Sean looked from Gel to the torn and bloody carcass of a giant rat behind the slime as if realizing it was there for the first time. His memory of the battle was fading, and most of it was a blur, but Gel’s question spurred something inside him. Seizing the moment, Sean reached for the jar with his mostly-clean right hand and picked up his new, flesh-crazed best friend.

"No. No, I am not." He said, standing up and walking back over to the rat corpse as he felt his wits return to him. “The only raw meat I go for is sushi, and I’m pretty sure they don’t make it out of rat.”

Memories of an unpleasant morning trapped on the porcelain throne following a late-night gas station sushi binge bubbled up unbidden in Sean’s mind. His imagination helpfully supplied a small tail in his recollection of the discarded tray that almost certainly hadn’t ever been there.

“Or at least, they shouldn’t.” Sean amended, though the idea of it now didn’t gross him out as much as it would have before. “I have no idea how you’d roll this, anyway… probably have to skin it first?”

"Well, if you don’t want it then I hereby call first dibs on this kill… and on all future kills you don’t immediately eat." Gel responded promptly, interrupting Sean’s train of thought on exploratory meat sources that were not at all health department approved. “Now tell me more about this ‘sushi’ stuff. Why would anyone take the skin off their food?”

"It’s a–… Hu-uh.” Sean paused, momentarily caught off-guard by the question. “It’s a taste thing, really. Sometimes you only want the juiciest bits, and there aren’t a whole lot of dishes where you keep the skin on unless you’re flavoring it. Most people don’t like it outside of on chicken legs, for example. ”

“Well, sounds like most people have never had good skin. They should try human legs sometime, now those are delicious.” Gel said, with a meaningful glance towards Sean’s walking-bits.

“Uh-huh.” Sean uh-huh’d.

“Do you want me to just…?" Sean held the jar over the dead rodent and tipped it meaningfully in an attempt to change the subject before the awkward moment could stretch any further.

"Pour me all over it, yeah. Anywhere on the body is fine, but don’t miss. I can’t get around on my own."

“Oh.” Sean commented, then paused. “Is that why you live in this jar?”

“Yes, now–” Gel responded quickly, and Sean caught real hunger bleeding impatience into his friend’s voice.

“Right, right. Out you go.”

Sean upended the jar, watching as its gelatinous contents – complete with two almost comically roaming eyes – plopped out of the jar in a single blob, landing directly on the giant rat's head. The blob immediately flattened and spread itself out, covering the entire body in under a minute tip to tail.

Under the slime’s relatively clear body, the carcass began rapidly disintegrating. Chunks of flesh, sinew, and fur shriveled up and vanished into nothing as Gel ate his way through the corpse. Even the blood that had splattered the floor was sucked back into the mass of clear, undulating fluid until only the rat’s clean, white skeleton remained. Oversized teeth and all.

Gel’s body shunted the bones out into a pile on the floor as Sean looked on, transfixed. It seemed – though Sean couldn’t be entirely certain – that his gelatinous friend had gotten slightly bigger after his meal. A thoroughly satisfied voice echoed in his mind, scattering the thought away.

“Oh, man. Pinky! That. Was. Delicious. Here, your share – as promised.”

Another prompt, this time a clear-ish blue color, appeared in Sean’s vision.

Gel has absorbed a Giant Rat, earning 2 mana and 10 experience points. Due to the ‘Flesh Bonding’ trait, you have been granted a percentage of the same boon. You have gained 1 experience point!

“Only one?” Sean thought back at the slime with mock offense. “I’m the one who killed it!”

“Best I could do, Pinky. Our bond is pretty weak right now on account of you not giving me all your fleshy bits. You’re lucky to have even gotten one at all.” Gel responded without the barest hint of an apology.

“And you’re lucky I gave you that rat. Where did that thing even come from anyway? And why was it so big!?” Sean demanded.

“What do you mean ‘big’? That was a small one.” Gel commented dryly.

“Its name was ‘Giant Rat’!” Sean retorted.

“My world view allows for small Giant Rats. You shouldn’t be so close-minded. That’s the same kind of thinking that has you so needlessly attached to all your delicious, decomposing organs.” Gel responded in a lecturing tone.

“... my what?” Sean deadpanned.

“You didn’t… Pinky. You’re one of the undead. Emphasis on the dead. Did you really think those moist, meaty bits of yours were going to stick around forever? You’re losing flavor as we speak!” Gel said, his tone taking on a hint of worry as if the slime had just realized that last fact himself.

Round eyes swirled up from the corpse to stare up at him.

“Quick! Get in my belly!”

“You don’t have a belly, Gel.” Sean pointed out.

“Because you won’t share yours!” Gel harrumphed.

Before Sean could respond to the sheer ridiculousness contained in Gel’s statement, something the slime had said made him pause. Gel had called him an ‘undead’, and Sean remembered seeing that under the traits listed on his status. Pulling it back up, Sean confirmed it.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Trait: Undead.

“Gel?” Sean asked, staring at that singular word on his status.

“I forgive you.” The slime remarked off-handedly. “So long as you put me back in my jar. This floor tastes terrible. Like a week-old corpse smothered in even older juices… and dust. Tasteless dust! Blegh."

"You literally just ate the carcass of a rat." Sean pointed out.

"A fresh rat carcass, and it went down smooth.” Gel corrected, then added. “Thanks again, by the way. For sharing the first of your murder-meats."

