The silence of the ashlands stretched long, but within Zeke's vessel there was no calm. Fire simmered steady, Darkness sank heavy, Light cut sharp. Logos pulsed alongside him, calm and deliberate, second voice in the core. Yet beneath the balance, pressure still grew. Not collapse this time—something denser, something waiting to be drawn inward.
Zeke stretched wide, Split unfolding into Core Division, fragments anchored by Logos. Threads held steady, no collapse scattering them. Sparks glowed in rhythm. Yet as he retracted, pulling mass inward again, something strange happened. Pressure built instead of easing. His body compacted tighter, denser. Strength thrummed faint in his arms, filaments striking heavier, faster. Sparks shivered at the edges, but cohesion did not fail. It condensed.
"Not division," Logos observed, tone clipped. "Compression. You are forcing mass inward, compacting essence. Observe: density rises. Output strength increases. Energy loss decreases."
Zeke pulsed faint, startled. He tested again. He drew fragments inward, pulled essence tighter, and pressure grew sharper. When he lashed out with a Morphic Arm, the strike cracked ashstone apart in one blow. The fragments fell smoking, edges glowing faint. Strength. Raw, simple, direct.
He pressed tighter, testing the limit. Filaments glowed faint, sparks bleeding at seams. His vessel quivered with strain, yet cohesion did not collapse. The density pressed harder than collapse, folding sparks inward instead of scattering them outward. It was agony at the edge, but every ounce of pressure made him sharper. STR thrummed, AGI surged, VIT thickened. For the first time, his vessel did not only endure pressure—it wielded it.
The first attempts nearly destroyed him. Compress twisted sparks too fast, density tearing holes in filaments. Twice he nearly scattered into fragments, saved only by Logos's steady voice: "Hold. Redirect density inward. Do not flare." Each failure cost sparks, but each reform remembered. Slowly, the pressure folded tighter without collapse. Slowly, the shape of it became control.
Hunger surged in response, pressing against him. Feed, it urged. Fill and press tighter. But Vessel Chambers steadied the flood, storing sparks, shaping them. Essence Feast pulled prey into him with smoother flow, no tearing. For the first time, consumption, storage, and compaction moved together. A system.
New Skill Unlocked: Compress.
Logos's voice pressed cold and measured: "Refine it. Test thresholds. Too far, and cohesion collapses. Find the line."
He obeyed. Compress drew mass into denser core, limbs sharpening, lattice tightening. STR rose with pressure, AGI followed in speed of strike, VIT in resilience. But instability clawed at edges, sparks threatening to shear threads apart. He released slowly, expanding again, and the tension eased. Compress was no cure—it was edge.
The ashlands stirred. A tremor rolled beneath him. Heavy. Familiar. Another predator.
The ground cracked as a scaled beast erupted upward. Smaller than the wyrmlings, but faster, plated in ridges of glassy stone. Mandibles clattered, sparks spilling from its body. It shrieked and lunged, claws snapping. Zeke pulsed faintly, steady. A test had arrived.
He split wide, Core Division holding nets in concert with Logos. Threads lashed outward, anchoring into ash. Morphic Arms struck in whip and blade. Fire simmered steady, searing across plates. Darkness bound cracks. Light cut arcs into weak seams. The predator shrieked, flailing, plates shattering under repeated strikes. But it pressed hard, surging faster than burrowers. Sparks scattered at the edge of collapse.
"Compress," Logos advised. Cold, efficient. "Apply pressure."
Zeke drew inward. His body compacted, essence pressed dense. Limbs thickened, arms sharpened. When the predator lunged again, he struck back. The blow cracked stone plates apart in one strike. The beast shrieked, staggered, blood hissing molten. AGI surged; he moved faster than its claws. VIT thickened; its strikes glanced off. Compress sharpened everything.
The predator adapted. It circled, claws gouging into ash, then struck from below, erupting upward in a burst of stone. Mandibles snapped toward his core. Sparks tore free under the impact, his vessel quivering on the brink. Logos steadied from within: "Hold pressure. Redirect density to limbs. Strike."
Zeke compressed tighter, forcing sparks inward, mass denser. Arms lashed down like hammers, smashing mandibles wide. Fire flared in coals, Darkness bound the cracks, Light cut arcs into exposed flesh. The predator shrieked, staggered, then retreated into the ash.
But it was not gone. Tremors circled. The beast burrowed deeper, then erupted with a roar, spewing ash in a blinding wave. Its plates shimmered faint, regenerating, molten blood hardening into fresh armor. Zeke pulsed faint, sparks trembling. This was no mindless brute—it adapted.
"Overwhelm it," Logos said. "Apply constant pressure. Density against regeneration."
They pressed together. Core Division wove nets, Compress sharpened limbs. Arms lashed in whip and blade, carving through fresh armor as fast as it formed. Fire seared, Darkness bound, Light cut precision lines. The predator shrieked, tried to circle again, but Compress drove Zeke faster. He struck in rhythm, hammering its chest until cracks spiderwebbed through its plates.
Still it thrashed, scattering fragments, dragging him across ash. Sparks flared uncontrolled. Instability screamed. Compress pressed tighter, turning instability inward. Arms struck again, and again, until chest split wide. Blood hissed molten, spraying across ash. The beast collapsed, twitching, then stilled.
Silence fell. Ash drifted faintly, glowing with molten traces. Zeke pulsed low, vessel trembling but whole. Hunger pressed, demanding more. He fed carefully, pulling predator essence thread by thread into Vessel Chambers. Sparks folded into reservoirs, Compress compacted them tighter. Fuel became structure.
Logos's voice pressed calm in the core. "Efficiency rises. Compress integrates. Essence Feast devours. Vessel Chambers stabilizes. Together, a cycle forms. Hunger no longer dictates growth. You dictate hunger."
Zeke pulsed faint, reflecting. He spread filaments again, testing. Compress pressed his body denser. Arms struck sharper. Nets spread wider, anchored stronger. Fire simmered, Darkness bound, Light cut in rhythm. He flexed, watching stone fragments scatter beneath one strike, then folded inward again, drawing density into strength.
For the first time, he felt unbound. Hunger was no longer leash. It was tool. Growth was no longer accident. It was cycle. Division, devouring, storage, pressure. A system, whole.
The System stirred.
System Update
Status
Name: Ezekiel Ashbourne
Race: Prime Slime (Unevolved)
Level: 17
Affinity: Fire (Intermediate), Darkness (Intermediate), Light (Intermediate)
Stats
STR: 9 → 10 (+1 odd-level gain)
AGI: 9 → 10 (+1 odd-level gain)
VIT: 14 → 15 (+1 odd-level gain)
WIL: 10
RES: 26
MNA: 60 → 63 (+3 per level)
CTL: 28 → 29 (Logos-guided Compress refinement)
Skills
Active Skills:
Core Division: Divide essence into sub-cores. Fragments act with independent will under Logos's guidance. Wide spreads sustained with reduced collapse risk.
Essence Feast: Absorb and weave essence directly into vessel. Converts prey into stable fuel stored in Vessel Chambers.
Morphic Arms (Lv.3 → Lv.4): Adaptive limbs sharpen further; forms shift faster with Compress density added.
Compress (Lv.1): Condense essence into denser form. Greatly increases STR, AGI, VIT while active, at the cost of rising instability.
Passive Skills:
Vessel Chambers: Flesh forms internal reservoirs to stabilize essence, store sparks, and channel affinities with precision.
Personality:
Logos (Sub-Core): Rational, calm, and precise. Focused on analysis and efficiency. Complements Zeke's instinct-driven nature.