Chapter 1:
Nol and Voyd: A Quiet Fantasy Life Isn't So Quiet After All!
Waking up on the ground, I wondered how I ended up there. Thinking sent pain like nails being hammered in shooting through my head. Specifically, thinking about my past. What little I could remember... Apparently I had died. A lot of times and rather horrifically each time. Well, that would definitely explain the pain I felt from trying to recall.
Now, what did I know about myself? Well, my name was Nol Mamo Rein, I had some cheat powers given to me at some point or another and... For some reason, something seemed to be attached to me. I felt residual thoughts entering my mind that weren't quite mine. Oh, I also had tentacles attached to me for some reason.
Yeah... I am a human, but for some reason I'm also a tentacle monster. Gazer type apparently. I mean, I guess it was kind of cute with my fluffy cat ears and my cat tail, eight tentacles acting as additional tails, and two extra arms that I could use. That said, I somehow doubted that any normal human would look kindly upon a girl with so many extra parts attached. I imagined any traveler might scream about monsters and run away in a best case scenario.
What, is there a problem with my self-introduction? Why was I so unconcerned about dying a bunch of times and not having access to my memories? Well, it wasn't like my memories were missing or anything, I just couldn't recall them without significant pain and honestly, dying a bunch of times just means I've come back to life a bunch of times as well. So no point worrying about something I can't change. No point suffering to recover my memories either since a fresh start means I get to discover things without preconceptions that might affect my ability to observe.
I also needed to figure out exactly what my cheat powers were. I mean, I sort of understood what they did, but not the extent of things. First, I tested my power to generate containers. I could produce wooden bowls, cloth scraps - apparently clothes counted as a container for the body, and even some basic iron. With some work, I even managed to make steel, but by the time I managed that, I felt light headed. It seemed that while each item did not take much, constantly draining my energy to generate containers did place some burden on me. Super useful as long as I didn't overdo it.
I ended up foraging for food and water, but given my lack of knowledge of safe wild foods, I ended up sick. Fortunately, I recovered enough to test my potion generation. A low energy cost antidote did manage to cure the food poisoning, but I felt some pain from using it. I guess my antidote potions do damage to me when I use them. I wondered what principle they worked on to cure the poisons. Did it work on any poison? Not that I was going to poison myself to test that. I lacked a death wish, thank you very much.
That night, I slept quite soundly in a tree that I padded a little. Fortunately, the weather was quite nice, so I ended up sleeping soundly. Nothing really disturbed me except the birds that tried to nab some of the containers, but that is fine. They were totally cool and told me about some nice places to find good worms and fruits, so I didn't mind if they wanted some things in return. How did the conversation go? I think it went something like...
"It moved! Get away!"
"Huh? Hey little birdies, come back!"
"It speaks!"
"Yep, I can speak! It is nice having someone to talk to sometimes. Come, come, sit down."
We had a nice chat after that about the best angles to catch the wind, which berries nearby were edible and which would give you an upset stomach, good nesting material, and other useful information. Because of that, I now had a pouch full of worms and another pouch of berries. I was looking forward to snacking on my breakfast while I worked!
After breakfast, I tested my inventory ability. It seemed that up to a certain limit, I could store anything I wanted inside. I avoiding putting anything living inside though. I had no idea how being stored could affect them. I did notice that things I put in came back out in the same state I put them in unless I specifically separated them though. With that in mind, I stored a ton of water inside and removed anything that wasn't water. Now, I had a large supply of water. I could separate that into oxygen for breathing as needed or hydrogen for some explosive force. Super convenient. Exactly what I'd expect of a cheat skill.
I also seemed to have the ability to analyze things, which popped up with an info box in my vision. Pretty convenient. I could use it to see some rather valuable information, such as how fatigued I was, what the rocks were made of, and more. Overdoing it did make me tired though. I guess all my abilities run on energy or something. Still, how in the world did I get so many great cheat skills? For that matter, how did conservation of energy and conservation of matter work when the cheats came into play?
