2 Chapter 1
A creature slumbered peacefully. A peace that had not been meant to last long as it was shocked awake.
After an awakening that was both, abrupt and hasty, it tried to take in the world around it. Yet, all it was greeted by was the vision of complete and utter darkness. Not unlike the one that had, for a long time, greeted it in its childhood.
The old darkness was cold, cramped and lifeless. It threatened to swallow it whole.
'Where am I?' The creature didn't know the answer to that. In fact, it didn't even remember anything at the moment. '…Just what is happening?'
The more the creature's eyes narrowed, the more its brows furrowed and a suspicion formed in its mind. At the moment the suspicion formed, its narrowed eyes widened and its pupils dilated. 'Where am I?'
Its heartbeat quickened, yet it felt heavy. It felt constricted by its surrounding and lack of space began to suffocate it. Veins puffed up and its eyes became bloodshot. 'Who is doing this to me!? WHY?!'
The creature tried to move its body but, for some reason, all it could do was to make it squirm. The creature's suffocation became unbearable. It seemed to the creature as if the walls confining it were moving in, ready to crush it with but a thought.
The creature pushed back against the walls but it found its body had been rolled in some kind of fleshy meatball. All the while, the walls -seemingly- rushed in. The creature resisted but it couldn't move its limbs. It couldn't stretch its body. All it could do was make its body squirm.
In the midst of the cocktail of emotions, an unnerving one took root. The creature began trembling, its body quivering like a leaf in the storm and its blood pumped faster. If this emotion could be named, it would horror that seeped through the eyes, to the flesh and to the bone.
The mere thought of why it would be in the condition that it had found itself in, had seemingly shilled the creature's very soul. 'I couldn't have been buried alive! No!'
The creature tried to push with its body and even tried to shove. It threw its weight against the walls of its weird coffin.
And the creature felt it move, not unlike the movement of a slime, before the coffin pushed back and retained its shape with equal fervour.
The creature's heartbeat raced and its quivering stopped as the creature shoved harder. It tried to punch the walls with its fists but for some reason, instead of 2 limbs, multiple limbs moved. And not in the way that it had wanted them to.
It stopped mid-strike and tried to remember its last memory before it had woken up in the coffin. It was …it was …hazy and confusing. Mere trying to think about the past gave the creature a headache.
But it was not the headache that the creature focused on. Rather, it was the lack of feelings from its hands and legs. Yet it could feel multiple other limbs protruding from its body; limbs that it should not have.
Its heart beated even faster as it tried hard to remember, but all it got in return was searing and unfathomable pain. The creature trembled as its body reacted out of its control. 'Has someone tampered with my memory?! Where am I?! What is going on?!'
'I died.' Its memory finally began to clear.
The reason for its demise did not concern it, at least not at the moment. What did matter to it was just one thing? 'I died.'
A hollowness unlike anything that it had felt before, seeped within it-
'I died'
-and, slowly, it's pounding heart-
'I died'
-became so heavy, it seemed to stop beating.
'I died.'
It had lost its family.
'I died.'
Its life.
'I died.'
Its friends.
'I di-'
Screeeeeeeeeeeeech!
…
…
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
The creature tried again and again. And, finally, it remembered.
Power. Of the very Laws.
Monstrous existences. Beyond the Gods.
And obliteration.
Nature itself had turned against them, ripping their civilization asunder.
Even the [Five Great Ghosts] had abandoned their race; punishing the men, the women, the old and the children alike. The fate of one and all was nothing but one, death.
The Gods had let their prayers go unheard. They had refused the summons. The death and the devastation had not seemed to move their undying hearts. The Divine grace, that had been ever-present and all-pervading, had abandoned them in their moment of need.
Perhaps, even the Gods had died alongside their worshippers.
Calamities, catastrophes and cataclysms unlike anything they had imagined had descended upon them. Not only had they descended down from the heavens but they had also ascended from deep within the womb of the Earth. And they had destroyed everything that had existed. Not a single being had been left alive. Not a single creature had been allowed to exist. It had been a complete and utter annihilation.
It had been…a punishment from the Heavens and the Earth. '...but...why?!'
The creature had no answer.
At that moment, its eyes widened in the dark prison. Everything that it had known, no longer existed. The people that it had known, the city that it had lived in, the country that it had called its own, the civilization that had been its own...all of it, sundered. Annihilated.
