I wanted to use my terraform skill again straight away to create some more ever so exciting mole-hills, but I felt like I had no more mental energy to do that. One disadvantage of being an asteroid is that you cannot get a wink of sleep, and I am sure I will find a bucket-load more problems to add to the list.

I decided to create some more subtle changes instead which will surely not strain me as much as the small hill did. I started to test out making random indentations onto the surface, instead of protrusions out. I found that it was far easier than raising mass upwards.

I wasn’t sure if that was because of my new level up, or if that pushing mass inwards was just easier than pushing outwards. Creating the hill gave me a wicked headache afterwards, but it seems to have died down now. If possible I would like to avoid having another headache like that for a while.

Surprisingly I experienced subtle tingling sensations whenever I made a new change now, unlike when I created the hill where I felt nothing. I was shitting myself at the time trying to complete the hill, so any small reactions would have gone straight over my head anyway.

The tingling reminded me of the feeling when your hairs stand on end when it became colder. I had no sense of temperature anymore, and that's probably for the best. Being far away from the sun in space probably isn't the warmest location. It would remind me of the time I was standing outside the north pole at Christmas, trying to prove Santa Claus was real.

Good times.

While experimenting the terraform skill for more precise actions, I started to become more adventurous. I created a wide variety of trenches of varying depth and width to help me get a feel for what the upper bounds of my precision are. When I thought about it, I was basically working out. Even when I turned into a lump of rock I must do exercise to become powerful. Where’s the justice in all of this?

As I practised, I discovered that I could make rudimentary drawings by basically etching onto my surface with thin long indentations. The flexibility will come to me when I obviously had more practice, but it is interesting to see the range of potential uses. To commemorate my first hill, I etched a crude “1” underneath it to remind myself of my first masterpiece. But wait, why stop there?

If I was abducted and forced to play this game, perhaps there may be other humans forced to become planets. No there must be. Maybe they actually got a starting planet unlike me, the fortunate little buggers, but it is still possible for them to be out there. Using my new drawing power, I started to carve out a message on a flattened part of my surface that I hastily created.

‘I am Human.’

Even though all the previous practice made me tired, I continued to finish it. If there was even the slightest possibility someone else is there, I needed to get their attention as soon as possible. I couldn't be bothered to think of anything easier and more clever to write, it would have to do. After the message was finally complete I took a sneaky look at it.

It was hideous.

Yep, what did you expect from me?

I used to be a decent artist, but I have no idea what the fuck it says. It seemed to be fine when I was etching it, but now it says, “I am Hunnas.” Flipping heck, how did the 'n' become an 's'? I understand the 'm' may have potentially looked like two 'n’s, but the other mistake was beyond me. It honestly looks like I was saying, “I am hummus”, or something.

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‘Not like that would be a bad thing, hummus is delicious…’

My skill of moving my arm and fingers did not transfer over well to my new body, but meh. People are more likely to help me if they get a little chuckle out of it anyway. My head now hurt, and my body ached after a little bit of work. So not much has changed from my normal life eh? I rested in silence as I observed the nebulas and constellations, recovering my thoughts for the next plan of action.

‘So, this is what an astronaut gets to see every day…’

‘Eh, not worth the time. 6/10. Too many stars.’ 

After an indescribable length of time, I reluctantly continued on improving terraforming. I was really grinding out this skill, wasn't I? I now moved to some more heavy carving and cutting, testing my raw power again. I was surprised that the terraform skill did not level up with all of this practice. I knew I wasn’t the best time-manager however, saying I was slacking would be a heavy overstatement. My head throbbed as I carved and gouged, but nothing as major as before luckily.

I had been quietly thinking about a question about my body as I worked. Any small amounts of information I knew about myself right now could benefit me superbly in the future. So what would happen if a part of me was lost from my main body? If for instance, I cut off a little chunk and it floated off me. Would I be able to influence that chunk and if so, for how long of a distance? You never know how handy niche skills like controlling separate rocks could help in a tight situation.

I quickly cut out a tiny piece of rock, eager to see what the results of the question are. Once I completed the last cut, I forced the small rock away from me. As soon as it lost physical contact with me, the tingling abruptly stopped. I could not feel it anymore.

The chunk of rock floated away from me, but it was out of my control now. No matter how hard I tried to mind grab it back, it made no difference and continued its journey. I had to wipe a tear out of my make-believe eye because I was so emotional at this moment.

'My stone child grew up so fast, and he left me so soon.'

'What did I do as a parent to deserve this rejection from my only child?'

'...'

‘Fuck you pebble, I never loved you anyway.’

My experiment was a failure. I half expected the result to happen. It’s not like if you cut off your finger as a human, it remains linked to your brain. It wouldn't fly back to take back it's original place. It would bloody hurt. Regardless of all of that, I felt like something was slightly... wrong. Odd.

What changed?

I focused my mind to try to figure out what happened. Due to my magical omnipresent senses, I could feel that I was floating in a subtly different away from before. No matter how small and minute the change actually was, I was 102.875% sure I was correct.

I was moving slower.

...

‘But why did I slow down a tiny bit?’

‘There’s no friction in space.’

‘I am not rubbing against anything…’

…

‘Come on brain...’

‘Think, think, think, think, think, think.’

‘Why did you decide not to work now, it’s not like I’m in an exam.’

…

‘Seriously brain if you continue being useless, I swear to god I am going to give myself a lobotomy you piece of utter shi- THAT’S IT!’

Woah, sorry did I scare you? Terraform is so much more useful than I ever thought. Ha-ha, I guess that’s what science is, you test one theory, but you end up discovering something else entirely.

Sorry was I not explaining?

I slowed down slightly because the chunk of rock I sent flying off was in the current direction of my orbit. Due to the principle of the conservation of momentum, the overall momentum in a system has to stay the same otherwise you break physics. Since the rock flew off in the same direction as me, I had to slightly slow down to make sure the momentum in the system is conserved. Therefore, because I slowed down there is a way of me changing my current direction.

If you guys still have no idea what I am on about, let me simplify it...

I HAVE A WAY OF PROPELLING MYSELF THROUGH SPACE!

Thank fuck for physics.