‘What in the hell is a Choko-choko?’ I thought to myself as I peered down from atop my branch. I was woken up by weird barking sounds, the rain having stopped some time in the middle of the night. It was morning now with the sun peeking out between distant mountains, painting the sky in shades of pink and orange. My wounds still hurt me, but the pain had subsided a bit. The high pitched barking was coming from an extremely unusual orange fur-covered animal. It looked kind of like a fur-covered egg, or maybe a really hairy jelly bean. It was about the size of a small dog and ran around on little bird legs, the only part of its body not covered in thick fur. They don’t have any other features and I don’t think they even have eyes. Running around in a big group, they really just look like furry eggs running around on sticks for legs. It actually looked kind of hilarious until I saw one open its mouth. I say mouth, but it’s more like nearly two-thirds of its body cracked in half to reveal row upon row of vicious fangs.

Examine attempt successful. Results limited due to deficient Intelligence score. Name: (None) Race: Choko-choko Level: 4 HP: 5 / 5 SP: 8 / 8 Strength: 4 Agility: 4 Constitution: 1 Endurance: 3 Intelligence: -1 Wisdom: 0 Skills: Pack Hunter: Lv 6 Iron Jaw: Lv 3 Sprint: Lv 5 Jump: Lv 2 Description: Scary fur-mouth. Not tasty. Run away!

Hah! This guy is even dumber than I am! I watched as the furry jelly beans chased after some kind of big half-moose half-elephant looking creature that wandered into the yellow grassland. One of the Choko-choko jumped straight into the moose and chomped down hard around its flank. The moosephant - that’s what I’m going to call it - protested loudly and tried to tear the furry attacker off with its trunk. It succeeded, but the Choko-choko took a chunk of flesh with it. There was a pregnant second afterwards where the moosephant shuffled nervously, searching for the pack of Choko-choko in the tall grass before all hell broke loose. I averted my eyes as the moosephant’s death throes echoed out across the golden grassland. To my surprise, a notification popped into my vision.

Examine attempt successful. Results limited due to significant level difference. Results limited due to deficient Intelligence and Wisdom scores. Name: (None) Race: (Undiscovered) Level: 6 HP: 28 / 28 SP: 30 / 30 Strength: ??? Agility: ??? Constitution: ??? Endurance: ??? Intelligence: ??? Wisdom: ??? Skills: ??? Description: Not mean. Hairy four hoof. Not tasty.

Wait, is this the moosephant? I had been observing it for several minutes and Examine never triggered to show me its status. Maybe it doesn’t show failures, and this time it just took a while to work? Also, the description seems weirdly fixated on how tasty a creature is… While mulling over how the Examine skill might work, I peered over a pink shoulder at my back to see it covered in dark scabs. HP: .6 / 4 Wait, wasn't my max health 2 yesterday? SP: 6 / 6 My stamina went up by two as well. My health last night was at .3, but now it's at .6. Either my health regenerated, or it changed to reflect my new maximum. I guess in this world, there's some truth to the phrase 'whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.' At any rate, it’s been hours since I went to sleep in the rain and my wounds still hurt pretty bad, but not as much as last night. Out of the corner of my vision I noticed a familiar blinking dot. Focusing on it, I brought up my notifications in order of priority. I definitely don’t want to get swamped with layers and layers of notifications like last time.

Race name accepted. As this race of creature was previously undiscovered, entity NAOMI has given it the name MOOSEPHANT. Rewards: Experience +35 Wisdom +1 Scouting skill experience acquired. Level up! Experience requirement to reach Level 2 has been met. You have one statistic point to allocate.

‘Only one measly stat poi-’ my internal monologue cut off as a jarring sensation shot through my body like jumping into a hot spring after running through the snow. It wasn’t a bad feeling. Actually, it felt great. I just hadn’t expected it. When the feeling faded, my wounds had been completely healed. No more torn skin on my back. I might have jumped for joy if i wasn’t balanced on a dead branch that may or may not break off from the action. I was so relieved from being healed of my lacerations that I almost forgot to check the rest of my notifications.

