Licht confirmed the evolution to Woodland Ego. Immediately, a searing pain came from every cell in his spherical body. The burning from the stomach acid of the rabbit had been nothing compared to this. A cracking noise erupted from every curve of Licht’s exterior, dreadful wafts of pain following each division of dark metallic plant tissue.
Licht’s mind rapidly spun in a red haze. He was unable to form a coherent thought, the pain was simply too much. His head was filled with the sensations of doom that his body was sending.
“Aaaaagghhh!”
Licht let out a bloody cry before his vision snapped into blackness, a mental whiplash like a bullwhip sending him into the unconscious.
***
[Notice: The user fell unconscious during the evolution process. 4 HP was sacrificed to sustain life processes.]
Licht’s view once again beheld the light as he opened his ‘eyes’. Only this time, his world had been greatly altered. His field of vision had widened? No, it had multiplied. Several times over, perhaps.
“Ooh, this is a little trippy.”
Licht let out a few raspy laughs. The pain from evolution was still lingering. He remained amazed by its effects, however. His vision hadn’t just improved in clarity but had broken beyond the limits of what he had experienced as a human.
“Am I seeing out of every part of my body?”
Licht could see every inch of the cavernous interior of the giant rabbit’s stomach. He could even see himself, oddly, and how his appearance had changed from the glossy black ball he had seen in his reflection. His 360-degree view allowed him to pan around himself, seeing his cracked exterior from multiple angles at the same time. The fact that he could see the tiny glossy ball that was himself discredited that the vision was originating from his body. His perception was closer to being able to ‘detect’ the surrounding area, rather than seeing it through something like a set of visual organs.
“Looks like I took quite a hit during the evolution. Glad I stocked up on HP.”
That wasn’t the only thing that caught Licht’s attention, in between the cracks of his glassy exterior, dark brown roots were beginning to crawl out and form a web around him.
“Is this a new passive? Status.”
[Evolution Complete!]
[+1 STR, +3 DEX, +0 WIS, +0 END, +0 CHA]
[Level has been reset to 1]
[Level: 1]
[Exp: 0/100]
[Name: Licht Welles]
[Race: Woodland Ego (Juvenile)]
[Health: 1/25]
[Stamina: 15/20]
[Energy: 10 AF]
[Rank: E]
[1 STR, 3 DEX, 15 WIS, 5 END, 0 CHA]
[Virtues: (Twig)]
[Specializations: Wood]
[Skills: Psychometric Observation (D-), Biogenical Growth (D+), Passive Nutrition Absorption (E), Passive Acid Resistance (E), Passive Withy Body (E), Wooden Commune (E)]
“A budding guardian of the forest that has just begun to spread its roots. Civilizations native to the Trescult Woods have most notably used the roots of the Woodland Ego in alchemical aids for fostering mages. Their roots prove to have a beneficial effect in increasing one’s magic power.”
Licht inwardly felt a drip of sweat run down his forehead. One point of HP? A breeze was enough to knock him over right now! He thanked whatever patron deity was watching over him that he had survived.
“My stamina was consumed? I don’t really feel that tired though. Was it from evolving? It doesn’t feel like it. It seems the passive skills all consume stamina over time.”
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On the bright side, he had gained some skills and the energy to use them. Licht was quite satisfied with this, already guessing what [Withy Body] did.
“This skill should be the sticks coming out of my body. Can I control them?”
More thin brown twigs had grown from the surface of Licht’s body and wound their way around it. The tiny thread-like branches winded around his globular body and covered every inch. From his current view, he could probably blend in perfectly in a pile of twigs. How handy. Licht could probably guess that this evolution favored defense or stealth, but to him it looked like a rubber band-like ball of sticks. As Licht sent out a mental signal, a couple of thin branches stretched forward, gripping a spot on the ground and pulling his spherical body forward.
Licht’s eyes lit up. It came as natural to him as moving his own legs or arms.
“I can really move!”
