Minoru was unconscious, a lifeless raft of green flesh being borne away by the icy river. His Rudimentary Gills functioned on a purely instinctual level, painfully filtering the frigid water, keeping the necessary few molecules of oxygen flowing into his system. Yet, the shock, the crushing exhaustion, and the immense pain from the deep thorn gashes in his arm and side were pulling him toward the absolute darkness of death.
He was past the point of conscious thought, but his core being, the spirit of Minoru Sato that had once flung itself in front of a truck, refused to yield. Deep within the depths of his being, where Magius resided, an emergency alarm shrieked. With only 4 Magius left, and facing the immediate threat of blood loss, infection, and hypothermia, his newly acquired Adaptations weren't enough. His body initiated a desperate, primal self-defense mechanism.
The final four units of his Magius coalesced, driven not by a conscious wish, but by pure, animalistic survival. The energy was pulled away from the life-sustaining Gills and the dormant Appraisal skill. It surged into the tissues surrounding his two worst injuries.
[Adaptation: Instinctual Self-Preservation activated. Utilizing remaining Magius to mitigate critical trauma.]
[Magius: 4 - 4 = 0 / 100]
[Skill: Gills (Rudimentary) temporarily suspended due to lack of Magius for maintenance.]
A searing, white-hot agony tore Minoru back to consciousness. The Magius didn't heal the wounds; instead, it aggressively sealed them. The energy acted like a cauterizing agent, forcing the damaged goblin tissue to contract and close around the embedded thorns in his flank and the deep cut on his arm. It was brutal and crude, sacrificing feeling and flexibility for immediate survival.
The sudden pain, coupled with the loss of oxygen flow as the Gills skill failed, was enough to violently jolt Minoru's mind back into the present.
He was sputtering, coughing up water and bile, his newly closed wounds throbbing with an unbearable, rhythmic pulse. The air felt like fire in his lungs, reminding him that he was, once again, a land-dweller in water.
I'm drowning! he thought, panicking, instinctively paddling again. I have no Magius left! I used it all up!
He fought the powerful current, frantically clawing at the water, his panic exacerbated by the crushing realization that his entire power reservoir was depleted. He was fully exposed, utterly vulnerable, and still miles from safety.
Then, the current changed. The fast-moving river, which had been carrying him with such destructive speed, abruptly slowed. He felt the water deepen dramatically, and the roaring sound of rapids vanished, replaced by a strange, echoing silence.
He was in an immense, dark cavern.
This was the subterranean pool, the great, hidden heart of the forest's water system. The river had swept him into a vast, enclosed chamber where the water was still, deep, and obsidian black. The air here was heavy with moisture, and the only light came from the scattered, dull blue glow of massive crystalline formations jutting from the cavern walls, casting distorted, alien shadows across the space.
This was the source, the kind of hidden location steeped in fantasy lore that Minoru knew meant resources and danger in equal measure. He fought the overwhelming urge to pass out again and forced his head up, paddling slowly toward the nearest source of illumination: a shimmering, blue-white crystal that jutted from a submerged shelf of rock.
The cool, still water was mercifully less violent than the river, but the injuries still burned, especially his flank where the thorns were encased beneath his sealed skin, causing intense, localized discomfort. He desperately hauled his small, dripping green body onto the slimy rock shelf, collapsing in a heap of shivering misery.
Safe, for the moment. The silence of the cavern was unnerving after the constant roar of the rapids, and Minoru felt a crushing sense of isolation.
He lay there for several long minutes, simply gasping for breath, allowing the raw, debilitating pain to wash over him. His life had been compressed into a brutal, non-stop survival sprint, and he needed clarity.
With slow, careful movements, he lifted his throbbing forearm. The cut, though ugly and ridged, was completely sealed. The crude, instinctual use of Magius had saved him from bleeding out. He checked his side, where the thorny branch had struck. The skin was painfully tight, and he could feel the faint but hard outlines of the embedded thorns, now trapped under a layer of hardened, Magius-fused tissue. The pain was duller, controlled, but the wounds were far from healed.
He was alive, alone, and empty.
Review. I need to review everything before I take another step, he determined, leaning his back against the cool, crystalline wall. His corporate training, the need to assess assets and threats before committing to a merger, kicked in.
He focused his mind, casting the Appraisal skill upon himself, forcing it to work despite having no Magius reserves to actively power it. The skill was unique, and even on empty, it seemed capable of retrieving data, though the process was slower and more taxing.
The familiar, cold white script appeared before his eyes, shining faintly in the cavern gloom.
Name: Goblino (Unnamed Goblin Male)
Race: Goblin (Lesser Variant)
Affiliation: None
Magius: 0 / 100 (CRITICAL)
Skills:
• Appraisal (Unique Skill): Allows for the rapid analysis of self, matter, energy (Magoi/Magius), and certain creatures. Requires concentration and contact (physical or visual).
• Adaptation: Enhanced Night Vision (Novice): Basic adjustment to low light environments.
• Adaptation: Enhanced Senses (Novice): Auditory and Olfactory capacity drastically increased.
• Adaptation: Magius Suppression (Basic): Passive Magius leakage minimized. Cannot be actively maintained without Magius.
• Adaptation: Magius Skin (Basic): Reinforces tissue with Magius. Currently inactive.
• Adaptation: Gills (Rudimentary): Respiratory system adapted for water survival. Currently inactive.
• Adaptation: Instinctual Self-Preservation (Basic): Automatically seals critical trauma using Magius. Currently inactive.
Injuries: Deep Laceration (Arm, sealed); Internal Thorn Lodging (Flank, sealed); Exhaustion (Severe); Hypothermia (Minor, receding).
Minoru stared at the zero. The sight was sobering. He was a creature of magic and adaptation, but he was running on fumes. Every skill he had acquired, except for the passive Enhanced Night Vision and the Unique Appraisal, was now useless until he somehow restored his Magius.
I have a versatile Swiss Army knife of skills, but I've lost all the batteries, he reflected bitterly. I need energy. Magoi is the only answer.
He looked out across the vast, dark water of the cavern. He could faintly perceive the flow of ambient Magoi in the air, the fundamental energy of the world, but he had no skill for actively drawing it in.
I need a way to recharge. I need to absorb that Magoi, he thought, his gaze sweeping over the crystalline structures and the immense pool of water. I wish I had a way to gather this energy!
The cavern was silent, save for the slow drip of water. No voice answered. His wish had been met with silence. The system required more than just desire; it required a desperation born of immediate peril, a desperation that was currently dulled by the success of his Instinctual Self-Preservation. He had saved himself, and now the system was making him work for the next step.
He knew he couldn't stay here. The cold, even though reduced, would eventually claim him, and the isolation was a vulnerability. He needed to find a natural source of Magius to restore his power. He needed to find food.
He looked around the massive chamber, his Enhanced Night Vision piercing the deepest shadows. The crystalline growths scattered around the pool glowed faintly, suggesting a high concentration of Magoi, perhaps a sign that this whole place was a natural power nexus.
One direction seemed different. Towards the far wall, where the water was deepest and darkest, he sensed a faint, rhythmic pulse of energy, stronger and more organized than the ambient Magoi. It was coming from the depths of the underground pool.