Two goblins carefully move through the thick underbrush. The grand mushroom caps cast shadows over the entire forest, bathed in eternal twilight. Each holds a spear, sharp and pointy. They also each carry a few flare stones in the little bags on their hips.
The bags were made by their boss, calling himself The Master. Such arrogance isn't common among goblins, but he has a reason. That reason follows about eight paces behind the goblins.
It looks like them, stands like them. It eats and drinks like them, it walks like them. But it isn't a goblin. They both know it instinctively, even if its aura didn't signify its difference.
The thing behind them, currently occupied by the flesh stone their boss subjugated through his grand powers, seems calm. Its movements are steady, and even though it doesn't breathe, its chest rises and falls like it does.
Its nose is long and crooked, its ears jut awkwardly from the sides of its head, facing forward. Unlike regular goblins, the thing behind them is a monster. A monster that wears the skin of their kind.
They had to tolerate it because their boss commanded it. Because he said the core it came from held its hunger in check. But that didn't mean they weren't constantly looking over their shoulders at it. Nor did they not shiver in terror every time they met its gaze, and saw the contained desire to destroy.
Krob's ear twitched, and he turned around. The monster was staring straight up, at the currently visible twilight sky. Krob turned his own eyes up and saw something. Something big falling from the sky just past them. It looked like a broken cube of some kind, made from a black material.
Gruk only noticed the object when it landed. About a kilometer away, it smashed into the ground and bounced. Then, once it hit the ground again, it slid another meter before finally coming to a stop.
The goblins rushed to investigate the fallen object, with the monster close on their heels. It ran on all fours like a beast, with sharp claws digging into the dirt. It moved just a little slower than the goblins, considering their skills and abilities to help with movement. Even without much development, it enhanced them enough to outpace the monster by a smidge.
They reached it fast, with a horned rabbit already investigating the site. Or rather, the rabbit was sniffing around at a broken dandelion that was uprooted by the initial bounce. Neither goblin cared about the weak rabbit and instead moved to the open side of the box.
Peering inside, they found a mess. Broken glass littered every surface, some table-looking thing was overturned in a corner, and a cabinet was broken against a wall.
The cabinet was open and held a single vial of something red. But that wasn't what drew the goblins' eyes. Instead, it was the small human on the floor. Glass stuck out of every inch of skin across its body. The human was naked, with a small puddle of something foul on the floor. Something that smelled of burned cloth and acid.
The body had black hair, colored with streaks of white, blue, and red. It was splayed around their body across the floor. Otherwise, they looked dead.
The goblins looked at each other and shrugged. Even a corpse would work well for the boss, considering his talents. So they played a quick match of flame, water, plant. Gruk won two matches, making Krob enter the room.
Krob sighed before activating Armor of Death around his feet, making some bone armor. Better not to step on broken glass barefoot if he could avoid it.
The little goblin picked up the rather light human and slung it over his back. Then, he went back. He was a little surprised to hear the human's heart beating, but living subjects are also fine. In fact, the boss likes them better.
The two goblins set out back to the dungeon, the monster following behind. It let out a keening cry, a sound a goblin throat could not replicate. It sounded as if a deer's vocals were swapped with ruby, and then it let out a death cry.
Both goblins shivered at the sound, becoming even more frightened when a second monster goblin emerged from the underbrush. Closely followed by a skeletal fox. The trio of monsters accompanied the trembling goblins home. Considering the intel they held, it would be best if the boss didn't have to resurrect them.
Azotreh finally entered their soul. Immediately, a blinking window appeared before them, followed by several others.
[Soul Damage Threshold: 1.22%]
[Astral Infection: Stage-1]
[Astral Corruption: 33.22%]
[Progress to Stage-2: 16.78%]
Then came other notifications. Information that their archetype and species had changed, that they gained an ability called Devour, and one called Mana to Biomass.
