Janus and Oblivion
Page 5
Predators in the world did not have the ability to go home and lick their wounds after a failed hunt, and come back the next day feeling near-completely refreshed and ready to hunt again. Human professional fighters and boxers could not fight a heavy match today, get beaten into unconsciousness, and then return the following day with nigh-all their wounds healed, and ready to fight again. However, I could do such.
I could attack an opponent, leave them with wounds and flee. I would rest, becoming healed, and return the next day to pick up where I left off, with my opponent nowhere near healed. In this manner, I could whittle down foes vastly superior to myself merely by the virtue of my ability to come back for more each and every day.
The ripples in the water increased in tempo. I took note of the numerous vibrations, before turning my attentions to my latest titles.
Title: [Gorger]
Details: An uncommon title. Grants the ability to stockpile food in the form of reserve health. Eating twice the user’s body weight provides 10% of their total HP as reserve health. Consuming four times the user’s body weight provides 20%, and consuming eight times the user’s body weight provides a maximum of 50% as reserve health.
Reserve health? Extra health attained at the cost of merely eating more? With my 10HP, consuming twice as much as my body weight would provide me with 1HP extra health. Consuming eight times my body weight would give me 5HP as extra health. This was useful. There was potential in possessing more health and being overly fed.
Title: [Larvae Slayer]
Details: An uncommon title. Grants +25% Damage to larvae and infantile opponents while granting +30% Damage Reduction from larvae and infantile opponents.
Essentially a title that made it considerably easier to continue hunting larvae. However... ‘infantile opponents’ was, again, rather vague, not to mention sounding rather dastardly. It sounded as though I was some eater of babies –
... Ah.
Nevertheless, I was not going to stop now. The larvae were easy, an untapped well of experience. Besides, they were mosquito larvae. They would grow into become bloodsucking creatures whose existence was only good for spreading disease and culling population. They would most certainly not be missed.
Regardless, it was time to investigate the latest skills I acquired.
CRA-BOOM!
The sensation of immutable waves of pressure rolling over the world struck me abruptly. The water droplets cascading down into the puddle became a fusillade. I knew, instantly, what this meant.
A storm.
A thunderstorm, to be precise. My body burst through the puddle at speeds that I previously found myself sorely lacking. Movement in the water was natural, easy, and most significantly, it was swift. No longer was I a slow waddling creature, rather, the aid of [Fast Swimming] and my newest evolution enabled me to traverse water as though I were a fish. A slow, finless fish.
I contemplated my next, most immediate and pressing need. On a certain hierarchical pyramid, the physiological needs of food, water, warmth and rest came first. Food, predominantly was the biggest hurdle, as this thunderstorm would most likely sweep away all the larvae within the puddle. Mosquitoes often laid eggs on what they believed should be stagnant water, and this puddle would have qualified, had it not been for the rain.
The ‘puddle’ was no longer a puddle and was instead now a ‘stream’. Accumulating enough momentum to pass the areas of least resistance, it began flowing, and I possessed little compunctions against attempting to stop it from dragging me along.
“Swimming against the current” was an expression used for something difficult, if not often impossible, and I was not going to attempt such a feat. Rather, I moved out of the way of potential obstacles I could sense with my vibrations, ensuring that I maintained a steady path.
The more I thought, the more I gathered that I knew not the terrain or the type of environment in which I was ‘reborn.’ I could only assume I was within some sort of dense forest because of the water puddles and the rain and the richness of the soil, however, I could also be in someone’s private backyard garden. My sense of ‘scale’ as a worm was limited, tiny, and until I became something capable of further exploration, or perhaps, increased my Vibration Sensing skill, then I would never know truly where I was.
However, if I was flowing from this puddle, downhill, most likely I would arrive either at a river, a pond, or an even larger puddle. The difference in vastness would be problematic, because a pond would feel like an ocean, and a river would be an ocean beset by hurricanes.
It took only a few minutes for my journey through the puddle to end and for me to find myself splashing into a significantly larger pool of water. The water was clean, at least, considerably cleaner than the puddle which possessed granules of sand and mud weighing it. Most likely this meant that it was a local source of freshwater – either a pond or lake.
[Intelligence has risen by 0.1]
Again? I was being awarded intelligence for assumptions? Why did I have intelligence as a statistic, and truly, what other statistics did I have available?
Stats.
Status
Name: [Unnamed]
Race: [Mutated Annelid]
Specie(s): [Small Predator Earthworm]
Level: 1
HP: 10/10
MP: N/A
HP Regen: 8/Day
MP Regen: N/A
Negative Effects: [N/A]
Positive Effects: [N/A]
Title(s): [Reincarnated] [User] [Gorger] [Larvae Slayer]
The stat screen came up, and I dismissed it. This was not what I needed.
Specs.
Nothing.
SPECIAL.
Still nothing.
Attributes.
Further, there was nothing. I began thinking of other potential keywords, before another one immediately popped into my mind.
Parameters.
