This used to be a normal world, a typical fantasy land full of elves and magic until I killed the elves and invented magic that brought about the industrial revolution. One of the best things I have ever done since coming to this hellhole of a place.
-Excerpt from the diary of [REDACTED], first summoned Hero.
The pain ceased momentarily before reigniting with newfound fury and power. Somehow, despite not having a body at all, the cockroach could still feel everything that was transpiring. It was a horrendous experience. When the substance finally formed into a vague representation of the cockroach, it began to rapidly solidify. A thin misty cloud gathered and formed into veins, then organs, as the body of the cockroach rapidly took shape, leaving only its exoskeleton to form.
Phase 2/3 complete.
When the screen faded a black and white powder flooded the chamber from out of seemingly nothing and rapidly shifted over the cockroach, the white cloud went towards its legs and other parts of its body while the black covered its entire body before solidifying with an audience pop that it could somehow hear with crystal clarity.
Evolution complete.
Time elapsed: 7 Days, 3 hours, 20 minutes, 40 seconds.
The evolution chamber unfolded and broke away, revealing the outside world. Colors it never knew existed flooded its compound eyes, causing the cockroach to shrink back rapidly, turning away from the light source. But no matter what it did, the light didn’t diminish until it willed it to do so. Finally, the blue screen disappeared.
The cockroach found it unsettling, its newfound ability to perceive almost all forms of light was strange and alien. All its life, it had gone without such a sense, and now it could see the blackness of the cave very well, or the bright blue crystals of its defeated foe, the crystal ant. Even in death, the crystals still shone dimly, something the cockroach noted. The world looked so much different now, felt so different. Everything was enhanced by an order of magnitude; it could see better, detect movement better, and even feel changes in air pressure more keenly.
The cockroach called upon the mighty blue screen to display the changes to its being.
Genus: Megaloblatta longipennis [🪳]
Growth stage: Hatchling
Size: 14 inches
Role: Hybrid (Survivor/Killer/ Thinker)
N.O EVO: [1]
Role level: [1/1]
Personal level: [5]
EXP: [-/-] (Personal level)
EXP: [-/-] (Role level)
Sex: Female
Stats:
Survivability [2%]
Vitality [5]
Speed [5]
Damage [5]
Bleed [5]
Power [5]
Mind [6]
Willpower [7]
Defense [2]
Aspect trees unlocked: [4]
Resistance aspect tree(4/??)
Manipulation aspect tree (1/???)
General aspect tree (1/???)
Enhancement aspect tree (1/???)
Skills: [9]
Crushing resistance (Common) (20/100)
Piercing resistance (Common)(20/100)
Willpower Manipulation (Common)(1/100)
Acid resistance (Common) (20/100)
dodge(Common) (15/100)
Cutting resistance (Common) (7/100)
[Hybrid exoskeleton] (Special) (1/???)
[Bone Mandibles](Special) (1/???)
Enhanced bleeding(Rare) (1/200) [Role: Killer]
Evolutions:
Defense system [+1]
Attack system [+1]
(?###?)
Its values had ascended once again, with each level-up contributing to this increase. The cockroach speculated that the incremental rise was due to its multiple level-ups. The cockroach scrutinized its body, observing a striking contrast of black and white adorning its legs, while its mandibles gleamed in pristine white. Returning its gaze to the screen at the bottom, it beheld the newly acquired skills and the fresh evolution section. This progression brought a sense of satisfaction, a realization that it was growing, improving—an alignment with deep-seated and buried instincts within the cockroach.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The cockroach soared into the air, navigating its newfound physical prowess with exuberance. It darted around with astonishing speed, easily tripling its previous agility. Executing wide, intricate circles in the air, it showcased its enhanced mobility. The cockroach then directed its flight toward the area where it had previously observed the living moss. With heightened senses, it effortlessly located the moss-covered section of the cave, detecting the earthy pheromones and vibrant green hues emanating from the moss.
The cockroach directed a strand of its willpower towards it and willed the blue screen to tell it information about the creature.
Awakened Living moss (hybrid) (5) [🌳]
The cockroach had come for revenge. Now that it was stronger and better equipped to deal with the moss, there was no way for the creature to kill it anymore. The cockroach landed horizontally on a piece of grey stone not too far from the moss and watched it. The moss hadn’t shown any signs of movement, and while it was still pretty, it wasn’t enough for the cockroach to blindly throw itself at it. The insect's mind had advanced since then, and it would no longer fall for such simple traps. It crept closer, trying its best to stay out of sight, even though it didn’t exactly know how far its visual range extended nor how.
Skill unlocked[🔓]: Stealth (Common) (1/100)
Hiding skill detected! Stealth aspect tree unlocked.
The new skill was a welcomed one; a small packet of information popped up in the cockroach’s mind, and the cockroach instantly corrected the way it tried to hide itself, moving between stones much faster and more efficiently than it did before. Eventually, it reached a moss-covered stone that was large enough to hide behind. It stealthily flew over to it before it hid behind the stone. Suddenly, the previously inert moss sprung to life. Vines and roots twisted themselves around the cockroach, and thorns wrapped around it, attempting to pierce into the insect’s exoskeleton but were hardly making it through.
Before the cockroach could attempt to break free, the vines and thorns suddenly glowed green and effortlessly overcame the resistance of its body, sinking into it before injecting something vile. The cockroach felt the effects instantly.
