New life

I awaken in the mud of a small pond as I look around, I just left the small egg which i had been within. I barely see anything in the muddy water with my small eyes, but I do see the shadows of some larger creatures.

Everything around me is interesting, and as I try swimming forward a screen appears, my status screen?

***

Athena

Species: [Anura]

Subspecies: [Gray tadpole] - Lvl 1

General skills:

[Identification] - Lvl 1

Stats:

[Available stat points: 0]

[Vitality]: 5

[Strength]: 5

[Endurance]: 5

[Wisdom]: 5

[Agility]: 5

Skills:

So this was my status. Despite just having been born I he'd information already within my head, as if it was given to me upon birth, I just instinctively understood what everything in my status meant, and I also understood some other things, like how levelling allowed me to evolve and become more powerful, or how to activate my general skill I had been born with.

My small eyes looked at the screen and I was fascinated by it, especially with levelling, my brain might be young and I might not know much, but the idea of being able to level by killing other creatures, and by doing so evolving into something better, something more complete, and having almost full control of the path I followed was fascinating.

"I suppose I should try using [Identification]."

I focused on the brown goo which I was laying on and activated [Identification]

***

[Mud]:

It's mud, clay mixed with water.

"Ok, but then this"

I looked at some gray hard thing which was in the mud and once again activated [Identification]

***

[Stone]:

It's a stone.

"I guess none of this is really interesting."

I began slowly swimming in the muddy water. My small tail went back and forth as I slowly made myself forward.

As I was slowly swimming next to the mud, all of a sudden there was a loud sound as a massive beast fell next to me.

It had dark green spiky scales, layered like a powerful armour, with large sharp claws. There was a large chunk missing from the side of its body, and from that large hole bright red blood constantly flowed. I watched the massive creature in awe as I activated [Identification] on it.

***

[Dead Terrigena darken]:

A large type of reptile. They are famous for their powerful poison and minuscule amount of dragon blood within their veins, granting them a sturdy shell. They are prideful creatures that live alone, but they are also famous for being unable to use magic, which would've been a disgrace among true dragons. This specimen has been killed after a large piece was ripped out of its side.

As I identified the creature I realised that it was actually a quite powerful beast, yet it had been killed so easily. A single piece had just been bit out of its side, like a snack, and just like that it was dead.

I saw a school of small fish rush to the fallen creature, they began nibbling on the open wound and drinking the blood that flowed out into the water. At first I was incredibly confused when I saw this scene, although I didn't see much thanks to my poor vision. But then I understood why they did it. They were the bottom here, the weakest creatures that were easily killed, but by evolving they could grow stronger. And with the knowledge I had thanks to my instincts I had some semblance of an idea how beasts could evolve. Everything which evolved could gain multiple evolutions depending on their previous evolution, and their activements. Yes, the evolutions one could gain were dependent on how you fought, your skills, your personality, special things you accomplished, or in this case for a creature as pathetic as these fish, that they managed to consume some blood or a small piece of flesh from a much more powerful creature.

As the fish swam around the corpse, a large arm looking similar to an arm of a bear, but purple in colour reached into the water and grabbed the Terrigena draken.

"So that must've been what killed it"

***

[??? - Lvl ???]

"So it's to powerful for me to use identification on"

***

General skill [Identification] - Lvl 1 levels up to [Identification] - Lvl 2

"Hmm, so I've used [Identification] enough for it to level up, which should mean that I can identify more things now."

I decided to try using it on the small fish which had swam towards the corpse before it was grabbed by that large bear.

***

[Newborn herring] - Lvl 1

[Newborn herring] - Lvl 2

[Newborn herring] - Lvl 1

After seeing the low levels of the fish, I decided to attempt and defeat one of them. I swam as quickly as I could towards one of the ones which were level 1 and then slapped it with my tail.

The Herring went back a bit afterwards, but then it looked at me with eyes filled of fury. It started making some kind of noise, and suddenly the entire group of fish were looking at me.

"Oops"

I swam in the opposite direction towards the mud as fast as I could. All of the Herrings were on my tail, literally. And despite swimming as fast as I could, some of the fish which had levelled up at least once were catching up.

Once I finally reached the mud I began wriggling into the mud as fast as I could. I just barely got my entire body inside the mud before the fish reached me.

Despite them not digging after me, I could barely see some figures outside of the mud, which I assume were some Herrings that were waiting for me to leave.

I was laying in the mud for a while before it finally seemed like all of the fish left. Despite that I still didn't quite feel safe so I continued watching, doing my best to see if there were any fish left, although my vision was practically nonexistent now that it had been worsened by the mud around me.

Then I heard the same voice that I had heard when my [Identification] skill levelled up.

***

Gained general skill [Lesser enhanced vision] - Lvl 1

As I gained that skill I could see much more clearly. I could finally properly assess whether there were any Herrings left. I looked around, but I couldn't see anything so I wriggled out of the mud, my gray body now being coated in a dark brown sludge.

Once I was out of the mud I looked around, and I was amazed by how the world looked now that I could see more properly. I saw scales glistening on fish, the slightly movement of the seaweed around.

It was like a orchestra of colours. I just swam there in awe for a few minutes before snapping out of it.

I needed to decide on my next course of action, how to level and evolve.

"Even those Herrings were to strong for me, and they are some of the weakest things her. Yes ONE of the weakest things her. I just need to search for the weakest creatures which are alone, sneak up on them, and then attack."

I searched for some time, until I found my first target. Some lonely thing which seemed to be completely mindless, it was some pinkish brown, and I couldn't see a mouth, or eyes or anything on it.

***

[Mudworm] - Lvl 1

I swam towards it on the ocean floor, and I crashed my body onto its back. It left a small indent but it only seemed to infuriate it. It began thrashing around but I had already swam away. Once it got tired I slammed onto the same spot once again, and before it could hit me I swam away.

I continued with this strategy until I had hit it so many times, that it was ripped in half.

***

Defeated [Mudworm] - Lvl 1

Experience is awarded for defeating an opponent.

Having defeated my first opponent I felt ecstatic. And the experience I gained gave me a sensation which I couldn't put my finger on. It felt like I was more complete, as if I was becoming better.

This experience made me immediately seek out another [Mudworm]. After some searching I found another one.

***

[Mudworm] - Lvl 1

I used the same strategy as before and after some time I defeated this one as well.

***

Defeated [Mudworm] - Lvl 1

Experience is awarded for defeating an opponent.

Subspecies [Gray tadpole] - Lvl 1 Level Up!

[Gray tadpole] - Lvl 1 -> [Gray tadpole] Lvl - 2

Gained 5 stat points!

I looked at the screen with joy. I had finally gained 1 level, I was now level 2, one step closer to my first evolution. I began happily swimming around. I then felt a grumble in my stomach.

"I'm feeling hungry"

"I guess I should try eating the [Mudworm]."

I swam up to the body of the [Mudworm] which had been sliced in half due to my barbaric strategy of simply slamming my body onto one spot over and over again. I began biting and nibbling on the corpse of the worm. It was hard to bite of and chew the pieces as I didn't have any teeth. But I could still slowly do it.

"It doesn't taste like much. Feels like I'm biting on nothing. But I still need to eat I guess."

After eating around 1/20 of the worm I was full and I began preparing to sleep. At least I was planning to do so, but before I could a large brown creature swam up to me and slapped my with its fin. And as I looked up at the large creature, I realised that this would be difficult.

***

[Juvenile punktatus] - Lvl 3