Chapter 2 - Darkness (Part 2)

'Ugh.. What was that voice? What happened?' I cursed once I regained my consciousness. I was hurting. Like really hurting. My whole body hurt, outside and inside. I was unsure what was happening, only knew that after the voice spoke, everything went dark again, and when I came to be, I felt pain. Overwhelming pain. On top of that, I was unable to move my body. I couldn't even open my eyes.

[The pain is temporary, in a few minutes it will fade away.] Enya explained.

After a short while the pain started fading away and with that, I slowly opened my eyes. The first thing I saw…. Was actually nothing. It was complete darkness.

'Enya, can you explain to me what is happening? Why can't I see anything? Where am I? Am I blind?'

[You are deep inside a cavern in a large cave system, far from any natural source of light.] Enya answered plainly.

Another thing that was really weird is that even after the pain faded away, I couldn't really feel anything about my body. Honestly, I felt like I'm in some kind of jelly. It was a very disturbing feeling. 'I can't feel my legs and arms! Nor can I really feel anything about my body.'

[You are currently at your species birth state, an amorphous blob, or in easier terms, a slime.]

'I'm a slime?! Those jelly blobs that everyone murders easily at the start of their journey in the games I played? Am I fated to stay this forever?'

[Relax Aiden, as I said this is your birth state. Without any genetics every soul's default state is similar. You will be able to evolve into other forms once you acquire their genetics. You will also be able to merge multiple ones and create unique entities.]

'Okay, I get it. First things first, how do I get some sort of vision? I need to be able to see my surroundings to be able to plan my next steps.' After my momentary panic, I focused my mind to calm myself down and to understand the situation I was in. Shortly after Enya's voice ringed in the silence alongside a new notification.

[Aiden you have received a new Personal Quest. With this, the Quest System is also unlocked for you. Before you ask, quests are an objective based system, designed to assist you. There are multiple types of quests, but right now, you should focus on Main and Personal Quests. Main Quests are usually related to the important events of the world, while Personal Quests are designed to help you only. They will come when you are in need of help and will give you pointers what you should be doing while giving you incentive to do your best, as there are associated rewards as well. Would you like to open up your new Personal Quest?]

'So it really is like a game system. Interesting. Yes Enya, please show it to me.' I focused my attention to the new notification in the upper right corner of my vision.

[Personal Quest: First Steps - My first evolution!

Difficulty: F-E

Objective: Consume Mushroom Bugs to absorb their life essence (0/5)

Optional Objective: Consume Mushroom Bugs (0/10)

Reward: Mushroom Bugs evolution unlocked, +2 points to Spirit, Dark Vision ability gained.

Failure Condition: Death

Penalty: System removed, Soul cleaned and returned to the Gate of Life and Death for reincarnation without memories.]

Reading through the objectives and rewards, it's clear that the quest is specifically created to help me out from my current predicament. What's interesting, is that there are optional objectives. 'Hey Enya, if I complete the optional objectives or do some part of it, do I get additional rewards as well?'

[You will usually get graded based on your performance, so if you do the optional objectives partially you will be graded higher and will earn additional rewards based on your grade. Currently however, you will need to complete the optional objectives to be graded higher.]

'Okay, that's clear enough. Can you give me some pointers about this Mushroom Bug? How can I find them, if I can't see anything?' I have to admit, I'm not that happy about eating some bugs in a damp cave as my first thing in my new life.

[5 meters ahead of you at the cavern wall there are Mushroom Bugs, which is a species living in deep cave systems, feeding mostly on mushrooms and various herbs. They are usually around 7-8 centimeters in size with big enlarged mandibles functioning similarly to stags.

You should absorb as much of the bugs as you can by feeding on them, to get their unique dark vision ability. They are one of the very few species that has complete dark vision, being able to see in complete darkness, devoid of any light. Different from Night Vision, which merely enhances the skill user's sight around minimal light sources.

Also remember Aiden, you are a slime currently, an amorphous blob. Your means of travel is to resonate your membrane, your outer layer in the direction you wish to travel oozing forward. Try to experiment with this sensation to get the feeling of it. To consume the bugs, just move over them and absorb them inside your body.]

Grumbling to myself, about the unfairness of the situation, I slowly moved forward in the complete darkness, trying to feel my surroundings. I focused on Enya's advice about how movement is made in my current state and first tried to feel my body itself. I did not have any hard edges like any normal living being would, but instead it felt like I was a big pile of jelly. I could however clearly feel a thicker outer layer that kept my plasmic fluids in shape. I had no control over these fluids, but I could freely reshape my membrane, twitching my way forward slowly, but surely.

5 meters may not sound like that much, but in my case it took me quite a while to cover this distance. I have no real sense of time currently, I have nothing to relate to. Upon reaching the target destination, I could feel a big hard shell of something. The moment I touched it, it probably sensed danger and tried to scurry away. Before it could do anything, I twitched my membrane again covering the whole bug and I absorbed it.

I could feel something inside of me, slowly being dissolved to bits and pieces. I felt some energy entering me powering some part of me, that I currently had no knowledge about. While that was happening, I continued along the cavern wall, absorbing anything that I could along the process. What was interesting was that while I couldn't tell what I absorbed exactly, I could differentiate between them. I knew when I absorbed another Mushroom bug, or something else. I was paying attention to the objective display as well, seeing it slowly creep up.

