Congratulations, by accomplishing feats remarkable even to the patient notice of Death itself, you have reached levels 6 through 8! As a slime warrior you gain 1 point of Might and 2 points of Toughness with every level.
You have gained 3 manasphere node points!
“Woooohoo!” Gel crowed, thrusting his clear battle axe into the air in victory. “Great food and more levels! Today is the best!”
“Hell yeah it is.” Sean agreed. “We got some mana from that last steak, too. Only a single point each, but there’s still plenty of deer left.”
“Not for long!” Gel assured him. “This bad boy is going straight to our belly!”
A thought occurred to Sean, and he decided to go down that path rather than comment about how his insatiable friend was also literally his stomach now.
“Why did we just get experience for all this now?” Sean asked. “We got away from Bancroft’s hours ago. I’m guessing that ‘assassination’ attempt was the shroud, and the last one is definitely talking about that roided-out angel-grade badger. But what’s with the delay?”
“First off, I want you to know that one of my new goals in life is to eat ‘angel-grade badger’.” Gel said seriously, and as impossible as that currently was for them, Sean knew the slime wasn’t kidding.
“Noted.” Sean said, throwing another slab of deer onto his oh-so-perfect frying pan and wondering if there were celestial cows out there, too. Get us some USD-Angel Grade Sirloin going.
“Second, the only time you get experience like that is when you rest. Combat awards immediate experience, but almost every other method of advancing typically awards experience when you go to sleep.” Gel sounded like he was reciting something everyone should know, though the slime was at least trying to be helpful. To make it sound like Sean wasn’t hopelessly uninformed. “We don’t sleep, but we’ve also been moving practically nonstop since we left that prick’s place. Looks like sitting down to eat counted, which is rather helpful to know actually as this is a first for me.”
“We stopped when we evolved.” Sean pointed out. “How come that didn’t count?”
“Do I look like I make the rules?” Gel asked a touch defensively, and the slime almost turned up to face Sean before apparently deciding that watching his next steak be cooked was more worthy of his vision. “Evolution is a lot of work on the ooze and the bones, even if we weren’t awake for it.”
“So it didn’t count as a rest, because our bodies weren’t resting.” That made sense to Sean.
“Yep.” Gel vibrated inside his chest. “Now keep it dark for a second and don’t burn our steak! I’m going to check out my options.”
“Keep it dark?” Sean echoed, amused. The slime didn’t respond, but Gel’s meaning was clear enough. Not to mention Sean had his own manasphere options to check out.
Three whole points.
It was a windfall, and one he was eager to spend. Though not so eager that he would burn their steaks while doing it, of course. With a bit of mental flexing, Sean managed to push the prompts he had brought up over to a corner of his vision and adjust them to be more transparent than normal. Satisfied that he could now keep an eye on their meal while perusing his picks, Sean opened up the manasphere map again.
The massive tapestry of interwoven dots featuring every color imaginable appeared in his vision just as it had before, only slightly off to the side of center - just past his campfire. As before the small cluster of black dots where he was located zoomed in automatically, though it took a bit of mental maneuvering to peer around at the rest of his options. Not that it was a problem, Sean had always been good at splitting his focus in the kitchen.
Before he opened up the first of the nodes he didn’t recognize for inspection, Sean tried something new. He wanted the manasphere to display the titles he had, and for it to show or otherwise inform him about any nodes that were related to each title. Like a handy tooltip or something. He had wondered about it before, and to his delight the map shifted almost immediately. Multi-hued text displaying each of his titles formed onto the map, each near their own cluster of nodes. Most weren’t revealed yet, but at least now Sean had a more direct idea of where he had gotten access to the ones that were.
Pleased with himself, Sean dove into his new options. He started with the two new options next to his ‘Amateur Arsonist’ title. The first was black with a red swirl in the center, and the other a raging flame of pure fire.
Tinder Swipe
Description: Replace your ‘Slash’ ability with ‘Tinder Swipe’.
Effect: As Slash, only with a high chance to set all flammable objects and enemies struck with this ability aflame.
Mana Aspect: Death, Chaos
Flammable
Description: Increases the flammability of your bodily structure.
