Heistia's eyes blink open slowly, the world returning to her in strange fragments, shimmering figures in an endless black void, voices without mouths, shapes without names.
System* [Evolution has been completed] [Your new species is: Slime Guide] [Would you like to accept this evolution?]
The prompt floats before her like a dream. She doesn't fully understand, but this strange floating box has always meant something important.
She trembles for a moment, not yet fully awake, without much thought she decides on the answer.
[YES]
A surge of light bursts through her body, not painful, but, awakening.
Suddenly, a voice echoes in her mind.Soft and calming.
"I am pleased to meet you""You are the first slime who has undergone evolution""I will now assist you in any way I can"
Heistia freezes. Her body ripples. That wasn't just a message box. That was a voice.
She forms the thought clumsily, like a child learning to speak for the first time.
Heistia "Who, are you?"
There's a pause.
"I am a core fragment of the System""Imbedded into the fabric of creation, present in all things that grow, level, and evolve""You may call me… Sol"
The name lingers like sunlight through a stormcloud.
Heistia shivers again. Not from fear but from understanding. Something has changing.
Heistia* "What, is 'System'? Why do I, see glowing things in me?" she thinks, her mental words still clumsy, her voice not yet ready.
Sol replies without judgment. Like a teacher patiently guiding a curious child.
Sol* "The System is the unseen force that governs life, growth, and potential. Every living being is part of it."Sol* "Those images you see, those are messages from the System, meant to guide you, reward you, warn you."Sol* "Most beings are born knowing how to read them. But you, Heistia, you were not meant to know."
Heistia* "Not meant to?"
Sol* "Slimes were not designed to evolve. You broke the rules just by existing, by surviving this long. And now the gods have taken interest in you."
Her body pulses once again. Not from pain, not even from fear this time, but from something new.
Resolve.
Heistia thinks to herself.
Heistia* ''The System isn't just showing me pictures that I don't understand anymore. It's talking back. And finally I will be able to understand what all of this was supposed to be.''