Harry’s flaming sword danced through the air as it shot toward its target; a massive void unit covered in dragon scales with three snake heads clothed in mage robes that warped reality around it. It sliced through its head cleanly, and black ichor gushed like a cursed waterfall, drenching the flaming blade.
The azure fire didn’t go out, though, strangely enough. It seemed to enjoy the shower of ichor, absorbing it and the falling corpse before returning to its master.
Harry gasped and slumped to the ground, leaning on the destroyed leg of an A-class mech as exhaustion hit him.
Around him was a scene of destruction; the corpses of void units and mecha knights lay everywhere, strewn across the ground while the world ate away at them, what was left at least. Literal mountains of corpses could be seen in the distance as beams of plasma rained down from the heavens above, slamming into void behemoths and rending them apart.
Harry suddenly blinked as a message popped up in the messaging app installed within his neurobrain, which automatically came to the forefront of his vision, instantly overriding all his normal virtual defenses.
-Planet A2B has been lost to the void. If you’re seeing this, then that means that we couldn’t rescue you in time. Your contribution to [######] will be remembered, [#####].-
The dome of heaven shook, and then Harry knew no more.
∞
Harry jolted awake with a massive, mind-bending headache. His vision swam, and his mind became a chaotic mess of jumbled memories and thoughts as new, unfamiliar ones rapidly forced their way into the scrambled soup of memories.
It was a nauseating, gut-wrenching sensation that burrowed into his mind and fleshy body like worms, slithering across his flesh and shrouding his logical thoughts.
His mind reeled as he recalled blurry, indistinct faces and places that he was sure he had never visited or met. Twisted and corrupted fragments of concepts that didn’t belong to this world poured in relentlessly like a forbidden tide, settling deep within his mind.
Harry couldn’t make sense of it, nor could the world he was in, the reality around him, rippled with confusion as one particular concept fragment seeped through Harry’s mind, heralding small but fundamental changes that echoed throughout the fabric and laws of the immortal world.
[VOID]
The deluge of madness suddenly ceased, and Harry’s authority flared up, blanketing him in crimson light that seeped into his mind, manifesting within as a new trait.
-Trait evolved: Wall (0)-
Harry suddenly gasped for breath as a crimson metaphysical wall manifested within the void of his mind, crushing the raging thoughts and pushing away the source, sealing it shut and allowing rationality and consciousness to propagate once more.
The rat’s eyes glazed over before shifting back to normal as its memories returned, as Harry woke up.’
He blinked rapidly, mind reeling from the distinct lack of ‘something.’ Harry felt as if that very same thing he was missing was hovering at the back of his mind, he just couldn’t grasp it, no matter what he did.
Sensations crawled across his mind, vivid, unfamiliar sensations. Harry suddenly knew what it was like to walk on two legs, to jump, run, and kick with them. Sensations of crawling, walking, talking, and shouting also came crashing in, rattling the metaphysical wall of Harry’s mind.
None of them made sense by themselves, but when viewed together, Harry realized something: these were the sensations of a human, not a rat.
Harry’s mind was in disarray; this had never happened before, not even once. He knew that he often dreamt of past lives, but none of those dreams were strong enough to rattle his mind like this one had; at most, they’d leave him with a slight headache and fade into obscurity.
Harry shook his head and placed the matter behind him; his belly grumbled loudly, forcing him to cease pondering and rise from his resting spot.
The hungry rat quickly made his way out of his makeshift burrow and surveyed his surroundings.
The forest looked completely different; life hummed everywhere in a chaotic survival cycle. Strange pulsing green grass rapidly grew from the ground in round patches, only to be consumed by a spotted blue deer-like creature with moss-covered horns. Its legs were thin and nimble, and its snout stretched like plastic each time it moved in for a bite. It had four eyes, one pair scanned its surroundings while the other looked at the patch of rapidly growing grass.
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Its entire body shook as soon as it laid eyes on Harry, its legs glowed a soft blue and transformed into a soft green light that rapidly covered its body before vanishing under the force of an invisible wind.
A bloodcurdling wail slammed into Harry a second later as a massive shapeless shadow leaped over it, vanishing with a pulse of spirituality and reappearing where the strange deer-like creature once stood.
Another wail reached his ears, followed by loud chomping sounds and the cracking of bones. The shadow before him flickered, then stabilized before vanishing once more, leaving behind a pile of glistening, tiny bones and countless moss-covered horns.
Patches of vibrant green grass began spreading towards them the moment they appeared, growing into every nook and cranny before releasing waves of spirituality that rapidly melted the pile into a substance Harry couldn’t identify before absorbing it.
It was a horrifying sight, one that Harry barely had time to process before a sensation of deadly crisis exploded within.
He leaped out of the ground with all his might, just in time to see it collapse into a pit of vibrant green thorns as a massive root smashed into it, glinting dangerously as they shot towards him.
Harry’s heart thrummed in his chest as he watched the approaching thorn; he’d messed up big time. There was no way to maneuver out of its way, and it slammed right through him and out through the other side, cleanly impaling him.