[Parameters]
Attack: 0.3
Defense: 0.1
Intelligence: 0.2
Magic Power: 0.0
Sense: 0.3
This is odd. Attack, Defense, Intelligence, Magic Power and Sense? Was that all that was truly available? There was no Charisma or Luck, no Perception or Agility, no Endurance or Strength. Why then, was intelligence present, if all of the other customarily accustoming parameters were absent?
Further, how did I measure my parameters? What was the base average in order to know how powerful I was? What exactly was sense?
More questions came out of this than answers, as there was no helpful tutorial to answer my questions. Instead, I could only assume and deduce and hope my assumptions and deductions were correct. Considering I was rewarded with more ‘intelligence’ for this, it was indeed possible that I could use the system as a way to discover the answers.
[Intelligence has risen by 0.2]
So my assumptions were correct. Now, I was going to assume that I was in a forest of some sort.
... No? Well, this was odd. How could I not be in a forest, when I was in a pond? Or was it that the system only awarded me points for correctly assuming or deducing things that were slightly difficult to assume or deduce?
[Intelligence has risen by 0.1]
Helpful. Truly the beacon and pinnacle of benevolence. Whatever would I do without such a vague system of attaining information?
If only I possessed an ‘appraisal’ skill or something similar, then I would not need to rely on this ridiculous method. It didn’t respond to me assuming that I was in a forest, which was understandable. Although there was soil and there was rain, I had yet to ‘sense’ anything remotely resembling trees or leaves or grass. So, where then, was I? A place where a freshwater pond could form had to be outdoors, did it not? Freshwater ponds often included all sorts of aquatic –
Fuck.
Ponds... ponds often included all forms of aquatic creatures.
I could sense it, up ahead, vaguely through the distorting ripples of water, one of the plants synony
mous with ponds: the lily pad. This plant, unfortunately for me, was also commonly used in stock images as a natural foothold for a certain amphibian species.
I need to leave.
I struggled, less than a few hours ago, against an ant. There was little chance or possibility of me somehow becoming victorious against an amphibian, or a fish should either choose to make me their next meal.
The thunderstorm continued to buffet everything, and swimming was difficult, more so difficult when I was relying on vague vibrations to find my way out of this pond and back unto the soil. I’d been hit, consecutively by raindrops, which felt as though I was repetitively drenched in buckets of water. However, as a species adapted to aquatic life, the force of the impacts of raindrops did not hurt me.
It did, however, make things harder to ‘see.’
Constant vibrations from the impacts against the water overloaded and ‘glitched’ my ability to properly detect other shapes through the endless noise that was millions of tiny droplets of water crashing around everything. I could not make out land, nor did I even know the direction to swim in order to find land. I was relying on depth alone, which was still sorely limiting.
The situation was tremendously frustrating, and I felt that the longer I stayed within this pond, the closer I came towards death.
I reached out, finally, for something upon the surface which felt familiar. Jagged and rough, it was most likely a stone, but to me, it felt like a mountain. It was not particularly what I desired, but it was a starting point.
I ascended my way to the top, crawl after crawl. I fell after being hit by a raindrop.
I climbed up again, gripping harder.
The wind pushed me off, hurtling me back into the water.
ARRRRRGHHH! A mental roar went unheard.
A third time, I tried, gripping as hard as possible, knowing that this rock was my salvation, it was my saving grace, it was my only ho–
[Skill {Sense Danger} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Sense Danger} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Sense Danger} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Sense Danger} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Sense Danger} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Sense Danger} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Sense Danger} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Sense Danger} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Sense Danger} has evolved into {Greater Sense Danger}]
[Skill {Greater Sense Danger} has evolved into {Superior Sense Danger}]
[Skill {Superior Sense Danger} has evolved into {Sixth Sense}]
[Sense has risen by 0.9]
[Skill {Vibration Sensing} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Vibration Sensing} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Vibration Sensing} has gained a Level.]
I couldn’t move. Could barely think. Even as the world exploded around me in a cacophony of sounds and sensations that I was previously unable to comprehend or perceive, the only thing on my mind, was the distinctively slender shape of the coiling creature, that had no rights, no right whatsoever, to be in a pond.
Agkistrodon
[Guardian of the Creek]
Venomous Water Snake
Level ?
And to think I’d been worried about amphibians.
Chapter 5
Serpent
Ignore me. Ignore me. Ignore me. Kindly ignore me. Kindly ignore me.
I repeated the mantra over and over again within my mind, already confident that should the giant serpent chose to turn its gaze upon me, my fate was sealed. Neither outrunning nor defeating it was feasible, and attempting was insanity.
Agkistrodon
[Guardian of the Creek]
Venomous Water Snake
Level ?
I was a worm.
It was a snake.
There was an incomprehensible gap in abilities and powers, such that I could not even identify the level of the being. Even though I was now capable sense the world far more acutely than before, even though I could make out the long coiling creature, the sensation of its keratin skin scrapping softly against the rock as it moved, make out the vibrations in the air around it and detect its hissing from soundwaves assaulting me – there were no delusions of defeating such an opponent right now.
