My vision darken, somehow the barrier shut off any light coming from the other side.
I feel my head becoming dizzy, its like being inside an elevator that was freefalling from highest floor far down to the ground.
Before i feel my 'egg' finally touch down the ground, i passed out.
[ Time left before hatching 10 : 04 : 08 ]
That was the most restful sleep i had after staying awake for hundreds of years, i should sleep more often now that i have remembered how pleasant it was. Now that i have woke up, what should i do now?
The barrier still hold firm, blocking off everything, even light from being able to be seen. So here i am, in the dark sphere of my own safe haven. Doing absolute nothing after waking up from whole day of sleeping time.
Shit, i need to do something productive. Lets ask the System wether there is any tutorial i could complete.
Hey game, is there any tutorial or something? That doesn't involve moving around or killing enemies. Like... Idk anything maybe?
Quest received : Introducing, System
Part 1 : Open Status screen
Reward : free (=) stat 3
Part 2 : Open Inventory screen
Reward : Dice Gacha (common) x3
Part 3 : Open Equipment screen
Reward : 1000 credits
Part 4 : Open Skills screen
Reward : Skill Dice Gacha (common) x1
Part 5 : Open Perks screen
Reward : 1000 credits
Part 6 : Open Evolution screen
Reward : BC Dice Gacha x1
Part 7 : Open Settings screen
Reward : 1000 credits
Part 8 : Open Shops
Reward : 1000 credits
Completing all part of quest yield : Non-human Gamer pack]
Good. Now that i have something productive to do, lets get to it now!
{Status!}
Status of Unnamed
Name - Unnamed LV. 0
Race - Parasyte {1*}{0%}
Path - of Protector {1*}{0%}
Title - Flesh Guardian
Class - Guard {1*} {0%}
Hp - 450 ( 180/minute regen )
Sp - 450 ( 180/minute regen )
Mp - 200 ( 20/minute regen )
Str - {=} x5 - Average
Fit - {=} x9 - Healthy
Agi - {=} x2 - Snail Pace
Wit - {=} x2 - Moronic
Mnd - {=} x2 - Naive
Lok - {=} x2 - Malformed
Lck - {=} x2 - Fate's bitch
Hp : 5x fit
Sp : 5x fit
Mp : 10x wit
Hp regen : 2x fit
Sp regen : 2x fit
Mp regen : 1x mnd
1 (=) worth 10 points.
Extra modifier
- Weakness to Acid ( 300% damage )
- Weakness to Sleep ( 150% chance to inflict)
- Require nutrien siphoned from host body. Extra nutrien turned to reserve sp by 10/1 exchange. 10 calories/1 sp point
Each level up you will be given 2 stat bar.
Alright... Could you give a run down of stats descriptions, Game? Some of them are kind of unfamiliar to me. Like fit and lok.
Here it is :
Str : Tier 1 of Strength series. Strength indicate how powerful your hits and how capable you are in dealing with heavylifting stuff.
Fit : Tier 1 of Endurance series. Fitness is simply your body conditioning and body durability. The better your fitness, the healthier and more durable you become.
Agi : Tier 1 of Dexterity series. Focus, Movement sensitivity, and Speed is all agility stats govern. It mainly deal with how fast your attacks and how quick your evasion.
Wit : Tier 1 of Intellegence series. Wit is all about knowledge and how fast you could process it. Thought in your case mainly used for casting magic and providing vast mana pool.
Mnd : Tier 1 of Wisdom series, Mind is tricky stats that mainly deal with your energy recharge. And also responsible for rationalizing your thought and keeping you sane.
Lok : Tier 1 of Charisma series, Looks is all about your body proportion and presentable appareance. It also helps you in conversing and making connection with your peers.
Lck : Tier 1 of Luck series, Luck manipulates all things that using chance as their method. Such as Dice throwing, Critical hits, Enemy drops, anything really.
Stats has 3 tier each with 10 bar as their limit.
Thanks. Now that i know the details of stats, lets see which one i need to prioritize. I would skip the physical part as their value is already higher than other. I don't need much speed as my class mainly for guarding so i would also spend less point on it for now. I have higher ratio in mana pool than health and stamina so its logical if i would invest more of my point on it, and also the mind stat, i couldn't wait much longer just to use one last spell afterall. Lets leave lok stats for now because... I am a parasite, that stats is wasted on me. Luck is definitely to be increased. Don't ask the reason.
Lets leave the weakness part for now as i couldn't do much about it. And the nutrien too for that matter.
