Chapter 3
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My human conscience didn't die screaming or get locked into the back of my mind. It changed along with me, I didn't even notice it before it was far too late to go back. I wasn't going to enjoy this but it would keep me alive for longer. I felt my need for sustenance and knowledge like a constant pain in my side. Whatever I was needed this. I could get much more from this than any human could. I could now transform biomass without waste into energy for myself and get buried knowledge hidden deep inside these bodies. My 'instincts?' told me I wasn't able to mimic a human quite well now, it was only an outer shell that would be quite easy to see through for anyone with proper equipment or senses. I studied computer engineering, not human anatomy. Not that even that would have given me a perfect understanding of the human body. This would though. I only needed to eat them and absorb them. Assimilate whatever was useful about them and extract any information that would be useful. The rest would be stored as energy. Yes. I needed this to survive. With a deep breath that was entirely unnecessary, I shifted back into my real form. My human bones, muscle, and skin melted into the pure white tendrils that came crawling out from deep within. In the time it would take for me to blink, I was done with the morphing and I descended on my first target. Thankfully I didn't have taste in this form nor did I have smell. I subconsciously understood what kind of substances I absorbed but I didn't feel them, I just knew. Along with it came the satisfying sensation of energy filling my starving body. I didn't feel it as strongly before but now that I got a taste and endless hunger settled in the back of my mind, urging me to quickly consume more. For a moment I was distracted by the bizarre way my white skin or maybe flesh absorbed the corpse, the moment I touched it the skin and flesh on the body disappeared. My tendrils carved hollow lines through it wherever they passed and I felt the abysmal amounts of increase to my energy. The questions about how this was possible, why I was here, or where I was were all inconsequential right now. My new body's instincts told me this was the first form of sustenance it had in more than ten millennia and the way energy streamed into whatever counted as my stomach felt almost euphoric. I lashed out with tens of long tendrils, they extended into the pile and weaved through it. With a thought they split and the tens of questing tendrils became hundreds. With my increasing energy capacity, I could morph them however I wished so I did. Tendrils flattened as much as they could while retaining most of their strength to make it easier to absorb the food and I stood there at the edge of the pile. If I was in my human form I would have sighed in satisfaction maybe even moaned but I wasn't so all that was left for me to do is to coordinate all of my appendages to finish this meal as fast as possible. I still wasn't too comfortable with this form and the dissonance I felt increased with every additional second I've spent in it. I experienced the half a minute it took to transmute all of the organic matter in the room into energy in a trance-like daze. It felt like I'd spent hours on it with all the micromanaging it took to not tangle up a few hundred twisting and turning tendrils. When I retook my human form I nearly collapsed on the floor, maybe a combination of exhaustion or after-meal tiredness. My body looked a bit different than it did before, I used all the knowledge I gained about the human body and its biological template to fix whatever I could. The energy wasn't the only thing I gained from this, I understood how everything worked and combined into a large interconnected network of bones, muscles, organs, and neural pathways. The only thing I was still somewhat missing was the brain. I could replicate one but I still couldn't understand how the myriad of connecting neurons resulted in consciousness or how the memories were stored in them. Yet. That would need something that hasn't been left to rot for days, maybe months in a moldy room. I could eventually extract memories from them. With a start, I realized I was probably the greatest shapeshifter there was if that was the case, or was my soul a dead giveaway even then? I didn't know. Before I died I would have scoffed at the notion of souls being a thing. I wasn't a stubborn moron though, I could accept facts when my face has been smashed into them. Yeah, being reincarnated as an eldritch biomorph by some kind of demonic ritual was perfectly understandable. Probably an average Tuesday around here. I snorted at that, right? I didn't even know what day it was. Now for the changes in my body. I fixed up a few things. My horrid eyesight was replaced by the best I could make it. The grinding joints in my fingers were also obviously replaced by perfect ones, cracking my knuckles has been one of my nervous traits. I've made other similar fixes and I made all of my humanoid parts as good as I could with my current knowledge, such a shame I wasn't a bio-engineer. If I was I could already start thinking about upgrades that could bring me above the human level. Memories and knowledge. That would come in handy. If I found a single damned living human in this maze. I turned and made my way out of the room, the stink has been considerably lessened with the source gone but my human nose was still objecting to staying any more than necessary here. As I passed the door I morphed my right index finger into a tendril and tried to 'eat' the concrete making up the doorframe. With a bit of force, a small chunk of concrete slipped through my skin and I recoiled at the sensation. The concrete wasn't getting broken down nor was it getting turned into energy, it was sort of just swimming there under my skin. I grimaced as I felt it, just like it was under my human skin but as if I had nerves all around it. Its form and shape were clear in my mind but not its composition. I 'spat' it out. It plopped through my alien skin and clattered on the similar concrete floor. Useful to know that I could 'eat' my way out of here but also let's not do that unless necessary. Wait. 'first form of sustenance it had in more than ten millennia' That would be about 8000 BC, wouldn't it? Maybe aliens did build the pyramids. Or I was very far from the pyramids.
