Name: Naomi Race: Crater Lake Lesser Salamander Level: 2 (5 / 38) HP: 4 / 4 SP: 6 / 6 Strength: 2 Agility: 3 Constitution: 2 Endurance: 3 Intelligence: 1 Wisdom: 2 Skills: Examine: Lv 4 Scout: Lv 3 Jump: Lv 2 Sprint: Lv 9 Tail Manipulation: Lv 3 Tail Vault: Lv 1 Death Resistance: Lv 1

After finishing with my list of notifications, I was pleased to find that each of my stats had gone up by one since yesterday. The only exception was Intelligence, which is what I spent my level up point on. With that, I finally managed to get rid of the frustrating deficient Intelligence message that popped up everywhere and I was pleasantly surprised that it gave me more information in the display. I can focus on individual words in my status now to gain more information on them. The downside is that they’re all hopelessly vague. Take Strength, for example:

Statistic: Strength Description: Influences Strength-related tasks, abilities, skills and effects.

Nothing about how I get more Strength points, and I didn’t even get a notification that it had gone up. The only thing I can think of that took a lot of Strength was when I was breaking out of my egg. The rest of the day I spent fleeing for my life from that snake bastard. I shot a glance over in the direction of where the Serpent had stopped yesterday, the tree that it nearly clawed in half a constant reminder of its raw power. My stomach complained loudly again. I’d spent almost half the day perched on this dead branch and it seems I’m nearing my limit. The sun beat down on my back and dried out my skin. I need to find a pool of water soon, it feels like my skin is about to start cracking under this sun. I’m a water creature, after all.

I glanced furtively toward the clawed tree again. Fear mingled with hunger danced through my chest. What if there’s another one? Another Serpent? My claws dug into the dead wood. Death Resistance was right. I don’t want to die. Even in this life, in an unknown and bizarre world, I will cling to my life jealously. No one is coming to save me. I’m the only one who can help myself. I need to be strong.

Using the sun’s position for guidance, I determined that Lesser Crater Lake was to the south. The yellow grassland stretches out far into the north, and by now I’ve realized why the Serpent refused to follow me into this place. The Choko-choko are practically invisible in this sea of yellow and they seem to attack with no fear even against opponents many times larger than themselves. The yellow grassland doesn’t have any bodies of water that I can see, so going North is out of the question. In that case, I’ll make my way into the forest and head East looking for water.

I’ve spent enough time huddled in fear on this tree branch. It’s time to go. I wrapped my tail around the branch and lowered myself into the yellow grass. This tail really is pretty useful. It’s way stronger than my arms, too. My notification dot blinked with an unusual blue color in my periphery, but I decided I'd wait until I’m in the forest to check it. I can’t afford to let my guard down in the yellow grassland with all these murderous furballs running around. I made my way slowly through the grass, stopping and staying low whenever I saw movement. Slow and steady.

I had nearly made it to the treeline when the grass in front of me rustled. I froze, and a moment later a Choko-choko came into sight. This one was small, even for one of their kind. Examine flashed quickly before my eyes. Before leaving my branch I’d adjusted Examine to only show me an abridged display when I’m in danger.

Name: (None) Race: Choko-choko(Adolescent) Level: 2 HP: 3 / 3 SP: 5 / 5 Skills: Pack Hunter: Lv 2 Iron Jaw: Lv 1 Sprint: Lv 3 Description: Choko-choko are small orange fur-covered creatures inhabiting the Golden Grassland. Their meat is too tough to eat.

'Even with higher intelligence you’re still focused on eating them, then?’ I nervously joked to myself. This Choko-choko was weak even by their standards. It growled at me, its body vibrating from the action. It suddenly let out a small bark and jumped into me. I had been expecting this of course, and swung my tail to smack it out of the air, home run style. That was the plan, but instead the furball chomped onto my tail and hung on. I yelped and smashed my tail into the ground, eliciting a surprised “Gurk!” from the Choko-choko.

