The spirit 'blinked' at the new thing in front of it. The older messages had been dismissed over time, more by luck really, because as the spirit gained primitive sentience an accidental glance at the blue boxes conveyed the information. Not that the spirit understood what 'blue' was or what exactly it had gained, only that it seemed to fall under 'good' and 'happy.'
For the spirit 'happy' was not hard to achieve. Happiness to it was simply not starving. Whereas 'not good' had been dervived to 'bad,' and neutral didn't exist for the spirit yet. So it was that when the spirit 'looked' at the blue boxes, 'Yes' seemed to feel like 'happy,' and 'No' felt like 'bad.' So it was that the spirit came to its decision, that 'happy' was the best, floating towards 'Yes.' But, nothing happened as the box stayed in front of the spirit no matter where it looked. Perhaps it would have felt frustration were it more intelligent, but seeing as the box promised more 'happy,' floating after it seemed like a fine plan to the spirit.
So it did. Innocently chasing after the box, until it left its mana pocket. Then, it was as if the world had come crashing down and everything turned 'bad.' It was too complicated yet to figure out directions for the young spirit, and its natural senses for mana didn't work properly in the Voidlands. The only option to the spirit to get 'happy' again was the 'Yes,' so under desperation it managed to do the mental press it needed to to select an option.
Step 1: Say 'Open Status'
More desperate mental flailing ensued for the spirit, because suddenly the 'happy' was gone! The world had become a dark, and utterly 'bad' place. The utterly hysterical spirit eventually chanced upon another pocket of mana, and instantly settled down. The box which had betrayed it so was given the stink eye - the spirit's equivalent anyway - as the spirit learned a truth of the world early on - don't trust anything.
Wisdom +1
The new realization was enough to give the spirit another point in wisdom. However, it glared at the new 'bad thing' until it felt something 'happy' from it. The experience was new stimulation for the spirit as something it knew was the same for sure, was being 'bad' and 'happy' all at the same time! In reality, the functional intelligence the spirit had by now was less than even regular animals in the wild, and its sensory input was far too limited by its environment, but it didn't change that it had space for things in its 'head' by now. Now, for the first time, it really, consciously remembered something. The memory of the box's 'bad' and 'happy' was kept at the forefront of its mind as it stared at the box.
The box, as if prompted, once again appeared:
Step 1: Say 'Open Status'
The thing wasn't 'happy,' and it didn't seem like the 'bad' it had felt before. So it was forced to create a third category, a neutral section, 'goodbad.' The spirit saw no prompt to select, only information that it was incapable of properly understanding. Luckily for the spirit, the system was usable even by monsters, which weren't always known for their intelligence, so an alternative existed in such cases;
User sentience too low, engaging automatic mode
The spirit observed that the box had changed, and was still solidly goodbad, but not goodbad, because it was definitely not the thing from before. Like a snowball, the initial thoughts and stimulus from the system was starting to aid in its mental development, and now the spirit could understand that things changed.
Unnamed Corrupted Spirit Level: 0 Age: 278 years Titles:
The spirit 'jumped' when a wave of information hit it as the box changed again! It was starting to see a trend here. The box changed much, and this time it had been bad for sure, why else would it feel so...bad? Yet after the information was slowly sorted out, the spirit retracted its assessment again; now the box was goodbad again. The box followed in front of the spirit as it slowly moved away from the 'thing of many changes,' and soon it had repeated the bad thing again.
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However, this time the box changed again and the spirit noticed something different.
Unnamed Corrupted Spirit Level: 0 Age: 278 years Titles:
The thing in the other box had changed! After that, more from accident than anything else, it repeated the accident repeatedly, and every time that box changed. Now, the spirit knew, that the bad happened when the box changed. The box changed when the spirit changed! After all, it had changed towards the box and it became bad, and when it changed away, then it was also bad. Therefore, the change was bad! With all its will, the spirit determined that it would not change no matter what. Absolutely.
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* 32 years later *
The spirit had done its best to not change. It really had. But then, the bad, it had come again! Even not changing made the bad come! Not to mention, whenever the bad happened over the last couple decades, the spirit had been able to stop the bad by finding more mana pockets. To the spirit that meant change made happy happen! Nothing made any sense! Change was bad, and that was happy, because it knew something for once. But now, change was goodbad! It was too different! Why!?
Emotional turmoil was a very fast way to develop mentally, even if not the healthiest. As it was the spirit was too simple to really go mad or damage its sanity with the mental trauma it underwent constantly, so that it was practically without cons. In fact, it was all pros as it allowed the spirit to really identify the environment through how it felt about it, and by doing so grow further by understanding and sorting through its emotions.
As the spirit started flailing and throwing a tantrum like a small child it discovered 'frustration' and 'anger.' Neither were particularly 'happy,' so the spirit was sure that they were probably 'bad.' Probably. It really didn't feel 'happy' about the recent events, creating 'dislike.'
It was a series of milestones for the spirit, yet they passed unnoticed; too minor for the system to care, and no friends or fellow spirits to care about its growth. It would have been a crushing sense of loneliness had the spirit any experience of company. The hordes didn't really count, since to the spirit they were quite simply 'bad.' Maybe 'goodbad.' Regardless, they didn't warrant the further investigation of 'happy.'
To a young impressionable mind, bad things were better avoided and memories suppressed. It wanted nothing to do with them, and they with it. Yet the spirits desires were not capable of influencing the world around it, so the time came when another horde descended on the Voidlands.
This one was a disappointment compared to the imps. More like the horde that had first fed the spirit, it was crazed hordes of twisted beasts, from towering skinless bears to rats with ugly, swelling tumours all over them. They ravaged each other even as they continued to charge past where the spirit was and headed south.
Nothing changed for the spirit, aside from a nice supply of fresh mana; which it wouldn't even notice as being more than before. Nor would it realize that without these willing sacrifices every now and then, it would feel 'bad,' - very bad in fact - before dying from mana deprivation.
The spirit would likely stay blissfully unware of its precarious situation for some time. For now though, it was happy to see, well, 'happy.'
Max Mana +1
Fresh corpses always brought 'happy' to the spirit. Perhaps not the best revelation to have for an impressionable mind. Not a problem for the spirit though. It would be fine, since it lacked the ability or intention to add more bodies to the stacks.