Licht finally understood why the patients in wheelchairs always cried whenever they could stand again after months of rehabilitation. Being able to move oneself was akin to freedom, and freedom was a base desire of the soul.
“So profound.”
Licht quickly propelled himself forward, reveling in the fact that he could move once again. He slid up and down the mounds of decomposed flesh like he was at a skatepark. Rolling against the walls of the space with gleeful spite against the predator who had fallen victim to its then-immobile prey.
“What do I do now though?”
So many options presented themselves before Licht. He sat in silence on top of a decaying pile of meat, his health and stamina ticking upward from the nutrient absorption skill that was still in effect. His heartfelt thanks was extended to whoever gave him [Nutrient Absorption]. Such a skill was a real lifesaver in a situation where he didn’t have much around him.
It at least had spared him a whole arc of setting up health potion factories.
“I have to survive to enjoy my new life. I have to get stronger to survive. I have to absorb stats from monsters to get stronger, and I need to kill monsters to absorb stats.”
Licht was running with the assumption that he probably couldn’t absorb stats from just any chump monster, but one he defeated himself. This was because he had already tried eating a partially dissolved corpse within the stomach of the rabbit, but skill gave him no bonuses. What was that? Licht should have some more respect for fellow victims of the rabbit beast? Nonsense! Comrades should help each other, everyone and their brother knows this!
However, the fact that he needed to hunt to absorb stats was a conundrum that involved violence being necessary no matter how he looked at it. Licht sighed, thinking of the barbarism that the inhabitants of such a world must surely face.
Licht got off the hill-like pile of meat once his health and stamina had been replenished. The absorption skill had conveniently absorbed more stamina than it had lost.
“Well I can’t do any more from inside here. I should first see where the rabbit stopped before I make any decisions. Or, should I test out my skills first?”
Now that he had some energy, he would probably be able to use his skills right?
[Psychometric Observation]
“...”
[Insufficient Energy!]
[Biogenical Growth]
“...”
[Insufficient Energy!]
“Damn! Is this the barrier between E and D ranked skills? I wouldn’t think the cost would be so high.”
Unfortunately there was limited feedback from the system, so Licht had no way of knowing just by how much energy he was short by. He could only look at the number 10 in his energy stat and hum.
“Just how much is 1 AF? Am I going to need to evolve again to get more energy? Maybe there’s something I can absorb to increase it.”
Luckily now that [Nutrient Absorption] was passive it cost next to nothing to use, being more akin to eating than any other action. But it was still strange that he had gained energy after his evolution, yet not enough to use the skills he had.
“There’s gotta be something else I can do with it.”
Licht eyed the other skill he had received from his evolution. The more he thought about it the more sense it made. He was E ranked himself, and so he would be able to use E rank skills at the most. The evolution surely wouldn’t give him a skill and then not enough energy to use it right? Yeah, that sort of worked out. He had those D-ranked skills before the evolution, so it wasn’t the fault of the evolution surely! He tried out another skill, this one was one of those that he gained after becoming a Juvenile Woodland Ego.
[Wooden Commune]
Licht lost the senses of both his vision and hearing. There was a feeling like a switch had flipped inside his mind, instantly shutting off excess processes. A black expanse surrounded Licht and he felt like he was standing in the middle of a field of sharp objects. Vaguely, he could feel the presence of others around him, obstructed and distant. Somehow, he knew that if he got closer, communication would be possible.
“Yeah, this is too weird.”
Licht shut off the skill. He wished he had a head to shake to get rid of the odd feeling. The skill created a completely foreign sensation for him, leaving a slight sense of wonderment at the experience he just had.
“Woah. I guess it's a skill for talking to trees. Does the system really want me to become a guardian of the forest or something? What is this, the Lorax? This skill seems a little biased.”
The skill had consumed a lion’s share worth of his energy, but he had a feeling it would regenerate over time. The only other thing he wondered about was his new virtue of “Twig”. It wasn’t the kind of thing he expected to see in that category, but with no way of finding out what it meant, he ascended up the esophagus of the giant rabbit. Like a child running the wrong way up a slide.