Magic Student's Sentient Mistake

Hmm. An even mix of mind and soul development.

The slime had a problem. This had never happened before. This was mainly due to being new to the world. Running on instincts that it didn't know that it had it altered its internal structure. It changed its digestive acid to primordial ooze and from that spun out neural tissue.

For the very first time the slime had a brain. For efficiency's sake it was as simple as it could be, just enough to recognize the problem and try to think of a solution.

The problem was that its food had too much solid and not enough liquid and consuming it was starting to hit the limits of what the slime's body could handle. Having either too much or too little liquid was a problem.

Solutions?
-1. Stop eating the excess solid
-2. Find a way to eat all of the solids

Solution 2 preferred.

Thinking...Thinking...Thinking.

Success.

To eat all of the solid food it just needed more liquid. The slime altered another section of itself so that it had a mana catcher and then set it to leak overflow as water. The production rate was slow but sufficient that over time all of the solid food could be consumed. The slime now had a mana core floating at its center.

Having achieved a solution the slime no longer had a problem. It dissolved the neural structures so that it could eat more efficiently.

~~~

Dougie returned to his room sad and depressed. Bragging to his friends had turned into going out for celebratory drinks which had turned into bragging to hot girls about his success but Sally, Melanie, Lee, and Sophie had not been impressed. Even when he had done something amazing he still struck out.

His own personal pity party was interrupted as he felt a draw on the magic in his room that wasn't there when he had left. His mana sense was one of the weakest in his class so he needed tools to help him get any further information but since he knew that this would be the case he had a magimeter handy. Of course it took him a few minutes of rummaging to find it but he was able to pinpoint the change as coming from the bowl that the slime had been placed in.

He whipped off the lid and saw that the slime was in the process of consuming the rations. It was comical how it was trying to dissolve the dense slab that was larger than it was. The slime had spread itself thin and still couldn't reach the bowl on all sides let alone engulf the food entirely.

Dougie noticed that the slime had carefully absorbed all of the slop leaving the bowl meticulously clean. Significantly cleaner than before the slime had been decanted into it in fact. Dougie was distracted from his thoughts of having a slime maid as he noticed the reason for the mana drain. The slime had a mana core that wasn't there when he had left.

He knew that no-one had messed with the slime in his absence. Slob he might be but long and painful lessons from his father made sure that his security spells were top notch. This meant that the slime must have grown the core itself.

There was a rule to gaining the power of magic. You had to open yourself up to the aether of the universe and let it flow through you, let it fill you and change you. Only then could you use the power of the universe otherwise known as mana for your own selfish purposes. This was hard for sentients to do since their own thoughts, feelings and desires kept getting in the way. Learning to get out of one's own way was easily the hardest part of training a mage. Various mind altering substances helped with that and Dougie would be the first to admit that it was his favorite part of magic training.

Conversely it was why the creatures of the world naturally gained in magic as they aged. Powerful creatures would even start crystallizing their mana in structures that they could tap in emergencies making them even more dangerous. The only reason that people, of any sort, held any power in the world was through their ability to plan and work together. And Dougie's pet slime had just managed to replicate that accomplishment as a new born.

Dougie's grin only grew as the implications sunk in.

What does Dougie do?

[] take the slime to his professor for advice and hopefully academic credit.
[] perform experiments on the slime
[] remove the mana core and examine it.
[] something else
[] write in

SCIENCE wins. Of course it does.

Dougie thought for a moment and realised that he needed to double check the mana cores existence. He knew just what to do. He grabbed the bowl that the slime was in and rushed out of the room with it. Leaving his cubby hole he entered the room that he had to share with another student. Neil. Neither of them liked this arrangement and were both skilled (rich) enough to be able to set up their own pocket dimension that they didn't have to spend time together.

The left the dorm at a jog and set across the campus, past the lecture theatres, past the cafeteria, past the library, and finally to the laboratories. It was a nice day, clean blue sky with the fluffiest of clouds dotting here and there but Dougie barely noticed. It was still the weekend so the lab shouldn't be in use but there were plenty of people who had first dibbs over him and who could even kick him out if they wanted to use the equipment.

He was in luck. There was only one other student in the building and they were using alchemy equipment for something that produced some rather impressivly horrible blue smoke as a by-product. Dougie gave the student a nod which was returned and proceeded to the imaging room.

It had the impression of being a small room but this was just a facade. The rest of the space was filled with stacks of equipment, devices and various doodads which combined so allow for an impressive diagnostic suite of whatever was in the space remaining.

Dougie put the bowl on the floor in the middle of the room. He called out to the empty space.

"Scan for my student identification. Start up sequence initiate. Visual interface, haptic feedback"

A silent illusion popped into existance in front of Dougie. It had a dark blue screen that could only just be seen through. On it were the words in white: "Permissions verified. Interface configured. Orders?"

Dougie pushed at the illusionary screen and manipulated the controls much faster than he would have been able to using words. He set a beam on aether radiation down from the ceiling through the bowl and set the results to show in an additional screen.

The radiation passed straight through non-magically reactive substances but he could see the shadow of the slime and the spot where the magic core was had completely absorbed the radiation and showed as a completely white spot on the image.

Magic core confirmed. Dougie grinned. "Jackpot" he said.

"Hey, I like that. From now on I am calling you Jack." The slime responded enthusiastically by ignoring him completely and continuing to try and disolve food larger than it was.

