1 Bubble bubble

Life underwater ain't so bad, there's a sort of innate comfort to being free from the constant struggle with gravity. Or maybe my nerves are just really poor in this body, and I don't have the required nuance of physical perception needed to feel like a garbage lump anymore. Either way, things aren't all bad. Even though I don't have eyes, being that I'm a lump of sapient jelly, I can still see. Though it's not exactly eagle vision, just a vague blurry perception of my surroundings, lights shadows and shapes come and go. This is I guess due to my newly acquired spiritual perception, I know this because the only thing that isn't a headache inducing blur to me is the overlay I can see over my field of perception. At the very top left of my view it reads "small shallow water jelly", below that is a diagram of my current body and a list of my attributes, pathetic as they may be they fascinate me.

dexterity (0.1)

strength (0.1)

constitution (2.0)

spirit (0.1)

life energy (0)

passive abilities: (hardy constitution: can regenerate from non-lethal wounds )

active abilities: (absorb: break down matter into life energy and BIO data, small chance to acquire active or passive ability)

The hardy constitution is reassuring, I haven't explored much of my environment yet given the fact that I've only been in this body for what feels like a few hours, and I barely just learned how to siphon water in and out of myself to move around. But I highly doubt I'm alone in this place.

I focus on the words life energy in the overlay hoping for some sort of dialog box or something to give me an explanation, but to my dismay there's nothing. I wouldn't mind the suspense so much if it wasn't my life on the line if I don't figure this stuff out. I try to focus on the jellyfish diagram, and immediately I'm rebuffed with the messages "No BIO data available!" followed by the line "insufficient life energy to modify!". Well, that mystery didn't last long, apparently I will be able to do some sort of genetic manipulation of my own body if I can get enough life energy as well as the required BIO data to harness it.

This is starting to feel like a video game. Did I really die from a heart attack after those two dogs started chasing me? I know I'm not in a coma dreaming this up. How do I know that? I know it because its incredibly obvious when you aren't dreaming. The whole "I must be dreaming" scenario has got to be one of the most annoying tropes I've ever had to suffer through. Yeah I'm looking at you Stephen R. Donaldson. So I won't waste another second of brainpower wondering if this is real, it is. The only questions I am interested in now are how I ended up like this, and whats going to happen next.

The only things I can make out in my immediate vicinity are small shoots of what looks like some type of underwater ferns. I don't fancy turning into a plant but I'm eager to try absorbing something. I want to know what sort of potential this new body of mine has, and exactly what the overlay can do. I say a mental sorry to mister plant, and then demand it to get inside of me. I suction/squirt my way over to my target, and mush myself against it as best I can until the upper portion of the plant sinks into me, having a body capable of making itself viscous and consuming matter into itself is extremely strange.

I think the plant feels violated, I want to assure it that I'm only here to murder it and no other intentions exist.

After I encapsulate the majority of the fern down to the base where it enters the ground, my body kicks into auto pilot. I must be really acidic, or poses some magical ability to break down matter because the plant is vaporized at a visible speed. It takes about 10 seconds to completely break down the material into a liquid that is quickly incorporated into my body. I can feel that I've taken on some weight after the operation, but I can no longer determine where the liquefied plant juice has gone. It's like I ate a mini growth mushroom from super Mario. I guess there is no need for any long digestion process, its just immediately incorporated into my jelly-being.

(absorbed organic matter, decrypting BIO data.)

(1 life energy acquired)

(BIO data acquired: shallow water fern)

(shallow water fern: small aquatic flora.)

(BIO data for passive skill acquired: photosynthesis)

(Photosynthesis: generate life energy through contact with sunlight)

Nice! let's see if I can start frankensteining myself up already. I attempt to focus on my diagram again, this time I'm greeted with a bit more information.

(Genetic manipulations available (1)) (Passive skill Photosynthesis, life energy required: 50)

Crap! Well, I guess a lot more plants are going to be made into men today. I'm eager to be something more than a blob of voracious jelly, so I immediately set off to my task of harvesting life energy from the surrounding ferns . While I'm at it I decide that I can scout out the environment. The water around me goes from a few meters deep to shallow and then back again as I move forward and graze on the vegetation. There is a definite swampy vibe to this place, and the way the sunlight falls into the water in splotches makes me think there must be a canopy of trees above me.

I am really starting to get the hang of this, I glide from plant to plant and absorb them down to the root like some bizarre underwater lawn mower. I've added about ten percent to my size now, though the amount of pure mass I've taken in surpasses my own body many times over, so I am able to deduce thats its not a 1:1 ratio of stuffs gobbled to size gained.

Just as I'm nearing my quota for the life energy, I drift past another shallow and notice immediately that something is very different about this new area. For one almost all the light is gone, I seem to have just passed the border into a large underwater cavern. The vegetation has almost completely disappeared from this area, but I decide to push forward for a bit and scope the place out.

As I move around the first bend I am greeted with a dizzying sense of motion in front of me. The ground seems to be folding back and forth on itself like some sort of...

OUCH!!!@@! FU&*^!!!

What looks like a crab claw large enough to split me in two just opened up a third of my body in one quick snap. It was way too fast, and I never had a chance to see it coming, I am feeling the absence of my old mammalian set of eyes very much right now. The ground wasn't moving, it was swarming with these creatures. Thankfully the force of the claw striking my body has pushed me higher up from where I was attacked, and I struggle to move along with the force of the blow managing to get out of the creatures reach before it grabs a solid hold on me.

The pain is searing and I'm almost blinded by it, so much for the crappy nerves theory. I can very much feel every ounce of the hurt that has been inflicted on me. Thankfully before the pain unhinges me I already feel it easing. I can also feel and sense the wound in my flesh/jelly closing at a visible speed. Thank sweet baby jelly jesus for that regeneration passive ability. I float around clinging near the top of the cavern and do my best to observe the first creatures I've come across in this new world. Now that I can slowly observe them I can see they look more like lobsters than crabs, long bodies lined with 3 pointed legs on each side, and two massive claws on the front. But their heads aren't lobster like at all, looking more ant-like than crustacean. Sporting massive chompers and 2 long feelers rapidly dancing around in what I can only assume is an attempt to find and eat me.