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Shooting for the Stars
Prologue: A crack filled with hope [Edited]

Prologue: A crack filled with hope [Edited]

~CRACK~

There were suddenly cracks in front of me.

The world that had long plunged into darkness finally had light.

I immediately started to look through the crack, starved for light after being in the darkness for what seemed like eons I tried to have my fill.

As I looked around, first came the pain, then a ding, and then green.

All around me was a green filled world, dwarfing me were huge monstrosities colored brown and green.

At first, I panicked, scared out of my mind, thinking I would be sent back to the darkness and have to spend another eternity by my lonesome.

I immediately moved my legs or at least tried to, when what seemed like a cage of sorts inhibited my movement.

Noticing this fact, I immediately thrust my legs with all the force I could muster, and to my relief, the cage seemed to give away easily.

My legs burst through my cage, and with a burst of motion, I jumped towards my backside, trying to get as far away from the monstrosities as possible. I felt relief wash over me as I saw the monstrosities move farther away, till I noticed I was falling.

I fell off of whatever surface that had held my cage, and as I noticed the occurrence time seemed to stop for a brief moment. My short second chance flashed before my eyes the relief given from the light to the panic produced by the monstrosities and finally how my recklessness led to my own demise. As the short film seemed to come to an end, time once again took a hold of me and I once again seemed to fall at a breakneck speed, to what I could only assume to be my demise.

THWACK!

A sound of something getting crushed sounded out, and I was forced to open my shut eyes as pain coursed through my body. A thin crack line seemed to spread over my cage supplying me with more of my craved light. A situation which would've made me run around in delight two seconds ago now became my nightmare. Because as the thin line of crack spread so did my pain, growing and once again delivering me to the maws of my feared darkness

I awoke as a bell chime seemed to ring in my ears. Startled awake, I was in a daze for a moment until I remembered my plight. Ignoring the huge amount of pain I was in, I immediately became alert and started to study my environment properly. It was then a light blue screen suddenly poofed into existence in front of me.

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Name: n/a Race: Walking Lizard Egg Level: 4/5

HP : 3/9 Stamina : 8/16 MP : 4/4 (+0.26/hour)

Strength : 2 Vitality : 8 Intelligence : 4

Wisdom: 2 Agility: 4 Luck: 75

Status: Heavily Injured

Special Skills:

[Egg’s Shell: Lv--]

Resistance Skills:

[Physical Resistance: Lv1] [Fall Resistance: Lv2] [Solitude Resistance: Lv1]

Normal Skill:

[Inspect: Lv1]

Title:

[Born Killer] [Walking Egg] [Survivor] [Lucky] [Exceptional]

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As I looked at the blue screen I was surprised, an RPG screen? Why was an RPG screen popping up in front of my face? Rather where was I? Remembering the green and brown monstrosities, I immediately ignored the screen to once again look around myself, to notice a monstrosity right in front of me, a tree. The tree I most likely fell off and the tree that almost cost me my life. Yes, I just almost killed my self by being scared of a F**KING TREE. Out of pure anger and embarrassment, I stomped one of my only appendages onto the ground.

SCHLCH

Hearing the sound and feeling the icky texture on my feet, I noticed there was something other than the ground under me, causing my anger to change to curiosity and apprehension. I immediately jumped away from the thing and looked back, to find what looked like a giant dead caterpillar oozing out black blood from its head.

Looking at the giant insect, almost thrice my size, I was glad to a certain extent, as it was obvious without it cushioning my fall I could've died. I thanked the monster for its great sacrifice before going back to examining my surroundings. Around me was green and brown as far as my eyes could see, ignoring the blue screen, of course. I could spot some other varying colors here and there, but I couldn't make out what those things were exactly.

Not being able to tell much from my surroundings I decided it was better off to pay attention to my blue screen and the dead body in front of me.

