Notification
Patch v. Ξ71.69
The screen popped up right in front of my point of focus. ‘Ffuaaah!’ A sudden jolt of fear surged through me, and instinctively, I tried to leap away—only to be met with the cold reminder of my immobility. My mind raced, clawing at the edge of panic as the realization sank in, I couldn’t move. The sensation was suffocating. The screen. The dirt. My pot. It all faded away into a hazy blur of muted shades of night.
Little pricks of light cut through the dark. Desperately I latched my focus onto them. The star illusions I had been practicing with when the notification appeared. One by one, I focused on each star and admired it. Giving a little adjustment here or there. Slowly the darkness drew away. The sounds of night returned. With my leaves still trembling slightly, I was able to turn my attention to the pop-up.
‘Now, what the hell is this?’ My attention fully back on the screen. ‘Notification? Patch? Like a game patch? That’s good… right?’ I began to read it over and as I did, as sense of unease formed in the pit of my stem.
Patch Note: Stat Adjustment Update
Hello Testers!
It’s come to our attention that some of you might have noticed a small oversight in your initial setup—specifically, that pesky little bug that assigned everyone, (including flora, fauna, monstra, and mythica), Base Line HP, Stamina, and Mana. Oops! Our bad.
We know you’re all here to push the limits, not get stuck with starter stats, so this patch is designed to correct that. We’re rolling out an update that will bring your HP, Stamina, and Mana in line with the proper equations. We’re confident this will make your experience a lot more... intense!
Now, we realize that this little hiccup might have caused some of you a bit of inconvenience—or, you know, resulted in a minor case of fatality. For that, we sincerely apologize. As a token of our appreciation for your resilience and understanding, we’re giving each of you 5 free Stat Points! Consider it a little boost to help you on your journey (and maybe avoid future unfortunate errors).
We’re always here, working behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly—or as smoothly as things can run in a world where, let’s face it, anything can happen. Thanks for sticking with us, and remember, we’re all in this together—except, of course, when you’re fighting for your life.
Happy testing, and good luck out there!
Best,
[Your Alpha Tester Administrative Team]
P.S. Just a heads-up—some of you might notice a slight adjustment in certain skills or skill costs as a result of this update. We’ve fine-tuned a few things to ensure everything scales properly with your new stats. If you see any changes, don’t worry—this is all part of making sure you’re equipped for the challenges ahead. As always, if something doesn’t feel quite right, keep working at it!
‘So, this is what foreboding feels like.’ I read it over once more and just as I was finishing, I choked. The sense of blockage from Absorbing the contents of my sap pot suddenly chunked ‘through the straw’, one ant after another was drastically and violently schlurped up. ‘Mother!’
‘Shit!’
‘Truck!’
‘Gah!’ I peered into my sap pot and found it empty. The sap at the bottom sloshed gently for a moment before once more going placid and still. ‘The fuck are my ants? Wait, ‘Alpha Tester Administrative Team’, blah blah blah, ‘some of you might notice a slight adjustment in certain skills or skill costs’?!’
I pulled up my sheet and… can plants have a heart attack? I think I am having a heart attack!
Notification
Following the recent correction of Stats, the digestion period required to consume [organic material] has been updated based on the aforementioned [organic material]. Rest assured, any benefits you were set to receive have already been granted and have been appropriately scaled to align with the adjusted time period. We appreciate your understanding as we work to keep everything in balance.
Name: Cy
Species: Wisteria, Seedling
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Experience: 1.9/100
Class: N/A
Profession: N/A
Health: 13/13
Stamina: 51/51
Mana: 25/25
Unassigned Stat Points
5
‘Oh no. Oh god. I’M GONNA DIE.’ My focus meekly settled on my new stats. Everything had dropped, most significantly my Health. Seventy-five percent loss in mana, while a lot, didn’t mean much when you hardly used it for anything besides entertainment. Stamina on the other had was my main, go to skill cost! Any reduction was going to change things up for me. At this rate, I could refill it in fifty minutes. Which was faster, but that would also mean my Growth wouldn’t last as long each time either. Only about ten minutes.
Wait… actually… would that reduce my overall Growth ability at all? ‘Math… math… carry the 10. Wait, not carry, multiply. Huh, it doesn’t actually change any numbers.’ I allowed my perception to spread out to my domain as I processed. ‘It just cuts the time in half… so hour long cycles, instead of two-hour ones. God, I wish I could smack myself. I was panicking over nothing.’
