It turns out, cleansing an entire underground colony’s worth of tunnels clear of every shroom and spore takes a fair amount of time. Especially if you’re physically eating everything you come across. Still, there were two notable factors in their favor that sped the task up considerably.
The first was that many of the tunnels had collapsed in on themselves thanks to the massive explosion caused by the tunneling charge Sean had set off earlier. The giant hole in the center of the sands both made it easier to navigate and had eliminated a fair portion of the very area they would have had to clean up. Sand was still falling in even as they worked, slowly sealing up several passages.
The second was that Gel was much faster at consuming corpses, shrooms, and really anything the slime could dissolve than he had ever been before. His crimson whip lashed out in nearly every direction as Sean jogged around, picking up heaping globs of antmeat to shove into his chest and enjoying the fact that he finally had full control over both of his arms again.
“This is, without a doubt, the best job I’ve ever been given.” Gel crowed as the slime finished polishing off another tunnel. “Mmph… So good. How many more do we have left?”
“At least two dozen.” Sean reported, making his way back up to the charge-excavated center chamber. “Maybe less if they keep filling up before we get to them.”
Being able to run non-stop without his body tiring out was another perk improving their clear speed, and Sean had to admit he appreciated it more and more as time went. Their evolution to Gelaton had improved his speed again, and while Sean couldn’t quite be sure he felt like his new body was moving faster than his old meat-sack human one ever had.
I can just see the advertisements now: “New, miracle weight loss program that also boosts your mile run time! Come check out the novel slime-bath treatment that our experts are calling a truly ‘once-in-your-lifetime experience’!
Sean chuckled at the thought, his jaw clattering as he pictured various famous streamers like ‘Mr. Yeets’ or ‘Fake Shawl’ trying to hawk getting literally eaten as a ‘service’ to their followers. He was about to take the idea and the opportunity it represented to share more of his former world with Gel when the gelaton’s keen orbs noticed something about his newly healed hand.
It looked… bigger than before. Not just from the evolution, Sean had already grown somewhat accustomed to that. His finger bones looked bigger than they had been only five minutes ago. Thicker. He had only noticed in the first place because the rock of the cavern wall had felt different in his grip as he used it to climb up.
In fact, now that he was looking at it… it wasn’t just his hand. He felt ever-so-slightly taller now, too. Not by much, but by just enough that it made a genuine difference in what he could see standing where he had been just an hour or two prior. Maybe a half-inch?
Is Gel siphoning off mass to me as we go?
A black and red bordered prompt appeared in Sean’s vision as he had the thought, its text the same pure-white as his own bones. As the gelaton read through it, he got confirmation that his hunch had been accurate.
Congratulations! Your ‘Symbiotic Structure’ trait has been used for the first time! Gel has shared enough converted mass with you to increase your body’s total size by 5%. Acquire additional mass in order to continue your growth.
“Thanks for that.” Sean commented in earnest as he headed over to the next tunnel, before adding a false wry tone to his voice. “Wasn’t expecting you to share your meals with me so soon.”
“There’s so much here!” Gel enthused, sounding as if the slime were salivating at the mouth as they rounded down yet another passageway. “What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t share the spoils of our victory with you?”
“How much more are you planning on sharing?” Sean asked. “That bit you just sent was a solid 5% bump.”
“How much more do you want?”
Sean considered the question. He glanced down at his skeletal form, and realized he didn’t really have an upper limit. There was also the possibility that increased mass would come with other benefits that he wasn’t aware of yet. The gelaton remembered the multiple opponents he had already fought that had towered over him. Most of them soldier ants.
Would be pretty badass if these tunnels could get me on their level. Sean thought. Out loud, he said: “Think we could get me to 200%?”
“Hmmm….” Gel hmmm’d. The slime wiggled his whip in mid-air behind Sean’s shoulders as if he was doing complex math. “Possibly? If we keep finding tunnels full of leftovers like that last one, then we’ll need to keep making you bigger anyway. Just so I have enough room not to fall off your bones.”
Sean looked down at the slime, realizing that Gel wasn’t entirely kidding about that last part. There were a good deal more crimson ‘veins’ crossing over one another around his frame than there had been after they had evolved. Enough that, from a distance, someone might mistake him for having muscles.
Which, given that we combine our Might scores now, wouldn’t be that far off from the truth. The gelaton realized.
“Is that something you’re actually concerned about?”
“No.” Gel admitted. “If I run out of room I’ll just stack up on your shoulders or make some extra weapons we can save for later. Then again, there’s a few node options I have open that might be a better use for the extra mass… hmmm.”
“You haven’t picked yet?” Sean asked, surprised. “Never really pictured you as the waiting type. I figured you were buying nodes as soon as you had the points for ‘em.”
“Usually I do. But there’s a few that are only halfway hidden on my map. Sort of in and out of the fog, you know? So I figured, after what we did to unlock our evolution, some of them might be waiting until I get enough mass to reveal themselves.”
