The next day was a day for adventure. I was uncharacteristically giddy. Maybe it was the information, slowly figuring out how this world worked. Or maybe it was just my innate sense of exploration. Luke and I didn’t know much about this land. Me, being new to it, and Luke being a shut in. It took some prodding to get Luke out of the cave. Eventually, we were all ready. Luke, Henry, King, Balor, Cecila, and I. A rather large group. Cecila stayed on my shoulder. Balor led the way, keeping an eye out for danger. I kept King at my side. Henry was our slowest party member by a fair margin. He had negative speed, after all. But it wasn’t so slow as to make travel tedious. He transformed his limbs into legs and was bounding alongside Luke.

  During the journey Luke would switch between silence and nervously talking to much. I mostly ignored him. Secretly, I was hoping he would lure something with his noise. With King, it is almost impossible for us to be surprised. So, we could maybe get a jump on something to bond to Luke. I also got a feel for the terrain. The area was split in two. The maze-like chasms below, and a mountainous terrain above. Throughout the chasms was tunnels that snaked in an out of each other. I wanted to avoid the mountain above, with that bird out and about at least. This place also seemed to be about the same size as the jungle. Approximately 15 square miles. With pulse, it was easy to navigate. Though I had a suspicion we would be terribly lost without it.

  An hour into our exploration, the ground rumbled. Immediately, I pulsed. Whatever it was was outside of our range. “Get ready, somethings coming.” The ground continued its slight shake while Balor readied his weapons. King snapped to my side and Cecila popped onto my shoulder. Luke did his best to hid behind Henry. I pulsed again. Something large was moving through the stone. It was headed straight towards Balor. “Balor, look out!” I called. He lept forward into a dive roll just in time for a monster to burst from the wall in a shower of stone and dust. The monster was large, easily seven feet tall. It had a vaguely humanoid form with a bull-like head and horns. A minotaur, but with a mole-like nose and huge mole-like arms. It skidded to a stop for only a moment, to take us in, and then snorted a challenge. This gave me enough time to bring up its stats.

  Minimole

  DESIGNATION: N/A

  SOUL: Stone

  LEVEL: 2

  HEALTH: Stable

  ENERGY: 6

  STATUS: Wild

  SKILLS:

  Burrow: 98%

  Stone Speak: 61%

  Hammer Head lvl. 2: 27%

  Kinetic Shield: 51%

  ATTRIBUTES:

  Strength: 4

  Agility: 3

  Density: 4

  Energy: 2

  Utility: 1

  ATTRIBUTES, DERIVED:

  Speed: 3

  Intelligence: 3

  Toughness: 8

  Reaction: 4

  Everything happened so fast, I could hardly keep up. King acted immediately. He snarled, muscles coiling, and leaped for the Minimole’s throat. His teeth found fur, but the monster barely budged. The large monster shoved King away with his powerful digging claws. It then leaned back, ready to gore with its stone-like horns. Balor was on the creature an instant later, leaping onto its back. He hooked his make shift kamas around its neck, the blades crisscrossing in a deadly choke hold. I could see a thin line of blood seep from the cuts. Suddenly, text appeared over Balor.

  WEAPONS SKILL HAS BEEN FULLY REALIZED. LEVEL UP OR EVOLVE SKILL?

  Balor evidently also received some sort of notification as well, because he was shocked out of his concentration. The minimole slammed his horns into the earth with the speed of a sledgehammer, right were king was an instant earlier. In a flash of yellow light, the pulse hound dashed with incomprehensible speed to dodge the attack. A flash dodge. It wasn’t enough. The shock-wave of the blow sent a visible wave through the earth. I was knocked to my feet. I glanced up in time to see Balor slam into a wall and for King to be blown back. If that would have hit King, it would have been the end. Cecila rolled to her feet, shaking in fear. She curled into a little ball, covering her large eyes. The ball of light at the end of her tail dimmed, then flashed with a blinding light. It physically hurt to look at. Wincing, I shielded my gaze. It seemed Balor and King were not as affected, as they had yet to return to the fight. The beast, however, screamed in pain. It’s eyes were small, but still visible. But, a creature designed to spend most of its time underground would have a higher sensitivity to light. Blinded, it spun in circles, lashing out with its claws. I stood and took the lull in combat to issue orders.