Some relief coursed through me. ‘Now that “crisi” is solved, on to the next one!’ I checked my domain nervously. ‘If an ant does the same amount of damage as before, I’M DEAD! Please let it have been a skill or something that got nerfed with the patch!’ I projected my begging prayer up towards the night sky.
Nothin’. ‘Well, it was worth a shot. It seems they have no problem contacting me, but when I need to get in touch with them, nothin’.’ I divided my focus between my perimeter and another to look into my sap pot. ‘My ants are gone. What ever happened, they seem to disappear fas-’ Suddenly I was quite glad I hadn’t dismissed the Patch Notification just yet. ‘Da-da-da… ‘everyone (including flora and fauna)!’ That’s it, isn’t it! They’re health went down just like mine, and I consume ‘1 health point per hour’. Oh, those tricky sums-o-bitches.’
‘Look at me being all smart.’ I finally dismissed the update. ‘Before I spiral and try to rework or change my mind on my project, let’s assign those free stat points. Hmmm, so I have five points to spend.’
Health: 13/13
Stamina: 51/51
Mana: 25/25
‘Is it a one for one? You know what, no. Let’s be pragmatic about this.’ My leaves rustled as I looked between the three stats. ‘Look at me using big words. Alright. Health will keep me alive, but Stamina is what I need for most… anything. Mana is okay. I think it’s at a decent amount for what I use it for. So, let’s do-do-doooo… Health.’
Before I could second guess myself, I mentally selected my Health and dumped all five freebies into it. ‘There we go, now I can’t make it into an hours long debate and I might get to live a little bit longer. Take a look here…’
Health: 14/14
Stamina: 51/51
Mana: 25/25
‘What.’
‘WHAT.’
‘WHA- Okay, hold up a second. Don’t freak out. You use skills when you freak out and you don’t have the energy to spend.’ I focused on feeling the light breeze through my leaves. It was nice, relaxing. It had even become a bit more consistent over the last couple of nights. ‘Okay. There we go. So base stats were all at one hundred points. They just did a patch upgrade to modify those numbers. From what they said, it sounds like the base number is still a part of that. So then, since Health didn’t jump up by five, that must mean there is more to the equation. Maybe it’s a requirement or purchase type thing. You need ‘x’ number of points to buy it up by one? Oh, that’s going to suck. Please don’t be that.’
A slight twinkling caught my attention, and I let my focus shift to my entire space. The stars I had been playing with were starting to go out as the illusion began to fade. Idly I pumped ten mana into it and started fidgeting with the lights.
‘This new world is kind of like a game. I have stats, skills, and they even do patches.’ The little stars began to spin around. They twinkled against the darkness around me and the splotches of light from above. ‘So, like a game. The more points I have, the higher the level, etcetera, then the better I get. It might be a waste of points, but the next time I get some stat points, I’ll dump five more into Health. Hopefully, there will be a bigger jump, and it can confirm, or utterly upset, my guesses. Come on, I got this.’
Time to start putting things into action. As morning approached, I used a little stamina to try and collect a few ants. I watched as the attraction pheromones… no. ‘I should name it. The other one is STFA. Might workshop it, but it works for now. What should this one be?’ As the puff flowed and eddied through the remaining STFA cloud around me, it looked almost like it was dancing its way through. ‘How about Nymph? No acronym. Its like my little floral siren call to the ants. I like that. Nymph’s Call. I like.’
Only a few ants responded to Nymph’s call. The rest seemed to be kept at bay by STFA, which was honestly a good thing. I would rather have a few at a time, rather than too many. Best to avoid getting nipped again.
With the rising sun I began my daily ritual of welcoming the sun with some Photosynthesis. It was nice to be topped back up so quickly, must admit. Now for the next phase of the cycle. Growth. This time it was not for a sap pot, but rather for my overall growth. I am a small dainty stem. I have a few leaves, a nice root system, and a single pot of sap. ‘Oh, honey pot. Like spies. It lures them in to die. Ahem… went a little dramatic there.’
Right, time to get bigger. Wisteria, if I recall them correctly, are very sprawling. Hopefully, being of larger size will help my survivability a bit. I can get deeper roots, with any luck I will be able to see more around myself. Yeah. This was a good goal. It would give me something to do and in the long run, it will probably be more beneficial. The one honey pot seems to have solved my feeding problem for now, but getting more of those won’t help me from being cut down. ‘Let’s get swole.’