A Heavenly punishment for a crime unknown.
The creature struggled in its prison. 'Dead.'
It squirmed, thrashed and struggled with all its might. 'Everyone is dead!'
It channeled its rage into achieving freedom. 'Nothing remained!!'
It had to. 'Dead!'
It just had to. 'DESTROYED!!'
'ANNIHILATED!'
The cold air hit its head and its ears popped as it broke free. The sudden change in temperature shocked it out of its line of thought. It struggled and thrashed and pushed at the opening and finally, it broke through it. It was free, finally free. Yet, this freedom did not cause any joy to the lonely pair of hollowed eyes.
The creature huffed and puffed as its desolation and anger simmered within it, but the sight which greeted it, in its freedom, forced it all back.
And what a grotesque sight it was. In front of the creature lay huge balls, almost the same size as the creature's body. And out of many of them, things were crawling out. Green and black and elongated things.
'Insects!' The eyes thought before they corrected that line of thought. 'Maggots!'
Its eyes widened and heartbeat quickened as it looked around. 'Those round balls are eggs! They aren't coffins or prisons! They are eggs!'
Eggs.
Eggs.
And more eggs.
The creature was surrounded by them. Wherever it looked, the sea of eggs stretched. And out of most of them, things were coming out; things that were maggots.
Its mind told it to look down, to look at its own body. But its heart didn't want to, for it was afraid. It was so very afraid of what it'd find.
However, before the creature could do anything about its fear, something primal hit it and took over its mind. It was all the creature could think about as it overwhelmed the creature's mind. The primal force forced it to look down at what was beneath its body.
Hunger had overcome it and it was forcing the creature to eat whatever it was that was beneath its body.
But as the creature lowered its head to eat, it also saw what it had become. What its body had become. It was green and black and elongated like all the other things crawling around it.
'Maggot!' The creature's mind supplied as it began to shut down.
The creature, which thought that it was now a maggot, couldn't think. It couldn't feel. It couldn't process what had become of it. 'Filth! Vermin!'
The rage, the desolation, the shock, the disgust and the plethora of emotions overwhelmed the poor creature. It could do nothing as its fragile mind went into shock.
…
…
…
!
!
!
The maggot's mind broke out of the stupor and it looked down at what it was doing. Somehow, when its mind had stopped working, the baser instincts of its new body -'Uggh!'- had taken over. Thus, it had devoured whatever it was that had been beneath its body.
Hunger overcame it again and it bent down to continue eating, whatever it was that it had been eating until the creature devoured it all.
Ting.
[You have consumed The Gift.]
Ting.
[You have levelled up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]
The creature paused, both eating and thinking. Overwhelmed as its mind was, the only emotion to surface at the moment was curiosity. 'What is this?'
As if in answer to its thoughts, a new blue screen popped up.
Ting.
Status
[Unnamed] [Skills] [Spells] [Dharma]
It frowned and moved its head to the side, to look around the screen. Though, to the creature's surprise, the screen too moved along. 'Just…what is this?'
But being a maggot, that it was, hunger made itself known by the way of immense burn that was raging in its belly. And dutifully, like a meek little servant, it began to eat again. As it chomped on the tasteless leaves, it focused on the one option that had disturbed it the most; the option, [Unnamed]. No sooner had it focused on the option than the floating blue list changed.
Ting.
Name: Unnamed
Race: Immortal
Species: Insect
Vessel: Caterpillar
Level: 2
HP: 7/7 MP: -
HPR: 1/Day MPR: -
Lifespan: 90 days
Titles
[Reincarnated], [Hungry]
Its toothy mouth twisted downwards and its eyes narrowed as it paused to consider. 'That makes no sense.'
Despite not understanding the significance of information displayed before its eyes, one caught its eye; the title, [Reincarnated]. The creature focused on it and another blue screen popped up.
Ting.
[Title [Reincarnated] allows memories and experience of a single previous birth to be transferred to the new body.]
'Is this about me?' The caterpillar frowned. 'Is this about my reincarnation?'
At that moment, despite being reminded of its death, the reincarnated creature didn't feel the grief and the sorrow that had assaulted it previously. Instead, all it felt was an odd resignation. This was not only odd, it was unnatural.