Status effect gained: Moss venom[1]
The insides of the cockroach liquified, turning green before rapidly growing and turning into tiny vines that rapidly turned into more moss, it died instantly.
You have died [☠️]
Skill unlocked[🔓]: Venom resistance (common) (1/100)
Level up! [✨] Skill: [Hybrid exoskeleton] (Special) (1/???) is now [Hybrid exoskeleton] (Special) (2/???)
The cockroach snapped back to reality, phantom pain still lingering around its entire body as it remembered the insane amount of pain the venom had inflicted on it. It was not prepared for that; the moss had clearly grown since the last time the cockroach saw it, more so than the cockroach had. Before, it merely crushed it when the cockroach got too close; now, it didn’t even need to lure the cockroach in anymore, capable of attacking from anywhere that had moss. This complicated things by a large margin for the cockroach, and it was now thinking about how exactly to get its revenge when it couldn’t go anywhere near it.
There was one thing it had that it could use to its advantage, though: its inability to fully die. It could simply rush towards the moss until it gained some way to fully fight back against its venom, but that would take a long time—an unreasonably painful time the cockroach did not want. The insect took to the air, flying over the slowly decomposing corpse of the crystal ant and to the moss-covered region. The cockroach zipped around, looking for spots where the moss did and did not reach. The spot where it had died was now fully covered in vibrant and green moss, so the moss had somehow grown off its death, something that troubled the cockroach greatly.
Its body was still there, but it was crawling with moss and vines, looking like it had been there for years instead of mere minutes. This sight deeply disturbed the cockroach as it gazed upon its own dead and overgrown body. The cockroach flew down a bit closer, intending to take a closer look when the curtain of green suddenly shifted and moved. Vines rapidly shaped themselves into a sharp and menacing form that shot towards it. The cockroach moved, barely avoiding getting impaled in time.
It wasn’t over yet, though. The entire moss-covered region seemed to tremble as movement rapidly passed through it. Vines of all sizes shot up in the air in an attempt to subdue the cockroach, forcing it to rapidly dodge and shift through an uncountable amount of vines and thorns as it sought to fly higher.
When it was almost free, a thorn broke free from a striking vine, drenched in the same strange glow that it saw the last time, and shot sideways. It flew in defiance of gravity as if it didn’t exist, making contact with the cockroach. The thorn passed through its exoskeleton with a loud crack, penetrating the insect. White blood mixed with tiny bits of carbon and calcium plates flowed from the wound before it began to rapidly turn green. Vines twisted themselves from the inside of the cockroach, its many compound eyes shifting and popping as tiny vines grew in its head and sought to escape. It shrieked in agony and pain, white blood spilling from its mouth as it did. The cockroach died a second later.
Status effect gained: Moss venom[2]
You have died [☠️]
Level up! [✨] Skill: Venom resistance (common) (1/100) is now Venom resistance (common) (10/100)
Level up! [✨] Skill: Piercing resistance (Common) (20/100) is now Piercing resistance (Common)(25/100)
Level up! [✨] Skill: [Hybrid exoskeleton] (Special) (2/???) is now [Hybrid exoskeleton] (Special) (5/???)
+1 Defense
Power washed over the cockroach as it came back to life. Its exoskeleton shifted slightly, thickening a bit, and it somehow felt harder in ways it could not fully grasp. It had not expected to die in such a manner; the moss had displayed powers it still couldn’t wrap its head around. The way those vines moved was strange, and alien, and the last part was the strangest of it all. That strange glow made it feel afraid; something felt off about it, and the cockroach knew this deep down.
The way the thorn had penetrated it was wrong on so many levels. The power behind it, after being infused with whatever caused that green glow, was like nothing the cockroach could ever imagine. The cockroach concluded that the moss was out of its league for now. It was better off hunting something else or going back to the place where it found those maggots, near the riverbed.
The cockroach took off, flying through the air along the riverbed until it picked up the familiar pheromones of the maggots. Locking onto the scent, it dove after it, eventually finding itself at the very edge of the river, where the water simply disappeared into a great wall of stone that it initially assumed was the wall of the cave it found itself in. After seeing the water simply pass through, however, the cockroach began to reconsider.
Curious, the cockroach moved as close as it possibly could to the wall without touching it. It extended a leg and watched as it simply passed through, startling the cockroach and causing it to jump back in fright. Looking around frantically, the cockroach realized it was not being attacked and was simply reacting to some strange effect that had taken hold of its mind the moment it touched the wall that wasn’t actually a wall.
With no small amount of trepidation, the cockroach took to the air, and flew directly at the “Wall” passing right through as if it didn’t exist. A blue screen popped up in its vision.
The dungeon [Vardent greenhub] wants to buy your template for [-/??] EXP, accept?
The cockroach didn’t quite understand what this meant but got the vague feeling that the blue screen was asking it something. It seemed to be requesting the departure of something that would be of great importance. The cockroach pulled on its willpower and conveyed its intent. The screen disappeared as if it never existed, and another one popped up.
[Please hold…]
[The dungeon is displeased, difficulty set to: High]
[You have been marked.]
[Transporting to dungeon [[Vardent greenhub]]
A blue cone enveloped the cockroach before whisking it away.