The return to the Hub happened much the same as before. The night beyond their patch of underbrush became entirely, utterly silent. More so than it had been for the hours they’d spent huddled side-by-side in the dark. Then the notification came.

Well done on surviving the second day of E.L.E Online! You will now be removed to The Hub for 8 hours, before being replaced in this location at sunrise. The game world has been paused during the break.

One by one his senses faded, until he was back in that field. The sky that twilight purple-blue and painted with stars. As he became fully himself, once again in his human avatar Primarch sent him his scores.

Welcome back, Little_Rik!

Congratulations on surviving Day 2 in E.L.E: Extinction Level Event Online. The challenges are getting tougher, and now that objectives have become active, your performance in each category will be scored more critically. Let’s review your scores for the day.

Little_Rik's Scores:

Survival: 7

* Successfully managed to find food and water.

* Successfully thwarted predators like the predatory plant and raptors.

* Managed the team's safety effectively in dangerous situations.

Combat: 7

* Effectively fought off raptors and a predatory plant.

Team Work: 8

* Assisted WhiteRabbit when she was trapped.

* Coordinated effectively with TheBIG_t and WhiteRabbit during combat and survival tasks.

* Kept the team focused and working together towards their goals.

Objectives: 6

* Successfully completed the meteorite objective and gained Evolution Energy.

Total Score: 28

Score Multipliers:

Title: First-Blood 1.5x

Title: Contender 0.5x

Final Score: 84

You have collected:

100 Evolution Energy

Your team has collected:

7 Meteorite Fragments

Erik had forgotten about the achievements and their multipliers. He knew he’d been considered them the previous night they’d spent at the Hub, but during their time in the game world he had forgotten. He’d even forgotten they were being scored on their performance. 84 points? Before he had too much time to consider it however, another notification popped up.

Congratulations on reaching the Growth Stage: Juvenile!

Player: Little_Rik

Species: Triceratops

Gender: Male

Growth: Juvenile: 10%

Weight: Small

Attributes:

Speed: 3

Strength: 4

Agility: 3

Endurance: 4

Defense: 4

Abilities:

Hatchling Charge:

Basic charge attack, minimal damage but disrupts smaller enemies.

Basic Bite:

Consistent moderate damage to close-range targets.

Basic Headbutt:

Moderate damage, can stagger small opponents.

Ability Points: 53

Evolution:

Juvenile Evolution Pending

Evolution Energy: 100

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Next Growth Stage: Adolescent (20%)

Reach 20% growth to evolve at the Adolescent stage, unlocking new upgrades and abilities.

Mutations: 107 Available Mutations

Biopoints: 86

Team Currency:

Meteorite Fragments: 7

*Note: Team Currencies cannot be spent until teams have assigned themselves a name, and designated a leader.

Erik read it twice, his heart rate speeding up as he absorbed all the information. They had made massive improvements over their first day in terms of available points, not to mention the growth. Sarah’s ascent to a Juvenile raptor had been a considerable upgrade over her Hatchling phase, and Erik hoped that he and Marcus would see as much of an improvement in themselves. His stats were high. All of them had increased by one, except for defense, which had been his highest. Weight was still small, and if he recalled, Sarah’s weight had gone from Tiny to Small when she’d hit Juvenile, but perhaps small was a broader category than tiny. Regardless, he wouldn’t figure anything out standing in the field.

“Hey look, sheep girl,” Sarah pointed out, drawing Erik’s attention away from his interface. The large field had been populated all around them as he’d stood there buried in his character sheet. She looked upset, woolly eyebrows angled into a V, and the rest of her face scrunched up like she was on the verge of tears.

“Wonder what’s got her goat,” Marcus said, before elbowing Erik in the side. Sarah rolled her eyes, but Erik was making connections as he looked around.

“Are these the same people as yesterday?” he asked.

“Probably,” Marcus answered with a shrug. “What other people would there be? It’s not like new people are joining the game.”

“No, but there’s 9,999 of us in here and there’s no way this field is holding that many.” While it was certainly a prodigious-sized space, Erik doubted there were more than a few hundred people occupying the clearing. Sheep girl wasn’t the only one looking unhappy. All around them were grumbling and the beginnings of arguments.