Would it not be better if it simply ignored me? I would not constitute to it, even the most basic of snacks. Surely there was no reason for it to attack a small, measly worm?
It disagreed. I could sense its body tense up and coil before it did, and I knew that dropping from the rock back into the pond would not allow me to escape its range. No, it would lunge straight through the water and swallow me whole.
How do I escape? Howhowhowhow –
There was no escape.
The creature lunged. I fell back into the water. Its wide, open jaws stretched above me like an all-consuming cavern. It broke through the water, jaws closing instantly. Gone, immediately was the water and the cool sensations. The world was replaced with pulsating flesh and a strong, burning – burning liquid.
[You have attained the skill: {Lesser Acid Resistance} from enduring enemy digestive fluids.]
[Skill {Lesser Pain Resistance} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Lesser Pain Resistance} has gained a Level.]
...I was swallowed whole.
[Warning!]
You have attained the Negative Effect: [Severe Acid Corrosion]
You will lose [1] HP Every Minute until [Severe Acid Corrosion] is mitigated.
HP: 9/10
Nine minutes.
It was all I had until I was completely and utterly digested.
Why? Why? Why would a snake attack a worm? Why would it feast on something so minor? For what gain? What reason? This – this almost felt like a cruelly constructed joke.
Was this the end? Was it truly, ultimately, impossible for one to rise from a worm into something else? Into something greater?
It irked, burned at me that I would die in the stomach of a predator that was tremendously stronger than me because of bad luck? Ill timing? What? Why was this snake even in that pond? Why was it there despite the thunderstorm?
No – no – no.
I was not letting myself die here.
[Skill {Lesser Acid Resistance} has gained a Level.]
I searched immediately through my skills, desperate to find something there that would aid me in surviving this situation.
Skill: [Basic Molting Lv. 1]
Details: This skill enables the user to shed their skin. This action removes any negative effects and regains 50% of the user’s total health. Can only be used once a day.
This was the equivalent of applying a band aid to a bullet wound. It was useful, but using this would only increase the amount of time I had left to live by an extra ten minutes. It wasn’t going to help me get out of this situation.
Skill: [Insectoid Metamorphosis Lv. 1]
Details: This skill enables the user to attain a single physiological feature possessed by any known insect. The feature lasts for thirty seconds. Can only be used once every 72 hours.
Any physiological feature? Already, the gears in my head were turning. I could gain the physiological feature of any insect in the world, for exactly thirty seconds, and I could do this once every three days?
[Skill {Lesser Acid Resistance} has gained a Level.]
I immediately re-established my assessment of the situation. Things were neither as grim nor as bleak as I previously believed. Things were certainly not hopeless. No, far from it.
Skill: [Diapause Lv. 1]
Details: This skill enables the user to halt the spread of negative effects inflicted upon them in unfavorable environmental conditions by entering a pseudo-hibernation. The user will be incapable of movement, using skills, or any other action, and may or may not acclimatize to the unfavorable environment once the skill is ended. Can only be used once a month.
Did I truly attain such skills from mosquito
larvae?
No – it was not the larvae. On their own, these skills would have been useless and far weaker. However, what I had was the accumulated versions, stronger versions gotten from killing eleven of them. Essentially, I attained their skills, boosted, eleven-fold. This – this was the power of the [User].
[Skill {Lesser Acid Resistance} has gained a Level.]
[Warning!]
You have attained the Negative Effect: [Severe Acid Corrosion]
You will lose [1] HP Every Minute until [Severe Acid Corrosion] is mitigated.
HP: 8/10
I needed more time to think of a way to escape the snake’s intestines. I possessed only eight minutes before I died, and there was no guarantee that a passable solution would come to me in such a time-frame.
Hence, I made my decision.
[Diapause]
My ‘muscles’ felt stiff. My entire body became, vaguely, rock-like. Hardened, incapable of motion or any other movement, this was my best choice to extend my survival.
You have activated [Diapause].
Negative Effect: [Severe Acid Corrosion] has been paused for 24 Hours.
Your HP Regen has been suspended for 24 Hours.
You cannot utilize any skills for 24 Hours.
[Diapause] will end in 24 Hours.
Twenty four hours.
I needed to think of a way to escape this snake’s stomach within the next twenty-four hours and eight minutes. [Insectoid Metamorphosis] could only be used for thirty seconds, and could only be used once in three days. Likewise, [Basic Molting] could only be used once per day.
The snake’s acidic venom on the other hand evaporated my HP by the minute. This meant, I had only one chance, one opportunity, to think and think about the appropriate usage of my skills that would grant me my opportunity to escape.
Once [Diapause] ended, I could not use it for another month, so, I truly had only one chance. With that in mind, I began to think, my hardest, about all the insects in the world I knew of, had heard of, and which one possessed the ability to deliver me from the belly of the beast.
Alphabetically... A is for Ants. B is for Bees, C... C... C is for Cicadas. I remember that one. Cicadas.
The clock was ticking.
[Skill {Lesser Acid Resistance} has gained a Level.]