Skill: Examine has levelled up to level 4. Skill discovered: Scout Description: Scout skill influences your ability to traverse untamed wilderness and your ability to see over long distances. Master Scouts can travel through rough forests faster than they can on roads and can see for miles even in perfect darkness. This skill gains experience through exploration and discovery of unknown creatures and zones. Effect: +1% Movement speed through rough terrain per skill level. +2% Vision distance per skill level. -1% Darkness effect on vision per skill level. Note: +2% Movement speed through Mud and Water per skill level due to racial synergy with this skill. Skill: Scout has levelled up to level 3.

This skill looks so useful! All of my surroundings are forests, lakes and mud as far as I’ve seen, and the ability to see in the dark would be a huge asset. I’m not sold on the vision distance, but it will probably be pretty useful at higher levels. I’m definitely going to try to level this as much as possible. It really was a stroke of luck finding that moosephant though. I’ll have to keep an eye out for more undiscovered stuff to level this guy up!

Skill discovered: Jump Description: The ability to increase altitude through the manipulation of your appendages. Effect: +2% Jump height per skill level. -.5% Jump stamina cost per skill level. Skill: Jump has levelled up to level 2. Skill discovered: Sprint Description: The ability to drastically increase your speed on foot or in water by expending Stamina. Effect: +1% Maximum speed while sprinting per skill level. -1% Stamina drain from sprinting per skill level. Note: Base sprint speed bonus for your race is 50% at maximum exertion. All effects are additive. Skill: Sprint has levelled up to level 9.

Yeah, these seem pretty par for the course. What really surprises me is how fast my Sprint skill shot up. I guess that’s what happens when you run yourself half to death from a giant angry murder snake. I'm half tempted to just sprint everywhere just to try and level this skill up as much as possible. They can't eat me if they can't catch me, right? Sprinting everywhere I go seems like it would be a bit of a pain though... I wonder if Sprint levelling up so much is what saved my life while running? An extra 9% sprint speed is nothing to shake a snoot at. I nodded sagely before moving on to the next notification.

Skill discovered: Tail Manipulation Description: Your skill at using your tail for tasks requiring dexterity, precision, strength and speed. Effect: +3% Control over your tail per skill level. Skill: Tail Manipulation has levelled up to level 3. Skill discovered: Tail Vault Description: The ability to use your tail to jump or to increase the effectiveness of a jump. This skill also influences your ability to lift your body with the assistance of your tail. Effect: +2% Tail Vault skill results per skill level. -.5% Tail Vault stamina cost per skill level.

Why is it that these are the skills I’m most excited about? My tail has been.... Well, I guess it’s been pretty useful so far. I mean, when I was running from the Serpent, it actually saved my life! It’s pretty difficult to control though. Figuring out how to move it around is like learning how to walk all over again. I idly swung my tail back and forth from my perch on the branch. In any event, I’m interested in figuring out what else I can do with my tail. I’ll have to keep an eye on these skills!

Skill discovered: Death Resistance Description: You cling to life jealously and with all of your effort. Keep scurrying in the mud, little girl. I am watching you, and I will claim you eventually. Effect: +.1% Chance of avoiding, nullifying or resisting an attack or effect that would result in your death per skill level. Note: ???

My skin crawled as I read the last prompt. I felt the air go still and an uncomfortable pressure settled around my shoulders. The barking that I’d grown to accept as background noise while reading my prompts suddenly faded away to silence. An icy chill ran down the side of my face like fingers of frost. I didn’t see anything. I didn’t hear anything. The fingers kept crawling down the side of my face for a long moment that seemed to drag on for ages. Then it simply let go, and the pressure released. I let out a deep breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. The barking came back as though it had never stopped. What was that? I shook, claws dug into the grey wood all the way down to the first knuckle. What… Was that? I tried in vain to calm my pounding heart. I shook like a leaf on my branch, the creeping sensation of frozen fingers on my skin still fresh in my mind. Did I gain this skill by narrowly avoiding death while being chased? It’s been less than 24 hours since I hatched and i’ve already nearly died. I have huge snakes chasing me down, vicious orange furballs that will probably tear into me the first chance they get, and now the UI wants to murder me? What’s next? My stomach rumbled loudly in response.