Part 1: Scouting

A18, are we ready?

My puddle, the planning list is complete, do you wish to add more items for research?~

Nah, I think that’s good for now. Prepare engines, we are departing for our third time!

Yes!

Spoiler: NEW QUEST!!! NEW QUEST! ▁▂▃▄☾ ♛ ☆ ♛ ☽▄▃▂▁

Name:

Environmental Research! Objectives: Research. Method: Collect samples and define experiments for knowing more about the environment. Reward: An ideal understanding of the resources and ecosystem behavior. ▁▂▃▄☾ ♛ ☆ ♛ ☽▄▃▂▁

After having organized a step by step scouting for my trip, I departed attentively while rotating my flagellum. I didn’t need to wait for a full recharge since the idea of this trip was to study the environment and collect samples. This meant that many trips were required and most of them would be short-timed.

Every time I took a sample I needed to return and check up on it while supporting myself with the warm energy that came from the mat. As you know, digestion and experimentation require energy. You can’t go to the pool with a full stomach or you might get a cramp.

The scouting trips were short, as I thought about how to design my next course of action. For example, I tried to identify different areas by mapping the places where plants or dunes were concentrated. I looked at places with less light and those with cave-like structures. The trips were designed to get inspiration, like when an artist travels to a beautiful city and gazes at the attractions.

This enlightening experience made me come to a conclusion faster than I estimated.

Yes, the major problem I had was the way I probed and digested. The scan has the ability to check up on some atomic elements, it even might be able to check on molecules. However, the enzymes or digesting machines I developed, just wrecked everything. They overcook the chickens into atoms, leaving me in a penumbra about molecular structures. They are like super energized scissors, cutting the paper into the smallest bits, without letting me get the words written.

Incredibly though, the AI can somehow reorganize such atomic resources, yet it probably spends an important level of energy while doing so. For now, it seems that the amount of energy gained is the same as the amount spent. The reason for that was that the samples I have digested were not big enough for the energy sensor to measure the changes. If I wanted to measure those variations, a huge volume of plants or blobs would need to be digested.

With that, I would be able to see a bigger change in the energy levels, allowing me to check if self-sustenance was a possibility. Yeah sustainability, because being alive needs you to be in a constant recycling process. You lose an atom and need to steal one from another place to replace the one you lost. It’s random and uncontrollable for now, but it’s the current way I understand how this body works.

My trips continued as I continued my supervision of the surroundings.

My previous escape from the swarm of Poke-pokes determined their scouting area as they didn’t reach outside of the glowy fields surrounding the cave where they’d come from. Yeah, they remained near the cave as if there was some sort of barrier limiting their field of work.

This thought didn’t mean I was 100% sure they wouldn’t appear near me at some point. I needed to secure my perimeter, and I thought that maybe constructing a barricade or fortification would be the best idea.

Yes, it was strange how my first idea was to leave this place and now I appear to be trapped. Seems that my mind took a hit after being inside the black nothingness for such a long time. It made be become reckless and rush. In spite of this, I am starting to detour from those thoughts and start to become calmer as time passes.

Maybe, it’s the effect of memory cleansing, it can relieve you of mental strain, like making you forget you already worked. In turn, it will compel you to finish a repetitive step in an unending loop. Write ‘A’, clean ‘I worked’ memory, write ‘B’. You will never feel tired, you will forget it, and continue as if you never started. In fact, I feel weirdly optimistic in a situation where some people would probably commit suicide which is weird.

Hm, is this entering depression? I need a solution once again...

A18, please play a cat video.

My puddle needs to be punished, no cat video until you complete your homework...~

Part 2: Defining the experiments.

Hm, what was I doing? For some reason, I have this odd urge to work…

Oh, yeah!

I was doing a quest to gather resources!

And thus, my current observations continued until I designed the course of experimentation. It took a while, but in the end, I based my approach on three major experiments.

Experiment #1:

Name: Plant differences.

Objectives: Find differences and uses for the plants in the surroundings. Check if you can increase resources by using them.

Method: Collect enough samples of each type of plant in the surrounding. Scan the plants and try to digest them by using different approaches.

Experiment #2:

Name: Determine living form behaviors.

Objectives: Investigate more about the reason why the blobs interact with said plants even if its... ugh. Check for the reasons behind the current ecosystem. Find a way to take more blob samples.

