Haemish’s enthusiasm was unabashed as he looked at Aarav in excitement. “Okay.” He said with what Aarav thought was quite a lot of restraint.

After which, he immediately pulled an entire human skeleton from god knows where. Aarav gaped in stupefaction at this incredible development. He has a whole bloody skeletal frame on him!? Taler was surprised but intensely interested in what Haemish planned to do with the thing. Rion just looked bored and as if the man had done far stranger things than this in the past. Then they all turned as Marteen finally saw what Haemish held and burst into laughter. “Mr Haemish, trust you to have an entire skeleton tucked away for a rainy day!”

“What do you think?” Haemish grinned at their Aarav’s incredulous face, eyes shining in a reflection of Marteen’s mirth.

“You carry that around with you everywhere you go? Who does that?”

“Studying the human anatomy is a quiet passion of mine. I don’t speak of it much, but it can be useful when looking into cures and potions and such. Sometimes a body could hold an unknown cure. A skeleton is not the only thing I have, but I am willing to part with this one, the corpse I will not hand over. There is much to learn from it still.” Haemish spoke, the excitement in his voice barely disguised. Rion yawned, and Marteen guffawed again to Taler’s amusement. Both Taler and Haemish wanted to watch Aarav Consume this entire skeleton and then see if his body would or could integrate it.

Aarav had to admit he was a little curious himself but Consuming a creature or body part was intimate.

“I am not comfortable with you watching me doing that. I will do it separately and then see you after. You said you couldn’t understand any of my notifications anyway. I’ll come out and tell you when I finish.” Aarav stared them all down; this was not something he could do in front of others—the image of the guy who had started peeing on the public bus plagued him. Thank god I never have to do that again! Having embraced his Slime existence, he found a lot of comfort in the great things that being a Slime allowed him to skip. Aarav had needed to make a quick getaway. The splash zone he made almost caught Aarav.

Ami, the face came to him unbidden, and he flinched. She, he stopped. I can’t think about that right now; it’s too much; I can examine things later. Not now! Memories had continued to come back to him gradually.

“Haemish, can you set me up in another room, please? Eating is a very uncomfortable thing for me to have people watch….” Aarav decided that being candid had worked, and it did again now as Haemish sighed and agreed with a nod before indicating a door to a room off from the lab. It was a simple room that looked like containers were stored in it more than chemicals. It was also mostly dark, with very little natural light coming into the room. Aarav felt his claustrophobia coming on, but then The Way Forward is…Forward kicked in and figuratively shone a new light on the situation. As Resh, he had been underground and been fine. Fits and starts of that time crept up on Aarav sometimes, and as with all phobias, an irrational fear began to claw at his heart. That irrational feeling is what the Talent scoured away—allowing Aarav’s mind to freely understand the ridiculousness of the fear and relax in the space.

Haemish had seen his reaction upon entering and asked, “Is this not suitable?” Aarav shook his head before entering the room entirely with a sigh of relief. For the first time in a semi-dark space, he could move around without the crippling fear! The Skill would be his salvation from the concerns of his old life. Thank you, Aarav thought, unable to stop the feeling of warmth that spread through him from showing on his face. It was not enough to call it happiness; it was a more profound satisfaction. At the same time, the knowledge that his life will be better than it was the last time.

He came back to the world with that feeling in tow. Haemish smiled back at him in return, and Aarav finally spoke through his choked voice. “Tha-Thank y-you, this is perfect.”

Haemish understood the situation; Aarav could see that he did from his kindly eyes. He left without another word, leaving the skeleton behind him. As the door closed and the room got perceptibly darker, his Talent flared with power again. The fear lessened to indistinct rumblings, borrowing strength from his mental fortitude this time. However, Aarav noticed that it was significantly more of a struggle than when the room door was open. It seemed that fighting his phobia became exponentially more difficult the closer his situation was to triggers. He had been left winded but not scared. And, Aarav reflected, it also means that there will be a hell of a task to get past this.

Aarav was up for it; he would take on his phobias and crush them. For now, he had sidestepped them. The space was not too small, and the darkness was not absolute. His Talent continued to draw on his mental capacity to keep the phobias at bay. With each passing second, the room seemed to feel more comfortable. The peaceful space, like the forest, helped and made it feel less congested.

Aarav layered his body over the complete human skeleton. He hoped that Assimilate worked. He had not told Haemish that there was a chance of failure for fear that he would not allow Aarav even to try. Aarav wondered if he should have said something, maybe start with something smaller?

Trying to recall: the human body had over two hundred bones of varying sizes. More specifically, Aarav remembered reading that there were two hundred and six bones in most people. He hadn’t had to worry about this level of detail for any of the other creatures he had encountered, so maybe he could do something similar here. First, he would start with the left arm. He was starting from what he Identified as the Humeral Greater Tubercle down to the fingertips, which Identify acknowledges as the Phalanges. Odd name, I suppose those and the “clinical” terms. But the system usually responded to his own experiences and understanding. At that time, I learned the easiest ways to kill that Triad enforcer. I had that medical textbook with the complete human anatomy. He had thought it a waste at the time. Now, Aarav hadn’t bothered memorising it, but he had seen it all. Maybe that was the system tapping into his subconscious. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

Despite his personal feelings, this was his first chance to take a fundamental step toward his goal of reacquiring a human body. The next step was to Consume it. Only once he had done that could the chance of Assimilate come into play. It was honestly a shame that Haemish had had the foresight to clean the bones. A nice gore covered meal might be just what the doctor ordered. He could do with the extra Weight as he worked his way up to Consolidating again. It was hard to tell the total volume of the bones he was planning to digest but, no time like the present! He moved his body over to the left arm and activated Consume without future delay. At the same time, he triggered Consume Blorenar to make the process quicker. His full Mana began to tick down and bit down on the fingers to start the process.

While he worked on getting the bones down, he had a quiet chance to look into the rewards for the last few days. He had not wasted time, and they were prodigious.

Your Skill Ears of Echo Location has increased to Level 17!

Your Skill Smell of Watery Soil has increased to Level 16!

Your Skill Bird’s Prime Eyes has increased to Level 27!

Your Skill Identify has increased to Level 11!

Your Skill Zen Meditation has increased to Level 15!

Your Skill Natural Plant Healing has increased to Level 19!

Your Skill Earth and Sky Legs have increased to Level 22!

Your Skill A Flier’s Wings has increased to Level 19!

Your Skill Tough Slime Skin has increased to Level 14!

Your Skill Strong Odour Alteration has increased to Level 19!

Your Skill Strong Camouflage has increased to Level 19!

Did it feel like everything was unnecessarily wordy? Aarav would need to speak to the rest of the people to understand what he could do about that.