After some rest, I tested several potions and found a few things. While some potions like health potions and energy potions lacked side effects and were rather cheap for their effects, other potions such as antidote potions and explosion potions contained side effects. I did try to extract the side effects from the potions, but it seemed that even my inventory was unable to separate them.
I could also make potions within a certain range of myself. Only perhaps a few centimeters, but that might be important when making more dangerous potions. Coincidentally, this was also the range of my inventory. And just as importantly, I could put potions into an existing container or none at all as well as generating a container with the potion. Beyond this, I could add effects to the potions, such as making health potions red and stamina potions yellow, making health potions warmer than usual, and more.
In fact, I even managed to make a boiling health potion to throw some food into. Yeah, threw the food into, not cook. I tried to cook. The withered trees by the lake? That was what happened when I poured out the... somewhat questionable results. It was just a little questionable, okay? Definitely nothing weird about a glowing purple goo with eyes whispering, "Mama, it hurts."
... Yeah, let us pretend that didn't happen...
I went to sleep in the tree again and woke up to some raven looking birds pecking at me. I brushed them away with my hands, but they were persistent, so I scolded them.
"That hurts, knock it off!"
"It speaks!"
"Ummm... Like yeah, I speak. Now knock it off. If you want something, ask politely."
"Food!"
<Ah, must be the worms or the berries. I guess I can give some of the worms, but...>
I pondered a little as to what to do. Well, losing some worms didn't make a huge difference to me since I did gather more than I needed - they were surprisingly filling, but they were already starting to grow limp and lifeless.
"I can give you some of the near dead ones if you want, but this is also my breakfast, so I can only give you a little."
"That's fine. Feed us!"
I dug through my pouch to find some of the weaker and dead worms, pulling them out and soaking them in some health potions to liven up the weaker worms. I then handed the batch over to the ravens who happily devoured the free meal. I myself decided to have my breakfast and waved goodbye to the ravens as I descended from the tree. A new day meant another day of research!
I soon found that my tentacles were super useful too! I could change the ends of them to hands, eyes, or mouths and with them as eyes, I could use them to gaze at things. I did a bit of research, of course, and it seemed that each eye contributed equally to the time it took for an effect to occur. If two eyes took 4 hours to turn a bird into stone, then eight eyes would take 1 hour. Not that I could turn anything into stone, but I suppose paralyzing a target is similar enough.
As for the something that was attached to me, turned out it was a giant floating eyeball named Voyd. Weird, right? He totally popped out because he wanted food. Well, it was pretty cute and it could slip into shadows somehow. No idea how that worked, but I could find out later. More stuff to research is always great!
One way or another after a few days of preparing, I was about as prepared for a journey as I might expect to be. Stacks of harpoon launchers, check. ExP[l]otions (my name for the explosive potions), check. Plenty of water, check. A bow and arrow kit made to fire arrow shaped potions? Check. What war did I plan to fight as a walking armoury? Physically, I was but an eight year old girl. Do you really expect me to just waltz into unknown territory without a little bit of self protection?
Wait, you think that a few hundred harpoon launcher, ExP[l]otions, gallons of water, and arrows are a little excessive for just protecting one kid? I'm afraid not. What if I encounter some bandits on the road, some wild animals, or some otherwise dangerous people? Bringing protection with you is a must. Always carry protection on you! Nothing might happen, but if something does happen, having protection can save you from a lot of trouble down the line.
Without any further ado, I hopped onto Voyd and we floated along the road. What happened to hiding my identity and not scaring the residents of the world? I'm sure we could work something out if any issues pop up. Besides, I am like super cute if I do say so myself. Look at these fuzzy ears, these sleek tentacles, and my fluffy tail! Could you resist keeping something so cute as a pet?
Wait, actually, why do I have a feeling that if I do end up accepted by people, I'll end up as a pet? A-anyhow. Voyd floated calmly into the sunset as I made some cherry flavored potions as snacks. Oh, I managed to make bread. You see, breadbowls are containers for soup, so I managed to make some breadbowls. I guess anything goes as long as it is within a certain strength.
Well, we didn't get far before the sun set, so I ended up setting up another bed in a tree and slept through the night. To peaceful travels and tons of research.
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