Barely-collect self and enjoy the air

Time tends to do funny things at times. Well, at least, it feels like it's doing something funny to standard perceptions of it. Reality is that it keeps up it's annoying march of one second per second basically regardless of what you're getting up to. Such is the case as I mindlessly pound forward, a collapsed tunnel being a dust-filled one instead. It feels like it's something that goes on forever that my cycle of smashing, healing, and turning has gone on all night-but any rational look would say it couldn't have been particularly long, else I would be a corpse.

At last-my efforts bear the prize I'd been seeking this whole time-freedom! For once, my tentacle doesn't stop when it hits another stone, but when it smashes through and reaches the end of their ability to extend, hitting only open air. So, another few turns to fling the last things in my way outside! The hot air behind me practically helps give me a final push out, before billowing out of the passage I'd reopened. My body ached from the fatigue-both my mana and health levels critical. But, I had cheat the reaper, and that was all that mattered. I let gravity roll my bulk to get away from the heat still spewing out, before taking root where the mountain began to level out into the following terrain.

Mmmm...volcanic ash was actually pretty good, far as soils go. Not quite proper fertilizer, but I wouldn't turn this down for variety. Certainly beat the place I'd spent the last weeks conscripted.

Now that I wasn't in immediate life or limb danger, I could take a lot better stock of the changes that had been wrought on my body. My body was now a lot more homogenous in nature, yes-but it wasn't always constant. My pseudopod count changed by the moment. Even at rest, I would find new limbs sprouting out of my form, while others were merging back into the center of my body. When I intentionally try to make a motion needing one-experimentally patting the area around me-I find that I simply grow what I need for the moment.

Like the somewhat amorphous nature of my Living Wall status ratcheted up a few notches. Speaking of which, turning my Eyes upon myself-sadly back to my much more limited typical version now-revealed my time as such was brief, restricted to those couple levels. Now, my new form came with a changed set of classes : Flesh-Stealer and Harvester of Poisons. Disappointingly, a first scan revealed no new abilities...Until I looked closer. Two abilities, one from each line, had evolved. One more obvious by being at cap, and one less so.

One of my most recent abilities, Consume, had become this:

Absorb(Flesh-Stealer)(Level 1)-Make an endurance-based attack to damage any Assimilated target from the inside, bypassing many forms of protection against external attacks. Targets defeated this way are added to your Form Library.

And a much older, but favorite one

Resplendent Liquids(Erosarkic)(Level5)-Increases the potency of all alchemical substances produced by this creature's body by 50% per level, and opens up body's ability to produce more alchemical substances.

Holy-wow...guess the new bod really does come with some perks. Do wonder what the heck that 'form library' was referring to, though.