But this was not the only unnatural thing with this reaction. If the reincarnated creature had been of sound mind, it would have noticed such a reaction. But the creature didn't. And it was not just because its mind was far from being called healthy and sound.
Instead, it was because there was a war going on within it that it was unaware of. A war that it would remain unaware of until its death and maybe even beyond that. Ignorance was bliss, after all. But more often than not, it was death.
Ignorant as it was, the creature began going through the information, one thing at a time. The next to catch its eye was something even more unbelievable than the previous one. It was its [Race], [Immortal].
Ting.
[[Immortal]s are lifeforms that are born with lengthy lifespans and the ability to increase it further. They are Creatures that are not bound by their Vessels and the concept of civilization. It denies access to Attributes and Spells.]
The creature stared at the screen. It tried to comprehend the meaning of the words that it saw but there was just too much for it to understand at once. 'I am now…an immortal?'
The reincarnated creature focused and tried to recall if it had known anything about Immortals in its last life, but all it got was a sharp headache that left its head ringing. The creature halted its attempts immediately and shook its head as the pain began to fade away.
This time, instead, it focused on the screen in front of it. 'Not bound by my Vessel and concept of civilization? What does that mean?'
It frowned and read the description again and saw the capital letter for Attribute. The capitalization seemed important to it and, as a result, it focused on it. In that very instant, a red screen popped up.
TRAAAAAAANG!
'Heavens above!!'
[Attributes are blocked for Immortals. Access Denied.]
The reincarnated creature shook its head as if trying to shake off the loud sound. It was only after the sound died that it looked up and eyed the red screen warily. It remained wary as the warning slowly faded away.
'I do not want to experience something like that again!' It had been an experience most unpleasant. The creature called upon the previous screen and eyes capital 'S' of Spells warily and moved on. It was not going through something like that again willingly.
Though, now wary of what might come, it cautiously decided to explore the rest of the 'Status'.
It was then it noticed the [Lifespan: 90 days]. Its eyes widened and it felt blood rushing to its face as all its calm shattered like glass. 'What the fuck!'
It would have shrieked in anger if it had been able to. 'What the actual fuck! What fresh shit is this!? Wasn't I an Immortal?! Didn't I have a lengthy lifespan?! What the fuck is this! Is 90 days a lengthy lifespan!?'
With its body burning with fury, the tiny creature read the description of the Race [Immortal] before it scowled. The situation, that it had found itself in, would have tickled its dark humour in its past life. Yet, now that it was the one experiencing it, it could not see any humour in the situation.
The creature took a deep breath. 'Focus. Focus. Focus.' It told itself before squinting and focusing on [Name: Unnamed] and just like before, another box popped up.
Ting.
[Names can be bestowed either by the sire or the master. You are an unnamed creature.]
Its face twisted in distaste. 'I can't even name myself? What sort of absurd rule is that? Why can't I name myself?' This made no sense to the little being. But after the irony of being an immortal caterpillar with a lifespan of 90 days, this ridiculous rule did not surprise it.
While focusing on returning to the previous screen, the caterpillar moved to another leaf. It had devoured its current one in its entirety. The current screen closed and the previous one popped up. It focused on [Vessel: Caterpillar].
Ting.
[Vessel is the current form of your body. You are a Caterpillar.]
'Thank the Heavens I am not a maggot.' It moved onto the next option, [Species: Insect].
Ting.
[Species allows for different evolution pathways to manifest. Current evolution path available: Insect.]
'Wait… what?' This was getting more and more ridiculous. 'What even is evolution?'
Ting.
[Every Immortal has the ability to evolve. Evolution is the ability to change one's Vessel, when one reaches Level 100, to a more powerful one on the evolution pathways granted by one's Species.]
'This is such bullshit.' It thought, for what felt like the hundredth time. 'Yet, this explained what the Race [Immortal] had meant when it said that an immortal was not bound by its Vessel.' Though, while still being left a bit confused, it focused on the word [Level].
Ting.
[Level is the relative power level compared to one's initial form after evolution. Experience is needed to Level up.]
It focused on the word [Experience]. It did not know what that was either.
Ting
[Immortals live in the world of Kill or be Killed. Experience is what is gained by killing other living creatures.]
'Well, that was clear.' It huffed but moved onto the next option nonetheless, [HP: 7/7].
