Azotreh stepped into the obelisk yet again. The small space was slowly but surely changing to better suit them and the others. A small planter along one wall held several beautiful flowers in various colors, each flower representing one of their abilities.
While Errazorrus was trying to beautify the inside, Nicholas seemed rather anxious. Errazorrus was showing the slime how to water plants, using little tendrils of the cerulean gel. Azotreh left them to it, instead walking to Nicholas.
"What's so worrying?"
Nicholas jumped as Azotreh spoke, clearly not having sensed the child.
"It's part of the status. Something about an astral infection. I don't know what it is or how to fix it. It's worrying, considering that it's apparently growing."
Azotreh pulled up their status and skipped to the bottom.
[Astral Infection: 36.12%]
Seeing the increase of almost three percent was worrying. Azotreh looked back up at Nicholas, who simply sighed before ruffling their hair.
"Don't worry about that, kid. You're the one in the body; your job is to figure out how to get out of this cage. I'll figure something out about the astral infection."
Nicholas walked to one of the doors and left, leaving Azotreh in the room with the other two. Errazorrus gestured for them to come over.
"Come look at these." He said, becoming a little more insistent.
Azotreh did as asked and crouched down beside the tall dragon.
Before them was a small planter, filled with rich dirt and flowers of various colors. One that had petals like a dark eye, another like a tulip made from flames, and a further flower that somehow created a cerulean cube from its petals. They could instinctively sense that each flower was one of their abilities, or rather a representation of it.
"See this one?" Errazorrus pointed at the black eye-looking flower, which was substantially larger than the others. "It's Eye of the Black Dragon, right? Because you used the ability enough to bring it to level eight, the flower is larger. What I'm trying to figure out is how to…"
Errazorrus stopped speaking as the slime lifted the watering can into the air, and both Azotreh and Errazorrus watched as cerulean mana dropped from the ceiling into the can. Though the mana had hints of green and purple rather than being truly pure blue, it was clearly mana.
The slime lifted the can over the planter and began to pour mana from the head onto one of the cube flower. They simply watched for a while as mana kept being poured over the little flower, until suddenly it grew. Just a little, but the small growth was accompanied by a window notification.
[Ability: Inventory has reached level 2! Depth of poten: ERROR]
[Ability: Inventory has reached level 2! Depth of potens: Vibrancy, Durosmos has increased by 1.]
Azotreh and Errazorrus were stunned at the display. The slime turned to them and burbled some happy sounds.
"How did you know to do that?" Errazorrus asked. The slime stopped bouncing to think for a second before metaphorically shrugging. Considering it doesn't have shoulders, the action was rather confusing. Or it would be to someone who didn't share consciousness with the little thing.
Nicholas stood outside the obelisk and ignored the system message of Inventory increasing in level. Instead, he watched the fence, and specifically the gate. He sighed.
This new world was already scary, substantially worse to him than even his previous life. But he knew better than most that he had to power through it, that surviving to the next day is what mattered.
He knew life was precious, considering he'd already lost it once. He'd rather not lose it again to something called an 'astral infection.'
Nicholas took a deep breath and then opened the gate, stepping out of the grassland and into a much vaster area. He instinctively knew it was a representation of their outer soul.
The outer area was much like the inner zone, a calm grassland without flowers or trees, just an endless expanse of grass. He saw the structures that represented their abilities, the massive obsidian dragon statue for Eye of the Black Dragon, and its counterpart statue made from flames. Inventory looked like a grand vault, but that made a lot of sense.
Basic Looting appeared as a giant money bag, with the symbol of the USD on the outside, which confused Nicholas even more. He assumed the new world didn't have a United States, let alone the American Greenback. But here it was.
He continued to look through the structures in their outer soul before finally finding what he was looking for.
Thin vines of purple-gold energy stretched from a gap in an obsidian wall surrounding their outer soul. They wrapped around the grass, the ground, and even started spreading along the wall. While it didn't look like it had overtaken nearly 40% of their soul, the description did always call it stage one.
Nicholas reached down and pulled one of the vines from the ground. He felt his will going against the vine, but his psyche was stronger than the frail vine. He pulled it free from the ground and began to investigate it.
The vine stopped producing small amounts of purple mist when Nicholas pulled it from the ground. He continued to investigate it for a while, but without finding anything other than a purple spiked vine, he began to work.
Nicholas pulled more and more vines from the ground. Each time he did it, the infection percentage went down by a small amount. Only once he started pulling vines from the walls was major progress made. Each vine from the ground took 0.1 to 0.3% from the total, while the ones from the wall took upwards of 3 or 4%.
An hour and a half later, the hole was still present, and the infection remained at 0.11%. He couldn't figure out how to completely stop the infection, but making any progress was better than the nothing before. Even so, he now had a pile of purple vines just sitting in his outer soul.
He remembered one of the innate abilities they got as part of the species change into Cerulean Slime. It had manifested as a giant set of teeth in their inner soul, and while Nicholas was curious, he hadn't taken the time to experiment. But if it worked like he assumed it did, the teeth would make a fantastic disposal.
With a thought, the gate changed locations, and Nicholas picked up his bundle of vines and re-entered the inner soul. Azotreh had already returned to the outside, trying to figure out something about the situation they were in.
