I returned to consciousness with a start. There was no slow transition like when your drowsily wake up or anything, just fully aware within an instant. And the first thing I became aware of? I was falling. I tried flailing my limbs and screaming, as humans tend to do, yet neither of these things happened. I felt trapped within my body, barely able to move. But there wasn't a lot of time to think about why that happened, because the next moment I hit the floor with a wet squelch.
Which was also weird, because I didn't hear the wet squelch so much as I felt it. In fact, I didn't hear anything at all. I frantically looked around, but everything I could see was a mess of blurry colors at best. I tried screaming, getting up, focusing my vision on something, but nothing seemed to work. After a few seconds of unfruitful panicking, I forced myself to calm down at least a little so I could analyze my current situation. I breathed heavily as I forced my body to be perfectly still. In an attempt to further calm down, I tried closing my eyes.
Instead of the immediate darkness I was familiar with, my vision seemed to shift downwards a bit before the desired blackness overtook my world. Strange. I took some more deep breaths until I considered myself to be in a calm enough state and started taking stock of what was going on. I tried moving a bit more and figured out that most definitely, I did not have limbs. There was a deathly silence all around me, not a single sound to be heard. My eyes seemed to be on the fritz, and my body felt alien in general.
I was a slug, wasn't I?
I opened my eyes again, which was again accompanied by my eyes shifting, this time upwards. My vision was still a blurry mess, but this weird movement could probably be accredited to eye tentacles. Now aware of that fact, I tried moving my tentacles around a bit, which came to me very naturally. Not that it helped me see better, mind you, but it worked. The range of movement was actually pretty amazing, and I discovered another thing about my eyes. They could smell things. Weird, I know, my eyes were my nose. Probably just weird slug anatomy.
Looking behind me revealed my blurry body to me which, most definitely, one hundred percent, was the body of a slug. Not a regular slug, of course, but a slug nonetheless. My body was black, instead of the brown I expected, and was covered in red and green swirls of color. The bright color probably announced the fact that I was a very poisonous boi.
Having found out about my current situation, I retracted my eyes again so I could think for a bit. This whole thing was extremely strange, I mean, I was a slug for god's sake! No longer was I a human with good eyes and opposable thumbs, but a slug! Turns out the whole bit with the system was real. Not some fucked up experiment conducted in a lab somewhere, not a fever dream, but real. The proof was right there. Me! Being a slug!
While I was freaking out about being a slug, I suddenly realized something. If everything I experienced in the void was real, then that means that I was in terrible danger, and couldn't afford to just sit around here doing nothing! This was a planet filled to the brim with monsters! Big and scary monsters who would most definitely like to just eat a tasty little tier zero slug to up their levels! I couldn't stay here, I needed to find somewhere to hide!
My eyes shot out of my body, trying to figure out where I was. The lack of sound was really freaking me out at this point. If there was a monster approaching me, I would have no way of hearing it! I frantically looked around, and thankfully found that I seemed to be the only moving thing in my vicinity. I also seemed to be in some sort of cave, which made sense, considering that my goal on this planet was to descend to its core. I would probably not see natural sunlight in a long while. It was unclear right now what provided the light down here, but I wasn't complaining.
First things first! Run for cover! Or in my case, crawl towards it in a painfully slow manner. For now, I just aimed myself at the nearest wall and went for it as fast as my sluggish movement would allow. I was also pleasantly surprised about the fact that I seemed to have no issues whatsoever with moving around my body. It would seem that my transformation came with instinctual knowledge of how my new body worked. Thank you, system, very cool! I kept my eyes on my surroundings, which was made a lot easier by being able to move my eye-stalks individually in every direction. Even if the feedback was still blurry as all hell.
On my way to the wall, I also experimented a bit with my other body parts, namely my lower tentacles. Quickly figuring out that their main purpose was to taste and feel. Unsure of why my tastebuds were in such a weird spot, I decided to ignore it for now. Just imagining having taste buds on my fingers as a human sent shivers down my non-existent spine, so why would a slug need a setup like that?
