Chapter 367 Sinking (1/2)

I can't wait to see my status when this evolution is done. It's going to be craaaaazy. I'm already getting a headache just thinking about having to upgrade all of these new glands. So many!

But it'll be worth it, I may have gone on a bit of a shopping spree, but the utility I've gained is immense, not to mention by all around beefier stats. My size is possibly going to double, perhaps even more than that after this. I'm gonna start pus.h.i.+ng Tiny around once I'm done. Gweheheheh.

Alright then. Time to confirm everything and drain this dangerously overloaded core. Just being free of this pain is enough for me to eagerly finish up with the menu and welcome the deep embrace of torpor. As it has in the past, the la.s.situde begins to fall over me immediately, my vision fading to black and sensation falling blessedly away. Ah, no more pain, no more sensation of a physical body at all!

Wait a second. I remember this sensation.

My mind continued to sink, falling deeper in on itself as if I were circling a cosmic drain to the centre of the world.

Here we go again. Off to chat with Gandalf.

Being my second ride on the … whatever this was … I let myself go and tried to enjoy it without the sense of vertigo kicking in. I have to say, it isn't easy to enjoy a disembodied experience since there isn't really any actual sensation but rather a vague dizzying sense of movement. Without any ability to perceive my environment and without any real sense of distance, I found myself feeling vaguely bored as I waited for the ride to be over.

[Well I do apologise if you find the trip dull. There isn't really any other way to bring you to me.]

Ah, the gruff voice of the Grey One himself. It's seriously uncanny how much they sound alike. Is this some form of cosmic accident?

Yes, well. It is what it is I suppose. How've you been, Gandalf?

A deep chuckle resounded around my free floating mind.

[This name you have for me is amusing. You continue to insist on using it?]

It's not as if I know your real name now, is it?

[And if I told you my real name would you change your way of speaking?]

No.

[…]

…

[You've certainly kept up your fast pace,] the voice changed the subject, [I didn't expect to see you here so soon after the last time. I suppose your circ.u.mstances can be somewhat to blame.]

You can tell what's going on up there? I'm a bit shocked.

[It shouldn't be that surprising, surely. Everything touched by the system is within my grasp. It's only natural I could track the progress of so many monsters as they rushed toward you.]

Yeah well, any chance We could get some help out of you? It doesn't seem entirely fair. How are they controlling all those monsters anyway? Isn't that infringing on your role?

[Not really. Certain monsters have that authority. It's all part of the design.]

Right….

[You should have died, you know,] Gandalf said suddenly, [You weren't made to push your core that hard at your current level of evolution. Your core should have cracked and you should have been killed. That's how the system was designed, after all.]

Well… what can I say? Sorry to disappoint you?

[Oh, I'm not disappointed. Quite the opposite. You're a promising specimen, after all. It would have been a shame to lose you so soon.]

I guess I'm annoyingly good at surviving when I shouldn't. You said the system was designed, was it you who designed it?

[Oh, think you're going to ask the questions do you?]

I tried to roll my eyes but then realised I don't have a body, or eyes that can be rolled.

You brought me down here just to talk at me? A little dialogue isn't such a bad thing is it?