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My human conscience didn't die screaming or get locked into the back of my mind. It changed along with me, I didn't even notice it before it was far too late to go back. I wasn't going to enjoy this but it would keep me alive for longer. I felt my need for sustenance and knowledge like a constant pain in my side. Whatever I was needed this. I could get much more from this than any human could. I could now transform biomass without waste into energy for myself and get buried knowledge hidden deep inside these bodies. My 'instincts?' told me I wasn't able to mimic a human quite well now, it was only an outer shell that would be quite easy to see through for anyone with proper equipment or senses. I studied computer engineering, not human anatomy. Not that even that would have given me a perfect understanding of the human body. This would though. I only needed to eat them and absorb them. Assimilate whatever was useful about them and extract any information that would be useful. The rest would be stored as energy. Yes. I needed this to survive. With a deep breath that was entirely unnecessary, I shifted back into my real form. My human bones, muscle, and skin melted into the pure white tendrils that came crawling out from deep within. In the time it would take for me to blink, I was done with the morphing and I descended on my first target. Thankfully I didn't have taste in this form nor did I have smell. I subconsciously understood what kind of substances I absorbed but I didn't feel them, I just knew. Along with it came the satisfying sensation of energy filling my starving body. I didn't feel it as strongly before but now that I got a taste and endless hunger settled in the back of my mind, urging me to quickly consume more. For a moment I was distracted by the bizarre way my white skin or maybe flesh absorbed the corpse, the moment I touched it the skin and flesh on the body disappeared. My tendrils carved hollow lines through it wherever they passed and I felt the abysmal amounts of increase to my energy. The questions about how this was possible, why I was here, or where I was were all inconsequential right now. My new body's instincts told me this was the first form of sustenance it had in more than ten millennia and the way energy streamed into whatever counted as my stomach felt almost euphoric. I lashed out with tens of long tendrils, they extended into the pile and weaved through it. With a thought they split and the tens of questing tendrils became hundreds. With my increasing energy capacity, I could morph them however I wished so I did. Tendrils flattened as much as they could while retaining most of their strength to make it easier to absorb the food and I stood there at the edge of the pile. If I was in my human form I would have sighed in satisfaction maybe even moaned but I wasn't so all that was left for me to do is to coordinate all of my appendages to finish this meal as fast as possible. I still wasn't too comfortable with this form and the dissonance I felt increased with every additional second I've spent in it. I experienced the half a minute it took to transmute all of the organic matter in the room into energy in a trance-like daze. It felt like I'd spent hours on it with all the micromanaging it took to not tangle up a few hundred twisting and turning tendrils. When I retook my human form I nearly collapsed on the floor, maybe a combination of exhaustion or after-meal tiredness. My body looked a bit different than it did before, I used all the knowledge I gained about the human body and its biological template to fix whatever I could. The energy wasn't the only thing I gained from this, I understood how everything worked and combined into a large interconnected network of bones, muscles, organs, and neural pathways. The only thing I was still somewhat missing was the brain. I could replicate one but I still couldn't understand how the myriad of connecting neurons resulted in consciousness or how the memories were stored in them. Yet. That would need something that hasn't been left to rot for days, maybe months in a moldy room. I could eventually extract memories from them. With a start, I realized I was probably the greatest shapeshifter there was if that was the case, or was my soul a dead giveaway even then? I didn't know. Before I died I would have scoffed at the notion of souls being a thing. I wasn't a stubborn moron though, I could accept facts when my face has been smashed into them. Yeah, being reincarnated as an eldritch biomorph by some kind of demonic ritual was perfectly understandable. Probably an average Tuesday around here. I snorted at that, right? I didn't even know what day it was. Now for the changes in my body. I fixed up a few things. My horrid eyesight was replaced by the best I could make it. The grinding joints in my fingers were also obviously replaced by perfect ones, cracking my knuckles has been one of my nervous traits. I've made other similar fixes and I made all of my humanoid parts as good as I could with my current knowledge, such a shame I wasn't a bio-engineer. If I was I could already start thinking about upgrades that could bring me above the human level. Memories and knowledge. That would come in handy. If I found a single damned living human in this maze. I turned and made my way out of the room, the stink has been considerably lessened with the source gone but my human nose was still objecting to staying any more than necessary here. As I passed the door I morphed my right index finger into a tendril and tried to 'eat' the concrete making up the doorframe. With a bit of force, a small chunk of concrete slipped through my skin and I recoiled at the sensation. The concrete wasn't getting broken down nor was it getting turned into energy, it was sort of just swimming there under my skin. I grimaced as I felt it, just like it was under my human skin but as if I had nerves all around it. Its form and shape were clear in my mind but not its composition. I 'spat' it out. It plopped through my alien skin and clattered on the similar concrete floor. Useful to know that I could 'eat' my way out of here but also let's not do that unless necessary. Wait. 'first form of sustenance it had in more than ten millennia' That would be about 8000 BC, wouldn't it? Maybe aliens did build the pyramids. Or I was very far from the pyramids.
