The Redemption of the Hysterical

The light shined so beautifully this morning that one could almost forget about the corpses scattered across the forest floor. 

 "I feel sad, I don't know what I've become... would mother be proud of me?" Wondered Imogen.

 "The answer to that is no, but I just have to accept that she is gone and try to make the most of this life before it decays even more." Said Imogen, trying to forget about what she had done.

 "My hands are forever stained with the blood of innocent people, I did what I did because I needed to change." Said Imogen with the intention of trying to justify what she had done.

 "I did change, but I changed too much." Realized Imogen.

 "I need to piece back together who I was before, I will never be the same; but at least I won't be a complete psychopath."

 "I guess I should get off this corpse now, the feeling of bathing in blood isn't good for my psyche." Said Imogen slowly walking down from the bloodied corpse.

 "This forest is where I will get strong enough to make my own fate, but in the pursuit of power I shall put priority over staying me." Ascertained Imogen.

 "That's what this life's about, the delicate balance between being able to make the hard choices and not losing yourself to power." Said Imogen watching the leaves fall. 

 "Most realize this, but they either don't want to change or can't because they're too far gone." 

 "I went too far off that delicate balance and now I can never be truly centered, life is a cruel maiden.

 "Well, It's time for me to hunt more creatures, whether they be human, or beast." Said Imogen calmly.

 "I will look out to see if they deserve death or not, but I will never put too much effort into it." Said Imogen radiating tranquility.

 "Now enough of this calm crap, I have some creatures to hunt." Said Imogen almost the same, but somewhat off. 

 "This forest is still boring, nothing has changed." Grumbled Imogen, for some reason remembering how that weird tree had once tried to kill her. 

 "I wonder how long it'll take me to find my quarry." Pondered Imogen.

 "Should I head to a town or look for some more insects to murder." Questioned Imogen.

 "I probably would be killed if I tried to hunt humans in town, so my only real option is to hunt any creature that steps foot in this forest." Said Imogen staring past the trees to look at a butterfly. 

 "I will only kill when I need to kill, I don't need to kill that butterfly." Said Imogen nicely. 

 "Okay, so more forest walking it is." Said Imogen right as a system message popped up.

*System Quest: Kill the giant cockroach that stalks the grassy center forest

 "That's where the old heart lived, I wish the system had a map." Said Imogen disappointed. 

 "Welp, time to head west. Said Imogen turning west.

 "I'm seeing so much plant life I never noticed before, it also seems like the mammals have the inner forest while the insects have the outer forest." Said Imogen watching an ant beaked tiger eat an animal carcass.

 "This world is like a rose, beautiful to most; but prickly to all." Said Imogen sympathetically.

