Alright, I’ve decided. It’s become clear to me that meditation is my most integral skill of mine. For now, at least. After all, I doubt I’d be sane without it.
> Path of the Mindful selected.
>
> ERROR!
>
> Select an ability to keep permanently before proceeding.
Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me! Seriously? And here I was, thinking that trait would actually be useful. Such a shame.
Great, now I have another thing to decide on. And I just made another difficult choice. But I suppose having too many choices can’t be a bad thing, right?
Wait, no. it absolutely is a bad thing in this case. It’s forcing me to choose way too early, thus limiting my choices! Curse you, System!
Ahem, anyway. Might as well see what my options are.
> Name:
>
> Creature type: Glow Worm
> Path: pending
>
> Level: 5
>
> Strength: 1
> Dexterity: 1
> Constitution: 6
>
> Skills:
> >> Meditation level 63
>
> Abilities:
> >> Silk Production
> >> (innate) Metamorphosis level 2
>
> Traits:
> >> Bioluminescence
> >> (innate) Past Life Holdover
> >> (innate) Reincarnator
> >> (innate) At Least A Little Human
Right then, now we’re back to my old dilemma. By ‘ability’ does it literally mean an ability or can it also be from the other options.
Hmm, there’s only one way to find out, and as I already said, meditation is currently my most vital skill.
> ERROR! Invalid target!
Alright, so no skills. That puts a bit of a damper on my plans, but whatever.
How about traits, can I select those? I don’t really feel great about wasting one of my selections on something like bioluminescence. But what the hell, it’s for science!
> Bioluminescence selected!
>
> Bioluminescence has become innate!
Sigh, I guess that’s good. At least I’ll know it’s possible for the future. It is sad that I had to give up silk production for it. That one could come in handy much more in the future.
Oh well, I can still get it one day. With my luck I’ll end up as a spider or something next time.
Now then, now that I have done that it should finally let me do my Path choice.
> Path of the Mindful selected.
>
> As a Mindful Glow Worm you additionally gain:
> >> The mindful perk Squinting Eye!
> >> Increased Attribute growth of 1 Ego every second level
> >> One perk every 5 levels
Oh god, that’s an awful lot to unpack in such a small box of text. Might as well start with the easiest one.
Apparently, other than the (not yet clear to me) split between skills and abilities, there’s now also the additional perks to accompany traits. And like, semantically there’s a difference in the meaning of the words, sure, but I feel like they are basically the same, right?
And then there’s the attribute growth. I’m now gaining a point in a stat I didn’t even know existed. Just, how? And why wasn’t it listed on my status page?
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
I suspect the culprit is my newest trait. Let me see if I can do the same thing to it that I did to my Path selection.
> Trait: Squinting Eye – You’ve cracked open your third eye. Unlocks the soul attribute Ego.
Yup, just as I suspected. And now I have to worry about more hidden stats. Do I even have all the body ones unlocked? The worst thing is, I won’t ever know! Not unless I happen to stumble into another perk that unlocks it for me.
Now I really wish I could’ve kept my Past Life Holdover selection for after choosing a Path. It’s just not fair being aware of the new attribute and yet having it locked in my next lives.
Perhaps there’s another way to keep things permanently through reincarnations? No, squash that though. Even if there is one, it likely requires a super high level which I won’t be reaching anytime soon with my levelling speed.
And that seems to be it. So much for a great occasion that’ll decide my future. sure, there’s still the Perk I’ll gain in another five levels, but how likely is that? I must have spent multiple months, at least, getting to level 5 already. And the experience to the next level is only increasing.
With my only prey being level 0 moths, I have no chance. Not to mention I’ll likely be metamorphosizing again soon.
Aaah, this is all so frustrating! If only I could do anything other than waiting and meditating. Really, the only thing worse that this would be becoming a plant. Then I’d really not have any other options.
Not that I currently have a wealth of options. What else could I do, other than silk making, waiting and eating? That third one doesn’t even really count, since it’s dependant on chance. So really, I have just two options.
Sigh, might as well see if I can develop a skill related to silk. Yeah, might as well.
And it looks like I’m in luck. Inspiration strikes me completely out of the blue and I get to work.
I produce a strand of silk, but instead of letting it grow and then attaching it to the rocky ceiling, I attach it immediately. Then, I lengthen it as usual. While moving a little bit away, where I attach the second end to the ceiling.
Repeated a couple of times this results in a kind of partial hammock. There are still many gaps between the silk, but that’s where this next step comes in.
I repeat the same process, except this time perpendicular to the previous bunch of strands. Once done I have a crude square of silk hanging from the ceiling. A sort of pocket if you will.
It’s still not fully sealed up though, so I repeat the process even more times. Each cycles the mesh of line gets more and more solid, becoming a proper piece of fabric. Only the corners of my silk square remain empty, but I consider those entrances.
Ta-da! My very own house, a home made of silk. I’ve finally completed what I set out to do as a butterfly.
> You’ve constructed a simple silk sanctuary. You gained some experience.
Oh… this is awesome. Better than awesome! I can do much better things than sitting on my butt and meditating!
And that experience, just look at it! Some! It says some! Even when both the moths and I very level 0 I only gained minimal experience! This is huge!
Okay, let’s plan this out. How fast can I build one of these houses? It feels like it’s been at least a day, but I don’t really have any way to judge that. And all my meditating certainly hasn’t helped my sense of time.
Argh! Now I wish I had selected the Silk Trapper Path. I bet it had some perks that’d help me right now.
No matter, no matter. A lesson for the future, that’s all this is. I mustn’t get distracted by mystical sounding shit. As the saying goes, all that glitters is not gold. Not that I expect myself to follow that rule.
But now, houses! It’s time to do some levelling!
It’s not too long into my construction spree that I hit the first roadblock. I’m slowly running out of silk. Damnit.
Downtrodden, I return to my nest and start waiting again. I hope some food and time is all I need to replenish my supply.
This does put a brake to my plans though. If I can only create so many shelters at once, I won’t be able to level nearly as much as I thought. Maybe a level or two before I metamorphose.
That’s another thing. Ever since I selected my Path, I’ve had this weird sense of when things will happen. Just simple stuff, like hunger or sleep. I guess silk availability too, even though I was too focused to notice that. And now my transformation date too.
Sounds like those are all things related to me. Kinda like… introspection. Is this the power of the mindful worm? Or Ego?
Could be both, could be neither. But ego does mean a sense of self as far as I can remember. It’d make sense then.
Useful stat, in that case. As long as it doesn’t become over the top at higher numbers, like making me aware of the food passing through my intestines. That’s just be gross at best and distracting at worst.
Ah, but it would seem like I’ve gained enough silk for a little while. It’s time to build houses, this time for real.
I zoom off (slowly worm-wiggly my way over) to where I started another silk net.
Over the next hours I do the few simple steps necessary for the creation of a simple silk sanctuary. It’s repetitive work, yet still much better than not doing anything. Keeps my blood pumping. Do worms even have blood? Not important.
I do sadly have to take a couple more breaks. During these I do the usual, meditation with a side dish of eating the occasional moth alive. I’ve learned to ignore the second part by now, mostly thanks to the first part.
Even with these breaks, it feels like almost no time passes and I’ve already finished my second house. Which just means more experience for me. Level 6, I’m coming for you!