Dear Abact,

No. I will not help you. We are bound by an oath to use our power for the good of the world. What you are planning will be a catastrophe. I only send this to you as a formality. By the time you finish reading this, I will be coming for your head. 

And don’t delude yourself into thinking you can fight against me. No matter what patchwork zombie you create, no matter what bone golem you forge, You cannot stop me. I thought you were better than this, that you were better than them. I suppose my faith was misplaced.

Regards, Nosik

-Ancient letter found by archeologists

 

*=====*

 

Fara placed a gear in the small pile in front of her, making sure to not scratch it. While clocksteel was too strong to be scratched by stone and nothing would be lost if it were scrapped, she still was as careful as possible. Detaching another gear from the chest of the undead Clockwork, she placed it in the fourth pile to her right and looked for another part of the undead that was unneeded. She placed her finger on a gear near the center of its chest, thinking of the best way to remove it, when the undead gave an annoyed clicking of gears, “Ah, sorry about that. I didn’t think it was important…” she apologized. It gave a forgiving click and returned to its perfect stillness.

Sighing, she went back to picking parts from the undead with her tools, taken from her skiff. After another pile of parts was taken from the undead, it held up its hand and stood. Confused, Fara looked over to Mori, who was playing around with the flesh-heap, and called out to her, “Hey, is this one out of parts?” she asked.

Mori turned and, seeing the undead occupier, nodded, “Probably. If he’s leaving you, then there’s nothing more he can give. Those are yours, so have fun!” she cheered. With a flicker of fire in her eye sockets, which looked like a look of happiness to Fara, she turned back to her undead project. 

‘Creators… what happened to my life?’ she thought to herself. With a shake of her head, she turned her attention to the pile of parts in front of her. In it, a great number of gears, wheels, pulleys, runes, and metal struts were laid. Apart from them, the grappling hook from the occupier’s arm laid, almost immaculate. A gleeful grin crept onto her face as she looked at the pile and she activated her [Mechanical Affinity X]. The possibilities of the parts in front of her exploded into a shrapnel of half-baked ideas and poor designs. As she stared longer at the parts, she began to make a clearer picture of what they could be used for. Smaller ideas of upgrades to her skiff crossed her mind, but she wanted to do something different. She stole a glance at Mori and locked her gaze on the unwieldy contraption that was her gatling gun’s platform. 

Ideas flowed through her head and she got an idea. Before she did, however, she took a good, hard look at her status page.

[Name: Fara Notchings

Species: Human

Variant: Desertborn

Level: 17(11%)

Traits:

Physical: (Dexterous Muscles V), (Purifying Hand), (Enhanced Eyesight III), (Increased Stamina), (Increased Regeneration), (Dense Musculature II), (Reduced Gravity II), (Free Slot)*2

Spiritual: (Enhanced Mind III), (Multi-rune Casting), (Enhanced Focus), (Mechanical Affinity X), (Free Slot)*2

Granted Traits: (None)]

She had never been able to have two free Trait slots in the same list before, so she was very excited about what she could pick. Before that, however, she decided to ask Mori about her idea, “Hey, Mori. First of all, thanks for the help here,” she said with a beaming smile.

The lich turned to her and tilted her head, “Alright, what do you want from me?”

Fara widened her eyes, “What makes you ask that?” she asked.

“Because the best way to get something you want is to lead with a compliment. Well, ha! Jokes on you, but I won’t let you have the mesa-stalker! It’s all mine!” she loudly declared.

Fara raised an eyebrow, “I just wanted the arm thing you made,” she said. Mori was taken aback for a moment, but meekly took the contraption off her arm and gave it to Fara, likely embarrassed by the misread of her request. Chuckling to herself, amused by the lich, Fara disassembled the contraption and got to work.

 

*=====*

 

Mori rubbed the flesh-heap affectionately, embarrassed about her earlier mixup, as she looked over her status page.

[Name: Mori Athanatos

Species: Lich

Variant: Bargain Lich*

Level: 8(54%)

Traits: 

Physical: (Mechanical Integration), (Mechanical Skeletal Manipulation [+1]), (Free Slot)*5

Spiritual: (Multi-rune Casting), (Mechanical Affinity), (Multi-sigil Casting), (Free Slot)*5

Granted Traits: (Universal Soul Language), (Adaptive Physiology)]

With so many Trait slots, she could ask Molly about anything useful she could choose. Before that, however, she took a glance at the flesh-heap she was petting. After the impacts from the battle, the limbs, organs, and bones within it had been shattered and torn. By that point, it was closer to a giant homogeneous mass than a heaping pile of flesh. The thing cozied up to her leg bone as she pet it and thought about things. She took a look at the creature’s status page as well.

[Name: (None)

Species: Amalgamation Undead

Variant: Flesh-heap

Level: 6(83%)

Traits:

Physical: (Free Slot)*6

Spiritual: (Free Slot)*6

Granted Traits: (None)]

“What should I do with you…?” she said to the creature. It's body jiggled with happiness as she spoke, rubbing itself closer to her. She giggled and pet it with more affection, looking over to the undead occupier. The creature was, while not bright by her standards, much more intelligent than the other undead she had raised before, though the idea may have come from the fact that she had never known her minions for long. After a moment of examining the gutted Clockwork as it stood at attention, she turned her attention back to the flesh-heap’s Traits. ‘What to do with you…? I suppose the first step is to figure out what I can do.’ With that thought in mind, she opened the Traits list for the flesh-heap. She was immediately disappointed.