Afraid of its pack mates coming to its aid, I sprinted through the golden grass, tail flailing wildly with a Choko-choko still embedded in it. I darted through the lush golden grass in a gait much faster than I had managed yesterday in my flight from the Serpent. The Choko-choko growled as it held onto my tail, vibrating and digging its teeth in deeper. Finally making it into the treeline, I sprinted up to a sturdy looking tree and repeatedly smacked my furry assailant into the side of it. With each smack against the tree the Choko-choko let out a wet “gurk” as if trying to bark with its mouth latched around my tail and covered in wet blood. With one last swing I felt its jaw slacken and a quick Examine confirmed that it had perished. I cautiously swung my tail in front of my face and pulled the creature’s teeth out. With a wet squelch the corpse plopped onto the forest floor.

I collapsed onto the damp leaves littering the ground next to the blood-soaked furball’s body, making sure to keep an eye in the direction of the Golden Grassland for movement. It was doubtful they would follow me into the forest, but my cautious nature won out. Fighting off the Choko had depleted my Stamina, but my health had fortunately only dropped to 3.5 / 4. I would have anticipated my health to be lower, but my tail isn’t exactly a weak spot so I suppose it makes sense. Despite looking pretty… well, chewed on, it actually doesn’t hurt that much and the bleeding has already stopped. My first real battle has been a victory! I pumped a little reptilian fist in the air. The blinking dot in my periphery had an unusual light blue coloration to it. I remembered seeing that after hyping myself up to leave the dead tree that I’d made into my temporary rest stop. All of my notifications thus far had been a transparent silver color. Intrigued, I pulled up my notifications.

Rare Character Trait Discovered: Determination Description: You’ve hardened your resolve in the face of death. You are filled with Determination. Classification: Noble Trait, Rare. Disposition: Neutral. Effect: Immunity to mind altering effects up to Legendary classification. Immunity to mind controlling effects up to Legendary classification. 30% reduction in perception of pain.

This is it! This is my ace in the hole, my star player! That pain reduction is a life saver. My thoughts immediately returned to my painful night spent sleeping in the rain. Immunity to mental effects? That’s just the cherry on top. With this, fighting for my life just might be a bit more bearable. I spared a glance toward the blood-covered orange fluff before returning to my notifications.

Enemies Defeated: 1x Level 2 Choko-choko(Adolescent) Experience Gained: 4 Experience to next level: 29 Skill discovered: Tail Attack Description: The ability to use your tail as a weapon. This skill influences direct physical attacks with your tail such as slams and wrapping attacks. Effect: +3% effectiveness to physical tail based attacks per skill level. Skil: Tail Attack has levelled up to level 2. Skill: Tail Manipulation has levelled up to level 4.

More tail skills! Even at level 3, Tail Manipulation was already pulling its weight. It still feels a bit awkward controlling a brand new appendage, but I’m slowly getting the hang of it. I really had to smack that Choko-choko around a lot to finish it off. Maybe in a couple more levels my tail will really pack a punch!

While celebrating my new tail skills, I stood back up from my spot on the leaves and started heading East through the rough foliage. There was no way I could have eaten that Choko-choko I killed. It was all teeth and fur, barely any meat on it. Plus, I’m dying to find out if the blue fish really are the tastiest fish. My stomach rumbled loudly as I thought about food. I brought up the last notification waiting for me.

Skill: Sprint has levelled up to level 10. Level 10 bonus effect unlocked due to racial synergy with this skill. Skill: 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. Bonus Effects: (Level 10 Racial Synergy) You are now capable of running on water while sprinting. May transition from swimming to running on surface water if momentum requirements are met. Note: Base sprint speed bonus is 50% at maximum exertion. All effects are additive.

