In the last couple of days, I had healed up well, though not to the point where I was battle-ready. I could throw [Arcane Shot] at will, but my movement still lacked its usual agility.
I invested the few unallocated points I had into Recovery, which seemed like the right choice. Just like how my energy recovered a little when I invested points in Soul, my wounds patched up a bit with the investment in Recovery. Of course, I was still far from making a complete recovery.
The primal essence helped with the healing as well, much to my relief. I’d poured all my effort into healing my broken spine with the essence. Perhaps a couple of levels up would have sped things along too, but I couldn’t bring myself to hunt with such an injury.
But that didn’t mean I was simply resting for the last two days. No, in the time I was awake, I came up with a brilliant plan to get stronger, which I shamelessly titled Shai’s Path to Supremacy. I wished I had a pen and paper to refine it through writing... but it was impossible for a limbless creature like me.
After mulling over all my experiences, interactions, and fights, I realised it was all about essence. The system rewards me with essence when I slay a creature... but I could also gain essence just from devouring essence-rich contents like mushrooms. Obviously, levelling up from them seemed to be far more difficult compared to hunting, but that didn’t mean it was impossible.
I’d already gained a level once. It’s only a matter of time. And right now, time was the one thing I had, given my banged-up state.
With everything I had experienced, it was safe to assume I was different somehow. I wasn’t sure if it went beyond my reincarnation or sentience, but none of the other creatures I’d encountered possessed something like an inventory. I wasn’t even sure if System Grandpa assisted them as he helped me.
But they do have levels. Just that they weren’t cognisant enough to grasp primal essence. I, however, am an exception. I deemed primal essence to be the greatest weapon in my arsenal, and I had barely gotten the hang of it. I’d have to gravitate more toward weaving primal essence and learn additional spirit skills.
Clearly, digging and crawling, or popping eyes didn’t come as skills. If they were, I would have already acquired them. After mulling over it a lot, I found a few essentials necessary for my survival. In terms of skills, I needed a defensive skill, a strengthening skill, and a trump card. Thankfully, I already had some ideas about the first two...
Then there were the attributes. I hadn’t been utilising them all. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to, I simply wasn’t sure what some of them did. I took a deep breath and commanded my mind to open the status page.
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[Shai]
Rank: Foundation (F)
Path: Favoured Hatchling Lvl 6
Laws: None.
Mark: Fatemarked. Blessed by Kismet (Lesser). Predator.
Attributes:
Primary Attribute: Total
* Physique: 16
* Mind: 18
* Soul: 26
* Recovery: 21
Special Attributes:
* Insight: 9
* Evolution: 17
* Fortune: 18
Unallocated points: 0
Aspect:
Golden Eyes (Dormant) | Poison Affinity (D)
Skills [5/8]:
Basic Meditation (F) - 99% | Predatory Instinct (D) - 9% | Arcane Shot (D) - 13% | Essence Weaving (E) - 4% | Pain Resistance (E) - 32%
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Boon:
Inventory | Lingual Comprehension
Remark:
I was only a Level 1 Hatchling.
[System Log] [Active Quest]
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The four primary attributes—Physique, Mind, Soul, and Recovery—were what I needed to raise to grow stronger. With my observations, I found I couldn’t overlook any of them.
Soul might affect the amount and quality of the primal essence I could draw upon, but without a powerful Mind to harness and direct it, it would be as useless as a bucket of water. Mental strength was equally essential.
Of course, I couldn’t deny the use of a powerful physique, either.
Lastly, there was Recovery, representing my regenerative and healing abilities—an equally important attribute. However, I needed sufficient points in the other three attributes—Physique, Soul, and Mind—to fully utilise Recovery. In a way, Recovery was the compound of the three aspects of life.
Other than levelling up, blessings and awakening marks helped improve attributes, as evidenced by the +10 boost I had received to all attributes.
Unfortunately, I knew no other way to obtain blessings or awaken more marks. Defeating higher-ranked beasts might help, but that was pretty suicidal in my current state.
But the path to power didn’t end with attributes... skills were a big part of it. Other than improving my five skills, I planned on getting three more useful skills in my arsenal by the time my body fully recovered.
Before that, though, I intended to complete Basic Meditation, since I only needed one more percentage. At worst, it would take a couple of days... I had that much time.
Thankfully, it didn’t take long. I didn’t know the exact time, but I was sure it was no longer than a couple of hours when I heard Grandpa’s voice again.
[Congratulations, you have mastered Basic Meditation (F). +2 Points to Evolution, Mind, Soul.]
Power stirred within me, and I was more than delighted with this pleasant surprise. But the surprises weren’t over yet.
[Your grasp of meditation is greater than the basic form. You can weave primal essence in meditative form.]
[Basic Meditation (F) evolves to Advanced Meditation (E)...]
Cool!
[Advanced Meditation:
Mastery: 1%
Helps in accumulating, synthesising, and recovering primal essence. It also has a great effect on calming the mind.]
With that, I found it was a lot easier to draw in primal essence. My mind could visualise and channel energy into all my wounds as if a whole new path had been opened for me. Now, I didn’t have to build up the power to shoot an Arcane Shot. While it still took a split second—as I tested—it was thrice as fast. And stronger, too.
It was like a qualitative change to how I utilised primal essence. So, not just the Mind affects how I direct the primal essence; skills like Meditation do too…
The realisation brought more joy to me. I utilised another [Arcane Shot], this time imbued with poison. The synergy between the venom and essence improved as well.
Satisfied, I moved on to practise my essence weaving skill. My primary goal was to learn a defensive skill. I focused my energy, attempting to condense it into a thin layer of barrier in front of me. I already knew the theory behind it from the insights I received when I learned [Essence Weaving (E)]. Yet all my attempts dissipated into thin air quickly, no matter how much energy I invested.
If I get discouraged by failures, I should give up already…
I tried again. After my eighth failed attempt, I finally received the prompt.
[Would you like to learn the skill, Force Shield (E)?]
[Force Shield (E) will consume 1 point of Insight.]
I eagerly agreed as System Grandpa deducted 1 point from my Insight and flooded my tiny mind with a barrage of relevant information. For a brief moment, I felt the weight of the knowledge, and my eyes widened in recognition of what I had been doing wrong.
[Congratulations! You have learned the skill, Force Shield (E).]
I’ve got it, I hissed. Thanks, Grandpa.
I wasn’t discouraged by the lack of a reply from System Grandpa. I was already busy channelling my energy as the information had shown me. The mistake I’d been making was rather foolish. I had been leaving the energy to dissipate after creating the transparent shield, but that wasn’t the correct approach. Without intent behind it, the energy was nothing but inanimate matter.
I needed to maintain my intent behind the skill and circulate the power in a cycle to avoid wasting more energy than necessary.
After a couple more tries, I finally succeeded.
[Force Shield (E):
Mastery: 1%
Conjures a semi-corporeal shield of primal essence.]
I spent a moment gloating at my improvement before moving on to learn the next skill.