《Shooting for the Stars》 Prologue: A crack filled with hope [Edited] ~CRACK~ There were suddenly cracks in front of me. The world that had long plunged into darkness finally had light. I immediately started to look through the crack, starved for light after being in the darkness for what seemed like eons I tried to have my fill. As I looked around, first came the pain, then a ding, and then green. All around me was a green filled world, dwarfing me were huge monstrosities colored brown and green. At first, I panicked, scared out of my mind, thinking I would be sent back to the darkness and have to spend another eternity by my lonesome. I immediately moved my legs or at least tried to, when what seemed like a cage of sorts inhibited my movement. Noticing this fact, I immediately thrust my legs with all the force I could muster, and to my relief, the cage seemed to give away easily. My legs burst through my cage, and with a burst of motion, I jumped towards my backside, trying to get as far away from the monstrosities as possible. I felt relief wash over me as I saw the monstrosities move farther away, till I noticed I was falling. I fell off of whatever surface that had held my cage, and as I noticed the occurrence time seemed to stop for a brief moment. My short second chance flashed before my eyes the relief given from the light to the panic produced by the monstrosities and finally how my recklessness led to my own demise. As the short film seemed to come to an end, time once again took a hold of me and I once again seemed to fall at a breakneck speed, to what I could only assume to be my demise. THWACK! A sound of something getting crushed sounded out, and I was forced to open my shut eyes as pain coursed through my body. A thin crack line seemed to spread over my cage supplying me with more of my craved light. A situation which would''ve made me run around in delight two seconds ago now became my nightmare. Because as the thin line of crack spread so did my pain, growing and once again delivering me to the maws of my feared darkness I awoke as a bell chime seemed to ring in my ears. Startled awake, I was in a daze for a moment until I remembered my plight. Ignoring the huge amount of pain I was in, I immediately became alert and started to study my environment properly. It was then a light blue screen suddenly poofed into existence in front of me. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: n/a Race: Walking Lizard Egg Level: 4/5 HP : 3/9 Stamina : 8/16 MP : 4/4 (+0.26/hour) Strength : 2 Vitality : 8 Intelligence : 4 Wisdom: 2 Agility: 4 Luck: 75 Status: Heavily Injured Special Skills: [Egg¡¯s Shell: Lv--] Resistance Skills: [Physical Resistance: Lv1] [Fall Resistance: Lv2] [Solitude Resistance: Lv1] Normal Skill: [Inspect: Lv1] Title: [Born Killer] [Walking Egg] [Survivor] [Lucky] [Exceptional] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I looked at the blue screen I was surprised, an RPG screen? Why was an RPG screen popping up in front of my face? Rather where was I? Remembering the green and brown monstrosities, I immediately ignored the screen to once again look around myself, to notice a monstrosity right in front of me, a tree. The tree I most likely fell off and the tree that almost cost me my life. Yes, I just almost killed my self by being scared of a F**KING TREE. Out of pure anger and embarrassment, I stomped one of my only appendages onto the ground. SCHLCH Hearing the sound and feeling the icky texture on my feet, I noticed there was something other than the ground under me, causing my anger to change to curiosity and apprehension. I immediately jumped away from the thing and looked back, to find what looked like a giant dead caterpillar oozing out black blood from its head. Looking at the giant insect, almost thrice my size, I was glad to a certain extent, as it was obvious without it cushioning my fall I could''ve died. I thanked the monster for its great sacrifice before going back to examining my surroundings. Around me was green and brown as far as my eyes could see, ignoring the blue screen, of course. I could spot some other varying colors here and there, but I couldn''t make out what those things were exactly. Not being able to tell much from my surroundings I decided it was better off to pay attention to my blue screen and the dead body in front of me. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: n/a Race: Walking Lizard Egg Level: 4/5 HP : 3/9 Stamina : 8/16 MP : 4/4 (+0.26/hour) Strength : 2 Vitality : 8 Intelligence : 4 Wisdom: 2 Agility: 4 Luck: 83 Status: Heavily Injured Special Skills: [Egg¡¯s Shell: Lv--] Resistance Skills: [Physical Resistance: Lv1] [Fall Resistance: Lv2] [Solitude Resistance: Lv1] Normal Skill: [Inspect: Lv1] Title: [Born Killer] [Walking Egg] [Survivor] [Lucky] [Exceptional] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I didn''t know what to feel about this, uh status screen? A lizard egg? Is 83 Luck supposed to be good? What are the eggshell skill, the walking egg, and Exceptional title supposed to mean? The Born killer, survivor, and Lucky could make sense with the appearance of the dead body and what happened before I passed out but for the rest, I had a lot of questions and no one to give answers. Then suddenly a couple of other blue screens seem to come into existence. [Walking Egg] Title gained through gaining sentience and evolving into a walking egg during the incubating period. (May effect Evolution or the process of acquiring skills) [Exceptional] Title gained through defeating a creature at least 5 levels higher than you and with their stats at least quadruple of your own. (May effect Evolution or the process of acquiring skills) [Egg Shell] Skill Unique to walking eggs, your eggshell is a part of you, and if it is cracked you will die. While you are inside the eggshell you will gain passive experience according to the amount of nutrients still present in the egg. Health regeneration will also depend on the finite amount of nutrients inside the eggs, so beware of getting injured. While in this phase gaining skills and titles is two times easier. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.Current amount of Nutrients: 36/40 Seeing the information I was a bit startled. Was the blue screen reading my mind? What WAS the blue screen? I waited for more answers but nothing popped up and after about 30 seconds I was forced to move onto other subjects. Busy trying to figure out how my status worked, I failed to notice as the light around seemed to grow dimmer and dimmer till everything around me seemed to have an orange shine. Noticing the change, I came to my senses. I was currently a beacon of light to every predator, covered in black blood and being next to a dead body. Understanding my situation, I immediately started to look for a body of water, or at least I tried to. As I tried to walk off towards a direction filled with animal traces, I slip and fall, you see, lizards are meant to walk on four legs, not two. With two of my legs being stuck inside my eggshell, I was forced to roll around to move if I wanted any results. At first, I struggled with not being able to tell where I was going, as my eyeholes kept moving as I rolled. Seeing the circumstance, I changed the continuous rolling to rolling and jumping as at the end of a roll I extended my legs outwards for a boost while at the same time getting a view of my path. At first, I failed miserably, not being able to memorize the path in front of me in time for the roll, and then a sort of epiphany seemed to pass over me. As I jumped and glanced over what was in front of me, I seemed to grasp a brief picture of what had seemed to be there. Skill [Mapping] acquired Startled by the chime, I came to stop for a brief second to closely examine this new change. As I was about to will the blue screen into existence for more information, I notice a terrifying detail, the caterpillar''s body had disappeared. What had been just inches from me was replaced with what was now a hole. Seeing the situation I immediately jumped away and started rolling towards my previous direction. It was then I heard a whoosh behind me before a huge shadow seemed to appear around me. ~BOOM~ A huge collision sound seemed to come from where I had stopped seconds ago. ~ROAAARRRR~ Hearing the roar, I was startled and scared out of my mind. I rolled and jumped with every part of my being, holding nothing back to live even one more second. ~~SLITHER~~ ~~SLITHER~~ Hearing the slithering sound, I started racing my mind to find out what creature might be chasing me. I had tried to catch a glimpse of the creature as I continued to roll and jump, trying to examine the body of the slithering creature as my eye holes rolled backward, to no avail, as it was all too blurry. I didn''t know much about how this new magical world worked, but the only animal I knew about that could burrow and had to slither above ground was a w-, WAIT. ''Blue Screen what does the skill inspect do?'' [Inspect] Skill that can give a certain amount of information about a certain thing or creature in your field of vision. Seeing the information, I immediately started trying to activate inspect on the blur behind me. [Rock: A Normal Rock] [Leaf: A Normal Leaf] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: ??? Race: Flesh Worm Level: ? HP : ??/?? Stamina : ??/?? MP : ?/? Strength : ?? Vitality : ? ? Intelligence : ? Wisdom: ? Agility: ?(?) Luck: ? Status: ??? Special Skills: ??? Resistance Skills: ??? Normal Skill: ??? Title: [Scavenger] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Dirt: Normal Dirt] [Grass: Normal Grass] Seeing the description, I thought I had a chance, more of a chance than being chased by a snake, now I was forced to count on the basis that worms lived underground. I was counting on, me a newly born lizard egg who recently learned how to roll and jump around properly, was able to outspeed a worm that usually scavenges and most likely sneak attacks from underground. As bad as the fact sounded it was all I had for hope. I continued to roll and jump with all my might, I was starting to feel exhausted but to my delight, the blurry figure of the worm was falling behind, at a noticeable rate. As the chase continued, I noticed a disturbing fact, the worm was somehow speeding up, while my body seemed to obey me less and less as time passed. My body was starting to feel noticeably tired, and for some reason, I was starting to feel cold. Noticing these new problems leaving me clueless, I checked my status page and inspect the changes going on with the worm. ''Status'' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: n/a Race: Walking Lizard Egg Level: 4/5 HP : 4/9 Stamina : 4/16 MP : 4/4 (+0.26/hour) Strength : 2 Vitality : 8 Intelligence : 4 Wisdom: 2 Agility: 4 Luck: 83 Status: Tiredness (Severe), Injured Special Skills: [Egg¡¯s Shell: Lv--] Resistance Skills: [Physical Resistance: Lv1] [Fall Resistance: Lv2] [Solitude Resistance: Lv1] Normal Skill: [Inspect: Lv1] [Mapping: Lv1] Title: [Born Killer] [Walking Egg] [Survivor] [Lucky] [Exceptional] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ''Inspect'' [Dirt: Mana Infused Dirt] [Grass: Mana Infused Grass][Rock: Mana Infused Rock] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: ??? Race: Flesh Worm Level: ? HP : ??/?? Stamina : ??/?? MP : ?/? Strength : ?? Vitality : ? ? Intelligence : ? Wisdom: ? Agility: ?