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System Crash: Awakenings
Chapter 3: Maddening

Chapter 3: Maddening

Race: Unnamed Tiny Newborn Slime

Class: Caster (Unavailable due to Monster species)

Corruption: 70%

Level: 1

Exp - 0%

Health: 11/11

Mana: 0/0

Stam: 11/11

Might: 1.0/10

Skill: 1.0/10

Toughness:1.0/10

Will: 10/10

Cunning: 10/10

Luck: 10/10

Ability Points - 0

Mutation Points - 1

Skill Points - 1

Skills: Minor mana control

Spells: Minor elemental bolt, Unbound Movement

Traits: (Hidden)Reborn soul, E̶͕̫̼̞̠̮̞̖̯͍̹̅̌̓̾̿͐̍̈̐͂̕r̵̢̩͕̠̔̓̒̒̇̎̽̉̌̐̇r̸̲͔̞̜͓̬͉̣̗̹͍̝̣̈́͗̓̀̈͛́́̈́̕̚͜o̷̳̯̗͉̣̭̣͓͌͛͐r̸̢̧̨̤̗̜̰̺̜͓̹̺̠͕͆̀̃͑̔̌͜,

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Location: Unknown

Day: 1

Awake again, but this time it feels... real. Like really real. Except I can't open my eyes. Or sit up. I'm just kind of... sitting here.

Makes sense, I saw my status. A slime. Tiny, newborn slime.

Cant see. Can't hear. Can't taste. Can't smell.

I can feel. That's it.

Huh... what's that? The enforced calmness is gone. Oh good.

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Location: Unknown

Day: 5

Don't you judge me. Humans aren't meant to be sensory deprived!

How do you think you would fare in this situation! Yes goddammit! For my own sanity I decided to start talking to someone who isn't there, what do you expect of me? I can't DO anything!

I don't remember a whole hell of a lot from the last few days. Hell, I only even know it's been five days because of that notification that told me.

Now I'm just kind of sitting here... nothing has really happened, but I do know a few things. I'm stuck wherever I am.

I'm in a room. It's square... mostly. It feels like there are designs around, with what feels like a doorway on one side and a kind of arch on the other just sort of free standing on an elevated platform.

In the middle of the room is an altar, with the top kind of bowl shaped. The bowl is like an Olympic swimming pool to me but that doesn't tell me too much.

I'm really slow, just sort of able to roll around. Makes sense, looking over my stats they seem to be about as low as you can go without being zero. For most of them anyway.

I use my slime body to pick up a stone with all the precision of a mitten wielded by by a child with greasy hands. Oh yes, the epitome of grace and Dexterity. Certainly one day soon I will give those Olympic gymnasts a run for their leotards with a precise showing of my skills and agility.

For now, I'm just happy I managed to actually hold the damn thing.

My attention was pulled towards the bowl altar in the middle of the room, not for the first time... at a growing sense of... I don't know what. Like a tension in the air. Like that feeling of a lingering thunderstorm that had yet to break and unleash on the land and yet... it didn't feel dangerous. Like a building... excitement... an energy.

Something was.... *pop*

...well... that was... anticlimactic. What even happened?

Obviously I can't see, so I just sort of ooze over to where I felt the sensation and rolled right over something that hadn't been there before.

I rolled right over a tiny warm marble and was instantly assaulted by feelings of fear and confusion.

Nascent Dungeon Core(Undefended)

Consume core? Y/N?

Reward: Unlock extra Skills. Gain extra Skills. Exp bonus.

...seriously? A Dungeon core just kind of... spawned in? And the system instantly gave me a quest to eat it?

I held the little marble and felt disgust... towards the system.

I hit the DENY option so hard I think I might have broken something. I felt like I was holding a frightened child in my hands and was being asked if I wanted it with barbecue sauce or À la carte.

I did my best to calm myself and just hold the little marble.

It's okay little one... I won't hurt you. I did my best to emit gentle soothing feelings even though I didn't really understand if it could sense such things but... after a bit, the terrified confusion began to ebb.

I'm suddenly feeling really tired... like the crash after an adrenaline rush. Then again, I don't think I slept since I spawned.