{Inventory!}
I looked inside the screen window with numerous empty boxes covering every inch of the screen. So far the only item occupying my Inventory is the Guard starter pack so i decide to open it.
Item :
Heavy Iron Armor set received!
Iron Framed Round Shield received!
Iron long sword received!
Touching the armor set icon, a follow up menu appeared with split, take, equip, and dismantle option. Hm... So the armor could be splitted apart to many individual pieces like breastplate, greaves, gauntlet and more. Neat.
I decide to split the armor set for emergency should i unable to equip the whole set when i had found my host. Ignoring the other items i decide to open another menu.
{Equipment!}
Like the inventory screen before. This one were mostly filled with empty boxes, but with one difference. There is glaring red sign in shape of X in front of them all. Seems i couldn't equip anything with this body, atleast for now.
Next!
{Skills!}
Skills list of Unnamed :
Innate skills :
1. Burrowing : Dig throught soft material such as sand, ground, or even textile. Though your feelers are more effective for tearing skin and dig through soft flesh or even hard bones.
2. Merge Consciousness : Merge your conscious thought to target flesh. Able to manipulate the flesh with some control or influence target consciousness to do your bidding. Works wonder the more closer you merged to the central of target Intellectual structure. Could be undone.
3. Absorp Nutrition : Constant nutrition flow is necessary for your survival. Because your underdeveloped digestion system, you are unable to process your own food to gain energy necessary to survive. Instead, you takes nutrition that flow throught the target blood stream for your own use.
4. Special mineral manipulation : You have developed absolute control of your own special produced minerals capable of being used as offensive and defensive purpose.
5. Guard : Simple technique of protection by encasing your target whole body with your own. Able to resist most damage but drains much more stamina than others defensive skills.
6. Soothe : Simple technique of calming your target by using lulling voice and gentle embrace.
7. Magic Manipulation : You have developed absolute control of mana production and mana usage. Able to create spells using imagination or replicate from spellbooks and scrolls.
Active skills :
1. Taunt (1*): Cost 0, Success chance 50-80%.
Attract enemy attention.
2. Harsh Slash (1*) : Cost 50sp, Deal physical dmg 40(str x2), cooldown 1minute
Strong attack using bladed weaponry.
Toggle :
1. Defensive Stance (1*) : cost 10 sp/minute, reduce physical dmg received by 15-25%.
Make a defense focused stance.
Passive :
1. H.Armor Mastery (1*): Reduce weight penalty by 50%.
2. Shield Mastery (1*) : Reduce atk speed penalty by 50%
My innate skills doesn't have tiering in their title. Maybe because they are unable to be upgraded? Or they are already in max level when i got them? Eh, no use wondering over something obvious i guess. Lets proceed with other menu.
{Perks!}
Perks, Drawback, Traits, Flaw.
Innate Race Traits :
- Symbiosys : Able to Bond with another creature after infesting their body. The benefit could be set both ways or one way. Passively add 20% of control or influence over infested host.
Innate Race Flaws :
- Parasitic : Unable to process your own food, could only survive by constantly absorb nutrition from infested host by 50 calories x racial tier/hour.
- Frail body : Automatically receive {Withering} debuff and receive 10x damage over physical attacks when exposed to outside elements
Regular Traits :
- Motherly Instinct : Have urges to protect younglings and babies from any race. Double the stats when protecting them. Receive soothe skill
- Magical Ancestry : Have unsurpassed magical capabilities compared to your kin and be able to master magic far more faster than those who need to study it. Receive Magic Manipulation skill, and magic core BC.
Regular Flaws :
- Sterile : Unable to reproduce using normal means of reproduction.
- Glaring weakness : Gain set of fatal weakness. Weakness received : Acid, Sleep spell
Perks :
- Metamorphosys : Add another ways to transform without changing race. But with cost of sacraficing body characteristics.
- Natural Weapon : Produce unique mineral capable of being manipulated to fulfil defensive and offensive needs. Receive special mineral manipulation skill, receive special mineral production BC
Drawback :
- Heavy Burden : Increase nutritional value constantly absorbed from your host by 50%. Add reserve sp pool with capacity equals to 50% overall sp pool.
Lets see...The symbiosys trait is to be expected, if i am planning to infest somebody might as well return their favour by giving them ways to better life. Like helping them train for example. With me present inside them the System could correct their growth and make them stronger far faster than usual man.