Ting.
[Health Points is the maximum damage you can take. Zero HP results in death. Current HP: 7/7]
It scowled and took in a deep breath to calm itself before it focused on [MP: -] next.
Ting.
[Mana Points is the maximum mana available to cast magic spells. Your species doesn't allow usage of Mana.]
'BULL. SHIT! I call bullshit!' It screamed in frustration. 'I was a sorceress in my previous life, how can I not have magic?! Magic has nothing to do with anybody's body! It has everything to do with one's soul! I was reincarnated, wasn't I?! It means I have my soul! Give me my magic, you little shit!'
It ranted. It raved. It ranted for a while as it continued to eat. But, as it had expected, it did not have any effect. Thus, tired of its own mental ranting, it moved onto the next option, [Titles].
Ting.
[Title is a label awarded by the Will of the World to the living beings, for performing specific tasks or for meeting certain specifications.]
'That explained the [Reincarnated] Title. Though, what is this Will of the World?' It focused on that.
Ting.
[Will of the World is the manifestations of Laws that govern the Creation.]
'Laws of the Creation?'
'…Heavens Above!' The creature exclaimed in astonishment. 'To think that the laws of the Creation could be uncovered in such a simple way! Simply magnificent!'
It was a testament to the instability of the creature's mind that it went through one strong emotion after another and yet seemed to forget the previous ones when the next one overwhelmed it. It had experienced grief, panic, joy and now giddiness, in just a short time.
Yet, it did not find it strange at all. Its mind was fragile like an infant's crushed fist.
Still, the current discovery left it feeling a bit buoyed. And unknowing of its own mental state, the creature moved on to the last Title, [Hungry].
Ting.
[The Title [Hungry] forces its bearer to eat continuously. It allows the creature to gain experience from consuming food. Title restricted to a single Vessel. Lost upon Evolution.]
'Does that mean it will be removed when I evolve?' It frowned for a moment before moving onto his [Skills].
Ting.
[Crawl Lv.1]
[Ability to crawl on your body.]
Ting.
[Molting Lv.1]
[Ability to shed the exoskeleton/skin and come out as new. Cost depends on the size of being.]
Ting.
[Poison Resistance Lv.5]
[Ability to reduce the effect of poison and delay being poisoned. Decrease the damage of the Poison by the Level of this skill.]
Ting.
[Venom Creation Lv.1]
[Allows the creation of weak venom which does base damage of 5 points per minute. The skill lasts for minutes equal to the level of this skill. The effects of the venom stack. Increase the potency of the venom and increase base damage per 10 levels of this skill. The potency of the resultant venom depends upon the resistances obtained by the [Poison Resistance] skill.]
It frowned again. All the rest of its skills started from [Level: 1] but this [Poison Resistance] skill started from [Level: 5]. It focused on it.
Ting.
[Ability to delay being poisoned. Due to being born a poisonous Immortal, the ability starts with a few levels mastered.]
'That makes somewhat of a sense.' It thought as it continued eating.
Ting.
[You have levelled up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]
Startled, it checked its status, and sure enough, its Level read [Level: 4] and its HP read as [HP: 8/8]. Giddy for the moment, it turned to the second last option, [Spells] and focused on it. It didn't even remember the previous situation when it had focused on Attributes. Thus, it was quite surprising when a red screen popped up.
TRAAAANG!!
[Attributes are blocked for Immortals. Access Denied.]
The creature shook its head and cursed itself for getting the previous experience. Yet, once the sound died down, it forgot about this experience once again. Instead, it turned to the last option, the most ominous one, [Dharma].
A golden screen popped up this time.
Ting.
[Since there is life, death exists now. Since there is now death, life exists. Within the singularity of this infinity, lies the endless chaos of half-truths. Truth and Untruth, both extend through this singularity. In the moment between singularity to infinity and infinity to singularity, hides the meaning of Dharma.]
[Dharma: Thrive.]
'What…utter nonsense is this?'
Its mouth fell open and eyes widened as it gawked, for it understood not a thing. It read the message again. And it tried to grasp the meaning that seemed to be hidden within. Yet, all it saw was a bunch of spiritual crap that was worth less than the time spent on reading it.
The creature ground its teeth as its body trembled.
It was all too much.