Nicholas walked over to the giant maw in the ground and experimentally dropped one of the vines into it. The jaws closed for a second and then opened again to reveal an endless darkness once more.
[You have devoured a piece of the Astral Infection! Achievements: Devourer I, Astral Devourer I, and Devourer of the Astral Infection have been unlocked. Corresponding titles and bonuses have been unlocked and allocated.]
[Use options available: Create Relic, generate 1st stage Conception Understanding, gain Resistance to the Astral Infection, convert to Resource, convert to Poten, gain Astral Attunement, gain random Astral Alteration, gain random Ability, gain the Astral Attribute, begin generating Astral Essence, gain new Technique, gain new Dao.]
Nicholas read over the notification with interest. Instead of explaining any option, though, whenever he focused on one, it simply asked if he wished to select it.
He sighed and instead opened his status. There were so many N/As, making it feel incomplete. But he felt that maybe trying to increase the number of things on the sheet wouldn't do as much as empowering what they already have.
So Nicholas mentally crossed off creating a relic, getting a conception, getting an alteration, an ability, an attribute, a technique, and a dao. He then crossed off both converting to a resource and converting to a poten since resources could be naturally regenerated and potens can be gained in other ways.
Then he looked at the three remaining options: resistance, attunement, and essence generation. He felt that a resistance would be useful, but he also already figured out how to push back the infection. Plus, if they gained a resistance, then it might grow slower, leaving Nicholas with less material to feed to this giant maw in the ground.
He finally took it down to two options and made a decision.
[You have gained the Astral Attunement: (<0.01%). All astral-based general concepts require 0.001% less energy to progress, and all attacks using Astral Essence deal additional damage proportional to total attunement.]
It was a small boost, even smaller than the baseline resistance. But the implications were startling.
Naturally, Nicholas threw the rest of the vines into the pit.
"Feed me, Seymour," he muttered under his breath as he tossed the vines in. Then he selected to boost their Astral Attunement. For all the sticks, it was finally brought to 0.01%. The moment it did, the fourth digit simply vanished.
Azotreh pulled their awareness back within the cage. They began to try finding ways out. The bars were rather far apart, but just close enough that their head couldn't fit through. They tried to push their aura into the collar around their neck again, with no results.
So Azotreh just kept trying. Their aura would drain of energy, and Azotreh would instead push with their magic or their stamina. Every time, all that happened was nothing. They couldn't break free, could barely even move.
At least, after they tried to push their mana free for what felt like the thousandth time, something new flickered into existence. Unlike regular system messages, this one flickered in and out of existence. Or, it did for a moment. Then, with a push of one of the others, the flickering window solidified.
[You have gained skill: Mana Manipulation through trial and error. Congratulations!]
Azotreh genuinely did not care about the message right now and dismissed it. All they wanted was to escape, and they kept trying.
They gained the skill Aura Manipulation not long after, but neither skill really progressed much. While brute force could be a training method, and often is, in this case, they didn't have enough aura or mana to break the restraints.
After three days of battering against the restraints with all their might in every waking moment, something finally changed. Well, something other than gaining the Meditation skill and Vibrant Meditation ability.
What really changed was that the little room was suddenly lit by torchlight. A goblin, wearing the skull of some giant prey animal, entered the room. In one hand was its bright torch, and in the other was a bag of dried food. He tossed the food into a different cage before looking straight at Azotreh.
The goblin spoke in a language Azotreh didn't understand before unlocking the cage.
With the sudden ability to move their head, Azotreh took in the room. Even as a chain connected to their collar was pulled and they were dragged into the next room. They saw a different adjoining room, very faintly illuminated at a specific angle from the cage.
They also saw the inhabitants of the other cage, a tiny bat, and a two-tailed fox. The fox was eating the dried food like it was its last meal, while the bat simply watched Azotreh from a bar in its cage. The bat's eyes were filled with sympathy and fear.
Azotreh was pulled into the other room and then hanged from the ceiling by their wrists.
The suppression collar was still around their neck, and when they tried to push their aura against the goblin's, all they felt was the iron wall that signified someone of higher rank.
The goblin approached, pulling a sharp blade from his inventory. He muttered something, and Azotreh's body went limp. A small mark appeared between their eyes. Even as they fought against the curse, it took hold.
The goblin cut into their leg, some semi-transparent blood leaking from the open wound. He collected it and placed it on a rickety table that seemed to be made from cobbled-together scraps rather than properly carved. The only properly made piece of wood was a large shelf with a human skull on top.
The goblin continued to slice into Azotreh for a while, cutting into their arms and stomach. No matter where they cut, all that came out was more of the slime. It was painful, but Azotreh knew pain and held it down. Not like they could scream anyway, considering the curse.
But it just went on, and on. The goblin looked more like a scientist given a new subject, taking extensive notes on Azotreh's biology and organic makeup. While the tongue and written words were foreign, it was clear just by how dense the words were that it was either drawn out or truly in-depth.
After two hours of constant experimenting, Azotreh was returned to the cage. Their resources drained, their body aching. Their mind felt like breaking, but instead, they simply sank back into their soul.