Parasitic is... Logical, nothing more to say about this. Though i might need to keep the number in mind. I don't want to accidentally starve my host.
Frail body... Fuck. Why does everything feels like agains my existance for no reason? Haah...what does Withering do anyway? Moving on.
The rest was just simplified version of Perks descriptions i got from character creation phase. Yep, all accounted now. Next!
{Evolution!}
Evolution : Evolve your race into something new and advanced.
Metamorphosys : Using body characteristics as base, change your species into something more advanced while retaining your racial traits (ps. some body characteristic couldn't be used as base). Started automatically when required bc, items, or condition are met.
Evolution path available :
Parasyte = Vermin/Plant-Infestator/Abomination= ???
Metamorphosys path available :
Flesh Burrowing worm = ???
Body characteristic list :
1. Special produced mineral : blood-iron
2. Layered Flesh
3. Hard skin
4. Magic Core
Yep. Becoming human again seems far away dream. There is no way i could become human if i choose plant-infestator path, as the name imply that i would become some sort of parasitic plants...or bugs that eat plants excessively. The same could be said to vermin. And abomination... I don't want to know what kind of creature i would become if i chose this one instead.
Metamorphosys is... unstable to say the least. It would happen automatically should the requirement are met. Thats mean i couldn't reject the transformation when that happens. Thats unacceptable, what happens when i suddenly transformed in the middle of battle? I would have become defenseless and easy to be killed. All i could do is hoping such situation wouldn't happen.
Lets worry about this issue later, next menu!
{Settings!}
The settings screen is... bare. There is some options to hide notifications, hide Hud, background music, and minimap. Thats all really...Oh there is also an option to turn on auto-use item! This one require me to set minimum value of hp/sp/mp before using the assigned item later on. Lets set them to 20 just for safe measure...and turn on the background music and minimap for now.
Lets check the last menu.
{Shop!}
Numerous items were lined in the menu. From simple things like material for crafting to Castle and Palace ownership. Potions, Items, some weaponry and armors fit to my level also present here. Ah, there also artifact section, accessory, costumes,... Huh, a race card? And one time offer too! This one is for changing race into Arachnid with Nerve Webber species. And the price is... 50000 credits, even with 80% discount. Bummer.
I close the screen with defeated sigh. I can't wait to get rich to buy all those shiny items. Especially that race card. From the description i don't need to wait my current race to reach max tier, simply use the card and boom! Evolution happens. Just like metamorphosys that bypassed experience tiers requirement. Why does everything i wanted is costing so much effort and money to get? Is there any easy way to get what i want?
Haah. Calm down me, i'll get that card someday, and be free from this pitiful slimy body. Now, where is my reward?! Game, i have completed my quest!
Quest Completed : Introducing, System
Reward :
- Free {=} 3x stats
- Dice Gacha (common) 3x
- Skill Dice Gacha (common) 1x
- BC Dice Gacha 1x
- 4000 credits
- Non-human Gamer Pack
Hooh!! I feel excited! Lets open them no... Wait, lets pray before opening it all, i don't want to get screwed big time with my first rewards. Oh Almighty Fate! Please grant your humble chew toy a hour of pure positive lucky draws. Please keep away all your mischievous idea for later. Please i beg you, let me rolls good items in peace. Amen.
Now let's roll the first Dice!
Dice Gacha rolled , Result : Steel hoe.
Steel Hoe. (Uncommon)
Farming tool made with utmost effort with steel metal as the base. Could also be used as weapon.
Atk 9-12, Farming skill 1, Digging skill 2, Durability 70/70
A hoe, typical farming tool. Has interesting temporary skill increasing effect, could be used as weapon too, has high durability...
The fuck is wrong with my luck?! A hoe! I don't need no hoe! Next Dice!
Dice Gacha rolled, result : Suicide Note
Suicide Note (rare)
A will of someone who commit suicide, written on a piece of paper. Seemingly useless at first glance, this item is one of 7 piece of Rare Collection Set. Completing the set would give you niche reward.
Set item of {The Bullied PartingGift} collected : 1/7
Calm down...calm down... Its just a paper, with some words written on it. And there is some reward awaiting me if i could acquire the rest of items. This is NOT worse at all, yeah its tolerable, totally tolerable...
I feel like i missing something...
Oh shit, put all of that free stats bar to my Luc stat! Now!
Stats updated
Luck - {=} x5 - Unlucky
Alright. It should do something to my Gacha now. Fuck, i feel stupid for praying to Fate for good luck. He had nothing to do with my unluckiness, just like those Gods. I did this to myself for being stupid. Roll that Dice now!
