Also if she needs to breathe and/or would like to come with us to the ocean dimension. Also if we can have some delicious energy.
I'll go with evolve-swim-go-to-water-world, and even though she's a bitch I say we help that cunt Paladin. Make sure she doesn't see our Succubuddy, though.
HP and energy do recover very slowly over time, yes. Well, in most circumstances.
Options 3 and B win! It was closer than I expected though.
----
Mentally advising the Succubus to stay out of sight for now, you slither across the ground to greet the Paladin. She's a rather unpleasant shade of blue around the extremities, but she's definitely alive.
You draw up in front of her. "Hello!" you shout, trying to be your usual friendly self.
Her hand twitches towards her longsword before she glances down at you. Damn, she still looks moody.
"Foul creature," she mutters. "I should have known you would follow me to this accursed Hell."
"Or 'Hi!', as they used to say," you retort, good cheer starting to strain at the edges. "Bit of trouble with the Polar Dimension?"
She glares furiously at you. "I went in search of NeverMeltIce with which to imbue my blade. Sadly, the conditions in that realm proved... oppressive."
A thought seems to occur to her, and for the first time since seeing you she stops trying to murder you with looks.
"You however... you might fare better than I. Fetch me a piece of NeverMeltIce from that god-forsaken place, and I... ugh... I will allow you to take a little energy from my pendant."
It's an interesting offer - free energy is always nice - but you've got other plans at the moment.
"I might look into it later," you suggest. "I was planning on exploring the Ocean Dimension first."
"Suit yourself," is her only response. "I shall sit here and meditate on my failures in the meantime."
Leaving her to her thoughts, you shuffle away, and begin the evolution. Drawing on your energy, you split cells, grow new ones, flex the power of your mind. Convulsions seize hold of your body, a tremendous pain fills you - then it's done. A small, retractable dorsal fin emerges above your spine (or where your spine would be if you had one) along with two smaller fins sticking out from the side of your body nearer your head. All of them can be pulled inside your body at will, so you won't be compromised in any other environments, but damn, it'll make swimming easier.
Satisfied, if a little drained, you slide towards the blue Archcrystal - and press yourself through.
****
You emerge deep underwater. Instantly your fins extend, and your outer layer of cells immediately switch to taking dissolved oxygen from the water. Breathing wont be an issue.
You guess you're around 50m (ish) down; the light is weak and the silence oppressive. Behind you is a rocky underwater mountain, seaweed growing out from nooks and crannies in its cracked surface. The blue Archcrystal sits innocently perched on a flat face of rock. Before you the ocean seems to stretch on indefinitely, deep blue and shifting... but completely empty.
After the high intensity of the Flaming Dimension, the quiet is almost a little eerie. You make your way further down the underwater mountain, the light growing dimmer the further down you go. Wait... what's that? Those rocks seem suspiciously bright. You swim down further to investigate - and find a square hole cut straight into the side of the mountain! A gloomy tunnels winds its way inside, with various paths branching off. The borders of the square seem to have some strange, luminescent algae growing on them - not very bright, but it provides enough light to see by.
You hear a burst of bubbles, and behind you, a giant clam, anchored onto the side of the mountain, opens its maw. Inside is a giant, lustrous pearl - the aura is twice as bright as the lichen. Tempting target.
Something shifts. The water around you moves, all at once, like some huge tectonic quake took place. The movement, the disturbance... it came from below. Interesting...
----
Option A) Explore the tunnel cut into the side of the mountain. Bound to be something interesting inside. Option B) Steal the pearl from the clam - c'mon, those things are really slow - and drain its energy. Option C) Head down to investigate what the hell could make the water move like that.
Status:
HP: 23/25
Energy: 35/60
Morality: 20/100 (hero)
Evolutions:
- Infest I
- Stealth I
- Slime Ooze I
- Growth II (25 energy required. Stretch your arm out. From shoulder to end of longest finger, that's how big we'd get. The head would also split into 2, giving us a sort of stretched Y shape.)
- Magic Sting II (20 energy required. The shot is rather more powerful. More akin to a punch from your average joe than the pitiful little sting level I was).
- Scale Armor I (More protective against spells and phsyical attacks than Slime Ooze, but much less multi-purpose).