Sean rolled his non-existent eyes and scooped Gel back into his jar with a nearby pelvic bone. He was careful not to actually touch the slime with his own hand lest the flesh-hungry slime consider that an open invitation to the rest of him. Thankfully, once the majority of his friend’s gelatinous body was inside the jar, the rest plopped right in without trouble.

“You're welcome.” Sean said once his insatiably hungry friend was safely contained once more. “Now, what can you tell me about these traits on my status here?”

"I can tell you to focus on them and find out." Gel informed him in a too-helpful tone.

Resisting the sudden urge to drop Gel back onto the floor, Sean asked another question. "Does that work for anything on these prompts? Any of the terms, I mean. It worked for Flesh Bonding, but can I get more information on anything?"

"Everyone visualizes world information differently, so I don't know what a 'prompt' is, but assuming you’re talking about what I think you are, then yes. Just about, anyway. Complex topics, proper nouns, big words your mind needs broken down into smaller ones, that sort of thing. Just focus on them and you should get whatever you need to understand the concepts.”

Sean could almost hear the topic actively boring the slime, before Gel perked up a bit. “Hey, I wonder how many more rats there are down the hall? Can we check? We should go check.”

“One minute.” Sean responded, pulling up his status. His mana had dropped to 1 of 3, which wasn’t a surprise given his earlier fight. His health was still maxed out though, since he technically hadn’t taken any damage during the fight.

Which raised a concerning question, actually.

“Gel?”

“Hmm?”

“When that rat bit me before, the prompt said I didn’t take any damage due to having ‘armor’.” Sean pointed out, and despite already guessing the answer, he had to ask. “Does that mean… what I think it means?”

“That your delicious flesh is keeping you safe despite your misguided attempts to feed it to mere rats instead of your best friend in the whole world?” Gel answered with a hint of amusement in his voice.

“What? That doesn’t make any– Skin isn’t armor!” Sean protested.

“You’ve heard of leather haven’t you?” Gel asked.

“Of course.”

“So you know they make armor out of it, right?”

“I do.”

“And leather is made from…?”

“...”

“...”

Sean shivered in spite of himself, the reaction an entirely mental one.

The idea that his dead skin, muscle, and sinew were currently functioning as ‘armor’ to protect him was simultaneously the best, and quite possibly most morbid, news he had received since waking up here. Best because it meant Sean at least had some protection – that rat might have even killed him in a few bites otherwise – but the sheer ghoulishness of it would definitely take some… getting used to.

“Alright.” Sean said simply. “I think we’re good there.”

“Basically, you’re wearing a meat suit of armor.” Gel continued, as if the slime hadn’t heard him. “Do you even understand how amazing that sounds? You’re like a walking buffet table that kills its own meals!”

“Please don’t call me that.”

“I don’t make promises I won’t keep.”

Heaving an internal sigh, Sean decided to abandon this conversation and check his status for the information he’d been after earlier. Focusing on the word ‘Undead’ just as he had with the previous ability, Sean was pleasantly surprised when another silver grey window immediately popped up.

Undead

* Undead creatures are immune to bleed, sleep, and most poison effects. They do not need to breathe, eat, or sleep, nor do they age, instead sustaining themselves through a wide variety of means. Lacking the adrenaline systems of living creatures, the undead are naturally resilient to emotion-based effects. Their physiology also provides inherent resistance to piercing and slashing damage, as well as negative death and astral-based effects.

* The bodies of undead creatures are vulnerable to bludgeoning damage as well as negative life and nature-based effects. They cannot grow as living creatures do, and thus receive none of the beneficial effects of aging.

Explains why I can’t seem to freak out any more. Sean mused to himself. Reading over the prompt another time to make sure he’d gotten it all, he could feel his excitement growing. No more need to breathe or sleep, and I don’t even age anymore?!

Being undead suddenly didn’t sound half bad! Sure, he was little more than animated bones walking around while dressed up in his old, possibly-rotting skin right now… but once he got used to this, he’d have almost a third of every day back. Potentially forever!

Hell to the yeah!! Sean mentally crowed in pure triumph.

Almost instantly, a shiver ran through him. This time dampening his excitement instead of his fear. It wasn’t squelched entirely, which would no doubt have made the entire world rather dull, but it was just enough to bring him down a peg or two.

Alright. Sean corrected himself. Maybe not entirely ideal but hell, I’ll take it.

Opening his status window again, Sean selected the next trait he was interested in. The one that should be even more valuable than the last, considering he had only gained it from feeding Gel his own eyes.

Flesh-Bound

* Bound by sacrifice to the fate of another. The effects of this trait are varied and must be discovered.

Well that was… anti-climactic. Sean thought. And not particularly helpful.

Sean glanced down at Gel whose eyes were currently swiveling all around the room once again.

It was hard to imagine they were now bound to one another’s fates… but it went a long way towards explaining why Gel had been so helpful despite being a random, possible monster. Even if the slime was a tad on the abrasive side, at least it meant him well. Sean pulled up the next one.

Summoned Creature

* Summoned creatures are brought into this world via magic and their presence in it is sustained by a constant infusion of mana. When their mana runs out, summoned creatures wither to dust. Mana upkeep cost for Skeleton (Sentient) is 1 per hour.

* Note: Your summoner has refused to pay the costs of your mana upkeep. As such the cost will be automatically paid from your own mana every hour. If you have no mana left, the cost will be taken from your health at a 3 to 1 conversion rate.

Oh… Sean thought numbly as the implications of his final trait sank in.

Oh, fuck.