Fate Shift - Chapter 3

Within the Southeastern borders of the Elwur Empire, the expansive Fel Swamps stretched across the land like a blight on the nation’s cultured lands. Deep within the uninhabited swamp, a pile of pale, transparent slime materialized.

Although it didn’t shift or move in any way, internally the slime was screaming. ‘Why? My wish was to be reincarnated as an awesome fantasy monster, not a fucking slime! That stupid djinn is such a piece of crap! Ahhhh!’

Eventually the slime calmed down and began seriously considering the situation. ‘Well, since I’ve already ended up like this I guess I’ll have to see what’s up. Hmm, what’s this . . . ?’

[You, Peter Derek Ashwood, have been selected as the second of the Fate’s Own. Cultivate Qi and gather strength, for when the hundredth appears, the Fate’s Own must become one. To aid you, Fate has given you one gift: The System of Fate. Use it well. ]

‘Cultivate Qi? The Djinn couldn’t even get the type of fantasy world I wanted right. Seriously, after I freed him and everything this is how he repays me? What a douche bag. Ughh, might as well check this gift out. Maybe it’ll actually be something decent.’

[Peter Derek Ashwood’s Status Screen]

[Title: Naive]

[Cultivation Realm: None]

[Cultivation Rank: None]

[Cultivation Art: None]

[Qi: None]

[Breath: Slime Breath]

[Legacies: None]

[Armaments: None]

[Souls: None]

[Summoning Order: Second]

‘Wow, fat lot of good that is. Thanks for nothing Fate. All I get is a freaking status screen, of course. Welp, I’ll just have to make do. Who knows, maybe I can still level up or something.’

Extending his senses outwards, Peter found that while he didn’t have eyes, he could still see somehow. Aside from that though, his only other sense was touch. Looking around, the nave pile of gelatin began crawling forth at a snail’s pace. Even if it took him a year, he was still going to hunt down a monster!

Peter had first materialized on a small island shaded by short, twisted trees with massive roots that spread out like spider webs across the ground. From near the small island’s center, he made his way towards the island’s shore. After an hour of struggling over and under clumps of thick roots, he managed to hit water. It was then that Peter realized that maybe slimes were really aquatic creatures. To his delight he found he could instinctively swim with a grace he’d never had in his previous life.

With greater confidence, Peter began exploring and swiftly found his first ‘monster,’ a fish. In his new form it was hard to estimate how large the fish was but he guessed it’d probably be smaller than the average adult human’s hand. In comparison to his current size, it ought to be far more than a single meal’s worth he figured.

Rather than trying to swim towards the emerald colored fish, Peter floated in the water, watching his prey passively. In RPGs tackling an unfamiliar monster could often be a recipe for disaster, a lesson he’d learned the hard way. If he was sitting in front of his computer he’d be paging through an online guide to see what this ‘monster’ could do but obviously that wasn’t an option right now. Instead, he simply paid attention.

The fish didn’t seem to be bothered by Peter at all, assuming it knew he was there. Although the murky water made it hard to see, Peter could tell the fish had eyes, so presumably it could see the floating slime. Then again, maybe it couldn’t. Regardless, the greenscale seemed more interested in the mottled green and gray plants growing from the sand below. The plants looked kind of like some variation of kelp to Peter but he was hardly an expert on fantasy plant life or any other plant life for that matter.

To his surprise, Peter saw a new line of text form in his vision as he continued observing the fish.

[By focusing intensely on a single subject you have unlocked Appraisal!]

[Appraisal can be used for two purposes. It can record one’s observations and also reveal new information on an unfamiliar subject. Only limited information can be gained using Appraisal’s second feature however.]

Upon reading through the new notifications, Peter glanced at the fish. A new line of text appeared above its body.

[Fel Greenscale]

‘Okay, maybe this gift of mine was better than I thought. So I guess it’s just that I have to unlock features to make it really good? Well I hope that’s how it works anyway . . .’

Before he could get too sidetracked Peter refocused on the greenscale. This was his first ‘monster hunt;’ he couldn’t just let his prey slip away due to his own inattention!

After a while, the greenscale swam over to a plant directly below Peter. Having watched it for several minutes by this point, Peter found himself unconcerned by the fish. It certainly didn’t seem dangerous. He considered his talent for swimming for several moments before deciding to act. In a flash, Peter propelled himself down and slammed into the fish from above.

He spread his body out like a net, completely covering the Fel Greenscale which shook itself frantically, attempting to free itself. Each time the fish moved, Peter squeezed tighter, increasing the pressure on it. To his surprise, he realized his body contained a fairly impressive strength, as he was eventually able to totally immobilize the fish. At the same time, he discovered he was somehow sucking all the water trapped with the fish through his body and then expelling it.

Before long the fish, which had been rendered unable to breathe by the pressure Peter was exerting on it, was dead. Keeping the fish contained, Peter headed back to the island he’d first appeared on. Although he swam much slower now, due to the awkwardness of keeping the fish inside his body he still made good time. When he hit land it became much harder to move and Peter was forced to carry the fish on top of his ‘back’ as he crawled forwards.

Once he’d found what he deemed a suitable lair, a small, cage-like hollow created by a clump of tree roots, Peter placed the fish back inside his body and rested. He could feel himself begin digesting the fish, almost as if he was drooling all over it, which was an odd sensation to say the least.

He didn’t consider his act of eating much though. Peter was more focused on what he’d done. His actions had been mostly instinctive, with no real thought on his part. It seemed to him that alongside the body itself, he’d also gained the bestial instincts necessary to survive. Better yet, he was already noticing some of this body’s strengths.

First off, he was quite the swimmer. He’d never learned to swim as a human but as a slime swimming felt almost effortless. Secondly, he could move some things through the interior of his body, at least water. Third, he was fairly strong; he’d at least been much stronger than that Fel Greenscale which had to have something like 75-80% of his body mass.

Peter was already beginning to envision possible hunting strategies he could test in the future. He decided to name the strategy he’d used today the Python Stratagem, since it was rather similar to how pythons hunted. Still, that was just one of the ideas he had. Another idea he’d already developed was how he’d deal with larger prey. He wasn’t certain how feasible it’d be but if he could slip inside the body of a large creature, Peter figured he’d be able to kill it from the inside in any number of ways. He named this the Giant Killer Stratagem.

Satisfied with his accomplishments for now, Peter drifted into a deep sleep as he imagined himself trying out his new thoughts on the morrow.

I can already hear the screams of “Cliche!” I know there are plenty of other fantasy monsters I could’ve used for the second Fate’s Own character but I just really wanted to use a slime. Please forgive me.