Had he broken his gauntlets?

Atlas stared in consternation at the status screen, watching the blue bar drop all by itself. Had they sprung a leak somehow? Had he got goo in them when he punched the slime?

So much for his plan to try and scan its corpse. Atlas watched helplessly as the blue bar dropped. Half. Quarter.

Just as the bar lost the last sliver of blue, his red bar shot up a full sixth, leaving it a third full once more. Atlas dropped with relief as the blue bar started flickering between empty and a sliver remaining, regenerating then disappearing over and over.

Okay, so no leak, and his red bar - HP? - did actually recover, but apparently used blue - MP? EP? - to do so, which drained faster than it recovered to make that happen. It wasn’t exactly quick, but he wasn’t going to be a one hitpoint wonder until he found an inn or something.

Atlas’ vision pixelated once more and he dropped to one knee, pressing his cold metal gauntlets to his temples either to try and purge the alien thoughts from his consciousness or to hold onto them a moment longer. He wasn’t sure which. Maybe both.

His HP bar was half full by the time he got his thoughts in order, heaving back to his feet and shaking the last of the static out of his head.

Well, he wasn’t going to find anything new standing here. Atlas girded his loins - Did he have loins? Or anything to gird them? He shut down the thought process to avoid another unpleasant headache. - and headed towards the potential exit he’d seen while he was fighting the slime.

No sooner had he reached the entrance than another slime slithered down the wall and attacked, but now he knew its weakness, Atlas just ducked down and scooped up its eyes when it splashed itself into a puddle. Ripples went across its surface before its already liquid remains lay still

MATERIALS LOGGED

He didn’t even get to take a closer look before they disappeared. Wasn’t it supposed to drop small denominations of local currency and XP?

Atlas winced, rubbing his head. His MP bar was still ticking over at zero so he couldn’t scan the slime’s remains, but… He reached down, cupping his hands to scoop up some of the slime from its pool in the rock. It felt how it looked.

Gross.

MATERIALS LOGGED

Bingo! The viscous gel running through his fingers vanished just like the eyes. He could apparently atomise things by touching them. Except for the living slime he'd blocked. And the cables. And the machine he’d messed with. And the ground.

Some experimentation later revealed that anything he could pick up and hold would be “logged” into oblivion, and that he was, in fact, extremely weak, as he’d struggled to lift a rock the size of his fist with both hands, to say nothing of an experimental handful of sand. He might be able to dig his way out of the cave if it was conveniently blocked by small pebbles though.

At least his HP bar had gone up again. Odd how it went up in large chunks compared to his MP, unless… Was each sixth a single point? So he had 4 out of 6 HP and, with a quick estimation from the single pixel that flickered on and off the monitor, about 50 MP or so?

It hurt his head to think that his life was based on an integer, so Atlas turned his attention back to exploring the tunnel. The damp sand was coarse against his bare feet which, he’d just noticed, didn’t have toes.

Good god he was weird.

1 HP and two slimes later, and Atlas found himself at a dead end, a reasonably spacious cavern with piles of boulders and broken stalactites- Stalagmites? Both? He couldn’t remember the difference. Stone spike things - surrounding a wide pool of water that covered most of the cavern. He checked cautiously as he approached, but the pool didn’t appear to be a giant slime boss monster.

His brain twinged again.

For want of any better plan Atlas stepped to the edge of the water, curious to see if he could discover what he looked like for the first time, but the surface didn’t reflect anything whatsoever. He could see straight to the bottom all the way across, a mix of pebbles, shells, and there in the centre of the pool, what appeared to be a human skull half buried in the sand.

Well that was probably a flag. Ow. Atlas stepped into the water all the same, careful to avoid stepping on any of the shells as he waded towards the object. The water only reached his calves, his chest when he dropped down next to the skull, casting a careful glance around to make sure there wasn’t suddenly a giant enemy crab or - ow - something.

Nothing. Water dripping from stalag-whatevers was the only movement in the cavern. Atlas gave an internal sigh of relief and turned back to the skull, grabbing disappearing handfuls of wet sand from around it to reveal vertebrae beneath, followed by a ribcage still clad in tattered clothing. The water didn’t even get cloudy as he worked. Excited, Atlas struggled to dig faster. Not that he got tired. He didn’t even need to breathe, after all, but he was still aware of the massive effort he needed to pull the sand far enough away for his gauntlets to consider them ready to “log”.

And his efforts paid off. Bit by bit he revealed the skeletal remains from their sandy grave, a torn backpack, a corroded dagger with a broken blade still clutched in a hand, and a small golden locket lodged between two sand-filled ribs.

Atlas settled back, pleased with his handiwork. It honestly wasn’t the most useful of finds, considering he couldn’t even pick it up without disintegrating it, but when he actually had some MP he could at least try scanning it or something.

It was that moment that his bracer let out a loud ping, his health bar flashing as it filled to maximum once more. His long zeroed MP started creeping back up. Things were looking up.

Then the splashing started. Atlas zeroed in on the sound to see a slime shooting across the top of the water towards him. Behind it two more slimes “dripped” from the stalagmites, impaling themselves heedlessly on the stalactites below before flowing around them towards the water.

Damnit.

Unlike him the slime had no problem manoeuvring in the water. Quite the opposite in fact, it bounced across the surface like a skipping stone, with none of the pauses to reform itself of its land bound compatriots still on the shore behind it. Atlas got to his feet, hands outstretched for balance as he edged away from where he’d been working. The last thing he wanted was for the skeleton he’d uncovered to be destroyed by a stray step. Or to step on the rusty dagger, whether he could catch tetanus or not. The slime swerved to follow him, covering the distance between them in moments before leaping high into the air to come down on top of him.

Atlas dove forward as it plunged down behind him, its underside impaled with sharp stones and seashells as it buoyed back to the surface with a second spray of water. He pushed forward and slammed an open palm into it, sending it skipping away from him at considerably reduced speed. It started to turn a wide circle back towards him.

Okay, they couldn’t change direction easily when they were moving like that, and they were still utterly predictable, but - two splashes came from behind Atlas - there were three of them to account for, and he was at a definite disadvantage in the water. Atlas turned trying to get all three in his field of vision, wading backwards to where the water was shallower. The two slimes moved neck and neck towards him, even hitting the water at the same time as they zeroed in on his location. He rapped his gauntlets together, setting his feet more firmly into the shifting sand.

Time to thin their numbers a bit.

The two slimes leapt as one, water droplets trailing behind them as they sailed down towards him, colliding in midair with a mushy squelch to make a larger footprint to crush him with.

Just like he’d expected them to. Atlas shifted his weight forward to allow them to pass over his head then arched backwards, slamming his hands into the slimes and tearing out two gel-encrusted orbs as he pulled back forward.

Damn it, he’d been aiming for both together. No problem. With only one orb they’d be unstable or something, right? Slime residue and orbs logging into nothingness as he moved, Atlas sloshed forward and to the side as he turned, just in case the slimes managed to redirect themselves in his direction, but the two slimes just wriggled together aimlessly where they’d landed, their single remaining eyes spinning wildly.

Perfect. Atlas glanced aside. He still had a good ten seconds before the first slime reached him again. He raised his fist to finish the job, then faltered, falling back into the water as he stumbled backwards.

Oh crud.

The two slimes had merged.