Eye of the Red Dragon gained three levels by simply seeing the breath attacks of the gold rank monster, while Eye of the Black Dragon gained one somehow. Perception gained four depth from the level increases.
After that was a notification about absorbing and breaking down the recipe for a lead rank recovery potion, with the actual recipe called Aringov's Recovery Recipe. It was apparently stored in the library granted by Records of Existence.
Finally, they got the Unkillable achievement and its corresponding title.
Oddly, when they instinctively opened their status to equip the title and display the achievement, they found that the limit on the active title slots was removed completely. Instead, a small cost number sat beside their current… three titles?
Azotreh checked the list again, and indeed, three were present. One was the Unkillable title, which granted a bonus to all regenerations. The title granted one unit to each resource regeneration and a unit to each resource regeneration's density. Considering it cost one unit of mana regeneration while granting more than it took to upkeep it, it was in their best interest to activate it.
When Azotreh activated it, something else became apparent. They were G-Grade in all their resource regenerations. While that looked like ten points on their in-depth status, it was closer to two. But Azotreh was regenerating four, now three mana per second.
Even with a boost in its density, it shouldn't have increased that much. Azotreh knew that ten density also meant a doubling rather than a 10x bonus. But they only had two density in each point, and one depth.
It was something to investigate after the other two titles. The first was Resistant, which was a generic title that increased the progression of all resistances by a small amount. They also had the specific variations for pain, heat, cold, sonic, acid, slicing, and blunt force resistance. Pain, acid, slicing, and blunt force broke down even further into specific resistances.
Azotreh could instinctively feel Nicholas complaining about how specific the different resistances were. Who needs blunt force resistance to mana-reinforced black iron? Just have blunt force resistance.
The other was Survivor I, a title granted by remaining at low vitality for a prolonged period. It increased prana by 3 depth, and prana regeneration by 5 depth. But the term once again tripped up Azotreh. While they knew mana, it's what everyone called the vibrancy in their body, prana was new. They checked their other resources, finding Vigor was replaced with Backbone, Vaticence with Intuition, Vehemence with Empathy, and Vivacity with Willpower.
It was a mystery for another time, maybe when Azotreh wasn't still confused from nearly dying… again.
Azotreh sighed and left their comfortable room, leaving to find another structure within the inner fence of their soul. This one looked like a door made of teeth that led to nowhere. It was rather macabre, but signified a second innate ability.
Azotreh entered the central room only to find Nicholas and Errazorrus staring at a blue blob, sitting on a fourth chair. Every time there was another one, the obelisk made another chair. This one was closer to a bag than a real chair. The bag was lifted from the floor so the blue thing could see the top of the table.
"Finally, I was wondering when you'd wake up." Errazorrus was irritated, and obviously so. Nicholas just looked more confused by the second, staring at the blue blob. He spoke next,
"What are you, weird thing?" Was all he asked. The blob wiggled a bit before letting out a sound like a drop of water from a stalactite. All three understood that the thing was trying to communicate that it didn't know. Errazorrus rubbed his forehead with the palms of his hands while Nicholas raised an eyebrow.
"Are you sure? Our status says we're a cerulean slime now, not a human. I don't know how powerful the skill system is, but can I assume it can accurately tell our species?"
Azotreh nodded; all their life, they were told that the system was all-powerful. That even the gods were subject to it, though he didn't believe that as strongly anymore. The existence of the Infinite System was enough to force them to rethink their beliefs. Even then, it should know their species at least.
Nicholas just sighed after the nod, somehow communicating disappointment with just that. Errazorrus turned to the disappointed Nicholas, "You know what that is?"
"I think so. You don't?"
All three, the child, the dragon, and the apparent slime, all had the same confused expression. Well, the slime didn't, but it didn't have a face. Nicholas sighed again, which he was becoming worried would be a habit.
"First, the fact that the slime doesn't know what it is makes me second-guess my assumption, but where I'm from-"
Errazorrus raised his hand, and Nicholas gave him a flat look.
