by Gus Hudson Vadnais

Chapter One

I was in darkness, unable to move. 

My vision came into focus, and all I could see is what I recognized as a head-up display that was faintly glowing. Strange words floated into my vision. I read them.

[Name:]

[Bubbissh]

[Class: Undecided]

[Species: Oozefolk]

What is this? Why is my name Bubbissh? Questions floated through my unfamiliar head. What is an oozefolk? Was that me? Was I reborn into a new world? I focused on the undecided class and the head-up display changed:

[Chose your class:][at later levels, multiclassing is possible]

[Class: Tremetomancer]

[Tremetomancers are mancers of flukes, of parasites and worms. They can infest their opponents with worms. Fear the flukes!]

[Class: Entoblade]

[Entoblades harness the power of insects and other arthropods for immense effect.]

[Class: Alafungus]

[Alafungi bond with sentient fungi with a variety of powers.]

All three sounded promising. Tremetomancers were definitely the most idiosyncratic. Honestly, the descriptions of each class were hopelessly vague. Tremetomancer was the least vague, but even it wasn’t entirely clear, just more obviously horrifying. Entoblades were apparently “immensely” strong, so they seemed good. Alafungi also seemed promising, but “variety of powers” wasn’t exactly descriptive. 

It was really hard to choose which class, although apparently multiclassing was possible. I suppose it didn’t matter which one I chose first. I focused on Alafungi, and the darkness recedeed. I had a new kind of awareness, like I’d woken up from dreaming, finally, after dreaming about waking up. 

All around me was a forest. Nothing else. 

Chapter Two

I was indeed an Oozefolk. My form seemed to be composed of a semisolid, greenish ooze. 

I haltingly stood up from the place I was laying on the ground. I examined my arm. On closer examination, threads of a rust-tinted substance were spread throughout me. I wondered if this was from being an Alafungus or just a natural Oozefolk feature. I wondered if there was a way to pull up my statistics and character sheet, and then a window popped up in my vision.

[Name: Bubbissh]

[Class: Alafungus]

[Species: Oozefolk]

[Level: 1 (Alafungus)]

[Traits: Ooze-form, Halo of Spores, Bodily Fungus, called Ah Yes! Fungus]

I blinked. “Ah Yes! Fungi?” that sounded…memeable. I closely examined the traits, seeing if more specific descriptions would pop up.

[Ooze-form]

[You are an ooze and are treated as such.]

That was vague. Incredibly vague. 

It seemed liked this sheet should tbe more specific. If I were writing it, for example, I could add: You have trouble communicating clearly. You have trouble finding the right words. You have big feelings but difficulty finding the right words to express them. This causes frustration, anxiety, and a tendency to shut down. Others tend to avoid you.

I felt a stab of pain of emotional pain in my chest. 

I kept reading.

[Halo of Spores]

[You can produce a variety of spores from your fungus symbiont.]

[NOTE: Current spores yet to be selected. Select two level-one spore types.]

That was better. I would chose the spore types later. For now, I needed to know what “Ah Yes! Fungi” was.

[Ah Yes! Fungi]

[Greetings, little Oozefolk. We see that you have chosen us…Ah Yes! Fungi]

That was…strange. I was expecting a description of what it did, not a greeting.

I shrugged and went back to selecting spores. 

After some consideration, I chose Mushroom Mines (which I could plant, and they would explode), and Infestation Spores (which could do damage). My thinking around my selections was that I needed self-defense in this strange world. 

After selecting my spores, I set out and examined my surroundings.

Chapter Three

I was in a forested area with several large trees. I didn’t feel there was anything very interesting about this forest. There were no paths. There was no undergrowth. There was nothing to pick up and look at. I was worried about getting lost because there weren’t any notable features. 

In fact, I looked around and realized I had no idea if I was near where I’d started or if I was far away. I couldn’t think of a way to mark where I was going or where I had been. The forest was carefully blank.

I kept wandering around in the forest for either a long time or no time at all. The light didn’t change, and there wasn’t a way that I could see to mark time on the head-up display. 

I decided to stop and think about my abilities. 

I had no clue what two of them did because of their incredibly vague descriptions and my utter unfamiliarity with this world. I only had three abilities, and I only knew what one of my abilities did, which was to send spores into the environment. I had chosen destructive spores, but I wasn’t under threat, and there was nothing to destroy. 

From what I could tell, “Ooze-form” meant that I qualified as an ooze, but I didn’t know what that entailed. Due to my slimy exterior and soft interior, I assumed I had resistance to certain damage types and conditions, but I had no way of knowing for sure. As for “Ah Yes! Fungi,” I had been greeted but not told anything useful. All I had was a cheerful message from an unknown entity (presumably the sentient fungus mentioned in the Alafungi class description). 

The description gave me nothing about what the actual trait did. Without knowing what Ah Yes! Fungus does, I had no way of understanding my potential. So far, I was an ooze with murder spores who was kind of anti-social in a featureless forest with a fungal trait that could be amazing in the sense that fungus can be amazing—for example, fungus can decompose the environment into its base components and works as a communication system—but also could be kind of a bummer in the sense that Ah Yes! Fungus might just be another growth that stank.