Nhhhh… good morning, me!

Whew! This evolution-related rest was wonderful, I felt like I was born anew! I resisted the urge to stretch my limbs, opting first to check where I was and make sure I could do so, without causing myself trouble. I did so while pointedly ignoring the writing covering my vision.

Yep… leathery stuff all around me, some of it moving and shifting, but I had found myself a mostly-safe spot. Behind me was the open air, I could feel the wind blowing over my carapace, and if I looked behind me - yuck, still getting used to the feeling of my eyes being on the sides of my head! - I could see the horns of the big guy. So I was still nestled in the spot where I had stuck myself in to evolve, square on the big guy’s face.

… wait a second.

This wasn’t the same place at all! Actually, now that I realised that, a number of questions popped into my head all at once. First of all, why was the big guy moving? I thought I’d killed him! Granted, it wasn’t intended and I hadn’t WANTED to kill him, so I really hoped there would be no hard feelings… Was his death also ‘undone’ because it was the result of an exploited bug?

And why did I see the sky and trees? Last I checked, we were inside a magical leather bag. Huh… a bunch of stuff must’ve happened while I was busy evolving. Speaking of which, let’s see what messages the system has for me.

[Nameless] is now undergoing [Evolution] to [Small Parasite Hatchling]. Time left until completion: 0s. Evolution successfully completed.

New Skills discovered!

You have gained a new Racial Skill: [Insect Muscle] (1)

Mental capacity threshold reached. Instinct-level System access has been upgraded. ERROR! [Nameless] already has manual choice mode enabled.

Mental capacity threshold reached. New information available.

Hmm… so far so good! And I gained a new [Skill] out of the evolution, it would seem… Now, what does my [Status] say?

[STATUS (Nameless)]

Race

Small Parasite Hatchling [Monster] [Insectoid]

LV

0

Skill Points

0

Biomass

0

Traits

Titan Slayer

Profaned

HP

1 / 1

MP

N/A

SP

0,9 / 1

Skills

Mooch (2)  Leech (3)  Dagger Proficiency (1)  Piercing Fang (2)  Grip (2)  Chitin Carapace (D) (1)  Insect Muscle (1)

EXP Modifier

250%

Uhhh… excuse me? Anyone up there who can explain what’s going on?

Where’d my ten [Skill Points] go?! I was looking forward to spending those, and I had a promise to fulfill to Blue!

Hmm, maybe it was a visual bug? What if I went into the menu of available [Skills]?

SKILL LIST (Nameless)

Obtained Skills:

Mooch (1) (Common) (R)

Leech (3) (Common) (R)

Dagger Proficiency (1) (Common)

Piercing Fang (2) (Common) (R)

Grip (1) (Common)

Insect Muscle (1) (Common) (R)

Disabled Skills:

Chitin Carapace (Common) (R)

Discovered Skills:

Scout (Common)

Inspect (Common)

Night Vision (Uncommon) (R)

Heretic (Common)

Stinger (Common) (R)

Acid Gland (Rare) (R)

Huh… okay, there was a bit to take in there. First of all, why was my Chitin Carapace “disabled”? Was that why I had the little red D behind it in my [Status]? I’d mostly ignored that because I wanted to know where on earth my ten [Skill Points] had gone, but this raised another question…

Well, I should first try to purchase something.

Insufficient Skill Points to purchase Skill [Scout].

So it was not a visual bug… but why then had my points vanished?! I angrily opened up my [Status] again and slammed my mental finger on the little D next to [Chitin Carapace] in hopes that it would do something. And it did.

This Skill is disabled. Reason: Low-tier evolution processed. Skills have been reset.

Insufficient Bio Points to regain Racial Skill [Chitin Carapace] (1).

Low-tier evolution? What was this stupid window going on about now?

