Morphling

The little jelly went through the beast’s properties and for once it actually looked excited. Not only was the creature massive, it was strong too. At least when compared to the other creatures it consumed, the great beast was several levels above.

First, its size was just that massive compared to the jelly. Since some of its biomatter was already lost, the little fellow couldn’t completely mimic its size, but since most of its structure was intact, it could fill in the spots that were missing based on the available biological data it had available.

Slowly, it gradually transformed into the beast, starting from the bottom to the top. After a few minutes of careful transformation, it was finally finished. First off, it was a four-legged animal with grey-brown fur and hooves at its feet. It was a little over five feet tall and has a large muzzle.

There were no other redeeming aspects, but for the first time, the little jelly got to experience different senses. First, was vision; it was the first time it got to see real images and the details of actual objects. In its previous state, it could only perceive images through the use of an ability similar to a sonar or echolocation. Instinctively, its body would vibrate sending waves of sound or air then whatever object they would collide would provide the image to the little jelly.

It didn’t really know how this function worked in the same way that one wouldn’t really know why one breathes. A creature with a higher level of intelligence can come to understand the purpose of breathing and how it works, but it can’t really be explained why most living things evolved in a way that does so.

Regardless, it now possessed a different kind of sight. The tiny red monster it turned into earlier had unstable functions, so it didn’t really have a proper experience with the other senses. Other than sight, the next sensation it got to experience was hearing. The noises of the forest could now be heard and no longer transmitted to it as simple vibrations. Next came smell as it now had to manually breathe, unlike its previous state where it instinctively filtered the air through its membrane. The last sensation would then be taste, but currently it didn’t understand the function properly as it hadn’t consumed anything with its new mouth yet.

These senses were completely new to the jelly, so having to experience them all at once would bring it to its next new experience – information overload.

Being bombarded by all these new sensations, the little jelly toppled over and fell on the floor as a twitching mess. Drool and froth dribbled from its mouth as its tongue lolled on the side. Its eyes spun as it once again got to experience dizziness and confusion from the mental attack it received.

It would be a while before it recovered from its current predicament, so it had to get used to the senses and endure the torture for now.

***

Near the fringes of the eastern part of the forest, a total of five figures scoured the area while three of them stood over the remains of burning metal and debris. One of them bent down and touched the earth with their palm when a dim glowing green light shined from their palm.

The figure stood, an average looking man in the middle of his life, grizzled and full of wrinkles with a head full of short ash-brown hair. He wore a tattered brown mantle and on his right hand sported a long gnarled staff that he used as support. On his head he wore a tattered wide-brimmed hat and had a fuzzy beard that matched his hair.

“So, what do we got, Jortus?”

The man to his left, a slightly taller man with a lean muscular build compared to his own lank who wore the leathers of a frontiersman, asked him as he stared at the scorch marks with a hand under his chin.

“Can’t be sure. All we know is that this is indeed the area where the Tower’s diviners sensed the disturbance in the Flow. Other than that, I can’t for the life of me determine what this object could have been.” replied Jortus as he scratched the side of his head.

“You don’t suppose it could be Outworlders, could it?” asked another man with light blonde hair who sported a hood, light gear, a bow, and a quiver.

Jortus brought his free hand to his chin and had a thought but then shook his head. “I doubt it. While it’s possible, other than these scorched remains, I see no signs of foreign life or artificial lifeforms. The dowsing spell I casted earlier only showed me signs of regular forest slimes, a grey moose, and a maned bear. I don’t need to point out what the presence of these three would imply, right?”

The two men simply nodded in response.

“Well, we can’t leave empty handed so we’ll take along these strange metal and glass relics. Perhaps the Tower’s appraisers or the Guild’s artificers can determine what they are.”

As Jortus made to move along with the other two, he noticed one of the men staring off into the forest.