The roller coaster of emotions, that this tiny being had gone through, had left it fragile mind mentally exhausted. All it wanted to do was stop thinking. It wanted to sleep.
But sleep it could not afford. The fire raging within its belly left it unable to do anything but eat. It rose from deep within its body and burned its throat and took over its mind. Thus, the creature ate. It stopped thinking about its reincarnation and continued to eat. It ate and ate and ate. For the title [Hungry] demanded so.
0.0
When had the time waited for anyone? And as the time passed the days turned to nights and the nights turned to days as two weeks passed.
In these past 2 weeks, the reincarnated creature noticed a peculiar thing. It had noticed that the moon seemed to behave differently than what the creature was used to. The heavenly body seemed to dance across the sky, hopping from one direction to another, every single night. And more often than not, it seemed to change colours when it jumped.
The pale white rays that creature had been familiar with, would either get subsumed by either the azure blue like that of the clear blue sky or the fresh green of a newly birthed leaf. And although the moon changed colours like it was changing clothes, it's light remained as pale as ever; maybe with hints of blue or green, but it mattered little within the devouring darkness of the night.
On this particular day, the creature woke up, not because the shining rays of the sun had hit it softly, creating a perfect scene. No, nothing of the sort. It woke up because, after the number of leaves It had eaten, it had to shit. It had to shit a lot.
With that bit of unpleasantness done, it resumed eating. It was not like it could do anything else. As the creature began to eat once again, it reminisced about the two things that it had achieved in these past 2 weeks. First was that its Skill, [Crawl], had reached Level 2, while the second was that the creature itself had hit Level 15, with its HP reading [HP: 20/20].
It smiled slightly. 'If I continue on levelling like this, soon I would evolve.'
Now that the newly born caterpillar had reached [Level: 15] from [Level: 1] in a mere 2 weeks, it wished to level up even faster. So, it chomped and chomped and chomped.
"Screeeeech!"
The tiny creature heard the strange sound and it stopped eating to look around.
The creature's very blood seemed to freeze as a sudden chill hit it and its eyes widened. The tiny being had come face to face with its natural predator. The flying intruder was a bird of some sort and it was coming down faster and faster, aiming at the plant that the vermin had been devouring.
The bird was, obviously, aiming for a little breakfast.
The caterpillar knew that it was not fast enough to crawl away from the bird. No matter how much its crawl speed had increased due to the skill's new Level, the little vermin was no match for a bird.
And that bird, that creature, was honing in on it, faster and faster.
The caterpillar panicked. Its brain couldn't think of anything beyond the approaching death, that was descending upon it, with every passing second. It felt its heart race miles a minute and its body shivered in fear and horror. Its death was near, that was all that its instincts screamed at it; overwhelming the pest with the desire to flee because they knew that fighting was not an option.
Seeing no other option but to flee, the caterpillar let go of the leaf, on which it had been hanging on and fell. Air rushed by it and disorientation hit it for a moment before it hit the ground with a smack.
Disoriented as the caterpillar was, the creature shook itself, trying to shake off the shock of the fall and winced. That fall had harmed the tiny creature. And although the pain was undesired, the jolt had successfully broken the caterpillar out of its instinct induced panic.
Clamping down on the pain, the caterpillar glanced at flesh which had hit the ground, and sure enough, it's soft bulging body looked bruised and pulped. The tiny being swallowed. 'That had been a bad idea.'
It turned back to watch the plant, which had been its home and source of food for the past few weeks and saw the bird…creature devour the rest of its brethren with no mercy. It was wolfing down every caterpillar in the sight. One after another, the caterpillar crawled but disappeared a moment later. The creature shivered.
'Kill or be Killed.' It remembered the blue screen had said.
Having noticed the situation, it turned around, unable to watch the carnage and tried to find someplace to hide, away from the eyes of the vicious thing decimating the population of caterpillars. Its eyes fell on a pile of dead leaves that cast a shade beneath them and the caterpillar tried to crawl towards the shade but the pain that erupted in its body felt like lightning.
Forcing its tiny limbs to support itself, the tiny creature lifted its body. But that little effort left it breathing hard and gasping. The jolt of red-hot pain, which ran through its body, had its tiny legs refusing to move but It had no other choice. It wasn't a choice of life and death.
It wasn't a choice at all, for it refused to die again. It would not die. Not here; not at the claws of some random bird.
