Living life as a starfish is surprisingly peaceful. I get to move around, which is a big thing after last life, feel things and most importantly I can actually see things.
Mind you, it isn’t perfect vision, nowhere near the sight of a human, but it’s good enough for short distances. Not to mention that it’s basically a full 360-degree line of sight, so that’s pretty cool too.
It took me a while to figure out how to eat though. Turns out it’s not much better than the method starfish use to metamorphose. Why, you may ask? Well, it’s because to eat I have to actually turn my stomach inside out and digest whatever it is I’m eating outside of my body. Quite gruesome, if you ask me.
Still, better than having to eat things alive. By burying inside them. Yeah, the life of a glowworm is weird, especially in hindsight.
Anyway, starfish life. It’s good, I like it.
And I’ve also managed to decide which ability to keep forever. I’d have expected it to take me much longer, what with having so many options this time around, but no. It wasn’t even that difficult.
After all, the only truly useful one is regeneration.
Sure, I am basically immortal and don’t need to worry about an early death, but that’s not all life is about. What if I’m severely maimed, lose a limb or something? There’s a myriad of scenarios where I can imagine regeneration as the clear winner out of the options given to me.
> Regeneration selected!
>
> Regeneration has become innate!
There, that’s done now. All I need to figure out now is how to actually, properly progress. Yes, life as a starfish is cool and all, but that doesn’t mean I want to spend the next however long like this.
Which means I have to either find a really good Path, along with a good source of experience, or a way to trigger further metamorphosis. And something tells me option number two is going to be somewhat easier.
But what could the requirements be?
> As a not naturally metamorphosizing creature, you may trigger one at any time once you reach maturity or a number of special circumstances. The number of available targets, and the quality of those targets, depend on a number of factors, including but not limited to attributes, skills, abilities, perks, traits and achievements in general.
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> Trigger metamorphosis?
Aha! I knew it’d be easier to go with this option!
So, it really is that easy, huh. I could just do it right now, nothing’s really stopping me. Except that I’d be a shit evolution.
At the very least, I should try to gain a couple of skills, since those definitely affect this. Meditation should be easy, but what else can I get? Maybe climbing? Then again, my mucus production ability appears to be geared towards that, so who knows if I could even get that. Swimming? No, I don’t think I’m the species of starfish that can do that.
I spend a couple of minutes on it, which is enough to gain the skill. It would appear I’m getting really good at it.
> You gained the meditation (64) skill!
Huh, something is different about it this time. Why’s it got a number next to it? Hold on… that’s the level I reached it my last life! Does it get transferred after all?
I need to check this in my status sheet.
> Name:
>
> Creature type: Starfish (adult)
>
> Level: 0
>
> Strength: 2
> Dexterity: 1
> Constitution: 5
>
> Skills:
> >> Meditation level 0 (64)
>
> Abilities:
> >> Harden
> >> Mucus Production
> >> (innate) Metamorphosis
>
> Traits:
> >> Water Breathing
> >> (innate) Regeneration
> >> (innate) Bioluminescence
> >> (innate) Past Life Holdover
> >> (innate) Reincarnator
> >> (innate) At Least A Little Human
I was right, it is there! Level 0 (64)! So, which one is it, then?
You know what, no. I’m not dealing with this. It just is like that and that’s as much as I need to know.
Anyway, where was I? Ah, yes. Trying to improve my evolution, er, metamorphosis. The other options all depend on my level, so it’s time I figure out how to do that one.
I am once again left with no easy way to craft things, so I’ll have to hunt. However, as a starfish, I don’t have that many natural predators. Sure, I’ve been eating some ocean detritus (is that how it’s called?) here and there, but either it’s all dead or too small to give me experience.
Let’s see, what else could I feast on? Fish? Don’t even have an inkling of an idea how’d I catch those. They are damn fast.
But what else lives in coral reefs?
… … …
I may be stupid. Everyone is always going on and on about how corals are not plants, but animals. And yes, somehow, I’ve managed to ignore them despite that.
Ah, whatever. At least I have a target that has no chance of running away from me.
I look around, which is very easy with my 360-vision, and begin moving to a nice-looking coral. Once there, I climb a bit onto it and then regurgitate my stomach onto it. Don’t worry, it sounds worse than it is.
Then I wait for my stomach acids to do their work. And I realize this is going to be the slowest, most boring hunt in the entire history of ever.
At least I’ll have time to level meditation again.