"Don't interrupt my explanation, Zorrus."
Errazorrus raised his hand slightly higher, extending his arm with a small push of his will to make his arm longer. Nicholas just stared before cutting off his own sigh. He didn't want to be the one who sighs at everything.
"What, Errazorrus?"
"Where are you from, exactly?"
"None of your business yet."
"We share-"
"I know we share a soul, but I have an explanation to finish before I can entertain your nonsense. Who cares where I'm from?"
"Me."
Nicholas held his head in his hands for a long moment before looking back at the dragon.
"I'll talk to you later. Now, where I'm from, slimes are weak little monsters. They're killed almost instantly by any powerful player or just anyone who's played an RPG-"
He was cut off again as now Azotreh and Errazorrus raised their hands simultaneously. Nicholas glared at them both.
"Shut it, both of you. As I was saying, they can be easily killed. They're kinda gelatinous blobs of biomass with a resistance to bludgeoning force and a weakness to being stabbed. They have a core that, when broken, kills them instantly. What now?" Nicholas asked Errazorrus as the dragon once more raised his hand.
"We had a core already, though. Everyone has a core. Unless you're stuck at normal rank or have your core broken later on, you've got a core."
Azotreh sagely nodded in agreement. They knew about their core from the moment they absorbed enough ambient energy to advance to tin rank. Nicholas just looked between them again before holding the back of his neck.
"I'm gonna stop looking between you two, it's making my neck hurt, and I don't even have a body anymore. Anyway, I assume the core you're talking about doesn't shatter and instantly kill you when stabbed with anything stronger than a sheet of paper?"
They both nodded.
"Then it's not like what I expected. So we need to experiment. I wish there were a guide to all this nonsense."
All of their attention was instantly drawn to a flashing red skill system message.
[You have entered a dungeon!]
More than four hundred people were gathered just beyond the Nightshade Barrier, split into small teams. Some came alone, others in pairs, but by far the most common number in a group was six. They stood before a broken metal structure that was being gradually reconstructed by a holographic human.
A second human, this one standing on a platform of roots and vines, overlooked the crowd. There were some familiar faces, mostly former members of the military who tried to find power elsewhere. Most of the faces were foreign to Commander, though.
He stepped forward, and a massive green projection of him appeared above the platform. He didn't need it, but Doctor was one for dramatics. The only say Commander got in the projection was that it was green. Even though he didn't have the same flair as Doctor, he did have his own aesthetic to uphold.
The crowd quieted as he stepped onto the podium.
"Adventurers, soldiers, and combatants of all stripes!" He began, "Doctor and I have called you here from both the civilized continent and places in the new lands at the will of the church and of Purity himself!"
The statement caused even the rowdiest adventurer to go utterly still. Well, all but a pair who moved just a little closer together.
"Recently, a gold rank monster appeared and destroyed a section of the facility you see in ruins behind me. In its rampage, it released many of the projects held here for the war effort. What we need from you is their return.
While a few escaped to the east, the important ones escaped into the Nightshade Forest. As such, we need you, fine warriors, to venture deep and recover the experiments. They must be captured, not killed. We will provide the proper equipment to catch them."
The system appeared before everyone present, giving them a new quest, labeled a Holy Quest.
[Holy Quest: Experiments Gone Wild!]
[In order to fight the grand daemon threat, Site-13 began development of new weapons of war. In a most unfortunate series of events, a gold rank monster appeared and pierced the Nightshade Barrier. In combat with Doctor and Commander, it damaged Site-13, and several experiments were released. Recapture them.]
[Objective: Capture experiments (0/1)]
[A-Grade]
[Rare]
[Rewards: 10 gold rank alchemic coins, 1 Affinity of your choice, Blessing of Purity (Sapphire), 1 free passive ability slot.]
[Time Limit: N/A]
[Note: This quest is repeatable. When completed, its Objective(s) can be completed again to gain additional rewards.]