It crawled forward, barely making it. Its body almost refused to move again but through sheer will to live, the creature made it through. It took a deep breath and reminded itself that it had no choice. It crawled again. And again, a bolt of screaming pain pulsed through it. It bit down on the flesh of its mouth and tasted blood.
Ting.
[Skill [Pain Resistance Lv.1] granted. Your pain tolerance has been increased.]
It heard the chime and felt the pain from its wound decrease just a tinge but it ignored the pain and the screen. It did not have the time for such silliness at the moment.
Breathing in a shaky breath, it pushed itself towards the shade. It moved, just a tinge and its breath escaped it with the soaring pain. It took in another breath and tried again. It moved and it pushed itself again, not wanting to let the breadth escape this time.
It winced and pushed itself through the hurt and the blinding pain until it managed to reach the shade beneath the pile of leaves. It took in a deep but shaky breath.
Ting.
[Skill [Pain Resistance Lv.1] has levelled up to [Pain Resistance Lv.2]. Continuous damage caused by pain is decreased by the 2 points.]
Ignoring the screen, it turned back to look at the plant. The population of caterpillars was dangerously low now. Soon the bird would come down, looking for any that had fallen. The creature could not allow the bird to find it. It could not let the bird eat it. It could not let itself be killed.
No.
It would not die.
It absolutely would not die.
Taking another deep breath, it shoved its head into the soft ground and bit as much dirt as it could. It pulled back and spat the dirt out and shoved its face again into the dirt. It could not use its legs or its other limbs; they were short and stubby and useless in this situation.
It repeated the process again and again and again. All the while, it thanked the gods that a caterpillar's mouth was much larger compared to its body than a Mortal's. It could not imagine doing the same thing with its original body.
Soon the hole was large enough for its tiny body to fill it in and through the pain and hurt, it managed to shove itself in, with its mouth down the hole and its ass facing the world.
It was tired; so very tired. And hurt. But it could not give up, not yet. It was still vulnerable and had no way to hide its ass which was hanging out in the air. It was out of its wits and there seemed to be no way to hide itself completely.
It felt the disturbance, a vibration.
Thump. Thump.
It felt the landing of the sharp claws and knew that the bird had come looking for the ones that had fallen. Fear strengthened its hold on the little vermin, and its heart, which had been already racing on pain and hurt, raced faster. It even felt its bowels move in fear.
And then it hit the worm. Shit. The answer was shit.
These past weeks, it had eaten so much that it was bulging with shit even though It had already shat once. So, it shat. Through pain, fear and hurt it excreted. It shat all over its ass and tried to cover its hideout with it, as much as it could. It wiggled and squirmed, shaking the mounds of insect refuse and letting it spread. Some of it even fell down further into the hole and stuck to its body.
It would have been unbearable and filthy if it had not been the method that was saving its life. The creature knew it was covered in refuse –rolling in it, even- but at the moment, it could not even begin to care. Its survival depended on that mound of shit.
Thump. Thump.
The bird moved and it felt the distance between them decrease. Its breadth hitched and its heart felt like it would run out of its body.
Thump. Thump.
The claws came closer and the caterpillar shut its eyes. It tried remembering if there was anything in its skill list that could help it right now.
'[Venom Creation].' Tired as it was, with its life on the line, it remembered and activated the Skill without a second thought.
The fine hairs on its body become wet and its shit covered skin became moist, as venom was secreted from its pores. But the creature didn't stop. It continued to secrete the poison, without stopping. It did not know if it would work but with all the poison that it was secreting, it hoped to take the bastard down with itself, if it was eaten.
Though that was just a pipe dream.
The little caterpillar was exhausted.
It took a shaky but deep breath in. It had done everything that it could do as a caterpillar, and then some. And if now, if it was eaten then at least, it hoped to give the bird nasty indigestion. The tiny being smiled in satisfaction.
Thump. Thump.
It felt the bird come closer and held its breath.
Thump. Thump.
It could feel the bird standing right over its mound of shit. The bird paused over the hole and the tiny creature's heart stopped. Would the bird look past the shit and poison and move on? It hoped it would. It prayed it would.
Thump. Thump.
The bird passed it over, yet, it held its breath. It did not move. It could not move. It dared not move. At that moment, there was a flutter of wings and the bird flew away.
