The Morning After

I wake up, there's a bit of light coming through the shades on the window. It's morning. I slept all night without getting attacked, thank god. I feel a lot better now, my health and mana are full, things are going pretty good.

I get up and open the shades. There are several leafy vines covering the window, blocking some of the light. Probably some plant monster covering the building, but I'm not dealing with that right now.

The experience can wait, I'll burn the plant later. For now I just want to get something to eat. I open the shades in the apartment to get some light in, then I go to the kitchen. Most of the good stuff's probably gone, but there's some dry food left. Thankfully I didn't pour out what I took from the store for the slime, just most of the monsters.

I pour a bit more food onto the table from my holes and have a pretty good meal. I remember taking most of the stuff I thought would be useful for an apocalypse. Not clothes unfortunately. I take out a few candles and light them with my fingers, putting them in the darker areas of the living room and the kitchen.

It's pretty nice in here. The experience does look enticing, but I need some pants first. I look at what clothes are left in the bedroom. I guess he was a big fat guy, none of the clothes fit me, especially not the boxers. I put on an oversized sweatshirt and go back to the living room.

I move all the furniture to the edges of the room to make space, then I pour out some of the monster parts I have left. I end up pouring out everything into a few piles, there's not much left so it all fits in the apartment.

A few mostly intact snakes and one eyed monsters. Some damaged tentacles, and some parts from the bug guys. The tentacles are a bit rough, and the bits of exoskeleton wouldn't work. Time to make some snakeskin underwear.

But first, I guess I've gotta find out how forging works.

I focus on activating the skill, and I eventually feel some energy gathering in front of my, barely visible. I activate my sight of the one eyed monster and see it gathering in a sphere in front of me.

When I put my hand in the sphere I don't feel anything on my hand, not physically, and the energy doesn't dissipate. I focus on growing the area of the skill, putting more mana into it. It becomes larger and more defined.

I don't really know what to do, so I walk over to the snake pile while I keep the sphere going, which takes some effort, and grab a few of the less destroyed snakes. I put them into the sphere. As I lower them, I see them stay in the sphere, floating. I guess it's accepted them as material.

Instead of a pair of boxers, I guess I should make some normal underwear, I don't want the material restricting my movement. I stare into the sphere and focus on making a double banana hammock in my mind's eye. I will it into being and see the snakes begin to swirl, mixing with the energy.

The skin comes off, the materials mix together and condense, and finally I see it start to take form. I focus on making it's shape perfect for me. It takes a lot of effort to stay focused through this process, but eventually it finishes and stops turning.

My snakeskin banana hammock is floating there, ready for me to wear. I examine it's properties. It offers a bit of protection, as well as 25% fire resistance, which is weird because the bodies themselves had 30% fire resistance. Maybe it's because my skill level is so low, or because the bodies were damaged.

Wait, I can see resistances now. I look at my window, and under miscellaneous, I see it. I have 0.01% fire resistance and an additional 0.1% fire damage. That seems kind of chintzy, but I guess after one day it's pretty good. Eventually maybe I can stop burning myself.

I also see 0.001% acid resistance. That's really bullshit, but I guess it's something. So the slimes are water, but they also count as acid, or the attack does at least. What the fuck counters acid?

That doesn't matter though, time to wear my new underwear. I put it on under the sweatshirt. Now, with the red snakeskin underwear, my junk should be extra fireproof.

I still need some pants though, and if I don't replace the shirt I'll probably set the sleeves on fire by mistake.

The tentacles and the one eyed monsters felt dry, and seeing their stats, they have a 10% weakness to fire.

I probably don't want to use them for armor. I use the snakes to form a pair of pants, which takes forever. Then I make a belt with the snakes to hold them up, shaping their jaw and fangs for the belt buckle.

Then I try mixing some of the snakes with the bug exoskeletons to make shoes. I make the inside with snakeskin, then start shaping the outer layer, with bits of exoskeleton, making the base out of it entirely, but with extra padding from condensed snake meat and bones. It's essentially it's own material at that point.

Then I add an extra layer of snake skin on the outside to help protect the shoes from burning. The pants and the shoes feel okay to move in. Better than a new pair of jeans and a cheap pair of work boots anyway.

At this point though, I don't have any more snakeskin. I know I kept the slime jelly, maybe I can make something out of that. I take pots and pans, big bowls, whatever was left here, and put them all over the table and the counters.

I pour some of the slime jelly into the biggest pot, then I examine it. This has 90% fire resistance, and for all I know the numbers were higher when it was part of the core. It shows a minor temporary boost in stats for consuming it, but I don't know how you'd safely eat it. Do you cook it?

More importantly, can you use it for crafting? I focus on creating a new forging sphere above the pots over the table. When it's fully formed, I pour the slime out into it. The slime swirls into the sphere. So I can use it.

I take some one eyed monsters and tentacles and drop them in. I focus on separating the tentacles of the monster, and coating them in the slime, mixing them together. When the long process is finished, the tentacles are more of a dark blue than a purple. Their properties have changed, most importantly they now have 40% fire resistance.

Unfortunately, after I put my underwear on, my own fire resistance didn't go up, so it's not like a video game, they're not stat sticks. I can't add the resistances together, it only counts if the armor gets hit. Still, I'd like some protection, or to at least stop fighting naked in the streets.

I take a tentacle out, it seems more flexible than before I added the slime, and it feels soft compared to it's previous dry texture. I put it back in and focus on weaving the tentacles together into a shirt.

Eventually I finish the product and put it on, after taking off the sweatshirt. The tentacles feel somewhat elastic and contour to my body. Maybe I should've made pants like this too. But I only have a few tentacles left, and the tentacles took several pots and bowls of slime.

I'll have to get more supplies. The vines are covering more of the window, I should probably go out and take care of it. I'll try not to burn the apartment complex down.