My human conscience didn't die screaming or get locked into the back of my mind. It changed along with me, I didn't even notice it before it was far too late to go back. I wasn't going to enjoy this but it would keep me alive for longer. I felt my need for sustenance and knowledge like a constant pain in my side. Whatever I was needed this. I could get much more from this than any human could. I could now transform biomass without waste into energy for myself and get buried knowledge hidden deep inside these bodies. My 'instincts?' told me I wasn't able to mimic a human quite well now, it was only an outer shell that would be quite easy to see through for anyone with proper equipment or senses. I studied computer engineering, not human anatomy. Not that even that would have given me a perfect understanding of the human body. This would though. I only needed to eat them and absorb them. Assimilate whatever was useful about them and extract any information that would be useful. The rest would be stored as energy. Yes. I needed this to survive. With a deep breath that was entirely unnecessary, I shifted back into my real form. My human bones, muscle, and skin melted into the pure white tendrils that came crawling out from deep within. In the time it would take for me to blink, I was done with the morphing and I descended on my first target. Thankfully I didn't have taste in this form nor did I have smell. I subconsciously understood what kind of substances I absorbed but I didn't feel them, I just knew. Along with it came the satisfying sensation of energy filling my starving body. I didn't feel it as strongly before but now that I got a taste and endless hunger settled in the back of my mind, urging me to quickly consume more. For a moment I was distracted by the bizarre way my white skin or maybe flesh absorbed the corpse, the moment I touched it the skin and flesh on the body disappeared. My tendrils carved hollow lines through it wherever they passed and I felt the abysmal amounts of increase to my energy. The questions about how this was possible, why I was here, or where I was were all inconsequential right now. My new body's instincts told me this was the first form of sustenance it had in more than ten millennia and the way energy streamed into whatever counted as my stomach felt almost euphoric. I lashed out with tens of long tendrils, they extended into the pile and weaved through it. With a thought they split and the tens of questing tendrils became hundreds. With my increasing energy capacity, I could morph them however I wished so I did. Tendrils flattened as much as they could while retaining most of their strength to make it easier to absorb the food and I stood there at the edge of the pile. If I was in my human form I would have sighed in satisfaction maybe even moaned but I wasn't so all that was left for me to do is to coordinate all of my appendages to finish this meal as fast as possible. I still wasn't too comfortable with this form and the dissonance I felt increased with every additional second I've spent in it. I experienced the half a minute it took to transmute all of the organic matter in the room into energy in a trance-like daze. It felt like I'd spent hours on it with all the micromanaging it took to not tangle up a few hundred twisting and turning tendrils. When I retook my human form I nearly collapsed on the floor, maybe a combination of exhaustion or after-meal tiredness. My body looked a bit different than it did before, I used all the knowledge I gained about the human body and its biological template to fix whatever I could. The energy wasn't the only thing I gained from this, I understood how everything worked and combined into a large interconnected network of bones, muscles, organs, and neural pathways. The only thing I was still somewhat missing was the brain. I could replicate one but I still couldn't understand how the myriad of connecting neurons resulted in consciousness or how the memories were stored in them. Yet. That would need something that hasn't been left to rot for days, maybe months in a moldy room. I could eventually extract memories from them. With a start, I realized I was probably the greatest shapeshifter there was if that was the case, or was my soul a dead giveaway even then? I didn't know. Before I died I would have scoffed at the notion of souls being a thing. I wasn't a stubborn moron though, I could accept facts when my face has been smashed into them. Yeah, being reincarnated as an eldritch biomorph by some kind of demonic ritual was perfectly understandable. Probably an average Tuesday around here. I snorted at that, right? I didn't even know what day it was. Now for the changes in my body. I fixed up a few things. My horrid eyesight was replaced by the best I could make it. The grinding joints in my fingers were also obviously replaced by perfect ones, cracking my knuckles has been one of my nervous traits. I've made other similar fixes and I made all of my humanoid parts as good as I could with my current knowledge, such a shame I wasn't a bio-engineer. If I was I could already start thinking about upgrades that could bring me above the human level. Memories and knowledge. That would come in handy. If I found a single damned living human in this maze. I turned and made my way out of the room, the stink has been considerably lessened with the source gone but my human nose was still objecting to staying any more than necessary here. As I passed the door I morphed my right index finger into a tendril and tried to 'eat' the concrete making up the doorframe. With a bit of force, a small chunk of concrete slipped through my skin and I recoiled at the sensation. The concrete wasn't getting broken down nor was it getting turned into energy, it was sort of just swimming there under my skin. I grimaced as I felt it, just like it was under my human skin but as if I had nerves all around it. Its form and shape were clear in my mind but not its composition. I 'spat' it out. It plopped through my alien skin and clattered on the similar concrete floor. Useful to know that I could 'eat' my way out of here but also let's not do that unless necessary. Wait. 'first form of sustenance it had in more than ten millennia' That would be about 8000 BC, wouldn't it? Maybe aliens did build the pyramids. Or I was very far from the pyramids.