  “Balor, use challenge!” I had wanted to experiment with this for a while. “King, attack from behind, use power up and crunch a heel. Cecila!” She looked up at me wide eyed. “Good job.” She made a happy pip.

  Balor lifted his weapons in the air, and pointed one at the beast. He roared his challenge. King, rushed behind, dome glowing in preparation for a power up, then chomped down on a bovine leg. With a sickening crunch, the minimole screamed and fell on one knee. Balor immediately used the opportunity to hook his blades around its neck once again, and with the strength of four arms yanked forward.

  With a heavy thud, the minimoles head hit the ground. A moment later, the rest of the beast collapsed with it. Balors arms, chest, and legs swelled. Suddenly looking more powerful than before.

  “Is everyone OK?” I did a head count. Good, no-one was hurt. Luke and henry had backed away nearly ten yards. He gave a thumbs up. Then, I focused on Balor. I pulled up his stats. His strength had increased by one point to four. Among other minor skill percentage increases, his weapons was still at 100%.

  WEAPONS SKILL HAS BEEN FULLY REALIZED. LEVEL UP OR EVOLVE SKILL?

  Finally, some tangible growth. I had wanted to see what 100%ing a skill did. Before making any selections, I consulted the link.

  “What is leveling up or evolving a skill?”

  SKILLS, WHEN FULLY REALIZED, MAY EITHER BE INCREASED OR EXPANDED. LEVELING UP, OR EVOLVING. LEVELING UP A SKILL ALLOWS THE NEXOCITE WEAPON TO UTILIZE MORE COMPLEX AND SUBTLE PROCESSES TO ENHANCE THE SKILL, GENERALLY INCREASING ITS ACCURACY, EFFECTIVENESS, AND/OR RANGE. FULL EFFECT VARIES BY SKILL. EVOLVING A SKILL INVOLVES SELECTING ONE OF SEVERAL OPTIONS TO CHANGE THE SKILL INTO A MORE INTRICATE FORM. THIS IS GENERALLY LESS POWERFUL THAN UPGRADING A SKILL, BUT CAN EVENTUALLY LEAD TO A MORE SPECIALIZED AND DEADLY WEAPON.

  Interesting. I had already tried to ask the link about specific skills, and it was unable to give me more information. My only option was to try it out to see what would change. I hoped it would let me go back if the options were not very good.

  “Evolved weapons skill.”

  PLEASE SELECT ONE OPTION:

  MARTIAL ARTS: THE WEAPONS SKILL CHANGES TO ALLOW FOR VARIOUS TECHNIQUES OF HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT. THE MARTIAL ARTS SKILL UNLOCKS SEVERAL SKILL CHOICES.

  WEAPON SPECIALIST: CHOOSE ONE TYPE OF WEAPON. THE WEAPON BECOMES LESS EFFICIENT WHEN USING OTHER WEAPONS, BUT THEIR SKILL IN THAT ONE WEAPON IS GREATLY ENHANCED. THE WEAPON SPECIALIST SKILL UNLOCKS VARIOUS WEAPON-UNIQUE SKILL OPTIONS.

  WEAPON MASTER: THE NEXOCITE WEAPON NO LONGER CAN GAIN WEAPON SUB-SKILLS. INSTEAD, THE NEXOCITE WEAPON USES ALL WEAPONS AT THE SAME LEVEL OF SKILL. WEAPON MASTER UNLOCKS WEAPON-UNIQUE SKILL OPTIONS. HOWEVER, ANY WEAPON-UNIQUE SKILL CAN APPLY TO ANY COMPATIBLE WEAPON.

  I mulled over my options. Immediately I threw out weapon specialist. The only weapons we had for him right now was a pair of makeshift kamas. Who knows how long they would last. Martial arts was intriguing. Hand-to-hand combat with four hands could be really effective. Not to mention really fucking cool. On the other hand, weapon master allows weapon-unique skills to be used with any weapon. I didn’t know what they really meant. The text also implied that he would lose weapon sub-skills. How effective those sub-skills were, I couldn’t know. My enemy right now was a lack of information.

  Henry could apparently build things. Could it make weapons? If so, having a selection of weapons for different situations would be useful. Also, as cool as martial arts sounded, I was worried his fists simply wouldn’t have the oomph needed for tougher monsters. This beast was incredibly strong, stronger than anything we have fought directly so far. Our outnumbering it five… well, three to one was a deciding factor. After going back and forth for several moments, I decided.