Dice Gacha rolled, result : Silk Thread Production.
Body characteristic : Silk thread production. Able to produce thread necessary for low level metamorphosys, or for crafting.
Innate skill : Create Pupae acquired
Damn. One requirement for metamorphosys is filled. Now i could make a pupa, just like those caterpillar do before transformed into butterfly. This is nice i guess. All thanks to my updated luck stats.
Alright, might as well use the rest of dices.
Skill Dice Gacha rolled, result : Detection
Send unique pulses around to detect life nearby, up to 1km wide range. Could be used in tandem with other skill/body characteristics for improved effect. Cost 50sp/1 minute.
A detection skill, nice. Using it with minimap would be good idea. Lets roll the last dice.
BC Dice Gacha rolled, result : Stinger
Usable for protection or attacks. Produce mild quality of toxin for prolonged damage.
100% chance to deal 20(agi) poison damage per second when using this bc to attack , debuff last until treated or resisted.
Nice!
Truly increasing the luck stat is definitely a must!
Now that all the dice is rolled...lets open the pack shall we?
I wonder what kind of thing inside this one. The guard pack has equipment that definitely useless to my current situation. Surely this one won't like that too, right?
Item :
- Small hp Potion 10x
- Small mp Potion 10x
- Small sp Potion 10x
- Ankh of Resurrection 1x
- Meat 10x
The signature basic supply of aspiring adventurer. Potions! And three kind of them no less, lets set them to auto-use first so i wouldn't be bothered later to take it from inventory before using them. The ankh is...great, i guess. When you have resurrection item in hand, expect numerous deadly situation. And meats...wonder why i got this, i mean with my race as Parasyte, i would be unable to consume any food... eh, my host might need this later. Let just chuck them to inventory.
And the credits... Lets bank them for now.
Now that all the reward is accounted, i feel tired. No, not that usual kind of tired. Its more mental than physical. I guess after long time without activity in that Limbo then got assaulted with this nice suprise of new opportunity has given me a shock. I need to rest for...lets see how many hours it takes to hatch again.
[ Time left before hatching 8 : 59 : 2 ]
Alright. Lets spent the rest of time just for sleeping. Good night.
I was wrong.
The barrier wasn't shutting of any light from outside. It was my eyes, or for the lack of it. And not only that.
I don't have the ocular organs, taste, and hearing. Basically i am blind, deaf, and couldn't taste anything after putting it inside my bizzare mouth. Though i could still feel anything that touch my body like the strong winds and harsh pelting from the unknown particles that was accompanying them.
But how could i realize this? Well, those things were unraveled when i finally take step outside. When i feel my barrier weakens i tore throught the thinning veil and for the first time, experience the outside world.
A terrible mistake.
-21 hp!
-21 hp!
Fuuuu!!!
The harsh wind assaulted my soft body, along with unknown particles that was coming along with the storm. I could deal with the wind. But not with what they have brought.
-21 hp!
-21 hp!
'Ah, fuck! What should i do?! What should i do now?! The open space is not good! Underground? Yes, underground!'
So i start burrowing deep inside the ground, i barely recognize what kind of surface i tried to dig myself into. Its soft, has nothing obstructing my task, and dry. Sand, most probably.
-1 hp!
-1 hp!
Ugh... It beats being outside atleast.
The constant damage has forced me to act faster, i look around my Hud and notice a new debuff indicator over the hp bar.
- Debuff : Withering
Constantly receive a damage per second when you don't inhibit a host
[Hp : 364/450]
So thats what happen when you got the withering debuff huh...Wait, how much time i have before my health reach zero? 360 divided by 60 seconds.
Six minute. Only short time to act before i withered away. I couldn't just wander around aimlessly when death breathing down my neck. I need a solid plan. First is looking out nearest living being to be infested.
{Detection!}
Invisible pulse spread around me, reaching far wide for any worthwile oddity. I found some presence here and there, some are faint and other so imposing that their shillouete is visible from my minimap. Though with same result as each other, they are too far away. I couldn't reach them in time. But still i tried to worm away to nearest dot.
There is nothing obstructing my burrowing. No roots of some trees or rock and stone that were buried deep inside the sands. I start to reconsider where the hell i ended up to. Its either beach or desert. And the weather on surface most probably was hailstorm or sandstorm. No, ignore the unnecasaary thought me, Focus. on. Burrowing!
