Mind Slug

"—t… –att… Matt! Wake up."

"Huh, what, where am I?" Matt suddenly jerked awake and looked around confused. He had completely dissociated himself from the receptors of his host body because of the pain. The process of reconnecting was slow and it left him confused and groggy.

"You fell asleep in the bath. I don't know how long you've been in there, but the water is already cold. Hurry and get out or you'll get sick."

Matt looked down at himself and he felt clear headed. Well, his real body felt very comfortable. However, his host was very weak and sickly. He tried getting up, but his body wasn't listening to him. Seeing him struggle, Alexis helped him up and supported him on his way to the bed. His body was shivering and looked pale.

Alexis assumed it was due to the blood loss and spending several hours in the bath. She was internally kicking herself for working overtime. It was well past midnight, so he was likely in the water for over five hours. His body was freezing, so she wrapped him up in several blankets and turned the heat up in their room. She saw that he had taken off his personal device, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten in this situation.

"Lexi…" Matt managed to say while reacquiring control over his body.

"What is it? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?" Alexis came close and looked into his eyes. She seemed oddly attracted to them and waited for what he was going to say. Matt's eyes seemed to be shimmering but Alexis couldn't perceive it.

[Hypnosis Active.]

"Can you get me some food and water…?"

"Of course!"

Matt paid attention to the whole situation to figure out how the ability would work. It seemed that part of the hypnosis was increasing the target's willingness to listen to what you have to say. However, he needed to test it more. For now, he was satisfied with the results. He could feel an invisible force acting when he used his ability. He was still having difficulty controlling this body so he decided to examine his gains.

[Grade 1 Mind Slug: Your species lives amongst other creatures as its main habitat. They often do not gather in groups. A solitary Mind Slug would manage whole biomes on their own. They specialize in manipulating the consciousness of other intelligent life in order to do their bidding. However, they are very weak in direct combat and cannot survive outside of their host for long.]

'I see. This didn't exist in the game. There wasn't a lot of lore in the game to begin with. It was mainly skill descriptions and game instructions that developed the world beyond the game. I am glad with my choice now, this is exactly what I wanted.'

[Improved Metabolism Lv. 2: After stimulating the host's cellular activity, the metabolism of the body has improved significantly. The evolution of the organism has triggered the host body to be strengthened further.

>Removing Toxins: +20%

>Calorie Conversion: +50%

>Healing Factor: 2.0]

[Mental Resistance Lv. 1: The strength of your mind and consciousness have exceeded the biological standard for your host. The difference has manifested as mental energy. This mental energy provides a natural resistance to influences on the psyche.

>Mental resistance: 20%]

[Dream Casting Lv. 0: Utilizing your mental energy, you are able to cast thoughts and ideas into others' dreams. They will vaguely remember the dream you influenced.

>Unlock: 2 Evolution Points]

[Primary Reproduction Lv. 0: Create a sub-body that is connected to you telepathically that will follow simple directions. This sub-body may merge with a secondary host. A mature sub-body may be reabsorbed to continue the path of a Mind Flayer.

>Unlock: 50 Evolution Points]

[Whispers Lv. 0: Utilizing your mental energy, you may whisper into someone's mind directly. They will hear an unrecognizable voice in their mind.

>Unlock: 2 Evolution Points]

[Weak Hypnosis Lv. 1: Whenever you make eye contact with someone, they will be slightly more inclined toward whatever you say and believe your words to hold slightly more weight than others. The influence of those words lasts even after eye contact has been broken.

>Hypnosis: Minor]

'Strange, why is there no upgrade cost? Perhaps its related to the ability of Hypnosis…'

[Hypnosis

Activation: Eye contact

Duration: Special

Proficiency: Minor (1/100)]

'Still nothing about increasing the level of the main skill, but at least the ability associated with the skill seems to be upgradable. For now, I'll raise the proficiency and see if the skill levels up along with it. The concept of proficiency wasn't something in the game, so this is new territory for me. However, the whole Mind Flayer path is going to work completely differently than the game regardless.'

Based on his skills, it seemed that in order to become Grade 2, he would need to create and mature a sub-body. In order to mature a sub-body, it took time and Evolution Points. This is at least the same as in the game, compared to the huge differences in other skills. Matt considered if it was worth making followers using his sub-body, but rejected that idea for now.

In order to infect a player, the Mind Flayer and Faceless Devourer need to sacrifice a sub-body. This is also why the Hive Queen path is considered the only path that can win by infecting all of the crewmen. Fortunately, you didn't need to repay the Evolution Point cost every time. A sub-body could be reformed after a long time and only one active sub-body could be controlled. Fortunately, infecting a secondary host considers that sub-body as no longer active.

Matt couldn't decide what to do with his current points so he simply rested his mind. He played around with the force that his skills described and realized that it was quite useful. Being able to personally experience these abilities was remarkable. With this mental energy, he could see around him even with his eyes closed. It was essentially a third eye. However, what he saw was vastly different.

The vision utilizing his mental energy contained no visible light. Instead, it was more like a film negative. Everything his mental energy made contact with turned the blackness into a pristine white. When he held his hand up in front of his face, all he saw was a white outline. The reason it was an outline and not completely white was because his mental energy only turned white when changing from surface to surface.

Matt could think of some media from his past life that this resembled and was intrigued. This was an ability that could help him see in the dark, but also pick up threats he normally wouldn't perceive. The only issue with it at the moment was its limited range. However, he had the feeling that it would grow with his other skills and abilities. While messing around, he heard Alexis open the door and come in. Only then did he realize that it was the middle of the night and the cafeteria was likely closed. However, she still arrived with a pot filled with something.

Matt realized that the hypnosis ability was quite convincing. Although Alexis was already more than willing to help him, it was the middle of the night and second shift was a ghost crew. Only the bars were open at this hour, and they had very limited access to ingredients. Fortunately, it seemed she had been successful and returned relatively quickly with food. She placed the food on a stand and set it next to the bed.

"I managed to get some chicken soup for you. Here, let me help you sit up."

Matt was curious about the limits of his hypnosis and he decided now would be the best time to test it. Something he knew that Alexis didn't like doing in all the time he knew her. He looked straight into her eyes which caused her to pause for a second, allowing Matt to speak.

[Hypnosis Activated.]

"I can barely lift my arms, could you help me eat?"

"Ah… well…"

It seemed that she was about to make an excuse, but paused and thought about it. Matt thought the hypnosis had failed until he saw the proficiency go up by two. He had thought the proficiency might go up by more than one if the order was more difficult for the target to follow. He was glad that his hypothesis was correct.

"Hmm, okay. Although I don't normally like doing this, I'll make an exception for today."

Matt paid attention to how she reacted to the hypnosis and began to formulate an idea about it. Instead of directly commanding the target to do something, which would fall under control, his hypnosis ability only influenced their decisions. The person affected by the hypnosis would attempt to justify the action as something they decided and then create the reasons why internally. This way, he wouldn't leave any evidence behind as long as he kept moderate about who he targeted. Alexis grabbed a spoonful of soup and moved it up to his mouth with a huge blush across her face to her ears.

"S… say aah."

---------------------

Great Flying Slugs Batman, We Are First!

As promised, I will do two bonus chapters! However, I'm juggling work and writing now, so I will make those two bonus chapters as owed chapters. I'll of course keep my daily chapter going. Every day until the contest ends that we are first, I'll keep adding on the two bonus chapters.

novelHYPE novelHYPE

Owed Chapters: 2