[Available Physical Traits: [Harder Flesh], [Stronger Bonds], [Stronger Muscles], [Continuous Consolidation], [Minor Form Adjustment]]

[Available Spiritual Traits: [Enhanced Mind], [Death Screech], [Chaotic Adept], [Blind Loyalty], [Sole Mana Casting], [Soul Sight]]

Apart from [Death Screech], nothing immediately caught her eye. Things like [Stronger Bonds], [Harder Flesh], and [Enhanced Mind] were all things that every being likely had in their Trait’s list: enhancing a single part of themselves. Instead of ruminating on the bulk standard options and things she could guess the function of, she inspected the others.

[Continuous Consolidation: Allows the creature to continuously break down any material they are compatible with into a homogeneous mass. May remove any potentially useful appendages. May be upgraded by using another Trait slot.]

[Death Screech: Allows the creature to emit a psychic wave as an attack upon death. Any living beings nearby will be attacked via their soul. May be upgraded by using another Trait slot. (This is only because it is you, Mori. Do not teach this to others. If you wish to know why, then come to one of the Shrines - Kel’rk’ath)]

[Blind Loyalty: Makes the creature entirely loyal to their master. May not be overridden. Every action the creature takes will be in service to their master.]

Mori mentally threw [Blind Loyalty] out immediately. The basic undead were already blindly loyal to her, and if they were to gain the ability to rebel, she would rather have them prefer to be her minion rather than enforcing loyalty through such a cruel Trait. ‘Let’s hope I never use that. Of them all, [Continuous Consolidation] seems like the most useful one to branch into; [Death Screech] requires the poor thing to die and I don’t want that. Besides, that little message that came with it seems ominous.’ With her mind made up, she chose the Trait.

The flesh-heap’s body suddenly convulsed as soon as she chose the Trait. The fleshy meatball that it had become smoothed out. The odd hair, bone fragment, or blood smear on it melted into the creature and turned into a gelatin-like, fleshy substance. After a few minutes of convulsion, the flesh-heap’s body turned from its mix of colors to a single red-pink flesh that ran along its surface. 

Mori petted the fleshy lump, a purring sound emitting from the featureless blob. “Got something new, didn’t you? Alright then. Let’s see if anything new came up,” she said. It jiggled at her and she giggled. Opening the available Traits, she found the next level of the Trait: [Continuous Consolidation II]. She chose it immediately and watched for another few minutes as the flesh-heap convulsed again. Once its spasms were finished, the only change made to it was the slightly redder color. Another check revealed [Continuous Consolidation III], the end to the specific branch of Traits by ending the description with the specialization line. After another few minutes and another shade of red, the flesh-heap gained the Trait. 

Filled with excitement she checked the Trait list, looking for the next Trait in the line, and found three options.

[Gelatinous Consolidation: Allows the creature to form their body into a much more slime-like substance. The slime is resistant to blunt damage and can dissolve organics if consumed. May be upgraded once, specializing the Trait by using another Trait slot.]

[Bone Consolidation: Transforms the body into a bone-like structure. Bones may be lost or gained at will, adding or losing mass at the same time. The bone is resistant to slashing damage and may be upgraded with other Traits. Allows access to bone-related Traits.]

[Flesh Consolidation: Allows the creature to mold their flesh to whatever consistency they please. May be upgraded once, specializing the Trait by using another Trait slot.]

Mori thought about it, but chose the one that she thought would make it look the cutest. She chose [Gelatinous Consolidation] and watched the change in the flesh-heap. For a moment nothing happened, but soon the blob began to shrink. From it being just as big as Mori, it shrunk to be small enough and light enough to rest comfortably on her skull. As it shrunk, its body’s make-up also changed. The fleshy red-pink gelatin changed, being almost entirely like gelatin and darkening into a deep red. After its change it bobbed back and forth and let out a happy blub, sounding like a bubble of air reaching the surface of a lake.

Mori scooped the creature up and rubbed its body as it released more and more happy noises. After a moment, she checked its Status Page.

[Name: (None)

Species: Slime

Variant: Blood Slime

Level: 6(83%)

Traits:

Physical: (Gelatinous Consolidation) [Variant Trait Lock], (Free Slot)*5

Spiritual: (Free Slot)*6

Granted Traits: (None)]

[Blood Slime: A form of undead that takes after a natural slime. Capable of becoming many things, the only limit to their potential is their non-existent intelligence and slow speed. Like all undead, it requires occasional mana to fuel its soul.]

Only one thing seemed to be out of order, but Mori had a suspicion that the Trait Lock had something to do with it. Thinking so, she inspected the word.

[Variant Trait Lock: Combines multiple Traits into one and acts as a lock that stops the Trait from being modified by a reset at a Shrine. May still be upgraded, but may have an effect on Variant should it be changed too far.]

Mori shrugged and added what a Shrine did onto her continually growing and shrinking list of things to learn about. Once finished, she looked over the slime’s available Traits once more. After finding the basic enhancement options replaced with a slime-friendly version and nothing new on the [Gelatinous Consolidation] branch, she chose [Stronger Bonds], a Trait that increased the difficulty in tearing the slime. The slime wiggled a bit after she chose the Trait, but was back to normal after a few moments. Choosing the next level of the Trait did even less to the slime. Mori nodded to herself and pet the slime’s body. It sat, happily enjoying the attention. After finding nothing new in the spiritual Traits, she picked the slime up and stared into its clear body, “You need a name… Hmm… Well, you're an amalgamation of more than a few corpses, bound together through necromancy… How about Unio? For union?” she asked. The slime shook happily, and she found its name changed on its Status Page. Giving the slime a final hug, she placed it on her head, “Alright, for now, no spiritual Traits; if I can find a way to make you smart without them, then I’ll do that. If not, then you’ll have to make do with spending Trait slots on it.” Unio did not seem to care, jiggling with its happy attitude like always.

Mori sighed at her new pet’s displays of affection and glanced at the mesa-stalker’s corpse. Many ideas flew through her skull, but one look at the undead occupier silenced all other ideas, “Ah! That might work…”