Chapter 4: Progress and Cost
A furry, fanged, scaled-tailed beast moved through a stretch of the Teal swamp. Guided by the scent of spilled blood. The creature looked like a hulked out beaver but according to Wis the creature was called a water-coyote.
It followed the scent to a pool of muck. Snuffling about. Searching for any sign of the fresh kill it had been smelling. The creatures hunger and the outrageously attractive smell lead to the creature stepping into the pool.
That was the moment that the pool erupted. The muck and dark waters solidifying as the water-coyote was pulled into their depths. Its plaintive cries quickly stifled.
Soon silence returned to that part of the swamp. The frightened birds returned to their perches and resumed their song. The pool of stagnant water took on an even thicker stench of blood as its size expanded.
Danke hadn't been joking when he said he would take the task of growing his strength and evolving seriously. It helped that as an immortal with nothing but time on his hands, and no place he needed to be in a hurry, he could choose a method that was relatively stress free.
Three days after he'd begun his journey through the Teal Swamp, Danke became a swamp-ooze. There wasn't much difference compared to being a mud-ooze. He just happened to be slightly bigger and his body resembled the contents of a swampy mire rather than a simple mound of mud.
Less than impressed by the evolution, Danke tried various methods to try and increase his strength.
The first method involved actively hunting for prey. Danke soon discovered that this wasn't something that oozes were good at. His current form was roughly as fast as your average snail. He wasn't particularly strong and his only three attacks involved were body slamming an enemy to stun them, directly engulfing an enemy to absorb them, and throwing pieces of himself.
All three attacks might have held some potential if he were a larger, more formidable, ooze. Problematically, swamp-oozes started out at only slightly heavier and larger than your average house cat or raccoon.
Their lack of agility meant that slam attacks were much less effective than the name sounded. Similarly, he needed to be able to catch and stun something first before Danke could engulf them and absorb them.
Worse yet his lack of a core meant that throwing away bits of him actually seriously hurt and could leave him slightly brain dead in the long run. A repercussion that put learning how to be accurate with the projectile attack off the able.
In the end, Danke figured that with such low starting stats, the best way for a creature like the oozes to hunt was through ambush attacks or traps.
Wis informed him that he was on the right track in his thinking and that oozes were indeed ambush predators. Danke took it a step further than that.
He found a small pond. He used his absorption ability to absorb the water and critters inside the pond.
This was something that could only be done in a small pond because the creatures in a bigger pond would have been able to tear themselves free and either attack him or escape.
After he'd absorbed the pond, he oozed out of the dried remains of the pond and dug a pit for himself near a more heavily trafficked part of the swamp.
He used spit up all the water and mud he'd swallowed and buried himself at the pond's depths. Then he waited.
At first all he got were, bugs. He lucked out when a tree that he'd dug his pit near started fruiting and he was able to absorb some fruit. This plus all the other things he'd absorbed unlocked his mimicry ability. He gained the ability to create substances that mimicked the effects and aspects of other substances.
Thanks to that he was able to mimic the smell of rotting fruit. This increased the amount of insects that flew to his pond and into his reach.
Further experiments found that during times where he held off consuming the lured insects till a critical number of them had gathered by the pond the occasional amphibian, rodent, or bird would be drawn by the bugs.
Consuming those larger prey gave Danke's material mimicry new data to work with. This allowed Danke to learn how to mimic the smell of blood and rotting flesh to lure even larger prey like the water-coyote.
Now Danke felt full for the first time. He felt a growing pressure building inside him. The air within and outside his body began to stink of ozone and moisture. It reminds him of that one time his s**tty cousins tied him to an electric pole not knowing that it was actually going to rain that night.
"What...What's happening?" said Danke. His voice filled with alarm.
"Master, you're evolving!" said Wis. Her voice sounding oddly emotional.
"Again? Already?! Isn't this too soon?!"
"Yes, but I also said that the ooze's strength was its ability to change and adapt."
"Agh! Why does it hurt so much?!" screamed Danke. The water of his fake pond boiling away as the power within him cooked his protoplasmic body from the inside out.
"You're experiencing your first great evolution, master." said Wis. Her tone sombre.
"Great Evolution?"