Harry felt the grasp of death reach for him in an instant before being pushed away as soft green light mixed with hints of ethereal red exploded from within, sealing the massive puncture wound shut and expelling the wicked thorn with great force.
Then, Harry collided with the earth violently before shifting to his feet, triggering [Adrenal Burst] fully, vanishing from the range of his attacker. The sense of danger didn’t fade, though; it merely grew muted.
The rat frantically scanned his surroundings but saw nothing unusual until he blazed past what he assumed was just a broken piece of twig, right until vines shot out of it and grabbed his left leg, sending him tumbling across the forest floor.
He was back on his feet in moments, though, but it was already too late. He turned to run, but the soil behind him suddenly trembled as vines burst forth and rapidly proliferated, blocking his only safe exit.
Harry shifted his gaze to the strange creature that had attacked him. It resembled a strange slug-flower hybrid grafted from the mind of a madman. A brown wooden shell adorned its back and parts of its oval lower body, constantly emitting spirituality and a transparent sticky substance that held numerous twigs together on its back.
Its legs were numerous and seemingly without end; they too looked like its wooden shell, but were a lot more flexible and stored a decent amount of spirituality. A single, pink eye gazed out at Harry from a large hole in the shell, unblinking and unmoving.
Harry couldn’t conceive how such a creature could arise due to natural laws. He refused to believe such a creature had parents; it had to be artificial.
It looked wrong, felt wrong, and shouldn’t work according to common sense, yet it did, which puzzled Harry.
It didn’t feel that strong, though. Harry felt like such a creature couldn’t possibly be good at direct combat, but excelled at ambushes, hence why it hadn’t attacked already.
He pulled upon his strength and agility stat and blurred forth, fangs and claws bared as he moved in for an attack. The bezzaire plant-like slung creature attempted to shift out of the way, but Harry was just too fast.
Vines slithered from underneath its shell in an attempt to stop Harry, but it was too useless; Harry’s teeth cut through them as if they weren’t even there, and the few that managed to grab hold of his legs snapped as Harry moved.
His teeth and claws dug into its flesh as if it were made of tofu, gliding through until they met soft, green flesh. A crimson glow flashed behind Harry’s eyes as his authority flared up. A sinister, ethereal crimson mouth, gleaming with madness and hunger, manifested above.
Reality shifted as it lunged forth hungrily, gobbling up the strange slung-plant hybrid in one massive bite before vanishing.
-Predation was partially successful-
-Trait acquired: Wooden Exoskeleton (0)
-Trait acquired: Spiritual sense (0)
-Trait acquired: Photosynthesis (0)
+200 Biomass
Otherworldly power burned through Harry, heralding drastic new changes as the new traits settled in. His fur was the first to change; it rapidly shriveled up, as if it was being drained of its fundamental nature as it became something less before crumbling into crimson dust that blew away on an invisible wind, leaving Harry hairless.
It didn’t stay that way for long, though; His skin began to rapidly change with the appearance of vibrant green spots that rapidly spread, eventually covering every part of his body.
The changes didn’t stop there, though; a thin layer of brown wood rapidly rose from underneath his green flesh, covering his entire body in seconds before shifting to a dark obsidian color similar to his fur.
-Conditions met, the DEF attribute has been unlocked-
Harry felt an odd power flow through him, one that reminded him of iron, steel, and tungsten for some reason. It felt hard, as if it fully embodied that concept. The rat’s body shook as it seeped in.
Harry lamented the loss of his once beautiful fur but quickly got over it; he’d choose practicality over beauty any day. His fur was nice, but it didn’t offer much in the way of utility, other than slight camouflage.
The exoskeleton wasn’t that bad, either; it was as flexible as regular skin yet was enough to provide some defence, even if it wasn’t much. He wanted to test out the other traits, particularly [Spiritual sense], but recognized that now wasn’t the right time.
Harry pushed off his exhaustion and began sprinting left; his intuition told him that he’d exit that he could exit the forest from there. Harry didn’t want to exit the forest, at least not fully; he just didn’t want to live in constant danger.
He wasn’t strong enough to live in it, yet.
The strength to do would come easily, though, as long as he didn’t encounter something like that living shadow or twisted centipede again, or that vine. He also wanted to check on the unknown town and find a way in. Harry didn’t think it would be that hard, given that it was daytime, security would be lax.
It wasn’t long before Harry noticed the strange, twisted trees thinning out, allowing more sunlight in to illuminate the forest floor. Harry basked in the warm, gentle sunlight. His trait [Photosynthesis] activated instantly, absorbing the gentle rays and transforming them into nutrients for his body and stamina.
It was a slow but noticeable process, much to Harry’s delight, one that forced Harry to shift his initial opinion of the trait. Perhaps it wasn’t as useless as he thought; maybe with a few units of biomass it could become something more, something great.
He didn’t linger long, though; a constant sense of danger lingered in his mind, only growing fainter the further he moved from the depths of the forest. Harry sped up, weaving through the many obstacles in his path until the sense of danger vanished and his intuition told him he was safe, for now.