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Name: n/a Race: Walking Lizard Egg Level: 4/5

HP : 3/9 Stamina : 8/16 MP : 4/4 (+0.26/hour)

Strength : 2 Vitality : 8 Intelligence : 4

Wisdom: 2 Agility: 4 Luck: 83

Status: Heavily Injured

Special Skills:

[Egg’s Shell: Lv--]

Resistance Skills:

[Physical Resistance: Lv1] [Fall Resistance: Lv2] [Solitude Resistance: Lv1]

Normal Skill:

[Inspect: Lv1]

Title:

[Born Killer] [Walking Egg] [Survivor] [Lucky] [Exceptional]

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I didn't know what to feel about this, uh status screen? A lizard egg? Is 83 Luck supposed to be good? What are the eggshell skill, the walking egg, and Exceptional title supposed to mean? The Born killer, survivor, and Lucky could make sense with the appearance of the dead body and what happened before I passed out but for the rest, I had a lot of questions and no one to give answers. Then suddenly a couple of other blue screens seem to come into existence.

[Walking Egg] Title gained through gaining sentience and evolving into a walking egg during the incubating period. (May effect Evolution or the process of acquiring skills)

[Exceptional] Title gained through defeating a creature at least 5 levels higher than you and with their stats at least quadruple of your own. (May effect Evolution or the process of acquiring skills)

[Egg Shell] Skill Unique to walking eggs, your eggshell is a part of you, and if it is cracked you will die. While you are inside the eggshell you will gain passive experience according to the amount of nutrients still present in the egg. Health regeneration will also depend on the finite amount of nutrients inside the eggs, so beware of getting injured. While in this phase gaining skills and titles is two times easier.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Current amount of Nutrients: 36/40

Seeing the information I was a bit startled. Was the blue screen reading my mind? What WAS the blue screen? I waited for more answers but nothing popped up and after about 30 seconds I was forced to move onto other subjects.

Busy trying to figure out how my status worked, I failed to notice as the light around seemed to grow dimmer and dimmer till everything around me seemed to have an orange shine. Noticing the change, I came to my senses. I was currently a beacon of light to every predator, covered in black blood and being next to a dead body. Understanding my situation, I immediately started to look for a body of water, or at least I tried to. As I tried to walk off towards a direction filled with animal traces, I slip and fall, you see, lizards are meant to walk on four legs, not two. With two of my legs being stuck inside my eggshell, I was forced to roll around to move if I wanted any results.

At first, I struggled with not being able to tell where I was going, as my eyeholes kept moving as I rolled. Seeing the circumstance, I changed the continuous rolling to rolling and jumping as at the end of a roll I extended my legs outwards for a boost while at the same time getting a view of my path. At first, I failed miserably, not being able to memorize the path in front of me in time for the roll, and then a sort of epiphany seemed to pass over me. As I jumped and glanced over what was in front of me, I seemed to grasp a brief picture of what had seemed to be there.

Skill [Mapping] acquired

Startled by the chime, I came to stop for a brief second to closely examine this new change. As I was about to will the blue screen into existence for more information, I notice a terrifying detail, the caterpillar's body had disappeared. What had been just inches from me was replaced with what was now a hole. Seeing the situation I immediately jumped away and started rolling towards my previous direction.

It was then I heard a whoosh behind me before a huge shadow seemed to appear around me.

~BOOM~

A huge collision sound seemed to come from where I had stopped seconds ago.

~ROAAARRRR~

Hearing the roar, I was startled and scared out of my mind. I rolled and jumped with every part of my being, holding nothing back to live even one more second. 

~~SLITHER~~ ~~SLITHER~~

Hearing the slithering sound, I started racing my mind to find out what creature might be chasing me. I had tried to catch a glimpse of the creature as I continued to roll and jump, trying to examine the body of the slithering creature as my eye holes rolled backward, to no avail, as it was all too blurry. I didn't know much about how this new magical world worked, but the only animal I knew about that could burrow and had to slither above ground was a w-, WAIT.

'Blue Screen what does the skill inspect do?'

[Inspect] Skill that can give a certain amount of information about a certain thing or creature in your field of vision.

Seeing the information, I immediately started trying to activate inspect on the blur behind me.