"I mentioned that figments may take on unique forms, yes? The great evolutions are pivotal transitions that lead to major changes in a figments ultimate nature. Gaining unique forms and unique powers is a happy consequence of experiencing great evolutions."
"Oh...So this is a good thing then?" said Danke. Calming down.
"Yes. A very good thing. The more great evolutions a figment experiences during their growth the more powerful they will. Also, though our time together has been short...I'm afraid this is goodbye, master."
"What?! Why?! No! Why are you leaving me?"
"I am not leaving you, master. The figment's are the only true children of this world. We Puppe are only pseudo-lifeforms created to aid the figments. During the first great evolution we are absorbed into our masters to fuel the release of a large portion of their inherited memories."
If oozes could cry, Danke would be crying. His tears born of fury.
"The hell?! What kind of system is that?!"
"It's only natural, master. The puppe are meant to be nursemaids. After their first great evolution the figment no longer needs the extra assistance."
"What about that whole deal about you guiding me and telling me things I need to know?!" said Danke.
"That knowledge would be unlocked within you once I am absorbed, master." said the fairy. Her voice sounding strained. Making Danke realize that she was actually in a great deal of pain.
"Then...then what about Wisdanke?!" said Danke.
"What?!"
"Wisdanke! The unstoppable duo that was supposed to rock this world once I'd gotten strong enough."
"Master...I...I'm afraid I don't know what that is. But I assure that you will still be able to 'rock' this world alone. I regret that I will not be there to witness it but I believe wholeheartedly that you will become something glorious." said Wis. Her voice growing even more strained.
Danke noticed with alarm that the fairy's voice was getting softer. Sounding as if it were coming from further away. Cursing beneath his breath Danke asked a final question.
"Is ...is this something you want? I don't understand how this world works so I don't want to assume anything, but from where I'm standing, it sounds like you're about to disappear. Is that something you want?! I mean is there like some puppe heaven I'd be keeping you from" said Danke.
"N-, No, master. We puppe simple cease to exist when we are absorbed. I dreamt of witnessing your progress and aiding you for as long as I can but it seems that this is not to…."
"Al-f**king-right! That's all I needed to know. If you're not feeling this and I'm not feeling this, then its not going to happen!" said Danke. His voice humming with power and fury.
Danke turned his attention inwards. Turning his mind towards the power that dwelt within his soul. He turned towards the mass of jumbled memories that floated freely within his brain. Some of these memories originated from his former life. Most of the memories were either newly made or were part of the inheritance he was supposed to have gotten from the world.
Danke pooled all these resources together. Thinking in over time as he tried to find a way to save his only friend and companion in this strange new world.
"M-, Master?! Master, what are you doing?!"
"Trying to save your life." said Danke. Sounding out of breath, despite not having had to be breath for weeks.
He dug a hole into the earth with his absorption ability because some instinct told him that the last thing he wanted to do was leave himself out in the open in the vulnerable state that his current recklessness would ultimately leave him in.
"Master, no. Puppe die for their figments. Not the other way around. Your getting backwards! Stop!"
He ran a tether of the otherworldly vitality that had dwelt within him for as long as he could remember to the fairy. Then he drew on the power of the world. Using the complex equations and forms that floated in his memory to tie it all together.
"Heh...Even before I was a figment, I couldn't die even if I wanted to. So no need to worry there." laughed Danke. Grinding his nonexistent teeth as he borrowed deep into the earth.
"Master, stop this madness! I'm not quite sure what your doing but it feels like you may be risking permanent harm to your core!"
"Come on, Wis. Didn't you say, that us figments 'were' madness or whatever? What was all that talk supposed to mean if I'm not allowed to get a little bit crazy!"
"I was speaking metaphorically, idiot!" said Wis. Screeching in panic as she felt the power from multiple directing tearing it way through the little figment and winding itself inside her core.
Then hoping against hope that it was all going to work and he wouldn't just end up being faded for nothing, Danke pulled the trigger.
"Oh ...Well, that's 'your' bad then. You should have known I was a little slow from the moment you met me." chuckled Danke.
"Master, no!" said the horrified fairy.
"Wisdanke forever!" said Danke. Crowing wildly as he felt his brains melting under the influence of the alien energies that were being processed through his core.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
ISharpe
ISharpe Hey guys, ISharpe here. Just wanted to say howdy and thanks to everybody reading.
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