CLAY_PROPINQUITY
A vibrant grey glob formed by the spontaneous hands of a creative imagination.
(PASSIVE): When in proximity to an NPC, one's affability is increased proportionally to clay holdings.
(CRAFTING): No recipes known.
Tsun scoured the island and proceeded to systematically harvest all of the plants that yielded items, yet, despite her policy of devastation on the natural environment, the landmass was rather barren of anything but clay.
Inventory 24/100
*ITEM quantity(weight/item)*
CLAY x20(0.5)
BENDY_TWIG x3(1)
COMMON_ORE x3(2)
CLAY_PROPINQUITY x1(5)
She sat to meditate in the center of the island, stretching her imagination in attempts to create another propinquity. Memories of dreams, visualizations of objects…
“Speculation with no returns.”
Tsunday was conjuring in her mind an interobject of a spinach-star from a curious dream log of late when a sudden discomfort attacked her HUD. A sprite of huckleberry-chestnut milk choked by an arc timer.
"What sort of prison-escapee UX designer would imagine such a juxtaposed premise..."
AFFLICTED→ HUNGER I
Hunger is a FISH affliction that can be resolved by creatures eating other creatures or plants.
FISH 6/12
Increase your FISH barrel above 6 to prevent HUNGER.
Due to child humility, HUGER I will not tick damage. HUNGER II (afflicted at 3/12) will tick 50 dmg per 0.1 cycles.
She gestured FISH.
FISH biome
A slimy and scaly scarcity: violent unforgiving creatures wrest control amongst themselves and the dead.
“Eeek!”
The FISH barrel remained persistently visible in her HUD now, a constant cue of the lurking threat to her dwindling economy.
Tsun desperately gnawed a bendy twig as though she were a bald-splotched elder on deathbed gifted longevity licorice by her beloved.
“Blek”
She ambled to the shore and plunged her eyes into the sea.
Desolation. Not even a single-calorie minnow could be hunted below the dappled foam.
She dipped her toes in.
To assert the water as merely cold would be as ludicrous as calling an ice age that obliterated civilizations an endearing touch of frost. It was a chill so profound, even entropy might halt its relentless march for a moment, deliberating whether to proceed with the cold-hearted business of increasing disorder, or take a hot chocolate break instead.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Regardless, the neo-primitive clash between Tsunday’s character and the liquid was resolved by her unenviable fortitude. She had endured intensive psychological training and spacesuit engineering courses in her youth from the personals (tutor programs) onboard Soa.
Her initial strategy was to craft a wetsuit to maintain her body’s vital heat. She proceeded to dab the clay over herself more generously. In the starlight, it baked and crumbled off.
FISH 5/12
“I don’t have cycles for this,” Tsunday adopted the lingo.
She dove into the ocean.
MEDIOCRISEA[0->1]
The liquid was more viscous than water, decelerating her descent stubbornly. Fortunately, as if to reward her voracious appetite, the water was comfortable: barely below body temperature one meter down.
Opening her eyes, clarity of sight revealed the clay island of origin reposed onto a bumpy but rather uniform-height claybed approximately 10 meters beneath. She sorted visible entities by distance: additional twigs near the surface, a white shell tumbled down the island’s slope, and strands of seaweed hugging the ocean floor.
CUBES 11/12
-1 per millicycle (10 seconds)
Return to the surface to refill cubes.
Afflicted by BREATH I at 3/12 CUBES.
BREATH I will tick 1 dmg per 0.1 millicycle.
Another barrel ephemeralized adjacent to FISH.
“It appears I can only remain underwater safely for… 8 millicycles, 80 seconds.”
Tsun went for the shell. A deceivingly minimal distance to traverse became nightmarish as she dragged her body onward through the molasses.
CUBES 10/12
CUBES 9/12
CUBES 8/12
“Almost there.” Her tenacity rose as she approached the giant logarithmic-spiral shell.
CUBES 7/12
Inventory 34/100
+1 MAGI_SHELL
Her buoyancy had noticeably decreased after snatching the uncannily heavy biodrop.
Given her projected velocity and time, she calculated at least 8 dmg would be taken.
“Dead weight.”
Tsun abandoned all her standard clay, a single sunken item clump.
Inventory 24/100
It was not sufficient.
CUBES 4/12. Still three meters out.
“To die at such near-surface depth, given all my light years accumulated through space travel, would be so cruel.”
CUBES 3/12
AFFLICTED→BREATH I
Due to child humility, your distinct heartstring begins with virtue 20.
1 dmg → SURVIVED
(probability of death is 5%)
1 dmg → SURVIVED
Upon taking damage, Tsunday’s HUD rendered a semi transparent heart container with wooden wings, a single glowing golden strand flashed white and flickered.
1 dmg → SURVIVED
Tsun breached the icy surface.
CUBES 12/12
BREATH refilled.
…
MAGI_SHELL - Uncommon
Forsaken miracle, an archaic gift from a nomadic creature that found its ageless end in the shallow sparsity of the Mediocrisea
Ashore, she peered at the magi shell like a castaway companion, absentmindedly pressing the clay propinquity with her thumbs as they starved to death.
FISH 4/12
If a single tick of damage had a five percent probability of killing her character, then fifty damage ought to finish the job.
“250%, or at least 1 - (0.95)^50… 92 ish%? Dunno how it stacks, I wonder how virtue is related to HP.”
The motivation that arises with unquenched hunger gave her urgency to back an emerging venture. She began to sculpt her remaining drop of clay into the shape of the shell. The clay grew warmer and began to scaffold up her hands as she concentrated. Encouraged by the feedback, she ever carefully pressed a sharp logarithmic spiral into the ellipsoid. The clay flowed most effortlessly into a geometry similar, yet not synonymous with the shell.
ITEM CRAFTED!
+ 1 LITRE [closed]
(PASSIVE): A rounded polyhedron that stores cubes exceeding the innate barrel capacity of a creature
+8 CUBE CAPACITY
CUBES 0/8
(ACTIVE): Toggle status [open/closed]. When open in water, it will propel cubes out at 10 per millicycle. When opened in air, it will fill with cubes.
(WEIGHT): 10+0.5/cube contained
With recuperative dexterity, Tsun gripped the LITRE with primal hypothesis. Open!
A sudden intake, swoosh! 8/8. Close!
Back in the bath, toggling the shell, she soared. The LITRE shot an output stream of cute cuboid bubbles.
One way lateral jetstream-ticket later, “this is much more fun than slow-swimming.”
{2/8L, 9/12} CUBES.
Amidst the playful experimentation, an alert from Yoli woke her immersive fantasy.
Tsunday! An unidentified AI entity has been detected onboard Soa.