I keep digging.
Dig, Dig, and dig!
Quest received : Infestation for beginner
Part 1. Infest a host
Reward : skill - Instant Invasion
Part 2. ???
Reward : ???
Part 3. ???
Reward : ???
Completing all part of quest yield : Ticket of Multiversal-trotting 1x
Go away! I don't have time to check you out!
[ '_' ]
I lost track on how many minute has passed since the time i start worming. The hp bar i noticed has reduced to a quarter left, with hp Potion icon beside it was down to remaining 7.
Wait, how many points of health does the potion recover?
Small hp Potion
Recover 100 points of hp
So...9 minute has passed... If it wasn't for my decision to auto-use my potions then i would've died few minutes ago. Focus!!
The target presence is close by now, i could see the faint outline of person huddled...under the surface? I could perceive presence easily but not surrounding. Might need to fix this issue.
Anyway, now that the distance is few steps away maybe its ok for me to resurface. It seems the place where that presence huddled is safe from outside danger so... Let's just do it real quick.
I dig myself out from the sands and worm my way to the presence, which is still motionless. I hope they aren't dead, i'm not sure wether i could infest a corpse instead of living creature.
Anyway, i moved slowly to the presence. Yeah, slowly. Its seems that i was faster moving underground than on surface. I should've keep worming under the sand if i knew it would be this slow.
But i couldn't stop and dig again now. Its seems the presence has noticed my existance and become... I don't know, excited? Its hard to recognize people emotion when all i see is shaking dot on my minimap.
Eh, lets get this over shall we? I move closer to the presence that become more like shillouete than a dot of light in my minimap.
The presence is... a human. There is no mistaking that form. Good, i don't really wanted to stuck with mindless host afterall. Makes me do all the work, you know.
Anyway, its seems that human is calming down now. Makes my task of climbing their limbs easier. I slither to one of their feet, which is trying to kick my away. Hey! I'm not a bad parasite! Just let me do my task and you will be grateful to me!
Still, their effort was for naught as i could just slither away to the side. Its seems the human was unable to move around freely. Either he was injured or chained down. Works for me i guess.
-90 hp!
Potion used, remaining pot : 6
Fuck! He smack me. Hard. Whats his problem?! I was just trying to help him. Well, maybe helping myself first but that beside the point. I burrow through the offending limb and tried to worm myself higher, my target being the brain of this loser.
He resisted ofcourse, shaking the arm with relentless struggle. Truthfully, it doesn't do shit to my advance, i just take my time burrowing throught admittedly pleasant flesh. I never been so pleasured by just moving around.
Unfortunately, he saw that his panicked struggle doesn't do much. And sliver of Intellegence finally sparked from his small brain, giving small emergency idea that makes me despise him ever more.
-30 hp!
[ 50/450 hp ]
Again?! He just smacked himself just to delay the inevitable. I still has enough pots to survive your onslaugh! Bring it on! Smack yourself more if you think it would stop me!
-35 hp!
Potion used, remaining pot : 5
Just a little closer!
-25 hp!
Smack me more, bitch!
-20 hp!
You wouldn't be able stop me!
-20 hp!
Haha, i'm already inside your shoulder now. Prepare to be infested!
-35 hp!
Potion used, remaining pot : 4
He keep smacking me even after i reach his main part of body, well atleast where he knows i currently burrowing. His hit actually deal more damage to himself than i did, because i was inside him. The layer of flesh protect me from his resistance. But then, problem happens when i reached his neck.
I stuck...he just strangle himself just to stop me from reaching his head. Heh...Like it could stop me! Like earlier i could just worm to the back of his neck, where there isn't any pressure from his self-harming.
-120 hp!
Potion used, remaining pot : 3
Fuuuuck!!!!
He...
He bashes his own neck to the wall! When i was conveniently worming inside it!
-130 hp!
Potion used, remaining pot : 2
Ugh... Maybe this isn't worth it. Atleast i was close enough to the head so i could influence him easier than being merged anywhere else. Alright, before he tries to harm himself again some more, lets just end it here now.
{Merge Consciousness!}Hello, author here.
I got myself stuck with choosing suitable host for my oc. Got a few ideas but, they kind of hard to write. Decided to end the chapter here instead.
For those who follows and favourite my fic, thank you.
As always, if you find some wacky mistake or something along those line, feel free to point it out. If not? well... just leave whatever you want to say in review.
Lastly, thanks for reading.
Ja ne!