章 2: Chapter 2 – [Day 1] – “Taking Flight”
∼ Day 1 ∼
Sorting out my thoughts and steeling my nerves, I start taking full stock of my new but diminutive body. Even though I have a 360-degree field of vision, I was still unable to view my entire body. But from what I could see, my body was indeed that of a seemingly ordinary, but larger-than-normal mosquito.
I have a head, thorax, and abdomen. On the sides of my thorax, six spindly legs protruded, two of them I would call my front legs and the other four my hind legs due to their placement being close to each other on the bottom half of my thorax.
On my back were two long transparent wings that ran down the length of both my thorax and abdomen. Reflexively I tried to unfold them, and it was to my pleasant surprise of how easily I was already able to control all of my body parts.
And lastly, what made a mosquito a mosquito, a long needle-like appendage that extended from my face. But I wasn't even sure what the proper name for a mosquito's appendage which it used to drink blood with was exactly.
-System, What is the needle-like appendage of a mosquito called?-
[I cannot answer that question.]
It seemed that the system probably wouldn't answer questions that do not relate to the system itself, so I simply decided to relegate it to "needle". And no I don't want to think about bad jokes about my "needle"...
Done taking stock, and making fun of myself, I readied my mind for what I was going to do next. Mentally prepared I start my countdown.
-One... Two... THREE..... Oh-OH Aaaahhh-
-HOLY SHIT, HOLY SHIT. I'm actually fucking flying, this feels a lot better than I thought I wou-
(THUNK)
My train of thought was abruptly cut off as I rather unceremoniously rammed directly into the stone surface of one of the cave walls. Quickly looking around, as if to check if anybody happened to see my rather pathetic display of aerial performance, I got back on all six of my thin legs and checked my status.
-S-Status!-
[Status]
Name: "???"
Race: Glade Mosquito
Sex: Male
Rank: K-
Level: 1/3
Health: 1/1
Stamina: 1/1
Mana: 0/0
[Attributes]
STR - 0.12
VIT - 0.09
AGI - 2
DEX - 1
INT - 12
CHR - 0.05
WILL - 11
MAG - 0.02
[Trait, Titles, and Skills].
Skills - 3
Traits - 3
Titles - 0
Skillpoints - 1
[Resistances]
Phy. Resistance - 0.02
Mag. Resistance - 0.00
Men. Resistance - 5
Phew... my health didn't seem to be affected by my recent embarrassing failure. Recentering myself once again, I took another few minutes to extend and flex all of my limbs and appendages, to make sure I had everything under control. This time instead of jumping forward with momentum to take flight, I began rapidly flapping my long and semi-transparent wings.
And before I knew it, I had taken air yet again, and with much more stability this time around. Taking a few rounds flying at the edge of the cave mouth, to adapt the new and wonderous feeling of flying, I noticed that accompanied by my flight is a slight humming produced by my wings flapping which I duly noted at the back of my mind.
On to my next agenda, I had to scout my surroundings, preferably without getting myself killed by whatever this world had in store for me. And secondly, then get me some food and EXP, since I already felt ravenous.
Flying cautiously out of the cavemouth, I began cautiously venturing out. The first thing I noticed around me was the absolute stunning beauty of the completely alien flora and fauna that colored everything in a wonderous collection of colors and shapes. If I were to describe my surroundings I would say it would be something between a jungle, swamp, and glade, but simply all seemed fantastical and alien to be Earth.
All around me were splotches of luscious green, small and big, plants of all sizes and shapes. Some individual plants also had wildly different colors that screamed in contrast to the rest of the forest- uh, jungle? Urgh, I'll just call it a glade, since it makes sense with my race.
I made sure to steer clear of all the brightly colored plants that I had no idea was just to be sure I wasn't getting myself killed by some venus flytrap or some other carnivorous plants. Sticking a 10/10 landing (in own narcissistic opinion) on a branch I took a break from flying to survey for potential prey, and potential predators.