It remained there, still, not believing that it had survived. A shaky breath escaped it and it smiled a watery smile. It had survived. It was alive. It laughed and failed, for its body could not laugh.
'I survived! I am alive!' It tried to laugh again and gasped. Yet there was a smile at its insectoid face. It gasped again as it's heart finally slowed down and the pain that it had been ignoring finally caught up to it. It winced and yet it smiled.
It breathed in a deep breath and searched for a specific Skill, hoping it would do what it wanted it to do. It checked its HP, which was at [HP: 11/20] and activated the Skill [Molting].
No sooner had it finished using the skill, than the creature's HP was reduced by 10 points, leaving it with only a single point in its life force. [HP: 1/20]
'Oh shi-'
-X-
In a place far away, a place so far that there existed transcendental barriers to separate it from the others, there existed a vast desert.
Hot and parched weather marred its description and massive sand dunes were the numerous scars; one of its defining features. The sand dunes crawled with the wind, covering massive distances as they drowned everything within a sea of sand.
Venomous insects and poisonous plants littered the landscape like stars on a new moon night. They hunted, they preyed upon other creatures and, in turn, they got hunted and preyed upon by different creatures. They fought for food. They fought for water and they fought for territory.
Yet, none of them dared to venture to the epicentre of the desert. Neither the predatory cacti nor the venomous insects dared to go there. Such was the Essence emanating from the epicentre that even the sand dunes refused to tread there.
In such a place, there existed a shop.
But to call it a shop, would be a bit too much. It was a decrepit building with the walls that were weakened by the ravages of time and filthy from the unknown years of dust accumulation.
The door barely held onto its frame and seemed to be waiting for the last gust of wind to make it fall. But the gust dared not touch this place. Even the most ferocious of winds tamed themselves within the presence of this decrepit shop. The building seemed like a dying person, holding onto their last breath.
Within this shop, what was sold and what was bought was unknown, for there existed no merchandise within this shop. Rows upon rows of empty shelves exuded a silent hollowness that threatened to seep within the bones of one and all. The manifold layers of dust covered the shelves like their last shroud.
Beneath those bare shelves, the floor was littered with yellow dust mounds, though the termites that had created them were long gone. The roof of the shop was drowning in cobwebs that had spared not even the remotest corners. Yet, there existed no spiders to hunt in those webs.
In the back of this vacant room was a simple desk layered with dust. In front of the desk, numerous dark stains plagued the floor. The stains radiated a feeling of suffocation and claustrophobia. They seemed to want to shout and yell but found that they could not even make a sound. They gave off the sensation as if they wanted to tell their stories and the horror dripping from them.
What had created those stains and when they were created, both were unknown. Yet, the ominous aura continued to slowly leak out from them.
Behind that desk was a simple chair. That simple chair seemed extremely out of place in the seemingly abandoned room as a youth sat within that chair. The youth seemed young, barely 17 to 18 years of mortal age.
He had a face that was plain and forgettable by any and all standards. It was as unmemorable as the random passerby on a busy road. Along with his ordinary features, his skin that was light brown and his black hair that came down all the way to his shoulders, his presence made for a truly unmemorable appearance.
In contrast to his features, his clothes were something else entirely. If his features had been made to be forgotten, his clothes had been definitely not. He was dressed in 2 pieces of unstitched fabrics. It was as if, in the culture, he came from, the people did not take fancy to the concept of stitched clothes.
The first piece of fabric was wrapped around his waist and each of his legs before it was finally tucked right beneath his navel. While the second piece was folded neatly in layers and came from behind his neck before falling down his bare chest. One end of the folded fabric was wrapped around his arm that rested on the armrest of the chair.
His shoulders leaned against the back of the chair while his legs were crossed at his feet. He had his eyes closed as one of his elbows rested on the armrest, with his palm supporting his chin.
It seemed like he was sleeping. Yet, he gave off an unnatural sensation. He was still, way too still. Not even his chest moved when he breathed. Did the youth even breathe? The answer to that was unknown. He was akin to a carcass.
Yet, this corpse-like youth had the aura of the living. If one were to be in his presence, then it would be impossible for them to consider him as anything but alive. But none could experience this aura for they would die long before they had even entered the desert that housed this shop.
The youth that seemed dead but was not, seemingly slept.
-X-
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