Ozzy re-centered himself. Sure he wanted nothing more than to plow through that pile of little energy packets, but he didn’t want the rush of adrenaline to lose him the chance to do a little testing with them first. After all it was only by luck he’d damaged his third eye, or whatever it was he was using now, and gotten an upgrade to it. He hoped he didn’t need to hurt himself to gain benefits in specific areas. The only way to find out was to test. Reaching out again he grabbed another core and brought it close. This time he didn’t touch it to his body at all. Instead he held it before his eyes though it was a bit distracting so he closed them. Using his new senses alone he enveloped the core with his tendril and like with the rat square envisioned consuming it.

At first it didn’t seem like anything was happening and the core was holding firm. For a split second though he ‘saw’ the core’s membrane puff out of existence and he was able to wonder if this had been a good idea. That was before the entire packet of energy rammed right down his tendril and into the most tender metaphysical organ. There may have been screaming and flailing but Ozzy was not aware of any of that. The only thing he knew was razor sharp needles slicing through his non corporeal dangly bits followed by searing and then nothingness all the way up to his forehead. When reaching its destination it translated into tendrils of lighting that danced around his head for what felt like a series of eternities.

Snapping his eyes open he was shocked to find himself still standing. Which made a certain amount of sense. He’d tried to absorb the energy entirely into this new metaphysical organ so if that worked his physical body wouldn’t have any damage or alteration. Hesitantly he turned his attention to that new sense and gingerly reached out. He amazingly didn’t feel any residual pain. His tendril felt about the same as before. Maybe slightly more reactive. Branching out further he felt the domain around him. He paused at his internal use of that word now. Where previously he had called it a membrane. But like the beast cores he wasn’t sure why he hadn’t thought of it earlier. This was a three dimensional thing, not just a surface. Something that was blindingly obvious to him now, but had at least been hinted at when he was blundering around earlier.

That was not the only change to his capabilities. The tendril while still there was not the only method of discerning his surroundings in a non physical sense. He could see not just feel the makeup of the domain and its boundaries. Looking at the rat square he could not just see that the pores were open but the actual resources being exchanged he’d assumed were there before. Energies of different types, some coming from his squares domain and entering the rat domain while different ones were returning from the rat domain. Such a drastic change with a single core was awesome. He’d absorbed twelve beforehand and gained only a bit of improvement compared. Though those twelve cores were only focused on his esp due to the damage there. It had likely caused all kinds of changes around his body before getting there. Probably part of the reason why he’d been able to go so long without eating or drinking much. Which would be a blessing until he solved his water issue. Drinking out of puddles was definitely not a good solution. Especially one it’s possible a rat shit in.

While it was awesome that he could improve his new capabilities directly, there were more pressing survival needs to test out as well. While he felt as if his thirst and hunger were being helped out by the cores he wasn’t entirely sure and needed to test to confirm. He could also try to direct the energy like he had with his third eye. Reaching out with his tendril again he grabbed another core and this time set it against his stomach. The expected zap came and energies flowed into his body. He had prepared though. He couldn’t really remember which organs helped with filtering water so instead he just focused a wall of energy around his whole abdomen. watching the energy flow he could see some was getting past his barrier but more was staying inside than not.

He could also see the changes taking effect now, not just the energies dissipating in specific areas. Chaos was a good description of what he saw earlier but not a whole one. Chained chaos was a better one. As the changes weren’t random. They were all improvements. Sometimes it was as simple as a toxin being broken down into something manageable, or combined with something else to form a non toxic variant. In some cases though it appeared to form usable substances like ATP from random molecules lying about. In even more complex instances it repaired damaged organelles, cells, or organs as needed. It even seemed to drain his bladder returning the purified water to his bloodstream. For a moment he was confused as to how he was discerning this but with a recursive examination of his observations he could see that it was again intent, not some microscopic vision, allowing him to understand what was happening. He wasn’t sure if it was the intent of the chained chaos or his own intent driving the changes made but he could read that intent to see the results.

Once this additional wave of energies had dissipated he allowed a few minutes for its changes to take effect before moving on. He could feel his still tense, worn muscles in all his limbs, neck, and head begin to slowly release and relax as if they were getting nutrients, water, and whatever else they needed. This last energy wave hadn’t been in those areas so it was definitely helpful to improve his organs to better serve his body as a whole. But that was assuming that more efficient and improved muscles, arteries, veins, etc wouldn't also help in that aspect, as well as a few others. Such as ‘thwonkin some rats’ he thought remembering a certain gentle giant he’d once admired.

There were at least a few more organs he wanted to try improving individually before he went hog wild on the pile. His heart for one. Grabbing another core he tested that next. Some energies still escaped his improvised barrier but again most stayed within. He watched them swirl around his heart and permeate it repeatedly. With each pass more and more of the energy dissipated as it repaired, revitalized, and most importantly improved the organ. He started to give it another few minutes to gauge the change although quickly realized doing nothing didn’t really put your heart through its paces.