[Rock: A Normal Rock]

[Leaf: A Normal Leaf]

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Name: ??? Race: Flesh Worm Level: ?

HP : ??/?? Stamina : ??/?? MP : ?/?

Strength : ?? Vitality : ? ? Intelligence : ?

Wisdom: ? Agility: ?(?) Luck: ?

Status: ???

Special Skills:

???

Resistance Skills:

???

Normal Skill:

???

Title:

[Scavenger]

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[Dirt: Normal Dirt]

[Grass: Normal Grass]

Seeing the description, I thought I had a chance, more of a chance than being chased by a snake, now I was forced to count on the basis that worms lived underground. I was counting on, me a newly born lizard egg who recently learned how to roll and jump around properly, was able to outspeed a worm that usually scavenges and most likely sneak attacks from underground. As bad as the fact sounded it was all I had for hope.

I continued to roll and jump with all my might, I was starting to feel exhausted but to my delight, the blurry figure of the worm was falling behind, at a noticeable rate. As the chase continued, I noticed a disturbing fact, the worm was somehow speeding up, while my body seemed to obey me less and less as time passed. My body was starting to feel noticeably tired, and for some reason, I was starting to feel cold. Noticing these new problems leaving me clueless, I checked my status page and inspect the changes going on with the worm.

'Status'

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Name: n/a Race: Walking Lizard Egg Level: 4/5

HP : 4/9 Stamina : 4/16 MP : 4/4 (+0.26/hour)

Strength : 2 Vitality : 8 Intelligence : 4

Wisdom: 2 Agility: 4 Luck: 83

Status: Tiredness (Severe), Injured

Special Skills:

[Egg’s Shell: Lv--]

Resistance Skills:

[Physical Resistance: Lv1] [Fall Resistance: Lv2] [Solitude Resistance: Lv1]

Normal Skill:

[Inspect: Lv1] [Mapping: Lv1]

Title:

[Born Killer] [Walking Egg] [Survivor] [Lucky] [Exceptional]

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'Inspect'

[Dirt: Mana Infused Dirt]

[Grass: Mana Infused Grass][Rock: Mana Infused Rock]

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Name: ??? Race: Flesh Worm Level: ?

HP : ??/?? Stamina : ??/?? MP : ?/?

Strength : ?? Vitality : ? ? Intelligence : ?

Wisdom: ? Agility: ?(?) Luck: ?

Status: ???

Special Skills:

???

Resistance Skills:

???

Normal Skill:

???

Title:

[Scavenger]

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[Leaf: Mana Infused Leaf]

Seeing the information my heart sunk, it was quite obvious that with my current condition there was no way I would be able to outrun the worm anymore. And on top of that, if I didn't get any warmth soon, even my passive egg regen might not be able to save me. As I continued to roll, dying of pain from overexertion, and the cold pervading my body, a chime seems to wake me from my stupor of suffering.

[Rolling] acquired Jumping acquired

And as my attention wavers, I hear the slithering sound behind me come to a halt for a brief second after a ~BAMF~ as a huge shadow appears to loom over me. I immediately extended my legs outwards, pushing my body rightwards, 'flying' diagonally as a huge worm seems to fall where I was a second ago.

~BANG~

I hear as the worm seems to hit the ground. Not being able to look back, I could only hope that the worm had gotten its head stuck in the ground. Hoping for best, I continue on rolling and jumping, and as I seem to pass a tree, I am suddenly in a clearing leading to a huge body of water. Seeing, what I was about to go looking for before my eyes, I immediately move towards it. Hoping what I learned about worms in biology was right, I throw my body towards the lake. As I get closer and closer to the lake, I once again hear the sound of slithering behind me and then.

~ROAR~

Roared, as if enraged, which for some reason I understood. Seeing its anger delight ran through my body, as the rage seemed to add to my theory of this worm being blind. I immediately throw my whole body into the body, hoping for the best, by at least thwarting the worm's speed through the use of water. As my body falls towards the water, a thought goes through my head, can I swim?

~Splash~

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