  “Evolve weapons skill to weapons master.” Balor made an odd humming sound and turned his head, as though listening to something.

  BALOR HAS REACHED LEVEL 2. PLEASE SELECT AN AVAILABLE SKILL.

  YES. Finally. They have been stuck at level one for so long. I honestly was not sure when or how their level would increase. A long list of skills flooded my view. I could scroll through them. Sub menus could be opened or closed, leading to more options. Too many. I closed everything. When I was safe again, we would go through it. I needed to check on Luke.

  “Hey, you alright?”

  “Yeah… are you? That thing just came out of the wall, man.” He was still shaking. I felt a strange combination of pity and spite. His cowardliness was dangerous. But, was he really that much of a coward? A minotaur, or minimole, just burst from the walls, yet I felt calm. Maybe Luke was the normal one. Had I been hardened by this place? Balors multiple attacks, demon puppies, my near death duel with him, sudden snake-dinosaurs, giant birds, reality altering squids, turtle death blenders, and now this. I briefly wondered if it was the nexos I was smithing into a weapon. Maybe, I thought to myself, it was the nexocite influence? I didn’t want to dwell on it.

  “I’m fine. It’s a shame we killed it. That would have been a powerful ally. Useful in these chasms too.”

  “Yeah…” Luke was distracted. “It is fully intact though. Maybe we can mount the head? Butcher it for meat? Use its hide? It could still be useful.”

  “Huh, yeah I honestly didn’t think of that.” I inspected the bull-like creature. Maybe I could skin it? “I don’t know about eating it. The nexos could chow down, but theres too much nexocite in there for me to be comfortable eating.” Luke nodded in agreement. One of our missions today was to source more food. I had an idea for that. “If we take it somewhere to butcher it, the blood would probably just lure a monster to us. I think I should be able to skin it, shouldn’t take more than a few hours.”

  I pulsed a few times to locate a cave where I could be isolated enough to carve at the minimole. We soon found one. Balor dragged the monster into the cave with his new strength. King and I pulsed again to make sure it was empty. It… wasn’t. There was a source of heat in the back. I motioned for Luke to stay back. “King, Balor, come on. Quietly.” The two monsters followed me, skulking as I did. I wasn’t sure what this monster was, but it hasn’t responded to us yet. Hopefully I could capture it for Luke.

  Cecila, who was snuggled in her pack, had poked her head out. In response to the dark, she lifted her tail and released a bright glow. Shit. The illumination revealed us to whatever it was. I saw the drifting of tentacles just as the world… changed. The creature seemed to fly away from us, being carried by the caves growth. Reality itself elongated impossibly. The sensation wasn’t physically felt, but the contradictions in physics and my understanding of the world gave me intense vertigo. In moments, we were standing in a dark labyrinth.

  “Ah… this again? Luke, either stay here or keep up. Let’s go boys, double time!” I knew what to do this time. Pulsing, as we ran, we navigated the new maze. Unlike the cave formed out of the chasm, this one was dark. Cecila lit our way. Just a few minutes later, we found the center of the maze.

  This one was not attached to the ceiling. Rather, it simply was plopped in the middle of the chamber. This time, I got a better look. It appeared to be a squid-like creature. Each of its tentacles was lined with sharp teeth, each peppered with dried blood. A single large eye stared at us in shock, fear, or anger. It was really hard to read the emotions of otherworldly reality-altering monsters. It had just started to release gas.

  Before I could give any commands, King was on it. He pulsed, tackling into it teeth first with the speed of a train. Moments latter it was dead. King was still shaking it in his jaws. Balor grunted disappointedly. Well, he couldn’t take all the kills. The world stuttered. Shrinking back into its original shape… almost. It was like an elastic band, stretching and compressing. It settled on a strange shape. Not the same cave we were in. Similar, but longer, and slightly twisted. Henry honked a greeting at us. The two of them appeared at the edge of the cave.

  Curious, I looked around. I had a feeling… there! Curled up into a small ball of tentacles, was a smaller tentacle monster.

  “Luke, we got you another nexo!” I smiled at him. He gave me an unsure smile. I pulled up its stats.