Sean hadn’t considered that possibility, but the slime’s logic made sense to him. If gaining more mass might unlock new options for him as well, then it made sense to wait until they were done before buying any. They weren’t gaining much experience from consuming these corpses – most had simply been dead too long, in Gel’s estimation. But every now and then one would give them at least a single point, and it was starting to add up.
“Makes sense.” Sean agreed, before their conversation stilled as the two began clearing the next tunnel. As they worked, Sean turned his attention inwards to the other prompts that had been awaiting his attention ever since the final battle with the inmortu. The first prompt was one he had expected, but that didn’t dampen his excitement.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
CONGRATULATIONS, BY ACCOMPLISHING FEATS REMARKABLE EVEN TO THE PATIENT NOTICE OF DEATH ITSELF, YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 12! AS A GELATON YOU GAIN 1 POINT OF MIGHT, 1 POINT OF ADAPTATION, AND 2 POINTS OF TOUGHNESS WITH EVERY LEVEL.
You have gained one manasphere node point!
Four attribute points per level?! That was amazing! A free point in adaptation every level would go a long way towards helping him pay his mana upkeep costs. Enough levels in Gelaton and down the line he might be free of it! Even if not, the extra points would still go a long way towards easing that particular burden.
Pity we couldn’t have evolved to it earlier. Sean thought, recalling how they had jumped from levels 9 to 11 in one go. That was potentially an entire point of adaptation he had missed out on. It might even have been more, due to them having to meet the evolution’s high mass requirements before being allowed to take it.
Suppose I should be grateful I only missed out on one point.
The next prompt that popped up however, renewed Sean’s faith in the fairness of the universe. It was the same coloring as the previous level-up prompt, though this one was accompanied by the sound of a small bell.
As this is the first time you have leveled up as a Gelaton, the attribute boost you missed out on by delaying the evolution after earning the opportunity have now been retroactively awarded.
Congratulations! You have gained 1 point of Adaptation (level 10 to 11 retroactive award).
Ha-hah! Alright! Sean pumped a victory fist through the skull of a dead ant before stuffing the juicy bits into his chest. He had honestly been worried about something like this happening when they had chosen to push off evolving in order to wait for the better option, but now it looked like there was no penalty for doing so! The system already had a built-in way to make sure monsters who chose to delay their evolution didn’t suffer for it in the long term!
For a moment, Sean wondered what it said about him that he had mentally identified with ‘monsters’ instead of ‘people’ there… but he quickly let that thought go. He still had prompts to go over. The next one appeared as a transparent, ghostly grey and was accompanied by the sound of many voices harmonizing in a way that was both haunting and somehow positive. It reminded Sean rather distinctly of how church choirs were often portrayed.
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE EARNED THE TITLE: ‘MERCIFUL EXECUTIONER’! A SWIFT, GRACEFUL END IS OFTEN A KINDER MERCY THAN MANY WOULD CHOOSE TO BELIEVE. BY FINDING AN ALTERNATE METHOD TO OUTRIGHT SLAUGHTER AND CHOOSING TO SAVE AN OPPONENT’S SPIRIT EVEN AS YOU TOOK THEIR LIFE, YOU HAVE PROVEN THAT YOU UNDERSTAND THIS FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH.
This title grants a 25% bonus to experience gained when giving the final mercy of Death’s truest embrace to an opponent suffering from the world’s torments.
Sean’s nonexistent eyebrows shot up to the top of his skull. Merciful Executioner was quite the title. It also cemented the whole ‘Grim Reaper’ vibe Sean had started to feel like he had been moving towards ever since grabbing the ‘Reaper’s Hand’ node. He wasn’t sure yet if the legends about the Reaper back on Earth matched up with what a Reaper was here, but Sean had a feeling if he kept moving down that particular node path then he would eventually find out.
When he had released the spirits trapped within the Inmortu with the owlen paladin Saren’s help, Sean had admittedly not been doing it for purely selfless reasons. The hulking undead had been a nearly unstoppable opponent, and their options had all but run dry by that point. Once it had begun however, Sean had almost felt like he had been in a trance.
In that moment his midnight black left hand, his Reaper’s hand, had suffused his entire being with a feeling of inevitability that felt like it could, and would, bear down mountains given enough time. Despite having used the paladin’s prayers to help lay the spirits inside the creature to rest at the time, Sean wasn’t entirely sure now that doing so had been necessary. There was another way to go about it. He could feel it.
Sean just couldn’t have said where exactly that feeling came from.
Deciding to save that particular bit of introspection for later, the gelaton pulled up the next prompt awaiting his attention. This one had a bright yellow and red border, with a background full of shattered chains. A raucous chorus of freed voices shouting in tandem filled his mind as it appeared.
Congratulations, you have earned the title: ‘Liberator’! Accursed are those who shackle the lives of others to serve their own greed, and by your hand soon may their tyranny end! Liberators are those who fight for the freedom of others, no matter the cost. To see a world free to choose its own destiny, even if the price of such freedom must be paid in a captor’s blood!
This title grants a second chance to resist mental abilities, spells and effects that would remove your autonomy.