“Wonder what’s got them all worked up?” Marcus asked.

“I’ll go ask sheep girl,” Sarah said, giving Erik and Marcus a wink as she wandered off to approach the other group.

“Told you Sarah was into that,” Marcus said, elbowing Erik in the side again. Erik ignored him, instead opening his map and zooming out. It was a large space, mostly blank, with only the field in which they stood filled in. Perhaps it would be worth taking a look around at some point. Not right now, of course. He needed to get to the table and start going over things. He had a pending evolution, a mountain of biopoints, and since he was now a juvenile, he would hopefully be able to spend his ability points.

“I’m headed to the headquarters, you coming?” Erik asked, and Marcus nodded, following along. They entered the plain, open space, and Erik made straight for the liquid metal table.

“We could really use some furniture or something,” Marcus complained, falling into a hammock in one corner of the room. “Somewhere to sit, ya know.”

“Might be what the fragments are for,” Erik said, only half paying attention. His Triceratops was bubbling up out of the metal, taking shape, floating in the air. It was notably different. Definitely larger, and it had lost its potato body shape. The sides were still rounded, but the shoulders had widened, and the bony crest had also grown, with small spikes of bone trimming its edges. Above his eyes, the horns had become more pronounced, though still too short to be really useful. The horn-nub on his nose was no longer a rounded knob, but was now a short, sturdy horn with a visible point, clearly capable of inflicting damage. From behind him, Marcus made an impressed whistle.

“Lookin’ dangerous there, haus,” he said, moving up to stand on his right, arms folded across his chest as he leaned in to peer more closely at the triceratops. “Hell yeah. You’ll be doing some real damage now. Bet you those raptor things won’t be messing with us again.”

“Probably not, but they’re not the only things out there,” Erik said, as he sorted through his menus. First, he selected the evolution option and there was a list. A long list. A really long list, and at the top was “Aerial.” Erik raised an eyebrow and opened it.

Gliding Membranes: 3000 Evolution Energy

Description: Develop skin flaps that extend between your limbs, allowing limited gliding from high places. Unlocks related mutations.

*Note from Primarch: Energy costs reflect how well suited a form is to a certain adaptation, and how much energy must be expended to make an adaptation functional.

“Right, Triceratops wouldn’t be much of a glider.”

There were many, many other options in Aerial, but they were all similarly expensive. As far as Erik could tell, it was a retroactive cost. The game had to reach back through the Triceratops’ millions of years of evolution and alter the course of it until they were brought in line with the current version, which could glide. Above the table was a display of a very strange-looking creature. It certainly bore a resemblance to the triceratops, but it was skinnier, smaller. The crest was flatter, more aerodynamic. It still had three horns, but they had changed, angling outward more than upward, and between the front legs, back legs, and to the tip of the tail was a loose membrane of skin that could be extended into a flight suit; it was truly bizarre.

It was possible to backtrack through all of the adaptations required to make it work, reducing the cost as you went, but it was such a major shift in the way the Triceratops had evolved, that by the time he reached an adaptation in that tree he could actually afford, all it offered was a weaker, less dense bone structure. He skipped down to the next option, which was “Aquatics,” and found another round of similarly expensive choices, following the same logic as before. The Triceratops had few or no existing aquatic adaptations for the new ones to build on. Erik wasn’t sure if he appreciated the game for offering variety, or was annoyed that it had filled up the menus with things that were impractical, if not impossible, to achieve.

“Primarch.” The golden raptor-humanoid in his immaculate robe appeared at Erik’s left as if by teleportation.

“Yes, little Rik?” it asked, its tone sonorous and dignified.

“Any chance you could trim this menu down to just the stuff I can afford?”

“Of course.” He shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he moved the long staff he held to his right hand, and Erik saw his menu undergo a change, with many categories vanishing outright. There were still many options left, and he spent several minutes scrolling at random, just getting a feel for how the system worked and what the possibilities were before he came across an option that made his heart flutter and his eyes widen.

Oh yes, he thought, this could work. This could definitely work.