Dougie couldn't let that disrespect slide and picked the slab up out of the bowl and shook the slime off it. The slime fell a considerable distance of several body lengths back into the bowl where it splashed. It took a few moments before it put itself together and Dougie used this time to lay a trail of crumbs in the bowl leading to the remainder of the food.

He watched as the slime shivered, its surface rippling before it convulsed slightly and it started moving towards the nearest crumb. A quick application of diagnostic tools and he realised that Jack had grown for itself a simple chemical sensor net across its surface with matching neural tissue wrapped loosely around the mana core to interpret the resulting information. It had done this modification in seconds with no visable effort. Dougie wasn't sure whether to be impressed or jealous at the adaptability of this strange creature. He thought that the alteration would fall somewhere between smell and taste.

Jack's movement was sometimes like an inchworm and other times had a definate roll-like quality to it. It looked haphazard as anything but it got the job done. Jack followed the crumb trail without hesitation, working to digest the crumbs as it moved along. When the trail was done Jack latched back onto the slab of food as it was before. Dougie watched closely though a variety of vision modes and watched as the brand new sense organ was recycled back into digestive acids.

Dougie had answers to his questions but now he had all new ones. He was more than a bit out of his depth.

What do?

[] Library. There has got to be something about slimes that can alter their internal structures at will. Right?

[] Professor. Sure Jack was awesome, but class credit would be even better. But did he have enough to show yet?

[] Problem solving. Jack seemed to alter itself whenever it had a problem. Design a series in puzzles that increase in difficulty and run Jack through them to make it better. It does seem to be happy to discard any changes as soon as they were no longer needed but it kept the mana core. Maybe it could be convinced to keep a working intellect as well.

[] Write in.

Also, what does Jack think about Dougie. It was able to smell/taste him and figured that he was the one that removed the food and made it work to get it back. The neural tissue used to determine this was just enough for a single additional conclusion about this state of affairs.

[] Food? (is confused)

[] Food! (is angry)

[] FOOD. (Doesn't care at all)

The slime that Dougie called Jack had a problem. This was frustrating. Once it had finished with the crumbs that it had worked for it found that there wasn't a direct path to further food. It had taken a long time to figure out how to move around, through and eventually over the various obstacles and it was rewarded with a crumb after each accomplishment. When it reached the prize the real issue occurred however.

It started to dissolve the alterations that it had made so that it could better eat when it was punished. The slime had never been punished before. The form of the punishment came in a sudden and abrupt cutoff of environmental mana which meant that the slime couldn't produce liquids and thus couldn't eat. Having food right there and being unable to eat it was just so unfair. It had jumped through all of the hoops (sometimes literally) placed in its path and it still wasn't allowed to eat its fill.

After it recovered from its temper tantrum it did as always did and put more brain to the problem. Moments after it did so whatever made the mana go away stopped and the slime was able to eat once again. It started to make room for more digestive acid and the mana went away again. This circus act repeated itself several times before Jack figured out what was being wanted from it.

By leaving all of the changes and additions intact when the problem was solved it was allowed to eat in peace. Having its digestive rate greatly hindered was still better than being prevented from eating at all. The problem giver jumped up and down and made all sorted strange noises when the slime managed to get through all of the reward. Unfortunately all of the additions that the slime was carrying around cost energy to run and much of the food was spent keeping these operational. The neural tissue and the mana core were especially expensive.

The challenges continued but they kept changing. Movement puzzles were replaced with problems where the slime would have to manipulate its environment to match and image to open the path to more food. This required the slime to develop its manipulation and sensory abilities. Touch and taste were the easiest with vision and mana senses the most difficult to make work. The puzzles seemed to go on forever but it was hard to tell exactly since the slime didn't have any mechanism to measure the passing of time.

Jack continued to pass the various challenges put before it and was punished whenever it didn't keep the required changes. It felt bloated and uncomfortable. There was so much growth on its skin and in its centre that it was obviously slower in its movement. The volume of its digestive acid was also so limited that it couldn't digest much more than the crumbs that the tall one was providing it with. It even delayed solving several problems so that it could finish digesting the reward from the previous success.

Finally the tests ended and the slime was bundled back into the bowl that it had entered the horrible room in. Jack didn't mind the puzzles so much but the various flashing lights were annoying. It hadn't noticed when it was first put in the room but all of the effort that it had put into improving its mana senses had made them worse and worse.

It was left alone in its bowl which wasn't nearly as roomy any more. The tall one gave it some food before putting the lid back on. The slime sat in the dark and quiet and pondered its problem. The tall one did such strange things and it was currently dependent on the rewards that it got for sustenance. The slime pondered its problems all through the night, but it was a far harder problem than the ones that it had be taught to solve.

Now that Jack is smarter and has spent the night pondering what conclusions does Jack reach about Dougie?

[] The tall one has a purpose although I don't know what it is yet. I will find out what it is if I am patient.

[] The tall one is teasing me with food. I should take the food from it.

[] The tall one is restricting me. I should get away from it so that I can do what I want.

[] The tall one is teaching me. I have learnt so much and I get treats when I am good. I like this.

[] Write in.

Dougie has sleep and then classes. What does he do with Jack.

[] Jack should come with. It is still small enough to be carried. This will invite questions though.

[] Jack can stay in the pocket dimension. It won't get up to any trouble all alone surely.

[] Set Jack free. There is a nice park not far away from the university that would work.

[] Jack needs a sitter.

[] Blow off classes. This is far more important. Besides he wasn't going to pass that class anyway.

[] Now that Jack has some tricks to show off it is time to take it to the professor. Extra credit here we come.

[] write in.