(?) Luck: ? Status: ??? Special Skills: ??? Resistance Skills: ??? Normal Skill: ??? Title: [Scavenger] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Leaf: Mana Infused Leaf] Seeing the information my heart sunk, it was quite obvious that with my current condition there was no way I would be able to outrun the worm anymore. And on top of that, if I didn''t get any warmth soon, even my passive egg regen might not be able to save me. As I continued to roll, dying of pain from overexertion, and the cold pervading my body, a chime seems to wake me from my stupor of suffering. [Rolling] acquired Jumping acquired And as my attention wavers, I hear the slithering sound behind me come to a halt for a brief second after a ~BAMF~ as a huge shadow appears to loom over me. I immediately extended my legs outwards, pushing my body rightwards, ''flying'' diagonally as a huge worm seems to fall where I was a second ago. ~BANG~ I hear as the worm seems to hit the ground. Not being able to look back, I could only hope that the worm had gotten its head stuck in the ground. Hoping for best, I continue on rolling and jumping, and as I seem to pass a tree, I am suddenly in a clearing leading to a huge body of water. Seeing, what I was about to go looking for before my eyes, I immediately move towards it. Hoping what I learned about worms in biology was right, I throw my body towards the lake. As I get closer and closer to the lake, I once again hear the sound of slithering behind me and then. ~ROAR~ Roared, as if enraged, which for some reason I understood. Seeing its anger delight ran through my body, as the rage seemed to add to my theory of this worm being blind. I immediately throw my whole body into the body, hoping for the best, by at least thwarting the worm''s speed through the use of water. As my body falls towards the water, a thought goes through my head, can I swim? ~Splash~ Chapter 1: Reacquaintance with the Darkness ~SPLASH~ With the new worry in mind, I fell into the water and proceeded to sink. Water was rushing into my eggshell from the holes created by my legs, getting rid of any buoyancy my egg had. Seeing my predicament, I panicked and started kicking my legs, trying to push my body up as much as possible to no avail. As I continued to sink, the worm seemed to have gotten to the edge of the lake and stopped. ~ROAR~ Enraged as it was, it seemed to avoid getting into the lake and continued roaring, trying to draw me out. As the roar seemed to echo out, my body seemed to go in paralysis for a second, which would usually cause me to sink faster, but to my delight, the water seemed to stop rushing into my eggshell stopping my descent. As I paid more attention, I found that the water was only covering my body till my legs and had seemed to be blocked out by something. I then proceeded to just float in my place due to the paralysis, as the worm continued to ''stare'' me down. Noticing my predicament, I decided that I should try leveling up the skill [Inspect], to gain more information into my situation, and proceeded to spam it. After what felt like ages a ding went off. Resistance Skill [Fear Resistance] acquired. As soon as the ding had gone off, my body felt as if a thousand pounds had been lifted off my back, and I was once again able to move properly although still quite sluggish. I immediately proceeded to paddle myself sideways, not wanting to become fish food either, and away from the worm, who seemed to be happy growling continuously at the spot I was at seconds ago. As I continued to paddle my feet, and slowly inched myself away from the worm, a new pressure suddenly bore down on me. Suddenly around the area, where I once was, a huge hill made of water seemed to take shape before collapsing, as a majestic snakehead seemed to break out of its confines. As soon as the snakehead seemed to appear in my view my body stopped moving, it became hard to breathe, and it felt like my hearts were going to stop beating. The worm at the edge seemed to fare even worse than me, being directly in front of the snake, it seemed to collapse from its upright position and started to whimper. The snake then opened its maw and brought it down onto the worm, swallowing it whole, leaving no evidence of the worm''s existence. Seeing the majesty of the creature, I couldn''t help but want to inspect it. [Inspect] failed, too big of a gap in power detected. Normal Skill [Inspect] level increased from Lv1 to Lv2 [Inspect] failed, too big of a gap in power detected. Resistance Skill [Fear Resistance] level increased from Lv1 to Lv2 [Inspect] failed, too big of a gap i... Seeing the two new skill upgrades, I wasn''t all that delighted because of how they seemed to matter next to nothing against the snake. As I continued to use the skill on the snake, the snake seemed to not be aware of my existence or chose to outright ignore me, continuing to swallow its tasty morsel. I watched as the snake, seemed to lift its head and an indention the size of the worm seemed to slowly wriggle down the snake''s throat. Normal Skill [Inspect] level increased from Lv2 to Lv3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: ??? Race: Water Wyrm Level: ?? HP : ??/?? Stamina : ??/?? MP : ???/??? Strength : ?? Vitality : ?? Intelligence : ?? Wisdom: ?? Agility: ??(??) Luck: ?? Status: ??? Special Skills: ??? Resistance Skills: ??? Normal Skill: ??? Title: ??? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Resistance Skill [Fear Resistance] level increased from Lv2 to Lv3 Title gained [One Who Does Not Fear] As the Resistance leveled up once again, a feeling of pure bliss seemed to travel through my body. Although I still could not move and it was still hard for me to breathe, the weights on my hearts seemed to have been lifted. The level up for [Inspect] also seemed to be the deciding factor, allowing me to see the huge snake''s race at the very least. Then there was the Title, it seemed to be different from other titles as its color seemed to be different from other titles. Curious about the title, I mentally asked the blue screen to show its description to me.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. [One Who Does Not Fear] Title gained from being in the presence of a hostile creature, at least 20 levels higher than you and sextupling your stats. (May effect Evolution or the process of acquiring skills majorly) Seeing the description, I was startled, the skill seemed to be in a league of its own. But it also made me aware of a grave fact, I was currently a sitting duck for a hostile creature at least tripling my stats. Seeing all this info, I didn''t stop spamming my [Inspect] skill, however, as this seemed to be an ideal condition for its leveling. As I continued spamming the skill, the wyrm finished swallowing the worm whole and jumped backward before diving back into the ginormous body of water. The second the wyrm dived back into the water, a wave of relief passed over me, being able to survive this encounter told me exactly how dangerous this new world was. I hurriedly tried to move once again, believing the fear effect had worn off due to the wyrm leaving only to notice, I still could not move. Noticing the situation I opened up my status page. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: n/a Race: Walking Lizard Egg Level: 4/5 HP : 5/9 Stamina : 2/16 MP : 4/4 (+0.26/hour) Strength : 2 Vitality : 8 Intelligence : 4 Wisdom: 2 Agility: 4 Luck: 83 Status: Tiredness (Severe), Low Body Temperature (Mild), Injured, Suppressed (Mild) Special Skills: [Egg¡¯s Shell: Lv--] Resistance Skills: [Physical Resistance: Lv1] [Fall Resistance: Lv2] [Solitude Resistance: Lv1] [Fear Resistance Lv3] Normal Skill: [Inspect: Lv3] [Mapping: Lv1] [Rolling Lv1] [Jumping Lv1] Title: [Born Killer] [Walking Egg] [Survivor] [Lucky] [Exceptional] [One Who Does Not Fear] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seeing the suppressed status and Tiredness severe, I had no choice to stay where I was, reeking of blood or not. Speaking of the blood, I couldn''t help but wonder how much of it was washed off. I continued to float in the lake for a while waiting for my status to clear out and my ability to move to be returned when a DING went off. Condition [Mana Poisoning] acquired. I was suddenly hit with a headache and a burning feeling in most parts of my body, which only seemed to be growing worse. Seeing the new status ailment affecting me I couldn''t help but be startled. I had next to no clue as to how I got poisoned, and even less of a clue as to how I was going to fight it off. Looking at how I had fared so far in this new world and now this, I couldn''t help but ask, did this world want me dead so badly? I immediately put more vigor into trying to move and after about 10 minutes or so I finally managed to move my legs again. Resistance Skill [Mana Poisoning Resistance] acquired Condition [Mana Poisoning (Mild)] progressed into [Mana Poisoning (Severe)] The pain that was previously been like getting hit with a pillow on the face and a feverish hot feeling all over my body had slowly turned into a headache akin to a hungover and the burn off of a searing hot surface. Feeling the pain and not knowing what to do about it, I decided to handle it after leaving the water. I immediately started paddling away, forcing my body to get over the tiredness and the pain inflicted by the mana poisoning. I had been swept quite some distance away by the appearance of the huge wyrm, causing me to take tens of minutes to paddle my eggshell to land, to my surprise no fish had attacked me. I wobbly got myself to land, the increasing pain filling every inch of my body when another ding went off. Resistance Skill [Mana Poisoning Resistance] level increased from Lv1 to Lv2 Condition [Mana Poisoning (Severe)] progressed into [Mana Poisoning (Extreme)] The pain seemed to decrease for a second before hitting again with a new ferocity. I felt as if I''d pass out any second now, coming face to face with my feared darkness once again. Yet for some reason, after experiencing the pain I had felt so far, the upcoming meet with the darkness almost seemed pleasing. Waking myself up from my dark thoughts, influenced by my foggy mind, I pushed my body to at least get to the bushes at the edge of the clearing. Racked with pain and a hazy mind, I forced my body to wobble over into the bush before passing out into the almost sweat embrace of the darkness. Chapter 2: Dawn of a Stupid Lizard ~THUD~ ~THUD~ "Nnnn, give me 5 more minutes." ~THUD~ ~PAWOO~ Thrown off my comfy bed by an earthquake followed by an inhumanely loud noise, I was startled awake. I groggily tried to push my body up using my hands, only to notice I couldn''t move them. Panicking, I try to look around only to notice I couldn''t move my neck, I felt like a fish out of water, struggling to do the most menial tasks. And then reality hit me I finally remembered my new situation and how I had become a lizard egg. Coming back to my senses, I immediately had the urge to shout in pain. Having over encumbered my body in yesterday''s series of events, it wasn''t all that startling how much pain my body was in. Luckily, as much as I wanted to shout, walking eggs didn''t have a mouth. After a few seconds, I got used to the pain and got to pay more attention to the earthquakes and the overly loud sounds. And as soon as I did that, I noticed the quakes were becoming stronger while the sounds were getting louder. Noticing the fact I bolted out of the bush, jumping to the opposite direction. I was immediately back in the clearing containing the body of water. But this time it was different, the clearing was spilling with majestic animals of all sorts. From small goat bucks to grown-up lions with majestic manes, all in unnatural colors. It was as if the horrifying dog eat dog world of yesterday was all just a nightmare. In awe, I had completely forgotten about the quakes, when the sun suddenly gets replaced with a pillar seeming to descend from the heavens, destroying any semblance of peace that had existed seconds ago. Startled, I immediately try to jump away, only to fail, not being able to put proper force behind my jump, due to the quake that followed. Desperate, I immediately use the failed jump as propulsion, rolling myself away trying to get to safety. Ignoring the alert, I continue wobbly getting closer to the tree while using [Inspect]. [Dirt: Mana Infused Dirt] [Grass: Mana Infused Grass] [Rock: Mana Infused Rock] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: ??? Race: Earthen Dire Elephant Level: ?? HP : ??/?? Stamina : ??/?? MP : ??/?? Strength : ?? Vitality : ??? Intelligence : ?? Wisdom: ?? Agility: ?? Luck: ?? Status: ??? Special Skills: ??? Resistance Skills: ??? Normal Skill: ??? Title: ??? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Bark: Mana Infused Tree Bark] Seeing the result of the Inspect after getting to safety, I finally found the perpetrator of my misery. But as if that wasn''t enough, I watched as a horde of elephants follows the larger elephant into the clearing, making my life more miserable, with their quakes. After about 5 minutes or so, the elephants finally managed to all fit through the narrow forest openings. Seeing as to how I could get crushed if I left the protection of the tree, I decided it was better off to just level my [Inspeect] skill from under the tree, and care about the rest later. Normal Skill [Inspect] level increased from Lv3 to Lv4 As I continued to use [Inspect} on the animals, I found that now I could finally see some of the detailed information for some of the small animals. I immediately looked towards a baby calf, trying to look into its status. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Goat buck Level: ? HP : 13/13 Stamina : 23/24 MP : 8/8 (+0.39/hour) Strength : 7 Vitality : 9 Intelligence : 4 Wisdom: 3 Agility: 9 Luck: 17 Title: [Herbivore] [Survivor] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seeing the stats, I couldn''t help but want to compare it to mine. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: n/a Race: Walking Lizard Egg Level: 4/5 HP : 9/9 Stamina : 18/18 ( MP : 5/5 (+0.39/hour) Strength : 2 (1) Vitality : 9 (7) Intelligence : 5 Wisdom: 4 Agility: 4 Luck: 83 Status: Low Body Temperature (Mild), Mana Poisoning (Mild), Weakened (Mild) Special Skills: [Egg¡¯s Shell: Lv--] Resistance Skills: [Physical Resistance: Lv1] [Fall Resistance: Lv2] [Solitude Resistance: Lv1] [Fear Resistance Lv3] [Mana Poisoning Resistance Lv3] [Pain Resistance Lv3] Normal Skill: [Inspect: Lv4] [Mapping: Lv1] [Rolling Lv1] [Jumping Lv1] [Dodging Lv1] Title: [Born Killer] [Walking Egg] [Survivor] [Lucky] [Exceptional] [One Who Does Not Cower] [Touched by Mana] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seeing how I in my egg form was about half as strong as a goat buck, I couldn''t help be proud of myself. But as I saw the whole of my status, my focus shifted onto the new title I''d gotten causing a blue screen to poof into existence. [Touched By Mana] Title gained through being overloaded by a huge amount of mana and surviving the encounter. {May effect Evolution or the process of acquiring skills majorly} Seeing the new title, I couldn''t help but have cold sweat running down my back. It seemed like my encounter with the mana poisoning could''ve ended up with severe consequences. Yet, I couldn''t help but question what exactly had caused the mana poisoning? ''It couldn''t be the water, could it? I mean the animals, in front of me, seemed to drink it without any consequences. Was it caused by the Wyrm? Actually, that was plausible, this theory also seemed to explain the fear effect, as it could be the rampant mana produced from the wyrm''s body that caused the pressure, making my body unable to move.'' As I seemed to be in my own world, the world around me seemed to suddenly be filled with sound. ~ROAR~ ~PAWOO~ ~AOOOOO~ Hearing the roars from the animals, I was immediately startled and taken out of my thoughts. I watch as the once peaceful opening turns back into the dog eat dog world, where the laws of the jungle prosper, leaving me confused. Expecting the predators to jump at the herbivores, I immediately decide to hide and watch as the events go down. But to my surprise, the animals ignore each other and suddenly turn to, what I can only describe as their pack leaders, and peacefully follow them out of the clearing.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. I watch as the life filled opening once again turns into a barren oasis of sorts. Having no clue of as to what just happened, I decided it was better off to follow the other animal''s lead and get myself away from the clearing. Reluctantly, I start rolling back into the jungle and looking for a new home to safely and passively, level up. ''Wait, why hadn''t I leveled up yet? I mean wasn''t I supposed to be getting passive exp through nutrients?'' Remembering the fact about the nutrients, I immediately thought about the Egg''s Shell ability. [Egg Shell] Skill Unique to walking eggs, your eggshell is a part of you, and if it is cracked you will die. While you are inside the eggshell you will gain passive experience according to the amount of nutrients still present in the egg. Health regeneration and stamina regeneration will also depend on the finite amount of nutrients inside the eggs, so beware of getting injured and moving around too much. While in this phase gaining skills and titles is two times easier. Current amount of Nutrients: 6/40 Seeing the new information and the low amount of nutrients, I couldn''t help but be horrified. It finally dawned on me this finite amount of nutrients were my life, and that the walking egg evolution was a death trap! ''WHAT 83 LUCK THIS F**KING WORLD WANTED ME DEAD LONG BEFORE I WAS BORN!'' I couldn''t help but start panicking, this nutrient amount was just a ticking time bomb, and what was, I supposed to do lie around and wait for my death? I didn''t even know if I had enough nutrients to level up to level 5, or rather how long these nutrients would even last me. Thinking about this problem, I suddenly had an idea maybe, just maybe, I could use exp as a way to get nutrients. I mean so far this was a lot like those games, from the skill level ups to the stats screen. With my new role in mind, I immediately started rolling, looking for any monstrous creature an egg could slay in its weakened form. Normal Skill [Mapping] level increased from Lv1 to Lv2 Ignoring the new alert, I trecked around cautiously with my eyes peeled, doing my best to conserve my stamina. As time passed, I was starting to accept my upcoming death, as I had seen many animals, yet none small enough that, I could do anything to them. It was when I was about to give up hope that I had an idea. ''Why don''t I try to go for animal nests?'' As soon as I get the idea, I think of a huge boulder I had seen while running away from the Flesh Eating