 "I used to be one of those people who didn't think of roses as beautiful, but now I think roses are just as beautiful as everything else, if not more."

~~~

 "Well, it looks like I have arrived in the grassy plains of this forest." Grumbled Imogen unenthusiastically.

 "It doesn't look like there's a giant cockroach here, but I'll look around just to make sure." Sighed Imogen, already starting her search. 

 "Ah… that's a dead bunny and that's a cockroach eating it's corpse, I don't get how bugs can eat dead meat; it's too cold for me." Laughed Imogen, watching the cockroach with interest.

 "These cockroaches being in the central forest is a telltale sign that something's wrong." 

 "When I look at how big these cockroaches are compared to me, I realize just how big I actually am." Giggled Imogen.

 "Comparing myself to these cockroaches, I'm about a foot long, eight inches wide and five inches tall." Said Imogen, regretting not learning the metric system better. 

 "I can't believe how much I've grown over the past year, I can't wait to see how much I grow in ten years." Beamed Imogen as a giant cockroach came running.

 The giant cockroach charged at Imogen almost Immediately. Though, mid run the cockroach lit on fire, it looked like it was bathing in the flames.

 As Imogen jumped out of the way, she was faintly singed by the fire. It looked like it hurt quite a bit.

 "This burns like hell, how am I supposed to drain the blood out of this sucker." Said Imogen watching the fire crackle. 

 The fiery cockroach charged at Imogen again and shot out what looked to be a miniature fireball. Imogen, not expecting a fireball, got hit and as such, her side was blackened. 

 The fiery cockroach charged at her again and unhinged its toothless mouth, thinking that Imogen was done for. Imogen dodged the reckless attack easily, apparently the fiery cockroach had grown arrogant over the years.

 Though since Imogen couldn't attack, she had to wait for it to turn around. 

 "I'm pretty sure that it needs mana to stay on fire, so I might be able to wear it out… if I last that long that is." Noted Imogen.

 This time the cockroach looked really pissed off and it charged at Imogen twice as fast. It spit out three fireballs that burned with magnificence. 

 Imogen couldn't dodge them all, so she got singed by a few stay fireballs. Imogen's carapace melted in a semblance and it looked like it would fall off at any time. 

 Now there's a problem, if Imogen got hit by one more fireball she would be done for.

 The fiery cockroach looked burnt out and its fire was dimming. The mighty brilliance of the fiery cockroach was replaced by the looks of a smouldering ember.

 As it charged again it stopped mid way and bit at the side where it thought Imogen would go to. Imogen didn't even move, it was like she was predicting all of this. By this time, the cockroach was all out of mana.

 The cockroach knew this too, but it decided to stay and fight. The cockroach took one last bite at Imogen, but of course; it missed. Imogen jumped onto the giant cockroach and bit down

~~~

 About thirty minutes of draining later, Imogen had killed the giant cockroach. 

 "That fight was a lot faster than I thought It'd be, I guess the cockroach was used to fighting easy prey." Laughed Imogen, standing victorious upon the cockroach's corpse.

 "It probably would've dominated this area and might've even become a problem for that kingly worm." Chuckled Imogen.

 "I consider it a debt repaid in my book, I just hope I won't regret it like everything else I do." Said Imogen while a system message popped up.

You slain a: Horned Planeswalker Cockroach - level up

*System Quest Rewards: The requirement for humanoid form has moved to first evolution

 "At first I thought it was a bad reward, but I realize now that I really want a human form." Said Imogen joyously.

 "I can't wait to evolve, but first I have other things to do." Said Imogen excitedly. 

 "Since I leveled up, system; show me my status.

Name: Imogen 

Title: Heartless Bitch

Race: Tick - Adult 

Age: 1 

Gender: Female

Bloodline: Common Forest Tick

Level: 7

Class: Heart Defender

Blood: 320/320

Hp: 24/24

Mp: 6.5/6.5

Str: 15

Vit: 2.4

Def: 32

Int: 13

Agt: 12

Quests: 2

Skills: Racial skill - Blood Absorb 2.0, Weak Pierce 2.0, 70/30 Luck, Negligible Illusion Resistance, Fast eyes, Fractured Language Comprehension, Heart Plate, Metal Heart and Steel Soul

 "My status is looking better, that's good." Said Imogen in a respectful tone. 

 "System? Could you show me the requirements to evolve?" 

*Evolution requirements: level 10 

 "That's it!" "Evolution isn't that far away after all." Said Imogen almost jumping with joy. 

 "This is great, it means that I will have a human form soon." Said Imogen, calming down. 

 "But before I continue, I've been meaning to ask you what my last three skills do, system?" Questioned Imogen as three notifications popped up seemingly to answer her question.

*Heart Plate: Doubles your defence for three minutes, cooldown: half a year

*Metal Heart: turns every point of health into defence points on a 1- 2 ratio - costs 6 Mp

*Steel Soul: Any damage to your soul is negated once per day

 "All of those are really good, I'm glad I chose the class that I did." Said Imogen with vigor.

 "It will certainly help me kill that fricking worm, I'll make sure to make it's death as painful as possible." Vowed Imogen.

 "I want to hear it screech right now as I gut its fu- I mean, darn entrails out." Suspired Imogen, realizing that she shouldn't be so angry about something so trivial.

 "I guess I'll start looking for it now, life's a witch."