  Cephlabrith

  DESIGNATION: N/A

  SOUL: Magi

  LEVEL: Hatchling 37%

  HEALTH: Stable

  ENERGY: 6

  STATUS: Wild

  SKILLS:

  Labyrinth: 12%

  Rend: 11%

  Sleep Gas: 29%

  ATTRIBUTES:

  Strength: 1

  Agility: 2

  Density: 1

  Energy: 3

  Utility: 1

  ATTRIBUTES, DERIVED:

  Speed: 2

  Intelligence: 4

  Toughness: 2

  Reaction: 3

  Luke managed to find its plate just above one of the tentacles. We managed to avoid being rended by this thing by giving it to Henry to hold. The small teeth did nothing to his shell and scale.

  “Don’t name this one something stupid.” I told him. He scowled at me.

  “Yes. Squigly. Confirm.” I rolled my eyes. Something caught my eye while Luke was investigating his new Nexo. King, Balor, and Cecila were sharing a meal of calamari, when I noticed a glint of metal wrapped around a tentacle. King growled when I reached down to grab it. I ignored him.

  It appeared to be a silver bracelet. Silver metal woven together in the same way ivy weaves into itself, forming a flexible band. A green crystal, shaped like Cecila's soul crystal, with an image of a small tree etched into it. The familiar tug told me I could bring up information on it.

  BATTLE SMITH GEAR: SKILL BRACELET.

  SKILL: Thorn

  Huh. How did this get a bracelet? Then it clicked. The teeth, the battle smith gear. This monster was the one who killed our mystery corpse. We were not far from there. They must have wandered into its labyrinth, fell asleep from the gas, then was eaten by this. I shivered, remembering how close I was to the same fate.

  The bracelet was appealing, in its own way. The organic weave of the nexocite metal gave it a certain mystical appeal. While my companions were distracted by their own things, I put it on. Instantly I regretted it. It seemed to dig into my skin with a tingling sensation. The sensation rushed up my arm and bounced around the inside of my skull.

  “You alright?” Luke was holding squigly. Well, squigly was holding him. It was situated at the end of his severed arm like some twisted prosthetic.

  “Found this bracelet. I bonded to it, or whatever, when I put it on. It was just weird.”

  “Really, what does it do?” There was something there. Like an instinct I could activate. I used it. My entire arm shook. For a brief moment, there was a twinge of pain as I could feel the bones of my forearm growing and expanding. A cold feeling washed away the pain, and it was soon replaced by a tingling, almost-itch that grew and expanded from the depth of my arm to the palm of my hand. I felt a pressure grow, then release. With a schlep sound, a foot length spear of bone shot from my palm and exploded on the far wall. It all happened in an instant. Never, in my near two decades of life, have I experience something so alien and intrusive, yet so intimate. A perversion of my body twisted and used as a weapon. Balor screamed in surprise which set off Kings barking. I was hyperventilating. What the FUCK. It felt odd, afterwards. Not painful, but like the hollow of pulling a loose tooth by slamming a door. With apprehension, I looked at my stats.

  WEAPON SMITH

  DESIGNATION: KAELEN RHYSE

  NEXOCITE ADAPTION: 48%

  ENERGY: 5/6

  BOND LEVEL: 1

  BOUND WEAPONS: 3 OF 3

  SKILLS:

  Thorn: 6%, GEAR

  ATTRIBUTES:

  UNKNOWABLE, HUMAN. NO MODIFIERS.

  ENERGY: 2

  I groaned. “Fuuuuck. I’m at 48%. I also can use a skill… and have energy. Huh.” My voice sounded hollow. Tired. Luke was quiet for a moment.

  “Setting aside the whole body horror thing… that is amazing. Incredibly useful. If you can get nexo skills...” He ran his free hand through his greasy mop of hair. “Imagine if you could make a labyrinth. Or alter other aspects of reality. Or could power up by yourself. With enough skills, you’d be your own army.” The realization of that sunk in. “I could be my own army too.” He hugged himself with his one arm. Squigly wiggled from the movement.

  “Let’s just… focus on surviving right now.” I didn’t want to think about what I could become. A death dealing super-soldier, with enough skills. The only downside? More nexocite. Less humanity. If you slowly replace a boat, piece by piece, with a war machine, at what point does it stop being a boat—and at what point do I stop being me?