wall where it meets the floor.
Closely inspecting the gap, I can't sense any Mana inside, so it's probably empty, a bet I am nonetheless hesitant to place, despite being able to see both those monsters I ran into. It stands to reason monsters give off Mana, I justify, trying to convince myself. It must be a part of everything here if there are creatures like me that use it to navigate. Like snakes using heat or sharks sensing electrical fields.
Well, I think I'm safe for the moment. So long as nothing turns up here I'll use this as a base of operations. Right now though, I have something very important to do.
Time to figure out how to not get dead!