Effect: Chance to ignite yourself and enemies when struck.
Mana Aspect: Chaos
‘Chance to ignite yourself’? Sean was about to immediately dismiss that last option for good, when he gave it a second thought. It wouldn’t benefit him now, given the very real danger fire still posed – the campfire did blacken the edges of his fingers if he put his hand too close – but if that wasn’t a problem later… That one might… actually be worth coming back to. Assuming it doesn’t kill Gel… which it probably would.
Sean tabled that option, unwilling to actually build towards being a creature of flaming death. If I’d wanted that, I would have just picked Burning Skeleton instead of Slime Warrior.
The first option, ‘Tinder Swipe’, was interesting. This was the first official upgrade option he had found for his ‘Slash’ ability, and it wasn’t a bad one. Setting your enemies on fire was a fantastic deterrent, as his crazy cousin Robbie had once said. Granted, Robbie was currently doing 20-to-life for having actually followed his own advice, but hey, when you’re right, you’re right.
Not a left swipe. Sean decided. Definitely going back on the shelf, though.
With his right arm perpetually busted and Gel’s ability to morph into weapons, Sean didn’t actually feel the need to upgrade his own damage output at the moment. ‘Bone Shield’ had been the ability that had saved their lives, after all.
Better to focus on defense as the tank, leave Gel as our offensive damage. At least for now.
Next, Sean moved on to the cluster next to his most recently acquired title: ‘Profane Luck’. There was only a single revealed node here, black as the abyss. Sean felt like he was starting to get more familiar with how the manasphere map looked, and he could tell based on the relative emptiness around this cluster that there weren’t many other nodes nearby. But what was there, was… intriguing.
Reaper's Hand
Description: Embrace a connection to deeper power by taking in the essence of a Reaper into one of your own hands.
Effect: Greatly enhances the capabilities of the chosen hand. Additional effects exist, but must be discovered.
Mana Aspect: Death
Looks like this world has their own version of the Grim Reaper, too. Sean found that fascinating. Both because of how many similarities this world had with his own, and because he couldn’t wait to see the differences. He wondered what other nodes he would unlock if he picked this one. Not to mention that ‘additional effects’ line is just a straight-up tease.
Sean threw this option into the top spot of his current picks. He had several things he was looking for right now, and this option checked at least one of those boxes. There were no new options for the temporary badger death curse title he had received, but Sean hadn’t really expected any from a title he was due to lose soon.
Besides, he still had a whole new bunch of options clustered together. Rather interesting ones that were branching off a new, swirling red and black node directly connected to the central black dot he had started from, labeled with the name of his recent evolution: ‘Slime Warrior’.
Shifting Structure
Description: Grow in mass as the slimes do.
Effect: Greatly increase the efficiency of transferred slime-to-bone mass.
Mana Aspect: Chaos
Ooze Armor
Description: Gain the ‘Bonemail’ ability.
Effect: Bonemail allows the user to create shifting armor made from a mixed layer of deformable ooze and bone attached to their frame. Durability is equal to mana spent. Hardness is equal to the user’s toughness. Small, random chance to ignore a portion of damage taken.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Mana Aspect: Death, Chaos
Fuel For the Fight
Description: Sacrifices must be made for the greater good.
Effect: When health drops below half, consume half of the normal mass of the slime inside you to regain your strength. Your health will be restored in proportion to the amount consumed. Cannot extinguish the mass of the slime, unless both entities are prepared to die.
Mana Aspect: Death
Didn’t even need the label. Sean thought, reading over each of the options carefully as he flipped Gel another steak. The slime caught it easily, clearly also keeping some of his attention on their food. Knowing Gel, probably most of it.
All three of the options were clearly designed to advance him down similar, yet subtly different roads on his evolutionary path. The first would help him grow faster, which sounded nice on the surface but Sean had no idea how that would help them at present. Towering over trees wouldn’t keep them fed, and it might even increase his hourly mana cost - so that option was out. The second was more interesting, basically an upgraded version of his bone shield – and one that Sean noted also had no time limit. The possibilities played out perfectly for what they needed right now.