The Dungeon core I was holding inside my body was warm and calming even further, the warmth spreading outwards slowly and making me feel... incredibly relaxed.

Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.

That is when a rush of notifications assaulted me.

Dozens, if not hundreds of notifications flooded my awareness, Exp gains, item pickups.

Fuck! I have no mouth and must scream!

Stop it!

System preferences set to ~Simple~

Suddenly the notifications condensed and all the details shrunk down. I always hated seeing the small numbers. Like, it was nice knowing I got EXP, but I could care less how much Exp it was.

The notifications suddenly became much more manageable.

Congradulations on your new life as a Slime!

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

You have absorbed Human Remains(fresh)

Experience Gained from absorption of Wild Mana

Experience gained from consumption of materials

Mutation Points gained from consumption of Materials

Memento added to Inventory

Quest Started, "Promise Made" ~Find her~

Reward for Completion - ???

Penalty for Failure - ???

Experience gained from consumption of materials

Mutation Points gained from Consumption of materials

Level up! Level advances to 2

Experience Gained from absorption of Wild Mana

Mutation Points gained from Consumption of materials

+1 Ability point

+5 Skill points

Level up! Level advances to 3

+5 Skill points

Experience Gained from absorption of Wild Mana

Experience gained from Consumption of materials

Trait gaint - Madness Tier 1(Forgetful)

Skill gained - Madness resistance

Skill increased - Madness resistance +1 x4

1 Ability points available

10 Skill points available

10 Mutation Points available

Spend points for advancement? Y/N?

That short list was a lot easier to handle than each individual notification for everything I had done that had any measurable effect.

It was nice to get some details about my new race, it explained a few things.

It's also kind of nice that the system seems pretty responsive, able to alter the way it appears to me and the like.

I take a look at the options.

Ability points for increasing my primary stats.

Skill points for the purchase and advancement of skills

And Mutation Points for upgrading myself. Also apparently Monster exclusive there.

For the primary Stats...

My highest stats are Will, Cunning and Luck but I don't know if that's even a good number.

The first thing I try is to put points in to Luck. Why not. Luck is always useful no matter what.

Luck cannot be directly upgraded

Damn.

Okay let's look at the rest.

Might is easy, raw physical ability. Cool. Awesome. Would be so useful if I wasn't made of jello.

Skill is Precision, Dexterity, and the like

Toughness, Ability to withstand damage of a more Mundane nature, including poisons and diseases.

Will governs or measures mental strength as well as Magical aptitude

Cunning, Pursuasion, Deception, Subtlety as well as crativity

Luck is self explanatory.

With such a low toughness I cant help but feel like I am a step away from disaster.

Might I feel is practically useless to me the way I am right now, and being as slow as I am right now is entirely unacceptable.

I mentioned before that the base stats were multiplicative, that's how it interacts with skills, but they have their own effects attached to them as well.

With Cunning being a high stat I can probably use that for survivability which should be my first focus. So my only reach choice is if I want to increase my Toughness or Skill.

Durability, or Mobility?

One point won't make or break me or make a hell of a big difference, but I think my durability needs help the most. So I put that point right in to my Toughness.

Now for skills.

System will only display skills that are currently available to you. Points can be spent to either purchase new skills, or upgrade existing ones.

Current skills

Skill gained - Madness resistance

Available Skills

Sneak(Tier 1, Rank 1) - Decrease likelihood of detection, drains stamina during use. Constant Drain when ability is active 1/s

Sneak Attack(Tier 1, Rank 1) Increase damage when attacking from an Undetected state. Stamina cost per use 5

Tracking(Tier 1, Rank 1) Increases ability to follow tracks. Constant Drain on stamina when ability is active 1/s

Inspect(Tier 1, Rank 1) Receive details when focusing on a target. No cost, requires concentration.

Mana Sense - Minor(Tier 1, Rank 1) Basic ability to sense ambient mana passively. Activate to enhance effect. Stamina cost during active effect 1/s

Block(Tier 1, Rank 1) Activate to reduce damage taken from a single blow. Stamina cost per activation 5

The list continued on until I went figuratively cross-eyed. Passives, actives, reactions... I noticed that I didn't seem to have a few skills listed that seemed like they should be there but then realized those skills might be related to the fact I'm missing some things.