Yeah, I’m definitely a water creature all right. I need to find a nice lake with lots of fish to make my home and put this new skill effect to good use. I drooled a bit at the thought of fish. The fact that getting this skill to 10 gave me a bonus effect is pretty interesting. I wonder if that’s the same for all of my skills? I tail vaulted over a large root and peered down an incline in the terrain. A moosephant turned to regard me, huffed, and walked away. ‘Hey buddy, don’t go to the Golden Grassland, alright? It’s bad news over there.’ I thought at him as I passed by.

Walking along the forest floor with the scent of fallen leaves and damp earth hanging around me proved to be quite cathartic. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid when I left the relative safety of my tree branch, but now that I’m out here under the forest canopy I’m glad that I did. If these trees are the same size as back on Earth, then I must be around the size of a dog, coming up to a person’s knees or so. Pretty big for a Salamander!

I paused as the slightest sound like wind chimes in the breeze reached my ears. Out of pure curiosity, and beyond good judgement, I searched for the direction of the sound. They chimed again, this time a bit quieter. ‘This way..?’ I mused to myself and started towards the noise. I headed down an incline dotted with sparse foliage and underbrush. Up ahead I caught sight of a running river and hastened my approach. A strange tingling sensation swept over my skin but I pushed forward towards the running water. When I made it through the trees my jaw dropped open in awe.

The river let out into a large lake sparkling with crystal blue water. Suspended in the air above the lake hovered chunks of earth and rock with great waterfalls pouring forth and onto neighboring floating islands. Many of the floating chunks carried rich greenery and some were tethered in vines. Other islands floated freely through the air above the lake in a gentle circumference. The waterfalls came in dazzling streams as they merged into the lake below. On the far side, a second river led downhill, fed by the lake of floating islands.

As I stared in awe of the breathtaking sight before me, a cascade of silver fish darted up from the lake’s surface and glided through the air on glittering, translucent silver wings. ‘They look like angels. Silver angels.’ The thought ran through my mind as I stared in admiration. I watched as a Silver angel swam up one of the waterfalls and jumped out, gliding down over the lake. What is this place…?

Wisdom check failed. Entity q6rxm%7 override accepted. Current Location: Mana Anomaly Enzirus

Description: A Mana Anomaly located in the crater lake cluster. Rumored to have once been the site of a great battle between ancient Magi.

This Anomaly produces endless water with a mild regenerative effect. Regenerative effect of the water is lost when removed from the vicinity of the Anomaly. Additional properties of the water have yet to be discovered.

Localized gravitational disruption has been reported in the area. Gravitational disruption limited to local geology, Reason: Unknown, Unprecedented.

Additional effects of the Anomaly have yet to be discovered.

Now this is what a wisdom check is supposed to look like. A sinking feeling settled in my stomach. Mana Anomaly? This place really is incredible. I didn’t dare to take another step forward. One of my biggest problems since coming here is that health doesn’t automatically regenerate. Or if it does, it regenerates very slowly. A cold chill blew past, leaving me shivering on the lakeside. If I can recover my health just from drinking the water here, then this place is a precious treasure.

I’ve been trying to ignore it since I saw this wisdom check, but I can’t. I had failed this wisdom check. What is this override? Who is this Entity q6r…

My notification indicator began blinking. The familiar chill returned again, more slowly this time. Carefully, delicately, the wind dragged fingers of frost against my body. My skin crawled and my breath caught in my throat. A notification blinked insistently in the corner of my vision.

Skill Deleted: Death Resistance. Skill Discovered: Death Resistance Description: An Anomaly attracted to an Anomaly? How quaint. Hello again, little thing. You’ve done well to keep out of my grasp thus far. I have high hopes for you, dear. Thank you for your offering earlier, as poorly executed as it was. I hope you enjoyed my reward for you. Let’s both hope you continue to be an entertaining thing to observe. Effect: +.1% Chance of avoiding, nullifying or resisting an attack or effect that would result in your death per skill level. Note: ??? Skill: Death Resistance has levelled up to level 2.