Cowardice, a trait shared by both the weak and the smart. A weak man will run from all threats, while a smart man will run from true danger. There will always be more cowards than the brave, because the cowards will always survive. While the brave will one day find that their fear was valid. Perhaps I am jaded, but I’d rather be a coward with my loved ones intacted, than a brave man bereft of all company.

Regardless of my personal beliefs my friends, it is true that cowardice and the will to overcome it has made many great. For the truly great will turn any weakness into a strength. To stride along the path of power is dangerous, well trodden though it may be, there are many pitfalls and traps. Sometimes it is best to wait and hide, even if it is cowardly it is often the best choice.

Our deväk hid in its newly made necropolis for three days and four nights. The first night was spent cowering and expecting to die. When its hunger finally got the better of it, the insectoid ventured outside to find the sun had returned. Relief floody its tiny frame, as it began to scavenge the remaining remains of the desecrator ants. While glad the sun came back, it still feared the titans from the night before might come back. A pointless fear really. But a fear that changed our deväk and pushed it down a very different path.

Most everything in this part of the woods was absolutely terrified of the desecrator ants, and gave them a wide berth. The only reason that the axolotl and undergrowth were even nearby was because the stag had hoped one of the ants might poison the axolotl. Unfortunately for the undergrowth stag, they were already dead by the time it had lured the axolotl close, and its fate was sealed. Because of the innate fear that most residents of the forest had for the ants, nothing lingered too long. Which meant the deväk’s fear was entirely pointless, but it caused the percentage on Gluttony to dip lower and lower. Hitting negative numbers. Upon hitting negative one hundred on the dawn of the third day, a new prompt appeared.

Gluttony

Your rapid growth, and subsequent starvation have forced you to a crossroads earlier than expected. By choosing to ignore your hunger you have chosen to overcome your sin and gain control over this facet of yourself. Warning conquering a sin is no easy feat and despite this path being chosen out of cowardice you will still be rewarded. Congratulations your stats have increased, +4 mentality, +2 constitution, and +2 strength. You feel the weight of those you have consumed. You feel… Heavy.

The deväk had never got non-combat related points before and was wondering if advancing its sin would normally do this. Despite our bug’s increased stats it still wasn’t too sure what it had done to get the bonus, but perhaps it was just a bonus because it had done such a good job with the fortress. It didn't really think much about the rapid growth part of the message, if it had it would have noticed a few things sooner. It may have even granted a few more bonus points to mentality. Our bug had grown another few centimeters each day more than doubling its original height at twelve centimeters.

The debuff to the bug’s strength hadn’t changed, so things weren’t that different for the bug, except now every step seemed to strain every muscle in the tiny bug's body. It was a chore to even move now, regardless the deväk began digging inside the egg room at the bottom of the colony. Hoping to find some more eggs to eat, but really it was just killing time until it felt confident enough to go outside again. It idled away the day by digging pointlessly, and inspecting its Stats and what they did for the bug.

Strength (Str)

Contributes to the overall force you can generate. Is useful for carrying heavy objects, and delivering heavy blows. Strength is how much you can lift based upon size and it is a basic might-type attribute.

Agility (Agi)

Contributes to the overall speed at which you can move. Is useful for running, and attacking quickly. Agility is how fast you can move yourself or something you're swinging around and it is a basic might-type attribute.

Dexterity (Dex)

Contributes to the finesse and accuracy of movements, as well as the speed of reactions. Is useful for objects held in hand, as well making sure attacks land where they are supposed to, and dodging attacks from others. With a high enough Dexterity the speed of reactions will be faster than conscious thought. Dexterity is the grace in how a weapon is wielded, a measure of how fast you can react, and it is an advanced might attribute, affecting both might and mind.

Mentality (Mnt)

Contributes to the resiliency of the mind. Is useful for repelling mental assaults, and for launching assaults, a high enough Mentality is almost a physical force. It can aid one in face of difficult pursuits, and the casting of difficult magics. Mentality is willpower, the determination of the mind and it is an advanced mind attribute affecting both mind and magic.

Perception (Per)

Contributes to how effective your senses are. Is useful for augmenting every sense including magical one. With a high enough perception you can find a needle in a haystack, from smell alone. Perception is the way you perceive everything, how everything perceives you and it is an advanced mind attribute affecting both mind and might.

Endurance (End)

Contributes to how long you can do something before growing tired, in all aspects. Might, mind, and magic are all affected by this attribute, however it is a basic magic-type attribute.

Constitution (Con)

Contributes to the overall resiliency of one's self. Useful for keeping one alive, higher constitution helps prevent illness, mental degradation, and magical intrusion. It is your natural resistance to all things foreign. Constitution affects your might, mind, and magic, however it is a basic magic-type attribute.

