~SPLASH~
With the new worry in mind, I fell into the water and proceeded to sink. Water was rushing into my eggshell from the holes created by my legs, getting rid of any buoyancy my egg had. Seeing my predicament, I panicked and started kicking my legs, trying to push my body up as much as possible to no avail. As I continued to sink, the worm seemed to have gotten to the edge of the lake and stopped.
~ROAR~
Enraged as it was, it seemed to avoid getting into the lake and continued roaring, trying to draw me out. As the roar seemed to echo out, my body seemed to go in paralysis for a second, which would usually cause me to sink faster, but to my delight, the water seemed to stop rushing into my eggshell stopping my descent. As I paid more attention, I found that the water was only covering my body till my legs and had seemed to be blocked out by something. I then proceeded to just float in my place due to the paralysis, as the worm continued to 'stare' me down. Noticing my predicament, I decided that I should try leveling up the skill [Inspect], to gain more information into my situation, and proceeded to spam it. After what felt like ages a ding went off.
As soon as the ding had gone off, my body felt as if a thousand pounds had been lifted off my back, and I was once again able to move properly although still quite sluggish. I immediately proceeded to paddle myself sideways, not wanting to become fish food either, and away from the worm, who seemed to be happy growling continuously at the spot I was at seconds ago. As I continued to paddle my feet, and slowly inched myself away from the worm, a new pressure suddenly bore down on me. Suddenly around the area, where I once was, a huge hill made of water seemed to take shape before collapsing, as a majestic snakehead seemed to break out of its confines.
As soon as the snakehead seemed to appear in my view my body stopped moving, it became hard to breathe, and it felt like my hearts were going to stop beating. The worm at the edge seemed to fare even worse than me, being directly in front of the snake, it seemed to collapse from its upright position and started to whimper. The snake then opened its maw and brought it down onto the worm, swallowing it whole, leaving no evidence of the worm's existence. Seeing the majesty of the creature, I couldn't help but want to inspect it.
Seeing the two new skill upgrades, I wasn't all that delighted because of how they seemed to matter next to nothing against the snake. As I continued to use the skill on the snake, the snake seemed to not be aware of my existence or chose to outright ignore me, continuing to swallow its tasty morsel. I watched as the snake, seemed to lift its head and an indention the size of the worm seemed to slowly wriggle down the snake's throat.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: ??? Race: Water Wyrm Level: ??
HP : ??/?? Stamina : ??/?? MP : ???/???
Strength : ?? Vitality : ?? Intelligence : ??
Wisdom: ?? Agility: ??(??) Luck: ??
Status: ???
Special Skills:
???
Resistance Skills:
???
Normal Skill:
???
Title:
???
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As the Resistance leveled up once again, a feeling of pure bliss seemed to travel through my body. Although I still could not move and it was still hard for me to breathe, the weights on my hearts seemed to have been lifted. The level up for [Inspect] also seemed to be the deciding factor, allowing me to see the huge snake's race at the very least. Then there was the Title, it seemed to be different from other titles as its color seemed to be different from other titles. Curious about the title, I mentally asked the blue screen to show its description to me.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
[One Who Does Not Fear] Title gained from being in the presence of a hostile creature, at least 20 levels higher than you and sextupling your stats. (May effect Evolution or the process of acquiring skills majorly)
Seeing the description, I was startled, the skill seemed to be in a league of its own. But it also made me aware of a grave fact, I was currently a sitting duck for a hostile creature at least tripling my stats. Seeing all this info, I didn't stop spamming my [Inspect] skill, however, as this seemed to be an ideal condition for its leveling. As I continued spamming the skill, the wyrm finished swallowing the worm whole and jumped backward before diving back into the ginormous body of water.
The second the wyrm dived back into the water, a wave of relief passed over me, being able to survive this encounter told me exactly how dangerous this new world was. I hurriedly tried to move once again, believing the fear effect had worn off due to the wyrm leaving only to notice, I still could not move. Noticing the situation I opened up my status page.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: n/a Race: Walking Lizard Egg Level: 4/5
HP : 5/9 Stamina : 2/16 MP : 4/4 (+0.26/hour)
Strength : 2 Vitality : 8 Intelligence : 4
Wisdom: 2 Agility: 4 Luck: 83
Status: Tiredness (Severe), Low Body Temperature (Mild), Injured, Suppressed (Mild)
Special Skills:
[Egg’s Shell: Lv--]
Resistance Skills:
[Physical Resistance: Lv1] [Fall Resistance: Lv2] [Solitude Resistance: Lv1]
[Fear Resistance Lv3]
Normal Skill:
[Inspect: Lv3] [Mapping: Lv1] [Rolling Lv1] [Jumping Lv1]
Title:
[Born Killer] [Walking Egg] [Survivor] [Lucky] [Exceptional] [One Who Does Not Fear]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seeing the suppressed status and Tiredness severe, I had no choice to stay where I was, reeking of blood or not. Speaking of the blood, I couldn't help but wonder how much of it was washed off. I continued to float in the lake for a while waiting for my status to clear out and my ability to move to be returned when a DING went off.
I was suddenly hit with a headache and a burning feeling in most parts of my body, which only seemed to be growing worse. Seeing the new status ailment affecting me I couldn't help but be startled. I had next to no clue as to how I got poisoned, and even less of a clue as to how I was going to fight it off. Looking at how I had fared so far in this new world and now this, I couldn't help but ask, did this world want me dead so badly? I immediately put more vigor into trying to move and after about 10 minutes or so I finally managed to move my legs again.
The pain that was previously been like getting hit with a pillow on the face and a feverish hot feeling all over my body had slowly turned into a headache akin to a hungover and the burn off of a searing hot surface. Feeling the pain and not knowing what to do about it, I decided to handle it after leaving the water. I immediately started paddling away, forcing my body to get over the tiredness and the pain inflicted by the mana poisoning.
I had been swept quite some distance away by the appearance of the huge wyrm, causing me to take tens of minutes to paddle my eggshell to land, to my surprise no fish had attacked me. I wobbly got myself to land, the increasing pain filling every inch of my body when another ding went off.
The pain seemed to decrease for a second before hitting again with a new ferocity. I felt as if I'd pass out any second now, coming face to face with my feared darkness once again. Yet for some reason, after experiencing the pain I had felt so far, the upcoming meet with the darkness almost seemed pleasing. Waking myself up from my dark thoughts, influenced by my foggy mind, I pushed my body to at least get to the bushes at the edge of the clearing. Racked with pain and a hazy mind, I forced my body to wobble over into the bush before passing out into the almost sweat embrace of the darkness.