If we can find enough food in a short enough time, I can leverage ooze armor into two separate ‘shields’ to defend us before we take any actual damage. Sean rolled the idea around in his mind. Without any way to heal, this option was essentially a must-have. Even so, it was the last option that really captured his attention. Specifically, the last line.
Cannot extinguish the mass of the slime, unless both entities are prepared to die.
Real subtle. Sean thought, throwing another slab of deer onto his pan. So I can burn Gel for a brief 'second wind’, but if I’m reading this right then I’ll follow right after him. Not like that would be any different from normal, if he goes down I won’t have any way to regain mana.
Sean didn’t even consider the third option. He hoped that, given the option, Gel wouldn’t take any nodes that sacrificed his own health for the slime’s wellbeing. He hadn’t missed that activating the ability when it wouldn’t kill them both did not require the slime’s permission.
That was a disturbing thought, and one Sean pushed to the back of his mind as he scanned the map for nodes that hadn’t been there before. As he had expected, there were many more. This ‘manasphere’ seemed to stretch out into infinity whenever he zoomed out. Sean could easily imagine having hundreds or even thousands of options in the future.
Deciding now was the perfect time to start saving his future self some headache, Sean began trying to sort and group the options using the same mental gymnastics he had earlier. It took some finagling, but within only a few he had the manasphere readjusting its surface to reflect what he wanted. A list of the new nodes available to him – ones he hadn’t yet viewed – also popped up in his vision. Scanning through them, Sean found a few more worthy of note.
Essence Stability
Description: Learn to better attune yourself to the new fabric of reality surrounding you.
Effect: Mana upkeep cost as a discarded summon will last longer, needing to be paid every 90 minutes instead of 60.
Mana Aspect: Order
Fortified Mind
Description: Fortify your mind against the sudden traumas of a hostile world.
Effect: Reduced duration of stun effects. May be more or less effective depending on effect origin.
Mana Aspect: Astral
Cranial Thickening
Description: Forms additional connections throughout the cranium of your skull, increasing cognitive function.
Effect: Cognition attribute increased by 1.
Mana Aspect: Astral
Sean almost acquired the first option, ‘Essence Stability’, without even thinking about it. It was exactly the type of node he had been hoping for. Something, anything that would give him more time in this world before he had to pay that all-too-present mana upkeep. If he hadn’t found this, then Sean had been fully prepared to buy at least one – maybe two – of the nodes that increased his adaptation attribute. Now the only question left was which option was the better investment.
He had gotten one additional point in it when they had evolved, but Sean hadn’t yet checked on the increase that had given him. It had honestly slipped his mind in light of all the other excitement. He pulled his regen rate up now, just to confirm, before he made his choice.
Current mana regeneration rate: 1.5 mana every 6 hours.
So, an additional half point of mana every six hours per point of adaptation versus a straight up 50% bonus to the hourglass hanging over my head. Sean thought, double checking the math in his head. He would need to buy another adaptation node before his current regen rate even paid his upkeep cost once, whereas Essence Stability made every single point of mana he spent more effective. Yep. This one is a no-brainer.
Sean purchased ‘Essence Stability’. He flipped Gel the next steak, but waited to put another piece of the deer on until the change actually took effect. If the mini-evolution was as jarring as some of the others he had been through already, he didn’t want to accidentally spill their food. Though knowing Gel, if we had taken the rear end of the deer then he might actually like some grass with his ass.
After a moment or two, Sean felt the change begin to settle into him. It was subtle. So subtle he might have missed it were he not paying attention. There were no outward physical changes, but he could feel his body… firm. It was hard to explain. His bones solidified their presence in the world in a way that Sean didn’t quite have the words for. The only way he could describe it was that he felt himself growing more ‘real’. If he were still human, he might have shivered at the sensation.
Sean checked his mana, and noted that it was still full. Then a thought occurred to him.
If I can make adjustments to all this… maybe I can have my status display a timer? It would be handy as hell to know just how much time I have before the next cost is paid.
This adjustment to his status window took a bit more effort than the other changes had. He didn’t just want a countdown display hidden away in his menus here. What Sean actually wanted was a constant clock in the corner of his vision. One that would tick down the minutes both to his next cost, and to his total ‘time remaining’, as it were. Preferably with a counter showing his current and total mana as well.