I thrashed around a bit in anger, almost dislodging myself from my hiding spot. That was when I noticed that my stomach felt empty. Very empty, in fact, even though I hadn’t eaten that long ago, just an hour or two before kicking off my evolution. I’d only spent, what was it, four hours evolving? I could understand being proper peckish, but not feeling like I’d not eaten in a whole day… Ohh, maybe that same evolution had consumed a lot of energy? Or did this body need to feed more frequently? Either way, the only way I could go for a meal now was if I found my way back into the big guy’s mouth… or at least somewhere where its skin wasn’t too thick for me to pierce.

Luckily, I knew just the thing. I wasn’t going to risk going back in its mouth and falling into its stomach like last time, where I might not get so lucky as to trigger another ‘fat bug’, if I even made it past its lips. No way I could move those with this tiny body. I was determined to find myself a safer place this time around.

Luckily, the big guy wasn’t moving much right now, it seemed to have found a place to settle down and rest a bit after eating, or something. So I had free reign to carefully crawl out of my little hidey-hole, climb up its cheek and… hmm, no, maybe I shouldn’t pass in front of its eye, I couldn’t be certain that it would try and shake me off or something. I certainly would if I was in its shoes and I saw a bug crawling over my face. So, I opted to first descend all the way to its upper lip - [Grip] and my six limbs really put in their money’s worth for this one! - then I crawled all the way to its neck, back up along the back, and finally forward again, until I was in front of the big bamboo shoot-shaped grey thing poking out of the top of its head. Well, one of the two it had anyway.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

I fought to overcome my own disgust at the idea, sternly marched forward, and settled into the inside of my involuntary host’s ear. I had to hold on tight as it flicked twice, but fortunately my [Grip] overcame its idle attempts at swatting an annoying insect away. Sorry big guy, but I kinda need to do this to live!

I had a good hold as well, so there was little risk of me sliding down into its ear canal. Eugh… That thought gave me the heebie-jeebies. Fortunately its auricule was sufficiently rough and uneven that I could grip on tight with my little claws, and the skin was thin enough that I could sink my fangs into it, and… Slrrrrrrp.

Yuck, yuck, yuck! I’ll never get used to this, ever. Was it too much to hope that a future evolution might let me change my diet? I didn’t recover any HP this time, but that was fine, I was already full. I rapidly filled my stomach with the big guy’s involuntary blood donation, then settled in, and got back to thinking.

‘Low-tier evolution’... did the System mean that there was something wrong with my evolution? Was it because I’d not evolved to a bigger and more adult form, that is to say the Juvenile, but doing a lateral move to improve my species instead?

I could understand it as being ‘fair’ to others who would immediately evolve to more mature forms, they would otherwise lose out on the ten or more [Skill Points] that I was going to get. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t miffed. So what, were all my [Skill] purchases meaningless unless I chose to evolve to a Juvenile next, or was that also a ‘low-tier evolution’ as the textbox called it, and I’d lose my progress repeatedly? Also, didn’t I get the [Titan Slayer] [Trait], which was kind of based on that [Skill] that I bought, [Giant Slayer]? So I still had a leg up on the competition, right? Or did everyone get lucky enough to evolve some of their [Skills] into [Traits] before those same [Skills] were disabled?

Actually… The reason I got to keep my [Trait] was probably another unfixed bug. Or maybe a reward for exceptional performance, as undeserved as my win over the big guy was. I wasn’t about to complain about that.

Thinking about it, there also was some sense to the idea that not all [Skills], especially the racial ones, would carry over if evolving changed me in such fundamental ways as to change my very species. A Vampire with a chitin shell would look really weird, for instance. Or perhaps it would be some kind of armoured mosquito? As if those annoying bugs aren’t already bad enough when they sting you, let’s give them chitin plating so they can survive your retaliatory swat, how about that.

I chose to go over my [Status] again along with the [Skills] I’d unlocked. Most importantly, I had kept the [Skills] I’d been born with, and even their levels. The only one that was disabled was [Chitin Carapace], which I’d purchased. By that logic, [Giant Slayer] would’ve been disabled as well, had I not gotten it swapped out for the [Titan Slayer] trait… probably. My [Skill Points] had been reset too, after all.

