Kelix sat there for a moment, the gelatin grass gently rising and falling beneath him like a living mattress, and tried to keep his breathing steady.
His mind reached for something else to grab onto.
Aria.
The last clear thing he remembered before the beach was Aria's silhouette standing over him, magenta eyes staring down hard. That stare had not felt curious, it had felt like confirmation, as though she had been looking at the result of something she expected.
Kelix swallowed. What had happened to her? Where was she now? Had she been dragged here too, or had she been the one who pushed him through? Had she been connected to ZiE, or to the magenta-aura creature, or to whatever had been arranging pieces in the park?
Did Aria have a hand in him arriving in Zeldritzon?
The thought made Kelix's stomach tighten. He forced it down. He could not afford a theory spiral with no evidence, not here.
Endigo lifted a paw and gestured toward Kelix's pouch.
Kelix followed the motion and saw the faint blue glow leaking from the cloth bundle where he had stuffed the {Dark Blue Cores}. The cold weight of them pressed against his thigh like a reminder.
Endigo pointed again, more specific. One core.
Kelix reached into the pouch and pulled out the first one he had collected in this world, the one that had rolled once before settling in the jelly-grass. The moment it touched his palm, something in him clicked, not a voice, not a screen, but an instinctive certainty.
This belonged to the first dark blue slime he had defeated.
He did not know how he knew. He just did, the way you knew which key went to which lock after using it once.
Endigo's voice came quietly. "Summon it."
Kelix stared at the core, then at Endigo, then back at the core.
"What," he said.
Endigo did not elaborate.
Kelix let out a tired breath and shook his head. Fine. Curiosity was the only tool he had right now. He focused on the core and on the strange awareness in his hand, the same mental pressure he used to pull up the status screen.
The core glowed as the light inside it organized itself. Kelix's vision flickered, and text layered itself into his sight again, clean and certain.
Creature: {Dark Blue Slime}
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Core: {Dark Blue}
Rank: {F}
Evolution Stage: {Fledgling}
EX = [100%] AP = [100%] MP = [0%]
STR: 8 END: 18
AUR: 6 RES: 22
SPD: 5 TEQ: 4
Skill List: [Heal]
Kelix blinked as he motioned the orb in his hand to confirm he wasn't imagining things. So it had a status too. And a skill list. And a {Heal} skill, which did not match how aggressively it had bounced into his arm to inflict harm. He concentrated harder, pressing his intent forward like he had when he pushed [Doom Zap] out of his palm.
A new prompt appeared, sharper and more direct.
Summon {Dark Blue Slime}?
Yes / No
Before he could choose, another notification snapped in beneath it, warning-like.
Register creature before summoning.
Bounds: [0/3]
Kelix stared at Bounds.
Three. A limit.
A cap on how many he could bind, carry, whatever the correct word was. It sounded uncomfortably close to what ZiE had yelled about, and to what his world back home already knew about Soulbound limits and regulations.
Kelix's jaw tightened. "Register," he said, more to himself than to the system.
He willed the confirmation. The interface shifted.
Register {Dark Blue Slime}?
Confirm / Cancel
Kelix confirmed.
The core pulsed once in his hand, as if acknowledging the command. Kelix waited for something to hurt. For something to shove into his chest again. For his Existence to drop like a punishment.
Nothing happened. The prompts returned.
Summon {Dark Blue Slime}?
Yes / No
Kelix hesitated, then chose yes. The core's glow flared.
The air in front of him shimmered, and the jelly-grass rippled outward in a neat circle. A shape formed, wobbling and quivering like gelatin being poured into a mold. It stretched upward, then twitched, as if startled awake.
A dark blue teardrop of slime appeared. It held still for a moment, then it shifted, just slightly, orienting toward Kelix as if it recognized him. The beast didn't stare with affection. Not loyalty. Recognition, the way prey recognized a predator, or a tool recognized its owner.
Kelix's eyes squinted. "So you remember?"
The slime wobbled once. In accordance, Kelix pulled up his own status instinctively, because a system that allowed summoning probably charged for it.
AP had dropped. Not a little. He saw the percentage and felt his brows lift.
Down by twenty percent.
Kelix exhaled slowly. "Great. Of course it costs."
He looked at Endigo. "Now what?"
Endigo did not answer. It gestured toward the slime, small paw extending like a teacher pointing at a chalkboard.
"Do not ask me. Ask it." Endigo probably said.
Kelix stared at the slime. The slime stared back, if staring was what a glossy teardrop did. It simply existed there, waiting.
Kelix concentrated and tried to bring up its information again. The creature panel appeared more readily now, as if registration had turned a lock.
Creature: {Dark Blue Slime}
Skill List: [Heal]
Kelix's breath slowed.
Heal.
That was the first useful thing he had seen since arriving that was not a weapon.
Kelix's gaze flicked to his own EX in his mind, the number that had been dropping. The thing Endigo called Existence. The thing ZiEnitra had cut in half with a shove.
Kelix looked back at the slime. Then he looked at Endigo. Understanding began to form, reluctant and sharp.
"You want me to use it on myself," Kelix said quietly.
The slime wobbled again, almost like a nod.
Endigo stayed silent, but its stillness felt like agreement.
Kelix swallowed, then focused on the slime's [Heal] skill, trying to figure out how to give an order to something that did not have a mouth, a language, or a visible mind.
For the first time since waking on the blue sand, Kelix had a direction that was not just survival.