Method: Spy the blobs and check if they react or pursue living forms without carrying the glowing plants. Check this ecosystem and deduce conclusions.

Experiment #3:

Name: Exploring the soils, checking the cavern structure.

Objectives: Check for important differences in the terrain.

Method: Take samples to be scanned and digested if possible.

The reason for the experiments to be like this were the following:

1. I needed to somehow get an idea of the ecosystem and the available resources.

a. Chemical composition.

b. Anatomy/Biology.

c. Ecosystem interaction and behavior.

2. Selecting the best resource.

a. What is the best type of resource available?

b. Check the most efficient way to collect resources and energy.

3. Collect resources and energy with a designed process.

4. Eat until you explode.

5. Grow and repair the current body.

The last 3 steps were still a bit far, yet the ideal planning was done. But with this, I can finally start my experiments.

A18, I’ll need you to help me carry the samples in batches.

Yes my puddle, you can count on me!~

Part 3: A new skill?

For the first experiment, I choose an area with different stalks of the dark plants and started carrying them in batches. I repeated this for 4 times to get a varied maturity of them as well as trying to take the roots or fruits if they had those. With good light in the corners of the mat, not too blinding nor lacking, I went for a dissection.

I must say that I am getting incredibly dexterous with using this new toy in the form of an extension. The hexagon at the end of my tail moved and worked like a cauterizing tool. The reason for this, was a recent discovery when I stayed for longer periods while experimenting in the mat.

The hexagonal tip was like a wireless charging device. When it was in contact with the mat for a prolonged time, it overheated. I found out that when I overcharged it, its structure shined for some time in my vision. It was still white, but maybe it was actually burning hot. Good thing I didn’t need to wipe my sweat while carrying out a dissection.

I never found the tail’s heating ability before since I moved it continuously which didn’t let it remain in contact with the mat for a prolonged time. However, the situation araised when I ‘carried’ some batches towards the lightened floor. Since some stalks were too big for me to move with lacking force, the hexagon at the tip worked like an anchor. It allowed me to work as a crane as I placed a weight over it and grabbed the big batches with my body.

It was funny because my body was akin to a sticky hand, attaching itself with the tail and grabbing with my body and A18’s help. It made the hexagon maintain contact with the mat, providing energy but also making it heat. It was a bit different from overcharging in a short period, more like constant charging.

The hot hexagon became another tool in my arsenal. I did cold and hot dissections. The first one was the common hack and slash approach. Instead, the second one allowed me to burn part of the samples or cut some of them like butter.

Both methods had pros and cons. If the hexagon was hot you needed to be careful of certain chemicals or it touching the body.

While dissecting with the hexagon, the water I was swimming in didn’t ignite or explode, but you could see bubbles and warmth coming from the liquid. It only happened for a reduced time when the hexagon shined with the constant overcharge.

My sense of temperature also indicated a ‘hot’ value, which accompanied by the liquid’s boiling, made the result obvious. It was akin to a cauterizing knife, the only limiting factor being the need of this mat to overheat it. Yet it made dissecting so easy that I became immersed in the feeling.

My flagellum adjusted with each process to be done. It’s movement reaching craftsmanship flexibility. It could drill, do a limited depth stab, slash, and dissect carefully the said samples. My mind was quite astonished by it, yet it was unknown why it was so sturdy.

A part of the dissection was finished, and I needed to overcharge the tip once again. This gave me a chance to look at it while warming up.

I asked the AI about its composition, yet she couldn’t answer objectively. ‘Her’ reply indicated that most of the ‘preinstalled’ system had a composition similar to it. Conversely, the system was working as a liquid agglomeration. Was it actually the impression of nanomachines separating into what appeared to be liquid?

Unknown, but I can believe all of my body is made of them, doesn’t that mean that I can have more razor-tips like this one?

A18, what do I need to make another heat sensor like this one?

Required materials or types of nanomachines for the specified sensor are unknown. ~

Doesn’t that mean that I will have to decompose and see what this thing is made of?

Can’t you reverse engineer the said sensor? Like, deconstruct it?

My puddle, the specified sensor is in a finished state. It has become a complete piece that can’t be reconverted into undifferentiated nanomachines. Separating it into materials is akin to destroying it. ~

What is a finished state?