I’d also obtained a new [Skill]: [Insect Muscle]. And I’d unlocked another three: [Heretic], [Stinger] and [Acid Gland]. Outside of “Heretic”, the names were fairly self-explanatory but I chose to examine them all regardless, starting with the [Skill] I owned. Even if I didn’t have that promise to Blue, I was curious!

Insect Muscle (1) (Common) (Racial)

Muscle is less useful as size increases. Insects turn this around!

Effect: Increases strength and effect of strength [Skills] with smaller size.

The higher the level, the more strength is gained.

[Information limited due to low mental capacity]

I could scarcely believe what I saw. Proper words, sentences even! Explanations! No more caveman-speak! I could have jumped for joy if that didn’t mean that I would lose my secure grip and drop into the big guy’s ear canal, or fall out of it, so I expressed my happiness by wriggling my body from side to side and doing a little dance with my front claws. Ah hell, throw in a few mandible clicks in for good measure, this was cause for celebration!

It was still fairly simple sentences, somewhere along the lines of a six-year-old’s vocabulary, but still, it was leaps and bounds better. Thank you to whoever designed this evolution to include a bigger brain! No longer would I have to read text that seemed written by someone as under-developed as a Neanderthal that just discovered fire but wasn’t yet sure what to do with it.

Once I calmed down a bit, I re-read the [Skills]. The [Insect Muscle] one wasn’t half-bad, especially since it enhanced my other [Skills] if I understood the wording correctly. [Piercing Fang] and [Grip] were essential to my survival right now, since I needed a way to pierce skin and drink blood, and something to hold on tight with.

Now, what of the unlocked [Skills]? [Heretic], [Stinger] and [Acid Gland]... let’s take a look.

Heretic (Uncommon) Requirements: Have [Profaned] with at least one integrated [Trait]. Biggest Ones hate me? Well I hate them too! I fight against them!

Effect: Deal more damage to devotees of Biggest Ones.

Take less damage and restore less from Faith-type sources.

At higher levels, effects are improved.

[Information limited due to low mental capacity]

[Unlock cost: 2 Skill points]

Stinger (Common) (Racial) Requirements: Be an [Insect]-type + Have evolved once Stab your enemy and force your venom into them!

Effect: Perform piercing attacks with rear-mounted stinger.

Can inject liquids such as venom (Requires suitable [Skill])

Can suck blood (Requires [Leech])

At higher levels, strength and size are improved.

At higher levels, can inject or suck faster.

[Information limited due to low mental capacity]

[Unlock cost: 1 Biomass]

Acid Gland (Rare) (Racial) Requirements: Have a [Skill] that can expel/inject acid + Have evolved once Burn your enemy with acid!

Effect: Produce acid that burns most flesh and some other stuff.

Other [Skills] can shoot out acid.

At higher levels, acid gets stronger.

At higher levels, make acid faster and store more.

[Information limited due to low mental capacity]

[Unlock cost: 3 Biomass]

No major surprises for my two unlocked [Racial Skills], outside maybe of the stinger I would get from picking the matching [Skill] also being able to act as a probus… propa… as a bloodsucking needle like mosquitoes had them. I imagined that I would be able to use [Acid Gland] to inject acid through [Piercing Fang], but that idea was making my stomach turn, so I discarded both for now. Especially since I wouldn’t be able to keep them, if the [Chitin Carapace] incident was any indication.

As a side note, wasn’t it a little weird that something like [Stinger] had an evolution as its requirement? What of creatures that were born with stingers, like… scorpions? I wasn’t sure if scorpions had a larval stage of some kind, and I couldn’t exactly pull up an internet browser to look it up, so I had to file that question away for later. Maybe the requirements varied depending on your race or something.

