*ding*
“That’s not much better, even though I feel better. I guess I was just tired.” The snail said. “Oh, what’s that?” The snail spotted something small and green embedded in the lava rock.
*ding*
Olivine (shell compatibility: good). Absorb into shell?
The snail pondered the small green thing. After a few minutes, it proudly stated its conclusions. “Rocks are hard. I want my shell to be hard. Absorb.”
The small green crystal flowed across the stone and up onto the snail’s shell. A wave of fatigue caused the snail’s eye stalks to droop for a moment. The snail turned to look at its shell. One of the cracks had a patch of green bridging the gap between shell pieces. The snail examined the green critically. “Is this going to break camouflage?” It worried. “What’s my health?” It asked.
*ding*
“Maybe I can find more of those green rocks.” The snail decided to search the entire fallen rock and collect more green crystals. With each small crystal it absorbed, a wave of fatigue washed over it. After the ninth crystal, the snail paused its search. “Why am I so tired?” It asked.
*ding*
“That is low.” The snail observed. “Why would it be so low?” The snail thought for a minute. “I guess absorbing things into my shell takes stamina.” The snail continued its search and found one more olivine crystal.
*ding*
Olivine (shell compatibility: good). Absorb into shell?
WARNING: Insufficient stamina
“Absorb.” The snail said. It felt rather groggy and didn’t bother to consider the entire System message. The green crystal flowed across the rock, but the snail lost consciousness before seeing what happened.
The snail woke with a headache. “Ow.” It said. It slowly extended its eye stalks and olfactory tentacles. It was still on top of the rock that had held the olivine crystals. The snail decided to continue down the tunnel and look for more materials for its shell. It discovered an immediate problem.
“I’m stuck!” It said. It struggled for a moment but couldn’t break free of whatever was holding it. There was an odd flexing and discomfort from the snail’s shell. The snail turned its eye stalks back on itself to try and find the issue. On its rear left quarter, a green crystal connected the edge of its shell with the rock under its foot.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
*ding*
Olivine (shell compatibility: good). Already absorbed
“Absorb.” The snail said. Nothing happened. “Absorb!” The snail said, more forcefully. Nothing happened. The snail checked the results of Identify again. “Already absorbed? How can it be already absorbed? It’s connected to my shell, but it didn’t fix any of the cracks.” The snail complained for several minutes. When nothing continued to happen, the snail resigned itself to try and think its way out of its situation.
After two hours, the snail reflected on its failed attempts to break free. It had tried to Ensnare the green anchor without any effect. It had tried to gnaw through the green crystal, but the minuscule teeth on its radula were not hard enough to affect it and the snail could only barely reach its head that far back. The snail had tried pulling left, right, and alternating between the two. The last thing the snail tried was to Identify the rock around the olivine, but its shell compatibility had been ‘none’. The snail remained stuck.
The snail watched, listless, as a centipede crawled up the nearby tunnel wall. The centipede continued to crawl up, up, up. The snail tracked it with its eye stalks until it disappeared into shadows on the ceiling. The snail stared at the spot where the centipede had disappeared for several minutes. “I haven’t tried going ‘up’.” The snail mused.
The snail bunch up its foot underneath itself and pushed. Its shell shifted painfully, but the snail continued. The snail pressed its foot together harder so it could shove more strongly upward. In the moment before the snail gave up, it heard a pop and launched into the air.
The snail did not arc very high, but it did fly clear of the rock and land on the tunnel floor.
*ding*
Active unlocked: Jump
“Ow!” The snail slowly righted itself. “Ow.” It said again. “Ow…” It said miserably. After a few moments, the snail realized it had missed a System message. It wondered what happened.
*ding*
…
“OW!” The snail wailed as a spike of pain accompanied too much information in the response from the System. The snail mentally shoved at the pain and stopped the flow of information. After gathering its will, the snail very carefully wondered what the last message had been about.
*ding*
“Jump?” The snail said. “Why would I ever want to do that?” The snail looked around for a target on which it could focus an exasperated glare. A dim green light shone out from a raised crack in the floor and caught the snail’s eye. Since the light was in the same direction the snail had been traveling, the snail decided to investigate. The nub of olivine that hung off the side of the snail’s shell scraped along the ground from time to time.
The crack went deep–deeper than the snail could see. The snail considered the light for some time. “Green light, green stones, stronger shell.” The snail said. It crept over the edge of the crack and began to descend.