Ozzy stood there feeling at the edge of nothingness, and the connections further that existed there. He was trying to get a feel for how the structure for wherever this place was worked. Like any new place you moved to you tried to gauge the distance between things. The direction other places laid in, and the best path to get there. It felt almost as if when reaching out toward the wall of nonexistence that the connections there were turning right back around toward his own sphere… just, a little to the left. Well not left per se but a different direction entirely.
He remembered that in higher dimensions every new dimension was at 90 degree angles to all others. It almost appeared that every single new place was another dimensional step off from every single other place, or at least that was part of it. There was one that seemed easier to touch, or connect to, depending on how you looked at it. Feeling back to the connection to the rat square, which somehow still existed, he examined the feeling of its connection in relation to the others. Turning back to this ‘off’ connection he checked it again as well. Back and forth he compared them a few times with the other connections he could feel. Well a few of them as there seemed to be an infinite number of them. ‘That's why it was easier’ he thought. Whatever place this was had a connection that wasn’t 90 degrees off from the rat square. It was in the same direction, or the same plane of existence.
He couldn’t be absolutely sure, but something told him he could expect something within the same vein as the rat square. Before he could change his mind he connected to this second square and took his step. He was hoping for something similar enough to not be dangerous but different enough to feel like he was getting somewhere. What he didn’t expect was to hear another rat squeak. Which almost made him turn around in frustration. He didn’t want it to be exactly the same as he’d already experienced.
Opening his eyes he was glad to see his expectation of the same dim starry sky was accurate so closing his eyes in preparation hadn’t been wasted. Looking down he saw another rat standing before him and was about to smack it in frustration when he realized something was definitely different here. This rat was larger. The first rat square had rats all around the size of his hand. The variations on those rats had been indistinguishable. All were effectively identical as far as he could tell. While here was a rat that was easily the size of his foot. Likely a little larger. He didn’t want to offer up his foot to compare what with the other rats having shown themselves fully ready to bite if he gave them a chance.
That thought spurred him on so he brought the branch he held down on it as quickly as he could. Despite the amazing improvements he’d received from the sixty to seventy odd cores he’d absorbed in total he nearly missed the rat as it tried to jerk away. Luckily he still connected, if a little off, and the rat's head crunched into the ground. He expected he would never get used to the sound of a skull being crushed even if it was an extremely large disgusting rat he was doing it too. Though if every new place he went to simply had more, and larger rats, he might eventually.
The danger of bitten up feet having been addressed he looked around the new square. It was essentially the same as the other rat square. Some random square meter of grassland. Checking the underside he found more of the same. A couple small stones sat on the underside as well. Jumping back to the top he performed the gruesome surgery needed to claim this rat's core and stepped back to his own square. Holding up his prize as he did. There was no immediately obvious difference between the little rats core and this one, though as it zapped him and absorbed into his body he could swear there was a little more energy. More testing might help him confirm or deny that.
Looking over to his grassy square he paused for a second. There next to the grassy square was a beautiful new second one. He froze for a second thinking about the implications. But the possibilities caused him to take action instead. Not jumping to another square or moving on with anything important. No, his next action was to lay out in the two square meters of grass and just chill in the sun for a time. He had dreamed of the possibilities of reincarnation a time or two back on earth. That or traveling to another world somehow, but he’d never thought about the fact that going there didn’t mean he stopped being human and needing to enjoy certain basic human needs from time to time. He almost got emotional about the simple fact of having a large enough section of land to lay down in but instead he put his arms up behind his head and closed his eyes. Allowing the sunshine to soothe his mood.
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Ozzy continued his lazy indulgence for longer than he initially expected given the amazing turn of events. Eventually the excitement pulled him out of his reverie and had him reaching out into nothingness again. He could pick out this second rat square almost immediately as if it were a pointer on a game compass which was enlarged compared to all the other possible destinations. The same as with the initial rat square and his own. As he examined this he noticed that the same could be said now for a fourth square. One that he realized was just like the second rat square in that it was in the same direction as the other two rats. Its pointer, for lack of a better word, was not quite the same size as the other rat squares but had become much larger than the seemingly infinite masses of other possibilities.
With this information he was beginning to suspect there were an infinite number of these rat squares laying out there all on the same dimension yet he couldn’t identify them from any of the other infinitely many worlds without first visiting one of the squares nearest it. He could test if the pattern repeated itself. Just as he could confirm if the size increase also repeated itself. He hoped the second wasn’t true. There was not a single bit of him that desired to see a horse sized rat standing less than a meter from him. Which reminded him of another goal of his. To look into another square.