I also noted that [Stinger] gained benefits if I had certain other [Skills]. By itself, it would essentially just be a stabbing weapon, but I could use it to drain blood or inject substances if I had fitting [Skills]. [Acid Gland] would be one example… maybe if I had opted for a Myrmidon Ant evolution I might have become able to inject formic acid through it as well? Or would I not have unlocked [Stinger] in that case? Hmm…

Now [Heretic], that one was interesting! As far as I could tell, it was a similar idea to [Giant Slayer] in that it would make its user deal extra damage to certain opponents… in this case, people who worshipped the gods. This probably meant that combat clerics, paladins and the like were a thing! I also got the valuable information that there had to be ways to channel that faith to deal damage and to ‘restore’ people - very standard “Priest” RPG-healer type stuff. It didn’t specifically mention health, but… hmm, maybe there were also ways to restore stamina or mana? Those weren’t as common, but I’d seen my fair share of resource-replenishing abilities in games. Heh. Maybe this system had been designed by someone who’d just played too many MMORPGs.

Though I was a little miffed at having that [Profaned] [Trait] forced on me, I wasn’t about to start targeting Thorgrimm’s worshippers because of it. Not to mention, [Heretic] seemed like an awful [Skill] to pick up, in no small part because of the reduction in healing I would receive. I had no idea how prevalent magical restoration was in this world and how much it mattered to the population at large, or if it was even accessible to a monster like myself, but this kind of thing had a way to bite someone in the rear end when it mattered most. So that was a bunch of trade-offs for a very situational benefit that didn’t really interest me, unless Thorgrimm declared a crusade against me. I’ll pass, many thanks.

So, where did that leave me? Two [Skill points] accounted for as I wanted to pick up [Scout] and [Inspect] as soon as I could, and for the rest I’d figure it out as I went. Besides my promise to Blue, I also had one more thing going for me: supposing that my [Skills] would reset again when I next evolved, there would be no downside to picking things up now. I just needed to survive long enough to evolve, of course. That way, I could try out what those [Skills] did, then after the reset I could decide whether or not to keep them. Bonus points if I was allowed to keep the level progression: though I hadn’t gotten any levels for [Chitin Carapace], the little “(1)” behind the disabled [Skill] in my list hinted that my progress was saved, so to speak.

Of course, all this was just guesswork based on scraps of information, which I couldn’t verify.

Speaking of information, perhaps I should verify all my [Skills], now that the caveman-speak was gone… then again, I knew much of what all the [Skills] did, so I decided to take my time with that. I needed to figure out what to do next, because in the position I was in, I was far less likely to get more levels. I could stay and perhaps work on my [Skills], but that was going to be boring.

Maybe I should work on my ability to keep myself from getting bored? Come up with something to entertain myself using just my mind and what I had at hand - or at claw, rather?

Unless I evolved to something less parasite-like, that was probably my only option right now. So I settled in, secured my hold, opened the menus again and began to read while idly wondering about how I might unlock other [Skills] or [Traits]. Without a book, a phone, a computer or any other method of entertaining myself, I was strapped in for a long ride, and these menus were the best way to spend my idle time.

Overall, I didn’t really find anything surprising. As bad as the caveman speak had been, it had done a good enough job at conveying the cornerstones of what each [Skill] or [Trait] did, and I’d pieced together the rest myself. It was interesting though, that [Inspect] would not work on [Enlightened]... maybe it was some kind of privacy-related thing? Still, there went my hope of it being a cheat-power that’d let me see a person’s identity, bypassing disguises and such. Pity… also, [Scout] seemed like a really broad ability. It might be worth grabbing once I had the points to spare.

Now to wonder, how many levels would I need before my next evolution, and the associated opportunity to meet back up with Blue? Even if it was just 10 levels, that would leave me with more than enough points to grab every [Skill] and [Racial Skill] available to me and have points left over. So perhaps I needed to discover more [Skills] somehow… question being how would I do that.

Hmm.

Damnit, I really missed the internet and being able to just look up stuff.