Oh wait, didn't I have a skill point that I hadn't used?
-Skill shop!- I shouted mentally.
[Skill shop]
Search: >
Hmm, it appears that I have to search for skills myself. So what do I need right now?
Currently, I was a mosquito, a Glade mosquito to be exact. Which was a slightly larger-than-ordinary mosquito to Earth standards. I had only a measly one point of health, so probably any accident with me getting hit by pretty much anything would instantly spell death for me.
Combat skills at this point didn't provide me with anything worthwhile. Due my skill limit breaker I already knew that I would be able to evolve at some point or another. Meaning I most likely will grow bigger and more powerful, but only if I managed not to die before I became sufficiently strong.
The one thing I was severely in lack of, was information. I knew barely anything about this world and its inhabitants, and my place in it. So a skill that could provide me reconnaissance or information about pretty anything will be a massive boon, even though if I had to forego a potential defensive item.
-Skill shop, reconnaissance!-
[Skill shop]
Search: > Reconnaissance
Scouting: Cost - 5 / Requirement; INT - 9
Basic level of reconnaissance. Allows you to better scout and log the information of the user's surroundings.
Mana buffering: Cost - 15 / Requirement; INT - 30, MAG - 25, Mana - 10
Buffers up mana within your mana source to release pulses of thin mana waves, to echo-locate the surroundings.
Infrared vision: Cost - 5 / Requirement; VIT - 1, DEX - 1
Develops infrared vision to see heat signatures, allowing you to switch between infrared vision and normal vision.
This was very interesting, especially the mana buffering skill which seemed seriously useful. Being able to seemingly create a picture of your surroundings with mana which would be extremely handy, allowing oneself to avoid dangers and find opportunities. But it was so damn expensive, and the requirements were crazy high for the current me.
Hmm, what else is there? Oh! Isn't Appraise or Appraisal is like a stable for any game-like system? Let me try that.
-Skill shop, appraisal!-
[Skill shop]
Search: > Appraisal
Scouting
Basic level of reconnaissance. Allows you to better scout and log the information of the user's surroundings.
Appraisal: Cost - 10 / Requirement; INT - 8
You can appraise a living target to create a profile on the creature. The amount of information is determined by the skill level of the user and the difference in power between the user and target.
Hell yes!
But again that was seriously a hefty price, and I only had one skill point. I would have to acquire a whole nine more levels to be able to purchase this skill. Now that I thought about it, Appraisal was kind of a cheat skill. Having information about your opponents by just activating a skill is quite a powerful advantage, and I doubted that this kind of skill was readily available to just anybody. It did that that the trait skill shop was a "unique" trait, so coming by skills might not be that easy for everyone.
Hmm, I got it! Lemme try this instead.
-Skill shop, profiling!-
[Skill shop]
Search: > Profiling
Mana scan: Cost - 3 / Requirement; INT - 10, MAG - 5, Mana - 1
Uses mana to send out pulses, and slowly analyze a target's information. The amount and speed of the analysis is tied directly to the amount of mana spent, skill level, and the difference in power between the skill user and target.
Blood profiling: Cost - 1 / Requirement; INT - 8
Consumes the blood of biological creatures to create a profile on the target. The amount of information is directly tied to the amount of blood, skill level, and the difference in power between the skill user and target. (Can only be used on biological organisms)
Archiving: Cost - 4 / Requirement; INT - 10
By studying the target over a period of time will slowly form a profile on the target. The amount and speed of the profiling are directly tied to the amount of time spent, skill level, and the difference in power between the skill user and target.
There we go!
Something I could finally use. The blood profiling seemed perfect for me since I'm a mosquito. But the low cost of the skill and requirement was probably tied to the fact that I had to consume the blood of the intended target, which would undoubtedly be quite a bit harder and quarrelsome than what the other skills entailed.
