The skill tree seemed to be a web of interconnected nodes, though right now there was only a single node unlocked: "Evaluated absorption." The other nodes were greyed out, so he had no way of knowing what it might be. Though even with that, he could tell that certain nodes were more important than others based on their sizes. The first of these massive nodes was three skills away.
Raddan navigated to the mineral conversion screen. It was a simple one, with two empty boxes that seemed to act as the conversion area, and a list of known minerals on the side. Of course, only a single mineral was listed now: obsidian.
Of all the system elements, this one seemed to be the most vague. The description spoke of equal value conversions and restricted minerals, but gave no indication of what these were. This was where he would have to experiment the most.
"It's going to start raining soon," Raddan whispered to himself, noting that the rumbling was getting more frequent. Alas, only a few seconds later, the first few droplets began to fall.
"Strange," he whispered, staring at one of the droplets as they fell. "The rain is... black?"
In fact, the droplets seemed more like ashfall than actual rain.
The light drizzle quickly turned to a thunderstorm, with wild winds that seemed to come out of nowhere. The black water pooled in large puddles around him, allowing him to look at his reflection.
He looked like a golem; purple body with two piercing silver lights that seemed to act as his eyes. They gleamed with intelligence. Of course, Raddan was convinced that they did not portray just how intelligent he really was. Having a rock brain did nothing to diminish his arrogance.
"Still, I wish I could feel the droplets," he sighed. Everyone always spoke about how it would be the little things in life that one would miss the most. Who would've guessed the great Sage of Science, Raddan, would be upset over never being able to enjoy the rain.
As he stood in the rain, letting it wash over him, he opened his mouth. A jagged crack in the middle of his face, letting a few of the droplets through.
Of course, there was no refreshing quench of a parched throat. But there was...
[Water levels replenishing... 6%]
[7%]
'This is taking too long,' he thought, staring up at the sky with his mouth open like a primitive.
As he waited for his water levels to reach 100, he noticed something odd. Some of the water was turning from black to a shiny purple. At first, he assumed it was just the way the rain in this world worked, but he quickly realised only the rain puddles around him were doing that.
He looked at his reflection again, and some parts of his body were washing away.
"You've got to be joking. I'm soluble?"
He rushed towards one of the fallen trees around him. He had no interest in finding out what happened once he completely dissolved.
Once he was under shelter, he knelt down and drank from one of the puddles nearby. One of the perks of being a rock was not having to care about sanitation.
As he drank, he noticed a small pebble plopping up and down in the puddle. At first, he ignored it, but it began to move towards him. He pushed it away, continuing to replenish his water levels, but it came back.
"Magnetism?" he wondered, focusing on the rock.
The puddle had turned purple due to the droplets still dripping off him; however, the rock seemed to be absorbing the pigment, turning purple itself.
[System error!]
"What now?'
[Processing...]
[A fragmented entity has been detected outside the main body.]
"Fragmented entity?"
A loud crackle echoed from the pebble as cracks appeared all throughout its surface, like an egg about to give birth to new life.
Raddan stared intently, all the while the system kept repeating the same error warnings.
"What's going on?"
A few moments later, the pebble cracked open, and two tiny dots of piercing silver light sparkled from within.
[Processing complete.]
[A new feature has been added in response to an unforeseen error.]
[Feature: Mineral Commune has been added!]
A miniature golem climbed out of the pebble, identical to him in build, aside from its grey colour and diminished size.
Raddan tilted his head. "Did I just create a baby golem?" he whispered.
"Baby golem," the creature responded. Its voice was low-pitched and soft, much like that of a toddler. But Raddan was certain... it was his voice it was using.
'The solution created by my body and the rainwater must have some property that allows this,' he thought, searching his immediate surroundings for another pebble.
He kicked one in and waited. And lo and behold, the pebble began absorbing what was left of the purple pigment inside the puddle.
"Baby golem," the first golem repeated again, taking its first clumsy steps towards him.
"That's all nice and well, now be quiet, please," he replied. "I'm experimenting."
"Experimenting!" the baby golem repeated.
Raddan grunted. "Must everything in this world shout!"
A few moments later, the second pebble cracked open, and another baby golem appeared.
"Interesting," Raddan whispered thoughtfully. "These will make for interesting test subjects."
"Test subjects!" the second baby-golem repeated.
The first baby golem looked to its new sibling, before looking back at Raddan. "Test subjects!"
"Yes, yes, that's what you guys are. But you don't have to shout it."
He looked towards the other puddles he had left some of his pigment before he found shelter. And baby golems were emerging from them as well, some of them of different colours and shapes.
All of them came walking towards him, clumsy like toddlers, but determined in the same way, too.
"Test subjects!" they all shouted, arms outstretched like happy idiots as they approached their creator.
The two closest to him looked to their approaching siblings and began jumping up and down. "Test subjects!"
A wave of excitement rushed through Raddan.
"Yes indeed, my little creations."
"Test subjects."