He was a giant of a man at over seven feet and the vanguard of their group. He wore a thick fur tunic vest and had arm muscles as thick as a regular man’s legs. He had shoulder length dark red hair and a massive bone war hammer slung on his back. He also had brown-red skin and a scar ran diagonally across his face, but what was most prominent about his features was the single large horn sticking out of his forehead. He stood imposingly as he stared off into the depths of the forest.

“Rakai, is something the matter?” called Jortus as he went over to the large man.

“Something was here. Large and heavy. Moved through the bush clearing a path.” said the large man as he continued to stare in the distance while pointing at the crushed vegetation leading towards the woods.

Jortus looked at the tracks and pondered. He bent down and placed his palm on the floor as it began to glow once more. When the magic was done, he had a look of confusion on his face.

“Hmm… how odd. The readings I’m getting belong to that of a slime. But I don’t recall any kind of slime that grows this large, not even in the Woods of Prismor.”

A look of concern flashed on Rakai’s face when he mentioned this.

“If I recall, your home village is also in this general direction. Considering this is an anomaly, I’ll discuss with the group if we could make a detour there to see if things are fine. What do you say?” smiled Jortus as he looked towards the large man.

“I’m in your debt, Jortus. The others in my home would find shame in my worries, but they do not understand the unknowable things I’ve seen in our journeys.” bowed Rakai with a look of relief.

Jortus smiled and nodded in return, but his gaze turned steely when he looked towards the direction of the woods. Whatever this creature is, they can’t take any chances if they don’t want a repeat of another disaster.

***

After hours of twitching and rolling on the floor, the little jelly finally got used to its new senses. The process took a while, but it found a means by leaving one sense active and shutting off the rest. Gradually getting used to one sense, it then opened up another and another until it eventually felt comfortable.

While the process was long and tortuous, it found that it quite liked the new sensations it experienced once it got used to them. Especially taste.

When it was still an ambiguous blob, it could only take things into itself directly then digest it. The process was mostly mechanical and automated. It could directly make adjustments such as the speed of the process, but it didn’t change the fact that it simply treated the act as a simple necessary action.

The introduction of taste, however, gave it its first experience of pleasure. It was delighted that it could taste certain plants and found them appetizing based on the creature’s preferred taste.

Next was hearing. When it was a blob, it can only detect things via vibration, which was why the flying monsters’ buzzing was so tortuous towards it. Now that it had hearing, it can filter the sounds it would receive and can perceive a wider range of sources so that it wouldn’t be taken by surprise.

The next one is smell. It found that it was inherently tied to taste and that it would usually be able to determine the taste of an object based on its smell. Its not too accurate as there were unfortunate incidents, but more or less it gave one another form of pleasure and detection.

With the last sense, along with taste, it prized sight incredibly high. Being able to see the world opened up new horizons for it. It didn’t need an impetus from anything in order to perceive objects through sight. Taste requires contact with its tongue, sound needed a source that created it, and smell needed a source that had a scent. Sight, however, was immediate and allowed it to see without the need for any additional factor. Well, except light.

Once night came, it finally understood the downside of possessing sight and had a small panic attack when it thought it was going blind. Only when it saw tiny strange flying creatures that glowed in the dark did it understand the concept of a light source.

Experiencing night time for the first time, it immediately understood it needed to consume a creature that would allow it to venture into the dark. Otherwise, it would be forced to revert back to its little blob state.

One other thing the little fellow instinctively knew was that it needed a core genome it could permanently incorporate itself to. On a certain level, it knew that its current state isn’t stable and will gradually deteriorate if it couldn’t find an appropriate gene anchor in which it could maintain its existence.

It was this driving instinct that made it want to go out and acquire more bio data to find an appropriate species for its next stage of evolution.

Despite it gaining a lot from its current gene host, it understood on a certain level that the creature was far from what it desired. It was simply lacking in many areas such as the limited capacity for higher intellect, as well as the lack of defensive measures despite being an herbivore.

No, this wasn’t the right one yet. For now, it would rest and preserve as much of its energy as it could. Once the light would return, once more it would go out and hunt. Once more, it would move according to the driving will of evolution.

***