But as a mosquito, that's no problem for me! And besides, I would very much like to know about the things I'm eating, to ensure my safety even more. But just to be sure, I went through a number of different keywords to search for anything that might be better. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything in the range of a single point that would increase the chances of my survival.
But even though this skill might not provide me with much, any information was vital right now. Literally, anything could kill me, plus if I were to be able to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of whatever I'm eating, I would be able to see where I fit into this world at my current level of power.
And as such, I bought the skill.
-Blood Profiling!-
[Skill - Blood Profiling, has been added to the skill list!]
Now I simply had to find some prey, so I decided to stay on the branch for a while in an attempt to try and scout out my possibilities. About 20 minutes later, something happened that immediately caught my attention.
Some brushes right beneath me were rustling, so I immediately started to fervently observe the disturbance. Only 2 minutes later, an inconspicuous rabbit hopped out, other than this was no ordinary rabbit, it had a pointy horn protruding straight out from its forehead.
Is that a fucking unicorn rabbit? Huh, interesting creature...
After jumping out of the foliage it simply stopped and started chomping down on some particularly lush and moist patch of grass. Seeing this I immediately perked up.
This is my chance!
Taking to air from my impromptu resting point, I started slowly making my approach on the unsuspecting rabbit. Luckily it didn't notice me at all, or simply didn't give a rat's ass about me if it did.
Landing on the thin sheet of fur on it's back, I steadied myself to make sure no funny business went on while I indulge in my first meal of this world. Standing on the back of the rabbit, I could feel my instincts kick in and I knew immediately how I was supposed to approach this situation like a natural instinct.
Before I knew it, my needle appendage had penetrated the rabbit's skin, and a warm feeling started entering my body.
Oh, this warm feeling must be the rabbit's blood, it would seem I didn't have any tastebuds since I couldn't taste the blood. That was probably for the better now that I think about it.
I doubted I would enjoy tasting the blood of all the creatures I was going to be drinking off so it didn't bother me really. Suddenly an errant though managed to find its way into my head about mosquitoes.
I wasn't an expert on mosquito biology, but I think I heard about it being primarily just females that drank the blood of living creatures when pregnant, foregoing the safer alternatives of plant nectar for better nutrients. But seeing that I was neither pregnant or female, such things probably didn't relate to fantastical and magical beings, so I simply put the thought away and continued to drink away.
After 30 seconds I felt completely stuffed, so I retracted my needle appendage.
[Siphon]
[You've consumed the blood of a horned rabbit]
[2 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]
[Blood profiling has created a profile of "Horned rabbit"]
Well, that seems good I guess.
Now I needed to get back to my resting spot on the branch to try and digest some of this blood. So checking that everything was in order, and noticing that my abdomen had swollen quite a bit, I began to take flight.
But this time around I could feel that there was a lot more strain put on my wings because of my increased weight of the blood weighing down my body. Sluggishly flying back to the branch, I landed unceremoniously and began immediately to rest my body.
Now to so see the rewards for my exploits.
-Status!-
[Status]
Name: "???"
Race: Glade Mosquito
Sex: Male
Rank: K-
Level: 1/3
Health: 1/1
Stamina: 1/1
Mana: 0/0
[Attributes]
STR - 0.12 ⇒ 0.15
VIT - 0.09 ⇒ 0.15
AGI - 2
DEX - 1
INT - 12
CHR - 0.05
WILL - 11
MAG - 0.02
[Trait, Titles, and Skills].
Skills - 4
Traits - 3
Titles - 0
Skillpoints - 0
[Resistances]
Phy. Resistance - 0.02
Mag. Resistance - 0.00
Men. Resistance - 5
It would seem my stats have probably increased in the direction of the horned rabbit's own stat allocation. It's not much but it's a start. Before I could do anything else, I suddenly started feeling dreary once again, and I slowly began to feel my mind slip into sleep.
The last thought that escaped just before darkness claimed me was;
-I better not wake up in another world again, you hear me!-
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