A finished state is the last step of material and nanomachine utilization. Said machines and materials conform to a matrix that is irreversible and usually not upgradable. The process is called differentiation and specialization depending on the type of machine that was made. ~

Okay… I guess I’ll have to check more about that in the future.

Part 4: Step by step dissection.

I stopped the conversation as I knew it wouldn’t give me results. Better direct my focus over the strange structures in my dissection table. The dark plants that I dissected were composed of many parts. They weren’t just a squirming string attached to the ground or covering the floor.

The first thing I found, is that below the ground when I took the plant, there was a hole bigger than the roots volume. It was as if something had plowed the place around the roots as they floated over a water-filled cavity.

Additionally, the roots of the plant were attached to a black-colored rock with a slick exterior. When moved over the mat, it reflected the light coming from it, yet remained as dark as the abyss above. The rock's exterior was sturdy and required a bit more work to cut through it than the other parts of the plant. Its inside was shiny grey and appeared smooth, with the difference from a normal rock being that it reflected light like a mirror.

The roots of this plant were embracing the rock as they twisted upon it. They appeared rough and were partially solidified which was unique to me. It was a texture similar to the exterior of the rock, which appeared to be petrified or calcified.

While handling the flagellum, I realized that my current touch sensor didn’t allow for careful handling, yet with my past life experience, my mind-dexterity avoided damaging most of the structures. It felt as if having a nerve disease as your sensitivity was very limited, yet you could still move 'your hands' with past experiences.

The next part of the plant was its trunk or stem. It didn’t have much value and it should only serve as some transportation or support structure. Nothing special could be said about its resistance since the roots appeared to be sturdier than it.

So I quickly left the stem and went for the leaves. It was at that moment when I was picking them, that I found some weird spherical shaped structures between the stems divisions and its leafy endings. These spherical things were as bland as the stem, yet inside of it was some sort of cavity. Most of the samples didn’t have anything other than the water surrounding me, so I didn’t get additional findings for a while. However, these things picked my interest...

Why were these thin stems connected to spheres like some modern atomic structure?

If it wasn’t for that curiosity that invaded my mind, I would’ve never found the answer. Inside of these spherical structures, there was a gas. The freakish bubbles that appeared all around my field of vision were made by these things opening whilst releasing their contents!

What sort of gas is this?

A18, move the digestion device here.

Yes, my puddle.

Perfect. You can commence the digestion of the aforementioned sample.

Digesting…

The process took a while and the result was the expected one. Composition remaining high in nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and helium. Yeah, I was expecting it to only be oxygen, yet I forgot it was a complete sample.

The gas in between is a composition of those probably. The major amounts being nitrogen and oxygen shows that the bubbles must be based on those. So I made the digestive unit ‘kiss’ an inflated sphere through a mouth-hole I made. Gas decompressed and entered the unit, then the digestion was repeated.

The results, nothing additional. Just different levels of composition with oxygen being almost at the same amount as nitrogen and carbon and hydrogen decreased whilst helium raised a little.

When scrutinizing, I found that these weird spheres in between made the leaves float! This was something I didn’t expect, plants that didn’t know how to swim but squirmed by using floaters!

Such results pushed my motivation to the limits as I delved upon the leaves of these. I am not sure if underwater foliage should be called as such, yet these leaves had two places with varying colors. The base of the leave was greyish in my vision while the tip of it was darker as if almost black.

There was a difference in ‘appearance and texture’. Although my sensors couldn’t explore this with the needed precision, experience told me that the tips were stickier than the base. They were apparently covered by some sort of resin.

The resin was sticky yet sturdy, and when compared to the base’s material it remained drifting in the water for longer. That meant that the tip was more resistant yet lighter than the bulky base of the so-called leaf.

And now, for the concluding part of this experiment and reserving the best for last… We have this weird rock that resembles a tuber.

A18 prepare the digestion system, we are eating baked stuff. Make a log and call ‘today’ your birthday!

Yes, my puddle! B&Rt%Da&?

Saving log… T%OAY… un53#&n35

I lifted my candle in the form of a red hot hexagon until it appeared in my field of vision.

A18, blow the candle and make a wish!

M/ P?$$!3, $%2hFD3552…

Great!