A minute later, he had it.
Time Remaining Until Next Upkeep Must Be Paid: 47 minutes, 15 seconds.
Total Time Remaining, Based On Current Mana: 227 minutes, 15 seconds.
Current Mana: 4 of 4
With another mental flex, Sean shortened the first two lines to just “Next Upkeep” and “Time Remaining”. Then he grinned. With a single node, he had just kicked the hourglass back up another full hour!
Now the real question is, did that unlock another extension node?
Sean pulled up the manasphere again, but he didn’t see any new options branching off of ‘Essence Stability’. There were a few that looked like they might be connected, but the nodes themselves were still shrouded behind the fog that meant he hadn’t unlocked them yet. With a small shrug, Sean got back to cooking and reviewing the rest of his options.
Fortified Mind and Cranial Thickening were both interesting options. The first for its potential to save his life if he ever ran into an enemy like the shroud again. That thing’s stun ability had been ridiculously overpowered. Five seconds in combat was practically a lifetime. The second option was intriguing more for the implications behind its description. Sean didn’t have a brain anymore, but the way the text read it suggested that his skull remained the focal point for his ‘mind’.
Will I grow a new one out of bone if I pick that? Sean couldn’t picture how that would look, but he hoped it wouldn’t leave him wandering around looking like a skeletal version of one of those bobbleheads his cousin collected far too many of. Maybe if I follow that ‘thick bones’ path a little more it’ll even it all out.
The rest of his available options were all stat bonuses of one flavor or the other. He still had access to ‘Pounce’ and the rest of the nodes he’d had available as a skeleton, which was nice. But he had just gotten a fairly large boost to his attributes from their evolution.
Better to spend the rest of this windfall on opening new paths for my build. Sean reasoned. I can choose some of the attribute ones later, but for now… we need a power spike.
They had managed to fight several of the skeletal warriors to a standstill – even fighting a pair of them at once, which went a long way towards showing how impressive the Slime Warrior evolution had been. Sean remembered the thrill he had felt during those fights, and he knew he wanted more of that. Those fights had touched on a core, primal nature deep inside of him. One that reveled in battle.
Despite that, the memories Gel had shared with him stuck out in Sean’s mind. The sight of that villager bashing multiple skeletons to bits with every swing. Bancroft’s army of walking nightmares.
We would have been killed instantly. No matter which side of the fight we’d been on. We need more power. Enough to wade into a battle like that and come out laughing on the other side.
With that resolve firmly in mind Sean spent another of his points, keeping the last one in reserve. He flipped another deer steak to Gel, set the pan down, and was surprised to find a black-bordered prompt appear before him almost immediately.
Your node selection ‘Reaper’s Hand’ only affects a single extremity. You must choose which you would like transformed. Would you like it to affect your left or right hand?
Left. Sean answered the prompt immediately. His right hand was a broken mess, and the way his luck with recovery was trending that wouldn’t change any time soon. Besides, the way their combat style was starting to look… Gel needed an arm to work through. Maybe later I can grow another one and let him use that. Or two.
Sean’s imagination was just starting to run off with vivid images of himself sprouting entire clear blades of badassery from his back when his left hand suddenly began to tingle. The sensation was so out of place for his new body that Sean stared at it. It was the first time his hand had reported any kind of feeling to that degree, and for the briefest of seconds Sean wondered whether he had made the right decision. What happened next only reinforced that concern.
His entire hand blackened all at once. Every square inch of bone from the carpal bones of his wrist down to the tips of the phalanges that made up his fingers – everything south of the twin bones that made up his forearm, the ulna and radius – went from pure white to the solid black of empty space in an instant. The bones of his arm didn’t thicken or expand, but Sean could immediately feel new strength flooding into his hand. It felt like it was coming from everywhere at once – from the very air itself.
And it wasn’t just strength. A dark presence filled the marrow of his hand, one Sean felt infuse itself into him before it faded to the background almost as quickly as it had come. Turning his hand over to inspect it, Sean wasn’t quite sure where that last feeling had come from. It didn’t feel malevolent or like it meant him harm or anything, it felt more like…
Inevitability.
Sean found he rather liked the feeling.