Can't punch without hands. Can't kick without feet. That sort of thing. I also noticed some slime specific skills. Everything I did see seemed pretty basic though. The sort of things you could expect from a magical fantasy world.

For now, Taking the Sneak skill seemed like one of the easiest choices I've ever made. At least for now I seem to be leveling up almost passively so I don't need to focus on my combat abilities yet but that will definitely come up.

Information gathering is my second highest priority. I need to focus on my ability to do that.

For starters, The Minor Mana Sense and Inspect seems like easy choices and then I look over the rest of the Skill list.

In my Slime specific list, I see one that will definitely help. Damage Resist - Minor.

It reduces my total damage taken by a set amount based on Skill level. It's not much, fractions of an Hp per level but I'm sure it will add up. So I take that too.

My big reasoning behind that choice is... well... it's an all around defense and any gamer can tell you there are hundreds of ways to take stupid damage. Little pings of damage that add up over time.

Few inches too high on that jump? Ran in to the wrong bush? Tripped over your own trap because you forgot about it...

Accidentally stood in the middle of a giant fucking glowing red circle on the ground from a clearly telegraphed boss nuke because you were too busy managing your cool cooldowns even though the Healer would have reached through your monitor and beat your head against the keyboard because they have had to save your ass from the same thing a dozen times already?

I had to stop my internal rant with a sigh and shake myself... mostly just making my jelly wobble a bit.

Alright, now to move on to the next section. Mutation. Monster specific things that alter myself.

It is similar to the skill Menu, but more tailored towards me personally.

I see I'm able to change three main things.

Membrane- Outer layer of protection that forms a slime

Jelly- Internal structure of a slime functioning as Vital Organs

Stomach- A space within the Jelly where food is processed.

With ten points to spend, I'm taking a look through the menus.

All the areas seem like they would have cool options. Though like the previous menu nothing particularly magical, physics breaking or anything like that. I AM still low level, and don't even have any mana so it makes sense.

For my Membrane I select a Camaflaging option so help with my Sneak. It says I have the ability to change my shape and texture. Kind of like some of those octopus from back home.

For my Jelly... I take a simple option Thicker Jelly. This gives me a resistance to 'Bleed-out'. I do NOT want to pop like a balloon, not that I'm sure that's what would happen but with this at least whenever my Membrane gets pierced I won't simply... have my insides rudely introduced to my outsides.

Then my stomach. More options... more choices... no I don't feel like reading out a list of dozens of choices out to no one.

I don't think anything here will help with my three big goals of Stealth, Information Gathering and Survival. So how about utility?

Things like increased capacity, efficient digestion, internal damage resistance, increased acid damage...

Yea, some of these options are only useful if I swallow prey whole... and alive. I don't like the idea of something just... dissolving alive in acid. That's an awful way to go.

I decide to take the Efficient digestion near the top of the list. It will make it so that I gain a small amount of resource bonus when I digest things. Like everything else, at the first level it is an incredibly small bonus, but hey... that's why leveling things up is important.

Now, the difference between skills and Mutations, from what I'm getting from the System, is that Skills need to he trained to 'Breakthrough' levels before they can be advanced to the next Tier manually through a higher skill point investment.

Mutations need to be leveled manually through point investment.

So with three points spent, seven left, I can bring one mutation up twice, with a single upgrade for one of my other two Mutations. Or all three once with a single point left over.

Level 2 costs 2, Level 3 costs 3... you get the idea. Level ten seems to be the cap and the price to advance costs much more than that.

Going to boost my camouflage by two.

There is so much going on in my head right now I'm not even sure if I missed anything. I always had trouble focusing and remembering stuff.

Not like the system had to insult me by tacking on some Madness affliction... don't even need to ask about it. Just surprised I didn't spawn with it.

With an internal sigh I just shrug and confirm all my selections. I'm too tired for this bullshit... just let me sleep...