Chapter 3 - Mastery

Now that I know how I could leave my temporary 'home'. I wanted to know more about the rest of the rewards I received. I asked the question to my companion: 'Enya, could you please explain to me the Evolution feature, and the Fusion bonus I unlocked?'

[Certainly Aiden. Once you unlock an evolution path, you can use the new Evolution option in the system, and then pick one from the available options to evolve into it. Fusion is an advanced feature, you can fuse your evolved forms to create new species entirely. The new species usually brings traits and abilities from the 'parent' forms. The possibilities are virtually endless, the end result will vary based on what you fused together. However keep in mind, that you can only fuse forms that you have complete mastery over.]

'Mastered? What do you mean?'

[Check your newly unlocked Evolution menu Aiden. You will see your birth form as your currently active form. You will see a Mastery section below it, that will increase over time. To get complete mastery over your forms, you will have to complete a series of tasks that is designed to guide you through the full capabilities of it. Mastering a form, in most cases will need you to understand that species fully, and that will require you to spend an extended period of time in it. Completing the tasks will guide you but it may not be enough, you should spend appropriate amount of time until you feel confident using all your traits to its full extent.]

I was startled by this new information. Apparently it's not enough to evolve into the new forms, but I will most likely need to complete various tasks that will go towards my mastery of the species. Unless I master that species, and have a complete understanding of it's capabilities, I will not be able to use its advantages fully, and furthermore, I will not be able use it as a component in the fusion process. Well to be fair, it is understandable that this is needed. After a brief moment of lamentation, I focused my mind on the new Evolution menu choice that was available ever since I received my rewards.

Once I focused on the option, a new window came into view giving me a new series of options.

[Evolution System Menu

Evolution Status

Evolution Tree

Fusion]

Enya's soft voice chirped in, giving me a brief explanation.

[The first option will show your current evolution status, with your active form, it's mastery and if there are any tasks that you need to complete or have completed.

The second option will show you the evolution path, or tree if you will, with your currently available options, while the last option is the Fusion menu, that will let you fuse mastered forms together and see projected results. You will have some options to pick what features to keep and what to drop to keep a balanced state. Once you go in there we will discuss it in more detail.]

Listening to Enya I picked the Status to check the progress in my 'birth' form. I refuse to refer to myself as a slime, it is way too degrading. Birth State or birth form sounds much better.

[Evolution Status

Current form: Primal Slime (Birth state)

Mastery: 75%

Tasks:

Cover a distance of 50 meters total, mastering movement (53/50 - Completed)

Dissolve a total of 5 different objects/lifeforms in your plasmic fluids (17/5 - Completed)

Create a flagella from your membrane (0/1)

Use your flagella to move 10 meters around (0/10)]

It seems I still need to experiment with my current form, to completely master its capabilities. It seems that it already counted my hunting and movement I did previously. From the numbers it also seems that it counted non-living objects such as the pebbles that I tested my dissolving capabilities earlier. The remaining tasks relate to me forming a tentacle-like limb, a flagella to assist movement and hunting.

I focused my mind, remembering the sensation from earlier where I started morphing my membrane creating an elongated shape to assist in my movement. It was a step in the right direction, so I thought I should build upon that experience. I tried remembering the feeling when I first started using the technique for movement. At first it was just a random action on my part, I was just experimenting with my body shape, while exploring my surroundings. However, I quickly realized that it was infinitely better than just simply oozing around.

With these thoughts in mind, I focused once again on a section of my outer layer, visualizing a boneless limb forming out of me. Then I tapped into my inner pool of energy giving this feeling more power. A small bump started forming on my outer layer, slowly growing, becoming longer while keeping a tentacle cylindrical shape. After I felt that the new body-part I grew was about as long as my main body, I stopped focusing on the growth, and focused my senses on getting familiar with the new limb.

It took a while, but eventually I managed to actively use it, instead of just whipping it around. Using it as a handless arm to pull myself forward, and sometimes to push myself away from obstacles. It was actually a very enjoyable experience, it felt like no time passed when I got the notification from the system that I mastered my first form.

[Primal Slime Evolution Mastered!]

I quickly navigated to my Evolution Status window to check my statistics.

[Evolution Status

Current form: Slime (Birth state)

Mastery: 100%

Tasks:

Cover a distance of 50 meters total, mastering movement (53/50 - Completed)

Dissolve a total of 5 different objects/lifeforms in your plasmic fluids (17/5 - Completed)

Create a flagella from your membrane (1/1 - Completed)

Use your flagella to to move 10 meters around (10/10 - Completed)]

Since I was finally done mastering my birth form, I quickly navigated back to the previous menu, and selected the Evolution Tree this time, giving myself a new screen once again.

[Evolution Tree]

Current: Primal Slime - Clean - Tier 0 (Mastery: 100%)

Available options: Mushroom Bug - Clean - Tier 1]

Well, not that it's that surprising that I only had 1 option available to me currently. Still, there was some information that was worth learning about, so I queried Enya about these. 'Can you tell me about what Clean and the Tier 0 and 1 mean?'

[Clean is the status of the unlocked evolution option. Clean is the most optimal state, it's not mutated or corrupted. Once you select the life form, you can be certain that you will be evolved into a healthy specimen of the selected species. If it would be corrupted, you could have birth defects, while being a mutated specimen, could result in unforeseen mutations from the optimal healthy result. These can be either advantageous or could be a fault, you will only know when you evolved into it.

Tier is a universal grading system for lifeforms across all worlds. The higher the grade, the more power it will generally process, the higher the specimen is in the evolution path. Most basic lifeforms that live on the surface or below it will be classified as Tier 1. This is true for animals and most monsters. Humanoid lifeforms that have evolved higher intelligence will classify higher. For example, a simple human is classified as Tier 2. While they can elevate their existence higher, by default all humans are birthed as a Tier 2 species.]

'I understand. This seems like that the Clean is the default state, and 'mutated' could potentially give better results, with an equal chance of something worse, while 'corrupted' will always result in a worst case scenario. Okay then, let's check how my first Tier 1 form would look like, and what do I need to do to master it!'

As I said this, I was already focusing my mind on the Mushroom Bug evolution. As I selected it, my senses suddenly shut off, my body started vibrating. My membrane was wildly shaking, hardening, forming a hard shell all around me. The shell closed off, seemingly protecting me from outside stimuli. I felt my insides churning, rapidly changing.

Time passed and my body completely transformed. The protective shell burst apart, as I regained my senses. I grew 3 pairs of legs, I had a clearly visible head with a large mandible that grew out of my mouth that I could do a snapping movement with. On my back I had a hard kitin shell, and what's best, I had a pair of eyes on the top of my head! My size shrunk down a bit, but I was still larger than the average mushroom bug. I was probably double their size, which would probably count me as a giant in their species but compared to my previous form I was still smaller.

What was interesting was that I kept my Dark Sense ability, while it also had the qualities of the Dark Vision as well. I looked around to check out my home again, this time with my new pair of eyes. I could see the world in color for the first time since I got to this world. While I did not see any water source, the cavern walls were very damp, which probably was very healthy for the moss that covered the wall all around. At the opposite end of the cave there were a group of familiar looking bugs gathering around a cluster of mushrooms.

I looked at the exit that I found previously looking into the previously dark natural made corridor. The moss was hanging from the walls, and the occasional cluster of mushrooms with its usual residents was ever-present, just like inside this cave. Nor your senses, nor your visions could pick up anything new or worthwhile. Eventually the corridor led into another larger cave that you could not peer into from your current position.

But, before you left your 'home', and ventured into the unknown, you had to check something important.