Eventually, I made it to the wall and spotted something akin to a big rock to my right. It'd have to do. Slowly I made my way over and squeezed myself between it, and the wall. A weird smell entered my eyes as I did so, but that much wouldn't keep me from a safe hiding spot. Having found some temporary safety, I breathed a sigh of relief.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Being in relative safety, I conducted a more thorough inspection of my new facilities. Eye and smell tentacles? Check. Touch and feel tentacles? Check. Mouth with a jaw and thousands of small teeth to rip apart food? Check. Mantle behind my head to protect my vitals? Check. Breathing holes by the mantle? Check. My complete underside, which is apparently called a foot, which allows me to move? Check.
Being a slug was still freaking me out mentally, but the system must have done something to me so that I didn't have any issues with my new body. I could control it naturally as if I'd been a slug my whole life. There was still the disconnect between what my brain wanted me to do and what my body ended up doing. For example, if I want to go forward, I'd obviously use my legs to do so, which is a movement heavily ingrained in my brain. But then some weird thing interferes and translates my will into the correct slug equivalent of using my foot. There was a bit of a delay between me wanting to do it and it actually happening, and I suspected this would persist until I got used to being a slug.
Having checked out my new body, there was yet another important new part of my life that needed checking. The System! If I understood my situation correctly, the system should provide me with a game-like experience. Since I controlled the system with my mind when I was in the void, I assumed it was the same here. And sure enough, once I mentally commanded the system to show up, it did. And to my pleasant surprise, I could see it with perfect clarity, sharp edges and all! No blurriness to be seen!
The first thing presented to me was my status in all its glory. There was even a little model of my sluggy greatness hovering next to it, just like you'd see in a regular RPG status screen. Just as I'd thought I was a black slug with red and green swirls, reminiscent of swirling fog, over my body. All things considered... I actually looked kinda cool? Surprising coolness aside, there were several options listed to open other windows as well. The thing I was most curious about was the Pay 2 Win System shop, so I "clicked" on it as soon as I saw it.
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Error! P2W System Shop temporarily unavailable. Please upgrade yourself to a T1 Traveler.
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Curses! I was still being restricted for being a tier zero slug. Disappointed I moved on, choosing to go with the inventory tab this time. A new window opened, shoving my status off to the side, with tons of white squares. I'd assume that those were inventory slots, and as far as I could tell there were no limitations for now. It was a tier-three ability, after all, that was thankfully not restricted. Well, I had no reason to store anything right now, nor did I know why I'd even want to store anything in a world like this. There probably wasn't a single piece of equipment on this world anyway, and even if there was, there was no way it would be equipable by a slug.
Closing the inventory I moved on to the goals tab. As expected, the main goal listed was to descend all eight layers of this world and complete the quest I'd be given there. The rewards were just listed as question marks, so I had no idea what I'd get for doing so. I had to assume that it would at least let me escape this fucked up planet, so this was definitely a top priority. To my surprise, there was a second goal listed.
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Goal: Evolution!
To earn the rights to evolve into a Tier 1 monster, please complete the following:
Reach Lv. 10
Complete bonus objectives for additional rewards:
Consume 10 Slug type monsters
Slay a Tier 2 monster
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Evolution! My top priority just changed! I needed to complete this goal as soon as possible! I had no big hopes that this evolution would allow me to change into something that wasn't a slug, but at the very least I'd be a stronger slug, as well as finally being a Tier 1 creature. I'd lose my double XP, sure, but I'd gain access to the P2W shop, as well as the T1 Traveler bonuses. Also, additional rewards? Yes, please! If I learned anything, it was that the system wasn't stingy with its bonus rewards.
The objective of consuming ten slugs should be extremely easy, since I was essentially an apex slug. I was more worried about needing to kill a Tier 2 monster. This sounded ridiculously difficult to pull off, but then again, the rewards for doing it must be equally crazy. I really wanted to give it a shot but decided that if it seemed impossible, I'd give up on it. I'd much rather stay alive than die because I got greedy... again. For now, I should probably get as high a level as I could before deciding on whether to pursue this quest or not.
As I was still considering how to effectively go about reaching these goals, the rock next to me suddenly shifted. I closed the system in shock and turned my eyes to look at what was happening. My first thought was that some monster sensed my presence and moved the rock, but that was disproven by the rock seemingly growing some legs. I mentally twitched my eyes as I slowly realized that the rock I had been using as cover wasn't a rock at all, but a sleeping monster! It would seem I'd get my first combat experience a lot sooner than I expected.