There was little doubt this title had come from freeing the ant matriarch from the slaveshroom. While the initial decision to do so had been Gel’s, it looked like the universe still gave him credit for the actions he had taken to set the acidspitter brood free from their spore-bonds.
At least it’s not penalizing me for ‘freeing’ most of them by feeding them to Gel.
Congratulations, by freeing more than 25 individuals from captivity, you have raised your ‘Liberator’ title to the second rank! Your continued pursuit of freedom shall be rewarded! The effect of your ‘Liberator’ title will now also be given to all who are within your presence and consider you their ally!
Is it giving me credit for all the ants we saved? Sean wondered, remembering the small horde of relatively ‘tiny’ ants the queen had unearthed from below ground. He hadn’t gotten a quick count, but there had to have been hundreds of them!
Congratulations, by freeing more than 250 individuals from captivity, you have raised your ‘Liberator’ title to the third rank! Your righteous pursuit of freedom shall be rewarded! The effect of your ‘Liberator’ title now grants a second chance to resist ongoing effects for those who enter your presence and consider you their ally!
If Sean could have blinked, he would have. The fact that they had freed more than 250 ants was completely lost on him in light of the new effect that gaining the third rank of the Liberator title had given him. He now had a passive chance to help others resist any kind of control they were under, so long as they considered him an ally, just by getting within range! That was insane!
If this works on minions, then we might be able to turn some of Bancroft’s own forces against him! The idea of surprising the hateful necromancer by sending one of those ghost-things or even another inmortu back at him was incredibly satisfying. Even if Sean currently had no idea how to get another minion to consider him its ‘ally’.
Questions for later. The gelaton decided.
For now, he was more than happy to take the second chance at resistance for himself. Sean still remembered being frozen in place by that ghost back in the village. The paralysis had only lasted seconds, but those had been some of the longest seconds of his unlife. Preventing that from ever happening in the first place was a goal Sean could get behind.
Which reminds me… Sean hadn’t looked at his status page since leveling up, so he was curious to see what gains he had accumulated. Also, when they had evolved to Gelaton, Sean had been given access to pick nodes from Gel’s manasphere map. Something the slime had also earned. Until now though, Sean hadn’t had the time to fully explore either of those things.
Now that they were about finished with the tunnel they were currently in, Sean figured he had time to occlude his vision with the larger prompt of his status screen.
Let’s see here… Sean thought, quickly skimming his way through the page.
Most of it looked just as it always had. There was his health, mana, attributes, and title–
What the hell?
There were now… tabs at the top of his character sheet. One of which read “Gel” in English. Curious, Sean mentally selected it. Immediately, a page with a layout that mirrored his own status popped up. Only, Sean couldn’t read any of it. It was all jumbled up. There were random English letters mixed in here and there, but the majority of it was a script he didn’t recognize.
A sharp spike of pain shot into his skull, and Sean suddenly felt dizzy. The numbers and words on the prompt before him suddenly began to move. The pain filling the space where his brain had once been intensified as they did, and Sean felt his orbs begin to cross. He stuck a hand out to the cavern wall to steady himself as the numbers, letters, and unrecognizable symbols started frantically swirling around his vision.
Some jumped across the page in erratic patterns. Others danced like embers of a flame before merging into one another. Still others slipped right off the prompt and floated out into space as if they were now freed from their bonds and were trying to escape. A precious few even began to distort and grow, blinking in and out of existence.
With each change, the pain Sean was feeling grew steadily worse. It felt like someone was trying to drive a railroad spike through his skull and had decided that going only halfway was for quitters. Now they were whaling away on it with a sledgehammer.
The gelaton fell to his knees for the second time that day, grasping at his empty eye sockets. Desperation told him it might be possible to wipe away the prompt, even if reality had other ideas. His burning red orbs swirled around like marbles spun across a table, and the prompt grew in size until single letters were the size of furniture. He heard a gasp of surprise from Gel, followed by a scream from the slime that matched exactly what Sean was feeling.
Strange letters, symbols, and what a small part of his mind guessed had to be runes flashed in and out of various colors. Some Sean knew words for, and others he did not. After a moment, the runes leapt of their own accord off the sheet and dove into his mind. Each burned its own way through Sean’s very being as it went.
The gelaton’s jaw dropped open into a wordless scream as Gel’s body writhed around his bones like a live fish tossed onto a sizzling pan. Images he couldn’t make sense of layered over Sean’s vision one after the other and were rebuffed, only to return a moment later. Each one crashed onto his sanity like a falling wave as concepts Sean had no frame of reference for dove into his perception of reality and shattered it into a thousand falling pieces.
Then, all at once, everything froze. New text scrawled its way over Sean’s vision, untethered to the status sheet before him or any of the images trying to force their way into his mind. English characters, written in a flowing, perfect scrawl that could only be handwritten.
Phew… Didn’t think I would make it in time. You’re both looking a little banged up, aren’t you? No worries. Just hold on a sec’, and I’ll see if I can sort all this out.