The information was useful, but unfortunately for the idiotic insect it was hard to keep it all straight. Then there were the taglines at the end. Basic or advanced, might, mind, and magic. Those words only served to confuse the already overwhelmed deväk. Plus the concepts for the advanced type attributes were a little out of reach for the young bug.Focusing once more on strength, the little bug tried focusing on the last bit. Trying to get a new prompt to appear.

Basic Body Attributes

You have unlocked 2/2 of these attributes. Both strength and agility contribute to basic, and essential functions of the body.

Next the bug pulled up dexterity to wrap its head around the differences between the basic and advanced.

Advanced Body Attributes

You have unlocked 3 out of an unknown number of these attributes. They mainly contribute to one part while supporting another. Dexterity and perception pair together, as a bonus the base speed of your thoughts are increased.

Not super helpful, but what the deväk took away from the prompts was; basic attributes are almost essential to normal bodily functions, while advanced attributes act as an extra advantage over the weak. From what the deväk gathered there were six basic attributes, two for each category and an unknown number of advanced ones. There could even be an entire category the bug was missing. Though that seemed unlikely. If there was another category then shouldn't the bug have at least one basic stat in it? But well it didn’t have any basic mind stats. Perhaps there was a fourth stat category it was just too difficult to obtain. As the day progressed our deväk began to get familiar with what each attribute could do, and what the bugs' limits were. Straining to recognize the feel of each stat augmentation. The hunger pains were starting to get worse and the bug desperately wanted a distraction.

As the fourth night started and as our deväk got bored of aimlessly digging began to do something it had never really done before. It wanted to investigate its own limits, so our bug decided to look through its Abilities and Skills, to find with a shock that the window had changed. Albeit slightly.

Abilities

Skills

Sins

Malleable Tendrils

Minor Shapeshift

Gluttony

Parasitical Growth

The addition of the red sins column was interesting. Only so far as it meant that there were more sins, and the younger sinner wasn’t eager for anymore debuffs. So it thought about Parasitical Growth, learning more about it since the bug’s feelings and impressions were rather vague.

Parasitical Growth

Consume those around to grow. Strengthen your tries to your lineage, gain Traits and stabilize genetic flaws by consuming within your gene pools.

Hidden effect: When compatible genes are located you will be pulled in the direction of the compatible species if any exist within 100 meters.

That hidden effect thing was new, but it would definitely explain the odd pulling sensation that led it to the ant colony. If the deväk had words it would have described the effect as 'neat'. It spent a lot of time looking through the rest of its stats but it only found two things of interest. The first was its other ability.

Malleable Tendrils

Margs are minor shapeshifters, and inheriting their genes allows for your tendrils to modify slightly. Grants the skill Minor Shapeshift. Thanks to the sin Gluttony you can increase the number of tendrils to 4 at your current body mass.

The deväk's immediately tried both regrowing and increasing the number of tendrils it had. However the bug was dismayed to find that the process was painfully slow. It took quite a long time to do properly, mostly because it wanted the extra tendrils too, but also because it was difficult to change normal flesh into shapeshifter flesh. After waiting several hours our deväk was finally whole again. Testing out the extra appendages the deväk was actually rather happy with the sin. It had made it possible to regrow limbs without starving the deväk to death or anything ridiculous like that. Speaking of which, that was the other thing that the deväk had found interesting.

Gluttony

You feel the weight of those you have consumed. You feel... Heavy 6.6%

The description of the sin had gotten even less helpful, and something about that percentage was ominous. At least it may have seemed that way to another, our deväk just wanted to fill it to see what other bonus treats it might gain. The deväk then moved on to the section it had been most curious about.

Combat Level 4

Surviving to the end of combat will grant bonuses based upon performance and if you won or lost. Gaining more levels will unlock new skills and professions based upon actions while gaining combat levels.

The deväk definitely wanted more of these levels, and to find out what a profession was. It also wanted to figure out why it hadn't gotten any more stat-ups after the first one. After all, it had cleared out the nest and fought the queen after it had gotten to level 4. Perhaps it was because it didn't try for the second half of the assault, which was really just a slaughter.

Despite now believing this to be the answer, the deväk still wanted details. Unfortunately, it didn't find anything no matter how much it looked. The night was only half over so the deväk decided to double check its stats. Then triple check.

Finally overwhelmed by frustration, pain from its slight hunger, and well, just tired of doing nothing. The deväk left its small sanctuary in Lost Woods smarter, stronger, and with a better understanding of how to use its skills and abilities.