I Can Assimilate Everything-Chapter 616: Peaceful Advancement I
No conflict wasn’t always a bad thing.
When you didn’t have a large threat breathing down your neck, demanding constant vigilance and desperate measures just to survive another day, you could afford to be laid back in how you did things.
You could relax, observe, learn at your own pace rather than being forced to adapt under lethal pressure. The absence of immediate danger created space for contemplation that frantic survival never permitted.
Others this complacency. Others recognized it as wisdom, the understanding that not every moment required maximum intensity, that conservation of effort during calm periods allowed for greater exertion when storms inevitably returned.
Peace was preparation wearing comfortable clothes, and that preparation knew there would be storms ahead!
---
Achilles didn’t have any large overarching threat at this moment in time.
The main thing he could consider threatening were the Malformed Collapsed Existences he was fighting and devouring in The Cavern of Existence, inside The Blind Depths. That body continued its brutal work, advancing through darkness that had seemed absolute when he first arrived but now yielded to perception that grew stronger with each consumption.
His other body in the First Sea, Abzu, floated with Rose and Eyyanah above golden waters that stretched toward impossible horizons. Here, the atmosphere was one of peaceful cultivation rather than desperate survival, and they were being exposed to what Malformed Authorities actually were.
And it was a unique thing to see.
The Corrupted Growth that rose from the depths of Abzu looked nothing like the Malformed Collapsed Existences he fought in The Blind Depths. Where those creatures were writhing masses of half-formed features and fractal impossibilities, these were almost beautiful in their wrongness. They emerged from the golden waters as crystalline structures of inverted light, geometric patterns that seemed to fold inward upon themselves.
Each Corrupted Growth pulsed with authority that had once belonged to Civilizations and Ways, fragments of failed existences that had sunk into Tian after collapsing in Observable Existence. They rose slowly, inevitably, drawn toward the organized consciousness of THE entities like corruption seeking to contaminate what it could never become.
But dealing with them required only slight exertion.
Rose demonstrated first, her copper-green luminescence flaring as she pressed down upon an approaching Corrupted Growth with the weight of her Civilization of Alchemy. The geometric structure shuddered under her authority, its inverted patterns unable to maintain coherence against genuine THE distinction.
It shriveled.
And then it transformed into pure streams of golden light that flowed back into the Sea, recycled corruption becoming nourishment that rejoined the waters of Abzu.
That simple.
Achilles followed her example, pressing his own Civilization of Assimilation against another Corrupted Growth that had risen nearby. The weight of his Surface Depth descended upon the geometric wrongness, and it collapsed even faster than Rose’s target had, dissolving into streams of pure light almost instantly.
Prompts bloomed before his awareness with information about what he had accomplished.
|Corrupted Growth Purified|
|You have contributed to the stability of Observable Existence by recycling Malformed Authority back into pure Civilizational essence.|
|The First Sea, Abzu, has been marginally strengthened by your contribution.|
|Note: The labor of purification creates resonance between your Civilization and Tian itself. Extended service deepens this resonance, allowing you to draw upon Tian’s resources even after departing the Nine Seas.|
|Contribution Recorded: 1 Corrupted Growth purified in the First Sea.|
|Current Resonance with Tian: Minimal but establishing.|
Achilles looked at these prompts with interest as he considered the implications. The work here was genuinely meaningful, not merely busywork designed to keep THE entities occupied. Each Corrupted Growth purified strengthened the Sea that nourished all of Observable Existence, and the resonance mentioned suggested long-term benefits that extended beyond immediate advancement.
He wondered what one could gain from Assimilating a Corrupted Growth directly rather than simply purifying it. Would the inverted authority provide unique benefits, or would it introduce contamination similar to what the Malformed Collapsed Existences carried?
And what about the transformed state after purification, those streams of golden light that rejoined the Sea? Could those be Assimilated as well, pure essence distilled from corruption through the process of recycling?
He waited to test out all these theories, noting them for future experimentation when opportunity presented itself.
While the body above the Sea of Abzu was seemingly relaxing, enjoying peaceful cultivation alongside Rose and Eyyanah, his body in The Blind Depths was going through a crucible of hell that made the calm here seem almost surreal by comparison.
---
SKEE!
A Malformed Collapsed Existence roared out its last dying breaths as one more round of Assimilation caused it to entirely disappear, its collapsed Depth flowing into Achilles’s being with weight that added to the tremendous foundation he had been building.
He stood like a savage primordial beast at this moment, his figure radiating authority that pressed against the oppressive atmosphere of The Blind Depths with force that would have been impossible when he first arrived. He devoured everything that approached, everything that hunted him, everything that thought to make him prey rather than predator.
His Depth rose once more as things had greatly changed in the last day in this place of absolute darkness.
Where before he could barely see inches around him, struggling to perceive even vague impressions of movement in the suffocating gloom, it was like he had turned on the lights. At this moment, he could see far, his perception stretching across distances that would have seemed impossible during those first terrifying hours.
The Blind Depths no longer seemed quite so blind to someone who had consumed enough of its predators to inherit their hunting instincts many times over.
Prompts bloomed before his awareness with comprehensive summary of his accomplishments.
|Progress Report: The Blind Depths|
|Time Elapsed: Approximately 26 hours since entry.|
|Malformed Collapsed Existences Assimilated: 47|
|Each creature possessed THE Surface Depth with immensity averaging 2-4 times your initial weight upon entry.|
|Total Depth Accumulated: Substantial beyond conventional measurement at Surface level.|
|Current Status: Your Surface Depth has been elevated to extreme density through continuous Assimilation of Surface Depth authorities. However, because you are consuming only Surface Depth entities, you continue to elevate your own Surface Depth without advancing to the Intermediate Depth.|
|The weight of your Surface Depth now vastly exceeds any other average entity at this stage of THE distinction.|
|You have become an anomaly within an anomaly, Surface Depth compressed to density that approaches what Intermediate Depth should represent while remaining technically at the lowest rung of THE Level One Scale of Existence.|
|Note: Advancement to Intermediate Depth requires a qualitative trigger rather than simple accumulation of quantity. Continue seeking understanding of what separates Depths from each other.|
|Blind Depths Exploration Progress|
|Region Mapped: Approximately 15% of the First Region.|
|The boundary to the Second Region, The Fractured Manifold, is now within perception range.|
|Your Existential Corruption Resistance has increased to 35% through continuous processing of collapsed contamination.|
|Your Assimilation range has expanded to 5 miles through accumulated hunger drives.|
|Your Predatory Resonance Hunting has sharpened to the point where you can now sense approaching threats approximately 30 seconds before they enter your expanded range.|
|The Blind Depths recognizes you as apex predator within the First Region. Lesser Malformed now avoid your presence rather than hunting you.|
...!
A lot had changed!