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He’d nearly forgotten that’s what injured his third eye and gave him such a boost in the first place. Tentatively his tendril reached out to the nothingness once more. Feeling the connections it found the third rat square and touched the connection. Instead of stepping forward he tried to move his tendril further, but getting it to follow the connection to a direction he couldn’t turn naturally was giving him vertigo. He closed off any sense of direction from the tendril and was surprised he was able to do so. Continuing on he instead just expanded his tendril along the connection without trying to dictate any direction or specific instruction. After a few moments his tendril popped into another space and with it came the strangest thing. He could see the other square.
Well not with the usual visible light spectrum he was used to. What he saw was the membrane, domain and even the energies contained in the core of the rat present. Those are what shone the brightest but the rat was visible as well. It, like himself, had its own domain. This sight wasn’t quite the same as just seeing so he couldn’t get a good gauge of its size but he guessed it was at least larger than the first rat, and suspected it was larger than the second as well. He couldn’t be sure though without stepping through. Preparing himself he got in a stance to smack this new rat the second he was through as well as closed his eyes.
Stepping forward he had the strangest view. As his tendril was giving him a look at the other square while he was traveling he could watch the process. The trip felt the same as it had before, like simply taking a single step from one place into another, yet his sight in the rat square told him a different story. The rat moved about as if in fast forward. Getting up, moving about slightly and sitting back where it had been before. Looking very much like a dog circling around to nap. It almost stopped him from smacking this new rat on arrival but as it jumped up and began to screech he forced his eyes open even as he was already bringing his branch to bear on it. This rat dodged even better than the second. He missed its head but caught its neck and was rewarded with a disgusting gurgling cry of pain.
With its wounded neck the second swing wasn’t dodged nearly as well and another crunching skull gave him the willies. Especially since this rat was approaching the size of his shin and had a head the size of a baseball. He almost puked seeing the rather large crushed skull lay open before him. He took the opportunity to get away from the sight by checking the underside. There was another large flat stone there which he grabbed. Steeling himself he jumped back to the topside and flipped the rat over. Taking the core as his trophy he picked the stone back up as well and jumped back home.
When he arrived the core started absorbing into his skin and he could definitely tell this one contained more energy than the first rats. Not twice as much but around half again. Though its size had been the same. Looking over his kingdom he was pleased to find a third grassy square had taken up residence. It was nice to see some progress being made here finally. Sure getting stronger was progress but expanding his little sphere of influence was really something he was proud of. Now he had a little L shape going on. His recliner square connected to the rat square on the right. Then three grassy squares off in one direction.
He wanted nothing more than to jump to the next rat square and expand even further. With that thought he also confirmed he could see another connection expand at the border of existence. Yet he had already missed his mark with the last rat. If the next rat was larger and faster yet again he had no guarantee he would be able to kill it before it really started doing damage to him. Which only meant one thing. He was going to need to grind that first rat square for cores to improve himself first.
Grinding had never been fun for him in any aspect, gaming or otherwise, but the results were definitely satisfying. He could try to fashion himself some armor out of his branches and strips of his blanket. The shoddy results would likely fall apart too quickly though. He could also definitely go after the other rats, but the increased risk didn’t stack up well against the minor increase in gain. There was also the fact that apparently traveling to another square wasn’t actually instantaneous but took a bit of extra time each jump, both there and back. Turning to the rat square he began a miniature massacre of the rodent variety.
Initially he was slowly whacking the rats, stabbing them for their cores, and then holding them to absorb them. Though in the process he realized he was not utilizing all his capabilities to their fullest. If he could pick up a core and pull it at him fast enough to cause a welt, couldn’t he do more? Sending his tendril out to the newest rat he formed the tip into a little spike and skewered the rat. While passing through the rat it grabbed the core as well. Pulling the core back to himself he held off on touching it. If the tendril could do this to the small rat what could it do to the others? In fact he’d already confirmed he could send his tendril into the other squares, and it didn’t seem to have the same delay as going there himself.
Absorbing the core normally he sent his tendril out to the connections and popped it into the second rat square. He spiked this one as well with only slightly more resistance. Then pulled the core back into his own square. The transfer of the core had a little hiccup, but not a very long delay. Trying the third rat he found it was quite difficult to kill with his will alone, but stabbing it in the eye got the job done. Pulling this core back he decided it was definitely going to be beneficial to start exclusively upgrading his metaphysical capabilities.