Worm, there are bound to be some kind of small animals living in there, right? I immediately start backtracking my way through the forest, looking for the giant boulder the size of the Earthen Dire Elephant. About fifteen minutes or so later, I finally caught sight of a giant rock, I didn''t know if it was the exact one but that didn''t matter. I immediately started looking around the giant rock, wishing it wasn''t home to a snake, but rather an animal like a spider, which didn''t have a high chance of being able to easily crush me to death. The closer I got to the rock, the more scared and apprehensive I got, paying more attention to the details while seeming to get jumpy over every little thing. Then, I started getting more mad at myself at falling off the tree, destroying my protection and giving away the opportunity to be able to hunt easier to find prey like the caterpillars. Resistance Skill [Mental Resistance] acquired I immediately bolted, using my full force to move towards the boulder, seeing the new skill I knew if I didn''t take care of this now I might not have a chance later. I didn''t know who had used the mental skill on me or how powerful it was, all I knew was, I didn''t want to be brainwashed into becoming the creature''s meal and that I didn''t have the leisure to run away, not in my current situation. As I seemed to bolt towards the boulder, I heard an irritating sound come from the direction of the boulder, messing with my focus. Seeing this, I immediately used mapping, trying to find anything out of place or the source of the noise. As I got closer to the sound it seemed to get louder, and more annoying by the second, until I was right by the boulder when it came to a sudden halt. I immediately grew wary of the situation and used mapping to find any useful clues. When suddenly, my mapping catches a shadowy figure flying in my direction, thinking it to be the animal attacking, I respond with a full force headbutt. I go flying towards the shadow, only to come face to face with a spider web as it hits my eggshell, slowing me down a bit, but not enough to stop my charge causing the egg''s oval tip to get stuck in some kind of loose opening, as it seems to move due to my force. I immediately use [Inspect] and [Mapping] around me, to understand my situation. [Dirt: Normal Dirt] [Rock: Normal Rock] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Illusionary Long Bodied Spider Level: ? HP : 8/10 Stamina : 9/10 MP : 8/16 (+0.91/hour) Strength : 2 Vitality : 5 Intelligence : 8 Wisdom: 7 Agility: 6 Luck: 23 Title: [Born Killer] ??? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All blood seemed to drain from my body, I had headbutted myself into the jaws of the spider! I had simply presented myself to the spider on a silver platter! I began to despair, waiting for the spider to crush my head together with the eggshell on top. But to my surprise instead of crushing my head, the spider started scraping its overly large legs against my sides instead. Seeing the situation, an idea flashed through my mind. ''The spider''s jaws weren''t strong enough to smash the eggshell!'' Noticing the situation, I immediately, used my legs to push against the ground, pushing myself over the spider''s body and using mine and the spider''s weight to try and suplex the spider. To my delight, it worked, I immediately seemed to flip the spider along with me, causing us both to flip forward, my body crashing down on to its head but at the same time forcing its jaws deeper into my eggshell, causing pain to course through my body, before they seemed to slacken, as if broken. Taking advantage of its slackened jaws, I immediately pry myself free as the spider immediately pulls its limbs back to guard its head. Seeing this, I immediately jump up and used my weight to come down on to its abdomen, wanting todo as much damage as I could with my limited time. To my delight, the spider seemed to let out an ear-piercing screech, causing its limbs to visibly slacken and move away from its head. Delighted, I immediately take advantage of the slackened limbs and jump at its head, trying to crush its brain to a mush. The spider immediately tries to bring its overly large limbs back to guard against my attack, scrapping my sides, causing pain to once again course through my body, as I continue to crush down on to its head. ~CRUNCH~ I hear a mind-numbing crunch as the spider seems to stop struggling below me, bringing an end to the pain caused by its sharp legs. As I sigh in delight, over surviving the experience, I am suddenly assaulted by numerous blue screens. [Illusionary Long Bodied Spider] Slain 30 exp gained Level Up Species Level Maxed, Configuring available evolutions ©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\ [Next] [Baby Armadillo Gilded Lizard]: Rank G [Baby Komodo Dragon]: Rank G+ [Baby Blackbelly Salamander]: Rank G- [Baby Green Basilisk]: Rank G- [Baby Bearded Lizard]: Rank H+ ©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\ [Current] [Walking Lizard Egg]: Rank H ©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\ [Previous] ©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\©\ Looking at the new evolution sheet, I was left befuddled. ''Wait what?'' ''Show me their descriptions.'' [Baby Armadillo Gilded Lizard]: Lizards, told to be of the bloodline of the great golden armadillo dragons. Armadillo Gilded Lizards tend to mainly exist in deserts and roll around for movement. [Baby Komodo Dragon]: A species of lizard, that has come to the end of its evolution and arrogantly named itself after dragons to show its dominance over all lizards. Komodo Dragons tend to exist in swamps, they can walk and swim for movement. [Baby Blackbelly Salamander]: Lizard, told to be of the bloodline of the great Black Isopod Dragon. Blackbelly Salamanders tend to exist near large bodies of water and mainly walk for movement. [Baby Green Basilisk Lizard]: Lizard, told to be of the bloodline of the Green basilisks and Parrot Dragons. Green Basilisks tend to exist in forests and mainly walk for