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Ozzy decided to skip in circles around his little realm. From the topside to the underside and back again for a few minutes. The longer he did so the more he realized the twenty some odd cores he’d absorbed so far had altered his physique drastically. He wasn’t getting tired and his heart wasn’t beating even a tiny bit faster. Granted he didn’t have a long stretch of land to run on and for parts of his exercise he was somewhat weightless as he whirled to one side or the other. After almost 5 minutes of moving himself as fast as he could he was still not winded. He could feel his heart rate finally increasing a bit but not even half of what he expected to feel.

Stopping on the topside next to his recliner he sat again. On the edge of his seat he again grabbed a core mentally and brought it back to his head. This time he formed a barrier around his brain and absorbed the core. It was a little harder to follow the changes when they were happening in the organ he was using to examine them, though nowhere near as bad as when he tried to improve his third eye. Thinking about the process as it happened felt like stuttering in his mind. When it was done he stood up and looked around again. Though even in standing up he could already see the difference. It was slight but there was a minor hesitation in his movements. He tried with his hands turning them back and palm forward to examine the difference. It wasn’t like he was in slow motion but his expectation of when movements he initiated should happen were ever so slightly off. As if his body was delaying too much. Though it was obvious the opposite was happening, his mind was ever so slightly faster.

Well he definitely had some options moving forward. Having his body feel slow, even if just a hair slower than expected, was disconcerting. He doubted that using his energy to improve just his digestive system alone wouldn’t be ideal as sure it would help him with his sustenance issues but it seemed improving efficiencies across the board would accomplish the same as well as add other benefits. It seemed likely that when improving his body he would just improve it all at once. The third eye could definitely use some more individual investment. Though not this whole pile. He still needed a more streamlined system overall.

Leaning back in his recliner he started pulling cores toward him one at a time. Allowing the energy to be absorbed he would wait only until it had started dissipating before applying the next core. Repeating the process about ten times he paused and got up again. He felt like he’d just been to the spa for a full day. Then had a good night's sleep. Otherwise he felt about the same. He moved about and saw that apparently the cores had evenly improved things so that his movements were again synced with his expectations. Which was a relief. He was worried he’d accidentally borked himself.

He felt about with his tendril again while looking with his third eye and found a slight difference. The domain contours and densities were a little more defined. To the point that now he could see each of his squares, not just the rat square, had its own little ‘membrane’. Much harder to distinguish from one another but there was a difference. They were connected to one another just like the membrane for his realm and that of the rat square were. He was interested in examining that closer but he wanted to finish with his current task first. So leaning back in his recliner once more he started again with the absorption process.

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Ozzy kept at it until there were only three of the cores left. Once more he got up to test out the differences. It felt a bit like if he wasn’t careful he’d jump right out of his sphere of influence. At the same time he was surprised with how fluid his movements were. He didn’t need to learn to move his body again even though it had grown so much more capable so quickly. Whatever changes were made had allowed him to adapt along with them. That was truly amazing. He felt wonderful and powerful in ways he never thought he’d ever experience.

At the same time he felt a little.. useless. As much as he felt like he could punch through a brick wall, the place he found himself in meant it wasn’t really necessary. He mainly decided to improve his body so much to stave off his thirst and hunger. Before absorbing the last three cores he checked his third eye and tendril as well. Looking at the domains he could definitely see more detail but it was like looking through a microscope at a CPU. Without good labels, training, and study he wasn’t going to just understand what was going on here. Even if he could pull the intent right out of areas he was looking at it didn’t always help. There was another revelation though. He could now tell he had his own domain. Another ‘of course’ realization that was kind of obvious if you thought about it. Though also another thing he couldn’t really use right now

He went ahead and absorbed the last three cores one at a time into his tendril and third eye. He was now able to slowly release the energy from the core into his tendril using a barrier after the core’s membrane dissipated. It was odd how the process felt amazing for his body but painful for his third eye. Maybe this was due to the original damage to it, or possibly because the amount of energy he was absorbing there was so far beyond what was normal it was painful. After the directed absorption his senses still felt about the same. He was likely reaching some kind of plateau in that aspect. He could feel his tendril was still improving though. Reaction time strength and capabilities all felt at least somewhat improved.

There was something he’d been trying to do when all this started though, that he still hadn’t succeeded at. Sending his tendril to one of the pores in his squares domain he extended it beyond and was stopped. There wasn’t a beyond. Outside of the sphere of influence there was nothing, not even space. Though at the boundary of his sphere and the nothingness there was everything. He could feel what he’d heard faint hints of before much more clearly. Other squares like the rats and much more beyond it. He figured with his significant improvements it was time to put them to use trying to get out of here.