- Swim II (20 energy required. Can you guess what this evolution does?)
Clams in video games are always deceptively "slow" but depending on what the swim speed of Swim I is we might be able to drain it and run. The tunnel sounds intriguing, and i doubt we should try to nose about something that big enough to move the whole fucking ocean. Hrm...... A or B........
The Coin of Power (TM) says B. Go after dat pearl.
D: we spend 10 EP to get Infect I and then, we drain the pearl - imagine if we get 30 EP as we're limited to 60, we'll lose some. And if we've got time after that, then A.
Better grab it fast! I actually want to say go with Swim II, which would leave us at 10 and should up our chances for getting said pearl to replenish ourselves
Better grab it fast! I actually want to say go with Swim II, which would leave us at 10 and should up our chances for getting said pearl to replenish ourselves
Sorry it took a couple of days to update, I've been busy with stuff.
----
You paddle in the water, keeping yourself stable, weighing up the options. In the end you decide to just go for it - that pearl is just too tempting.
Swimming forwards, you enter the clam's gapping maw, wrap yourself around it... and drain. Magical energy rushes into your body like water pouring into a parched desert. Sweet, delicious energy.
Only a few seconds later, the pearl is drained and you are revitalised. You exit the clam painlessly and procede into the square opening in the side of the mountain, positively squirming with vigor.
The opening soon forms a tunnel. Dark, cracked surfaces cover the entire interior. No plants grow at all, and after a couple of meters in the only light is coming from random patches of glowing algae growing on the walls.
The tunnel soon diverges into 3 distinct branches. The one on the right is collapsed, rocks and rubble filling the passage, though it looks like there might be enough of a gap for a slim tentacle like yourself to squeeze through.
Regardless, you pick the left passage on a whim, and proceed along cautiously... the silence in this place is more than a little disconcerting.
The underwater corridor remains essentially featureless for an even greater distance, until you come across some... scorch marks? Blackened bits of stone across the right-hand wall, they would've been totally unnoticeable if it weren't for some algae on the ceiling providing enough light to show the contrast between them and the surrounding rock.
You press on, even more cautiously. Still the passage-way is silent.
Finally you make it to the end of the tunnel. The way is barred by a metal grill, but there's easily enough room between the bars for you to slip between. You stick your head through to get a look at what's going on.
Mermaids. And Mermen. Lots of them.
This looks almost like some kind of ballroom - the entire group of 50 or so are swimming gently around at the bottom, some 10 or so meters below you. Just casually flowing in and around each other, simultaneous and coordinated, all within the massive circle of the room. It's very impressive, almost hypnotic. Stone walls rise on all sides around them, as high as you can see, and the bottom is covered in featureless yellow sand (although it makes a change from the endless rock surfaces).
Scaly tails glitter, luscious hair flows beautifully through the water as the group continues undulating peacefully.
Your intuition kicks in. There's something deeply and profoundly off here. Mercreatures are the athletes and predators of the seas - what are they doing waltzing around inside a under-sea mountain?
You flick to viewing auras, and are almost immediately blinded. You jump back to normal vision before the light pounds your brain into dust, but you saw enough. There's a collosal source of power in the seabed, right in the center, where the mercreatures swim thickest. And it's stirring...
----
Option 1) Beat a quick retreat, this is nothing to do with us.
Option 2) Go down in a friendly manner and see if someone wouldn't mind explaining what's going on?
Option 3) Sneak down in as stealthy a manner as possible (gee, I think there's an evolution that'd help with that) and try to deduce what's going on.
Option 4) Other.
Status:
HP: 23/25
Energy: 65/65
Morality: 20/100 (noble)
Evolutions:
- Infest I
- Stealth I
- Slime Ooze I
- Growth II (25 energy required. Stretch your arm out. From shoulder to end of longest finger, that's how big we'd get. The head would also split into 2, giving us a sort of stretched Y shape.)
- Magic Sting II (20 energy required. The shot is rather more powerful. More akin to a punch from your average joe than the pitiful little sting level I was).
- Scale Armor I (More protective against spells and phsyical attacks than Slime Ooze, but much less multi-purpose).
- Swim II (20 energy required. Can you guess what this evolution does?)