movement. [Baby Bearded Lizard]: Lizards, told to possess bloodlines of various different dragons that has downgraded. Bearded Lizards tend to exist in Woodlands and Deserts, they mainly walk for movement. Seeing, the options, I immediately knew what to choose. Forgetting about my situation, so eager for an evolution, I immediately got the system to evolve me. ''System evolve me into a [Baby Bearded Lizard]'' As soon as the thought seems to go through, I black out. Chapter 3: Masochistic Coward I wake up feeling groggy and an extreme hunger my whole body suddenly felt weak, as if I could collapse any second now. I immediately looked around myself, finding myself at the entrance of a hole with a dead spider body by my side. Seeing the dead spider''s body the hunger seemed to overtake me, my vision went red and my body immediately pounced at the unmoving carcass. Not minding, how disgusting the creature looked or the fact that it might contain poison, with my mind filled with nothing but hunger, I gorge myself on the carcass until I could eat no more. As the bout of hunger seemed to pass, my body felt ethereal, and the world around me seemed to blur out of existence., and then I found myself in a light-filled world in the middle of a myriad of lizard-like creatures, creatures ranging from giant iguanas to ginormous Dragons. ''Wait, what? Am, I under an illusion spell again, what is going on?'' As the thoughts seem to go through my head the myriad of giant lizards suddenly start moving. Expecting them to attack me, I panic and try to jump away only to find out I was transfixed in place. I seemed to be able to move my body neck up, yet for some reason, as I tried to move the rest of my body a force seemed to push against it. I watch in despair as the myriad of creatures all open their mouths, sucking in as much air as possible before puffing up their mouths, as if ready to spit out something, and..... exhaled all the air back out before repeating. Seeing this I couldn''t help but stare outwards blankly. ''What in the world was going on!? Had I pissed off some kind of god or something, first the worm chase and now this!?'' Not being able to move, I tried using [Inspect], trying to find out which creature might be the cause of my distress, but nothing happened. Seeing as to how it hadn''t activated I tried again, only for nothing to happen again, holding on to hope, I then tried to activate my status screen but to no avail. Seeing this, I started panicking, trying to force my way out of whatever was holding me down only to fail again and again as the force seemed unrelenting. Calming down after a while, I decided to look around at the group of beasts in front of me, trying to catch any glimpse of hope I could find. I looked around, seeing majestic dragons and lizards of all kinds yet nothing of use. I hurriedly moved my eyes, trying to look for the light at the end of the tunnel, yet despair seemed to be determined on swallowing me this time. I wasn''t some kind of cool-headed genius that was able to control all his emotions while easily solving life-threatening problems. No, I was a coward, a coward who tended to panic in dangerous situations, a coward who tended to make lots of rash decisions when panicking, but I wasn''t just any normal coward, oh no I was worse, I was a masochistic coward, a coward who didn''t know when to give up. And I wasn''t going to give up the only positive feature of me being a coward just because of a bit of despair when I had gone through worse. I continued looking around over and over, persistent in finding a solution when my eyes were attracted to a small black-scaled lizard, just about my size with a pair of alluring ruby red eyes and scales as dark as darkness itself. The lizard wasn''t in any way as majestic as the dragons and lizards around it, rather the exact opposite, it looked so plain and small compared to them that it was questionable why it was even among the group of beasts. But for some reason, my eyes seemed to be transfixed to the lizard, I watched on as this lizard continuously inhaled and exhaled at a constant rate just like all the other beasts, yet for some reason, I knew this lizard''s breathing pattern was different. It just had a different feel to it yet I couldn''t put my finger on what the difference was. As my focus became transfixed on this tiny lizard, I completely forgot about everything around me, the only thing in my mind was the lizard and its unique breathing pattern. And then a bulb seemed to go off in my head before I too was breathing exactly like the lizard, matching its every movement. And before I noticed, the light around me was gone, the once lit world had been plunged into darkness, leaving me confused as I wake up from my stupor. I look around myself, finding everything had gone dark while I still could not move my body, fear flowed through my body. Panicking, I once again start my futile struggle to break out of my intangible shackles. ''NO, NOT AGAIN WASN''T ONE TIME ENOUGH, I DON''T WANA GO BACK TO THE DARK VOID AGAIN!'' Suddenly in front of me, a face made of red light appears, it looks at me in the darkness and suddenly its mouth curves upwards as if finding pleasure in my misery. Seeing the face, I struggle harder, putting more force into my movement, to no avail, while the face seemed to get closer and closer. An idea goes through my body, maybe the breathing pattern could help? I immediately start trying to remember the feeling I had gotten when staring at the black lizard. When suddenly once again, in front of me stands the black lizard, using its breathing pattern, smiling the eerie smile! ''THE LIZARD IS THE RED FACED CREATURE!'' Suddenly the feeling seemed to disappear bringing me back to the dark filled world with the lizard mere inches from me, smiling its eerie smile. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.Bringing an end to my vain struggles as a red light breaks off from the face coming towards me, floating towards my forehead as if aiming for my brain. ''Hehe, it seems this masochist will now be joining the circle of normal cowards, eh?'' Then the red light hits my forehead, sending a chilly feeling through my body, it was as if my body had been thrown into a frozen tundra. My body immediately screamed out in pain, when suddenly a hot feeling spread through my body from my chest. Then suddenly from my forehead, a beam of light shot out extinguishing the tiny red light and flying towards the smiling face, smashing into it, causing both to explode outwards, lighting the world up once again and forcing me to close my eyes. Forced to close my eyes from the bright light, I immediately try to open them again, sending me in a daze for a bit before my vision comes back. Confused, I immediately look around myself, fearing the worst, only to find myself in a lit up world, once again and a small lizard in front of me. A small black lizard stood in front of me once again yet different from before it had a beard its eyes were emerald green rather than the previous ruby red. The small black lizard looked at me and then opened its mouth before once again inhaling and exhaling air. I looked at it weirdly for a bit before moving my eyes around myself and seeing nothing else but a lit up world. "HAHAHAHAHAHUWHAAHAAHAAHH UWAAHAHAHAAAH" I broke down crying and laughing, glad to be alive at first, but crying at my misery, I didn''t want to go back into the ethereal void, I didn''t want to float in nothingness again. I wanted to go back to the happy days of my previous life, hanging out with my friends and family, I JUST WANTED TO FEEL SAFE AGAIN. Why did I have to be a fu**ing hero when I didn''t have to?! "UWAAAAH UWAAAH" The mixture of laugh and crying turned into one only consisting of only crying, as I broke down completely, crying like a baby. I wailed on and on till I couldn''t anymore, trying to cry out all my troubles and complicated emotions, trying to fully face the reality of my situation, of how I had to once again go back to the lightless world with that monster laughing at my misery. "Sniff, sniff, ahh that feels better, now where was I, Sniff?" Finally, after crying myself hoarse, I finally looked back towards the lizard who practicing the breathing technique. Then around myself, making sure that there was nothing aroundbefore finally steeling myself to once again perform this dangerous action and putting all my focus back on the lizard''s breathing. Suddenly, everything but the lizard in front of me disappears, as I once again begin ingraining a breathing pattern into my brain. I stare and stare till finally, a light seems to go off in my head and suddenly I was once again breathing just like the lizard yet for some reason thistime a feeling of pleasure seemed to go through my body. And suddenly the world was dark again and in front of me was a floating green light. Unlike the red light before this green light seemed to send a sense of tranquility through my body, calming it down. Yet, just like the red light the green light too started moving towards my forehead, getting closer inch by inch. Having steeled myself for what was about to come, I simply stare at the green flame as it comes in my direction with the whole of its body, unlike the previous red light and touches up against my forehead. ~SCHWP~ And disappears, poofing out of existence as if it was never there, leaving me confused, was there no danger all along? Was I just being an idiot this whole time? What did I cry all those tears for? WHAT WAS THE POINT OF ALL THIS???? And suddenly I was back in front of a half-eaten spider carcass, seemingly confused and incensed at what had just happened. Bloodline awakened WARNING: Contaminated Bloodline has tried to possess the host Changing ownership to [Sin: Gr- ERROR ERROR God of light mark interference detected, host change canceled Bloodline Change commencing Host has awakened Bloodline: ??? ¨¨????R?????????R?????O???????R???????? ????????¨§??????R???????????R?????????¨®??????R????????,????????? ????????¨±????????N??????????K???????????¨®??????????????N??????? ????B?????????L???????????????????????????????L???????????????- Bloodline fusion commenced -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: n/a Race: Baby Bearded Lizard Level: 1/15 HP : 10/10 Stamina : 3/20 (4/hour) MP : 2/14 (2.8/hour) Strength : 3 Vitality : 10 Intelligence : 7 Wisdom: 5 Agility: 5 Luck: 83 Status: Tiredness (Severe) Special Skills: [Lizard Scales: Lv--] [??? Breathing Method] Resistance Skills: [Physical Resistance: Lv1] [Fall Resistance: Lv2] [Solitude Resistance: Lv2] [Fear Resistance Lv3] [Mana Poisoning Resistance Lv3] [Pain Resistance Lv3] [Mental Resistance Lv2] Normal Skill: [Inspect: Lv4] [Mapping: Lv2] [Rolling Lv1] [Jumping Lv2] [Dodging Lv1] Title: [Born Killer] [Walking Egg] [Survivor] [Lucky] [Exceptional] [One Who Does Not Cower] [Touched by Mana] [???] [???] Bloodline: [???] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seeing the new influx of information I was startled, so what had happened to me was dangerous? How did I get the mark of some God of Light? What was this bloodline fiasco and how was something almost able to take over my body just like that? What was that error fiasco and what exactly had happened? I had hundreds of questions going through my head and no way to get any answers. I tried asking the status some questions but it seemed to ignore me. It was acting like the ???''s never existed yet seemingly describing all the other skills, stats, and titles properly. As I continued researching what had happened seconds ago, I finally noticed where I was standing with a dead carcass filled with blood nearby. I immediately grabbed the carcass and took it inside the cave with myself. As I pulled the dead carcass inside the cave, I got hit by a wave of tiredness. Barely managing to pull the carcass far enough into the cave, I immediately collapse onto the ground due to tiredness, feeling my eyes closing and not seeing any merit in staying up any longer, I let myself drift to sleep. I had gone through enough despair in one day, to last a lot of people a lifetime and I deservedsome rest.