After a few rounds of going back and forth around the edges of the cavern walls, I finally absorbed 10 Mushroom Bugs alongside some small pebbles and a few mushrooms. From the first bug I knew it would probably take around a few minutes to completely process the bugs, and to have the quest complete, so while I waited, I checked the various options available to me currently. There were a few options visible when I focused on them. They were the Status, Quests, Inventory. I also received a new notification that I unlocked the Map function while I was 'hunting'.

'Enya, this Map feature, how does it work? I can see an outline of the cave walls. Are these the sections I explored?'

[Yes, you will keep a detailed map of every area you visited and explored. There are additional functions related to it, but they are currently not available to you.]

I was happy with this revelation. While I still had no vision and I may need some time to get the familiar visual sensory stimuli available to me again, the map function that was available to me, did provide some sort of basic idea of my situation. Currently I was at the edges of a cave, most likely somewhere deep in a cavern system, however that's just a theory. I couldn't help but exclaim my brief happiness of this realization. 'That's really helpful! Oh, meanwhile the quest completed. Let's see the rewards.' I immediately focused on the quest to open up it's panel.

[Personal Quest: First Steps - My first evolution! - Completed

Objective: Consume Mushroom Bugs to absorb their life essence (10/5)

Optional Objective: Consume Mushroom Bugs (10/10)

Grade: E

Reward: Mushroom Bug evolution unlocked, +7 points to Spirit (+5 Bonus), Dark Vision ability gained, Bonus: Fusion unlocked]

I was speechless. The rewards were astounding. After I read through the list, I could feel some power inside me growing, the feeling itself getting stronger. I could feel the power inside me, rumbling, wanting to let itself known to the world. This was a very elevating feeling, and if I had any way to do so, I would definitely have roared to the sky. I wanted to confirm so I checked my attributes and I could see that my Spirit is now at 10. However, what was most surprising is the notification that followed.

[Dark Vision ability evolved to Dark Sense.]

Before I could ask another question to Enya, the notification quickly explained itself, as I could suddenly feel my surroundings. It wasn't vision as I have no functioning eyes, but I could still feel everything in a short radius around me. I wasn't sure about the exact numbers, but it felt like I could 'sense' everything in 2-3 meters around me. I could feel my own blobby shape. I could not see colors or textures, but I still 'felt' the wall, I could also sense the light vegetation around me. Assuming from their shape, these must be the mushrooms the bugs were feeding on.

[Your Dark Vision mutated to Dark Sense, since you do not have any type of organ to grant you vision. On the other hand, you can use your Spirit to power your sense, sending out pulses around you. Try to tap into your inner power, and power your senses.]

I listened to Enya's description and then focused my mind. The silence and darkness is really helpful in this regard, as there's basically no outside stimuli I can freely experiment.

I focused my intent on my soul, around the feeling I felt earlier when the quest completed. It's funny actually, cause I imagined myself closing my non-existing eyes, and exhaling like how you see people meditate. Obviously, I can't do that, as I have no eyes, no lungs or a mouth. I could however, imagine my inner self do so, and in some way it did help me focus. I stopped shaking my membrane completely and just tried to find the area inside myself that this 'power' should be. At first, I felt nothing, even if I desperately tried to feel around the same area where I felt that rumbling feeling. I was getting anxious, and started losing my focus, but Enya quickly jumped in.

[Calm down. Empty your mind Aiden. Remember the feeling when you first felt the system inside you. Focus on that area, but not on the system itself, just that area. Once you successfully do that, you will feel that rumbling once again.]

Once again, I imagined myself exhaling, and tried not to think about anything, just to feel the calming sensation of this state. I don't know how much time has passed, but after a while I could feel a faint rumbling inside me. Like if deep in the ocean the ground itself was shaking, and I could feel it resonating far away. I focused my mind on this faraway noise, and I slowly kept moving my inner self towards it, making the feeling become stronger and more vibrant. Once I got close enough, I felt like I could submerge myself in it, like if it was a pool of water.

'I can feel it. I can tap into it.' I exclaimed.

[Good. Now remember this feeling. While you tap into this pool of energy, use your senses and try to combine this power with it. Feel the changes in your senses, and keep on trying once you become familiar with the process.]

Listening to Enya's advice, I submerged myself into this pool while I activated my Dark Sense. I could feel a powerful energy coarse through me, pulsing through the area my vision covered, and went even further beyond. I could feel my sensory vision became clearer, sharper as the energy passed through the area. I could also see further, as the pulse covered previously dark sections. I could feel the shape of the wall, even the small edges. I could clearly feel the cluster of mushrooms that previously served as a meal for the group of insects I absorbed. I could even feel the moss on the wall. I still couldn't tell the color of the mushrooms, or the moss, but I could tell they were different. My best estimation was that my current vision doubled from my previous state.

I repeated this process a few times to get familiar with the process. At first it took some effort, but as I repeated the process, it became easier to tap into my energy pool, and combine it with my senses. Once it did, I started gliding around the edges of the wall to map the area and get the cave mapped out. As I did this, I also got increasingly better at moving around, and I even got to the point that I could alter my shape to some degree. I could morph my membrane basically emulating the movement of bacteria, and elongate my body shape then contracting it to the new position.

With my new ability and my improved movement ability it only took me a relatively short time to map out the entire cave I was in. The cave had nothing really worth mentioning, other than a few clusters of mushrooms, and some more different types of insects that I sampled randomly, there was nothing in it. I found an exit as well, but before I exited into the unknown I wanted to get to the remaining rewards I got for the quest.